Hello everyone, been a bit of a while but life has been a pain in the ass for me, so my apologies XP. Anyhow before you begin I must apologise if this chapter is not up to scratch, it took quite a lot of effort and it was rather difficult for me to write. I half considered just scrapping it and restarting, but that would be a waste of 20 pages of work.

Now, as I said before there will be a fight in this chapter. Let me just forwarn this is my very first Naruto style battle to have written so don't expect anything amazing. I've also made the battle nice and simple, very few *flashy* moments except for the last. The reason for it is that this is a pre-Gennin fight, and it would be ridiculous to do a really high level battle at that grade. There was no preparation of traps since this was a *Sparring* match and general use of jutsu has been limited for the same reason. I should also warn that Naruto will be holding back, he's not aiming to totally crush Sasuke, but to get a feel for the standard of his fellow pupils.

Oh one more, i've modified the relationship between Ino and Sasuke. Rather than the normal Fangirlish head over heels for Sasuke crud, i've simplified it down so that the main reason Ino is after Sasuke is purely to beat Sakura. I should also add that I really don't like Sasuke, hate his charecter, however I will try to give him some dues, but I must apologise if at any time I seem to be *Sasuke-bashing*, it's unavoidable if as a writer you hate a charecter. I'll try to do my best to balance him somewhat later, but since he wont be on the same Gennin team as Naruto, I fortunatly wont have to do all that much.

Now, onto review replies!

Mzr90: Thanks and I get what your saying as well, although I don't have any experience with writing in *gossipy* charecters (the whole concept of *Gossip* is kinda alien to me -.-), i'll try my best.

EDelta88: Ah righty, I got what you mean now. Sorry for the lack of action, hopefully this chapter will suffice!

Tristan76: Hot damn, that's a load of brilliant ideas right there 0.0 thanks dude! Anyhow, while your advice is awesome, you wont see the majority of it until the actual council meeting, so it will be skipped over for this chapter, but i'll make sure to include some of those amazing idea's later in the actual meeting in later chapters, thanks for the aid!

LincDawg: Don't you just hate it when that happens? My internet crashes loads too -.-, anyhow thanks for the positive support!

elyzmaki: Thanks, and i'll try to make sure I update soon!

Thanks all for the support, and again don't hesitate to review with critical aid, all help (constructive criticism or support) will be accounted and used, although flamers will be ignored outright so please refrain from simply burning.

And now, on with the chapter!

"Your serious, he does nothing but eat constantly?" Naruto laughed out as he grinned widely, listening to the tales told to him by the blonde girl now sitting beside him, also laughing as she tried to continue talking.

After he had gotten bored of regaling his tales (much to his audience of two's disappointment), Naruto had begged the girl to tell him what the rest of their classmates were like, desperate to catch up as fast as he could. Fortunately for him, it seemed Ino was the gossip girl of the class, and although much of what she said flew over his head, he was steadily starting to memorise what he wanted to know.

"Yeah, he literally can't go more than a minute without eating something, I mean just look!" Ino said, pointing away towards the opposite side of the playground. Following the motion, Naruto burst out laughing again as indeed, only about thirty meters away, there the Akamichi was with a massive bag of potato chips, munching eagerly even as he was chatting to the lazy boy leaning against the wall watching the clouds.

"So; pineapple is Shikamaru, puppy is Kiba, shade's is….is…" Naruto muttered to himself, desperately trying to memorize his class mate's names as fast as he could but once again faltering on a particular one for easily the sixth time in a row.

"Shino, Aburame Shino, god are you always this slow?" Ino asked exasperatedly, causing Naruto to whip about, an embarrassed flush on his face as he exclaimed "Shaddup! I just can't remember that one guy's name, I got the rest of them down, but shades name just isn't sticking!"

Honestly, Ino couldn't blame him, for some reason Shino stuck out so little that it was easy to forget who he was; even trying to remember him was difficult for some reason. If it weren't for her habit of listening to gossip from the flower shop where his parents sometimes bought flowers and asked her whether people were getting on with him in class, she would also probably forget he even existed, but she was having fun picking on the blonde and listening to his aggravated groans from trying to memorise the silent boy's identity so she didn't tell him this.

Naruto just grunted in annoyance, before continuing "white is Hinata…fatso is-hRMGH!"

As soon as she heard him say the name, Ino instantly leaned over, shocking the whiskered boy by clapping a hand tightly over his mouth as across the way, said boy suddenly stood ramrod straight, almost dropping his potato chips as he swung his head about, as if to search for something. Even though they had been nowhere near by, it was as if Chouji could sense those who would dare use that name against him.

Beside him, Shikamaru interrupted his cloud gazing for a second, fixing a lazy eye on Chouji as he asked "What's up?"

Both Ino and Naruto held their breath together as Chouji continued glancing about, before slowly muttering "Must have been mistaken…"

Ino let out a slow pent up breath as she finally started to release Naruto's face, which was turning slightly red from being grabbed by her, although whether it was from her tight grip or embarrassment from the girls touch was up in the air to say the least. However, at the last second as she was about to lift her hand away, she accidentally brushed against the sensitive whisker like birthmarks on his face.

It was fortunate for Naruto's newly garnered respect and reputation with Ino that she was too distracted by her fear of Chouji's reaction to Naruto's words that she missed Naruto's involuntary reaction.

As her hand had brushed against those sensitive birthmarks, Naruto had seemingly leaned into the touch, eyes closing slightly as he…purred…?

However, it had only been for a single second, and as soon as her hand lifted away, the involuntary reaction had stopped, and it seemed not even Naruto, the one who had purred, noticed it happening. However even if these two hadn't noticed it, the eavesdroppers pure white eyes widened in surprise at what she had just seen, and a single unbidden thought floated through Hinata Hyuuga's mind.

'…Kawai…'

Back with Ino, the blonde shook her head, a hand pressed to her face as if to recover from what had just happened, before she fixed a glare on Naruto that made him jump in fear. Pointing over at Chouji, a deadly serious expression evident on her face, Ino warned "If you value your life; then don't ever say that word in Chouji's proximity in future!"

"H-huh, why not?" Naruto asked in reply, at which Ino internally struggled between the impulse to either face palm at his stupidity, or simply slap him for the same reason. Settling on just face palming herself, Ino explained slowly, as if she was dealing with a simpleton "Because Chouji will make a pancake out of you, that's why!"

Naruto just grumbled something that sounded like he doubted the fat kid's chances of being able to do it, but after a few seconds just shrugged, before glancing about the playground, trying to spot if there was any others from their class he recognised. Seeing a certain pair in the distance (or more a stalker following another boy), Naruto continued "So pinkey is…Sakura?"

