Empty

by zzzgnas

There is nothing worse in the world than the feeling of complete and utter helplessness. That empty feeling you get when you've lost everything and you know there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Uzumaki Naruto was four when he experienced this feeling for the first time. And from then on... nothing had gone right... Strong! Naruto. Third Ninja War Timeline.

4. Chapter 4 - A Leader

Chapter-4

A Leader

'The presence of the predator is acknowledged by all animals. But only intelligent prey… are frightened by it.'

1 Week Later, Training Ground 12

Naruto lay flat on the ground with his eyes closed. The morning session had just ended and it left them exhausted. After Orochimaru passed them almost a week ago, the three genin stayed and talked for a long time. The discussion was mainly about what to expect from Orochimaru's training, or at least, what they thought they could expect from him. They all knew it was going to be difficult.

It was so much worse than they'd thought. Of the three of them, Naruto was the only one who could keep up. For the first time, he was thankful that he had been a genin for almost a year, running around the village doing manual labour for civilians who could afford it. Seeing Yuna and Anko on the ground on the first day heaving and gasping for breath, was kind of fun. Until his sensei realized that he wasn't on the ground with them. It went downhill from there.

The mornings always started out with physical exercises. Laps around the training ground, pull ups, dips, squats and whatever else their sensei thought they should do. The most recent and by far the most sadistic was something their sensei called 'dodge training'. Dodge training consisted of a very sadistic jonin abusing the use of shadow clones while tossing kunai and other projectiles at them. Their only goal was to dodge. They were allowed to evade or deflect. No use of chakra allowed. Not even to substitute away. Orochimaru told them that pain tolerance was not something they would be allowed to overlook.

At first, they got cut very frequently and sometimes they even ran into each other. But they were improving. Naruto could see the development happening. In fact, Yuna didn't get hit even once in today's session. This thought made a scowl appear on his face as his eyes involuntarily went to his thigh where a kunai had grazed him. The cut was very superficial, but it still hurt a lot.

Orochimaru had a knack for predicting which way they'd dodge and then attacking their new position simultaneously which resulted in a lot of pain for the three genin. He also seemed to have a knack for wounding them exactly where it would hurt them the most but would leave no lasting damages. In the beginning, they were all proud that all they had were superficial cuts and grazes, but they soon realized that it was what Orochimaru intended.

When first introduced to the training, they all voiced their concern about the risk and danger associated with it. To that, Orochimaru started by telling them that they chose the wrong career if the possibility of risk and danger got them whining like little children. And well… That was that.

This was what they went through every morning for the past 6 days. Then, after giving them some time to catch their breath (while Naruto did more laps *sigh*), Orochimaru would make two clones and split them up. He would then work on individual skills just like he said he would. Over the past week, Naruto had even started learning genjutsu, a whole new field of chakra techniques. He wasn't good enough at it to know any techniques but he knew a lot of the theoretical aspects of it. Where Naruto improved the most was in fuinjutsu despite his sensei not knowing nearly enough about the field.

Unknown to Naruto, every member of the once mighty Uzumaki clan was unnaturally proficient in fuinjutsu. Naruto himself had started learning the art when he found out how much exploding seals cost. (800 ryo for a non-reusable piece of paper? It was probably much easier learning how to make them.)

When he started reading about the field however, he found that he already knew a lot about it, much like he already knew how to throw kunai before the academy instructors taught him. He realized that he had delved into this art before waking in the hospital and that this was some remnant of the old him. This only increased his drive to develop the skill.

Under Orochimaru's tutelage, he realized that fuinjutsu wasn't just storage scrolls and exploding seals, or things that he had to prepare before he went into battle. There were battle-applications that didn't require prior preparation. Orochimaru told him many things about how fuinjutsu was perceived by the majority. The majority of the shinobi not experienced in fuinjutsu, wouldn't be able to react to an exploding seal that wasn't in the form of a tag attached to a kunai. During the second shinobi war, a Suna shinobi took out a dozen Iwa jounin, simply by drawing the seal on the ground. They stopped, assuming it was a trap that would be triggered by stepping on it. One 'katsu' later, they were dead.

At that point, Naruto informed him of how he himself managed to attach exploding seals to kunai in a way that wasn't apparent to an enemy. Orochimaru just smiled at him.

Orochimaru focused on his ability to develop seals under pressure, while warding off attacks from multiple sources. He had a tough time with it, until he decided to learn the shadow clone technique. Orochimaru was surprised when he asked for the technique, but didn't hesitate to teach it to him.

There were a lot of risks that made it infeasible for a lot of people, but at the moment, Naruto had enough chakra for two clones. He was a bit worried at the start, because creating two clones would leave him only a third of his chakra. But that went away when he realized that the clone's remaining chakra returned to him when it dispelled. Along with its memories. Naruto immediately realized its potential for training and decided to try it out one evening. He made two clones and tasked them with reading about combat seals while he went to bed.

It worked. For the most part anyway. When he woke up, he knew everything his clones had read, but he also received twice the mental exhaustion of staying up all night and reading that his clones had gone through which consequently wrecked him during that day's sparring sessions.

That made it clear to him that until he found some way to deal with the overload of information, clones would purely be short term support. They were useful for setting traps and carrying out instructions, and of course, as human shields although they were far too fragile. Also, the mental power required to quickly analyze and assimilate every single thought of a clone while maintaining his focus on the battle as well? Naruto could barely handle using a single clone during spars. He was certain only a dimwit whose mind was completely empty all the time could hope to create more than 3 or 4 clones in a fight. That or a professional who was trained to keep his mind empty. Like the substitution, he wasn't ready to use it in battle until he researched it a bit more.

During their individual training sessions, they had also been introduced to elemental techniques. The first day had been quite exciting when Orochimaru handed them three chakra papers and asked them to pass chakra through them.

*Flashback*

"Paper? What is this for?", Anko asked.

As Orochimaru surveyed the reactions of his team, he realized that two of them had no idea about chakra paper while the third one was looking at the other two curiously. "This is chakra paper. When you channel chakra through it, the underlying seals detect the elemental nature of the chakra. Based on the chakra nature, it undergoes specific changes. If your affinity is towards water, the paper becomes damp. Similarly, earth makes it crumble into dust, fire burns it up, wind slices it in two and lightning makes it fold and crackle."

"It seems you are familiar with this. Am I correct in assuming that you already know your element, Yuna?" Orochimaru asked the young Sarutobi girl.

"Yep. Water and earth.", Yuna promptly replied.

"Two affinities. And you share earth with me which is rather convenient. Now the two of you grab one each." Orochimaru handed Anko and Naruto a piece of paper. "Anko, you go first. Channel a small amount of chakra into it. Close to the amount you would put into a henge."

Anko nodded, smirking in excitement. "I'll probably have three. Watch me." She held the paper in her fingers and channeled chakra through it. A significant portion crumbled into dust while the smaller part started burning up. The used-up paper fell to the ground and Anko stared at it in confusion. "What does that mean?"

Orochimaru smiled at her. "It means that I have my work cut out for me. Two students with an earth affinity. And it's going to be easy for you to develop your secondary fire affinity as well. After all, we live in the land of Fire." Anko smirked and nodded enthusiastically.

Naruto however had a thoughtful look on his face. "Sensei, you said the paper was based on seals, right?" He waited for Orochimaru to nod before continuing. "Well, I don't see any ink on it. So, I assumed that it would activate when chakra passed through it and I was paying close attention to it when Anko did. But nope. No ink on that paper. I didn't think there was a way to completely mask a seal."

Orochimaru nodded at his analysis. "Yes, it is quite possible. Security seals, for example, are completely masked. Our village's boundary is covered with an unnatural amount of seals laid down by the Shodaime Hokage's wife, Uzumaki Mito. They require a constant supply of chakra to maintain. Nevertheless, it is never visible. If it were, skilled fuinjutsu experts among our enemies would know everything about our last line of defense and that is definitely not something we want. So, it is quite possible." Naruto nodded speculatively.

"You'll get there eventually. It's not that advanced." Orochimaru added as an afterthought. "Now, onto the task at hand. Push chakra through that paper."

Naruto did as he was asked and held the paper in his fingers as he had seen Anko hold it. "Well, here goes."

Naruto was not expecting fire. With bright red hair and purple eyes, he had a suspicion that he wasn't from Konoha and hence wouldn't have a Fire affinity. But other than that he was pretty clueless about his affinities. He was quite surprised when his paper suddenly split cleanly in two and both halves became damp.

"What does that mean?" Naruto spoke.

Orochimaru was surprised at this development. "You have wind and water which is a bit of a problem because I don't think we have many wind users in Konoha."

Naruto frowned. "What about water?"

Orochimaru waved his hand. "That's fine. I can get you started on that. Wind is the problem. I only know one or two and that's definitely too high level for you to start out on. The only wind users I know of are Danzo and Kushina - both very busy people that won't be inclined to help a genin out during a time of war."

Naruto frowned again. He had never heard of either one of them. "So what do you suggest I do?"

Orochimaru smiled. "I'll figure it out. In the meantime, we'll get you started on your water affinity."

*Flashback End*

Naruto sighed. From that point on, Orochimaru had worked them to the bone. They had all mastered the basics of elemental manipulation and even started learning some techniques. He had two water jutsus in his arsenal. The first time he tried the gunshot technique, it exploded in his mouth, leading to a lot of teasing by his teammates. Now, he had mastered the technique and also succeeded in maintaining a continuous stream of water from his mouth with some force.

