-AN-

You know, I think I might have broken Naruto just a little bit…was that the plan? You know, I don't remember, but that's okay! Let's break him some more.

-Story Start-

Team seven could admit that the night within the confines of their tree hole wasn't to bad. It was still pretty warm and humid, so blankets weren't needed, but trying to sleep on a tree root or dirt was not the most comfortable thing. Though as Sakura made her way out first, pushing aside the brush cover that Naruto's clone had put there to conceal them, she stretched and smiled, "Oh it feels good to be outta there. Think we lost him?"

Sasuke was next, doing his own stretches and looking around and up into the trees, "Sure hope so. I'd rather not have my eyes cut out by that freak."

The last and slightly uncoordinated member of their team dragged himself out, standing with a little help from Sasuke Naruto was looking around with a dazed look, "I think I overdid it last night."

Sakura was almost instantly in his face, looking into his eyes and turning his head left and right, "How long did you stay up commanding your clones?" Getting a noncommittal answer, Sakura watched his slowly adjusting pupils and sighed, "Just great."

Sasuka walked up, intrigued, "What's wrong with him?"

Motioning to the blonde who seemed very out of it, Sakura kept him standing, "Just some mental fatigue. Guess it's one of the big dangers of using the shadow clones so much. I don't know what he did last night, but looks like it pushed him."

"Old man is gone, weee, gone, way way away."

Both of the normal members of team seven watched their teammate and had a foreboding feeling and it was Sasuke who came out of it first, "Maybe we should shove him back in the whole, rest for another day."

Sakura nodded, "Probably the best idea, he's no use at all like this."

However, before either teammate could think to help him back into their hole to rest, Naruto suddenly had his sword in his hand, held up to the sky, "Enemies, enemies coming. Hmmm, gonna get em, gonna get." Sword crashing into the ground, from some distance away they all began to hear explosions and screaming.

"Well, looks like enough of him is still there. Sorta." Sakura gave him points for that.

"A combat ready but loopy and quiet Naruto. I don't know if that's an improvement." Not even a second after finishing his thought, three bodies were dumped into the clearing with them. All were wearing sound headbands and odd black and grey camo styled clothes. Though they all were smoking slightly, they were groaning and moaning in pain, so still alive at least.

Walking over with an uneven gait, it was a grinning Naruto that stood over the trio, sword raised high, "Tell tell, what you want before head heads go flying." Blue and purple eyes were practically glowing in the early morning light.

Dosu had remembered their orders from an angry Orochimaru. Kill the blonde and test the Uchiha. Supposed to be easy. Getting blindsided be exploding clones and then set into a gauntlet of traps and even more explosions was not what he had in mind for the day. And now, the same psychotic blonde looked ready to kill them all. "Wait wait wait! You want our scroll right? We have one, an earth scroll. Take it and let us go!"

Tilting his head from side to side Naruto nodded but if anything his grin got even wider. "Sound team, team no teme. Orichi-teme had a sound headband…OH!" Voice clearing up for a moment, Naruto suddenly gained some focus, "How about I just kill you and loot your corpses?"

Hooking her arm around the boy's neck and tossing him back, launching him near perfectly into the hole they had stuck themselves in, Sakura sighed, "Go take a nap, a real one!"

Sasuke was already replacing Naruto, kunai at the ready, "Yeah you might as well hand over that scroll. Cause once he's out, his clones will be more free to do whatever they want."

Looking up at the Uchiha survivor, Dosu looked past him at another dozen copies of the blonde. Though they didn't have copies of the sword, they all had the same crazed grin on their faces. And he did not want to deal with that explosion maniac again. Reaching into a pouch and tossing it at Sasuke's feet, Dosu was dragging Kin and Zaku away as if their lives depended on it.

Looking up as all of the clones dispelled a moment later, Sasuke leaned down and picked up the scroll, "Should we be concerned that a fatigued Naruto is apparently a super murderous powerhouse?"

Sakura shrugged, "Odd conditions of the exam. Consider how much energy he usually has and I doubt we'll have this issue again any time in the future." Shaking off the feeling that she just jinxed them, she focused on the scroll in Sasuke's hands. "Wanna carry him and we can make for the tower?"

