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Chapter Text

Sharingan No Naruto (Prologue)

Minato's attempt at sealing the Kyuubi went wrong, very very wrong.

The old fox noticed Minato's use of the Shiki Fuujin upon feeling a tug on his chakra and seeing the Shinigami on the Hokage's back, in a desperate attempt to save himself he managed to break the hold of Kushina's chains, severing her head with one of his claws.

'K-Kushina' Thought Minato as he watched his wife's head leaving her body, he was trembling in horror, sadness and fury and as the tears rolled down his face his will to fight started to falter, how could it not? The woman he loved above everything else was just beheaded in front of him, no matter how strong or resilient Minato could be, there's only so much a man can take, but he had to get a hold of himself, there was a lot at stake here and the sound of a crying baby reminded him of that fact, he found comfort in knowing he wouldn't live much longer. 

The Kyuubi picked the wailing baby up with one of his tails, taking Naruto very close to his mouth. He looked down at Minato's trembling body. 

A threat . 

"Stop the sealing, mortal." Snarled the Kyuubi, clear disgust in his voice when talking to Minato.

The Yondaime Hokage seeing very little choice complied and willed the Shinigami to stop while he directed the chakra he managed to take from the kyuubi into Naruto's little body, a seal-like mark appeared on the the boy's stomach and as soon as it appeared, it dissolved into nothing.

Normally, a seal of this nature fades into the recipient's body and only shows itself when the recipient channels chakra. The seal on Naruto shattered and turned into a puddle of ink. 

Seeing this Minato realized that sealing the chakra in his newborn had failed and it was too late now to redirect the half of the fox's chakra he sealed in his own body. 

Knowing his life was about to end and that there was nothing he or anyone could do, the Hokage decided to try one more thing.    

"Kyuubi..."

The old fox had to blink at that, not even his siblings address him with that level of familiarity.

"I have something to ask of you." Now he was surprised. "Please, leave..."

He just stared at him, almost like looking at his soul. “We both know you didn't attack on your own will, and even if I despise you for what you did to my wife. You're as much of a victim as Kushina and the people of this village were, you were denied your freedom since before I was born and now Naruto here..." The Hokage took one last look at his son.

"Naruto here will have to grow up without his parents because of the mistakes of dead men." Senju Hashirama gave away the bijuu like they were pets in his search for peace, what did he accomplish again? "So I'm asking you... no, I'm beggin you Kyuubi…”

"Be free." 

If you ask the Shinigami why they allowed this to go on for so long the answer would be I don't know whether it was out of respect for the dying man or the millenium fox standing in front of them - they don't really know, but this was as long as their grace extended and with the legendary man's parting words the God of Death took his soul and vanished.

That was the scene when the Sandaime arrived, a collapsing Hokage holding a headless woman, a crying baby and a gigantic fox standing in front of him.

His ANBU were ready to move and the old Hokage stood his guard, as amusing as it was for the fox to see them thinking they stood a chance, he had no wish to stay in this village any longer.

"Don't look so scared old man, I won't destroy you nor this punny village, your Hokage made sure of that." Both the ANBU and the old Hokage were confused to say the least, they weren't dumb enough to trust the fox, kitsune were very cunning and deceitful creatures after all, but they knew they stood no chance against the immortal.

"An Uchiha..." Said the fox interrupting everyone's thoughts, "An Uchiha wearing a mask was the one who broke the seal, he didn't appear to be from this village and he claimed to be Uchiha Madara."

At that Hiruzen stared in disbelief,

'Madara?'

"Don't be so quick to discard the possibility, he did summon me in the middle of your village, even if he's not Madara himself, they could both be related." Kyuubi looked away from the battlefield.  "Now no longer under the influence of his Sharingan i'm able to break the summoning contract, this is no longer my problem."

With that, the Kyuubi turned around and walked away, while the Sandaime quickly picked up the crying baby and started to retreat, if the Yondaime couldn't subdue the fox no one in this village could, the Shiki Fuujin seal on his successor's stomach was enough proof of that.

"Naruto." Said the fox, stopping the ANBU and Sandaime on their tracks.

"Huh?" Was the - oh so eloquent - response of the tired old man.

"Naruto, that's the boy's name" And as he said those words, the legendary Kitsune vanished into nothingness, the only evidence of his presence was the cloud of red smoke left behind.

The sun is shining brightly, a large contrast towards the chilling breeze. It has been years since the kyuubi attack, the village is recovering slowly but steadily. 

In an apartment not too far away, the hokage and a young boy could be seen eating while talking to each other.

Soon, the room turned silent when the boy abruptly brought up the question that the old Hokage dreads so much. 

"Jiji, did you know my parents?" Poor boy had lost count of how many times he asked that very same question, at this point he asked because it turned into a habit not because he actually hoped to get an answer.

The old hokage sighed, "Naruto-kun...”

Sarutobi Hiruzen was a powerful and respected man, but like any other he was human and humans make mistakes, now he realizes not telling the little kid of his heritage was one of them.

He had decided that keeping that information from him would keep him safe, Minato Namikaze made a lot of enemies and if there was a chance those enemies would retaliate and seek revenge through the man's only child he wouldn't take it, so he didn't, and kept the secret on a need to know basis for the past six years waiting for his own student and the legendary man's sensei to approach the boy about it when he felt the time was right. 

Looking at it now, he realizes that might not have been for the best.

The boy was very smart and Hiruzen was aware of this, but he was also mature enough to handle being an orphan and living by himself, Sarutobi was sure he could keep such a secret if he was explained exactly why it needed to be a secret, his own student however didn't know the boy near enough to realize such a thing 'not that he made any effort to ever get to know him at all' mused the Hokage but immediately shove that thought away, it wasn't important right now. 

Naruto was a very lonely child, he knew nothing about his parents. He wasn't ostracized or hated, he was just upset, sad, lonely and confused, like any other child would in his situation. 

The day of the Kyuubi attack, the hospital took heavy damage, the nursery being completely destroyed. Many children's lives were lost that day and Naruto, being the lone survivor, gained quite a reputation. 

Not as a Jinchuriki or a 'Demon child'         - although some people had some questionable theories - but as a reminder, a reminder of what a lot of people lost, and some of those people would go out of their way to let him know just that, thankfully that was only some hurt and stupid people, the problem was that Naruto didn't like pity and that was the way everyone would look at him. It made Naruto develop survivor's guilt, top that with the hardships being an orphan entails and it was a recipe for disaster.

"I made a mistake Naruto and I hope you can forgive me.” Naruto perked up, confused on why the old man was saying this so suddenly.

“Come with me, there's a lot we need to discuss." Both left on their way to the Hokage's office, Hiruzen really wasn't looking forward to telling him about Minato, and he wouldn't - he would however explain why it's being kept a secret, knowing that you're being lied to is better than knowing nothing at all - but he figures no harm in telling him about his mother and the Uzumaki clan.

Years have passed and now the young ninja - Naruto - has finally passed the graduation exam. 

Although, it wasn’t an easy ride to graduation.

Naruto is a very smart and creative child, the pranks he sometimes played on people showed a level of creativity and detail many hoped to accomplish.

If only he was that dedicated to his other studies.

That is not to say he is academically dumb, he just doesn't try hard enough to learn 'boring' and 'useless' things that have 'nothing to do with being a cool ninja'. 

He often offers the bare minimum to pass his written exams which doesn't help much either which frustrates his sensei to no end, Umino Iruka was aware Naruto had the potential to be hailed as a prodigy but never tried hard enough to exploit that potential. 

But he did pass, even if he had to work very hard to get the control necessary to perform the regular bunshin, apparently Naruto's chakra reserves were very big and dense even for an Uzumaki. 

The Hokage suspects it has something to do with Naruto's chakra being purple like Iruka said it was when it started swirling around him during his examination. 

-

"So you're saying, Naruto's chakra flared and swirled around him while he was trying to perform the Bunshin and it was a different color?" 

"Yes Hokage-sama, Naruto's always had a hard time controlling the little amount of chakra he needs to perform the bunshin because of his large reserves,”

“But it isn't weird for someone's chakra to flare and swirl around them in these situations." And it wasn't, Naruto was just one of many with this kind of problem, but for some reason Naruto had a lot more trouble than it is normal, there was no real reason for his chakra reserves to be that big, even for an Uzumaki. 

"What surprised me was the color of his chakra, until now I had never seen purple chakra, do you know what it means Hokage-sama?" Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't hailed as The Professor for nothing, but even he had never heard of that, that is not to say he didn't suspect what could've caused that peculiar phenomenon but… some things are better left unsaid.

-

"Hokage-Sama! Uzumaki Naruto stole the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing!"

"No, he didn't."

The chunin tasked to inform the Hokage of what had happened moments ago was very confused about the blonde kid seated in the stool right next to the Hokage. 

His face became quite a nice shade of red. 

"Naruto-kun and I are having dinner together to celebrate his graduation, how could he have possibly stolen the scroll?"

The answer to that question was revealed not long after that. 

Sarutobi took Naruto along with him back to his office, where they discovered that someone posing as Naruto had made his way into the tower while Hiruzen was away, too bad they didn't take into consideration who the Hokage was to Naruto.

"Iruka-sensei is in the forest with Mizuki-sensei." Declared the blonde.

"How do you know that Naruto?"

"I-I guess I just know? I've always been able to feel where people not so far away from me are, isn't that normal?" What a time to discover Naruto had sensing abilities.

“Could you lead us to them, Naruto-kun?” Hiruzen stood up as he asked, Naruto following the action.

He then suddenly turned around and sprinted to the window, “Let’s go!”

Naruto led the Hokage and a few ANBU to them and got just in time to stop a Fuma shuriken from ending Iruka's life by the hand of Mizuki. 

Multiple people in masks jumped into the scene, surrounding Mizuki - who was looking around frantically - daring him to even move a muscle. Mizuki raged, he turned around and fled. 

At least he tried to flee before one of the ANBU suddenly took his hand, twisting it before slamming his whole body onto the ground, back-first. Mizuki howled in pain, he tried to squirm off the hold on his hand but the ANBU was persistent and instead tightened the hold.

"You're more involved in this than I would like Naruto, this incident will be classified as an B-rank mission on your record, you helped track a spy which means this mission will be kept a secret known to only the people involved, is that clear?" Asked Hiruzen

Naruto had never been on this side of his grandfather's Hokage mode, he wasn't being threatened, he was just being treated as a shinobi and for Naruto it was a bit overwhelming, Naruto was still Naruto which meant he was also excited for having completed his first mission. 

"Yes Jiji! Not a word" Replied Naruto with a smile. 

After the ANBU apprehend him and took the traitor to T&I - Naruto, the Hokage and Iruka took the scroll back to the tower, both Hiruzen and Iruka failed to notice Naruto taking a look at the scroll while they were distracted talking among themselves.

'Kage Bunshin huh?'

It was later discovered Mizuki simply chose Naruto to impersonate because he thought an orphan would have a lot more trouble proving his innocence without the back-up of a family to serve as an alibi, so he figured by the time the truth was discovered he would've gotten very far away. 

Naruto just so happened to be the only orphan he knew enough to imitate. 

Talk about bad luck. 

"The objective is quite simple, you have to get these bells from me before the alarm rings."

"But there's only two bells, sensei..." Said a girl named Haruno Sakura. 

She was the top-kunoichi of the year, she got a perfect score in all written portions of the academy and did fairly well in all other areas, that is not to say she was the best there is, but the academy's low standards led her to believe she was.

"That's right, that means one of you won't get a bell and will be sent back to the academy for another year." Let it not be said that Hatake Kakashi isn't good at deceiving people.

After telling his students to come at him with the intent to kill and the pink-haired's concern for their sensei's well being - like they could hope to hurt a jounin - they scattered and hid away, well, almost all of them.

"Can I get a bell?"

"Huh?"

"I asked if i can get a bell" It took a few seconds for Kakashi to process what his student was asking, he replied nonetheless.

"You're asking me if I can give you a bell?"

"Mhmm."

"...No."

"Oh well, it was worth a shot." And after saying those words Naruto burst in a cloud of smoke. Let it not be said that Uzumaki Naruto doesn't think outside the box.

After his failed but clever - if you ask him - attempt at getting a bell from Kakashi, Naruto decided to retreat and think for a moment, Naruto might not be the brightest crayon in the box but even he knew there was no chance a group of Genin could beat a Jounin on their own . 

Naruto's train of thought was interrupted when he heard a yell of

" Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu! "  

Naruto was sure (mostly) Kakashi wasn't going to try and seriously hurt a bunch of genin so that only left… 

Sasuke. 

'Might as well check out how the brooder's doing' Thought Naruto while he started making his way to Sasuke through the trees making as little sound as possible, Kakashi of course knew exactly were he was but decided to watch how this was going to play out. 

The aforementioned Uchiha was not having the time of his life, but all things considered, he could be doing worse, if only he could figure out how to get out of the ground. 

'When I manage to pass this stupid test I'll definitely ask him to teach me this jutsu' Thought a very annoyed raven haired boy, he could see how useful this Jutsu could be, but that doesn't mean he liked being on the receiving end. 

'It would be fun to trap the idiot using this' 

And almost like summoning him with his thoughts, said idiot made an appearance. 

"Oi Sasuke, how'd you get in there?" Asked a snickering Naruto, it really was hard not to laugh at the situation, but Naruto was trying his best to get a hold of himself, right now wasn't the time to antagonize Sasuke. 

"Shut up!" Easier said than done, Naruto never knew any other Uchihas but this one had a very short temper. 

Naruto conceded and started digging Sasuke out of the hole Kakashi left him in, during the process a hyperventilating Sakura appeared through the bushes only to look at the form of Naruto's prone body and - from her perspective - Sasuke's head laying on the floor. 

It wasn't long till she passed out yelling something about headless princes and more babble Sasuke couldn't quite make out. 

"Any bright ideas?" Asked Naruto, Sasuke was just about to blow him out and remind the idiot that he didn't need his help. 

He managed to get a hold of himself, Sasuke wouldn't say it outloud and he knew Naruto wouldn't either but they were both friends, the only friend the other had and even if 'Socially adept' was not Sasuke's defining trait he knew better than to treat the only friend he had like dirt, Sasuke developed some sort of Superiority and Inferiority complex after that night and sometimes he lost control over the most stupid things, but with Naruto it has always been different. 

It was a very weird friendship, and Sasuke couldn't quite remember when or how exactly it had started but it did. 

'Maybe it was that one time in the lake…' 

-

A lonely boy found himself sitting in a little pier above the lake where he learned his most prized jutsu, the jutsu that made his dad proud of him… 

Not that it mattered anymore. 

It had been a few weeks since the night that forever changed his life, since the night when his greatest hero, the person he looked up to the most, betrayed him. 

It had been a few weeks since he snapped

It had been a few weeks since The Uchiha Massacre occurred. 

Sasuke had been a very sad and lonely boy these past few weeks, but most of all he had been annoyed, very very annoyed. 

He couldn't understand why the people of the village thought he would want their pity and empty apologies, the only thing he wanted was to kill that man, at least that's what he told himself. 

The only thing he wanted other than revenge was company, even if he wouldn't admit it himself, he longed for someone he could relate to, someone who would be able to understand what he was feeling. 

For some reason he felt the need to turn around in that very instant.

A blonde kid wearing a white t-shirt and gray shorts was walking by in the road right behind the lake he was sitting at, Sasuke knew him as a boy in his academy class. 

Menma was it? Something like that, he couldn't quite remember and it wasn't really important to him right now. The boy then mirrored his actions and turned to look at him… 

Loneliness. 

People often say the eyes are the window to the soul, it must've been true because all he could see in the eyes that mirrored his own so much it almost made him uncomfortable was that… 

Loneliness. 

The blonde kid stared at him for a few seconds that felt like hours and then smiled at him. 

He smiled back. 

No words were spoken between the two and it wasn't necessary, both knew no words would be able to express what they were thinking. 

Both were lonely, but now… 

They could be lonely together. 

-

How it started really wasn't important, it just started and that was fine. After that encounter that looked to be almost orchestrated by fate they had become friends, a very weird kind of friends but friends nonetheless. 

Naruto was the only person Sasuke would talk to when they were together in the academy and he would say something stupid to keep his mind ocuppied on something else, they never really interacted out of that space but they both came to appreciate one another's presence, even if it would annoy Sasuke's fangirls to no end. 

To this day Sasuke still doesn't know if Naruto did what he did on purpose or if he was just being himself but he was immensely grateful for it anyway. 

Not that he would ever admit it of course, he had a reputation after all. 

"Are you there broody?" Asked Naruto, for some reason Sasuke started zoning out on him today. 

"You're acting weird today 'ttebayo" Maybe being trapped down there affected him, he would give him a few minutes to recover while he woke Sakura up. 

There's no way they're going to fail this stupid test. 

Months of D-Ranks can take a toll on anyone's mental health, especially a kid with a lot of energy to spare (Naruto was very glad when he found out he had that in common with his late mother) and a very lazy sensei who so far has taught them... 

Nothing.

"Jiji, can we please get a real mission? We're all tired of doing chores..." Naruto held a lot of respect and love for the only family he has, so he wouldn't even dream of being rude to his grandfather, that doesn't mean he won't try to coerce him into giving them a worthy mission though.

"What do you think, Kakashi?"

"Maa, they're ready for a simple C-rank."

They're most definitely not .

"Alright then, let Tazuna-san come in."

It was a simple escort mission to Nami No Kuni (Wave country), and even if the client was a drunk and very annoying old man who claimed to be a super bridge builder they could very well handle themselves, what's a few bandits going to do to them anyway?

"Thanks for this Jiji, we won’t disappoint you! Everything will be okay." 

Chapter Text

Everything's not okay. 

The team was still making their way through Hi No Kuni, the Fire Country. The walk was mostly calm and easy going, although sometimes it got hard to ignore that old-drunk and his boisterous attitude. How could someone brag so much about a Bridge? 

Other than a few questions asked by Sakura for the sake of making conversation, not much had been going on.

Naruto was mostly annoyed at the speed they were going but there was little he could do while escorting a civilian so he had to suck it up and be patient.

Sadly for him, patience was never his virtue, being the son of Uzumaki Kushina granted him incredible stamina and endless energy and that wasn't always a good thing, Naruto was also an orphan and while his crave for attention was greatly diminished after finding out about his mother and his clan, he still wanted the opportunity to prove himself to others which led to a Naruto - and a brooding Sasuke who made a very good job at hiding it - who was itching for something 'interesting' to happen. 

That might've not been the best thing to hope for. 

Not long after team 7 along with Tazuna crossed the border on their way to Nami, they were ambushed by a pair of Chunin level missing nin from Kiri called Gozu and Meizu the 'Demon Brothers' . 

Kakashi decided to stand down and let his students take on the attackers, Sasuke was able to successfully defeat one of the brothers with the use of well aimed shuriken and pure taijutsu skill while Sakura stood in front of Tazuna in order to guard him, unfortunately, Naruto froze on the scene after being led to believe his sensei was dead, which caused him to received an attack from a poisoned claw courtesy of one of the attackers. 

After interrogating Tazuna and their captives - and swiftly ending their lives without the knowledge of his students - Hatake Kakashi decided to leave it up to the kids to choose whether or not they'll continue with the mission or go back to Konoha. 

In a moment of Bravado Naruto stabbed his own hand to get rid of the poison and swore on his blood to protect the client at all costs and never freeze up that way again.

Sasuke's case was based on him wanting to prove himself against strong opponents.

Sakura just went along with whatever he said.

Kakashi accepted the decision and carried on with the mission without informing the village or requesting back-up. 

Big Mistake

Not long after, they were attacked by a Jounin level ninja whose name was Momochi Zabuza the 'Demon of the Mist' .

After dodging a flying sword from the eccentric ninja a big battle with impressive use of Suiton Jutsu took place. The fight ended with Zabuza being pierced in the neck by 3 senbon needles courtesy of a Kiri Hunter Nin and a collapsing Kakashi who had to be carried all the way to the Bridge Builder's house due to chakra exhaustion.

After Kakashi regained consciousness he informed his team that the Hunter Nin who took Zabuza away didn't follow proper procedure which most likely meant they were allied with the former, meaning the Demon of the Mist was most likely still alive. 

That same day Kakashi decided that his under-trained and under-prepared Genin needed to improve their Chakra control for the upcoming fight, not that they knew more than one jutsu to truly benefit from being able to better control their chakra but at least they wouldn't be wasting as much as they used to. 

Just as Kakashi predicted, a battle is taking place on the bridge they were meant to protect. Zabuza and Kakashi are both at a stalemate while the Hunter nin has both Naruto and Sasuke trapped in a dome of Ice mirrors. 

Ice senbons flew at Naruto and he could no longer dodge, exhaustion was finally setting in after using so many clones in order to fight.

'I should've learned at least a defensive Jutsu, not much I can do now 'ttebayo, to think getting rid of those idiots at the old man's house was extremely easy'. 

-

The sound of a woman being dragged by two men wielding swords and a crying boy worried for his mother could be heard in the forest.

It was pure luck that the thugs decided to make their move just before they left Naruto's - not so impressive - sensing range, it still took him some time to get there and couldn't stop the filthy men from getting their hands on Tsunami. 

"We're going to have so much fun with you before taking you to Ga-" He never got to finish thanks to a very annoyed blonde boy who kicked him in the back of the head knocking him out instantly. 

"Why you little shi-" A strong punch in the back of his neck courtesy of a second Naruto made sure to shut him up instantly. 

"So uncivilized." 

After dealing with them the Kage Bunshin who was accompanying Naruto poofed away leaving only the original Naruto, a still crying Inari and a very shocked Tsunami. 

"Sorry I'm late! But all heroes arrive late, right?" 

-

Naruto's train of thought was interrupted when he saw a hail of senbons coming at him intending to shut him off permanently. 

But they never did.

Naruto opened his eyes, shocked to see Sasuke in front of him, hunched over and shaking violently. Naruto clenched his fist when he fully registered the needles protruding on his body from various angles. 

"SASUKE!"  

Sasuke looked back at him with the corner of his eyes and answered the question in Naruto's eyes before he even got the time to ask.

"My body…” Sasuke muttered, his shaking slowed as he swayed backwards. “Moved on its own…" 

With his recently awakened Sharingan, Sasuke was able to perceive things a lot faster, unfortunately for him, that doesn't mean he's fast enough to do something more than take the hit himself, so he did and now his world was going dark. 

Naruto was trembling in fury, he just watched his only friend take multiple hits that were supposed to end him. He couldn't believe Sasuke had died to protect him. Rage was starting to overtake Naruto and cloud his judgment but a weird feeling was starting to invade him. 

He just couldn't figure out what, there was something… off here. 

Then it hit him. 

"You didn't kill him." It was true, Naruto's sensing abilities were never trained since he discovered them, even though he did mention it to Kakashi, but that didn't mean he couldn't use them, and being that close to Sasuke allowed him to feel his chakra. 

"You did the same thing you did to Zabuza… Why?" The hunter-nin sighed and brought their hand to the mask they were wearing and removed it, revealing the same boy Naruto met in the forest days ago. 

"Ha-Haku?" Naruto sputtered.

-

"Why do you train so hard?" 

Naruto didn't understand why the girl who woke him up a few moments ago was asking him that question, but he answered anyway, maybe it was because he called her pretty.

"I train hard so I can become super strong 'ttebayo!" Replied Naruto with a big and warm smile to the pretty looking girl in front of him. 

"You look very strong already, why do you need to become stronger?"

Naruto struggled to answer that question, he hadn't thought about that before, why was he training so hard? Why did he want to become stronger?

"Do you have something precious to you? Someone?" 

Naruto nodded. 

"I believe a person becomes truly strong when they fight to protect what is precious to them." 

"I think I understand, I'll protect the people I love and then I will be Hokage!" 

Haku gave him a warm smile, "You'll be really strong then." After saying that she got up and started to leave. 

"By the way, it flatters me that you think I'm pretty but… I'm a boy." Said Haku, turning around to look at a blushing Naruto and then started to leave again. 

"You're still pretty 'ttebayo…" Mumbled a still furiously blushing Naruto, but fortunately for him there was no one there to hear. 

-

"I couldn't bring myself to hurt you, Naruto-kun, but I'll do what's necessary to help Zabuza-sama fulfill his wish." 

Naruto removed the needles on Sasuke's body and got up to face Haku once more. 

"You don’t have much chakra left, Haku…" Just as he said that - Haku released the jutsu, the mirrors fell apart and turned to puddles of water. 

"I don't need my jutsu, I'll put you to sleep just like your friend and then I'll help Zabuza-sama." Haku then readied the Senbon hidden in his robes and prepared to launch them at Naruto, aiming to the spots that would leave him in a similar state as Sasuke. 

"You don't have to do this Haku!" Begged Naruto. 

"I am just a tool for Zabuza-sama, I do his bidding and nothing more." He said

"You're not just a tool dammit! You're a person you… you can quit… you can come with us, the old man will take you in, you can have a home!" Naruto said, trying desperately to convince Haku. 

The boy in turn just looked at him and gave him a sad smile. "I hope you can find it in yourself to forgive me when you wake up." 

Just as he was about to put Naruto in a slumber a chirping sound filled the bridge. Both Haku and Naruto turned around and looked at the scene revealed to them with the cleared mist. 

Zabuza was being held in place by a group of ninken with Kakashi about to put a hand through his chest using his famous Raikiri. 

Without even stopping to think, Haku used a quick Shunshin to get in front of Kakashi and then… 

Silence

No one dared to make a sound, both the faces of Naruto and Kakashi were filled with shock, Kakashi saw in that smiling boy with a hand through his chest and blood dripping from his mouth the face of his late teammate. 

'Rin…' 

"HAKU!" Naruto screamed his name as he ran towards the scene, while in the distance the recently reawakened form of Sasuke was fighting to stand up, he was weak and unable to move by himself but he was alive. 

Zabuza stopped himself from attacking Kakashi through the body of Haku after seeing the reaction of that little boy, all he could feel while watching that ray of sunshine crying over the death of his partner was guilt . Never will he be able to tell Haku that he meant a lot to him, he won't be able to tell him he was more than just a broken tool. 

He won't be able to tell him he was his son.

The sound of a cane accompanied by the sound of an army of men holding crossbows and swords suddenly invaded the bridge. 

" HAHAHAHAHA .” 

“So much for the 'Demon of the Mist', I knew you weren't worth what you charged for your services Zabuza." Declared a laughing Gato "Well, I wasn't gonna pay you anyway so it all works out in the end, deal with them boys, whoever brings me the body of that little boy who broke my arm gets paid extra." 

"I'm going to make him my bitch." 

Zabuza saw red. 

"It looks like I'm no longer your enemy, Kakashi." Said Zabuza as the Ninken holding him puffed in a cloud of smoke and let him move on his own again. 

"Kid…" Said Zabuza looking down at Naruto to meet his eyes "Lend me a Kunai." 

Kakashi's ninken did a number on Zabuza's arms so he was forced to take the kunai on his mouth, that was more than enough to kill a bunch of bulky untalented men. 

When Zabuza was about to charge the army of thugs… 

It happened. 

The Crossbow users felt an impending sense of doom and decided to take action before action against them could be taken. They shot at them an enormous barrage of arrows, luckily, the shinobi in the bridge were more than able to dodge and deflect the oncoming projectiles. 

Wrong.

Zabuza and Kakashi used the Big surface of the Kubikiribōchō to shield themselves from most of the arrows while dodging the few that made it past the sword. 

Sakura went into shock immediately and wasn't quick enough to stop herself from dying. 

Naruto was beat and tired, but he was never tired enough not to save a comrade, and he knew one of his teammates needed his help right now, he went from being the one shocked in need of saving to the savior. 

He wasn't worried about Sasuke. 

Sasuke was the best of them. 

Sasuke was going to be alright.  

Naruto jumped in front of Sakura and Tazuna without a second thought and stood his guard. 

Sakura couldn't believe him. He willingly risked his life just to keep her safe. 

He deflected most of the projectiles, but couldn't avoid the one that pierced his leg, and the one that went to his right eye. He was quick enough to avoid it piercing his skull, but not enough to save the beautiful azure orb resting there. 

Sasuke…

Sasuke wasn't that lucky. 

He was just barely able to stand on his own feet when the arrows started flying. 

One arrow pierced one of his legs, another found itself stuck in his stomach, two more arrows were stuck in his left arm and shoulder. 

The final arrow went right in through his chest and out, leaving a perfect hole in it. 

Zabuza took his Kunai and ran at the army of men while Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura all ran to Sasuke. 

Naruto was the first to drop right next to him followed by Sakura. Sasuke looked to his right and saw Naruto's bleeding form with an arrow still stuck where his eye should be, then he turned to the left and saw Kakashi standing right next to him with his uncovered Sharingan eye, that gave him an idea. 

"You can't die yet Naruto, y-you still have to become H-Hokage. I'll help you…" Naruto was confused by his friend's words but was too shocked to really give a damn. 

"K-Kakashi... No, Sensei… "

At those words even Kakashi let himself shed a tear, Sasuke never called him sensei, and seeing him like this, bleeding out on the floor, made him realize he didn't deserve it, he was no sensei to any of them. 

"Give the i-idiot my r-right eye, I know you c-can do it." As he said that he used what little chakra he had left and activated his Sharingan once more, one eye with a single tomoe and the other with two. 

"Are you sure Sasuke?" Sasuke nodded and Kakashi without so much as a second thought knocked Naruto out with a chakra induced finger placed on his forehead. Consequences be damned, he was going to make sure his student's last wish was fulfilled, especially if it'll allow the other to see again, and better than he previously could. 

Kakashi covered his hand in the alcohol he got out of the bottle he had in one of his many pouches and then used what little Iryo-ninjutsu he knew, and maybe even a little more, to extract Sasuke's right sharingan eye eliciting as little pain as possible to him. 

Then he started applying healing Chakra on Naruto's right eye as he removed the arrow and carefully placed the new eye on him, working quickly on setting the right nerves in place with his healing chakra. You might argue it was not the cleanests and accurate of transplants but it was effective and that was all they would be able to get for now. 

He then closed Naruto's new eye, put his forehead protector over it in a way similar to his own and reversed his induced sleep once more. 

Getting his senses together Naruto took one last look at Sasuke "Sasuke I-" 

"D-Don't bother, I'm b-beyond saving.”

People often saw Shinobi as unkillable beasts; after watching them perform amazing feats thought impossible by many one could easily forget that behind every single chakra wielding Shinobi was a fragile Human being, a single knife is more than enough to take one of those out if used correctly. 

“Use my gift right, Naruto." 

Naruto, still not sure of what happened felt a sting in the right side of his face and raised his hand to his eye only to find it covered with no arrow there, then he looked at Sasuke's own right eye and found it missing. 

Realization hit him

"Avenge us , kill that man..." 

'Us?' 

Sasuke looked at him one last time. 

"I'll become your eye and see the future for you."

Were Sasuke's final words before closing his remaining eye never to be opened again. 

Kakashi's heart skipped a beat when he heard those painfully familiar words. 

It was funny really, Sasuke always thought he wouldn't be able to die in peace without getting his revenge, without honoring his family, his clan. But now, on the brink of death, he felt… 

Free.

Uchiha Sasuke lived the past six years of his life, hating and seeking power to one day kill his treacherous brother, but now he didn't need to, now he could just let go, now he could just… Be . 

A beautiful raven haired woman stood in front of him, he couldn't quite make up her face due to the incredibly bright light behind her, but she felt familiar, he had seen her before, where? 

The woman knelt in front of him and extended her hand, face now clear for him to see

"K-Kaa-san?"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun?" 

The boy didn't even think twice before launching himself at the now revealed Mikoto and hugged her while tears ran down his face. Hugging his mother like this made him feel like he was that little 7 year old boy with no care in the world again. 

In a way, he was. 

"It's alright now my boy, don't cry."

"Kaa-san I-I cou-  I-I couldn't restore the clan, I-I couldn't avenge you" Said Sasuke while crying uncontrollably on his mother's shoulder. 

"Don't worry yourself with such things my little boy, it was never your responsibility and I'm sorry you felt like it was."

The boy just couldn't stop himself from crying in his mother's embrace, he has wanted to see her for so… so long. 

"Come now my love…" Said the beautiful woman while standing up and taking his little boy's hand in hers. 

"I'm sure there's a lot you want to tell me and we have all the time in the world" 

A pair of mother and son could be seen walking in a tunnel, their figures slowly disappearing in a beautiful and imposing bright light. If one looked at the bloody and battered body left behind by that poor and tormented soul you could make out the faintest of smiles in his semblance. 

Together at last. 

Zabuza was beaten and bruised, he was stabbed multiple times and had some of the swords still in him; he was using every little piece of strength left in him to annihilate Gato and his men. After what felt like hours, a big crowd showed up on the other side of the bridge, the people of the Village drove off the remaining of Gato's forces while he took care of Gato himself. 

With his dying breath Zabuza walked all the way to Haku's body and collapsed, right next to him giving his partner and surrogate son one last look. As he was slowly dying, it started snowing... 

"Are you crying Haku?" were the last words ever spoken by one Momochi Zabuza, the 'Demon of the Mist'. 

It's been a week since the battle took place, the bridge has been finally completed and the people were celebrating. Not long after Gato's death the people started looking for a new person to take over, most had agreed on Tazuna with the position but the man in question politely declined explaining the only thing he was good at was building, so he recommended his own daughter, Tsunami, who apparently has always been the brains of their operation. 

Getting Nami back on their feet has been hard but the people are excited and full of hope again so they're working very hard to make Nami reach its former glory and probably even more if the Hokage accepts a trade agreement between the two nations after the team who helped make this all reality delivers the letter. 

Said team however, was having a very hard time. Naruto was recognized by the villagers as the 'Hero of Wave' and while it is true that it was thanks to him that Inari found the courage to get all the people to raise and fight their oppressor, it was a very sour accomplishment. 

Naruto sent clones to work on the bridge along with Tazuna dayli, but the real Naruto was barely seen, he only went in the house to sleep and spent most of his days looking at the graves of both Haku and Zabuza and the little memorial he placed for Sasuke along with them.

Kakashi had informed Naruto that the Last loyal Uchiha would receive a proper burial and funeral when they got back to the village so he didn't have to worry about burying him himself. 

Naruto barely spent time with anyone - other than speaking constantly with the ghosts of dead people - at least not directly. He recently discovered that Kage Bunshin returned their experiences to the caster of the technique when he started noticing he remembered talking to a lot of people, at the same time, in the bridge he never visited himself anymore. 

Sakura was probably the one affected the most. Ever since she met him, Sakura made an ideal image of Sasuke in her mind even if that wasn't who he really was. The perfect man who would always be there to save her from the danger and then they would get married and she would carry all of his Sharingan babies. 

After Sasuke died both she and Naruto had spent a whole day together in the room they shared without moving a single muscle, when Naruto started going out to visit the graves by himself she would stay there and only ever leave the room to eat enough to not starve herself and go back, Naruto hadn't noticed because he hadn't been spending time with anyone but Kakashi was very worried about the fact that Sakura hasn't ushered a single word to anyone about anything since Sasuke died. 

Kakashi was… complicated. Everytime he thought about Sasuke all he would remember is telling Sasuke he wouldn't let his comrades die, telling Sasuke he would take care of his 'Cute little Genin'. 

Kakashi had been the one to seal Sasuke's body for transport to Konoha, it was a silent agreement between the three of them that he was going to be the one to carry Sasuke on his back, unbeknownst to the rest of his team, Kakashi took Sasuke's remaining Sharingan eye and burned it before the sealing. He would be dead if he let someone ransack his student's resting place to steal the powerful eye. 

At first Kakashi wanted to blame everything that happened on both Sasuke and Naruto for convincing him to continue the mission, then he wanted to blame Naruto because how could he blame a dead person? He quickly dismissed that thought and accepted the harsh reality. 

He had failed his team. 

Kakashi took a severely under trained team on a mission they weren't prepared for, but he thought it would be alright because what would some bandits do to them anyway? Then he carried on knowing there were shinobi involved instead of going back or at least informing the Hokage of what happened so they could get reinforcements. 

He was a failure and he was going to make things right, or was going to at least make what he thought was right. 

When he got to Konoha, he was going to disband this team. 

The day when they finally got to leave arrived, the remaining members of team 7 stood at one of the ends of the bridge, the people of Wave cheering their names and the name of the boy they saw as a hero. 

"We can't thank you enough for everything you did, have a safe trip and don't hesitate to come here if you ever need anything." Were the parting words of Tazuna for the team of Shinobi.

After hearing that and nodding their heads in approval all members started to walk away while the people of Nami watched. 

"Tazuna! What are you going to name the bridge?" Asked one random man in the crowd, before he had the time to respond his own grandson beat him to it.

"Why don't we name it after Naruto-nii chan? He saved us all and helped build it." Asked Inari, clearly excited at the prospect of naming the bridge after the boy who became his idol and helped him and his people so much, forgetting Naruto was far from being the only one who helped save their country. 

A lot of cheers of approval could be heard after that, many people who came to admire the boy for his work on the bridge agreeing with little Inari. 

"No." Replied the old man, much to the surprise of his grandson. 

"Naruto is a hero, there's no doubt about that, but after what happened, it doesn't feel right." Murmurs from the people around Tazuna could be heard and people started to see reason in Tazuna's words. 

"What are we going to name the bridge then?" Asked Inari

Tazuna thought for a moment about the events that led to the construction of the bridge, ever since leaving Konoha. 

"A young shinobi, the last of his clan, gave his life so we could have ours. I'm sure even Naruto would agree with me. To honor his memory we'll name this bridge after the boy and what he stood for."

The Great Uchiha Bridge

Chapter Text

Sakura couldn't remember the trip from Nami back to Konoha, she couldn't remember anything after Sasuke's death to be honest, she was so emotionally exhausted her body was working purely on instinct. Her mind felt… 

Numb.

Numb was the best way to describe it, she had thought so much about everything and nothing at all after Sasuke's death that now she couldn't force herself to think anymore. 

Is this what grief feels like? Maybe; she had heard everyone grieves differently, maybe this was her way of dealing with things, not thinking.

Denial?

It's really hard to describe what's going on through her mind, If there was something going on through her mind. That's probably why she hasn't spoken at all since Sasuke's final words after giving Naruto his eye, now that she actually starts to think about it, she didn't say anything back then, not even goodbye. 

She was so shocked about everything she couldn't find it in herself to say goodbye to the person she loves . 

~

The Hokage was half listening through his Elite jounin's report, he's a shinobi after all and shinobis must be able to multitask, so even if he looked like he wasn't really paying attention to him, everyone would be able to tell he was focused on two things at the same time, one of those things clearly was Kakashi's retelling of the events transpired in his team's C-rank turned A-rank mission. 

To say the Hokage was already preparing himself to give the gravity-defying silver-haired Jounin an earful about his questionable decision making was an understatement; that could definitely wait, currently, he was more aware of the two genin in front of him looked and he was very very aware of the lacking member in the room.

Sarutobi Hiruzen hasn't go senile, he's perfectly able to interpret what the absence of one of his Genin and the looks on the other two meant, that didn't mean he wanted to accept it, but it had to be done, if appereances were to be believed. 

Konoha's last loyal Uchiha was Killed in action.

His head was already starting to hurt just thinking about this. 

It wasn't long after the old Hokage's musing that Kakashi finished his retelling of the story including Sasuke's death much to the chargrim of the old Hokage and his hidden ANBU guards all throughout the room, those were shocking and concerning news, not much that could be done now. 