Yuna had also improved her arsenal. She now had the Earth Wall jutsu which went great with her fighting style. Anko, however, was facing some difficulties. Orochimaru had started her on the great fireball technique. While Anko wondered why she wasn't starting with her primary affinity, Naruto could definitely see the reasoning behind it. At the moment, her fighting style of getting in close and lashing out would benefit greatly from having a few ranged attacks as well.

After the individual sessions, they would break for lunch. When they came back, it was once again a team survival exercise in the forest of death. However, the stakes were not nearly as high as the first time and all three genin could see that their sensei was barely even trying. He also changed it up a lot. Over the past week, they had two sessions where it was just Orochimaru, one where he used two clones and the remaining three in which they were set at a disadvantage; almost three to one. The first time he did this, the team did not fare well at all despite the fact that Orochimaru never attacked. Him and his clones were just moving about very quickly. Their task was just to dispel all his clones.

This was easier said than done, however, as their teamwork left a lot to be desired. Yuna's water jutsu missed its target and hit Naruto square in the chest, Anko's fire and Yuna's water jutsu collided due to a lack of coordination, etcetera. Naruto winced at the memory. It did not go well.

Naruto had come to develop a lot of respect for his sensei. That man was a certified genius. He had no doubt in his mind about the fact that Orochimaru was one of the strongest shinobi in Konoha. When he was fighting, he was cold and speculative, never once letting his guard down. Even against three genin. When the fight was over, he had nothing but helpful criticism to offer. What they had done wrong and what he would have done in their place. Naruto, now holding him in very high regard, took his words to heart, absorbing everything like a sponge.

Despite all that, Naruto was not entirely happy about the pace at which things were going and it was because they had yet to do a single mission. It had been a week now and Akira Senju would come back soon. They were hard pressed for money.

Shizuka and Shinzo told him about their first mission. It was not as bland as he had expected it to be. Some bandits had settled in a nearby town, cutting off an important trade route. Team 13 had been sent to clear them out. The mission went smoothly, but what surprised them was how small the pay was. They asked their sensei about it and Mikoto explained that it was a time of war, so all salaries were cut by 50%. They inevitably came to the conclusion that it would take a great many missions for them to be able to afford a place of their own despite the money Naruto had saved up.

This only made the lack of missions even more bitter for Naruto. Sighing, he laid back down.

"What are you sighing for, brat?"

Naruto didn't bother getting up. Anko had become much more 'accepting' of his presence over the past few days, but that didn't mean she was always nice. She had taken to calling him a brat just to see if he would react. Naturally, he didn't. He could see what would happen if he did.

Naruto turned around slightly to see Anko pouting at him. "What are you doing back here so soon?"

Anko huffed and turned away. Yuna was the one who replied. "Someone forgot to bring money for lunch."

Naruto chuckled and addressed his other teammate. "Yuna, don't be too hard on her. She has a hard time remembering stuff."

It took Anko a moment to realize that Naruto meant her but that was enough for her teammates to start laughing. After trying unsuccessfully to seem angry, she laughed with them.

"Have you eaten yet?" Yuna asked, lying down next to him.

Naruto shook his head. "Not yet. I'm not particularly hungry and Orochimaru-sensei said he had something else in mind for us in the afternoon. Hopefully, it won't be as exhausting as another survival exercise and he'll let us leave early."

"No such luck, I'm afraid." Orochimaru spoke from behind them.

"GAAHH!"

"You have to stop doing that." Yuna said, agitated.

Orochimaru smirked. "You have to stop making it so fun." He waited as the three of them got back on their feet, not hurrying at all to do so. Perhaps he was going a bit easy on them. He'd have to rectify that. "You're gonna have a group training session with the other rookies today."

"That could be fun." Yuna smiled. "It'll be nice to see our old classmates."

Anko and Naruto nodded. 'I still haven't gotten back at them for embarrassing me on graduation day and it will be nice to see Obito and Rin again. They seemed cool.' Unknowingly, his mind drifted to Kakashi and his masked face. A week before, when he saw him, Naruto felt weirdly threatened by him. He never felt that way before with people his own age. He did feel the same way when he met Akira Senju the next day, because he could feel the barely restrained chakra bubbling inside him, but there was nothing like that in Kakashi. He had some power in him but what got Naruto feeling this way were his eyes. They looked so empty and alone. He had seen those eyes before. After all, when he woke up at the hospital at the age of six, his eyes were the same.

Hokage's Chamber

Hiruzen looked up from his papers when he heard the knock on his door. He was quite surprised at it. His secretary always did a good job reminding him of all his duties and she had not informed him about any meeting till late in the evening. Sighing at the possibility of more work, he called out to whoever was standing outside the door. "Come in."

When the door opened, Hiruzen couldn't help but be surprised. He had been expecting his secretary with more paperwork or maybe one of his old teammates. He had not been expecting one of his elite jounin to enter his office.

Minato walked in and stood in attention before saluting in respect. "Hokage-sama."

"Minato. Please. Have a seat." Minato acquiesced. "What brings you to my office in the middle of the day? Don't you have a genin team to train?"

Minato nodded his head. "Yes, sir. But I gave them a longer than usual lunch break to get them well rested for our group training session in the evening. The reason I came is because I wanted to talk to you about something, if you're not too busy that is…"

Hiruzen smiled at the shinobi in front of him. "Of course. What can I help you with today?"

"Well, yesterday I went to meet with Irene Kurama. I was concerned about Uzuki Yugao, daughter of the recently deceased Uzuki Haruka. She has been missing for a week now and I was starting to get worried."

Hiruzen frowned at the news. "That is indeed troubling news. What did the people at social services have to say? Did you meet with them?"

Minato scowled at the mention of social services. "Yes, sir. They were the first people I met with. They told me that the kid had been delivered to Irene Kurama's orphanage. Soon, I realized that the orphanage in question had been burned down in the fire and that the matron had been injured. So, I went to the hospital to meet with Irene-san and after a… after a very, um, thorough discussion, I found out that Uzuki Yugao had never arrived at her orphanage." Minato paused to take a breath.

"So, I decided to take up this matter with social services again. I pressed a bit more harshly this time and they coughed up the information. It turns out, they told her about her new home at the orphanage and left her in a room alone to process the information. When they came back, the girl was gone. Probably climbed out through the window they had left open. She's been missing since then." Minato concluded before scowling. "They didn't even bother to report her disappearance."

Hiruzen nodded once, acknowledging what Minato said. "I knew that our social services department was extremely careless, but I never imagined it being to this extent. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I will deal with the people responsible." Then, Hiruzen turned his attention back to the papers piled on his desk, thinking that the discussion was over. But he soon saw that Minato did not leave. "Was there anything else, Minato-san?"

Minato had zoned out slightly and hadn't noticed that he was dismissed. He was broken out of his thoughts by the question his Hokage asked him. He let out a deep sigh. "Sir, I left out something earlier. Before meeting with Irene-san, I actually met with the kids from the orphanage, thinking I could meet Yugao-chan directly and not inconvenience the injured Irene-san. They told me that they haven't met anyone matching Yugao's description which led me to Irene-san. I didn't notice anything odd until later." Minato paused to look directly at Hiruzen. "There were only 28 of them."

Minato saw a wave of emotions pass through Hiruzen's eyes before he steeled himself. "What do you mean?", he asked, a bit frostily.

Alarm bells went off inside Minato's mind at the change of tone. The reaction he had received was definitely not what he had expected. "Sir, it's only been 5 years since the last war which devastated our village with almost three times more losses than the first one. And that's not counting our allies in Uzushiogakure. Our shinobi forces were cut down to 55% of what they had been. Close to 4000 Konoha shinobi died. So, I find it a bit odd that there are only 28 orphans in one of the orphanages."

Being as perceptive as he was, Minato did not fail to notice the thin bead of sweat forming on Hiruzen's forehead. Whatever the reason for this was, the Hokage knew about it and wasn't keen on telling him why. "So, I went to the two other orphanages in the village. 39 and 31 were the corresponding number of orphans. That means the 4000 shinobi that perished left behind only 98 children. While a bit far fetched, it's not impossible. But then, I realized that all of the 98 children were not even the children of shinobi. Over 85% of them are civilian-born."

"There are only 13 shinobi-born children in the orphanages. The chances of that are very very miniscule, Hokage-sama." Minato was now looking directly into Hiruzen's eyes and they had plenty to tell him. They told him that the Hokage knew about this and why this was happening. And that whatever it was, Minato was not important enough to know. So, he resigned himself to what he knew the Hokage was going to say.

"This is… this is indeed, puzzling information, Minato-san. I will make sure to conduct a thorough investigation into this matter. Thank you for bringing this to my attention." Then, Hiruzen went back to the paperwork on his desk. This time, he had no intention of looking up again and Minato knew it. Soon after he had finished speaking, he heard the door open and close a moment later.

Deep in his thoughts, he almost didn't notice one of the ANBU guards coming up behind him. Idly, the Hokage simply held up a small note with a hastily written message.

2 Hours Later, Training Ground 7

"I haven't been here in a long time." Orochimaru spoke with a small smile on his face. "Brings back a lot of good memories."

