Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: First Naruto Fanfic, there will probably be a few recognizable clichés in this first chapter but not too many afterword's. They're cliché for a reason, and that's because work, the ones I've used are incredibly useful for setups and that's what I've done, things will go my own route after a while. Also, note that things will seem to go quickly at the start, I don't want to piddle around on things we've all read a million times, things will slow down after the initial chapters. Enjoy!

Kakashi was growing a bit concerned. His admittedly loudest student was being rather quiet as of late. They were just now returning from their mission in Nami no Kuni (Land of Waves), what was supposed to be their first C-Rank mission escalated from a simple escort to protect from possible bandits turned into a protection detail from a Jounin level nuke-nin (Missing Ninja). Definitely B-Rank material if not A-Rank material.

He should have turned them back around toward Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf) as soon as they ran into the Demon Brothers, but his team felt prepared to continue regardless and thus they did. They made it through alive, albeit barely in some cases, there had been a few too many close calls and now Naruto had been much quieter than his usual self, you couldn't tell if he was any different when you were talking to him as he was acting a usual on that front. However, his passive demeanor was much more subdued, and he seemed to be deep in thought which was likely considering the ordeal he had just been through.

It concerned him because he hadn't changed in the past week and seemed to be getting worse, drawing more and more into himself, he didn't know what the young Genin was thinking. If it didn't change soon, he would have to approach him to find out exactly what it was.

Konohagakure no Sato – 3 days later

As Kakashi correctly deduced, Naruto had been thinking lately, more than usual that is. He had come to realize a few things about himself… and he didn't like what he found. The mission to Nami opened his eyes to just how dangerous the ninja world could be, and he couldn't hold a candle to someone like Zabuza, he wouldn't even have beaten Haku if it weren't for the Fox either. He had surprised her and managed to break through her mirrors, he had a feeling that if Haku had more time he wouldn't have one so easy.

It was a cheap victory, he couldn't do it himself, and was only able to because he thought Sasuke had died, he did it in a blind monstrous rage, drawing on the Kyuubi's (Nine-tails) power. He didn't want that kind of victory, he wanted to be able to do it under his own power, and to do that he had to get stronger so he could ensure he could protect his friends and teammates, he came way to close this time.

But how could he get stronger?

As he was now, he was mediocre at best. His Taijutsu (Body Techniques) was sub-par and it needed work, a lot of work and he was rather slow as well. His Genjutsu (Illusionary Techniques) was nonexistent, he didn't have any talent in that field nor did he think he ever would. His Ninjutsu (Ninja Techniques) wasn't much either, his entire repertoire of techniques consisted of Henge (Transformation), Kawarimi (Substitution), and Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone). Not much at all.

Even if the Kage Bunshin by itself was nothing to scoff at, it was still only on technique. He needed to improve in every area he could, but he didn't know how. The other shinobi had to have learned it from somewhere. Now he just had to find out where.

Right now, he was currently walking around the outer edges of the village on his off day trying to think of a solution to his current problem when he heard his jounin-sensei call out from behind him. "Naruto, I've been looking for you." He spun around to see Kakashi slowly strolling up to him.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! What are looking for me for?" Naruto asked curiously, he usually only saw the man for team meetings and missions.

"I've noticed you've been awfully quiet lately and was beginning to get worried." Kakashi inquired sincerely. "Need to make sure all my cute little genin are alright, after all."

"Oh." He had been thinking a lot lately, going over the recent events over and over in his head, maybe it was more noticeable than he realized. He began to rub the back of his neck a sheepishly, a bit of a tick of his. "I'm alright, Kakashi-sensei. I've just been thinking a lot lately, is all."

"Anything I can help with? I am your Jounin-sensei." That's right, he was his Jounin-sensei, maybe he could help, it was what he was supposed to do, after all. Maybe Kakashi would be able to help him get stronger or at least point him in the right direction at the least.

"I need to get stronger." Naruto said determinedly after a moment, "I'm not very strong… and the mission to Nami no Kuni made me realize just how little I match up to everyone else. My Taijutsu isn't very good at all and I'm slow too, I don't think I'll ever be able to do Genjutsu and while I think my ninjutsu is good, I don't really know very much." He continued, looking up at his sensei, "I... I don't know what to do… I want to get stronger, so I can protect my precious people. We came to close this time and I can't let that happen again."