Hiruzen sighed "Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan. You're both dismissed" Sarutobi had half a mind to check on both of them later. 

Both genin started to leave but a hand on Naruto's shoulder stopped him from leaving, he looked up to see that hand belonged to his Jounin-sensei. 

"Hokage-sama, can you please have the ANBU leave and activate the silencing seals in the room? There's something important we need to discuss." 

The Hokage was taken aback by the request but complied either way. With a quick wave of his hand four masked figures showed themselves in the room and then left through the door.

The Hokage then performed some quick hand signs and the corners of the room glowed a light purple before quickly going back to normal. 

Naruto was memorized, he could recognize this was the work of fuinjutsu, what his clan was the most good at, he never really paid any interest to it because he thought it was boring; what would he know about something like that? 

He decided he was going to look into it later, his Jiji had given him some material along with some of his family's history after all. 

"What is it you want to talk about, Kakashi?" 

The Jounin's response was motioning Naruto to lift his headband and show the old man his new Sharingan eye. 

The old Hokage just sighed, that headache just started to get worse. This was going to be a long day. 

"Did you ta-" Half asked the Hokage before being interrupted. 

"No!" 

Kakashi took a deep breath to regain his composure before going on. 

"Sasuke's last wish was for Naruto to take his eye, what I told you about Naruto losing his eye during the battle was completely true, that was what motivated Sasuke to give up his eye when he knew it was too late for him…" 

The Hokage felt like slaming his head on the table, really really hard. 

That headache was already a migraine for Kami's sake. 

After some time to sort his thoughts the Hokage looked at both men in his room and gave his instruction. 

"There's other important things I need to discuss with you but I understand your concerns, Kakashi." The Hokage instructed Naruto to cover his eye and did a few hand signs to deactivate his silencing seal. 

After doing that an ANBU stepped in the room and kneeled in front of the Hokage. 

"Please go to the Hospital and tell Dr. Teruya I need her here as soon as possible, if she's not doing anything of importance bring her here yourself" The ANBU just nodded and disappeared in a swirl of leaves. 

Minutes later the same ANBU reappeared in the Office this time with a disheveled woman by his side. 

"Naruto, let me introduce you to Dr. Kaiya Teruya, currently Konoha's most accomplished medic, a highly intelligent woman, completely trustworthy and an old friend of mine." The Hokage graced her with a warm smile and the blonde boy merely nodded at her, whatever was going through his mind was clearly eating at him. 

"Teruya-chan, Naruto here lost an eye in his last mission and got a… special replacement for it, I need you to look at it and make sure everything's okay with him. You're to speak to absolutely no one about this, is that clear?" 

"Yes Hiruzen-kun." Said the woman playfully, giving the old Hokage a smirk.

"Well Naruto-kun, from now on you are to come to me whenever you have any sort of health related issue although I wouldn't mind if you just came to me to talk okay?" 

The boy once again nodded and both of them walked out of the door on their way to the hospital. 

After they both left Kakashi decided it was time to address his concerns.

"Hokage-sama I- I don't think I'm capable of leading a Genin team" His only response was a contemplating stare.

The Hokage stood from his chair and motioned the Jounin to follow him as he walked out of the tower.

Hiruzen led Kakashi all the way to the memorial stone and stood there just looking at it for a few minutes that felt like hours to Kakashi before speaking. 

"You know, for all the good you are as a Shinobi you're as predictable as they get" Meaning he was perfectly aware of Kakashi's intention to disband the team even before the man himself talked to him about it. 

"You let yourself be consumed by grief, and I stood by watching, hoping you'll get over it yourself at some point, now I see the error of my ways" Silence, there really wasn't much you could say when you were getting an earful from 'The Kami No Shinobi' himself. 

"Sasuke's death was avoidable. I knew from the very beginning team 7 was not ready to take on a simple C-rank. Not because of their lack of skill, which was very lacking mind you, but because of the inexistent level of maturity they displayed during their time doing simple chores around the village" You could tell when the old Hokage was serious if he himself undignified the D-ranks he has bowed to protect over the years, for whatever reason that is. 

"I allowed you to take on that mission despite my better judgment even when I knew you were lying through your teeth about them being ready. Now you'll make yourself responsible for this team."

No team disbandment? 

"I'm not going to allow your team's disbandment."

No

"From now on you're being ordered to make sure they get the proper training they deserve."

"And while i'm already ordering you to do stuff I must confess I'm growing tired of your attitude Kakashi, always being late making up some stupid excuse when all you ever do is stand in front of this rock moping about your mistakes and the way this world has done you wrong, but that stops today, along with your team you're going to be getting the counseling you so clearly need."

It was honestly a testament for Kakashi's strength how he's been able to stop himself from showing any kind of reaction during the Hokage's rant, Kakashi was not a sentimental man and that much was obvious, but it takes a mountain of a person to keep yourself standing up when someone as important as Hiruzen Sarutobi is dissecting your very being. 

Despite it all Kakashi took it like a champ, he gave the old man a simple but respectful nod and started to walk towards his apartment. 

"I don't think I told you it was okay for you to leave yet" Apparently Sarutobi wasn't yet satisfied with the dressing down he gave him, but there's not much he could do about it, adding insubordination to his already very large list of flaws wasn't exactly on Kakashi's 'to do list'. 

Hiruzen sighed and turned to look at him for the first time since they got here, it was impressive how easy it was to forget how old this legend of a man really was, Kakashi couldn't remember the Sandaime ever looking this… old. 

"I'm done chewing at you as the Hokage already Kakashi, but there's a few things I Hiruzen Sarutobi still have left to say to you" Kakashi was already bracing himself for the impact of whatever this man had left to say. 

"I'm sorry" 

'Huh?' 

"It is easy to look for someone to blame when situations such as this present themselves, but the truth is, there is no point in looking for someone to place the blame on" 

"Hokage-sama I-" 

"Please let me finish Kakashi. I don't blame you, Sakura doesn't blame you and Naruto doesn't blame you, Kami knows that boy doesn't have it in himself to hold grudges; he forgave this old man for keeping his heritage a secret, after all". 

It really is hard to explain just how reassuring this man was, 'The Professor' was a man as wise as they came. 

"It makes no sense to sugarcoat the truth. Sasuke shouldn't have died, that's for sure, but you're no more guilty for his death than I am for allowing you to go on a mission I knew you weren't ready for. Naruto-kun was very adamant on continuing the mission for whatever it is that he felt like he needed to prove, is he to blame?"

"Sakura-chan apparently had no sense of self-respect and allowed herself to continue on a mission she wasn't ready for only to please a single boy, is she to blame?" 

"Speaking of the boy, Sasuke made it a point to let everyone know his only ambition in life was revenge and power, continuing a mission to test himself against worthy opponents clearly wasn't what anyone would call 'sound logic', is he to blame?"

"..."

"I know what you're thinking Kakashi, I know you want to take the blame like you always do, I know you feel like it's your responsibility and I would be lying if I tell you it's not but… You need to learn how to let go Kakashi, you're clinging on to the ghosts of your past, coming here every single day to stare at the names of those long gone, that's not living. I care greatly for you my boy and I know you've been through a lot." Said Hiruzen. 

"I didn't order you to continue with the team as a punishment, quite the opposite actually. Do you know why I put Naruto on your team?" Asked the old Hokage with a tone Kakashi couldn't quite discern. 

"No." Replied the Jounin with a thoughtful look on his face

"I figured as much, Naruto shouldn't have been placed on your team, his performance in the academy was very average, nothing to be proud of but nothing to be disappointed of either. Team 7 is always formed by the two top Shinobi of the class and the Dead-last, admittedly I refrained from repeating the formula considering how disastrous it has been over the years but I also thought you both deserved a chance to form a bond. Naruto has no one other than me to call a family, and while I love the boy dearly and I'm beyond honored he chose me to be his grandfather, I am not enough nor am I going to live forever, he needs to have more people he can rely on and so do you. 

I didn't expect you however to push him away the farthest. I can't claim to know why you did and I'm not even sure if you realize you did it but the truth is you did."

Was Kakashi creating a distance between himself and Naruto because he couldn't bear to be so close to someone who looks too much like his sensei? Was he keeping a distance because he couldn't bear the guilt of never making himself present for the son of the Man he viewed as a father? 

Both? 

"I want you to think on this Kakashi, I want you to make yourself available to your students, especially Naruto, you are both lonely and you both clearly need it. The Will of Fire still burns in you my boy, you just need to reignite it's flames." Said Sarutobi placing a hand on Kakashi's shoulder. 

"You will keep the team, you will start training them and yourself, in your misery you have allowed yourself to go rusty" He pointed out. 

"Finally, you need to let the souls of the people you're clinging to rest, there's no point in clinging on dead people, you're only hurting both them and yourself. 

Team 7 has a 2 week vacation, take the time to think on what I've talked to you about and speak to your students."

The Hokage gave the seasoned Jounin one last look and started to walk away, leaving Kakashi to his thoughts. 

That clearly didn't go anything like Kakashi expected but he felt like a weight was taken off his shoulders, he had needed to hear that for a long time now, and perhaps the Hokage was right. 

Rin, Obito and Minato wouldn't have wanted him to be like this, right? He was starting to feel like he had been doing a disservice to their memory for a long time now, but no more, from now on he would try harder. It just now started weighing on him how wrong he had been pushing people out of his life, but there was no time like the present. 

'I should probably pay a visit to Gai' 

"Oh, I almost forgot!" Said the Hokage before leaving. 

"I was talking seriously when I ordered you to receive therapy along with your students, all three of you need it, especially you, and I know you wouldn't have gone if I didn't order you to. This is a very serious order I know will help you immensely, you can schedule your own individual appointments tomorrow morning, I'll ask Inoichi to personally oversee your case, do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal… Hokage-sama, thank you."

"No need to thank me, I'm only doing what I should've done a long time ago, I'm sorry it took me this long." The old Monkey started to leave again, his next objective already in mind, dealing with whatever was going on in the self-destructive ninja's head was the top priority, but he needed to make sure his dear grandson was doing okay, at least as close as okay as possible, 2 weeks was definitely not enough to put one's mind at ease, but he truly believed it would do them good to have some one on one time with both Inoichi and his wife Tsutsuji, he would know, they did help him and his son mend their relationship after all. 

"How is he doing?" 

"Medically speaking he's in excellent condition Hiruzen, after I fixed what was left unfinished by Kakashi-kun on his rustic transplant the boy's healing factor did the rest by itself."

She was fascinated when she found out Naruto has a healing factor, apparently the boy himself wasn't aware of that fact. 

What surprised her the most was the way it worked, it seemed to be an automatic process but it was also… smart . 

The damaged tissue around his new eye didn't heal until Dr. Teruya made sure everything was perfect, it was almost like his body knew healing that part without proper intervention could turn out to be counterintuitive, it wasn't something she wouldn't be able to fix herself but it was still impressive. 

"Oh yes, Uzumaki's have a very strong life force and some have some kind of special chakra, in his case a very useful healing factor it would seem, the boy's mother was able to survive injuries that would've been lethal to any other person." That is not to say they were unkillable, nobody really was, they were just notoriously good at surviving life threatening injuries more often than the common folk.

"Will he have any problems with his new eye?" 

"Highly unlikely, the boy's body assimilated the eye without much problem, I would even go so far as to say he is more in tune with his transplanted eye than Kakashi is with his." Dr. Teruya didn't exactly know the reason why that was but she guessed it had something to do with his Uzumaki genes, he was of course never going to be able to use the eye like an Uchiha would, but the strain on his chakra Network was definitely a lot more smaller than it was for Kakashi. 

"That's great news Teruya-chan and it's honestly what I expected, that's not what worries me."

Dr. Teruya sighed "He's… heartbroken, Hiruzen, he's been cooperating with me during his examination and hasn't complained at all, not even once; he isn't really talking to me, all he says is 'yes' or 'no' whenever I ask him something."

Sarutobi was expecting this, he could see the boy in the room in front of him sitting on his bed, facing the window. 

He looked lost. 

The Hokage gave his old friend a court nod and walked in the room. 

'I'll become your eyes and see the future for you…' 

"Naruto-kun?" 

The whiskered boy was cut from his musing by the old man standing in front of him; he didn't even hear him come in, how long has he been standing there? How long has Naruto been there? 

Minutes? 

Hours? 

"How are you feeling dear?" 

Bad, he's feeling bad, he's feeling guilty, he's feeling stupid, he's feeling… 

Unworthy

"I'm feeling good Jiji, just a bit distracted that's all" He wasn't going to look sad in front of his grandfather, he couldn't let him see how affected he was. 

"That's good, I wouldn't want you feeling that way, seeing as it was Sasuke's fault it all happened."

What?

"Oh? No reaction? I must have gotten it wrong then, is it Sakura-chan's fault then? I hear she just wanted to keep going to impress Sasuke-kun."

Naruto was livid, how dare this stupid old man come to him only to blame his teammate for Sasuke's death

"WHA-" 

"Her either? Then it must've been Kakashi's fault, he was in charge after all, he was the one who chose to keep on doing the mission. 

Naruto flinched at the accusation, his rage temporarily interrupted. It was him and Sasuke who begged Kakashi to continue the mission; he wanted to prove himself he wasn't a coward. 

Naruto unknowingly gave Sarutobi exactly what he was looking for with the way he reacted to his last words, it pained him greatly to rile his surrogate grandson this way, but it had to be done, he needed to let his frustrations out. 

"Oh! I see it now, it was your fault-" 

"IT WASN-" 

"You convinced him to continue with the mission, you wanted to do it right? It was all you-" 

Hiruzen couldn't finish his speech due to an enraged Naruto lunging forward intent on shutting him up and hurting him a lot in the process. 

Naruto didn't stand a chance. 

The Hokage grabbed the fist coming towards him with one of his hands and twisted the boy's arm, then he turned the boy to look at him and he could see the tears flowing in his cheeks, he let the hand go and smiled warmly at him. 

Naruto hugged the old man and let himself cry on his shoulder. 

"I'm sorry Jiji I didn't mean to, I didn-... I-" 

"It's alright my boy, I know you didn't mean it and I know it wasn't your fault."

"Jiji I- I didn't want Sasuke to die I- I'm sorry…" 

"I know you didn't want him to die Naruto, you need to stop blaming yourself, if you really want to blame someone for this you can blame me" 

The boy stiffened and turned to look at the man he viewed as his grandfather, face asking for an explanation. 

"I knew your team wasn't ready for a C-rank and I shouldn't have allowed you to go no matter what Kakashi thought" 

Naruto just hugged the man tightly and let the tears keep on falling, he just couldn't understand how the old man was blaming himself for his death. 

"It wasn't y-your fault Jiji" Explained Naruto between sobs. 

Sarutobi knew Naruto wasn't capable of holding a grudge but it was truly surprising to see how huge his heart really was. 

"I'm sorry I said what I said Naruto-kun, you're not to blame and neither are your teammates, Sasuke knew the risks and was as excited as you were."

"I knew you wouldn't have opened up to me and would've kept your guilt to yourself otherwise, that's not good, you need to let what's eating you out and you need to let people help you. Can you forgive me?"

Naruto nodded once again with tears still falling from his eyes, he didn't cry after the battle on the bridge, he didn't cry when he buried Zabuza and Haku, he didn't cry when he made Sasuke's memorial and he didn't cry on the way back to Konoha, this really felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders, Naruto tried to convince himself it wasn't his fault over and over again but he just couldn't, having his Jiji tell him exactly what he's been needing to hear felt awesome. 

Sarutobi just inclined his head a little and placed a kiss on the boy's forehead. 

They stayed like that, hugging on the bed for as long as Naruto needed, when he finished crying he was so exhausted mentally and physically that he fell asleep on the spot. 

The Hokage just stood up and placed the boy back in his hospital bed to get his well deserved rest. 

Uzumaki Naruto was truly something else. 

It had been a day since Hiruzen and Naruto had that very important conversation in the boy's hospital room. 

Much to Naruto's dismay he was forced by Dr. Teruya to stay another day so she could watch and closely monitor his condition. 

She didn't understand much about Naruto's healing factor and neither did Hiruzen, he had explained to her that Uzumaki's have peculiar chakra and it manifests in different ways, sensor abilities were not unheard off for them and the old Hokage had thought that was Naruto's quirk when it presented itself. 

Apparently he was wrong. 

Still, both seniors decided to play it safe and Naruto stayed one more day, nothing out of the ordinary happened; Naruto's condition was not what was troubling the old man. 

Upon asking Naruto about his remaining teammate he found out she hadn't visited him during his stay in the hospital, it was then he remembered Kakashi telling him she hasn't spoken a single word since Sasuke died. 

Hiruzen had to do something about that. 

The old Hokage strongly believed caring about every single shinobi under his command was his duty and a young and troubled Kunoichi needed his help so he would provide. 

After informing Naruto of his upcoming counseling sessions with Yamanaka Tsutsuji, Hiruzen made his way to the office; he needed to find the girl's address after all. 

The 'Kami No Shinobi' didn't know everything. 

--

I can't remember much of what's been going on these days, we returned from Nami…. 

When did we return? 

It feels like weeks, months even; it also feels like it was just this morning. 

Inner has been silent ever since he died, is she not talking to me because I'm not talking? Maybe she's mad at me because I couldn't help anyone. 

Is she mad at me because I couldn't save him? 

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts. 

Nothing new about that, Tou-san and Kaa-sand will sometimes come and try to get me out of the room to have lunch with them. I never understood why they wanted me to eat that badly, couldn't they see I'm dieting so he will… 

Oh, right. I keep forgetting about that

This time I will humor them, maybe if I go down to eat this one time they'll leave me alone. 

I walked up to the door and slowly opened it to see an old man wearing white robes with red stripes on them; and a red hat with a white tip and the kanji for 'fire' marked on it.

The Hokage? 

What was he doing here? Did he come to release me of my duties? Did he realize how pathetic I really am and is going to berate me for my failure? 

"How are you doing Sakura-chan?" Asked the Hokage, that wasn't what I was expecting. What is he playing at? 

"I talked to Naruto-kun today, he said you hadn't visited him at the hospital. He thinks you're angry at him and you blame him for what happened." 

I was stunned, I couldn't believe Naruto would think that, all this time I avoided him because I didn't want to face him after everything that happened. I know it was my fault and I just couldn't stand the thought of him or Kakashi-sensei being angry at me. 

"You know… Naruto blames himself for everything, he thinks it was his fault for convincing Kakashi to continue the mission."

How could that idiot think that? It was Kakashi who made the decision in the end, for all we know he could've just asked us for the sole purpose of letting us think we had a voice in the matter. 

And even if we managed to convince him, it was my fault for not telling them how scared I was. 

I just didn't want to disappoint him. 

"I hear you haven't been talking to anyone, we all grieve differently but I hardly think isolation is a wise choice. I was hoping you would open up to me… I guess I could order you to speak up to me, you're an active Shinobi and I am your Hokage but… that would be rude wouldn't it?" The old man chuckled. 

In all truth I don't know why I stopped talking, when it all happened I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't find it in myself to speak up. 

After we got back I was so tired of thinking that I just couldn't form any coherent form of thoughts, let alone words. 

Now I just got used to it, I think. It's funny, the people who know me would be pretty weirded out by me not talking at all, I did make a name for myself by talking a little too much, almost as much as Naruto. 

Not that they would know since I haven't left this place. 

"Do you really blame him, Sakura?" 

"NO!" 

I didn't even have time to think, no matter how much I wanted to keep it all for myself, how much I wanted to just be alone, there's no way I will let Naruto blame himself for his death. 

"It's good to hear your voice again Sakura-chan" The hokage gave me the warmest smile I have ever seen, scratch that, the way Naruto smiled at the orphans back in Nami whenever he played with them or got them gifts was probably as warm as the sun. 

"Even if it's a little loud for these old bones." I couldn't help but blush, it wasn't my intention to yell at the Hokage and it probably wasn't wise to do so (maybe that's what he meant when he said I'm loud) but I wouldn't let Naruto's grandfather think I hate him. 

"I-I'm sorry Hokage-sama" 

"Don't be, I'm glad to be the one you were able to open up to even if it took a little goading on my part."

The effect that man's smile has on me is incredible, they should probably add 'The Counselor' to his titles. 

"Do you know what it means to be a Shinobi Sakura-chan?" I honestly don't know why he asked that question but I can't help but feel that the answer is important, 'Being a Shinobi means to fight and die for one's village' feels like the obvious answer but I really can't be sure, it's moments like this that make me miss inner, she at least always had some input. 

"A Shinobi is one who endures" 

He must've seen me struggling to find an answer. 

"Being a Shinobi means to endure?" Sometimes I feel like I ask stupid questions but I can't stop myself from doing so anyway. 

"That's right. It means enduring for one's sake, to fight everyday for the good of your village knowing it could be your last day. 

It means to protect, to fight for those whom we hold dear and give our lives for what we love if it means keeping it safe. 

And finally, it means to be burdened, it means to carry on despite what you lost, to protect the dreams of those we lost and hope to make the path to achieve them."

To be so wise and powerful… it makes you wonder just what this man has gone through. 

"I understand what you lost Sakura-chan; and I can guarantee you're not the only one to have lost the one you love." 

I would've asked him how he knew about my love for him but I guess the Hokage knows what he needs to know, it's not like I kept it a secret. 

"An old friend once told me that this type of  wound never really closes and you never really forget, but that's okay, it means they are still inside of you. It means he is still being kept safe in the bottom of your heart."

I don't know when I started crying and I don't know what possessed me to hug the man in front of me but I don't regret it, he makes me feel safe. I can really see why Naruto talks so highly of him. 

"It's okay Sakura-chan, let it all out. You need to understand it wasn't your fault. Everyone played their part in young Sasuke's death, looking for someone to blame just isn't worth it." 

"I-I keep seeing h-him lying on the floor, t-there was so much b-blood I- I couldn't…" 

Why can't I stop crying damnit?

"It makes no sense to blame yourself for this, you lacked the training to even attempt to help him. He accepted it and moved on. If he found the strength to give Naruto-kun a piece of himself before moving on to the pure world, why can't you?" 

This man was speaking nothing but the truth, I have to be strong for him, I have to be strong for Sasuke . 

Some minutes passed and I released him from my embrace after I calmed down. 

"Go see your teammate Sakura-chan, he needs as much reassurance as you do, the only way you'll both move on and grow from this is together."

"Speaking of Naruto, I already talked to him about this but starting next week, the whole team - and that includes Kakashi - will be having counseling sessions, I believe it's for the better and I know for a fact Tsutsuji-san is a lovely lady."

How can I deny him after what he's done for me in so little time? It would do us good to find a healthy mechanism to cope. 

I never noticed when he left - that's a shinobi for you - but I'm grateful for it, I need a momment for myself but after I finish getting my business back in order I need to go to the hospital. 

There's a whiskered blonde I need to hug. 

"I really like Tsutsuji-san, she's very kind and doesn't pressure me into saying things I'm not comfortable with, y'know?" Said Naruto after getting out of today's therapy session. 

They have been getting counseling from Tsutsuji for a little over a week now. Sakura would go one day, Naruto the other and then they'll both get a session together. Kakashi had even been a part of this one but he left as soon as it was over because the Hokage called all the Jounin in charge of a team to a meeting. 

"Yes, she's really nice to me too" Replied Sakura with a warm smile, these sessions had helped her out of her shell and had helped her calm her urges down, although they would resurface from time to time. 

It had also helped both her and Naruto to cement a healthy relationship with one another. It was no secret Naruto has had the biggest crush on her since the academy, but she being completely in love with Sasuke would've never returned his feelings, said feelings also led her to be rude and insensitive towards Naruto, going so far as to hit him and abuse him constantly. 

Tsutsuji however had talked to her about it in one of her individual sessions and after making her see the error of her ways Sakura was very sorry and full of regret for the way she treated her kind and lovely teammate. 

That's why she apologized and made peace with him in their first shared session under Tsutsuji's watchful gaze and started a friendship. 

Sakura wasn't ready to pursue a relationship let alone love someone anytime soon, and Naruto just didn't feel like it was right anymore, he felt like it was a disservice to Sasuke's memory to do so, even if he wouldn't have minded at all. Naruto still thought Sakura was a beautiful and amazing girl like no other and liked her very much but the situation wasn't the same anymore. 

At least for the time being, they both were good with being friends. 

"I think I'll learn the guitar, what about you Sakura-chan?" Asked Naruto. 

Tsutsuji had just told them it was important to have a way to cope out with the strein of their line of work, she explained all shinobi get one at some point but she would prefer it if they leant towards a healthy one so she suggested they learn how to play an instrument. 

"I've always wanted to play the piano" 

Both teens went to the music store and bought their respective instruments and what they needed to properly take care of them without much problem, Sakura got her piano in a sealing scroll while Naruto got his guitar in a black case, nothing fancy. 

The blonde offered to store Sakura's piano in his apartment since he didn't have much stuff and space wasn't an issue, so after they got their respective things they walked together towards Naruto's place, each sporting their new outfit. 

After their first session together they both decided they would become more serious about being Shinobi, Sakura wanted something more functional and she said that while orange wasn't a problem, Naruto's hideous jumpsuit was so they went to a shinobi clothing store together. 

Sakura was now wearing high black shinobi sandals; tight black shorts covered by a beige skirt; a mesh undershirt with sleeves just past the elbow and a red sleeveless blouse with cherry blossoms in it. 

She also got herself a new haircut and was now wearing her hair shoulder-length.

Her headband's cloth was now red. 

A Kunai holster in her right leg and her tool pouch on her lower back. 

Naruto now wore high black shinobi sandals; black ANBU-style pants tied in the heels with bandages; a short sleeved mesh shirt and an open short orange jacket with sleeves just past his elbows. 

The cloth of his headband was now black and at the moment he wore it the same way Kakashi did to cover his sharingan eye, he however didn't want to look like his teacher so he was going to grow his hair enough so that it would cover the eye on it's own. 

A Kunai holster in each leg - Sakura had just pointed out yesterday that Naruto didn't seem to favor any hand - and a tool pouch on his lower back. 

"Well that seems to be it" Said Naruto after both him and Sakura finished setting up the piano in his living room, they managed to assemble it without much trouble following the manual's instructions without any extra pieces. 

"Ne Sakura-chan, after we both learn our instruments we can teach the other, and we can also sing together, just the two of us y'know?" 

Sakura was really liking having Naruto as a friend and regretted not approaching him sooner, the way he just cared for her well-being and how he's just naturally kind to others made her feel safe. 

She also wanted to know if the boy was a good singer. 

"Yes… yes, I would like that very much Naruto- kun ."

Chapter Text

A tall man with a long ponytail could be seen walking through the streets of Konoha, white hair swaying as he walked. 

This man was Jiraiya, one of the Densetsu No Sannin. His destination? The Hokage Tower. 

The old Hokage had summoned him for a special meeting regarding his 'Neglected Responsibility’.

What that meant was everyone's guess. 

Hiruzen was very fond of his more reliable and trusted student, ever since Orochimaru's deflection the student and teacher duo has grown closer, even if the student was rarely in the village, but still. 

The sentiment was there. 

What Hiruzen meant by 'Neglected responsibility' was of course one Uzumaki Naruto, he was the godfather of the boy after all. 

While the title didn't carry much weight or obligation other than being the one to name the child, Jiraiya was very close to the boy's father and saw him as the son he never had. That should've counted for something. 

Hiruzen was very aware of Jiraiya's service for the village as their spymaster and as such, would've never forced him to stay to raise a single child, that didn't mean he couldn't stop by sometime and spend some time with the kid, Kami knows the boy grew up lonely enough. 

'He did send that Frog wallet Naruto loves carrying around.’ He thought. 

Maybe he was being a little harsh on the man, he just couldn't fathom the logic behind his actions after the death of Minato. Either way, the man was damn good at his job and the Hokage wouldn't argue with results. 

No use crying over spilled milk. 

Hiruzen took the place that he felt should've been Jiraiya's and he doesn't regret it one bit. As far as he knew Naruto was his grandchild, family means more than merely blood to him and nothing could change that. 

The reason for the meeting was however more important than just Naruto.

Very few people were aware of the truth behind the Uchiha Massacre and Jiraiya -being the Hokage's most trusted advisor- was one of them. 

Uchiha Itachi needed to be informed of his brother's demise and Hiruzen needed Jiraiya to get in contact with him, it would do the village good to actually learn something of the organization he infiltrated so long ago. 

The old Hokage was busy doing his paperwork like he always was, paperwork was truly the bane of his existence. 

He just couldn't figure out how Minato managed to always have a clean and free desk, on his right waiting for the meeting to start were two of his old teammates and advisors, the famous Konoha elders Homura and Koharu. 

There used to be three of them but after one diminished his authority and went behind his back to order the extermination of the Uchiha by one of their own he completely lost his trust. 

Trust that should've never been placed on him. 

Shimura Danzo committed countless crimes on what he believed to be the greater good of Konoha, Hiruzen thought he was a petulant child obsessed with power he could not possess. 

Everything's a matter of perception. 

A knock on the door stopped the Hokage's musing. 

"Come in." Ordered the man with his usual calm and collected voice. 

Not long after the white haired Sannin stepped in the office he took a look at his surroundings, Jiraiya immediately realized whatever this meeting was about had to be serious upon noticing the presence of both elders at his sensei's side. 

"Jiraiya-kun, nice seeing you use the door.” Joked the old Hokage. It was true he always opted to use the window as his preferred method of entering the man's office, but he was so focused on thinking about the meeting's possible topic of discussion he didn't notice what he was doing until he was in front of the man. 

"Well sensei you know me, always one for the unpredictable." The Hokage chuckled at the man's response and smiled warmly at him. It was truly good to see him again. 

"We'll begin shortly, we're still waiting on someone else to sh-" 

A poof of smoke suddenly revealed a silver haired man standing in the middle of the office. 

"Yo!" 

The Hokage chuckled again, this time at the elite Jounin and his carefree attitude. 

"Oh Kakashi, it's nice to see you show up on time." The Hokage knew very well the reason behind the man showing up on time but still couldn't pass up the opportunity to jab at him. 

"I decided to change things up a little as per your… suggestion , Hokage-sama." Explained the Jounin while giving the Hokage and everyone present in the room one of his eye smiles. 

Jiraiya would've usually greeted the man and talked with him about the incredible work of art that is his Icha Icha book series, but his sudden appearance and the fact the Hokage was waiting on him was making the perverted sannin question the nature of this meeting. 

Hiruzen seemed to have caught up on this because he immediately cleared his throat and started. 

"The reason for this meeting is to discuss the recent death of Konoha's 'Last Loyal Uchiha' and the whereabouts of one Uchiha Itachi." Proclaimed the Hokage much to the Jounin's confusion. 

Kakashi perked up at the name of his old colleague turned traitor. "Itachi?"

"What you're about to learn Kakashi is an S-class secret and arguably Konoha's darkest secret, the only people aware of this with the exception of two are all present in this room." Explained the Hokage, the gentleness in his voice now gone, in his place was the voice of a leader and a seasoned commander that led this village to a victory in two wars. 

"Is there a reason we're telling the gaki about this, sensei?" Jiraiya understood why the boy's death was important to the village and by extension Itachi, but he failed to understand why or how Kakashi was involved in all this, he was also pretty sure Itachi was very much aware of his brother's death by now. 

"Naturally, Kakashi is not only the shinobi in this village I trust the most but is also the Jounin sensei in charge of Sasuke's team." 

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at that. 

He - of course - knew Sarutobi had tried to make Kakashi a sensei more than once; he also knew Kakashi failed every single team he ever got. Jiraiya knew his sensei wouldn't have forced Kakashi to train Sasuke just because of his sharingan which meant the Jounin willingly passed a team. 

Was involving Kakashi merely a formality? 

"Who are the other members of his team?" 

For some reason he couldn't quite understand, the self proclaimed super-pervert was dreading asking that question. 

Kakashi answered before the Hokage could, giving Jiariya a side glance.

"A civilian born girl by the name of Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto. " 

The Copycat ninja was aware of the man's relationship to the boy's father so he knew he would instantly recognize that name. 

"Oh." Was all the response he could give. 

"Back to the matter at hand, Kakashi, I will now explain to you the truth behind the Uchiha massacre and why we need to find Itachi… 

"After the Kyuubi incident, rumor spread that it was an Uchiha after the attack."

"It was made stronger because the Uchiha didn't aid in battle against it. However, the truth is that they weren't allowed to because of their duty as the Military Police force required them to aid in evacuating the villagers and little more."

"Shouldn't they have been allowed to aid after they were done? It was a massive attack." Said Kakashi. 

"That it was…" Answered Hiruzen with a Grim look. "Evacuating the civilians took a lot of time and effort, by the time they were done Minato had already teleported the Kyuubi out of the village."

Kakashi and his generation were forbidden to aid in the battle against the Kyuubi, the older shinobi knew it was going to be the end for the lot of them. 

They wouldn't have risked the future of the village. 

"What about the civilians they helped evacuate?" He asked. 

"The civilian population wouldn't have been able to fully understand what was going on at the time…" Answered Koharu. "Even if they knew they were being saved by the Uchiha, that's what made it easy for the rumor to grow." 

"At the time I didn't know it but I was later informed that it was orchestrated by Danzo, my former teammate." Interrupted Hiruzen. 

"I allowed the trust of the village for the Uchiha to fall to the point of almost disappearing. Danzo pushed for the amount of Uchiha performing as active duty shinobi of the village to be lowered to levels around the dozens while every other was bound to the village as a member of the police and it all happened because I let it."

"They were stripped from every position of power they held and I allowed everything to happen because I was too blind to the truth lying in front of me. Nothing pains me more than knowing everything that followed was primarily my fault."

"Years of mistrust and abuse led the Uchiha to a stalemate and the only solution they could find was revolution, the Uchiha started planning a Coup d'etat and assigned Itachi to spy on us, they counted on the advantages being an ANBU captain granted him to their favor."

"Itachi however was a shinobi loyal to the bone, he along with Shisui informed us of their plans and we started working on a peaceful solution for it, they both started to work as double spies for us." 

"Shisui told us of a special Jutsu he called Kotoamatsukami. It was apparently the special trait of his Mangekyou Sharingan, an incredibly powerful genjutsu he assured was both undetectable by anything other than a Dojutsu and unbreakable. He planned to use it on Fugaku to stop the insurrection from happening."

"Sadly, not long after that Shisui comitted suicide."

"I of course don't believe such a thing and I know Danzo was involved in it but have no way to prove otherwise."

"Why would he even do such a thing?" Asked a troubled Kakashi. 

"That is the question, isn't it? I can't claim to understand his motives or what he wished to gain from it." Answered Hiruzen. 

"Days after Shisui's demise, Danzo approached Itachi behind my back and convinced him that wiping out the Uchiha was the only way to stop a civil war from happening, I'm sure you can figure out the rest yourself."

"And Itachi…" Started Kakashi. 

"Itachi was branded an S-class missing nin and was ordered to infiltrate an organization Orochimaru was a part of. The only thing he asked from us after everything he had been put through was that we took care of his brother." Said Hiruzen, answering Kakashi's question before he even had the time to ask.

"Hokage-sama I-" 

"Don't Kakashi, Itachi knew very well the risks of being a Shinobi, he wanted to protect Sasuke from the dangers that reside within this village and I made sure that… danger never even got close to him.”

Kakashi’s shoulder tensed up, although his expression remained looking stoic.

“Don't blame yourself for this too." 

"I understand." Replied the Jounin, his head bowing slightly. "But…" Kakashi looked outside the office's window, a conversation with his student fresh on his memory. 

"Can I ask you something, sensei?" Asked Naruto seriously. Kakashi looked confused by the boy's sudden mood change but complied nonetheless, whatever it was Naruto needed to ask was clearly important to him. 

"Sasuke, he- he asked me to 'avenge them..." Trailed off the boy, not sure of how he was going to ask the question or what the question he needed to ask really was. 

"He meant the man who massacred the Uchiha, right? He wants me to k-kill his brother, right?" 

Kakashi was completely taken aback by this, why is Naruto even asking him this? Shouldn’t the Hokage be the better candidate to ask these questions?

Kakashi nodded his head slowly, stealing a glance to the fidgeting boy, "That does seem to be the case.”

"Do you think I- Should I do it sensei?" 

Kakashi flinched unnoticeably, he didn't want his late student's last wish to be ignored but he knew better, he knew what revenge could do to a person. 

He decided he was going to be honest with Naruto. 

"Revenge… interesting concept wouldn't you agree?" Naruto wasn't expecting that answer from his sensei, his head tilted to the side slightly and narrowed his eyes as if it would help to better understand Kakashi’s words.

Seeing his student's struggle, Kakashi decided to explain things differently. 

"I spent some time with Sasuke talking about the same thing, to him it wasn't a matter of if he should do it but rather when." Kakashi looked at Naruto and eye-smiled. 

"I never managed to convince him not to."

"Why would you try to convince him not to avenge his clan?" Asked Naruto. 

"Jiraiya-sama used to say hatred only brings more hatred, I always knew I wouldn't be able to convince him not to but… I had hope that I would convince him to do it differently." Explained Kakashi. 

"What do you mean, sensei?" 

"Sasuke only had one friend, he only had one person he was close to and that person was you." Kakashi explained further. 

"Do you know why, Naruto?" 

The boy shook his head. 

"Sasuke's only goal was to avenge his clan, he let himself be blinded by hatred and chose to live a life of solitude for his self imposed mission." Kakashi put a hand on Naruto's shoulder. "For you he made an exception."

"So you're saying I shouldn't continue Sasuke's mission?" 

"Whether you continue with his mission is completely up to you but…."  Kakashi eye-smiled at him again. 

"What good is the mission if we lose ourselves in it?" 

"Sasuke asked Naruto to carry on his revenge, I believe Naruto intends to honor his wishes." Said Kakashi without looking away from the sky. 

"That is… interesting ." Trailed off Hiruzen. "Not much we can do about it I'm afraid, I will honor my agreement with Itachi, we owe him that much."

"Shouldn't we tell Naruto then? I'm sure he won't say anything if we explain why it's important." Asked Kakashi. 

"Itachi wished to be the one to carry the Uchiha's burden, he intended for Sasuke to be the one to redeem the clan, he never said it but I believe Itachi wished to be killed by him." Said Hiruzen. 

"So you want Naruto to take his place?" Asked the Jonin. 

"What I want isn't important, what Naruto-kun ends up doing about it will be completely up to him, it is your job as his sensei to guide him in the right path, Kakashi." Said Hiruzen in a stern voice. 

Kakashi realized what the Hokage said was true, he thought Naruto should be aware at least that Itachi wasn't an evil killer; he would respect the last Uchiha's wishes though, the Hokage was right, they all owed him at least that much. 

Seeing as that topic was over, the tallest man in the room decided to keep moving the conversation forward. 

"So you want me to locate Itachi and inform him of his brother's demise, sensei?" Jiraiya couldn't see why such a meeting was necessary for this task, especially because he had no doubt Itachi already knew about it. Why was he called here just to discuss that?

"Yes and no, I also want you to get every bit of information he has on this Akatsuki. Itachi hasn't informed us of anything useful about them." Explained Hokage. 

So it's more than just a formality

"I understand Jiraiya-sama's place in all this but I don't really get why I am even being told about this." Kakashi was very confused, he was honored to be the Hokage's most trusted Shinobi but he just couldn't understand why he needed to be there, surely just being Sasuke's sensei didn't mean he had to know about Itachi. 

