Naruto 1. Prologue

Naruto is not owned by me, this work is purely for entertainment purposes only.

The Hokage's Son—Prologue

It seemed that no matter what he did, Jiraiya simply couldn't shake his feeling that something terrible was going to happen. It came to him that morning, when the special kunai that had been given to him by Minato fell through a hole in his pack, dropping point first onto his sandaled foot, leaving a deep gash. The pain from the wound was irritating, but then again, Jiraiya had received more than one beating at the hands of Tsunade, and had felt worse. Cursing under his breath, he quickly wrapped his foot with a few bandages to stop the heavy bleeding and began to limp over to the blade where it had fallen when he pulled it out of his foot, but something stopped him. The sight of his brilliant student's bloodied gift chilled Jiraiya to the bones, and flooded him with a disturbing, but all-to-familiar feeling—loss. As he stared at the kunai, ornamented with the seals necessary for the famous technique of Konoha's Yellow Flash and covered in his blood, he couldn't help but be reminded of his feelings at the time when he failed to prevent Orochimaru from betraying and abandoning the village. But somehow, this time felt even worse. Much, much worse.

At first, he tried to ignore his disturbing premonition. After all, he thought, what was the point of worrying about his genius student—a man so powerful that enemy combatants were ordered to a flee on sight during the war. That's what he kept telling himself anyways. He tried to focus on his "research" at the local bathhouse of the small village where he was staying, but he found that for the first time in decades, his heart simply wasn't in it, and with a sigh, he released his genjutsu and sullenly strolled out of the baths, barely hearing the startled screams of the naked women surrounding him. As Jiraiya walked through the village, troubled by his inability to shake off this uncharacteristically somber mood, he saw a tavern and decided he needed a drink—or several drinks, very, very badly. But no matter how much he drank, or how much attention he received from the establishment's lovely young hostesses, his premonition continued to gnaw at him, and Jiraiya found himself growing more and more tense as the day stretched on. Finally, Jiraiya couldn't take it anymore; he packed his bags, paid the innkeeper for his stay and set off at full speed as the sun began to set. He didn't know why, but he needed to see his former student. He needed to return to Konoha—now.

* * *

><p>Namikaze Minato was not an easy man to catch off guard. Although it was his sheer combat prowess that earned him the title of Konoha's Yellow Flash and easily made him the most feared ninja on the battlefield—it was his unrivalled ability to stay calm under fire and swiftly make tactical and rational judgments that earned him the title of Hokage. But for the briefest of moments, all of Minato's disciple and skill failed him as he saw the masked man calmly place a kunai against his newborn son's throat.<p>

"Yondaime Hokage Minato, step away from the host. If you don't, this child won't live a minute longer." The man's voice chilled Minato to his core—he knew at once that this man was unlike anything he had ever encountered before. To make matters even worse, his wife Kushina was behind him, desperately fighting to keep the seal holding the Kyuubi inside of her from breaking free. While Minato didn't know who the masked man could possibly be, or how he had slipped past the barrier set up to protect Kushina during her childbirth, he knew exactly what he was here for: he wanted the Kyuubi, and he was willing to kill Naruto to get it. Minato thought as fast as he could and decided to try to stall him, distract him somehow, if only for a single second. One second would be more than enough time.

"W-Wait! Just calm down!" Minato shouted, sounding as desperate and scared as he could—not that he needed any help in that department. At that, the man simply chuckled; Minato had never heard a laugh with less humor.

Finally, the masked man replied, "You're the one who needs to calm down Minato. I myself am perfectly calm." He then tossed Naruto up into the air, and swung at the bundled up baby with his kunai, clearly intending to kill, but his blade cut nothing but air as Minato appeared to teleport to the other side of the room, holding his baby. The man's face was hidden, Minato could have could have sworn that he was smirking under that damn mask. Silently, the young Hokage swore that he would kill the bastard for this, but had to put his plans on hold when he noticed Naruto's blankets were smoking—and Minato realized with horror that the man had attached several explosive tags to them. Without a second thought, he teleported outside the little cabin where Kushina had just given birth to their son, and managed to escaped the blast, saving their infant child—by leaving his wife at the mercy of the masked man. Without wasting any time, he teleported to their home in the village and gently set his infant son in his crib.

"Just wait here a little bit, Naruto". He said softly, "I have to go and save your mom right now."

* * *

><p>Tobi couldn't believe that his plans had worked so perfectly. He had patiently waited so many years for the perfect moment to seize the Kyuubi and destroy this pathetic village that he had begun to wonder if he would ever get his chance, but now, everything that he had waited for was about to come to fruition, and even in his weakened condition, there was nothing that the little whelp of a Hokage could do to stop him. Still, even with the seal as weakened by her childbirth as it was, Madara had to give the Fourth credit; he could not destroy it completely. After frowning for a moment, Tobi knew what he had to do. After some final preparations were complete, he gloated, "Now, come out of there, Kyuubi!" With just a few hand signs, the engimatic man released the demon and he knew that he had won.<p>

* * *

><p>Jiraiya arrived in Konoha just in time to see the Demon fox revive. The color drained from his face, and he shuddered as he felt a massive wave of chakra wash over him so thick and full of malice that he couldn't breath. For a brief moment Jiraiya wondered how this could have happened. And then it hit him. "Kushina!" he shouted, and dropped his pack, heading at full speed towards the monster fox—and the mother of his godchild. As he ran he performed several hand signs, Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Sheep, and with a puff of smoke two elderly frogs appeared on his shoulders. They immediately began shouting.<p>

"Is that what I think it is Pa?" The frog on his left shoulder yelled pointing at the roaring Demon Fox, effortlessly cleaving its way through every ninja in its path.

The Frog on his left responded at equal volume—deafening, "That's the Kyuubi without a doubt! How'd it get free Boy?"

"I don't know!" he shouted back, "but it means that something is wrong with Kushina, and the village is in danger! I hate to have to use this, but I need to activate sage mode right now!" The two summoned frogs were far too stunned to argue, Jiraiya never used sage mode unless his life depended on it, without another word, they began to gather sage chakra. As Jiraiya's nose grew large and warty—an unfortunate feature of his sage mode, which had always made him reluctant to activate this powerful transformation—and his eyes obtained the orange lining which marked a sage, his speed kicked up another several gears and he found himself in the middle of the action in a matter of seconds. What he found surprised him: it was Minato, fighting not the Kyuubi, but a strange masked man who had Minato's techniques pass through him as though he were a ghost. It only took a moment for Jiraiya to figure out what was happening. "This is Space-Time Ninjutsu!" he thought, "It will take far too much time for Minato to deal with this while the Kyuubi is loose!" As Minato and the masked man clashed again and again without success, Jiraiya launched himself at the masked ninja the moment Minato passed through him and caught him with a mighty blow, and sent him flying out of sight.

* * *

><p>Minato was shocked by his teacher's sudden appearance and successful sneak attack against the masked man. As they had been fighting, He had been wracking his brain to figure out exactly who this masked stranger could be. Unfortunately, the man's power, knowledge of how to sneak past every barrier that was set up to protect Kushina during her labor, and most importantly, his ability to control the Kyuubi all led him back to the same conclusion again and again. Uchiha Madara. It seemed impossible, but there was no other explanation. Minato was just about to ask the masked man when all of a sudden, Jiraiya-sensei burst out from nowhere and knocked the masked man out of the Fire Country. He had been surprised enough to stand there dumbstruck for a moment before his teacher shouted at him.<p>

"Go and seal the Kyuubi right now you idiot! That man may have been defeated for now, but the Kyuubi is still loose! Go and deal with it now! I'll make sure he's gone!" Minato opened his mouth to protest, perhaps to claim this fight as his responsibility, but Jiraiya's rage cut him off. Knowing that he was right, Minato simply nodded and sped off towards the rampaging Kyuubi. There would be time to unravel the mystery of that masked bastard later, right now there was only one thing on his mind: stopping the monster before it was too late. However, on his way to confront the Kyuubi, he noticed something that froze him in horror: the body of a beautiful red haired woman lying on the ground, struggling to breathe—his wife. "Kushina!" he whispered, his voice was shaking, how could his strong, beautiful wife end up like this?

The mother of his child looked up at him, eyes brimming with tears, "Minato," she said, her voice so quiet, he had to strain to hear her, "bring Naruto and the Kyuubi over here, we need to seal it." Minato looked at his wife in abject horror, surely she couldn't mean…

"No!" he said, "you can't mean that! We can't put that—"

"Minato!" she said sharply, "Naruto has my blood in him, ya know. He is the only one who is suitable to hold the Kyuubi! You know as well as I do that I won't survive this. My seal's been compromised, but I still have enough strength to draw the Kyuubi in and hold him for a brief moment. When I do that, use the Hakke Fuin and seal everything left of me in Naruto!"

Minato couldn't help the tears that ran down his eyes as he watch the woman he loved dying in front of him, but he nodded and disappeared, returning a moment later with Naruto, and placed him in her arms. He silently kissed her on the forehead and left to divert the fox over to them. His face was grim as he left the mother and child to be alone for the first, and last time, but he knew that grief had to wait. For now, he had a job to do.

* * *

><p>Kushina felt cold. She felt a little silly about that because although it was October, it was unseasonably warm, and she was still hardened against the cold from her childhood in the Land of Eddies. Kushina felt cold, but her son felt warm in her arms, somehow quietly sleeping amongst the carnage that was taking place so close. She wished that she could have seen him grow up, but she was determined that Minato would be able to do it for her. "Naruto," she said—and started coughing, and as pained knifed through her she heard the Kyuubi appear out of nowhere, transported to her by Minato's space-time jutsu. Kushina lovingly placed her baby unto the ground, and began her sealing technique; expending what little life she had left to pull the Kyuubi back inside of her. And as promised, Minato performed Hakke Fuin, transferring the fox, and everything else that remained into Naruto. With the ritual completed, Kushina Uzumaki, former bearer of the Kyuubi, and wife to the Fourth Hokage, was dead, and a new Jinchuuriki was born.<p>

* * *

><p>Jiraiya scowled as he search for his masked enemy in vain. Using his connection to nature through sage mode, he had found him, alive but wounded, and had begun his pursuit when the man simply vanished. One second he had been right in front of him, and then it was as if he had dropped off of the face of the earth. "It must be some kind of genjutsu or incredibly advanced Ninjutsu," he wondered to himself, but quickly discarded the notion that this was an illusion. If neither of the two great sages on his shoulders had detected any trace of genjutsu being cast, then it had to have been the real thing. The battle was over for now, but the Toad Hermit was certain that the masked man was far from done. He would be back—it was only a question of when.<p>

A/N

Well this is my first work of fan fiction ever, and I'm quite proud that I actually sat down and wrote it out. While my style and many other elements need considerable work, I believe that my idea shows promise. Hopefully with everyone's support I can polish it into a quality series.

I look forward to any feedback given.


	2. Academy Life

I do not own Naruto or any of the characters mentioned in this story, this is for entertainment purposes only.

The Hokage's Son~~ Chapter 1: Academy Life

"Excellent work Naruto," Iruka-sensei said warmly as he placed the graded exam in front of the golden-haired boy, "keep this up and you'll edge out Sasuke-kun for the top position in this years class!" Naruto sheepishly gave a wide grin and begin to scratch his head, it wasn't like his grades were anything new—he had gotten perfect marks on nearly every one of them for the last several years. Still, it was nice to be appreciated, and being able to shoot a playfully mocking look at Sasuke was worth the fuss. The young Uchiha sitting next to him let out an audible snort and rolled his eyes in an exaggerated fashion, which of course got both of the boys laughing uncontrollably. They had first met when the Fourth Hokage pardoned the Uchiha clan for their failed coup d'état a few years back, and since then, the boys had been inseparable. They competed against each other in everything: written test scores, sparring sessions, footraces, and even popularity inadvertently causing a war between the female population of the school as their fan clubs fought against each other over them, much to their discomfort.

"Wow, Sasuke-kun," a certain pink-hair kunoichi squealed, her piercing voice making both boys wince, "you got another perfect score!" Sasuke saw what was coming next and he looked at Naruto and sighed, as the other boy struggled to keep from laughing. "You should totally tutor me sometime, since you're so smart!" Sasuke began to look more and more irritated as the girl continued to obnoxiously fawn over him, when Naruto decided that he should help his friend.

Putting on a innocent face, Naruto came to the rescue and said, "But haven't you gotten perfects on all of your exams as well Sakura-chan? Maybe you should go tutor Kiba-kun, I hear he has been struggling a bit lately." The girl blushed at being called out on her obvious ploy and glared at Naruto with obvious malice. She nevertheless removed herself from Sasuke and walked away, fuming. Sasuke silently thanked his friend, and returned the favor by nudging him to indicate the Yamanaka girl standing by the exit, searching for him with a predatory look on her face that reminded Naruto somewhat of a hungry shark. His face turned pale and he quickly gathered his things while surreptitiously scoping the room for an escape route. Unfortunately, the path to the door was blocked off by the unquestioned leader of the Namikaze Naruto fan club, leaving only one possible escape route—the window. When Naruto was sure that she wasn't looking, he gathered his chakra and in an instant, he was home free. Sasuke scowled and shook his head in amazement—no matter how many times he had seen Naruto put that incredible burst of speed to use, it was still hard to believe.

"One of these days I'm going to have to make him show me how he does that." Sasuke thought with a slight tinge of jealousy, but he chuckled as he walked past the clueless blond girl scanning the empty room.

* * *

><p>Naruto let out a sigh of relief when he realized that he was in the clear, and started heading to his favorite restaurant in Konoha, a plain-looking shop called Ichiraku Ramen. As he walked, he began thinking about his "situation" with Yamanaka Ino. "It's not that she's not pretty or anything," he mused out load to himself, "but she doesn't have to be so damn…<em>aggressive<em> about it, ya know!" Naruto wasn't averse to the attention of his female peers—in fact, he typically thrived off of it, if only because it scored him multiple handmade lunches every day. Ino, however, was different. Every time she was around, he found her intensity extremely unsettling—at first he tried to convince himself he should be flattered that she liked him so much—but whenever she looked at him, he found himself feeling like a bag of chips in front of Choji. He quickly abandoned that train of thought when he smelled the scent of delicious noodles coming from his favorite store.

At the sight of his most voracious customer, Ichiraku Teuchi smiled broadly "Naruto," he said with obvious affection, "it's been a while! You look more like your father every time I see you!" Naruto grinned in response; he tended to hear that a lot. Once he began his time at the Academy, Naruto had abandoned his t-shirt and shorts to sport the same dark blue turtleneck and pants his father wore when he was not in his ceremonial robes, leading to many remarks that if it weren't for his unusual birthmarks, he would be a young clone of his father. The comparison always made him proud, and Naruto was determined to live up to the resemblance, pushing him to excel. He sat down and ordered his favorite dish, an extra large Miso Ramen with all the trimmings, and within seconds of the bowl touching the counter in front of him, it was gone.

Teuchi chuckled at the sight of the Hokage's son devour his ramen like he hadn't eaten in weeks, and was waiting for the inevitable request for seconds when Naruto did something completely unexpected: he paid for his ramen and thanked him for the great meal. Seeing the shocked look on Teuchi's face, Naruto laughed, "Sorry Pops, I wish I could eat more, ya know! I really got to get home; Dad said that he would train me tonight! But make sure that you make a huge batch tomorrow, cause I'm gonna be starving, ya know!" Teuchi watched as the energetic boy run at an unbelievable towards the Hokage tower and shook his head in amazement; he expected to see great things from the boy.

Naruto was almost giddy with excitement. Lately, his father had been so busy that their training sessions had grown more and more rare. In order to compensate for lost time, Naruto decided to practice the techniques that his father had shown him with everything he had, and was making great progress. In fact, he had improved so quickly that when he was able demonstrate his progress, his father had been very impressed. Naruto blushed with joy as he remembered the praising words of his dad, and wondered what he would teach him today, and in his excitement, redoubled his efforts to get home as quickly as possible.

When Naruto finally arrived at home, he kicked off his shoes and shouted out to announce his presence and anxiously waited for his father to greet him with the somewhat mischievous grin he tended to wear before their training sessions. As the seconds went by, Naruto frowned at the lack of a response; his heart sank—it looked like his dad was going to be working late. Again. Naruto sighed heavily and trudged to his room and began his homework. After a few hours, when he had finished checking and re-checking his work, he walked out of his room into the main chamber of the living quarters and frowned again when he looked at the clock—late or not, his father should have been home by then. More often than not, Naruto felt that ever since the Third Hokage passed away in his sleep, his father had become too busy to spend any time with him. It was lonely in the house without his father around, and the Hokage's living chambers in the tower were cavernous and somewhat intimidating, making him feel very small.

At times like this, Naruto found that he enjoyed sneaking into the storage rooms to read from the thousands of scrolls that were once part of the former Hokage's private collection. While some of the scrolls were boring, and many others perverted—leading Naruto to the disturbing conclusion that his father's predecessor was a bit of a lecher—many of them were quite fascinating. By far, Naruto's favorite scrolls were the ones that talked about the Third Great Ninja War, the same war that his father had fought in. He swelled with pride as he read about his father's exploits as the legendary "Yellow Flash of Konoha". Today though, as he walked through the dusty storeroom, browsing the many scrolls within it, an especially large scroll, which he had somehow missed before, caught his eye. Curious, the boy retried it from the shelf and brought it back to the living quarters. When he opened it he was delighted to discover that it was an enormous jutsu manual. Naruto rubbed his hands together and a mischievous grin that was eerily similar to his father's spread across his face as he read the explanation of the first skill on the scroll; it was something called the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu—the shadow clone technique.

* * *

><p>Minato felt a stab of guilt when he finally looked up from his paperwork at the clock. "Damn it!" he thought, Naruto had no doubt gone to bed hours ago, even though Minato had promised to train him tonight. He then looked at the still enormous pile of paperwork sitting on his desk and sighed, obviously, something had to change. Nevertheless, he continued to fill out and read form after form until he was finally finished, and wearily grumbled that he had to learn to delegate better. As he walked out of the office he turned and looked out the window to see the serene face of the Sandaime Hokage carved on the cliff overlooking his beloved village. It had only been a year since the Shinobi once known as "The Professor" had died, but to Minato it sometimes felt like it had been an eternity. He hadn't realized how much he had come to rely on the old man, who had never gotten out of the habit of getting up at the crack of dawn to begin his day as Hokage. The retired Third had offered his free time to assist Minato in handling the more mundane duties of the office, namely, the crushing amount of paperwork: budget requests, property deeds, private disputes, salary forms—quite frankly Minato didn't know how his predecessor had done it all by himself while still managing to raise a family when he remembered Sarutobi Asuma, his estranged son. "That's right," he thought bitterly, "he didn't get to raise his family, that's why the boy ran off to go join the Twelve Guardians." Still, Minato loved his village dearly, and was proud to do his duty as Hokage. He just hoped that Naruto wouldn't grow hate him because of it.<p>

It was a worrying thought. Naruto was almost thirteen now, and he was growing up faster than Minato could believe. He remember the day a few weeks ago when his son had eagerly shown him the results of his practice after Minato had shown him the basics of the Shunshin technique. In what seemed like no time at all, the boy had acquired a level of proficiency typical of a jonin. At that moment Minato had felt an odd mixture of pride and of concern; his son was certainly a chip off the old block, and was becoming a man that he knew Kushina would be proud of—though he knew she would be less than thrilled to learn that he had inherited her verbal tic—the thought made Minato smile, to him, it was proof that Kushina truly lived on within the son she had given her life to save.

At the same time, whenever Minato had seen Naruto training on his own, he found the sight oddly disturbing. He knew that his son had a fierce rivalry and friendship with the Uchiha boy in his class, and from his experience with Kakashi and Guy, he knew that it always served to make people work harder…however, the intensity with which his son trained was almost frightening. Naruto threw himself into his training like his very life depended on it—it was like the boy had something to prove, and though that drive made for an excellent shinobi, it also eliminated the possibility of a carefree childhood. He didn't know how his son had acquired this particular mindset, but it made Minato a little sad.

Suddenly, the memory of the masked man leapt unbidden into Minato's thoughts. He remembered how he had been filled with dread when a grim-faced Jiraiya told him that the man had somehow escaped. They both knew that as long as Naruto held the Kyuubi, the man whom Minato had tentatively identified as Uchiha Madara, would eventually return for it. Minato had never forgotten that dread, which served him well during the Uchiha uprising a few years back. He had been shocked when the news of a planned coup d'état reached his ears—with his special Hiraishin seals strategically placed throughout Konoha, and the still living Third Hokage's support, it was obvious that any attempt at a coup d'état was doomed to certain failure. However, when he learned that it was the famous Uchiha clan that was planning the supposed takeover, Minato instantly grew suspicious. Something did not seem right, and he knew that he would need to investigate further. The council however, had disagreed.

"This treacherous activity cannot be allowed to continue," said Danzo, a heavily bandaged shinobi from the Third's generation, "the penalty for treason is clear: the clan must be eliminated." Minato had never been fond of the man; he had been Sarutobi Hirozen's main competition for the position of Third Hokage, and was of the opinion that Konoha should be run according to the highly militant, emotionless dogma that characterized his ANBU Root program. The other two members of the council, Homora Mitokado and Koharu Utataro, seemed to agree with him. Looking for support, Minato glanced at the Third and was relieved to see the obvious discomfort on the old shinobi's face; he might be able to do this after all. Minato sat silently in solemn contemplation for several minutes as the elder council debated the proper course of action. When they stopped talking, he looked up to see his advisors looking at him expectantly, waiting for an answer.

Finally, Minato spoke up, "I suggest we hold off on any action until we I am able to investigate the matter further. The Uchiha clan has been a loyal part of the Hidden Leaf since the founding of the village and I find it difficult to believe that the matter is so simple." Minato paused for a moment to catch his breath and continued, "Specifically, I'm referring to the night my wife died, and the masked man behind it. I have already let my suspicions concerning the identity of the man be known to you all," at that, Danzo quietly snorted in ridicule, and both the Third and Minato silenced him with a glare before he continued on, "if I am correct in this belief, that Uchiha Madara is still alive, than he is very likely to be behind this as well." For a moment, the room was silent as his advisors absorbed what Minato had just said. Unsurprisingly, Danzo was the one to break the silence.

"We are well aware of your feelings regarding the night the Kyuubi was released Fourth," Danzo replied with obvious scorn, "but the idea that Uchiha Madara is as ridiculous as it is impossible. Everyone knows that he died during his battle with the First Hokage at the Valley of the End."

Minato sighed, and quietly replied with a voice filled with sadness, "It is only as ridiculous as the man being able to break through the barrier protecting my wife, a barrier that I was told could not be broken. It is only as impossible as his unexplained ability to control the Kyuubi as if it were a puppet." Danzo visibly blanched at the mention of the masked man's peculiar powers—like Minato, he too found the man's unexplainable powers to be very disconcerting. Suddenly, the young Hokage's voice sharpened, and Danzo found himself feeling nervous for the first time in a very long time. "Danzo," he said, "if the man who unleashed the Kyuubi and killed my wife was not Uchiha Madara, then who was he?" Minato was not surprised when his question was met with silence.

The next day, Minato was staring into the furious eyes of Uchiha Fugaku, the leader of the Uchiha clan and, ironically, the father of the informant who had revealed the plot to the Konoha elite. He did not look happy to be there.

"I demand an explanation for this treatment at once," the Uchiha shouted, causing the guards outside of the Hokage's office to wince, "I was dragged here from my home without warning in the middle of the night and held in my own station's cells to be brought here! What is the meaning of this outrage?" Minato lifted his eyebrow; he had never seen the Uchiha leader lose his cool like this before. Minato gave a curt nod, and the shinobi who had been standing silently next to him began walking towards the bound Uchiha. Fugaku's eyes widened when he recognized the man as Yamanaka Inoichi, one of the chief interrogators for the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force—and famous for his ability to break into the very mind of his victims. "You'll never get away with this," the Uchiha sneered, "even the Hokage has limits on what they are allowed to do. I haven't even been charged with any crime. You have no right!"

"That is where you are wrong," Minato replied with a flat voice, "we have uncovered substantial evidence that you and your clan have been planning a coup d'état to seize control of Konoha for yourselves." Fugaku's face lost its angry sneer and turned completely white at the revelation the man became frozen with shock and fear.

The man began to stammer, "Hokage-sama, I—"

"_Normally_," Minato snapped, cutting him off, "this would result in the immediate elimination of your clan as a potential threat to the safety of Konoha, even without solid proof." Minato paused for a moment and looked into the man's eyes with an expression that rejected any thoughts the Uchiha might have had about trying to escape. "However," he continued, "due to certain events, I have come to believe that this situation might not be all it seems." The leader of the Uchiha clan looked confused, but a little bit hopeful as well.

After carefully considering his words, Fugaku spoke, "With respect, Hokage-sama, what events are you referring to? What could lead you to such a conclusion?" Minato glared at him for a moment, causing Fugaku to flinch at his gaze, and then he sighed and told him about the masked man who had released the Kyuubi and his beliefs about the man's identity. Fugaku listened with growing apprehension, and then he suddenly looked thoughtful. "Based on your description, it certainly does seem that the man who attacked you that night was in fact Uchiha Madara, but what does his appearance have to due with your accusations that my clan is planning to seize power?"

"Everything," Minato replied, causing an uncharacteristically confused look to appear on the Uchiha's face, "you are not a stupid man, Fugaku, you were around during the war and you know my Hiraishin seals are dispersed all over the city—seals which your clan could not neutralize without immediately arousing suspicion. Within the walls of the village, I could eliminate your entire clan by myself if you ever made the attempt. In addition, the Third Hokage is still very much alive, and while he is not as young as he used to be, he is still an extremely dangerous person to stand against. Even if you removed the two of us from the picture, the entirety of Konoha would stand against such an attempt. Your plan was doomed to failure from the very beginning." As Fugaku sat there silently, Minato watched the man's reactions to his explanation, as he thought, the Uchiha had never considered that fact. "There is only one explanation that I can think of—you and your entire clan have been manipulated by Uchiha Madara, somehow, the destruction of your clan is part of his twisted scheme."

Uchiha Fugaku felt as if the world had caved in on him. How could he have been so damn blind? How could his entire clan have believed that the plan for the coup d'état had a chance of success? He looked up at the Hokage and asked in a hollow voice, "so what happens now?"

At those words, Inoichi grinned evilly, and he walked up to the obviously shaken Uchiha, "That's where I come in."

Minato blinked, and realized that he had been staring at the Hokage monument for an hour now. He groaned as when he looked at the clock and left his office to head to bed. "Tomorrow," he thought to himself as he began to drift off to sleep, "I'll assign an assistant to take care of the unessential paperwork, and train Naruto no matter what."

* * *

><p>Like always, Sasuke woke at 0500, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, and left the house to head to the family training grounds. He then began his usual training regimen before his day began the Academy. One hour of shurikan and kunai practice, one hour of practicing taijutsu forms, and finally, an hour of basic physical training. He then returned to his house, bathed, and headed off to class. On the surface, it seemed like any other day, but to Sasuke, it was a day he had long looked forward to—today, they were to begin full contact sparring. "I finally get a chance to go all out against Naruto," Sasuke thought as he raced towards the Academy's Taijutsu training ground, "now we can settle this and see who is better, once and for all." Sasuke frowned and shook his head—where had that come from? His goal was to surpass Itachi; Naruto was simply his best friend. Every time they had sparred at the Academy, the results were inconclusive; sometimes, Sasuke was the victor, other times, it was Naruto. Sasuke smiled, today would be different, it was the first time they were allowed to use Ninjutsu and weapons in their match. Though the instructors were watching and they were using blunted weapons, Sasuke knew that this time he would prove himself to be every bit Itachi's equal. He would prove it to everyone.<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto hastily finished his fourth bowl of ramen as he looked at the clock behind the Ichiraku counter. "Later Pops," Naruto shouted after paying for his meal, "I got to get to class or Iruka-sensei will kill me!" Teuchi laughed and wished the excited boy good luck. Lately, Naruto had been in noticeably high spirits—an impressive feat coming a boy who constantly had a huge grin plastered on his face. The ramen shop owner had meant to ask the boy what had put him in such a fine mood, but his constant chatter eliminated any possibility of that. His daughter, Ayame, watched as Teuchi fondly gazed at the rapidly shrinking figure of his favorite customer and smiled.<p>

When Naruto reached the doors of the Academy, he was half-surprised that he had made it with plenty of time to spare. Since his father had hired the older Haruno girl as an assistant a few weeks ago, Naruto had been given regular training sessions. As a result, his speed had improved at a rate that shocked even him. Comforted by the knowledge of time to spare, Naruto leisurely strolled into a completely empty Classroom 103, Naruto frowned in confusion for a moment, and then an evil grin spread across his face as he remembered what day it was. It was finally time to reveal the results of what he had learned, and the golden-haired student couldn't wait to see the looks of surprise on everyone's face. After gathering a large amount of chakra in his feet, Naruto's body flickered and the classroom was once again empty.

* * *

><p>Iruka frowned as he searched the training ground for his blond-haired pupil. It wasn't like Naruto to be late, <em>especially <em>considering what day it was. Suddenly, a yellow flash caught his eye and Naruto was standing at the front of the gathered students with an embarrassed grin on his face. Though the scar-faced chuunin was a little shocked at the display of speed he had just witnessed, he quickly regained his bearings and loudly cleared his throat to silence the chattering group. When the noise finally died down, Iruka addressed his anxious students. "As you all know, today we begin full contact sparring sessions. During these sessions, you will all be paired up with another one of your classmates for a supervised match. The rules for these matches are the same as before: the fight is over when your opponent either gives up, loses consciousness, or the referee declares the match over. However, unlike before, you are allowed to use any weapons, techniques or tactics as you see fit. The purpose of these exercises is to help develop and polish your individual fighting styles. Additionally, the results of these sparring sessions will determine team configurations upon graduation."

Upon receiving this piece of information, Iruka's students began murmuring amongst themselves excitedly. Iruka waited for a moment for them to quiet down, but eventually silenced the group with a glare. One student raised their hand and Iruka nodded at them to speak, "Iruka-sensei," the girl said, "if these are individual matches, why are our teams being decided by their outcomes? My father said that teams were picked based on the grades of its members to in order to have as balanced a squad as possible."

Iruka stared at the girl for a moment; she was obviously one of the other instructor's students, since he couldn't remember her name at the moment. "That's an excellent question." Iruka replied, trying with all of his might to remember the name of the glasses wearing blond girl, "It's true, that used to be the method we used to determine team placement, but at the suggestion of the Hokage, we have decided to adopt this new method, for a variety of reasons." Iruka paused to take a breath and make sure everyone was listening—satisfied, he continued on, "First, only a small number of you will actually be assigned to a squad immediately following graduation—simply becoming a genin does not guarantee that you will become a field ninja. Some of you possess skills that are suitable for missions out in the field, while others are more suited for working in units like the ANBU Black Ops, or the Medical Corps. It all depends on your own individual abilities." Iruka paused to see if there were any other questions, but continued on when he saw the students nodding in understanding. "Secondly, while your grades are an important factor in measuring your abilities as a shinobi, it is next to impossible to predict how a team will be able to work together based on numerical data. During these spars, we will observe and make note of your abilities, fighting styles, and personalities in order to assemble as cohesive and well rounded of teams as possible. Any questions?" Iruka looked around once again to see if everything was clear to his students and grinned, "There are a couple of other reasons why this new method has been adopted, but we are running short on time. If there are any other questions I'll be happy to explain after class, but for now, let's begin the sparring! Your partner for today is posted on the board over there."

* * *

><p>Hyuuga Hinata had already been standing next to the board where the match-ups had been posted when Iruka-sensei pointed the throng of people over in her direction. Her lilac eyes quickly scanned the paper until she found what she was looking for: HYUUGA HINATA VS YAMANAKA INO. Hinata's heart sank at the thought of having to face the overbearing leader of Naruto's fan club. She knew that Naruto couldn't stand the girl, in fact, Hinata was fairly certain that the blond-headed kunoichi was one of the only people Naruto feared. While she thought it was a little funny that the girl scared the confident boy so much, Hinata always found that Ino's blatant disregard for his obvious distaste regarding her behavior disgraceful. Lost in thought, Hinata stood motionlessly next to the board when the object of said thoughts appeared next to her in a flash, startling the timid girl and making her jump. Naruto grinned at Hinata and read the board.<p>

"Alright!" he shouted with a smile on his face, "Looks like I'm fighting Kiba first!" He glanced at Hinata, who was still frozen with a blush on her face and looked as if she were going to pass out. Curious, Naruto glanced at the board and saw who her opponent was, his grin faltering a little when he read Ino's name. He turned to Hinata and gave her an encouraging nudge, "Relax Hinata-chan! If you calm down, I'm sure that you'll do great!"

Hinata blushed furiously and looked up to see Naruto beaming at her. Nervously, she tried to smile back and somehow managed to stammer out a reply, "Th-thank you, N-Naruto-kun, I w-wish you g-good luck as well." Naruto was about to respond when suddenly Hinata was sent sprawling to the floor after being run into by an excited Ino.

"Hey Naruto-kun!" she gushed, "I'm sure that you're gonna clobber that dog idiot! Wish me luck in my match too! Who am I against anyways?" Ino looked at the posting and smirked when she saw her opponent. "Look's like I'm gonna be fighting that creepy little wallflower, this is gonna be no problem!" Ino turned to give the object of her affection her most charming smile only to find the boy helping up the Hyuuga girl off the ground with an expression on his face that she had never seen before. He was angry—no, he was furious at her. Ino's mouth dropped open at the sight of her perpetually cheerful, smiling Naruto, _glaring_ at her. "N-Naruto," Ino stammered, "w-what's wrong?"