Sasuke thought it over for a minute, run through the forest with an unconscious Naruto and head straight for a possibly trap laden tower. Or rest bored out of their minds at least for another couple of hours but make the trip with everyone somewhat rest and conscious. Easy. "Let's wait, I could use some more sleep too. And the trip will be a lot easier not having to lug that idiot along."

Nodding and turning back to their tree Sakura did have to concede that point. Rubbing her shoulder, just how much did that kid weigh anyway? Or was it the sword. The way he swung it around make her think it was pretty light, but tossing him like that took everything in her to do. But team seven did the sane thing and re situated themselves in their cave to take another few hours to rest.

And it was as noon was approaching that team seven found themselves up and moving through the trees again, all better rested and a more awake Naruto denying anything that the other two were telling him. "That sounds like something my clones would do, not me."

"But aren't your clones, you know, you?" Sakura was trying to use logic to get through to the boy, poor girl.

"Well yeah, when I make them, but after that they can go off the rails pretty fast." Looking over at Sasuke Naruto made his on conclusion, "If Sasuke took out a team while I was asleep you could just say that, you don't have to make me feel better about sleeping through it."

Sasuke rolled under a low branch before flipping back up and next to Naruto, "We're telling you, it was all you. You were out of it like we'd never seen before. Try not to make that many clones again, okay?" Sasuke didn't want to consider what would happen if he made to many clones now. Never mind Naruto running out of chakra, but the idea of a Naruto with less mental roadblocks and a giant sword just did not sit well with him.

"Hai hai, no thousand clone rush again. Got it." As one all three dropped to the ground and looked up at the tower now before them. "Well that was quick." Taking a mental note and noticing that he did not have any more clones wandering about, Naruto nodded, "I'm all done out there, nothing new to report."

Leading the others and walking into the door before them, Sasuke was ready to be inside and past this portion of the exam. Crazy sannin, murderous other teams, yeah no. Give him Kakashi sensei being late all the time. Coming up to a riddle on the door, Sasuke read it aloud before turning to the others he shrugged, "What do ya think?"

Naruto was instant, "That it's stupid and I have enough explosive tags to make this door open."

Sakura sighed and bopped the boy before holding out her hand to him, "Scroll, now."Ignoring the grumbling blonde, Sakura turned to Sasuke, "The other one too."

"When'd you get so bossy?"

"You wanna be the Naruto wrangler?" Scroll suddenly appearing in her outstretched hand, Sakura smirked at her crush, "Thought so."

"You both know I'm still here right?" Though he handed over their two heaven scrolls, he was summarily ignored.

Looking both scrolls over and remembering the rules, Sakura unfurled them both and tossed them on the ground in front of them. In a small explosion of smoke, there stood their sensei. "Yoo! Good time time too, faster than any other leaf team."

Sasuke sighed with relief, "Good, cause this whole thing has sucked."

Seeing their sensei raise an eyebrow it was Sakura that pushed forward, silencing Naruto who was about to begin boasting. "Com'on sensei, we have a lot to tell you. And it involves legendary ninja."

"Legendary ninja?"

Pulling the hand from his mouth Naruto bounced back into his sensei's view as the door behind them all began to open, "I blew up a Sannin!"

"What?"

-b-

The remaining three days of the exam found team seven resting and waiting on the rest of the teams to come in. Naruto had immediately passed out in their room after their sensei had made sure none of them were injured. Sasuke had given a more detailed account of the initial encounter, including details about Orochimaru's appearance and fighting style though he didn't have much insight there. While Sakura made use of her time by for once training what she could within their room, their time in the forest showing her that she was far behind the others. But at the end of those 3 days they found themselves in a large arena style room surrounded by the other teams and sensei's while listening to their Hokage, and then the exam proctor give a lecture and the announcement that they would be having preliminary matches. Following their sensei into the stands to wait, Sakura turned to Naruto, "Are you sure you finally got enough rest?"

Naruto waved her off, "Three days with full nights sleep was perfect. I still think you both are over reacting."

Sasuke shook his head and names began to swirl on the board above them all, "I wish there was a way you could see our memories. It was kind of freaky." Looking up as Kakashi poked his shoulder the boy sighed, "Guess I'm up."

Sakura cheered him on while Naruto leaned again the railing, "Who's Yoroi?"