"I was getting there. Kakashi, I want you to assist Jiraiya. I plan on establishing a safe way of communication between Itachi and the village; Jiraiya can't focus solely on that while there's other pressing matters he needs to investigate, you'll become Itachi's handler of sorts." Explained the Hokage. 

That made a lot of sense to both Jiraiya and Kakashi, Itachi's information has been very limited so far but Hiruzen knew he would have to find a way to convey that information without much trouble, there was no one in else in the village that could take the perverted Sannin's place for this. 

"There's also-" 

The door of the office suddenly burst open and in walked a heavily bandaged man with a cane. 

"Hokage-sama, what is this troubling news about the Uzumaki boy stealing a Sharingan?" 

Sarutobi narrowed his eyes for a moment before regaining his composure, he could use this to his favor, it wasn't like Danzo to slip up like this and it was important he took this opportunity. 

"Pray tell just how exactly you know about this Danzo? I seem to remember that information being a very guarded secret known to just 5 people, all sworn to secrecy, are you perhaps… spying on me?" Inquired Hiruzen. 

He of course knew he was being spied on, but there was no way for him to prove Root's existence after he ordered the Warhawk to disband it years ago. 

"I don't know what you're talking about, old friend, I am an esteemed member of this village, is it too hard to believe that I just happened to hear about it?" Danzo knew Hiruzen couldn't prove his accusations, funnily enough, he did just happen to hear about it when he was visiting a family member in the hospital. 

It would surprise many people how much you can find out if you disguise one of your agents as a nurse. 

"The boy didn't steal anything, young Sasuke was his friend and willingly chose to give up his eye before dying to replace the one Naruto lost in battle." Explained Hiruzen, he knew Danzo was playing him and decided to move the conversation forward instead of falling into provocation. 

"Feelings such as friendship are a hindrance to the shinobi way-" 

"I don't remember asking for your opinion, Danzo. " Interrupted Hiruzen, his voice dripping venom when speaking the man's name. 

The tension in the room was palpable for everyone but no one dared speak a word, they all knew Hiruzen was more than capable of handling the other without much trouble. 

Homura and Koharu were… conflicted . 

Before the Kyuubi incident they both were supporters of Danzo's ideals but started to turn to a more neutral ground after they saw the man for what he really was. 

Koharu however completely turned over to Hiruzen and Jiraiya after Kushina's death, while they were never really close she was very fond of the red head and wanted to help her son as much as possible. 

Which she did, while she never made herself present in the boy's life she made a point to make it a bit easier, that's why when Hiruzen mentioned Naruto wanted to live on his own - she provided a decent sized apartment for a single person in a shinobi building where he would always be guarded. 

"I'm going to tell you this just once, if something happens to Naruto or his eye I will hold you accountable, don't try to play games with me; I would recognize your handiwork anywhere . Now leave my office, you interrupted a meeting you were not invited to."

"How rude of me, I didn't realize I was interrupting." Said the man in a voice so stoic it came off as mocking. "I'll be on my way now."

Danzo didn't lose anything in this encounter, he wasn't interested in the boy's eye. He already had more than enough Sharingan. 

It would've been nice to get his hands on him, he showed much promise as an asset for the village. 

The boy was out of his reach though and it would cause him more trouble than it was worth to make an attempt on him now. 

He was only there because he wanted to know if what he heard was true, to think Konoha's so called 'Last loyal Uchiha' is now dead, what would Itachi think if he found out his dear brother had an eye stolen? He wonders. 

It truly is a pity that Itachi wouldn't believe a word he says. 

What truly is a concern for Danzo is what the Uchiha would do now that his brother is dead, it would seem like preparations for a possible conflict are in order. 

In any way, now that he revealed his card he would've to pull out his agent from the hospital, there's no way Hiruzen wouldn't run a thorough background check on everyone there now. 

After the warhawk left, the old Hokage turned to address his student and teammates. 

"That was what I was going to talk to the both of you about. Don't worry about it, Kakashi and I are aware it won't remain a secret forever but for now the less people that know about it the better." He then analized everyone in the room for a while and nodded to himself, some things needed to be taken care of. 

"The meeting is over. Kakashi, Koharu and Jiraiya stay with me for a little while, there's something concerning Naruto I need to talk to you about."

Homura took that as his cue and swiftly left the office. 

"Kakashi, I've been thinking a lot lately and I have decided I will allow you to inform Naruto of his father and your relationship to him if you wish." Declared the Hokage much to the surprise of the men present in the room. 

"But sensei I-" 

"I've made my decision Jiraiya, Naruto is more than ready to keep the secret and the boy deserves to know the truth, if anyone here has a right to tell him it's Kakashi."

Jiraiya didn't reply to that. 

He was supposed to be the one to tell him but he didn't plan on it anytime soon, Jiraiya might've died without ever telling the boy. 

"You're welcome to approach the boy before you leave the village if you wish, Kakashi has a meeting with them after this is all over and I'm sure he'll get to it sometime today, right Kakashi?" Asked Hiruzen but Kakashi knew it was an order. 

"Yes Hokage-sama." Answered the Jounin. 

Even if he didn't show it Kakashi was internally dodging bullets, he was told Jiraiya was the one who would tell Naruto when he felt the time was right and never gave the notion much thought. 

What was bothering him was what Naruto would think of him, Kakashi was never told he couldn't approach Naruto when he was younger and he was recently told Naruto was placed on his team for the sole purpose of them getting to know each other. 

Kakashi pushed Naruto away and he was now painfully aware of that fact, will Naruto hate him after he finds out? 

There was however a light of hope in Kakashi's lone visible eye, to be able to tell the boy about his father felt… right, Kakashi considered this an honor so he would do it no questions asked. 

"There's other things we need to discuss…" 

Said the Hokage interrupting his and everyone's thoughts. 

"I'm growing suspicious of Danzo every passing day, he… he truly cares about Konoha, but his methods are very questionable." 

Hiruzen knew the two most loyal Shinobi this village ever produced very well, one of those two is Danzo. 

"We need evidence, solid evidence of his wrongdoings…" Hiruzen sighed looking at the people gathered around him. "It pains me dearly to say this but… 

We need to get rid of him.

Naruto and Sakura could be seen walking out of the pink haired girl's favorite tailor shop. 

This morning after their last shared meeting with Tsutsuji for the foreseeable future, Naruto told her he felt like his new outfit didn't feel his yet. He liked it very much but it was still lacking something, after sometime he figured out his new clothes didn't have the Uzumaki crest anywhere. 

Sakura of course accompanied the blond home to get all his newly bought jackets so he could get them done. It was then she had a really good idea. They had been looking for some time for a way to always carry Sasuke with them and Naruto just gave her a great idea. 

That was why Naruto now had a big Uzumaki swirl on the back of his jacket and both him and Sakura now sported an Uchiha fan on top of their left chests right above their hearts. It wasn't much but they both thought it was fitting, Sasuke wouldn't have wanted something big anyway. 

He was a rather simple guy. 

"Oi! Forehead!" Called out a blonde girl that was now rushing towards the both of them accompanied by a chubby boy and a boy with black hair tied in a high messy ponytail. 

Sakura immediately recognized them as Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Nara Shikamaru, the current Team 10 and the newest InoShikaCho formation. 

"Hey guys!" Greeted Naruto before both girls started bantering with each other. 

Naruto was fond of the boys in team 10, they were never really friends in the academy days but they had always been nice to each other.

He had no real relationship with Ino but they were civil. 

"Naruto! You got new clothes, I'm glad you got rid of that hideous jumpsuit." Said Ino

"Hehe, was it really that bad?" Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly

"Yes, yes it was."

"Sakura helped me pick the new look, after what happened we both felt like we needed to change some stuff y'know?" Naruto said as Ino analized his new outfit from every position. 

"And why are you wearing your headband that way, trying to look like that Kakashi guy?" Questioned Ino, regretting instantly having opened her mouth. 

"Uhmm no, I lost an eye in the mission…"

Naruto was looking a bit gloomy after that but he couldn't exactly explain why to them so he quickly dismissed the thought. 

Ino flinched instantly when she noticed Naruto's reaction, she didn't wish to hurt him or Sakura. 

"But I'll let my hair grow to cover it and look super awesome 'ttebayo!" Proclaimed Naruto making sure to get the conversation away from the gloomy topic. 

Shikamaru was honestly surprised, everyone had heard about what happened in Nami by now, he had honestly been expecting Naruto and Sakura to be broken and sad, he hadn't really been expecting to see them at all any time soon. 

"You look well , Naruto." Said Shikamaru. 

The whiskered boy didn't really expect a compliment to come from Shikamaru of all people and got a bit flustered because of it. 

"Uh… thanks." Said Naruto, cheeks a hint of red. 

That of course wasn't what Shikamaru meant and it was now obvious to him by the looks everyone was giving him and the blushing Naruto that maybe he could have worded it better but it was too troublesome to clarify what he really meant so he just kept on going. 

"I'm not trying to be rude but I expected you both to look more sad. " Said Shikamaru. 

"We are, but we've both realized Sasuke wouldn't have wanted us to be crying over him. Tsutsuji-san has also helped us both a lot to better come to terms with what happened." Explained Sakura

"Your mom's really nice Ino!" Proclaimed Naruto. 

Ino knew both of his parents were giving her old friend and fellow blonde counseling sessions and she was honestly glad they were getting help, she also couldn't help but agree with Naruto, her mom had also helped her get over Sasuke's death after all. 

"Well, I'm glad that's the case, Sakura…" Said Ino in a caring voice that hadn't been directed at the other girl in a long time. 

"Kakashi-sensei and us have a meeting soon so we should be leaving, it was nice seeing you guys!" 

Before they left, Ino approached Sakura by herself while the boys did the same with Naruto. 

"We should hang out sometime Sakura, you know, for old times sake…" Said a smiling Ino. 

"Yes, I would like that." Replied Sakura with a gentle smile of her own. 

"Ne Naruto, Choji and I often hang out at my house, you should join us sometime" Said Shikamaru. 

He was honestly surprised with the boy, whatever Tsutsuji had talked to him about clearly helped him a lot. His kind and bubbly personality was clearly still there but he now looked more focused and calm. 

"I would like that, thanks Shikamaru" Replied Naruto with a warm and sincere smile for both boys. 

An old friendship had just now started to reignite while a true and new one started to surface. 

"I made mistakes…"

That wasn't what both genin thought their sensei was going to say when he summoned them for a meeting but they still went along with it, this looked important. 

"We already talked about this so there's no point in going much further into this but… 

We lost a teammate, it was avoidable, it shouldn't have happened, but it did. 

I can understand the Hokage's words, I understand it wasn't my fault, Sasuke knew the risk, Sasuke wanted to continue, Sasuke was a Shinobi." Explained Kakashi while looking at his genin with a solemn expression. 

It was all true, the Hokage explained it wasn't Kakashi's fault entirely multiple times and he still felt like he was just trying to make him feel better, ultimately he realized Sarutobi Hiruzen wasn't one to sugarcoat the truth, if the Hokage allowed the mission to happen even if he felt like he shouldn't have then he was guilty too, and the same could be said for every person who had a voice in the matter. 

"It may not have been my fault entirely, but it was my responsibility, he was my responsibility… you both are my responsibility, which is why I'm going to make this right"

Kakashi grabbed a scroll from his vest and unsealed it, out of it came two little slips of paper, some other scrolls, a few books and a crimson scroll with the Uzumaki crest in it that immediately caught Naruto's attention. 

"I was very lacking in your training, I honestly can't remember why, if I had a reason it was a stupid one and I see no point in thinking much about that anymore"

Kakashi took both slips of paper and gave it to them. 

"I'll be working you in the ground. I'll make you both learn a proper Taijutsu style, I'll teach you both Ninjutsu and train your affinities. I'll teach you the basics of Genjutsu and I will also let the both of you specialize in a field of your choosing;

I will make sure to get you proper instruction; sadly for you Naruto, because of your newest tool you'll be stuck with me for a while" Finished Kakashi with an eye smile for the blonde. 

Much of what Kakashi just said caught the attention of the young genin, one of them in particular was now lodged on the blonde shinobi's brain. 

"What are affinities Sensei?" Questioned Naruto with the backing of his pink-haired teammate. 

"Elemental affinities, we all have an affinity we're aligned to, that means Jutsu from a certain element will come easier than others, it doesn't mean you can't use other elemental jutsu but it is smart to start with your own." He said, somewhat relieved that both of his students seemed to be interested in the current topic. 

"First things first, the slips of paper I gave you are Chakra paper, they're used to learn your affinities. You channel chakra into them and the reaction will show you what elemental nature you have. If it burns it's fire, if it splits in two it's wind, if it crumbles it's lightning, if it turns to dust it's earth and if it soaks it's water."

Both genin did as instructed and the results were a little shocking for Kakashi. 

Sakura's paper split in two and then both halves turned into dust. 

Naruto's also split in two but his both halves of paper crumpled. 

It wasn't weird for people to have two affinities but most often than not it implied some sort of elemental Kekkei Genkai, Kakashi however couldn't think of any that used these specific elements combined. 

He was also very intrigued by Naruto's lightning affinity, Kakashi and him were becoming more and more similar everyday, he couldn't decide if that was a good thing. 

"That's impressing my cute genin, you both have two affinities and you both share one, I'm well versed in Doton manipulation so I'll have no problem teaching you Sakura."

"Is earth a good element, sensei?" She asked. 

"There is no good or bad element, Sakura, each have their use and their own uniqueness." Kakashi also liked Doton manipulation a lot, he used it quite frequently. 

"As for you Naruto, my affinity is also Lightning, I'm the best sensei you could've gotten." He explained with a smirk, not that his Genin could see it but a smirk nonetheless. 

"Really?" Asked Naruto, voice full of excitement at the prospect of sharing something like that with his cool sensei. 

Kakashi nodded and ruffled the boy's hair much to his annoyance before continuing. 

"Wind however is the rarest affinity in Hi no Kuni, an acquaintance of mine uses Futon jutsu, I'll arrange a meeting"

Both genin nodded and expressed their thanks to Kakashi for making sure they got the training they needed. 

Kakashi was honestly quite happy, he had two potential power houses in his team and he was going to make sure they were ready for everything. 

"From now on you both will get individual Taijutsu training in the mornings and,” Kakashi began listing their schedule, “Ninjutsu and Genjutsu training together with me after lunch as well as constant chakra control exercises and maybe picking up a weapon sometime down the line." 

"Sakura, I'm going to teach you the Senju fighting style, it's not common these days but I really think it fits you." He did believe that to be the case, Sakura's temperament reminded him a lot of a Senju he met years ago. 

He got an excited nod as an answer. 'It seems like Sakura is in high spirits today.'

"Naruto, you will be learning the Uzumaki style of Taijutsu.” Kakashi saw how Naruto perked up at the name Uzumaki, “I’m not going to teach you but a friend of mine knows the style better than anyone else in Konoha.”

Naruto's hands twitched in anticipation, “Who is it, Kakashi-sensei?”

"You'll be training under Konoha's top Taijutsu specialist, his name is Maito Gai. He has already agreed to teach you in the mornings." Naruto burned in determination and smiled widely, nodding his head excitedly.

Maito Gai was possibly Kakashi's best and only friend, he was grateful for everything he had done for him and was grateful for him agreeing to teach Naruto. 

"Sakura,” The pink haired genin, who was focusing her attention on Naruto’s excitement, quickly looked at her sensei. “Come meet me here again at eight,” 

Sakura fake saluted with a small smile, “Yes sir!” Kakashi could only laugh at his cute genin’s action.

“And Naruto,” Kakashi looked at Naruto who already had his attention focused on the silver haired sensei. “Gai should be at the training ground 9, go meet him there by tomorrow."

"Here." Said Kakashi, giving Sakura a scroll and a book. "This is an anatomy book and the introduction to the art of healing.”

Kakashi then continued after seeing Sakura’s curious gaze. “The scroll has the most basic of Iryo Ninjutsu. I don't want to push you into the role of a medic but your great chakra control means you'd be good at it.” 

 “You don't have to learn any of this but at least give it a thought, alright?" Sakura hummed and nodded in understanding.

"Naruto, you are smart, very smart; but your focus isn't on the academic side of things. One of these books is the geography of the great nations, as a Shinobi it's important for you to know as much as you can about it, the other is a guide in strategy and deception, the ability you showed when you used to go on pranking sprees was incredible, good enough to fool even the ANBU. "

The blonde wanted to protest but he knew his sensei wouldn't take no for an answer, what was some reading going to do to him anyway? He had already started reading the basic guide of fuinjutsu he was given. 

"This…" Said Kakashi holding the scroll with the Uzumaki crest that had caught Naruto's attention earlier. 

"is from Hokage-sama, it belongs to you, this is locked with a blood seal which means only you will be able to open it, Sarutobi-sama said he gave stuff from the Uzumaki to you some time ago and was hoping you'd ask if there was something more but apparently you didn't"

Naruto was ashamed, before he had thought fuinjutsu was boring and uncool, he had just started reading about it recently and discovered he liked it. He wouldn't say it was easy but it felt like it was meant for him. What he had, barely covered the basics of the art and Naruto couldn't do more than a storage scroll as of now. 

"He said you can go to him for help in fuinjutsu when you need to. I believe there's more on the scroll than just that but I advise you read it when you're alone.” He was feeling really good about this whole 'being a good sensei' thing. 

"Do any of you have any doubts?" Both genins shook their hands as an answer to his sensei. 

"Well, that's it for today, the training starts tomorrow, dismissed."

After those words the genin started to leave to their respective homes, they had a big day tomorrow

"There's something I need to talk to you about Naruto." Called out Kakashi. 

Both teeangers shared a look, they had no idea what this was about. Naruto shrugged and walked towards his sensei. 

Sakura wasn't worried, she knew Naruto would tell her whatever this was about if she was meant to know so there was no point in giving it much thought. Sakura left his teammate and sensei together. 

"Come with me.”

Kakashi could've Shunshin 'ed both him and his student to their destination if he wanted to, but he needed the walk to sort his thoughts and think about what he wanted to say. He didn't realize when they both got to the top of the Hokage monument and stood in the head of the Yondaime Hokage until Naruto spoke for the first time since the meeting. 

"This is my favorite place in the village y'know?" Said Naruto. "I used to come here to stare at the sunset when I was little." 

When Naruto was younger this was his thinking spot, his place away from everything. For some reason, the monument made him feel less lonely. 

"Is this about the Sharingan sensei?" A good question. 

"No, there's no need to talk about that just yet, I'll start training you soon enough.”

“There's something important I need to tell you, you probably will have questions and I will answer them as much as I can alright?" Asked Kakashi. 

You could hear the worry in the man's voice, he didn't know what his student would think of him. 

"The Hokage told me you're aware of the reason why the identity of your father was kept a secret. It was important to keep this from you until the time came when you would be able to handle the truth, remember I had a meeting with him today?" Asked Kakashi and Naruto nodded. 

Naruto could now see what this was about and his heart started beating very fast. 

"Today it was decided that you not only are ready to know; you deserve to." Said Kakashi

"The Hokage asked me to tell you because your father and I were…  close" 

This was it, the moment Kakashi has been waiting for. 

"You're the son of Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage and my sensei…" 

"The Y-Yondaime? B-But… H-How? Why?" Naruto was shocked, to learn the person you admired so much was secretly your father was a lot to take in. 

Kakashi took a deep breath in order to better prepare to explain this to the blonde boy. 

"Your father had many enemies. Konoha's Yellow Flash, the man responsible for single handedly ending the Third Shinobi war, he annihilated a battalion of over 1000 Iwa shinobi by himself."

Naruto listened to his sensei's explanation with the utmost attention. 

"The Tsuchikage wouldn't have come after you, at least we don't think he would, it was war and we did what we had to do to survive. It is the shinobi we were worried about, bitter people who would go rogue if presented with the opportunity to get back at the Yondaime by killing his only child. It wasn't just that however."

"What do you mean?" 

"What you know about the Kyuubi attack is not the whole truth. The Bijuu are sentient forms of chakra, they can't be killed. The only way to beat them is to seal them in a container; a person. These people are called Jinchuriki, the power of human sacrifice." Explained Kakashi. 

Things started to make sense for Naruto now, he knew his father defeated the Kyuubi the day he was born but he didn't know how, all he knew was that the Hokage sacrificed himself with some special jutsu to defeat the fox. 

"A-Am I one?" Asked a worried Naruto. 

"No, that's not what I meant. In most villages Jinchuriki are ostracized and hated by the people they protect by simply existing, that was why the identity of our Jinchuriki was kept a secret, only the higher ups knew we had one." 

"Why?" 

"Most hidden villages use the Bijuu as weapons, we don't, the only reason we had one was to keep a balance of power among the great nations."

Naruto didn't understand exactly why this was related to him other than the fact that his father died fighting the Bijuu. 

"Did our Jinchuriki turn on us?" 

"No, there was a mastermind behind the attack. A Jinchuriki's seal weakens when giving birth, Naruto, your mother was the Jinchuriki, she was attacked while giving birth and the attacker broke the seal to destroy the village. According to the Hokage it was a man wearing a mask, he used a sharingan to control the Kyuubi."

"How did my father stop him?" 

"We don't know… " He sighed. "We just know he tried to seal the Kyuubi inside you to protect the village, but he failed and the Kyuubi was set free. It was apparently the Kyuubi who told the Hokage about that man before disappearing; it was never seen again after that." 

"The Kyuubi talked to Jiji?" Asked Naruto, he wasn't sure if he was surprised, amazed or worried. 

Kakashi nodded. "I personally would take anything that comes from it with a grain of salt, still Sandaime-sama believes it to be true and I've never been one to question his judgement."

Naruto was in turmoil, one question refusing to leave his brain. 

"I-I was going to be a Jinchuriki?" Asked Naruto. 

This was a lot to take in, it was overwhelming and Naruto was already in tears.

"Yes… Don't think too much about it Naruto, Sensei was an amazing man, he loved you dearly and would've never done anything to harm you. The only reason I'm telling you this is because we don't really know what that man really wanted and could be one of the enemies you have to watch out for." Kakashi was surprised, he was honestly expecting Naruto to blow up. Tsutsuji was amazing at her job. 

"Minato-sensei was like a father to me… both of your parents took me in when I had no one…" 

Naruto was surprised about that, he now understood what Kakashi meant when he said they were close

"My mother died when I was but a toddler and my father… he killed himself when I was young. I used to be a lot like Sasuke back then, he at least had you as a friend… I made sure to push everyone away."

"My teammate and your father were the ones who saved me from myself back then… when they died I was lost." 

Kakashi suddenly became the one in need of comfort, he didn't even notice when Naruto put his hand on his shoulder but he appreciated the gesture. 

"Hokage-sama never told me not to approach you, I just didn't… When you were placed on my team I pushed you away instead of actually bonding with you.”

“I'm truly sorry Naruto, and I really hope you can forgive me."

Kakashi greatly benefited from Inoichi's counseling sessions, he wouldn't have been able to express himself this way before. 

Naruto shook his head, "It's okay, you don't need to apologize 'ttebayo." His reassurance made Kakashi chuckle. 

"Do you think we could have dinner together sometime? I would like to know more about them." Asked Naruto, he was hoping Kakashi would say yes, he really wanted this to happen. 

"Yes Naruto, I think I would like that…" Answered Kakashi giving Naruto an eye smile

Naruto stood up and started to walk towards the village. 

"I'll see you tomorrow Nii-san. " Said Naruto and quickly left afterwards, he didn't stay long enough to see a tear roll out of Kakashi's only visible eye. 

"Nii-san… I like the sound of that."

It was late at night already. 

Naruto had been crying a lot on his way to the Hokage tower after his conversation with Kakashi. He was glad it happened but couldn't help but cry like he hadn't ever. It was good there was someone he could always go to even if it meant just having a shoulder to cry on. 

"Jiji?" Said Naruto after opening the window in the Hokage's office and stepping in. 

The Hokage in question had seen the whole thing through his crystal ball so he knew the boy was coming, he was worried the boy would be mad at him when he saw him coming to his office but he was ready for it. 

"Yes Naru-" The Hokage never got to finish his question because of the blonde boy launching himself at him and hugging him tightly. Hiruzen's eyes widened, Naruto’s sudden hug surprised him but he hugged the young boy back either way. 

Hiruzen could feel how Naruto’s shoulder began to shake, he could hear the faint sniffles. Naruto had begun to cry on his Jiji's shoulders. The old man knew today had been eventful and tiring for this young child. 

"It's alright Naruto-kun, I'm here for you.” 

Naruto cried himself to sleep in the arms of his grandfather that night. The Hokage had one of his ANBU guards take Naruto to his apartment so he could sleep on his own bed, he had a busy day coming. 

Chapter Text

-4 Months before the Chunin Exams-

"GAI-SENSEI!" 

"LEE!" 

"GAI-SENSEI!" 

"LEE!" 

"GAI-SENSEI!” 

"LEE!”

Naruto was very excited to meet the super awesome sensei that is supposed to train him today. He apparently knew the Uzumaki Taijutsu style better than anyone in the elemental nations. 

His expectations were high. 

Which is why he was a bit worried when the training grounds he walked into suddenly turned into a beautiful sunset on a shore with two green-clad shinobi hugging each other very tightly. 

"What the f-" 

"OH! You must be Naruto-kun, Kakashi said you'd be joining us this youthful morning."  The older one from the identical looking pair spoke up, swiftly interrupting Naruto's rather un-youthful remark before it could be said. He was a tall man with the biggest brow's Naruto had ever seen and a prominent bowl-cut.

"U-Uh yes, are you Maito Gai?" Asked a very confused Naruto. He was pretty sure this was a cruel joke Kakashi played him; he was already planning his revenge. Just as Naruto was asking his question, a pretty girl with two hair buns followed by a boy with long hair and big pearl white eyes walked in the clearing. 

The man puffed out his chest in pride, "Indeed I am. Konoha's best Taijutsu specialist at your service!" 

"These are my youthful students!" Gai started pointing at the three young shinobi beside him, instructing them to introduce themselves. 

"YOSH!" Came an unexpectedly loud voice. "MY NAME IS ROCK LEE, KONOHA'S BEAUTIFUL GREEN BEAST, IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU, NARUTO-KUN!" Proclaimed the green-clad genin as he shook Naruto's hand vigorously. 

The pretty girl, seemingly unbothered, walked out to him next "Hi! My name is Higurashi Tenten, my father runs a shinobi store, you should stop by sometime." She said, smiling warmly. 

The last Genin just scoffed at Naruto and walked away to train in some weird fighting style Naruto couldn't recognize. 

"What's up with him?" Naruto had half a mind not to start a random fight out of nowhere but that boy's attitude made him wanna punch his face very hard. 

"Don't mind Neji, he's just a bit impolite. " Not even Tenten seemed convinced by her own explanation of his attitude.

Naruto muttered quietly under his breath, "Somebody better take that stick out of his ass 'ttebayo…" Before turning to look at the man who was going to be teaching him soon. 

After exchanging some pleasantries, the two other genin of - the now revealed- team 9 left to join their teammate in his training so Naruto and their sensei could talk about whatever it was he needed. 

Naruto looked at Gai in excitement, "Is it true you know the Uzumaki Taijutsu style better than anyone Gai-sensei?" He asked. 

The man in question flashed the brightest smile Naruto had ever seen and gave the boy his Nice-guy pose. "Indeed I do, young Naruto!" The Jonin exclaimed proudly once more.

Naruto brushed off the feeling, focusing solely on how exciting it is to learn his family's style, he didn't care if the man teaching him was a bit eccentric. 

To be fair, his own sensei reads porn in public all the time. 

"Thank you for agreeing to teach me dattebayo!" Naruto gave the man a warm smile and a polite bow. 

"Why of course young Naruto, it is my honor to teach Kushina-sensei's son." 

"Kushina-sensei?" Naruto's face was now full of shock. Hearing his mothers name was still unfamiliar to him and left a weird warm feeling in his chest, but for her to be referred to as Sensei?

Gai chuckled and knelt down so he could look at Naruto at eye level, boisterous attitude momentarily gone. 

"I'm surprised my eternal rival didn't tell you, your mother helped me become the shinobi I am today, it truly is my honor to teach you." 

Naruto was incredibly moved by Gai's words and he didn't know how to react, noticing his loss for words Gai simply ruffled his hair and stood up.

After the new teacher and student duo finished exchanging pleasantries Gai entered what Naruto would learn to call his sensei mode. 

"The Shīru-Ken or Sealing fist is the Uzumaki's Taijutsu style, Kushina-sensei taught it to me back when I was a Genin. The style is made to facilitate combat fuinjutsu." Naruto just recently discovered combat fuinjutsu was a thing and even though his level was nowhere near enough to perform seals without the use of ink and  brush he was beyond excited to try it out. 

"It consists of swift movements and a level of unpredictability which requires agility and speed." Gai analyzed every reaction he got out of Naruto as he explained, Kakashi had informed him of Naruto's interest in fuinjutsu and he could see the spark in Naruto's eye at the prospect of learning how to fight like his mother. 

"That is what we'll be working on today, I'll give you a scroll with the Taijutsu katas for you to memorize later, in the meantime you'll be using this." Gai gave Naruto 4 sets of weights and instructed him to place them on his wrists and legs. 

"It's important for you to strengthen your body, the weights will allow you to increase your speed and the training you'll be doing will make you agile and flexible. From now on you will always be wearing your weights and we will adjust them everytime moving with them becomes too easy for you."

Naruto was both excited and worried about the kind of training Gai would be putting him through, he was starting to wonder if Sakura would be doing something similar with Kakashi. 

"You're late!" At this point Sakura yelled at his sensei purely on instinct. "Only 15 minutes though." 

She knew Kakashi was making an effort to change himself for the better and now only got late to things that weren't important. She really didn't mean to yell at him, it just happened. 

"Maa maa Sakura-chan, I got lost on the road of… getting what you'll be using to train today." Kakashi eye-smiled at her. 

"Before we start…" Kakashi was now looking pointedly at herl, "There's something I want to talk to you about." 

Sakura only responded by giving Kakashi a nod. 

"Sakura… you're not a good shinobi." Said Kakashi with brutal honesty. 

Sakura was gaping like a fish. She was now painfully aware that she wasn't as good as she initially thought but that statement felt like a low blow. 

"You're physically weak, you're uncommitted and those diets you put yourself through make you look a bit malnourished." Continued Kakashi. Sakura wanted to retort but wasn't allowed by her sensei. 

"That being said, your chakra control is extremely good, and while it is true that people with lower chakra pools are generally graced with higher control, yours is pretty impressive." He complimented. 

Sakura beamed a little at her sensei's praise, it would seem like she wasn't a complete lost cause. 

"We got a tough wake up call…" Trailed off Kakashi. "I trust that you will now be giving your all in your training, you have the potential to be great and that's what I want you to achieve. Will you take this seriously?" Asked the Jounin

"Yes sensei!" Said Sakura with renewed vigor. 

"Very well then." He tossed Sakura a scroll and a set of weights for her arms and legs, after she finished putting them on he started explaining. 

"You'll be learning the Mori no ken or Forest fist, the Senju were a clan that specialized in more than one skill instead of just one or a few, as is the case for most of the clans in Konoha." Kakashi never liked how the clans in Konoha only specialized in one single area and neglected almost every other one, you could feel the admiration in his voice when he talked about the Senju. 

"That's how they earned the title of 'The clan with a thousand skills'. Their Taijutsu was very straightforward in order to compliment their many abilities."

Sakura always liked to study and learn stuff, she didn't know Kakashi was so knowledgeable and she didn't know he was this good at giving lectures, she now called this Kakashi's sensei mode. 

"For that you'll need core strength, which is what the weights are for, you will also become faster but the type of training you'll be doing will favor mostly the strength of your body, this compliments the training Naruto will be doing." Explained Kakashi. 

"Why is that sensei?" Asked the genin.

"The taijutsu style Naruto will be learning is focused on swift movements and agility, I'm sure he will be using weights as well. The difference is the training you both are going to do, you won't be as fast as Naruto and Naruto won't be as strong as you, that's not to say you will be slow or he will be weak, I'm pretty sure you get what I mean." 

And she did, Sakura knew not a lot of genin did this kind of training, she was just starting with weights and she knew her weights would only get heavier as time goes by. She might never be as fast as Naruto but she was sure she'll be faster than most genin in the village were. 

Naruto limped his way to the training grounds his team used, the training with Gai was hell for him. He was forced to run around the whole village for hours wearing weights, he had to do all kinds of core exercises and he even had to do weird stretching; he just couldn't figure out why being able to do the splits would be helpful. 

At least he'll start practicing Katas tomorrow. 

"Kakashi-sensei!" Yelled Naruto before collapsing in front of the man

"Nice of you to join us, Naruto." Said Kakashi giving Naruto an eye-smile. 

Sakura was lying in the grass right by his side, she tried to greet Naruto but all she managed to blurt was a grunt. 

Just like Naruto Sakura had to do some core exercises and running around, she also had to do tons of squats, sit-ups, pull-ups, push-ups and even more sit ups but this time hanging off a tree branch. 

The look of pure joy visible in Kakashi's eye when he had her do pull ups with a rock tied to her legs will forever haunt her. 

"You hurt me Sakura-chan , I thought we had a great time together." Kakashi mocking her only irked her more. 

If Sakura had the strength to do it she would've flipped him off. 

"How was training with Gai, Naruto?" Kakashi was curious about how things had been with his self-proclaimed 'eternal rival'.

" Youthful. " At first Naruto thought the whole youth speech was fun, now he couldn't even think of the word without wanting to hit his own head really hard. 

"You can both rest for a little bit before having lunch, I brought you a balanced meal to replenish your energy and before you ask Naruto, no, it isn't ramen." Said Kakashi much to the young boy's chargrim. 

"Ramen is good and I won't forbid you to eat it, but you also need to eat more stuff, without a proper and balanced diet you will always be short, is that what you want?" Asked Kakashi.

Naruto was quick to shake his head, if eating a little less Ramen was what it took for him to grow taller then so be it, he was very self-conscious about his height. 

"I understand you didn't have anyone to teach you properly, so I will add cooking to your lessons, luckily for you I'm a very good cook." Said Kakashi while puffing his chest, not that the collapsed Genin could see it anyway. 

Kakashi felt a little sad about having to teach Naruto, it wasn't that he didn't want to, he just felt like he should've a long time ago. He knew the Sandaime constantly treated Naruto to lunch but that wasn't enough for a boy who loved eating Ramen 24/7. He was going to make this right now though, better late than never. 

After the duo finished resting the team started to eat, Kakashi had decided he would be putting more trust on his team so he lowered his mask for them to see while they ate without making a big deal out of it, sadly for him, the genin were so hungry and focused on their food they didn't even notice.

Their loss. 

"Look alive kiddos, we will start your ninjutsu training right now, afterwards we will run some team drills, chakra control exercises and I'll let you go." Kakashi grabbed a leaf from a tree and unsealed a lighting bulb out of a storage scroll from his pocket. 

"Sakura, before you learn any Doton jutsu you must be able to control your affinity. You could learn Doton jutsus or jutsus of any other element without doing the exercise but this will allow you to perform every jutsu with a lower cost, the same goes for you Naruto." Kakashi told them, going into his sensei mode once again. 

"The first step to mastering your affinity is to turn this leaf into a rock, to do it you need to focus your chakra in a steady flow around the leaf and harden it." He explained as he handed Sakura the leaf, he then walked towards Naruto and handed him a lightbulb. 

"Yours Naruto is a bit trickier, what you have to do is channel your chakra into the lightbulb, you should be able to feel a 'spark' if you try to focus your affinity, once you do hang on to it and direct it, too little and it won't turn on, too much and you'll overcharge it and maybe even make it explode."

He really hoped Naruto's lightbulb would explode at some point, Kakashi felt like it was wishing for Naruto to have a hard time but he bought a lot of them and they weren't exactly cheap. 

"This is a chunin level exercise, most shinobi like myself learn jutsu without mastering their affinity." Kakashi was a prodigy, hailed as a genius from a very young age, he managed to learn different jutsu before starting work on his nature transformation and even more after he got the sharingan, had he done the exercises earlier he probably would've had a much easier journey through the ranks. 

"I'm having you do this so you'll have an easier time down the road and more efficient use of your chakra."

"What does that mean, sensei?" Asked Naruto. 

"When a Shinobi gains control of their natural affinity, the jutsus they use become less taxing on their reserves and more effective; that's what I like to call Elemental Mastery ." Naruto and Sakura both made 'wow' faces and that for some reason made Kakashi feel incredibly good, he even started subconsciously puffing his chest. 

"That doesn’t mean you won't be learning any jutsu until you master the exercises, I will give you each a few jutsu from each of your affinities including wind, we are doing this so you don't waste a lot of chakra; speaking of which…" Said Kakashi getting his genin's attention. 

"Chakra control is a very important skill to have, especially for the more complicated and fine arts like Genjutsu, Iryo Ninjutsu and to a certain degree Fuinjutsu." That earned a groan from Naruto, chakra control exercises were a pain in the ass for him and now he will have to do them constantly if he ever hoped to become good at Fuinjutsu. 

"We will do nature transformation for a while and then we'll train your control. You know how to climb trees already but you're going to practice until doing so becomes instinctual, when that is finished we'll move towards water walking, is that clear?" 

"Yes, sensei!" 

"Get to work then."

Kakashi was proud of his genin, they were dedicated and knew how to work hard. He didn't expect them to master their affinities for at least a month but seeing them try was fun, he'll arrange for Asuma to teach them wind after they finish this. 

The sound of glass shattering interrupted Kakashi's thoughts and he turned around to see Naruto holding a broken lightbulb, he chuckled and gave Naruto a new one. 

This should be fun. 

~

"That was great, we'll meet again tomorrow, same time, same place, dismissed."

After exchanging goodbyes Sakura left quickly, she wasn't in the best of shapes and she was very aware about it but Kakashi's training had been torture for her; it was good Tsutsuji got her out of that stupid diet, if she could she would actually eat a horse right now. 

Before leaving Naruto had one more thing to do, the last time he talked to Kakashi alone he left saying some stuff that the Jonin maybe didn't want and he felt like he needed to apologize, that's why he walked up to his sensei looking a bit nervous. 

"Kakashi-sensei, can I talk to you for a minute?" Asked the nervous blonde. 

Kakashi was a bit confused at first when Naruto started referring to him as sensei again, he knew Naruto would and should always refer to him as sensei when they were on oficial shinobi business like training but that was already over by now, but he understood the boy needed time to process everything that was just revealed to him though. 

Naruto never knew his parents and even though he wished for them terribly, putting a name to them was even more painful for him. 

He felt incredibly happy when he found who his mother was, when he found out she loved him. 

He also felt incredibly sad, but the Sandaime explained to him it was bound to happen, giving the person you longed for a face and a name allows you to feel connected, but it also allows you to feel their absence even more. 

Kakashi understood Naruto was going through a similar grief again and he wouldn't push him into anything. 

"Yes Naruto?" Asked Kakashi, shaking his head away from his thoughts. 

Naruto took a deep breath before answering. 

"WellIjustwantedtosaysorrycuzlastnighticalledyouyouknowthatandididn'taskbeforey'knowandidon'twantyoutobeuncomfortableorsomethingttebayoitsjustthatwellyouknowi-"

"Naruto, please slow down for me ok?" All things considered, Kakashi was surprised by Naruto's lung capacity. 

Naruto sighed, he was hoping Kakashi would catch all of that quickly and he wouldn't have to talk about this for long but it would seem that wasn't the case. 

