Naruto is not owned by me, he (or it(as a franchise)?) is owned by Kishimoto-sensei!

Chapter 3

"What do you mean 'you three pass'?!" screamed Naruto.

"Exactly what that means," said Kakashi calmly, flashing his eye-smile at them.

"But… we didn't get the bells," said Sakura confusedly.

Kakashi nodded, "That's true, but that wasn't the point of the test. Naruto and Sasuke seemed to have grasped it but they seemed to have left out a very important part."

Sakura frowned, "Huh?! What's that?"

"Teamwork," started Kakashi, "They were able to come up with a plan to beat me and worked together very well doing so. I must say, if it was anybody else besides a few other jonin and myself, the last part would have worked in killing them."

Sakura paled. Had they really been able to almost catch Kakashi-sensei? Sure, he was holding back because it was only a test, but it would've been impressive nonetheless. She was almost sure what they had gotten wrong was her fault.

"So what did we get wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Sasuke calmly.

"You failed to include Sakura in your plan. Had you done that, you most likely would have gotten the bells," he explained.

Sasuke narrowed her eyes at the pinkette, "That's not our fault," he responded.

Kakashi raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And why's that?" he asked curiously.

"She refused to work with us," said Sasuke.

"I see. Sakura, is this true?" he asked.

Sakura blushed, "No! I was willing to work with Sasuke-kun! But Naruto would have totally messed everything up!" she responded.

Naruto had finally decided to speak up again, "Sasuke didn't want to work with Sakura either. But the whole thing started because I suggested we ask Sakura for help. Sasuke didn't want to but I was able to convince him and then Sakura didn't want to work with me so we just let it go."

Kakashi looked at Naruto, "Very well. This team shows promise but also needs a lot of work. Luckily, I'll be able to help you out with that. From today on, you are officially Team 7," he said. Naruto and Sakura smiled, while even Satsuki gave a small smirk.

As the two other genin of the team left, Naruto stayed behind. Kakashi stayed as well, already knowing what he would most likely ask.

"Kakashi-sensei?" started Naruto, "Was– was that power-"

"-the power of the Kyuubi," Kakashi continued, "The demon sealed inside of you."

Naruto's eyes widened, "Does that mean… that I'm becoming–"

"No." said Kakashi sternly, "You are not the fox. Your seal is designed to let out the fox's power slowly and allow it to meld with your system, but I fear that any type of rage you feel loosens the seal the tiniest bit, allowing the fox to let out a more uncontrollable amount of chakra than usual. You may have been in control for a bit, but eventually you would have lost control."

"Oh, ok, thank you sensei," responded Naruto.

Kakashi nodded, "Of course, and for one thing, I'm sorry for putting you under a genjutsu. I got lost in the heat of the battle without thinking about how it would affect you."

"That's alright sensei, at least we passed."

…

Naruto arrived on time to the training field. He didn't think it would become a habit, but he supposed he should at least be on time on their first real day as a team. He noticed his two teammates had already arrived, with Sakura already bugging Sasuke this early in the day.

Waving to his crush, he exclaimed, "HEY! Sakura-chan!"

Sakura flinched, and robotically turning to Naruto she shuddered, 'Great, why did he have to get here so soon?' she thought.

Sasuke, however, was thinking differently, 'Thank god he got here this soon!'

"Shut up Naruto! It's too early for me to hear your voice!" the pinkette screeched.

Naruto stopped, "Aw, come on. Don't be like that, Sakura-chan. Plus, we're teammates, you could at least try to be nicer!" he said excitedly.

Sakura gritted her teeth, "I'll start being nicer when you stop pestering me!" she said, throwing a punch at Naruto.

Naruto, letting the punch hit him, was sent a good 10 feet.

Sakura, seeing the distance, cheered to herself, 'YES! THAT'S GOTTA BE A NEW RECORD!'

Naruto stared at the sky, 'She's hitting harder and harder everyday.'

…

An hour had passed and Kakashi had yet to show up. At some point, Naruto had taken out the taijutsu scrolls and read through the katas. For the most part, his other teammates attempted to ignore this, but when he began to perform the katas, they couldn't help but take an interest.

"Naruto-baka, what are you doing?" questioned Sakura.

Naruto, attempting to not waver in his practice, quickly answered, "training."

Sakura grumbled, "Obviously, but what are you training for? You already have the Academy taijutsu, what's the point of using another?"

Naruto sighed, "Well, y'know how when we introduced ourselves, I said I wanted to make my family proud," he started, "I was able to get this scroll from Jiji and it had a bunch of stuff including this taijutsu scroll," he finished, holding up said taijutsu scroll, "I thought I might as well learn it since it was my clan's taijutsu style, y'know?"

