So we are back, with the 20th chapter goddamn, also we hit 300 favs on ff. So big thank you for that.

Without anything further to say let's begin.

After the obviously star performance of the preliminaries, there wasn't much left afterwards, just Choji vs Dosu. The Akamichi clan heir muttered to himself about how was he meant to follow the performance Lee gave, not only that but he had already clashed with Dosu and it didn't end well, that gauntlet of his was incredibly dangerous.

In the end Dosu took out Choji and all the genin continuing were decided.

Satsuki, Shino, Kankuro, Temari, Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Gaara and Dosu.

Each lined up in order as Anko had them draw lots to determine who would fight who.

The first match was Neji vs Naruto, then Shino vs Kankuro, Shikamaru vs Temari and finally ending the first round was Satsuki vs Gaara, Dosu would fight a randomly selected winner of a first round fight before the second rounds began as there was an odd number.

Naruto and Satsuki were very excited, both were fighting someone they wanted to fight right out of the gate, although it did mean they couldn't fight everyone they wanted, and both would have to slog through every round if they wanted to fight each other in the finals, but that was the plan, and hell it if wasn't climatic, finally having their showdown in the finals of the chunin exams.

"You're one of the one's I want to fight the most." Naruto vividly remember Satsuki's words, it was such a simple sentence yet it meant so much to him, that was Satsuki acknowledging him, saying to him that he was a ninja worth testing herself against, her, Satsuki fucking Uchiha a kunoichi who had done nothing but excell and be ten steps ahead of him for as long as he'd known her. It was proof that he was getting better, getting stronger, that he wouldn't be stuck as the dead last forever and him beating Kiba only showed it more.

Not only that but deep down…he felt valued, valued by Satsuki as someone to help her push her limits, even be her oddly antagonistic friend. While it wasn't that much to some people, to Naruto? The boy with nothing, nobody for so long? It meant everything. So he'd beat Neji the genius Hyuga, and he'd beat whoever he had to to stand in an arena with Satsuki, not as the taijutsu spar punching bag like in the academy but as a fellow leaf shinobi that was worth fighting with all she had. Was it strange that it made him so happy?

They were then informed by the third Hokage the exams would be held a month from now, in order to give the many nobles and officials time to travel to the leaf village and give the genin time to rest and improve their skills.

Satsuki was very glad to hear this, she needed this seal sorted, she'd seen what Lee had done, the raw physical prowess he had use, it was beyond anything she had witnessed before in terms of taijutsu, and now she was against the guy that beat him, she'd need something special to break through that sand shield and armor, even her dragon flame jutsu would probably fall short, unless she could up the firepower so much she turned his sand to glass? She'd look into that option. But the point is if this mark wasn't dealt with she would have no ninjutsu genjutsu and her taijutsu was nowhere near Lee's level, she needed ninjutsu and genjutsu working at one hundred percent if she wanted to defeat someone like Gaara, not to mention he was dangerous, she'd seen what he'd tried to do to Lee. That last attack Guy had stopped was definitely meant to be a killing blow, she couldn't drop her guard with this guy, not even for an instant.

Naruto however had Neji. Apparently the most gifted Hyuga in generations, he wouldn't have an easy time of it and even after that he'd have to get through the second round before he met her in the finals. If you had asked Satsuki a few months ago what Naruto's chance were she wouldn't have laughed and wondered how he'd even made this far…okay the current her would still probably say that in front of Naruto to tease him. But Naruto had grown, the good for nothing idiot was rapidly evolving into a shinobi of reputable caliber, a surprise to be sure, but not an unwelcome one, she wanted to test herself against him, that explosive growth, it was unknown and unorthodox and that thrilled her. What else would Naruto do, what else was he capable of now that he had broken free of the mud of mediocrity? Not just that but…Naruto was like her, he hadn't lost as much but he was alone, he knew the same abyss she did, and maybe because of that she felt…happy, with Naruto, Itachi had been the only friend she'd really ever had and even then he was her brother, she wondered if having someone like Naruto was what having a best friend was like? She…didn't hate it.

The next day

For Kakashi the next day was spent at the hospital, as soon as the preliminaries ended he had taken Satsuki and performed a curse sealing upon the curse mark, the strain of the sealing combined with her general exhaustion meant that Satsuki collapsed, a blessing is disguise as she needed the rest and Kakashi had little doubt that she'd instantly want to start training. While that wasn't a bad idea, as she'd need to seriously improve if she wanted a chance of beating Gaara she couldn't train while exhausted and depleted of chakra, she was also currently under armed guard by the anbu, could never be too careful with Orochimaru's eyes on her.