"It's just that I-" Another sigh

"I called you Nii-san last night and it was kinda a spur of the moment y'know? It's not really a big deal I guess, Konohamaru calls me that and we're not related… I guess I just don't want you to be uncomfortable. It's just that you said my dad was like a dad to you too y'know?"

Kakashi now understood what this was all about and knelt in front of Naruto while ruffling his hair. "I was surprised for sure but… I do like the idea of having a little brother." 

Naruto looked at him and released a breath he didn't know he was holding, his visible eye watered a little and he hugged Kakashi out of nowhere. 

Kakashi was surprised by the hug but after catching his bearings he returned it. It was easy to forget Naruto was still a 13 year old boy, a 13 year old who grew up with only one person he could truly call family, a 13 year old who just lost his first and for the longest time only friend. 

"How about we go to your place so I can teach you how to cook a good dinner, and we have that talk about your parents you asked for?" Kakashi suggested. 

Naruto released Kakashi from the hug and smiled warmly at him. 

"Yes Nii-san." 

The dinner with Kakashi had gone pretty well and Naruto was surprised to know Kakashi didn't lie when he said he was a good cook. After the dinner was done Kakashi told Naruto he'd do good to see what was on his mother's scroll and promptly left so he could do it alone. 

That is what Naruto was doing right now, he opened the scroll with a drop of his blood and got access to a series of storage seals inscribed in the length of the whole thing. He got everything out of the scroll to see what it contained and found some books on sealing and a few scrolls he hadn't opened but guessed were clan jutsu or Uzumaki seals. He was going to start reading through them when he found a letter addressed to him. 

Naruto's heart skipped a beat and he shakily picked the letter up before unfolding it, he wondered if Kakashi knew something like this was on the scroll and that's why he was so adamant on Naruto doing it alone but he was thankful for it nonetheless.

To Naruto:

If you're reading this it means I'm dead, Minato said I was a little paranoid in thinking about writing this in the first place but I think you can never be too sure y'know? 

I can't even imagine what it must've been like for you to grow up without a mother and I hope to Kami you had your father to support you and guide you along the way. 

I wrote this letter in hopes that if it ever came to it you could carry on our legacy as Uzumaki and could keep on making our ancestors proud. 

The scroll Hiruzen gave you contains a copy of the fuinjutsu guide that took me and your father from novices to true masters, a few of our clan's seals and some of our clan jutsu as well as information on something I'm pretty sure you will like as much as I do. Work very hard in your skills and in your studies, I was never the best at academic stuff so I know how frustrating it can be but you should still try your best. 

I hope you're living the best life you possibly can and I hope you're happy. I don't know what age you're going to be when you read this but I'm sure the old man won't wait more than 16 years so I'll give you some instructions about the 3 shinobi prohibitions.

The first one is money, make sure to save most of the money you'll get as pay from your services as shinobi if you choose to be one, if not make sure to save from your salary on whatever job you go for. Try not to become addicted to gambling and spend your money wisely. 

The second one is alcohol, drinking is good but you need to learn how to control yourself, don't let that big pervert get you hooked on anything dangerous. 

The third and final prohibition is women, to be honest I don't really care who you date as long as it is a good person like your mother, just make sure to love her a lot. 

Make good friends, you don't need to have a lot as long as they're good and loyal people.

I don't know what you're doing now but there's very little that you could do short of defecting and becoming a missing nin that could make me mad at you. 

At the end of this letter there's a seal holding a picture of your father, you and I, kinda. 

If you had to read this it means I wasn't there for you but always remember that your mother is immensely proud of you and loves you very very much dattebane! 

-Uzumaki Kushina. 

Tears fell on the paper Naruto was holding with shaking hands. He was beyond glad he had this to feel connected to his mother but he couldn't help but feel sad at the fact that she isn't there for him. 

After Naruto calmed down a little he channeled some chakra in the seal at the corner of the letter and unsealed a picture, in the picture was a tall man with blonde spiky hair wearing the Konoha shinobi uniform and a white robe with red flames in the bottom; hugging a beautiful woman with long crimson hair and the most beautiful violet eyes he has ever seen, she wore a green dress on top of a white undershirt and was very very pregnant. 

Naruto looked at the beautiful picture of the family he never knew and hugged it tightly close to his heart for a few minutes. 

After his reminiscence was over Naruto started going through the material left for him, he sorted out the books on fuinjutsu and supplementary scrolls based on the level and sealed them in a separate storage scroll, he would go over all of that with his Jiji as soon as he got the chance. 

Next he found a scroll with the Uzumaki Taijutsu style katas Gai had already given him so he resealed them on the scroll it came from. Next he found a beautiful Katana and a scroll with his mother's kenjutsu style. 

Naruto wasn't sure if he was going to be a swordsman, he wanted to make his mother proud but he could do that in different ways, he still vowed to learn the style to perfection even if he didn't feel like using a sword was for him. He might not want to be a Kenjutsu master but that didn't mean he couldn't pass on his new Katana and style to someone else. 

He then found a scroll that contained some Uzumaki seals and barriers just like his mother's letter said. He couldn't really make heads or tails of any of that yet so he resealed them in the scroll they came from. 

Lastly, Naruto found another much smaller scroll protected by a blood seal, he cut his finger open and put some of his blood on the seal to reveal its contents and found what his mother said he would probably like as much as her. 

In the scroll were instructions to use a special Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai, Naruto was worried he might not have inherited it from his mother but he tried not to worry about something he wasn't sure of yet. 

She believed he would and that was enough reassurance for him. 

'Kongo Fusa huh? That does sound cool' 

-2 Months Before the Chunin Exams-

The training of the Genin in team 7 has been very productive so far, after weeks of training both Naruto and Sakura mastered the first step of their nature transformations. Kakashi had also arranged a meeting between them and Sarutobi Asuma the son of the Sandaime, the only shinobi with a wind nature Kakashi knew in the village. 

Training with him had been fairly easy and it was good for Naruto and Sakura to bond with the members of team 10.

Naruto now felt like he could call Choji and Shikamaru friends. 

The whiskered boy was now making his way to the Sandaime's house through the Sarutobi compound to continue his fuinjutsu lessons with the Kami no Shinobi, he has been making steady progress and quickly reached level 4 out of 10 and was very close to reaching level 5. The Hokage had explained it was from that point on that leveling up became much harder and took a lot more time but he was still excited. 

He just couldn't understand why he ever thought fuinjutsu was boring, it was like the coolest thing ever. 

The Sandaime still congratulated Naruto for reaching such a level in so little time, few people got there and not many were able to grasp the complex art that is sealing. 

Naruto's use of Kage Bunshin to speed his process was remarkable, the Sandaime advised him to use a Kage Bunshin to study while he practiced his calligraphy and put in practice some of the things he learned, all in all, Naruto was now one of the few competent fuinjutsu practitioners in the village, he wasn't the best by any means but he was getting there. 

"Naruto-Kun! How is my future Hokage? It's been a long time since I've seen you." A guard in his grandfather's house interrupted his thoughts, greeting him warmly. 

"I'm doing fine, Kaeya-san." Naruto beamed at his comment and gave him a big toothy grin. 

The last time Naruto had been here was when he was still a young kid, his lessons with the Hokage had all taken place in the man's office twice a week but he was told to come to his house this time around. 

"Here to see Hokage-sama?" Asked the guard. 

"Yes, he told me to come this time around, is he busy?" 

"No, he said he was waiting on someone and I'm guessing that someone was you. Did you notice-" 

"Konohamaru following me? Since I stepped foot in the compound, I'm just ignoring him" Interrupted Naruto

"Alright then, off you go" The guard chuckled. 

Sarutobi Konohamaru was the Hokage's biological grandson, Naruto knew about his existence but never actually got the chance to meet him up until shortly after he graduated the academy when he was turning in his picture for his shinobi ID. 

Apparently Konohamaru knew Naruto was the surrogate grandson of the Hokage and wasn't very happy with not getting the attention all to himself and tried to 'ambush' him and 'take him down' but tripped on his scarf. 

Naruto laughed at him and that irked Konohamaru even more, he confronted him and got hit by the older boy in return. 

That's what made Konohamaru admire Naruto, he treated him like he would treat anyone else, he didn't see him as the honorable grandson and even called him by his name instead of his title, that's when Konohamaru decided Naruto was the one who would be his 'boss'. He actually quit on it for a bit when he found out Naruto also wanted to become Hokage but then he figured he could just be the Hokage after him. 

Naruto was about to enter the old man's house but decided to confront Konohamaru before his training. 

"Konohamaru, you need to work on your disguises."

Konohamaru got out of his square shaped rock and addressed Naruto. 

"Nii-chan, let's play Ninja!" Demanded the young kid. 

"I'm sorry Konohamaru, I have lessons with Jiji right now, maybe later?" Suggested the whiskered blonde. 

Konohamaru puffed his cheeks and stomped his feet on the ground in annoyance. 

"You always say the same!" Konohamaru sticked his tongue out and puffed his cheeks in protest. 

"Tell you what Saru, next time I have a free day I'll play with you alright?" Proposed Naruto, unknowingly giving the young boy the same nickname Hiruzen's sensei had given him a long time ago. 

The child simply nodded and happily left Naruto to do his own thing with the Hokage. Naruto walked in the house and saw the old man sitting in his living room in front of a wooden box. 

"Hey Jiji.” Greeted Naruto. 

"Welcome Naruto-kun, I take it Konohamaru-kun didn't cause you any trouble?" Asked the Hokage. 

Naruto didn't ask how the old man knew about their encounter, he was already used to him knowing everything. 

"Not at all, I should make some time to play with him though, he's persistent y'know?" Joked Naruto. 

The Hokage chuckled and smiled warmly at him "Indeed he is."

"So, why are we doing the lesson here today, Jiji?" Asked the curious blonde

"There's something special I had made for you and it's now ready. Do you remember what you told me about your mother's sword?" Asked the Hokage and he received a nod from the young Shinobi in front of him. 

"I had these made for you." Said Sarutobi, giving Naruto the wooden box. 

Naruto opened the box and in them were two short black metal staffs with grey tips. 

"These are twin staffs made of chakra conducting metal, the grey tips are ideal for you to channel your lightning affinity and electrify your enemies, using the twin staffs dual handed if you choose to do so would work pretty good with your Taijutsu style." Explained the Hokage. 

Naruto got both staff of the box to get a feel of them and was surprised with how good they felt on his hands, this truly was the type of weapon he wanted to use. 

"Do you see the little seals engraved in the uncolored tips?" Asked Hiruzen and Naruto nodded. 

"If you put them both together and channel chakra into the seals they'll merge and create a large staff you can also use to fight and add your wind affinity to your fighting." Naruto did as he was told by the wise man. 

To his surprise the seals glowed a little and then the staffs became one without a single fissure visible, if one didn't know it was originally two staffs you wouldn't be able to tell. 

"Do you like it, Naruto-kun?" asked Hiruzen. 

Naruto undid the seal, put the staff back in the box and hugged the man tightly. 

"I love them, Jiji, thank you so much." Said Naruto. 

"That is great news, I'll give you a scroll with my own Bojutsu style for you to learn if you choose to do so." Hiruzen was hoping Naruto would say yes, he wanted someone in his family to pick up on the art and was sad that his son leaned more towards the trench knives, it was thinking of him that he thought of having this gift made for Naruto. 

"Yes Jiji, I'll learn it and kick your old ass with it 'ttebayo!" Naruto, always the energetic one.

The Hokage chuckled and patted the boy's back.

The boy could use the staffs in two different ways, the seal in them allowed him to turn it into a full staff he could use to practice Bojutsu, it would make Sarutobi extremely glad to have him inherit his style. 

He would have to send a thank you gift to his student for coming up with the seal, he could've done it himself had he wanted to but he thought it would be nice to involve the perverted sannin in the gift somehow. 

"There's a strap in the box you can tie in your back to carry them with you, now, how are your studies going?”

"Well I think I'm doing well, though I did trap Sakura-chan yesterday on that barrier you had me learn by accident…" 

"So, how was training with Gai today Naruto?" Asked Kakashi. 

The teacher and student duo were having dinner together in Naruto's apartment, it had become something of a tradition between them to have dinner together at least once a week, at first it was mostly to talk about Naruto's parents but now they just talked about whatever was on their minds and bonded with each other. 

Naruto appreciated having a big brother figure he could talk to, he always had the Sandaime but he was a busy man and Naruto didn't want to trouble him with unimportant stuff while he was working but Kakashi had made it a point to be available for him ever since they started training. 

Kakashi appreciated the change of pace in his life, he enjoyed being able to lay back a little and just talk about anything and advise Naruto on whatever the boy needed.Their relationship grew leaps and bounds in the two months they had been hanging out.

"It's been good, Gai-sensei is great 'ttebayo! The only problem is that Neji guy." Said Naruto

"Neji? The Hyuga Prodigy?" Was Kakashi's curious reply

"Yes! He's super rude and he's always talking about some stupid fate stuff and says Lee's a failure! He said that about me too y'know? He stopped sometime after I learned the Shīru-ken but he never even apologized, he just said it was fated I would learn it." Fate this, fate that, to Neji that's what it was all about and Naruto was so sick of it by now. 

He got incredibly annoyed with Neji everytime he trained with team 9 because of him, Lee and Gai's youthful talk became berable when you got used to it but his constant belittlement of everyone he didn't deem worthy irked him. 

"He does seem like an interesting character." Kakashi has a good idea of why the Hyuga boy acts the way he does but it isn't something he can just go around telling everybody. 

"Whatever… there's something I want to show you." Said Naruto. 

Kakashi was taken aback by Naruto's sudden mood change but he complied anyway and gave Naruto a nod. 

The whiskered blonde stood in front of him and closed his visible eye while he concentrated. 

After minutes of intense concentration, a golden chakra chain shot out of Naruto's forearm and swirled around him for a little before retracting and going back into his arm. 

"Neat trick huh?" Naruto had a cocky smile on his face, very aware that Kakashi would be surprised. 

Kakashi's eye was the size of a plate and his mouth hung open enough that it almost touched the floor. After picking his jaw from the floor Kakashi got himself back together and started laughing. 

"Yes Naruto, neat trick." 

-A Month Before the Chunin Exams-

"What are we doing here?" Asked a curious Naruto. 

Kakashi had taken him out of the village on his free day and brought him to the top of a mountain they were just done securing, they had more traps than necessary in Naruto's opinion. 

"It's time you learn how to properly use your Sharingan Naruto." Explained Kakashi. 

Up until this point Kakashi had stressed to Naruto the importance of not becoming reliant on any tool, he only allowed Naruto to use the sharingan to get used to his predictive abilities during their spars but nothing more. 

It also served to ease some of Dr. Teruya's concerns, she was beyond confident in the effectiveness of Naruto's new eye, but she had also burned into Kakashi's brain the importance of letting Naruto's body time to heal and assimilate the new eye, meaning a few weeks of rest as opposed to using it minutes after the transplant. 

That struck Kakashi a bit low. 

She had apologized after, saying that it wasn't her intention to insult him, she only wanted to make him realize their experiences weren't the same when it came to how they got their transplanted eyes. Maybe having been forced to use the eye right after he got it was the reason why Kakashi suffered great strain from using it. 

That was the beginning of her new project. 

Dr. Teruya was researching a way for Naruto to be able to turn his sharingan eye on and off, she knew it would never be possible for Kakashi because of his circumstances. Naruto not only had a somewhat safe transplant but also a formidable body and incredible genes. 

She firmly believed it to be possible. 

Back in reality, the boy in question started feeling a little uneasy, he was excited to learn how to control Sasuke's gift but he also felt worried he might disappoint his late teammate. 

"We'll stay here for the night and we'll return to the village tomorrow morning. From now on we will come here once a week until you can use your eye without trouble."

Naruto nodded at his sensei's explanation and got ready, this was going to be a hell of a weekend. 

-A Week Before the Chunin Exams-

The Genin in team 7 had made excellent progress in these past few months. 

Naruto had taken to Fuinjutsu like a sponge and was fairly decent in Raiton Jutsu much to Kakashi's delight. 

Both him and Sakura were also versed in wind manipulation and had some Futon jutsu on their belts.

He had also made progress on his clan's Kekkei Genkai but that was his and Kakashi's little secret. 

The girl on team 7 had taken a great liking to Genjutsu and had according to Kakashi a 'slightly concerning imagination' - Naruto still can't decide if that was a compliment or not -, she followed Kakashi's advice and managed to learn the basics of Iryo Ninjutsu and to top it off she now had a few Doton Jutsu on her repertoire. 

Kakashi couldn't be more proud of his team and couldn't be more sure of the decision he had made regarding a certain upcoming event. 

"Here." Said Kakashi, giving both of his students a paper slip. 

"These are the forms you need to fill out if you wish to participate in the chunin exams." Explained the Jounin. 

"The Chunin exams?" Asked Sakura. 

"Yes, this was one of the reasons I trained you so hard the past 4 months, I can say without a doubt you both are more than ready for this." Said Kakashi, giving them both an eye-smile. 

"Don't we need a whole team to participate?" Asked Naruto, a bit sad that he won't have his fallen teammate there with him. 

"You are a whole team Naruto, the Hokage and I decided it was in your best interest to remain as you are, while it isn't common for a team with less than 3 members to enter the exams it is not unheard of." Reassured Kakashi. 

"You don't have to participate if you don't want to, I also don't expect you to land a promotion on your first attempt, treat this as a training exercise and give it your all okay?" Asked the Jounin. 

Both genin nodded and smiled at each other. 

"Very well then, go to room 301 at this time in 7 days with your forms ready if you wish to participate, Ja ne!" Kakashi poofed in a cloud of smoke and the Genin were left to their own devices. 

"Wanna hear something I learned on the guitar?" Asked Naruto

Sakura quickly nodded, everytime Naruto learned a new song he played it and sang it to her. Naruto was a really good singer, it was a shame only Sakura got to listen to him sing. 

~

-The Day Before the Exams-

"Team 7 feels a bit off nowadays don't you think?" Asked Sakura. 

"You mean without him ?" Replied Naruto. 

"I think you are both looking at this the wrong way." Said Kakashi, gaining confused looks from both of his students. 

"Sasuke will always be a part of Team 7…" He said with a soft look in his eye. 

"How can we be team 7 if we're missing a member?" Asked Naruto. 

"Sasuke will always be a part of the team…" Kakashi looked into one of his vest's pouches and out of it got a small Uchiha crest pin which he then put in above his heart just like his students. "As long as we always carry him with us."

Naruto and Sakura both stood up and walked to their sensei, embracing him together, Sasuke might not be present with them, but if they tried hard enough, they could still feel him watching over them. 

Chapter Text

"Thanks for the food, Mebuki-san!" The bundle of energy that was Naruto hugged her tightly. The woman chuckled and patted the boy's head like one would do a pet. 

"Think nothing of it my boy, take care of my Sakura-chan for me will you?" 

The annoyed look on Sakura's face wasn't lost on her mother but she chose to ignore it anyway, Mebuki always felt like she was too old to care when it came to teasing her daughter. 

"Will do ma'am." Replied Naruto with a smile. 

Today was the day, the day they had been waiting for ever since their sensei had informed them of their recommendation for the Chunin Exams. 

Today was the day they got to prove themselves. 

Sakura had decided to invite Naruto over for breakfast the first day of the exams so they would be able to get to the academy together. She didn't want to admit it but she was very nervous. It was hard not to, after months of arduous training, the moment to prove that it was all worth it had arrived. 

The fear of failure was hard to avoid. 

Naruto on the other hand was just thinking about how much he loved Sakura's mom, she's a great cook and she's great at telling embarrassing stories of the pink haired girl. 

The fact that Mebuki told Naruto embarrassing stories about her annoyed Sakura to no end. 

It's not that he isn't nervous at all, he's just too good at hiding it, he had decided the best way to avoid feeling nervous was acting like there was nothing to feel nervous about. 

Is denial truly denial if you know you're in denial?

The pair of Genin were now walking together on their way to the academy, they still had some time left to spare so they were walking at a slow pace, taking in their surroundings and appreciating the atmosphere. 

They definitely weren't stalling. 

"Naruto-kun, did you see the squared rock following us?" There was indeed a rock in the form of a square following them around, it had been trailing them for so long that Sakura had begun to think she was imagining things. 

"Yes Sakura-chan, I saw the rock." Replied Naruto. 

The blonde in question was just so tired of being stalked by weird shaped rocks at this point. He stopped in his tracks before taking a deep breath and turning around to address their stalkers. 

"Konohamaru, I've told you already… THERE AREN'T PERFECTLY SQUARED ROCKS IN NATURE DATTEBAYO!" Explained Naruto calmly. 

Muttering was heard from inside the rock and it was only then both Naruto and Sakura noticed the rock had three pairs of eye-holes. 

"What the f-" 

"TADDA!" Yelled a small group of children jumping out of the rock before going into a fit of coughs because of the colored smoke they used in their presentation. Naruto was trembling in annoyance. 

How could they mess up such an easy entrance? 

"We used too much smoke." Explained Konohamaru sheepishly. 

"Who are your friends Konohamaru?" Anger momentarily gone, Naruto found himself analyzing the new faces. 

The three kids jumped into a pose and started going through what Sakura assumed to be rehearsed introductions. 

"My name is Moegi and I'm the sassiest Kunoichi in Konoha!" The girl has light Orange hair tied in two pigtails on the sides and a permanent blush on her cheeks. 

'The sassiest?' Wondered Sakura with a frown. 

"My name is Udon and I love Math!" Said a Dark haired boy with glasses and a running nose. 

'Lame' Of all the things he could've said he chose that? Naruto really doesn't understand kids these days. 

"I'm Konohamaru, the strongest shinobi in the village and together we are…" 

'Debatable' An amused smile made its way in Sakura's face as she compared the boy to her own teammate. 

"THE KONOHAMARU CORPS!" Yelled the three of them together. 

Both Naruto and Sakura sweat dropped at their presentation, it still amazed Sakura how Naruto seemed to be a magnet for weirdness. 

"Play ninja with us Boss." Asked Konohamaru. 

"A real ninja playing ninja? Oh my!" Sakura was aware that Naruto sometimes plays with the young Sarutobi, at first she was a bit saddened by it, to think little children were capable of appreciating him without much trouble while she rejected his advances for years… 

And not just the romantic ones. 

Ignoring Sakura's mocking, Naruto smiled at the children. "I can't today Konohamaru, the Chunin exams will start soon." 

"Oh right, I heard the old man talking about that, I didn't know you were going to be there." Said Konohamaru. 

"The old man?" Asked Sakura. 

"He means the Sandaime." Naruto sometimes forgets that not everyone is as familiar with the Hokage as he is. 

Konohamaru had just now noticed Sakura was even there upon hearing her question and his childlike imagination started running through the possible reasons why they would be together right now. 

He picked the dumb one. 

"Is she your girlfriend, boss?" Asked Konohamaru, giving Naruto a suggestive wink. 

"No… and not because of a lack of trying y'know?" Said Naruto rubbing his head sheepishly. 

Naruto started feeling a dangerous aura emanating from his teammate after he made that comment and decided it was probably for the best to correct that. 

"I-I mean Sakura is a g-great friend and esteemed teammate whom I love very much 'ttebayo." Explained Naruto quickly while waving his arms frantically in front of him. 

"Oh…  makes sense, she's flatter than a plank." The silence that followed the bold and stupid statement Konohamaru had made was so defeaning you could hear a pin drop, the only show of a reaction being Sakura's trembling body. 

"WHAT?" Said a raging Sakura slowly walking towards the boy with clear intentions of beating him down very very painfully. Naruto jumped in the scene and grabbed Sakura from the back to try and restrain her long enough to give Konohamaru a chance to run for his life. 

"RUN KONOHAMARU!" 

"LET ME GO NARUTO!"

Konohamaru decided Naruto was right and ran. At some point Sakura managed to squirm off of Naruto's hold and started chasing the boy, she wasn't going to really injure him… much. But she was going to politely explain to him what's appropriate and what's not. 

The young Sarutobi ran as fast as he could and was finally feeling like he was going to escape his pursuer when he accidentally bumped into someone. 

"I'm sorry s-" He tried to apologize before being interrupted by a hand picking him up, it belonged to a teenager wearing what appeared to be a full cat bodysuit and purple makeup on his face.

"That hurt you little punk." 

"Let him go Kankuro, you're going to make Gaara mad if we're late." Said a blonde girl who carried a gigantic fan on her back. 

"Relax sis, Gaara isn't here and I want to teach this punk a lesson." He said. 

"Whatever, just be quick."

Kankuro was about to teach a lesson to the very frightened and trembling Konohamaru when both Naruto and Sakura emerged in the street being followed by Udon and Moegi. 

"Oi cat-boy, let the kid go." Said Naruto with a playful smirk, he loved pissing people off. 

"It's a battle suit!" Yelled Kankuro. 

"With cat ears?" Sakura joined in Naruto's game, giving him the perfect distraction to swiftly get Konohamaru out of danger. 

"What's up with the makeup? My friend's mom could give you a few lessons if you want to learn how to do it right y'know, no shame in wanting to look pretty." Said Naruto, purposely angering his opposition even more. 

"It's warpaint you imbecile!" 

"Okay okay, let's calm down, put the kid down and we'll let you go." Naruto raised both of his hands in surrender as he tried to negotiate with them. 

"You'll let us go?" Scoffed the blonde girl. 

Naruto knew this wasn't going to be easy so he grabbed both of his staffs while Sakura grabbed a Kunai from her pouch. "You're going to attack me while I still have the kid?" Asked Kankuro with a smirk. 

Naruto smirked back and asked "What kid?" as the Konohamaru he was holding burst in a cloud of smoke. 

Kankuro was distracted enough by the disappearance of the kid that he didn't notice the second Naruto creeping up behind him and putting the tip of one of his staffs in the back of his head at the same time the real one made electricity run to the ones in his hands. 

"Stand down." Ordered Naruto, making sure Kankuro knew exactly what could happen to him if he didn't. 

The blonde girl quickly reached for her fan in hopes of freeing his brother but a Kunai placed on her neck stopped her from moving any further. 

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The girl whose voice belonged to burst in a shower of cherry blossoms, revealing the Suna girl had been under the influence of her genjutsu. 

"You know…" Said Sakura, Kunai still firmly in place. "Attacking the Hokage's grandson is more than enough grounds for a full on war." Both Suna shinobi started sweating when they found out who the kid was. 

Suddenly, Naruto's head turned to look at a tree in the back of where they were. 

"Aren't you going to show yourself?" He asked, to seemingly no one. 

Suddenly a swirl of sand formed in the middle of the confrontation, revealing a boy around their age as the sand settled. 

"Kankuro, you're a disgrace to our village." Said the red haired boy who emerged from the sand. He was a fairly menacing individual with no eyebrows and a big gourd on his back. 

"I-I'm sorry Gaara t-they-" 

"Shut up or I'll kill you." He interrupted. 

Naruto and Sakura looked at each other and nodded before releasing both of their 'captives' and backing off. 

"I apologize for their behavior" That was the fakest apology Sakura and Naruto had ever heard in their lives. 

Naruto was put off by this boy, his presence was troubling, his chakra felt dangerous and aggressive, the way both of his teammates appeared to be terrified of him did nothing to calm his nerves. 

"I take it you're here for the Chunin Exams." Said Sakura receiving a nod from the red hair. 

"We'll be taking our leave now." They started walking down the street as he said that, both of his teammates on guard. He stopped halfway much to the confusion of his teammates and stared at Naruto. 

"You, what's your name?" 

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, what's your name?" 

"Sabaku no Gaara." 

Naruto's only response was a nod. He didn't really care about his name but it seemed to him like that was the polite thing to do. 

"I'll be seeing you in the exams Uzumaki." Said Gaara before walking back with his teammates and disappearing in the distance. 

"Konohamaru…" Called out Naruto, making the hidden boy emerge from the bushes along with his friends.

"Go tell Jiji what happened, now."

Konohamaru had never seen the young ninja look so serious before and it honestly made him feel even more nervous, he decided it was best to comply and ran off as quickly as he could along with his friends to see his grandfather. 

"What's wrong, Naruto?" Question Sakura, catching up on her teammate's sudden mood change and it put her on edge. 

"That guy's chakra, it's not normal." Replied Naruto. 

"What do you mean it's not normal?" She asked in return. 

"It's powerful and aggressive… " Explained Naruto with a concerned look on his face, "and there's two of them." 

"There's two of what?"  

"Two chakras, he has two different chakras in his body." Naruto's confused expression tells Sakura not even he knew what it meant. 

"How is that possible?" Asked Sakura with something akin to concern in her voice. 

"I don't know, I've never felt anything like him before…" Naruto was rarely scared, he was pretty confident in his abilities and he didn't doubt he could give Gaara a fight if he really wanted to but… his presence was screaming of danger and death. 

"I think we should avoid them, Sakura."

"Well, we might as well go in." Said Sakura looking at the main entrance of the academy building. 

Naruto nodded and both teammates walked in together, they made their way through the other applicants all to the main stairs of the building. They reached an upper level that had the room they were looking for and Naruto was about to make his way there until he noticed something. 

"There's chakra in the air." Muttered Naruto and Sakura nodded. 

"It's Genjutsu, that room sign says 301 but this is the second floor. This must be a part of the test." Explained Sakura, earning a nod from Naruto. 

They both decided it was for the best to simply ignore what was going on and move forward, it was a very basic genjutsu, if these people couldn't figure it out they probably aren't up for the task in their opinion. 

"Please let us in!" Begged a green-clad boy. 

"I said no, you freak!" Exclaimed one of two Genins who were stopping some of the aspiring chunin from entering the door. 

"Do you think that's a part of the test too?" Asked Naruto quietly. 

Sakura shrugged, “I think so.”

"That's my friend Lee…" He pointed out. "I'm going to tell him, even if it means letting stupid Neji pass." Grumbled Naruto as he made his way to Team 9.

He was just about to get there when one of the 'guards' kicked Lee and sent him flying. Normally that would be something to worry about, but after being beaten to a pulp multiple times in their taijutsu spars by the deceptively fast teen, Naruto knew the bushy-browed genin could've stopped that kick without so much as batting an eye. 

Why was Lee letting himself get hurt?

"Lee, Are you alright?" Mumbled Naruto to his fallen comrade. 

"Naruto-kun! what youthful pleasure is finding you here in this youthful competition." Declared the boy standing up instantly and giving Naruto his trademarked Nice-guy pose. "Yes I am alright, thank you for asking." 

Naruto got close to Lee and put a hand on his ear to speak quietly to him "Why are you letting that guy hit you?" Asked Naruto with some concern. 

"Oh, so you noticed?" Said Lee with a smile. "Neji figured out this isn’t the right floor so we're making ourselves look weak" 

That explained why Tenten was currently begging to be allowed in still, Naruto was kinda hoping to see Neji begging too. 'Like that asshole would purposely make himself look weak' Thought Naruto biting his lip. 

He couldn't stop himself from being riled up by Neji's mere presence ever since the Hyuga first belittled his abilities and called him weak the day they met. Naruto had grown leaps and bounds in making himself more centered and calm but people like him still made some of his old habits resurface, still, he knew better than start a fight right now. 

"Well… Sakura and I will be going now, I guess I'll see you the-" Half said Naruto before being interrupted by Lee rushing fast like a bullet to stand in front of his teammate. 

"Oh Sakura-san… I love you!" Announced Lee. 

"WHAT?" Yelled both Sakura and Naruto together

"You are an angel sent from the sky." Said Lee sending a kiss to Sakura that somehow managed to become real? 

Sakura dodged Lee's… kiss? Only for him to start sending more and more of them until she ended on the floor. 

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAA I WILL KEEP DODGING THEM MORE AND MORE!" Yelled Sakura after standing up. 

"You didn't have to dodge them all like that." Said Lee while looking at the ground in defeat. 

"I think it's best we go, see you later Lee!" Said Naruto, grabbing Sakura by the arm and rushing to the appointed room. 

After Sakura recovered from her encounter with Lee, both members of Team 7 made their way through the academy's corridors in search of the room where they would be taking their first exam. 

"Yo!" Said Kakashi with an eye smile and his all too familiar orange book in hand. 

"Sensei?" Asked Sakura. 

"I'm glad you both made it, though I had no doubt you would." Declared Kakashi. 

Both young shinobi beamed at their sensei's praise and smiled brightly at him. Kakashi chuckled and addressed them once more "Stick together and you'll do great, Ja-ne!" 

He was proud of his team, there was no doubt in his mind that they were going to ace the exams and reach the finals, he had trained them to guarantee it. Hence the reason why he actually made a bet on it. 

They better meet his expectations or Kakashi would be losing a decent amount of money. 

After saying goodbye the silver-haired Jounin poofed in a cloud of smoke as was his preferred method of exiting pretty much every room.

Both teens looked at each other one more time before nodding and entering the room together. The doors of the room opened to reveal a gigantic crowd of people already waiting there for the exams to start. How many of them would there be without the Genjutsu filter in the lower floor? They wondered. 

After going in, Naruto and Sakura walked to a corner of the room to wait for the exams to begin, Sakura suggested he get a feel of everyone around him and Naruto complied. 

Not a single chakra stood out for him, he had already felt Gaara's before and as disturbing as it was, there was nothing new about it, he was just about to stop focusing on everyone around him when he noticed a signature in the multitude that somehow felt familiar he knew he hadn't felt it before but it reminded him of something, someone?

He was interrupted before he could focus on it. 

"Oi Sakura! Naruto!" Called Ino who had just entered the room along with her teammates. 

Ino's loud entrance made the whole room turn their attention to the rookies, some of them even letting a little bit of their killing intent slip out. The Rookie genin that gathered were immediately on edge except for Ino seemed oblivious to it. 

"Quiet down you troublesome woman!" Said Shikamaru, making Ino realize the situation they now where in giving her friends a sheepish smile. 

"It's nice to see you guys here." Said a now smiling Naruto. 

Shikamaru for his part just stood lazily once again and sighed "You're a part of this too? What a drag." 

"You could try and be a little more excited, Shikamaru." Remarked Ino.

The lazy Nara just looked at her and took a deep breath "... no." 

Sakura, Naruto and Choji all chuckled at their friend's behavior, those two could act like they hated the other's very being one minute and magically turn into an old married couple in the other.

At least it was fun to see them bickering with each other, this was hardly the time though. 

"How are you feeling Choji?" Asked Sakura looking for something to change the topic. 

Choji seemed to catch up on it and got ready to answer "I'm a little nervous but I thin-" 

"THE STRONGEST ROOKIE TEAM HAS ARRIVED!" Declared a young shinobi wearing a gray hoodie, he has dark brown hair and two red fang-like marks in both of his cheeks; Smugness clear on his visage. 

Absolutely everyone in the room turned to the door and glared at the arriving team.

"Kiba, I think it's best that you shut up now, why? Because now everyone's attention is on us." Said Aburame Shino, one of Kiba's teammates, he's wearing a long trench coat that covers half of his face and a pair of dark sunglasses. 

Kiba gave his teammate an apologetic smile and walked to his former classmates. 

"It looks like the whole gang's back together." Said Kiba before adding jokingly, "Well, almost all of us." 

Team 10 immediately turned their faces at him as well as his teammates, they just couldn't believe he would go and say something like that to Naruto and Sakura, even Kiba seemed surprised by what he just said if him covering his mouth was anything to go by. 

He really didn't mean to say something that would hurt either Naruto or Sakura, they weren't exactly friends but he cared a great deal for them. 

He just had a moment of idiocy. 

"You better watch your mouth mutt." Said Naruto looking angrily at him, Sasuke's death was still a sore spot for both of them especially Naruto and while it didn't hurt either him or his teammate to talk about their fallen teammate, Naruto didn't appreciate people making fun of the last Uchiha. 

Kiba knew he had been the one to mess up but Naruto's comment got him riled up and now was too invested in their little fight to stand down or apologize, even if it was his fault. 

He might care for them but he is an Inuzuka, and they're a clan of prideful people; granted, the Inuzuka are people perfectly capable of admitting their mistakes but that seemed to slip Kiba's mind. 

Before it could all escalate, Sakura decided to intervene. "Calm down Naruto-kun, he didn't mean it like that." Said Sakura turning to look menacingly at Kiba while a dangerous aura started emanating from her. "Right?" She asked with a devious smile, promising of danger. 

Kiba just gulped and quickly nodded. 

Sakura was of course not happy with Kiba's joke but she knew he didn't mean to insult them, she was surprised no one in his team had managed to water down his attitude though. 

Not her problem she figures, she's convinced that eventually Hinata will snap at him and that will certainly calm him down. 

With their little confrontation over, Kiba and Naruto finally realized how much unwanted attention they had gotten on themselves and their teams. 

"You should all quiet down." Said a tall guy with silver hair tied in a ponytail while adjusting his glasses. "You're already the main target as it is." 

"And why would that be?" Questioned Shikamaru, having noticed him approaching before his friends. 

"Take a look around you." He motioned to the rest of the room. "You guys are the only rookies, they think you're an easy target."

That earned him a few scoffs.

"Who are you?" Asked Shikamaru. 

"My name is Yakushi Kabuto." Just after Kabuto finished introducing himself Team 9 entered through the doors making Kabuto look quickly at them before going back to what he was doing. 

"I have information on the exams and everyone in it and I'm willing to give it to you." Said Kabuto. 

"Why would you say anything to us?" Asked Shikamaru raising an eyebrow. 

"Because we're all Konoha ninja and we should help each other.” Said Kabuto with a smile, "Just tell me anyone you wish to know something about and I'll tell you what there is to know using these" He pulled out a deck of cards. 

"What are those?" Asked Naruto. 

"These are my shinobi information cards, they contain information on everyone in the exams and only work with the use of my chakra." Kabuto spiked Naruto's interest, those cards seemed like Fuinjutsu and Naruto was a sucker for Fuinjutsu. 

To demonstrate, Kabuto activated a card that revealed a map of the elemental nations, in it you could see every village that had sent participants to Konoha and how many of them they had sent. 

"So… anyone in mind?" Asked the Silver haired. 

"Sabaku no Gaara." No matter how hard he looked in his brain for an answer, Naruto had been so far unable to figure out how or why he had felt two different sources of chakra in his body, he was hoping Kabuto had something that would help him understand. 

"Uzumaki Naruto." Kiba didn't like feeling left out, so he asked for the first name that came to mind, still not over their little confrontation. 

All the rookies turned to look at him, he knew it was probably rude but in his mind Naruto had been rude too so it was fair. 

"You know their names? That's taking the fun out of it but okay." Said the older teen looking through his cards. 

Shikamaru didn't trust this guy at all and he couldn't understand why his friends did but he decided to just watch it all play out before jumping to conclusions. 

"Sabaku No Gaara from Suna, Teammates: Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankuro, his own siblings. Has a record of 27 C-rank, 48 B-rank and 8 A-rank missions; hear this, he's never been hurt before." Said Kabuto with something akin to admiration in his voice. 

You could read everybody's thoughts when looking at their faces after that revelation, even Neji dropped his stoicism to look surprised. 

"I don't have anything on his fighting style unfortunately, he is from a different village after all." He added. 

Shikamaru was even more skeptical of him now 'Knowing that much is already way more than he should know, especially of someone from a different village' Thought the Nara. 

"Uzumaki Naruto from Konoha, Teammates: Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke - KIA - he's a known user of one of Konoha's kinjutsu the Kage Bunshin and has been spotted using Futon and Raiton jutsu, his preferred weapon of choice are the twin staffs." Everyone made a pause to look at their friend, Naruto was uncomfortable with people knowing that much about him. 

