Thyrin: It's good to hear from you again. I would have told you, but I was busy. I do like the clicking thing as well. I'm hoping to forge a unique style of writing that sets myself apart from other authors. The lack of eating is not a mistake; just wait and read this chapter.

The "Meh." Review: Yeah, I know that I had a lot of spelling errors. I have no spellchecker to use, so the only advantage of typing this over writing it is that I can put it on Fan fiction. Actually, Thyrin used to be my beta reader, but she couldn't fill her obligations as quickly as I would have liked due to school pressure. So I stopped the Beta Reading. However, If anyone is interested in the position, just PM me. Here's what I'm looking for in a Beta Reader:

1: Will run my draft through the spellchecker, and find out if there are any mixed words (Like witch and which).

2: Get it back to me in no more than a day or two.

3: Will, if there is time, give some ideas on sentence structure. Adding a replacement sentence right after the original sentence in parentheses would do this.

(Beginning)

After his strenuous week of training with Kana, Naruto and his sensei went down to Ichiraku's to eat up before the big match. The blonde genin ate bowl after bowl of ramen. Ichiraku himself was pleasantly surprised with his favorite customer's binge. The boy had come to visit after strenuous training before, but that time, he seemed like a bottomless pit, with a pocket to match.

After re-filling his tank, the last Uzumaki and Kana returned to the manor. Within minutes of arriving, the boy headed to his room and began to sleep. Many of the manor inhabitants were surprised with this, seeing as it was barely past lunch. But after almost a week of training until exhaustion with only a light breakfast, there was nothing else that the boy really could do.

(later)

The afternoon passed into evening, which gave way to the night. The night fled with the rising of the sun, bringing day upon the Uzumaki manor. The blonde owner of this great building rolled over in his sleep, a slight frown on his face. His breathing was heavy, and he was tossing and turning.

And with a small scream, he woke up sweating. Taking effort to calm down his breathing, Naruto tried to erase the images from his head. However, no matter how hard he tried, the images persisted in his head. It was there: the Nine-tailed Fox. It clawed at him, ripping him apart. Then, once the body was no more than a pile of bloody rags, it extricated his heart from it and ate it, relishing in the taste.

Naruto had never had a real nightmare before, and this one disturbed him like no other. In some scrolls on dream theory, he learned that Dreams are really no more than the subconscious trying to rationalize itself to the conscience. Nightmares were built upon the fears of a person, what lied deeply within them, tearing them apart from the inside without the conscious mind even truly feeling the extent. Click. The rationalization of what happened snapped Naruto's mind back into clear thought.

But turning back to his mind, he only realized that he needed to find answers to his questions. Click. The Kyuubi no Kitsune, or the Nine Tailed Fox, was a subject not very covered in the Uzumaki library. He knew that it was a massively powerful elemental of fire. However, it was mentally unstable. But rather than destroying the entire world, it slept quite often.

Click. The last time it awoke, it headed directly for Konoha. His father was Hokage at the time. In order to defeat it, he had to sacrifice himself. In doing so, he saved the village, fulfilling his dream of being Hokage. But he had to leave his son, the last Uzumaki, behind on his final journey.

Strangely, Naruto shed no tears. The blonde genin never really knew his father. There was no emotional attachment to his father. All he had was what other people knew about him, and not many were close to the enigmatic Fourth Hokage. Kana, possibly his closest friend was reluctant to speak about his former teammate. Naruto didn't press, knowing that he probably had a reason for not telling him.

So, was he really just beginning to get emotional backlash from his subconscious? Naruto really didn't think that was the root of his problems. However, before he could delve further into his knowledge, the door to his room slid open.

"You okay, Naruto?" Kana asked, "I heard you scream."

Surprised, Naruto replied, "Really? I didn't think that it was that loud."

"Oh, I just have good hearing." Kana told the young boy. "And, I was awake. So, Naruto, did you just have a bad dream?"

Naruto quickly explained the dream to Kana, attempting to give details as liberally as possible. The further he tried to describe his nightmare, the more his teacher frowned. Worried, Naruto gave him his thoughts on the matter. Kana just shook his head at this. Naruto could feel the regret coming from his father's former teammate.

