-1Disclaimer: I don't own any anime that may appear in this fic. The story though, is mine.

A.N: for those who are mad about me using Hiei as Naruto's new image, if you don't like it, don't read this. Flamers are not welcome to review. Constructive criticism is welcome, but telling me you do not like how I use my character… you should just shut the (deleted) up! If you have ideas that you think would work better you are free to tell me, but otherwise be quiet.

"Normal"

'Thoughts'

"Spirits/ Naruto talking to spirits, humans can't hear"

'Spirit thought'

"Shinigami"

Part 3

New Powers New Team

Naruto awoke the next day, once again cursing the sun for glaring in his eyes. In his frustration, he did not notice that the light was dimming in his room, as if the sun were bowing to his wishes. He stopped the moment he noticed that his henge had dissipated during the night. "Now why did that happen?"

Arashi smiled down on his child, trust him not to know that the henge needs at least partial concentration. "It disappeared the moment you fell asleep. A henge needs at least partial concentration to remain stable. Without it, the transformation breaks. When you sleep, you are not concentrating on it at all, so you become what you really are." 'That could become a problem on long missions, but I'll talk to him about that later.' He looked around, trying to find Naruto who had disappeared during his explanation. "Naruto!!!!" He yelled.

Far off, Naruto laughed. 'Serves him right. Who would want to listen to one of his explanations? Talks too long if you ask me.' He looked at the position of the sun, "Time to get to class! Can't wait to find out who's on my team!" He dashed off in a burst of speed, leaving a trail of blue light through the village.

That was how Arashi found him, by following the astonished faces of the villagers who had seen the light. He sighed; "It seems that the henge can't stand his high speeds either. I hope it replaces itself when he slows down. If not…"

As it was, Arashi had nothing to be worried about. The second Naruto stopped in front of the academy, his transformation returned, leaving no one the wiser. He smiled; 'That was awesome!' It was not so much that it returned as it caught up to him, leaving the impression, if only for a fraction of a second, that an orange blur crashed into him. After waiting for Arashi to catch up he entered the building, along with a full compliment of invisible guardians.

He passed through the halls, ignoring the glares and picking up new guards along the way. By the time he made it to the classroom he had to shoo some of them away lest some one with a higher sixth sense feel something amiss.

Naruto had only been sitting for a few moments when one of the students came to him, telling him that the class was only for those who passed the exam. All Naruto did was point at his forehead protector, which was covering his third eye, and the genin hopeful left.

In the back of class, Hinata was watching him with her Byakugan. She was happy that he was there and knew that even though he had somehow failed the genin test, he would find a way. She also noticed that his chakra pathways had changed. It coiled throughout his entire body and filled every crevice that it could find, weaving in and out, even inside the organs. His tenketsus had also changed; there were more of them, especially around his arms and legs. She sighed, her Naruto-kun had made it and she hoped to be on the same team as him.

Naruto set his head down on the desk and closed his eyes and opened his Jagan eye behind his hitai-ate. Behind him, Hinata noticed a large amount of chakra focus on his forehead. She looked closer and quietly gasped; it was another eye.

Naruto was in the middle of assessing the students in the room when he saw two girls rushing towards the door. Both had long hair, but one was blond, and the other had the strangest hair colour, bubblegum pink. They got stuck in the door, arguing about who got there first. Finally they both made it through before rushing to Naruto and slamming their fists into his head. Or that's what they would have done had not Naruto, or should I say his guardians persuaded them otherwise. Arashi floated in front of the two girls as they approached and tapped them both between the shoulder blades. The girls did not feel the touch, but both of them got a serious case of the chills and decided to sit elsewhere than beside their Sasuke-kun, who Naruto just happened to be sitting beside. From where they were sitting, they glared at him, but stopped when they felt the chill once more.

Arashi smirked, before he had only been able to induce a small, almost unnoticeable chill, but now that his son had been given some of the shinigami's powers he was able to do far more.

Moment's later Naruto's sensei, Umino Iruka walked into the room. "Ok class! Quiet down. Today you will each be placed in balanced three man teams, decided by the Hokage and myself. Your Jounin sensei should be along shortly for their teams. You will follow their orders as you complete the missions and training given to you."