"Kakashi-sensei!" A loud voice spoke, Kakashi turned his single eye to see Naruto running up to him.

"Oh hello Naruto. Looking for Satsuki? Also keep it down please, we are in a hospital." Kakashi spoke to the excitable genin.

"Well yeah I'll see her if I can but I mainly want to ask what you're gonna be teaching me to beat that Neji guy." Naruto spoke to Kakashi, ah so that was it.

"About that. Over this month I will not be training you Naruto, I'm sorry. I'm going to have to dedicate all my time to training Satsuki, as Gaara is an incredibly dangerous opponent." Kakashi explained to Naruto as his face fell.

"What?! c'mon Kakashi-sensei?! I get that Gaara dude is crazy dangerous and Satsuki will need some awesome training to beat him but I'm against Neji, I'll need some training to beat him too." Naruto spoke loudly but tried not to yell.

"Naruto please, I understand that fully. That's why I've asked a favor and another sensei will train you, it's better this way as both you and Satsuki would suffer if I had to split my attention between the two of you." Kakashi spoke as another man walked up to him, one Naruto was not happy to see.

"This is Ebisu, he'll be-." Kakashi started to say before Naruto interrupted him.

"No! No way! Kakashi-sensei you can't honestly be serious. This guy is a joke, all I needed was a couple of shadow clones and to transform them into a nude woman and he dropped like a sack of bricks, this guy couldn't train academy students!" Naruto spoke loudly, remembering when he dropped the man on his ass with a few clones and an erotic transformation jutsu.

"Why you little! That was a completely isolated incident! I'm here as a favor to a colleague to help train you, you could be a little more grateful." Ebisu spoke, wanting to forget all about that incident, while in the end Naruto's intervention had gotten Konohamaru to take his training more seriously, the young boy had also never let him live the incident down, getting defeated by such an immature jutsu! It was his greatest shame.

"Yeah if the choices are either you or nothing? I'll train myself thanks." Naruto was clearly not impressed with Ebisu as a shinobi.

"I wasn't aware you two knew each other? Naruto while it may not seem like it at first glance Ebisu-sensei here is an elite jonin, specializing in teaching young shinobi such as yourself, as talented as you are Naruto your most glaring issue is your fundamentals, the foundation of all shinobi skills, you can't continue to build yourself up if the foundations of your skills are so lacking, sooner or later it will catch up with you, and your ability and progress as a ninja will stop dead in its tracks, I've asked Ebisu to fix this problem right now. Trust me, fix your fundamentals and a whole world of more advanced jutsu and skills will open up to you. Without solid foundation, you have no chance of beating Neji, let alone Satsuki, who's foundations are as strong as any ninja I know, it's why her ability to learn and master new jutsu is so much greater then your at the moment. Stick with Ebisu, he'll show you your flaws, and beat them out of you if he must, I know subtle methods are not your strong suit." Kakashi explained to him, Naruto getting more and more peeved by the word. His basic skills weren't that bad were they?

"Yeah but…isn't there anyone better then this closet perv?" Naruto asked, he'd literally prefer anyone else.

"No Naruto, now since you'll both be busy training for the next month I'd go see Satsuki and say anything to her while you can." Kakashi said as Naruto huffed and left, he supposed even a cruddy sensei was better then no sensei.

Naruto looked at the two anbu guards outside the room Satsuki was apparently staying at, he wondered why Satsuki would warrant members of anbu guarding her but just caulked it up to her being the last Uchiha and everything.

Naruto moved to enter the room, one of then anbu just looked at him and nodded, her mask giving nothing away.

Inside the room he saw Satsuki in a plain deep blue and the rest of her was obscured by the white sheets of the hospital bed, there was another anbu in the corner of the room but Satsuki seemed intent to ignore him as she was sharpening some shuriken with a whetstone.

She looked up as she heard the door open and looked at Naruto.

"Sup loser." She spoke as she went back to sharpening, a miniscule smile now on her face as Naruto sat on the edge of her bed.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Naruto spoke as he saw Satsuki inspect a shuriken, deeming it sufficiently sharp and switching to another one.

"Well I'm stuck here on bedrest on Kakashi's orders when I should be training, so not great, but compared to how I was feeling after my match I'm alright guess." Satsuki spoke as she sharpened her current shuriken somewhat aggressively, it's clear she would much rather be honing jutsu then resting, classic Satsuki, Naruto expected nothing less, she was always headstone to be point of being stupid, heh he'd always loved it. Even the part where she would mock him for being more headstrong and stupid then anyone she'd ever known.