"Oh yeah, the sannin were a Konoha team 7, huh? Makes sense." Yuna said thoughtfully.

"Why does that make sense?" Naruto asked.

"Because, team 7 has been the most successful team in every generation. The original team 7 consisted of 7 legendary shinobi which included my father, the Hokage, his 3 advisors, the legendary Kagami Uchiha, Akira Senju, Konoha's golden flame and Kosuke Maruboshi, the eternal genin. The next team 7 resulted in the Densetsu no Sannin."

"Guess that means that we're destined for awesomeness, huh?"

The voice came from behind the trees and they immediately recognized it as Obito. He walked out from behind the trees and Rin and Kakashi followed.

Anko smirked at them. "Well, just being team 7 doesn't matter in any way whatsoever. We're going to leave you in the dust today."

"Yeah, right. Keep thinking that. We have an Uchiha, a chunin and a medic in our team. You can't possibly think you can beat us."

That left them a bit surprised. "A chunin? What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

Obito smirked at them. "That's right, Kakashi here is already a chunin. He became one last year, when he was only 12 years old."

Kakashi remained stoic even when he became the topic of conversation.

"But then, what's he doing in a genin team?" Yuna asked incredulously.

"He needs to learn to work with a team. Guess that makes us just as awesome."

Kakashi rolled his eyes at his teammate. "Get a grip, genin. Be proud of your own accomplishments." With that, he turned around and walked away.

A tic-mark formed on Obito's forehead. "As you can see, there's a good reason for his placement on a genin team. He has a kunai, so far up his-"

"Obito! Don't embarrass him in front of his friends like that." Rin chided him. "I'm sorry guys. Kakashi-kun is always like that and these two are having trouble getting along."

Anko scoffed. "Well, I for one, think Kakashi is right to not associate with this loser." This resulted in her getting a smack on the back of her head. She turned around angrily to see Yuna looking pointedly at her. "Ahem, I guess that was a bit uncalled for. I'm sorry.", she regretfully said, remembering her promise to her teammates.

Rin and Obito looked at her with wide eyes. But before they could comment on her niceness, four more people entered the training ground.

"Well, I guess the gang's all here." Mikoto called out. "Sorry, we're late."

Orochimaru, who had been listening to his genin interact with another team, turned around. "It's no problem, Mikoto-san. Minato-san is still not here. This will give the genin a chance to interact with each other before the training."

"HEY. NARUTO." Shinzo yelled as he approached.

"Ugh… Quit being so loud, dumbass. He can hear you." Shizuka berated him as she hit him on top of his head.

"She's right, Shinzo. You're a ninja. You can't possibly think you'll survive long if you're this loud." The third member of team 13 chimed in. Nawaki Senju had a cross look on his face as he approached the other genin. "I don't know why I have to spend my valuable time with these worthless children."

"I'm older than you.", Shinzo helpfully supplied.

"Exactly, you didn't even pass the academy at the correct age."

"So, you think talent depends on how young you are when you become genin? Then, what do you think it means that Naruto, a clanless orphan, was a genin at 10 when you, O great prince of the Senju clan, only managed to become one by the age of 12?" Shizuka argued with a lot of heat. "If today's spars are one on one, maybe he'll wipe the floor with you."

"Say what now?!", Naruto exclaimed.

"Oh, shut up, Naruto. I'm trying to make a point here."

"She's right though, Nawaki. Your arrogance is not a good shinobi quality. In this world, there are people younger than you and stronger than me. Be cautious.", Orochimaru said seriously.

Nawaki, however, didn't stand for it. "Oh, lay off, old man. You can't lecture me here. You're not even my sensei."

This drew gasps from many of the genin assembled. The atmosphere tensed very quickly. Orochimaru was one of the most respected and influential jonin in Konoha. His respect was something sought by every shinobi, from newly made genin to veteran jonin. His advice was not something people just ignored. Yet this 12-year-old genin, no matter who he was related to, had done it. That was basically career suicide for anyone, should Orochimaru choose to do something about it.

But Naruto knew that Orochimaru didn't care for things like that. But that didn't make it ok in his eyes to insult his sensei. "No. He's not your sensei." Naruto said, making everyone look at him. "But he is your superior officer, a hero of the village and a close friend of your clan. By disrespecting such an upstanding citizen of our village, you only embarrass yourself and bring shame to your clan. I suggest you withdraw before you do something you may regret."

Nawaki scowled at Naruto. "Who the hell do you think you are? I am the Senju Clan Heir. I can make your life a living hell for disrespecting me like this."

Naruto was unfazed by the threat. "I am a clan-less orphan without food, money or a home. I seriously doubt whatever you do will bother me. Now, either shut up or go away. This training session is to develop some coordination between teams and I seriously doubt that will happen when you're hurling insults at people you don't even know."

Nawaki was about to retort, but was cut off by Mikoto. "Forgive him, all of you. He isn't used to interacting with people outside of his clan." She pulled him to the side, no doubt, to lecture him on the finer points of diplomacy.

The assembled ninja looked at Naruto as he turned back around sniffing the air a bit. "Wow. I haven't seen anyone speaking to Nawaki that way. Not even the instructors. That was so awesome." Obito exclaimed excitedly. "The black hair has made you a badass, Naruto."

Naruto grinned sheepishly at the compliment. "Oh. You noticed that, huh?"

"Are you kidding me, Naruto? You look so handsome with your hair dyed black. You might grow up to be hotter than Kakashi." Rin exclaimed, smiling.

They all laughed at Naruto's expense and made small talk for a few more minutes. Soon, they were joined by Minato and they all got ready for the training session.

"Okay. We are going to divide you into two groups of 4 each. Since there are 9 of you, one of you has to sit out. We have discussed it among ourselves and we've decided that Kakashi will sit this out." Minato paused to look at Kakashi and he nodded his head, saying he was okay with sitting this out.

Orochimaru continued. "Now, the point of this exercise is to simulate a real battle. Out there, when we're fighting a war, we cannot afford to throw out attacks left and right. It may hit our allies and cost them their lives. That is why, in war, taijutsu attacks will be much more common than ninjutsu. Keeping this in mind, your spars will be held simultaneously. Your task is to incapacitate your opponent while causing minimal collateral damage to your allies and to the surroundings and then assist your teammates with their opponents."

The assembled genin, except Kakashi, nodded their understanding. If they were going to be of value to Konoha in the future, they needed to be able to work together.

"Ok. So, let's get this started. Group 1 is Yuna, Nawaki, Obito and Shinzo. Group 2 is Rin, Naruto, Shizuka and Anko. If we see any fight escalating beyond what is necessary, we will step in and disqualify both fighters." Mikoto smiled slightly. "And just to make things interesting, the group that loses has to treat the rest of us to a meal."

Naruto, Shinzo and Shizuka internally groaned. That was not good news but hopefully they could scrape by without anyone commenting on them not contributing equally. It was a part of the life they chose and they would just have to bear with it. The groups split off while the three jonin and Kakashi just stayed put.

"Ok, you guys. Let's discuss who we're fighting. I'll take Nawaki on. That whiny little bitch has it coming to him." Anko said as soon as they were far enough away.

"No, you'll do nothing of the sort." Naruto adamantly said. "This game is rigged. They gave us such a superior team that it's not even funny."

"What are you talking about, Naruto? I know Nawaki can be a bit unpleasant but he's not just bark. He can back it up. And Yuna is also very strong. In comparison, the only heavy hitter we have is Anko and she used to be equally matched with Yuna. I don't see how we end up better off." Rin said with a thoughtful look on her face.

"That's because we aren't individually matched up. They will never work together. From what little I've seen, Nawaki is too proud to ask for help and there's definitely no way the rest of them are asking him. Basically, we are going to be very severely underestimated and we can use that to our advantage." Naruto spoke, meeting everyone's eyes. "Here's the plan."

10 Minutes Later

"You guys ready yet. We're getting bored here." A condescending voice sounded in the clearing which resulted in 3 dirty looks sent Nawaki's way by his teammates.

"There's no need to aggravate them just because we got the better team." Yuna scolded him. "Who knows, they might even beat us."

"Hah! That's a good one. Yuna, you're one of the top kunoichi and I'm the rookie of the year. Obito is an Uchiha and Shinzo here is very strong for his, um, status. There's no way they're beating us. Hell, I'm gonna ask them to let Kakashi in on their team because now, it's going to be overkill."

The confident words coming from Nawaki did nothing to appease his teammates who were now just looking for a way to get him to stop talking so loudly. Thankfully, their opponents broke their meeting at that moment and started walking towards them.

"Alright! Let's get this thing going." Nawaki exclaimed excitedly. He was itching to have a go at the raven-haired brat that disrespected him earlier. Thankfully, they hadn't placed them on the same team.

The two teams stood facing each other. Mikoto saw that they were ready, and walked in between them. "Alright, I will be watching over this 'spar' and what I say goes. If I say stop, you stop. No complaints. Is that clear?" She waited for them to nod. "Good. The spar ends when all the people on either team are unconscious or otherwise incapacitated or one of you is dumb enough to get captured early."

Minato stood off to the side with Orochimaru and Kakashi. "Which team do you think will win, Orochimaru-sama?"

"Well, seeing as one group has two members from my team and the other has only one, I think it's my job to say that Naruto's team will win."

Minato grinned. "What about you, Kakashi-kun?"