Ino nodded, before venomously adding "Forehead girl would also work, but pinkey is more obvious I guess..." Naruto was surprised for a second, before remembering what had happened when he had first entered the classroom that morning. Glancing back in Sakura's direction, he realised he recognised the one being stalked by not only Sakura, but a load more girls who he couldn't recognise. It was the neighbour that his Mizu Bunshin had soaked the worst, Sasuke.

"So, the broody dude with the ducks ass hairstyle is Sasuke then?" Naruto asked to confirm, before realising just what he had actually said and to whom. Instantly Naruto went on the defence, covering his head as quickly as he could with his arms before the girl beside him could attack him. However, Ino just looked over in Sasuke's direction, her face showing some surprise as she muttered "Ducks ass? Y'know, now that you mention it…"

Naruto stopped his wincing as he slowly pulled his arms back from protecting his head, surprised and glad that the platinum blonde beside him hadn't attacked him in response to insulting the boy she obviously liked.

Then it suddenly dawned on him, why didn't she attack him?

"Erm, Ino…-chan?" Naruto asked hesitantly, chancing his arm in adding the friendlier suffix to her name.

The only reaction from the girl who was still staring at the boy in the distance was a "Hm?"

"Well, what's up with you, Sakura and Sasuke then?" Naruto asked

Ino just turned from looking at Sasuke to give him a blank look, as if he'd just asked something idiotic, asking sarcastically "What do you think?"

Naruto actually thought in it for a second, before replying "Well, at first I thought you two might be after that Sasuke guy…"

Ino just nodded, pointing at Sakura as she said "Yep, me and forehead girl over there are after Sasuke." Hearing this caused Naruto's ego to deflate slightly. In some distant part of his mind, he had hoped that the Yamanaka girl had warmed up to him because perhaps she had liked him in some way. However, hearing that she already had another guy she liked was slightly depressing.

Ignorant to the spiralling mood of the boy beside her, Ino pumped her fist in the air, eyes almost on fire as she exclaimed "Yep, I'm definitely going to beat Forehead Girl, Sasuke is as good as mine!"

Something about what she said sounded odd, and Naruto looked back up at her in confusion, asking "Hold on, your after him to beat Sakura?"

Once again, Naruto got hit with the patronizing glare as Ino rolled her eyes, answering "Duh, why else?"

"…because you might…like Sasuke?"

Naruto didn't expect the reaction from Ino that he got. Ino actually burst out laughing, having to clap a hand over her own mouth to try and keep the noise down so that neither the moody boy or the fawning girl would overhear.

"Me…hahaha…and…Sasuke…pfft!" Ino tried to say something between her laughter, but it was indistinct. Somehow, Naruto got the gist that she was taking the mick out of what he said, which caused him to go red in embarrassment and annoyance, shouting back "Hey, what else was I supposed to think!"

However, Ino just kept on laughing at his expense for a good while. Naruto wanted to get angrier at her for it, but after seeing the bright smile of mirth as she tried to supress her giggles, Naruto couldn't help but smile slightly himself, bringing the edge off of his annoyance with her.

As she finally managed to calm down enough, actually having to wipe a tear from her eye as the last fit of giggles subsided, Ino looked back over at the blonde boy, before explaining "Look, maybe he might have been interesting years ago, but unless you're as crazy as Forehead Girl or as brainless as those other fangirls, you can only handle so much moodiness. I got bored of it years ago, I'm only doing it to beat Forehead Girl!"

However, she quickly added "There's also the pro of being known as the girl that finally got the heartthrob of the school."

"Heartthrob?" Naruto asked in disbelief, before turning to scrutinize the Uchiha. Sure, Sasuke was slightly taller than average, something that instantly ticked Naruto off as he hated noticing that he was still slightly short for his age. Beside the height, he just couldn't think of anything else interesting about Sasuke's looks, certainly not enough to draw that massive crowd of girls that seemed to be tailing the boy as he…

Walked straight up to where Naruto was sitting, his eyes dead set on Naruto's own.

"Ha?" Naruto blurted out in surprise as he realised the guy he had just been scrutinizing was actually right in front of him, looking down at him with that strange stare of his.

'I don't like this guy…'

He couldn't put his finger on it, but in that split second that Naruto looked up at Sasuke's face, he realised he didn't like the Uchiha. There was something about how he looked, like one who was simply putting up with what was around him, as if even looking down at Naruto was nothing. The blonde may have even preferred to have seen a sneer on the boy's face, disgust like so many of the other villagers radiated at him. But it wasn't disgust, contempt, friendliness, anything.

They looked like dead eyes to the blonde. Not only that, Naruto got the distinct feeling that Sasuke wasn't even looking at him, but through him. It was as if even though Sasuke had deliberately gone out of his way to target Naruto, it wasn't really the blonde who the Uchiha had his eyes set on.

As that frozen second of time finally ticked over, everything returned back to real time. Ino suddenly leapt up, an expression akin to happy idiocy spread across her face as she cried out "Sasuke-kun, you came over to see me?"

"LIKE HELL SASUKE-KUN WOULD SEE YOU!" a certain pink haired girl roared out far louder than Naruto would have ever believed possible from such a frail looking girl, causing Naruto to cringe as he tried to shield his ears. For one second, he finally spotted some semblance of emotion in the broody Uchiha, a flicker of irritancy from the loud shout, but it was gone just as fast.

As the two girls started bickering and arguing, shouting insults at one another, Sasuke finally spoke.

"You, you are Uzumaki, correct?"

Naruto was once again struck by the feeling that he wouldn't like this guy, however unlike before, he knew why this time. That voice just pissed him off straight away. It was low and sounded cool, even as Naruto realised and got ticked off by this fact, the group of fan girls who had been stalking Sasuke (minus two who were nearly devolving into the mother of all cat fights) swooned at just hearing that voice.

Naruto finally started to believe why it was Sasuke had so many followers and admirers, his voice alone literally eschewed pride and confidence. Even if he seemed like the almost emo-type, there was no doubt that Sasuke Uchiha was confident in himself, overbearingly so.

Annoyed by this fact, Naruto replied defensively "Who wants to know?"

Sasuke's pitch black eyes literally bore into Naruto's own as he bluntly replied "Uchiha Sasuke"

Naruto already knew who Sasuke was; he even knew the importance of the Uchiha name, quickly figuring that was the reason behind the almost arrogant pride he could hear in Sasuke's voice. Those who came from powerful clans often believed themselves Kami's gift to the world.

Picking his body up from where he had been sitting, Naruto stood face to face with Sasuke, glad that the difference between their heights that he had noticed earlier wasn't quite as bad as he imagined, a matter of an inch or two only. As he was about to ask what Sasuke wanted, he noticed the boy's eyes flick up and down his own body, obviously sizing Naruto up. Deep in his thoughts, the blonde prayed it was only for threat assessment, and not because the Uchiha's obvious disinterest in his fan girls meant a different interest.