In the back of class, Sasuke grumbled in his mind; 'Three man teams… sounds like two to many,'

The pink hair banshee, Sakura, and her blond haired eternal rival for love, Ino, were both hoping to be placed in the same team as Sasuke.

Naruto wondered why he was even paying attention to their thoughts and shut down his Jagan. 'Three people, well I already have an army following me around, not that anyone knows, so it shouldn't be hard to work in a team. Besides, I can have any one of these ghosts train me at any time if my sensei ignores me.'

Behind Naruto, Arashi frowned at his son's thoughts, but knew it was true. He would train him whether his son's sensei ignored him or not. The new integration technique would also be a big help in learning through muscle memory.

"Team one…" Iruka began as his class drowned him out, only listening for their names. Eventually; "Team seven: Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke. Your sensei is Hatake Kakashi."

Naruto sighed, there went his chance of learning anything. His sensei would pay attention to Sasuke and he would learn nothing. Sakura was in-between shouting for joy at being with her Sasuke-kun, and moaning for being with the dead last, who always gave her the chills. Sasuke just grunted, his team would only hold him back, but then again, the dead last has a creepy aura around him that could be used to his advantage.

After that Naruto went back to listening to his teammates thoughts with his Jagan, hoping to find out more about them. He didn't find much that he didn't already know. Sasuke was an angst-ridden bastard, and Sakura was an obsessed fan-girl that thought only about her "love" and nothing for her skills as a ninja. Out of both of them, she was the most pathetic.

Iruka dismissed the class for a short break, telling them to return in two hours to meet their sensei. Naruto immediately vanished, leaving only a swirl of wind in his wake, along with a black flash, eerily similar to the one a long dead Hokage use to leave after his signature technique.

Meanwhile, the Hokage and Kakashi were having a meeting in Naruto's house. Both were getting serious chills from being there. Sarutobi had been there on occasion so he knew what it was and how to deal with it, but Kakashi had never even come close to the house, so if it hadn't been for his jounin training he would have run away screaming. As it was, he was just shivering and looking about wearily. "Is this really Naruto's house? I can't believe he lives in such a place."

The Hokage only chuckled; "That's one of the reasons I called you here. You see anyplace Naruto stays in for any amount of time will gain this aura. Spirits constantly follow him everywhere, so this is just a warning."

The masked jounin looked up quickly. "Does this have anything to do with the Kyuubi? Do they want revenge on him?"

The Hokage was about to answer when a black flash appeared behind Kakashi. "No, they are here to protect me." said Naruto as a hundred spirit flames appeared in the air around him. "They protect me from the foolishness of the villagers, and keep me company where others would not. And we would appreciate it if you would continue your business elsewhere."

Two plumes of smoke marked the exit of the two senior shinobi. Naruto sighed; 'I'll have to see if I can find some wards to prevent this from happening again.'

Kakashi and Sarutobi re-appeared inside the Hokage's office. "As you have seen, the spirits guard him, and most have little trust now of the living. I have also noticed that some of them train him and help him in other ways. Your job will be to help with that training and help him to open up to those around him. He is loyal to Konoha for the moment, but I fear he will not be for much longer the way the villagers are acting. That is if he doesn't have any precious people beside myself. At first he may act like a moron, but that is just a mask that he uses around here."

Kakashi nodded; "I understand.' He turned to leave.

"Oh, and one more thing, Kakashi. Uchiha Sasuke will also be on your team. Try not to focus on only one student."

An hour later, Naruto met his teammates in the classroom to wait for their sensei. Sakura was as usual bugging Sasuke for a date, and he was ignoring her. Naruto ignored them both as he headed for the far corner. He sat down and several ghosts flew through the window. "Naruto-sama, what shall we do while we wait. Hatake-san will be at least two hours late if my information is correct." Said one of the few spirits. His name was Jouhou and had been the best spy in the world when he had been alive. Now he gathered information on whomever, whatever, and wherever Naruto wanted it on.

"Is that so… I guess a game won't hurt. Lets play some shogi." Using a technique Arashi, who had been instructed by the Shinigami, taught him, he created a shogi board on the spiritual plane, and for the next two hours matched wits against various people form different eras. All of which was unseen by either of the other two genin-hopefuls in the room.

