Yoh readers, theres not a lot for me to say here really so im just going to reply to a few key replies that I think explain better what's happening so far so to speak.

The reviewer guest raised some points and ill quote them,and skip the bashing because I don't need to reply to that "Bashing the Gentle Fist, declared by the writer himself to be one of the most powerful hand to hand styles was the work of an emotional amature" well you need to remember this is fanfiction and as such the aurthor is bound to change things like the gentle fist. The bashing of the style was in a way from Narutos opinion.

You see he has trained his ability to sense as such he can not only see neji's attack but can also sense them, aside from that he is smart enough to know the Juken will target the Tenketsu.

He has also noticed over time how the style uses the palms of the hands . aside from that its been used by the hyuuga for so long theres bound to be knowledge on how to counter it lurking around, and Naruto has access to a library which belonged to the senju.

The same also said how I would make lee stronger then neji, well in all honesty lee shits all over neji in my opinion but he has always held back via his weights, but this is irrelevant at this point in the story.

And yes I did change the timeline to suit the purpose of the story.

The chakra chains are not meant to be original nor badass, I wanted him to have a connection to his dead mother.

Yeah since the timeline is different here he isn't going to get the other sharingan from danzou. As he is nowhere near that level yet.

And the last point he made was Naruto covering his sharingan, this had nothing to do with chakra, rather not letting the village knew he has a sharingan.

Alright well that's that, if any of you was wondering along the same lines.

Oh and before I forget, ill put jutsu in Japanese and ill only provide a translation if there fanmade ,which ill put at the bottom. So if theres no translation just type in google 'Naruto'then copy and paste the jutsu name to get the wiki page.

Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto.

Cloaked in shadows, a figure stood leaning against a wall, covered from head to just below the knees in a white cloak complete with sleeves and a hood. The face too was hidden, by a mask of white shaped like a cat. The mask had 3 curved purple lines on it, one below each eye pointing to the centre of the mask and one from the top of the mask pointing down.

This was Neko(cat), an ANBU Taicho(captain). The cloak hid any visual clues to their gender. Tilting the head to the side, Neko looked down the corridor into the darkness, the lights only provided enough to see fifteen meters or so ahead.

'It seems Naruto-kun has received his gear, it shouldn't be too long now, I'll see him right Kushina-senpai' Neko mused, with a small smile hidden behind the mask.

In the darkness of the changing room, Naruto sat on the bench with the tray of gear next to him, half empty. Picking up the slate grey armguards, he pulled them over his arm and clipped the bands tight adjusting the arm bands as he did.

Standing up he picked up the next items from the tray 'Whoa, guess I'll not be running out of weapons anytime soon,' he noted as he browsed through the three hip pouches .

45 kunai, 50 shuriken, 2 roles of .8 grade ninja wire - the strongest kind, 30 explosive notes, a bag of food pills, of which he'd absent-mindedly munched a few and finally 5 smoke bombs and 5 flash bombs, along with 3 scrolls of which contained various other gear he would check out later.

Clipping the three pouches to his hip so they rested on his butt, he strapped the leg holster to his thighs over the top of white bandages, one on each leg as he was ambidextrous.

Standing up, he looked down to the tray with his vulpine visage, and took the standard issue ninja-to which was a straight edged sword with a grayish blue braided wrap over the tsuka( handle). There was no Tsuba(guard), however, where the sword slid into the saya(sheath) there was 2 inches of bandages going up the Tsuka which was 8 inches long with the sheathed blade being 24 inch, the sheath being black.

'Most likely chakra conducting metal made to a higher standard than the standard sword,' he reflected. Flicking it over his shoulder he slid the ninja-to, sheath and all into a brace built into the ANBU flak jacket with an audible click. Picking up the mask and dark grey cloak he made his way towards the exit of the changing room. Noting a mirror he stood in front of it and placed the mask onto his face. As it slid into place, it was the masque of a crow.

(AN: like the mask shape seen on the ANBU accompanying Tsunade when she confronts Pein when Naruto returns)

It featured royal purple and dark blue marks in the form of thick purple long triangle like tear marks down his mask along with blue lines that started from the sides of the mask's beak and followed the shape before pointing up between his eyes.

"Definitely sets the image of a an elite, it suits me, now I suppose I should become an elite though."

He nodded at himself in the mirror. He stood fully decked in the standard ANBU getup, the only difference from what he knew was he had kunai holsters on each leg and no signifying tattoo as of yet.