"Listen I gotta get to training but I'm glad you're feeling better. And I've only got one thing to say to you before the third round." Naruto spoke looking at her dead serious.

"Thrill me!" Naruto spoke zealously with a smirk on his face.

Satsuki matched it with a sick smirk of her own.

"Oh you can count on it." She spoke as stared back at him.

Later, leaf village hot springs

Naruto had reluctantly decided to work with Ebisu, he had decided to challenge the man to a game of cat and mouse, one he sadly lost and now he was forced to train under the man, apparently they had come here to work, yet again, on his chakra control, as Ebisu had given him a lecture about his lack of it was he bled his wallet dry with a classic Ichiraku binge, he had built up a craving in the forest.

This new form of chakra control was apparently one step above the tree walking and would allow him to walk on water, which got Naruto very excited, after all he had seen Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza use that ability before and Naruto definitely wanted to learn it.

What followed was a very harsh lesson, it seemed that Ebisu was giving him extra incentive to nail this technique by making him do it with boiling spring water, so every time he failed he got scalded, and it was really starting to get on Naruto's nerves.

"Ah! Shit!" Naruto yelled as he jumped out of the water, his skin red due to the constant exposure to hot water.

"He's definitely making progress. Normally I wouldn't resort to using such draconian methods with my training but with his healing factor he'll be fine in about an hour without being scalded, and we have a lot of ground to cover with his skills. Plus this does get him back for humiliating me with that amazi- awful, true awful transformation of his." Ebisu thought as he observed Naruto's progress, while he enjoyed seeing Naruto get burned as a small form of revenge he didn't harbor any greater hatred of the boy, the way he had been training young Konohamaru had been wrong he saw that now, his encounter with Naruto seemed to have benefitted all three of them.

"Heheheheh. Oh yeah baby you are fine! Man nothing beats the home turf, I've got a great idea for the fourth chapter now." A voice spoke out, both Naruto and Ebisu both turned to see a large man with very distinct spiky white hair using a spyglass to seemingly peek in the women's side of the hot springs.

"H-how dare you! I'll teach you some manners you degenerate!" Ebisu shouted upon seeing the man quite obviously peeping in the women's bath.

Naruto just watched dumbfounded as it looked like his temporary sensei was about to attack some old perv, man today was just a mess.

Apparently that day could get even messier as the old guy summoned some giant toad which picked Ebisu up by its tongue and slammed him into the ground. The old perv sitting on the toads head, a disgruntled look on his face.

"Tch, amateur. You should know better then to interrupt the research of a great artist." He spoke, his town annoyed and bored.

"This guy took him out like he was a chump…well he is a chump but still, and now I'm without a sensei. Just great but maybe…?" Naruto thought as he looked at the jutsu he used, wasn't that the same type of jutsu that Orochimaru creep used to summon those snakes? A small shiver ran down Naruto's spine at the memory of being eaten by that giant snake and then being covered in its viscera after exploding it.

"Oi! Just what the hell have you done?! That's my sensei, and now he's useless! Just who the hell are you?!" Naruto shouted at the man who just looked over at Naruto with the same bored expression which quickly changed to a grin.

"Who am I, you ask? I am the great sage known throughout the lands, a ninja warrior who has slain thousands of ninja and laid twice as many kunoichi! A great artist who's literature touches hearts and minds all over the world. I am Jiraiya, the great toad sage of Mount Myoboku!" The now named Jiraiya spoke doing some sort of odd pose on top of his toad as he waved his mane of white hair around. All in all, he looked like some sort of cruddy street performer. And laid with thousands of kunoichi? Yeah right!

"Yeah, less a great toad sage and more of a pervy sage." Naruto spoke, this just wasn't his day, Satsuki was probably out of bed already and learning some amazing jutsu from Kakashi-sensei to beat Gaara, man he was jealous.

"Pervy sag-. Listen here you little brat! I ain't some normal dime a dozen perv. I am the greatest pervert who has ever lived! Hahahaha." Jiraiya spoke laughing like he was proud of such a title.

"This guy is a serious weirdo! Am I really so desperate that I'm going to try and ask this joker to help train me? Dammit I am, I can't lose to Neji or Satsuki." Naruto thought, he was really scraping the bottom of the barrel of sensei material right now.

"Well you just completely destroyed my sensei! Who the hell is gonna train me now?" Naruto 'asked' really trying to guilt trip this pervy sage into training him.

