Ugh. This was the chapter that would not end, but finally. Gonna be busy, might be a week of two before update. Anyway, hope you guys like it.

Disclaimed.

The sun was just rising over the village when another Konoha resident found himself being dragged from his sleep by tapping on his window. Naruto opened sleep-blurred eyes to see an ANBU with a boar mask waiting patiently on the ledge outside his window. Grumbling, Naruto pulled himself from his bed and slid his window open.

Instead of looking at the ANBU though, his eyes first focused on his dad's face on the Hokage monument. Fortunately he had a great view of the monument from his window. As he looked at the ANBU questioningly, the man thrust the scroll into his hand with deliberate patience and disappeared without a word. It was a beautiful, sunny day, and it seemed ANBU-san didn't want to waste it with him.

"Well, good morning to you, too." the boy muttered indignantly. He examined the scroll, recognizing the Hokage's seal, before breaking it and reading the scroll's contents. Finally. His pranking was now officially officially sanctioned by the Hokage.

Naruto walked down the main street of Konoha with purpose. True, everyone was glaring at him, but with any luck they'd be blinded by his orange jumpsuit. No, Naruto had already decided to ignore them. He had much more important things to worry about. So he walked along obliviously, clever mind whirling with a mischievous grin tugging at his lips.

Finally he arrived at his destination, Higurashi Ninja Supplies. He should probably go to the library first, but was too excited to wait any longer. This place offered all the pranking supplies he could ever dream of and if he failed to get something important, he could always come back later.

He entered the shop, accompanied by the sound of a bell ringing above his head. A simple but effective way to prevent theft in a ninja village. He looked back down to see a big burly man with dark hair and eyes coming out of the workshop behind the store and offered the man a friendly smile.

The man merely stared at him a moment with a slight frown before asking somewhat sceptically, "Something I can help you with, kid?"

Naruto nodded, pulling out a note and handing it to the man, "Sandaime-jiji told me to give this to you."

The man raised an eyebrow at his informal speech but didn't comment. After reading the scroll the man appraised Naruto for a moment with an unreadable expression and snorted, shaking his head. "I hope you know what you're getting your yourself into, kid. I'm Higurashi Aoi, it looks like we'll be seeing a lot of each other, so just call me Aoi."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Thanks, Aoi-san." Naruto beamed.

"Yeah yeah, I'll be behind the counter, let me know if you have any questions." The man answered nonchalantly before walking off.

Naruto took a good look around for the first time. The store was huge, probably the biggest in Konoha although it was only operated by a few people. It was empty at this time of the morning, but Naruto preferred it that way. Less people to ask questions.

As he looked around he saw enough equipment to fully equip a dozen ninja teams at least and couldn't help drooling. He quickly grabbed a large rucksack and grabbed some of the things he thought he'd need. Three Kunai and Shuriken sets, ninja wire of various gauges, smoke bombs, itching powder, exploding tags, (although he couldn't use them yet) makibushi, flash tags, senbon, and a jug of sticky, clear syrup he found that would stick to anything it touched besides the container.

He also got netting to cover pits and camouflage traps, a small can each of green and brown paint to use on ninja wire to help it blend in, and bandages and thigh and hip pouches to hold his equipment. Last but not least he found a sheet that was painted to look like a fence. It probably wouldn't keep him from getting caught against the clan of infamous Sharingan wielders, but he had to make a token effort at escape to make it seem like he didn't want to be caught.

He thought about that for a second. The Sharingan would most likely see through his traps. The police force always kept their Sharingan activated, so that would make pranking them especially hard. He would have to hone his speed and misdirection skills. What they couldn't see they couldn't prepare for and they would probably not be as good at using their ears and noses as him.

He also suspected that if he could keep them occupied long enough they wouldn't be able to react to an attack at the last moment, even if they could see it coming. They were the police force, so he'd probably have the most success getting them in a crowd where they would have to worry about the civilians and couldn't react as fast.

He grinned as he dragged his gradually overflowing rucksack around the floor. Once they realized what he was up to he would have to layer traps or even use traps as distractions in order to succeed. That's why he would get some buckets of paint and balloons later to either distract from the real traps or, later on, catch them while they dealt with the 'real' traps. He'd dreamed all night about ways to go about this and soon he would put his brainstorming to use.