"He has a record of 22 D-rank, 1 B-rank and a single A-rank mission; pretty impressive for a Genin if I do say so myself." Finished Kabuto making Naruto stop dead in his tracks when the older teen mentioned a B-rank. 

"You're more involved in this than I would like Naruto, this incident will be classified as a B-rank mission on your record, you helped track a spy which means this mission will be kept a secret known to only the people involved, is that clear?"

'How? Why does he know about that?' Asked Naruto in his mind. 

Shikamaru was seemingly the only to notice Naruto's inner turmoil, but even if he didn't understand exactly what it was, he knew Kabuto said something he shouldn't have known, furthermore proving his suspicion of him. 

'He knows stuff he shouldn't, that's obvious, but why? Is this a part of the test? No, we're the only people that have been approached by him or anyone else for that matter, Is he a spy? If so, a spy for whom? This whole thing is troublesome' Thought Shikamaru with clear annoyance in his face. 

"What can you tell us about our competition?" Asked Neji with his forever stoic voice. 

"There's only 4 countries competing in the exams, Konoha of course, Suna, Ame and some shinobi from a village named Otogakure no Sato, they're a new and small village so they only sent one team." Said Kabuto. 

A group of three shinobi wearing headbands with a musical note on them heard Kabuto's comment and found it insulting so they decided to show him a lesson. 

"Who are you calling small? Hear me out you imbecile, after this whole thing is over Oto will come up on top and show you all who's boss." Said a Genin from the sound village with a heavily bandaged face and a large jacket with fur. 

The oto Genin launched forward and attacked Kabuto, the silver haired genin reacted in time and got a Kunai out of his tool pouch. The Oto genin swung at him with one of his arms but Kabuto managed to dodge the hit by leaping back, he smirked at him but suddenly he dropped to the ground and started shaking, his glasses shattered and then he started vomiting. 

Everyone was looking in concern because no one understood just what exactly the Oto genin did to him, before anyone could react the doors of the room burst open and in a cloud smoke a man wearing a long black trench coat and a black bandana entered the room followed by several chunin wearing gray uniforms. 

"Listen up you maggots! From this point any kind of fighting is prohibited unless given strict permission by a proctor, failing to abide by the rules is grounds for disqualification, is that clear?" Asked the man with a menacing tone. 

"Everyone get in line, leave your forms here and go to your assigned seats." Said the proctor.

After everyone had turned in their paperwork and moved to their assigned seats the man addressed them all once again. 

"My name is Morino Ibiki and I'm your first proctor. The first part of the exam will consist of a written test. After you're given your paper you will have 45 minutes to answer the nine questions written in it. When the 45 minute mark is reached I will give you the tenth question and explain its rules. Do I make myself clear so far?" Asked Ibiki and received nods from everyone in the seats. 

"You will begin the test with 10 points, fail to answer a question or answer wrong and you lose a point. You will also be graded as a team, that means that if one of you fails your team fails with you. The chunin in the room are here to monitor you the whole time, if you're caught cheating you will be deducted two points every time you do so. Any questions?" Asked Ibiki getting some raised hands from the applicants. 

"No questions? Excellent! You may begin.”

Everyone started going through their tests only to see the questions were incredibly hard to answer if not impossible, save for a few who knew it all in the room (Sakura being one of them) no one in this room could hope to know the answers to all these questions. 

Naruto was concentrating hard, there had to be something else he wasn't noticing. 

Hinata who was seated next to him noticed his struggle and realized he had written nothing in his test. 

"N-Naruto-kun." Muttered Hinata getting Naruto's attention. 

"Y-You c-can copy f-from my exam if y-you want…" Hinata was blushing furiously and Naruto barely managed to catch what she said in between stutters, once the words registered in his mind he felt touched that she would try and help him just to be kind. 

He was about to take her up on her offer but suddenly thought of the consequences of cheating, he didn't want Hinata to get in trouble for him, he isn't that desperate, there were a few questions he could actually answer. 

"Don't worry Hinata, I wouldn't want to get you in trouble y'know?" Said Naruto giving Hinata a smile. 

'He worries about me.' Thought Hinata, blushing at the implications of her beloved crush being worried about her.

'I should've taken her up on her offer, I wouldn't want her to lose points though… wait, lose points?' Asked Naruto to himself. 

'Iruka-sensei would take our test if we were caught copying from someone, it's almost as if they wanted us to cheat.' Giving himself a mental high-five for figuring out the test Naruto started to brainstorm ideas. 

That was it, they are supposed to cheat, that is the point of this test, Naruto should've known; Kakashi has been drilling the whole 'Look underneath the Underneath' mantra for quite a while now. 

The question was how to cheat, he could just copy from Hinata but he would be easily caught that way, he looked around and noticed a guy in front of him who seemed to know all the answers, Naruto then noticed he would write them all, erase them and start again. 

'He must be a part of the test'

He figured out how to cheat, it is risky but he knows it's hard to spot among the crowd unless people were looking for it. He brought a hand to his face in faked desperation and used the opportunity to move some of the hair covering his right eye. He then opened said eye revealing a two tomoe sharingan, he used it to copy the motions of the guy in front of him and was able to fill in all the questions. He then closed his right eye and covered it once again. 

He had to find a way to use his eye without having to go through the trouble of making his hair stay in place, he was glad he managed to grow it out to be able to cover it however, the only downside was that he couldn't wear his headband on the forehead lest his closed eye would be exposed all the time. He wore his headband tied around his neck much like Hinata's, if only a little tighter. 

He did intend to start wearing his headband like he used to when the knowledge of his sharingan became public, he'd have to suck it up in the meantime. 

"It's time for the tenth question, before I give it to you, you have the option of either answering the question or not." Said Ibiki. 

"What happens if we don't answer?" Asked a random Genin in the background. 

"You and your team will fail and you'll have to take the exams next year" Answered Ibiki. 

"Then we'll just take it" Answered the genin and received a devious smirk from Ibiki. 

"If you choose to answer and you do so incorrectly, you and your team will be banned from ever taking the exams again." 

"WHAT? YOU CAN'T DO THAT" Yelled Kiba, "There's people here that have taken the exams before". 

"You're out of luck, I'm making the test this time which means I make the rules" Answered Ibiki. "Everyone who wishes not to answer and try again next time raise your hand and you will be escorted out." 

Tons of people started to leave the room and Naruto was now getting nervous, he turned around looking for his teammate and found her looking as worried as he was until Shikamaru who was sitting next to her muttered something in her ear which caused her to to light up in understanding, she in turn gave Naruto a thumbs up and shook her head, instructing him not to drop out. 

Naruto wouldn't question whatever it was that Shikamaru said, he knew he was smart so he just calmly remained in his seat and waited for this part to end. 

Naruto then noticed Hinata was visibly shaking, he knew he couldn't talk to her to ease her nerves but he couldn't think of any other way to calm her down, Hinata then started to raise her hand and Naruto knew he had to do something to stop her from quitting, she had tried to help him so it was only fair he helped her as well. 

So he did what he thought was the most logical and safest way to stop her from quitting. 

He stomped her foot.

Hard. 

Hinata almost yelled in pain but managed to cover her mouth with her hand and turned her head to look at Naruto who gave her an apologetic smile and muttered the words 'Don't quit' to her. 

Any other person would've reacted aggressively and rightfully so. 

Hinata just did as he said. 

"To every one of you who remains here I have just one thing to say, you all… pass" 

"WHAT?" Shouted almost everyone in the room. 

"What was the tenth question?" Asked Temari. 

"There was no tenth question, or you could say that choosing to stay or not was the question." Said Ibiki but received looks of confusion. 

"As Chunin you will be put into situations where you won't like what you have to do, situations where you know you probably can't survive, will you skip out on them? Will you decline when asked by your Kage? The answer is no, you will have to do things you won't like because that's what your village needs you to do and that's the only thing that matters."

"What was the point of the other questions then? Were they pointless?" Asked Temari. 

"Those were to test your information gathering skills." Answered Ibiki, taking off his bandana and showing his very scarred head to everyone in the room. 

"Information is the most valuable thing for a village, it is of the utmost importance that you manage to get it safely and to keep information from your village safe as well." Further explained Ibiki. 

"Either way, congratulations on passing the first t-" 

Suddenly one of the windows at the left of the room shattered and in came a ball of black cloth that extended to reveal a sign that read 'The Sexy and Single proctor of the second exam Mitarashi Anko' followed by whom everyone assumed was Mitarashi Anko. 

"You're early Anko… again." Said Ibiki causing Anko to deflate, she quickly recovered however and started counting the people left in the room. 

"35 genin left Ibiki? You must be going soft in your old age." Joked Anko

"Maybe there's just a good batch this time." Replied Ibiki with a challenging smirk on his face. 

"Whatever, when I'm through with them their numbers will be cut at least in half" Anko smirked and everyone started getting nervous. 

"Follow me kiddies, we have work to do" Yelled the second proctor before jumping out the window, making everyone in the room follow behind her. 

After all the 'Chunin to be' left the room Ibiki started going through the tests until he got to Naruto's, he was reading over it and was surprised to see it was done to perfection 'he definitely cheated' figured the proctor and was about to move forward until he found a note hidden in one of the questions. 

Ibiki-san, Ibiki-sama? Whatever… 

There is a guy in the exam, Yakushi Kabuto, he knows something, Jiji Hokage-sama said only he, a few ANBU and I were supposed to know about and I swear I didn't tell anyone. I'm only telling you this because Hokage-sama mentioned your name.

 I might be overreacting and I'm sorry to use you as a courier but I would appreciate it if you could tell my sensei, I'm sure he will know what to do, I'd do it myself but we're not allowed to talk to our senseis. 

-Uzumaki Naruto 

Ps. I think you're cool 'ttebayo. 

"What an interesting kid."

A Young man with silver hair tied in a ponytail was making his way through a series of underground tunnels below the village, making sure not to be spotted by the guards. 

After minutes of silently walking he found a small hidden room in one of the walls, a tall man with dark hair and white skin waiting there for him. 

Without even bothering to greet him he asked the question he had come here to ask. "Are you sure this is the way to proceed, Orochimaru-sama?" 

"Very Kabuto-kun, the loss of the sharingan is a detriment to my plans but that's hardly the only thing I want, Sarutobi-sensei will die and Konoha will fall with him." Orochimaru, one of the Densetsu no Sannin and fallen apprentice of the Sandaime Hokage. 

"I take it you won't be infiltrating the second part of the exams as you originally intended." Said Kabuto. 

"Kukuku…" Chuckled Orochimaru. "Of course I will, while not my first option, the Sharingan isn't the only Dojutsu Konoha has to offer, I might as well make the best of what I got while I'm here don't you think? 

Chapter Text

"What do you make of this Kakashi?"

The man sighed. "I'm not sure, the only thing I could think of about Naruto that only you and a few people are supposed to know is his parentage… but that doesn’t make sense." 

The Hokage and Kakashi had been going over the little note Naruto had left for him for a while now. It annoyed Kakashi to no end that he was the one tasked to figuring it all out when it was obvious in the Hokage's face that he knew what Naruto meant. 

Thinking he was being made fun of, Kakashi didn't stop to think that maybe asking him what he knew about it was the Hokage's way of finding out if there was a leak of information in his ranks that he had to take care of. 

"That's because you're guessing wrong, Kakashi…" Said Hiruzen cryptically. "The only time I can recall ever mentioning Ibiki to Naruto-kun is the night of the Mizuki incident."

"The Mizuki incident?" By now it was common knowledge between Konoha's forces that the man had been found to be a traitor, none other than the people involved however were privy to the full details. 

"It was revealed that Mizuki decided to impersonate Naruto in his heist. I, however, kept quiet about the fact that Naruto actually helped us track him after he attempted to flee the village. At the moment I had no knowledge of who Mizuki was working for or why he had chosen Naruto to impersonate. After Ibiki told me about Orochimaru's involvement I decided to keep it secret, hoping he never got word of this." Explained Hiruzen. 

"Do you think Yakushi Kabuto is a spy?" Asked Kakashi.

"I'm not certain… it is a possibility we should definitely look into, if he is a spy, we must discover for whom he's spying." That's not to say Hiruzen doesn't have a few guesses on the matter but he thinks it best to wait until more information is available to him. 

Kakashi furrowed his brow in concentration "I believe it would be best if you send an ANBU squad to shadow him for a while." 

"No." Replied Hiruzen, not bothering to give the notion so much as a second thought. 

"No?" Asked Kakashi, a dumbfounded look on his face. 

"If he truly is a spy, we must assume he's able to detect a tail of ANBU, I doubt our forces would be able to get close enough to him to make tailing him useful…" Said Hiruzen as he looked out the window. 

"However…" He trailed off. "What makes Naruto special is not common knowledge, I'm inclined to believe he is not a target."

It's true that Naruto was the one to detect the leak of information by means of his classified mission but, it just wouldn't make sense for this suspected spy to tip off his subject like that. That made him think it was most likely an accident. 

What truly is concerning for the Hokage is the why, why would a suspected spy try and approach a group of random Genin? They hold no valuable information he could get out of them; was he trying to lure them into a false sense of security? 

Why? 

"I want you to go into the forest, monitor the exams from the tower, if you find anything suspicious I'm giving you free reign to act as you see fit, is that clear?" 

"Crystal." Replied Kakashi. 

"Then report to Anko in the tower at once."

"It will be done." Kakashi left the Hokage's office via Shunshin . He wasn't sure why, but he was starting to get a bad feeling about all this. 

"Gather 'round kiddies!" Yelled out Anko, getting the attention of the Genin "You all better pay attention cuz I'm not gonna tell you twice alright?" 

"This is Training ground 44 or like I like to call it… The Forest of Death ." Everyone started looking a little hesitant after Anko's statement, well… almost everyone. 

Naruto and Kiba were clearly not impressed by what they assumed to be the proctor's scare tactics. The whiskered boy was lucky enough to have a level headed teammate - most of the time - and a good ammount of conseling sessions on his back to stop him from saying something stupid. 

Kiba wasn't that lucky. 

"Like we're going to be scared by you crazy lady!" Proclaimed Kiba boldly. 

His teammates didn't even have time to scold him before the 'crazy lady' decided to take action herself. 

Anko threw a Kunai at Kiba so fast he didn't even have time to react, the Kunai passed right by his face, leaving a little scar over the fang mark on his left cheek. 

That wasn't enough for her however, she disappeared from their view, fast enough to make it look like she vanished only to emerge embracing Kiba by the back. A wicked smile adorned her face while she slowly licked the blood from Kiba's cheek. 

"You're a rude boy aren't you? Rude boys tend to leave their blood all over the f-" 

Anko suddenly stopped talking and quickly grabbed a kunai from her coat, she redied her weapon without losing her hold on Kiba and quickly turned her head around. 

"I was only giving you back your Kunai." Said the Kusa shinobi - who surprised Anko - still holding the blade on her sickly long tongue. 

Without letting her smile leave her face Anko addressed the strange ninja. 

"Thank you Kusa shinobi, I wouldn't ever get this close to me again unless you want to cut your days short." Despite her bravado Anko was immediately weary of this ‘girl’, there was something unnerving about her. 

"I'm sorry Anko-san, I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just that seeing the blood and the way you threw your blade made me feel excited." Said the girl as she walked away. 

"That doesn't make sense…" Muttered Naruto. 

"What was that?" Asked Sakura. 

"That girl's chakra, it's different… I remember her signature from the first test, it wasn't nearly as big and awful ." Explained Naruto quietly, Sakura wasn't sure what that meant but she had learned to trust Naruto's sensing abilities, that was another person it was best to avoid. 

Unbeknownst to Naruto and Sakura who weren't as quiet as they thought, Anko heard their conversation. A thoughtful look made its way to her face before she replaced it with her usual smirk and addressed the examinees once again. 

"Everyone's in a bad mood today… it must be something in the air." She joked effectively getting everyone's attention. 

Anko signaled some of the Chunin in the vicinity and they started handing out slips of papers to every team. 

"What you're receiving now are consent forms you have to sign if you wish to participate in this part of the exams." 

"What exactly are we consenting to?" Asked Sakura. 

"Oh… you know, death and stuff like that." Anko was sporting a mischievous smile on her face, she is a big fan of theatrics "From this point forward corpses start emerging you know? If you don't sign your forms it would be my and Konoha's responsibility, we can't have that now can we?"

For some reason, Anko laughing after she said that made Naruto feel nervous. What was it with the Jounin in this village? 

"Now I shall explain." Said Anko in a dignified manner. 

"This will be a survival exercise." Anko started looking through her coat and got out a map "First let me tell you about the terrain, there's exactly 44 gates around the fenced ground, inside the fence there's a forest of course, a river and a tower. Each gate is exactly 10km away from the tower, once inside the forest, everything goes ."

The implications of what Anko just said weren't lost on any of the participants. 

Permission to kill . 

"Each team will receive either an earth or a heaven scroll, to pass you need to get to the tower carrying both scrolls. Your whole team needs to be there, if you're missing a member or one of the members is incapable of continuing you're out, do I make myself clear?" Asked Anko, receiving yells of 'Yes' all around the clearing. 

' So she expects half of us to fail here… troublesome woman ' 

"I almost forgot, there's a time limit for this exam. You have exactly 120 hours to get to the tower once inside the forest, 5 days if you don't feel like doing your math" 

Naruto sighed 'A time limit? ' 

"What are we going to do about the food?" 

Asked a chubby genin. 

Anko smirked. "There's different flora and fauna all around this forest you can hunt to feed yourselfs, just make sure you don't turn into the hunted" 

"You will now be given a scroll randomly in exchange of your signed consent forms, under no circumstance are you allowed to see through the contents of your scrolls, as chunin you will be expected to handle vital information, make sure to prove you're reliable." 

Everyone started gathering around the tents set in front of the fences, after each team had received their respective scrolls they were directed to a different gate each and were now just waiting for them to open. 

Naruto and Sakura had gotten an earth scroll after explaining to the chunin in charge of handing them over that they were registered in the exams as a two man cell and were now waiting on their own gate. 

The members of team 7 were constantly stealing glances at the other for the better part of 15 minutes while they waited for this test to begin, it was hard not to. 

They both liked each other after all. 

Naruto had never really fallen out of love with his teammate, he just accepted it as something that can't be and moved on. He was a rather persistent person but even he knew when to give up. 

Sakura was… complicated. 

She liked Naruto, heck, she might even be in love with Naruto, but she felt wrong about it. After rejecting his advances for so long, what right did she have to feel for his teammate? Especially after how she treated him in the past? 

She was truly blind. 

Sakura had moved past Sasuke's death, but she wasn't sure that she moved on from Sasuke as a person. It was like Naruto had been slowly taking his place in her heart, growing on her at the same time Sasuke became just a fond memory. 

Was that all Naruto truly was? 

A replacement ? 

The whiskered blonde has a way with Sakura that she couldn't quite understand; he makes her feel safe, Naruto has a way of just naturally caring and looking after her that made her feel appreciated. 

She felt valid. 

And that wasn't fair to him, Sakura knew Naruto still loved her and she knew there was a chance that she loved him back, but she is also sure Naruto deserves better. 

So much better. 

"We're ready to begin!" Yelled a random chunin snapping Sakura out of her thoughts. 

The gates all opened and both Naruto and Sakura looked at each other with a face completely serious, it was time. 

They rushed in and ran for 10 minutes straight, after deciding they'd be better off moving through the trees, they climbed the tree closest to them and stopped for a moment to plan their strategy. 

"Weird…" Said Naruto. 

"What's weird?" Asked Sakura 

"The forest, it's full of chakra… I won't be able to scout ahead for teams, don't worry though, I can still feel people approaching, it just means we'll have to track the enemy old school." Said Naruto with a smile. 

"Full of chakra… I heard that this whole forest was grown by the Shodaime, the chakra you feel might be coming from the trees." Lectured Sakura earning a 'Wow' face from Naruto. 

After some discussion they both decided it was best to stick to the trees while Naruto used Kage Bunshin to create decoys of them that would stick to the ground. 

Everything had been going smoothly until three shadows started tailing Naruto and Sakura, waiting for a perfect opportunity to hit. 

"Sakura-chan, I need to pee." Said Naruto with a sheepish smile. 

Sakura looked at him irritated "Fine! Be quick, we need to get to a team fast" 

Naruto went into the woods and left Sakura by herself looking around the clearing where they stopped. She might as well take the time to gather some supplies while she waits for Naruto to be over. 

She walked to a nearby bush to gather some edible berries when out of the ground emerged a tall Ame shinobi dressed in a full beige bodysuit. He quickly placed a kunai on Sakura's throat and held her from the back to make sure she couldn't move. 

"Give me your scroll and I might just let you live.” Said the Genin with a cocky smirk behind his breather. 

Sakura started trembling in his hold and the Ame shinobi couldn't hide his joy "Are you scared little girl?" Feeling confident he got even closer to Sakura only to realize there was no fear on her face, but a smirk of her own. 

"Gotcha!" She said before bursting into a cloud of smoke. 

"What the-" 

" SHANNARO !" 

From the trees dropped Sakura fist first into the Ame shinobi who managed to jump back in time to avoid the hit. Sakura landed on the floor leaving a small crater and stood up to face her opponent. 

She got a kunai out of her pouch and rushed at him, taking the initiative. She swinged at him relentlessly while he did his best to dodge the continuous strikes as he walked back. He bumped into a tree and realized he had been set up when a hand grabbed his feet from the ground. 

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu

He sank into the ground and the Sakura that had been swinging at him dissipated, revealing he had been under the influence of her genjutsu. The real one emerged from the ground and sported a cocky smirk of her own. 

She was about to address his buried opponent but the sound of someone charging her from behind interrupted her, she turned around with a kunai in hand only for one of Naruto's electrified staffs to come flying at him from the trees and hitting him on the back of the neck making him drop unconscious with a loud thud that made his buried teammate wince. 

Naruto then walked out of the trees carrying the remaining member of the Ame team on his shoulder completely out cold, he dropped him near Sakura's captive opponent and extended his arm. 

Futon: Hanpatsu Kaze no Jutsu

A small gust of wind picked up his fallen staff and brought it back to him, he put it on his back and turned to address his teammate who was looking at him with a twitching eye. 

"You wanted to look cool didn't you?" 

Naruto gave her a sheepish smile and rubbed his nose "Yeah… Kakashi said it looked cooler when I managed to do it without calling out the jutsu."

Sakura decided to ignore the comment and returned her attention to the genin neck deep in the ground. 

"Who carries your scroll?" She asked, looking at him with the scariest look she could muster. 

"I'm not going to tell you anything you bitch!" Was the kind response of her captive. 

Sakura looked at him and a devious smirk formed in her face, she formed a rat seal and called out a jutsu he couldn't quite understand. 

Magen: Narukami no Jutsu

All around the Ame shinobi the clearing started going dark, he somehow managed to free his hands enough to perform a jutsu that allowed him to reemerge from the ground, after he did the clearing was visible once again and Team 7 was nowhere to be seen, he walked over to his fallen teammates laying face first on the floor. 

He kneeled next to them, set on waking them up only to find them both with a Kunai on their foreheads, he was shocked and started walking back without taking his eyes off of them. Suddenly, a strong presence stopped him from moving forward, he turned around to find his previously pretty captor turned into a monster. 

The girl was now a head taller than him, her hair was swaying on her back and blood was dripping from her black eyes and mouth, she then gave him the sickest smile he had ever seen, showing off her incredibly large fangs covered in blood, and put her burning hand on his neck. 

" The scroll." She growled. 

The beige-clad genin started sweating and trembling in fear, the rational part of his mind screaming at him to snap out of it completely overwhelmed by the immense fear he felt. He swiftly reached for his scroll and slowly gave it to his captor, making her smile. 

His surroundings started changing again and he could see his teammates still knocked out but safe on the ground, the girl in front of him reverted back to normal and winked at the same time a strong chop on his neck sent him to the land of unconsciousness. 

Sakura looked at the earth scroll she just got and sighed. "Not the one we need." She said as she pocketed the scroll on her pouch, thinking it might come in handy later. 

Naruto walked towards her and said "That wasn't really necessary y'know?" 

Sakura smirked at him. "I wanted to look cool too."

"Weak…" 

"You already took their scroll Neji, no need to trash talk them even more." Said Tenten, making the Hyuga scoff. 

Team 9 had found a Suna team a few hours after entering the forest thanks to the Hyuga's all seeing eye and decided to ambush them. 

Beating them had been fairly easy, Lee and Tenten didn't do much other than watch as their teammate trashed their opposition around the clearing, it almost made Lee and Tenten feel sorry for them. 

Lee hated how Neji treated everyone he deemed inferior, especially because that's how Neji treated him. Lee was born with a special condition making him incapable of performing Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, he was considered a failure who only had mediocre Taijutsu to rely on. 

It all changed when Maito Gai discovered him training alone one day after team assignments and gave him the advice that would set his life on the right path. 

Youthfulness 

~

Lee dropped to the ground sweating and crying after failing to meet his own expectations… again. 

"All that hard work doesn’t mean anything…" Called out a voice that Lee recognized as his sensei. 

"You believe that too? Am I not working hard enough? Will I never be good because I wasn't born a natural Genius like Neji?" The boy cried. 

"All that hard work doesn’t mean anything… if you don't believe in yourself first" Finished Gai. 

Lee's trembling form looked up from the ground to meet his sensei's eye. 

"Can I really do it, Gai-sensei?" He asked between sobs. 

Gai gave the boy a warm smile and dropped his boisterous attitude for a moment. "I believe you can do it, yes." 

Lee looked surprised to finally have someone actually believe in him for the first time in his life. 

"Do you know why I think that, Lee?" The boy shook his head. 

"It's because you have a gift not even Neji has…" Said Gai, surprising Lee. 

"Not even Neji?" He asked. 

"That's right…" Said Gai. "You have a gift not even Neji's Byakugan can beat… Perseverance."

"Perseverance?" 

"Few people have the will to fight against adversity, Lee. You fight to reach your dream even against the Destiny you were imposed on at birth." His sensei's words rang deep in Lee's head as some form of realization settled in. "You persevere everyday, that makes you a true Genius… a Genius of Hard Work." 

~

"Hard work can overcome any obstacle Neji, even you."

Neji turned to look at his teammate only to find him not really looking at him but the horizon.

That annoyed him even more for some reason. 

"Hard work means nothing, it was their fate to meet their match in me." Declared Neji, again with full certainty. 

Normally Lee is all up for standing up to Neji and his belief in fate, he just can't convince him that no one's fate is sealed in stone no matter how hard he tries. He decided to skip the argument this time, better not to argue with your team in the middle of an exam. 

"Let's just go." Interrupted Tenten before the argument escalated. 

Tenten was always in the middle of her teammate's arguments and she was always torn. If you asked her before she would've told you that Lee spoke nonsense, but she had witnessed Lee's growth, she knew he was the fastest Genin in the village if not one of the fastest period. 

His Taijutsu was excellent, beat only by their sensei's own, she knew Lee was right but… she didn't want to be on Neji's bad side. 

She fails to notice everyone is on Neji's bad side. 

After another argument about the team's difference in beliefs Team 9 started making their way to the tower; they came up with a system to stay out of danger as much as possible. 

Neji would periodically turn his Byakugan on and off to scout their surroundings without tiring the Hyuga too much if a battle were to take place. He never let his all seeing eye rest for more than a minute, there was no way someone would be fast enough to avoid detection. 

Right? 

A figure rushed them at full speed between one of the Hyuga's resting intervals without them even feeling it, when Neji activated his Byakugan he saw the figure of a girl finishing a set of hand seals. 

He didn't even have the time to warn his teammates. 

A gigantic gush of wind powerful enough to tore a few trees from the air came at them and hit full force. Lee was sent flying for miles while both of his teammates were slammed against the trees. 

Tenten was the first person to react, she stood up and found a girl she identified as a Kusa shinobi walking towards them. Tenten was no fool and knew from the first time she set her eyes on their attacker that this was no ordinary shinobi. 

"What scroll do you need?" She asked, looking for a peaceful resolution to the conflict she knew she had no way of winning. 

The Kusa shinobi seemed amused by the girl's question "What scroll do I need? Uhmm, what about both?" 

Tenten didn't even have time to be confused about the cryptic response due to the Kusa girl running to her so fast she didn't even have to blink, and buried a fist on her stomach. 

She dropped to her knees with the air completely blown out of her, she started coughing blood desperately trying to catch a breath, the Kusa-nin smirked and licked the blood she had spit on her arm. 

Hakke Kusho! 

Neji jumped right in front of her and sent a strong gust of condensed wind from his extended palm that sent the Kusa shinobi flying and crashing in a tree. Not even looking like she had even felt the impact, she stood up like nothing happened and gave Neji a sick smile. 

"Why don't we make this more interesting?" She asked playfully, licking her lips and giving Neji a stare that was succeeding in making uncomfortable. 

On her hands were both of the scrolls their team had gotten, she used a small katon jutsu to burn the earth scroll much to the shock of Tenten and opened her mouth wide open, her immensely large tongue swirled around the scroll and pushed it down her throat.

"Only one way to get it now." It was possible for them to see how the scroll was swallowed as it made its way down to her stomach. 

Not really minding the disgusting display of abilities, a confident smirk graced Neji's features "You made a mistake coming here without your teammates."

The Hyuga boy got in his Jyuken stance and rushed his opponent. He started placing fast paced hits on her body, all intending on shutting her tenketsu down. 

After he was done Neji took a step back only to watch his enemy turn into mud. 

"Agh!" 

A kick from his left side sent Neji crashing towards a tree, a sickening crunch was heard with the impact and Neji was certain it hadn't been the tree. 

"Kukuku…"  A dark and sickening chuckle filled Neji's ears, he looked at the perpetrator and started seething at how easy it had been to manhandle him. 

"I was told you were some kind of prodigy, I must confess, you're quite disappointing." Fake hurt was clear in her voice and it only showed how incredibly amusing this whole situation is for her. 

Neji started gritting his teeth in anger at being toyed with by this no-name shinobi. 

He stood up and rushed at her recklessly with quick Jyuken jabs once again but much to Neji's surprise, she dodge them all in a show of pure speed he only knew his sensei capable of. 

The Kusa shinobi got past Neji's defence and immobilized him with a well placed kick in the gut, if she hadn't been interrupted, she would've ended the job right there and there. 

Sogu: Baku Ryusei! 

A Kusarigama came out of one of Tenten's many scrolls and tied around the Kusa shinobi's body, she tightened the hold of the chain and out of the same scroll she started unsealing and throwing a barrage of weapons in a set of moves so gracious it looked like she was dancing.    

The Kusa shinobi was hit by multiple projectiles and dropped to the ground bleeding profusely, Tenten dropped to the ground tired and sighed in relief, she was about to make her way to her teammate when a maniacal laugh invaded the forest. 

Neji and Tenten looked stunned as out of the body's mouth a pale white man emerged. He looked at them and gave them a vicious smile that froze them both in place. 

"To think I would be forced out by mere Genin." Spat the man. 

"W-Who are you?" Tenten had been right to suspect landing that attack was a bit too easy, the fear in her voice was clear and no matter how much she tried to hide her emotions everyone could see how terrified she was. 

Only one thing is clear for her, this man is no Genin. 

"Oh… how rude of me." Said the man in mock surprise. "It seems I failed to introduce myself, my name is Orochimaru. "

"O-Orochimaru of the Sanin?" She asked only to receive a smirk as an answer. 

"Oh my! And here I thought Sarutobi-sensei didn't like people talking about me anymore." Finding the situation amusing, he brought his hand to his forehead and adopted a dramatic pose   "... I'm surprised someone so young knows about me."

Tenten knew everything about the Sanin, at least everything that could be found in history books. She dreams of one day becoming a legendary Kunoichi like Senju Tsunade after all. 

Before any of them had the time to run or do anything, Orochimaru released a sickening aura that completely shocked the Genin to their core, images of their deaths started feeling their minds and Tenten couldn't stop herself from vomiting her guts out. The fallen Sannin took it as an opportunity to make a move on his precious target but was interrupted once again. 

DYNAMIC ENTRY! 

Out of the blue came their green clad teammate and with an incredibly strong kick sent Orochimaru flying away from his prey. 

"LEE!" 

--

Moments Earlier. 

A tree in the middle of a clearing stopped Lee's advance, the green clad genin hit the bark of the tree hard with a sickening crunch of his back. He dropped limp to the ground and laid there for a few minutes until he gathered enough strength to stand up once again and make his way to his teammates as fast as he could. 

He was just starting to walk when a giant snake came rushing at him. He managed to sidestep it and send it crashing towards the tree he had hit before and tried to run away from it but the snake recovered quickly, way too quickly. 

It rushed at him once again and this time managed to swallow him in one bite. Lee started struggling inside the body of the snake, he could feel it moving and slowly working on digesting him. Not seeing any other option he brought both arms together and started molding the little chakra in his body. 

" First Gate of Opening: Kaimon! " The restraint his brain puts on his muscles stopped. 

" Second Gate of Healing: Kyumon! " The strength of his body increased. 

" Third Gate of Life: Seimon! " The skin of Lee turned red from the increased flow of blood on his body. 

" Four Gate of Pain: Shomon! " An explosion of green chakra surrounded Lee. 

From the inside of the Snake's stomach Lee used his empowered state to perform one of his Taijutsu techniques to rip open his flesh prison. 

Konoha Senpuu! 

The spinning kick ruptured the snake's stomach causing an explosion of blood and flesh, out of it came Lee at full speed with complete disregard of the gory scene he left behind. 

Present Time

Orochimaru stood up looking annoyed, he didn't have much time to think about it; the same kid that was supposed to be eaten alive by his summon came flying at him at high speeds. 

'Hachimon?! ' Thought the Sannin as he stood up once again. 

Lee started a powerful Taijutsu bout with the wayward Sannin, he threw a hard fist to the older man's head only for him to duck under it and try to punish the powerful Genin's stomach. Being fast enough to react Lee grabbed the man's hand and placed a strong knee on his stomach that had him spitting blood, he then backed off a little and placed a powerful spinning kick in the back of his head that sent him flying. 

Lee ran with an extended fist set on knocking him out but much to his surprise, the sannin side stepped it and grabbed Lee by the neck painfully, stopping his momentum completely in a single move. 

"You annoying little pest!" He said, as he placed knee strike after knee strike on the boy's stomach, enjoying the sickening sound of flesh being ruptured with each hit.

Orochimaru was aware that Lee wasn't using Ninjutsu, but… while the Hachimon formation didn't need the use of chakra to be activated, it was a chakra based technique and that meant it could be shut down. 

Orochimaru extended his arm backwards and each of his fingers started glowing in a sickly purple. He used his tongue to rip open Lee's jumpsuit and exposed his bare skin. 

Gogyo Fuin! 

Orochimaru struck Lee's stomach hard and placed the seal on him, the gates closed and Lee was rendered useless and unconscious. The Sannin placed a knee on his face hard for good measure and let him fall from the tall tree to his certain death. 

The knocked out genin was falling at high speeds but was stopped by Tenten who tied a kunai with ninja wire and threw it at him, managing to tie Lee around the bark of a tree. 

Orochimaru jumped to the tree she and Neji were standing in and slapped her face like she was nothing as he walked towards Neji and licked his lips while looking sickly at him. 

"What do you want?" Asked Neji through gritted teeth, not enjoying the fact that he and his team had been beaten the way they had. 

"Isn't it obvious?" Orochimaru chuckled. " I want you. " 

Neji jumped back just in time to avoid Orochimaru stepping on him, he got in his Jyuken stance once again and smirked confidently at him. "You're within my range of divination."

Hakke Sanjuni Sho!  

"2 palms!" He hit 2 of the Sannins Tenketsu on his arms much to his surprise. 

"4 palms!" He yelled as he hit some of the Tenketsu on his stomach and made the sannin cough a little blood on him. 

"8 palms!" He managed to seal some of the Tenketsu in both of his arms to stop him from using any jutsu. 

"16 palms!" Neji struck most of the remaining Tenketsu on Orochimaru's stomach.

"32 palms!" The Hyuga prodigy completely shut the Tenketsu on the man's chest effectively stopping his heart, ending with an open palm that sent the man flying. 

The limp body of Orochimaru hit a tree and fell on it's branch, but, to the complete and utter shock of the stoic boy the Sannin dissolved into a puddle of mud again and re-emerged from the branch of the tree they were both standing in. 

Orochimaru made eye contact with Neji and used the Kanashibari no Jutsu on him without having to even use hand signs. 

"You did good, Neji-kun, you definitely live up to expectations." He said

Orochimaru made a modified ram seal and his Neck extended towards Neji, he opened his mouth and bit on the boy's neck. A black mark in the form of three tomoe appeared on Neji's shoulder as he dropped to the ground screaming in pure agony before passing out. 

"What did you do to him?" Asked Tenten in worry. 

"I gave him a gift…" Said the Sannin turning to look at Tenten, he opened his mouth and out came the heaven scroll he swallowed before. "Make sure to pass, it'll be a shame to have my gift go to waste."

The treacherous Sannin walked towards the bark of the tree and quite literally merged into it, leaving a worried and tired Tenten with two unconscious teammates. 

'Soon Neji-kun, you will come to me begging for power and I'll be happy to comply…'  

"I have to admit…" Anko smirked.  "This is way more fun than I thought it would be." 

"Fun?" Asked Kakashi. 

"You know…" Continued Anko. "The joy of tormenting young souls and scaring children to death."

"You're peculiar Anko." Said Kakashi with a chuckle. 

"You're no fun Kakashi- kun. " Said Anko lodging on Kakashi's shoulder and giving him a seductive wink. 

Kakashi had joined Anko in the tower as per the Hokage's orders, he had been there for a while now and as of yet nothing much had happened. 

Only one team had made it to the tower in record time and Kakashi had the pleasure of watching the performance of that red-haired boy in the suna team. He made it a point to talk with his students about him when they reached the tower. 

The tower was equipped with a surveillance set that allowed the exam's proctor and in this case Kakashi to watch the exams from an advantageous point of view through the use of cameras. 

The Genin he was sent here to investigate hadn't done anything that would raise suspicions yet and that had Kakashi thinking hard. 

Was he just a normal Genin? 

Did he just casually hear about Naruto's mission record from someone? 

Had Naruto misheard what he said? 

"Anko! Kakashi-senpai!" The voice of a frantic Chunin rushing through the doors of the room to get to them shook Kakashi out of his thoughts. 

"What is it?" Anko asked. 

"We found something in the outskirts of the forest, you need to see it for yourselves" 

Kakashi and Anko nodded to each other and left with the Chunin, each of them leaving a Kage Bunshin in their place to keep on monitoring the test. 

The group of Shinobi ran through the forest the fastest they could and reached the gates in half an hour. What they found when they got to their destination wasn't what they were expecting at all. 

Being guarded by a squad of ANBU and a pair of Chunin was the lifeless body of the Kusa shinobi Anko had met at the start of the exams. What immediately caught their attention was the face of the girl or rather… the lack of it. 

" Orochimaru. " Snarled Anko, getting everyone's attention. 

"I would recognize that bastard's handiwork anywhere, it's him, he's here ." She continued. 

The squad of ANBU sealed behind the body and turned to look at the highest ranking shinobi among them for Instructions. 

"Tora!" Called Kakashi, getting the attention of a brown-haired man with a lion mask on his face "Report this to Hokage-sama immediately." 

