DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Sorry about the delay on this one. Got a bit of writers block at about the same time that school picked up again but I still managed to finish this. Enjoy and leave a review if you're feeling generous!

Chapter 17 - Training Begins

Obito was in the midst of making his morning coffee when he heard a knock on the door. Opening it. He was greeted by the sight of Sasuke standing in his hallway. The young Uchiha looked like he'd just rolled out of bed, yet he was fully dressed and looked to be prepared for training.

"I get that you're serious about becoming the strongest of us, but you have to let a man drink his coffee before you drag him out to train," Obito said. He turned back to his kitchen, leaving the door open as an invitation for Sasuke to enter.

The young Uchiha heir closed the door behind him. "Actually, I'm just here to speak. Training is at the designated time later today, which would be why Itachi is not here as well."

"I don't go for small talk, Sasuke," Obito remarked as he brought his mug to his lips.

"I know. This isn't simple conversation. It's about what happened between you and the team from Suna the other day."

Obito's eyes narrowed at that. He had a feeling that he knew where this was going, but he couldn't be sure. He supposed that he could at least relax for the time being, because the teams from the other villages had departed the previous day, so there was no danger of him killing a group of teens.

"What about it?" he asked.

Sasuke shifted uneasily. "I suppose that I should start with what I saw. That blue aura you were channeling may have seemed like chakra, but even I could feel that it was colder than simple chakra. And no one else seemed to notice, which is why I haven't brought it up until now, but I saw what looked like a transparent ribcage surrounding you. So I suppose that I'm asking what that was?"

Obito let out a deep sigh. He hadn't expected Sasuke to find out about the full extent of his abilities so soon, but he knew that it would happen eventually. Better to just tell the kid than to let him come to his own conclusions and try to imitate him.

"It is called the Susano'o. The ultimate weapon of the Mangekyou Sharingan. It first manifests as a simple aura, sometimes generating limbs of bone that are controlled by the user. But the more experienced you become, the more that you are able to form. A ribcage, two arms, a head, skin, muscle, armor, each stage more powerful than the last. I'm sure you can guess what the final form is."

"A full body," Sasuke nodded.

Obito crossed his arms and leaned back against the counter. "I will not say what stage I am able to reach, but I will say that I was channeling but a small fraction of this power. Unfortunately, Itachi also has the ability to use the Susano'o."

"Why unfortunately?" Sasuke asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Do you not remember that the continued use of the Mangekyou causes one to begin to lose sight in their eyes? The Susano'o taxes this vision perhaps the most. It is a dangerous tool. Those without the Eternal Mangekyou will never be able to unlock the final form of the Susano'o, for they go blind before ever nearing this stage," Obito explained.

Sasuke frowned. "So why would one use such a thing? Wouldn't the other techniques of the Mangekyou put less strain on the eyes while still being extremely powerful?"

"Using multiple weaker techniques still equates to using one powerful technique in the long run, Sasuke. Besides, the Amaterasu may be able to destroy forests, but it can't level mountains."

The younger Uchiha nodded in understanding. "What of your other technique? You coated your hand in fire."

"A jutsu of my own invention. You might see it one day, but I save it for the people who most deserve death. Besides, you would be better served inventing your own jutsu rather than simply copying all of mine. You only have a positive disposition to fire because you're an Uchiha, but you would have a much easier time with lightning jutsu."

Sasuke nodded in agreement. "I've spoke to Itachi about it, but he is not well versed in Lightning Style either."

"Neither am I,' Obito shrugged. "No one in the village really is."

"Suppose I'm on my own then," Sasuke muttered. He would have to do some experimentation on his own in order to figure the ins and outs of Lightning Style. In the meantime, he would settle for extensive training under Itachi and Obito.

"You know, you explain things pretty well for an antisocial asshole," Sasuke commented with an amused twinkle in his eye.