The costume featured ANBU style mid-shin black sandals with black pants tucked in, a skin tight black vest going up to his chin, a dark grey shoulder-less flak jacket over his chest, along with long black gloves covering his arms up to mid-biceps with steel plating over the back of the palm and the dark grey forearm guards over the top.

Walking out of the room he threw on his dark grey cloak, sliding his arms in and pulling the hood up. He made his way in the direction the old man had said. Sure enough, after a minute of walking he saw the ANBU he assumed would be his mentor. 'Hmm a captain? Surely they won't be my mentor then. Well you never know I suppose,' he now stood before the Taicho, noting the cat mask.

The figure stood before Naruto looking down on him slightly.

"Naruto-kun ?"

Neko spoke in a confident tone that was distinctly feminine and held warmth to it, a stark contrast to his own, really.

"Yeah ,although I'd prefer you call me Karasu(crow)," he replied, curious as to why she'd added the honorific to his name.

Neko studied him up and down for a second, as if seeing something deeper. She noted the distinctly lazy and emotionless tenor of his voice, and how he was rolling on the balls of his feet slightly as if ready to jump back. No doubt he was tense; he was in front of an ANBU Taicho after all.

She slipped down her mask to reveal brown eyes and a dark shade of purple on her lips. Her hair, which could be seen worn down, was purple too.

"My name is Yugao Uzuki, nice to finally meet you, I'll be your mentor," she said, adding a happier shade to her voice.

Naruto for his part was curious. 'Why did she say 'to finally meet me', like she has been waiting? On top of that she has purple hair and her surname is Uzuki…could she be?' he thought to himself before deciding to reply.

"Sounds like you've been looking forward to this."

Naruto's blunt and straightforward reply caused Yugao to rub the back of her head sheepishly. "Well, I have, I was very close to your kaa-chan, I was part of her Genin squad." She turned and walked down the corridor with Naruto following her.

'Close to my kaa-chan, purple hair, called Uzuki… hmm, could she really be an Uzumaki?' Naruto thought to himself in wonder, the signs were all there.

"Makes sense, I guess," he drawled out ,watching Yugao as she placed her mask back on."You know you didn't show me your face?" she questioned

"Defeats the purpose of the mask."

They continued walking in silence. Yugao, meanwhile, couldn't help but think how the tenor didn't suit Naruto at all, sounding so dead and bored, it was kind of upsetting to be honest. They ended up back in the tunnel where Naruto and Sarutobi had first appeared, walking a distance till the building was barely visible.

"Right, this will do," Yugao stopped Naruto as she turned and threw off her cloak to the side, leaving her in full ANBU gear. Naruto, curious as to what she was doing, decided to throw off his cloak too, thus exposing his red hair which he couldn't tell had caught Yugao's attention.

"Fight me, Karasu, I need to see your skill set. ANBU won't accept weakness. Don't fret I'll only fight at a Chunin level." Her voice was deadly serious now.

'Go figure, she'd test me,' mentally chuckling, Naruto dropped low and flicked out a kunai in reverse grip without responding to Yugao. As speed was his strong point, Naruto rushed forward at a high Chunin speed, zigzagging as he went to dodge the shuriken thrown by Yugao. He lunged forward with a swipe of his kunai and followed through the momentum with a spinning back kick, both being deflected by Yugao.

Hopping off his still grounded foot, he spun into a roundhouse with said foot which Yugao blocked with both arms slightly shaking due to the force. Using her arms as a stepping stone of sorts he swung his kunai again aiming for the neck. Yugao gripped his wrist firmly and tried grabbing his leg as well but he pushed himself off and attempted a sweep kick to her masked face.

In response, the Taicho threw him away over her shoulders, before dashing off after him matching his speed. Flipping in the air, Naruto threw his kunai at her face.

Pulling out her own ninja-to , she deflected the kunai as expected. Naruto landed on the ground with Yugao right on him with her blade poised to strike.

Holding his arm forth, several chains with red chakra burst forth and deflected the blade as they attempted to impale her. Parrying a few of them, Yugao hopped back from him. 'Chakra chains too?! He really is kushina-senpai's son,' Yugao thought to herself .

"Good, Karasu, again."

Not being needed to be told twice, Naruto ran forward again shooting forth more chains to cover him. As he got close, he jumped and extended the tip of a chain from his free hand causing only the kunai, which was almost half a times longer than average, to appear he thrust his palm blade at the Neko masked ANBU's exposed chest.