Hmm, the Uchiha probably already blamed him for their plight and after this they would probably hate him even more. Hopefully they had the discipline to follow orders and not try to kill him. He grimaced at the thought, but even if they did Naruto trusted his ANBU guard to step in if things got out of hand.

After getting everything for his pranks, he set his bag down near the counter and went to the section with training supplies. He grabbed a few basic jutsu scrolls, thinking they'd come in handy once he unlocked his chakra. Henge, bunshin, kawarimi, and a useful looking rope escape jutsu. There were also scrolls labeled Basic Chakra Control Exercises, Basic Taijutsu and Elementary Stealth Jutsu. He could probably find all that at the library, but wanted portable copies to take with him when he trained.

He glanced around a moment more before finding what he was looking for. Training weight of various sizes and weights. He thought about the five pound weights, but realized that would probably count as 'going overboard.' Luckily there were small two pound weights for the wrists and ankles and hedecided he'd start with those.

He carried everything back to the counter and struggled to get everything on top of it. Even with the stool he'd been using to reach everything it was a lot more difficult to put things up than take them down.

Aoi chuckled after watching him struggle a bit and walked around the counter to lift up his bag with one large hand. "If you can't do something yourself, you should ask for help, kid."

Naruto blinked at the man owlishly for a moment before grinning widely, "I understand, Aoi-san!"

Aoi smiled a little and proceeded to ring up everything before packing it all away for him in his new backpack. "You sure you're gonna be able to carry all this, kid?"

Naruto smiled and pulled the bag off the counter only to drop it and fall off his stool after it. He stood up slowly and rubbed his aching backside while grinning sheepishly, "It's part of my training, Aoi-san."

The man merely nodded at that and wished him luck before going back to his work. Naruto tried to pick up his rucksack and put it on his back, but it was too heavy. Not one to give up easily, he crouched, pulling on the backpack's straps and struggling to stand. It weighed nearly as much as him, but he was able to barely able to stand by grabbing onto the counter. He wobbled forward and gradually made it out of the store, holding onto the door for balance. By the time he made it to the end of the block, he was sweating, although he'd managed to get a bit used to the extra weight.

By the time he got back to his apartment, he was drenched in sweat from the climb up the stairs and panting heavily. He fell down outside his door, tiredly pulling off his bag before opening the door and dragging his purchases inside his apartment. It was surprisingly clean, mostly because he had just moved in a couple weeks ago, but the kitchen had several empty containers of ramen and an empty carton of milk on the table. The sink was full of dishes and he knew the floor of his room was covered in dirty clothes. Naruto sighed, his mom wouldn't be pleased if she were here.

Surprisingly, this thought made him smile a bit. He dragged his rucksack to the empty closet next to the bathroom and arrayed his supplies on the lower shelves. He had more room here than in his bedroom. He held back only the rucksack itself as well as one of the pouches, the training weights, the taijutsu scroll and one set of kunai and shuriken.

Naruto quickly put on the training weights, put some of the kunai and shuriken in the pouch before putting the rest away in the closet. He put the scroll and the pouch in his bag and put it aside. After that he wiped the sweat off his forehead and decided to clean up. It didn't take long; he'd do his laundry tonight.

He grabbed his rucksack and left his apartment for Ichiraku. Naruto had had Ichiraku for dinner the night before, but he was in a good mood and would need the energy for studying and training later on.

Teuchi and Ayame had been thrilled to see him again so soon and he had ordered a simple miso ramen to tide himself over. He would have loved to eat more, but he didn't want to make himself sick later. The two of them were always nice to him and if he ever got tired of the ramen (heaven forbid) he wouldn't get tired of the company.

He looked around the library for a few minutes for the head librarian Yura-san and finally decided to ask for help, turning around only to find himself staring at someone's pants. He looked up to find himself looking at the most stern looking woman he'd ever come across. Her brown eyes bore into his own from behind thick-rimmed glasses, her brown hair was streaked with gray and her mouth was set in a perpetual frown. To his surprise she was wearing a brown long-sleeved top and black slacks, and her appearance was altogether unassuming and drab until you looked in her eyes.