"Who the hell cares. I got more important things to do rather then babysit, you see I'm here doing research for my next book." Jiraiya spoke.

He looked down at the kid, heh, he really was the spitting image of him, he was happy to finally see Naruto again after a long time away, he was barely walking last time he'd seen the little runt, seeing Naruto had always been bittersweet, while he was the child and legacy of two people who were very dear to him, he also a constant reminder they were gone, Jiraiya was in a very dark place after he lost them both, but seeing Naruto finally didn't hurt as much after all this time, of course he'd train the kid, he'd already been briefed about how he had a run in with Orochimaru, he'd need the extra training…but, what's the harm in messing with him a little~.

"A book? What, some kind of ninja manual or sagely scroll?" Naruto questioned only to see Jiraiya grin.

He then pulled out a book titled make out:paradise, Naruto instantly recognized the book as the one Kakashi was always reading.

"Wait, you wrote that!? It's just some pervy old book, not some great novel." Naruto said, very clearly not impressed, Satsuki, Sakura and himself always looked at Kakashi like some kind of joke when this apparently amazing prodigy ninja was reading literal smut in public.

"Hey I don't have to take any criticism from you brat, besides you haven't even read the book, you're not old enough." Jiraiya said mocking, although technically if the kid flashed his headband he could get his hands on one, being a ninja allowed one to bypass any age restrictions in certain places, even if some still refused service, such as bars and hostess establishments.

"Yeah I don't think my opinion would change pervy sage. So are you gonna train me or not?" Naruto spoke, god he really was scraping the bottom of the barrel wasn't he, he was really happy Satsuki wasn't here to see this, she'd never let him lit it down.

With Satsuki

Satsuki had finally been discharged and had made her way to the location Kakashi told her to meet him at. Some secluded outskirts of the village where they apparently could train in peace.

She found him climbing up a cliff face with only a couple of fingers, honestly Satsuki was quite impressed.

"Ah good, you're here. I'll go over what we'll be working on but first channel some chakra into this." Kakashi said, picking himself up and handing her a slip of chakra paper.

"What for? I mean I've never used one but there's not much point is there? I'm an Uchiha, it will just burn up?" Satsuki said, confused, she knew chakra paper was used to discern someone's chakra affinity, she had never used one as she had always just assumed it would burn, showing a fire affinity as it did for ninety-nine percent of her clan.

"Humor me." Kakashi said as Satsuki took the paper and channeled her chakra into it.

Satsuki was shocked when the paper crickeled up and only after the paper had condensed for several seconds did the edges finally start to burn.

"Yep, just as u thought, your fire chakra nature is only secondary, your primary nature is lighting, like me." Kakashi said to her, Satsuki felt…sad, a strong affinity for fire jutsu was one of the most common traits of an Uchiha shinobi. To learn that it was only a weaker, secondary nature hurt her a little, it was like she wasn't fully an Uchiha.

"I know that look, you think somehow you're 'less of an Uchiha' for not having a primary fire nature or something right? If Naruto were here he'd tell you to shut up and you are just as an annoying and skilled Uchiha kunoichi as ever." Kakashi said, which got Satsuki to crack a smile, that loser would say something like that.

"The good thing is I am the most skilled lighting style user in the village, so there's nobody better to teach you then me. My intention is to teach you a jutsu by the end of the month that will pierce through Gaara's shield with ease. I believe you are somewhat familiar." Kakashi said as his dominant hand was covered in lightning, the odd sound it created, almost like birds chirping got Satsuki's attention.

A wide grin came across Satsuki's face as she saw the jutsu or at least the precursor to the jutsu Satsuki had seen him use to utterly destroy Suigeki Gekai.

"OK. What's first? Kakashi-sensei." Satsuki said smiling as her Sharingan flared to life, calling Kakashi her sensei for once.

The next day with Naruto

Naruto had finally gotten the perverted toad sage to train after a whole day of bothering him, the only bad part was this new 'sensei's' attention was split between him and some tourists bathing in a stream, and it definitely wasn't an even split.

"Oh that's it ladies, chapter six is gonna make you girls stars." Jiraiya spoke as he looked through a spyglass and scribbled down notes.

"Ah shit!" Naruto shouted as fell in the water, luckily it was just cool stream water and not the boiling hot spring water.

"Can you keep it down! My literary genius needs peace and quiet to realize its full potential." Jiraiya spoke.