Sakura joined him at the rail, "He's one of the leaf guys on the same team as Kabuto, the guy who quit." Seeing Naruto gain a look of understand they both watched as the proctor explain the rules and then jump away. Well timed as well as Sasuke already prepped his favored fireball and had launched it at his opponent. Yoroi was caught flat footed by the blast, being knocked away and unconscious before he hit the ground. "Well that was quick."

"It's Sasuke. I may rib the teme but he's got skill."

"Aw, you guys have a bromance going on."

"Sakura, I've never done it, but I will hit a girl today if you keep it up."

Giggling as it was usually the boys teasing her, she watched as the board set to scambling again while Sasuke returned to join them. Sighing with a bored look and joining them at the rail on Naruto's other side the fast acting Uchiha had a frown on his face, "That should have been harder."

"That's what she said?"

"I loathe you."

"Oh shut up you two, the next match is up."

Looking down into the arena, one of the sound ninja and Shino from team 8 were facing off. Naruto was already back to being bored, "Shino's got this, that guy is weak as hell."

Sakura however had a different mind, "Your sense of power scale is broken. He has to have some skill to be here."

Almost literally stuffing his hand in his mouth to keep himself from quipping about her being here, Naruto had to think about the almost complete turn around about his feelings surrounding his crush. Shaking it off and watching as Shino used his bugs to great effect, keeping away from Zaku's attacks before tagging him with enough bugs to render his weapons useless. "See, no contest."

Seeing Zaku start to rage, Sasuke frowned, "He wouldn't."

Watching the boy blow his own arms to bits in an attempt to continue the match, Sakura nodded, "He would."

Watching as medics came and tended to Zaku before carting him away, Naruto turned to his sensei, "Who do you think has the best shot of making it all the way to the end?"

While Kakashi wanted to immediately say his cute students of course, he watched all three of them turn to him. They had been taking this seriously though with some humor from the get go. They deserved some truth. "While I wanted you all to make it through to the final round, You have to put up with some real monsters here. Including some veteran genin both from the leaf and most notably from the sand. I still think you all have good chances, but it'll be hard."

Sakura nodded, "So Gaara and anyone from team 10?"

Naruto nodded as one of Gaara's teammates was now fighting in the ring against Kabuto's last teammate who stayed in to fight, Tsurugi if the board was right. "Don't they have a hyuuga on their team?"

Sasuke nodded, "Think so, surprised you know about them."

Naruto casually dropped a bomb on them all, "Oh yeah, Hinata-chan trains with me from time to time. She's told me a bit about them. Sounds like a family of sticks in the mud if you ask me."

Sakura and Sasuke both started at each other from behind Naruto. The girl had worked up the nerve to talk to the boy AND train with him? Sasuke sighed and handed over some ryo to a smirking Sakura. "Never underestimate a girls intuition."

"What was that?" Naruto looked over at Sakura in confusion.

"Nothing nothing, so you train with Hinata-san sometimes?"

Nodding and watching Tsurugi do something freaky with his body and wrap up an apparently weakened Kankuro, Naruto explained the few days since they had been back from their mission to wave. "Yeah her and Ino-chan trained with me a few times, really motivated too. It's crazy to think Ino-chan was just as obsessed as you were." Watching Kankuro reveal himself from the bundle of clothe that had been tossed aside while the wrapped up one turned out to be a puppet, Naruto mentally noted both him and Tsurugi as the weird one's of the exam.

Blinking in surprise while Ignoring their sensei cry manly tears, Sakura tried to make sense of what her teammate just said, "You said Hinata and Ino train with you?"

Watching the noodly boy be loaded onto a stretcher and the next match be decided, Naruto nodded, "Yeah, and we got lunch a couple of times too. They've been fun to hang out with. You two should join us sometimes."

Steadfastly deciding not to get in the middle of that at all, Sakura instead nodded, "Sure sure, maybe one day." Yeah, if what was going on what she thought was going on, she wasn't going anywhere near Naruto after team missions.

Sasuke however didn't see the issue if both Ino and Hinata were involved, "Could be fu-uaann." Receiving a kick to the shin and a pointed look from Sakura, he rolled his eyes, "If we have the time. I've been ignoring clan duties after all."

Looking up as the announcement board showed Ino and Sakura's names, Naruto cheered for them both. Sakura gave a tired sigh as she jumped over the rail to her fight. "Wait, what kind of duties do you have that you haven't been doing?"