"_What's wrong_?" Naruto replied, his voice dripping with disgust, "What is wrong is that you knocked Hinata-chan to the ground without a thought. What's wrong is that you just insulted her to her face in front of me. Most of all, what's wrong is that this doesn't even seem register to you as a problem." Ino felt her face drain of color, as the force of Naruto's cold fury seemed to pour over her.

"I-I'm sorry, N-Naruto-kun, it was an accident." Ino stammered, fighting back tears.

"Don't apologize to me," Naruto snapped, "apologize to Hinata-chan!"

"P-please forgive me Hinata-chan." Ino begged, as the tears began to roll down her face.

Hinata was shocked by this event. Nobody had ever stuck up for her before, and _certainly_ not to this degree. She brushed the dirt off of her jacket and looked at the crying girl in front of her, and then looked at Naruto's face—still flushed with anger. Hinata timidly put her hand on Ino's shoulder and quietly forgave the girl. Naruto gave a curt nod, smiled encouragingly at Hinata, shot a final glare at Ino, and in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

As soon as Naruto had left, Ino wiped the tears off of her face and slapped Hinata's hand away. The timid girl jumped a little bit at the Ino's sudden change in demeanor and gasped at the look of pure hatred on the girl's face. "You better watch yourself, you white-eyed little whore. Naruto is _mine_, " Ino snarled, "and I'm gonna destroy you for this. When our match starts, you're dead." With that statement, Ino stormed away, leaving a terrified Hinata frozen in place.

* * *

><p>Sasuke had never really paid much attention to the silent Aburame kid. He knew that their clan was famous for using bugs, and that the boy was also at the top of the class along with Naruto and himself—but that was about it. Still, Sasuke didn't consider Shino much of a threat. At least, he hadn't until he had charged in to find a buzzing cloud of insects waiting to devour his chakra. Sasuke cursed under his breath—although he had managed to get away from the voracious hoard of insects, he paid a heavy price for his arrogance in the form of most of his chakra. "Great," Sasuke thought angrily, "now I'm starting this battle with a major handicap."<p>

"SASUKE-KUN!"

Sasuke winced at the sound of his fan club screaming for him. "Damn it," he thought, "won't those idiots just shut up?" Sasuke shook his head and tuned them out; his enemy was the Aburame, not those screaming imbeciles. Pulling a couple of shurikan out of pouch as he circled the stationary bug user, Sasuke threw them in a tight grouping at the boy's chest and sprinted towards him when his opponent dodged the projectiles.

Aburame Shino had to resist raising his eyebrow in amusement as Sasuke ran towards him at full speed. Did he really think such a simple tactic would work on him? With only milliseconds to spare, Shino flawlessly performed the Kawarimi no Jutsu, replacing himself with a bug clone. "It's over." He thought as the bugs making up the clone swarmed the Uchiha after his fist plunged through swarm.

The crowd gasped in surprise as Sasuke crumpled to the ground with every inch of his body covered in ravenous bugs. Then a voice rang out, "Katon: Gokyaku no Jutsu!" The huge mass of insects was consumed in a massive fireball, and completely incinerated. Before Shino could react to the new development, Sasuke appeared behind him, and placed a kunai against his throat.

Shino raised an eyebrow at the Uchiha boy, "That was an impressive feint," he said in his usual emotionless tone, "I concede, you have destroyed the majority of my insects, and your strike could have ended me at any time. It seems that still require more training." With a curt nod to the referee, who was busy finishing up his notes concerning the fight, the silent Aburame boy walked away with his hands in his pockets, Sasuke watched as the bug user disappeared into the crowd, and wondered how Naruto was doing.

* * *

><p>Naruto walked away from the stunned crowd after his match, leaving the unconscious body of Inuzuka Kiba lying face down in the dirt, with his dog Akamaru licking his face in an attempt to rouse him. The match, if you could even call it that, had been over almost as soon as it had begun. When Naruto had taken up his fighting pose, he was still a little angry over the treatment of Hinata. Because the Hyuuga girl was always so shy, the kids in his class tended to respond to her in one of two ways: they either ignored her completely or subtly subjected her to ridicule and torment. Naruto had always been bothered by this treatment of a girl whose only fault was that she was incredibly shy, but he felt like it was really none of his business, and tended to stay out of it. Today however, was different. As graduation approached, Ino had become more and more aggressive in pursuing him. At first, Naruto tried to laugh it off like always but then he noticed something odd, fewer and fewer girls came near him as one by one, his admirers tended to show up to class covered in bruises or sporting broken bones that they had received from various "accidents". Though there was no proof, Naruto became more and more certain that the string of injuries befalling the members of the Naruto Fan Club was not a coincidence. So after the Yamanaka girl's violent run in with Hinata, Naruto now knew for sure that she had been the one behind it all.<p>

Kiba—who had seen the entire between the two kunoichi unfold—grinned, displaying his prominent canines fully. He knew that in a straight fight, he had next to no chance against the top ranked student. "But being a shinobi isn't about being fair," he thought as he took his place in front of Naruto, "it's about who can win in the end." Kiba sniffed the air and grinned again, despite the look of concentration on the boy's face, his scent betrayed his distress over the confrontation. "I should probably be really careful Akamaru," Kiba said loudly, making sure that Naruto could hear him, "if I'm seen near Mr. Popular here I'll probably end up in an 'accident' too!" Kiba gave a small barking laugh, and looked ahead to see Naruto's fist heading at a high speed towards his face. "Oh shi—" Kiba thought, and with a sickening _crack_, and a flash of pain, the world went dark.

Quickly leaving the scene of the slaughter, Naruto slunk back into the crowd, now slightly embarrassed with himself. There was no excuse for him to lose his cool like that, and from what he could tell; he had shattered the Inuzuka boy's jaw. He watched as two of the teachers picked up Kiba and carted him off to the hospital with a slightly sick feeling in his stomach. At that moment, all Naruto wanted to do was go home, and was about to ask Iruka-sensei for permission but froze when he heard his teacher call out the next match, "Hyuuga Hinata vs. Yamanaka Ino!" realizing what was about to happen, the blond headed boy turned pale and in an instant, was at the front of the crowd, standing next to Sasuke, just in time to see his vicious admirer glaring at the timid Hyuuga, and radiating an oppressive aura of killer intent. Picking up on the strange hostility coming from Naruto's chief admirer, Sasuke turned towards his friend. Seeing the worried look on his face, he followed Naruto's gaze to the Hyuuga girl, who looked so terrified that a stiff breeze could probably blow her over. "Well," Sasuke thought to himself, "this should be interesting."

* * *

><p>Yamanaka Ino was pissed. She had been working hard the last couple of weeks to ensure that her competition "dropped out" of the race. Literally. As planned, her rivals concerning Naruto began to distance themselves from the boy one by one until a certain blond girl was the only contender remaining. Ino scowled, though she had seen the Hyuuga girl watching Naruto from afar for quite a while, she had never considered the stuttering girl a threat—after all, the two rarely if ever spoke to each other. Ino had simply assumed that the girl would never act on her feelings and decided to ignore the girl. "Not any more," Ino thought, "it's time that I put you in your place." When the call finally came for the two girls to take their positions in the ring, Ino grinned savagely—it was show time.<p>

Hinata felt the blood run out of her already pale face when her name was called to take her position in the ring. While she couldn't say that she was confident about the match-up before her altercation with the Yamanaka girl, she hadn't been nearly as terrified as she was now. All members of the Hyuuga clan were observant by nature, but in Hinata, it was taken to the next level—being the disgrace of her family had turned her observation skills from a family trait into a tool for survival. So when all of the girls who had previously surrounded Naruto—with the exception of Yamanaka Ino—began showing up to class with unexplained injuries, Hinata took notice—and though incredibly withdrawn, she wasn't stupid. She knew that Ino was behind it all. Luckily for Hinata, Ino had mostly ignored her; sometimes she threw a couple of cruel comments her way, but nothing that she hadn't heard before—until now. Hinata took a deep breath and slowly walked into the ring. She knew that if she didn't fight here, she would only be placing herself in greater danger later.

Although Ino was confident in her ability to defeat the Hyuuga girl, she always took care not to underestimate her opponent. Before every fight, whether it be for Naruto's attention, a test, or a sparring match such as this, she always remembered her father's words: to underestimate an opponent is to ensure your own downfall. Unlike her father, Ino was an emotional being—by nature, she was impulsive, reckless, and quick to anger. Recognizing this, Inoichi had drilled his daughter on a special routine to eliminate these traits before a combat situation. "First," he said, "you must assess the enemy's strengths, it is important to know what to watch out for so you can make a plan to neutralize them. Next, you must analyze the enemy's weaknesses, so that you are able to exploit them. Finally, you must know yourself—if you lack the ability to defeat your opponent, retreat until opportunity presents itself."

Ino kept this in mind as she glared at her opponent, mentally calculating everything she knew about the Hyuuga girl and herself in order to form a plan. "Heh," Ino thought to herself when she had finished her analysis, "this will be even easier than I thought." When the call was given to begin, Ino slipped her hand into her equipment pouch and began to move.

* * *

><p>Hinata barely had time to dodge as the first kunai flew by her face, missing by mere inches; she had been distracted by the sight of Naruto, staring at her with a worried expression on his face. She briefly wondered why anyone would bother to worry about anyone like her, but a barrage of shurikan heading in her direction cut off the thought as she leapt out of the way to avoid the onslaught. "I must focus!" Hinata thought, "If I am defeated here I will only disgrace my father and clan further!" Assuming that her opponent would inevitably come to finish her off at close range, Hinata added some distance between herself and Ino, only to trigger a tripwire attached to an explosive note. Hinata barely managed to escape the trap by using the Kawarimi technique, but not without suffering minor burns to her arms and singed hair. Realizing that the Yamanaka girl intended to finish her from a distance, Hinata retaliated for the first time with a few kunai of her own, using the distraction to close in on her foe as she formed a seal and activated her Byakugan. As the veins surrounding her temples to visibly bulge, time seemed to slow down for Hinata as her vision expanded to 360 and the world around zoomed into supernatural focus. Only twenty feet separated Hinata from her opponent and her tenketsu points, which were clearly visible to the young Hyuuga's eyes. Now only ten feet remained between the two kunoichi, and Hinata began gathering her chakra in her palm in preparation for her attack when she saw Ino grin and throw something at her face, on reflex, Hinata's eyes followed the object as she began to dodge when it exploded, releasing a blinding light.<p>

Ino uncovered her eyes and a feral smile spread across her face as she gazed upon the Hyuuga girl clutching her eyes while screaming in pain. Her plan had worked perfectly. Ino knew that against a member of the Hyuuga clan—even a loser like this one—the Byakugan and their Juken were to be feared. While Ino was fairly proficient in taijutsu herself, it would be suicide to take Hinata on directly—so Ino decided to turn the Hyuuga clan's most dangerous weapon—their supernaturally good vision—against them. "With that," Ino thought nastily, "the bitch will be lucky if she is ever able to see again." Ino walked up to the writhing figure of the girl and brought her foot back to deliver a kick when she was stopped by Iruka.

"This match is over!" he shouted angrily, stepping between the two girls. "Shit," Iruka said as he stared at the sobbing creature in front of her, "the matches are over for today! Collect your homework from Mizuki-sensei and go home!" Hastily, Iruka hoisted Hinata onto his shoulder and rushed to the hospital as quickly as he could. He knew very well that a blind Hyuuga—especially Hinata—would not have a very good life expectancy.

* * *

><p>AN I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews! I wasn't sure what to think about my first submission, but knowing that even one person was anxious to see more kept me working. As you can see, my idea of a popular Naruto has resulted in some disturbing deviations from normal character behavior. In the case of Ino, after her father gained knowledge of Madara/Tobi's involvement in the release of the Kyuubi and the planned Uchiha uprising, he has become increasingly paranoid and channeled it into training Ino for the coming disaster. As a result, she has become much more ruthless in achieving her goals than in canon, since she sees everything in terms of war. Sasuke on the other hand, because his clan was never killed, is not nearly as cold and arrogant as he was in canon, but he is still driven to outdo Itachi and has no interest in pursuing girl's at the moment. Naruto on the other hand, is basically what you would expect if he had never suffered abuse and neglect from his childhood, and had been given quality instruction from day one due to his high status as the son of the Hokage.


	3. Graduation

The Hokage's Son

Chapter 2: Graduation

Minato looked grim as he read the report concerning the first day of the sparring matches. He put the file down on his desk and sighed, suddenly feeling much older than his 36 years. The addition of the full contact spars to the Academy's standard lesson plans had been implemented at his suggestion. Minato had hoped that the matches would inspire camaraderie amongst the young shinobi, that they would forge friendship and respect for each other through friendly battle—instead, the very first day of the spars had resulted in the Inuzuka boy receiving a broken jaw at the hands of his son, and the Hyuga heiress being seriously injured. With a heavy conscience, Minato headed to the hospital for information and felt his heart break for the poor girl when the attending medical-nin told him the news.

"The patient has several minor lacerations on her face, first and second degree burns on her arms, and her eardrums were ruptured from the blast…" the medical-nin paused, he wasn't sure how he would phrase the next part to the distraught Hokage.

"Tell me about her eyes," Minato asked softly, his voice almost a whisper, "will she ever be able to see again? Can she still ever hope to be a ninja after this?"

"Honestly—we don't know, Hokage-sama. Even with a regular ninja, the odds of recovering from a point-blank flash bomb to the level of combat effectiveness are about 10 to 1 at best. However, this girl is no ordinary ninja—as a member of the Hyuga clan, everything depends on her ability to use her eyes. In all honesty, it doesn't look good, even if we are able to restore some of her vision, the likelihood that she will ever become a shinobi is very small."

Minato felt like throwing up. When he had been that age, his dream was to someday become Hokage—and after years of hard work, discipline, and enduring a bitter war, he had been able to reach his goal. Whatever the Hyuga girl's dream had been, becoming a shinobi had been a part of it—and now it looked as if her dream had faded along with her sight. The medical-nin in front of him was saying something else, but Minato simply nodded without hearing him and walked off in the room where the girl was being kept. It was no secret that the oldest daughter of the Hyuga's main branch had no friends due to her shyness, and knowing the Hyuga family, Minato doubted that she had received any visitors since the incident. "Even if could not protect the girl from losing her dream," Minato thought with a sad look on his face, "I can at least do my best to shield her from loneliness and despair in her time of need." When the young Hokage opened the door to enter the room he was both surprised and pleased to find someone sitting next to the bed of the unconscious girl.

* * *

><p>Naruto turned around at the sound of approaching footsteps and saw his father standing in the doorway. The man looked about twenty years older than when he had seen him this morning and had perhaps the saddest expression Naruto had ever seen on his face. "Dad, I—" Naruto began, but was cut off when his father suddenly appeared at his side and wrapped his arms around the trembling boy.<p>

"It's okay, Naruto," Minato whispered to his crying son, "I heard all about it and it's not your fault. You didn't want this to happen, and you didn't do anything wrong by sticking up for your classmate." Minato pushed Naruto away from him for a moment so that he could look into his son's eyes. "No matter what happened today, I never want you to be afraid to stand up for the people who you care about! While the way things played out was truly unfortunate, you must always remember that _you did the right thing_! Do you understand?" Naruto looked up into his father's eyes and took a deep breath before nodding to indicate that he understood, and then he embraced Minato once more. After a moment, the two of them sat down on the bench and silently watched over Hinata. After a few minutes of this, Naruto quietly asked if she was going to be all right, and Minato's heart sank once more as he imagined the look on his son's face when he was told the news. Minato sighed and sadly shook his head, he didn't dare lie to the boy, "It doesn't look good," he said wearily, "the doctor said that a full recovery isn't totally impossible, but it looks like your friend's days as a shinobi are over. I'm so sorry son." Minato felt Naruto trembling beside him and reached over to comfort his boy, but froze in shock when he saw the look of murderous rage on his sweet child's face.

"_**That miserable fucking bitch,**_" Naruto snarled, in a voice far deeper than his twelve-year-old body should have been able to produce, "_**maybe I should break her too! Tear out her eyes, crush her bones, destroy her dreams, make her wish she had never been born!**_"Minato's face went pale as he watched in horror as his son was consumed by rage.

"**No**," Minato realized, "it's been twelve years, but I recognize that voice, and that is _not my son!_" Minato watched as his boy's shining blue eyes grew dark and began filling with tendrils of red, as his fingernails grew in a matter of seconds into claws, and as his son's canine teeth extended until they resemble fangs, when he wrapped his arms around the boy and held him tightly until the trembling stopped. When Minato finally looked at his son again, the boy was back to his old self again—but had a confused frown on his face.

"Dad?" Naruto asked with a shaking voice, "Dad, I'm scared. What just happened to me? I got so angry…all I could see was red…t-there was so much pain, I…I just wanted to hurt somebody, anybody—especially Ino…" Naruto looked up at his silent father with tears in his eyes, "Dad…I think I wanted to kill her." Minato said nothing, but pulled Naruto to his chest as his son cried in his arms.

"Damn you," Minato thought as he held his son, "some day I'm going to find you, Uchiha Madara, and when that day comes, I'm going to kill you for what you have done."

* * *

><p>Yamanaka Inoichi felt ill as he approached the Hyuga compound. When he learned what his daughter had done to the Hyuga heiress, he had confronted her about it in anger. "How could you have done this to one of her fellow leaf villagers," he had shouted at the girl, "how could you have done this to one of your fellow Shinobi?" Though Inoichi had been a member of Konoha's Intelligence Division for a long time, and he had been trained to handle shocking information in a professional and logical manner, nothing could have prepared him for his daughter's matter-of-fact answer.<p>

"I just did what you taught me to do Dad." Inoichi stood there speechless as he looked into his daughter eyes and saw…nothing. Ino did not regret her actions; she did not feel the least bit guilty or ashamed that she had seriously injured a comrade and most likely ended their hopes of becoming a ninja. She had simply put the event out of her mind as if it had been no more important than stepping on a bug. If anything, his daughter was upset that she hadn't been able to do more.

"Ino…" he croaked, "I never taught you to be like this. I was told that Hinata probably wouldn't ever recover from the injury you caused. Her career as a shinobi is as good as over. Do you think nothing of that?"

"Of course father," Ino said with a confused look on her face, "she was an enemy, so I eliminated her, just like you taught me! I analyzed her strengths and weaknesses, made a plan, and executed it with precision! There is no room for emotion or regret on the battlefield, and to dwell on it afterwards is pointless. That's what it means to be a shinobi!"

Inoichi hated himself for being able to reply. He had been prepared for tears, or horror, or shame—he had even been prepared for anger, or a claim that the Hyuuga had it coming, but he was not prepared for her casual indifference and it terrified him. Without another word, he walked out of the room and sent a request to the Hokage for a full psychological evaluation for his little girl. "Ino," the blond-headed Jonin whispered, "what have I done to you? What have I made you become?" Inoichi was still lost in his thoughts when he finally reached the entrance of the home of the Hyuga family's main branch. Before he could knock, the door was opened by a teenage boy with cold eyes and a seal on his forehead that distinguished him as a member of the branch family.

"Please come inside Yamanaka-san," the boy said with a voice as cold as his eyes, "Hiashi-sama has been expecting you."

Hyuuga Hiashi, the head of the Hyuuga clan's main branch, and father of Hinata, was the very image of dignity as he sat at in the room that had been used to receive guests ever since the Hyuuga clan first settled in Konoha. His face betrayed no emotion when the father of the girl who had blinded his daughter joined him at the table. "Welcome to our home Yamanaka-san," the Hiashi said, "I assume you are here to discuss the events that occurred yesterday concerning our daughters." Inoichi blinked, the man sounded as if he were discussing the weather. "Would you care for some tea?" Hiashi nodded when the Jonin politely refused and turned to look at the cold-eyed teenager, "Very well. Neji, you are dismissed." With a nod and a bow, the cold-eyed boy turned and walked out of the room without a word. The two men sat in total silence for a moment and Inoichi soon grew very uncomfortable.

"Hiashi-sama," Inoichi began, bowing his head as low as possible, "I must apologize for my daughter's despicable actions. She has inflicted dire injury upon your heir and I can assure you that she will be punished severely. It has come to my attention that my teachings have…twisted her."

"No apologies are necessary Yamanaka-san," the Hyuuga leader replied evenly, "the girl has always been a disappointment, and it is better that this happen before she can disgrace the clan any further." Inoichi's blood froze when he heard the cold tone the man used to speak of his daughter.

"How can anyone think of their child like this?" Inoichi thought, his head still bowed to hide the expression of shock and disgust on his face. When he had finally managed to gain control of his expression, Inoichi raised his head and asked, "Hiashi-sama, if Hinata is no longer able to be a shinobi, who will succeed you as heir?"

Hiashi's emotionless mask broke for the first time as a smile appeared upon his face, "My younger daughter Hanabi has already been chosen as the new heir, unlike her sister, Hanabi displays prodigious talent in the clan techniques." Hiashi took a sip of his tea and the emotionless mask once again returned to his face. "I must admit I am impressed with your daughter, Yamanaka-san, her ability to overcome a Hyuga in one-on-one combat—even one as worthless as Hinata—speaks greatly to her strategic ability and mercilessness. Perhaps I should have you instruct my daughter as well."

At that moment, it took every ounce Inoichi's self control to refrain from assaulting the Hyuga leader.

* * *

><p>Sasuke was frowning when he returned home after training on his own. He had tried to convince Naruto to come with him, hoping that the distraction might cheer his friend up, but he had insisted on visiting Hinata in the hospital. Involuntarily, Sasuke winced as he remembered Hinata screaming in pain after the flash bomb exploded right in front of her face. He had never spoken to the girl, but he had noticed her watching Naruto from time to time and had found it a little funny that the class wallflower would be so drawn to the chronically joyful, energetic Naruto. Funny, and a little sad too—with all of those girls chasing him, he would never be able to notice the silent girl with lilac eyes. "Well, maybe not any more," Sasuke thought as he leapt over the wall into the Uchiha compound, "now the only one left is that freaking psycho." Until recently, Sasuke had always found Naruto's irrational fear of the Yamanaka girl rather funny. However, some of the girls who got close to him started showing up to school with various injuries, Naruto grew suspicious and had come to Sasuke to ask for advice. Sasuke felt a pang of guilt as he remembered his friend's uncharacteristically serious face as he asked him what to do. "I'm sure that it's just a coincidence," Sasuke had said with a laugh, "we are shinobi after all, I get hurt in training accidents all the time! Anyways, Ino may be a bit clingy but she isn't crazy! You're probably just being paranoid." Naruto sat for a moment and considered his friend's words.<p>

"You're probably right," Naruto said with a relieved look on his face, "I guess I've been reading too many horror stories lately! Thanks Sasuke!" After that, they sparred until dark and went home bruised and happy.

"Who would have guessed that you were right all along," Sasuke said quietly, "she really was a crazy bitch."

"Who's a crazy bitch?" Sasuke jumped and whirled around to see Itachi leaning against the compound wall, smiling at him.

"Damn bro, you scared me," Sasuke said with a laugh, "you really got to stop sneaking up on me! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Itachi grinned, "Sorry, I'm a ninja, remember? Anyways, you'd best watch your language if you don't want Mom to go medieval on your ass." At that, they both started laughing. Sasuke always felt conflicted whenever he was around his brother. On one hand, it had been Sasuke's goal since he was a little kid to surpass Itachi and win the respect of his father and clan; on the other hand, Sasuke looked up to and loved his kind brother from the bottom of his heart because he always knew what to say when he was feeling down. Itachi looked with a frown at the younger brother who he had almost been forced to kill and asked him what was wrong.

Sasuke looked up at Itachi with surprise, "What makes you think that something is wrong?"

Itachi grinned again, "I don't need the Sharingan to be able to tell when my little brother is brooding about something. Now tell me what's wrong so I can cheer you up, pouting doesn't suit you." Sasuke laughed, but his face grew more serious when he described the events of that afternoon, and told him about the advice he gave to Naruto. Itachi nodded with an oddly sad look on his face, "I've been hearing about a string of accidents at the Academy, but to think that it all happened over nothing but a crush…anyways, you can't think poorly of yourself for thinking the best of someone Sasuke, people can be very difficult to read. The fact that the Yamanaka girl got away with what she was doing for so long speaks to that perfectly—and even if you knew about her role in those "accidents", nobody would have thought that she would go so far as to maim the Hyuga girl. People can be very unpredictable Sasuke, you never know when they might do something…unexpected." At the last part, a dark look passed over Itachi's face and Sasuke shivered involuntarily.

"Huh," Sasuke thought, "I wonder what that was about?" He glanced at Itachi with a curious look on his face, but decided that it was none of his business.

Itachi noticed the questioning look from Sasuke and cursed himself for the slip up. It had been a few years since he had reported the Uchiha's plan for the coup d'état to Danzo, but unsurprisingly, nearly being forced to murder his own clan stuck with him. Mentally shaking it off, he smiled at Sasuke, "Let's go inside, Mom should have dinner ready by now and I'm starving!" Itachi watched as Sasuke happily ran inside their home and Itachi shuddered, "Sasuke," he thought as he jogged to catch up with his sibling, "whether it was my duty or for the good of the village or not, I still don't think I would have been able to kill you."

* * *

><p>"What do you mean we're going to continue the tests!" Iruka shouted at the Hokage, who tried his hardest not to smile at the teacher. Minato knew that the scar-faced young man was actually one of the most even-tempered people in the village, he shouted when he needed to get a point across or to settle a class down, but he never got angry, not really. But tonight the man was furious, and he didn't care who knew it, "I was against the idea of the full contact spars from the very beginning! Save it for their Jonin-sensei and for the Chuunin exam when they're better able to defend themselves, like we have always done!" Iruka glared at the Hokage, with teacher mode at full power. Minato was impressed; even HE was a little intimidated by the man when he reached the peak of his indignant glory. "Now look at what has happened, one of my student's has received possibly irreparable damage to her eyes and may never be a shinobi again, and another has to be temporarily pulled out of the program to get a full psych evaluation! After all of this, after all that's happened, you're just going to continue! Thanks to this I'm not even sure if Hinata-chan will survive much longer!" Iruka took a breath so that he could continue berating their leader but was stopped by a cold wave of killing intent.<p>

"What?" Iruka shivered, and suddenly understood why the Stone ninja had feared the Fourth so much.

"I-I d-don't think that Hinata w-will be alive much longer." Iruka couldn't help but stammer—all of his anger had fled him under the sheer force of the Hokage's anger.

"Explain. Now." Iruka knew as he explained that the Hokage's anger wasn't directed at him, but besides the night that the Kyuubi attacked the village, he had never been this scared before in his life.

* * *

><p>Hinata woke up to utter blackness. Confused, she tried to activate her Byakugan, thinking that the room might have just been dark, but nothing happened. She kept trying and trying until she got the familiar headache that came with using her family's Kekkei Genkai too much, and didn't understand what was going on until she remembered what had happened. She was blind. Feeling around, she knew she was in a bed, and she could smell some kind of chemical, but she didn't know where she was. She was blind. Hinata began hyperventilating as she began to panic and fell out of bed, directly onto her elbow. There was a loud CRACK, as it connected with the hard tile floor of the hospital and she gasped in pain—it simply hurt too much to scream. Hinata tried to call out for help as loud as she could but all that could escape her was a tiny voice. There was no response. She was all alone. Hinata curled up into a ball on the floor of her hospital room. Wondering why something like this had to happen to her, she began to cry bitterly until she passed out. It was hours before anybody found her.<p>

* * *

><p>Naruto was in a somber mood when he woke up that morning. He got dressed in his dark blue outfit and looked in the mirror. The villagers were right; besides his odd birthmarks and the size and shape of his eyes and chin, he was the spitting image of his father. Normally, he would have swelled with pride at the thought, but yesterday's events still weighed heavily on his mind. Naruto could tell that his father knew more about his strange transformation in the hospital than he was letting on, but he refused to talk about it. Worse than that, despite his father assuring him that what happened to Naruto wasn't his fault, the boy couldn't help but feel responsible for what had happened to Hinata. "Of course you're responsible," an internal voice seemed to be telling him, "you knew Ino was dangerous and you still drew attention to her. You might as well have done the deed yourself." Naruto had kept quiet about his suspicions regarding Ino and the other girls in the Academy—well, except to Sasuke, who thought that he was being paranoid. It was true to a point too, Naruto supposed. Ever since he had begun hanging out with Sasuke, he started feeling more and more uneasy about the Yamanaka girl. At first he was just a little nervous—and when he mentioned it to Grandpa Jiraiya, the white haired man leered at him and whipped out a little orange book, and excitedly said that it was time to begin his "education" before his Dad punched his old teacher in the head and dragged him away—but as time went by, nervousness became overt discomfort, and finally fear. Truth be told, Naruto was terrified of the girl. She was smart and pretty and a lot of people liked her—Naruto knew that Choji was jealous of the attention that he got, but something just seemed…off about the girl to him. "Yeah," Naruto thought, "it's because she's more than just a little off—that girl is batshit insane." Naruto found himself trembling when he though of the smile that appeared on Ino's face when Hinata collapsed in front of her. He remembered the way that she had brought her foot back to kick Hinata as she lay helpless on the ground and the rage that had gripped him yesterday in the hospital came rushing back. As Naruto struggled to get a rein on his temper, he looked back up into his mirror and was shocked by what he saw. His eyes had turned blood red and his pupils had become feral slits, his whisker shaped birthmarks had thickened and it looked as if he had grown fangs. Remembering the Academy's exercises on controlling emotions, Naruto closed his eyes and slowly counted to ten. When he opened them again, his face had returned to normal and Naruto told himself that he must have been imagining the whole thing. Naruto forced himself to smile, and tried to think of happier things. After all, he didn't want to worry anyone at class, and he didn't want to depress Hinata when he went to visit her after class.<p>

* * *

><p>"I really don't see what the big deal is," Ino said to the bespectacled man with the notepad in his hands, "in battle, shinobi are supposed to be ready for anything. It was that Hyuga idiot's fault that she got caught by such a simple trick." The man nodded, wrote some notes down, and waited for the girl to continue. "She was the enemy," Ino insisted, quickly growing irritated with the fact that the man had yet to respond to her besides asking her more questions—he had never even cleared his throat, "and in battle, there's no room for mercy or hesitancy! You do what you must to survive and complete the mission with as little damage to yourself as possible. She's lucky she isn't dead instead of just being blind." At that statement, the man simply nodded again and took a few more notes. "You stupid four-eyed bastard!" Ino thought, "What the hell is your problem? Say something, say anything Goddamn it!" Finally putting down his pen, the man read over his notes for a moment and stared into her eyes for a full minute. He was completely silent. It gave her the creeps.<p>

"Tell me about your father."

Ino was confused by the question, so she asked, "What does my dad have to do with anything?" The bespectacled man simply looked at her in his expression of vague interest again and went back to being silent. He could wait there all day if necessary, but he doubted it would be—most people found absolute silence incredibly uncomfortable and sought to escape it using the only method available: by talking. Hidden behind his henge, Morino Ibiki knew that the girl would tell him everything that he wanted to know. It was only a matter of time.

In truth, Ibiki had been rather shocked when his associate in the Intelligence Division personally asked him to conduct the psychological examination on his own daughter. After asking Inoichi for the reason why, the man's face clouded over and he closed the door to Ibiki's office, ensuring total privacy. "Do you remember when the Uchiha's plan for the coup d'état was uncovered?" Inoichi asked his heavily scarred superior. With an unreadable expression, Ibiki simply nodded. "When I looked into Uchiha Fugaku's mind, I saw a second Genjutsu buried within it—besides the one that had been used to manipulate the clan into planning the takeover—it was triggered to activate on the night of the attempt. I couldn't entirely decipher all of the details, but I saw paper bombs—thousands of them—and the village was in flames. If we hadn't stopped them, everything would have been destroyed." Inoichi shuddered as he remembered his experiences inside the mind of the Uchiha leader, "I knew that the bastard who planned this would be back, but I was forbidden from doing or saying anything about it! Everything about the incident was designated as top secret. So I did the only thing I could, I threw myself into preparing my daughter for the war that may be coming. I raised her to be a soldier, a survivor! But now look at what it has wrought—Ibiki, I fear I may have turned my daughter into a monster."

As Ibiki continued to write down notes as his friend's daughter continued spilling her life secrets to him, he felt a little guilty. It was almost too easy.

* * *

><p>Minato smiled as he watched his son Shunshin from the Academy to the hospital, but still couldn't help but be surprised at the rate at which his son was growing stronger. "Hello Jiraiya-sensei," Minato said, before turning around to face his former teacher, "have you found her yet?"<p>

Jiraiya laughed, "It seems like even I can't sneak up on you anymore, Minato. It always makes me proud to think that you were my student! My only regret is that I couldn't ever get you to loosen up and put your good looks to proper use!" Jiraiya leered at Minato with the expression he constantly used while he acted the fool. Minato, however, was in no mood for games.

"Answer the question sensei. Have you found Tsunade?"

Jiraiya took note of his student's serious tone and dropped his foolish persona. "I've discovered a few leads but she's getting harder and harder to track. Whenever I catch wind of her losing big in a gambling hall somewhere she's gone by the time I arrive. She really doesn't want to return to Konoha."

Minato shook his head, "With respect to your old teammate, it's time that her selfishness came to an end. I sent out several toads to track her and issue a command that she report for duty at once. If she does not return, she and her assistant will be designated as missing-nin and treated accordingly."

Jiraiya was surprised, and a little frightened at the unusual display of anger from his student, "What has you so riled up Minato? My sources indicate little movement from the Akatsuki or…him." Jiraiya's voice trailed off for a second—Minato knew exactly who his master was referring to.

"Naruto accessed some of the Kyuubi's chakra today."

Jiraiya was taken aback. "How is that even possible? The seal was designed to gradually mix more and more of the Kyuubi's chakra as his chakra coils developed, but there is no way that Naruto could have accessed it so soon!"