"Perving on girls isn't some kinda creative process it's just being a creep. And I can't get this down, it's this stupid thing!" Naruto said, his frustration making him forget himself and show the seal on his stomach, specifically the extra seal around it.

Instantly Jiraiya's face turned serious as he looked over the seal.

"That Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked him, shocking Naruto.

"Y-you know about him?" He asked back, just who the hell was this guy.

"Unfortunately I do. I also know that putting an odd number seal over an even number will mess your chakra up something awful, no wonder you've been struggling. Come here, I'll remove it." Jiraiya said as Naruto did as he was told, the thought of getting this extra seal off made him very happy, having no chakra control sucked as a ninja, it was like a constant extra strain on everything you did, not a fun experience.

"OK, good thing is he didn't mess this the main seal, just put another one around it. That bastard likes to pretend he's some once in a lifetime ninja but his seal work is shoddy at best, no way could he mess with an eight tetragram seal, especially one made by Minato." Jiraiya said as he studied the marking upon Naruto's belly.

"Minato...where do I know that from?" Asked wondered out loud.

"You may know him better as the Fourth Hokage, the guy who put this original eight tetragram seal on you." Jiraiya said as his fingers lit up with flame in a similar manner to Orochimaru when he put the seal on him.

"Wait you knew h-." Asked said, only to be cut off as Jiraiya slammed his fingers into Naruto's gut, knocking him back and also knocking the wind out of him.

"Sorry, should have mentioned that'd hurt." Jiraiya said as the winded Naruto just flipped him off while he was on the ground.

"Now try, it should be a lot easier now." Jiraiya said as he took out his spyglass again to continue creeping.

"Damn perv." Naruto said as he focused his chakra into his feet, feeling his chakra flow at lot easier now after a few more tries Naruto finally thought he got the technique down, so he created some shadow clones and tried sparing on the water service with mixed results, it wasn't perfect but he at least somewhat keep his footing upon the water mid combat.

"OK, if you've gotten that down I guess it's time we get a bit more serious. Come here kid." Jiraiya said as Naruto put his mesh shirt and jacket back on as he'd left them on the bank so they didn't get wet.

"Listen, this is a seriously versatile jutsu, there's hardly a great ninja who doesn't know it so treat it with respect." Jiraiya spoke as he bit his thumb and weaved some signs and slammed his hand upon the ground and in a large poof of smoke a large toad appeared with a large scroll wrapped in its tongue.

"And the toad helps teach me this jutsu?" Naruto questioned as Jiraiya took the scroll and laid it out in front of him.

"No he just guards the scroll, you'll have to sign it if you want to continue, but I should warn you, signing this scroll will bind you to the toads of Mount Myoboku, you shall become their summoner and lend you their strength and in return you must respect that strength and not abuse it." The sage said as Naruto looked out over the names. The first two were seemingly blurry, Naruto rubbed his eyes and they stayed the same, the other names he could see fine but those two were all messed up?

"Looking at the first two names huh? Yeah even I don't know who they are, apparently the great elder sage is the only one who knows who the first two contractors are as he's ancient enough to have met them both, all I know is that they were father and son, the only thing he would tell me." Jiraiya said, who was the second to last signed name on the scroll, the next name was one Naruto knew well and almost asked about earlier.

Minato Namikaze

"The fourth Hokage signed this scroll?" Naruto whispered in amazement, to be granted an opportunity to learn the same type of Summoning as him, it shocked him to no end.

"I meant to ask, just how did you know the fourth Hokage Pervy Sage?" Naruto asked the white maned man.

"I may as well tell you, not like it's a big secret or anything. I was Minato's jonin sensei when he was a genin like you. In fact you're part of a long line of sensei and students. The second Hokage taught the third, which then trained me. I trained Minato who then trained Kakashi, who's teaching you right?" Jiraiya said as Naruto looked over the scroll.

"Listen, not that I don't appreciate you training me. But why do you know so much about me, pervy sage?" Naruto asked, slightly suspicious about the older man now.

"It's mainly because I'm the best seal master in the hidden leaf, if the nine tails seal was to warp or be compromised in any way, I'm the best person to help fix it. So Sarutobi-sensei keeps me updated about certain details, like how you and your team had the guts to go for the chunin exams first time around, ballsy move kid, but you and the Uchiha girl did make it to the finals so can't say you did a bad job." He said, only half lying, Jiraiya had never not been getting updates and keeping his own tabs on Naruto, for a long while he struggled to even think about the kid, but he was doing better now, and was happy to see that despite everything, he was doing alright.