Obito blinked, and his sharingan was replaced with the Mangekyou, three blood red scythes glowing in the dim light. "Wanna run that by me again, kid?"

Naruto collapsed backwards onto the grass, completely exhausted. His morning training had been the most difficult thing that Minato could possibly think of, and it wasn't pleasant. Said training consisted of Naruto teleporting both he and his father to various shadow clones that had been sent to the furthest points of the village. The goal was to teleport to all of them in less than five seconds.

After running that exercise seven times, Naruto was almost completely out of chakra, so Minato decided to break for lunch. The pair sat in silence while they ate, allowing the food to refuel them. Not that Minato really needed refueling.

After finishing his meal, Naruto placed the box down on the grass in front of him and placed his hands behind his head. He took int he scenery for a few moments, enjoying the tranquility of it. The Namikaze residence was modest, yet it had some charm to it. The house itself was very traditional,much like the Nara compound, but much smaller.

The backyard was an open area of green grass, with two trees in either corner of the yard, their pink petals falling around their trunks. When Naruto finally had regained enough energy to function normally, he sat up and looked towards his father, who was also laying back on the grass. He appeared to be napping, but Naruto knew better.

"Hey Dad, you know something I've always wondered?"

"What's that?"

"Why is my last name not Namikaze?" Naruto asked.

Minato sat up and smiled sadly. "Because of your mother. She was the last surviving member of the Uzumaki clan, and I was from the lesser Namikaze clan, of which I was also the only remaining member. Therefore, her clan took precedence, making you the heir of the Uzumaki clan."

"So does that make me the last Uzumaki clan member too?"

Minato looked surprised, but nodded. "I suppose it does."

Naruto grinned. "Cool. My clan is gonna be known for our awesome fighting skills!"

"Not if you don't keep training, you're not," Minato teased. "Anyways, our special guest should be arriving soon."

"Special guest?" Naruto asked, his eyebrows crinkling in confusion.

As if on queue, a figure materialized out of thin air next to Minato, causing Naruto to jump to his feet as a reaction. He was broad-shouldered, with a long mane of white hair that fell down his back.

"Hey kid, long time no see!" the figure greeted as Naruto jumped backwards in surprise.

"Pervy Sage?!" he exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious? I wanted to see my godson," Jiraiya smirked as he approached Naruto, trying to wrap him into a bear hug.

"No! Get off! Sexy Jutsu!" Naruto cried, being replaced with a young, naked, female version of himself.

Jiraiya froze, blood beginning to leak out of his nose before he collapsed onto his face, twitching. Minato facepalmed as Naruto reverted back to his original self. The Hokage walked over and nudged his former teacher with his foot. "Jiraiya-sensei."

The white-haired Sannin shot to his feet, trying to play it off like nothing had happened. "Dirty trick, kid."

"What can I say? I have to develop strategies to defend against the world's greatest perve," Naruto grinned, holding his hands up.

Jiraiya narrowed his eyes at that. "I'll have you know that I'm a researcher and an author, not a perve!"

"Yeah, yeah," Naruto yawned. "Anyways, why are you really here?"

"I asked him to come back to the village so he coil dhelp me train you for the next round of the exams. According to the bracket that we were given, your first match is against Temari, the Wind user from Suna," Minato said.

Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "I'm fighting her? When did this bracket come out?"

"After the last round of the preliminaries. Did Obito not tell you?"

The Genin shook his head. "I was with Sakura in the hospital, and Big Bro Obito and Sasuke came back before the last matches were over. Come to think of it, he may not even know about the bracket."

Minato sighed. "Of course he doesn't. I'll be right back."

After Naruto's father disappeared in a flash, he looked to Jiraiya. "So what're you gonna teach me, Pervy Sage? Some cool new jutsu that'll win me any match in one hit?"

"HA! As if I would ever teach you something like that. You'd probably try to find some way to use it against me, you mischievous little brat," Jiraiya said with a deep laugh. "What your father and I have in mind will make you a more well-rounded fighter, able to adapt to more situations."