"It takes a good man to admit his faults," Kakashi said with an eye-smile. He figured it would be something along these lines, and came prepared for this discussion, he would help Naruto where he could. Not only because he was his student, but because he was his sensei's son as well. "Knowing what you need to improve on is the first step to getting stronger and you will be able to fix everything for the most part eventually."

"Thanks, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said with a grin before it fell slightly. "but how do I improve? I just don't know where to start."

Kakashi was beginning to realize that Naruto was smarter than he let on. He was asking all the right questions and seemed to be taking this seriously as well. "Hmmm, well let's take this one issue at a time," Naruto gave him a nod, and he continued, "First, for your Taijutsu, it would be wise to improve your diet a bit, ramen is good and all, but you need to eat other things too. It's not healthy to eat just ramen and your need to be healthy to improve yourself significantly, okay?"

He was about to complain about the injustice to his favorite food but stopped when he thought about it for a moment. He didn't like it, he loved Ramen, but Kakashi had a point and he didn't necessarily have to drop eating ramen all together or much at all. He did know how to cook a little bit, it was a necessary skill when you lived alone, he just didn't do it much. He would just cut down on ramen a little bit a eat other stuff too. He would never stop eating Ramen completely, but he needed to get stronger and that would take some sacrifices. Sighing, he agreed, "Okay, Kakashi-sensei, I understand."

"That's very good, Naruto." He was honestly surprised that he didn't complain about the suggestion but didn't show it. "Now, you should also see about picking up a Taijutsu style, something that suits you, what you have now, which is basically nothing, has too many openings. You'll be easier to take advantage of in a fight and could be killed that way, you can find some scrolls for that in the Shinobi Archives."

"Archives?" Naruto asked cocking his head to the side, this was first he was hearing about this.

Kakashi blinked before growing slightly angry, 'Of course they wouldn't tell him about the place, I'll need to speak to Hokage-sama about this.' "The Shinobi Archives, Naruto, is the Library restricted to active duty shinobi. You'll find books and scrolls on just about anything that could be useful to a shinobi, as well as records on past and present shinobi and clans in all the villages, though you won't find everything in that department as some of it is also restricted. But most important to you at the moment is that there are scrolls on various tai, gen and ninjutsu as well."

Naruto was a bit shocked, to be honest, this solved nearly all his problems. It was exactly what he was looking for. Despite popular belief, he had no problems reading, he just wasn't welcome in the public libraries and didn't feel like making a ruckus about it all. As a result, he didn't usually bother with it and chose to do something else. If he had learned about it sooner, he probably wouldn't so many issues right now. "That's amazing Kakashi-sensei, I'll definitely be checking it out later!" he exclaimed excitedly.

"Maa Maa, it's alright. You should have been told about it when you graduated." He admitted tersely.

He frowned, "So its another thing that was kept from me because of the Kyuubi?" Kakashi just nodded, and he sighed. "At least I know now."

"Yes at least there's that, let me know whenever you think you're being kept from something you're entitled to, don't worry about causing any problems, it'll be their fault." He cleared his throat, "Back onto topic, just make sure you bring your Hitai-ate (Forehead Protector) for identification, you'll only be allowed on the lower floor for now because of your rank, but that shouldn't be much of a problem at the moment, you'll get access to the rest if you rank up. Oh, almost forgot, the archives are located on top of the Hokage monument. Got that?"

He nodded. He had been up there plenty and had a pretty good idea which building it was now that he thought about it.

"Now, I don't think you'll be able to use Genjutsu. You simply have too much Chakra and Genjutsu takes high levels of chakra control, more than you would be able to achieve, it's not worth the effort in any case. The best you can do is learn to identify and dispel it, I'll help you with that during our training sessions, it might take a while though."

"Okay, Kakashi-sensei." He didn't expect much else there, and Genjutsu wasn't his style anyway.