Minato shook his head, and replied with more than a little pride in his voice, "My son is a true genius, Jiraiya-sensei, I believe his potential is even greater than that of the Uchiha clan's heir." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at the statement.

"The one who made ANBU captain at thirteen? Why hasn't Naruto graduated already then?"

"You know as well as I do the isolation the title 'genius' brings. Truthfully, Naruto could have easily graduated the Academy and been given a ranking position in the ANBU with the proper training years ago." Minato glanced at his teacher, who looked as if he had something to say, but he cut him off, "Naruto needs friends of his generation. He needs comrades that he can trust and who are willing to give their lives for him—precious people for whom he is willing to sacrifice his own life to protect in turn. If we push him too far too fast, he will lose the support he will need when the truth is finally revealed."

Jiraiya looked at his former student in surprise and nodded, "What would you estimate Naruto's current level to be, exactly? How much has he grown since I have last seen him?"

"At his current level, he could easily beat many Chuunin. He's almost completely mastered the Shunshin and integrated it into his fighting style. Yesterday he used it to beat the Inuzuka kid in a spar in less than a second. I was told that the boy's jaw was badly broken."

"He used Shunshin in an Academy sparring session! What the hell, Minato!"

"That's not the worst of it," Minato said, his face darkening at the thought of the disastrous first day of the new program, "Inoichi's daughter blinded the Hyuga heiress during their match by detonating a flash bomb right in her face as she was using the Byakugan." Jiraiya felt his stomach turn as he imagined, it but nodded at Minato for him to continue. "According to their teacher, it was definitely intentional. His report stated that he had to stop her from kicking the Hyuga girl while she was on the ground."

Jiraiya couldn't believe what he had just heard. "How could you allow such dangerous sparring, Minato! Are you trying to turn us into the "Bloody Leaf", now? Why, and how did this happen?"

Minato flinched at the comparison to Kirigakure's infamous graduation ceremony, but he knew it was merely a rhetorical question. He shook his head, "Sensei, you know better than anyone what my intent for these full contact spars was, and it seems that the incident was precipitated by an altercation between the Yamanaka girl and the Hyuga girl…" Minato paused for a second and wished that he didn't have to finish the sentence, "…over Naruto." Seeing the confused look on Jiraiya's face, Minato elaborated. "In a nutshell, the Yamanaka girl was jealous when she saw Naruto speaking to the Hyuga, and in her attempt to regain his attention, she knocked the Hyuga girl over and insulted her to her face." Despite the painful nature of the topic, Jiraiya saw a little pride creep into Minato's face as he continued, "Naruto got angry at the Yamanaka girl's callous and cruel behavior and forced her to apologize. The rest you know."

"Does Naruto blame himself for the Hyuga girl's injuries?"

Minato nodded, "I tried to set him straight and explain that he did the right thing by defending his comrade, but I believe he still feels responsible."

"Does this have to do with why you are so intent on bringing back Tsunade no matter what? So you can help ease Naruto's guilt?"

Minato nodded once more, but this time, he had a curious expression on his face. "Yes, if anyone can heal the girl's eyes it's Tsunade, but that isn't the only reason I want the girl to recover her sight." Jiraiya looked at him quizzically, what else could there be to it than that? "Her injury was what triggered the release of the Kyuubi's chakra, and let's just say that her family isn't exactly the supportive type." Jiraiya looked thoughtful for a moment, and his eyes widened when he processed what his student was saying.

* * *

><p>Iruka was silently fuming as his students dutifully showed up at the training ground to begin their second day of the spars. He couldn't believe that the Hokage expected him to continue after what had happened the day before. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but smile when he saw Naruto suddenly appear. "That must be the Shunshin," Iruka thought, "I wonder how Naruto has mastered it to such a degree? How much chakra does that boy have?" However, Iruka was forced to abandon his thoughts concerning his favorite pupil's inexplicable power as the last of his now diminished class appeared. Before anybody could ask any questions concerning the incident the previous day, Iruka silenced the class with his trademark glare and gave them the few details he was authorized to give. "Hyuga Hinata and Inuzuka Kiba are currently recovering from their injuries in the hospital, and Yamanaka Ino has been put on suspension until the correct course of action concerning her conduct in the spar yesterday has been determined. I hope it goes without saying that the conduct displayed yesterday will NOT be repeated. Am I clear?"<p>

Dutifully, the entire group of students replied in tandem, "Understood Iruka-sensei!"

"Good, your matchups for today are posted. Find your partners and get prepared for your match. Begin!"

Naruto forced himself to appear cheerful as he stood in the spot where he had destroyed Hinata's ninja career. "I should try and stay optimistic," he thought as he scanned the list for his name, "dad said that it still wasn't totally impossible for Hinata to become a ninja! I can't lose hope just yet!" Finally, Naruto saw his matchup and grinned widely. He moved out of the way of the pushing crowd and felt significantly more chipper as he walked over to Iruka-sensei to ask whom his proctor was going to be.

A drowsy looking boy who had been standing behind Naruto to find out whom he would be forfeiting to grew curious as to what made the blond boy so happy al of a sudden. Reading the list, he let out a low groan, "Namikaze Naruto vs. Uchiha Sasuke," the boy could only imagine the reaction of the screaming fan girls when they realized that their two idols were going to be fighting, "how troublesome." Luckily, he had prepared for such an event. Nara Shikamaru walked over to where he was supposed to fight his opponent and forfeited. He then headed over to a nice shaded spot under a tree where he could still stare at the clouds, pulled out a pair of earplugs, and inserted them to block out the sound of squealing girls.

Naruto and Sasuke were grinning as they entered the little clearing that would serve as their ring and bowed to each other before assuming their individual stances. "I heard about your special training sessions with your father. Now I understand how you've been getting so much stronger lately." Sasuke spoke without any hint of anger or jealousy in his voice, and simply kept on grinning, even as a guilty look appeared on Naruto's face. Sasuke laughed, "Don't worry about it Naruto, if you hadn't been getting those lessons, than this fight would have been way too easy!" Naruto shot a confused look at his friend's cocky display, and wondered what could possibly make him so confident—although they hadn't sparred in a while, the last time they had fought, Naruto ended up beating Sasuke thanks to his much greater stamina. Regardless of his confusion, Naruto wasn't about to let Sasuke have the last word.

"I guess your memory must be a little hazy, Sasu-chan," Naruto teased good-naturedly, grinning at the scowl that appeared on his friends face—Sasuke _hated_ it when he called him that, "if my memory serves correctly, it was you who ended up with your butt in the dirt the last time we fought!" To Naruto's surprise, rather than fire back a retort like he usually did, Sasuke simply smirked at him.

"We'll see who ends up in the dirt after this is over. I've been doing some special training of my own and I've got a few new tricks up my sleeve. You don't stand a chance!"

Mizuki had had enough of the banter. He didn't endure the years of ninja training and teaching exams to have to listen to these spoiled brats have a pissing contest with each other. The silver-haired chuunin lifted his hand to silence the two boys and sighed as he thought of the offer he had received from the exiled Sannin Orochimaru, "God, they don't pay me nearly enough to put up with this crap, I should have taken his deal when I had the chance." Mizuki shouted for the two anxious students to begin the match and winced as the entire female population of the Academy squealed for their favorite. "Great," Mizuki muttered, as a massive headache already began to blossom painfully inside his skull, "this is gonna be a bad one." Mizuki closed his eyes for a second and rubbed the bridge of his nose to try and relieve the pain.

When the match had started, Sasuke found himself having to use the Kawarimi as soon as the word to begin left Mizuki-sensei's mouth. Somersaulting to what he assumed was a safe position, Sasuke saw Naruto grinning at him with a smug expression that seemed to say "What now?" The Uchiha's face paled as he gazed upon the splintered remains of the log he had substituted himself with—obviously, his friend wasn't going to be holding back. Sasuke swallowed hard, "I definitely do NOT want to get hit by that," Sasuke thought, "He must be using his speed to amplify the destructive force of his attacks. Luckily, it seems like he's limited to linear attacks. If I can dodge him, I'll have a chance to counterattack." But before Sasuke could make another move, Naruto's body flickered again and he had to use the Kawarimi again to escape. Naruto turned and prepared to charge at Sasuke again when he saw his friend form a very familiar seal. "Katon: Gokyaku no Jutsu!" Sasuke grinned in triumph as the massive fireball engulfed his opponent, and Iruka-sensei—who had just wandered over—looked worried. Suddenly, a voice whispered in Sasuke's ear.

"Boo." Before Sasuke could react, Naruto delivered four hard shots to his back and side, causing the Uchiha to grunt in pain, causing the Sasuke cheering section to boo loudly, while the Naruto fans—who felt much safer now that Ino was gone—let out a loud cheer. Regaining his bearings, Sasuke unleashed a furious taijutsu assault on Naruto, catching him off guard with his aggressive tactics and few good hits before the blond somersaulted about fifteen meters away in order to regain his advantage. "Hey Sasu-chan!" Naruto called out in a childish sing-song voice that Sasuke found a little creepy, "I hope that wasn't the trick up your sleeve that you were talking about earlier, cause otherwise this is gonna get boring really fast, ya know!" Sasuke smirked at his friend's attempt to rile him up—he was going to have to do better than that.

"Still," he thought, "I wouldn't want to disappoint him, it's time to pull out the big guns." Recalling the feeling from when he had finally managed to do it under his brother's instruction last night, Sasuke pumped his chakra into his eyes and grinned as the crowd went silent and Naruto's face went sheet white. Even though it wasn't yet complete, Sasuke couldn't help but be amazed at the power of the Sharingan—everything became so clear to him now. He could see every breath, every twitch of Naruto's muscles—every movement his opponent made gave him more and more information about what they would do next, it allowed him to read them so thoroughly that he even felt like he knew what they were thinking. Sasuke frowned as he analyzed Naruto's face and body language—he was afraid and ashamed, not of Sasuke, but of something he saw in his eyes. After a moment, Naruto seemed to regain control of himself and his body flickered as he charged in with the Shunshin. However, this time Sasuke was able to predict his foe and landed a counter to his jaw that dropped his blond opponent to the ground like a bag of rocks. "It's over," Sasuke thought, sure that nobody at their level could get up after taking a blow like that, "you just got hit with the same force that obliterated Kiba's jaw, on top of the force of my punch." Sasuke turned around and started walking away when he heard the crowd gasp collectively. "You've got to be kidding me." Sasuke muttered as he turned around and saw his friend stand up and nonchalantly spit out a mouthful of blood.

"That was a pretty good move there, Sasu-chan," Naruto said, dusting off his dark blue turtleneck and wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, "I can't believe you unlocked the Sharingan already, ya know. That last hit really left me woozy, but I guess that's what I get when I keep trying the same tactics against an Uchiha." Naruto stumbled forward a few steps—his legs were still unsteady.

"I guess he wasn't lying about the last attack getting to him," Sasuke thought, "I thought he was finished, but he was still moving too fast for me to see, I guess he must have done something to reduce the damage somehow, that's the only reason he's still standing!" Sasuke assumed his fighting stance to prepare himself for another attack, "Give up Naruto," Sasuke shouted, "I'm impressed that you were able to get up after that hit, but it's over! Your Shunshin won't work on me anymore and between my sharingan and your damage, you don't have a chance in a one-on-one fight with me."

Naruto split his face with a feral smile, he had been surprised when Sasuke's eyes suddenly turned red—the image of his snarling face in the mirror had flashed before him and he had been frazzled enough to recklessly charge in with the same move he had already used several times before—but now, playtime was over. "Whoever said anything about this being a one-on-one fight?" Naruto asked in a smug voice before making a ram seal, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Sasuke's face drained of color as he watched the clearing fill with hundreds of Naruto clones—causing the Naruto fan club to squeal even louder than Mizuki thought possible, and causing Sasuke to drop to his knees when he finally realized what his Sharingan was telling him: all of the clones were real. "H-How…how is this possible," he thought, "How can someone who isn't even a genin have this much chakra? Is he a monster? Has he been going easy n me from the very beginning? Have I never been a match for him?" Sasuke sat on the ground in shock from his complete and utter defeat, and barely noticed when a dozen clones Shunshin-ed over to him and surrounded him with Kunai drawn.

"It's about damn time." Mizuki thought to himself, too distracted by the throbbing agony of his headache to pay attention to how incredible Naruto's victory was. Glancing at Iruka and silently thanking every deity that he knew about that the younger man had been taking notes from the very beginning, Mizuki raised his hand and declared Naruto the winner.

* * *

><p>Ibiki walked out of the bright, featureless room and closed the door. Dropping his henge, he went over his notes and approached an anxious Yamanaka Inoichi. The father of the girl he had just interrogated looked up at him and opened his mouth to ask how the screening went when the heavily scarred jonin punched him in the face. Hard.<p>

"What the hell was that, Ibiki!" Inoichi shouted—before wincing at the pain in his jaw.

"Shut up Yamanaka. Your little girl has got a serious problem because of you, so you're just going to sit there quietly until I'm finished." Inoichi still looked angry at the sucker punch, but decided to keep his mouth shut about it until he had heard what the genius inquisitor had to say.

"Go on."

"Basically, what your 'teachings' have done to your daughter is turn her into a half-assed version of a Root operative." Inoichi paled at the mention of the now disbanded branch of the ANBU that had been headed by Danzo.  
>"Are you saying that she has no emotions?" Inoichi whispered in horror, now oblivious to his rapidly swelling jaw. Inoichi knew some of the shinobi who had gone through Root's emotional reprogramming—people whom he had grown up with before the war. Now they shambled through life as hollow shells disguised as humans, discarded relics of a harder time.<p>

"On the contrary, she possesses almost a full range of emotions. We have already witnessed her display anger and jealous retribution thanks to her fixation with the Hokage's son as a motivator for her activities. What she does not possess is the concept of loyalty, respect, or empathy. She doesn't feel guilt for her actions and she possesses no remorse for the people she hurts. To her, those things are unimportant as long as she completes her objective."

"She wasn't on a mission that required her to hurt those girls! She was specifically instructed to avoid causing lasting harm during those spars! How does that even relate!"

"She was taught by you to place one objective over everything else: survive. To her, everything she sets out to do is a mission with that objective in mind. And just like her father taught her to do, she eliminates anything that might prevent her from completing her objective, without remorse. While I can't say that something fundamental wasn't broken in her from the very beginning, it was your desire to turn her into the perfect soldier that twisted her into what she is today. Congratulations Inoichi, you've created the perfect killer."

"What is your recommended course of action?" Inoichi asked in a defeated voice.

"Only one thing we can do—try to override the programming with a new lesson. Luckily, she is still young enough to be saved from your foolishness. I suggest we allow her to return to the Academy and graduate. We can assign surveillance to make sure she sticks to the rules and hope that with proper guidance, the damage can be undone."

"What about the Hyuga girl, what about the other people she has hurt? How are we going to deal with that?"

Ibiki stared at his blond haired subordinate, "That will have to be between you and your daughter. I wish you the best of luck."

* * *

><p>Hinata felt terrible. After she had been found with a broken arm on the hospital floor, she had been moved to another section of the hospital where she was kept under constant care. To make matters worse, when she had finally stopped crying, she had the distinct impression that someone was watching her. But before she could press the intercom button to ask the nurse if anyone was there, a familiar voice made her stiffen in fear. It was her father.<p>

"Disappointing, Hinata," Hiashi said coldly, "I expected even a failure like you to perform at a higher level than this. However, it seems that even the very lowest of expectations are too much to ask." Hinata lowered her head at her father's words. He was right, of course, but even after all of the times he had remonstrated her for her many failures, his words still stung bitterly. She felt her useless eyes begin to moisten and she blinked to try and hold back tears. She knew that she must not allow herself to cry in front of her father. "I have come to inform you that you have been officially disowned as heir to the clan and as my daughter. From this moment onward, you will no longer welcome in our home. I will see to it that you are provided for in accordance will your late mother's wishes, farewell. Come, Neji." Hinata couldn't help but burst into tears as her father walked out the door, and out of her life.

With a bitter smirk on his face, Neji turned to follow Hiashi but paused briefly before leaving, "It seems that it was always your fate to lose your eyes, Hinata-_sama_," he spat, "how very ironic that the very seal that your father used to control branch family and murder my father is now the very thing preventing them from sacrificing another one of us for a pathetic failure like you." Feeling triumphant, Neji left the sobbing Hinata alone and followed after her father.

* * *

><p>When Ino walked into the classroom to take her graduation exam, the noisy room suddenly became silent. She merely shrugged and walked up to Iruka-sensei, handed him the signed papers authorizing her return to the program, and returned to her usual seat. She could tell that her teacher was struggling to contain his disgust at the thought of her returning to his classroom, but he eventually triumphed and placed the file in his desk without a word. It was still several minutes before the class and she was surprised to see that neither Naruto nor the Uchiha he hung around with were there. "That's odd," Ino noted, "those two are usually the first one's here." Without her target in the class, Ino simply pulled out her material and began reviewing for the written exam when she noticed the small group of classmates surrounding her. With an exasperated sigh, she put down her notes and looked up at the mini mob. "What the hell do you losers want?" Ino sneered at the group—she knew that they wouldn't dare try anything in front of Iruka-sensei, "In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying to review for the final; so if you don't have anything important to say, get the hell out of my face."<p>

"You have a lot of nerve coming here after what you did to Hinata you psycho bitch. Now everyone in the village knows that you're nothing but a monster." Ino calmly fixed her gaze upon the speaker, recognizing her as one of the girls she had "dealt with" for coming too close to Naruto. Ino narrowed her eyes at the girl and then grinned so sweetly that the entire group took a step back.

Ino's grin spread even wider at the display of confusion and fear from the group and decided to feed it further. "How are your legs treating you, Yuki-chan," Ino asked sweetly, "didn't you just get out of the hospital a few days ago?" As a fearful look appeared on the apparent ringleader's face, Ino's grin made her resemble a predator that had just decided on its prey. As Ino moved in for the kill she remembered her father's words, "When observing your enemies, seek to discover their fears and insecurities—psychological weaknesses can be even more debilitating than physical ones." Ino dropped her grin and stared into the frightened girls eyes, as she nodded in answer to Ino's question. In a tone that dripped with menace, Ino said "Is that so? Well, it wouldn't it be such a shame if you just happened to 'stumble' off of another rooftop? After all, being a shinobi is such a dangerous career, and accidents do happen," Ino paused a moment and looked each member of the group in the eyes, "_don't they_?" Every member of the group swallowed hard, and quickly returned to their seats—they knew the slender blond girl meant every word of the implied threat, and would be watching their backs for several months to come.

Naruto arrived to take the exam in a foul mood. After he had beaten Sasuke, he tried to visit Hinata to see if she were awake, but found her room empty. When he had asked the nurse where she had gone, she told him that she had been moved to another wing and was not being allowed visitors at the moment for safety reasons. Naruto felt another pang of guilt at the nurse's explanation. "Safety reasons," he had thought bitterly as he walked out the door, "she wouldn't need to be protected if I hadn't stupid enough to involve her in provoking Ino." Feeling rather down about the whole thing, he headed over to the Uchiha clan's district and hoped that hanging out with Sasuke would cheer him up. Instead, he found that his friend had been left bitter and angry at the outcome of their match.

"Well if it isn't the golden child of the leaf village," Sasuke had said with a frustrated look on his face when Naruto approached him at the training ground, "here to show off how much better you are than everyone again?" Naruto was taken aback at the unrestrained jealousy that filled his best friend's voice.

"Sasuke…" Naruto began, but was cut off by the furious Uchiha.

"Or are you here to take pity on the Uchiha failure? Well I don't need you or your pity. Get the hell out of my sight."

"Sasuke, I…"

"LEAVE!" Sasuke shouted, his voice cracking a little from emotion, before he turned back to the hitting post and continued his taijutsu practice. Naruto stood there and watched his best friend angrily strike the post for a few moments before disappearing with a flash.

When Naruto got to the Academy building the next morning, he saw Sasuke standing outside with an ashamed look on his face. Naruto knew that his friend was probably waiting to apologize, but was still angry about his treatment the previous night and walked past Sasuke without a saying a word. As he headed to the classroom, he heard Sasuke running after him, but kept walking. "Naruto, I…" Sasuke began, but this time he was cut off by Naruto instead.

"Whatever it is that you have to say, it can wait until after the exam," Naruto said to his friend without turning around, "if we don't hurry we're gonna be late, ya know?" With that, Naruto opened the door to the classroom and took one of the few remaining seats. Sasuke breathed out a sigh of relief—his talk with Itachi after the angry confrontation with Naruto made him realize he was wrong for the way he had treated his friend. When Naruto had simply walked past him without a word, Sasuke had been sure he wouldn't listen to anything he had to say.

"Well, he's obviously pissed, " Sasuke thought before entering the room, "but it looks like he'll at least give me a chance." Sasuke took a deep breath and mentally prepared himself before he headed inside the classroom to begin the written portion of his graduation exam. Finding his way to an open seat, he was about to sit down but froze in shock when he saw the scene unfolding in front of him.

* * *

><p>"<em><strong>What the hell is SHE doing here?<strong>_" Naruto growled—his face was contorted in rage and he was trembling with his hands balled into fists. Iruka-sensei and the Akamichi boy were attempting restrain him—with little success. The two were physically dragged across the classroom as Naruto closed in on the Yamanaka girl, who was frozen in place with an uncharacteristic mask of fear at the stifling wave of killer intent that poured out of him. Realizing the reality of the threat, several other students jumped in to help restrain Naruto, causing the enraged boy to thrash wildly. Watching in disbelief, Sasuke noticed something strange about his friend—somehow, his eyes had turned blood red.

"What? Does he have the Sharingan?" Sasuke shook his head, that was impossible. Suddenly, Sasuke recalled the moment when he had activated his Sharingan during his fight with Naruto. "When he saw my eyes, he looked scared," Sasuke thought, "but it wasn't me he was scared of—it was this! He was scared of whatever is causing this change in him!"

"_**DON'T TRY AND STOP ME!**_" Naruto screamed, and tossed his teacher and classmates to the side as if they were mere dolls, "_**THIS BITCH BLINDED HINATA, DESTROYED HER DREAMS! SHE WILL BE BROKEN FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE!**_" Sasuke leapt in front of Naruto and stood in his way, determined to prevent his friend from doing something that he would later regret. "_**Don't try and stop me Sasuke,**_" Naruto snarled, "_**if you get in my way you'll end up the same way as the rest of them.**_" Sasuke shook his head and stood his ground.

"I can't let you do this Naruto," the onyx-eyed boy said with steely resolve, "if you hurt her, you will be throwing away your dreams as well." Sasuke was relieved when he saw Naruto begin to hesitate and continued, "Do you think that throwing away your chance to be a shinobi would make Hinata happy, do you think it would return her eyesight? No, it wouldn't. Please Naruto, stop before you do something that you will regret." Sasuke stared at his friend, and watched as his eyes returned to their normal shade of blue.

Naruto stopped shaking and took a deep breath, "Thanks Sasuke," he said with a voice filled with gratitude, "I almost forgot who I was for a moment there."

Iruka picked himself up and dusted himself off, wincing at a sharp pain in his side, "Damn," he thought, "that's a broken rib." The teacher stared at Naruto, whom he was relieved to see had calmed down. "Just how is that kid so strong?" Iruka wondered, looking at the destruction around the room that had been caused, by the brief scuffle. Luckily, nobody else had been hurt any worse than a few scrapes, so Iruka announced a one-hour delay and changed the testing location to another room.

As Naruto headed out the door with Sasuke in tow, he paused when he passed by the still frozen Ino. "Consider this a warning," Naruto said through clenched teeth, "if I EVER hear about you hurting Hinata, or anyone else from this village again, you won't get off so easily." Not bothering to wait for a reply, Naruto walked away from the terrified girl and left.

Naruto and Sasuke were sitting together at the counter of Ichiraku Ramen and were waiting for their food when Sasuke turned to his friend and apologized for the way he had acted the previous night. Naruto gave him a shaky grin and nodded, "It's okay, after the way you helped me today, we'll just call it even and forget it ever happened, alright?" Sasuke smiled and nodded, pleased that he had cleared the air between them. Soon, the ramen arrived and they stopped talking, digging into the food with great enthusiasm. Naruto had just started on his third bowl when Sasuke finally spoke up.

"Naruto," he said cautiously, "what happened to you in there? I understand you being angry at Ino for what she did, but I've never seen you lose it like that before. You looked like you were going to kill her."

Naruto stiffened up at the question, and went back to eating his ramen. With a big gulp, he finished off the bowl at sat silently for a minute. In a quiet voice, he replied, "If you hadn't stopped me, I think I would have." He glanced at Sasuke and seeing the shock on his face, got up to leave, but was stopped when his friend grabbed hold of his arm.

"When I was trying to stop you, your eyes had turned red," Sasuke whispered, "has this happened before? Is that why you looked scared yesterday when I activated my Sharingan?" Naruto looked at his friend for a moment and swallowed nervously, he nodded. "What do you think it is?"

Naruto shook his head, he felt ill thinking about it. "I don't know," he said, "but it scares me."

* * *

><p>Minato read through the rest of the reports—after Naruto's outburst towards the Yamanaka girl, the rest of the exam had gone without a hitch. As expected, Naruto ended up winning the Rookie award for being at the very top of the class, with the Uchiha in a close second. Placing the files in front of him, he looked up at the jonin he had selected as sensei to the graduating students. "Well," Minato said, "now that you are finally all here…" Minato paused to shoot a glare at a white-haired shinobi with a mask covering most of his face, "…we can begin selecting team assignments for the new genin."<p>

* * *

><p>AN: I'd like to thank everyone for the reviews, knowing that people are enjoying what I have written keeps me motivated to pump out updates as quickly as I can. Before anyone starts bashing me for torturing poor Hinata—it's not because I hate her, in fact, she is one of my favorite characters and it hurt me to do this to the girl. I look forward to hearing any thoughts, questions, or ideas for the series that you might have for me.


	4. A New Sensei

A Hokage's Son

Chapter 3: A New Sensei

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto in any way, shape, or form. Are you happy now copyright laws?

**A/N I've gotten very tired of having to explain when things are dialogue or internal thoughts so from now on all thoughts are going to be punctuated 'like this'**

* * *

><p>"Well," Minato said, glancing around the room at the gathered Jonin, "let's get down to business shall we? I assume that you have all reviewed the candidates for genin and the information gathered from the spars, correct?" Minato looked at the Jonin again and nodded, "Very well, Asuma-san, recommendations for your squad?"<p>

Sarutobi Asuma took a deep drag from his cigarette and cleared his throat. "Well originally, I would have suggested a continuation of the Ino-Shika-Cho combo, but in light of the incident between Yamanaka Ino and the Hyuga girl, I've developed some…reservations about her ability to work with others."

Minato looked at the other Jonin and saw that they all had similar feelings towards the matter. He sighed, "Yamanaka Ino was cleared to return to the program by Morino Ibiki and her father in the hopes that her relationship with a team would help her…issues," he said tactfully, "am I to understand that no one here is willing to take this girl onto their team?" Minato was not very surprised when he was met with silence, "Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, the fact remains that she was the top Kunoichi in her class for three years running. Something must be done with the girl."

"I believe I have a suggestion, Hokage-sama."

Minato looked in the direction of the voice, and raised his eyebrows slightly at its source. "Go ahead, Itachi," Minato said, "I'm listening."

The black-eyed man smiled faintly, he had heard about the incident from his brother and was appalled at the girl's perversion of the ideals behind the spars. "It is a fact that something must be done with the girl, but just as Asuma-san said, she would no doubt be detrimental to team dynamics." Suddenly, Itachi's normally stoic expression changed to one of distant melancholy, "As you know, I have experienced firsthand what comes of a disastrous team configuration." Minato stiffened at the memory of Itachi's short-lived squad. Its catastrophic disintegration had been the major factor behind Minato's decision to create the spars.

"Go on."

"If this Yamanaka girl is as skilled as her file indicates, she may be put to better use than in a traditional four-man squad. I suggest we place her under the guidance of Mitarashi Anko to be trained as a member of the Infiltration and Reconnaissance branch. In that setting, her unique skills and her…" Itachi trailed off for a second and a look of disgust flashed across the young Jonin's face, "…relaxed moral standards would serve her well."

Minato sat thoughtfully for a moment in consideration of the Uchiha prodigy's suggestion. He nodded, "Very well, I shall inform her father and Mitarashi-san of our decision. Excellent work Itachi." Minato scribbled a few notes into his file on Yamanaka Ino and placed it inside his desk. 'This is for the best; with the effect that she has on Naruto, it would be in everyone's best interest to disappear from his life for as long as possible.'

"If we are able to get back to the business at hand, I'd like to make a recommendation for my team, Sensei." All eyes turned to look at the silver-haired Jonin who had showed up late with surprise—after all, the man had never shown any real interest in having his own team before.

Minato blinked, "Alright Kakashi, what did you have in mind?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Inuzuka Kiba." Several Jonin looked at the masked ninja in surprise.

"You want to take on the Uchiha? Why not leave him to his brother?" Asuma asked, jerking his head in Itachi's direction.

Kakashi shrugged, "Same reason you wouldn't volunteer as sensei for your nephew," he replied in a bored voice, "can you really expect to be objective when your flesh and blood are in danger on a mission? Could you honestly say that you wouldn't hold their lives above your other students? Also, are you confident that he would be able to see you as his commanding officer and his teacher instead of his Uncle?" Asuma began to nod, but paused and shook his head.

"Probably not" the chain-smoking Jonin admitted.

"Exactly," said Kakashi, "while we are shinobi, we are still human. It is nearly impossible to overcome the emotional bonds of family, so we avoid placing relatives in this position."

Minato nodded at the silent Uchiha, "Itachi, do you have any issues with this?"

"Not at all, Hokage-sama," Itachi replied, shifting through his files, "I request Namikaze Naruto, Aburame Shino, and Kurama Yakumo."

Minato smiled at the mention of his son, "It seems that you wish to form a multi-purpose squad."

Itachi nodded in agreement, "While my original intent was to create a specialized tracking unit, the unfortunate blinding of the Hyuga girl has forced me to reconsider."

Asuma coughed, "Are there any genin without a team at the moment? I'm one man short."

"Let me see," Minato replied, searching his files for a moment, "yes, we have one unattached genin right now by the name of Sai."

"Sai what?"

Minato glanced at the file again and frowned. "It's just Sai, apparently. He was put into the program under the direction of Danzo."

Asuma blanched a little at the mention of the bellicose elder's name, but regained his composure and shrugged, "Well then, I guess my team will be Nara Shikamaru, Akamichi Choji, and…Sai."

With the team assignments now complete, the weary Jonin began to leave the room. However, Itachi wasn't surprised when the Hokage told him to stay—then again, there was very little that could surprise Itachi anymore. "Yes Hokage-sama?" Itachi asked, expecting that it had something to do with Naruto.

"It's about Naruto," Minato began, taking note of the knowing smile on Itachi's face, "as his Jonin-sensei, there is something that you must know. However, at the moment, this information is considered extremely confidential. The only people who were aware of this are Jiraiya of the Sannin, the late Third Hokage, and myself." Itachi raised an eyebrow at this revelation—not even the truth behind the planned Uchiha coup d'état was this well protected. "The truth of the matter is that the Kyuubi was not destroyed 12 years ago, such a thing is impossible—instead, the Kyuubi was sealed in a newborn baby."

Itachi's eyes widened—this time, he was surprised. "You mean that the Kyuubi was sealed inside of—"

"Yes, Naruto is the vessel for the Kyuubi, and it seems that he has already begun to unconsciously access and be influenced by it. The reason I asked you to request him is because I am intrusting you to keep him under control if the worst were to occur."

* * *

><p>Naruto fidgeted as he waited for the team assignments to be announced. He had tried asking his father what team he would be on the previous night, but was told that he had to wait like everyone else. Feeling restless, he pulled out the blade that his father's old student Kakashi had given him as a gift for graduating and admired it for a moment. Kakashi told him that it was called a yoroi toshi, or 'armor piercer'. It was about the size of a tanto, but thicker and heavier so that it could cut through armor, and made of a special metal that was highly conductive to chakra. Naruto had spent the entire night practicing the couple of forms that Kakashi had shown him and he liked the way the blade felt in his hands. He spent a few minutes trying to think of a badass name for it, but sheathed it when Iruka finally walked into the room.<p>

Iruka winced a little on each step as he made his way to the front of the class—his ribs were still a little sore from Naruto's outburst. He pulled out a sheet of paper and began to read out the names. "Team 7: Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, Inuzuka Kiba! Your Jonin-sensei will meet you in Classroom 103."

"HELL YEAH!" Sasuke's face blanched a little when he heard his fangirl's shout. He and Naruto looked at each other and sighed, they had hoped to be on the same team. The two boys shrugged, and Sasuke left the room with his team to go and meet their Jonin.

'Damnit,' Naruto thought, 'I'm not on a team with Sasuke.' The golden haired boy sighed, 'Oh well, we both knew that this could happen. I don't really care who else is on my team as long as I'm not paired up with _her_.' Naruto scowled at the thought of Ino and looked around the room for her. When he realized she wasn't there, he blinked in surprise. 'Huh, he wondered, 'she was the top-ranked girl for our age and they let her take the graduation exam—why isn't she part of a team?' Naruto shrugged, after his outburst yesterday, he figured it would be best if he stayed away from the girl.

"Team 8: Aburame Shino, Kurama Yakumo, and Namikaze Naruto! Your Jonin-sensei will meet you in Classroom 105." With a nod, Naruto and his two teammates left the room and headed to the class where they were supposed to meet their new teacher.

"WHAT!" Naruto exclaimed in shock when he laid eyes on the man who would be their new teacher, "Itachi-san, you're our new teacher?"