That thought scared the hell out of Naruto, so much so that he paled slightly. Sasuke seemed to notice this, assuming it was some kind of fear from the blonde, perhaps from recognizing the difference between the last descendant of the Uchiha and himself.

'Oh crap, what the hell is he smirking at?' Naruto panicked mentally, his trepidation increasing as he noticed the change in Sasuke's expression. It took a lot to try and keep his voice from squeaking in what could have been real fear of the Uchiha as he asked defensively "What do you want with me?"

"Uzumaki, I want to fight you." Sasuke challenged his smirk increasing slightly as he expected Naruto to quail under the challenge, just like all the other pathetic students in their class.

However Naruto did the inverse, breathing out a sigh of relief that his fears had been unfounded, Sasuke had only come to challenge him to a fight. 'Wait…' Naruto realised out of slight confusion, turning back to look up at Sasuke, asking "err, why?"

"I want to test my strength against yours, now will you fight me?" Sasuke replied coolly, his voice full of confidence. Naruto even saw a spark in the Uchiha's eyes for a second, before they returned to their almost dead look.

Naruto barely needed to consider it, an eager smile filled with excitement spreading across his face. He hadn't expected a chance to spar against any of the others in his year as early as the very first day, and no less than the supposed number one of the year was asking him to fight, like hell would he turn down such an offer.

The two boys stared each other down from across the chosen battlefield, neither boy moving a single muscle, both watching for any weakness in their opponent. When the news spread that the new kid and the number one were about to fight, it had gathered nigh on the entire student year to watch. Even now, some of the kids were placing bets on how the outcome of the battle would go. Unfortunatly for Naruto, most of the bets were how long it would be until Sasuke beat him, but there was the odd newly enamoured fan girl (recent traitors of the Sasuke fandom who had been wooed by the blondes amazing looks) who was betting that Naruto would win.

However, now as the two faced off against each other, the crowd of fellows who had gathered to watch collectively held their breath in anticipation. Even Sakura and Ino stopping their cheering of their obvious favourite as they were awed by the tension between the two boys, so unusually strong for children of their age, the playground which would normally be alive with activity deathly silent. As the seconds passed, a small gust of wind kicked up the dust and leaves that scattered the grounds, the leaves flying about in the eddies of the wind before falling slowly down to earth once more.

As the last leaf finally touched earth, this was the unbidden sign for time to restart as both boys moved as one. Suddenly the air between them was a storm of metal crashing against metal, each boy's hands a blur as shuriken and kunai met one another in mid-air with amazing accuracy, each kunai deflected down to earth by another, each shuriken sent flying in opposite directions as they crashed into one another.

Even before all the projectiles had fallen to the earth, 6 Kunai and 4 Shuriken thrown from Sasuke's hands and a matching number thrown by Naruto, both boys kicked against the earth hard, launching themselves through the rain of falling projectiles to attack each other head on.

Sasuke's attack came first, right fist drawn back even before they had closed the distance fully before the punch was aimed for Naruto's face. However, Naruto easily blocked the blow with his opposing forearm, stomping hard on the ground for support before kicking his right leg forward, aiming a powerful kick for Sasuke's ribs. Sasuke ducked in slightly to block the kick with his left forearm, before dropping further, aiming a low spin kick to sweep Naruto's standing leg from under him.

However, Naruto snapped his right leg back, before leaping back, away from Sasuke, jumping above Sasuke's leg sweep. As he back flipped in mid-air, Naruto pulled several more shuriken from his leg pouch halfway through the flip before throwing them at the still ducking Sasuke to stop him from countering. In retaliation, Sasuke quickly drew a Kunai from inside his pouch, knocking the singular Shuriken that Naruto had deliberately aimed at his leg from mid-air before avoiding the other scattered shuriken, quickly spinning the Kunai about in his grip before throwing it at the point where Naruto would land.

Grinning fiercely, Naruto landed softly as he raised a hand up to his shoulder to grab something, before his face fell as his hand closed about empty air, realising dumbly that he didn't have a sword strapped there any more as he watched the Kunai he had planned to cut out of the air fly at him. With a noise that suspiciously sounded like *Yikes!*, Naruto barely managed to twist his body out of the way before the Kunai would have hit him dead centre in the chest, instead impacting the tree behind him before disappearing into the grass, the practice Kunai's edge too blunt to actually imbed itself into the tree. However, nobody in the audience commented on the strange noise Naruto let slip or the fact that he barely dodged the Kunai. Instead, their jaws were almost hitting the ground at the amazing display of skill and speed between the two boys.

'Now THAT would have been embarrassing…' Naruto thought, mentally face palming himself for his own stupidity at forgetting his sword had been confiscated. While he knew the chain-link on his vest would have stopped the thrown Kunai from injuring him, he still would have died of embarrassment from making such a stupid mistake. However, he didn't have time to contemplate further as Sasuke charged at him once more. Shaking the thought out of his head, Naruto took his Taijutsu stance again, readying himself to stop Sasuke's charge.

The next minute was a blur of punching and kicking, attack and counter attack as Uchiha and Uzumaki struck out at one another again and again, weapons forgotten as they fought with pure Taijutsu.

'He's kinda good!' Naruto realised eagerly, his grin widening even in the face of the fierce adversary as he wrenched his head to the right, narrowly avoiding a powerful punch from Sasuke. The raven haired boy wasn't holding back in the slightest now, breathing heavily as he exerted as much strength as he could into each attack.

'This dobe…' Sasuke cursed internally as Naruto once again avoided his attacks, the blondes own elbow striking out in a counter, forcing Sasuke to take the impact with his forearm in turn, his own arm going numb from the aggressive strength in Naruto's attacks. 'Why can't I hit him!'

Both of the two boys were as fast as each other, neither able to land a decisive hit, but it was already clear who had the power advantage. Even though Sasuke was starting to sweat from his exertion, putting everything he could behind each attack, Naruto's own moves were every bit as fierce, and unlike Sasuke the blonde wasn't even tiring, his breathing still smooth as instead he was grinning widely as if he was having the time of his life.

Suddenly an attack got through the storm of impacts between the two. Naruto's fist lanced forward, aiming for the centre of Sasuke's chest. Sasuke twisted his body about, with the intention of letting the attack pass before countering once again in the opening created. But as the attack passed, wide from its original mark, the Uchiha's eyes widened as he felt an impact, the attack grazing his torso. It was barely a brush, but it was still a hit, the first of the match. Cursing under his breath, Sasuke abandoned his plan, leaping away from the blonde quickly to gain distance for a respite.