"Now, Ninjutsu, you need to work on your Chakra control so pick up some books on that to help. Since you have so much chakra It'll be harder to use some techniques and easier to use some others, but with better chakra control it'll be even easier all around and you won't waste as much when you use techniques, it'll also further increase your reserves though you have plenty already."

He debated on the next subject but the only reason that most people didn't learn it until later was that the training used a lot of chakra and that wasn't a problem here. "After that, you'll want to work on elemental manipulation." Upon saying that, Kakashi pulled out a few strips of paper. "This is chakra paper, if you channel some chakra into it, you'll be able to tell what your chakra affinity or affinities are. For Katon (Fire Release), it'll burn, For Suiton (Water Release), it'll get wet, For Doton (Earth Release), it'll crumble into dust, For Raiton (Lightning Release), it'll crinkle up, and for Fūton (Wind Release), it'll split in half. I'll show you."

Kakashi held the chakra paper in between his fingers and after a moment the paper crinkled up into a ball and then started to turn to dust on the edges. "So, you have a Raiton and a Doton affinity, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto deduced, he was interested in this, he knew about the elemental techniques and love to learn some.

"That's right, I developed the Doton affinity after a while, but I can use any affinity If wanted to, anyone can, they'll just have to use more chakra than someone that has an affinity for it. It's also harder to do so, although my Sharingan (Copy Wheel Eye) makes molding different elemental chakra much easier. It'll be a bit easier for you because you have so much chakra, at least after you get used to molding the chakra. Now you try."

Naruto took the piece of chakra paper and focused on channeling his chakra into it, eventually the paper split in half before dissolving completely into water. Kakashi's visible eye widened slightly. "So, I have a Fūton and a Suiton affinity, right?" He asked excitedly.

"That's right, Naruto." Kakashi eye-smiled, 'To think he would have two affinities right of the back too.' "It's quite rare too, not very many people have Fūton affinities around here, it's also the most difficult to learn how to control so you might need to ask someone for some advice. The only one of the top of my head that I know of is Sarutobi Asuma, Team Ten's Sensei, so ask him for help if you run into trouble with it. Water should be much easier as its somewhat common you also have a very strong affinity for it." 'Like Kushina' he added mentally, "Having two affinities right off the back is rather rare too, so congratulations. This is also technically a Jounin level training exercise but doing it now well make using ninjutsu easier, and that much more powerful, and with your chakra, you shouldn't have any problems."

"Okay, Kakashi-sensei. I know I can do this. Thanks for the advice, is there anything else?" he asked quickly, he was ready to begin but wanted to know if he should do anything else first… He needed to get stronger.

"Hmm…" 'Maybe that training method could work for him?' Kakashi mused, "Oh, well there are a few things I think that should help you, its something that only you should be able to do as well."

"What is it?" Naruto asked curiously.

"I want you to use your Kage Bunshin when you're training anything that's not directly related to building muscle. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was originally supposed to be used for spying and infiltration because the memories of the clones return to the original, or in this case you, so for every clone you use you reduce the time needed to learn something by half. This should speed up the process for you allowing you to do years of training in a matter of days. Nobody really uses this training method because the chakra requirement is tremendous and not many people can make very many clones and also have them be effective."

Naruto was stunned, to say the least, and now that he thought about it, he could remember when the clones he made died even if wasn't close or he couldn't see it when it happened. How did he miss this, he needed to pay more attention! The advantages of this were tremendous, he could do things so much faster this way. "This is… It's great, Kakashi-sensei, thanks for telling me this!" The possibilities for this was running through his head, and he already had some very useful ideas.

"Maa Maa, it's fine, but one more thing, Naruto." For the good of everyone, he had to take the opportunity to eliminate a terrible blight from the earth.

"W-what?" The look on his sensei's face was concerning him slightly.

"Lose that mon-… outfit as well." Kakashi said seriously while pointing at said outfit. He quickly continued when he noticed the look on his student's face. "Now, I know you like orange, but it's also way too bright, maybe some orange accents but that jumpsuit is way too much, plus it looks horrible. It needs to go. Find something more suitable to a shinobi."