Itachi sighed, he had expected this reaction from Naruto, but it didn't make it any less loud or annoying. "Yes Naruto, I am. I also expect you to call me Itachi-sensei from now on—now everyone follow me to the roof and we will introduce ourselves." When the team reached the roof, Itachi sat the three genin down and looked them over. He was very familiar with Naruto of course, since he and Sasuke had been attached at the hip for years—the only recent change was a short blade in a sheath on his right shoulder. A faint smile appeared on Itachi's face when he saw the blade, 'I hear Naruto is quite adept at Shunshin for his age, and with that blade he reminds me a little of Shisui.'

Next, he turned his gaze upon the new head of the Kurama clan—a rather sickly looking girl with brown hair—Itachi noted that she had an air about her that suggested she had something to prove. 'That attitude often makes for an excellent shinobi.' he thought, filing it away for future reference.

Finally, there was the Aburame prodigy. Based on the file he had read about the boy, Aburame Shino was one of the most talented members of the clan to be produced in quite some time. He had graduated near the top of the class along with Naruto and his brother. 'As for his personality,' Itachi thought, eyeing the boy's high-collared coat and sunglasses, 'he seems to be a typical Aburame. Regardless, he should prove quite an asset to the team.'

Now that he had finished sizing up his genin, Itachi spoke up, making the Kurama girl jump a little from the sudden break in silence. "To begin, we should get acquainted with each other. My name is Uchiha Itachi, my hobbies are testing the limit of my abilities and teasing my little brother…" Itachi gave a brief smirk, and Naruto snickered, "…I like cats, I dislike war and the suffering it brings. My dream is to one day see a world without war." Itachi nodded at Naruto to introduce himself.

"My name is Namikaze Naruto, my hobbies are training and spending time with my friends and family, I like ramen and going fast, I dislike people who hurt others and my dream is to one day protect everyone in the village as Hokage, ya know." Itachi nodded, that seemed about right. Next, he looked at the pale girl sitting in between the two boys.

"My name is Kurama Yakumo, my hobby is painting, I like people who refuse to give up, I dislike being told that I am to weak to be a ninja, and my dream is to become a ninja who only has to rely on genjutsu."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at the girl, 'That's an interesting dream, though an unsurprising one coming from a member of that Kurama clan—still, I will have to work on conditioning her body if she wants to have any hope of surviving out in the field.' Finally, he turned his gaze to the Aburame.

Shino pushed up his sunglasses, causing a beam of light to reflect off of the highly tinted lenses. "My name is Aburame Shino, my hobbies include cataloguing new species of insects and crossbreeding our hives in order to create new strains. Why you ask? Because the creation of new strains allows the possibility of improving the abilities of my hive and therefore, improving my jutsu. I like insects because of their highly logical and efficient way of life. I dislike people who needlessly kill insects. My dream is to one day succeed my father as the head of the clan."

Itachi nodded his head and managed to hide his amusement with the Aburame child. 'Are insects all that he thinks about?' he wondered, not really wanting an answer to the question. He looked at his team. "You all have the rest of the day off. Spend the day together and get to know each other. Meet me at 0500 hours tomorrow at Training Ground Seven. Don't be late." Without another word, Itachi shunshin'd away and left his students, as he wondered if they would be able to pass his test.

* * *

><p>Sasuke knew that patience was required to be a shinobi. He had been taught that lesson many times as he was growing up—but honestly, this was getting ridiculous. Glancing at the clock again told him the same thing it told him ten minutes ago: their new sensei was over three hours late.<p>

"What the hell!" Kiba shouted, despite his still swollen jaw, "How does someone who does this to people make Jonin!" Sasuke grunted in agreement—he also had to hand it to the medical-nin who worked on the boisterous Inuzuka; they had done a great job.

"This has to be some kind of test," Sakura mused while shaking her head, "whoever our sensei is, they're obviously testing our ability to remain patient. If we just keep clam and wait they'll eventually show." However, underneath her calm exterior, Sakura's true self was reaching its boiling point. 'WHO DOES THAT IDIOT THINK THEY ARE!' she shouted internally, 'WHEN THAT WORTHLESS JONIN GETS HERE I'D LIKE TO BREAK MY FOOT OFF IN HIS—'

"Yo," a bored voice called out as a silver-haired man strolled casually into the room, "sorry I'm a little late, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around." The silence was deafening as the three genin stared at the masked man with their mouths open.

'That's a lie.' Sasuke thought, rolling his eyes.

"That's a blatant lie." Sakura muttered.

"He's totally lying!" Kiba shouted, and Akamaru barked in agreement.

Kakashi shrugged and looked over his students with a bored expression, "Hmm," he said, "my first impression of you guys is that you're all gonna be a pain. But now that we're all here, let's not waste any more time. Hurry up and meet me up on the roof. I don't like to be kept waiting." The Jonin made a simple handsign, and with a swirl of leaves, he was gone.

Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba all sat in the classroom frozen in shock by the sheer gall of their new teacher. 'He just kept us waiting for three and a half hours!' they all thought at the same time, and when they finally recovered, the team left the classroom and headed up to the roof.

"I hope you're having a better time at this than I am, Naruto." Sasuke muttered as he climbed up the stairs.

* * *

><p>Naruto hadn't felt this awkward since the time his dad had caught him reading one of Jiraiya's books. As a result, he and his father had a very long, and very uncomfortable talk concerning what he had just read in the book. After that talk, Naruto—to Jiraiya's great displeasure—began referring to his godfather as Ero-sennin. However, Naruto began to think that the oppressive silence hanging between the three teammates might be even worse.<p>

"So…" Naruto said, desperately trying to start a conversation—he thought of asking Shino a question about his bugs, but decided against it since he decided he really didn't want to hear the answer, "Uh, Yakumo-chan…you want to be a ninja that only uses genjutsu. How come?" Yakumo shot a glance over to the grinning blond, but didn't see any hint that he was toying with her.

"I come from a clan of genjutsu users and was the first child in generations to have inherited our Kekkei Genkai in full. However, I was born with a weak body and was told that I lack the physical ability to be a ninja. I had almost given up my hope of restoring the clan to its former glory when I met a genin who lacked the ability to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. Instead of giving up, he pursued his dream to become an excellent shinobi with only his taijutsu and managed to graduate from the Academy."

Naruto was impressed—to graduate form the Academy without any chakra molding skill was quite a feat. "So are you really awesome at genjutsu or something? I'm kinda jealous; genjutsu was the one subject that I could never really get the hang of, ya know."

Yakumo pale face flushed with color at the praise—she had never really spent that much time with others her age thanks to her condition, and wasn't used to the attention. "I've been taught some of my clan's simpler genjutsu, but I still have a lot to learn before I can use some of the more advanced techniques."

"Yeah, my dad said the same thing to me when I asked him to teach me his Hiraishin technique. He says that I have to totally master Shunshin and grow a little more before I can start learning Hiraishin—probably so my body can get used to the speed." Naruto looked over at Shino, who continued to sit in silence. "What about you Shino? How are you planning on getting stronger?"

"As my clan's fighting style is primarily focused on the use of our kikai insects, my main objective would be to increase my chakra reserves, because in return for following our orders, we allow our insects to use our body as hives and feed off of our chakra. By increasing my chakra reserves, I would be able to dramatically increase the number of insects that I am able to hold, as well as my ability to use our clan jutsu, which in turn would increase my combat effectiveness." Naruto and Yakumo shared a look—obviously this was something that they would have to get used to.

"Umm…okay," Naruto said, making a mental note to never ask his teammate open ended questions if he could help it, "from what I heard, we won't actually be taken on as genin unless we pass a test of some kind tomorrow—if we don't, we'll be sent back to the Academy." Yakumo looked forlorn at the revelation.

"Why do we have to do that? We already graduated didn't we?" Yakumo wasn't happy at the thought of having to return; her weak body had always made her fail the fitness and taijutsu portions of her classes. Naruto saw the worried look on the sickly girl's face and quickly tried to comfort her.

Don't worry about it Yakumo, we'll be fine—besides, we have an edge because we're the only ones who know about the second test anyways."

At this, Shino raised an eyebrow. "How is it that you know about the test Naruto?"

Naruto grinned, "When I was going through the Third Hokage's personal library, I saw a mention of something called the bell test in some weird journal that was mostly drawings of some blond girl. Apparently, its purpose was to promote teamwork. So I think that we should spend some time preparing for it just in case."

"But what if it is a different kind of test?" Yakumo said with a doubtful expression on her face.

"Then we'll have to think of something else. Itachi-niisan did tell us to get to know each other, and since we're on a team, getting used to each other's strategies and fighting styles definitely counts, ya know!"

Shino nodded in agreement, "I also think it is an excellent idea, because the more knowledge I have of your abilities, the more effective I will be in the use of my insects."

Itachi watched as the three young ninja began heading towards the training ground where they would be meeting tomorrow and smiled. "It seems like they understood what I meant when I told them to get to know each other. Now all that's left is to see what they are capable of as a team."

* * *

><p>When Ino woke up she was very confused and soaking wet. 'Wait,' the blond headed girl thought, 'why am I wet?' Just like her father had taught her, she quickly squashed her feelings of panic and devoted all of her attention to finding out what was going on. Ino tried to stand up and found that she was very securely bound to a chair in a pitch-dark room. "The last thing I remember was going to bed last night," she said aloud, mentally tracing the events that led her to this unfortunate situation, "I had just graduated and was going to be assigned to a team the next day. Now all I have to do is get out of here and figure out what happened." Ino began to struggle, trying to loosen her bonds enough to perform the escape technique—unfortunately, whoever had tied her up had done a really good job, she wouldn't be going anywhere for a while. Suddenly, a noise in the darkness made Ino freeze up and halt her efforts to escape. 'Wait,' Ino thought with a bit of fear starting to seep through her mental defenses, "did I just hear something <em>hissing<em>?' Suddenly, the room was flooded with light, causing Ino to squint in pain as her eyes adjusted to the sudden change. When she was finally able to see, the girl blinked at the sight of a purple haired kunoichi with a trench coat, a chainmail shirt, and a short skirt, holding an empty bucket with a disturbingly large snake slithering out of her sleeves.

"What is your name?" the older woman asked with a slightly terrifying grin on her face.

"Yama—" Ino began before she was cut off by a kunai flying past her face, slicing her cheek.

"SHUT UP MAGGOT!" the woman yelled, walking ever closer to Ino, "From this day forward, you have no name—because all you answer to is _me_. I am Mitarashi Anko and I am your _God_. You will not do anything unless I allow you to and you _will _treat my orders as mandates from fucking Heaven, because if you don't…" Anko leaned in close to the girl and purred, "I will most certainly make your life a living hell. Do you understand?" Ino figured that talking probably fell under the category of 'anything', so she simply nodded. "Good!" Anko chirped cheerfully. She then turned around and started heading for the door as the lights once again clicked off. Ino watched as the woman's silhouette turned once again to face her. "Your first task is to escape from this room…oh, and I suggest you hurry, because little Hebi-kun there hasn't eaten in quite a while and he is _very_ hungry. Welcome to the Infiltration and Recon Unit." With an evil chuckle, Anko slammed the door shut and the room was once again submerged into total blackness.

Ino began to struggle furiously with her bonds as she listened to the hissing of the snake that she was trapped with.

* * *

><p>The nurse cast the Hyuga girl a worried glace as she set the food in front of the girl-she hadn't eaten ever since the day that her father had visited her, and she seemed to becoming more and more withdrawn. "Please try to eat today Hinata-chan," the woman said kindly, "the sooner you recover your strength, the sooner you can see your friends again." When Hinata's sightless eyes snapped towards the nurse, the woman flinched when she realized her mistake.<p>

"Friends?" Hinata muttered bitterly, "even if my eyes still worked, I wouldn't be able to 'see' any friends. Nobody has come to visit me. Nobody cares. I don't have any 'friends'."

The nurse's eyes widened at the anger and bitterness in the voice of the former Hyuga heiress—before the accident, she had been such a sweet, shy girl. "That isn't true, the Hokage's boy was here all day when you were brought in, and you haven't been allowed visitors for your own safety."

"My safety." Hinata repeated in a flat voice that indicated it wasn't a question.

"After the accident, the Hokage–sama was given information which led him to believe that your life was in danger."

"Danger?" Hinata replied, letting out an angry laugh that the nurse could have never imagined coming from the girl, "Tell me how my situation could possibly get any worse? I'm blind; I've been disowned as heir and removed from my home. My career as a shinobi died before it even started and there is nobody who will take me in. Neji was right—from the very moment I was born, I was fated to suffer just like he was fated to be a slave."

"Hinata-chan that's not—"

"Just get out."

"If you'll only just—"

"Get out and never speak to me again. The sound of your voice disgusts me."

The nurse left the room in a hurry at the surge of killer intent that chilled the tiny hospital room. 'Even if I can't help that poor girl,' the nurse thought, 'I hope that there is someone who can.'

* * *

><p>Naruto managed to arrive at the meeting place in less than two minutes—although he was left a little winded from his continuous use of long distance shunshin, he was proud that he covered the four miles from his house to the multi-terrain training ground so quickly. Since he was the first one there, he sat down in the middle of a circle of large rocks and waited for his team to arrive.<p>

'I bet if I can get rid of my hesitation before changing directions, I can drop my time by at least a minute.' Lately, Naruto had been obsessed with moving from place to place within the village as quickly as possible—ever since his father gave him permission to use the shunshin outside of training, he had been addicted to speed.

However, Naruto's thoughts on the matter were cut short when he suddenly noticed his new sensei sitting nonchalantly on one of the rocks in front of him. 'What?' Naruto thought, jerking a little bit in surprise, 'when did Itachi–niisan get there?'

"Good Morning Naruto," Itachi said amicably—he was a little amused at the shocked expression on the boy's face when he had silently appeared in front of him, "it looks like you're a little bit early."

"Yeah," Naruto said, shaking off the surprise, "I've been training my speed so I got here sooner than I expected."

Itachi chuckled, "Well that's certainly admirable." The two continued to make small talk for the next couple of minutes until Shino arrived, followed by an exhausted looking Yakumo. "Well, now that we are all here—we should get started. As you all know, there is a secondary test to determine if you are worthy to be placed on a squad as genin. Naruto began to loudly deny any knowledge of the test but was cut off by a knowing look from Itachi.

'Damn, he must of overheard us yesterday," Naruto thought, 'I hope he didn't find out our plan to fight him.'

"For a shinobi squad, the single most important element is teamwork," Itachi began, "no matter how strong a single ninja is, they could never hope to be as effective as a team that watches out for each other and covers each other's weaknesses. Under the right conditions, with perfect teamwork, even a team of genin could take out a single Jonin."

'Yes,' Naruto thought, 'it's gonna be the bell test!'

'I suppose it will be the bell test,' Shino figured, 'for Itachi-sensei's focus on the value of teamwork suggests as much.'

'The bell test,' Yakumo thought, trying to summon all of her willpower, 'I mustn't allow my weakness to hold them back!'

Itachi looked into the faces of his genin and guessed what they were thinking. With a slight grin, he said "I am going to individually present each of you with a hypothetical combat situation. I will give you one minute to create a strategy based on this situation and tell me how you and each of your teammates will use their abilities to overcome the situation. After this, you will each present your plan and explain your role within it. Each of your teammates will then use the information to determine what their role is based off of your actions."

Except for Shino, who merely raised an eyebrow at the unexpected nature of the test, the looks on the faces of Itachi's squad were priceless. Itachi chuckled, created two shadow clones, and split up the dumbfounded group.

* * *

><p><em>*The Night Before<em>_*_

"Jiraiya-sensei." Minato said without looking up from his paperwork, "What news do you have on Tsunade?"

Jiraiya scowled a little bit, as he emerged from the window into the office. "How do you keep doing that? My skills must really be slipping if you're detecting me this easily."

"I heard the yelling at the hot springs from here, sensei. When are you going to grow up and start acting like a Sannin instead of a sexual deviant?"

Jiraiya broke into a wide grin, "Never. I was born a pervert, and I will die a pervert. Every day, my only goal is to become an even bigger pervert."

Minato sighed in resignation; despite his efforts, he had never been able to force any maturity into the man. 'I suppose I should be grateful that it didn't rub off on me,' he thought.

"My reports say that Tsunade has received the message and she is on her way back to Konoha as we speak. I feel like I have to warn you though—she isn't happy." Jiraiya shivered at the thought—he was very well acquainted with the results of being on Tsunade's bad side when she wasn't happy.

"Good. Hopefully she will be able this business with the Hyuga girl's blindness. Naruto still blames himself for what happened to her."

"Speaking of Naruto," the white haired shinobi began, "He should have graduated from the Academy recently—who's his Jonin-sensei?"

"Uchiha Itachi." Minato looked up into the grim face of his teacher. "You have concerns about this?"

"Are you certain that you wish to place your child into the hands of a member of that cursed clan?" Jiraiya asked coldly, "After everything that has happened?"

Minato nodded, "Itachi was one of the few Uchiha fortunate enough to escape the genjutsu compelling them to overthrow Konoha. Additionally, he was the double agent that reported the plans to us in the first place. The boy's loyalty to Konoha was so great that he was willing to eradicate the clan and be branded a missing-nin for the sake of peace. There is nobody who I would trust more."

"Really?" Jiraiya said, surprised at the confidence Minato had in the Uchiha heir, "What about Kakashi? He was your finest student after all."

Minato grimaced, "I am very proud of Kakashi and everything he has accomplished, he is an excellent shinobi and I would be hard-pressed to name anyone who I would rather have at my side in combat—I just don't believe he would be the best fit for Naruto since he took on Obito's habit of being chronically—"

* * *

><p>"—Late!" Kiba yelled, face turning red in anger, "After making us wait for over three hours yesterday, he's late again! I can't believe this guy! How did someone like him make Jonin!"<p>

Sakura and Sasuke both groaned—it was bad enough that they had been given a sensei as eccentric as Kakashi, but having to listen to their hot-headed teammate rant about it for thirty minutes was just icing on the cake.

"Look," Sasuke said, rubbing his nose to fight back the annoyance headache that was beginning to form, "he'll get here when he gets here, so there isn't any use in complaining about it now. If this workout is gonna be as hard as he said it would be, we should probably try and warm up while we can."

Sakura practically swooned, 'Sasuke-kun is so cool and handsome and smart and mature and amazing!' She thought, while her instincts were yelling, "JUST JUMP HIM! HELL YEAH!"

Sasuke shot a glance at the pink-haired kunoichi and had a pretty good idea of what she was thinking, based off of the sickeningly enraptured expression on her face as she looked at him. He sighed and turned to Kiba, who had finally calmed down…somewhat.

"Yeah okay," Kiba grumbled, obviously still riled up, "I guess you're right." The hooded boy shook his body for a moment and began stretching to loosen up, "Hey, did you hear who that Naruto bastard got as his Jonin-sensei?"

Sasuke's eye twitched; did this idiot not know that Naruto was his best friend? "No," Sasuke said coldly, with a hint of steel in his voice, "and I would appreciate it if you didn't talk bad about my friend in front of me."

Kiba glanced at the Uchiha and shrugged in response to his glare. "My jaw still hurts from where he broke it cause I made a little joke. I think I have the right to be upset with him." Sasuke merely grunted in response—he had a point. "Anyways," Kiba continued, "I ran into Shino on the way here and apparently their sensei's name is Uchiha Itachi. Can you believe it, one of the Jonin–sensei is related to you? What?" Kiba asked when he saw the shocked expression on his teammate's face.

"That's my older brother." Sasuke replied, in an irritated voice. 'Since when did Itachi leave the ANBU? If he's a Jonin-sensei, why didn't he tell me and why didn't he request me for his team?'

"Wow," Kiba said, impressed, "that means he's only a couple of years older than you and he's already a Jonin!" Not noticing Sasuke's increasingly foul mood, he went on, "Your brother must be some kind of badass! I wonder why—"

"Just shut up and stretch." Sasuke said, cutting him off. 'Kakashi-sensei better be here soon,' he thought, 'just being around this idiot is starting to piss me off.'

* * *

><p>Inoichi was worried; actually, he was terrified for his daughter. While he was not surprised in the least that nobody wanted to take her onto a team, he couldn't believe that she had been placed into the hands of Mitarashi Anko of all people. The woman was a complete sadist. "Hokage-sama!" he pleaded, "please reconsider and move my daughter somewhere else! Anywhere but in the hands of that woman! She'll be killed!"<p>

Minato sighed; it was far too early for this. "Inoichi, you're overreacting. While Anko's methods are admittedly…extreme, your daughter is perfectly safe in her hands. Additionally, your daughter's abilities and tactical actions during the spars—" Inoichi flinched at the mention of the disastrous spar, "—while unfortunate, and a little brutal, have proved her to be a perfect candidate for the IR unit."

"But—"

"I assure you, Inoichi, your daughter will be fine. I have specifically ordered Anko to use restraint in her training methods."

* * *

><p>'I'm going to die,' Ino thought as she dodged another explosion and barrage of kunai, 'this crazy bitch is going to kill me!' Once she had escaped from the trap and landed in what seemed to be a relatively safe position, Ino reflected on what had happened to her.<p>

Once Ino had finally managed to break loose from her bonds and escape from the hungry snake, she opened the door of the pitch-black room and activated a sleeping gas trap. The next thing she knew, she had woken up in the middle of an unfamiliar forested area to the sight of Anko's grinning face. And of course, she had once again been tightly bound and gagged.

"Wakey-wakey!" Anko said cheerfully as she lightly slapped the bound girl's face, "I feel like I have to congratulate you on escaping from Hebi-kun in time, but we're gonna have to work on your attention to detail! You walked right into that gas trap!" Anko grinned at her new project and took a bite out of the stick of dango that she was holding, "Don't worry, Maggot, Anko-sensei has just the thing to get you up to snuff! Right now we are in the exact center of a very special place called Training Area Zero. What makes this place so special is that almost every square inch of it is covered in traps designed to maim and kill enemy shinobi! You have thirty minutes to reach me at the exit before the timed explosive tag attached to your chest goes boom. Don't even think about removing it because it will blow if anyone other than me tampers with it." Anko's grin spread even wider as she watched the girl's eyes widen in horror. "Good luck!" she called in a singsong voice before disappearing from sight.

Ino cursed her luck and struggled free from her bonds even faster than she had with the snake. When she took he first step, the ground collapsed underneath her and she was barely able to avoid being impaled on several deadly looking spikes in the pit below. 'You've got to be kidding me.' Ino thought as she climbed her way out of the pit. Remembering the time limit, Ino quickly gathered herself and began moving forward—although much more cautiously.

* * *

><p>Naruto had to suppress a grin as he saw the cloud of insects behind Itachi's head begin to form words. 'Great work Shino!' he thought as he prepared to give his answer to the young Jonin. After a few minutes of communicating with the bugs, he was ready.<p>

"In such a case where we were spotted and greatly outnumbered, it would be foolish to directly engage the enemy. Shino, Yakumo, and I would simultaneously use smoke bombs to mask our presence and I would immediately use my mass shadow clone technique to both provide cover and use them to divert enemy attention when we make our move to escape. Yakumo would use the smoke as a trigger to catch the enemies in a genjutsu to delay them long enough for Shino to place tracking bugs on them. Once the bugs are in place, the majority of my clones would henge and take on the appearance of both Shino and Yakumo, splitting into multiple groups of three to create a diversion and we would flee. The rest of my clones would head in the direction of our intended escape route at full speed in order to set up traps to delay and injure the enemy as they pursued."

"How would you avoid running into your own traps?"

"Simple, once a clone finishes setting up a trap, it would disperse and I would gain its memories, so I know where the trap is and how to avoid it."

Itachi nodded, "Good. While it is far from perfect, it is a solid strategy that plays to your strengths and the strengths of your teammates. Meet me back at the circle of rocks." With that, the Itachi clone dispersed.

When Naruto arrived at the rock, he noticed that his other two teammates were already there. With a grin on his face, he began to explain the situation to them when Itachi stopped him.

"That's enough. You all pass."

The three newly official genin looked at Itachi in surprise. "But you said that—" Naruto began, but to his annoyance, was again cut off by Itachi.

"I gave all of you the same situation and you all gave the same answer, word for word. The trick with the bugs was quite good by the way," Itachi said, looking at Shino, who averted his gaze, "the real point of this test was that in a situation where you were unable to directly communicate with each other, you were able to develop a plan and work together flawlessly. Congratulations, you are now officially genin."

Itachi shook his head as Shino stood there silently, Naruto cheered, and Yakumo burst into tears at the good news. 'So this is Team 8,' he thought, 'this should be interesting, if nothing else. Since we finished the test so early, I think I should give them a little taste of what's to come.' The cheering stopped when the three genin saw Itachi's large and frightening grin. "Alright," he said, cracking his knuckles, "how about we get in a little light training?"

* * *

><p>As the sun set on the recent graduate's first day as genin, two weary boys bumped into each other at a certain ramen stand.<p>

"So," Sasuke said, his eye was sporting an impressive bruise and he had a split lip, "did you pass your test?"

"Yep," Naruto replied, he was covered in dirt and mud from head to toe and there was dried blood under his nose, "how about you?"

"Of course," Sasuke answered with a smug grin, "what did you expect? Anyways, what happened to you?"

"Your brother put us through some 'light training'." Sasuke winced; Itachi's idea of light training wasn't a walk in the park. Naruto peered at Sasuke's swollen eye, "What about you?"

Sasuke grunted in response, "Same thing."

For a moment, the two boys just looked at each other and then started to laugh. The two chatted together as they finished their ramen and began their journey home. "So what do you think our missions are gonna be like?" Naruto asked as they walked down the empty streets.

"They're probably gonna be awesome!" Sasuke said, visibly excited even through his fatigue. "I can't wait to get out there and start taking out bandits and fighting enemy ninja. It's gonna be badass!"

Naruto echoed his friend's excitement, "Me too! I've waited my whole life to be a ninja, and tomorrow, I finally get to show the world everything that I've learned."

**A/N Sorry this chapter took so long to update, I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately. Thanks to Alec McDowell for the suggestion regarding Anko and Ino, as well as dhh for his suggestion to add Yakumo as a character. Removing two of the Rookie 9 left a big hole that I was not willing to fill with an OC. **

**Holy crap, two C2's 59 favs, and 91 alerts! I would like to see more reviews, cause I love everybody's input. Constructive criticism and good ideas will only help make the story better.**


	5. Genin Blues

A Hokage's Son

Chapter 4: Genin Blues

**A/N Okay first I'd like to give a shout out to Kenchi618, because I'm totally going to steal his scene break method. It makes things a hell of a lot easier to understand than the straight up line breaks. If you haven't read any of his stuff, go do so immediately, because it's seriously awesome. And I'm using your Rancher character from Better Left Unsaid.**

**OK, that's enough dick sucking for one day.**

**BTW, I don't own Naruto, shocker right?**

*_**Hokage Tower**__*_

As Yakumo shuffled into the mission assignment room in Hokage tower, she felt a strange sense of apprehension—although she couldn't quite put her finger on why. Perhaps it was her vivid imagination acting up, but the pale-faced girl could have sworn that she had seen Itachi-sensei briefly smirking as Naruto prattled on with excitement over their first mission when they met up that morning. While Yakumo had not known their sensei for very long, she knew enough to be certain that a smirking Itachi-sensei could only mean trouble.

Whatever doubts she had about her bad feeling disappeared when she saw the gleeful look on Hokage's face as an over-enthusiastic Naruto flooded him with questions.

"So what are we doing first Dad? Are we gonna patrol the border and take out some invaders? Hunt down some missing-nin? Protect the daimyo's daughter? This is gonna be so awesome, ya know!"

Itachi covered his smirk by pretending to cough, and Minato struggled against the urge to let out an evil chuckle. He had been looking forward to the day when he would assign Naruto his first D-Rank mission. While Naruto's personality came almost exclusively from Kushina—for which Minato was at the same time deeply grateful and incredibly chagrined—he also inherited something from his father's personality: a mischievous streak a mile wide. However, today's assignment meant more to Minato than simply playing a trick on his son—for Minato today was about payback, pure and simple.

_*Flashback: Two Weeks ago*_

_Minato arrived home late…again. The weary man hung up his ceremonial hat and robes by the door where they always went and made his way to the kitchen. 'Damn it,' he thought, 'tomorrow I will for sure start interviewing assistants. I can't believe I missed another training session with Naruto.' With a sigh, Minato walked over to the cupboard and blinked when he saw the note his son had left attached to the door._

"_Dad, since you were late again I just went and got some Ichiraku Ramen. I figured you haven't eaten either so I sealed some up for you. The scroll is in the cupboard; it should still be hot. Naruto.' _

_Minato smiled at the thoughtful gesture. He couldn't believe that Naruto had gone out of his way to do this for him even after he had flaked from their training session since it was really the only real time the two ever got to spend with each other. However, Minato's musing was interrupted by his rumbling stomach, so he pulled the scroll from the cupboard and made his way over to the table to unseal his meal. Distracted by hunger and fatigue, Minato unsealed the scroll only to discover something very different than ramen within it. Namely, an explosion of bright orange paint with a slight twist—not only were Minato's clothes completely ruined, but a glance in the mirror after he had washed the paint off of his face revealed the words 'Blond Kakashi' on his forehead, and no amount of scrubbing would get it off. _

_*End Flashback*_

Despite his annoyance with the trick, Minato had to admit that it was a pretty impressive use of fuuinjutsu—it had taken him nearly a week to get the words off of his face. However, no matter how impressed he was by his son's little joke, Minato still swore vengeance and made plans to ensure that his son's first mission would be an unforgettable experience.

'Alright,' Minato thought, 'it's game time.' "Your first D-Rank mission will be to clean out Katashi-san's cattle pen and load the manure onto a cart; next, you will transport said manure to the farm on the other side of the village and work with the agricultural crew to spread out the manure as fertilizer. Since this is a team building exercise, there is no using jutsu—especially the Kage Bunshin. Understood?"

The three genin stood frozen in disbelief, mouths agape. "But…but…ninja…awesome missions…my shining expectations…why?" Naruto said, making Minato wish that he had a camera to record this moment forever. Naruto looked like he had been told that Christmas was cancelled; his dog had been shot; and that ramen had been banned from the city.

At that moment, all three adults thought the exact same thing: 'This is just priceless.'

"Come on Dad!" Naruto shouted, "I know you have better missions than that!"

Minato stared at his son for a moment "That's Hokage-sama when you are on duty Naruto," he sifted through the several D-Ranks that were still available with a cooperative expression before he looked up at his son with a smile, "I'm afraid that's the only D-Rank that's available at the moment. All of the other D-Ranks have already been snatched up by the other genin squads, I guess you guys were too late." Minato's smile widened when he saw comprehension of what was going on flash into Naruto's face. "Hurry along now, you don't want to pull a Kakashi and keep Katashi-san waiting now do you?"

Crestfallen, the three genin and their highly amused Jonin-sensei trudged out of the room. As soon as they were all gone, Minato began laughing maniacally, startling his ANBU guards, with a cough, he collected himself and basked in the glory of his sweet revenge. 'God it's great to be Hokage sometimes.'

_Meanwhile, somewhere in the Land of Fire…_

In the countryside, on a non-descript dusty road that was surrounded by trees for as far as the eye could see, two figures could be seen travelling. One of them was a rather well endowed woman with green robes and black pants; she was adorned with a simple necklace and had light blond hair tied into pigtails, light brown eyes and what appeared to be a diamond on her forehead. The other was an unassuming woman with a petite figure, short black hair, black eyes and a simple black robe with a mesh undershirt; in her arms was a small pig that for some reason wore a red vest and a pearl necklace. As the two women walked along the path, the raven-haired remained quiet as she listened to the chesty blond complain.

"Who does that little punk think he is?" Tsunade fumed at her meek travel companion, "Ordering me to return, threatening to brand me a missing-nin, and worst of all—the golden-haired bastard froze all of my accounts! When I get back to the village I'm going to teach him some respect!" For the next couple of minutes, the female member of the Sannin mumbled various threats of violence against Minato before loudly shouting once more, "Who does he think he is?" causing her assistant and travel companion Shizune to sweatdrop at her master's continued outburst.

'Um, he's the Hokage.' the black-haired woman thought while holding their pet pig. "Come on, Tsunade-sama," Shizune said in a placating tone, "it won't be that bad. I can't wait to get back to Konoha. I've really missed my home and there are a lot of people that I want to see." Ignoring the glare that Tsunade directed her way, Shizune continued on with a sad voice, "I also want to go see Uncle Dan. It's been too long since I've been able to pay my respects."

Tsunade dropped her glare towards her faithful follower and closest friend with a sigh when she heard the name of her former lover. "Thank you Shizune."

The petite woman glanced at Tsunade in surprise. "For what Tsunade-sama?"

"For staying with me for all of these years. I know how much you've missed the village, and the fact that you stuck with me all this time means more to me than you know."

At her sensei's heartfelt words, anime tears began to stream down Shizune's face. "Tsunade-sama…" the woman blubbered in a voice choked with emotion, but was cut short when she caught sight of a mountainside covered with four faces in the distance. "Look Tsunade-sama," Shizune exclaimed, "it's the village! We're finally home!"

Tsunade stopped for a moment and her eye twitched as her ecstatic companion squeezed the pig in her arms with joy, making it let out a soft oink. Shaking her head at Shizune's sudden mood shift, she eyed the Hokage monument with a mixture of melancholy and distaste. 'Home, huh? I hope they still have some decent bars left.' With that thought, Tsunade began walking towards her old home once more—but a noticeably slower pace than before.

*_Just outside Konoha*_

"What's the distance to the target?" Kakashi's voice crackled over the radio into the three-man squad's headset. Sasuke looked over at Kiba who sniffed the air and held up five fingers.

Sasuke nodded and signaled his team to get into position. "Distance is five meters. I'm in position and ready to neutralize the target. Sakura? Kiba?"