"Well I'm glad someone is keeping tabs on it, it makes me feel better knowing someone can fix it if it breaks." Naruto said placing his hand on his stomach, the idea that his body, some squiggly lines on his skin was keeping back a calamity like the nine tails, it was a scary thought, so having someone looking out for him, like the burden of holding back such a powerful thing wasn't solely on him, it made Naruto feel a little better, he'd lost sleep over this, staring at the ceiling late at night, alone with his own thoughts, the existential dread of what exactly he had sealed inside him keeping him awake. Giving way to bad thoughts, thoughts he shouldn't have as future Hokage, but those were for Naruto and Naruto alone.

"I'm glad, now, bite your thumb or cut yourself with a kunai whatever works, just sign your name in blood and finish by marking it with five bloody fingers like the shinobi before you." Jiraiya said as Naruto took out a Kodachi and sliced his thumb open, wincing as his blood pooled out, shortly after Naruto was done Jiraiya noticed a small amount of steam as the wound closed like it was never there.

"Glad that's back. There are some advantages to having it locked in me I guess." Naruto thought as he looked at his healed cut.

"Right, now you've signed it you can try and use the jutsu. The signs are boar, dog, bird, monkey, ram. You'll have to use a little bit of blood to use the jutsu each time, most ninja just bite their thumb, you then slam your palm on the ground and call out Summoning jutsu!" Jiraiya said, giving Naruto a demonstration Summoning the toad he did previously and handing the scroll back to him before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Seems easy enough." Naruto said only to perform the jutsu and nothing appeared.

"Uh oh." Naruto said as Jiraiya just face palmed.

With Satsuki

Satsuki was currently sparing with Kakashi with her Sharingan active, he told her in order to build up the speed and physical ability to perform his signature jutsu she would be copying Lee's fighting style with Sharingan. Or more specifically, copying Kakashi copying Guy, who he had fought using his Sharingan countless times apparently so he pretty much had Guy's whole taijutsu style mastered.

Kakashi was also throwing out low level lighting style jutsu during these spars in order for Satsuki to copy and allow to get a grip using lighting style better. He drilled into her that just because she copies a jutsu doesn't make that jutsu hers or effective in its use, Kakashi made sure she knew that while her Sharingan was an incredible tool and would allow her to progress at incredible pace it was not without it flaws and certainly didn't make her instantly an unbeatable ninja. How did he accomplish this, you ask? He beat it into Satsuki during their spars, specifically covering his eye to knock her around at times to prove his point.

Satsuki got the message, while the Sharingan would certainly help her down the path of the shinobi, it didn't let her skip to the end or cut corners.

"We'll call it there for today. Instead, try and practice using lighting nature release, you're aware of burning the leaf, now try and use a light change in nature to cause the leaf to burn up very electricity. It's difficult I'll admit, I had troubles learning fire release after learning lighting but if you try and copy the way I was molding my chakra into lighting earlier it should help. I'll catch us some dinner." Kakashi explained as he left Satsuki to herself, having gathered a few leaves beforehand to help her practice.

Her first attempt went exactly as Kakashi said it would, she used fire change in nature, not lighting, it was a natural problem as the two natures were quite similar from what Satsuki knew, one of the most common duel nature's being Lighting and Fire, even if having a duel chakra nature was exceedingly rare, it also didn't mean you couldn't learn jutsu or having a single nature made you less of a shinobi, Kakashi had told her earlier that he only had a single chakra nature, that being lighting, although it was an incredibly potent nature from what he had said. Nevertheless it didn't stop him from learning other nature release jutsu, though Sharingan helped.

"Shit!" Satsuki cursed as she burned her third leaf with fire nature again.

"Where am I going wrong, I visualize rubbing my chakra against itself fast to perform fire release just like mom showed me, but Kakashi's chakra wasn't that different? Where am I going wrong?" She questioned out loud.

She looked up at the sky, it turning a deep dark blue now as the stars came out. She had always enjoyed looking at the sky, it calmed her down, let her think.

"Wonder if you're faring any better, you loser?" She said to the sky.

Ah who was she kidding, he was making absolutely no progress. The thought made her smile and giggle a bit, improving her mood…it's strange, even when he's nothing but an annoying idiot…he always seems to do that.

Back with Naruto

Naruto was making tones of progress!

.

.

.

Yeah that's not fooling anybody. Naruto had made next to no progress. He'd been practicing the Summoning jutsu all day and at most all he'd managed to summon was a puny little tadpole, it was beyond pathetic.

Worst still this had eaten up his chakra bit by bit so he barely had much left.