Sasuke shrugged, realizing he's never talked about it with his team, "Well technically I'm the head of the Uchiha clan, and as such I'm supposed to be attending council meetings and such. I haven't had to until I became a full ninja, but now that I am I'm considered an adult so I'm supposed to attend whenever I'm in the village. Not that it matters, I don't really have any influence at all right now. No clan of just one after all." Not that plenty of girls and women older, much older, than himself haven't offered to fix that. There was a reason Sasuke was so girl shy.

Naruto nodded, "Ah, well if ya need help let us know. You know we'll help you out if we can. We're your team."

Watching the two girls beat the snot out of each other below, Sasuke nodded, "I…I appreciate it, Naruto." Looking over to the boy who started cheering for Sakura, and then cheering for Ino, he normally taciturn boy sighed, "That doesn't mean you can solve my council issues with explosions."

Kakashi spoke up from behind him book, "I don't know, the sandaime has mentioned blowing up the council hall a few times in the past."

Naruto hooked a thumb at their teacher, "See, explosions solve everything."

Rolling his eyes Sasuke relaxed more against the dividing rail, "Maybe after I finish my goal and hunt down my brother, I'll work on settling down too."

Naruto nodded as both girls ran in for one final clash, "Gonna quit pretending like you don't notice Sakura then?" Seeing the double knock out, Naruto sighed and turned to his rival and friend.

Sasuke wasn't sure what to say, but right now being honest about it all seemed to be working so far. "It's not so much ignoring her. My brother, he killed everyone. I've had nightmares of him coming back and finishing the job, and I'm always worried he'll go after anyone close to me too. I don't want that to include my team." Feeling Naruto slug him in the shoulder he looked up to the grinning boy.

"Then we just need to train harder, get stronger, and when it's time, we kick the shit out of your brother and make him apologize. Or blow him to bits." Both boys turned as Kakashi-sensei and Asuma-senei came back up to the stands, laying down Sakura and Ino where they could wait out the rest of the matches since they weren't to injured, though Ino was sporting a new short hair look.

Looking his teammate over and not seeing any injuries himself, Naruto turned back to the next match. But Sasuke nudged him to get his attention, "What's up fireboy?"

"What about you? Ever given thought about finding out where you came from?" Seeing as how they were opening up a bit at the moment, Sasuke tried the same with Naruto.

Naruto thought about it for a bit, idly scratching his chin. "I mean, of course I'm curious. But I asking the Hokage about it once already and got a half answer. Apparently he can't tell me about my parents yet, but when I get older he can. So It's like, I gotta wait to learn anything. Which kinda sucks."

Sasuke thought about that. If the Hokage knew but said Naruto couldn't learn about it yet, did that mean his parents were somewhat important? While the Uzumaki name certainly wasn't popular, that didn't tell him much of anything. He'd seen mention of the clan in some history scrolls, but usually heavily glossed over. Maybe if Sakura was awake he could ask her. Or maybe later, as when he looked back he noticed an odd look in Kakashi-sensei's eyes. "Well, even if you have to wait, at least you know that he's going to tell you one day. So that's something."

Watching Gaara's sister Temari beat back all of the attempts from the girl from team 10 to attack her, Naruto commented on it, "Bad match up looks like."

Sasuka took a moment a watch the match before nodding, "You aren't wrong, maybe if Tenten had something with more piercing power, or something more close range." Wincing as Temari's wind blast sent her into the air, only to land on her spine on the winner's fan, the leaf nin sighed, "Or not."

Kakashi spoke up this time, taking some interest and hopefully directing the conversation a bit, "Sometimes you get a bad match up, that's why it's important to vary your training and skill set so you don't get stuck with only one or two methods of attack or retreat. Specialization of skills in our field of work can be a death sentence." That was part of why he had wanted them in the exam now, to learn those lessons in a mostly controlled environment. Idly watching as Shikamaru and the last sound ninja Kin fought against each other, Kakashi pointed something else out, "Naruto. You've been varying your explosives recently. Why?"

Caught off guard by their teacher being interested in explosions for once, Naruto quickly nodded and held up an explosive note, "Okay okay, so you know how an explosive note can be varied in power, but generally the bigger the note the more powerful it is." Seeing Sasuke and Kakashi nod, Naruto held up a slightly bigger note, just about twice as the first one, "Problem is that you can only go so big. And sure you can use more notes like I did with my suicide bracelets, but it's not efficient. So I looked into actual explosives too. And it came down to other things, like explosive velocity."