"Ready Sasuke-kun."

"Akamaru and I are ready to go."

Kakashi nodded and gave the order. "Move in." With a flash, the three genin and their dog surrounded the large cat and captured it. As Kiba struggled to keep the animal under control, Sakura and Sasuke inspected their quarry. After observing it for a moment and trying not to laugh as the cat viciously attacked the young Inuzuka's face, Sasuke activated his radio and called it in to their sensei.

"Ribbon on its left ear, are you sure that this is the target, Tora?"

"Affirmative."

"Well in that case," Kakashi said, walking out of the bushes to greet his team, "Lost Pet Search Mission 'Tora' is complete."

As the team walked back to the Hokage tower to report in for their next mission, Sasuke had a little bone to pick. "Kakashi-sensei I have a question."

"Ask away." Kakashi replied in a bored tone as he read his little orange book.

"Why are we doing these missions? We are genin, recognized ninja of the village! We spent four years in the Academy learning how to be a soldier, and took an oath to defend this village and our country with our lives. What purpose is there in sending us out to perform these menial chores?" Kakashi remained silent as he continued to read his book, only letting out a few giggles now and then. As Sasuke waited for a response he watched Kiba struggle with the cat until he finally lost patience and finally hog-tied it, once the amusement was over he looked back over to Kakashi and saw him continuing to read and giggle lecherously. "Sensei!"

"Oh, sorry Sasuke, did you say something?" Kakashi glanced over at his student and saw a tick mark appear above his head, but he remained silent. 'Huh, I thought that would get more of a response out of him.' The white haired Jonin closed his book for a minute. "Well Sasuke, there are a variety of reasons why we have the genin teams perform D-Ranks in their first couple of months together. First, D-Ranks offer a low risk method of giving a genin squad enough time to form their own particular team dynamic and bond with each other. Second, these missions allow us to get a handle on each of your own individual characteristics and act accordingly since the way that each of you handle the tasks given to you will more than likely translate over to the more dangerous tasks." Kakashi watched Sasuke nod in understanding and decided to throw out the bait. "There is one more reason why we do D-Ranks, and without a doubt, it is the most important reason of all of them."

Without missing a beat, Sasuke fell right into Kakashi's trap. "So what's the other reason?"

'Hook, line, and sinker.' Kakashi gave Sasuke his biggest eye-smile, "Because it's hilarious."

_*Training Area 44, AKA The Forest of Death*_

"Get moving Maggot, it's time for some practical escape training!" Ino's face contorted in effort as she fought to keep up with her Jonin superior. Ever since she had woken up tied to a chair, every waking moment for Ino had been a life or death situation. Of course, today was no different. As the two Kunoichi sped through Konoha's most infamous training ground, they were being chased by a hoard of vicious arboreal creatures. At least, that was the best description that Ino could think of at that moment since they resembled nothing that she was familiar with—they looked like a bizarre mixture of a monkey, an ant, and some kind of dog. Anko had called them Kiyajuu and went into a detailed explanation of how they were extremely fast, dangerous, intelligent, and insanely territorial—right before she threw an explosive tag into their nesting grounds. Ino sat there stunned as her sensei fled with an insane grin on her face.

Anko spared a second to glance back at her new apprentice. Undoubtedly, the girl had been made out of tougher stuff than most when the special Jonin first acquired her, but under her tutelage, Yamanaka Ino was quickly proving herself to be someone who was born for this line of work. 'I can't believe I didn't ask for an apprentice sooner! This is just too much fun!' Anko's frightening grin spread wider when she saw several Kiyajuu begin to close in on her rapidly tiring project. 'I should probably just let them eat her slow ass…but I'm not done playing with her yet!' After swiftly running through a few hand signs, Anko quickly spun around to assist Ino, "Sen'ei Tajashu (Multiple Striking Shadow Snakes)!" In an instant, over a dozen snakes shot out of Anko's sleeves and struck the incoming beasts, giving Ino some much needed breathing room.

"Thanks for the assist Anko-sensei!" Ino called out with genuine gratitude in her voice—thanks to Anko's extreme tendency to rely on the 'Sink or Swim' method of training; Ino truly did not expect to be saved by her borderline psychotic trainer.

"If you have the energy to talk you have the energy to get your ass in gear Maggot! You only get one!"

"Of course I do." Ino muttered as she threw explosives at her pursuers.

"Did you say something Worm?"

"Negative Anko-sensei!"

"Good, now light a fire under your ass! We've still got six kilometers to go before we're clear! These bastards won't stop chasing you until you're out of the forest!"

'Shit!' Ino thought as she pulled a soldier pill out of her bag and popped the bitter energy supplement into her mouth, 'How the hell did I end up with this crazy bitch! There's no way anyone else my age is doing anything this terrible!'

_*Katashi's Ranch, a several miles outside Konoha*_

As Team 8 gazed into the cattle's pen, Itachi took note of their mixed reactions and counted himself lucky that he did not have to participate. Naruto would have had his mouth open in horror if he wasn't sure that a fly would enter it, Shino managed to keep up his usual stoic expression except of a twitching eyebrow, and Yakumo looked as if she were going to be ill—well, more so than usual anyways.

"Well," Katashi said, "this is the holding pen for the cattle, I'm afraid that it hasn't been cleaned properly for a few months so it's a little much for me and my little cousins here." With a jerk of the head, Katashi addressed the two black-haired children standing behind him who also wore looks of horror similar to Naruto. "The boy in the poncho is Shigeru, and the girl n all the denim is Kiyomi. What you're gonna do is shovel all up all of the crap and load it onto the cart before we hose everything down. After that, we're gonna unwrap about ten bales of hay," Katashi paused to point at an enormous mound of hay sitting on top of a loft, "and we're gonna spread it on the floor of the chamber. Got it?" Since he didn't hear any questions, Katashi smiled and clapped his hands together snapping the young workers out of their daze, "Good! Let's get to work then!"

Naruto didn't know what to make of this situation. Just yesterday, he had gone home happy—albeit slightly bruised—and dreaming of his exciting new life as a ninja. He had heard that Hinata would finally be allowed visitors and he had planned on cheering her up with his grand tales of adventure and exploit, but suddenly he found himself on an out of the way ranch, literally shin deep in bullshit with a shovel in his hand. 'Touché Father,' Naruto thought as he loaded shovel after shovel of the manure onto the large cart, 'of course you know that this means war.' After that, Naruto began to work at a furious pace, which thoroughly impressed Katashi, and was buoyed by thoughts of revenge, as well as his seemingly inexhaustibly supply of energy.

Meanwhile, Yakumo wasn't doing so well—she wasn't exactly built for hard labor in the first place, and the added combination of being covered in fecal matter and hay wasn't helping her constitution at all. 'I can't do this any longer,' she thought as she struggled to continue loading the cart, 'I feel like my body is going to give out at any moment! I need to rest!'

"Keep going Yakumo." Yakumo jumped at the sound of Itachi's voice behind her, "I know that this isn't the limit of your abilities. You are a ninja. No matter how hard it is you cannot stop until the mission is complete. If you stop, your dream dies here." Tears filled Yakumo's eyes at Itachi's words.

"Itachi-sensei I—" Yakumo began, but was cut off when Itachi poked her in the forehead.

"I don't think that that will happen Yakumo," Itachi said with the faintest of smiles on his face, "I believe that you can do it if you don't give up." Yakumo used her dirty sleeve to wipe the tears from her eyes and nodded with a determined look on her face.

Itachi made a mental note of Yakumo's response; nothing was more useful for a teacher than knowing how to motivate their student to give everything they had. 'It seems that she won't be as much of an issue as I thought. Despite her appearance, the girl has some fire in her.' After watching the frail girl work for a few minutes he decided to check on his other students, 'Let's try and find out what makes the Aburame tick.' "How's it going Shino?" Itachi asked in a pleasant voice.

"Although we have made significant progress due to Naruto's impressive pace, it seems that we still have a large amount of work to do. Why you ask? Because the owner of this establishment was clearly negligent in the janitorial upkeep of this pen."

Itachi inwardly sighed, 'Looks like I have to be a bit more specific with this one.' "What I meant was how are you feeling about the work?"

Shino paused in his work for a second and raised an eyebrow, "I do not see the relevance of my emotional state to the task we have before us, because regardless of my feelings on the matter, the mission must be completed as instructed."

Itachi chuckled, "I suppose, but it's important to let your team know how you are feeling. Things like emotions can cloud judgment during missions. You're right that it's not really important in this case, but in other situations, your emotional state is an important factor."

"I do not believe that it will be a problem sensei. I have been trained to never allow my personal feelings to cloud my judgment because basing one's decisions off of their feelings instead of logic leads to tragedy more often than not."

Itachi fought the urge to face palm in frustration and nodded at his student, "It was nice to chat with you Shino, keep up the good work." Hoping to have a slightly less aggravating discussion, Itachi began heading over to Naruto when he heard his blond student muttering about revenge. As he moved closer to investigate, Itachi overheard the words 'hot sauce', 'soup spoon' and 'puppies', and promptly decided that he didn't want to know.

_*Training Ground 8*_

Sarutobi Asuma was at a loss for what he was going to do about his team. Although he definitely wasn't the kind of guy to stress over stuff like a little bit of eccentricity—hell, most of his colleagues were their own special brand of insane—he wasn't quite sure what to do with the laziest kid he had ever seen, an Akamichi with confidence issues, and a ghostly pale boy with no social skills and the creepiest smile he had ever seen constantly pasted on his face.

'This is a collection of misfits if I ever saw one in my life. Oh well, I guess beggars can't be choosers.' Asuma placed another cigarette in his mouth and lit it. "Alright guys, since we were kind of rushed into the testing process since Sai joined the team, we never got to really introduce ourselves. Give me your name, hobbies, likes, dislike, and dreams. All that good stuff. Shikamaru, you're up first."

Shikamaru didn't bother opening his eyes from where he lay in the grass in the shade of a tree. "Too troublesome…have someone else go first."

Asuma took a deep hit from his cigarette to calm himself down. After enough time, every Jonin or above had to find their own coping mechanism—Guy had his Flames of Youth, Kakashi had his porn, and Asuma loved his cigarettes. "Just do it Shikamaru. Don't make me get your mother involved."

At the mention of his mother, Shikamaru grumbled and sat up. "Nara Shikamaru, my hobbies include Shogi and watching the clouds, I like sleeping, I dislike troublesome people, and my dream is to be mediocre." After he had finished, the lazy Nara lay back down with a yawn and closed his eyes again, causing Asuma to face palm.

"That you Shikamaru for that inspiring view into your life," Asuma said dryly, "Sai, you're next."

Sai flashed his creepy smile at Asuma and said, "My name is Sai."

Asuma stared at the pale boy for a moment and sweatdropped when he realized that he wasn't saying anything else. "Uh, Sai, you neglected to mention anything other than your name."

"I do not have any of those other things."

Asuma sighed and took another deep hit. 'I'm gonna be spending a lot more money on cigarettes if this keeps up.' "Right, moving on then, Choji, you're up."

Choji took a brief moment to finish eating his chips and cleared his throat. "I'm Akamichi Choji, my hobbies include hanging out with Shikamaru and trying new kinds of food; I like chips, cookies, candy, ramen, and BBQ; I am big-boned, _not fat_; my dream is to try every kind of food in the world."

'Is food all this kid thinks about? And what kind of dislike was that? It sounded more like a threat!' Asuma weakly chuckled, 'God I've got my work cut out for me.' "Alright guys, now that that's over, I'm gonna run you through some formations and then you are all going to spar with me as your opponent."

"Asuma-sensei, you didn't introduce yourself."

"Hmm, sorry Choji, did you say something?"

_*Hokage Tower*_

Kakashi looked up from his book with a jerk and looked around; seeing nothing, he scratched his head.

"Is something wrong Kakashi?" Minato asked his former student.

"I don't know Sensei, I just suddenly got a feeling like somebody ripped me off." And with a shrug, the white-haired Sharingan warrior went back to reading his book with a giggle.

*_Konoha Front Gates*_

The two ninja on guard duty were arguing, as usual. If anyone cared to listen in—which most people did not, since the arguments of these perpetual gate guards had by this time become more of a ritual and less of a fight by this point—they would have heard Hagane Kotetsu, a spiky-haired dark-eyed Chunin with a bandage on his face, voicing his usual complaint of always being stationed at the gates. "Izumo," he said to brown haired shinobi next to him, "how can you stand to always be dumped here! When I first became a ninja I had dreams, damnit! I pictured myself traveling all around the world, performing exciting missions, rescuing damsels in distress, and gratuitous use of explosives! But here we are, wasting away in some guard booth like a glorified mall cop!"

The more subdued of the ninja duo sighed in response to his long-time friend. "Kotetsu, guard duty is an important responsibility. It is up to us to ensure that no one dangerous enters the village. We are this village's first line of defense!"

Kotetsu snorted, "Yeah, just keep telling yourself that. I'm sure that the merchants and dignitaries that come in and out of the village would bring Konoha to its knees if it weren't for our constant vigil!"

"You never know." Izumo replied dryly.

Kotetsu's eye twitched for a moment, "As much as I appreciate your sarcasm it doesn't change that fact that this is…is that who I think it is?"

Izumo pointed his gaze in the direction that his friend was looking and his eyes widened. Before him stood Senju Tsunade, member of the Legendary Sannin and the greatest medical ninja in the world-but he had a job to do and it was no time to be star struck. "Welcome back to Konoha Tsunade-sama, the Hokage has given me orders to escort you to the tower immediately upon your arrival."

Tsunade waved the young Chunin off, 'God I can't put up with this right away. I need to find a bar somewhere and get absolutely plastered.' "I'll go and see the Hokage when I'm good and ready. I have new orders for you: escort me immediately to the nearest bar!"

Izumo blinked, 'Did Tsunade-sama really just say that?' "*Cough*, I'm sorry Tsunade-sama, I'm afraid Hokage-sama was very specific in his orders regarding your arrival. Please follow me." Izumo mentally steeled himself to not buckle under the weight of the legendary ninja's glare and he stiffly began to lead the irritated woman to the tower with a mildly amused/mortified Shizune in tow. When the group arrived at the Hokage's chambers, Izumo was visibly relieved when the Hokage dismissed him. 'I better steer clear of her for a while,' the eternal Chunin worried, 'I felt like she was going to murder me with her gaze the entire way here!'

When the door shut behind Izumo, Tsunade was the first to break the suffocating silence left in his wake. "You've got a lot of nerve making me come back here under a threat, brat! I have half a mind to beat some respect into to you since Jiraiya obviously neglected to do so himself!"

"That's enough." Minato said in a cold voice, stopping Tsunade in mid-rant, "While the Sandaime may have put up with your insubordination and selfishness regarding the village, I will not. I _am the Hokage_ and it is my duty to act in the best interest of the village, not indulge your wallowing in self-pity. You are not the only person here who has lost someone precious to you—remember that."

Tsunade flinched at the younger man's words. She was stunned…speechless even. It had been years since anyone had spoken to her like that. "Well then, Hokage-sama," she said bitterly, "what exactly am I here for?"

"Two things: first, you will start up the combat medic training program that you proposed during the war;" Tsunade visibly reacted to the statement—she had not been expecting that, "after extensive deliberation with the council, I can ensure you all of the financial support and resources you need to get the program up and running."

Shizune looked delighted, "Tsunade-sama, that's wonderful!" Minato smiled fondly at Shizune, making her blush deeply—and reviving her long dormant inner fangirl.

"Second, there is a patient that I would like you to treat if you could, the former Hyuga heiress, and one of my son's friends—she was blinded by a close proximity flashbomb."

"Are you telling me that you threatened to brand me a missing-nin, and froze my accounts, all to treat some Hyuga brat who got hurt in a training accident?"

"No, I called you here to start up the combat medic program. Getting the council's support for this plan has taken me years. I am asking you to treat the girl as a personal favor to myself—do this, and I will be in your debt."

"Enough to let me leave once I am done?" Tsunade asked hopefully.

"No."

Tsunade sighed, "Well, can't blame me for trying, take me to the Hyuga brat, I'll see what I can do." At her words, Minato nodded and left the rest of his paperwork in the hands of his pink-haired assistant and the three ninja headed off to the hospital. On the way there, Tsunade took in the familiar and not-so-familiar sights of the village that she had left so long ago. They all discussed the various changes and events that had occurred in the time that she and Shizune had been gone—and Tsunade noted with some amusement that Shizune's childhood crush on Jiraiya's famous student had come back in full force.

"Um, Hokage-sama," the meek girl commented, "back in the tower, you mentioned your son…when did this happen? How old is he now?"

Minato glanced at the younger woman, who blushed again under his gaze. "I forgot that you weren't in the village then. Naruto was born the night of the Kyuubi attack twelve years ago."

"Naruto? That's an interesting name." To the surprise of both Shizune and Minato, this comment came from Tsunade, who had remained silent up to this point.

"Yes. We named him after the main character in Jiraiya-sensei's first book."

Tsunade snorted. "Hmph, you would be better off keeping any child of yours far away from that pervert."

Minato started laughing, "Well, I've definitely had to set some boundaries whenever he comes to visit. When I caught him trying to read Naruto to sleep using one of his 'Icha Icha' books I considered teleporting him to the moon!" This time, Tsunade returned his laughter and before they knew it, the three of them found themselves at the Konoha hospital. Suddenly all business, Minato walked over to the receptionist and explained the situation. When the no-nonsense woman got a look at Tsunade, she gasped and quickly led the group to the room where Hinata was being kept.

When they entered the room a small, but eerily cold voice rang out. "Who's there?"

"Hello Hinata. It's me again, and I've brought somebody who might be able to help you."

Hinata snorted and narrowed her sightless eyes, "I sincerely doubt it. The last three people who you sent in to 'help' me have all been as incompetent as your medical staff."

Tsunade looked at Minato in disbelief. This was the girl that he asked her to heal as a personal favor? 'What a brat, who talks to the Hokage like that?' she thought, completely missing the irony of the situation.

Minato sighed, "I'm sorry that you think they couldn't help you Hinata. But we are all worried that you aren't coping well with what happened. Anyways, this isn't that kind of help—the person that I've brought to help you is none other than the legendary medical ninja Tsunade."

'Well at least she knows to be impressed by that,' Tsunade thought when she saw the girls eyes widen at the mention of her name, 'maybe the brat will demonstrate some manners yet.' Clearing her throat, Tsunade finally spoke up, "Hinata is it? Lay down and I'll run a scan on you to see how severe the damage is and if there is anything I can do." The girl looked doubtful, but she complied. Tsunade walked over the young Hyuga and with a few hand seals, began to inspect the young girls wound. 'Hmm, there's been severe damage to the optic receptors due to the flash, but the chakra network in her Byakugan seems intact at least.'

After a few minute had passed and it looked as if Tsunade had finished with her diagnosis, Minato looked at the famous kunoichi. "Well?" he said, hoping for good news.

"It's pretty bad, but I've seen worse. Thankfully, her chakra network in her Byakugan wasn't damaged in the accident so I should be able to use it in order to facilitate a restoration of her sight. I'd say her chances of a full recovery under my care are about seventy percent."

Minato sighed in relief at the optimistic prediction. "Isn't that splendid Hinata? It looks as if you might be able to reclaim your dream of being a shinobi." Minato expected tears of gratitude, cries of relief—some positive response to the news that she would very likely get her sight back, instead, Hinata merely grunted.

"That's great," she said dryly, "now instead of merely being an outcast from my clan I can be an outcast with a seal. My _father_," she spat, as if the word were something unpleasant on her tongue, "wouldn't simply allow me to return to the household after casting me out the way he did. But do you really think that he would allow an unsealed Hyuga to simply walk around freely? If I am healed, I will either be a slave or worse."

Minato frowned, he had not considered the Hyuga reaction if the shunned former heiress were to be healed. "Don't worry about that, Hinata," he said in a serious tone, "just focus on your recovery. I will put you under my protection." Apparently mollified, Hinata nodded and lay her head back down on the pillow. Minato turned to Tsunade, "How soon could we begin the operation?"

Tsunade considered it for a second, and nodded. "Right now, if you want. Shizune and I could finish up in a couple of hours, probably."

"Good." Minato replied, "Get it done and I'll get to work unfreezing your accounts." With the extra motivation that his words provided, the two Kunoichi rapidly began with their preparations to operate.

However, in all of the commotion, nobody noticed the heavily bandaged man standing outside of the doorway, listening to every word. With an almost imperceptible smile, Danzo turned and walked away. 'It seems like I may have found something useful,' he thought as the sounds of his cane hitting the tile floor echoed through the halls, 'even broken weapons can be reforged into something deadly.'

_*Hokage Tower ~ Living Quarters*_

Dirty, sweaty, hungry, and tired, Naruto shambled into his home, lurched his way up the stairs to his room and ceremoniously placed his hitai-ite and blade on his bed before stripping and tossing his filthy clothes into the hamper. 'I might as well burn them,' he thought darkly as he turned on the shower as hot as it would go, 'I don't think I'll ever be able to get the shit out of them.' After sticking a hand into the stream of running water, the blond youth stepped into the spacious stall and sighed in relief as the filth began to flow off of his body. For a few minutes, he just stood under the steaming hot flow, letting the water massage his tired body. 'I can't believe that after all of that, Itachi-niisan wouldn't let us go and collect our pay. 'Not presentable' my ass! After what dad put us through, he deserved to have to smell us!'

After about thirty minutes of soaking his stress away, Naruto had washed his hair and body, and emerged from the shower, his skin flushed pink from the exposure to the heat. After drying off, the boy yawned and put on a pair of bright orange pajamas before heading downstairs to get a meal before sharpening his blade and turning in for the night. When he got downstairs, he was surprised to find his father waiting at the table with two meals sitting in front of him. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the unexpected presence of his father but sat down across from him where the other meal was situated. "Hey Dad, you're home earlier than usual."

Minato grinned, "Of course, did you think I would miss hearing all about my son's first day as a Leaf Shinobi?"

Naruto's eye twitched at the gleeful tone in his father's voice. He obviously found the whole thing hilarious. "Ha ha," he said as menacingly as he could, "I'm glad that you find the whole situation so funny. I understand that you wanted to get me back for the whole ink bomb thing—but I hope you realize that this means war."

Minato chuckled, "Naruto my boy," he said grandly, "it seems that you didn't pay attention in the Academy when they told you to pick your battles wisely. No matter what you do to me, the fact that you are now a ninja of this village means that you answer to, and receive all of your missions from the Hokage…" Minato's grin grew downright sinister as he paused for effect, "and guess what little man—_I_ am the Hokage. Today was just a little taste of what's to come if you get on my bad side!"

Naruto rolled his eyes at his father's attempt to intimidate him. "Whatever you say, Hokage-sama," he said playfully, "but I'd watch my back if I were you…they don't call me a genius for nothing, ya know."

Minato growled at his son, "Don't get too full of yourself there, buddy, they called me a genius back before it was in style." The two men, father and son stared each other down for a few seconds before they burst out laughing before digging furiously into their food. When they had finished their meal, Minato playfully ruffled his son's hair, "Hey Naruto, I have some great news for you!" Naruto faked a scowl at the physical contact and asked Minato what he was talking about. "Your friend Hinata was successfully operated on today by Tsunade-sama and her eyesight is expected to make a full recovery!"

Naruto let out a breath in relief and looked as if a massive weight of guilt had been removed from his shoulders, then he looked up, "Wait…Tsunade? _The_ Tsunade? Ero-sennin's old teammate? She's back in Konoha?"

Minato nodded, "I had her return to start up a new combat medic training program and asked her to treat Hinata."

Naruto looked ecstatic at the news, "That's great, can I go see her tomorrow? What's gonna happen to her ninja career? Is she going back to the Academy?"

Minato chuckled at his son's excitement, "Yes, you should be able to see her tomorrow. As for her ninja career, that will be up to her. It's one of those bridges that we will have to cross once we get to it."

After chatting with his father some more, Naruto retired to his room, sharpened his blade, polished his hitai-ite, and for the first time since the Hyuga girl had been blinded, he slept with a clear conscience.

*_Underground Root Facility*_

When Hinata first woke up, all she saw was darkness. 'Well,' she thought bitterly, 'I guess the old hag wasn't all that she was cracked up to be.' Her thoughts quickly changed however, when the cloth was removed from her face and she squinted against the sudden bright light. When her pale eyes refocused, she saw an old man standing in front of her who was covered in bandages and holding a cane.

"Hello," the man said raspy voice, "my name is Danzo, your new master, and you are now a weapon for the good of Konoha. From this day on, you belong to Root."

**A/N Alright, this chapter was kind of hard for me to write just cause I'm trying to get a feel for how I want to portray these characters.**

**Any and all reviews are extremely appreciated because I feed off of your adulation.**

**Constructive criticism works too. **

**Later!**


	6. Training

**A lot of people have been saying that Danzo is being uncharacteristically bold in this story, but the truth is that since Hiruzen Sarutobi is dead, he doesn't have to be quite as careful. Nobody knew him better than the Third, and his boldness is due to his increased flexibility.**

**5 Communities, 101 Favs and 130 Alerts so far! I'm blown away by the positive responses I'm getting but let's see how much further we can go.**

**Disclaimer: I may not own Naruto, but I…um…damnit.**

Chapter 5: Training

_Hokage Tower: Office_

"Sensei."

Jiraiya eye twitched at his Minato's matter of fact greeting—the Sage still had no idea how his former student kept detecting him, but he knew there had to be some kind of trick behind it. "Alright," the elder ninja growled, "how do you keep doing that? I'm the best damn spy that this village has produced in generations, I can sneak in and out of the most hostile situations most people can even imagine without anyone ever knowing that I was there, and to top it all off, I'm a Goddamn Sannin! I should be able to get this close to you without noticing!"

Minato sighed, it had been two months since the Hyuga girl mysteriously disappeared from her hospital bed and he hadn't gotten any closer to finding her, "I'm in no mood for this right now, Sensei," he said, feeling much older than his age, "just tell me what you've learned."

"Not too much more than you have I'm afraid. At the moment, the Hyuga's are still the primary suspects, although we don't have anything on them besides a probable motive. I've discovered that they were unaware of your…personal interest in Hinata's case, but I find it doubtful that they would eliminate the girl rather than seal her."

"You didn't hear her talk about it Sensei," Minato said, "she was so bitter, she sounded so sure that they wouldn't hesitate to kill her."

"Be that as it may, I have a feeling that this goes deeper than mere clan issues." Jiraiya said gravely, "Trust me on this, I haven't survived this long by doubting my instincts."

Minato nodded, Jiraiya had a point. "Keep looking into it. I promised the girl that she would be under my protection and I intend to deal with whoever did this harshly."

"Understood." Jiraiya said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

_Konoha Training Grounds_

"First Form: Kubisurasshu."

"Hai!" hundreds of Naruto clones yelled out in tandem, performing an overhand slash with their short blade that targeted the jugular of an opponent.

"Second Form: Ashikatto wo Korosu."

"Hai!" the army of clones shouted once again as they slashed the air in the approximate location of an enemies femoral artery.

Itachi had to admit, when he figured out exactly how many clones Naruto could make, he had been thrilled. Thanks to the little side effect of the Kage Bunshin technique, he only had to show Naruto a few techniques and—for the most part—leave the boy on his own so he could focus on his other students. For the past few weeks, Itachi had set Naruto to the task of mastering his swordplay. After showing him some of the kenjutsu forms that he had learned during his tenure as a member of the ANBU Black Ops, and teaching him several drills to work on combat flexibility he had let the boy train himself. As the raven-haired Jonin watched Naruto run through the forms flawlessly, he gave the boy his due. 'The kid's already mastered and polished the ANBU basic forms to a ridiculous degree—it looks like he's been doing this for years.' After thinking for a moment, Itachi shook his head, 'Oh, that's right, as far as he is concerned, he _has_ been doing this for years.' "Stop!" Itachi called out, "Dispel your clones and rest for a minute. Then do your accuracy training."

The mass of Narutos groaned but complied; all of them popped out of existence until only one of the blue-clad genin remained standing, albeit a little shakily. "Itachi-niisan," Naruto said, as he sat on the ground to recover, "besides the teamwork drills and some sparring, all I've done for the past four weeks is practice those basic forms and do those other exercises you showed me."

Itachi gave Naruto a look that showed he wasn't pleased with his familiar tone, but didn't say anything about it—he had long since given up correcting the boy on the matter. "Well Naruto, we call basics 'basic' for a reason. Everything that you do is built off of those foundations. Just like you can't use jutsu if you aren't able to mold your chakra, knowing about all of the advanced sword techniques in the world won't help you if you can't swing the sword correctly."

Naruto scoffed, "I understand all of that 'fundamentals are everything' crap, but I added up how much experience my practice with my clones has given me—somewhere around the ballpark of _twenty years_. I think it's safe to say that I'm ready for the next level, ya know!"

Itachi sighed and shook his head, "Alright Naruto, you win. Go and do your accuracy training, and tomorrow I promise I'll introduce you to the next training level."

Naruto's face immediately brightened at Itachi's words, "Awesome, I can't wait! I'm gonna hold you to that Itachi-niisan!" Itachi facepalmed and walked away to check on his other genin as Naruto made a several clones toss up handfuls of leaves for him to slice in mid-air.

A few hundred feet away from Naruto's kenjutsu training, Shino and Yakumo were sparring as instructed. As usual, Yakumo's weak body made this event a singularly one-sided affair with Shino dominating the pale kunoichi outright. Itachi sighed at the sight. For the past two months, under Itachi's incredibly patient guidance, Yakumo's physical abilities had vastly improved. However, when the point of comparison used is 'nonexistent', even a vast improvement still isn't saying much. While Yakumo's Kekkei Genkai certainly made a direct conflict a difficult feat for anyone who wasn't exceptionally skilled in genjutsu or didn't possess a particularly potent dojutsu, against an opponent who could close the distance, the girl was good as dead. As for Itachi, he possessed both of those attributes, a fact that rendered the girl practically useless in team spars. As the girl's sensei, he would have to do something about that before she lost all confidence in her abilities. "That's enough for now." Itachi called out, putting a stop to the clashing genin, "Shino, go and practice the tree climbing exercises. Yakumo, stay here." The quiet Aburame boy nodded stiffly and headed off to the nearby trees while Yakumo sat on the ground, gasping for breath.

"Sensei," Yakumo said with tears in her eyes, "I'm useless. No matter how hard I try I just can't keep up. During our fights against you my best genjutsu can barely even slow you down. I'm so weak that when I spar against Shino and Naruto they have to hold back to the point where it will hurt their own development. You should just get someone else for the team."

Itachi didn't say a word to the weeping girl—instead, he activated his sharingan and bore the full weight of his gaze upon the girl, causing her to freeze up at the sight. "Yakumo," he said, not allowing her to break off from his gaze, "what do you see?"

"Sh-Sharingan—your Sharingan." Yakumo said with a shudder—it was no secret that the intensity of the glare behind those red eyes unnerved her greatly.

"That's correct," Itachi said in a stern voice, never once breaking eye contact, "and do you remember what the Sharingan is famous for?"

"Th-the Sharingan is famous for the ability to copy any Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu the user witnesses, as well as cast and see through Genjutsu."

"Also correct," Itachi replied, "I also happen to be known as perhaps the most gifted genjutsu user in Konoha. The only other person who comes close is Kurenai Yuhi." Hoping that the point he was trying to make had been driven home, Itachi deactivated his eyes, and his face softened.

"S-so that means…"

"It means that I can count the number of people in the world who could match me in genjutsu on one hand. Don't worry about being unable to affect me too much—in fact, you should be proud of the fact that you can slow me down at all—it's more than either Naruto or Shino can say."

Yakumo's mouth dropped open at the praise and she blushed deeply, however, his words left her curious. "But if my genjutsu is so strong, how come all you do is make me spar and do physical conditioning instead of teaching me more genjutsu?"

Itachi smiled sadly at the girl, "The reason that I make you do all of these things is because your dream is fundamentally impossible."

Now Yakumo's face flushed in anger instead of happiness. "What! But you said that I—"

"I told you that you could achieve your dream to be an excellent shinobi. I did not say that you could do it with only genjutsu. True, your Kekkei Genkai pretty much eliminates the need for you to learn any Ninjutsu since your illusions can actually kill your opponents. However, what would you do if your teammates were too injured to defend you, or you got separated from your team and you were fighting against someone like me who could break through your techniques? What if you fought somebody who was so fast that you couldn't catch them in a genjutsu before they were able to attack? What if your team needed to flee from a high-risk situation? With the way your body is, you would fall behind and become a liability."

Yakumo hung her head at her sensei's words. "Then it's just like I said! I'm too weak to help the team! You should just get someone else!"

Itachi fought the urge to facepalm. "Yakumo," Itachi said evenly, "that's exactly why I'm having you do all of the physical conditioning and sparring. True, your weak body does make things difficult, but you are fortunate in that your problem—unlike the problem of that Rock Lee kid you talk about all the time, _can_ be fixed. You will probably never be strong enough or fast enough to be a shinobi that relies on close combat, but then again, you don't need to be. Understand?" Yakumo nodded as she wiped the tears from her face. "Good!" Itachi said cheerily, "Now give me fifty laps around the training field! Full speed!" Yakumo's mouth dropped open at her sensei's sudden change in demeanor—not to mention his recent command, but began sprinting as directed when he gave her a look that allowed no defiance. Itachi chuckled as her saw the girl take off after he gave her his 'serious face', 'I feel real good about my life right now.' he thought, with the ghost of a smile on his face.