"I mean with your chakra control being bad I expected you to struggle but this is beyond hopeless! Do you have any comprehension on how to properly control and apply your own chakra or are you just making a seal and grabbing some chakra and throwing it at the jutsu you want to use?!" Jiraiya ranted, the bathing beauties he was creeping on had gone home for the day and without them to distract him Jiraiya was fully focused and getting exceedingly irritated at Naruto's lack of progress.

"W-well yeah, that's kinda just how I learned to do it. All that Chakra stuff was always taught by Mizuki who hated me because of the stupid fox so I'm sorry if I don't know the 'proper way'!" Naruto yelled back he himself being very irritated by his subpar performance, but it wasn't his fault. Kakashi-sensei sensei was right, all his fundamentals and basics were messed up, Satsuki would probably get this jutsu and any other down instantly.

Quick cut to Satsuki

Satsuki formed some signs and tried to perform a basic lightning jutsu she saw Kakashi use earlier.

Only for it to blow up in her face, burning her hand and the shock causing her muscles to tense and spasm.

Back to Naruto

"Man she's probably already being so cool and using cool new jutsu." Naruto thought, his thoughts and assumptions far from the truth.

"So you've even had that happen too. *sigh* ok kiddo let's put a pin in summoning for now. Instead I'll teach you a handy trick. Now sit and take a position of meditation. Whatever works for you, now I want you to move your chakra around your body, your limbs first then more focused areas, your already somewhat familiar with this if you know how to tree walk and water walk but you are specifically using your chakra to enhance these parts of your body, which is a little tricky, not only that but your not expelling chakra your keeping it internal, hopefully that should let you have a better grasp over your chakra and get a feel for it, allowing you to properly manipulate for jutsu instead of your turning on the chakra taps for any hand sign like a caveman." Jiraiya explained to him.

Naruto had used chakra to enhance himself before and was starting to get a passable control over his chakra but for jutsu he wasn't manipulating it right, he could grab a chunk of chakra decently enough and use it for a jutsu but the way he was channeling it was ineffective, for a shadow clones which was ultimately not a very complex jutsu, just one with large chakra requirements it was fine, but for something like a summoning it wouldn't do. Jiraiya knew Naruto had plenty of chakra to perform the jutsu that wasn't the issue, it was his method of fueling the jutsu with chakra that was the problem, he knew this because when he was a genin he had a similar issue due to his large chakra reserves and due to not paying much attention in class…his academy teacher was a ten outta ten babe don't judge him!

This exercise would help Naruto become better with bodily enhancement with chakra and hopefully help him feel a more effective method for moving his chakra around, it would certainly be a better use of his time then trying to just brute force summoning.

For the next hour Naruto did as instructed with some difficulty, a hyperactive young teenager like himself struggled with sitting still but with some time he managed to sit still.

Naruto felt deep within himself, felt his chakra, the large mass of energy he'd been using for years yet had never taken the time to full feel it, the warm blue made up of his body and spirit, he tried to move it around, he first went to rip great big chunks off as he'd always done and throw it around his body, buy stopped to think, instead he guided it, let it flow around his body like the gently running water of the stream next to him, he felt his muscles grow stronger and then weaker as the chakra flowed around his body.

Jiraiya watched, satisfied that he was seemingly getting it, although that was a given, normally an exercise such as this was taught at the academy, Naruto's experience with both tree walking and water walking making this a simple, but vital lesson.

"Even with the laws against speaking about it he's still been ostracized. But that's how it's always been or jinchuuriki, I'm sorry Naruto, but I'll do my best to be a sensei to you from now on." Jiraiya thought as he took out a tobacco pipe and lit it while he observed Naruto focus.

"That crap smells and is distracting, you know." Naruto said, eyes still closed as he tried moving his chakra flow to each finger, he was still shuffling a bit, the act of sitting totally still very difficult for him.

With Satsuki

After she and Kakashi had eaten a freshly killed deer, not one from the Nara protected land he assured her, Satsuki lay down on her bedroll and looked up at the shining stars.

"Wonder if you're watching the same sky. You loser." Satsuki thought as she let herself drift off to sleep, a small smile on her face.

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"Psst. Satsuki...hey Satsuki…Suki?" She heard an irritating voice say as she opened her eyes to see Naruto sitting there next to her bedroll.

"Thought I told you not to call me that, loser. Also what the hell are you doing here? I need my sleep, you know, gotta train tomorrow and every day after to beat Gaara, everyone else and most of all you in the exams." Satsuki said as she sat up with an irritated expression on her face.