"Huh?"

"What part of that was difficult?" Jiraiya asked as Minato reappeared next to his old teacher.

"Why is your cheek red?" Naruto asked, pointing to the left side of Minato's face.

Minato glanced down, as if trying to look at it without going to a mirror. "Oh, this? Apparently, Obito says that I should stop teleporting to him, because it surprises him too often."

"Nice reflexes," Jiraiya commented to the not present Obito. "Anyways, back to the matter at hand. You need to become a more well-rounded fighter."

"But I'm already totally awesome, believe it! I even used Dad's Rasengan during the Exams!" Naruto said, placing his hands on his hips and displaying a proud smile.

"You idiot," Jiraiya facepalmed. "The Rasengan doesn't solve all your problems for you! And neither does the Flying Raijin. At some point, you'll have to adapt!"

It was a good thing that Naruto missed the glance that Minato gave his sensei, or he would never learn any new techniques. So his father opted to nod along with Jiraiya. "He's right. You need to have more than one trick up your sleeve!"

Naruto crossed his arms in a mock pout. "Fine. So what's this jutsu you're supposed to teach me?"

Jiraiya smirked as he raised his hand towards his mouth. Biting his thumb, he drew blood and made several hand signs quicker than Naruto could keep up. When he was finished, he slammed his open palm on the ground and shouted, "Summoning Jutsu!"

It was a good thing that the Namikaze residence had a sizable backyard, because nearly the entire thing was suddenly occupied by a massive object where Jiraiya used to be. Yet Naruto could still hear him, sounding as if he were far away.

When the blonde looked up, he realized just what this object was. It was an enormous toad, and on its head stood jiraiya with a smug grin. "Still think this is lame, kid?"

Naruto didn't get a chance to respond before the toad shook its head, causing Jiraiya to lose his balance and plummet to the ground, slowed only by his hair, which extended suddenly to halt his fall. "What the hell, Bunta?!" the white-haired Sannin demanded.

The massive toad looked down at them, allowing Naruto to take in its appearance. It was a dark shade of red all around, and had a pale scar over its left eye. On its hip, it wore a sword, and a thin coat covered its upper body. In its mouth was a pipe that it fingered with its right hand before removing it and covering the three shinobi with a cloud of white smoke.

"What have I told you about summoning me when there's no one to fight, Jiraiya?" the toad said in its deep, booming voice that seemed to vibrate the very earth they stood upon.

"I was just introducing you to someone, Bunta. You won't be here long," Jiraiya said defensively.

The toad unsheathed his sword and held it, point-first, at Jiraiya, which caused Minato to step forward. "Sorry about all this, Chief Gamabunta," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "You see, Jiraiya and I are about to teach Naruto here the Summoning Jutsu, so Jiraiya summoned you as a bit of a demonstration of its power. And who better to summon in such a scenario than yourself?"

"Hmm," Gamabunta hummed deep in his throat. "You're right about that, young Minato. Been a while since I've seen the two of you anyways. And this kid, Nirato, he yours?"

"The name's Naruto, you old geezer! Fix your ears!" the Genin in question shouted up at the massive chief.

Gamabunta was instantly outraged, shifting his sword from Jiraiya to Naruto. "What did you say, boy?! You're so small you'd be lucky if I took you on as one of my henchmen!"

"Henchman? I'm not working for you!" Naruto shot back.

"Then I guess I'll have to kill ya for speaking to me that way, won't I, brat?"

Gamabunta's massive sword swung down, ready to crush Naruto into little pieces, but Jiraiya intervened. "That's enough of that."

The enormous toad disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"Die, kid!"

Gamabunta's sword struck the ground, the impact throwing chunks of rock into the air and splitting the ground.

"Uh...Pops?"