Sasuke stood up, "Hey Tomato, how far along are you into learning it?" he asked.

"Huh? Well, I mean I just started. You two kind of interrupted me. I just got this scroll so I figured I might as well practice since Kakashi-sensei wasn't here."

"One month," said Sasuke.

"Huh?" questioned Naruto.

"I want to fight your style in one month. Uchiha vs Uzumaki," he said, before turning away.

Naruto just grinned. No words were exchanged past that point, and he went back to practicing his Whirlwind style.

…

Another hour and a half passed before Kakashi actually showed up. As per usual, this was followed by a "You're late!" from Naruto and Sakura, as well as a grunt from Sasuke.

"Calm down, a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way round," he said.

'That's the worst excuse ever…' thought the three genin simultaneously.

"So Kakashi-sensei what're we gonna do today?!" asked Naruto excitedly, "Are we gonna go fight bandits, rescue a princess, or save a nation?!" he continued.

"Train," said Kakashi simply.

"Meh," said Naruto, what should he have expected.

"Do you three know how to climb trees?" he asked, as he walked towards the edge of the forest, his three students following closely behind.

"Duh, Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura.

"Without your hands?" he then stated, leaving all genin confused.

"Uh, Kakashi-sensei, that's not really possible," stated Naruto.

Kakashi simply gave his student an eye-smile, "Oh, its not?" he asked, as he suddenly began to walk vertically up a tree, until he crouched at the very top. Facing down he continued, "This exercise is known as the Tree Climbing Exercise. It is a chakra control exercise that requires you to focus your chakra to the bottom of your feet so that you can stick to the tree. Too much chakra and you fly off, and too little and you cannot stick."

Throwing down three kunai at his students he said, "Use those to mark your process. Oh, and every failure is one lap around the training field tomorrow before training."

Naruto and Sasuke smirked as they grabbed their kunai. Both dashing at the tree, they pumped chakra to the soles of their feet. Immediately, they both exploded of the bark, sending both flying. Sasuke, sent about 50 feet while Naruto was sent around 70. Both left a sizable crater in their tree.

"Hehe! This is easy!" cried Sakura from the top of her tree. She had made it up on her first try.

Naruto smiled at his crush, "Good job Sakura-chan!"

"Yes very good indeed," commended Kakashi, "now I want you to repeat it until your chakra exhausts. This will help you build stamina and your chakra reserves," he said, Sakura nodding, "and Naruto and Sasuke, that's one lap."

Naruto and Sasuke growled before both rushing back to their tree.

…

It was official. Naruto hated his sensei. Him and Sasuke had been climbing for hours. They had started at lunch, and Sakura had left at least 4 hours ago for dinner. They had made slow progress, barely making it up the tree, hour by hour. Kakashi had left as well, leaving shadow clone in his wake. At some point he had gotten a white board to mark down he and Sasuke's failures. Sakura only had one, when he chakra was finally exhausted. He had a whopping 168 fails, with Sasuke a little lower, straggling behind at 165.

Naruto, finally fed up with his failure, made his way to the clone of his sensei.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?" he started. Getting a nod from his sensei, he continued, "Can you help me out a little?"

The clone of Kakashi smiled at the redhead, "Sure. What you want to do is focus on your task at hand. You can't have your mind drift or your chakra will do the same. You want to stay calm, and if you don't your chakra will fluctuate with your emotions. Understand?"

"You could've told me that at the beginning, but yeah, I get it."

"I could've, but you didn't ask."

"I hate you."

Making his way back to his tree, Naruto took in a steady, calm breath. With a burst of speed, he propelled himself up the tree, rocketing past he and Sasuke's records. He focused at the task at hand, nothing else, and before he knew it, he made it 3/4th up the tree, and that's where he slipped. He fell to the ground, landing gracefully on his feet.

"169, Naruto, 167, Sasuke!" called their sensei.

"Shut it!" the two called.

Before Naruto could run up the tree, he was interrupted by his teammate.

"Hey, Tomato," started Sasuke. Naruto could see he was embarrassed to ask, and he tried his best to repress the laugh that was attempting to come out, "w-what did Kakashi-sensei tell you about climbing the tree?"

"Wow, the almighty Uchiha, asking for help twice in one day! What's the occasion?" Naruto teased.

"Hn, are you gonna tell are not," Sasuke said.

"What's the magic word?"

"Tch. Can you please tell me what Kakashi-sensei told you?" growled Sasuke.

Naruto chuckled, "alright, he basically said that you need to clear your mind and control your emotions. You can only focus on tree climbing and nothing else and need to stay calm or your chakra will get mad or something like that."