Naruto thought about what his sensei had said, he was going to protest but after listening to what he said he had to admit that Kakashi had a point. He knew it didn't look very good either and that he should find something better, but he liked it, he liked orange and it was comfortable, he would see about something new but…

"I'll try to find something else, but there's one problem…." He trailed off and then mumbled the last bit. He was still a bit embarrassed about it.

"What was that, Naruto?"

He took a deep breath before responding, "I said that I have trouble shopping in most stores, they kick me out, probably because of my... tenet. You know how most people are." He finished bitterly. He had accepted his situation but that didn't mean he liked it.

"Ah…" Kakashi had forgotten and was having trouble controlling his anger, 'idiots…' unfortunately not much could be done, he calmed down and gave what little he could, there was at least one shop he knew would discriminate, "Well, I want you to try and find a store called 'The Broken Kunai', you shouldn't have any problems there. Don't be put off the name either, their wares are good quality, its where I do a lot of my shopping.

Naruto smiled at him, "Okay, Kakashi-sensei, I'll check it out… I've got to go, Kakashi-sensei, I'll see you later, Thanks for everything." He then took off into the trees, heading off to find the Shinobi Archives.

Kakashi stood there, watching his student take off. 'He'll make you proud, Sensei' He thought to himself before disappearing in a Shunshin (Body Flicker).

It didn't take very long for Naruto to find his destination. He was used to going to the top of the monument to look over the village and the Archives was one of the larger buildings up there. Once there he was signed in by the on-duty chunin at the front and given a level-1 access clearance card, giving him access to anything on the first floor of the building. He was told higher clearance would be given if he rose to a higher rank or was given access by the Hokage.

The process was surprisingly easy if a bit professional, he would have liked to have immediate access to the high-level stuff but understood enough to know that he needed to take everything one step at a time. 'Now, where to start? Kakashi sensei said I should improve my taijutsu and chakra control first.'

Naruto then began his search over the next four hours, using clones to spread out and search faster. The scroll on chakra control exercises was easy enough but finding something for taijutsu is what took a while. Nothing connected enough with him, just looking through the scrolls he could tell they weren't right, but he kept on looking, and just when he was about to give up for the day, he found something. The Hummingbird style of taijutsu utilized to speed and strong precise strikes and counterattacks, even to the point of later using ninjutsu like the Shunshin no Jutsu in conjunction with the style to further increase speed. He felt a strong connection to it immediately and made his decision immediately.

He then checked out the two scrolls before leaving for the day, he would read through them tonight before beginning his new training regimen the next day.

Training Field – 1 week later

Naruto had been spending all his free time in between missions and team meetings training for his taijutsu and improving his chakra control, as well as improving his diet in the meantime as Kakashi-sensei had recommended. The progress on his taijutsu would be slow as he needed to physically condition his body for it as well as increase his speed. He wanted to get a set of chakra weights soon as well to help. He couldn't do too much as of yet beyond following the basic exercises and training regimen until the conditioning began to show results.

His chakra control had improved vastly over the week with him using his clones liberally, speeding up the process. The scroll he had found in the archives had several tips for people with large chakra reserves like himself. He definitely had a lot of chakra and that wasn't even considering the Kyuubi either. Now he could literally feel the difference in his chakra, and he hadn't even started with the more extreme exercises yet. To help further he was also meditating as well to help him better sense his chakra and examine it as well. His chakra in a word was dense, and with the pure amount he had, it made that even more incredible.

The improved control and better feel he had for his chakra would make using Ninjutsu much easier as well. Beyond that, he could feel something about his chakra like there was something more to it, but he could tell what it was just yet.

For now, he felt his chakra control was good enough that he could begin to work on elemental manipulation, as he had completed the basic chakra control exercises. He had found some scrolls on Fūton and Suiton training exercises a few days previously and was ready to try them out. So, deciding there was no time like the present he made 200 clones and had them split up and get to work on the exercises.

Konohagakure no Sato – The next day

Naruto was letting his clones continue the elemental training that he started the previous day while he went out to do some shopping. Kakashi-sensei had practically ordered him to get a new outfit and as much as he liked the current one, he was forced to acknowledge that it wasn't doing him any favors, beyond his own personal color preference. He would need something more suited for a shinobi, the last thing he wanted was to get him or his teammates killed because personal preferences stood out too much. That was the real sticking point for him and made the decision to make the change much easier.