"Kakashi!" She interrupted. "We have to go in." Anko wasn't thinking clearly and he was very aware of it, he however, knew the presence of the Sannin presented a great risk to every genin team there and he couldn't just let him roam free around them while he waited for the Hokage. 

Especially not his team. 

Kakashi nodded and instructed the remains of the ANBU squad to go in with them, they were just making their way through the forest again when the Kage Bunshin they left behind both dispelled to inform them of what they had seen through the screens. 

Orochimaru playing with Neji and his team. 

"We have to go now!" Yelled Anko, fastening her pace. 

When they got to the spot where the battle took place everyone was long gone, Anko managed to pick up a trail and they pursued for a while longer. 

After what felt like hours their pursuit brought fruits and they were now face to face with the snake sannin himself. Anko was about to jump in and get rid of that condescending smirk of his but Kakashi stopped her. 

"What are you doing here?" Asked Kakashi with a commanding voice. 

Orochimaru brushed off Kakashi's tone and chuckled at him "My my Kakashi-kun, you're going to make me think you're not happy to see me."

"Just tell us what you want you bastard, what did you want with that team?!" Demanded Anko. 

Orochimaru slumped his shoulders in fake defeat and replied. "And here I thought holding back on them would allow me to go unnoticed."

The squad of ANBU all surrounded Orochimaru and got ready to attack him just like Kakashi and Anko. The copycat revealed his sharingan eye and carefully studied Orochimaru. 

The man smirked at them and made a half ram seal. The curse mark on Anko reacted and she dropped to the ground, thrashing around and screaming in agony. 

"Konoha shinobi have become so rude ever since I left…" Joked Orochimaru. "Let me go quietly and I might let little Anko-chan live."

To the untrained eye it might seem like Orochimaru was scared of Kakashi, he wasn't, he could take down everyone present at the same time if it came to it, and they all knew it, what Orochimaru wanted to avoid was his own former sensei who the Sannin knew was most likely already informed of his presence. 

Kakashi had trained his ass off the past few months ever since returning from his mission in Nami, he knows he has what it takes to give the Sannin a decent fight, but he was sure it wouldn't be enough to be him, he relented and stood down, allowing the traitor to vanish once again, after the Sannin left Anko stopped screaming and fell unconscious. 

"I'm taking her back to the tower, someone tell the Hokage to meet me in the infirmary." Said Kakashi as he vanished in a swirl of leaves carrying the purple haired woman in his arms. 

"Is that boy truly worth the trouble Orochimaru-sama?" 

"I don't like being questioned, Kabuto ." Replied the man menacingly. 

"I didn't mean to question your judgement, Orochimaru-sama, I'm merely curious." Replied the teen without a hint of fear in his voice.

The Snake Sannin chuckled at his lack of respect and addressed his protege " Kago no Tori no Juin , the Caged Bird Seal. It truly is a magnificent creation."

Kabuto looked at him with questioning eyes asking him to elaborate further. 

"Working around the Caged Bird Seal is hard, but not impossible… I could get a Main House member without much trouble but, this boy is not only a prodigy… he's full of hatred, hatred I can use. " Said the Sannin. 

"Aren't you worried that the Hyuga might use the seal to get rid of him before you can take him?" 

Kabuto's question was beyond amusing to the Sannin, if his loud laughter was anything to go by. "You think my foolish sensei would allow the Hyuuga to kill a child of the leaf?" 

"I thought the Hokage didn't have the power to get involved in clan affairs." Commented Kabuto.

"He doesn't… but, my involvement in this is a matter of village security, he can and will overrule them without thinking twice about it to save the child." The Hokage is the maximum authority in the village, the clans only had such liberties because the Shodaime allowed them to when he founded the village. 

No clan was dumb enough to go against the Hokage these days anyway. 

Not anymore . 

"It truly is a shame." Said the sannin, snapping out of his own thoughts. "Imagine what I could've done with Sasuke-kun… " 

Chapter Text

"Status report, now!" The Hokage made his way through the infirmary where Kakashi had asked to be met with a troubled look on his face. 

It's not everyday that your wayward student decides to pay a visit. 

"We made contact with Orochimaru in the forest, he really is here." Said Kakashi grimly. 

The Hokage sighed. "Do we know what he's doing here?" 

"We're not sure yet, He attacked Hyuga Neji's team and left both boys completely out cold, we're still monitoring them through the screens." Informed Kakashi, earning a thoughtful look from the Hokage. 

"This has become too serious, ANBU!" The same brown haired man with a Lion mask from before showed up. "Gather a squad and go into the forest, retrieve every team still competing and get them out of there, the exams are cancel-" 

"No!" Yelled out a recently awakened Anko. 

"No?" Asked the Hokage

"If we cancel the exams, he's going to attack the village." Said Anko, surprising the Jounin and the Hokage. 

"How do you know that, Anko?" Kakashi certainly didn't remember Orochimaru telling them he would do such a thing when they faced him off. 

"She…" Anko motioned to a little snake coming out of her trench coat, "told me." 

Anko was allowed to sign the Snake summoning contract back when she was still Orochimaru's apprentice, after his deflection and her return to the village he tried to get her off but much to his chagrin, the leader of the Snake clan, Manda, view Orochimaru as nothing more than a pest he did favors to from time to time and as such wouldn't honor his wishes. 

The summoning clan later became divided between those who came to realize Orochimaru was a sick bastard and those who didn't care as long as they got a free meal out of helping him. 

The former were the ones Anko frequently summoned. 

Both groups were still a part of the same clan and as such, could be summoned by either if they so choose, hence why Orochimaru had been able to send Anko a message. 

"If he's willing to attack us just to make sure we keep this going there must be a reason why he's doing this…" Mused the Hokage before something clicked on his mind. 

"It's the Hyuga boy, that's what he's after…" He looked at Kakashi. "Did you see what he did to him?" 

Kakashi shook his head. "We were out of the tower looking at the corpse the chunin found, we left a pair of Kage Bunshin to keep watching in our absence but they released themselves the moment they saw him in the surveillance system as instructed." 

"Did you find anything?" He asked, rubbing his chin in thought. 

"When we got there both him and Team 9 were long gone… we located the team, should we send a squad to retrieve them?" 

Hiruzen thought about it for a moment and slumped his shoulders. "I would like to get them out as soon as possible… but it's best if we let them stay in the forest and complete the exams." 

"Why would we do that Hokage-sama?" Asked Kakashi. 

"He's interested in Neji, that makes Neji the key to lure him out." Hiruzen looked sternly at Anko and she immediately knew what that look meant. 

"Do you think he did that to him?" Anko's voice was full of something akin to sadness and frustration when she asked that question, she received a sad nod from the Hokage as an answer. 

"He knows what he did is dangerous, if he truly believes what he's doing is worth the risk then we must find out what it is."

Kakashi wasn't too thrilled about this, he knew the Hokage was right but he still didn't like it, growing as close to his team as he had it was hard for him to sacrifice another for the sake of the village. 

The Hokage seemed to have caught Kakashi's train of thought if the comforting hand on his shoulder was any indication. 

"Tora, I want a squad ready for an emergency extraction, you will stay here and watch over the team, if at any point Orochimaru decides to approach them again and only if he does you will intervene." The Sandaime wanted to keep the team safe from his wayward student but he couldn't show any form of favoritism, especially not with foreign shinobi in the forest. 

If another participating team made a move on them it was up to Team 9 to keep themselves safe. 

"Please wake up… either of you, p-please just wake up…" It was hard for Tenten not to shed a few tears when looking at her team's dire condition, desperation was visible in her face mixed with the frustration she was feeling because there was nothing she could do to help. 

It was even harder for her to even start to process just how they managed to get into this situation. Team 9 had started this exam with no doubt in their minds that they were going to ace them and come out as Chunin. 

She started thinking they might have been wrong. 

After being toyed by Orochimaru of the Sannin, Tenten managed to carry both of her teammates to the safest cave she could find in her vicinity, she found one a few kilometers away from the place where they encountered the traitorous ninja, she wasn't sure exactly how far though. 

She knew it was important to keep track of her steps as a ninja but limping your way through a forest full of threats while carrying the unconscious weight of both of your teammates had a way of making you a little… distracted . 

The team was now resting in what Tenten thought to be a safe place, the cave they were in was protected by layer after layer of traps made out of the girl's own supplies and what she could find in her vicinity. 

She wanted to use her weapons for them so badly, but she had already wasted enough as it is, best not waste anymore here.

What were the chances that someone would be able to find them there anyway? 

Tenten took a look at the scroll she was holding in her hand and sighed, the Chunin exams were now the least of her worries, if it were up to her she would've quit the test and made sure her team was alright. Sadly for her, quitting was not an option. 

"Argh…" 

At first Tenten would immediately jump to her teammate and secret crush's aid when she heard him complaining, it took her a long time to realize she couldn't do anything to help him. 

What troubled her the most was not knowing what was going on with her team. 

Neji had been bitten by the Sannin and knocked unconscious shortly after, a seal had appeared right were his neck met his shoulders and Tenten didn't know what it meant, she had a decent grasp of fuinjutsu - higher than the average Genin - because of her fighting style, that mark however completely baffled her. 

He had been suffering from an intense fever ever since he fell unconscious and it was still burning hot in his body. To top that the Hyuga prodigy would start trembling, groaning in pain from time to time and the seal would give weird pulses, she didn't know what it meant, she didn't know why it was happening, but she knew it couldn't be good. 

Her other teammate wasn't faring any better and Tenten knew even less of what was going on with Lee, never had he been unconscious for so long. She didn't know what Orochimaru did to him but it had to be incredibly powerful if he managed to close the gates with a single move. 

A noise coming from outside of the cave alerted Tenten, she held a kunai in each hand -one in a reversed grip- and she walked silently towards the exit to find a squirrel looking a bit lost. 

Thinking she was overreacting Tenten calmed down and was just about to walk back to her teammates when a hissing sound caught her attention, quickly realizing what it was she spun around to see an exploding tag just activated in the small body of the squirrel. 

Without a second thought Tenten threw one of her kunai with perfect accuracy at the animal, making sure it exploded as far away from her and her teammates as possible. 

BOOM

A bigger explosion than she anticipated engulfed the clearing and a big cloud of dust rose from the ground. Fetching another kunai from her pouch she walked to the cave's entrance and started looking around for her attacker. 

The dust settled and it revealed the genin team from the sound; Kinuta Dosu, Tsuchi Kin and Abumi Zaku. 

"We're here for the Hyuga," Said the heavily bandaged one. "Give him to us and we'll let you live." 

"What do you want with Neji?" Tenten could guess what they wanted but she needed to buy enough time to come up with something to defend herself. 

"That is none of your concern little girl." 

Tenten growled. "If you want Neji you'll have to get through me!" 

The sound team started laughing at her and that only made her even more mad, one thing was to try and take her teammate from her, but Tenten hated to be underestimated. 

"If you have a death wish then so be it."

The spokesman of the team who Tenten assumed to be their leader rushed at her, being that exactly what she wanted she threw a kunai at him that seemingly missed his target. 

He smirked behind his bandages but just before he could mock her, the kunai hit a tree trunk that had a thin ninja wire tied around it. 

A thick trunk with short pointed rocks tied around it came flying at him, failing to react fast enough to dodge the hit; he was stabbed in multiple places and sent flying until he crashed with a tree and dropped to the ground in a loud thud. 

"Dosu!" Yelled the other male of the team, if not familiar with them you might think he was concerned for his teammate. 

The truth is he was annoyed because he would have to do more work himself. 

Charging fast at Tenten in hopes of catching her off guard, Zaku started charging a big amount of energy on both arms. 

On closer inspection Tenten could see… holes? 

Not really wanting to find out why he had holes in his palms, Tenten threw a kunai at the ground triggering another one of her traps. In the most undignified way possible Zaku tripped over a hidden rope that tied tightly around his left foot, he was suddenly picked up by it and thrown towards the tree it was tied to. 

He hit his head hard. 

Making another one of her attackers drop unconscious with the use of her clever traps Tenten started feeling really confident, she didn't have any more traps set but she didn't doubt she could take on the girl of the team without much trouble. 

With a smirk of her own, Kin threw a hail of senbon needles at Tenten that she dodged by going down. Not one to waste an opportunity Tenten charged at her only to drop to the ground when the sound of a bell ringing invaded her ear. Unable to stand up, all she could do was watch as Kin calmly walked towards her. 

"That is as far as you go." With a chuckle Kin stopped right in front of the struggling Tenten and kicked her stomach as hard as she physically could and stopped to look at the pain visible in her face only to start again. 

The onslaught of kicks continued and Tenten could do absolutely nothing to stop it, the devious girl would only give her enough time to cough blood and catch some wind before continuing punishing her. 

Growing tired of only kicking the girl's stomach, Kin started viciously stomping her head with as much force as she could, making a dent in the ground the shape of Tenten's face. 

Growing bored of her own torture methods, Kin grabbed her arm and bent her elbow backwards, effectively breaking it and making Tenten scream in agony as she bled all over from her multiple bruises, just to top it all off she stabbed a kunai in each of her thighs. 

Kin kicked her hard on the head one more time and what little consciousness was still with Tenten started leaving her. 

Waking up extremely annoyed, Dosu grabbed a kunai and started making his way towards the barely conscious Tenten, set on ending her life for daring to hurt him. 

NIKUDAN SENSHA!

A giant Human boulder came spinning full force at Tenten's attacker, it caught both Kin and Dosu completely off guard but, while Kin managed to jump back in time to avoid the impact, Dosu was hit and crushed so hard by it that he stuck to it and kept rolling with the ball until it finally came to a stop. 

Ino landed beside Tenten and started checking her for injuries, she wasn't familiar with her, she in fact had only met her once before but Ino was in no way going to allow a fellow leaf kunoichi to be abused that way. 

In her time with Sakura ever since their old friendship resurfaced the pink haired girl shared with Ino the little medical knowledge she had gotten from the scrolls she was provided as well as the books Sakura got from the library, sadly, neither she or Sakura were at a level where they could treat extensive injuries. 

In Tenten's case multiple concussions most definitely, stab wounds and what she assumed to be severe lacerations in her stomach as well as a broken arm. 

Ino's teammates dropped beside her while she got to work on stopping the bleeding and at least making sure Tenten's pain was bearable. 

"Shika, she's really hurt!" Ino was frantic, she didn't know exactly what it was she wanted her teammate to accomplish but he's supposed to be really smart and she's counting on that. 

"We don't have a way to treat her, our best shot is to fend these guys off and take her to the tower with us." Shikamaru was analyzing the situation as calmly as he could, she knew Sakura's medical training and by extension Ino's wasn't good enough to treat more than not so threatening injuries, he didn't doubt Ino could heal most of the damage done to the girl's stomach but he wasn't so sure about the head. 

"You fucking Tree Huggers!" Kin became incredibly angry and snarled at them as she got out a full hail of senbon with her special bells tied. 

Not having been present long enough to be sure of how her jutsu worked or what it was that her Jutsu did, Shikamaru decided it was best to interrupt her before she did anything at all; he started going through the hand seals for his own jutsu but his pissed teammate beat him to it. 

Shintenshin no Jutsu!

Still on the ground with Tenten, Ino's body dropped seemingly void of life, while in Kin's body the Yamanaka girl's conscience took control. 

Dosu came back to stand next to his 'teammate' being as angry as she was and started channeling chakra into his arm's modifications to use against them. 

Ino took advantage of his distraction and from Kin's body she stabbed a kunai in her leg and a senbon needle in the back of his neck, making him drop unconscious. 

Zankuuha!

From the air vents installed on his arms Zaku channeled chakra and formed a gust of wind strong enough to destroy rocks and aimed it at the possessed Kin, he hit his target and sent her flying causing multiple cuts in her body in the process. 

Ino got back into her body but was hurt by Zaku's attack because of her telepathic link with Kin's body. 

"I'm going to kill you, I'm going to KILL YOU ALL!" Blinded by rage Zaku started charging an incredible amount of chakra in both of his arms, set on destroying the group of Genin gathered in front of him. 

Zankyokukuuha!

An overloaded version of the jutsu he used before, capable of leveling the ground as it went, started advancing towards them at high speeds. 

Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared and jumped in front of the attack, already going through a set of hand seals. 

Futon: Bouseki Tate no Kaze!

All around them the wind started spinning in a circular motion effectively creating a shield Naruto loaded as much chakra as he could into. 

Both jutsu collided in an explosion of wind that rose a big cloud of dust, when it cleared it revealed an angry Naruto and a Zaku barely able to stand from exhaustion. Naruto's hands and part of his arms were bruised and had shallow cuts in them that slowly started healing on their own. 

"That hurt you asshole!" Yelled Naruto with clear anger in his voice. 

"N-Naruto?" 

Moments Earlier. 

"Weird…" 

"You've been saying that a lot since we entered the forest, Naruto-kun." Joked Sakura. 

Naruto chuckled at Sakura's comment and started exploring the area they were now in. "I can feel here…"

"What do you mean?" 

"I can still feel the energy from the trees but…" Naruto turned to look at her. "There's no animals here, no nothing, it's like a zone free of interference."

Part of the reason Naruto had such a hard time using his sensing abilities in the forest was the vast amount of animals and insects interfering with his sensing. While not every being had a big chakra signature there were a lot of them and that made it harder for Naruto to focus. 

If he had more training it would probably not be a problem for Naruto, Kakashi had explained to him that the best way of training his senses was exposing himself to situations like this and focus on each individual signature and separate it from the others time and time again. That way he would get used to bigger amounts of signatures, amplify his range over time and get through what Naruto described as Interference. 

He had however neglected training his sensing abilities the most in favor of working on his fuinjutsu, he still trained but definitely not enough to feel through the forest clearly. That's why this clearing irked him, for some reason the animals had left completely, Naruto could see the signs of battle and by the looks of it it must've been a big one. 

Whatever it was that happened here must've scared the local fauna away. 

"I'll try and find a team from here." Naruto got to his knees and placed his index and middle finger on the ground. He closed his eyes and started concentrating on as much as he could, near him he found what he thought to be a team from Suna, he was just about to tell Sakura when he felt them. 

A few Kilometers from where they were, he could feel Team 10 and Team 9 fighting another team together, that immediately struck him as weird until he noticed Neji's chakra was all wrong, there was something going on with him and whatever it was. 

It felt evil. 

Then Naruto noticed what worried him the most, he couldn't feel Lee, he could feel Tenten with lower than normal reserves, but he couldn't feel his friend at all, Lee always had a small signature because of his condition, but it was there, no different to that of a regular civilian. 

Full of worry, Naruto didn't even think twice. 

"Team 9 is hurt!" He released all of his weights and told Sakura to catch up to him as fast as she could and he started running. 

He ran and ran as fast as he could for kilometers without stopping, he has always been a stamina freak and that's the only thing that allowed him to run as much as he just did. 

When he got to them the first thing he saw was Zaku shooting his overpowered gust of wind at them. 

Present Time. 

"What the hell happened here, Shikamaru?" Naruto couldn't see Neji or Lee anywhere and the only thing he found was an unconscious Tenten being taken care of by Ino. 

"We don't know, when we got here they were beating Tenten in the ground, I don't know where Neji and Lee are." Answered Shikamaru, currently the only calm member of Team 10.

Naruto closed his eyes to focus for a moment and calm down, he turned to look at the cave where he felt Neji and Lee to be at, he was glad he could feel Lee this up close, a giant weight was lifted off his shoulders. 

"Where's Sakura?" Asked Ino

"She's coming, I ran here as fast as I could, she's catching up, should get here in a few minutes." As predicted by Naruto, Sakura arrived a few minutes after, she bonked Naruto on the head for ditching her and then walked towards Ino and Tenten and started helping the Yamanaka with her treatment. 

Naruto and Shikamaru were both going to enter the cave where the boys were resting to assess the situation when they felt it. 

An energy so powerful and so vile even the non-sensors could feel, just waking up Tenten caught a glimpse of Neji walking out of the cave, a series of black markings extending through his body. 

Shikamaru subconsciously went to grab a kunai with Naruto doing the same with one of his twin staffs. 

Neji paid no mind to them and turned to look at his fallen teammate only to find her beaten to a pulp and barely conscious.

"Who did that to you?" Even though his voice seemed calm and stoic as usual, everyone could feel the hatred in it.

Zaku who was just coming back to himself stood up and faced Neji with a smug look on his face, his exhaustion clouding his judgement. 

"I did! Why? Are you angry?" As he asked the question Zaku pointed one of his arms at Neji and started channeling chakra to it. 

Not dignifying a response, Neji started to walk slowly towards him until he disappeared in a show of pure speed, he re-emerged just beside Zaku and without a second thought he started attacking the Tenketsu in his arms, but he didn't stop there, once all the chakra pathways in his arms were closed he started attacking all his blood vessels and nerves. 

The arm fell limp to the side and started swelling at the same time it turned purple, not caring about it Neji continued his assault on it, the sight of blood starting to drip from the constant onslaught of precise strikes did very little to satiate his bloodlust. 

Neji's body was covered in blood while Zaku fell to the ground screaming in pure agony, holding his arm and trashing around the ground, hoping it would somehow lessen the pain. Had Neji not been interrupted, he would've kept until his arm exploded. 

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH Y-" 

HAKKE KUSHO! 

Neji placed a palm on Naruto's unsuspecting chest to stop his advance and sent him flying at full intensity until he crashed loudly into the wall of the cave making him wince in pain. 

Kagemane no Jutsu! 

Holding a rat seal, Shikamaru's shadow connected with Neji freezing him in place, he immediately started struggling as the potent chakra surrounding Neji overpowered his own, Neji was set free and started running at Shikamaru only to be stopped by strong rock covered punch courtesy of Sakura. 

Neji was sent crashing hard into the ground by the sheer force of Sakura's attack but seemed unaffected by it as he stood up once again. 

"STAND DOWN NEJI!" Yelled Tenten, standing up and leaning into Ino for support. 

'They're holding you back…' Neji turned to look at his teammate with a face full of hatred and started walking toward her with no care for the other people present, Sakura and Chōji wished to intervene but Tenten didn't allow it. 

'They want you to be weak…' Neji kept walking even more enraged as the whispers filled his ears and clouded his senses. 

'They think you a slave, they're just like them' He stood in front of her and looked ready to attack, chakra started to be molded in his hands and despite Sakura's insistence to let her help Tenten wouldn't have it. 

'Kill them, kill them all…' Neji raised his hand toward his teammate, set on stopping her heart with a single movement, but much to everyone's surprise, including Neji's, the bloodied and bruised Tenten managed to conjure enough force to squirm off of Ino's hold and slap him in the face, hard.

"Stand down " This time Tenten's voice came out as a full on command and for some reason, it seemed to work. Neji was brought out of his trance, pearl white eyes staring into brown ones.

The marks taking over Neji started to recede and went back to hide into his neck. With the sudden burst of evil chakra gone Neji dropped to his knees. 

'Troublesome…' 

"We give up!" Said a recently awakened Dosu carrying Kin on his shoulder. "Here, take our scroll, we're leaving." He then picked up his now unconscious teammate and rushed the hell out of that clearing. 

Naruto picked himself up from the ground and watched the whole thing play out as he made his way back to the group, seeing Neji in the ground and no trace of the weird markings he sighed and stood next to his teammate while looking at the Hyuuga in the ground. 

"That was rude." He said, crossing his arms. 

"Tenten, what happened to you?" Asked Sakura. 

Tenten sighed and sat down again, she then started retelling the events she and her team had gone through up until the sound team first made their way to her, including their fight with Orochimaru and what he did to Neji, much to the Hyuga's annoyance. 

He hated the fact that he was bested by an opponent, he hated the fact that he found the power he had been gifted alluring even more. 

"Orochimaru…" Started Naruto looking intently at Neji. "I only know he went rogue years ago, Jiji doesn't like to talk about him." Naruto made his way to Neji and much to his annoyance helped the Hyuga up. 

"May I look at it? Please. " He said with a playful tone, Naruto understood the gravity of the situation, but he wasn't going to pass on a chance to mock Neji anytime soon. 

Neji allowed him to look at the seal either way, he knew Naruto was learning Fuinjutsu -because he wouldn't stop talking about it when he trained along with his team- it wouldn't hurt to let him check. Naruto was studying the design and couldn't understand much about the way the seal was constructed so he started asking questions. 

"How exactly did it feel when you used it?" 

"I felt it pulling at me, like it was taking over my chakra when I used the Byakugan." He answered without losing the stoicism that was characteristic of him. 

"That is interesting…" Naruto put a finger over it and started focusing on his sensing ability to see if he could learn anything useful about it, he could feel the vile chakra extending through Neji's own, like it was trying to taint it. 

"It's way above my paygrade…" He sighed and removed his finger from it and allowed some space to breathe. "It seems to be connected to your Byakugan somehow and it's extending through your body, the best I can do for you is seal your chakra flow to stop it from going through your body until someone who knows what they're doing takes a look." 

That made Neji angry. 

"That is unacceptable, I still need to pass this test." His voice was daring Naruto to say otherwise and knowing he wouldn't be able to convince him he started looking for alternatives and spoted the scroll the sound team had left on the ground. 

"What scroll do you have?" He asked. 

Tenten was the one to reply. "Heaven."

Smiling to himself, Naruto went and picked the Heaven scroll Dosu left behind and put it in his pouch. "Give our extra to them." He instructed Sakura. 

Catching up to what Naruto wanted to do Sakura did as instructed and handed Neji the earth scroll. 

"Now you have the scrolls you need, let's go to the tower and have someone look at you." Naruto was really hoping Kakashi would know what to do about it, he grew a lot in his fuinjutsu knowledge but this was on a whole other league. 

He had to give it to Orochimaru, when it comes to seals he seemed to be one sophisticated bastard. 

"I don't need your help."

"Calm down… Neji." Out of the cave came out Lee, breathing hard and still bruised. 

"Bushy brows!" Naruto rushed at his friend and started looking frantically over him. Besides Shikamaru and Choji, Lee had become one of Naruto's dearest friends and the immense fear he felt when he couldn't detect his chakra signature wasn't something he would be forgetting any time soon. 

"What did he do to you? I can barely feel your presence." The concern in his voice was evident. 

"I'm not sure, Naruto-kun." The memories of his fight were very scarce and his head hurt too much to concentrate on anything at the moment. 

"He closed the gates pressing his fingers on his stomach." Explained Tenten, immediately catching Naruto's attention. 

The boy knew about the Hachimon formation thanks to Lee and Gai and he was sure just hitting someone hard in the stomach wasn't enough to close the gates. 

With Lee's consent Naruto lift off his ripped jumpsuit to reveal his stomach and sure enough, a five element seal was there, Lee couldn't channel chakra but that didn't mean his chakra wasn't there, Orochimaru probably used the seal to force shut what little chakra he had available and the gates closed. 

"That's nasty ." It was, in Naruto's opinion, well within his area of expertise, while the seal was a few levels above Naruto's own; it was one of the seals he found in the scroll left by his mother, he had made it a point to learn as many of them as he could, and the counters for some of the more advanced ones. That way he would be able to help when needed even if he couldn't replicate the seal itself. 

He had been right. 

"This is going to hurt a little." Naruto closed his eyes to focus the right amount of chakra in his hand, he formed a claw with his fingers and each of them started shining a light blue in the tips. 

Gogyo Kain! 

Naruto slammed his hand into Lee's seal hard and knocked the wind out of him. The green-clad genin stood up almost immediately however and thanked Naruto for his youthful assistance. 

"Are you done Shika?" Naruto asked to his lazy friend. 

Shikamaru, who at this point only wanted to drop to the ground and stare at the clouds, looked tiredly at his friend and nodded. "We were on our way to the tower when we found them."

"We should all go together then." Said Sakura voicing Naruto's thoughts. "Tenten needs to be looked at by a medic, traveling in a big group will prevent other teams from attacking us"

Everyone agreed - almost - and they decided to let team 9 rest a little before making their way to the tower, Sakura patched some of Tenten's injuries with the supplies she was carrying on her and let her sleep for a while. 

The damage caused by the relentless kicking Kin had given her while Tenten was trapped under her genjutsu really made a number on her. 

Naruto walked to Neji and asked him to remove his shirt, he unsealed a brush and some ink from a scroll on his pouch and started drawing a seal on his neck to stop the flow of his chakra, the seal was by no means perfect or what Naruto would call fancy, but it served its purpose and while it was not hard to break, he was putting it on a willing subject. 

He went through a short sequence of hand-seals making the seal light up, after Neji tried to use his Byakugan and failed, Naruto was satisfied and the three gathered teams made their way to the tower. 

If qualities of heaven are your desire, acquire wisdom and knowledge to bring your mind higher. 

If qualities of earth are what you lack, train your body in fields and prepare to attack. 

"I don't know what that means!" Exclaimed Lee looking happier than necessary. "What a Youthful riddle, LET US FAN OUR FLAMES OF YOUTH TO UNDERSTAND IT'S MEANING!" 

"Stop yelling!" Shikamaru's left eye was twitching, he had been hearing Lee's youthful proclamations for a whole day now. "Troublesome idiot." 

"Why don't you relax a little Shika?" Suggested Choji with a little apprehension.

It had taken them all a little over a day to get to the tower, because of Team 9's dire situation they all had decided to take it easy, and walk all the way here as opposed to running. 

Had they done that they probably would've made it in a few hours, saving Shikamaru from the constant speeches of youth and the banter between the members of Team 9 and Naruto. 

Shikamaru liked Naruto, he really did; Shikamaru knew Naruto was right most of the time in his discussions with Neji; he just couldn't understand why he would keep on arguing when it was clear the Hyuga wasn't going to change his mind about his beliefs. 

This whole thing is such a drag. 

The Nara heir sighed. "We need to open both of our scrolls at the same time." Not wanting to waste any more time here than it was necessary, Shikamaru tossed both of his team's scrolls to the ground in the form of an x revealing a sealing array Naruto recognized as a summoning contract. 

"Hello!" Announced the Jounin in charge of Team 10, Sarutobi Asuma. "I had no doubt you guys were going to make it, come with me now." Asuma stepped out of the smoke and started walking into the tower with his team behind, taking them to a set of rooms where they would be allowed to rest until this part of the exams came to an end. 

After exchanging nods with Shikamaru Naruto grabbed the scroll he was carrying while Sakura did the same, and they tossed them in the ground summoning their own sensei to the room. 

"Kakashi-sensei, Orochi-" 

"We know, Sakura." Kakashi would've liked to congratulate his team but there were more pressing matters at the moment. "Use your scrolls to summon Gai, Neji." He ordered. 

Not wasting time the Hyuga prodigy did as instructed and did as the other teams had done, making Gai appear in the room with a face so serious it seemed out of place. 

"Gai." Said Kakashi, getting the man's attention. "Take your team to the infirmary, I'll take Neji to see the Hokage." As he said that he made a Kage Bunshin that approached his team. 

"My clone is going to take you to your room, I'll meet you there when this is sorted out."

"Sensei…" Called out Naruto. "The seal is connected to his Byakugan somehow, I placed a suppression seal on him to stop the spreading of the invading chakra, make sure to remove it." Kakashi nodded at Naruto's explanation and motioned his clone to take them to their room. 

Naruto and Sakura followed the clone to a room and entered alongside him, after telling them the real Kakashi would come see them when he was done with the Hokage he disappeared and left both Naruto and Sakura to their devices. They both collapsed in one of the beds. 

They considered themselves extremely lucky to have come out as safely as they had of the forest, had they run into the same trouble Team 9 had they didn't know if they would be able to make it. 

Naruto was also glad he could feel Gaara in the tower, that meant he wasn't somewhere else destroying any Genin team, he felt wrong judging Gaara's character without really knowing him but… the feel of his chakras could only mean trouble. 

"We should rest, Naruto." Said Sakura, she knew very well what was going on through his mind and she had to agree with him. 

Naruto only nodded at her and laid down on a different bed staring at the ceiling, hoping that Kakashi and the Sandaime would know what to do. 

"I'm sure Naruto would've loved to be a part of this." Said Kakashi as he carefully drew a complex array of Kanji in Neji's body with his own blood under the supervision of the Hokage and Gai. 

"I don't think this is the time for a Fuinjutsu lesson, Kakashi." Gai's tone was probably more aggressive than it should've been, no one would blame him though, having your student in a situation as complex as this can put anyone on edge.

"Calm down Gai… Kakashi is just making regular chit-chat, surely you wouldn't fault a proud sensei for talking about his students?" Though an innocent question from the Hokage, Gai was able to understand perfectly the meaning behind his words. 

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama, Kakashi, it was most un-youthful of me." He said earning a chuckle and a dismissive wave from the Hokage, Kakashi wasn't really paying attention to them anymore, too focused on the finishing touches of the array. 

'There's too many people in there, it wouldn't be wise to make a move on Neji-kun now that sensei is there…' Orochimaru was hidden in the shadows outside of the room where the sealing ritual was taking place. 

He didn't wish for Neji's gift to be sealed away, but he wasn't too worried about it, the seal Kakashi was preparing depended on the recipient's will. Someone with such repressed hatred as Neji surely can be manipulated with the right incentives. 

'Oh well… I will allow you to think you're winning just this time dear sensei' Even in his thoughts, the snake Sannin managed to chuckle in that mocking way only he's capable of. 

Orochimaru disguised himself as a Jounin-sensei from Oto again and left swiftly without being detected. 

Or so he thought. 

'I should feel insulted that he thinks I wouldn't be able to detect him out there, there's still much to learn for you Orochimaru' Sarutobi would've loved to intercept the Sannin right then and there to put an end to what he started years ago, alas it wasn't meant to be. 

Such a fight in a place full of Genin would prove to be disastrous, there was no doubt in Hiruzen's mind that Orochimaru had more than one contingency set in place if such an occasion arose, for the time being he would allow him to go. 

Hopefully that decision won't come to bite him in the ass later. 

Shaking his head out of his musings the Hokage watched as Kakashi finished his work on the seals that were placed on the young prodigy, making sure the seals coincided with those in the book he was using to supervise the Jonin as he went the Hokage nodded to him, signaling it was okay for him to start. 

Nodding back, Kakashi addressed the young Hyuuga. "This is going to hurt a lot, Neji, whatever happens make sure to move as little as possible." Not waiting for a response -and very convinced that he wasn't getting one- he started going through a complex set of hand seals and placing his hands on the curse mark, as he finished Kakashi called out. 

Fuja Hoin!

The Kanjis drawn in blood started creeping up Neji's back slowly, converging all around the curse mark. The Hyuga boy let out a piercing scream that made his own sensei flinch but, despite the pain he was going through Neji's will was strong enough for him to remain completely still during the entire process, after the ritual was over Neji lost consciousness and was then taken by Gai to the infirmary. 

There are still two days left for the next phase of the exams to begin and if what the Hokage thinks will have to happen ends up happening, Neji might not be allowed to participate unless he wakes up in time 

Hopefully no more teams will get to the tower in the meantime, he really didn't want to host preliminary rounds.

AN: Hello again everyone! 

The announcement about Naruto's future pairing wasn't very well received and I would be lying if I said I expected otherwise. The truth is, when I initially started thinking about writing fanfiction I didn't want to include a pairing because of this same reason, you can never please everyone. That however allowed me to reach a certain conclusion, if I can't please everyone, why don't I at least please myself? I took a lot of time debating this story's pairing, as I said, Ino was hands down the strongest candidate for a long time followed by Sakura, but I also thought about other options, Shikamaru, Kiba heck even Sasuke at some point (that goes to show how long before I started writing the plot this whole brainstorming happened). The truth is when it comes to fanfiction, I honestly don't care about a characters sexual orientation or the pairing as long as it makes sense, it is fanfiction after all, every author deserves their creative freedom. 

I appreciate the suggestions I get both in my PM's and my comments in every site this story is being posted, and I take everything into consideration, that's why I took so long to decide about the pairing, but as I said before, if I went with a different way to please the crowd, I probably would have ended up writing something I'm not enjoying, and it probably would show in my writing. That's why after careful consideration I decided on my pairing, yes, it will be a guy but there's more to my pairing than just having Naruto date someone and I hope that will show when the time comes, also, Naruto is bisexual in this, his feelings for Sakura are all true. I won't reveal who the pairing will be until it happens. 

On a slightly happier note, I would like to thank those who stayed, this is not a particularly big story and it was a bit sad to see myself lose some of my already few followers because of that announcement but, I really appreciate every single one of you who decided to stay and keep on reading either because you were hoping for a MalexMale ship or just because you're willing to give this a chance despite your preferences when it comes to pairings/ships in general. 

With that out of the way let's talk plot and things I feel should be clarified. Let's start with Neji first.<br />
There's more to the curse mark than just Orochimaru deciding what body he likes the most, it is true that that is his main purpose but we know there is at least some criteria the subject should meet. In canon we get assured more than once that not everyone is capable of surviving getting the curse mark and I think it shows but how much Sasuke goes through both the moment he got the mark, how difficult we're told his night was and everything that follows, I personally believe the subjects should at the very least somewhat unstable, we know Sasuke is the definition of unstable (bordering on psychotic down the line) and the Sound four are all bat shit crazy, Kimimaro seemed well adjusted enough but I wouldn't dare call him sane. To be honest, I don't remember if the body Orochimaru ends up possessing when he runs out of time waiting for Sasuke had the mark or not but I believe he didn't, so there's that. Neji is full of suppressed hatred and unstable if how quick he is to lose control when fighting Hinata is to be believed, he's a prodigy on top of that, I believe he is a suitable candidate for Orochimaru, someone who would be easier to manipulate as opposed to his clanmates. 

Gogyō Fuin: I did my research, though I didn't find much about the main purpose of the seal I believe it's main purpose is to seal the recipient's chakra, in Canon Orochimaru used it to mess with Naruto's seal to deny him of the use of the Kyuubi's chakra and mess his control in the process, that happens because the Gogyō Fuin/Five Element Seal is and odd numbered seal and it was applied to Naruto's Hakke Fuin/Hakke no Fuin Shiki/Eight Trigrams seal (the whole Shiki deal is because Minato used the Shinigami to power the seal) which is an even numbered seal, thus, creating an imbalance in Naruto's chakra, Jiraiya later states that Orochimaru made it that way on purpose.<br />
It made sense in my mind that Orochimaru could use the seal to close the gates by denying Lee the use of chakra, Lee isn't able to mold chakra but he has it in his body, and despite the gates being a Taijutsu focused power-up it is also a chakra based technique. 

Also, I didn't remember the original riddle from the Manga but I did remember the one I used, it's from a fic I read at some point but I can't for the life of me remember exactly what fic it was. 

Well that is it for this update, I appreciate your reviews and criticism (as long as it's constructive) so it would be nice if you left some suggestions. 

Chapter Text

"Are you sure about this?" 

"Yes Hokage-sama, 18 participants made it to the tower in time. A preliminary round is advisable."

The Hokage slumped his shoulders in defeat and nodded his head. 5 days had passed since the beginning of this part of the Chunin exams and every team possible had already made its way to the tower, he just wishes not as many would've made it. Holding a preliminary round isn't something he sought to do, especially after what happened in the forest.

On the bright side - for him at least - the feeling of pride he felt for the amount of Konoha Shinobi that had made it to the tower was very rewarding, even more was that three out of the five konoha squads were rookie teams. 

"Very well then, have a squad of ANBU collect those who were less fortunate and escort them out of the forest." He looked at his assistant with a stern face and added. "You know what to do about those who didn't make it."