Naruto didn't follow, instead keeping the exact pose from his punch as he watched Sasuke land further away, breathing heavily. If anybody had been looking closely, there was a slight flash of annoyance that passed the blondes features, almost as if something had gone wrong, or if something he expected to happen didn't. However, even if anybody had seen, they would never have guessed the real reason for this slight change and Naruto recovered quickly, correcting his pose as he faced Sasuke once more.

"S-Sasuke-kun?"

Amongst the watching crowd, Sakura whispered this quietly, almost in confusion. The others watching were just as surprised, Chouji having stopped halfway from eating another crisp, his hand hovering in mid-air as he watched in confusion.

Nobody could beat Sasuke, the last scion of the Uchiha clan. This was the unspoken rule amongst the academy students, earned from the numerous sparring matches organized between the students. No matter who faced him, no matter what they tried, Sasuke would defeat them, barely even acknowledging their struggles as he won each battle, his broody face ever impassive as he looked down upon those he defeated as if he couldn't even see them.

But there was no mistaking it. Sasuke had just retreated from his foe. Even if the match hadn't yet been won, nobody before had managed to pressure the Uchiha to the point of retreating. Now, not only was Sasuke glaring balefully at his enemy as he tried to regain his breath, but the new blonde student who had broken Sasuke's unbeaten streak without even breaking a sweat was grinning happily like an idiot. An amazingly strong, good looking idiot, but one none the less.

'That nameless dobe…' Sasuke growled internally as he finally got his breathing back under control. He had not expected much from the blonde boy. Even if, as Naruto claimed, he had been training away from the village, he was still only a normal person. He didn't even have the virtue of a reasonably strong clan technique, he was a nameless dobe.

Compared to that he, Sasuke Uchiha, was the last remaining member of the proud Uchiha, the once strongest and most renowned clan of Konoha. By his birth right, he was superior to any other clan of Konoha, let alone a boy who didn't have a worthy clan to himself.

'…calm down, he's a nobody, I shouldn't get worked up like this…' Sasuke thought to himself as he made an effort to force his body to relax. Getting wound up that this dobe was able to match him in Taijutsu was pointless.

'If, by some miracle he can match me in Taijutsu…' Sasuke thought as he took a deep breath, finally calming himself as he stood up, straight and proud. As he did so, he unclenched his fists, before moving his hands rapidly.

'…I'll show him his place with Ninjutsu!' Sasuke finished, his hands forming the seals he needed for his jutsu.

As Naruto watched, Sasuke's body outline seemingly wavered, before he literally split himself into multiple copies of himself. Within a second, the single enemy had become four, four versions of Sasuke now smirking arrogantly as they faced off against Naruto as each Bunshin drew a Kunai from their respective pouch.

At the sight of her idol finally getting ready to fight again, Sakura got over her earlier shock, instead started cheering, loudly shouting out "Go Sasuke, kick that stupid blondes ass!"

Said blonde sweat dropped slightly, even the three clones of Sasuke and the original himself for whom the cheering was for couldn't help rolling their eyes at the stupid cheering, obviously annoyed at the interruption.

Sakura was quickly joined by numerous other females amongst the crowd, turning the single shout into a tidal wave of cheering for the Uchiha and jeering for the blonde. However, what shocked some of the male portion of the crowd, who had been about to roll their eyes, was a different shout.

"Go Naruto!"

As if to combat the increasing shouting of the Sasuke fandom, the newly started Uzumaki fan girls decided to let their presence be known, trying to drown out the shouts from the opposite fandom. As the cheering got louder, even the guys eventually got pulled into cheering as well, although unlike the female fandom, the cheers for the guys were nearly 100% pro Naruto, the male contingency obviously sick and tired of the previous number one and eager to see the Uchiha toppled from the top spot.

Only four amongst the whole crowd acted differently from the roaring mass. Shino refused to join in the pointless roaring, since he did not wholly care about the outcome of the match and found it illogical to support either in that situation. Shikamaru was the same, but his was purely from sheer laziness, he was watching the match, but couldn't be bothered to join in. Ino hesitated for a second, wanting to cheer for the friendlier boy, but Sakura's obvious support for Sasuke made her join in the Uchiha support, desperate to beat her rival in outshouting her. Hinata on the other hand wanted to join in supporting Naruto, but was too shy to shout, instead barely whispering her stuttered support.

Hearing the support for him, Naruto was emotionally touched, unlike his opponent who was obviously annoyed at the interruption. Putting his happiness at the support aside, Naruto gave one quick pump of his fist in his supporter's general direction before returning his attention to Sasuke.

Sasuke charged instantly, all three clones following with him as the group charged the blonde. Naruto quickly drew several Kunai from within his pouch, his eyes darting across the four enemies, trying to see if there was any anomalies in the clones to tell them apart from the original.

However, no sooner than he tried to identify the real Sasuke, pulling his arm back in preparation to throw, the group of clones converged on one another, their paths crossing each other's rapidly to throw off Naruto's ability to focus solely on the original, Sasuke and his clones smirking confidently as they quickly closed the distance between themselves and Naruto.

"Not bad teme…!" Naruto half complimented as he leapt away from the group, trying to gain distance for an idea of what to do next. As he did so, he noticed something interesting about the group of Sasuke's. As he realised what it meant, he couldn't help but grin again.

Naruto was really enjoying this. It had been ages since he had been able to spar with any person of the same age as him, and even if it was nowhere near as challenging as his practices with his Shishou, Sasuke wasn't that bad even if annoyingly arrogant. While Naruto was still holding back some from his foe, Sasuke was still giving him a decent challenge and Naruto relished the opportunity to compare his skills against the supposedly legendary skills of the Uchiha.

As Naruto was about to land, his own hands flashed through a series of hand seals. Sasuke watched the sequence Naruto used, instantly recognising the technique he was preparing as the Kawarimi no jutsu, and realised that Naruto was going to use the technique to avoid the group attack.

No sooner than Naruto finished, the Uchiha clones converged on him instantly, moving about the blonde to surround him, ready to charge in to claim victory.

In a surrounding formation, it becomes hard to tell where an attack will come from, for nobody can see behind them, making it a perfect blind spot. As such, it can be presumed that the attack coming from behind him would be Sasuke's real attack. However, at the same time, it could be any of them, for if it is most obvious that the attack would come from behind, then to be unpredictable, a shinobi would take a different angle of attack.

But Sasuke was thinking outside of the box, he wasn't even amongst the clones. Instead of being the real Sasuke and three clones, it was four clones of Sasuke that surrounded the blonde. When Sasuke had made the clones converge their running paths, he had used the Bunshin no jutsu again, using the clones to cover his seal sequence from Naruto's view. He created a fourth clone to take his place, something no other student in their year could manage thanks to their limited chakra capacity, and as such something nobody could have predicted. Sasuke had directed the clones to move close to the crowd of onlookers and using the motion to cover his own, he had dived into the crowd to hide himself, moving amongst the group carefully so he could ambush Naruto when he tried to deal with the clones.