Sasuke nodded in thanks, however, a smirk graced his lips, "ready to lose?"

Naruto laughed, "you wish."

Kakashi smiled at the two, 'They're so much like us, aren't they?'

…

Ayame and Teuchi were preparing to shut down their ramen stand. It had been a long hard day, at they were ready to get home for some rest. Ayame, as she was about to bring in the pots, heard as footsteps dragged their way into the Ichiraku Ramen Stand.

"Naruto!" she said excitedly, "Where were you all day?" she asked, before noticing Sasuke, "and who's your friend?"

Naruto was panting and sweaty, Sasuke pretty much the same. "Training. This Sasuke. Two Ramen please." he asked.

The girl smiled, "Sure thing, coming right up!" she couldn't refuse the boy she saw as a little brother, turning to Sasuke she said, "and for you?"

Sasuke held up a single finger.

"DAD! Three miso ramen!" she yelled.

"Alright…" they heard Teuchi grumble. He was tired but seeing as there were some leftover noodles he decided to whip up a quick serving for the customers. Five minutes later, he walked out, "Three orders of miso ramen!" he exclaimed, placing the bowls down, before noticing the customer, "Hey Naruto, where've you been?! And who's your friend?"

Naruto, for his part, couldn't talk. He was tired. However, the waft of the ramen flew into his nose. He couldn't stop himself. Primal urges took over and comically, he drank up the two bowls, leaving nothing but a mustache of the broth as evidence for the crime committed.

The other three inhabitants of the Ichiraku Ramen stand stared at him in shock before the Ichiraku's themselves and Naruto burst into laughter, Sasuke shaking his head in a little bit of amusement that went unnoticed by the others.

"Anyways, Pops, you see, I was out training the whole day, y'know. My sensei told me and my team to do this tree-climbing exercise for chakra control. It took the whole day before Sasuke and I could finish. This is Sasuke, by the way," he said pointing to where his teammate sat.

However, as the three turned, they saw the empty bowl, and money in the place of the raven-haired Uchiha.

"Huh," said Ayame.

"Ah, don't worry, Ayame-nee, he does that. It's nothing personal," said Naruto, "Anyways, thanks for the ramen," he finished, before placing down his payment and then back to his apartment.

…

"Tomato, in position. Over."

"Duck, in position."

"Pinky, in position."

"Silver Wolf, in position."

"Hey, why does Kaka-sensei get a cool codename?! Over." exclaimed Naruto.

"Shut up, usuratonkachi," hissed Sasuke.

"Because I'm the sensei," responded Kakashi. The three teens could hear the smile in his voice.

"Target is in my field of visi- NARUTO-BAKA!" started Sakura before being cut off by Naruto diving at the target.

Chasing after the small shadow, Naruto weaved in and out of the branches and bushes, leaving the rest of his team behind. Sakura and Sasuke stared stunned behind Naruto's trail.

"How the hell did he maneuver like that?" questioned Satsuki.

Kakashi smiled down at his genin, "Instinct," he said, before disappearing in a shunshin.

"What the fuck does that mean?" thought Sasuke.

Naruto had started gaining on the figure in front of it. Breaking through the line of trees, he saw the side of the village from the training grounds. He couldn't let the target get to the village, or there would be a good chance they would lose it again. So like he had done in the bell test, he summoned a clone pushing its feet while being pushed himself, and tackled his target to the ground.

"Target captured. Ove- SHIT! IT SCRATCHED MY FACE! Over," said Naruto.

"Good job Naruto, we'll come to your location immediately," said Kakashi.

"Easy for you to say, Kakashi, you can teleport," said Sasuke, "and quit saying over dobe, it's annoying."

"Why do you have to ruin the mood," responded Naruto, "Over."

Sasuke growled through the earpiece.

…

"Mission complete Hokage-sama. Tora the cat has been returned to her rightful owner, again," said Kakashi, speaking to his leader, the Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen.

"Good job Team 7. It has only been a month since you started and you three have been advancing very well throughout your training and missions," said the Hokage, giving a grandfatherly smile to the three.

Sasuke and Sakura bowed, Sakura having to bend Naruto over because he was distracted with picking his nose.

Naruto stood straight back up and smiled at the Hokage, "Thanks for the compliments jiji, but I was wondering when we can get a real mission y'know. Saving princesses, liberating countries, stuff like that y'know," he said chuckling.

"NARUTO YOU IDIOT!" screamed Sakura, "SHOW SOME RESPECT TO THE HOKAGE!" she said, before throwing a punch that blasted him into the wall.

The Hokage chuckled at the team's antics, "It's quite alright, Sakura-chan, Naruto-kun has been calling me that since before he was in the Academy, and I don't think it'll be stopping anytime soon."