His kunai sunk into her chest only for her to explode in a puff of smoke. Naruto noted the kawarami in play quicker due to his Sharingan. Looking over his shoulder, he saw Yugao reappear behind him. As the one he stabbed puffed into smoke, as she kicked him viciously. Naruto flew several meters before popping into smoke himself and leaving behind a log, indicating a kawarami and reappeared behind Yugao attempting to behead her with the palm kunai. Yugao spun around and blocked with her ninja-to and kicked at Naruto's midsection, launching him through the air. He had managed to lift his leg in time allowing him to use his knee to take the force of the kick.

'She probably won't let me get a hit in, this is a test and she is holding back. Tch I only need to show im capable of being ANBU,' with that thought in mind Naruto flipped mid-air ,the motion of which allowed him to dodge several shuriken and kunai thrown at him, although he did receive several nicks to his arms and legs, not like it mattered.

Retracting his kunai blade he rolled through 6 hand signs at a high speed matching, if not surpassing his movement speed. Suddenly, at five points around him the air condensed and water formed into spherical shapes the size of footballs. By this points the nicks and cuts he received had fully healed - a fact that had not gone unnoticed by Yugao.

"Suiton: Teppōdama" drawled Naruto, as the 5 gunshots blasted forward towards Yugao with impressive speed. Using the technique as a distraction Naruto slid along the ground as he landed and hopped back onto the wall running up into the shadows.

Seeing Naruto perform the technique shocked Yugao. While the technique was only C rank, Naruto had used it without a water source or without expelling it from his own body, he had pulled the water from the air itself.

'No way. To be able to pull water from the air like that, it's impossible, only Niidaime-sama could do that,' she thought in silent awe as she dodged the first 4 gunshots letting them hit the ground and dent it, a testament to the power of them, slicing the final one with her blade, allowing it to harmlessly soak her. Remaining in position she looked around not seeing Naruto anywhere.

Hiding in the shadows left by the lights on the ceiling Naruto looked down on Yugao seeing her hold up a half ram sign.

'Hmm she's sensing for me by the looks of it.' Using the opportunity provided by her actively using her chakra, he studied her with his Sharingan, he could see the trace amounts of chakra flowing off her due to sensing.

'Earth affinity with a smaller affinity to fire,' he thought to himself.

'Strange, Naruto-kun, I can barely sense your chakra yet I know you have more then even the Hokage, I wonder if you're actually suppressing it,' Yugao though to herself, curious as to what his next move would be.

Naruto stalked across the roof of the tunnel allowing the shadows provided by the lights to hide him and keeping Yugao in sight of his Sharingan at all times, lest she should bring in Bunshin. Stopping, he pulled a kunai from his hip pouch and tied a flash bomb to the ring before stabbing it into the roof loosely. Silently moving across the roof again, he repeated the action twice more, forming a triangle of sorts around Yugao's general position.

Gathering his chakra he flipped through the same hand signs as before, but this time he condensed it in the air into 10 points. Holding the final hand-sign, he stomped on the roof heavily causing the loose kunai to fall from the roof.

"Suiton: Teppōdama!" he called launching the water shots forth.

'Let's see how this works,' he thought as he separated his hands, holding a half ram seal on his left and gripping the handle of his ninja-to on his right. Although he didn't have a clue as to how to use it, he would be able to copy it from Yugao to some degree.

You see, what some people didn't realise is the Sharingan couldn't copy tai- and kenjutsu unless chakra was used in it. However, what it did do was allow for the wielder of the eye to study the movements in slower motion and analyse the movements, making them easier to recreate at a later date.

He saw Yugao look up at the gunshots and jump back flipping through several hand-signs.

"Doton: Doryūheki" Yugao called, in the standard emotionless ANBU voice. As she slammed her hands down, the ground around her rumbled and a circle of earth shot up, forming a dome above her, successfully defending her from the water style Jutsu. However, the now soaked wall began turning to mud and falling apart.

Naruto up above saw her use the Jutsu and copied it with a grin. Leaping forward and free falling down, Naruto held his hand still in half ram style. Closing his eyes momentarily, he activated the flash bombs. Hearing the flash, he reopened his eyes and with the aid of gravity fell right over Yugao.

