This is me seeing if I can write a time travel fic where Naruto isn't super with a few weeks training and he has to work hard all over again. I don't own Naruto but hey I'll start work on that project in a few weeks. Reviews make me happy! And more inclined to write! *hint hint. Seriously though I'd appreciate any criticisms you can give to make the story better.

Steel chimed off steel in a shower of sparks. Naruto came to his senses just as a shuriken cut into the tree he was standing on and scrambled away before he lost a limb. What was going on? And why didn't he sense it coming before? He landed on a branch on a tree nearby and subconsciously tried to apply chakra to stick to it. Instead he gained a new appreciation of exploding tags as the wood underneath his sandals exploded with the force of a small bomb as he was sent crashing down onto the forest floor. Ok forest, he was in Konoha then. Nowhere else had the same mokuton enhanced trees. Voices cut in his thinking time, loud and furious.

"You saw those eyes earlier…those were the eyes of a demon."

What? Why did that voice sound so familiar? He hadn't heard that derogatory tone towards him for a while now. He pushed himself to his feet and crept towards the voices all the time trying to be stealthy. It was harder than he thought but he managed pretty well. A coppery scent was in the air; blood, he'd recognise that smell anywhere.

"Naruto…isn't like that!"

Iruka sensei? Naruto was completely baffled at this point. Oh this must be a genjutsu to knock him off his senses. Funny…Kurama usually broke all the genjutsus put on him, speaking of which. Where was the troublesome fox?

Hello? A deep rumbling growl reverberated through his stomach. Okay he was in a bad mood, best to leave him but that told Naruto it wasn't a genjutsu, Bee had told him as long as a Jinchuuriki could hear his biju and was friends with them, a genjutsu could not hold, he had tuned out to the explanation of why later on.

"Well, that doesn't really matter. I'll kill Naruto…and get the scroll. I'll take care of you later."

Oh someone was trying to kill him. He tried hard to be surprised, he really did but all he could feel was exasperation. He had other things to be worrying about than some wannabe assassin. If not genjutsu then what? Tsukuyomi? He was sure he'd remember running across Itachi, hold on didn't he die? Ehhh. Where was his assassin anyway? He couldn't be very good if they hadn't noticed Naruto eaves dropping on them. Oh where did Iruka sensei go? Damn his senses had deteriorated.

Time for Naruto to be reckless, he fondly imagined Sakura's imaginary reaction and leapt off to where he could hear a taijutsu brawl. Damn Iruka sensei wasn't bad at taijutsu in his head. It was his new theory, he was hallucinating.

Iruka ducked under Mebruki's punch before using his momentum against him to hurl him into a tree. Mebruki? Mizuki? Oh yeah Mizuki. Mizuki retaliated by drawing kunai and the two chunin had brawl too fast for Naruto's straining eyes to follow. Then Mizuki leapt away after he started losing ground. Iruka quickly henged into Naruto to his shock and started crashing around in the trees. Really? I thought Iruka sensei thought of me like that? I didn't think I thought so badly of myself Naruto sulked slightly. Then another Iruka burst through the trees and called to Iruka henged as Naruto.

"Hurry! Pass me the scroll, Mizuki is after it!" Iruka must be amused as hell Naruto thought idly as henged Iruka kicked fake Iruka so hard he created a small crater in a tree. Nice sensei!

"Why Naruto? How did you know I wasn't Iruka?" Mizuki dropped his henge. A foxy grin spread over henged Iruka's face and he dropped it.

"I'm Iruka!" Mizuki smirked in appreciation at the ploy, "I see…Hehehe you'd even transform into what killed your parents to protect him?"

His hallucination was eerily accurate and detailed Naruto noticed with a frown.

"I won't hand the scroll over to an idiot like you!"

"You're the idiot. Naruto and I are the same." Naruto hadn't realised how much of an idiot Mizuki was until that line and he had to work to suppress a snort. The same? Please.

Iruka looked confused, "The same?"

"If you use the skills in that scroll. You can do whatever you want." Also not true Naruto noted.

"There's no way that demon fox wouldn't try to use the power. Unlike what you're assuming…" …Why would Kurama even need Kage Bunshin, Edo Tensei and other forbidden jutsu? He could cause tsunamis with a flick of his tail. Human jutsus are beneath me he had told Naruto haughtily once.

