The training ground was a mess. Two shinobi, one dressed in anbu outfut and another much smaller figure covered by a cloak were going toe to toe. Swords clashed and jutsu were enleashed without any care of the surroundings.

The anbu, Yamato clasped his hand together to make a hamd sign for a moment. Then he threw his arms out towards his opponent. Flesh turned into wood and shot out to the cloaked figure.

"Wood style; wood binding jutsu."

The wood bend around the target's torso but before it can grip on tight, the jinchuriki made a hand sign of his own. The young blond shot up, leaving his cloak in between Yamato's wooden apendages.

Yamato's eyes stayed at the airbound jinchuriki. Naruto's blond hair had spiked up and pointed in all directions. The marks on his face were prominently darker and wide. An aura shrouded around him. The boy was using nine tails' chakra. That was the only way a 13 year old can keep up with a jounin level shinobi giving a serious effort.

As Naruto fell down towards the ground, he saw Yamato weave hand sign again. Just as his feet touched the ground, a wooden column erupted from the ground in front of him. Ignoring the dirt the hut him and the dust that was irritating his eyes, Naruto focused on sending chakra to his feet. Aided by the chakra, he was able to jump a fraction of the second before the wooden column hit him in the chest. The power of him jump was such that the bulky jutsu was a litle to slow to reach him. But just to be sure, Naruto opened his mouth wide and let charka pool at the back of his throat. Then he let out a sceam.

The powerful tailed beast chakra releases in form of a shockwave hit the oncoming jutsu. It broke throught without resistance.

The wood was reduced to splinters as the shockwave shot towards Yamato at half the speed of sound. But still it was so fast that the exprienced anbu knew he would not have nearly any time to contruct an earth wall let alone a wooden dome to protect himself. Yamato pulled his head to his chest and his arms over the head. The scream hit him and threw him back several meters. When he tried to get back up from his back, a foot hit him back down. the blood lust eminating from the ninetails chakra make Naruto's small stature look pretty imposing. The child's foot was pining Yamato to the ground. Naruto bent with a smooth motion and retrived a kunai simultaneously. He held it to the anbu's throat.

"Yeild." the young one said.

"I think not." Yamato said.

Suddenly the world spun around Naruto's eyes. In a blink of the eye, the blond found himseld stuck to the ground, in a prone position with Yamato kneeling on his back. A wooden rope was coiled around Naruto's ankle. He must have had hidden the rope underground. I let my gaurd down. The blond contemplated.

"You yield." Yamato said. The blond noded and Yamato stood up from on top of him. The twine he had used to trip and pull Naruto retreated underground. The jinchuriki stood up and dusted the dirt off of his body glove.

"Good effort. At this level, you can keep up with most jounin from our village." Yamato commented. Naruto simply nodded.

" I thought I would get more time but even doing D-rank missions consumes the whole day." Naruto said with a sigh. Yamato thought of Naruto on a genin team. Even in imagination, it felt absurd. He had known the jinchuriki when the boy was merely 7 years old. Back then they did not utter a single words to each other, only trading blows once in a couple of months under strict supervision of Lord Danzo.

Naruto was brought to the root when he had outgrown his stay in the orphanage. Since then he had stayed in his dark quaters. The boy housed a power capable of destroying the village. He was rightly detained under observation. Had the blond child shown any signs of incompatence to be the nine tails host or any mental instability, he would have been put down. Luckily, Naruto showed impressive handle over the cursed chakra he held. In time he was taught to use the destructive power for the good of the leaf village. Yamato had no doubt that the boy will succeed in fulfilling those expectations.

The only thing hindering Naruto's progress was his inexperience when it comes to missions. The blond had not even stepped out of the village premisses. But that was the village's leaders' decision. Yamato and Naruti were merely shinobi, fated to be puppeted by the higher ups.

"How'd you even get Kakashi to accept you in his team? I heard he failed all the genin given to him." Yamato asked the blond. "He put up a test to get us to work against each other. But the three of us genin were so fixated of Kakashi that we forgot about each other." Naruto explained with a frown of his face as if he was remembering some painfull memory. "Honestly, he was playing with us. I could have gotten to him if I had been allowed to use the beast's chakra. But the time ran out. After that he tied us to logs and preached about teamwork."

Yamato cocked his head after hearing that. Kakashi... and teamwork?

"Then he just said that he like our effort and accepted us as his genins. I think he was forced to do so by the higher ups." Naruto said.

The sound of wings flapping came from nearby tree as a bird took off to find its first meal. Soon it would be daybreak. The two shinobi exchanged no further words and silently went to opposite ways.