It didn't take too long to find the shop Kakashi mentioned, it was a small unassuming shop with a simple sign depicting a kunai with a crack running through it. It didn't look like much, but Kakashi said that their goods were good quality and they wouldn't treat him unfairly. Besides, if they were good enough, they didn't need to flaunt themselves to get customers. Shrugging he stepped inside, the door swinging shut behind him.

Looking around, his jaw nearly dropped. The place was filled with all kinds of weapons, everything from katana's, maces, broadswords, spears, and anything else weaponry lined the walls. Which wouldn't be unusual in this type of store, but the sheer amount was staggering.

"Hello, can I help you?" a distinctively female voice asked from his left. He turned around to see a girl about his age wearing a pink sleeveless qipao-style blouse and dark green pants. She had brown eyes and brown hair in two Chinese-style buns on her head with two short bangs framing her face with a Konoha Hitai-ate on her forehead, which he took notice of.

"Oh, Hi! You're a ninja?" he asked gesturing to her Hitai-ate.

"Yep, for a little over a year now." She stated proudly, "I'm Higurashi Tenten, my dad owns the store, and I help out in between missions and training."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I just graduated a few months ago, though. I'm looking to get a new outfit, my Jounin-sensei suggest I should change and told me to come here."

"I can see why. What made you decide that thing was a good idea?" she commented dryly with a raised eyebrow.

He took on an affronted look, "Hey! I happen to like orange… and it's comfortable… However, I know its too bright for a Shinobi, I also had trouble finding anything better than this either before now." He defended lamely.

"Well… at least your changing it now." She then gestured to a section of the store. We have our shinobi-wear over there, let me know if you need help."

"Okay. Thanks, Tenten." He then went over and began to look for something suitable for him to wear. He wanted something lightweight and maneuverable, but something durable as well. After looking around for a while, with Tenten helping find something here and there, he eventually went with a tight, black sleeveless shirt with a burnt orange swirl on the back over a long-sleeve mesh-armor shirt, with black shinobi pants and sandals.

He also had Tenten change the cloth on his Hitai-ate to black to match the rest of the attire and he found some of the fingerless gloves with the metal plate on the back of the hand with burnt orange trim along the bottom. He had gone with black because of the contrast it had with the little bit of orange he still had, and plus the primary issue before was that his outfit was too bright, so he wore the darkest color the was to fix that.

"Wow, you look so much better now that you're out of that monstrosity," Tenten said once he came out of the changing room. He scowled when she called his jumpsuit a 'monstrosity'. Why did everyone hate it? "Will you be getting anything else?" She asked after a moment.

"Hmmm… I'll take two more sets of what I'm wearing minus the gloves and sandals, a set of Shuriken and Kunai… a spool of ninja wire and… and a set of chakra weights." Naruto tacked the last one after he remembered that he wanted to get them at the last second.

"Alright then, give me a minute…" She quickly gathered everything along with few extras and set them on the counter, "Everything will come out to 6,800 Ryo, we're having a little promotion at the moment. Any purchase 5,000 or more and you get some basic Fūinjutsu (Sealing Techniques) materials." Well, that was interesting, he might look into learning a bit about it. He didn't know much beyond that it was how storage scrolls were made, but he also knew it was how the Yondaime sealed the Kyuubi inside him. Something like that should be worth learning at least a little of and he had intended to have at least a cursory glance into the subject anyway.

Little did Naruto know just how much that decision would affect him.

"That's great, thanks for the help." He quickly forked over the required funds and Tenten sealed everything in a storage scroll for him. "Maybe, I'll see you around Tenten" He tossed a waved over his shoulder as he left.

Konohagakure no Sato – 5 days later

For the most part, his Elemental training was going well… at least when it came to the Suiton manipulation. The Fūton manipulation wasn't going as near as well. He was able to create a small cut in the leaf, but he was having trouble doing more than that. Even with a hundred clones all working on it, the process was painstakingly slow. The instructions were to make his chakra sharp and thin; he knew he was doing that correctly; he could feel it in his chakra. His ability to visualize his chakra had only increased in the meantime as he continued the chakra control exercises.