"Yeah…" Wow he thought Iruka sensei thought that about Biju. He'd have to check after the war.

"The demon fox would do that." No he really wouldn't. "…But Naruto is different." Wrong way around sensei, it's Kurama who won't use forbidden jutsu, him on the other hand? Forbidden wasn't a word in his dictionary.

"He is… I've acknowledged him as…one of my excellent students. He may not be the hardest worker and he's clumsy so nobody accepts him."

Naruto was a bit indignant at that. They didn't accept him because of the Kyuubi not because of his clumsiness!

He already knows what it is to feel pain in your heart. He isn't the demon fox anymore…"

He never was the demon fox! He shivered imagining Kurama's reaction being mistaken for him.

"He is a member of the hidden Leaf Village, he's…Uzumaki Naruto!" He felt the first sentimental tear come to his eye, Iruka was really sweet when he wasn't butchering facts.

Mizuki gritted his teeth, "Ok whatever…Iruka I said I would take care of you later, but I'm changing my mind. Hurry up and die!"

When had he interfered in the original happenings? Oh yeah now! He didn't feel like watching Iruka sensei die in his head. He kicked Mizuki out of his path with a well-aimed kick Sasuke would be proud of. He saw Iruka's stunned expression from the corner of his eye and felt a little smug.

"You should not have done that..." Mizuki snarled from where he lay. He shouldn't have done a lot of things, so he just shrugged off the comment.

"Don't touch Iruka sensei or I'll kill you." He told the downed Mizuki calmly. It was his efficient delivery of the line that shocked the two chunin. For a brief instance they saw the Fourth Ninja war reflected in his blue eyes but the moment passed.

"You idiot! Why did you come out?! Run away!" Iruka yelled.

"Shut up! Punk like you, I'll kill in one shot!" Mizuki laughed gleefully.

"Try it trash! I'll return the pain a thousand times over!" Naruto thought about his next move. While spamming clones was fun, it didn't always get the job done. It was a hallucination anyway, who cared about graduation criteria?

Mizuki smirked, "Then let me hold you on the same pedestal you do me! Naruto prepare to die in front of your precious sensei!"This hadn't happened last time! The hallucination wasn't drawing from his memories? But it felt so real!

Mizuki pulled out several kunai and sent them whizzing towards Naruto. Kage kunai no jutsu!

Iruka's eyes widened knowing the lethality of that jutsu and he tried to move to protect Naruto with a groan. A hundred kunai raced at Naruto who felt his head clear of any distractions. He wove the seals quickly and efficiently.

Kawarimi.

Thunk!

The sound of a hundred kunai hitting their target reached Iruka's ears.

"Naruto!" he yelled in desperation.

Mizuki's smirk froze as he toppled over like a broken marionette in front of Iruka with his flak jacket peppered with bloody kunai. His glassy eyes stared back at Iruka's disbelievingly before a light flickered out. Iruka stared speechless. Kawarimi with a live being was difficult, especially at that distance. Naruto had now truly mastered both henge and Kawarimi. It was a good plan too he noted absentmindedly in the ninja part of his brain before his teacher part took over and started screaming about Naruto killing someone so early in his career. What if Naruto was jaded forever? What if he lost his smile? What if-

"Ah sorry sensei, the ANBU won't be able to interrogate him now." Naruto looked sheepish as he scratched his head by Mizuki's corpse. On second thoughts Naruto would be fine.

Iruka smiled, "Naruto, come over here. There's something I want to give you." He closed his eyes trustingly. This was Iruka after all. He felt a cool piece of cloth slide over his forehead and he opened his eyes.

"Congratulations…on graduating. Let's celebrate! I'll buy you a bowl of ramen." Iruka's scar crinkled as he smiled.

"But sensei…I still can't do a bunshin." Iruka tapped his nose, "You don't need the bunshin to become a ninja. That plan you pulled off is worthy of a field promotion to genin and anyway there are more useful versions of bunshin you can pick up from your jonin sensei."

Like Kage Bunshin Naruto thought slyly. He hugged his sensei around the ribs as hard as he could just because he hadn't been able to do it for a while before dragging Iruka back screaming about ramen. Now he had a good excuse to look for any irregularities in his hallucination. He was beginning to doubt it was one, he'd find out by the ramen flavour. No one could mimic Ichiraku's ramen!

…..