During that time, at one point or another, both Sakura and Sasuke thought to see what the dead-last was up to, but when they looked, he was only staring into space, seemingly concentrating on something. Both had decided that it wasn't worth it.

Finally Sakura snapped; "Where is he?!" she yelled; breaking Naruto's concentration and ending his game.

Naruto glared at her from the corner, he was just about to win to. 'Stupid pink-haired banshee.'

"If he doesn't get here in the next…"

At that moment the door opened revealing a certain silver-haired jounin. He looked around the room and his eyes finally landed on Naruto, who just so happened to be surrounded by a lot of spirit flames, most of them flashing red in anger. He also noticed the glares his other students were giving him. He just smiled and put his hand on his chin. "My first impression is… I hate you."

Two of the genin sweat dropped, while the third just glared. Several of the ghosts in the room sweat dropped as well and glanced at their young lord, hoping that they wouldn't have to calm him down.

Kakashi just grinned even more at their reactions. "Meet me on the roof in fifteen minutes." With that he disappeared in a swirl of leaves.

Naruto stood up and walked out of the room and waited in the stairwell for his teammates before following them up. He just didn't feel like acting happy today, first he had to convince some ghosts to leave him alone, second he had intruders in his house, big no-no, and third, he waits two hours for his sensei to show up, and when he does, he tells them to meet him on the roof. Oh no, it was not a good day at all. Hopefully that would change later. If not… the Hokage Monument could always use a fresh coat of paint.

When they made it to the roof they saw Kakashi waiting for them, he motioned for them to take a seat. "Ok, lets start with introductions. You know, likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, that kind of thing."

Sakura glared at the man; "Why don't you go first sensei. We know absolutely nothing about you."

Kakashi grinned behind his mask. "My name's Hatake Kakashi. I don't feel like telling you my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future… oh well, I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura and Sasuke sweat dropped. Naruto just moved his head like he was listening to some one before speaking; "Hatake Kakashi, likes: porn, specifically the Icha-Icha series. Dislikes: people taking said porn and yelling at him for reading it in public. Dreams for the future: own the entire Icha-Icha series and play lead male role in the Icha movie. Hobbies: reading porn and being late to everything." He paused; "Did I get every thing?"

Kakashi glared at him while the other two had their mouths hanging open. "Ok, since you're so smart you can go next blondie."

"Me, my name's Uzumaki Naruto. I like a couple of my guardians; I dislike it when several hundred of them are around me and having to chase them off. That and most of the villagers. Dreams for the future… I don't really know."

"What are you talking about Naruto?" said Sakura; "You're an orphan remember. You have no guardians."

Naruto sighed and released some chakra into Jouhou. The air next to him shimmered, as a semi-transparent figure appeared floating in the air. "Meet Jouhou, my guardian informant. He's how I knew about you Kakashi-sensei." Jouhou bowed before disappearing.

Sakura had frozen the moment the spirit had come into view and Naruto now had everyone's attention. Kakashi was also paying attention, the Hokage had warned him that Naruto could talk to ghosts, but not that he could make them visible to others.

"N-Naruto… was t-that a ghost?" stuttered Sakura.

Naruto gave her no reply. He had shown them that because they would be on his team for some time, but he would leave them to come up with their own explanations.

Sasuke was secretly disappointed at Naruto's silence. He had wanted to know what that was. If it had indeed been a ghost he would have demanded Naruto contact one of his ancestors to train him.

Kakashi broke them from their thoughts; "That was interesting, Pinky you're next."

"My name's not Pinky!" Sakira yelled. "It's Haruno Sakura. My likes are…" she paused and blushed while sneaking a peek at Sasuke. " I dislike Ino-pig and creepy people." She glared at Naruto on the last one. "And finally, my dreams for the future…" she blushed hard at that and squealed.

'Obviously a love struck fangirl.' Thought Kakashi. "Finally, bird-hair."

Sasuke growled; "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. It is pointless to tell you my likes and dislikes, as there is almost nothing that I do like. I don't have a dream, it is more of an ambition: to restore my clan and to kill a certain man." The temperature in the area dropped a few degrees at his last comment.