"I never guessed that it would progress so quickly..." Kana muttered to himself "We knew nothing about it, but this is still much faster than we hoped. This probably means trouble. If only Jiraya was here, I could..."

"What are you talking about, Kana-sensei?" Naruto asked, confused. "And what does this have to do with Jiraya-sama? Is it something about my father?"

"I guess that it's better for me to explain it to you rather than some stranger... But I still don't like it." Kana told the boy. "Think of it this way... how could you do all that training for six days straight from sun up to sun down without eating anything except for a small snack in the morning?"

"You know, I never really thought of that..." Naruto said mystified. "Well, the reason we eat food is to gain energy. Did my body somehow bypass the need for food, and I started burning chakra to keep going?"

"That wouldn't be possible any human to do." Kana said to the last Uzumaki "Using chakra alone to sustain a body for about a day would take up more chakra than your father ever had. It's impractical, to say the least."

"So, maybe..." Naruto started, but then it started coming together. Click. No human could fuel the amount of power that had been used to pull off what he did. But, what did that mean? Click. The Nine Tailed Fox was supposedly an infinite well of chakra energy in the form of an elemental force. But that would mean that his father didn't kill the Kitsune. Click. If something was supposedly an infinite power source, how did his father kill it? Click. Naruto's eyes widened in shock as he realized what Kana was poking at.

"You can't mean…" The young Uzumaki whispered. "That the Nine Tailed Fox is…"

"Sealed up inside of you?" Kana replied almost nonchalantly. "I bet you figured out what I meant by no human could facilitate that kind of energy."

"But why?" Naruto asked, "Why seal the fox into me?"

"Consider this," Kana explained to the boy, "The Kyuubi no Kitsune, quite possibly the most powerful forces on the planet, is bearing down on the village you spent your entire life building up. The only way to destroy it is to seal it into a newborn baby, and hope the chakra coils mesh inextricably. That way the death of the container will hopefully drag the demon with it.

Also, you know what they say about your father. He was one of the most kind and compassionate people ever known. The newborn baby had to be new. Not only were you pretty much the only one available, he couldn't seal this into another's child with a clear conscience. It had to be you."

"So, the nightmares are from this?" Naruto asked.

"Well, he built the seal to slowly force it's chakra to meld with yours." Kana told him "And its personality is imprinted in the chakra. So, by drawing out so much of its power, you've allowed it to influence you mind at its weakest, during dreams. If it progresses any further, it may be able to actually influence your conscious mind." Seeing the young Uzumaki worried, Kana calmly told him, "Don't worry, it'll take a lot of effort before that actually happens to you."

"Is there any way to reverse the process?" Naruto asked. "I'm worried that it'll affect my abilities if I have trouble sleeping."

"There are ways to seal the chakra," Kana started, "But that'll just weaken you and prevent you from using the chakra. Your best bet is to use a ridiculous amount of its chakra to stretch your chakra pathways, then seal it away so completely that it's pretty much dead."

"Can you do that, Kana?" Naruto asked "That sounds like my best bet right now."

"I'm not much of a seal practitioner," Kana told Naruto "But I can put a barrier that'll stop the chakra and prevent the dreams, but it'll most likely impede your own chakra as well. I would have to do it after your fight with Sasuke."

"Speaking of that," Naruto started, "How much longer until the fight? I need to get ready."

Kana looked out the window at the sun, and turned back to Naruto. "I'd say that it's about three in the morning. The match is at eight, so you have five hours to prepare. Go get something to eat, and then get warmed up. I just want to go over a few things with you."

Naruto nodded, and jumped out of his bed to get dressed. Kana left the blonde genin's room to take care of his own goals. Naruto took off his pajamas, and put on the black pants and vest that he normally wore. After those were on, he strapped on his ninja supply pouch to his right leg. Finally, Naruto opened up his closet to grab his orange cloak.

As he opened up his closet, the most curious thing caught his eye. Where he normally hung up his bright orange cloak, there was another cloak. Instead of the bright orange pattern, it was a white cloak, with red flames. The inner lining was a dark maroon.