Hiruzen isn't a fan of death, the mere thought of mostly young children - there were some old genins out there, Kami knows Kosuke is still alive only because he's too stubborn to kick the bucket - dying in such an undignified way was sickening to the very least. No matter how hard he tried to preach the use of lethal force only when necessary, there were always those who wouldn't listen and rejoiced in unnecessary bloodshed. 

Such is the life of a Shinobi, he supposes. 

Every arriving team had gathered around the arena in the middle of the tower, the eyes of Teams 7 and 10 set on Team 9 and their as of yet, absent member. None of them had been informed of what had happened with him after their encounter, they actually hadn't been informed about what had happened at all. The secrecy was so great they almost felt like Orochimaru was only a figment of their imaginations. 

It definitely wasn't. 

When Naruto had approached Kakashi to inquire about Neji's status the only answer he had gotten was 'We dealt with it' , not that he knew what dealing with it implied, he guessed it most likely meant Neji's curse mark had been removed in some way. His sensei wasn't very sharing about the details though, the only thing he had gotten out of it was the name of what the treacherous Sannin had done to Neji. 

Ten no Juin he called it, Orochimaru's very own Cursed Mark. 

Sick bastard. 

The Sandaime Hokage made his way to the front of the crowd with the Jounin sensei and a big statue of a hand holding a ram-seal behind. He stood there in front of the gathered Genin looking every bit as powerful as you would expect from a man of his reputation despite his age.

"It is with great honor that I congratulate you all for getting this far in the exams, you have made both your senseis and villages proud." Even though the majority of the Genin were Konoha Shinobi, there were two foreign teams and despite not holding any respect for the powerful man they couldn't help but feel smug at his words. 

"I shall now tell you all about what's next to come in the following test but first, I must tell you what the real purpose of the Chunin exams is." Surprised looks could be seen in the faces of most of the gathered Genin, no doubt the ones who didn't look that way had already heard this little speech before. 

"Isn't the point of the exams finding who deserves to be promoted, Hokage-sama?" Asked Shikamaru in his ever lazy tone. 

"That is true…" The Hokage looked at him and nodded before turning his gaze back to the public, "but there's more to it than just that, the whole truth is that these exams started as a substitute for war."

A hand started rubbing Ino's chin as she thought hard about the Hokage's words, before giving up. "A substitute for war? What does that even mean?" 

"These exams started shortly after the Great nations stopped fighting with each other. We all send our best, most promising Genin to fight and represent our villages in a somewhat controlled environment." 

"Why is that necessary?" Asked Shikamaru. 

"Feudal lords of all places attend these events, the Daimyo from all the great nations do as well, they are the ones who provide us with most of our mission income." Sarutobi looked around and could see some troubled looks around the Genin. 

Naruto was one of those Genins, he didn't like the idea of being used that way even if it was for the good of his village, call him selfish but, isn't it a bit weird that the 5 kage and the leaders of the smaller villages send some of their young forces to situations where they're going to come face to face with death just for show?

"I know what some of you are thinking and I can agree to a certain degree but this is for the lack of a better word, a necessary evil, the exams allow for a simulation of battle between the nations where each of our leaders get to gauge our strengths and weaknesses while avoiding futile crushing of the other's military forces and useless bloodshed." He turned to look at his surrogate grandson for a second before moving forward with the test, it is a reality he and his comrades had to face at some point. 

Everyone could see reason in the Hokage's words, it was disturbing to say the least to think that a battle of Genin could serve as a deterrent for war to the great nations but in some weird way it made sense. 

Shikamaru still thinks it's a risky system at best, surely you can't hope to keep the balance of the nations this way, is the amount of missions a village gets truly an accurate testament of their power? It's somewhat unnerving that they had to put their lives at stake as a performance for the Daimyos, feudal lords and other important visitors but they all understood that's what was required of them from their villages. 

They would comply, it's not like any of them had been forced to participate. 

"Now onto the next part of the ex-" 

"Hokage-sama If I may." A very sickly looking jounin with brown hair tied in a bandana stepped up in front of the Hokage. "I Gekkō Hayate would like to explain this part of the exams as the third proctor."

The Hokage chuckled and gave the man a polite nod as he stepped back with the Jounin senseis and the past proctors of the exams. 

"As you all heard, my name is Gekkō Hayate and I will be the proctor for the third test of the exams. Now, before we go any further, I must inform you that too many of you reached the tower in time. A preliminary round will be necessary." Just as Hayate expected, groans and complaints from the Genin were heard all over the room. 

"The third round of these exams will be a tournament consisting of One on One matches. As Hokage-sama said, we only want to show our important visitors the best." Hayate waved his hand and a couple of Chunin assistants left the room only to come back with a digital screen behind them. 

"You will all face a randomly selected opponent in a battle, the winner of the match gets to compete in the main event, from this point forward you will all be judged as individuals, if any of you wishes to leave the exams or doesn't think themselves capable of handling this you may quit without fear of repercussion for your teammates." Hayate then went into a fit of coughs that made every single aspirant wonder if he should really be out here monitoring the exams. 

"I quit!" Said Kabuto, startling most of the present Genin. "I'm almost out of chakra, I'm too tired to continue." 

Hayate nodded. "Yakushi Kabuto is out of the competition."

Anko and Ibiki watched as he left and started having a conversation of their own about it, the face didn't ring any bells for Ibiki but Anko had been a part of the exams enough time to recognize his face, it was actually a bit embarrassing for her to just now be noticing that Kabuto always quits at this stage of the exams despite his circumstances, maybe this wasn't exactly the reason why Kakashi's brat found him suspicious but it truly is something worth looking into. 

"That actually makes some sense." Kakashi muttered quietly in Hiruzen's ear. 

"What do you mean, Kakashi?" He asked. 

Kakashi turned to look at the teen leaving the arena as his brow furrowed in thought and replied. "Anko and I watched him during the whole of the test through the monitors, he never did anything suspicious, but he never did anything that would have left him as tired as he claims to be either, his team ambushed a team rather easily on their way to the tower and that was the only battle they ever had, clearly he's just pretending to be tired."

Hiruzen didn't bother to speak a reply to Kakashi's explanation but nodded in acknowledgement and discreetly did a few hand signs for the hidden ANBU in the room to trail Kabuto and see where he's going now, it would seem he really is some sort of spy, after everything that had happened in the forest, Hiruzen was pretty sure he knew who he was working for. 

"If that is all then we may proc-" A door opening in the far left of the room interrupted Hayate's explanation and caught everyone's attention. Out of the door walked a recently awakened Neji, looking rested and stoic, like he always does. Without uttering a single word Neji made his way to his team and stood next to them, dismissing their concerns in the process. 

"Right… Well, if no one else is going to quit we may proceed, because there's an odd number of participants, one of the matches will be a three-way match. The rules are quite simple, the match is over when one of you can no longer fight, is unconscious or dead . If I deem a match is over, I will jump in and end it myself in hopes of avoiding unnecessary killing." Hayate eyed the Genin and gave pointed looks to some of the more unbalanced ones. 

The proctor started babbling some more stuff but Sakura completely shut whatever it was he was saying and focused on one of the Genin, specifically a sound Genin. 

Sakura isn't a medical genius - yet - but she as well as Naruto and Team 10 watched how Neji attacked this Zaku guy's arm relentlessly, watching it swell like it did at the time, she had been convinced that it was going to explode and here he was now, arm heavily bandaged but otherwise functional. 

He had to have received medical attention, and very good medical attention for that matter, how did he do it? How did he find someone to fix up the extensive damage done to his arm? 

The sound of the screen going through a rapidly series of names managed to snap Sakura out of her own musing, it kept on rolling for a few more seconds until it stopped in a pair of names that made a certain Hyuga smirk. 

"Hyuga Neji and Akado Yoroi stay here, the rest of you go to the balconies." Doing as instructed by the proctor the genin teams went up the stairs on the corners of the room into the balconies where they were joined by their respective Jounin senseis. 

"Are you both ready?" Hayate looked at both remaining Genin and received a nod as an answer, he raised his right arm and let it fall back down as he yelled "Hajime!" 

Letting his arm fall forwards, Hayate jumped out of the way and let the combatants face each other. Yoroi and Neji eyed each other with a completely calm visage, without having to waive any hand-seals the Hyuga prodigy's Byakugan came to life. 

"You Hyugas think you're so good." Yoroi snarled and rushed forward, he started throwing fist after fist at Neji but the Hyuga barely had to make an effort to dodge the strikes and found himself calmly analyzing the weird fighting style of his opponent. His hits looked to be attempts at grabbing him rather than actual hits, top that with the weird flow of chakra in both of his hands and it wasn't hard for Neji to figure out what was going on. 

"You're trying to absorb my Chakra, it's a pity your skills do not match your ability." Neji didn't generally care much for trash talk during a battle, but this was different for him, he felt a need to prove something ever since his defeat in the forest. He also felt like he wasn't trash talking his opponent as much as he was simply stating a fact. 

"Says the guy who's only dodging, is that all you side-branch Hyuga are good for, running from a fight?" Never one to question his sensei's directives, Yoroi chose to rile up the Hyuga a little, it's not like it was hard to, all it took was a mention of the side branch. 

Neji started fuming and seething in rage, he wanted to close up every single tenketsu and then some more in the bastard that dared speak ill of his family, he will pay for his transgressions and Neji is going to make sure of it. 

'Pay you say?'  

That voice started speaking again in Neji's head but this time he was ready for it, he had been warned by Hatake, the restriction seal relied solely on his will to fight it, a Hyuga needs no such power to overcome adversity, Neji's a prodigy, it's his destiny to best Yoroi. 

'Such foolishness…'  

Neji took a deep calming breath to focus his attention again on the task at hand, he felt his rage starting to recede at the same time the voice talking to him slowly faded away in the distance, it was after calming down that his Byakugan and its 360 degree view caught sight of the Jounin in the room looking ready for something. 

He hadn't noticed it of course, but as soon as the side branch had been bad-mouthed in his presence, rage started taking over him and powering the curse mark he had been bestowed by the treacherous sannin, it had started to activate and while it didn't fully take over him this time, it was visible on his face. 

Now under the influence of only his thoughts, Neji smirked condescendingly at his opponent and ran toward him. Not expecting to be attacked in such a way after the display the Hyuga had put on, Yoroi was too late to react, he tried to get a hold of Neji but his arm was instantly targeted by the faster boy. Making short work of him, Neji sealed off the tenketsu on his attacking arm and then went on to punish the other, rendering him incapable of defending himself or attacking for that matter. 

Neji then placed a hard fist on his right cheek for good measure in what could only be described as a very un-hyuga way, Yoroi dropped limp on the floor after that, completely out-cold. 

"Winner: Hyuga Neji!" 

Naruto could see how on edge Kakashi had been for the entirety of Neji's match, specially after the seals started appearing on his skin again, it truly was something disturbing to feel, yes, everyone saw how that seal started extending itself through Neji, but not everyone could feel it, that energy so vile and so disturbing. 

How was someone capable of that kind of energy, a former disciple of one of the kindest men on earth no less, the Sandaime never talked about Orochimaru with him and he knew it was because he felt guilty about his departure. 

He refused to believe anything the Hokage had done was the cause for Orochimaru's actions. 

Focusing his attention back at the matter at hand, Naruto just now realized he didn't even notice when Kakashi had lifted his headband to reveal his Sharingan eye, oh how he wished he could do that too, alas, it wasn't meant to be, at least not until it was strictly necessary, the Hokage told him. 

"I thought you had dealt with it." Naruto could faintly hear the sound of Hayate calling out Ino and Hinata down to fight in the arena but didn't really pay much attention, there were other more pressing matters at hand. 

"I did." Kakashi's reply was short and perhaps a little rude, he realized this as he sighed and covered his sharingan eye again. "The curse mark for all we know it's impossible to remove, not even Jiraiya-sama found a way to get rid of it, the seal the Hokage and I placed on Neji keeps it at bay but it's completely dependent on his will."

Naruto nodded his understanding and closed his eye in thought, he could faintly remember reading about such a restraining seal in some of the more advanced material he hasn't yet learned and mastered, even though he couldn't remember what it's called. Not even the legendary Jiraiya had been able to remove the curse mark, that thought made him take the whole ordeal as a challenge. 

Deciding to think about the curse mark at a later date, he stole a glance at the stoic Neji and sighed, oh how he disliked him, not a single moment when Neji had been nice to him was stored in his memory and that's because Neji was always rude. 

In a weird way, Naruto found comfort in knowing that he was rude to everyone. 

Still, Naruto had always been a kind, compassionate and noble person, he refuses to believe there's not even one redeeming quality about him, perhaps the way to make Neji tolerable was finding out what made him the way he is now, worse case scenario he finds out that Neji is a dick just because and nothing changes. 

"Winner: Hyuga Hinata!" The voice of Hayate calling the match made Naruto focus on reality once again, he had lost the entirety of the match but judging by how unscathed Hinata seemed, it probably hadn't been all that interesting… 

Hinata.

That's just it, who would know better about Neji than his own family? Naruto decided then and there that he would approach her about it after the exams were over. 

"Will Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku please come down?" Called out Hayate, bringing up a name a certain Pink-haired Kunoichi was very interested in. 

"Sensei…" Sakura had been quietly listening to Kakashi and Naruto talk while she watched the matches but this was something she needed to ask. "That guy Zaku, Neji almost blew up his arm when he was possessed, how is he fine?" 

Kakashi focused his attention on the sound genin and thought hard, he remembered watching such a thing through the monitors in the forest, what he doesn't remember seeing is him getting treatment in the forest and he was sure, no one had given him or his teammates treatment ever since they got into the forest. How did they evade the surveillance systems in the forest? 

"Are both contestants ready?" Kakashi saw both genin nod and decided to file away his concerns for a later time, it was best he paid close attention and learned as much as he could from these mysterious individuals. 

Back in the arena Shino and Zaku jumped away from each other and stared the other down, deciding to take action Zaku started channeling chakra through his un-bandaged arm and shot a Zankuuha at Shino who, much to his surprise, didn't even try to dodge. 

The Jutsu hit full force and instead of dropping to the ground a bleeding mess like Zaku had hoped, Shino burst into a swarm of bugs that all rushed at Zaku from different directions, he jumped back and performed another Zankuuha to clear out the area.

Standing in front of Zaku was Shino, both hands on his pockets looking his forever but confident stoic visage. "It's best that you give up now, why? Because my bugs can eat your chakra out if you try to attack me and I can do the same should you try and attack them." 

Zaku was indeed surrounded, but he was nowhere near beat. "Don't understimate me stupid tree-hugger! " He removed the bandages covering up his other arm to reveal there was nothing wrong with it other than a few bruises. 

In the balconies Sakura looked even more shocked and turned to look at her sensei only to find a similar puzzled look on his face. 

Down at the arena, Zaku smirked as he pointed a hand at each of the sides surrounding him but much to his surprise or annoyance, Shino still didn't look troubled at all. 

"I will wipe that stupid look of your face, Zankyokukuuha! " Channeling almost all of his chakra carelessly into his attack, Zaku smirked, ready to take out Shino in a single blow… 

BOOM

Instead of a powerful gust of cutting wind both of Zaku's arms exploded in a gory scene that left pieces of broken flesh and puddles of blood all over the floor, Zaku dropped to the ground now with two missing limbs and screaming and squirming in agony as Shino made his way over him, this time looking regretful. "I told you to give up." Not waiting for an answer Shino kicked him in the back of the neck and made him fall unconscious as the medic team made their way to them. 

"Winner: Aburame Shino!" Shino walked up the stairs in silence and was met with looks of surprise and shock, not bothering to acknowledge them he simply walked past them all and stood next to his team. 

"H-Hey man what was that?" Had he not been incredibly distracted, Kiba might have berated himself for stuttering. 

"I had my Kikaichu fill the air vents in his arms making his arms explode when he used his jutsu, why? Because the wind didn't have a way out and the pressure was too much for his body." Shino didn't wish for him to suffer that way but he's a shinobi first and foremost, throwing a match for the sake of his opponent wasn't smart, he had been given a chance to give up and decided not to take it. 

Fighting with Honor is not the ninja way. 

The screen started going through names fast and this time both Naruto and Sakura were paying close attention. "Misumi Tsurugi and Sabaku no Kankuro, make your way down at the arena." Hayate called out, making them both jump off the railing, each sporting a smirk in their faces. 

"Are both contestants ready?" Asked Hayate, receiving a nod from both Genin, he signaled them both to start and jumped away from the field. 

"A brief warning…" Misumi said, looking incredibly smug and confident behind the veil of his. "The moment I use my jutsu, you should give up… otherwise, you'll die " 

Kankuro smirked and looked ready to laugh at his bold claim, were all tree-huggers this overconfident? "It is you who should think about giving up when I start using my own jutsu." Kankuro untied the bandage holding the puppet on his back but was attacked by his opponent before being able to let it go free. 

Misumi used his elbow to strike at his chest but was stopped by Kankuro's arm, to the surprise of Kankuro and everyone in the room, Misumi's arm started tying itself around his own while the rest of his body tied itself tightly around every one of his extremities, including his neck. 

"If you don't give up now, I'll snap your neck!" Kankuro didn't answer and Misumi took it as a sign of his will, he could respect deciding to face death rather than giving up in the middle of a fight, even if it was foolish. "Have it your way." He grabbed his head with force and pulled it, making his neck snap in a loud and sickening crunch, Kankuro's face now looking directly at Misumi started decaying and turning into a puppet. 

The bandaged bundle on the floor unfurled to reveal a perfectly healthy Kankuro controlling the puppet that was now tying its extremities very tightly around Misumi's torso, he moved two fingers and the puppet started crushing Misumi's body who yelled loudly in pain as he loudly gave up. 

Misumi fell limp on the floor as Hayate re-entered the field. "Because Misumi can no longer continue, Kankuro is the winner." 

He signaled the medic team that took Misumi's unresponsive figure as the Suna genin made his way back to his team with a smug look on his face. 

"This exam is full of freaks ." Sakura said to her team looking a little grossed out by the turn of events, it was one thing to see someone losing both arms, but having it be by the courtesy of chakra eating bugs? What about the crushed guy who's extremities looked like jelly just now? 

"Oh come on Sakura-chan, don't be so hard on yourself 'ttebayo!" Naruto's comment earned a snicker from the members of the close Team 10 and even their own senseis. 

"NA-RU-TO!" Sakura started making her way toward her teammate menacingly with an arm already stretched to hit him hard. 

"Maa maa, Sakura-chan." Said Kakashi with a playful tone as he intercepted her, "pay attention now, beat him up later." He didn't even take his eye out of his book, but Sakura could see the eye-smile behind it and decided to let Naruto off the hook for now, thinking back, she did make a rude comment. 

The names on the screen started spinning rapidly again and this time it stopped on three different names rather than two. "Will Kinuta Dosu, Akimichi Chōji and Haruno Sakura join me down here?" 

Sakura started sweating and looking nervous, she had worked so hard to get here and finally, she got her desired opportunity to show just how much she grew in the past months, so why did she feel so insecure all of a sudden? 

Was it because of the special match up that no one wanted to be a part of- or was it because she didn't think herself capable anymore? Maybe she had been overestimating her own abilities for a while, or maybe she-

"Sakura-chan." She turned to her left and found the sight of her teammate looking at her with a warm look, a reassuring hand now on her shoulder. "You got this okay? You're super strong and you're the best kunoichi in Konoha 'ttebayo!" He said as he smiled and gave her a thumbs-up with his free hand. 

Sakura chuckled a little nervously and took a deep breath to calm down and returned the smile in kind. "Thank you, Naruto-kun." She walked to the stairs but stopped right by Naruto and placed a soft, grateful kiss on his cheek before continuing on his way down, not staying long enough to see Naruto blushing furiously and hiding in embarrassment behind Kakashi's amused figure. 

The girl jumped from the railing and landed softly on the ground, shortly after she was joined by Chōji who looked incredibly nervous and conflicted. "I-I can't fight you Sakura, we're friends." He said with worry in his voice that Sakura could find heart warming, to a certain extent. 

"Don't give up Chōji, you're not doing me a favor by not fighting me." She firmly believed that him refusing to fight her was putting her at a disadvantage, if he refused to face her and give it his all, she might lack the necessary experience further down the line and that would only end in disaster. 

Chōji didn't look all that convinced but nodded his agreement either way, he had spent enough time with Sakura to know he wouldn't be winning an argument against her. 

"You tree-huggers are all a bunch of wimps." Said Dosu with a scoff and crossed arms, he wasn't worried about them teaming up on him, he firmly believed they stood no chance against him. 

"This is a special match-up and special rules apply, the winner of this match will be the last one standing." Said Hayate, getting the participants attention before things became heated, it was bound to happen either way, best it happened after he called the match. Hayate asked the participants if they were ready and after receiving nods of confirmation he once again jumped away and gave start to the match. 

"You should give up what you can, what can a little girl and fatso over here hope to achieve?" Dosu asked, somehow managing to look smug and dismissive despite having his face completely covered by bandages. 

Chōji started trembling in fury at being insulted in that way, he hated being made fun of because of his weight. "What did you call me?" He asked in a menacing tone that was entirely dismissed by Dosu. 

"Is fatso angry at me because I-" 

NIKUDAN SENSHA!

Blinded by rage Chōji used his jutsu and started rolling at the surprised Dosu at high speeds, leaving even Sakura surprised by his quick action, she would be lying if she said she didn't wish to team up with Chōji to defeat Dosu before having a duel of their own, apparently the Akimichi Heir didn't think that far. 

Dosu reacted to the advance and jumped away only for Chōji to change directions and keep going after him, Sakura kept yelling at Chōji to stop and think things through or come up with some sort of plan but he either didn't listen or didn't care, she definitely wasn't going to jump in front of him to stop him so she could only watch as Chōji rolled all around the arena. 

Noticing Chōji was starting to slow down, Dosu stayed in place- only to side step him at the last minute and hit his side with an elbow. Not really feeling the impact Chōji was just about to retaliate when he lost all sense of direction and became extremely dizzy, he dropped the jutsu making him bigger but the damage was already done. 

Dosu did the same thing he had done to Kabuto at the beginning of the written test and Chōji was now on the floor vomiting his soul out his body and unable to stand up. The sound genin grabbed a Kunai for good measure and was about to stab him when Sakura stopped him with her own Kunai.

"Proctor, Chōji can't keep on." She said without losing her focus on Dosu, Hayate nodded from a distance and quickly jumped in to retrieve Chōji before leaving the arena once again. 

Sakura was frustrated, Chōji had completely dismissed her over a comment about his weight, she understood him better than anyone else as she was easily irked and thrown of her game with comments about her appearance. She just didn't understand why Asuma hadn't taken care of it the same way Kakashi did for her. 

How did Kakashi do it? By making fun of absolutely every single thing she hated about her appearance until she had to learn to ignore him of course. 

Sakura didn't learn much about Dosu's jutsu other than it required him to use those weird gauntlets that were on both of his arms, they would've to be disposed of. 

Without missing a beat, Sakura jumped away as far as she could the moment she noticed a slight shift on Dosu's stand, and sure enough, he had tried to use his jutsu again to make her drop. 

"You seem to be slightly better than your friend. No matter, you still can't win against me." He grabbed a hail of shuriken and threw them at her hoping to distract her long enough to use his jutsu on her but, much to his confusion, she stood still and let the Shuriken pierce her body. 

Thinking he had won, Dosu lowered his guard but that proved to be a fatal mistake when the pierced Sakura burst in a shower of cherry blossoms and the real one hit his forearm with a rock covered punch, effectively breaking one of his gauntlets. 

Dosu jumped away and seethed in anger, he didn't know this girl could use Genjutsu. He was now in a tight spot, he only had one of his main weapons and had to be constantly on guard and checking for Genjutsu, he didn't have much time to think of a strategy because of a hail of shuriken flying towards him. "You annoying bitch! "  

Sakura's strategy was quite simple in her mind, keep your distance as much as possible and only close in for an attack when an opening presents itself. She had already done it once and she only had to do it once more, he hadn't used any jutsu that didn't require the use of his device yet which led her to believe he was reliant on them to fight effectively. She could use it in her favor. 

"Can't fight without your toys , big-boy?" She mocked and got the desired effect in the form of Dosu cussing her out and losing his cool, she threw another hail of shurikens as he jumped away to evade them. 

He landed far away from her and tried to return her attack only to find her gone from the arena, thinking he had been placed under the effect of Genjutsu once again, Dosu used the dispelling technique and surely enough, found Sakura running at him with another reinforced punch, this time however he was able to react in time and used the same move he had used to incapacitate Chōji. 

Sakura stopped dead on her tracks and dropped to her knees, Dosu smirked behind his bandages and before the proctor could stop him, he fished a kunai out of her pocket and stabbed her right in the forehead, making all signs of life leave Sakura's eyes…

Then she turned into a bunch of rocks. 

Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu!  

Kakashi watched in amusement as a pair of hands took hold of Dosu's feet from the ground to pull the genin hard, burying him in the ground with only his head and the arm gauntlet free. 

Sakura emerged in front of him and looked at him with a smirk, she used a kunai to destroy the device to then place the tip on his forehead. "You lose."

"Winner: Haruno Sakura!" 

After being announced the winner Sakura did a little victory dance and released Dosu from his underground imprisonment, oh how she loves that Jutsu. 

Kakashi had done great to teach it to her for sure. Sakura turned her back on Dosu and started walking back towards her team. She could still hear Dosu cussing her out but she honestly didn't care much, that's why she didn't notice when an enraged Dosu picked up a Kunai and started running at her. 

"You stupid bitch! "  He called out, making Sakura turn around to find his attacker's kunai just inches away from her face. She had been too slow to react to his advance but the exam proctor hadn't been and Dosu was stopped by his firm grip. 

"You should've learned to accept defeat." It was just then, hearing Hayate's icy tone and the lack of coughs between his words that she noticed the Kunai piercing Dosu's neck and dripping blood. 

Sakura stood incredibly still and started stuttering nonsense; she had seen death before of course, her teammate had died in front of her, but she had never seen someone being killed in front of her. 

She didn't even notice Kakashi using a Shunshin to bring her back by his and Naruto's side. "Are you alright, Sakura?" 

"S-Sensei? I-I he, he tried to, he, I- " Why was it being so hard for her now to form a coherent sentence, she was worried she would look like a baby but she couldn't even say that. Sakura could faintly hear the sound of Hayate calling out names in the distance, Tenten had gone to fight that Temari girl from Suna apparently but she didn't have it in herself to pay attention to the match. 

Her hands wouldn't stop shaking, every time she thought of what would happen she would see Dosu's face, she would see how life left his eyes, but the face, it wasn't Dosu. 

It was him. 

Someone had been killed in front of her and she immediately went back to that place again. Sakura was standing on the balcony but her mind wasn't there. She looked around and all she could see was a bridge covered in fog and her lifeless teammate bleeding out in front of her. 

And she couldn't do anything. 

"Sakura, calm down." The voice of his sensei snapped her out of her thoughts as she started to focus on the current time again, she could see Shikamaru going up the stairs and an unconscious Kin being taken to the infirmary. ‘ Shikamaru? Did Tenten finish fighting already?’ 

"Take a deep breath, Sakura." She did as instructed and started taking deep breaths, slowly her vision started becoming normal again, she could feel her heart-rate stabilizing. A panic attack? Out of nowhere? "It's alright, Sakura, we'll talk about it later. It's Naruto's turn."

Seeing as Sakura's panic attack was over Naruto walked down the stairs to meet his chosen opponent. 

Kiba. 

"This one's going to be easy, eh Akamaru?" He said as he jumped off the railing with as much confidence as one could muster, the aforementioned Akamaru simply barked in agreement and jumped off of Kiba's hoody, both now standing up in front of Naruto. 

"Pfff, I can beat you with my eye closed any day, mutt ." Naruto loves riling people up, especially when it was so easy, the match hadn't even started yet and Kiba was already impatiently wanting to pummel Naruto into the ground. 

"Kick his ass Naruto!" 

Naruto and Kiba both looked at the balcony to find Ino cheering for him. Sure Naruto had become friends with Ino ever since he started hanging out with Team 10 for training but this was a little unexpected, clearly it was unexpected even by the members of her own team if Shikamaru's questioning look was any indication. 

Ino simply shrugged it off as if it was the most normal of occurrences "What? He's annoying."

That comment earned her a snicker from Naruto and deadly looks from Kiba who was now seething in anger, Ino was helping Naruto and she didn't even notice. 

"Are both contestants ready?" Hayate was growing tired of these Genin bickering with each other, couldn't they just fight professionally and be done with it? He couldn't really blame Naruto, the boy's sensei sure likes to have a chat with his enemies. 

Kiba and Naruto nodded their approval and Hayate quickly started the match, not long after he jumped away from the arena. Kiba tossed a red pill to Akamaru which made it turn red and more feral. "Let's end this quickly, Akamaru."

With a call of Giju Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu! Kiba dropped on all fours as blue chakra started swirling around him. His eyes became slitted, his nails became claws and his fangs grew larger. Akamaru then jumped on top of Kiba's back as he made a half-ram seal and called out. Juujin Bunshin! Making Akamaru turn into a perfect copy of him. 

The now transformed Akamaru jumped from his back and they both started running at Naruto who had been studying their movements up until now, seeing as an attack was imminent Naruto grabbed both of his staffs and stood in a defensive position. With the left staff in a reverse grip, Kiba and Akamaru jumped in the air with a yell of Gatsuuga! , both started rotating their bodies so far that they became drills and started descending at Naruto. 

The Uzumaki jumped back to avoid the hit but was met with another coming drill from his left that he just barely managed to dodge by jumping up where he was met with another drill, he quickly performed the Kage Bunshin and used one of his clones to substitute to a safe spot where he could think of a plan. 

"What's the matter, Naruto? Too scared to face me so you keep running away?" Oh how Naruto hated when they tried to rile him up in return, and how he hated the fact that it almost worked, that damn stupid mutt. 

"I'm going to make sure you can't dodge the next attack!" Kiba fished a smoke pellet out of his pouch and threw it on the ground, covering the whole of the arena in smoke and leaving his and Naruto's vision completely obstructed. He didn't need to see Naruto, he just needed to be able to smell him while the Uzumaki couldn't be able to see where the attack would be coming from and dodge. 

Too bad Kiba didn't know Naruto was a sensor. 

Up in the balconies Sakura visibly smirked and Kakashi had an amused look on his visible eye. "He just lost the match." He said, shocking the Jounin sensei of Kiba's team, Yuhi Kurenai, who had come a little closer to him when the match started. 

"Really? How come you have so little faith in your student Kakashi?" Asked Kurenai with a curious look on her face, it was good to be realistic of course but that seemed a little cruel from him. 

"My student? Who said anything about Naruto? Kiba just sold the match." He said without taking his eye off from the field, he would've used the sharingan to have a better view but the sharingan isn't really capable of seeing through smoke, just watching the flow of chakra wasn't worth it in his opinion. 

Back in the arena Kiba started his onslaught once again but much to his surprise, he found he still wasn't being able to hit Naruto despite knowing exactly where he was, the slippery Uzumaki was definitely still capable of dodging the attacks without relying on his sight, annoying little bastard.

Angry at the fact that Naruto was still able to dodge his attacks, Kiba stopped his onslaught once again about the same time a gust of wind cleared the smoke revealing… 3 Kibas? 

"Hah! You're a bigger idiot than I thought if you think I wouldn't be able to recognize Akamaru's scent moron!" Kiba said as he lunged forward to the fake Akamaru and hit him on the face hard only for his punch to phase through him? How? Kiba knew it wasn't a Bunshin because he could feel Naruto's scent in it. 

Suddenly, from the ground emerged three Naruto's in a triangle formation with their hands already on a Bird seal. "I'm sorry Akamaru, I think you're pretty cool!" Not waiting for Kiba to snap out of his confusion and without giving them much time to react, the three Narutos extended their hands toward Kiba and called out. 

Raiton: Raikou Kousen no Jutsu!

A beam of lightning shot out of the palms of each Naruto and traveled through the arena too fast for the still shocked Kiba to react, it hit both him and his companion head-on and caused him to shake in their spot in pain. They couldn't even yell because the strong energy current wouldn't let them open their mouths. 

Not wanting to use more force than it was necessary on fellow shinobi - despite how much Kiba annoyed him - Naruto stopped the jutsu when he knew it was enough to knock him out, making both Kiba and Akamaru drop limp on the floor. 

"H-How?" Asked a sputtering Kurenai. 

"Naruto is a sensor, a good one at that, Kiba gave him the opportunity to prepare his attack with the cover of the smoke, not the smartest of moves." Answered Kakashi with a nonchalant tone he used to disguise his own pride in his student turned little brother. 

After Hayate called the match and an unconscious Kiba was taken to the medical guard, Naruto climbed the stairs and was met with the cheers of his friends and a questioning look on his teammates face. "How didn't Kiba notice you were just a regular bunshin?" 

"Genjutsu." He answered making the Genjutsu mistress of Konoha - Kiba's sensei - perk up at his comment.

"Oh? What exactly did you do to him?" She asked, raising her eyebrows. 

"It's something Kakashi-sensei taught me, an easy illusion to trick his nose into feeling a scent that isn't really there." He looked at Kakashi who only gave him an approving nod and went back into his book reading, he was just getting to the interesting part. 

"I thought you said you didn't like Genjutsu." Sakura rubbed her chin in thought, he did say that to her. 

"I said Genjutsu doesn't really fit my style, it takes too much control and concentration out of me, I need more practice to be able to use them effectively." The explanation of how he used it just now was omitted and it really wasn't necessary, Kiba had provided him with a perfect cover to concentrate for a few moments after all, he saw an opportunity and he took it. 

The room settled once more and the only two Genin who still hadn't had a chance to fight were clearly anxious, though for very different reasons. Lee was eager to feel the thrill of battle and prove himself as a capable ninja despite his limitations, he wanted to show everyone that his will to fight greatly overcame the fate imposed to him at birth, he wanted to show everyone that it wasn't necessary to use Ninjutsu to be a strong shinobi. 

Above everything else, he wanted to show him he was worthy of respect. 

Naruto was sweating bullets, Lee had arguably become his best-friend, sure, Shikamaru, him and Chōji had formed a very special bond and there was nothing he wouldn't do to keep them safe; he respected Shikamaru like no other Genin and admired his wits too, but there was something about Lee, something about the way he drives himself that Naruto has admired ever since they met. 

His will to never give up.

Lee is the strongest Genin there is currently in the village and Naruto has no trouble admitting such a fact, he actually strives to be like him. Sometimes he wonders, just how strong would a person with a determination as strong as Lee's.Without the limitations he had been born with; the idea is both scary and exciting. 

If only he didn't have to fight him, Naruto knows Lee can take care of himself but there was something about Gaara that screamed of danger and he hadn't been able to figure it out… he shouldn't be worrying much about it, Lee is strong, if anyone can beat the shit out of Gaara is him. 

"Will Rock Lee and Sabaku no Gaara please come down here?" 

"YOSH LEE!" Gai struck his trade-marked nice-guy pose and patted Lee's head. "It's time for you to show them the power of youth!" 

"YES GAI-SENSEI! I shall make you proud with the brightness of my youth!" Said Lee, just as excited and eager to fight. He pocketed the notepad he had been using to write anything his sensei said or anything he saw during the matches that he thought interesting and jumped off the railing to meet his opponent. 

"I'm sorry I haven't been able to give you blood worthy of you mother, wait some more, I'll find someone strong to offer you later." Gaara had a crazed look and a psychotic aura as he said it and held his head tightly with both hands as if he were in some kind of pain but whoever this mother he was talking to must've been pleased with his explanation because he went back to his stoic but menacing demeanor immediately after that. 

"Kakashi-sensei." Almost whispered Naruto up in the balcony making sure only his brother could hear him. "That guy… his chakra - chakras - are awful and there's two, why does he have two chakras? What is he?" 

Kakashi took note of Naruto's worried look and focused hard in thought, there was only one thing he could think of that would make someone have two different chakra sources. It was hard to believe that Suna had sent their so-called weapon all the way to Konoha for an exam but he had learned to trust Naruto's sensing and so far he hasn't been wrong about anything.

The sensei leaned closer to Naruto, whispering a single word so low only he could hear it and saw his face turn white, he knew very well what that word meant and he didn't like it. 

Jinchuuriki.

"Are both contestants ready?" The question was asked and in the arena it was clear they both were. 

Sakura could see Naruto trembling, yet refused to talk about it when she asked if he was okay. He had never been so scared before and he knew he wouldn't be this scared if it was him facing Gaara, he was really hoping Lee would be more than strong enough to pummel him into the ground- Jinchuuriki or not. At the very least, he was hoping Lee would know when to give up if it came to it. 

Down in the arena both contestants nodded and the match started, Gaara removed the screw cap of his gourd and it came flying at Lee. He took it as his cue and started running, aiming a fist to Gaara's face to find it connected with a protective wall of sand when he got closer. ' Sand manipulation jutsu, it will be hard to get through it.' He observed as he jumped back.

Lee jumped back just enough to avoid a counterattack before coming to the offensive again, he closed in in Gaara's personal space and started throwing punches that would all be stopped by the sand. He started circling Gaara as he attacked hoping it would be enough to divert his attention but it proved for naught. 

The green-clad genin started mixing up his attacks with open palm strikes to the chest, lower kicks, punches and jumping kicks but nothing seemed to work so he jumped away. 

"Is that all? I'm still not entertained, there hasn't been enough blood ." Gaara said, going into the offensive. Waves of sand started flying at Lee from multiple angles who would dodge in a certain direction only to find more sand waiting for him at the spot. 

Lee jumped and was forced to dive back down immediately to avoid being hit in the air, he rolled as he fell to soften the impact and found sand already coming at him, he quickly jumped back up high enough and landed on the pointed fingers of the statue in the back of the room to think on a strategy. 

"Take them off Lee!" The strong voice of his sensei filled the air and he turned to look at the imposing man to find an approving look on his face. 

"But you said I should only take them off to protect someone very important to me sensei!" He replied, recalling the rules imposed to him by his sensei. 

"Yes, I did, but this is an exception, show us all your flames of youth!" No more explanation was needed as Lee started giggling and sat down to remove his leg warmers to reveal a set of weights on each of his legs. Almost everyone started wondering how would removing some weights help his situation, even Kakashi who despite using weights in the training of his Genin, knows that the speed boost they would get from removing them while good wouldn't be fast enough to overcome Gaara's sand. 

Not caring about the murmurs, Lee stood up and let both set of weights fall on the ground, making giant craters and lifting up an incredible amount of dust from the ground. Everyone in the room - except for the people who knew about it - had their jaws on the floor as Lee disappeared from view. In the balconies, despite being extremely worried, Naruto couldn't help but smile proudly. 

Lee re-emerged in front of Gaara, shocking him and everyone with his speed, he punched him in the face and was just barely stopped by the sand. Not wanting to waste his momentum, he disappeared again only to reappear on a different side of the red-head to attempt to hit him, he did this multiple times until he managed to get past the sand and connect a spinning axe kick on his head. 

Everyone, especially Gaara's teammates and sensei were surprised that someone had managed to actually hit Gaara. Lee kept going at him and managed to connect another hit, this time in his jaw and sent him flying. When Gaara stood up once again, his skin started peeling off and turning into sand. ' A sand armor? I need to get him away from his sand so I can break it without trouble, perhaps if I send him in the air and hit him repeatedly… the Lotus .' 