The next day he sat in front of his photographer with an incredibly fake smile which became more teeth than smile as the photographer took his sweet time. The ramen had been perfect. His apartment had been perfect. Everything had been perfect. Every single book he checked made sense, every single person he talked to matched their personalities. It wasn't a hallucination. No hallucination was that accurate. He hadn't even known some of the stuff he found out but since they fit in with his other knowledge he assumed it was true and not his mind making things up.

"Hey, you sure you want to look like that?"

"Yes." He hissed out of patience.

"Fine. Don't regret it. OK, cheese!"

CLICK. Finally!

"…" The Hokage stared at his ninja registration. He looked up to stare at Naruto who grinned cheekily back.

"….?" There was a distinct questioning note to his silence now.

"Like it Jiji? It took me forever to do it!"

"It's unique." The Hokage allowed. "Retake it!"

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't look a thing like you!"

"That was the point! I'm never going to be a super awesome ninja if someone kills me before I get good! That way no one can know who I am!" Naruto wailed. He was having fun trolling whatever and whoever was happening.

"You're meant to trust your own village." The Hokage puffed on his pipe dryly. "How will your Jonin sensei know about you? Or any future captains?"

"…Look underneath the underneath?" Naruto offered sheepishly. The Hokage smirked minutely at that.

"Well you're thinking like a ninja at last I suppose." The Hokage looked down at the picture. Stiff red hair framed a face which was pale white with no scars whatsoever. There was dark eyeliner around the grey eyes with a blue streak across the lips. It didn't look a thing like Naruto.

"Henge?"

"Of course Jiji!"

"Why red hair?"

"Uzumaki's have red hair dattebayo! I thought I'd pay homage!" Naruto's eyes twinkled mischievously. The Hokage stiffened slightly but let it go. He opened his mouth to say more but then the door creaked open and a boy younger than Naruto burst in screaming.

"Old man! Fight me!" He waved a steel shuriken before promptly tripping on his scarf and thankfully not landing on the weapon. A darkly dressed Jonin burst into the room seconds later as the Hokage sighed and gazed upwards for patience.

"Damn it! Who set a trap?!" The boy cried rubbing his head. Konohamaru Naruto thought fondly. His apprentice in all but name. Wow he was a brat at this age.

"Are you alright? And there isn't a trap anywhere!" The Jonin barked, Ebisu Naruto thought it was. He wasn't so bad, he had tried to defend Naruto's location with his life once. He looked at the contempt veiled on Ebisu's face and inwardly sighed, why couldn't the people have their after Pain invasion personalities, why did…they….fit…the relative…timeframe…? His thoughts trailed off in horror. Time travel?

"I knew it! You did something!" Konohamaru yelled at Naruto who was too much in shock to hear him properly.

"Huh you say something?" he blurted out on instinct. The Hokage and Ebisu sweat dropped. Kakashi's already influencing his future student without ever having met him the Hokage thought dryly, should he take this as they were meant to be teacher and student or ban Kakashi from reading porn around Naruto?

"You tripped me!" Konohamaru shrieked in Naruto's face who snapped out of it to glare back.

"Listen idiot. If I wanted to trip you there would be more of a humiliation involved on your part, Understand?"

"Don't talk to the Hokage's grandson like that!" Ebisu yelled. Would Ebisu have been his teacher is people knew he was the Fourth's son Naruto thought randomly?

"I'll talk to him how he deserves!" Naruto shot back at Ebisu before flicking Konohamaru hard in the forehead and walking out.

Later when he was furiously discussing the possibilities of time travel in his head he noticed Konohamaru following him incredibly obviously. He lived through a damn war, kind of, he had pretty good instincts by now. Thankfully they had transferred over even if his ability to react to his instincts was lacking. If it was time travel he wanted to make his first disciple inclined to be his disciple.

"You're not fooling anyone! What are you doing?!" He yelled at Konohamaru, his heart panging as he remembered how close the two of them had been.

"Hehe…Impressive to see through this…The rumours about you are true…" Konohamaru chuckled. He had rumours other than demon child?

"Hey I'll let you be my boss!" The kid looked like Naruto should be honoured but carried on none the less at Naruto's less than impressed look. "In exchange teach me the sexy no jutsu you defeated Grandpa with! Please!" He hugged Naruto around the knees and unleashed the devastating puppy dog eyes no jutsu. Naruto smirked recalling when he and Konohamaru had infiltrated so many kunoichi infested locations with the same jutsu and how many perverts they had knocked out.