Naruto felt his own eyes widen and took a step back; this woman was clearly a former ninja.

The woman cocked an eyebrow at him and asked coldly, "And what are you doing in my library that would require a rucksack, young man?"

"U-umm, nothing, I'm just looking for Yura-san." He stuttered.

The woman's harsh look relaxed for a moment before she informed him, "I am Yura. Why were you looking for me?"

Naruto was still nervous considering the woman was watching him like a hawk, so he hastened to take the note out and give it to her, "Hokage-sama told me to give this to you." he said quickly, thinking this woman probably wouldn't take it well if he spoke of the Sandaime casually in front of her. She might just box his ears from the look of her.

Yura scanned the contents of the scroll quickly and then tucked it into a pocket afterwords. She made no comment, just beckoned him to follow her before walking off quickly. Naruto practically had to run to keep up and tried to move quietly to keep from disturbing other people. He didn't think she'd appreciate that either.

They went up a flight of stairs and arrived at a door. She pulled out a card and pressed it to a chakra sensitive device. There as a whir and click and the door unlocked. Yura pulled it open and they walked inside.

The room was large, full of books and scrolls and was slightly dusty with no windows. There were desks and chairs, but other than that it looked like no more than a well-organized storeroom. There was another staircase that led to a similar door and another door at the other side of the room.

"This is the room where all the academy level materials are kept. Those catalogs will help you find what you're looking for. You do not have permission to access areas beyond this room. If you find something you want to check out, bring it to me. I will have an access card made for you shortly. Remember to clean up after you're done. If you have any questions you may ask me, but I will warn you that I do not appreciate people who waste my time, so if the answer can be found easily you'll have to figure it out yourself. Any questions?" Yura said all this without taking her stern eyes off his for a moment and he had to suppress a flinch.

He shook his head no and a moment later he was alone. Well, at least she was efficient, if scary. He had no doubt that she would make a strict but effective teacher and since he wanted to spend as little time studying as possible, he supposed he ought to be thankful.

Naruto shrugged off his bag and walked over to the nearest catalog. He grabbed a stool and stepped onto it to examine the book. He opened to the first page and saw a glossary with contents by topic. A note at the bottom of the page mentioned that some books appeared in more than one section.

Naruto turned to the section on chakra and found a subsection called chakra basics. The first book listed there was a book called An Introduction to Chakra: Unlocking, Molding, and Focusing. Writing down the number listed next to the title on one of the bits of scrap paper left for that purpose, Naruto looked around till he found a large bookcase that had 100-200 engraved on a plaque. He looked around that section until he found the book he wanted and took it to a seat to read.

About an hour later Naruto had realized that unlocking chakra was easier said than done. Even though everyone had chakra, it takes time and focus to be able to sense your own. This can only be accomplished by a strict meditation regimen. And even then, the less chakra a person has the harder it is to sense. In fact the majority of people are apparently born with too little chakra to be able to sense their own. That's why there are few civilians that become ninja.

The book claimed that according to legend, the Rikudo Sennen was born with the first doujutsu and strong chakra and so was able to discover the uses of chakra where even those with strong potential to use chakra hadn't been able to before. Most ninja from clans today were descended from the sennen, but there were still occasionally people who weren't that were born with enough chakra potential to become ninja.

It seemed Naruto would have to meditate a great deal to detect his chakra and then practice moving it in his coils to mold it. Molding would require combining energy from his mind and energy from his body in equal proportions. And once he managed to do that he would have to focus it either to a part of his body or using handseals.

He went back to the catalog and looked for a basic book on physical conditioning and one on non-chakra reliant stealth techniques. Once he got these to read later along with the book on chakra, he went back to the librarian and presented the books to her. Without a word she scanned the identifying seal on each book and handed them to him with a card on top.

She warned him in no uncertain terms that the card and books were library property and contained information that wasn't released to the general public and if anything happened to them he'd have to answer to her personally. Naruto left more than a little traumatized after that, but with a fervent desire to protect the precious items in his possession.