As Shino ran up and down the tree he had selected for practice, he immersed himself in his thoughts. Lately, the young bug-user had been thinking a lot about his mysterious blond-headed teammate. While it was no surprise to Shino that the young Namikaze was especially talented given his parentage, the scope of the cheerful boy's powers unnerved him. First, there was the question of Naruto's unnatural stamina and chakra reserves. Whenever Naruto sparred, ran, or performed really any kind of physical activity, it seemed as if he would never run out of energy. Additionally, when Shino had inquired about the nature of the shadow clone technique to his parents, he had been told that it was a kenjutsu due to the ridiculous amount of chakra it took to perform—yet Naruto could literally make thousands. Then there was the question of Naruto's miraculous healing rate—bruises faded within seconds, minor cuts healed in minutes, and even after the most intensive workouts, the boy was never sore the next day. Finally, there was the question of the unnatural chakra that appeared from time to time whenever Naruto lost his temper. Every time it was the same—Naruto would grow angry, and his body seemed to…change as he emitted a terrifying aura of killing intent before being silenced by a glare from Itachi. 'Perhaps it is a Kekkei Genkai of some kind,' Shino thought, 'it would certainly explain many things. However, something about that odd chakra feels strange, because it frightens my kikaichu in a way I have never experienced before. I must investigate this further.'

_Konoha Streets—Business District_

"Good work out there today Maggot!" Anko said with a cheerful grin on her face as she devoured the stick of dango in her hand, "If you keep this up I might just promote you from 'worthless' to 'garbage'!" Ino sighed at her exuberant, sadistic, bloodthirsty, unreasonable, arrogant, violently unstable, hyperactive, snake wielding, dango-obsessed, downright insane teacher. Anko's eye twitched as she looked at the blond girl, "Hey! You just thought something rude about me again, didn't you?"

"No Anko-sensei," Ino said dryly, "I wouldn't dream of it."

Anko grinned menacingly at her apprentice, "That's good, because I hope you remember what happened the last time I caught you thinking badly about me?" Ino shivered—it was actually something she had gone to her father in the hopes he could use his mind techniques in order to make her forget, but the image of the two hugging men on that shore seemed to be burned into her mind.

For a few minutes, the two kunoichi walked down the bustling streets on their way to Anko's favorite dango shop to get a meal before heading back out to the Forest of Death for their training. Over the last two months, Ino's constant contact with the infamous Snake Mistress had brought about a huge change in the girl. To the amusement of some—and abject horror of others—the eccentric Special Jonin had rubbed off quite a bit on the young Yamanaka girl. In fact, it could be said that Ino was slowly becoming a blond Anko clone. Two weeks into her training, Ino had ditched her long, impractical hairstyle in favor of Anko's shorter, more functional haircut. Three weeks later, Ino no longer wore the purple dress that had defined her for so any years—now, she sported the tan overcoat, mesh bodysuit, mini-skirt and shin guards of her master, as well as a pair of snake fang earrings. Inevitably, this led to many people making jokes about Anko being like the Jonin Maito Gai—however, that line of thought was quickly and—mostly—bloodlessly put a stop to by the purple-haired female. Soon, the two arrived at the shop and took their usual seat. No waiter came to ask what they wanted—there was no need.

"Alright brat, it's your turn to pay for the food!"

"Anko-sensei," Ino said in an annoyed voice as they took a seat, "it's been 'my turn' to pay every time we've been here."

Anko gave her blond look-alike a predatory smirk. "And your point is?"

Ino's eye twitched and she growled, "When are you actually gonna pay for it yourself?"

Anko chuckled, making everyone in the shop freeze in terror. "Maybe when you learn to stop asking stupid questions."

Surprisingly, Ino returned her master's chuckle and grinned. "Keep it up and I'll slit your throat in your sleep."

Anko grinned right back at Ino and took a stick of dango off of the plate of the terrified waiter who was passing by, "Ooh feisty," she purred, "that's good. The ones that have a little fight in them are always the most delicious."

The owner of the shop sighed as customer after customer fled at the sight of the two women grinning at each other. As he watched the two kunoichi fill his establishment with a suffocating atmosphere of terror, the man waged an internal battle against two conflicting instincts. While instincts as a businessman told him to kick them out for frightening away his patrons, they were countered by his instinct for self-preservation. Eventually, self-preservation won. 'One of them was bad enough for business! Two of them is going to bankrupt me!' With that thought, the unfortunate owner calmly walked to his office, closed the door, and responded to the situation in the most mature, responsible way he could—he curled up into a ball an the floor and cried like a little girl.

_Team 7 Meeting Place_

"Are you freaking kidding me?" Kiba shouted, "Three hours! He's three hours late! How did this guy make Jonin?" The young Inuzuka paced impatiently back and forth across the bridge, grumbling angrily before getting smacked in the back of the head by his pink-haired teammate.

"Shut up Kiba-ka! In case you haven't noticed Sasuke-kun and I have been waiting just as long as you have! You shouting about it like an annoying brat isn't helping!"

"Hn." Sasuke grunted in agreement, his teacher's antics and refusal to well, teach them anything had put the Uchiha in a progressively worsening mood. Sakura's constant fawning over him wasn't helping matters much either.

"Damn, Sakura!" Kiba muttered rubbing the bump on his head, "I swear you hit like a man!" Ignoring the throbbing vein on his teammate large forehead, the clueless boy added, "A big man! OW!"

"Freaking smartass…" Sakura muttered as she rubbed the fist she had just smashed into the now unconscious Inuzuka boy's skull. After a moment, she went over to the object of her affections and began to hit on him as furiously as ever. "So Sasuke-kun," she said, leaning in as close as she could to the young Uchiha, "what are you doing after we finish our mission today? Maybe we could go on a date?"

Sasuke suppressed a groan. 'Does she ever think of anything besides boys? She's supposed to be a ninja for God's sake!' "Sorry Sakura, I'm gonna be busy. Naruto and I are gonna hang out and train later tonight."

Sakura let out a little sigh of disappointment and hung her in depression. "Oh," she said pitifully, "OK, then. Maybe another time."

Sasuke had to suppress another groan—he wasn't interested in the girl the way she wanted him to be, but he was still her teammate and didn't want her to feel bad. "Hey…Sakura."

"Yes Sasuke-kun?" Sakura replied, suddenly chipper once more.

"Uhh…if you want, you can come train with us tonight." 'Sorry Naruto.'

"Really?" She squealed in happiness, making the dark-haired boy flinch.

"Yeah. And we should probably wake Kiba up, he's been unconscious for a while, and I don't really want a teammate with brain damage."

Sakura snapped out of her delusional happiness to look over at her other teammate, who was lying on the ground drooling as Akamaru licked his face. "Wow. I guess I hit him harder than I thought."

After Kiba had been roused, and Sasuke extended the invitation to the training session with Naruto—much to Sakura's chagrin—Kakashi finally showed up. "Yo," he said as he nonchalantly flipped through his infamous orange book, "sorry I'm late, my shoelace broke and I had to go and buy a replacement set." Unable to help it, the three genin all looked down at their sensei's feet to see that—as usual—he was wearing the standard issue shinobi sandals.

"That's…a….um, whatsit called…lie." Kiba mumbled, in an oddly subdued voice, causing Kakashi to lift an eyebrow in confusion.

"What happened to him?" Kakashi asked as he watched Kiba stare off into space with glazed over eyes.

"Sakura punched really hard. I think she might of broken him."

"Ah, I see." Kakashi replied in understanding before pulling out a dog whistle, "Luckily, I think I have the solution for that." Sakura and Sasuke shared a look as their masked sensei put the whistle up to his lips and blew.

"OW, DAMN IT!" Kiba shouted as he covered his ears, "WHAT THE HELL KAKASHI-SENSEI!"

"Oh, good to have you back Kiba." Kakashi said calmly, "If I could have your attention for a second, I'll explain what we're doing today. Today we're gonna—"

"Do a teamwork drill?" Sakura guessed.

"Go on another D-rank?" Sasuke grumbled.

"Watch you read porn the entire time?" Kiba said with a snicker.

Kakashi sweatdropped at his team's interruption, 'Obviously I'm gonna need to teach them a little respect.' "—learn about Genjutsu!" he said with his biggest eye-smile.

The three genin's jaws dropped. "Wait…" Kiba said in disbelief, "you're actually gonna _teach _us something?"

"Of course I am," Kakashi said, keeping up his eye-smile, "I am your teacher after all! Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu: Gai no Hadaka! (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique: Naked Gai!)"

For the next several hours, the screams of the three genin could be heard all over the city.

_Beneath Konoha—Root Base_

Hinata bit the inside of her mouth hard enough to draw blood as she fought with all of her might to keep from screaming out in pain as blow after blow rained down upon her. When her vicious beating finally ceased, Hinata struggled to keep the relief she felt from showing on her face as the blank-faced medic silently treated her wounds. From a speaker in the wall, Danzo's voice rang out in the silence. "To be a shinobi is to be a tool; tools do not feel, tools are used. You are a tool. You are a weapon of the Leaf. There is no pain, there is no fear—there is only duty and death." Hinata sat and silently listened to the recording—it was soothing to her now.

For the last two months, Hinata had been locked in this room. At first, it seemed as if the beatings she received were completely random, since nobody had spoken to her ever since she woke up to the sight of Danzo—however, she quickly realized that the beatings only occurred when she displayed any form of emotion—or reaction to the pain the blows. For the first several days, the only relief she received were the brief moments when her injuries were being healed—during those moments, Danzo's recording would play again and again like a mantra. After a while, Hinata began to take immense comfort in the sound of Danzo's voice—at times, she even heard it in her dreams.

When the healer finished, the blank-faced person walked out of the door, leaving Hinata standing in the middle of the room. For a moment, the girl was confused since she had never been left after only one round of beating—however, she did not show any hint of her puzzlement on her face. To her surprise, when the door opened again, it was Danzo who walked into the room. Upon the sight of the bandaged old man, Hinata immediately dropped to her knee and lowered her head as she had been trained to do. "Danzo-sama." Hinata was actually a little shocked at the sound of her own voice—she hadn't spoken aloud in several weeks.

"Your primary conditioning had been completed." Danzo said in his gravely voice, "It is time that you began your training." Danzo snapped his fingers and a sandy-haired boy around Hinata's age appeared in the doorway and dropped to his knee.

"Yes Danzo-sama."

"Hiro," Danzo said, looking at the boy, "this is 'Nori', she will be your new partner. Take her to the sparring chambers and begin at once."

"Understood Danzo-sama." The boy stood and turned around as Hinata followed him and left the room for the first time in months.

As they made their way to through the torch lit compound, Hinata took the opportunity to get a good look at her new partner in preparation for her spar. Hiro's outfit consisted of a short-sleeved black tunic over a leather chest plate and a chainmail shirt—he wore black fingerless gloves with studded knuckles and had metal bracers on his forearms and shins. On his back were two short steel rods that were about a foot and a half long and about an inch thick. Although he was her age, he was big—about half a foot taller than the petite girl and he had a well-muscled frame. Despite the boy's size, the way he moved reminded Hinata of a cat on the prowl—limber and graceful, but coiled in preparation to strike. Hiro's eyes were unusual: catlike with strange, glowing yellow sclera and feral looking slits for pupils. His face would have been rather handsome if it weren't for his most prominent feature—a jagged scar that traveled from the right corner of his mouth to top of his cheekbone.

As the Hyuga girl gazed emotionlessly at the horrific wound, she idly wondered what had caused such a thing. 'It looks as if someone tore the right side of his face open with their bare hands and nobody ever bothered to treat him.' Hinata briefly considered asking the boy but decided against it—after all, the subject had no bearing on their training. When they finally reached a room with a sandy floor, the two children took their positions in the middle of the floor. Without a word, Hinata activated her Byakugan and slid into her Juken stance while Hiro silently drew the rods and slid into a stance.

Hinata's eyes narrowed as she stared at Hiro. 'I've never seen that kind of fighting style before. But in a close range battle, I doubt he can stand up to the might of the Hyuga's Juken.' Suddenly, Hiro leapt into action with a furious assault against Hinata, surprising her with his speed. 'Shit!' she thought as she struggled to dodge Hiro's dizzyingly fast strikes, 'It's taking everything that I have to just dodge him! It looks like I have no choice but to go for an exchange of blows!' Hinata leapt backwards to avoid a swift combination aiming for her ribs and collarbone, and prepared her herself to take a blow as she gathered chakra into her palms. As she predicted, Hiro continued to press forward with his attack, and silently moved in to take her down. With a quick thrust of her fingertip, Hinata tapped the larger boy on the shoulder closest to her, and caused his arm to go limp—but in return, she received an excruciating blow to her wrist that filled the room with a sickening CRACK. Hinata leapt away once again from the boy as quickly as she could before the pain could set in. Hinata grit her teeth to keep from passing out as Hiro closed in, mindless of his useless arm and dodged her counterstrike by dropping to the floor and taking her down by twisting his legs. Mercilessly, Hiro grabbed Hinata's broken arm and twisted it behind her back.

"Enough!" Danzo's voice rang out, "Excellent work Hiro, after 'Nori' fixes your arm, go about your physical training."

Hiro nodded, "Yes, Danzo-sama." After helping Hinata off of the ground, he waited patiently until she was able to reactivate the movement in his arm. After rolling it about for a moment, he bowed to Danzo and left the room.

"Hiro is quite the opponent is he not?"

"Yes, Danzo-sama." Hinata managed to say through her tightly clenched teeth, feeling as if she were going to pass out from the pain of he broken wrist at any moment.

"He brought his Eskrima style here to Konoha from Kumo, I continually find myself surprised at how effective it is—even against a Hyuga such as yourself." Hinata remained silent, and tried to listen to Danzo over the throbbing pain of her hand. Danzo glanced over at the stoic-looking Hyuga, but took not of the sheen of sweat on her even paler than usual face. "Go to the medic and attend to your wound. After that, you will have him escort you to my office."

"Understood Danzo-sama." Hinata managed to bow to Danzo in mimicry of Hiro and made her way to the nearby medical chambers. As the ever-silent healer engulfed her broken appendage in soothing green chakra, Hinata dimly wondered what Danzo wanted from her in his office, but put it out of her mind in order to bask in the relief that accompanied the healing of her wrist. After about ten minutes, the medic was finished and Hinata relayed Danzo's orders. Without a word, the medic stood and led Hinata through corridor after corridor until they finally reached a door with the most complicated sealing array she had ever seen on it.

"You may enter." At the sound of Danzo's voice, the door opened to reveal Danzo with a tattooing needle and a large quantity of sealing ink. "Sit down 'Nori'." Danzo commanded. Without hesitation, Hinata obeyed, but she couldn't stop the feeling of terror that was building up in her very core.

'What is he going to do to me?'

"Open your mouth. It's time you received a special seal."

_Konoha—Hokage's Personal Training Grounds_

"What do you mean no Sharingan?" Sasuke yelled.

"Just what it sounds like! We agreed no jutsu for the spar. No Sharingan, ya know!"

"Sharingan isn't a jutsu! It's my bloodline trait and its perfectly fair!"

"Superpowered vision and the ability to copy anything you see. Yeah, that's totally fair."

"It's not my fault that my dojutsu is so awesome!"

"HAX! I call hax!"

"What does that even mean?"

Kiba and Sakura watched the two best friends shouting at each other with two different very different expressions on their faces. Sakura looked indignant that anyone would dare question Sasuke, while Kiba…well, Kiba thought it was hilarious.

"That's bullshit!" Sasuke shouted back, "During the Academy spars, the Hyuga were allowed to use their Byakugan!"

"Yeah," Naruto said dryly, "that's cause their entire fighting style is dependant on their Byakugan. Yours isn't."

"Whatever, it's good practice for you! You might end up fighting someone with a Sharingan someday!"

"What are you stupid? The only way that would happen is if an Uchiha ended up betraying the village, and I can't ever see that happening!"

"HEY! DON"T INSULT SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura yelled at Naruto, causing both boys to turn to the pink-haired bystander.

"You stay out of this!" They both shouted in tandem, making Kiba crack up.

"Hahaha! Sakura, you just got shut the fu—OW!" Kiba yelled out in pain as Sakura's fist nearly imbedded itself in his skull, "Damn it Sakura! You already gave me a concussion today you crazy bit—OW! Stop hitting me God dam—OW!"

Distracted by Kiba's shouts of pain from Sakura's vicious beating, Naruto and Sasuke stopped arguing for a second to turn and watch the two teammates. Naruto started to chuckle at the sight at first, and then his chuckle grew louder and louder, eventually breaking down into a massive laughing fit. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at his hysterical friend and asked what was so funny. "They…they look like an old married couple!" Naruto wheezed out in-between laughs. Sasuke looked back over at his two teammates and had to agree—they did look like a bickering couple. He started laughing as well. Eventually, the laughter died down, Kiba managed to quell Sakura's wrath, and the four genin gathered together.

"Hey," Kiba said in an awkward moment of silence, "what are Sakura and I supposed to do? I mean, it's great that we were invited but I don't really want to cramp your style."

Sasuke and Naruto looked at each other and huddled up. "What _are _we gonna do with them?" Naruto asked in a low voice, "We haven't ever trained with anyone else before."

Sasuke furrowed his brow in thought; he knew that if anybody _really_ needed training it was his teammates. "I guess we could split up and work with them. Kiba's not bad since he trains with his clan, but Sakura…" his voice trailed off, but left no doubt of Sasuke's opinion on the pink-haired Kunoichi's skills. He sighed, "I guess I'll take Sakura since we all showed up unannounced, and you can work with Kiba. His taijutsu is strong so he'll be a pretty good opponent."

"Nah," Naruto said, "I got Sakura. You and I both know that she'd be too busy drooling over you to be able to pay attention to a single word you say." Sasuke thought about it for a second, and had to agree. The two broke away from each other and turned back towards the two waiting genin. While Sakura looked confused, Kiba had a huge grin on his face—he had heard every word. "Alright," Naruto said with authority, "Kiba, you go work with Sasuke. Sakura, you're working with me."

Sakura tried to hide the disappointment on her face as her teammates walked away, leaving her with the grinning blond. She sighed, "What are we going to work on?" she asked in a defeated voice.

Naruto grinned, "First, just attack me so I can see what we're dealing with here." 'There's no way that she can be as bad as Sasuke says she is. She's been a genin for two months!' However, that thought was quickly dispelled when she slid into the basic Academy stance and began her shockingly low-level assault. 'OK, I stand corrected,' he thought as he easily dodged her strikes, 'how can she be this bad? Does Kakashi-san really not teach them _anything_?' Naruto deflected a punch and kicked Sakura's legs out from under her, crumpling the Kunoichi to the ground. "Alright, I've seen enough."

"Ow…" Sakura said as she rubbed her tailbone where she landed, "so how was that?"

Naruto gave her a wide grin, "That was terrible! You fought like a first year Academy student, ya know!" Sakura glared at Naruto but he ignored her murderous gaze as he continued to cut her down with his assessment. "I can tell that you have a hell of a punch…somehow…but you're slow and predictable. Has Kakashi not taught you anything?"

Sakura hung her head. She knew she was bad at taijutsu, but was she really this pathetic? "No," she said, "all we do is either go on D-Ranks or do teamwork drills. He hasn't taught us anything."

"Have you ever trained on your own?"

Now she looked like she wanted to sink into the ground. "Not really," she admitted, "I don't have a clan to teach me and I'm usually busy…" Her voice trailed off.

"Chasing after Sasuke right?" Sakura blushed, but didn't have a response. Naruto sighed, "You really don't know anything about him do you?"

Sakura was deeply offended, "I know pretty much everything there is to know about Sasuke!"

"Obviously you don't since you're going about this in the worst possible way you could." Sakura dropped her angry look for a second and gazed at the whiskered boy in curiosity.

"What do you mean?"

Naruto gave her a mischievous grin, "Tell you what Sakura, I'll help you with Sasuke, and as an added bonus, I'll train you—on one condition."

Sakura gave Naruto a suspicious look. "What's the condition?" she asked in a low, slightly threatening tone.

"From now on, you may only refer to me as 'Naruto-sensei'."

"No freaking way! No deal!"

"Well," Naruto said in a smug tone, "have fun chasing Sasuke with absolutely no chance of succeeding."

'Damn it!' "Fine…" Sakura muttered.

Naruto's grin widened, "What was that Sakura? You need to speak up if you want me to hear you."

"I'll do it." Sakura said through her teeth.

"What did you say? Was it 'Yes Naruto-sensei, thank you for bestowing your wisdom upon me'?"

"Y-yes, Naruto-sensei…" Sakura forced out, her face red with anger and embarrassment.

"Ok then." Naruto said with an extremely satisfied smirk on his face, "Let's get started. First point of order: you need to ditch the clothes."

Sakura's face reach levels of crimson that Naruto didn't even know existed. "WHAT!" she shouted, "You little perv!" She took a swing at him in anger, but he dodged it easily.

Naruto sighed, "Not like that stupid! I mean you need a different outfit! You look ridiculous!"

Sakura looked down at her red dress, "What's wrong with my outfit?"

Naruto gave her a look that said 'Are you kidding me?' and replied in a deadpan, "You're a ninja, but you look like a civilian in that. How do you expect anyone to take you seriously?" Sakura blushed, but saw his point when he put it like that—she didn't look like a serious ninja.

"Well what do you expect me to do about it?" she asked with a slightly indignant tone—after all, she still had her pride.

"Nothing right now, just meet me tomorrow here tomorrow after your team breaks up. I know a good ninja outfitting shop."

Sakura blinked, 'Did Naruto just ask me out on a date?'

"What we're gonna do right now is work on that fighting style of yours. The basic Academy form just ain't gonna cut it in the real world, ya know." Sakura nodded, her embarrassingly poor showing against Naruto was proof enough.

"So are you gonna teach me your fighting style?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, I created my style based off of my dad's. It focuses on straight-line attacks that make use of my speed to add power to my strikes. It wouldn't work for you. Based on what I've seen, you've got some serious knockout power, so we'll have to find a taijutsu style for you that makes use of that." Naruto looked thoughtful for a second and then grimaced.

"What's wrong?"

Naruto looked a little pale, "I know about someone who can help us find you a good taijutsu style. He's a Jonin in this village and quite possibly the strongest taijutsu expert in the world."

Sakura looked impressed, "Wow," she said, "that's amazing. I didn't know we had someone like that in the village. Who is he?"

"His name is Maito Gai, and he's…well…you'd have to meet him to understand."

_The Next Day_

As Sakura made her way over to the Hokage's training grounds, she couldn't help but feel nervous. Ever since Naruto told her to meet him so they could go buy her some new clothes she couldn't get the idea of it being a date out of her head. 'It's not a date!' she thought to herself, 'He's just helping me get an outfit that will show Sasuke that I'm a serious ninja!' At the same time, another part of her was telling her differently. 'Why couldn't it be a date?" it told her, "It's not like Sasuke ever pays any attention to you anyway! You could do a lot worse than the Hokage's son—besides, he's kind of cute!' Sakura growled and pushed that traitorous part of her mind away—she was loyal only to Sasuke damnit!

"Oh hey Sakura, you're here. Good, let's get going!" Naruto greeted the girl with his usual smile and led her through the village to the business district. As the pair walked down the street, Sakura couldn't help but be amazed at the number of people who knew and were friendly with Naruto. He knew just about everyone by name and greeted them all with a smile and asked how they were doing before moving on.

"Hey Naruto!" one store owner asked with a teasing grin, "Is that little cutie there your girlfriend?"

Sakura blushed for a second and was about to deny it but was cut off by Naruto's response, "Nah, she's just a friend. She's a ninja without a clan so I'm helping her get some gear." The storeowner laughed at Sakura's blush and gave her a wink as Naruto turned to continue walking to the shop he told her about. About five minutes later, the duo finally reached the ninja store.

"Naruto! Long time no see!" Sakura turned to find the person that greeted them was a pretty girl a little bit older than them in a Chinese dress with her brown hair done up in a bun.

"Oh hey Tenten," Naruto said with a grin, "here to get some more sharp objects to terrify people with?"

Tenten laughed, "Hey, maybe if you weren't so dead set on being a smartass I wouldn't have had to turn your butt into a pincushion!"

Naruto flinched at the thought, but his grin returned for a moment as he grabbed Sakura by the arm and pulled her next to him to introduce her to the weapons expert. "Hey Tenten, it's lucky you're here! This is Haruno Sakura and she needs some help getting outfitted to look like an actual ninja. Can you give us a hand?"

Tenten shrugged, "Sure, why not, I've got time to kill. What kind of thing are you going for?" Tenten listened thoughtfully as Naruto explained the situation as well as Sakura's abilities. She nodded, "Yeah I think I can work with that." She turned to Sakura with a playful grin, "You're lucky I was here to help you—there's no telling what Mr. Turtleneck over there would have subjected you to."

Naruto put on a mock expression of righteous indignation, "Hey! Don't mock the turtleneck, it's like the one my dad wears! He didn't invent the turtleneck, Tenten, but he was the first to recognize its potential as a tactical garment! The tactleneck." Tenten rolled her eyes at the dramatic blond, and both of them started laughing. "Alright Tenten," he said, wiping a tear from his eye, "why don't you get Sakura suited up and I'll look into some other equipment that she can use." The brunette nodded and led a confused Sakura to the clothing section while Naruto browsed an equipment rack. As he looked over the various weapons, explosive tags, and other assorted protective gear, something caught the blond boy's eye.

It was a pair of black combat gloves with a metal back and studded knuckles that were designed to dramatically increase damage output. They covered the entire hand except for the thumb in case the ninja needed to use a sealing technique or a summoning. Best of all, they projected an aura which let everyone know that the person wearing them meant business. They were perfect. Naruto picked up two pairs of the sturdy leather gloves—one for himself and one for Sakura—and walked over to the register to buy them, after paying the man and slipping on the pair that he got for himself to begin breaking them in, he turned around and his jaw dropped when he got a look at a nervous looking Sakura standing next to a smug looking Tenten. The difference between the boy-crazy girl whom he had entered the store with and the shinobi who stood before him was night and day.

Instead of in her hair, Sakura's hitai-ite was now worn properly round her forehead, and she had ditched her unwieldy red dress in favor of a sturdy sleeveless leather tunic with a tight chain mesh undershirt with sleeves that went down to her elbow and leather miniskirt with black leggings underneath. She wore dark red arm ad leg warmers, which Naruto could only guess concealed protectors of some kind and on her back was a red Kanji for 'Cherry Blossom'.

"Wow, Sakura…" Naruto said, obviously impressed with the change, "you look…great! Like a serious kunoichi!"

Sakura blushed at the praise and Tenten gave a wide grin, "Yeah," the older genin said smugly, "am I good or what?"

Naruto shook his head, "Normally I'd feel obligated to make a smartass comment but considering the results I can only say 'Good work'!" Naruto stared at the blushing Sakura for a minute before he remembered the gloves. "Oh right!" he said, slapping his forehead, "Sakura, I got these for you!"

Sakura looked at the gloves Naruto handed her with an awestruck expression on her face, "Naruto…you didn't have to do this. Did you pay for these yourself? Tell me how much they were and I'll pay you back!"

Naruto shrugged and waved her off, "It's no big deal. Besides, I'm counting on you to protect my best friend with these, do that and I'll call us even, ya know." Before she knew what she was doing, Sakura found herself hugging the blond boy in front of her in gratitude. Naruto blushed reflexively and coughed a little, "Um…Sakura…what are you doing?"

When she realized what she had done the girl leapt away from Naruto as if she had been burned, much to the amusement of the girl standing next to her. "Uh…sorry." She said sheepishly with a blush.

Naruto grinned, "Don't worry about it! Go ahead and check out, I've gotta ask Tenten some stuff." The blond grinned as he watched his friend's teammate head to the register and turned to his friend to find a knowing smirk on the girl's face. "What?"

Tenten nudged the younger boy, "You know what, you smooth bastard, hehehe."

Naruto groaned and rolled his eyes, "You know it's not like that. She's just a friend."

Tenten chuckled, "Whatever you say, Naruto. Whatever you say."

Naruto growled at the older girl but decided to ignore her comments, "Hey can you tell me where your Sensei is right now?"

Tenten gave Naruto a confused look, "Gai-sensei? Why are you looking for him?"

"Cause Sakura's taijutsu sucks something awful and we need his help."

"Oh," Tenten replied, nodding in understanding, "he's probably still at Training Ground 5 with Lee, yelling about the 'Flames of Youth' or something."

Naruto groaned, "He's still all into that, huh? Damn. Thanks Tenten, I catch you later!" Tenten bid Naruto farewell and watched as he went to go join Sakura—who had just finished closing out her bill.

'I'm almost tempted to follow them to see their reaction to _that_,' the brown-haired girl thought with a grin on her face, but then she shook her head, 'but I feel like I've been mentally scarred enough for one day.'

_Konoha Training Ground 5_

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

Sakura and Naruto watched in horror as the two green jumpsuit-clad ninja cried into each other's arms with a beach at sunset in the background. At the same moment, both of them wondered if blinding themselves would make the image go away, but their self-destructive thoughts were mercifully interrupted when Gai noticed their presence.

"Ah, Naruto!" the thick eyebrowed taijutsu master boomed, "It is most excellent to see you once again! Have you come to fan the passionate flames of your youth with me and my precious student, Rock Lee!"

After witnessing this exchange, Sakura gave Naruto a look that he understood all too well. He leaned in to the girl, "Look I know he's…a bit strange," he whispered, "but as far as taijutsu goes, the man is a genius so just play along." Naruto leaned away from the girl and smiled broadly at the exuberant Jonin. "Actually Gai-sensei, I came to introduce you to my friend, Sakura-chan! Right now she is really struggling with her taijutsu and she was unfortunate enough to have Kakashi-san as her Sensei. He hasn't taught her anything and I was wondering if you would help her develop a style that suited her unique traits!"

At the mention of Kakashi's name, flames appeared in Gai's eyes. "YOSH!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, "I pity you for having the misfortune of being taught by my Eternal Rival! I swear that I shall turn you into a most youthful combatant or I will run two thousand laps around Konoha on my hands!"

"Gai-sensei!" Rock Lee shouted out as he continued doing push ups on his thumb, "I am moved by your vibrant Power of Youth! I must train even harder! If I cannot, I will do three thousand one-legged squats, if I cannot do that, I will do ten thousand hanging sit ups, if I cannot do that…" He trailed off, continuing to name more and more punishments.

"Thanks." Naruto said, "Hey Sakura, introduce yourself and tell them what they need to know to help you. I've got to get home since I have a training session of my own with my dad! Later!"

Sakura watched in horror as Naruto abandoned her with the green clad lunatics. Slowly, she turned her head to look into the smiling face of Gai. 'I'm going to kill him for this.' She thought, as the training commenced.

_Hokage Tower—Office_

"I'd like to put in a request for my team's first C-Rank mission."

Minato looked up at the Jonin in front of him in surprise. "Really? Do you think that they're up to the task already? They've only been genin for two months."

"I'm confident that they are up to the challenge."

Minato smirked and shook his head. "Alright then, if you are so confident then I'll grant your request. As it happens I just received a C-Rank a few hours ago that should be perfect for a fresh team of genin."

**Alright, chapter complete, Achievement Unlocked. I had a lot of fun with some of the characters in this one. **

**As always, I look forward to any reviews any of you might have for me.**


	7. Journey to the Land of Waves

**Ladies and gentlemen I am back. And without further ado, I give you Chapter Six of my little tale. Also, I will most likely be changing the rating to Mature next chapter due to violence and language.**

Chapter Six: Journey to the Land of Waves

_Hokage Tower_

Minato hummed tunelessly as he sorted through the various mission files. "So Itachi, how is everything going with your team? I hope Naruto isn't running you into the ground."

Itachi chuckled, "Not at all, Hokage-sama. Thus far, Naruto has been surprisingly cooperative with my training methods—as well as the D-Ranks."

Minato gave Itachi a sideways glance, "I take it that his…cooperative attitude doesn't have anything to do with a certain cloning technique and your team's mysteriously rapid completion of the minimum required D-Ranks for this request?"

Itachi smiled, "I have no idea what you are referring to Hokage-sama. We would never stoop so low as to cheat our way through the D-Ranks."

Minato gave the Uchiha prodigy a look that said he clearly wasn't buying it. "Itachi…Team 8 has completed over a hundred D-Ranks in the last two months."

"Indeed. Their teamwork is quite admirable."

Minato sighed, "Moving on then, the request came from the Land of Waves. A bridge builder named Tazuna has requested protection on the way back to his village. Bring your team to meet the client at 1000 hours tomorrow." Instead of leaving, as Minato had expected Itachi to do, the young man continued to sit silently in his chair, but with a distinctly uncomfortable look on his face. "Is there something on your mind Itachi-san?"

Itachi stiffened, but nodded warily, "We need to tell Naruto. The sooner the better." Minato's eyes widened, suspecting the worst, the blond Hokage fought to control himself. After taking a deep breath, Minato managed to compose himself.

"Itachi, you know my plans on this. I don't want to reveal _it_ to Naruto until he makes Chunin. Anyways, the exams are only in a couple of months…why the rush?"

"I'm afraid Naruto's temper is getting worse all of the time. You know that I've already had to suppress _it_ multiple times during training—and I think that Aburame Shino is beginning to suspect something is off."

Minato shook his head in disbelief, "Naruto? A temper? The only time I have ever seen my son angry enough to call on its chakra was in the hospital after the Hyuga girl's injury. In fact, that might have been the first time I ever saw him angry _period_."

Itachi held up his hand in a placating manner, "Naruto is, or should I say, _was, _without a doubt, the most even-tempered child I have ever met. Unfortunately, it seems that _it _might posses a greater influence than we anticipated." Seeing Minato bristle at the insinuations, Itachi quickly added on to the statement, "Not in terms of possession or anything direct—but addiction to the power it gives him."

Minato shook his head, "That's impossible, when Naruto summoned the chakra in front of me, he told me that it was awful—he described it burning him and the feelings it evoked gave him nightmares for weeks."

"Well then, I don't know what to tell you, but he is growing more and more frustrated by his ignorance. He needs to know the truth."