Kakashi just stared out at the two groups of genin. "I cannot say. Based on raw power, Nawaki's team is surely better. But, the kid on Orochimaru-sama's team is a variable. I've never seen him fight, so I wouldn't know. Based on what I see, he is not someone to underestimate."

Orochimaru was now curious. "Why do you say that?"

Kakashi didn't look up. "He isn't relaxed. He hasn't let down his guard once. Even here, surrounded by friends and with three jonin ninja at his side, he hasn't relaxed."

"You have a bright genin on your team, Minato." Orochimaru chuckled. "You're right of course, Kakashi-san." Kakashi looked up at him. "He is a variable."

Meanwhile, Mikoto had her right hand raised in the air. The atmosphere was very tense and was that killing intent? Mikoto reached out with her senses and found the purple-haired girl, Anko, as the source. 'Wow. Kids these days.' With that thought, Mikoto brought her hand down and jumped away. "HAJIME!"

With Nawaki

Nawaki immediately rushed at Naruto, not wanting to give him a chance to run away. He was surprised however when, instead of being surprised at the sudden charge by the older genin, Naruto also rushed at him. He was surprised once again by the speed of his opponent. Nawaki was charging full speed at him and the younger genin managed to meet him halfway. Both of them blocking each other's moves, they quickly went into a fierce taijutsu battle.

Grinning wildly, Nawaki charged chakra into his fist, just like his sister taught him. They'd been matching each other blow for blow till then which meant Naruto never expected the sudden increase in strength in Nawaki's next hit. He held his arms in an X-shape to block the strike. Nawaki's fist crashed into his arms and it broke through sending him skidding back a few feet.

"What was that?" Naruto asked, bewildered.

"That was power. Not that you'd understand." Nawaki said as he charged him again.

However, this time Naruto did not try to block. He darted in and out of his attacks. It didn't take much time before maintaining chakra on his fists continuously started to become tedious for Nawaki. He stopped it for just a moment, but did not stop his attack thinking his foe wouldn't be able to tell. That was his mistake.

Naruto somehow managed to sense it and caught his fists in a lock.

Nawaki suddenly realized that he no longer held the upper hand and searched for a way out. He looked down at the younger genin and was surprised to see him smiling.

Shit.

In his arrogance he'd disregarded the fact that it was a team battle and the clanless orphan in front of him was not the only one against him. With an almighty heave, he wrenched his hands away but it was already too late.

He could do nothing to prevent the strong blow that took him to the ground.

With Yuna

As soon as the match started, Nawaki abandoned them. 'Git'. This was supposed to be a team exercise. To practice fighting together. She sighed. Although it sucked, it was not surprising. Nawaki was a hothead, much like his older sister. Orochimaru had told them some of the stories from his time as a genin. Any and all trouble they got into was because of Tsunade and her quick temper. Once, on a mission to Kusagakure, a genin on their side commented on how beautiful she looked which somehow led to her pounding him into the floor with her fists.

That nearly sparked an international incident.

This was part of the reason why Orochimaru always told them to be in control of their emotions. An emotional ninja is, after all, much more likely to overlook something important. Like the fact that no one had tried to engage her in battle. She had jumped back as soon as the fight started as it was the sensible thing to do. Get some space and watch for openings in the opposing force.

She looked around and saw Naruto and Nawaki engaged in a fierce battle. Rin, Shizuka and surprisingly Anko, were retreating into the trees. That seemed strange to her. Anko was never the retreating type which meant they had a plan.

"Duh!" Yune gave herself a mental slap. Of course they have a plan. They'd been discussing it for about 10 minutes. But that was the thing. The plan was undoubtedly Naruto's. Even with the short time they'd spent as teammates, Naruto had shown her how impossibly devious he could be when he wanted to. During their spars with their sensei, he was always going long after both her and Anko were on their back. During that time, they got to know Naruto's way of thinking intimately.

But that's what puzzled her. Naruto wasn't the type to charge ahead. He was more of a strike-from-the-shadows kind of shinobi. Why then did he stay back to engage Nawaki?

"Looking for me?" A voice spoke from behind her and she turned around, already drawing weapons, to see Shizuka standing there with a smile on her face which was alarming because she should have been able to sense her presence. With all the chakra being thrown around, she was having some trouble sensing chakra. There was also the fact that Shizuka was weaker than her, but didn't seem to have any qualms facing her if the smile on her face was any indication.

"Shizuka, I'm surprised that you're the one that's going to face me." Yuna spoke with a calmness she didn't feel. It shouldn't have been Shizuka. They had only reached the trees a few minutes ago. There was no way they circled around this much to get behind her.

"Well, I volunteered and they all agreed that I was more than enough to deal with you."

Yuna's eyes narrowed. Was she taunting her? That was not how Shizuka usually fought.

"Speaking of, you seem much more cheerful these days. Yesterday, when I saw you with Naruto and Anko, you were smiling. What's the matter? Has Konoha's ice princess actually gone soft?"

Yuna grit her teeth. Yeah. The bitch was taunting her. And 'ice princess'? Why was that her nickname? She was perfectly cordial to anyone that talked with her at the academy, except the boys who were dumb enough to-. 'Oh.'

"You have gone soft, haven't you? Not one rebuttal? Surprising." Shizuka now had her hands on her hips. "Naruto has that effect on people. I just didn't expect it to happen so soon."

"What do you mean by that? What happened so soon?" Yuna snapped.

Shizuka scoffed. "You mean you don't even know? You're in love with Naruto, silly."

Yuna's face turned red with anger. 'She's just trying to goad me into making a mistake. But I won't fall for it because I am a good shinobi who is in control of her emotions.' Yuna thought to herself while preparing the substitution just in case. 'Just keep her talking so that you can get close enough to break her scrawny little neck.' "What did you just say to me?", she growled in a threatening tone. Yuna was expecting her tone to strike some fear into Shizuka, but there was no fear in the smirk that was plastered on her face. "What are you so happy about?", she snapped.

Shizuka just smiled at her.

Sensing movement behind her, Yuna barely managed to bring her hands together before a senbon pierced the log that appeared in her place.

Shizuka frowned at Rin who just shrugged. Oh well, some things were bound to go wrong.

With Obito and Shinzo

"Why is Anko retreating to the trees with them?" Obito voiced the obvious question, staring at where the three kunoichi had entered the treeline.

Nawaki had given them their targets, not bothering to ask them who they wanted to fight. Obito got Rin and Shinzo got Shizuka because they were on the same team. They would know how to fight best. If Nawaki had just asked him what he wanted, Obito would've told him of his absolute lack of interest in fighting Rin.

"No idea. Do you think it's a trap?" Shinzo asked.

"I don't know. Could be." Obito said thoughtfully. "Should we go towards them? I can't use any ninjutsu that won't burn down some trees as well. That would count as collateral damage wouldn't it?"

Shinzo nodded. "As good an idea as any."

They had surprisingly little trouble reaching the trees and they were even more surprised to see there were no tracks for them to follow.

"Hang on, something's wrong." Shinzo declared. "Why aren't there any tracks leading away from here?" There was no trace of anyone in their vicinity.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say they were shadow clones. Like the ones our sensei makes to help us train. But that makes no sense, because he told us it's a restricted technique and only jonin with higher than normal chakra reserves are allowed to use it."

"You know, that sounds like something Naruto did yesterday as well." Shinzo smiled at the memory of three Narutos trying to hold down Yugao for her bath.

Obito stared at him in surprise. "Wait, what are you-"

A loud crash made them turn around. Obito and Shinzo both turned pale. Nawaki was on the ground with Anko sitting on top of him tying him up, confirming that the girls that led them here were some sort of fakes. Gulping, they both turned to where they hoped Yuna was still in action only to see Rin and Shizuka at her position with her nowhere to be found. And finally, they saw Naruto looking straight at them.

Nawaki was roughly brought to his feet as Anko pulled him up. Holding a kunai to his throat, Anko pushed him forward to stand with her teammates, smirking all the while. "We have your comrade. Yield."

With Orochimaru, Minato, Mikoto and Kakashi

"Why are they retreating?" Mikoto frowned. The youngest ninja on one team, whom she believed to be their weak link, was engaging the best ninja on the other team and not one of them had moved to help him. That was strange behavior and strange behavior was dangerous behavior.

Orochimaru however, was smiling gleefully. 'I wonder when he made the shadow clones…'

Minato saw the expression Orochimaru was wearing on his face and sent a questioning look at him.

Orochimaru just smirked back as he saw Obito and Shinzo move. "Wait and see, Minato-san."

Minato and Kakashi begrudgingly accepted. Mikoto however activated her sharingan. She was not going to 'wait and see'. The moment she did, she let out a gasp. "This shouldn't be possible. They're way too young." The shadow clone technique is one of the greatest counters used against the sharingan. A sharingan could see chakra. This was not very useful when faced with shadow clones of the same person with equal chakra. As Mikoto looked out at the three genin, her sharingan let her know the fact that all three genin had the exact same amount of chakra and the exact same flow patterns. Impossible for different people. Mandatory for the same person. "Shadow Clones."

Minato was on his feet immediately. "Impossible."

Orochimaru started chuckling. "Very possible, my friend. When it comes to Naruto, he's rapidly proving to me that there's very little that is impossible for him."

"Naruto?! You mean the 10-year old did this?" Mikoto was no longer looking at the exercise.