He wondered idly if Yura-san was a genjutsu specialist or if she was just that scary. The book on chakra contained a list with summaries of the different types and forms of chakra and their various uses and it claimed in a note that genjutsu specialists were considered some of the scariest ninja. For a beginner book it was a fairly comprehensive introduction.

He wondered if it was standard reading material at the academy or a reference book. He admitted it gave him a sense of satisfaction to think he would know things his classmates didn't, but then he remembered what Jiji said about children from ninja clans getting special training and tutoring and scowled. If he wanted to make up for that advantage he'd have to work hard.

To that end he ran to one of the parks nearby and sat at a bench in front of a medium sized pond. It was a fairly secluded area surrounded by trees and he wouldn't have to worry about people bothering him here. He pulled out the book on physical conditioning and began reading. The Taijutsu scroll first said that a Taijutsu user needs more than technique and this book started the same.

Taijutsu is only as effective as the physical capabilities and endurance of the user allow it to be. There are many different styles of Taijutsu, all with different uses, strengths and weaknesses. Different styles put a varying emphasis on the importance of several areas including offense, defense, blocking, dodging, feinting, redirection, misdirection, agility, strength, speed, weapons use, and so-called 'soft' and 'hard' attacks. If you can think of a way to fight without directly using your chakra, there's a Taijutsu style that incorporates it.

Considering that, there is an equally large number of ways to condition your body for the use of Taijutsu. What extent one focuses on agility, speed, or strength depends on the person and the Taijutsu style they prefer. If one hasn't chosen a style then a common style that uses a balanced combination of basic grappling techniques, throws, feints, blocks, basic attacks and dodging is recommended. That way when a specialized Taijutsu is chosen the user will have some familiarity with the basics associated with that style.

Naruto sweat-dropped. The book on chakra was less complicated than this. The book went on to describe different training regimens that worked well with particular Taijutsu styles as well as a general regimen for any Taijutsu style.

Naruto's head was buzzing, should he pick a style now? But he had no-one to teach him, best keep it simple and work on the basics. The Taijutsu scroll had diagrams for a basic stance and a few basic blocks, attacks, and throws as well as a couple grappling techniques. There were almost no details except for a tip here and there. He'd just have to give it a try and ask for advice later.

Although the chance of him getting the grappling techniques and throws right without someone to practice with was low. Naruto sighed. He'd learn it anyway. He'd probably fail to use it right with the Uchiha, but if he could figure out what he was doing wrong that way, he had a chance of learning even without a sparring partner.

Naruto smiled at that and took a look at the general training regimen. It looked good, but he wanted to specialize in speed and agility. He'd need it to stand a chance against the Sharingan eyes of the Uchiha and from what JiJi said about the Kyuubi healing his body, it'd probably be easy to built muscle, but hard to build speed and agility. If he wanted balanced physical abilities, he'd have to start working on that now.

It looked like the best way to train endurance was running long distances with weights and obstacle courses were the best bet for agility. As for basic strength training, one-handed push-ups, pull-ups, upside down situps, weighted squats, punches, kicks and sprinting short distances seemed to be the best. Running was the best for speed, both at short and long distances. Since people slow when they get tired, both strength and endurance were necessary for speed.

Naruto thought about it a bit and decided that the Uchiha would probably give him a crash course in agility. So he would focus on speed and endurance with a bit of strength training. With that decided he put the book away and jogged around the pond a few times to warm up. He was a little tired to start with from the weights, but he still had plenty of energy left.

After he warmed up, he started sprinting back and forth across the field in front of the bench as fast as he could, trying to increase his speed. When he was so tired he could barely stand, he stopped and took a break. Then pushups, pullups, situps and some time spent kicking and punching a tree as hard as he could until his legs and arms felt like they would fall off and his entire body ached.

He took a longer break after that and then wearily got to his feet. He was still tired, but he seemed to regain his energy fairly fast. Wryly, he thought that the bastard fox in his stomach ought to be useful for something. He tiredly got to his feet and set off running at a fast jog aiming to completely exhaust his inhuman stamina.

An hour later a boy stumbled halfway through a field on the other side of Konoha before collapsing face forward into the grass. Uzumaki Naruto had alternately jogged and sprinted at his best pace around Konoha a few times before stumbling over his own feet and passing out.