"Why not Kid?" He led Konohamaru away explaining the technique.

"Hold the image in your head, remember unlike a normal henge this is a physical change. It takes more chakra than normal but it is far more difficult to notice and dispel."

"Is it your own original jutsu Boss?"

"Yup, it took me hours to adjust the normal henge."

"Waaaaaaa! I will get this down! HENGE!"

Naruto blanched going white. "Dispel! Try again. Wrong! More slender! More beautiful!" The training continued each attempt marginally better than the last.

"By the way…why are you going after your grandpa so much?" Naruto asked his student as they took a break relaxing on a log.

Konohamaru slumped and after a while began to talk, "Grandpa gave me the name Konohamaru. I'm named after the village but even though everyone is used to that name here…nobody ever calls me that. When everyone sees me or calls me…all they see is the Hokage's grandson. Nobody sees me as me. I'm sick of that. That's why I want the Hokage name now."

Naruto sighed, "Idiot! Who'd acknowledge a punk like you?"

"Huh?"

"The Hokage title isn't so easy a brat can take it."

Konohamaru balled his fists, "What?!"

"It's not that easy moron! Hokage, Hokage…if you want the name that much, then kick my ass first!" He grinned his trademark I never give up smile at Konohamaru and watched his eyes go wide then narrow.

A voice cut in on the two boys.

"I have found you." Naruto turned to see Ebisu looming over them coolly on a tree branch. He gritted his teeth, one day those eyes would change he vowed. From suspicion to camaraderie. Ebisu leapt down.

"Honourable grandson it is time to leave."

"No! Take this! Sexy no jutsu!" It was perfect. That's all Naruto had to say about it as he smugly crowed in his head. Maybe he should become a jonin sensei? Teaching was so easy. Oh yeah it didn't work on Ebisu.

"W..Wh..What a vulgar skill! I'm a gentleman, such a super low class skill...will never work against me! If you hang out with the likes of him, you'll just turn stupid! Just do what I say. I'm your easiest short cut to becoming a Hokage. Now let's go home!"

"Nooooo!" Konohamaru yelled, "Booosssss!"

"You're lying." Naruto told Ebisu with a calm he did not feel. Blood rushed through his head as he spoke the words which still resonated with him. "The title of Hokage is sacred. You don't get trained for it, you can't get trained for it! You have to think of the village as your most precious item and keep it close to your heart over and above everything else. You're only Hokage if people acknowledge you not the other way around, you cannot be Hokage solely for the acknowledgement. There are no short cuts!"

Both student and elite tutor turned to look at him, was it his imagination or did Naruto see the tiniest glint of approval in Ebisu's eye?

"Stop lecturing me like you're some one important bah. You're not my boss any more, from now on we are rivals!" Konohamaru cried. He ripped his way to stand across from Naruto and both of their serious gazes locked.

"I'll be looking forward to it…Konohamaru." He turned to Ebisu, "I do believe I heard a challenge?"

Ebisu cocked his head, "I don't believe I issued one…"

"Ah it was such a low vulgar skill won't work against you. Konohamaru put a point in my column! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

For the first time since he time travelled he performed the jutsu. With thirty poofs of smoke thirty lounging Naruto's appeared on the field surrounding Ebisu. The Hokage choked violently on his pipe as he watched the scenes from his ball. Naruto had never mentioned he picked up such a jutsu! Ebisu himself got eyes the size of dinner plates before he steeled himself.

"I am an elite tutor." He told Naruto coolly, "I can take thirty of you and more."

"Nah, it'd look bad if I beat up a jonin on my first day." Naruto grinned foxily, "Sexy no jutsu" thirty voices cried as thirty voluptuous blondes appeared cooing and hanging off Ebisu with strategically placed smoke.

Ebisu stared and went shooting off with twin jets of blood from his nose. Naruto dispelled his clones laughing. It felt good to prank people! The Hokage hit his head against his desk repeatedly ignoring the panicked calls of his ANBU. He just knew he was going to fall victim to that technique…

…

Naruto steeled himself before pushing open the door and walking in. Chattering and noise hit his ears instantly and he took a deep breath. He had time travelled. Everyone was alive. And they were going to stay alive! He cast an eye over his classmates and fought the urge to cry like a baby. Everyone was so innocent! And …chibified. He stepped inside hesitantly without his usual fanfare, dark thoughts swirling in his head about the future.