Minato sighed and nodded wearily, "I suppose you're right—I can't put this off any longer. I'll tell him when he returns from the mission."

Itachi smiled, "Thank you, Hokage-sama. I will see you in the morning."

"Thank you Itachi, I wish you a pleasant evening." Minato watched as Itachi left the suddenly stifling office, 'At least one of us should have one.'

XxX

_Uchiha Compound_

Sasuke grinned when all six of his thrown shurikan were embedded in the roughly man-shaped training post—all of them sunk deeply into the wood, all of them would either kill or incapacitate whomever was unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of the barrage. 'Good!' he thought, feeling a little pride in his accomplishment, 'now I can hit with pretty much perfect accuracy from twenty yards away. Now if I can only do that jutsu I saw Naruto practicing…' Sasuke scowled as he cursed himself once more for forgetting to turn on his Sharingan at that time.

Truthfully though, Sasuke would have felt slightly guilty if he had used his clan's dojutsu to steal his rival's techniques—for some reason, it just felt like cheating when it came to Naruto. Not that it really mattered anyways—ever since had Sasuke revealed his activated Sharingan, Naruto had been very careful to avoid any Jutsu that he still needed to use handsigns for. 'Probably a consequence of being my brother's student.' Sasuke thought.

"That was pretty good," a voice said, interrupting the young Uchiha's thoughts and making him jump. "I bet you'd be hard pressed to find any genin with better accuracy."

XxX

_At the Konoha Library_

Tenten looked up from the book she had been reading, _1000 Weapons and How to Kill People With Them_, and scowled. For some reason, she had a feeling that somebody was intruding upon her territory. If somebody did have the balls to challenge her supreme weapons authority, they would pay…dearly. Most likely with their aforementioned balls. She cackled evilly as she went back to reading her book, making the other people in the library edge away from her.

XxX

_Back at the Uchiha Compound_

"Oh hey bro," Sasuke said, while feeling a slight chill go down his spine for no particular reason, "what's going on? I haven't seen you around much since you got assigned Team 8."

Itachi poked his little brother in the forehead and laughed at the sullen expression on his face. "Just training and D-Ranks Sasuke, the same thing you're doing."

Sasuke scowled, "More like D-Ranks and team building exercises…Kakashi hasn't trained us even once!"

Itachi didn't even bother holding back his surprise. "What do you mean he hasn't trained you? He hasn't taught you water walking yet?" Sasuke shook his head. "Tree climbing then?" Sasuke shook his head again. "Has he taught you anything?"

"NO! That's what I just said! The guy always shows up to our team meetings like two hours late and then just has us run teamwork drills and D-Ranks!"

Itachi sighed; he knew the man was lazy—but _seriously_? "Don't worry about it Sasuke, I'll have a chat with Kakashi-san before I leave the village tomorrow."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes, "Why are you leaving the village tomorrow, Bro?"

Itachi slapped his forehead, 'Crap. Now he's gonna get all jealous and angsty…great job Itachi.' He cleared his throat; "Tomorrow Team 8 is leaving on their first C-Rank mission to the Land of Waves. We're probably gonna be there for a month or so."

"Damnit!" Sasuke swore, "now what am I gonna do? I'm stuck here with the laziest guy ever for a teacher and Naruto gets to go on a trip to another country! Who am I gonna spar with while he's gone?"

Itachi sighed; 'Called it.' "What about your teammates? You can always spar and train with them."

"Who am I gonna spar with that's actually good?" Itachi sweatdropped—since when was his brother such a drama queen?

"Well anyways," Itachi interrupted, hoping to end the pity party before it really picked up steam, "after I talk with Kakashi-san, the issue should be resolved."

Sasuke snorted, "Even the Hokage can't get Kakashi to show up on time to a meeting. How are you gonna get him to do it?"

Itachi grinned mischievously, "Oh don't you worry about that little brother, and you'll find that I can be rather persuasive." Sasuke grinned, suddenly he almost felt bad for his teacher. "And don't worry about him slacking while I'm gone, I have a friend who owes me a favor—she'll keep an eye on things for me." Itachi's grin widened at the thought of a certain snake-wielding Kunoichi chasing after Kakashi. Sasuke shivered at the look on his brother's face—now, he really _did_ feel bad for his teacher.

XxX

_Hokage Tower—the next day_

"Alright, Team 7 dismissed." Minato gave a brief nod to his former student before groaning when he pulled out a very familiar orange-covered book. "Really Kakashi-kun? In public?" Kakashi responded with a lazy shrug—he was a man who enjoyed his porn.

"Team 8 reporting for duty." Itachi's voice rang out, cutting off the Hokage's tongue lashing towards his student's dedication to public embarrassment. Itachi's eyes drifted over to the silver-haired Jonin, "I would appreciate it if you would stay, Kakashi-san. I need to have a little discussion with you regarding your…teaching methods." Kakashi paled slightly at the younger man's tone of voice, and remained behind, ignoring the snickers of his genin as they left their teacher behind.

Minato raised his eyebrows at the exchange, but decided to get down to business. "Your mission is to escort your client—a bridge builder named Tazuna-san—back to his home in the Land of Waves, and protect his construction crew from the bandit attacks that have been plaguing his town recently. Any questions?" All of the genin shook their heads. "Very well. Tazuna-san," he called out, "this will be the ninja team assigned to you."

In response to Minato's call, an old man walked—or more accurately, stumbled—into the room holding a bottle of liquor and smelling like he had spilled most of it on himself. "Heh, these 're ninja? Three brats barely out of diapers and some kid who looks like he's barely old enough to shave. You all look like you'd lose in a fight with your own shadow…especially the blond one with the stupid grin on his face!"

Suddenly, the room went silent as the ever-present grin slowly slid off of Naruto's whiskered face. Minato sighed, Itachi facepalmed, Yakumo glanced nervously over towards her hotheaded teammate, and Shino…continued being Shino. "What was that old man?" Naruto asked in a dangerously calm voice.

Tazuna took another swig from the bottle, "You heard me brat. I said that you look like the kind of idiot who'd get in a fight with himself—and lose." Yakumo had to suppress a chuckle—since she had seen Naruto spar with his clones, the old man was technically right.

Naruto grinned menacingly and his body flickered for a second before appearing in the same spot with the old man's bottle of liquor in his hand, causing the eyes of the bottle's former owner to bulge in surprise. "Hey Old Man, didn't anyone ever tell you not to drink during the day?" Naruto's eyes narrowed, "It isn't good for your health."

Tazuna swallowed hard, and Minato sighed. "Naruto, don't threaten the clients…it's bad for business." Naruto fake scowled, making Yakumo giggle a little bit and Minato returned his attention to Tazuna after giving his son an admonishing glare. "Tazuna-san, I can assure you that there is nothing to worry about. Despite their youth, they are all ninja of the Leaf Village, and Itachi here is one of our very finest. You are in capable hands."

Tazuna turned a doubtful eye upon the young Uchiha before him but shrugged and gathered his focus for an intense introduction. "I am the super expert bridge builder Tazuna! I expect you all to guard me until I complete my bridge!"

Itachi sweatdropped, "Um, Tazuna-san…the rest of the genin already left."

Tazuna blinked and looked around—like Itachi had said, the room was now clear of everybody except him, the Uchiha, Kakashi, and Minato. "...Well then," the drunken builder said with an embarrassed blush on his face, "I'll see you at the gates in a few hours." With that, Tazuna summoned all of the dignity he had left and strolled rather shakily out of the room.

When he had left, Kakashi took the moment to clear his throat, drawing the room's attention to him, "You said that you had something to discuss with me Itachi?"

Itachi's face grew cold, "Yes. I've recently become aware that you haven't been teaching your team."

Minato's eyes narrowed, "Is that so? I'm sure that this is all some sort of misunderstanding, isn't it Kakashi-kun?"

Kakashi chuckled nervously, "Well, that depends on your definition of the word 'teaching'." The famous copy ninja paled when he saw the looks on the face of his teacher and his student's older brother. "I'm screwed aren't I?" he asked in a resigned voice.

"Yes," the two replied, "very."

XxX

_Konoha Front Gates_

"I can't believe we're going to be leaving the village for so long," Yakumo said with eyes full of wonder, "The furthest I've gone outside the walls was when we to Katashi-san's ranch." Both boys winced at the memory of their first mission—well as much as Shino could be expected to wince anyways. In his case, it was more of a slight twitch.

"Really?" Naruto asked as he triple-checked his equipment, "Was that the first time you had been outside the walls?"

Yakumo blushed, "Well, I was sick a lot when I was younger so my parents didn't really want me going outside too much."

Shino raised an eyebrow, "That is highly illogical, because evidence shows that too much time indoors is detrimental to health and only weakens the immune system further."

Naruto palmed his face; "Shino…" he said.

"Yes, Naruto?"

"Shut up." Shino didn't respond to his blond teammate's words, but a faint buzzing noise could be heard coming from the confines of the silent Aburame's jacket. From that point on, the three genin simply chatted amongst themselves until their sensei finally arrived.

"Sorry I'm late guys, I had to have a little chat with Kakashi-san."

"AH!" Naruto shouted, making everyone in the group turn towards him with a perplexed look on their faces. "It's gotten even worse! Now Kakashi-san is capable of making _other _people late!" Naruto grinned expectantly at his Team and their client.

"Naruto…" Itachi said with a blank look on his face.

"Yeah, Itachi-niisan?"

"Shut up."

"HA!" Everyone turned to look at Shino, who stood as silently as ever. "What?" he asked in his normal emotionless tone.

"Shino…" Naruto said with a slightly horrified look on his face, "did you just la—"

"I am certain that you are mistaken." Shino interrupted in a tone which said, 'Don't go there'.

"But we all heard you—"

"I believe that you must have been imagining things, _Naruto-san_." Naruto swallowed. Yakumo giggled. Itachi smirked.

"Are you sure I'm gonna be safe with these brats?" Tazuna asked Itachi with a doubtful look on his face. Itachi merely raised an eyebrow at the man. "Well then…if you think so…" Tazuna forced out, still looking a little doubtful.

Without another word, the five travelers made their way down the dusty trail towards the Land of Waves. Several cloudless days passed by as the slowly headed east towards the small country. On the way there, the three genin worked on refining their skills whenever they stopped to rest. Naruto was forced—rather unwillingly—to focus on his chakra control exercises, since his massive reserves made perfectly controlling his output nearly impossible. Itachi began mercilessly drilling Shino on his taijutsu, since it was the bug user's most glaring weakness. To Yakumo's delight, Itachi had finally taught her some of his repertoire of genjutsu—which he had her practice on Naruto when he got impatient and began complaining. All in all, it was a very peaceful, uneventful journey—exactly what you would expect from a C-Rank. However, as the little group grew closer and closer to Tazuna's home, the bridge builder began to grow more and more nervous.

As Tazuna's behavior became more paranoid and erratic, Itachi's suspicion meter steadily rose higher and higher until he saw the puddle in the road and his fears were confirmed. Tazuna had lied to them and there were shinobi in the mix. Itachi's first instinct was to turn around and abandon the mission, however, he wanted to know exactly what the man had gotten into to have shinobi after his life. Therefore, Itachi pretended to ignore the puddle and kept on walking; waiting to see if his students would be able to see through the pitiful disguise. 'Hmm,' Itachi thought, 'Shino doesn't seem to be reacting at all…though I can't say that's really different from normal. Naruto's got his hand on his blade—he definitely noticed, but I've got to have another chat with him about 'subtlety'.' Yakumo let out a quiet 'eep' but kept on walking—her eyes never leaving the conspicuous pool of water. 'Good,' Itachi thought, 'looks like they all saw it. Let's see what they can do.'

When Itachi finally passed the pool of water after his students, everyone in the party was shocked when two linked ninja burst from the puddle and cleaved the jonin in two. Yakumo gasped, "Itachi-sensei!" she shouted as his blood splattered against the ground.

"One down." One of the masked ninja boasted before they sped towards the frozen Yakumo and slashed at her with their gauntlets tearing her to pieces. "Two down." They were about to charge forward again when the remains of Yakumo exploded into…a flock of crows?

The two rogue ninja were shocked. "What was—" was one of them they managed before they found themselves being swarmed by insects. Thinking quickly, they separated from each other in the hopes of escape—one of them managed to lose the cloud of insects, the other was engulfed by the swarm and collapsed. The remaining member of the pair swore before making a beeline straight towards Tazuna before he collapsed into a heap. For a second, he wondered what happened before his legs screamed in pain and he noticed them bleeding—looking around in surprise, all the ninja saw before his world went black was a blond-headed kid wipe a short blade and place it into a sheath on his shoulder.

Itachi placed a hand on Yakumo's shoulder when he stepped out of the nearby woods, making the pale girl nearly jump out of her skin. "Se-Sensei?" she stammered, looking at the man who she had thought dead just moments ago.

"Kawarimi." Itachi replied. Understanding and relief, as well as some embarrassment flashed across her face. "Good work everyone. Yakumo, your illusion was the perfect distraction for Shino to surround them with bugs." Yakumo blushed. "Shino, making the two separate was a sound idea. Not only did it shake their resolve and weaken them, but it forced them to reveal their target." Shino nodded, and Itachi's eyes lingered on Tazuna for a moment before turning to Naruto, who was busy bandaging and tying up the two enemies. "Naruto, while that was certainly an excellent display of swordsmanship, I have to question why you decided to slice the man's tendons rather than simply knock him out."

Naruto shrugged, "I had no real idea what the guy was capable of so I simply used the easiest method to take him down without killing him. Also, he won't be a threat know even if he manages to escape." Itachi nodded—it was sound reasoning.

"You three look after Tazuna-san, I've got a few questions that I need to ask our new friends here." Itachi hoisted the bandaged prisoner onto his shoulder and walked a short distance into the woods to begin his interrogation. Tazuna gulped, he knew from the eye contact earlier that his protector was fully aware of his lie—now he could only hope that he could convince them to continue the mission. He needed to complete that bridge. It was the only way to break Gato's rule over his people, and he knew that if they weren't liberated soon, the pressure would cause them to snap. Tazuna himself had been driven to drink because of the intense pressure and fear of building the bridge, and while he knew that it wasn't a healthy outlet, he knew that it could be worse. He had seen as much in Konoha.

XxX

_Konoha—Training Grounds_

"YOSH!" Gai shouted at a pink-headed girl, "You must feel the power of your strikes flow from your legs to your fists Sakura! Imbue your fists with your burning Flames of Youth!"

"Gai-sensei! As usual, your youthful advice is perfect for our beautiful comrade of youthful vigor!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The two green spandex-clad men embraced each other and sobbed, blinding the pink-haired girl with the resulting sunset. 'How have I not killed Naruto for subjecting me to this?' the girl thought as she quickly shadowboxed against a certain blond-haired boy.

"I'm really impressed that you've been able to stick with their training for all of this time, Sakura." Sakura paused in her furious assault against her imaginary opponent to turn and see a familiar brown-haired girl sitting nearby, absently playing with a kunai.

"Oh hey Tenten." She said, addressing the weapon-user. Since she began her Taijutsu instruction under Gai, the two kunoichi had become fast friends, "Yeah, it's definitely been tough, and I'm pretty sure that I'm gonna have nightmares for the rest of my life because of that genjutsu—but for the first time, I'm starting to feel like I won't be dead weight on my team!"

Tenten shook her head in amusement, "Tough? Voluntarily training in Taijutsu under Gai-sensei is probably a serious sign of mental instability."

"Tenten!" Lee shouted at his teammate, "You must come with us so that we might all fan our Flames of Youth to ever greater heights!"

"YOSH! Well-said Lee! Your youthfulness has made your youthful teacher so proud!"

Tenten sighed, "See what I mean?"

Sakura laughed. While Lee's antics annoyed her to no end at first, the exuberant taijutsu specialist had grown on her—though she still refused him whenever he asked her out. 'Sasuke is still the only one for me!' She thought while fist pumping silently, making Tenten sweatdrop as she watched her friend engage in what appeared to be a heated inner dialogue.

'I knew it, it's only a matter of time before that training drives you insane.' "Hey Sakura," Tenten said, hoping to separate her friend from the madness as quickly as possible, "how about we go and get something to eat? You're probably starving." Sakura nodded happily and bid the two hugging men farewell before bounding after the bun-haired girl.

XxX

_Near the Border of the Land of Fire_

"Well Tazuna-san, I'm interested to see if you can convince me not to abandon the mission after you clearly lied about its parameters and endangered the lives of myself and my genin team." Tazuna gulped at the stony expression on the young Uchiha's face—an expression that would have even made Uchiha Fugaku himself jealous. "Those two were Chunin level missing-nin from Kirigakure, and I know that they were hired to kill you. Unfortunately, they seemed to be very low level as they didn't know much more than that."

Tazuna sighed, "The truth is that I've been targeted by a man named Gato."

Yakumo gasped, "THE Gato—of the Gato Conglomerate? The billionaire?"

Tazuna nodded with a sickly expression, "Yes, although the man pretends to be a businessman, he's no more than a good for nothing thug who is sucking the life out of my home. He has control over all of our imports and exports and fears the completion of the bridge, if it is built, than his stranglehold over us will be broken!"

"Not necessarily," Shino said, drawing the attention of the small group, "even if the bridge is completed, if the man has as much power as he says, he could simply it demolished." Tazuna's face lost all of its color at the coldly logical statement, but Shino continued, "Successfully driving the man out of your country hinges upon the bridge's completion, your survival, and the willingness of the people to stand up to him."

"I hate to say it," Naruto said with an angry look on his face, "but Shino is right. The only way that this ends is if Gato is either dead or permanently driven away." He looked up at Itachi, "So what's it going to be Niisan? I say we continue the mission, this Gato bastard pisses me off."

Yakumo nodded with a determined look on her face, "I-I agree with Naruto, we can't ignore these people's suffering!"

Naruto gave the girl a warm smile for her words, "Hell yeah!" he shouted, "That's the spirit Yakumo-chan!" Yakumo's blush made her resemble a tomato for a second as she shyly glanced at her teammate. Shino merely gave a curt nod when Itachi turned his gaze upon him.

"Very well," Itachi said with a faint smile, "the mission continues. Besides, I feel like teaching Gato a lesson anyways." Tazuna sighed in relief as the group left behind the tied up missing-nin and continued on their way to the Land of Waves.

XxX

_Land of Waves—Zabuza's Hideout_

"YOU FAILED?" the diminutive businessman shouted at the gathered assassins, "I spent a lot of money to hire you people because I heard that you were skilled ninja!" The odious little man open his mouth once more to continue his rant, but was cut off by the sound of a massive blade cutting through the air and stopping directly in front of his face.

"Stop your bitching!" Momochi Zabuza growled, his face wraps covering his sneer, "I'll head out with Kubikiribochou and kill them."

"A-Are you sure?" Gato stammered, taken aback by the speed and ease with which the missing-nin had handled the massive sword, "It seems that the old man has hired some skilled ninja. Now that the Demon Brothers have failed, they will be even more cautious now!"

Zabuza let out a dry chuckle as he continued to hold out his blade against the tiny man before him, without a single waver against its weight. "Who do you think I am, little man? I'm Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the Hidden Mist, and their heads will be separated from their bodies before they even know I'm there."

XxX

_Land of Waves_

"Hot damn this fog is thick!" Naruto whispered—as much as Naruto was capable of whispering anyways, since his voice still ended up being rather loud. "Yo Alcoholic-jiji," he said, making Tazuna growl at the nickname, "does this kind of thing happen a lot around here?"

"First of all," Tazuna replied with a scowl on his face, "I'm not an alcoholic—"

"Being boozed up at ten in the morning is pretty convincing evidence to the contrary Wino-san." Naruto interrupted with a huge shit-eating grin on his face.

Tazuna grit his teeth, "Second of all, lower your damn voice—we took a boat without a motor for a reason. And no—we occasionally do have fog like this, but never this thick during this season. I don't know what's wrong with the weather."

Naruto's face grew serious along with the rest of the gathered shinobi and he looked at Itachi, who nodded. "Alright, this might be an enemy's trick—everybody stay alert and be on the lookout for anything suspicious."

For the rest of the boat ride, the entire group was silent as the tense atmosphere and thick, foreboding fog began to wear down on their nerves. For the next hour, every time their was a splash of water from a fish, or one of the civilians amongst them cleared their throats, the three genin visibly reacted—Shino pulled out a kunai and began to emit a buzzing sound, Yakumo quickly began forming handsigns for genjutsu, and Naruto's hand was on his yoroi toshi in a flash. But for every false alarm, Itachi managed to calm his team by simply shaking his head. Thanks to his tenure as an ANBU captain—the young Jonin was as cool as they came—everything about him radiated calmness and confidence, yet at the same time, his body was coiled in preparation to strike at a moment's notice.

Everyone who was looking at Itachi at this moment—even the civilians—could tell that they were looking at an Elite. He radiated an aura which let everyone know that he could handle any situation thrown his way and not only walk away from it—but do so with minimal sacrifice on his part. Naruto in particular was shocked at this display—the only other person that he had seen project an aura of power and confidence comparable to Itachi was his father.

'Where the hell did this come from?' he thought in amazement, 'Dad is the Hokage! The strongest ninja in the village! How is Itachi-niisan giving out a feeling similar to him!'

Naruto's amazement was cut off, however, when the ragtag group finally arrived at the shore. The three genin sighed in relief—from there, it was only about an hour-long walk until they reached their destination. Since they figured that if they were going to be attacked, it would have happened already, the team set off with significantly more peace of mind—with the exception of their raven-haired Jonin of course. And Shino.

For Itachi, it was experience that kept him from dropping his guard—he had seen too many times what happened to Ninja who relaxed at the home stretch. For Shino, it was a matter of logic—there was nearly no location better to ambush someone than close to home—since it is a natural instinct to relax in familiar settings, it is that much easier to catch somebody off guard. With this in mind, Shino discreetly sent out hundreds of insects to scout out the area for anything that could be considered suspicious.

Suddenly, Shino's caution paid off when one of his bugs reported an extremely unusual find. Shino slowed his pace down to walk alongside his teacher, "Sensei, one of my bugs has found a rabbit with a white coat. I wouldn't bring it up if it weren't unusual that its fur was that color, for—"

"It's spring…" Itachi finished for him, and began to look around. 'For a rabbit to have a white coat, it had to have been raised indoors. So either we have a lost pet that ran away…or it was raised to be used as a substitute.' Itachi opened his mouth to alert his team once more, but was cut off by the sound of something flying through the air. Not wasting the time it would take to warn his team, Itachi blurred into motion and removed everybody from the path of the massive blade flying through the air. After he was sure his client and team were safe, he began barking out orders, "Everyone, diamond formation around Tazuna-san, protect the client!"

"Hahahaha!" a gravelly laugh echoed out in the mist, coming from all directions, "well done dodging that. But I'm afraid playtime is over, step away from the bridge builder and I'll let you leave here alive."

Itachi's face grew cold, "I'm afraid I can't do that, our mission is to protect Tazuna-san until he completes his bridge. We can however, give the same warning to you: leave now, and we will let _you_ leave here alive."

Zabuza chuckled, and let out a choking wave of killing intent, "As if a brat barely old enough to shave and some baby ninja can stop me. Tell me, have any of them ever shed blood before? Do they know what it feels like to have the blood of their comrades on their hands?"

Itachi whirled to face the direction the voice came from to find a shirtless man without eyebrows and facial wraps sitting casually on the massive sword where it had been embedded into a tree. "Momochi Zabuza…" he said with a glare, "Demon of the Mist and ex-member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist…on the run for a failed coup d'état against the Mizukage," At the last part of Itachi's description, Itachi's voice wavered, as if he remembered something painful, "and infamous for killing his entire graduating class during the graduation exam that was the reason their village was called 'The Bloody Mist"!"

"Hahaha," Zabuza laughed, clearly insane, "yeah, killing them, shedding so much blood…it was great!" Zabuza looked sideways at the young Uchiha, who was glowering at him with unrestrained contempt. "Haha, I almost feel bad," he said in a mocking tone, "you know so much about me, and yet I've never even heard of you."

Itachi's glare intensified, helped in large part by the activation of his Sharingan. "Don't feel too bad about it…" Itachi replied in a low, threatening tone, "since nobody who has ever face me has lived to tell about it."

"The Sharingan, huh? So you must be an Uchiha. Well, this isn't the first time I've faced those accursed eyes of yours, and it won't be the last, you have one last chance, leave the old man or die, brat!"

Itachi looked passively at the swordsman, having abandoned his hateful glare for a more stoic expression. "Why would I do that when you are already dead?" Zabuza's eyes narrowed in confusion before he heard Itachi's voice in his ear, "Goodbye, 'Demon of the Mist'." The missing-nin's eyes widened before Itachi shoved his kunai into the back of his head, causing the man to crumple to the ground, right before exploding into water. 'A Mizu Bunshin/Water Clone…now where's the real one?'

Once again, the gravelly sound of Zabuza's laughter echoed throughout the area, "Not bad brat…it looks like you're pretty good at genjutsu. I guess I can't afford to make eye contact at all, Kirigakure no Jutsu/Hidden Mist Technique!" Itachi cursed as the already thick mist grew thicker and thicker until visibility was reduced to the point where the young sharingan wielder couldn't see more than a foot in front of his face. "Eight choices…" Zabuza's voice echoed menacingly through the mist, "liver, lungs, spine, clavicle vein…" Naruto's eyes widened and he tightened his grip on his blade as he recognized exactly what Zabuza was listing, "jugular vein, brain, kidneys, heart. Which shall I go after?"

Yakumo was shaking like a leaf as she felt the tension in the air bare down upon her like a physical presence. She could hardly breathe, but she managed to squeak out a question, "W-What i-is h-h-he t-talking about?"

Naruto squeezed his blade as hard as he could in a ready stance, and answered her through grit teeth, "the eight vital points, Yakumo-chan. The eight places that you can hit…" Naruto paused as he choked up in fear, but ground it out, "…to kill."

"Naruto!" Itachi shouted, "I can't do anything in this mist! I need you to use _that_!"

Naruto quickly understood, took a deep breath and began to run through handsigns before he was interrupted by Zabuza's voice and the kunai that had been shoved into the approximate location of his lung, "I don't think so boy." Zabuza said mercilessly before dropping the blond to the ground and turning towards his primary target. Yakumo screamed at the sound of Naruto hitting the ground like a sack of bricks.

Naruto fought to maintain consciousness as hard as he could as he gathered whatever chakra he had available and struggled through the handsigns, and coughed out, "F-Fuuton: Daitoppa/Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"

Zabuza snarled as a great gust of wind originated from the boy he had just left for dead and blew away the silent killer's cover of mist. 'Shit! I need to get away before the Uchiha gets to me!' Zabuza tried to leap away from the party, now that a wall of bugs was protecting Tazuna and he knew that he couldn't defeat Itachi in a straight fight. He began to form handsigns summon up more mist before he was stopped by the sight of the Uchiha staring at him with a sharingan he had never seen before—one that looked as if it were a Fuuma Shurikan. 'What is tha—'

"_Tsukiyomi_!"

Suddenly, Zabuza found himself in a strange world, bound and helpless. "What the hell is this?" he said, "Some kind of genjutsu? You think I'm gonna fall for a genjutsu this obvious!" he shouted, before dropping his chakra flow to zero, "KAI!" However, much to Zabuza' surprise, nothing happened and he remained bound in the strange world.

"This is Tsukiyomi, my most powerful technique. In here, I control everything. For the next three days, you will be tortured without rest."

Zabuza sneered at the young ninja. "Oh yeah?" he said, "Do your worst you little pansy! When I get out of this I'm gonna gut you and leave your body to the crows!"

Itachi's expression didn't change at all as he summoned what appeared to be a red-hot acupuncture needle and stuck it into one of the missing-nin's pressure points, causing him to shout out in sudden agony. "As you wish."

For the next several hours, Zabuza screamed in pain as needle after needle was shoved into his nerve clusters, teaching him agony that he didn't even know existed until he passed out from the pain. Suddenly, he woke up again, but to his confusion, all of the needles and the pain were gone—only the memory of the agony remained.

"That was one second." Itachi said, causing Zabuza's eyes you widen in horror, "Only 71 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds remain."

XxX

Haku's eyes widened as when she saw Zabuza slump over and fall out of the tree after the strange raven-haired man glared at him for a second. Without wasting a moment, she quickly threw several senbon into the neck of her prone master and shunshin'd over to intercept them before the strange man could finish her master off.

"I must thank you for immobilizing him," she said in a calm, unwavering voice—a voice that had been trained to lie since she was just a child. "We have been hunting this one for quite a while and he has proven a challenge to eliminate."

Itachi's eyes narrowed for a second, but he decided to sheath his blade and deactivate his Sharingan. Before he let the apparent hunter-nin approach his opponent, he checked the pulse and was satisfied to find that it had completely stopped. After staring at Haku for a moment—making the girl feel very nervous, he nodded and shunshin'd over to his critically wounded genin.

Haku resisted letting out a sigh of relief to avoid tipping off whoever the person was who defeated her master so handily, and quickly placed the prone man on her shoulder and disappeared. As she sped away with her burden, she looked back in the direction of the team and wondered what that strange man had done to make Zabuza collapse like that. 'Whatever it is,' she thought, 'I hope it isn't permanent.'

Once they were in the clear, Haku removed the senbon from her master's neck in order to revive him. When his eyes fluttered open, she saw something in them that she had never seen before—something that she never thought she would ever see: fear, despair, and hopelessness. "Zabuza-sama…" she whispered in shock at his state, "what did he do to you?"

XxX

Itachi walked solemnly over to the prone body of Naruto, and gently pushed aside a sobbing Yakumo after shooting a hate-filled glare at Tazuna, who paled. Without much hope, Itachi put his fingers to Naruto's neck to check for a pulse, and was shocked to find that his heart was still beating. It was weak, but steady: Naruto was still alive. Itachi shook his head in amazement, 'It must be the powers of the fox,' he thought, 'that's the only thing keeping him alive.'

Both Yakumo and an extremely somber Shino looked expectantly at their Jonin-sensei and braced themselves for the bad news, but were shocked when he smiled and let out a sigh of relief. "He's alive." Itachi said, while preparing a lie to explain how the boy survived a kunai to the lung, "It looks like Zabuza got sloppy and avoided hitting anything vital. Naruto is extremely lucky and it looks like he's gonna make it." Although his poker face was perfect, the genius Uchiha could only hope that they would buy it—after all, the two were caring or Naruto long enough to see that it was nothing less than a fatal wound.

Yakumo once again burst into tears in relief, as she bought into her teacher's explanation completely. Shino on the other hand, was still skeptical. "Impossible," he said in his usual emotionless tone, "that was a clear, direct hit to the lung. Additionally, men such as Zabuza do not make these kinds of mistakes."

Itachi shook his head and shrugged, "Apparently, this time he did. Even elites make mistakes Shino, I should have known that the first Zabuza was a water clone and I should have had Naruto clear away the mist as soon as it was thickened. These are the kind of things that are to be learned from, and today was a very hard lesson of what could go wrong." Shino nodded in response, apparently satisfied by the explanation.

As he talked, Itachi cut off Naruto's shirt and gently flipped him over before unsealing a large length of gauze and wrapping the wound tightly to keep it compressed. After doing so, he lifted the unconscious boy onto his back and began walking towards their destination. "Hurry up!" he said, moving as swiftly as he could without aggravating his passenger's wound, "We need to get to Tazuna's house and get Naruto to a bed as soon as we can!"

Itachi's words prompted the other genin and Tazuna to action, and the made their way as quickly as they could to shelter.

* * *

><p><strong>OK, this was actually a pretty hard chapter to write. Inspiration was far more fleeting than I would have liked, and I had trouble not making the whole Itachi fight a total curb stomp battle. <strong>

**Anyways I'm freaking psyched at the response this has been getting from people, even the not so friendly ones. Mostly because I find it hilarious that some people can get so worked up over this.**

**Anyways, review and give me any comments. It will be appreciated, and continue to feed the material producing monster that is my ego.**


	8. Unwelcome News

**Well, I decided to keep it at T level for now, mostly because I'm not exactly sure what would constitute the jump from T to M. **

**So without further ado, here is the newest chapter in my little tale.**

**Enjoy**

Chapter 7: Unwelcome News

Darkness. From the moment he collapsed after performing his last desperate technique, Naruto was swallowed by an all-encompassing, impenetrable darkness. Faintly, the young genin could hear Yakumo screaming his name.

'Well,' Naruto thought as he sank into unconsciousness, 'I guess this is how the tale of Namikaze Naruto comes to an end…with a kunai in my back and a girl screaming my name. I suppose that there are worse ways to go…"

However, Naruto's fading thoughts were suddenly jerked back into full gear at a sudden and completely unexpected sensation—he was now soaking wet.

"Gah!" Naruto shouted as jumped to his feet out of the ankle deep water, "What the hell is this?" Naruto squeezed as much of the water out of his clothes as he could before realization hit him—he was wet _and_ he had now idea where he was.

Taking a moment to look around, Naruto scratched his head in confusion. He was in some sort of basement…hallway…kind of place. One that apparently had flooding issues. "Huh," Naruto said to himself, "I know I've never been here before, but why does this place seem so…familiar?" The blond boy's face soured, "This had better not be the afterlife cause that would really suck hard."

With a shrug, Naruto began walking down the flooded hallway until he came to a dead end with a massive cage and a slip of paper with the kanji for 'seal' written on it. As he stared at the cage, two parts of him were warring with each other—his curious side wanted him to approach the cage and see what was behind the seal; on the other hand, his instincts told him that he should stay as far away from the cage as possible.

Naruto continued to debate with himself until a terrifying growling coming from behind the cage froze him. From out of the murky depths of the cage, a monstrous fox emerged and snarled at the boy, making the boy jump back reflexively. "What the hell is that thing?" Naruto muttered.