Now, he was in position to attack Naruto. However, since Naruto had prepared the Kawarimi no jutsu, he couldn't be sure where Naruto would appear again. As such, Sasuke quickly decided to attack first from his position, before Naruto would use the Substitution. Acting quickly, he sent a command through the chakra connecting him to the clones to delay their attack for a second, believing Naruto intended to substitute when they hit him. As the clones finally penned in the blonde, the Uchiha let loose with multiple shuriken.

Several of the onlookers cried out in surprise as shuriken burst through the gaps between them, several fans turning about in outrage to find out who was trying to sabotage the match.

As the blunt stars flew for Naruto's blind spot, all four clones smirks grew greater, victory was theirs.

One Naruto Uzumaki turned slightly away from the clone before him, barely a fractional movement, but it revealed one fact to the real Uchiha amongst the crowd, who was watching the stars home in on him.

A wide grin.

Suddenly, Sasuke felt a weird sensation of some sort, a strange feeling of being pulled forcibly from all directions. Before he could figure out what it was, his fast senses saw the shuriken in mid-air once more, but something was different.

They were now flying at him, as Sasuke's eyes registered the crowd of onlookers behind the stars, one Uzumaki Naruto's cheshire grin plastered across his face from where he stood between Kiba and Shino.

Time seemed to freeze for the Uchiha as he realised what had happened. Naruto had somehow, some way, seen through his plan. The reason why he was now standing, several shuriken flying for him rather than his enemy, was because Sasuke was standing now where Naruto had been only moments before.

Naruto had used the Kawarimi no Jutsu to substitute the real Sasuke from amidst the crowd.

It was too late to dodge; Sasuke was forced to cross his arms before his body to stop the Shuriken from tagging any vital spots. Instead, the blunted edges impacted on his arms and stomach with enough force to sting, causing red welts to spring up on both his arms even as they bounced away, clattering to the ground.

With the caster injured and distracted the four clones, now surrounding their master rather than their original target automatically dispersed, leaving Sasuke standing alone, slowly uncrossing his arms as he resisted the urge to wince in pain from the bruises.

Nearly everybody fell completely silent in shock and surprise.

Amidst this new stunned silence, even Shikamaru had to silently give the praise where it was due. As Naruto pushed passed the crowd to face Sasuke again, Shikamaru analysed what it was that happened easily.

Sasuke had forgotten one of the basics, and Naruto had grasped it in mid battle and expertly turned it on the Uchiha. The clones Sasuke had made were each almost perfect, every detail right where it needed to be, Shikamaru doubted that anybody would have been able to easily grasp the difference between the clones and their original.

Sasuke's plan had also been good, using the jutsu a second time to cover his own exit from the group was a sound plan, and the Uchiha's execution had also been sound, nobody had noticed him joining the crowd.

However the Bunshin no Jutsu had one fatal flaw. While in normal combat situations in areas like forests, there were multiple obstacles that could have covered this flaw, but their match was in an open field, and the sun was shining brightly down. The clones had no shadows, and Naruto must have noticed that no one in the offensive group had a shadow, so the blonde had seen Sasuke's plan and come up with a counter for it.

'Man, I figured he was just an idiot but that wasn't bad at all…' Shikamaru thought to himself as he watched the pair face off again.

Sasuke was silently raging in anger as he saw that idiotic grin on Naruto's face again.

'Damn it! How can I, an Uchiha, one of the elite, be losing to this clan less dobe?'

Even now, Sasuke could see it in his opponent's eyes. Naruto believed he had won and the battle was already his, Naruto believed he was the stronger of the two of them and that enraged the Uchiha.

"This is not over!" Sasuke shouted out defiantly with a roar, as his hands moved rapidly. Naruto's eyes widened as he saw seal after seal formed rapidly by Sasuke's hands, before he stopped, his hands held together on one last seal, fingers interlaced together with index finger and middle finger pointed together upwards. Sasuke held this seal as he locked eyes with his enemy, eye's blazing with an emotion Naruto couldn't recognise as Sasuke drew sharp breath after breath.

While he didn't recognise the jutsu from just the seals Sasuke's hands had literally spelled out, there was definitely no mistaking it as one of the three academy level jutsu, and there was no way to mistake that last seal Sasuke was still holding before him.

'That's the Tiger seal; that means it's probably a Katon he's going to use!' Naruto realised with shock as the cheering starting once again from the Sasuke faction in the crowd, only a handful aside Naruto were actually fast enough at reading hand movements to realise Sasuke was most definitely not preparing an academy jutsu.

'What's going on? No pre-Gennin student should have the chakra reserves necessary for elemental manipulation already…' Shikamaru thought to himself as he brought his attention away from the clouds and to the now dangerous battle between the two.

In response, Naruto glared back at Sasuke, his grin lost as he considered what to do next. Even if that last seal meant it was probably an offensive Katon, there was no way to be sure, and the blonde knew he had very few defensive jutsu at his call.

Taking a gamble that Sasuke's jutsu would be a Katon, Naruto quickly decided what to do. With this decision, he flicked a hand up to his blue jacket, unbuttoning the second pocket on the left breast as he quickly drew a small object from within. What he pulled out looked like a soldier pill at first but was slightly translucent with a strange blue tint, a small kanji written on the sphere's surface, Mizu.

'Without any additional water nearby to use, I don't have the control yet to use this without a little additional help…' Naruto thought internally as he popped the sphere into his mouth, clamping it between his back teeth but not biting down on the object. With his preparations complete, Naruto's hands started to form seals at a rapid pace. Sasuke didn't respond to this or use his jutsu, holding his hands in the Tiger seal as if waiting to see what Naruto would do in turn.

Tiger-Snake-Rat-Snake-Tiger

In comparison to the sequence of seals Sasuke had used, the jutsu Naruto readied used less. However, as Naruto ended the sequence of seals his hands had rapidly flashed through, his technique ended with the same seal that Sasuke's hands formed, both boys now mirroring each other's stance but opposing one another, the only difference between the two being that Sasuke had his trademark sneer written on his features, while Naruto was keeping his mouth slightly open, being careful not to bite down on the sphere before time.

Sasuke let out a short bark of laughter, his features twisting into a sneer as he mistook the intentions of the blonde, taunting back "You really think you can beat me in Ninjutsu? That's the Tiger seal, so that's probably a Katon as well; do you really think you, a nameless dobe, can beat an Uchiha with fire?"

At these words, it finally dawned on the rest of the still cheering group that something very dangerous was about to happen right in front of them.

"Somebody get Iruka-sensei!" "Kyaaa!" "What are they doing?"