"Huh? Naruto, what the hell are you doing here? Only those who passed are supposed to be here."

"Hey, hey can't you see the forehead protector?" Naruto flicked it with his thumb lips twitching.

The boy gave him a dubious look but a voice he hadn't heard for ages cut in.

"Hey will you let me through?"

Sakura…Master medic…Defeater of Sasori…Slug summoner…fan girl…

He turned to face her trying to hide his mix of emotions; relief, welcome, grief and pride.

"Naruto! Move your ass! I want to sit on the other side of you!" Sakura glared down at him. Naruto hid a wide grin at the familiar antics but scrunched his eyebrows. Surely he didn't have the same seat? He just took one randomly to prevent the incident. He turned around slowly to see a dark haired boy sitting in the corner seat.

Sasuke…Magnekyou Sharingan wielder…defeater of Orochimaru…snake and hawk summoner…avenger…

Sasuke gave him an annoyed look noticing him watching. He really had a chance to do this again! His team would stay together this time! Now to please Sakura or Sasuke? Sakura took the matter out of his hands as she knocked him down in her eagerness to get to her Sasuke.

"Sasuke! Can I sit next to you?" Sasuke ignored her steadfastly. Sakura took that as a yes. He was not jumping up to the desk this time. He stayed perfectly still in his seat where he could not go anywhere near Sasuke. It was not happening. He clutched at his seat until his fingers went white.

Iruka walked in a while later. Phew crisis averted.

"Beginning today, all of you are real ninjas…But you are merely rookie genin. The hard part has just started. Now you will be assigned duties by the village. So today we will be creating the three man teams…And each team will have a jonin sensei. You will follow that sensei's instructions as you complete the assigned duties." Iruka looked over them all face serious as if to impart to them this wasn't a joke. "We tried to balance each team's strength."

Team 7 will be together again Naruto mused. This time around we really need more training from Kakashi, he loved that man to bits but goddamn he wasn't much of a teacher. Maybe Sasuke wouldn't defect? He bit his lip, he had no idea what to do! He glanced sideways at his future team mates; Sakura looked to be deep in prayer while Sasuke just looked exasperated at the world. Nothing changed huh?

"Team 7: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto," Sakura slumped over. "Uchiha Sasuke." Then she perked right up punching the air. Sasuke however closed his eyes which Naruto translated as please kill me now. Should he keep up appearances or should he not? Hell it was fun!

"Iruka sensei! Why does an awesome shinobi like me have to be on the same team as someone like him?!" Naruto leapt to his feet and pointed dramatically at Sasuke who just calmly ignored him.

Iruka put his hands on his hips and barked back, "Sasuke's results were the top of all 27 graduates, and Naruto…you were dead last. It is to balance out the teams."

"Bah, just don't get in my way dead last." Sasuke scoffed from the side. Naruto glared at him, it didn't need much acting on his part. He fell back into his seat grumbling for the sake of it. Iruka narrowed his eyes noticing Naruto had not responded to Sasuke's taunt. Maybe the Mizuki incident was finally making him mature?

"Ok this afternoon, we'll introduce the Jonin sensei. Take a break."

Naruto went red slightly as he remembered what he had done the first time around. Now he thought of Sakura as a sister, no way was he doing that again.

"Hey, want to eat lunch as a team?" He offered.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow at him and left without saying a word, Sakura followed him like a puppy not even bothering to answer Naruto. He felt a pang of hurt. His team mates could at least answer him. He swallowed hard then left anyway, if they weren't going to eat with him, he could prepare for tomorrow. He stuffed a sandwich in his mind and he chewed as he ran to Training ground 7 where it all began. He snuck cautiously in, just in case someone was using it. He crept in, ears straining but relaxed when he didn't see or hear anybody. He quickly pulled out weapons, wire and exploding tags, he didn't have much time to set this up! Wait, did he want to use real weapons or shadow clone objects? Could he even make them to last until the next day? No better to use real objects, just so his plan wasn't ruined by him running out of energy.