Kakashi groaned inwardly; 'Great, a fan-girl, and avenger, and a ghost magnet jinchuuriki. Could they have possibly picked a better team to give me.' "Ok then, we'll start our duties tomorrow with something special, just the four of us." He smirked at the excited looks on his students' faces. "Our first mission is…" he paused for effect, "survival training."

Sakura and Sasuke face faulted, Naruto just rolled his eyes. His entire life had been survival training.

Sakura raised her had to voice a question. "Why is that a mission? We had enough of that in the academy."

"Well, for one, I am going to be your opponent, so this will be no ordinary survival training." He chuckled at their confused faces. "Of the twenty-seven graduates, only nine will be come full-fledged genin. The rest are sent back to the academy." He sat down and put his head in his hands and stared lazily at his students. "This training is a super hard exam with a failure rate of over sixty-six percent." Sasuke glared at her, Sakura had he mouth hanging open, and Naruto… well he was consulting Arashi, paying no attention to those around him. "Those that pass will become genin. Anyway, meet me at training field seven at eight and bring all your equipment. Oh, and one more thing, don't eat breakfast." He passed out a form with the instructions before disappearing with one last word of advice; "Don't be late."

Naruto followed soon after, calmly jumping from the roof to the ground, landing as if it were nothing, and taking off towards the forest. When he arrived he summoned several spirits and asked them to spar with him. Looking over at Arashi; "Would you like to try out that trick for last night? I think it would be a good idea to work on it, make the integration faster and stronger."

Arashi nodded, the boy was beginning to think like him already. The ghost of the Yondaime took his place along side his son.

Naruto held out his had and Arashi disintegrated into flames, leaving a trail as Naruto brought his hand to his chest, merging with Arashi. Seconds later he opened his eyes. "Not fast enough. We will work on that later. First, we should learn to move as one, and learn all we can."

From there, Naruto began going through a stream of katas familiar only to the Yondaime, learning them by muscle memory. After about thirty minutes, he began to feel low on mana. "It seems this is our limit." And just as the words passed from his lips, he and Arashi split in a small flash of light.

Naruto fell to one knee, breathing hard. "That was good, but I need to be able to do that longer." A few minutes passed and he was ready to go again, but this time he only had half his mana, but that was all he needed. This time he was going to work on integration speed.

At the end of the day he was exhausted, but pleased. He had taken fusion time down to one second flat and was beginning to work better with his partner. He could feel it. Now he knew what he needed to do. He had to gain the physical strength to go along with Arashi's. At this point, it was his own weakness that kept him from progressing. So he vowed to get some weights the first chance he got. Seconds later he passed out from working too hard. Luckily for him, he was not far from training ground seven; so even if he woke up late, it wouldn't take him long to get to the field. A little later, Arashi picked him up and placed him high in a tree over looking the training area. ((Naruto is the only person who the spirits can touch without being charged with mana))

The next day came and found Sakura following Sasuke like a lost puppy, begging for a date, as they walked toward the field. Sasuke was trying his best to ignore her, and it was only his Uchiha pride that kept him from yelling back at her. He sighed when he finally made it to the field. 'I hope Naruto's here. He will get this banshee away from me. Heh, that's the only good thing about him.' He sat down and concentrated on planning ways to kill Itachi, completely ignoring Sakura, and not even noticing the figure lightly snoring high above him.

Two hours later Naruto was still sleeping when Kakashi appeared beneath the tree, scaring tow of his students. He looked around for his third before slamming the tree with his fist, knocking Naruto from his perch. Luckily for Naruto, Arashi was, somehow, able to replace his henge before anyone say him. He hit the ground, waking him up, with only a light thump, as he weighed almost nothing now.

Once his students were done yelling at him, Kakashi pulled out two bells and an alarm clock. "This clock is set for noon. Your goal," he said holding up the bells, "is to take one of these from me before the alarm goes off. Those that don't get a bell don't get lunch. I will tie you to one of these posts behind me, and eat your lunch in front of you."

Sakura and Sasuke's stomachs both growled, neither of them had eaten because of their teacher's instructions. Naruto, even though he hadn't eaten, wasn't hungry in the slightest. So most of the team was grumbling.