Gamabunta looked around quizzically before he found the source of the voice. A toad of normal size to a human was between his legs, looking terrified out of its mind. "Gamakichi?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Pops, you going crazy or something? We live here! And what's with you appearing out of nowhere and almost killing me with your sword?!"

Gamabunta took a moment to survey his surroundings. Seeing pools and vibrant colors, he discerned that he was back at Mount Myoboku. "That damn kid, now he thinks he got the better of me! NARUTOOOOO!"

Naruto groaned and rubbed his shoulder as he walked. With the entire day spent training with his dad and the Pervy Sage, he was beat. He figured that the Summoning Jutsu would be fairly simple to learn, but even after signing his name in blood in that big scroll, he was only able to summon tadpoles and small toads that couldn't even talk.

He longed to be asleep in his bed, but he'd promised the gang that he would meet them at Ichiraku that night. When he approached, he could hear sounds of loud cheering and chanting. Turning his walk into a jog, Naruto moved to see what was going on.

A large crowd had gathered outside Ichiraku, chanting something indiscernible to Naruto. He muscled his way to the front, only to be greeted with extreme surprise at what was taking place. He'd been expecting a fight, but this was so much better.

Choji was currently in the middle of wiping out their entire friend group in an eating contest. Only one was still eating besides him, and that was Kiba. Shikamaru was slumped over against the wall, a noodle hanging from his mouth, and Shino looked like he didn't even eat at all. Sasuke was nowhere to be found, likely running late.

The three girls stood off in the corner, observing the chaos. Sakura and Ino were insulting their respective picks, because evidently, there had been money bet. Hinata, on the other hand, simply watched quietly, actually perking up when she saw Naruto shove his way to the front of the crowd. This went completely unnoticed by Naruto, though, as he instantly started pointing and making fun of the passed out Shikamaru.

At last, Kiba downed the rest of his bowl slowly, most of the broth dribbling down his chin before he slammed the empty bowl back down on the table. "Another one," he belched.

But before the old man could even turn around to grab a fresh bowl, the Inuzuka heir keeled forward, burying his face in the recently cleaned bowl. A collective groan emanated from part of the crowd, probably the portion that had money on him, while the rest of them cheered and began to clap Choji on the back. The Akimichi hadn't even stopped eating yet. The guy was a serious garbage disposal.

Everyone else seemed to finally realize that Naruto had arrived, and began to group up around him as the crowd dispersed. "What took you so long?" Sakura asked.

"Training with my dad and the Pervy Sage went a little long. I'm beat," Naruto stated with a tired smile.

As they began to converse, the pair of unconscious clan heirs seemed to wake up. Kiba tugged the bowl off of his face while Shikamaru excused himself to go vomit outside. He passed Sasuke on his way out of the shop. The Uchiha heir looked like he hadn't slept in days, and his feet dragged along the ground, shoulders slumped from exhaustion.

"You look like death man, what happened?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sasuke responded by muttering something that none of them could pick up on. "What?" Sakura questioned as a bowl of ramen was laid in front of Sasuke.

"They're insane. Animals. Trying to kill me," Sasuke managed between bites of food.

"Who's trying to kill you?" Ino asked.

"Obito and Itachi. They're insane. They shouldn't be cleared for active duty," Sasuke said with a shiver.

Naruto chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. "And I thought that my training was hard."

Once Sasuke had put some food in his belly, he seemed to perk up enough to join the conversation. Most of the things said were about the previous rounds of the Exams, as well as some speculation on what was coming up, but no one really had any idea of what to expect. As such, there was an air of uncertainty that seemed to hang over the ones competing in the next round.

After a while, Shino and Shikamaru left one after the other, followed by Choji and Hinata. Kiba excused himself as well, leaving only Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, and Ino. But even Sasuke couldn't last much longer, and he bid the others goodnight. Sakura was the last to leave, a knowing smile directed at Ino that went unnoticed by Naruto.