"Velocity? Like some explosions are faster than others?" Sasuke now had his interest peaked.

Naruto now put his tags away, before carefully unsealing a bottle of yellow-brown liquid. "Sure are. This stuff is Nitroglycerin. So volatile that just tossing this bottle over my shoulder or even just shaking it hard enough could cause it to explode." Seeing his teammate and sensei lean away slightly Naruto sealed it away into his pouch again, "Plus, just that one bottle, about as big a my sealing ink, is equal to about 100 explosive notes. So I can get a bigger boom with less, though it's more unstable. I'm looking into stuff that's more intense and more stable, but so far the explosive part of it isn't as strong. So I'm still looking."

Seeing the boy had actually put some real thought into things, Kakashi however decided to caution him, "Just be care, I know you heal fast, but pretty sure you can't regrow a limb."

Flinching slightly as an irritate fox declared that his absolutely could if needed, Naruto covered it up by nodded, "No worries sensei. As long as I keep the bottles sealed away they're stable." He wasn't going to worry them about mentioning just how much of the stuff he had on him at any given time. That was probably a bad idea. Watching as a tired Shikamaru knocked out Kin using his own shadow, Naruto cheered for the lazy boy. "Talk about to smart for his own good."

Sasuke scoffed, "Part of why he's so lazy."

Missing Sakura and Ino coming to earlier, Sakura finally made her way back to the rail alongside her teammates while went to join her team again, "What'd I miss?"

Sasuke shrugged, "That sand girl beat Tenten from team 10, and Shikamaru beat the girl from the sound team." Looking up, Sasuke sighed, "And you get to watch Naruto now I guess."

Throwing up his fist Naruto cheered and leapt over the rail, "Alright! Let's make it flashy!" Dropping into a three pointed crouch, Naruto marveled as he finally felt used to moving without his weights on. Which meant he could go all out. Being approached by a smirking Kiba was throwing him off a bit.

"Look here Akamaru! We got an easy win, no way the dobe who had to be saved by Sasuke and got his eye torn out is any match for us." Kiba pointed at the last Uzumaki, "You might as well forfeit now before I humiliate you."

Naruto bounced in place, "Come say that to my face Kiba!" He had put in to much work to be belittled by his former classmate like that.

"Alright fine, begin!" Their proctor jumped away and without any preamble Kiba was off like a shot to attack Naruto head on. However Naruto had been training day and night against clones that whether he knew it or not could move at the speed of thought. Then between fighting Haku and later Orochimaru, Kiba was almost slow. Pivoting away from the overextended forward strike Naruto thrust his own palm forward and into Kiba's gut, rocketting the boy off and into the far wall. Not slowing down, Naruto made his usual brace of a dozen clones,

"For underestimating me, WE'RE GONNA MAKE THIS FLASHY!" And the clones all blurred into movement.

"What the hell was tha-" Before Kida could fully stand he was kicked in the side by a clone. Which led into a palm thrust, and a roundhouse, then an ax kick, and on and on it went. In the stands everyone watched as Naruto and his clones bounced the Inuzuka around the arena floor. It so far wasn't so much a fight as Naruto making a mockery of his opponent, but eventually Akamaru was able to disable a few clones and earn Kiba a breather. "What the hell?" Looking up, Kiba came face to fist with another clone,

"Tell me how fire tastes!" The clone exploded, tossing the genin and his dog away into the air, where they landed in a heap in the center of the arena. Naruto paused, waiting to see if the proctor would call it. Even though Kiba had insulted him, he was still a member of the leaf and a teammate, sorta, so it wasn't like he wanted to kill him after all. And, after the proctor checked on him and called the match, Naruto cheered "Woo yeah! Who's awesome!"

Sakura sighed, "Should we tag team him and beat some humility into him?"

Sasuke shook his head, "Head's to hard, wouldn't work." Looking over however at a lavender eyed girl, Sasuke smirked, "Make Hinata or Ino do it."

High fiving the boy with a chuckle, they both congratulated a happy Naruto. Though Sakura had a question, "Why didn't you use your sword at all?"

Naruto shrugged, "Kubikiribocho is a sword of killing. At least against leaf nins I don't wanna draw it. It's meant for spilling blood. Not for a friendly match." Nodding with his reasoning and watching the bored, Sakura along with a few others all gasped at the names brougt up.