"You only need one bell, but since there are only two of them, one of you will definitely be going to the stump. And anybody who doesn't get a bell will fail and be sent back to the academy to re-take the genin test next year. You can use whatever you have on you, kunai, shuriken, whatever, but you wont succeed unless you come at me with intent to kill."

Sakura stood up startled. "But you'll be in danger!" Naruto nodded in agreement while Sasuke just grunted.

Kakashi laughed at them. "I doubt it, especially from Mr. Dead-last over here."

Inside Naruto something snapped. The golden band on his left arm shot out and began revolving, its golden script becoming visible, but only those above jounin or with active bloodline could see it. In a flash there was a sword in his hand as he dashed toward Kakashi. Luckily for Kakashi, the Yondaime had sensed what was going to happen and used a gravity jutsu on Naruto reducing his speed to that of a Chuunin.

Kakashi dodged him easily, but wondered where the sword had come from. He grabbed Naruto's arm and turned the blade to the back of Naruto's neck. "I like your attitude, but I haven't said go yet."

Naruto said something under his breath and the sword vanished.

Sasuke smirked; "Dobe." 'So this is a Jounin, but then again, anyone could stop Naruto.'

Naruto just growled and returned to his previous position.

"It seems you've started to respect me. Good. Then lets get going. Start!"

The three genin to-be vanished in a puff of smoke. Sasuke and Sakura moved off into the trees while Naruto, he stayed where he was.

"The ninja basics are to hide one's selves. Two of you have hidden well." Kakashi looked pointedly at Naruto.

Naruto on the other hand had seemingly fallen asleep. He was actually going over what he knew. Ninja were put into teams of three, they were balanced by the Hokage, and in some way or another complimented each other's skills. Why, then, go through all that trouble just to have it messed up with the removal of one of the members. He didn't know, but he would find out.

Kakashi just stared at the boy standing in front of him; he would have thought he would have attacked by now. Shrugging, he pulled an orange book out of his shuriken pouch and began reading.

When Naruto came back from his thoughts he immediately caught sight of the book and smirked; 'I know your weakness. So nice of you to flaunt it for all to see.' Seconds later he jumped into the forest and the top of the tallest tree in it. He slipped his forehead protector over his eyes revealing a slit on his forehead. 'Let's see how you react. Jagan!' the slit snapped open showing an eye with a violet iris. With it, he cast a genjutsu on his sensei and teammates, making them think that he was attacking Kakashi.

His teammates saw Naruto charge out of the trees heading straight for Kakashi. They weren't surprised when he dodged Naruto's blow, but what got them was he hadn't even looked up from his book. After several more futile attempts at hitting him, Kakashi put his book away and crouched behind Naruto, who's back, was yet again, turned to him.

Kakashi placed his hands in the tiger seal; "You know, it isn't a good thing to show your back so many times."

Off in the distance they heard Sakura yell; "Naruto no baka! Get out of there! He's gonna kill you!"

It was too late for him however, as Kakashi shoved the seal where the sun don't shine with a yell of; "First Lesson: Taijutsu. Konoha Hijutsu: Sennin Goroshi!" (Konoha Secret Technique: One Thousand Years of Pain!)

The genjutsu Naruto shot of into the sky, eventually landing in the river nearby. Kakashi knew something was off though. Even though the technique had worked, he had felt nothing. 'Seems Naruto's not as bad at genjutsu as he led people to believe.' Even though he knew what it was, he decided to let it continue, just to find out what was going to happen.

Back in hiding, both Sasuke and Sakura sweat dropped. 'That wasn't a jutsu. I have an idiot teammate and sensei.'

Kakashi was about to go look for his other students when one thousand spirit flames converged over the river. They were as such that even the two genin wanna be's could see them. Suddenly the genjutsu disappeared and Naruto was standing on the opposite bank. He pointed to one of the flames and held out his hand. The flame disappeared and reappeared above his palm. "Hyoi Fusion!" he brought his hand high above his head before he brought his hand down, pushing the flame into his chest. There was a bright flash that hid Naruto from view. And then…

A.N: Sorry for the long update. And then on top of that, I leave a cliffhanger. Oh well. I'll update Henzuru next, and it should be faster as I'm a lot better at that one. Oh yeah, the poll.

Who should Naruto fuse with?