Quickly drawing his sword he swung down. Despite the flash bomb disorientating her, Yugao managed to parry Naruto's strike down with a grunt, the gravity enforced strike being no laughing matter. Going with the motion, Naruto thrust the sword down into the ground and using the sword as a base he spun into a handstand, kicking his opponent's solar plexus before pushing up from his sword.

Pulling it out and delivering another downward strike, this time with both hands, Yugao sidestepped the attack and thrust at the rookie ANBU. Aided by the Sharingan, Naruto dodged under the blade and countered.

The strike was blocked by Yugao's forearm guard however. Knowing that he was at a disadvantage, he quickly dived to the side before Yugao could cut down. Studying his target he noticed a few red hairs on floating to the floor near Yugao. 'Tch, so she did get me,' bemoaning himself, he prepared to attack again when Yugao spoke up.

"Impressive tactic, Karasu. However, you must know, your Kenjutsu is basic at best. Yes, I can sense the desire to kill, the blade is sharp, but without the ability to wield it, your blows will be dulled."

Shaking her head, she fixed her gaze on Naruto.

"I'm coming."

She launched herself at Naruto in a straight dash. Switching his leg positioning to a stronger base to defend, Naruto prepared to counter attack only for Yugao to jump to the side at the last second and continue to slash at him.

"Hyaahh!" she yelled. Seeing the whole movement in slow motion, Naruto predicted her movement and parried the blade, the action initiating a heated sword fight between the two. Of course, Yugao was holding back her offensive but keeping her defensive high as this was a test.

They traded several blows neither landing any major hits, Naruto to his credit was doing well.

'Too well for a rookie, it's clear he hasn't used a sword before so why is he able to keep up?'

As Yugao scored a minor cut to Naruto's bicep followed by a spinning kick knocking him away. 'He doesn't show any signs of registering pain either...hmm.' Naruto was proving to be unpredictable thus far, and she was more than a little curious.

Flipping back from the kick into a one hand stand he resumed a standing position, his sword held out in front in a single hand grip. Knowing he needn't worry about the cut, it was only 1cm deep by the look of it.'It should heal in less than a minute...'

Dashing forward again the two met in the middle, swords clashing in a flash of sparks. Once again they traded several strikes, occasionally jumping back to evaluate and switch angles from which to attack. This time however, Naruto's slashes came in stronger and more fluidly, the strikes flowed better and better although still basic in level. Yet he still received several cuts on his legs and arms, his flak jacket had stopped any blows getting to his chest. This continued for several minutes allowing Naruto to accumulate a decent amount of cuts.

"Truly impressive, Karasu, but you stand injured, what now?" questioned Yugao calmly as their blades once again met in a shower of sparks. Finally deciding to respond to a question, Naruto replied through a strained voice which still managed to retain its lazy drawl. "So you haven't noticed?" he retorted.

Taking advantage of the stalemate, he met eyes with Yugao, his mask slit eyes baring into her Neko mask's circular eyes.

His Sharingan spun wildly attempting a Genjutsu, whilst simultaneously deflecting her sword and flicking his sword up before thrusting forward.

The ninja-to pierced straight through his counterpart's carotid artery before being ripped out the side cutting both the internal and common carotid artery. Yugao fell down on her knees, but instead of blood gushing forth she turned into mud and slowly fell apart, signifying use of Doton:bunshin.

Naruto of course, knew it to be a clone, he'd seen Yugao switch out with it after all and he copied it.

"Notice what?" she questioned, as she thrust forward, expecting Naruto to dodge or react, only to go straight though his heart.

Neither of them moved. Yugao was sure he would react, from the way he had been fighting she knew he could have reacted so why didn't he?!

'Naruto' gazed over his shoulder and met masked gazes with Yugao, coughing slightly as he did so. Yugao look at him, her arms shaking slightly, but before she fell into doubt, she noticed a brown substance falling from below Naruto's mask and from where she had pierced him.

'Wait. THAT'S MUD!' she exclaimed mentally as 'Naruto' took on a dark mud like complexion before falling apart. Realising she had been duped, she attempted to remove her sword only to find it wedged in the sticky substance. Naruto capitalized on this and reappeared behind her, mid-air, spinning a kick into the back of her knee knocking her to one knee he swung his sword in an attempt to decapitate only for her to let go of her sword and turn before jumping back out of the way.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu" Yugao called, flying through the 7 hand-signs before shooting forth a fiery ball of death twice her own size. Naruto, seeing this continuously back flipped away before hiding behind the half destroyed Doryūheki.The wall held up against the flames. 'Since it's a test maybe I should switch to Taijutsu, don't show her too much of anything...'Naruto mused, pulling out a couple of explosive tags he slapped them onto the wall.