After another hour the boy woke up and started plodding to Ichiraku, determined to feed his starving body before going home. The sun was starting to go down and he realized that he'd been working for almost twelve hours and he still had books to read. He sighed, knowing that it would eventually get easier.

Teuchi and Ayame were taken aback by the dirty blonde that came traipsing into their stand towards the end of the dinner rush. Most of the other customers quickly payed and left, but the pair paid them no mind. Their attention was entirely focused on Naruto who was shuffling along, looking at the ground.

He looked up for a moment and gave them a quiet greeting, which shocked the two even more. They exchanged worried looks. They'd never seen the boy like this before, not even during the Kyuubi Festival the year before. He was covered in sweat and had twigs in his hair. He didn't appear to be hurt, but...

Ayame was the first to regain herself, "Naruto-kun, are you alright? What happened to you?"

The boy looked up at them dazedly, "I'm fine Ayame-nee-chan. I was just training." He was interrupted by his stomach growling and a pained look crossed his face. "Umm, could I get a pork miso ramen with the works?"

Teuchi gave a curt nod and got to work, while Ayame stayed with the boy looking at him worriedly. "Why were you training so hard, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto gave the teenage girl a smile to reassure her, "I'm gonna be Hokage one day Ayame-nee-chan. A Hokage can't be a slacker."

Ayame breathed out a small sigh of relief hearing him talk like that. Then she adopted a lecturing stance, "Still, you need to take care of yourself, Naruto-kun. You're body wont hold up like that."

The boy gave her an oddly blank look for a second before smiling softly, "Thanks, Ayame-nee-chan. I'll be careful, I promise."

Ayame gave a mollified nod, wondering what that look had been about. She shook it off, though, and went to help her father.

Naruto, on the other hand, was thinking that Ayame was nice to be concerned about him even though she knew about the Kyuubi. He wanted to tell them that he knew, but Jiji had warned him against letting people know that he was aware in case the council found out. Naruto knew they could be trusted, but didn't want to burden them any further, considering that their business was already suffering just by him being here. Instead, he smiled and relaxed, breathing in the smell of cooking ramen and trying not to drool. He already felt a little better than earlier, although he wasn't sure one bowl would be enough this time. No, definitely not.

After a shower, Naruto snuggled up in his bed with his books, too tired to do much else at this point. The stealth book was really interesting, all about masking your intent and how the better part of stealth and especially infiltration was planning what path you took to minimize the chance of discovery. Also, moving quickly and silently was a necessary skill for a ninja. Moving as fast as possible with as little noise as possible was a basic aspect of stealth training.

The book said that the epitome of stealth without chakra is to be able to sneak up and touch a prey animal like a rabbit or a deer without scaring them off. It wouldn't help you against people with chakra sensing capabilities, (most ninja, to an extent) but it would keep a ninja's instincts alone from alerting them, which could happen even if your chakra was completely suppressed. He'd have to go to the forest tomorrow and give it a try.

He figured he'd finished with the physical conditioning book, although it made him want to read up on Taijutsu styles sometime, but he hardly had the time now. The chakra book, however, he was just getting started with. It said that it usually took at least a month of meditation to detect chakra, if you had a reasonable amount. He had no intention of waiting that long, so he'd be dedicating his evenings to meditation until he could sense his chakra.

Before he started, he thought about what he'd do tomorrow. He needed to shop for some food. The physical conditioning book had a chapter on nutrition that was enlightening and he couldn't just keep eating at Ichiraku even though he wanted to. Too expensive. He'd need meat, milk and even vegetables. Ugh. But if his mom had taken the time to tell him to not be a picky eater before she died he figured he could live with it. Maybe he could figure out how to make ramen from a book at the library. If he added meat and vegetables, it might not be so bad...

He'd also needed to get paint and balloons for his pranks. Thank goodness there was a general store owner that sold to him. He didn't even inflate the price. He only insisted Naruto come in when the store was empty so people wouldn't see him. The old man only cared about money and figured if he sold to Naruto at a fair price, he'd have a completely loyal customer. Which was true. He was a mean old bastard, but at least he was indiscriminate in his greed. He'd probably have sold to the Kyuubi himself as long as it didn't hurt his business.