"Oh no."

Naruto looked up and frowned, Hinata and Neji? Wasn't that her cousin she mentioned once? Looking down as they both entered the ring and Neji immediately tried to convince Hinata to quit, Naruto didn't have good feelings about this. "Why's he such an ass?"

Again Kakashi spoke up, the topic a little older than the kids, "Neji is of the branch house of the Hyuuga clan. Hinata is from the main branch. To outsiders it's like a servant/master relationship, and Neji holds some resentment against Hinata. There's more to it, but I can't speak on it." That Neji somehow blamed Hinata for his fathers death wasn't his business to tell, but they'd find out sooner or later with how chatty the Hyuuga seemed to be.

Watching Hinata hold her own, Naruto cheered loudly for the girl, "You got this Hinata! Don't give up!"

Sasuke shook his head, "Be reasonable though. Her cousin has an extra year of experience on him, and he's apparently a gentle fist prodigy. How is she supposed to hold up against that?"

Naruto shrugged, "Even if she can't, she should still push herself. He's family, not like he'd really hurt her in the end."

Wanting to dispute that entirely but knowing now wasn't the time, Sasuke made note that Hinata's strikes were losing their power. "She's slowly down."

Sakura nodded, "Yeah, but why? They haven't been fighting long." After watching Hinata retreat and listen to her cousin speak, the clearly tired girl pulled up her jacket sleeves, exposing the red marks from juken strikes. "Guess that's that."

Naruto shook his head, "That's bogus, she can't be out yet." Watching the whip off her jacket and throw it at her cousin's eyes, a tactic she had used against Naruto once during training, she got a few good hits in before he cousin freed himself and they were back at it, thought Neji was much harsher than before. "See! She still has some fight in her."

Kakashi sighed, "Having the will to fight is all well in good, so long as you don't kill yourself trying to do so. Sometimes it's better to retreat and learn from your mistakes."

Everyone watched as Neji connected with a strike to the side of Hinata's chest. They both had paused there before Hinata slumped to the ground and Neji backed away, calling for the proctor to call the match. And it was here that Naruto saw something in the girl that completely had his attention. Fighting and crawling her way to her feet, she took her stance again. She was barely standing, and clearing out of the match, but she still had a smirk on her face that many would recognize as more at home or Naruto's face, and said something to her cousin.

Enraged and boiling with chakra, the white clothed boy turn and rocketed toward the girl, visible chakra wafting off his hand in a clearly deadly strike. Several things happened at once. Naruto was already moving, sword in hand and already swinging, by the time he touched down in front of Hinata, a hidden clone transforming in order to catch her, his sword swing was arching toward Neji's chest. Two jounin were holding Neji, one with bandages holding his hand while another had him in a choke hold. Kakashi had Naruto's sword wrapped up and anchored to the ground with Ninja wire, while the proctor Hayate was holding his sword to Naruto's neck, who himself had frozen mid step.

"I suggest you both cool your heads." Hayate wasn't in the mood to play around at the moment.

"Of course the main branch get's special treatment, shameful." Neji was already pulling away, a frown on his face.

Naruto didn't say anything, drawing his sword away once Hayate pulled away from him and shook loose from the ninja wire before turning to his clone, "She's hurt bad boss."

Medics were already coming towards them, gently moving the clone away from moving the bleeding Hinata onto a stretcher and hurrying away with her. Naruto was staring at a point on the ground, a pool of her blood staring back at him. Idly he dismissed the clone.

"Weaklings should learn their place." Neji was being ushered away by his upset sensei. Kakashi was trying to do the same with an oddly quiet Naruto. Turning away from the girl's blood, sword still in hand, Naruto agreed.

"You're right." Looking up at Neji with an odd tinge to his purple eye, Naruto was grinning, "The weak should learn their place."

Above them the other members of team 7 shivered when they saw the look in Naruto's eyes. And both silently offered up a prayer for Neji, the boy not realizing just what kind of enemy he just made. And as their sensei and Naruto rejoined them, leaving the kids to have a word with Gai, Naruto took there quietly, sword finally stowed away on his back. Both Sakura and Sasuke were looking for the correct thing to open up the conversation, but it was a contemplative Ino who walked over and joined them, standing shoulder to shoulder with Naruto for a moment.