Arashi

Uchiha Fugaku

Uchiha Madara

Hyuuga Hizashi

Shodaime – Give me a Name

Nidaime – Give me a Name

Other

Ok, as of this point, I don't know the Shodaime or Nidaime's names so if anyone knows, please tell me. Thanks.

From Cyber-Porygon: Fillers have supposedly ended.

And I have to thank Rinn Brandt for letting me know something about the first chapter of Henzuru. I will be thanking her in that update as well.

OMAKE by PhiloWorm or 'Why pissing off a Banshee never is a good thing.'

WARNING: Contains gay Orochimaru and Kabuto but only mentioned in passing, nothing to be afraid of.

The battle had been raging for well over an hour now. It was a titanic battle, epic even… it was also, a battle of clichés.

On one side we see Team Seven, Uchiha Sasuke is standing in a Taijutsu stance showing of his new improved Level 3 Curse Seal. Somehow he has escaped from Orochimaru, realised his mistakes and miraculously transformed from an angsty avenger to a well adjusted (no really) shinobi.

Standing beside him is the Rukodaime Uzumaki Naruto, nine golden tails swaying in the slight breeze. After absorbing/inheriting the power of (or perhaps mating with?) the Kyuubi no Kitsune he gained at least one hundred points of IQ and became the very image of a supreme leader and commander.

The last member of the trio Haruno Sakura is now without argument the strongest of the group. Changing little… actually only her strength and bust size, has clearly made her into a much better ninja. She is most certainly not a whiny, lovesick, temperamental fan girl anymore. No sir, not at all.

Sadly Hatake Kakashi is currently late for the showdown so we cannot see him using his ONE ultra cool original jutsu as well as his ONE borrowed Sharingan eye that for some reason or another became the Mangekyou in some way I cannot understand.

On one of the other sides we have the Akatsuki, or rather the leader of Akatsuki who somehow have turned out to be

a) Naruto's mother

b) Naruto's father

c) The Yondaime

d) 'See b and c'

On the final side of this three sided battle we have Orochimaru the gay drag queen… sorry Snake Sanin and his partner (in more ways than one I'm sure) Kabuto.

Now as is custom the villains (and heroes) must make a speech before the final part of the epic battle can begin. Orochimaru volunteered to go first… why I will never know.

'Kukukukukukukukukukukukukukuku, so Sasuke-Kun I have found you at last kukukukukukukukukukukukuku. Why don't you come back to me and I shall help gain the power only I can give so that you can kill your brother? Kukukukukukukuku.'

Nearly choking due to the excessive amounts of kuku'ing Sasuke could only stare in hatred at the slimy figure.

Still going strong on his "evil villain speech" Orochimaru unwittingly spelled his own doom.

'Kukukukuku and if that's not enough then remember all the "quality time" we spent together you Kabuto and I, if I recall correctly you found my Snake-tongue technique very fascinating,

While everybody not on Orochimarus side gagged at this revelation (Sasuke included) something gave of a snapping sound.

Naruto, having heard this only once before looked around like a madman trying in vain to verify that had had in fact not heard what he thought. One look at his pink-haired teammate proved him at the same time both dreadfully right, and wrong at the same time.

Scrambling away as fast as he could dragging Sasuke with him he barely made it before it happened.

Even half a country away they both had to wince at the resounding yell of. 'WHAT!!! YOU STOLE MY SASUKE-KUNS VIRGINITY?!?! THAT WAS MINE OROCHIMARU NO TEMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!' Sounds of a violent beating as well as a mushroom cloud of dust erupted from the approximate location of the ex-battleground.

Sighing in resignation Naruto turned to his stunned teammate. 'I don't even want to think of how much it will cost Konoha to import enough soil and saplings to replant well over half of the country wide forest' he said with the air of one resigned to his fate. 'And that was from the sound alone, Kami-Sama only knows what else she ruined with that freakish strength of hers.'

Sasuke could only nod in agreement, wowing to never make the future mother of his children angry.

In the distance mount Gamma could be seen crumbling to dust, the faint shrieks of a certain perverted hermit lost in the violent aftermath of the worst faux pass in history.

END OMAKE or as I call it, an attempt at humour gone seriously wrong.