QAs he was about to hop away, he noticed the surrounding air distort. Seeing through the Genjutsu before it could fully form, and dispelling it, Yugao appeared before him, her blade sheathed ,her fist halfway to his head. He dodged and flipped back over the wall, activating the explosive tags, shaking the cavern with the force of the explosion.

"It seems you're out for blood, Karasu, you seem to understand how an ANBU must fight, good."

Her voiced echoed and distorted. In truth, she'd planned for that punch to end the fight and perhaps she could sneak a peek at his face then. 'Hehe, although Im surprised he dispelled the Genjutsu so quickly, even if his chakra control is solid. hmm, Ooh, Naruto-kun's such a mystery.'

Naruto stood straighter, both hands in a ram seal, focusing his mind and spreading his chakra.

Left?

Right?

Above?

Focusing more on his chakra, he exhaled.

Behind!

Quickly spinning into a high roundhouse, his leg clashed with Yugao's. Looking straight into her mask's eyes for contact, he attempted the same Genjutsu as before, nothing more than a basic 'C' rank he could use because of the sharingan. He really didn't have any talent for Genjutsu, nor had he trained too much in them.

Seeing Yugao freeze up, he hopped off his back leg. Continuing the spin around, he kicked into a straight thrust with his other leg. Sadly, she managed to break free from his illusion and block the kick with both arms, pushing her back.

"A seal-less jutsu, Karasu? Impressive for a rookie."

She acknowledged her underlings seal-less Genjutsu, and the way he'd been blocking and moving...

'Just how Shisui and Itachi would, back when they was Genin,'she thought to herself in afterthought, before going wide eyes at the idea.

"Well, Karasu, full of surprises!"

"Thank you, Neko-taicho," returned our crow masked redhead.

As Naruto charged back in ready to launch a barrage of kicks and punches Yugao suddenly tensed as if looking off into the distance . This was his chance to get at her and land a hit, too bad she didn't have balls he could kick,that would end the test in his favour 'tch, no luck at all'. Before he could hit her though she suddenly drew her sword too fast for him to follow and gracefully sidestepped his attack before cutting the back of his left calf deep just above his sandles, taking out his base he fell down "fuck me, argh" he grunted, somehow maintaining the dead and lazy tone of voice, not wanting to be kicked while he was down so to speak he launched several chains from his arms hooking around Neko and constricting her 'huh another clone' he noted ,watching as 'Yugao' turned darker into mud before slowly falling apart,looking up he saw the tip of the real Yugao's blade.

"You pass. I'm proud of you, you displayed a level of skill acceptable for ANBU, however you will be expected to improve quickly, ANBU are the elite after all. Hmm guess I'll just have to put you through hell then, hm?"

"Great, just great. I'm positively joyful, but was cutting my calf open necessary?"

"Oh quit being such a baby, it's going to heal in under ten minutes, I would say?" she more or less stated whilst crossing her arms.

"So you noticed," Naruto replied, sitting up and pulling a couple of food pills out, munching them whilst barely moving his mask, wouldn't do for people to go seeing his face now would it?

Yugao didn't notice straight away and continued talking "Anyway, we have your first mission, we'll pick it up when your legs healed."

It was only a leg wound, nothing too major, so he guessed it would take maybe three minutes at most to heal.

"Huh, hey! Why the food pills, you're not out of energy are you?" Yugao questioned curiously, after all, food pills tasted quite frankly like shit, and was normally only eaten on missions.

Naruto grunted, not really liking the questions or being used to all the talking. He didn't want to reveal too much, and he expected the elder ANBU already picked up on his Sharingan, after all she was on a Genin team with Shisui and Itachi so no doubt she could recognise when someone was evading with a Sharingan.

"Ah, you see I require fifteen thousand calories a day at least, it's the only way to get them."

'Short and simple, and straight to the point.'

Yugao eyebrows rose under her mask,that was shocking to say the least. "Well, that's impressive if anything."

'What is up with this kid?'

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Thanks for reading, review if you feel like it, sorry for the slow updates, I really am, but meh ;) cant think of anything else to say. Till next time.

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SomeDamn Author Beta Note : Enjoy the chapter, folks!