As he pulled the cloak out of the closet, a small note fell to the ground. Naruto picked it up, and flipped it over. It read:

Naruto,

Since you have decided to start taking clan matters into your own hands, I thought that the clan head's cloak would be an appropriate gift to celebrate this.

- Kana

Naruto smiled softly at the kind gift from Kana. He quickly donned it. Once finished, he put on his fingerless, metal backed gloves, and his sandals. Turning back to his nightstand, the last Uzumaki put on his headband, the metal shining in the early morning light. Finished dressing, the young genin walked out the door of his room, heading for the kitchen.

(later)

After making himself a hearty breakfast meal of ramen, Naruto cleaned up his cooking supplies in the kitchen, and headed out of the back of the manner. From there, he followed the long path that led to his training ground.

Due to the extensive training he had undertaken, many of the trees constituting the training ground had been destroyed. However, when he returned to it, the old broken trees were removed, and new saplings were beginning to grow in their place. Naruto stared, his mouth slightly agape at the strange scene.

"I fixed up the training ground." Kana stated bluntly from behind his student. "These ones will grow to be massive pretty quickly. Give it a few months and they'll be at full size. Consider it my present for completing the training."

"But you already gave me a present." Naruto replied, gesturing toward his new cloak. "Thank you very much by the way. It looks really nice."

"He would have wanted you to wear it." Kana said. "Actually, it was orange with red flames, but he changed it to white when he became clan head. I thought you would have preferred the white one."

Naruto just nodded and smiled. There had been so much change recently that he felt a little in shock. First, rather than being dead, the Kyuubi no Kitsune was sealed up inside of him. Then, it was starting to take over his dreams. And finally, he got his father's cloak.

"Well," Kana yelled, breaking the boy from his reverie "Let's get you warmed up for your match. We only have four hours. We'll start with the basics, and work up."

And so, they started. First, Naruto stretched out his muscles to prevent cramping, then got to work on his sprints. From sprints, he moved into push-ups and sit-ups. Soon, the boy was warmed up physically. After his body was prepared, it was time to do chakra use exercises.

"First," Kana told Naruto "I have one hundred kunai on me. I am going to throw them at you. You need to dodge them until I have used up every last one of them. You are permitted to use the academy basics: Kawarimi, Bunshin, and Henge, but no other jutsu are permitted. Is that understood?" As soon as Naruto nodded, both of them disappeared in a blur.

Naruto jumped back into one of the trees behind him. He reached out, trying to see if he could find Kana. He knew that he didn't need to wait long, though. His teacher liked to hit hard and fast. So, as quickly as he could, he prepared Kawarimi on himself, switching with a log on the other side of the clearing. The last Uzumaki waited for his teacher to make a move.

He wasn't disappointed. Seconds after he switched with the log, he heard five dull thuds hit his replacement, then a poof of smoke as it turned back into its original form. Naruto jumped out into the opening, forming five bunshin around him. All of them pulled out kunai out of their supply pouches.

Six more kunai burst out of the tree line. The five clones dispersed upon contact, while the real Naruto blocked the one heading for him. And so, the training continued, with Kana throwing lethal kunai at his student, all of which were expertly dodged by the last Uzumaki. Soon, Kana depleted his supply of kunai.

"The warm up is done, Naruto." Kana told his student. "Now, I have to show you a couple of tricks that you can use in the fight."

(later)

"It's time to go, Naruto." Kana called out. "We have one more hour." Naruto nodded as Kana emerged from the foliage.

Without a sound, the two jumped away from the training ground, silently making their way across the hidden village of Konoha to the team's training field.

(later)

Kana and Naruto arrived at the training ground forty-five minutes before the match started. Unusually, Kakashi was already there, apparently waiting for them to show up. Shino was there as well, standing stoically silent. Kana and Naruto split up to speak to their respective peers.

Fifteen minutes after their arrival, Kaida and Sasuke jumped into the training area. Instead of his usual clothing, Sasuke wore standard navy blue ninja pants, and his shirt was sleeveless. Covering his arms were a swath of bandages, stopping at the hands, which were gloved.