He hastily made some traps with real, fake trip wires, kunai launchers, trigger launchers, faker trigger launchers, real launchers which looked fake, fake wires which tripped the real wires and buried exploding tags in a semi-circle around where he remembered Kakashi to have been. Thank god he hadn't moved around much until the end! Unknown to Naruto, Kakashi was crouched in a tree looking very amused at his potential student's antics. He had been gazing at the memorial stone, about to go find the Hokage to scout out his potential students when to his surprise one came directly to him. With the ease of an ANBU captain he supressed his chakra and hid remembering the Uzumaki's had been talented chakra sensors. He watched Naruto sneak in, how had he known he was going to use Training ground 7? Well team 7 to training ground 7 wasn't that big of a leap he reasoned doubtfully. As Naruto set up traps, he felt a flicker of unease. Naruto couldn't have known what he had been planning to do. To be fair he was notorious as a jonin sensei, maybe Naruto heard it from somewhere. It wasn't a bad plan, rig up the ground beforehand, it was what shinobi were meant to do. It was useless since he'd seen it all but the thought counted for something. He was slightly impressed, even if his lone eye was watering at the shade of his clothing. This was the dead last? He hummed to himself flitting away, deciding to give Naruto a chance with his traps since he had cleverly thought ahead and gathered information in such a short span of time. He was now really looking forward to this, maybe he could pass a team this year.

Naruto panted as he finished his traps. Perfect, now he had to run back and…oh wait this was Kakashi he was thinking about. He had three hours to spare. He lazily slouched out of the training field and wandered back to the academy to meet up with his team.

…

Kakashi stared in shock at Naruto's apartment. The same kid who proved he could think like a ninja kept his living conditions like this? The milk went bad a while ago, it was messy and plants were everywhere with the dirt leaking out. Where was the order? The discipline? Where were the traps to stop enemy ninja? It didn't match up. This was the apartment of a dead last, the boy he'd seen earlier did not match that profile.

"So this is Naruto's house." He mused, hiding his shock.

"Yes, he's a moron but I think giving him to you would be best. You have a nose for those types. Plus your team will have Sasuke from that Uchiha clan. Good luck."

"Yes sir."

"Are you going to be late?"

"Maaa not more than usual."

The Hokage rolled his eyes, "At least let them know your name before subjecting them to your brand of peculiarity." Kakashi froze. He turned to face the Hokage sharply.

"They don't know who their jonin sensei are going to be?"

"The Jonin sensei are introduced as they pick up their teams." The Hokage puffed, "Why?"

Kakashi gazed intently at the milk carton feeling oddly excited, "Because Naruto snuck into training ground 7 to set traps." The two ninja shared a look then Kakashi grinned under his mask, "This will be fun."

…

Sasuke scowled into the silence. Sakura too had an irritated expression. Naruto on the other hand was bored out of his mind trying to cut a leaf in half with his chakra. He kept blowing them up in his face and his face now had a singed smell to it. He knew he was getting some very odd looks from the other two but resolved to ignore them still a bit miffed from being ignored so casually earlier.

"Baka what are you doing?" Sakura demanded finally. He wanted his Sakura back with a vengeance. She was mature, capable and smart, this mocking caricature was all the negative parts of his Sakura magnified.

"Wind training." He responded with a fake big smile. She huffed, "Where did you pick that up?"

"A friend taught me." His eyes softened as he remembered Yamato and Kakashi bickering away as he agonised over cutting leaves. Sakura saw his eyes soften and abandoned the cutting remark she was going to make about him having no friends.

"Teach me?" She sat down opposite to him. Naruto nearly had a heart attack. Where was the punch for wasting her time? Or the dismissal of it as unimportant because Sasuke didn't do it?

"Erm why? No offense Sakura."

She glared at him then looked sideways as Sasuke blushing. Oh that made more sense. She wanted to impress him with her qualities of hard work and dedication. He half rolled his eyes and half wanted to yell in glee. Things were already changing.

"Elemental training isn't that easy to pick up dobe." Sasuke cut in smoothly, "You might even be training for the wrong element."

"Wrong element?" Sakura looked at Naruto in confusion, "Ninjas can pick up most of the elements right?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah but there's a dominant element which is easiest for a ninja to pick up. I'm fairly sure," his lips twitched minutely, "Mine is wind."

"What's yours Sasuke?" Sakura crooned, "I bet it's the most impressive one."

"…I don't know." Sasuke seemed a bit reluctant to bite it out.