When the two blondes were alone, Naruto chuckled. "Well, I guess you got that alone time you wanted."

"This isn't what I meant when I said that, Naruto," Ino said with a roll of her eyes, yet a tint to her cheeks was visible.

"So what made you wanna do this in the first place?" Naruto asked.

Ino shrugged. "I guess I've always liked you, Naruto. You always seemed so strong and fearless. Made me wish I was that way."

"I always thought you were annoying the way you followed me around all the time," Naruto admitted, causing Ino to flinch at the comment. "But maybe you're not so bad. Goodnight Ino."

With that, Naruto left the kunoichi smiling, her cheeks even more red than before.

To say that Sakura was excited to work with her new sensei would be a lie. She still didn't understand why Obito thought that he wasn't a good teacher for her. Yes, she got hurt, and he likely blamed himself, but there was so much that he'd already done for her before then. Beside the fact of him being probably the most capable fighter in the village, he actually cared about his students.

Sakura didn't think that there was any merit to his explanations, and he was just trying to drive her away. After all, it was impossible to tell what the guy was ever thinking or if he was even sincere. He hid his emotions too well for that. And it didn't help that they couldn't see his real eyes.

As Sakura walked through the village, the anticipation built with regards to her new sensei. It was clearly going to be someone that Obito knew and trusted, but that list was very short. Leaving only a few options, and none of them particularly appealing to her.

Arriving at Training Ground 9, she was surprised to find it empty. Granted, she was several minutes early, but she supposed that she shouldn't expect anything from one of Obito's friends. Putting her back on one of the nearby trees, Sakura slid to the ground and prepared for a long wait. If this mysterious new instructor was anything like Obito, she would be here for a long time.

Luckily, the sound of racing footsteps told her that she didn't have to wait as long as she thought. A figure rounded the corner and sprinted across the field towards her, stopping in front of her and bending over to catch their breath.

After a few seconds, the newcomer stood up, and Sakura was shocked. "Rin-sensei?"

"Hey there!" Rin waved with a smile.

"You're who Obito-sensei asked to take over my training? I thought you guys hated each other," Sakura pointed out with a raised eyebrow and crossed arms.

Rin chuckled awkwardly. "About that...it's complicated. But we can talk about that some other time. We're here for you! Obito said that he hasn't done much pure combat training with you, so we can focus on that to start with. Or, if you feel that there's an area that you need the most help with, we could start there?"

Sakura shrugged. "Yeah, sure. Let's get this over with."

Rin frowned slightly at Sakura's demeanor. "We don't have to work on combat if you don't want."

"It's fine. Let's just do it," Sakura grumbled.

"Hey, I'm not exactly happy about this either. Actually, I am, but only since it's a favor for Obito. I thought he would be a much better teacher than me when it came to your support in your combat team, but I got the same excuses that you did. So let's just forget about that and focus on making you stronger so you can pass the Chunin Exams next time, okay?"

Sakura sighed, sinking to her knees as her previous anger turned to sadness. "I just feel like he doesn't want any part of me anymore. He's always explained things to me carefully, he's complimented me, and he's saved me, so why do I feel like he's abandoning me?"

Rin crouched in front of the now crying Sakura. "Hey, you did nothing wrong at all. Obito just has issues, in case you hadn't noticed. There's no one alive except maybe the Yondaime who knows what he's truly thinking. I was on his team when we were Genin and I still have no idea what goes on through his head."

"So how do you know that he's not just trying to get rid of me?" Sakura sniffed.

Rin giggled. "Because if he was, then he wouldn't have taught you anything at all. It's not your fault that your two teammates are prodigies. Who knows, you may even be a prodigy yourself, we just have to find the right field for you to excel in!"

Sakura nodded. "I guess you're right."

Rin grabbed the pinkette by the shoulders and helped her to her feet, smiling at her the whole time. "Don't worry about Obito, I'll take care of him, and you'll be back on his team in no time. You can count on that!"