The two boys turned to face each other, silently acknowledging the other. Naruto looked into Sasuke's eyes, and found a cold burning fire, showing his resolve and silent determination. In Naruto's, Sasuke saw an energetic drive to succeed, backed up with determination and analysis.

To break the silence, Kakashi called out, "Now that we're all here, should we start?" Both Naruto and Sasuke nodded. Kana and the others backed away from the two combatants, giving them some room to fight.

"These are the rules," Kakashi told the two boys "Any jutsu are acceptable. Victory is determined by concession or knockout. I am allowed to end the match at any time if I see a clear-cut winner. Understand?" Both boys nodded once more, never taking their eyes off the other. "Alright. Go!"

And with Kakashi's start, the two were off to the races. Sasuke kicked back into the air, Naruto doing the same. While sailing in the air, Sasuke began flipping through a multitude of hand signals. Taking a deep breath, the last Uchiha belched prodigious flames towards Naruto. The blonde genin countered with a Kawarimi.

As soon as he landed, Naruto charged towards Sasuke. The raven-haired genin kept on spitting fireballs at his opponent, forcing him to dodge backwards, away from the flames. In a vain attempt, Naruto launched off a Kunai, which his opponent dismissed with barely any effort. The Uchiha smirked as he stood in his position.

"Why don't you just give up, Naruto?" Sasuke called out "I control the fight right now. The range of my techniques greatly exceeds yours. How do you expect to win if you can't land a move?"

"I won't give up." Naruto told his opponent defiantly. "I am fighting for the honor of my father." As soon as those words left his mouth, Naruto made a cross shaped seal with hands. With a poof of smoke, five copies of himself appeared right behind him. "And if you control the range, then I'll just have to figure out how I'm going to get close to you."

The five clones charged forward, each evenly spaced from each other. Making the seals, Sasuke once more spit flames, quickly dispatching the clones sent out to fight him. "Is that all you've got, Naruto? I could do this all day!"

"Nah, I'm just warming up!" Naruto growled back almost gleefully. "How about this!" Once more forming the seal, Naruto formed twenty clones. Immediately, they charged towards Sasuke, not even bothering to attack their target in some formation. Sasuke frowned, and jumped back right before all of the clones hit where he was. From the air, he formed the seals once more, dispatching all twenty of them.

"Why is Naruto-san doing that?" Shino asked Kana. "Can't he see that it's not working? Sasuke is going to just keep on doing that. It is a was a waste of energy."

"Don't worry," Kana replied "He has so many aces up his sleeve that he won't have any trouble winning the match."

And so, the fight continued. Naruto once more made five clones to attack. They charged up towards Sasuke. Sasuke inhaled to make the fireballs, but before he could dispatch the clones, all of them exploded in a burst of chakra, throwing Sasuke against a tree.

Naruto called out to Sasuke, who was in the process of extricating himself from the tree. "Remember that 'jutsu' that I practiced the first time we met Kakashi? Well, when you have a clone do that, they use up all their chakra in the explosion. It doesn't have the kick of an exploding tag, but exploding tags can't exactly corner a target before deciding to explode, can they?"

"Then I guess it's time that I really got serious about this fight, don't you think?" Sasuke yelled back, the smirk almost audible. Standing up, he pulled his gloves off his hands, and put them in his pocket. "Fire seal: Release!"

Almost instantly, the last Uchiha's arms burst aflame, a strong red color. However, the Uchiha was not in pain, and the flames did not go past his arms.

"Like this?" Sasuke called out. "Kana helped me make them. The bandages on my arms were really filled with my chakra, sealed away. Then, when I release the chakra, it gives off flames. Of course, it's limited to how much you put into it, so it'll last only about two minutes. I think that that's enough to beat you."

Naruto growled in response, "Oh, yeah? Well, then, bring it!" The last Uzumaki began to charge the chakra into his hands. "I guess it's time for me to go all out as well!"