On the other hand, the Suiton manipulation was coming along great, surprisingly so. The exercise itself was to manipulate the surface of a river or lake to rise with your hand until he could do it seamlessly and barely thinking about it. The best way to describe Suiton chakra was, in a word, flowing. But at the same time, it could also be wild and violent, a force of nature…

…a maelstrom.

His control over it was also surprising as well. The first day there was little to no progress, but on the second day it was like something just clicked and it became much easier. Now he was able to manipulate the water freely and he didn't need to concentrate as much do so, it still needed some work. It annoyed him though that while the Suiton training was going so well, the Fūton training wasn't getting much of anywhere.

That why he now found himself looking for Team Ten so he could find out if Asuma-sensei could help him out in any way. It didn't take him too long as he found them and at, not ironically, Training Ground 10. Shikamaru was sitting with Asuma with a board between them, Asuma looking quite frustrated, Choji and Ino were sitting on the grass, the former munching on the ever-present bag of chips while the latter looked rather bored.

"Asuma-sensei!" he called out as he ran up to the group. "What's up, guys?" he said with a small wave to the others.

"Hey, Naruto. Not much, Shikamaru was just playing Shogi with Asuma-sensei. What's up with the new clothes?" Choji asked between munching on his chips.

"Yeah, I was wondering too, I hardly recognized you," Ino spoke up form his side. She had never paid much attention to him in the academy, and only spoke to him a few times before, but she was having an admittedly difficult time not doing so now, he actually looks good now.

"Hmm… Oh well, it was time for a change, I guess. The orange was too bright and wasn't doing me any favors anyway." He had come to terms with how bad his old jumpsuit really was after he noticed a change in the looks, he was getting around the village. Plus, it helped that a lot of people didn't even notice him or recognize it was him.

"No, it was not." Ino agreed, "This is definitely an improvement over… whatever that thing from before was." That jumpsuit was a crime to fashion and should have never even existed, it wasn't even the orange, at least not entirely.

Shikamaru, lazy as ever, finally chose to speak up, "It's about time you got rid of that thing, we've been telling it looked horrible for years. What are you doing here, anyway? I doubt it was to come and show off your new clothes" he drawled.

Naruto grinned at the lazy Nara, "Hey, Shika. I know, I just didn't have very many options for clothes before. As for why I'm here, I needed to ask Asuma-sensei something."

Asuma who had been listening to their conversation, glad to have a break from losing to Shikamaru at shogi, raised an eyebrow at this, "What would you have to ask me? Kakashi's your Jounin-sensei, I'm sure he could help you with whatever it is."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope, not with this, unfortunately. Actually, you're probably the only one who can help me. I have a Fūton affinity and I'm working on my elemental manipulation a bit. Kakashi-sensei said you were the only one in Konoha he could think of that had one. I have a Suiton affinity too, but one's coming along fine, great actually. I can't seem to get anywhere my Fūton training though."

Asuma whistled "Elemental manipulation, eh. Not many people start that this early, you do know this is supposed to take years to master, right."

"Yeah, that's what the scroll said but I've been using my Kage Bunshin to help… I want to get stronger and fast too, so I'm going to do everything I can to get there." Naruto proclaimed with a determined look on his face.

Ino was confused by his statement. "How is that supposed to help, and I thought you couldn't Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Technique)?"

"I can't, I simply have too much Chakra to make a normal Bunshin, but I can make Kage Bunshin. Unlike normal Bunshin, Kage Bunshin are solid and have their own chakra circulatory systems and I can make hundreds, maybe thousands, if I wanted, although they only take one good hit to dispel." Naruto explained and found it hard not to laugh at their gob-smacked expressions. "As for how it's supposed to help, the memories of the Kage Bunshin are returned to the original when they're dispelled. I can effectively cut the learning time for anything by half for each clone I make. I can learn something that would normally take months, in a week or something that would usually take years in a month."

The three genin of team 10 looked to their sensei, who nodded, "He's right, and from what I've heard about him is true, and he can make that many clones, he could learn anything in a miniscule amount of time compared to the usual."