"Sorry sorry, just wanted to see how you were, ya know. All okay after the second part of the exams? Shit was rough." Naruto asked with a caring smile on his face.

"Did you really track me down just to ask that? You idiot, I'm fine." Satsuki said, somewhat lying, she was doing better, but that Orochimaru guy. He still had her a bit shook, that was an S-rank ninja, it was a completely different level, she wasn't even close to that, she knew he had been playing a game, if that snake bastard wanted her dead, she'd be dead.

"Yeah yeah, 'I'm an idiot', 'I'm a loser' man you never change, do ya?" Naruto said, still smiling at her, half his face lit up by the small campfire.

"Nope, never will…but thank you for coming Naruto, but you better get some rest yourself, I thought you were gonna beat me in these exams can't do that if you can't even get up on time." Satsuki said in a mocking sing-song voice which got Naruto to chuckle.

They just sat there in silence for a bit, soft cracks coming from the fire, sky full of moonlight and starlight.

"Hey Satsu- *gah*!" Naruto started to say, light dusting of pink on his face.

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Before a blade pierced right through his throat, splattering blood all over Satsuki, her eyes widened as she scrambled to get up only for a hand to wrap around her throat was extraordinary strength and hold her to the ground.

Then she saw it…saw him, rip the blade out of Naruto's throat as blood pooled around him as he uselessly held his throat.

Itachi stood there, a sick smirk on his face, wearing his anbu gear, still covered in blood as he held her down.

Satsuki thrashed helplessly against her older brother's grip; she looked around for Kakashi only to see him lying there motionlessly, throat cut, and his Sharingan eye ripped from its socket.

"Su…ki." Naruto managed to mutter out before his rapid pulse slowed and he went limp. The bright blue eyes so full of life, now dull.

"Oh foolish little sister." Itachi spoke, his voice smooth as it always was as he dropped his bloodied sword and placed his now one free hand over her heart, each finger lighting up with chakra.

He pushed down his fingers digging through her flesh and muscle, causing excruciating pain, her screams muffled by his still present grip on her throat, her still constant thrashing useless against her brother…her strength…useless.

Itachi found his target shown by his grin widening as he pulled her heart from her chest, still beating.

The heart itself was covered in scars and seemingly patchwork, like someone had taken all the little pieces and tried to put them back together.

"You really thought I'd let you have this back? Listen here little sister. I took this from you, and you will never have it back so long as I allow you to live." Itachi said as he crushed her heart with his bare hand.

Darkness overcame her.

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"*bloodchilling scream*." Satsuki awoke with a scream drenched in a cold sweat, Kakashi standing there holding her close to his chest in a form of comfort.

"It's okay Satsuki, it's just a dream." Kakashi said as he rubbed her back, very familiar with nightmares himself, he'd woken up in a cold sweat many times. He couldn't say for sure, but this looked like a bad one. Really bad.

"H-h-he. He was here! He *sob* you and *sob sob* Naruto. *hysterical crying*." Satsuki sputtered out as she began to sob uncontrollably and covered her mouth with her hands.

"Hey hey hey. I'm fine, and Naruto's in the village, he's fine…he's not here Satsuki, you're safe." Kakashi said in an attempt to reassure her. She didn't feel safe.

Satsuki continued to cry with Kakashi holding her, beyond sympathetic. It had taken a long time for the dreams to fade, and even now, he still had them.

The serpent lay coiled in its new cage, smirking to itself, while it was caged for now, an antivenom for its toxin was still nowhere to be found.

Later Satsuki looked through her things to find what she was looking for, she never really took them but kept them on her. She was meant to have at least one dose everyday, to help with the dreams and bad thoughts, but she hated these pills, made it feel like something was broken…wrong. But who was she fucking kidding, she was, and maybe she always would be. The standard dose was two pills, she had three.

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Satsuki didn't feel any better, not one bit.

Okay I know this took a while but ngl…I'm fucking proud of that last bit, just a wave of inspiration hit me holy shit, hope you lot enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed writing it, dark and depressing as it was.

So yeah, while the curse mark is sealed it's 'venom' still goes to work on Satsuki, twisting what would have been a nice dream into a terrible ptsd fueled nightmare.

I'm sorry again this took sooooo long but real life has been a mess lately and I have much less time to write along with my ADHD making it difficult to write a lot.

I hope the next one will be shorter but I can't promise anything. Life's just a bit shit rn.

Please review and comment, all that good stuff, thank you for reading.