The fox growled, '**What a surprise, another example of ignorant human scum. I am the scourge of the world, the greatest of the Biju. I am the great Kyuubi.**'

Naruto's eyes narrowed, and he shook his head. "That's impossible! My father the Yondaime Hokage destroyed the Kyuubi twelve years ago." Naruto smirked at the caged demon, confident that he had exposed the foul beast's lies.

The Kyuubi roared in fury, **'FOOL! No mere human can destroy me! I am the almighty Kyuubi!' **The fox's eyes narrowed at Naruto and it gave the boy a sinister grin. **'And I WILL break free from the accursed seal and once I have finished destroying your pathetic village, I will rip your foolish Yondaime asunder before I feast on his corpse!'**

Naruto's face paled at the crushing wave of killing intent that flowed from behind the cage—it was unlike anything he had ever felt before. At the same time, the boy's agile brain was making several disturbing connections as memories and images flashed through his mind—his face, contorted by hatred and fury—with blood red eyes and slit pupils; Ino, paralyzed by fear as Naruto effortlessly plowed through his teacher and classmates towards her with intent to kill; his unnatural and seemingly limitless stamina and chakra reserves; his unnervingly rapid healing…piece by piece, Naruto put the puzzle together and dropped to his knees.

"Seal…" he echoed, lost in the horror of the situation, "he sealed…it…you…in me?"

The Kyuubi looked down at the boy and laughed, delighted by his host's obvious anguish, **'That's right boy. For someone as pathetic as yourself, you should be honored to host a power as great as mine—after all, if it weren't for me, you would have perished like the worthless bag of meat you are. Luckily for you, my fate is tied to your own—but remember this, human, I **_**will**_** escape this seal, I will kill you, and then everyone who you hold precious to you will die at my will.' **

XxX

Once the group finally reached Tazuna's house, and put Naruto in a room to recover, Itachi allowed himself to collapse onto a rather lumpy sofa. 'Shit,' he thought, rubbing his slightly blurry eyes 'using Tsukiyomi really takes a lot out of me.' "Yakumo!"

In an instant, the kunoichi was at his side, "Yes Sensei?"

"I need to rest, you and Shino look after Naruto in shifts and wake me if his condition changes, understood?"

Yakumo nodded, "Understood Sensei." Itachi let out an exhausted breath and immediately fell asleep on the sofa where he lay, letting out soft snores. Yakumo sweatdropped slightly at her sensei, but quietly made her way upstairs and entered the room where Naruto was recovering.

With a slight blush on her face, the young girl attempted to ignore his warm, muscled frame as she carefully removed Naruto's bandages to clean his wound. After the bloodied material was removed, Yakumo gazed in shock at Naruto's wound—or more accurately, where his wound _should_ have been. Where there had once been a gaping, potentially fatal hole in his back, there was only smooth, unmarked skin. It was as if he had never been stabbed at all.

"That's impossible…" Yakumo whispered as she gazed at Naruto in awe, "Naruto-kun…what are you?"

"Interesting." Yakumo jumped at the sudden appearance of her other teammate—she had been so shocked by Naruto's miraculous recovery, she didn't notice Shino entering the room. "This rate of healing is most certainly unnatural. Why? Because one does not simply recover from a fatal wound in a matter of hours—even with the intervention of a medical ninja."

'Well no duh,' Yakumo thought. "I think you are right Shino-san, but if his healing is unnatural, what is causing it?"

"I have no idea Yakumo-san, but Naruto-san has always been rather unusual. My bugs have confirmed during our spars that he not only has more chakra than anyone our age, but anyone _period_."

Yakumo's eyes widened at the stoic boy's words. "_A-Anyone_?" she squeaked.

Shino nodded, "Even more than his father I would guess. The Kage Bunshin takes an enormous amount of energy—splitting the user's chakra into equal portions. Naruto can make thousands without breaking a sweat. While there is always a possibility that Naruto-san's extraordinary healing abilities are an unknown Kekkei Genkai of some kind, my insects indicate that the source of his chakra reserves is something else entirely."

Yakumo silently stewed in contemplation for a moment, before shaking her head, "It doesn't matter," the timid girl said with a surprising amount of certainty, "this is _Naruto_-_kun_ we're talking about. Not only is he the son of the Yondaime, but also he's also the gentlest, most considerate person I've ever met. Whatever it is that makes him so strong is none of our concern."

Shino pushed up his sunglasses, "Perhaps you are right Yakumo-san. Nevertheless, I plan to keep a close eye on our teammate. Why? Because in the shinobi world, secrets are deadly."

Without another word, the insect user turned around and left the room to go and catch up on his sleep before his own shift.

XxX

Haku was worried. To be more precise, she was worried about Zabuza. While this in itself was not a particularly uncommon occurrence, the last living Hyoton user had quite a bit more to be worried about than usual. Ever since she pulled her master out of the false-death state he had been…different. In fact, if she didn't know any better, Zabuza appeared to be suffering from an incredibly severe case of mental trauma.

"How are you feeling Zabuza-sama?"

The infamous 'Demon of the Bloody Mist' looked up weakly at his tool. "Haku…" he whispered in a hoarse voice, "get them out of here."

Haku raised an eyebrow under her mask, but turned around to see Gato enter the room with an infuriatingly smug look on his face. "Demon of the Mist?" Gato sneered, "More like 'Baby of the Mist' if you couldn't even handle a few brats! I'm paying you people good money for results!" Gato grinned with the kind of self-assurance that came from years of taking whatever he wanted from those helpless to stop him. "Maybe I should see what I'm paying for underneath that mask of yours."

Gato reached out his hand to peel off Zabuza's bandages but it was stopped when Haku appeared before him in a blur, twisting the offending appendage behind him until a sickening _pop_ was heard.

"You will not touch Zabuza-sama with your filthy hands!" Haku hissed as she used her free hand to stick a senbon against his neck, discouraging any interference from the crime lord's bodyguards.

"You bastard!" Gato sputtered in pain, sweat pouring down his forehead, "You broke my arm!"

Haku narrowed her eyes as she gripped Gato's arm even tighter, causing him to cry out in pain, "I suggest you leave before I decide to remove it completely," she threatened in a voice as cold as ice, "your money is worthless compared to Zabuza-sama. Learn your place you little worm!"

"Haku."

At the single weak word from her master, Haku released the man and was back at Zabuza's side in an instant. Zabuza stared down at Gato from his place in bed—though his eyes lacked the force that caused lesser men to quiver in fear.

"Keep your money Gato," Zabuza said wearily, to the shock of everyone present, "I won't face _him_ again…I can't win, he…he was toying with me—he didn't take me seriously at all until I killed that boy."

Haku gasped sharply—they were facing somebody who thought that they could afford to hold back against her master? "Zabuza-sama! Surely there must be something you can do!"

The Kiri missing-nin's eyes widened in horror as the memories of his time within Itachi's genjutsu assaulted him, "no…" he whispered, "not again! Never again!"

"Zabuza-sama…"

"NO!" he roared, causing all of the gathered people to flinch involuntarily.

Gato rose to his feet holding his arm gingerly with an expression that was a mix of fury and pain, "I will make you pay for this Zabuza!" he spat as he backed out of the room, "Nobody crosses Gato and gets away with it! I promise that you and your little bitch will suffer for this indignity!"

Haku sent vile little man a heaping dose of murderous intent, causing him to flinch as he left the room, but remained at her master's side—she couldn't risk leaving him in his weakened condition.

Zabuza closed his eyes and lay back, "Haku, leave an ice clone here and follow them," he ordered weakly, "people like Gato never make idle threats—find out what he plans to do and report back immediately."

Haku felt understandably hesitant about leaving only a clone to protect her bed-ridden master, but followed his orders and followed after the furious and unsuspecting Gato.

XxX

When Naruto woke up, he found himself staring into the onyx eyes of Itachi—whose features where contorted in a look of concern. For a brief moment, Naruto was too shocked to remember his recent discoveries during his time with the fox—Itachi NEVER looked concerned. In fact, if he hadn't seen it for himself, Naruto suspected that he couldn't have even imagined that expression on his teacher's face.

"Welcome back to the realm of the living Naruto," Itachi said with relief etched on his face and humor in his voice, "it's good to know that you can take a kunai like a champ!"

In spite of himself, Naruto couldn't help but chuckle at the lame joke—even if is WAS in terrible taste. "Niisan," Naruto said with a serious face after regaining his composure, "what am I? Why didn't I know?"

Itachi maintained a calm face at the question, although he was inwardly cursing, 'He knows.' "What are you talking about Naruto?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Don't try and bullshit me on this Niisan. I already knew that something was weird about me ever since graduation." Naruto took a moment to look around nervously, "And when I got stabbed…I met _it_."

'Shit.'

"Now, the Kyu—_it_ was only too happy to let me know my father's involvement in this…situation, but I need to know how much you know." Naruto paused for a second with a pained look on his face, "Am I a monster Niisan? Am I…am I a danger to the people around me?"

Itachi sighed deeply, and pinched his nose. 'And this, Hokage-sama, is why I wanted to tell him sooner. Thank you very much.' "I'll tell you what I know Naruto, but not here…let's relocate to a more secure area for this discussion." Naruto nodded and without a word, the two flickered out of sight.

After a few minutes of high-speed travel, the two shinobi ended up in a deep portion of the woods. After checking to make sure that they were completely alone, Itachi gave Naruto a short nod and they stopped to rest next to a small stream. "It looks like this is far enough." Itachi said with a resigned voice—he really wasn't looking forward to this conversation. "Go ahead and ask me any questions you have, and I'll try and answer them to the best of my ability."

Naruto opened his mouth, and then closed it. Just minutes before, he had been filled to the brim with questions, but now that it looked as if they were going to be answered, he wasn't sure what he really wanted to know—or what he wanted to save for his confrontation with his father. 'OK,' he thought, trying to organize everything he wanted to know in his head, 'I guess I'll start with the question I asked back at Tazuna's place.' "Am I dangerous?"

Itachi nodded, "Extremely." he replied, and cursed his thoughtlessness when he saw Naruto's face crumble under the blunt statement. 'Probably should have worded that differently.' "Naruto, I'm not going to lie to you, as a Jinchuuriki—a vessel of a Biju, a tailed beast—you are one of the most dangerous individuals on the planet. In most cases, people in your…unique situation are treated as weapons of mass destruction by their villages."

Naruto's face fell even more. "A…weapon?" he repeated, "I'm just a weapon for the village?"

Itachi laughed at the statement—he just couldn't help it. "Naruto, that's what a shinobi is—a living weapon for their village. You're just a higher caliber than most."

Naruto looked thoughtful for a second, and nodded. "So what does it mean to have a Biju inside me—what's so special about that?"

Itachi's eyes took on a far away look as he remembered that horrifying night twelve years ago. "Naruto, each Biju is an entity of unspeakable power. The night the Kyuubi attacked the most anybody could do was slow it down—and that was only because it bothered to kill the ones attacking it in the first place. If it had wanted to, the Kyuubi could have waded through everything thrown at it and simply marched to the heart of the village. It was unstoppable."

Naruto eyes grew wide as he imagined a power like that sealed inside of him and he shuddered. "Is this why I heal so fast?" he asked, "Is this why I never seem to run out of chakra?" Then Naruto's eyes narrowed, as he realized something, "So THAT'S why my chakra control was such a bitch to get a handle on!"

Itachi chuckled, 'Leave it to Naruto to get pissed about something like this.' "Yes, yes, and yes." He replied, "With your chakra levels being what they are, quite frankly, I'm surprised that you weren't completely hopeless at chakra control." Naruto lowered his head and mumbled something about his father helping him.

For a minute or so, the two sat there silently, and Itachi almost hoped that Naruto had finished asking him questions—after all, this was more a job for the man responsible for the demon in his gut. However, Naruto had a few more questions for him. "What happens if I use it? Can it get out?"

"As for what happens when you use it—I have no idea." Seeing Naruto's face fall, Itachi elaborated, "Every Jinchuuriki is radically different in their abilities and temperament. For example, Suna's Ichibi is famous for bestowing the ability to control sand; it has a nasty side effect of causing mental instability and insomnia in its host. As for the Kyuubi, it has never been used as a weapon in a shinobi before, so I have no idea as to what its effects might be besides what we have seen."

Naruto nodded, "I heal fast, have a ridiculous amount of chakra, and if I get really angry, I become filled with bloodlust."

"You're father had a feeling that the bloodlust would occur, which is why he assigned me to be your jonin-sensei. As an Uchiha with particularly strong eyes, not unlike Uchiha Madara, I can take control of and suppress the Kyuubi's chakra."

Naruto let out a sigh of relief. While he was still pissed off, confused and scared about the situation that had just been dropped into his lap, the knowledge that Itachi could keep him under control should the worst happen was a comforting thought. "Alright," Naruto said with conviction in his voice, "If I'm not a monster, and if you can help me control it then that's good enough for me." '_For now_.'

**AN: Everybody, I'm sorry about the long update time, I've recently been sucked into the Mass Effect series and that effectively consumed the last month of my life. A bit of a short update, but I just need to get the ball rolling again.**


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Training and Allies

**AN: Okay, first of all, I'd like to apologize. For the longest time I lost all of my motivation and drive to continue this fic, and I wasn't really sure where I was going to take it even. But I am back now and I'd like to thank all of those reviewers who pushed me to get back on track. If you have seen the change in the classification of the fic, I've decided to take this in more of a parody/humor direction. So without any further ado, here comes chapter 9.**

"Naruto-kun?"

"Mmm?" Naruto looked up from the expanse of water that he had been staring at for the last several hours at the sound of Yakumo's voice. "Oh, hey Yakumo-chan…what's up?"

"Are you ok Naruto-kun? You seem a bit…distant lately." A look of honest concern was plastered on the pale girl's face. 'Naruto is always so energetic and cheerful…something must be really wrong for him to look this obviously down.'

Naruto groaned loudly and tears poured down his face. "I'm soooo bored Yakumo-chan! Guard duty is even worse than the freaking D-Ranks! All we do is sit here and watch them build a bridge! At least during the D-Ranks we have something to keep us busy!"

Yakumo giggled, 'I should have figured it was something like that! I don't think he has it in him to sulk for any period of time—he would probably get bored and forget why he was upset in the first place.'

Shino gave look, "So nearly being killed by an A-rank missing ninja is better?"

Naruto huffed, "At least it wasn't boring! Seriously, every minute that I sit on this damn bridge I die a little on the inside! At least in a battle the enemy has the courtesy of doing it all at once!"

"Hmm," Itachi mused as he approached the three, "I doubt we're going to be seeing anything more dangerous than Zabuza, so I guess it wouldn't hurt if I gave you something to work on as long as it isn't too strenuous."

"Hell yeah Niisan! That's more like it!" Itachi grinned in response, causing his cute little genin to freeze up in terror. They had seen that grin multiple times before, and it usually meant that unpleasant things were about to happen to them.

"Sh-Shino-kun? Itachi-sensei just smiled. Is this going to be bad?"

"Logically, I can only assume so. If I recall correctly, the last time we witnessed that particular expression on our sensei's face, we were forced to assist the nurses in the senior ward at the hospital."

Naruto shuddered. There wasn't enough liquor or therapy in the world that could undo the mental damage of that day. 'Naked. Old. Wrinkly. Bodies.'

Itachi laughed as he saw the looks on his students' faces—he knew exactly what they were thinking about. "Don't worry," he chuckled, "it's not that bad. No brain bleach necessary." Leading the three genin over to a nearby wooded area, Itachi pulled out three black blindfolds and tossed on to each of his students before making a shadow clone. "After that last fight, I think it's a good idea to teach you all how to handle an opponent when you don't have the use of your eyes. If you manage to dispel my clone, you pass."

"Umm, Itachi-sensei?" Yakumo hesitantly stepped forward, "How exactly are we supposed to do that? We can't even dispel one of your clones when we aren't blindfolded."

Itachi merely chuckled, sending shivers down his genins' spines. "Oh my naïve little Yakumo, it seems that you still don't understand…I'm your teacher, and a ninja. That means that I don't do explanations. Now put on the damn blindfold and BEGIN!" And with that, Itachi and his clone vanished into the forest, with the soft sound of his laughter echoing throughout the glen.

"Ohshitohshitohshit!" Naruto muttered through gritted teeth. "Guys, you know how I like to pretend that nothing ever scares or bothers me to maintain my tough image?"

"No, that doesn't sound right."

"Is that what you were doing? I conjectured that you were wearing your emotions on your sleeve to appear more sensitive, thus attracting female members of the species. An admirable ploy, if a bit misguided."

Naruto shook his head stubbornly, forgetting that his teammates were also blindfolded and couldn't see him. "TOUGH-GUY IMAGE!" he growled, "Anyways, I would just like to let you know that if either of you two have a plan, that would be really appreciated, because I'm officially scared stupid."

Shino pushed up his glasses on his nose (which he was wearing over the blindfold, obviously), "How is this different than usual then?"

"OI...OW! What the hell just hit me?" Naruto exclaimed with a hiss of pain before picking up the small, smooth object that had just struck his head. "A freaking rock? He's throwing rocks at us now? It's usually just acor—OW goddamnit that hurts! What the hell Niisan!"

"Welllll," drawled Itachi's voice from every direction, "from the way you three have spent the last two minutes just standing around, I thought I should do the responsible thing and offer some motivation to take this exercise seriously."

(Five Hours Later)

"I hate you Niisan, really, I do." Naruto grumbled as he and his teammates collapsed into a dirty, bruised and exhausted lump onto the small couch in Tazuna's house.

"C'mon, Naruto," Itachi replied with a bored look on his face, "It's called tough love. Get used to it, and you did get me in the end didn't you?"

Naruto gave him a dirty look that could have given a sharingan glare a run for its money. "Yeah, but only because your clone ran out of chakra and dispelled on its own!"

"Hn. Details. Besides, even if I was going easy on you, you were all able to get a rudimentary grasp on my location weren't you?"

That comment stopped the torrent of curses gushing forth from an irate Naruto, and a thoughtful look appeared on his face, Yakumo's eyes widened and Shino unsurprisingly had no change in expression.

"An excellent point sensei," Shino mused, "while my nerves have been irreparably frayed by the experience, I can attest to the fact that our sensory abilities have been improved by an absurdly convenient degree by this training session."

Naruto gave a skeptical look, "What do you mean absurdly convenient? Isn't it normal for ninja our age to improve to the point where we can defeat opponents enormously more experienced than we are?"

Everyone present looked at Naruto as if he were insane. "What are you talking about Naruto-kun?" Yakumo asked warily, wondering what kind of answer she would receive from her—quite frankly—unbalanced teammate.

"I mean, think about it…Itachi-niisan became an ANBU commander at 13, my dad became Hokage in his 20's, Kakashi-niisan was a Jonin at 13 too…Shino is regarded as the greatest Aburame prospect in generations, Yakumo is the first member of the Kurama clan since the founding of the village to have her clan's Kekkei Genkai, and both Sasuke and I learned to use our elements—a high Chunin level skill—before we were 10. If everyone I know is some sort of unrivaled genius or whatever, then logically, it must be normal get awesome at everything really, really quickly, ya know!"

"That's just…no"

"Super stupid, gaki."

"That just sounds like lazy writing Naruto-kun."

Naruto scoffed and brushed some dirt off of his tactical turtleneck. "What the fuck ever," he said dismissively, "you all know I'm right, just like when I said that the universe revolves around making our lives more difficult for the amusement of some cruel Kami who controls everything."

Itachi facepalmed, "Not this shit again Naruto, seriously I think I need to have a talk with your father about the effects the stress of this job is having on your psyche." Naruto looked to his teammates for support only to find them awkwardly clearing their throats and looking anywhere but at the blond genin.

Despite this admonishment, Naruto was adamant about his theory. "I bet you anything that as we speak some serious drama is headed right to our doorstep as we speak!

(Meanwhile, on Tazuna's doorstep)

"Are you sure that this is a good idea Zabuza-sama?" Haku asked her mentor nervously as she half carried the infirm ninja to meet with the Leaf ninja who had so soundly defeated them. "With the condition that you are in, there is no way that I can fight them all if they decide to attack?"

"Relax Haku," Zabuza growled through his bandages, "they are only here to protect the bridge builder, and since our contract has been violated by Gato hiring other ninja…not to mention putting out a hit on us, they have no reason to fight us anymore. Besides, the only one who will be able to help me with the aftereffects of that damn genjutsu is that Uchiha."

"But this is some serious drama we are bringing them! What guarantee is there that they won't simply abandon us to our fate after we give them the information that we have?"

Zabuza's mouth curled up into a menacing grin that would have been horribly intimidating if it weren't completely covered up. "Because against monsters like the Akatsuki, they are going to need all of the help that they are going to get."

**AN: Short, I know, but as far as I'm concerned just getting something, anything out there is the best thing I can do to keep this baby going. Don't worry though, next chapter will be longer and will come sooner than this one did.**


	10. Well This is Awkward

A Hokage's Son Ch 10

Well, This is Awkward

As Itachi's team sat inside Tazuna's house, in the midst of a rather one sided debate over the nature of the universe with an increasingly insane sounding Naruto, a hesitant knock sounded out on the door, startling the increasingly irate ninja and the bemused residents of the small dwelling out of their reverie.

"Called it!" Naruto shouted out as Itachi wearily got up to assess the situation.

"Oh for goodness sake," Itachi groaned as he wearily rubbed his temples and reached fro the door with a kunai ready, "we don't even know who's at the door yet…oh Goddamnit."

Standing right in front of the Itachi was none other than the fabled Demon of the Hidden Mist, Momochi Zabuza, as well as what appeared to be the Hunter-nin who had appeared suddenly amidst the chaos of their battle. Without a single word, Itachi activated his Sharingan and released a flare of killing intent that had his entire team on their feet and ready for combat in an instant.

"Please calm yourselves," Haku pled as quickly as possible, "Zabuza-sama does not seek the bridge builder's life any longer, and we have important information for you all if you will hear us out."

Tsunami looked back and forth between the two groups of ninja and began to back out of the room, "I think I'll go and put on some tea," she said nervously, "be right back."

"Thank you very much," Haku told the housewife politely, "that would be lovely, wouldn't it Zabuza-sama?" Zabuza merely let out a grunt. "Zabuza-sama says that he would love some tea."

Itachi glared at the masked ninja for a single intense moment but nevertheless gave the signal for his team to stand down. He waited for one tense moment for the telltale _poof_ of an entire squad of Kage Bunshin dispersing before nodding his head and allowing the two Mist shinobi to step inside.

"I hope that you understand my position." Itachi said with a serious tone once the two had made themselves comfortable at the table. "I'm taking a big risk by not killing you where you stand." The tomoe of his crimson eyes spun and the malice contained within them made Haku shudder involuntarily underneath their gaze. "If you violate my trust…if you make me regret this, dying will be the LEAST of your worries."

Zabuza grunted, "Stow your threats Uchiha, we come here in peace. That little rat Gato has violated my contract and terminated our partnership by going behind my back. That's why we are here."

Itachi was slightly put off by the Mist Shinobi's casual dismissal of his threat, but nevertheless was intrigued by Zabuza's decision to turn to the ninja who had not only defeated him, but had subjected him to the most powerful and most horrible genjutsu in existence. As a matter of fact, he was shocked that he had recovered enough, or was frightened enough of something to make his way here in that condition.

"Very well Zabuza," Itachi replied, allowing his sharingan eyes to fade away and prepared to hear what the notorious ninja had to say, "you have my attention. What kind of information would make you come to me of all people?"

"Have you ever heard of a group of ninja who wear black robes with red clouds?" Zabuza replied, cutting to the chase.

Itachi's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. 'It can't be…Akatsuki!'

Silently, Zabuza noted Itachi's miniscule reaction to this news and smirked under his bandages. 'Now I have him.' "It gets worse," he said, "the two ninja that Gato hired are two of the most dangerous shinobi in the Elemental Nations. One of them is an explosion style user from the Stone who's been playing terrorist for the last couple of years, goes by the name of Deidara. The other is my former comrade in the 7 Shinobi Swordsmen…Hoshigaki Kisame, the Monster of the Hidden Mist, and wielder of the greatsword Samehada."

Itachi closed his eyes and took a moment to bury his urge to break something…or someone. 'Maybe Naruto has got the right idea about the universe being out to get us, because this is some unbelievable shit right here.' He opened his eyes again, his face not reflecting any of the anger or frustration that had just surged through him. "OK then," Itachi replied, "if these men really are coming to get us, then I'm going to need information. What do they look like, what are their abilities, do they have any weaknesses that you know about? Tell me everything that you know."

Zabuza took a breath to begin talking but grimaced and put a hand to his head, "Sorry," he said in a flat voice that did not sound apologetic at all, "I can barely stay conscious right now thanks to that genjutsu that you put me through. I'm gonna need a moment." Itachi rolled his eyes and activated his sharingan and made eye contact with the infirm assassin. Zabuza twitched like a puppet whose strings had just been violently jerked. "What the hell was that!" he growled.

"I've just put you under a genjutsu which counteracts the effects of the Tsukiyomi." Itachi replied, "I developed it in cases where I need a prisoner that I had used it on to be able to talk. Frankly, I'm impressed that you were even able to get here while under its effects. That genjutsu can put people in comas with the trauma it causes."

Zabuza smirked weakly underneath his bandages, "You'll find that I am not most people."

"No," Itachi replied evenly, "you're a man who nearly killed my student and the son of the Hokage. A man whose only reason for survival is because of a common threat that I do not wish to face with only the help of three genin. Now, I believe you were going to tell me everything that you know about the ninja who were hired to kill us." Both Haku and Zabuza stiffened at the completely nonchalant reminder of Itachi's ability to kill them right then and there.

"Uh, right." Zabuza said, sweating, "Now that I can think straight again lets get down to business. What I know about the explosion style user is limited. Obviously, he prefers long-range strategic combat, using his remotely detonated explosives to pressure his opponents into falling into his traps. I have heard unconfirmed reports that he has the ability to attack from the sky, and that his bombs are mobile, but other than that I know nothing."

Itachi was disappointed that there wasn't more information than that but understood, "I wish we knew more, but even that much info is invaluable." He said, "I'll begin working on a plan to counter his explosives, if he wanted to, he could cause a lot of damage with those."

Zabuza grunted in agreement. "Fortunately, I know a lot about Kisame's abilities thanks to our time together as members of the Seven Swordsmen. He will very difficult to beat though, especially in a place with as much water as this one."

"Is he as good with water techniques as you are?"

Zabuza shook his head. "No, he's much, _much_ better. His abilities with water style jutsu rival, or maybe even exceed those of your Second Hokage."

Itachi raised an eyebrow at this statement. "I'm having trouble believing that," the stoic Uchiha replied, "the Second Hokage was one of the most powerful water style users who ever lived. As an S-ranked criminal, Kisame is obviously an incredibly dangerous ninja, but to be better at something than the specialty of one of the strongest ninja who ever lived?"

"Believe it." Zabuza growled, "Kisame is called the tailed beast without a tail for a reason. I have seen that man create entire lakes out of thin air without even getting winded. The amount of chakra that that man possesses is nothing short of monstrous."

"That's…troubling."

"It gets worse," Zabuza continued, "his sword, the Samehada, is no regular blade. It's a living weapon that _eats_ chakra at an incredible rate and transfers it to Kisame, healing his wounds and giving him nearly unlimited stamina. It also can't be used against him, since it will only allow those who it has recognized as its owner to wield it. I tried holding it once and it sent out a spike that pierced clean through my hand. The only way that he can be beaten is if it is done quickly. Don't even bother trying to outlast him."

"Eats chakra…" Itachi murmured, "does that mean that jutsu is useless against him?"

"Yes and no. Elemental attacks like your fire style can be absorbed, but if it is big and hot enough, it will hurt him. Explosions, shrapnel, anything that deals physical damage that isn't composed of pure chakra can get through."

"What about genjutsu? Will that work?"

"Regular genjutsu won't. Like I said, that sword of his both absorbs and feeds him chakra, but it is also in tune with him. If his chakra network is influenced by a genjutsu, the Samehada will be able so sense it and will feed him chakra to disrupt it."

Itachi frowned, "Well that just seems unfair."

Zabuza stared at the Uchiha prodigy with a deadpan expression, "You of all people don't have any room to talk Mr. Hax eyes."

"People keep saying that about the Sharingan but nobody will explain what it means." Itachi complained.

"Context alone should tell you. Anyways if you were to use that incredibly unfair Tsukiyomi of yours on him, I doubt that they will be able to act fast enough for it to matter, since the effects are immediate and long lasting."

"Here's your tea!" Tsunami's voice cut in as the dark haired woman laid a tray with a pot and several cups on the table before making quick tracks out the room. The gathered ninja thanked the woman and continued on with their conversation.

"I really would rather not use that particular jutsu unless it was absolutely necessary." Itachi supplied, "The only reason I employed it against you was because I needed to attend to my injured genin. Unfortunately, the Tsukiyomi tends to have rather…deleterious effects on my health."

Zabuza gave Itachi a sideways glance, "How deleterious?"

"Not enough to change the outcome of anything else that you try against me."

Zabuza shrugged, "Eh can't blame me for trying."

"Indeed." Itachi answered dryly. "So how do you propose we handle this little situation that we have brewing here? I have no intention of letting my genin come anywhere near a battle of this level."

"Bah!" Zabuza exclaimed in disgust, "they're shinobi, you have to let them experience the world that we live in eventually, holding their hand is only going to hold them back and get them killed sooner rather than later."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, "Oh? And I suppose that you had to fight against two S-ranked shinobi before you hit puberty then?"

"Touché." Zabuza replied, "I guess it will just be you, me and Haku then."

"That kid?"

"Don't even start Uchiha," Zabuza growled, "Haku is the most naturally gifted shinobi that I have ever encountered, and you yourself are barely older than he is."

"He?" Itachi repeated, with disbelief in his voice, "If that person is a boy, than I don't think I can trust in anything anymore. Just look at…her…him…whatever."

"Um, excuse me?" Haku said, "You do remember that I have been sitting here this entire time right?"

"Not now Haku," Zabuza told his ward dismissively, "the grownups are talking."

"Of course Zabuza-sama," Haku answered demurely, delicately bowing her head and taking a dainty sip from her cup of tea, "whatever you wish."

"If Haku isn't a girl, than he is the most disturbingly feminine boy in the entire world."

"Enough!" Zabuza growled, "If I say that Haku is a boy, than he's a boy! We need to get back to the matter at hand!"

Itachi coughed, "Right, of course. The plan."

"I believe that the key to defeating those two is to eliminate them one at a time. Since the explosion style user is a long-range combatant, I can neutralize his ability to use his bombs effectively with my hidden mist jutsu. He can't blow up what he can't see…at least not without potentially blowing up his partner as well. We'll use the cover of the mist to gang up on Kisame and take him down first."

"Sound theory," Itachi noted, "but there's a slight problem."

"And what is that?"

"Kisame is a mist ninja whom you admitted is better with water style techniques. Why wouldn't he just be able to overpower your jutsu and dispel the mist?" Zabuza fell silent. "I thought so." Itachi said, "If we are going to have any chance of succeeding, we're going to have to get rid of this Deidara first. If Kisame has as much raw power as you say, then it wouldn't be very difficult for him to maneuver us into any explosive traps that Deidara had set up. I can almost guarantee that most opponents that those two face as a team are killed by Deidara, not Kisame."

"Fine," Zabuza countered, "we'll focus on Deidara first. But answer me this, how are we going to catch a man who specializes in keeping away from his opponents with a close to mid range monster like Kisame backing him up?"

"I believe that I might be of service," Haku interjected, "while it is extremely dangerous to do so, my ice mirrors are capable of transporting people other than myself. If I were to surround him with my ice mirrors and send one of you through them, we could cut off any chance of escape and eliminate him at the same time."

Zabuza shook his head emphatically, "Absolutely _not_." He growled, "Do you not remember the last time we tried that Haku? You almost died of chakra exhaustion and I nearly froze to death! It was a miracle that either of us survived!"

"My chakra capacity has improved greatly since then," Haku shot back, "I believe that I would be able to execute the jutsu with very little risk to my life, but we would only have one chance to succeed."

"Even _if _you were able to successfully use the jutsu without dying, " Zabuza replied, "and for the sake of argument, you even managed to catch him with it, we still wouldn't be able to use it because anyone other than a Hyoton user would be killed by the cold!"

"Not necessarily," Itachi cut in, "every member of the Uchiha clan is thoroughly trained in the application of Katon techniques. One of the first things that we learn is how to regulate our body temperatures with internal manipulation of fire chakra, allowing us to withstand extreme changes in temperature."

Zabuza's eyes widened, "In that case, if you were able to withstand the extreme cold of the ice mirrors and use them to make eye contact with that Sharingan of yours…"

"Then I could shut Deidara down with genjutsu before he detonated a single bomb. Barring some special cases, there are very few people in the world who could hope to resist my visual prowess. Once Deidara is gone, we can focus on Kisame."

"I suppose that it's settled then." Haku said, "We'll send Uchiha-san through my mirrors to neutralize Deidara and then deal with Kisame together."

"Fine," Zabuza growled, "it's still more risky than I would have liked, but I suppose that this is our best hope of getting out of this mess alive."

"Indeed," Itachi agreed, "we'll draw them out tomorrow in the same place that we fought before we got here. If anything goes wrong, I don't want any explosions happening anywhere near the town. I'll have the genin stay here at the house to guard it in case Gato sends anybody else to do his dirty work."

**AN: It certainly has been a while, huh? I've been busy working on some new stories. I highly suggest that you check out A Hero's Legacy. In my opinion, I believe that it will turn out to be much, much better than this one. Please Favorite, Follow, and Review if you like what you've read.**


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Naruto, Adventure, Humor