Having made up his mind, Lee let loose the bandages of his arms and started running at incredibly high speeds around Gaara, dust started to rise following his steps and except for a few after images, spotting Lee became nigh on impossible, for those who didn't have access to a Dojutsu of course. The Hyuga present in the room almost instinctively turned on their Byakugan at the same time Kakashi uncovered his own Sharingan eye, neither of them wanting to miss out on what was about to happen. 

Lee ran inside Gaara's defense and kicked him in the stomach hard enough to send him in the air, not satisfied he used his arms to lunch himself up legs first and kept on kicking him multiple times causing visible cracks to appear in his sand armor. When he deemed them both to be high enough, Lee used the bandages in his arms to tie himself around Gaara as well as restrict his movements and then started spinning, he and Gaara both started falling to the ground fast and the red-head was clearly going to hit head first. 

Omote Renge!

Both Genin impacted the floor and a loud crash followed, when the dust that had rose from the impact settled, it revealed a winded Lee panting hard with an unmoving Gaara buried in the ground, Hayate made his way to the zone of the impact to determine if Lee had indeed won and found the unmoving Gaara breaking down and collapsing into sand. 

'An empty shell?' 

A vile energy that made every hair in Naruto's body rise filled the room and he started holding on to the rail so hard that his knuckles started turning white. Behind Lee a maniacal laugh could be heard followed by Gaara emerging from the sand with a twisted face. 

"Yes… your blood will be enough to please mother!" Gaara started a new onslaught of sand much faster and powerful, Lee tried to dodge as much as he could but was caught in the end and thrown hard into the wall, engraving his figure in it. 

His face became full of determination as he dug himself out of the wall, immediately jumping away from Gaara. Upon landing Lee crossed both of his arms and stole a glance from his sensei. 

'To protect and maintain my Ninja way!' Energy started swirling around his body and for the first time ever Naruto had been able to feel the gates, for the first time ever Naruto had been able to feel how truly impressive his friend really is. 

Fourth Gate of Pain: Shomon! Lee's skin turned red as a visible green aura formed itself around him. Not wasting any moment he ran at Gaara and the ground started breaking as he went from the sheer power he expelled. 

An unsuspecting Gaara who had just reformed his sand armor was kicked in the jaw and sent flying in the air, Lee jumped high up and continued his onslaught at speeds so high Kakashi could barely perceive with his Sharingan. In the air Lee started hitting Gaara repeatedly from multiple angles without ever letting him fall. 

'No human can move like this!' Were the read-head's thoughts as his armor was cracked in multiple places and the pain he felt became more unbearable. Lee appeared in front of him and yelled "This is it! Fifth Gate of Closing: Tomon! ", and the energy around him became even more powerful. He looked around and stole a glance at his teammate. 

'Are you watching Neji? This is my ace in the hole that I had saved for you.' Lee hit Gaara hard in the stomach and sent him crashing to the ground once again. 

BOOM

The impact was so hard everyone could feel the aftershock as a loud crash not very different from an explosion echoed around the room. In the arena Lee could be found kneeling and barely able to move with a satisfied and accomplished look on his face. 

"LEE!" 

Lee heard his dear friend call his name but didn't understand the urgency in his voice until he felt it, strings of sand tying themselves around his body, he tried to stand but failed and only managed to give the sand more ground as it tied itself around his arm and lower back. 

The world slowed down for him, he could faintly see Gaara closing his hand and muttering some jutsu he didn't quite catch, he could faintly see how Naruto completely disregarded the rules and was in the process of jumping off the railing. 

Then he feel it. 

AAAAAAAAH! 

He screamed in agony and fell back on the floor, this time everything around him started moving too fast for him to understand. He knew he was being held by someone, he guessed it was probably Naruto if the faint hint of Orange he could see was anything to go by, in front of him stood an imposing figure that had clearly stopped the advance of the sand and was dressed in similar clothing to him, it must've been his reliable sensei. 

Everything had become hazy for him and he was just barely conscious, the only thing keeping him awake was a single thought that wouldn't leave his mind. 

'I can't feel my legs…' 

Chapter Text

"The fights are as follows…" The sudden and intimidating voice of Ibiki brought Naruto out of his intense glaring to a certain red-head. "In the first match Nara Shikamaru will fight Uzumaki Naruto, in the second match Haruno Sakura will fight Sabaku no Temari, in the third match Sabaku no Kankuro will fight Aburame Shino and finally in the fourth match Hyuga Neji will fight Hyuga Hinata."

"You're forgetting my name…" Gaara's voice was menacing, full of hatred and bloodlust but Ibiki wasn't phased in the slightest. 

"Because there's an odd number of participants, you Sabaku no Gaara will be facing the winner of the first match, win or lose the progress of your opponent in the tournament will be decided by their match only." After he said that, Ibiki didn't take any questions and dismissed the Genin. 

Naruto was mad, he can't remember ever being this angry and perhaps that's why he did what he did. After the match announcements had been made he walked up to Gaara and stated. 

"I will destroy you."

He then walked away, only stopping in the place where Lee had laid before being taken to the hospital to receive far better treatment than what he could hope to get in the tower's infirmary. Naruto looked at the still fresh blood of his friend and knelt, he took it on the palm of his hand and squashed it hard as he made an oath. 

'I will make sure he pays for what he did to you bushy-brows, I swear I will.'

"Naruto-kun?" A stern and concerned voice called out his name and it was only then he was finally brought out of his own thoughts. He looked around and found that Lee was still asleep in the hospital room he himself had refused to leave for the past two days. The only person who would ever come to visit Lee besides him was Gai-sensei and that only made him feel a stronger need to stay by his side. 

"I'm sorry Dr. Teruya, I spaced out a little 'ttebayo!" He rubbed his nose sheepishly in that silly way he always does when he's apologetic about something, it didn't really feel natural this time, not with his friend lying in bed right beside him. 

Dr. Teruya chuckled at Naruto's antics and waved off his apology as she made her way to him and took a seat right by his side. "So, how are you feeling dear?" 

"Me? You want to know how I'm feeling?” That seemed like such a dumb question to him, why was he suddenly the object of her concerns when he isn’t even her patient. “What about Lee?" 

"Now, now. Don't get all judgemental on me young man. Lee is doing as well as he can given his circumstances, I just wanted to know how you're feeling, that's all." She gave him a look that dared him to say otherwise and that seemed to stir up something in his mind as he slumped his shoulders. 

"I'm sorry…" Naruto was never rude, at least not intentionally, he had been a little testy after the prelims were over, perhaps it was the lack of sleep but at this point he was merely guessing. 

"Don't be, now tell me, what's got you so upset?" She asked. 

"It's just that I-, I feel like I should've done something for him… Kakashi says there's nothing I could've possibly done to prevent what happened but I still can't shake the feeling that I failed Lee." It was most likely because he knew. He knew Gaara was dangerous and never warned him, he knew what Gaara was even if just shortly before his match but he still didn't tell him, it ate at him. 

"Well, I'm not Lee - though I'm sure you noticed - but if it were me, I wouldn't even think of you when looking for someone to blame, if anything, I think Lee is really fortunate to have such a good and loyal friend." Kaiya's comment made Naruto brighten up a little and she pinched his cheek like a grandma would do her grandson, making Naruto chuckle and visibly relax. 

"There's actually something else I've been meaning to talk to you about Naruto…" As she spoke, she looked around the room, and even though it was empty, she knew the walls had ears. "Come with me, I would like to discuss this with you in my office."

The old woman led Naruto away from Lee's resting room and into her own secluded office in a not so accessible part of the hospital, the office was at the end of a corner with only one way in and out that could be watched from the inside at all times. When reaching the office Kaiya fished a weird looking key from her pouches and allowed Naruto in, making sure to lock the door again after he had taken a seat. 

Naruto looked a little nervous as Dr. Teruya's wrinkled visage was taken over by a serious look he had only seen once before, the woman stood in front of him and activated a silencing seal under her desk that he knew to be the work of the Hokage himself. "So… what's this all about Dr. Teruya?" He asked as he nervously shifted his feet. 

"Oh…" The woman lost her serious look and started chuckling at Naruto's expense, making his eyebrows twitch in irritation. "Are you that scared of me, Naruto-kun? I must say I don't know if that's a good thing or not." 

She got what she wanted in the form of Naruto, visibly relaxing. She was thinking hard the whole time and didn't realize her look was unnerving. "There is something I would like to talk to you about, propose even."

Naruto replied by giving her a questioning look. 

"Months ago I mentioned to Kakashi that I was interested in coming up with a way for you to use your Sharingan like a regular eye, as in making you capable of turning it on and off at your leisure." She explained. 

"Just me? Why not him too?" He asked and caused her to smile in pride, it truly was refreshing to see someone as selfless and concerned for others as Naruto. 

"I don't know how much you know about the incident that resulted in Kakashi getting his sharingan but, unlike you, he was forced to use it right after he got it and it caused some serious damage. I'm not saying it's impossible, just way beyond what I'm capable of." She had been the one to give Kakashi a thorough examination when he returned from that mission. The damage Kakashi's eye socket had received when he lost his own eye had been bad enough, top that with the stress using the Sharingan right away put on him and well… it wasn't pretty . 

"How would that even work? You do your glowing hand thingy on me and that's it?" He asked, rubbing his chin. 

"You really need to learn a little about medical ninjutsu Naruto-kun…" She said as she giggled at Naruto's question before continuing her explanation. "But to answer your question, no, it would technically be a minor surgical procedure, I'd go in and rearrange the nerve terminations in your eye and do some work on the chakra pathways that lead to it. If it all goes well the Sharingan will recede back into the natural form of Sasuke-kun's black eye."

"Oh… yeah." Naruto didn't think about that, he wasn't against the idea of having two different eye colors or anything but… having used the Sharingan as little as he can, sometimes he forgets it's even there. Looking at Sasuke's black eye every single day, a daily reminder of the fact that Sasuke isn't there anymore. 

He doesn't know if he's ready for that. 

"I know what you're thinking dear, I might not have known little Sasuke much but- I'm sure he would appreciate you taking him with him wherever you might go and not only for fights."

I'll become your eye, and see the future with you

"Yeah… I think he would 'ttebayo!" Naruto discreetly wiped a lone tear away from his face and went back into business mode. "How long would that take though, I kinda have to train to beat the crap out of Gaara y'know?" 

"Well, the procedure itself shouldn't take me more than a few hours. Normally, a person would need at least a month to recover from such a thing. You? You'll be good to go in a week." She said as she playfully ruffled his hair, oh how she wished she could recover as fast as he did. 

"Is it okay if I talk to Nii-san about it first?" 

"Of course dear, come back tomorrow if you decide you do want it."

"I think you should do it."

"W-What? Just like that? At least think about it 'ttebayo." Naruto crossed his arms and huffed in annoyance making Kakashi chuckle. 

"It's a rare opportunity, and definitely worth it. Besides, a week is not too long, you'd still have three whole weeks to train for your match with Shikamaru and Gaara." Said Kakashi closing his book and putting it back in his pocket. 

"I guess you're right… I'm just nervous y'know? I haven't been able to use my eye in public for a while now." It was still very exciting for him, there was something about wearing his headband on his forehead like a proud shinobi that he had always found appealing, now that he won't have to cover his eye with his hair he can wear it like he used to. 

"Well… officially you lost it, I wouldn't go around showing off an eye you're not supposed to have, sharingan or not." Now that made Naruto feel dumb. "It's actually great timing, I was going to ask you to tell Sakura that I won't be able to train you guys for about a week."

Naruto asked Kakashi, "What? Why?"

–

"So they sent their Jinchuuriki to the village… that is troubling." Hiruzen's chin was resting in both of his hands as he sat on his desk and thought hard about what he had been informed by Kakashi about a certain red-head. 

"How would you feel about taking Inu's mask for a little trip, Kakashi?" He asked suddenly, rejoicing in the look of shock he had gotten out of his most aloof Shinobi. 

"A black ops mission?" He asked. 

"I've been hearing rumors about Suna's discontent, it is no secret that the wind Daimyo has cut funding from them and given many of their assignments to other Hidden Villages, especially ours." The game of politics in the 5 Great Nations has always been shaky at best, recently the Wind Daimyo had randomly decided that he preferred to have less and less dealings with his own Hidden Village for some reason.

Tensions had begun to rise in both nations, mostly because the wind Daimyo had decided Konoha was his best choice when it came to missions, giving Sunagakure only the more mundane of tasks. You could argue that Konoha could simply refuse him but it wasn't as easy as that, outright denying your services to an allied nation was simply not in the realm of possibility. The Hokage had still made it a point of finding ways to reject as many missions as possible in hopes of maintaining their friendship with suna. 

"Suna openly boasts of their Jinchuriki as a weapon and I want to know why they sent him here. I want you to do a little spying, find out if this is them just sending a Genin to be promoted or a statement."

Kakashi of course accepted the assignment without so much as a second thought and made his way to meet Naruto at his house at the boy's request. Kakashi was excited at the prospect of wearing his ANBU mask after so long, he also felt a little trepidation but that went unsaid. 

–

"Hokage-sama gave me a special assignment that he would like completed as soon as 

possible."

"A special assignment?” What does that even mean?" Naruto looked up at his sensei, crooking his head to the side.

"Don't worry about it, I'll be back in time to help you both train" 

Sakura was picking up the belongings that she had in Naruto's house, "Is there anything else you need, Naruto-kun?" The procedure had gone pretty well, and Dr. Teruya sent Naruto home to rest with a bag full of a high dosage numbing medicine that had a drowsiness effect.

Not as high as Naruto was when he woke up though. 

Sakura being the amazing friend she was had gladly taken Naruto back to his house and watched over him so he didn't do anything stupid. The drugs were completely out of his system by now and no longer needed anyone to watch over him. 

"I'm alright now Sakura-chan but thanks for taking care of me, I really appreciate it y'know?" He said as he helped Sakura store the rest of her things before escorting her to the door. 

"Remember Dr. Teruya told you not to remove your patch until the week is over, don't try to use your eye either." Sakura stopped and added. "If anyone asks what happened to your eye, tell them your wound got infected." As she walked away from him again. 

"Wait!" Naruto tripped on his doorstep as he clumsily grabbed Sakura's arm to stop her. "Do you know if they checked Lee while I was out?" He knew Lee was supposed to receive a thorough examination by Dr. Teruya to assess the damage when she deemed him stable enough. 

"Yeah… about that." A sad look made its way in Sakura's features and Naruto could feel his stomach gripping at the defeated look on her face. "Apparently the damage done to his spine was too severe…” 

“Lee will never walk again, I'm sorry Naruto."

She left shortly after that but he didn't notice, he sulked in his living room for hours and wallowed in guilt. Kaiya's words rang deep in his brain, his own common sense was telling him there was no point in blaming himself for what happened to Lee but he still did. 

What would his parents do if they were in his situation? 

That's the question he kept asking himself over and over whenever he found himself at an impasse ever since he discovered his parents identity. Would the legendary Yondaime Hokage wallow in guilt and self-pity over things he had no control over? What about the feared Hot-blooded Habanero?

Naruto smiled lightly to himself and stood up, he wasn't told he couldn't go out of his house and he needed to relax a lot before he could face Lee, perhaps a little trip to the local onsen was due. 

"Oh yes, move around a little beauty." A man with long white hair tied in a ponytail was giggling and doing a little perverted dance as he spied inside the woman's side of the bath through a peephole . 

Who even does that?

"Oi old man! You can't do that 'ttebayo!" This wasn't Naruto's version of a relaxing time. Sure, he could definitely appreciate the beauty of the female body, but he would never fall so low as to violate their privacy. 

Well, perhaps if it was Sakura in that onsen he would maybe consider it. 

"Get lost brat! I'm doing very important research." Replied the man without even taking his eye away from his spying spot, making Naruto get even more annoyed. He wasn't having a good day and this stupid old man wasn't being helpful. 

Naruto tried to get him away from the bath a few more times but it was all to no avail, he had to give it to him, for all his antics the man truly was strong, no matter how hard he pushed he never moved. 

Not even a single inch. 

"Fine!" Oh, never one to be beaten so easily, Naruto went with Plan B. He went inside of the bath house reception and used his own Oiroke no Jutsu to turn into a female version of himself with two long blonde ponytails and a significant bust. He then picked a towel from the desk to cover his face and ran to the women enjoying their bath time yelling. " Pervert! There's a pervert spying on the wall!" 

Every lady heard the fear in Naruto's voice and immediately dressed up to deal with the situation. Outside of the onsen, the screams of agony and "Don't kick poor little me." were music to his ears, this wasn't what he intended to do to relax but it definitely worked. 

He might play a few more pranks again. 

Having had enough, Naruto went to look for the man just to make sure he was still alive - so he could keep making fun of him - and found him sitting down in a tree as he rubbed a spot on his head. 

"Got a little beat up pervert?" He asked mockingly, earning a glare from the man that quickly turned into a look of recognition. It didn't last long enough for Naruto to notice but he had been identified, so the man saw it fit to introduce himself. 

"You interrupted very important research you damn brat!" He said as he fished out a book from his pouch and proudly displayed the cover, making Naruto realize just what book it was. 

"It's you! You write those perverted books Kakashi-nii reads all the time!" Naruto yelled as he pointed an accusatory finger at the man and stomped his feet in indignation, he truly didn't mind all that much, but Sakura did and she complained loudly about it whenever she could. 

The man only smirked as a response and performed a sing-less jutsu that made a cloud of smoke, it dissipated and revealed him standing on top of a human-sized red toad in a ridiculous pose. "Man cower at my presence and ladies swoon all over me, it is I the great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku Jiraiya the Gallant!" 

"J-Jiraiya?" Asked Naruto with a slight tremble in his voice that caught both him and the legendary Sannin off-guard. 

"Yes?" Was the slightly nervous reply. 

"Jiraiya the Sannin?" He asked again, this time with a more serious look on his face. 

"Yes." Was the short and boast-less reply. 

Naruto looked at the ground, in a quiet voice he said, "You trained my father." 

Jiraiya sighed and let the toad go back to where it came from; he knew of course that Naruto had been told about his father's identity the last time he was in the village, heck, he had been told he could approach the boy if he wanted to but never got around to it. 

A little part of him was just hoping that knowing about his father wouldn't mean he knew anything about him. That was of course wishful thinking, how would a boy who idolized the Yondaime long before he even knew they were related not know everything there is to know about him? 

"Listen Naruto…" The words came out but he was still unsure of what it was that he wanted to say, what was he supposed to say? At least he got the desired effect of getting his attention. 

"You know my name?" Naruto knew from Kakashi's stories that Jiraiya and his father were really close, but judging by the lack of contact between them he had guessed long ago that the closeness probably didn't extend to him. He used to be bitter about it but let it go eventually, you can't force people to care about you. 

In the end, no matter how lonely it got in that apartment, he always had someone he could go to. 

"I know a lot about you, even what you hide behind that little patch of yours." The world seemed to stop for a second as Jiraiya's comment made Naruto gape like fish, for a moment he didn't know if he was supposed to know or if he could even trust that man. 

It was a scary thought. 

"Would you like something to eat, brat? My treat, I'm sure you have some questions."

Naruto silently accepted the invitation and led Jiraiya to his favorite restaurant in the village, Ichiraku Ramen. Ever since he was a little kid he felt attracted to the place. The energy inside was always so different from that of the entire village, he never knew how to explain it but, being there felt right , for some reason he always felt like he belonged there. The amazing people that ran the stand were obviously a big plus. 

They both settled in and ordered some food, Jiraiya discreetly placed a foot on the ground and erected a little silencing barrier to keep whatever they talked about between themselves, having realized what the man had done, Naruto relaxed a little and spoke up. "Do you uhmm -? Am I? Do I-? Pfft…" 

Jiraiya allowed himself to chuckle at the boy's troubles and smiled fondly. This wasn't what he had been expecting of their first meeting, in some part of his mind he had been convinced that maybe Naruto would see him riding a toad and immediately decide he was the most awesome ninja ever and would pester him for training restlessly until he bulged as if he wasn't thinking of training him either way. 

"Do you hate me?" The question was asked in a voice so weak that it didn't sound like it belonged to a boy that earlier had such a confident aura around him. It's easy to forget that the boy had grown up with only a single person he could call a family, Naruto for all his confidence was just a scarred boy who had to grow up in a lonely apartment looking every night at the ceiling, crying, asking himself just what it is that he could've done to make his family leave him behind. 

He had found out the truth eventually, but a lot of damage had already been done. 

"Why would you ask that, Naruto?" Asked Jiraiya in a voice that conveyed nothing, not a trace of anger, sadness or regret. 

"Nii-san said you and my father were very close, so I thought that maybe you would… I don't know. " But he did know, he just didn't want to say that he hoped the man would've made himself present, that he hoped Jiraiya would've been there for him so he wouldn't have been as lonely as he was. 

It didn't really matter now, that's what he thought at least. Hiruzen had been family for him when he needed it the most and now, he has friends, he has a brother. 

He has people he cares about now. 

"You thought that I would've been there for you?" Jiraiya took a sip from a cup of Sake he had gotten out of nowhere before continuing. "It's not because of you, Naruto, at the time I was very troubled myself, I focused solely on my work and thought you'd be alright… by the time I realized I was wrong, you didn't need me anymore so I stayed away."

He took another sip of his drink and stared at the counter as his mind wandered. He could remember Minato asking him for permission to name his soon to be born son after the main character of his first and unsuccessful book. 

"I kept tabs on you from a distance, I know all about your exploits in the pranking department, your graduation, all about your sharingan and what happened to you in Nami, I'm sorry for your loss." He said sincerely and got a smile out of Naruto. 

"Thanks…" Naruto said as he slurped some noodles before continuing. "Were you the one who gave me Gama-chan?" He asked as he fished a cute frog wallet out of his pouch and showed it to him. Hiruzen had told him when he gave that to him that a dear friend of his mother had sent it as a gift. At the time he didn't know about his father but it made a lot of sense now. 

Jiraiya for his part released a heartfelt laugh and took the wallet from him and stared at it fondly. "I can't believe you still have this after all these years." He gave it back and looked at Naruto before continuing. "If you're still mad at me, I will completely understand. I just want you to know that nothing I did was your fault, nor was I trying to hurt you in any way okay?" 

"You know…" Naruto said as he stored Gama-chan away. "There was a time when I would've been really angry at you but… I don't see the point anymore, I have Nii-san now and Jiji was always there for me, I'm really lucky. There really is nothing to be mad about 'ttebayo!" 

A wave of relief came over Jiraiya as he released a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "What do you say if I help you train a little while Kakashi comes back? Think of it as payback."

"I can't really train this week, but there is something you can help me with…" Said Naruto in a cryptic tone that spiked Jiraiya's curiosity. 

"You're the only fuinjutsu master in the village right?" He asked and received a nod from the curious man in response. "How would you go about fighting a Jinchuuriki?" 

A Week Later

"I have interesting news Hokage-sama…" The Hokage looked at the arriving Kakashi and nodded so he could continue with his report. "Suna's forces seem on edge, they appear to be preparing for something."

"Were you able to find anything more?" Asked Hiruzen, making Kakashi shake his head. 

"I'm afraid not, they are actively making an effort to hide their activities. I think you would also like to know that I couldn't find the Kazekage while I was there." Replied Kakashi. 

"You couldn't find Rasa?" 

"That is correct." Kakashi nodded. "I searched the whole place more than once and I'm certain he wasn't in the village." Kakashi had been looking for him ever since he entered their territory, it might've been risky for him to actively search someone as powerful as a Kage but you don't become a legendary ANBU captain without learning how to properly hide yourself. 

His original plan was quite simple: get as much information as he could from the man that would hold more knowledge of the village's activities than anyone else. 

It was a real pity that Rasa was nowhere to be found

"I can't help but feel like this is all connected somehow…" Hiruzen spoke suddenly, getting Kakashi's attention back. "I can't accuse Suna of anything without evidence, I'll have ANBU reinforce the surveillance on the village, if anything it'll make whatever they're planning harder to accomplish, keep your ears on the ground Kakashi."

"If that is all Hokage-sama, I will go and meet my team now." A whole week had passed and that gave Kakashi a lot of time to think about his team's training. Sakura could definitely use some more strong Doton Jutsu to get past Temari's wind jutsu. 

Naruto on the other hand,

There's only one thing he could think of that would be powerful enough to get past Gaara's perfect defense. He wasn't really worried about it, after careful consideration he realized, if there is someone that he could completely trust to learn such a technique, it's Naruto. 

"Oh yes… Naruto-kun has been hanging out with Jiraiya this week, apparently he finally decided it was time to introduce himself." Hiruzen chuckled remembering his students retelling of the events that led to their first meeting, only Naruto would be able to make someone get beat up by a group of angry women and then bond over some Ramen. 

Kakashi simply smiled fondly and vanished in a swirl of leaves as he went to his apartment to ditch the ANBU equipment. 

Shortly after Kakashi left Hiruzen decided to keep on working on the paperwork he had left to do for the day but an unexpected visitor made his way to his office with a look of uncertainty in his face. 

Definitely more emotion than usual. 

"Hiashi, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Asked Hiruzen as he put his pipe down on his desk. 

"Hokage-sama… I would like you to lend me your assistance with some very important matters…" 

Earlier that Day

"We must deal with that child before he becomes a problem Hiashi!" Demanded an elderly man that had seen it fit to come crashing into Hyuga Hiashi's office along with some of the elders from the Hyuga's main branch. 

It had been going on ever since Neji had returned to the Hyuga estate after being marked by Orochimaru and it truly was annoying him to no end. They claimed Neji had been compromised and shouldn't be allowed to roam free with a seal no one knew how to remove and that they should make sure the clan's integrity was protected.

By 'dealing with him before he becomes a problem' they meant they wanted to activate Neji's Caged Bird seal and kill him of course. The way they kept on talking to him about it like it was such an obvious solution made his blood boil everytime. 

Hiashi wasn't a saint by any means, he had his fair share of blood and mistakes on his hands but he would never let anything happen to his brother's beloved son, he had watched the boy grow up full of hatred and resentment for the main branch but never did anything about it because he had thought he deserved that much. 

He never stopped to think that all that hatred was eating him inside, he even kept a letter from the boy's father just so he could have it as a keepsake from his brother. 

Only after Neji had been targeted by Orochimaru did he realize how selfish he had been all these years. 

"You would do well to remember who you're talking to, don't think for a second that your position as an elder means anything to me. If you dare to speak to me in that tone ever again you won't live to regret it ." The temperature in the room dropped and the uninvited guests found themselves cowering at Hiashi's imposing figure and the murdering look in his face accentuated by his activated Byakugan. "Leave this place immediately ."

The elders hurriedly left and Hiashi slumped back in his chair as he sighed dramatically, he was a cold man but he wasn't emotionless. These people's constant vouching for activating Neji's seal was starting to take a toll on his mind and he felt exhausted. 

So exhausted . 

Present Time

"I won't be able to shield him forever, I have no doubt that eventually someone will go behind my back and activate his seal without my consent." He scoffed as he explained the situation to the Hokage, the tone he used so flat it almost appeared like he was flippant about the situation. 

"How can I face my brother if I let his son die?" But he wasn't . 

"What do you need from me, Hiashi?" The way the Hokage worded his question didn't sit right with him - evident by the way his face suddenly screwed up - he almost made it sound like he was doing him a favor; his features became smooth like is becoming of a Hyuga shortly after as he begrudgingly realized one very important fact.

He was asking for a favor. 

"All main branch members have the knowledge to activate the seal and there are some that would ignore my orders to protect their interests but…" He looked at Hiruzen and a little smug smile appeared on his face. "No one would be stupid enough to go against the Hokage, if Neji is put under the village's protection, they would have no other choice but to stop pestering me with their idiotic ideas."

It seemed reasonable enough for Hiruzen and something he was going to do anyway, he was actually already waiting on his secretary to send a letter to the Hyuga Clan Head. This just made things a little easier for him. 

"Very well then, your request is approved. My secretary will be waiting for you with a written statement you can show to your clansmen if you wish."

Hiashi gave a small bow and left the office to retrieve the paper from the legendary man's secretary; as he left, all he could think of was his late brother and how much he had failed him after everything he sacrificed for him, including his life. 

"So… what are we training in sensei?" Sakura had been very excited when she was asked to meet the recently returned Kakashi in their training grounds. She still couldn't believe that she had made it to the finals and was very excited at the idea of getting some training in. 

"Well my cute little Genin, I've been thinking and decided that I will only train you for your first matches." Kakashi's comment earned him a look of confusion from Naruto and a look of understanding from Sakura. 

"It's because we're facing each other." She said. 

"That is correct, I have no doubt that as he is, Naruto can easily beat Shikamaru so I will help him train to defeat Gaara and I will help you Sakura to defeat Temari, you can find something to train yourselves in for your match." He said as he fished a scroll out of his pouch and tossed it to Sakura. 

"I believe the best course for you is to make your Doton Jutsu stronger. Teaching you more jutsu won't help you right now so we'll use this 3 weeks for you to complete the second step of mastering your nature transformation, as well as constant Taijutsu training." He eye-smiled and made a Kage Bunshin that took Sakura with him to a couple of big rocks that were in the middle of the clearing. He could explain the exercise himself but he knew by now that Sakura learned best reading, he would only make sure to provide assistance when needed. 

Without speaking a word he placed a hand on Naruto and used a Shunshin to take him back to a completely different clearing where Jiraiya was already waiting for them. 

"Jiraiya-sama and I have been talking about your training and I think you should keep working on mastering that special fuinjutsu for Gaara so I will be teaching you your plan B." Kakashi's tone became serious and the air around the clearing became so heavy Naruto found it hard to make a joke. 

He had grown used to Jiraiya's antics and usual perverted nature, he had even begun to call him Ero-senin for that same reason but he knew there was a big difference between the pervert and the Sannin. 

Seeing a serious look on Jiraiya's face was very unnerving. 

"I will teach you a jutsu that only you can learn Naruto but I want you to promise me something, promise me that you won't ever use it on a comrade and will only use it when it is strictly necessary." Naruto knew by now that this facet of Kakashi meant they weren't playing games. 

"Why?" 

"Because this is an assassination jutsu I created myself." Just then Naruto realized exactly what they were talking about and it scared him a little even if the fact that Kakashi would trust him with such a thing was a very rewarding feeling. 

"But, how can I work on my fuinjutsu at the same time?" He asked and made Jiraiya smirk. 

"I know you've been using Kage Bunshin to study fuinjutsu with Sarutobi-sensei, we'll be doing the same, a couple of clones will work with me on that while the real you works with Kakashi." He said and started to rub his chin as if he forgot to say something. "Oh right! Don't be scared of using it here, this whole clearing has more barriers and detecting seals I can count, no one but us will be able to watch you here."

That made Naruto smirk as he took his Hitaite from his neck and tied around his forehead where he had always felt it should be, with the hair covering his right eyes now clear he opened them both to reveal a beautiful azure orb along with an imposing onyx one. He channeled a little chakra to it and the black eye started spinning as it became a glowing red with two black tomoe. 

A single thought made its way to the mind of both men at the young Uzumaki's display. 

'Show off' 

A week Before the Finals

"Thanks for coming, Hinata!" Said Naruto as he led the recently arrived Hinata to a stool next to him at Ichiraku's. "I was going to ask you to meet me after the prelims were over but with everything that happened I guess I just forgot y'know?" 

Hinata nodded but she wasn't really listening, she thanked whatever god was watching over her right now that Naruto was way too oblivious to notice her blushing madly, she still couldn't believe Naruto had asked her out. 

When she dreams about this moment she always figures she will one day confront Naruto about her feelings and leave him so impressed by her boldness that he would have no other option but to return them in kind. 

This was good enough. 

"I'm sorry I asked you to come here all of a sudden, it's just that… I've been thinking about this a lot y'know?" She was now on the brink of hyperventilating, her dreams were going to come true. 

"I want to ask you something very important and I don't want you to feel forced to answer me or anything." How could he even think she would feel forced by him when this is exactly what she has always wanted. 

"So I really hope you don't mind me asking about this and I really hope I won't make you uncomfortable with this 'ttebayo, I wanted to ask you…" Oh Kami, Oh Kami, Oh Kami, this was it, Naruto was finally going to ask her the question, the question she has been wanting to hear for ages now, it was taking every bit of strength in her body to not pass out. 

"I wanted to ask you if…" 

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ... 

"I wanted to ask you if you could talk to me about Neji."

'Yes Naruto-kun! I want to talk to you about Ne-' 

"HUH?" 

Was all she managed to say before passing out in embarrassment, of course Naruto wouldn't really be interested about her, why would anyone be interested about her at all? 

After Naruto managed to wake Hinata up with the help of Ayame and Hinata apologized for every reason possible they finally got around to actually speaking. 

"W-Why do you want to know about N-Neji nii-san Naruto-kun?" She stuttered timidly without moving her gaze away from the now cold bowl of Ramen he had gotten for her. 

"I feel like I'm greatly overstepping but I just can't help it, I just wanted to know why Neji is the way he is." He answered with complete honesty. 

Hinata sighed and wondered if this is something she should be telling him or anyone else for that matter but decided that she probably could tell some of the story. "It's not Neji nii-san's fault, he has g-gone through a lot."

"I've seen the way he is for months now, he treats me with some very little amount of respect but the way he treats Lee and you, especially you is just… What can make him hate you so much?" He couldn't fathom the idea of good old Hinata doing something that could earn her the glares, the comments, the degrading, the hate she receives from him. 

"His f-father died because of me." Was her short reply that almost made her burst into tears. 

Naruto couldn't believe what she was saying and goaded the story out of her, or at least as much of it as he could. 

When Hinata was just four years old a Kumo ninja that had come to the village along with a diplomatic party had tried to abduct her in the middle of the night. Her father had noticed and pursued, saving her by cruelly killing the kidnapper. 

Kumogakure denied the events that transpired and wrongfully blamed the village of killing a diplomat, at the time Konoha was still recovering from the Kyuubi's devastating blow on their forces and couldn't afford to go into another war so they complied with Kumo's ridiculous demands and turned over the man who had brutally killed their shinobi to them. 

Except it wasn't the man who killed their shinobi, Konoha figured out that Kumo was after one of their powerful Kekkei Genkais and had orchestrated the whole thing to get their hands on the Byakugan one way or the other so the Hyuga sacrificed her father's twin brother who beared the mark of a side branch Hyuga, when he died, the Byakugan disappeared and all Kumo got was a corpse they could gain nothing from. 

That event marked Neji forever, Hinata claims he used to be the most sweet and caring child there was, but the death of his father and his consequent marking had been enough to turn his life around; he grew resentful, resentful to the village that had caused the whole mess, resentful to the main branch that treated their kin as slaves, resentful to the girl he saw as the cause of all his problems. 

And resent, can easily turn into hatred. 

He convinced himself that it was his fate to bear the destiny of a slave and that nothing could be done about it, no one could go against fate. 

It was all because she had been too weak, she was always weak. 

"It wasn't your fault Hinata, you were just a kid being kidnapped by a big Ninja." He said as he put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "I don't think you're weak Hinata, if anything, you're super strong 'ttebayo!" 

"I-I'm strong?" She asked with a voice so full of doubt it made Naruto wonder why would anyone hurt someone as kind as her so much. 

"You've been carrying a burden that doesn't belong to you for years now! Of course you're strong, you just have to believe you are…" He took one last slurp of his sixth ramen bowl and stood from the corner, "you know I don't think Neji is a lost cause yet."

"You don't?" It shouldn't be that surprising for her, after watching Naruto for years it was obvious that the boy was full of compassion. 

"But there's only one person who can help him." He said in a matter of fact tone. 

"Who is that Naruto-kun?" 

"It's you Hinata, it's always been you." 

Naruto paid for both of their meals and left the stand, allowing Hinata to think about what this all meant. It was funny really, she had always wanted to hear those exact words from him and now she finally got them, even if it wasn't in her desired way. 

One thing was clear, Naruto believed she could help Neji so she would at the very least try, they were going to fight in the tournament either way, hopefully she will be able to last long enough against him to make it worth it. 

The idea of winning never even crossed her mind, but she would ask her father to train her harder than ever for the rest of the month. 

For Neji. 

Three days before the Finals. 

"Ero-sennin says I'm doing good with the things he's teaching me, he even says he's going to teach me something very special tomorrow." Naruto was retelling his day of training to Kakashi as if he hadn't also been there for the day as they walked to Naruto's apartment. Kakashi was incredibly satisfied with Naruto for his incredible progress in learning his jutsu. 

Having him train his affinity for Lightning from the very start clearly had been an excellent choice. He didn't know much about what went over with Jiraiya in his fuinjutsu training, the Naruto clones and him worked separately so they would be able to concentrate away from the more loud nature of the Jutsu Kakashi had been teaching him. 

He had made it, after weeks of non-stop effort Naruto had made it and he decided to treat him for a meal in celebration, he only wished Sakura had been able to join them. 

The girl of team 7 had made steady progress, she managed to complete the second stage of her nature transformation faster than Kakashi had anticipated and had made good progress in a very short span. Her Doton jutsu had become more powerful and her Taijutsu had greatly improved over his guidance. It came off as a surprise to him that she didn't want to train her Genjutsu but it made sense, she decided to develop more as a heavy-hitter and he wouldn't blame her for choosing to go that way. 

Sakura hits hard. 

"How is your other training going?" Kakashi asked in a suggestive tone that Naruto understood all too quickly. 

"It's going well I guess, I have to rely on a lot of guessing to figure out some stuff y'know? It'd be easier if I had someone to teach me." But there was no one, Naruto was as far as anyone knew the last of the Uzumaki; Kakashi was convinced that there were more, hiding, but they clearly didn't wish to be found and he could respect that. 

Nothing guarantees that they would share Naruto's Kekkei Genkai either way. 

"It's hard but I know I can make it, I will never giv-" 

He stopped mid-sentence and turned his gaze to a direction different from the one they were going in, his stance became different and the look on his face immediately put Kakashi on edge, he was just about to ask him what was wrong when Naruto spoke up. 

"S-Someone's dying over there, I think I've felt their chakra before." He said worriedly. 

Kakashi put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and told him to lead them there, Naruto released his weights and rushed at speeds far surpassing that of a regular Genin, definitely not enough to outrun Kakashi but still pretty damn fast. 

As they both ran and jumped on rooftops Kakashi couldn't help but feel a pinch of sadness wash over him, Naruto knowing what a dying person feels like is still in his mind his greatest failure, he only wished he could've done something back then. 

They finally landed on a rooftop and found a bleeding Gekkō Hayate laying there, barely moving anymore. 

"It's the proctor!" Yelled Naruto with clear distraught in his voice. 

Kakashi dropped next to him and started using Iryo-ninjutsu on him, he still wasn't by any means a medic and all he new about medicine was very rustic still but he trusts he should be able to keep him alive long enough for someone who knows what they're doing to help him. 

Sasuke wasn't that lucky. 

"It's not safe to move him Naruto, bring a doctor here fast!" Not needing to be told twice Naruto placed both hands on a ram seal and phased from existence, a special Shunshin Sakura had come up with after Kakashi taught her how to create her own, she liked using Genjutsu on it and was very creative. 

A few minutes later Naruto re-emerged on the rooftop using his special shunshin, this time being accompanied by the ever reliable Dr. Teruya who was carrying a bag full of supplies. 

She instructed Kakashi to keep working on stabilizing him while she started to work on the more serious of his injuries. "The damage is very extensive Kakashi, I'm sure this is the work of Futon Jutsu."