"She'll be alright you know. She's a lot stronger than she looks." While they were rivals in love, they were still fellow leaf ninja and friends. And she'd never wish what just happened on a friend.

Naruto nodded but didn't say a word at first, before he took a deep breath and let it out slowly, now watching the match between Gaara and Lee. "I know. But, to watch a family try to kill another over something they can't control, that's garbage. I'm gonna feed him my foot through his ass."

Chuckling and nudging the boy again, the now short haired Ino smiled as the light came back to his eyes, "I'll pay to watch that, and I'm sure Hinata will to. Just, don't kill him. Even if he deserves it, shouldn't his fate be up to her?"

Naruto nodded, "You're right. I won't." Looking at the jade eyed girl and grinned, "Thanks Ino-chan, you're the best."

Turning to walk back to her team, Ino nodded with a smile, "Oh I know it, but you can praise me more all you want later. After we make sure Hinata is better." Saying her peace, Ino sashayed away.

Sakura grinned, "So what's the plan then, since you moved up, you might get to fight Neji in the finals." Happy to see some life return to her teammate and friend, she was already feeling better for the boy.

Naruto held up a finger as if imparting sage advice, "Oh you know, introduce him to the wonders of explosions. Maybe kick his teeth in. You don't need teeth to talk, at least not enough to apologize." Oh Naruto was going to plan for this. Oh yes he was.

Watching the matching between the sand ninja and gai's protege end in Gaara's favor brought the team down a bit, but the boy was still standing, which could have been worse. Another sensei had to get involved though which considering the look Gaara had in his eye, no one was truly sure if that'd be enough. But after a few tense moments, Gaara relented and left the area floor. Sasuke turned back to his sensei, doing his best to ignore his teammate's muttering, "So that's about it then, who's left?"

Sakura answered before their sensei could, "Choji and Dosu."

Naruto however was ignoring everything around him, doing something he previously wouldn't have considered at this time. And that was exploring his feelings involving the two girls he had interacted with the most recently. That instant instinctual urge to protect Hinata had come out of no where. And while he wanted to ignore it and say it was nothing, Naruto knew that'd be a lie. They hadn't spent a lot of time together, but it was something that he had already built up some type feelings for her. Not sure what exactly love really entailed, he could say at least that he wanted to shield her from harm, and didn't want to see her hurt. Looking over at the other half of the problem, Naruto looked at the platinum blonde who had tried to cheer him up. Would he have moved to protect her just as quickly in the same situation? Something told Naruto that he would have, which begged the question. Who could he talk to about this? Kakashi-sensei was out, he was a pervert. Maybe Jiji? No, he was a pervert too. Well, he also had been married, so that was a maybe instead. There was Iruka sensei, maybe he could help? He was good at answering questions. Nodding to himself and making a plan, Naruto Almost missed it when Sakura shook him, "Huh, whuzzat?"

Rolling her eyes and mentally complaining about explosions and concussions, Sakura pointed down to the arena floor, "Prelims are over. Gotta take a number to determine your lineup for the finals." Watching the boy nod and follow after Sasuke, Sakura walked over to Ino, an idea in her mind about her own hair.

Naruto barely paid attention to what was about to happen. Only doing as he was told when prompted to pull a ball from the box provided to him by Hayate. Seeing a number 1 on the ball, Naruto waited for everyone else to finish and Hayate to write everyone's names on a white board. And it was there, seeing his name next to Neji's, that all the feelings he had felt over the last 30 minutes slammed into his chest. The grin that was stretching over his face was far more feral than anyone thought should be on a human face.

Above them, Kakashi sighed while Gai looked at him with concern, "Don't worry Kakashi. I'll set the boy straight and make sure he shows restraint during their match. Naruto won't come to much harm."

Kakashi shook his head while Tenten and team up who were eavesdropping listened on, "No, the opposite in fact. Might want to convince Neji to train like hell this month. Cause considering how Naruto is feeling right now?"

Kakashi watched as unnoticed to Naruto or anyone close to him, his hand was opening and closing as if itching to grab his sword, "I'm pretty sure you might wanna start planning for a funeral."

-AN-

The prelims are here and gone! I honestly didn't want to change much from the anime/manga here. Though with no curse seal Sasuke wouldn't have struggled at all, and same with Kiba, even base Naruto would have done well enough against him. But now we'll begin to diverge slowly but surely.