"Unbelievable." Minato was dumbstruck. A high tier jonin such as himself could make 6 or 7 at the most. He had once seen his sensei make 10 clones. He doubted anyone could make more than that, except maybe a jinchuriki. At age 10, he doubted anyone could make even one. Yet, here it was. 3 clones.

By now, Shizuka had appeared next to Yuna and started talking with her. Naruto was still engaged in taijutsu with Nawaki. And Shinzo and Obito had started following the clones into the trees.

"What is Shizuka doing?" Kakashi queried curiously. The moment Shizuka appeared near Yuna, Kakashi was on alert. Shizuka was not the trash talking type. When she fought, she was direct and kind of hotheaded. She was not a fan of the goading approach. But based on the way Yuna tensed, that was indeed what she was doing.

Mikoto saw her student talking with the top kunoichi at the academy. It made no sense to her until she noticed Rin and Anko jump out of the tree line much farther away than where the clones had entered the trees. Rin headed straight for Yuna. But something tipped her off and Yuna was able to substitute with a log barely in time. Anko went straight for Nawaki who had somehow been trapped by Naruto. No chance to escape, Nawaki was hit hard from behind and brought to the ground.

Minato stared wide-eyed at the casual display of dominance. The opposing team had the advantage in terms of power, resources and experience… Two of the four even had summoning contracts. To dominate them in such an effortless manner was not something he had expected the other team to be capable of. In a couple of minutes, the biggest threat had been neutralized. Now, their priority was to properly restrain them.

Anko gave Nawaki a sharp chop to the back of his head and he went still. Naruto tossed her some ninja wire and she used it to tie him up. Finished with everything, the three kunoichi on one side stood across from the two remaining opponents while Naruto looked out behind them in case Yuna decided to try anything. "It can't be just the kid that thought this up." he stated, still not believing him.

Orochimaru laughed at the expressions on his colleagues' faces. He looked at Kakashi who, while surprised, had not fully grasped the extent of the utter domination that had just taken place. Even if the losing team were able to regroup and go on the offensive, they were now outnumbered and they also had to deal with a hostage situation as well. If this had been real, Nawaki would be dead and Shinzo and Obito would soon be joining him.

'Cheeky brat.' Orochimaru thought as his eyes went to his youngest student. "Well, I don't know about you guys, but I don't think this served our purpose. This got over far quicker than I imagined it would."

The other two jonin could only nod. This was meant to test their awareness in a battle where multiple fights were taking place. Not only had one team failed at every possible turn, the other team had dictated every part of this fight. It was definitely not what they expected but they certainly weren't disappointed. The four of them started to walk towards the genin, seeing the fight had finished.

Minato looked over the genin in the winning team. Not one scratch on any of them, except some slight bruising on Naruto's arms where Nawaki hit him with a chakra-enhanced punch. That too, was rapidly disappearing under Rin's mystical palm technique. His mind drifted to something his sensei had once told him. 'A great leader is not someone who just wins wars. He is someone who wins without having fought at all.' Whoever came up with this plan had a very bright future. One he was looking forward to seeing.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru looked at Naruto who was trying hard to hide his smile. Chuckling inwardly, Orochimaru nodded at his student for a job well done. Eyes widening with surprise, he let out a smile at his compliment. Orochimaru then looked at Anko who was proudly telling Shizuka about her badass attack that floored the great Nawaki Senju.

"Well, it's obvious who won. So, gather round people. Yuna, you can come out now. We'll go through what just happened and where you could have done better." Orochimaru said with a smile on his face.

Hokage's Office

Hiruzen read the report his old teammate handed to him while his team waited patiently. They hadn't reached anywhere near Kumo. They ambushed a team travelling through the Land of Frost and interrogated them thoroughly after which they had been killed and properly disposed of. The report went into much detail on the disposal part. They all knew how important it was that it couldn't be traced back to them.

The results of the report, while not as bad as he thought, were still bad. Iwagakure had indeed reached out to Kumogakure for support. Possibly due to their recent disastrous partnership, Kumogakure had refused to work together. That was the good part. The bad thing was that Iwa had reached out to even Kumo. Who knows who else they had reached out to? At the moment, Konoha had a lot of enemies and very few allies. The only reason they had emerged on top in the past two wars was the support of Uzushiogakure and the fact that their enemies hated each other almost as much as they hated Konoha.

Now, there was a very real possibility that they had gotten over that major hurdle. Iwa was probably trying to get some minor villages on their side as well. Sunagakure had all but openly allied themselves with Iwa. While Kusagakure was allied with Konoha, they were under a lot of pressure from Iwagakure in the north. This effectively left Konoha with only one ally, Takigakure.

Sighing, Hiruzen's eyes went to the map that hung on the wall. If war broke out, many minor villages would ally themselves with Iwa. Tanigakure, the village hidden in the Land of Rivers, formed the border between the land of Wind and the Land of Fire. Hiruzen suspected they were already part of the enemy alliance, considering the amount of Iwa shinobi in their country. They would have to have passed through the land of Wind and the Land of Rivers, if Kumo was, as had just been reported, not a part of this.

Ishigakure, the hidden village in the Land of Stone, had always supported Iwa. They would undoubtedly be part of this alliance. This left Amegakure. While under the guidance of Hanzo the salamander, they would never ally with any other hidden village. In the last war, the biggest loss of life occurred when their battles entered the small country. Hanzo and his shinobi did not care which village you were in as he killed without discrimination.

This left Konoha and Taki against Iwa, Ishi, Suna, Tani and possibly Kusa if the pressure became too much. That was not a good matchup. And even if they did manage to win, they would be easy pickings for Kumo or Kiri should they decide to pull something.

Hiruzen was brought out of his thoughts as Kushina impatiently started tapping her foot on the floor. He realized with a start that he had not dismissed them. "Right… Good job on the mission. You will receive half-pay as usual. You can take tomorrow off. Dismissed."

Akira turned to his team. "You heard the man. Get lost. I have business with him."

Shrugging, Kushina left with Fugaku and Hitomi. Akira waited for the door to close before grabbing a chair and sitting across from his old teammate. "This is bad, Hiruzen."

"I know. This might be the end of us, old friend." Hiruzen reached into his drawer and fetched two empty glasses. Getting up, he went to a nearby cabinet and took out a bottle of sake.

"Drinking in the middle of the day, Hiruzen? That's new." Akira chuckled.

"Not new at all. I drink whenever I can now.", Hiruzen said as he took a sip of his sake. "Besides, I need this for what I have to do this afternoon."

Akira's curiosity peaked at that comment. "What do you mean?"

Hiruzen let out a heavy sigh. "I suppose you have a right to know. It has to do with your niece."

"Tsunade?! What has she done now?" Akira spoke in a resigned tone.

Hiruzen chuckled at the defeated expression on his friend's face, but the mirth never reached his eyes. "You are not going to like this at all." He took another sip from his glass. "She tried to sabotage your nephew."

The sound of glass breaking reached their ears. Akira stared dangerously at his friend as his broken wine glass fell on the floor. "She did what?"

Hiruzen let out another sigh. "That was a gift from the daimyo, you know?"

"Hiruzen!", Akira exclaimed angrily.

"She tried to blackmail his sensei into failing him." Hiruzen said helplessly. "If it's any consolation, she didn't fail him. Nawaki Senju is a genin of Konoha."

Akira felt the hair on his back tense. This was bad. It was illegal for anyone, let alone a clan head like Tsunade, to sabotage the career of any shinobi. It was a very serious crime. During the starting days of the village, the civilian born ninja were heavily discriminated against. This led to the Shodaime Hokage enacting a law that made sabotaging the career of a ninja, a crime worthy of a few years of jail time.

Later on, during the reign of the Nidaime Hokage, the Hyuga clan head at the time, prohibited branch members from attending the academy. When the law was brought up with the clan head, he claimed that the law doesn't extend to clan matters. Considering the fact that almost 80% of the Hyuga clan consisted of branch members, it would exponentially decrease their contribution to Konoha. This led the Nidaime to alter the law which now expressly prohibited clan heads from interfering in such matters under the penalty of being stripped of their status among other equally severe punishments.

Tsunade was now in violation of that law which meant that she would no longer be clan head. Akira knew how hard she had worked to become the only female clan head in Konoha. His student, Kushina, had only been accepted as the Uzumaki clan head after Tsunade convinced the council that the gender of the clan head made no difference whatsoever. This served to change the clan laws of all the clans in Konoha, except the Uchiha-clan, which already had no problems with women heading the clan.

Being stripped of that status would be devastating for Tsunade, not to mention, a blow against Kunoichi everywhere. "Hiruzen…"

Hiruzen stared sadly at his friend. He was also aware of the consequences of her actions and their implications. "Nothing I can do, Akira-kun. The council already knows. She was not very stealthy with her blackmail. An Uchiha clan member witnessed the blackmail and reported it to Tenzen Uchiha who in turn let the council know. There's nothing we can do."

Akira slumped into his seat. "Goddamn it."

Hiruzen took out another glass from his drawer before filling it up and handing it to Akira. "Don't break this one."

Letting out a defeated sigh, Akira took the glass. They sat together in silence for a long time, sipping sake occasionally. This was something they had always done after a long mission, together with the other members of the old Team 7. However, ever since the death of Kagami, the group had drifted apart. But that only made these interactions even more enjoyable for Akira, whenever they happened. This one, however, was quite somber.