These and numerous other shouts were audible from the crowd of onlookers, now slightly panicked that a clash of actual ninjutsu was imminent between the two combatants, the majority of them now backing away as fast as they could from the pair of boys to avoid getting caught up in whatever Jutsu was about to be unleashed.

However, neither Sasuke or Naruto could hear them, eye's only on each other, Sasuke's burning with rage and pride, angry that he had been humiliated thus far in combat and determined to prove to this upstart that he was no match for the skills of the Uchiha. Naruto on the other hand was focusing only on his opponents movements, waiting for the sign that the Uchiha was about to attack.

As one once more, both boys moved simultaneously, mimicking each other's movements as they both drew an incredibly deep breath, hands releasing the Tiger seal as they each made a ring with the thumb and index finger of their right hand, placing it before their mouths, as their lips started to form the shouted words of their techniques.

Both spoke at the same time, but Sasuke's technique was seemingly the faster of the two.

"Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"

As those words were shouted out, Sasuke finally expelled the breath he had taken, a stream of fire expelled from between his lips as he breathed the chakra from his system out, forming a large flaming fireball right before him, one that flickered and pulsed with its intensity, burning the air around the two combatants with its ferocity. Within moments of the fireball solidifying, it was sent roaring forwards straight for the blonde whiskered boy, propelled by the steady stream of fire flying from Sasuke's mouth.

As this fireball flew straight for Naruto, there was a mixture of shouts of amazement and wonder at the might of the jutsu, and in one or two cases, screams of fear as it threatened to engulf him instantly. However, Naruto didn't even flinch as the inferno bore down upon him. Instead, he finally bit down with his teeth, cracking the sphere inside his mouth which strangely shattered akin to glass as if it was hollow as he expelled his own breath, shouting out the words of his technique.

"Suiton: Suijinheki!"

Although his jutsu sequence had ended with the Tiger symbol, it was the inverse of a Katon, a Suiton. Water took the place of Fire that everybody had expected from Naruto as within a heartbeat, the chakra within his body amplified the water within his mouth, as Naruto breathed out an incredibly powerful stream of water, aiming it straight for the heart of the huge fireball.

Water and Fire impacted one another with incredible force, the stream of water exploding into almost a wall as it smashed against the fireball Sasuke had summoned, sending a fountain spray of heated water all about the impact zone as the jutsu clashed, the wall of water pushing back against the huge fireball as Naruto continued to expel the powerful stream from his own body. On the opposite side, Sasuke cursed to himself as he poured as much chakra as he could into the technique, willing the stream of flames to intensify, the fireball roaring ever greater with furious intensity as Sasuke tried to push through the wall of water that threatened to douse his Katon by pure force.

However, as Shikamaru could have told anybody had they not all been too dazed by the amazing spectacle before them, Water is Fire's weakness; there was no way an offensive Katon technique could ever hope to overcome a defensive Suiton technique unless there was a massive difference in the chakra used. However, no matter how much Sasuke tried to pour his chakra into the technique, he had absolutely no hope of defeating Naruto's seemingly huge chakra supply. Combined with his technique being on the wrong side of the elemental table and he was destined to lose.

Eventually, Sasuke was forced to stop spitting out the stream of fire, the chakra in his system running low as he could not support the technique further, the fireball losing its integrity as the wall of water devoured the flames, water boiling and hissing as it transformed into a massive cloud of steam that, thanks to the winds direction, engulfed Naruto, hiding him from view as Naruto stopped his own technique, having bested Sasuke's completely.

As the steam started to be pushed away, Sasuke shouted out in anger at the silhouette of Naruto, drawing a Kunai between each gap of his fingers before throwing the storm of eight Kunai straight at Naruto.

However, having been hidden in the steam cloud, coughing as he tried to get a clear breath from the backwash of his own technique Naruto didn't see them coming. There was several loud impacts and a cry of pain as the cloud of steam finally started to disperse, the majority of it blown to the right by the wind, revealing Naruto within.

Having been unable to see the attack, Naruto had seemingly taken the attacks badly, a cut in the centre of his forehead showing where one of the Kunai had hit him, showing what would have been a fatal injury in a real life battle. Naruto was seemingly frozen in shock, as if the impact had stunned him.

However, even as Sasuke thought arrogantly that with this obviously fatal injury, he had finally put the dobe in his place; he hadn't noticed that the cloud of steam had been blown by the wind so that the majority of the dense mist was pushed close by him. Suddenly the cloud of steam seemingly exploded outwards, a shadow of a boy erupting from within the mist, his blue jacket heavily damp with steam.

Before Sasuke even had time to think, Naruto had covered the distance between himself and Sasuke with a single bound, a fist tightly curled as he slammed it straight into Sasuke's face. The stunned Uchiha didn't even him time to react or dodge, the meteoric impact of Naruto's punch on his cheek sent him hurtling backwards off his feet. This time he didn't manage to recover, instead crashing into the ground painfully as the person who struck him stood back up straight, his blonde ponytail damp from hiding within the steam he had created as nearby the injured Naruto exploded into a pool of water, revealing it to be nothing more than a Mizu Bunshin.

It took a few seconds for Sasuke to finally stopped tumbling, landing in an almost pathetic curled up heap on the concrete, almost losing his grasp on consciousness as his head rang from the force of the impact.

"SASUKE-KUN!" Sakura almost screamed in panic as she burst from the throng of the crowd, running straight for the fallen Uchiha. Seeing her rival charging, Ino could only spare Naruto one amazed glance at the strength he had shown, before her instincts kicked in and she quickly chased after the pink haired girl, determined to not let the girl get the advantage in their battle for Sasuke's attention. They were shortly followed by the rest of the Sasuke fangirl community, several throwing looks that could kill at Naruto as they ran to their downed idol.

After a couple more seconds of dazed amazement, the dams broke as just about every male in the year roared out their cheers as an entire mob of students surged forwards, startling Naruto who barely had a moment to cry out "What the-?" before he was mass mobbed by his fellow classmates.

One of the few who held back from doing so was concentrating hard as he tried to figure out just what had happened, his hands clasped before him in a strange pose as he thought.

'Well, it's straight out obvious what happened, but how is what's interesting…' Shikamaru mused silently as he watched a struggling to escape blonde been thrown up in the air by the jubilant gang of students, eager to show their gratitude for somebody finally topping the Uchiha despite him crying out his protests as he tried to escape the manhandling.

Naruto had used a powerful Suiton to block Sasuke's Katon jutsu, then used the cloud of steam to his advantage, creating a Mizu Bunshin to cover his movements. It was obvious that he had done this before Sasuke had tried to attack him, since there was no mark on Naruto from the Uchiha's last ditch effort. Naruto had even gone so far as to test the direction of the wind, to makre sure he was as close as possible before he launched his last attack. What was interesting was how in hell a Gennin had managed to manipulate enough water to use these techniques, considering the lack of any water in the form of rain or other sources.