He was seriously impatient to start pranking though, but he knew he had to be careful. He was basically declaring war on the Uchiha, and that was not something to do lightly. So after he got his shopping done, he'd turn in the book on physical conditioning and get one on kunai and shuriken throwing, another on trap making and a third on reconnaissance, since he would need to get information about the Police HQ and the patrol routes without getting caught spying.

He'd take care of errands in the morning, practice his skills and train his physical abilities in the morning and afternoon and then work on his chakra and read at night. With a schedule of sorts worked out, Naruto settled down to meditate, focusing on his breathing and pulse like the book instructed. If he kept it up long enough and focused hard enough, he should be able to sense that there was more than blood and air moving in his body. Or that's what the book said. Naruto resigned himself to at least trying to be patient and emptied his mind.

Standing outside the Hokage's office a week later waiting to be let in, Naruto thought he must be a genius. He usually met with the Hokage every Sunday just for awhile to chat, but these scheduled meetings now took on a different purpose. He would be reporting his progress with his mission and talking about things that would generally impact the future of Konoha greatly, such as the Kyuubi and the relationship between the village and the Uchiha clan. Even he could tell it was terribly important.

It was terribly exciting and yet terrifying at the same time. But not as exciting as the thought that he might be a genius like his father. No, he wasn't a brainiac like his dad apparently was. He'd learned a lot of big words talking to the Hokage so much, but he still hated studying and had a hard time memorizing things. And he doubted he had special chakra like his mom. He was making a lot of progress on his physical training and was even thinking about upping the amount of weight he used already, but that was because of Kyuubi, so it didn't count.

And while he was doing decently well with the stealth training, kunai and shuriken throwing, and trap-making he'd been working on the entire week, it wasn't anything to write home about. He guessed he could be considered a genius just from the fact that he was training so hard at such a young age, but that was a matter of circumstance and determination, not talent.

No, the thing that marked him as a potential genius was the fact that last night he had unlocked his chakra. Although he couldn't even begin to mold it yet, he could feel it coursing underneath his skin and it felt great. He had a lot of it, the book had said that when people first started sensing their chakra, it was usually very faint, even if they had a large chakra potential.

But he could feel his chakra pulsing even stronger than his own heartbeat, which meant his chakra potential must be huge, probably partially because of Kyuubi and partially because of his mom. That wasn't the impressive part, though. It was that he'd unlocked it so soon. The book had said that even those with large chakra reserves take a good month at least to unlock their chakra.

That's because the mind has to connect to the body in a new way, literally having to learn to use a new sense. The adjustment process is gradual, so students are warned that it will take a long time, pretty much no matter what. But in his case it only took a week and he was sure that it had very little if anything to do with the Kyuubi. No, this was a talent all his own and he was proud of it. It probably meant that his mind had a strong connection with his body or something. Which was awesome.

Naruto jerked out of his musings when the door to the Hokage's office opened. The Hokage motioned him in before returning to his seat. Naruto looked around before running to stand in front of his Jiji's desk.

"Hey, Jiji! How's it goin?" The child asked enthusiastically.

The Hokage chuckled before answering, "I'm doing good, Naruto. How are you?"

"Great! Thanks for introducing me to Aoi-san and Yura-san. Yura-san's a little scary, but really helpful. And Aoi-san is really nice." The boy chattered cheerfully.

The Hokage smiled fondly at the boy. "And how is your training going, Naruto?"

Naruto started bouncing up and down on his heels a little in excitement. "It's really fun. I've been working on unlocking my chakra, kunai and shuriken throwing, stealth and taijutsu. I can't wait to put it all to use, but I think it'll be a month of two till I'm ready to start pranking." The boy finished a little sadly.

He pouted for a second before a mischievous grin overtook his face. "But a good prank needs planning. It'll be worth it to see the looks on their faces."

The Hokage chuckled, "Just be careful, alright?" At Naruto's nod he continued, "Naruto, I summoned you here to meet Kakashi, he's the student of your father's I mentioned earlier. He's also on your ANBU detail, and he said he'll let you know when he's on duty, so you can talk a bit when you're alone. Kakashi, you can come in now."