"Do you want to be there when I tell her?" Hiruzen finally asked.

Akira looked up and met his eyes. "Might as well. Someone has to be there to calm her down."

10 Minutes Later, Training Ground 7

"Anko, Naruto, Shizuka and Rin." Orochimaru announced. "That was a well thought out plan and executed to perfection. Congrats on winning this little spar. You've done well."

The four genin smiled at each other, feeling proud at the praise sent their way. Yuna also couldn't help but smile as she saw the accomplished look on her teammates' face. She was really happy for them both, but inwardly she felt a bit anxious. Her father was not very fond of underachievers and compared to her older brother, who had graduated the academy early and was already a genin for two years, she didn't bring much to the table. If it got back to him that she lost to two clan-less orphans, a civilian born kunoichi and a medic, while having the rookie of the year on her team, he would be… disappointed. But that was something future Yuna would just have to deal with. Present Yuna was too busy being proud of her teammates.

Nawaki struggled to stay silent. It had taken his sensei some time to calm him down. She had told him just how useless he had been in the exercise and how they had played him effortlessly. Needless to say, he was very pissed. As his eyes met Naruto's, he couldn't help but feel the repressed anger breaking free again. So, he tore his gaze away. What bothered him more than the fact that he lost, was that his teammates were okay with it. When Nawaki woke up, Shinzo was right next to him. 'Told you that Naruto would beat you.', was what he said. If there was something Nawaki hated more than being wrong, it was someone else being right.

"For everyone's clarity, can you explain what the plan was?" Minato asked.

The three genin looked at Naruto who suddenly looked very uneasy. Sensing his discomfort, Rin put a hand on his shoulder. "Go ahead, Naruto. This was your plan after all. It's only right that you explain it."

Naruto coughed slightly before starting. "Well, it wasn't much of a plan because it entirely depended on the other team. It's only because we knew them so well that we could pull this off. At first, Anko said she would face Nawaki which Shizuka immediately refused, saying that Nawaki-san would come for me directly. I didn't know him, but based on our first interaction I concluded that that would be his course of action. He would probably assign pairs for his other teammates, not waiting to hear what they had to say. From the academy, Nawaki-san would know that Yuna and Anko were evenly matched while Shinzo and Obito would face problems with her. So, we assumed she would be assigned Anko and Rin and Shizuka would be against one of Shinzo and Obito.

When the fight started, Nawaki-san headed straight for me as we predicted. Yuna was the only real variable but she jumped away to take stock of the situation which worked well for us. She was the biggest threat we faced. With her summoned animals and her long range ninjutsu attacks, just one person from our team would face difficulty taking her on. So, we decided that no one was going to face her alone. Then our task was for one person to distract her while ensuring that she wouldn't engage in combat. Here, Anko was out of the question because Yuna wouldn't stand idly when faced with her. So, Shizuka volunteered and we agreed. If there is anyone who can distract someone like Yuna, it would be her.

The next part was the hardest. Shinzo is known for his marksmanship and Obito is known for his fire jutsu. Rin told us that all of his fire jutsu were long range. So since collateral damage was frowned upon, we decided to lead them to the trees where they would both be at a disadvantage. This normally wouldn't have worked either because they would also follow Yuna and jump back to watch the situation. But they were given a target and when the fight started, their targets got as far away from them as possible. That got them to give into the chase instead of going towards Yuna and regrouping with her.

And finally, when I was fighting with Nawaki-san, I threw around as much chakra as possible so that everyone's chakra sensing capabilities would be messed up. So, Yuna never sensed Rin coming until right at the end and Nawaki didn't sense Anko as well. After distracting Obito and Shinzo with the clones, it was essentially 4 on 2 for a short time."

Minato whistled in appreciation. The boy had planned in much greater detail than he had expected.

Orochimaru, however, frowned. He had forgotten about it with everything else that happened. "Naruto, how is it that you can use three shadow clones? This morning your limit was two."

Naruto laughed nervously. "I… um, I lied about that. I can make 3."

Orochimaru stared at him quizzically. "Why did you lie?"

Naruto looked around uncomfortably. "Wantedtogetthedroponyoulater. Didn'tmakesensetotellyoueverything." He mumbled making his teammates giggle.

"Naruto, if I may, it is astounding that you have enough chakra for 3 clones at age 10. Simply amazing. What did you do to get your reserves so high?" Mikoto asked.

Orochimaru saw the uncomfortable expression on Naruto's face and decided to help him. "We're getting off topic, Mikoto-san. Let's get back to the task at hand."

Kakashi stood up suddenly. "I have a question for him." Naruto gestured to go ahead. "When did you switch with the clones? I kept track of your hands when you were in discussion with your teammates. You didn't make any hand seals."

Naruto smiled brightly back at him. "I already had clones in the trees. I created them today morning to do some chores. After they were done, I instructed them to follow me around without alerting anyone thinking it would only help with stealth training. Plus, I thought today would be normal team training. I was planning on using them to give sensei here a nasty surprise. I told them to substitute with me when I signal them or when they see I'm in danger." Naruto smirked at them. "When the teams were announced, I signaled them and one of them swapped with me. Then, I moved around the trees and told all of my clones to henge into my teammates and swap with them. After I was done, I swapped with my clone again before the fight began."

Minato and Mikoto stared wide-eyed at the genin in front of them. This was the go-to tactic of their Hokage and this genin was executing it with no problems. 'Amazing.' Sending in clones to feel out the opponents' capabilities was revolutionary in war, and with the invention of exploding clones, it became devastating. Naruto had even substituted his teammates with clones, eliminating any danger they faced. Only Shizuka was subjected to any actual danger and she had Rin as backup.

Orochimaru just shook his head. "Getting off topic again. Let's get back to the discussion."

"Right. Obito, you're up first." Minato said and Obito sighed. "You have seen me perform the shadow clone technique numerous times. It shouldn't have taken you that long to figure out what was happening." Obito nodded seriously. The fight had been an eye opener for him. He had always been an aggressive fighter, forcing his opponents to beat him into the ground in order to defeat him. In this fight, he had no chance from the beginning. If only he had decided to help Nawaki or regroup with Yuna, their plan wouldn't have gone so smoothly. "That being said, you stayed with a teammate throughout the fight and you realized when the fight had ended. I half expected you to continue the fight even when it became 4 on 3. You made a good, sensible decision. Good job. Half the lives lost in war are people who bite off more than they can chew. Always keep your limitations in mind."

Obito nodded his acceptance. Minato stepped back smiling at him.

"Yuna, your performance today was… well, average. You didn't jump the gun like Nawaki-san but you also didn't act on anything. You failed to keep your senses sharp allowing Shizuka-san to sneak up behind you. I understand all four of your opponents were in your sights, but that is no excuse to let down your guard." Orochimaru folded his arms in front of him. "You were one of the big players on your team and more was expected of you, so I hope you will take this lesson to heart and continue to work on improving. That's all. This is not entirely a bad experience for you. Make your mistakes on the training field rather than out there.'

As soon as he finished, Yuna met his eyes and nodded with determination burning in her eyes. This would not happen again. She would make sure of it.

Mikoto stepped forward. "Shinzo, you heard what Minato told Obito, right? While you didn't know about shadow clones, you should've suspected a trap of some sort when you went into the trees after them. No shinobi worth the name will allow you to make the first move unless they've prepared for it. Always look underneath the underneath. And if nothing jumps out at you, look underneath that. If something seems obvious, you should be extra suspicious of it." Shinzo accepted the advice. He was expecting it after hearing what Obito was told.

"Now, Nawaki." Nawaki looked up with contempt. "You were the reason your team lost." The rest of the genin winced at the blunt declaration. Nawaki however, remained unfazed. "Recklessness will not get you far in the shinobi world. Impulse decisions, based on instinct, are good. That's how we stay alive in high pressure situations. But jumping into action without thinking, like what you did today, is not very ninja-like. I am very disappointed in your performance today. Your actions not only resulted in your defeat in this spar, but if it had been a real battle, you would've been killed and your teammates would've been torn apart. Your arrogance makes you not worthy of being a shinobi. I suggest you do something about it."

Nawaki grit his teeth. "He won because he tricked me. He's a coward."

Mikoto glared at him. "He is not a coward. He is a ninja. And you're supposed to be one too. A ninja is supposed to fight from the shadows, not revealing himself unless absolutely necessary. The way you fought today is how little civilian children fight while playing ninja. No strategy. No plan. No results."

The others shifted uncomfortably in their positions. They were not expecting such harsh words from the jonin. Shizuka and Shinzo had difficulty accepting that their usually cheery sensei was saying these words.

Nawaki was also surprised. "You can't talk to me like this. My sister-"

"Is not here, Nawaki. Nor will she be there when you are on missions. Had this been a real fight, you would've died within the first minute. Fix your attitude and you might survive the coming battles."

Nawaki growled angrily, but before he could say anything, Orochimaru stepped in. "That's enough from you. This has been fun. You can all go back now. This exercise is over." He looked at Minato and gestured at Mikoto. "You and I are going to have a long talk on what is and what is not socially acceptable.", he told Nawaki quietly.

Minato nodded and led Mikoto away as well before she got too angry. Orochimaru did the same with Nawaki leaving behind 8 very confused genin.