'That pill has to be the key…' Shikamaru deduced quickly. He had assumed the object Naruto had taken from the pockets of his jacket to be something akin to a Soldier Pill, something to restore chakra reserves quickly, but now he thought back, there had been something odd about the object…

However, his ruminations, the cheering crowds celebrations to Naruto, the fan girls pandering to Sasuke and just about all other active thought was interrupted by one throaty roar.

"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!"

The crowd of suporters around both Sasuke and Naruto almost flew away from them in fear of their sensei's as a burst of smoke signalled the end of a Shunshin technique, revealing the scar faced Iruka within, a vein on his forehead threatening to explode in the face of his shouting. What surprised Naruto however was the second chuunin who had arrived with Iruka, a man with shoulder length white hair who Naruto hadn't seen before.

"NARUTO, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THIS TIME!" Iruka bellowed out at him with a roar when he saw the state Sasuke was in on the floor. Naruto turned, panic slightly setting in as he tried to think of a way to get out of having decked one of his fellow students, but a smooth voice cut in first, surprising Naruto as it said "Now, now Iruka, it just looks to me like our top student wanted to test the new kid out, and found him to be a bit much to handle."

Naruto looked up in surprise at the new Chuunin's face, the white haired man smiling slightly as he faced the scar faced Iruka. The teacher hesitated for half a second in hearing this Chuunin brush off what had clearly been a dangerous fight as nothing, before saying quickly "Mizuki, unrestricted fighting without an instructor supervising-!"

However Mizuki just waved amicably, smiling as he looked down at Naruto cheerfully, cutting in "But Naruto is clearly new here, and probably was unaware of the rules regarding needing a supervisor for sparring sessions."

Naruto just blinked in confusion slightly. It felt weird having an adult stand up for him, Kouta had looked after him for years, but Kouta wasn't one of the Konoha inhabitants, it just felt odd for any one of the people who he assumed all seemingly hated him to now defend him. However, even as Mizuki smiled down at him, something felt…off, for some reason he couldn't think of, something felt odd about Mizuki helping him. It could have just been the strangeness of having a Konoha Ninja being kind, but he wasn't sure, some instinct seemed to be niggling at the back of his mind, telling him to be wary around this white haired man.

"It doesn't matter; it's obvious that you're not meant to pick fights with the other students!" Iruka replied vehemently, sweeping an arm in Sasuke's general direction as if to accent his argument. Sasuke literally growled in response, picking himself up gingerly as the two chuunin watched at him, surprising Naruto by glaring up at Iruka as if he was annoyed with the sensei's interruption, replying "It was just a sparring match and I challenged him, I'll take responsibility, sensei…"

As Iruka gaped at the stubborn Uchiha, not noticing the odd emphasis Sasuke used on sensei to show his disdain of the Chuunin before him. Mizuki just shrugged good-naturedly before saying "Boys will be boys, I think we can let this one slide Iruka, there's no real harm done right? Now, I think it would be best if you escorted Sasuke to the medical office to get those little injuries looked at Iruka, I'll keep watch over the other kids for the rest of lunch." Mizuki insisted, patting his fellow Chuunin on the back with a smile as if indicating *I'll leave it to you*

With an exasperated sigh, Iruka started to lead Sasuke away, the Uchiha walking stiffly as he supressed the pain in his body, refusing to give his opponent any satisfaction of having injured him, even if it didn't occur to him that Naruto really didn't give a damn. With one last glare at Naruto, mentally vowing that he would defeat him next time, Sasuke disappeared from the playground.

Smiling at something nobody would have understood, Mizuki clapped loudly to get all the other students attention, announcing loudly "That's all kids, the shows over, now get back to playing and whatnot, unless you'd rather we cut the lunch break early and get back to classes?"

As in the academy the students were finally broken up and started to resume their normal patterns for recreation in break time, back in the Hokage Tower Kouta and Sarutobi had just about wrapped up their long discussion.

On the desk before the Hokage, there was a large notebook with several pages worth of notes jotted down that had come up during the two's discussion. After the initial palaver caused from Kouta vehemently trying to *explain* his lack of interest in becoming a Konoha shinobi (involving several bouts of colourful language describing the many ways the Sage was *displeased* by the notion, several innovative *descriptions* of what Sarutobi could do with his proposal and many other interesting displays of lack of co-operation), the Hokage had finally gotten over every reason as to why this had to happen for Naruto's sake, and so the negotiations between the two had begun.

At first, Hiruzen had been worried about what the Sage might say in the negotiations, but after the first few minutes, a wide smile had spread across the old man's features as he realised what Kouta had planned, and so the last two hours had been spent between the two hashing out every possible scenario, plan and necessary condition required to *encourage* Kouta to join Konoha's Shinobi Forces.

The sheets of notes before the Hokage was the result of the negotiations, and Sarutobi had to admit he was both impressed and pleased. While he would have given the Sage any leeway necessary to keep Naruto's mentor in Konoha, it was to combat the Councils interference that Sarutobi had suggested for Kouta to join the Shinobi. However, with Kouta's help, the Hokage now had a viable plan to use against the council.

Sarutobi couldn't help but let out a low chuckle at the thought of the expressions the council members would have when he presented this to them in the next council meet. Kouta, having calmed down immensely from the events earlier, looked back at the Hokage in surprise, asking "Did you think of something I missed?"

The old man just shook his head, explaining "No Kouta-san, I'm just imagining how the old war hawk will look when he hears these terms, just prepare for a lot of arguing when this is presented before the council."

Kouta just smiled enigmatically in response, before returning his gaze out of the window and towards the village. As the Hokage flipped through the notes, giving it one last look over, Kouta softly asked "Are you still adamant about refusing to tell me who his parents are?"

Sarutobi paused his scanning of the notes, sighing softly as he looked back up at the Sage. He already had a feeling that the Sage may have at the least a vague idea of who the boys parentage, but even if Sarutobi could trust Kouta with many things, there were limits of what he would say and he didn't want to imagine how Kouta would react if he knew for sure that Naruto was in fact the son of the late Yondaime Hokage.

So instead, the old man hid his emotion, giving the Sage a penetrating glare as he answered "Even if you have taken it upon yourself to be his Guardian, I will not reveal such information to you." As if to punctuate his stance on the matter, the Hokage flared his considerable Ki once. (1)

Kouta remained indifferent to this display of power, shrugging his shoulders slightly as he replied "So long as you keep your promise, I won't ask again."