Screaming at the top of their lungs, the two genin charged towards each other. Sasuke swung his flaming arms at Naruto, attempting to catch the other boy's clothing aflame, but to no avail. Naruto let off both off the charge in his hand right at Sasuke's chest. Realizing what his opponent was doing, Sasuke brought his flaming arms up to block. The force from Naruto's jutsu still threw Sasuke a good twenty feet into the air.

Twisting in the air to gracefully land on his feet, Sasuke panted silently. "What the hell was that?" He called almost incredulously.

"It's called maim hand." Naruto replied. "If you get hit by one, it'll probably end the fight right there and then."

"Well, then," Sasuke replied "Same goes for my attack. So whoever hits first is the winner."

Once more, the boys clashed. Sasuke came in, expertly tying to hit his opponent. However this time, Sasuke's attack was so furious that Naruto had to throw away his offensive just to dodge the punches thrown at him. The blonde genin fought to get as much distance between him and his opponent as possible.

"Those arms are powerful," Naruto admitted to his opponent. "I think I'm going to have to take a leaf out of your book." The last Uzumaki formed the cross-shaped hand seal, and twenty clones poofed into existence. "Whoever controls the range, controls the fight, right?"

All of the Naruto clones charged at Sasuke. The boy was able to dispatch six of them before the rest of them detonated, throwing him up into the air. This time, he wasn't so lucky as to be able to land gracefully. The difference in power from five to fourteen clones was what made the last Uchiha fall from the air, to hit the ground, hard. The boy coughed in shock from the pain.

Naruto walked over to stand over his opponent, and looked into the last Uchiha's half-closed eyes. He charged up the chakra into his hand, and placed it on Sasuke's chest, using one foot to pin down an arm. "Please give up," he said to his opponent "This could kill you if it goes through, and I don't want you to die. I just want you to join me. Think. We could rebuild the names of our clans, together. That's all I want from you."

Kakashi came over and inspected the Uchiha. "Sasuke, I have to stop the fight. You're half conscious, and Naruto's got you as good as having a kunai to your throat." Turning back to the other three, Kakashi called. "Winner by defeat, Naruto!"

Kana smiled to himself. He turned to Kaida, "Your boy had no chance. He was going to lose from the start."

"Well, your kid had the fourth's legacy on his side." Kaida said, trying to reference the Kyuubi with Shino catching on "That was more than anything I could give Sasuke."

"Don't worry about that, it didn't play a factor in this fight." Kana replied. "I would have noticed it if he decided to use it."

By that time, Naruto returned, with Kakashi carrying Sasuke. "The poor boy's out." Kakashi told the two. "We should take him to the hospital."

"No." Naruto said. "We will take him to the Uzumaki manor. Now that he is a clan member, we can take care of him ourselves. The hospital is unneeded. In fact, why don't we all take Sasuke there, then go to Ichiraku's afterwards? My treat!" The others just nodded as his offer.

As they all headed away from the training field, a hint of a smile played upon Naruto's lips. Everything was going very good. His plan was coming together, as he had acquired a corner piece. His dream was beginning to fall into place. Quite soon, it would be achieved as he worked to help make Konoha great, just like his father did.

(End of Chapter)

A.N. Well, sorry for the new (later) things. I have just realized that my usual breakup pattern doesn't work on fan fiction. If you guys were curious, I kinda made the leaf symbol by doing this: . I would make a line of those to break up sections. Now that I know that that doesn't work, I'm going to try to fix that in all of my chapters in the fic.

Also, if you haven't noticed, my spell check is fixed. I am still interested in getting a beta reader for the fic. I will be accepting up to two. Just E-mail me if you're interested. In case you don't know what my e-mail is, it's I am going to do the land of the mist Arc, almost definitely. However, I am definitely planning that I'll make it quite different from the one in the anime and manga. In general, much of the canon arcs will be included, but they will be heavily warped and changed. For example, for the chuunin arc, I'll probably switch around the matches to make it more interesting.

And finally, Please Review! I have thirty five reviews, which is nice, but I know it could be many more. I have almost twenty thousand hits, so I know that some people aren't reviewing. Remember, reviewing more means I write more!