"That. Was. Awesome. You don't know how long I've waited for someone to do that." Shizuka yelled as she pumped her fist in the air.

Shinzo was also equally excited. "Hell, if she hadn't done it now, I would've. And that would never have turned out well."

"Woah. Guys? Why are you so happy about this?" Rin slowly asked.

Shizuka grinned at her. "Because this means our sensei isn't some spineless ass-kisser like the rest of Konoha. This past week, she was letting him get away with way too much."

"He was always late."

"Always complaining about how the missions weren't worthy of his time."

"The clients doted on him. They wouldn't allow him to do any of the more menial tasks."

"And he would accept the mission pay as well. Useless git."

Shinzo now had stars in his eyes. "And now, finally, our sensei has shown that she is done putting up with it."

"Do you think we can convince her to let him do D-ranks on his own?"

Shinzo smiled evilly. "That's a brilliant idea, Shizuka. We'll have to try it."

Together, they started giggling giddily making everyone else sweat-drop. They all talked for a bit more and then decided to get something to eat. Slowly, they made their way into town.

Unknown Location, Konoha

"What does he actually know?" the old ninja asked, igniting the small piece of paper with a small amount of fire chakra. The soldier had reported a possible threat to his institution. Minato Namikaze was poking his head into matters that didn't concern him.

"Nothing, my lord." The soldier replied in his trained emotionless voice. "He is suspicious of the low number of children in the orphanages. He has not gotten the chance to investigate further."

"I see. What did the Hokage tell him?"

"He told him that he would look into it and he should get back to his team."

The old ninja nodded. "You've done well. Return to your post and keep your ears open on this matter."

The ninja bowed deeply. "Hai! Danzo-sama."

Danzo watched as his anbu left the room. This institution was a well-kept secret for the better part of a decade. He would not let one jonin ninja stand in the way of what was best for Konoha. If he gets too nosy, he would be dealt with.

3 Hours Later, With Akira Senju

The streets of the market district parted to let the angry shinobi pass. Akira had expected it to be ugly. Breaking bad news to Tsunade had always ended up hurting the bearer of said news. He expected chairs to be sent flying, walls broken and bones cracked. It would've hurt him to see all that but what actually happened hurt him more.

She had broken down in front of them. Tsunade Senju cried for the first time in a long while. She wailed about how she had worked so hard for her position only to lose it so soon, about how the only reason she did what she did was because Nawaki wasn't ready. He was too proud and too hotheaded. Tsunade was of course right. Akira had seen it too. Nawaki's arrogance. Tsunade had asked him to do something about it. To not let him become a ninja because it would almost certainly end up in his death.

Akira told her that she should let him make his own mistakes and that was the only way he would grow out of his mistakes.

That was when Tsunade told him about the Silent Dispatch and what it could mean for Nawaki. Akira cursed himself, knowing that Tsunade would not have done something so drastic with him there. But he had been on a mission and she had reacted the only way she knew how to. Impulsively.

The situation went from bad to worse when Orochimaru showed up with Nawaki and saw his sister in that state. The Hokage's secretary had not thought to stop Orochimaru from entering the meeting as it was usual for the Hokage's students to walk in without permission. Orochimaru immediately realized what was happening and swiftly removed Nawaki from the office, but the damage was done.

It took a long time for Tsunade to calm down after that. When she finally came to terms with her situation, she pleaded with them to not tell Nawaki that she had tried to sabotage him. Akira agreed wholeheartedly and Hiruzen needed little to no convincing.

And so, they said their goodbyes. Hiruzen said that he would go along with whatever story she told young Nawaki and he received a grateful nod in return. Akira led her back to the Senju compound before leaving her for the day. Then, he went to see Mikoto Uchiha, the boy's sensei, who had reluctantly agreed to meet with him. He pestered her with questions on how good a ninja Nawaki actually was to which Mikoto replied that he was a solid genin. With some pestering from his side, she confirmed his suspicions. He was far too arrogant to be a good ninja, let alone perform well in the silent dispatch.

'Why did you pass him then?' he had asked. Mikoto was very blunt in answering. 'He was well mannered and worked together with his teammates to complete the task I set him. Obviously, someone already told him what would be tested by jonin-senseis because the very next day, he acted like the most pretentious brat to walk the elemental nations.'

Akira stored that little information in the back of his mind for future investigation on who it was that told him. He only asked one more question. 'How bad is it?'. Mikoto scoffed and told him the events of the day.

Akira's mind was full of thoughts on his nephew which was probably why he didn't notice it sooner. He was nearly to the door of his house when he noticed the sound coming from inside. 'Intruders. That's impossible. Kushina's seals would have taken care of any that tried to enter.'

Instead of entering, Akira knelt down and lifted the doormat. His mouth fell open in surprise. Several kanji were expertly drawn over the security seals placed by his student. Upon closer inspection, his rudimentary knowledge of fuinjutsu told him that it was some sort of negation seal. The security seals used by most people needed chakra put in a storage seal to properly function. It would then have to be replenished periodically whenever it ran out. The seal Kushina had made for him made use of something she called a Chakra Gatherer Seal. From what he understood, it gathered Nature chakra and filtered and stored it into usable form. Whoever had written the kanji had essentially reversed the flow of chakra, essentially sending the chakra stored in the gatherer seal back to Nature.

'To deal with the security seals in such a way was ingenious.' He stood up. 'And dangerous.'

Akira's right hand went to his sword and he quietly drew it. He could still hear… laughter coming from inside. Slowly, he brought his left hand to the door and paused for a few moments. The laughter continued. 'Good. They hadn't thought to place security seals of their own', he thought and channeled chakra to his hands.

With Naruto

Naruto was having one of the best days of his life. The food was amazing at the restaurant they ended up going to. As orphans, warm food was not a luxury they were used to and over the past week and a half they had forgotten the impact the temperature had on their food. They stayed at the restaurant and talked long after they had all finished eating. After their meal, Yuna just grabbed the bill and insisted on paying it. When they started to protest, she just said someone else could get it next time. Altogether it was an amazing afternoon. He could now say that he had more friends than he did before the meal.

Obito told him that the next time they fought, it wouldn't be the same and declared him his rival. Surprisingly, Kakashi also expressed a desire to fight.

What made him happiest though was what Rin told him. They were about to say goodbye for the day when Rin led him to the side to talk to him.

*Flashback*

"Thank you, Naruto-san."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "For what?"

"For today, silly. Ever since I graduated, I've been feeling that I don't belong in a genin team. Both of my teammates are so much better at the exercises than I am. They were superior in every way. In spars, I am always the first to go down. I am the first to tire out during the physical exercises." Rin looked up at the night sky. They really hadn't noticed the time passing by. "But today you showed me that under the right circumstances, even I could win against them. You showed me that I do belong and I want to thank you for that." She smiled at him.

Naruto took a moment to get over what she told him before he smiled back. "I didn't mean to do all that, but I'm happy it happened. No need to thank me Rin-san."

Rin's smile widened at his reply. "See you later, Naruto-kun. Take care."

*Flashback End*

After they said their goodbyes, Naruto and his fellow orphans made their way back to their temporary home. They found a very upset little girl waiting for them. "You're late." She was very upset and they were all ashamed of it. They hadn't intended to stay out as late as they did.

Showering her with apologies and promises of treats for the rest of the week, Naruto managed to calm her down. Then, he told Yugao about their day and how awesome her Naruto-oniisan was. It was a few minutes later, when Naruto was in the shower that he felt it. A seal on his arm pulsed. Naruto didn't need to look at it for more than a second to realize what it was. Grabbing only a towel, he ran out of the bathroom and went down the stairs as fast as he could.

"GUYS! WE HAVE TO GO. NOW. I THINK HE'S-", the door was sent flying off its hinges to reveal the silhouette of a man with a sword drawn and poised to strike. Shinzo jumped to the side and barely avoided the door that came straight at him. All of them stared wide-eyed at the man at the door. "-back." Naruto finished lamely.

He couldn't move. As hard as he tried, it was impossible. The man's killing intent was just that strong. Stronger than what he had felt from Orochimaru during his test. He felt as though he was already dead and his actions would no longer have any impact on the real world. He tore his gaze away from the man and saw his friends. Directly in front of him.

When Akira Senju told him that he was a very senior ninja in Konoha, Naruto had no trouble believing him. He could sense the ocean of chakra that raged inside the man. He knew at once that this man was stronger than he made it seem. Way stronger.

He watched as his friends fell to their knees, clutching at their throats with Shizuka doing her best to shield Yugao despite the condition she was in.

When Orochimaru told Anko that she had a talent in sensing killing intent, Naruto had taken an interest in the topic. A ninja with good enough chakra control could effectively erase his presence from anyone who wasn't the one of the most skilled sensors. But a ninja could never hide his killing intent. He could suppress it. He could mask it as something else. But he can never erase it completely. Killing intent was essentially what predators in the wild let out before they pounced on their prey. And prey could sometimes sense the intent before the predator could make its move. The fight or flight response.

Shinobi had perfected the art of permeating the air with this predatory intent to the extent that a sufficiently strong killing intent could trigger extreme illusions in the victims' mind. Illusions of being killed brutally and not being able to do anything about it. It was almost akin to the effects of the A-rank genjutsu, 'Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique'.

Orochimaru had told him that he had an aptitude for genjutsu and Akira Senju's library was a very good resource. The hell viewing technique was surprisingly easy to use. The reason for it to be labelled as A-rank was its other requirement. The killing intent.