The Hokage almost growled at that, almost. One of the many stipulations Kouta had given him was that if Naruto had any inheritance or legacy within Konoha that had been withheld for his protection due to being the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki; that it would be given to him when the boy reached Chuunin rank. Normally Sarutobi would have no such problem with this, in fact that had been his intentions all along for the boy. However, that was taking into account that the average Chuunin of Konoha would have enough experience to gain their rank at 16, and Kakashi's prediction after watching Naruto was that it could take as long as until he was 20.

But that was the predictions before Naruto had left the village. Given that Kouta had been the one to personally train Naruto, Sarutobi had no doubt that Naruto would beat that benchmark by a wide margin, if by some chance he wasn't already of Chuunin rank in terms of strength. However, he had no way of knowing for sure, since Kouta had refused to divulge a detailed description of Naruto's strengths. As such, it was entirely possible the boy would make Chuunin at 13, far before Sarutobi's original plan.

However, he knew Kouta would settle for nothing less than that stipulation, and Sarutobi knew if he didn't agree, that the Sage would simply use that uncanny ability of his to figure out information that is supposed to be top secret with ease. After all, this was the man who figured out the identity of Naruto as the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki by simply having a conversation with the boy. Sarutobi had no doubt that if he was determined; Kouta could uncover the truth on his own, so agreeing to this term was the only way to have some measure of control over the situation.

Then there was the second agreement…

"I still personally don't agree with your other condition though Kouta-san, I think it's still too early…"

The Sage merely shrugged again as Sarutobi glared at his back, answering "Naruto is far smarter than you may think, if he isn't told soon, he will figure it out on his own. It's taken a lot of work to keep him from realising it over the last five years, so I think it's only right he learns about the Kyuubi when he graduates."

"But-!" Sarutobi started to object, rising sharply out of his chair, but he froze when Kouta turned his head sharply, his sky blue irises visible as he regarded Sarutobi without his usual close eyed expression. Once again, the old Hokage had to admire the strength in those blue eyes; the powerful purpose in this man's eyes.

Kouta spoke softly, his voice clear with purpose as he said "He will learn the truth no matter what, so it's better to reveal it at a time of OUR choosing, not when it is too late. And besides…"

With this, Kouta's eyes returned to their almost fully closed expression, that smile gracing his features as he assured "Naruto is stronger than you think, and I have a feeling he'll take the information better than he would have before he left, I made sure of that…"

Sarutobi's eyes widened at the last words, his mouth almost dropping open as he realised what Kouta hinted at. However, he quickly regained control of himself, but was only able to give a forced whisper as he asked "Who…?"

"A rather…interesting young girl, not much older than Naruto actually but that's all I'll say." Kouta replied with a smile, adding "It's not that I don't trust you to tell you more, but you know my policies."

Sarutobi just shook his grizzled head, already feeling the oncoming headache that this information gave him. He gave another glare up at the Sage, but Kouta just ignored it. Sighing again, Sarutobi gave up on the argument. Reaching into his desk, he withdrew an object before tossing it over to the Sage.

Catching it out of mid-air, Kouta looked down at the object, his brow raised in surprise as he looked down at the card in his hands, a card in a pouch with a small silver chain going through the top of it.

"That's a V.I.P pass." The Hokage explained as Kouta flipped the object in his hands. "That should help you get around the village until the next Council Meeting is arranged and I can instate you officially as a citizen and Shinobi of Konoha. I'll also alert the ANBU to your identity so there's no mistakes made."

Kouta laughed softly as he took the chain and put it over his head, leaving the pass dangle down onto the front of his robes as he answered "Thank you, I'd rather avoid being mistaken as a spy after all."

The old man chuckled in turn, adding "Be careful with it, I'll expect it to be returned after the meet, you wouldn't believe how much those passes would be worth in the wrong hands."

Kouta nodded in turn as he headed towards the door, asking "How much loner until the Academy lets Naruto out?"

Sarutobi glanced up at the clock to check the time, before answering "Assuming he hasn't tried to skip classes, I'd say it won't be for at least another three hours. I would advise you use this time to scout around the village, get used to any of the changes since the last time you came here."

With an affirmative nod, Kouta stepped out the door and left Sarutobi leaning tiredly in his chair. The old man was about to reach into his desk to retrieve his pipe again, before his eye caught the massive stack of paperwork that he had put off during the time the Sage had been talking with him. With a loud groan, the Hokage grudgingly got started on the one task he hated worst in the whole village.

Chapter over! Hope you guys enjoyed reading this! Now, if your curious, the item that Naruto used was a specialised sealing object, designed to hold a highly pressurised amount of chakra infused water, kinda alike that scroll Shikamaru used against Kakuzu in Part 2, but much smaller. By timing crushing it with the same time he uses the technique, Naruto can expel the water akin to using the real technique like Darui can. The reason why is because Suijinheki is a powerful B rank water manipulation technique that normally uses the water in the environment as a shield. However, in the case of extremely skilled and powerful users (Say a Kekkei Genkai user who is subsequently the right hand man of the Raikage, or say the Nidaime Hokage himself) they can use the technique by manipulating the water in either their body (Darui) or by condensing water in the air (Nidaime). However there is no way in hell I would depict Naruto at being near that stage, as such the Mizu orb is a tool created by a certain person to aid Naruto in using the technique where there isn't water for him to adequetly use. I'll go into more depth about Naruto's additional equipment later on.

I've also decided to give Kouta some new abilities. Previously I was going to make him a pure Kenjutsu/Taijutsu user, however after reading several other stories i've gotten wrapped up by the idea of Fuinjutsu and I realised that it wouldn't be too far fetched for a well learned Sage to know it. Considering Koutas personality, it would be fitting to make him able to use Fuuinjutsu as well. Another ability he will have will be the Healing Jutsu which Medical Nin use, but in a more rudimentary form (able to heal injuries and wounds up to broken bones, but unable to do complex procedures like Tsunade or Sakura in part 2 could). I've decided that he won't have the ability to use Nature Manipulation techniques, but he will learn Kage Bunshin in a later part of the series since it's practically suicide to go throughout Part 2 without a realistic clone jutsu.

Hopefully this won't be God Modding Kouta, but if anybody has any objections to this plan then please let me know, I just wanted to make sure he can at least handle himself since he lacked any jutsu outside of the starter three. It will also make things much more fun to have a Fuuinjutsu-ist from the get go in the story, lets me experiment a little XP.

Anyhow, that's all for now, review and subsribe if you like, your feedback gives me energy to keep writing! Seeya all next time!

(1) I'm fully aware *Ki* is probably the wrong term, but I wanted to simulate an effect like killing intent without actual killing feeling, just that of power or presence, but I didn't want to use the term Chakra either. Kiai is possibly a more accurate term to use considering the series, but for the sake of ease, unless it's real Killing Intent, I'll use the phrase *Ki*. If you guys know a more accurate phrase, then please share!