"Fire and lightning." Naruto replied casually swinging his feet.

"Shut up Naruto." Sakura said absentmindedly. Sasuke shot him an extremely hard look, "How did you reason that one dobe?" his voice was cutting.

"Uchiha's generally have a fire nature, and you seem more of a lightning type than fire."

"Waa Sasuke's so cool, he has two elemental types. What about me?" she looked expectantly at Naruto looked at her, "Fire."

"Fire?" Echoed Sakura and Sasuke who looked put out.

"Fire. I don't know the exercise for fire and I doubt Sasuke does either." Naruto said with finality.

With that awkward silence fell over the three of them. Two more hours passed in mind numbing boredom. Naruto checked the time and slid from his seat. Two pairs of eyes snapped to his movement. There was no point using a chalk eraser this time, it wouldn't show on Kakashi sensei's hair. He pulled out the chalk eraser and liberally splatted it with ink from ink pots. Payback time, he cackled mentally. He shoved it into the crack of the door.

"I'm not involved." Sakura huffed.

"Pfft like a Jonin will fall for that kind of a trap." Sasuke scoffed derisively.

At that moment a hand appeared around the academy door and pushed it open. The three genin watched in disbelief as the inky eraser fell with a splat on a silver haired man in a dark mask. It worked better than Naruto anticipated, Kakashi grimaced under his mask. He hadn't expected ink, it would take time for it to go away even with water. Naruto burst out laughing.

"Hahahaha you fell for it!" He actually felt more like crying than laughing seeing his sensei again, but laughing hysterically was a good substitute. Kakashi of course picked up his laugh wasn't as real as it could have been and mentally raised an eyebrow. So far Naruto's behaviour did not match up with the skulking boy on the training ground. He acted like…Obito…on purpose?

"I'm so sorry sensei, I tried to stop him but Naruto…" Sakura whimpered. Kakashi bent down to pick up the dirty eraser vowing to get his revenge on Hiruzen for giving him a team seemingly like his old one. He spotted Sasuke giving him one of the trademark Uchiha sceptical looks and sighed mentally. He had a lot of work to do.

"Hmm How can I say this?" he rubbed his chin, "I don't like you guys!" He catalogued each of their reactions carefully. He didn't need more acting from the more talented of the team on paper. Sasuke didn't react, that fit the profile; Sakura sweat dropped, okay that did too, Naruto gazed back innocently, that sort of did? "Meet me on the roof in 5 minutes." He shunshinned out leaving behind a lot of smoke just for Naruto being difficult.

He sat on the roof edge lazily waiting for the children. Sasuke was first up, he motioned for Sasuke to take a seat in front of him. Then Naruto and Sakura got there at the same time. They took their seats without being prompted.

"Ok…let's begin with some introductions."

"What do you want to know?" Sakura asked.

"How about your likes, dislikes, dreams, hobbies, stuff like that." He elaborated.

"Hey, hey why don't you introduce yourself to us first?!" Naruto yelled.

"Yeah…you look suspicious." The girl backed up her team mate. He wanted to laugh, he looked suspicious? He looked like the epitome of a ninja! Except for the hair but no one was perfect. Time for him to have some fun.

"Ohh…me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future…? Never thought about it. Hmm…well, I have lots of hobbies..."

Naruto suppressed a snort. Kakashi sensei was just the same. He remembered Kakashi giving the same speech to a noble client and the noble not knowing exactly how to react to such an enigmatic and infuriating statement.

"So all we learned is his name?" Sakura whispered disgruntledly.

"Now it's your turn, from the right." Kakashi pointed to Naruto, "Take it away blondie."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! As in whirlpool not the topping. But the topping's great too, I love cup ramen! What I like more is when Iruka sensei buys me ramen. I dislike waiting three minutes for the ramen to cook."

Kakashi fought the urge to face palm. Come on he urged Naruto to give him something to prove the dead last mask was just that, a mask.

"My dream…" Naruto's face hardened, "Is to usher in a new age of the ninja." The way he spoke sent chills down everyone's spine. Kakashi's eyes widened then relaxed, Naruto had grown in an interesting way.

"Hobbies…pranks I guess." Naruto shrugged dispelling the tension he had created.

"I see." Kakashi murmured, "Next." He had a visionary for a student….great…

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are tons of things I dislike but I don't really like anything. And…I don't want to use the word dream but I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and …to kill a certain man." He glowered darkly into his hands.