Naruto remembered all this but he already knew what he had to do. A genjutsu. What they were now being subjected to was essentially similar to a genjutsu. And pain lets you break genjutsus.

With Akira

Akira was ready to cut down whoever was inside. However, he hadn't expected these kids to be the intruders. In fact, he had forgotten that he'd left them there in the first place. Now, he remembered telling the red-haired brat that they could stay one day so the little girl would have a place to stay. And that was why he disabled the security seals for the next day, before leaving. That was probably what alerted the brats to its presence. Damn it all. He was going soft.

As he surveyed the room, he saw three of the four orphans he expected to see but instead of the red-haired brat in the tattered clothes, he saw a raven-haired kid in a towel. He also noticed that the other two genin had gone to the ground clutching at their throats. 'Crap! I did it without realizing it.'

He was about to school his emotions and calm himself down when movement caught his eye. The boy in the towel bit himself in the arm. Now no longer frozen, the boy moved faster than Akira thought possible for his age and attacked him. He was able to easily block his attacks but it did serve to eliminate the already waning killing intent. The two genin collapsed and threw up everything they ate while Yugao started crying, unable to understand what was happening.

Naruto immediately turned around and went to the crying 4-year old who was quite possibly traumatized now. He held her and slowly wrapped her in a hug as she continued crying. The other two were already unconscious. Naruto looked back at the old shinobi and saw that he was not going to attack but Naruto still let his eyes dart around the room, taking in the possible escape routes. He felt Yugao stiffen up again. "Shhh. Go to sleep, Yugao-chan. It'll all be alright in the morning. Go to sleep." He felt chakra being gathered behind him and he started to feel dizzy. Realizing what the old man was doing, he silently performed the genjutsu kai, letting the older man's genjutsu put Yugao to sleep.

Akira watched silently as his jutsu took hold of the young girl. The boy slowly picked her up and took her to the bedroom. Akira silently followed. He didn't trust the kid because of the way he moved and the way he attacked and how his eyes darted around the room looking for an escape strategy. He was not a kid. He was a ninja. His mind went back to what his father had once told him. 'In this world, there are shinobi younger than you but stronger than me.' While not strong to that extent, Akira was sure that the kid was not to be taken lightly despite the fact that he was doing nothing out of the ordinary.

Having safely placed her on the bed, Naruto slowly kissed her on the forehead before turning around. "You are Akira Senju, Konoha's Golden Flame, aren't you?"

Akira blinked. That was surprising. "What's your name, kid? I don't believe it's Menma." Naruto tensed. Akira gestured for him to make his way back to the living room and Naruto reluctantly did so. "Ok, so here's how this is going to work. If you ask me a question; I answer or I don't answer. Up to me. I ask you one and you answer. Without fail."

Naruto's eyes went to his two unconscious friends. He could try and escape, then come back to get them later. This man was an important shinobi. He would undoubtedly have to go on missions.

"Rule number two. You try to escape, I start killing." Akira watched the boy's eyes harden. "Now. I asked you a question."

Naruto grit his teeth. "My name is not Menma."

Silence followed those words and for a few moments Akira didn't realize that he was done talking. "What is your real name?"

His question was met with silence as the boy met his gaze defiantly. "You let me take them somewhere safe and I'll answer any questions you have."

Akira growled. The balls on this boy to be in this situation and still make demands. "You answer my questions and there'll be no need for me to hurt them."

They stared at each other again. Naruto continued staring defiantly back up at him. Sighing inwardly, Akira started focusing his killing intent again. The boy immediately flinched.

"Fine. My name is Naruto.", he snapped out.

Akira frowned. "Why did you change your hair color?"

"My sensei told me to. He said it was not a good color for our line of work."

"Smart man. Who is your sensei?"

"Orochimaru of the Sannin."

Akira visibly flinched in surprise. This Naruto was the same kid that wrecked his nephew in the training session Mikoto told him about. This had suddenly become very interesting. "Why are you still here?"

"Orochimaru-sama has not let us take missions. With the amount Shizuka and Shinzo make, we are barely able to eat while trying to save up as well. You let it slip that you had a week-long mission and that it was a difficult one. I hoped you would be gone for a bit longer." Naruto hesitated. He was about to say something before he stopped himself which made Akira raise his eyebrows.

"Go ahead, kid. Say what you want to say."

"We didn't eat any of your food other than on the first day. We washed the sheets daily not knowing when we'd have to leave. And-"

"Ok stop." Akira spoke, shutting him up. "Do you think that makes what you did, somehow right?"

Naruto flinched again. "No."

Akira sighed. "Who disabled the security seals? I set them to activate a day after my departure. It was not active when I got back. Who disabled them?"

"I did." Naruto reluctantly admitted. It was one thing to mess inside his house. Disabling his security without his permission was a whole other thing altogether.

Akira's mind was running a mile a minute. Red hair. Purple eyes. Seals. Naruto. It couldn't be. "Kid… Naruto, what was your first memory?"

Now, Naruto was genuinely surprised. He did not want to answer that question, but what choice did he have. "Waking up in Konoha hospital 4 years ago with a nurse looking after me. That's my first memory."

"What do you mean by waking up?"

"I was told that I was in some sort of accident and I was found by one Inuzuka Sanae. I suffer from post-traumatic amnesia. I had no idea who I was or how I got in such a severe accident." Naruto paused. Akira urged him to proceed. "Having no memory of my parents and no one with traits such as myself in the village, I was sent to the orphanage."

Akira nodded. The story made sense, except for one thing. "How do you remember your name?"

"There was a locket on me when I woke up. That's the only thing I have from my previous life. It said 'Naruto 'something''. Everything after Naruto was burnt off."

"Do you have it with you?"

"Yes, I have it upstairs with the rest of my clothes."

Akira nodded. His mind was made up. "Okay. I will let this incident slide and even let you all stay here until you're able to get up on your feet. I will pay for your food, clothes, equipment, weapons, whatever you need. If you feel the need to, you can pay me back later."

Naruto was very surprised but he didn't let it show. This was obviously not without a catch. "If?"

Akira actually chuckled at that. 'Smart kid', he thought to himself. "If you give me that locket and promise me that you will do one small favor for me when I ask for it."

Naruto gulped heavily. "And if I refuse?"

"I'd prefer not to say… But here goes. I will report you three to the Hokage. You will all lose that headband and will probably never see Yugao-chan again."

Naruto's eyes flashed in anger. "I suppose the choice is already made then."

Akira smiled at the sudden hostility in Naruto's eyes. "I suppose it is."

"Can I ask you one thing, though?" Naruto had gotten up, seeing as their 'discussion' had come to an end.

"Yeah. Go ahead."

Naruto met his eyes. "What are you getting out of this? Other than a worn-out locket that has no monetary value anywhere in this village, believe me, I tried, and one 'small favor' from a clan-less orphaned genin in Konoha, what are you getting?"

Akira turned away from his gaze, looking at the two unconscious genin sleeping on their own genin. "You will find out soon enough. Now, go get dressed. I'll clean these two up." Naruto however didn't move. Akira picked the two up and used a wordless water jutsu to clean the floor. When he turned around, he saw that Naruto had not moved. "What are you still doing here, brat?"

"I have one more question?"

Akira waited for him to continue but soon realized that he was waiting for permission. "Go on.", he sighed.

"Why wasn't Yugao affected as badly as we were? From the killing intent?"

Akira chuckled in response. "The presence of the predator is acknowledged by all animals. But only intelligent prey… are frightened by it."

Then, Naruto was left to his own devices. Akira felt sorry for the kid. The way he had phrased his request was sure to set off a lot of flags in the boy's mind. But he had a reputation to maintain. He was not going to ask anything bad. The boy should have known that. It saddened him to think that someone from his own village would be so wary of him but such was the way of the world. Hopefully, his actions would serve to change his opinions of the village.

Akira was one of the oldest ninjas in Konoha. He was also the son of the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju. With that, came some benefits. Benefits that made what he promised Naruto next to nothing. He wanted the boy close. Someone who'd gone without anyone noticing him for over 4 years was not someone he wanted to let out of his sight. And he was sure the boy would pay him back as well. Nothing lost. Something gained.

And what he gained was definitely good news. If his theories prove to be correct, his favorite student was about to become very happy. But he wouldn't give her false hope. Unless he was absolutely sure of it, he would not tell Kushina that he'd found her long lost brother. She has been through enough already. Akira would not contribute to her pain.

The first step was obvious. 'Inuzuka Sanae… That's where I'll begin my investigation. She was the one who found him. She is the one who I need to talk to.'

---

Is it just me or are there way too many training / tournament arcs in MHA? It's a good story so far but there are far too many tournaments.

AN0: I think it was a fanfiction named "After the Rain" by Quill Q (awesome read btw) where the author puts some random quote by a Naruto character at the start of every chapter. For some reason, I really liked that. Unlike that fic however, the lines I've put at the start of each chapter is one of the lines inside that chapter I liked best. Let me know if that is a turn off or if you feel it gives too much away. (P.S I'm really looking forward to the chapter where I can put Pain's speech about... pain at the start. Wow that sounds weird.)

AN1: I wanted to squeeze one Kushina scene in this chapter but couldn't figure out where to put it. Oh well, next time maybe.

See you next time :P