Naruto looked at the door, but to his surprise he heard a window to his right open. He turned to see a guy around twenty crouched on the windowsill. He had poofy gray hair and a hitai covering his left eye. Kakashi's other eye gave a close-eyed...smile? Weird. He seemed pretty good at expressing himself considering the rest of his face was covered by a mask. The man raised his left hand lazily and waved a bit. "Yo."

Naruto blinked and gaped for a minute before grinning. "Jiji said you're my dad's student and kind of like his adopted son. Does that make us brothers?" The boy tilted his head cutely, looking surprisingly innocent and inquisitive.

The man blinked slowly and looked thoughtful for a moment, "I guess, in a way, it does."

"Cool!" The boy thought for a second before asking, "Kakashi-nii, can you help me with my taijutsu, I don't have anyone to teach me and it's the only thing I can't learn myself." Naruto had a disgruntled pout on his face and Kakashi couldn't help chuckling a little. "Maybe I can give you some tips if I'm on duty while you're training."

"Really! That'd be awesome!" The boy looked like he'd explode with excitement and Kakashi quickly added, "But I'm surprised you don't want me to teach you jutsu."

The boy looked pensive before saying, "I can learn jutsu from scrolls, but I can't mold chakra yet."

The Hokage's eyebrows rose up, causing his aged forehead to form deep creases. "You unlocked your chakra already?"

Kakashi's lone gray eyebrow rose as well. Naruto grinned a little sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, "Yah, I worked on it all week. I finally got it last night."

Kakashi and the Hokage exchanged glances. "I see," Sarutobi began, "That's quite impressive." Sarutobi paused for a moment before picking up a scroll and adding, "This is your curriculum for this year. Make sure to keep up with your studies."

Naruto nodded and grimaced, "I will, Jiji."

The Hokage chuckled again before looking a bit worried, "What about what we talked about last time? We can talk about it if you want."

Naruto looked a bit sadly at the Hokage's concerned expression before smiling a bit, "I'm ok, Jiji. I'm just glad I was able to find out about them. And I don't care if those idiots think I'm a demon, I'll prove them all wrong! So keep that seat warm for me, Jiji."

Sarutobi smiled fondly at him before turning to Kakashi, "I'm putting you on Naruto's detail tonight, so you can get to know each other a bit. The shift starts at 6, don't be late."

Kakashi merely chuckled a bit before looking at Naruto, "See ya later, squirt."

Before Naruto could say anything, Kakashi disappeared out the window silently.

Naruto turned to Sandaime with an annoyed expression, "Is he always like that?"

Sarutobi laughed good-naturedly, "Yes. Always...hmm." Sandaime looked at his mounting pile of paperwork and gave an annoyed sigh, "Well, I know we usually have ramen on Sunday, but since I have so much work and you're meeting Kakashi tonight, what do you say to holding off 'till tomorrow?"

"Ok, Jiji, I'll see you tomorrow, then. And thanks again." Naruto didn't wait for a response before charging out of the room.

Sarutobi smiled sadly and said under his breath, "Thank you, Naruto."

Kakashi chose that moment to spring back into the room. "Hokage-sama, what do you think about him unlocking his chakra so soon?"

The Hokage smirked, "Straight to the point, eh Kakashi? It's hard to say, I've never heard of someone getting it down in less than three weeks. But I don't think it has anything to do with Kyuubi, if that's what you're asking. It's probably partially due to his determination and partially due to his mother. The Uzumaki clan was always known for their affinity with their chakra, afterall and Kushina had the strongest chakra seen in that clan in awhile."

Kakashi nodded, "That makes sense. Well, I'll help him as much as I can, Hokage-sama."

Sandaime smiled, "Thank you Kakashi. I think you two will be able to help each other a great deal."

Kakashi looked at the cunning old Hokage before nodding slightly and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Sarutobi stared at the leafy mess on the floor in annoyance as his eyebrow twitched, "That's coming out of his pay."

The old kage shook his head at his subordinate's attitude and looked at his paperwork. "Looks like another late night." He sighed before getting to work.