"Alright, so now that's cleared up. You think you can give me some tips or something, Asuma-sensei?" he asked.

Asuma nodded before standing up pulling out one of his trench knives and holding it up to the blond. "What I do when molding Fūton chakra is Imagine my chakra grinding against each other in opposite directions, while making it as sharp and thin as possible." As he said this, Asuma channeled wind chakra into the blade which began to glow a bluish green. "These knives are made of a special chakra conductive metal that make them easier to channel and retain chakra through them, and Fūton chakra is just about the sharpest thing there is."

He then went on to prove that statement by throwing the knife through a nearby tree and then into a boulder behind it. "That was awesome, Asuma-sensei. I have to be able to do that! I think I've got the general idea now. It shouldn't take too much longer to get it now. If you'll excuse me guys, I need to try this out. Thanks for the help, I'll see you around." Naruto then gave a short salute before proceeded to burst into smoke, showing that he was actually Kage Bunshin the whole time. The three teens were surprised by the action.

"Umm… Why did he… That was a clone, wasn't it?" Ino asked.

"Yes, it seems it was," Asuma confirmed.

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered before turned back Asuma, "It's checkmate by the way."

"What?" he looked down at the board, "Maybe I can…"

"Nope."

"But… Ugh, you're only thirteen, you'd think I'd won at least once by now." He grumbled under his breath.

Hokage's Office – 2 months later

Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Sandaime Hokage (Third Fire Shadow), looked around his rather large office which was rather full at the moment. At the moment a good many Jounin and several Chunin were present, only waiting for one more arrival. As usual, unfortunately, the person in question was nearly two hours late. Eventually, the door opened to reveal the form of Hatake Kakashi.

"Sorry I'm late, Hokage-sama, a black cat crossed my path and I had to take the long way around." Nearly everyone in the room sweat-dropped at the terrible excuse.

"Well… ahem… Now that you're here we can begin." He didn't even bother a reprimanding the man as it never did any good anyway" The Chunin exams, as many of you know, will be taking place in Konoha a week from now…" What followed was a general debriefing on who would be participating, increased security protocols, any unusual factors, etc. "Now I will ask if any of the current Jounin-sensei wish to nominate their Genin for the exam."

Several Jounin nominated their teams until a strange man wearing a green spandex jumpsuit with a bowl cut and extremely large eyebrows stepped forward, "Maito Gai nominates the Most Youthful team of Rock Lee, Higurashi Tenten, and Hyuga Neji for the Chunin exams!" Many of the people in the room sweat-dropped at his enthusiasm.

Then a rather beautiful woman, with black hair, and startling scarlet eyes stepped forward, "Yuhi Kurenai nominates Team 8, consisting of Aburame Shino, Hyuga Hinata, and Inuzuka Kiba for the Chunin exams." She said professionally.

Next Asuma stepped up, "The Sarutobi Asuma led, Team 10 of Akimichi Choji, Ino Yamanaka, and Nara Shikamaru is nominated for the Chunin exams.

Surprisingly Kakashi then stepped forward, "Team 7 under Hatake Kakashi, Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto is also nominated for the Chunin exams.

"Now wait just one minute!" Umino Iruka spoke up from the side. "These kids are rookies right out of the Academy, they aren't ready this!"

"If they weren't ready, we wouldn't have nominated them. They've improved." Kakashi defended.

"They've barely been in the field for six months, how can they be ready, these exams are dangerous!"

"It doesn't matter." Kakashi declared giving Iruka a pointed look, "Don't think I don't know why you're so opposed to this, I know of your attachment to Naruto, but they're not your students anymore, they're my soldiers."

"They're too young…!"

"Enough!" Hiruzen broke in, causing Iruka to back off, "Iruka-kun, Kakashi is correct, trust in their Sensei's judgment. They wouldn't have put them forward if they didn't have faith in their abilities. Now if that is all…" He took a moment to see if anyone would speak up. "Dismissed!"

Thanks for reading, let know if you see any mistakes and I'll fix them as quick as possible. I'm not making any promises on the next chapter but expect anywhere from a couple of days to two weeks, although I'll try to get them out sooner. R&R.