Sakura nodded bashfully at the Hokage, 'Why the hell is Naruto so close to the Hokage?!' she thought.

"So… Jiji about that mission?" asked Naruto, stumbling back to his team.

The Hokage shifted his gaze to Kakashi, "What do you think, Kakashi-kun?" he asked seriously.

Kakashi snapped the book he had been reading shut, "Truthfully, I'd say they're about ready for an easy c-rank. It would help them get used to more missions outside the village without being too stressful," he answered honestly.

The Hokage nodded, "Iruka-kun, please hand them the C-rank."

Iruka nodded nervously, after all, Naruto was like a brother to him and he didn't want him to get hurt, "Your mission is to escort Tazuna, the bridge builder to Nami no Kuni," he started, "apart from simple bandits, there shouldn't be any real danger and the mission should be done in about one week's time," the chunin explained.

The three genin nodded while Kakashi had returned to reading his book.

"Tazuna-san, you can enter now," called the Hokage.

The door to the Hokage Office opened, revealing an old man with a brown tank top, crescent-shaped glasses, gray sweatpants, and a bottle of beer in one hand. He looked down at the genin disapprovingly and pointing towards them said, "I paid for ninjas, not a bunch of brats that look like they wouldn't hurt a fly. The short, stupid-looking one in the middle looks especially weak," said the bridge-builder.

Naruto looked around, "Hey, who's the short, stupid-looking one in the middle?" he asked laughing before looking to both his sides and saw that his two other teammates being taller than him, "WHY YOU! YOU BETTER GET BACK!" he said before lunging at Tazuna. Kakashi, catching him midair, scolded him, "Naruto, don't kill the man we're being paid to protect."

"Whatever," said Tazuna, "We leave tomorrow at dawn," I want to be able to get there in two days' time by midday and not midnight," he finished before walking out of the office.

Kakashi shut his book once more, "Alright team, get packed for the mission tomorrow, we leave early so get a good night's rest, okay?" he said before vanishing in a shunshin.

The three genin left out through the door, and before the three could go separate ways, Sasuke turned to Naruto, "Hey, Tomato, you heard what Hokage said, right?"

"Jiji said a lot of things," replied the Uzumaki.

"Yeah, but he said we'd been a team for a month, you know what that means?" he asked.

Naruto, thinking over the significance of it having been a month, finally came to the conclusion, "Uchiha vs Uzumaki style?" he said, smirking.

Sasuke nodded, "So, are you ready?" he asked.

"You better believe it!" Naruto answered, "I've been practicing everyday. I'll wipe the floor with you," he said.

As the three made their way to the training field, they missed the figure following them, 'Interesting…' he thought, slyly.

As the trio finally arrived at the training field, Naruto and Sasuke got into their fighting stance, Sakura off to the side to cheer for her crush.

"No ninjutsu?" Naruto asked, Sasuke nodded in return, "alright…" Naruto finished, smirking.

A leaf dropped from a tree, and as the wind pushed it over to the team, it slowly dropped. The two rivals' eyes locked onto the leaf, and as it fell to the grassy ground, they were off. While Sasuke's movements relied on static but fast movements, Naruto's whirlwind style was like a dance. He moved around Sasuke with a calmness that confused the Uchiha. Not to mention the strong blows that the Uzumaki was dealing to him. Sasuke's style was strong, but lacked one important component. The Sharingan. The dojutsu of the Uchiha clan was meant to go in tandem with the style as it slowed down the movements as well as the ability to predict an opponent's future attack.

Naruto gracefully moved around Sasuke, finding as many openings as he could, and dealing hard blows to his teammate. While he admitted to himself he still had many flaws in his style, he could notice his improvement. However, there was one thing he also hadn't considered. Over the month, the only training he had done was with a clone using the same style. He wasn't used to the Uchiha style while using his style, and as soon as Sasuke spotted an opening, he took it.

He lunged at Naruto, and while the redhead smoothly dodged his punch, he didn't account for his leg to come around and hook his neck as he palmed the floor, balancing himself. He brought the Uzumaki to the ground, laying him out. While the battle was short, lasting only a good 3 minutes, it was intense. Much more than the Academy's spars. This was what Sasuke needed. A rival that he could match and that could push him with his limits. He stood, and seeing Naruto sprawled out, offered him a hand. Naruto grasped it. As he stood, they looked at each other. Instead of the usually growling, they instead smirked, and gave each other the Seal of Confrontation.

Sakura cheered for her Sasuke-kun winning, and though Naruto earned no congratulations from his crush, he was able to convince the two of them to join him at Ichiraku's for dinner.

FIN