Kakashi wanted to read his porn desperately. A visionary and an avenger. Who had he pissed off in his life?

"And lastly the girl."

"I'm Haruno Sakura, the thing I like is… Well…the person I like is…Umm Should I say my dream for the future…? Oh my! The thing I dislike…is Naruto." Naruto grimaced at that as did Kakashi. "My hobby is…" she kept glancing sideways at Sasuke.

Oh brilliant…a visionary, an avenger and a fan girl taught by the lazy pervert. It sounded like the start of a bad joke.

"Ok! That's enough of that. We will start our duties tomorrow." He really enjoyed this next bit. "But first we're going to do something with just the four of us." He eye smiled at them all and laughed inwardly when they didn't send hostile glances back.

"What?" Sasuke bit out.

"Survival training." The two words dropped like a stone in the pleasant atmosphere. He crossed his arms.

"Why is our duty, training?" Sasuke sounded slightly confused.

"We did enough training at the academy." Sakura cried.

"Where?" Everyone paused to consider Naruto's response. Kakashi narrowed his eye, genin were supposed to question vague orders.

"I'm your opponent, but this isn't normal training." Why wasn't he surprised Naruto didn't look surprised.

"What is it then?" Sakura asked.

"Hehehe" he chuckled darkly, releasing the barest amount of his killing intent and watched two of his genin shiver before stilling. The third gave no indication he even felt it and just kept smiling. Well the fox had to have Naruto immune to such tiny killing intent he reasoned.

"What's so funny?" Sasuke demanded.

"Well…it's just that…when I tell you this, you guys are definitely going to flip." Naruto wasn't totally sure but he was reasonably sure that last time there hadn't been genuine malice glittering in Kakashi's lone eye. Or the dangerous undertone to his voice when talking about the test. He gulped, he had no wish to face a more serious Kakashi in combat.

"Of the 27 graduates, only 9 will be chosen as Genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a super difficult exam with a failure rate over 66%!" Kakashi cut an imposing figure with his flyaway silver hair and dark mask looming over them. Yeah he definitely hadn't been that scary last time Naruto decided watching Sakura gulp and Sasuke glare more ferociously out of the corner of his eye. It had to be his fault, he was the only one different, but question was what on earth had he done to warrant this?

"Haha." Kakashi chuckled sardonically, "I told you you'd flip."

Naruto decided quickly to act like a moron just to try and fix the scenario to how he remembered it.

"What the hell?! But we worked so hard…Then what was the point of graduating." He yelled. It didn't work. In fact it made it worse.

"Oh...that? That's just to select those that have a chance to become genin." Kakashi had never sounded that cold or like he didn't care about their futures in quite that way before. It chilled Naruto, and if it chilled him it most definitely chilled the other two.

"I'll warn you now." Kakashi continued, "A visionary seeking an impossible goal, an avenger after the loftiest ambition, a fan girl without any convictions have no place in the shinobi forces. I will not blame you if you decide not to turn up tomorrow and get humiliated. Konoha has no need of weak brats and I refuse to teach babies." He stared at all of them coolly. Naruto felt ice form in his stomach. Where was lazy sensei? Where was bored sensei? Where was perverted sensei? The man in front of them was a vicious, cold killer.

He bit his lip. He had to pass! Or the future would change drastically. Well he already knew the test, all he had to do was persuade the other two to come around to his point of view.

"Don't bother having breakfast if you decide to turn up. You'll just throw it up. The details are on this print out, don't be late tomorrow." With that, the ominous aura vanished and Kakashi was back to his normal self with the bored intonation and lazy eye. Naruto was frozen to his seat as were his team mates. The change was terrifying, even more than his other self. No body dared say anything. He skimmed the print out, basic information, and threw it away. When they looked up from the print out, Kakashi was gone.

"I think we got the scariest jonin in Konoha." Sakura whispered. "The way he just changed."

"Higher nin are usually unbalanced." Sasuke grunted. Sakura looked at him in horror, then where their sensei had been.

Naruto licked his dry lips, "We're going to die tomorrow."

Review to find out what happened next. ^.^

Yup Kakashi isn't going to be as soft on them as he was in canon since he's annoyed and suspicious. Poor Naruto doesn't quite understand but meh he will soon.