Disclaimer: The Naruto universe doesn't belong to me, it all belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and whoever he deems worthy of owning a piece of his creation.

"Urgh," Naruto groaned as he rolled over on his futon. The last twenty-four hours had been a blur to the blonde; dealing with Gatou's samurai wannabe thugs, racing to Tazuna's bridge to catch up with the rest of his team, leapt into an enemies' jutsu to save Sasuke, see Sasuke seemingly killed, using the Kyubi's chakra to break free and finding out that his opponent was Haku, seeing Haku killed by Kakashi-sensei, then Gatou showing up with his thugs. Zabuza then sacrificing himself to decimate Gatou's thugs and kill Gatou himself, and finally Sakura calling out that Sasuke was alive.

However, instead of getting a restful sleep, Naruto's rest was bombarded by image that he had no memory of. He saw dozens of unfamiliar ninja in a barren, rocky wasteland; somehow he knew that the hitai-ate's on the ninja's foreheads were that of Iwa. Whispers of 'Kiiroi Senkō' filtered through his ears. The scene changed to a familiar training ground where he seemed to be sparring against a boy his own age but with gravity defying silver hair with half his face hidden by a mask. Naruto thought that this kid looked like a chibi Kakashi.

'Is this the future?' he thought.

The dream changed once more to a sight that Naruto instantly recognized. He 'stood' overlooking the village, from the top of the Yondaime's head, and saw the Kyubi wreaking havoc on the village. The massive demon fox looked up and spotted Naruto. In a voice unlike his own, Naruto said, "So you've spotted me already?"

Naruto watched as the Kyubi created a massive ball of chakra and fired it. The massive ball of chakra sped across the ground toward the Hokage Monument Pulling a kunai from his pouch, Naruto held it out in front of him. The Bijūdama was suddenly sucked into a void that had appeared in front of Naruto.

'How?' Naruto thought.

The scene shifted once more and Naruto found himself in a very ornate temple wearing very fancy robes. Naruto looked up and felt his jaw drop. An extraordinarily beautiful redheaded woman with light violet eyes was walking down the aisle wearing a white kimono that offset her hair and tanned skin wonderfully.

"Do you Namikaze Minato take this woman, Uzumaki Kushina, to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

Naruto blinked. 'Who? And why does she have the same last name as me?'

The scene faded out again, this time Naruto was in a dark room thought it was slightly illuminated by candles. From what Naruto could see, someone was sitting astride him. Flashes of red and cream could be made out as well as pants and moans could be heard.

"Oh Mina-kun, yes, that's it," a breathless female voice was heard above him.

"Kushina-chan, you're so beautiful," Naruto gasped as he felt a pressure build up in his stomach. "I could barely think when I saw…"

"Enough talking and do me!" Kushina growled. Naruto felt something tighten around him, something warm and wet. The pressure in his stomach flared.

"Oh Kushina, I'm coming!" Naruto cried as he bucked his hips.

"Yes Mina-kun, do it inside me!" Kushina wailed. Naruto gasped as he felt the pressure give way, and white-hot pleasure course through him.

Naruto opened his eyes trying to rid himself of the final images but the breathy moans and cries of this Kushina wouldn't go away. Blood gushed from his nose and splattered against the door while Naruto fell back into the welcoming embrace of unconsciousness. A moment later, the door opened to revel a pink haired girl wearing a red dress. She spotted Naruto lying on the futon, blood dripping from his nose and a lecherous grin on his face.

"Pervert," Sakura growled before slamming the door behind her.

================================================Scene Break===================================================

The next morning Team 7 was all set to head back to Konoha. Of course, Inari was struggling not to cry as he wailed about losing his big brother. The townspeople had come to see them off as well, calling them a 'Team of Heroes'. Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke were quite surprised as the fact that when Tazuna announced the name of the completed bridge that Naruto hadn't started jumping and down and acting like a child. Instead, Naruto seemed to shrink in on himself, blushing furiously and looking down at the ground. It was most unlike the blonde hyperactive ninja that they knew.

"All right you three, we better get going if we want to make it back to the village by nightfall," said Kakashi. Sasuke just grunted while Sakura looked on adorningly. Naruto nodded and turned away from the villagers.

"Naruto-ani!" Inari shouted causing Naruto to look over his shoulder. "Don't worry about the village, I promise you that I'll become strong and protect it with both arms," the young boy declared before making the same gesture that his stepfather had. Naruto gave the younger boy a soft grin.

"I have faith in you Inari, I know that you will keep your promise," the blonde said. "I'll see you around ok?"

Inari had to wipe his eyes quickly but gave Naruto a broad smile. "Believe it!" he cried. Naruto nodded before joining his team in setting off.

As Team 7 leapt through the forest, Naruto's mind was racing, it seemed to be filled with memories that Naruto had know recollection of, he could see himself performing jutsus that Naruto certainly had no knowledge of. Looking up, Naruto had to blink rapidly. The image of a silver haired boy wearing blue facemask and a sword strapped to his back wavered then vanished, being replaced by the back of Kakashi-sensei. Turning to his right, Naruto once again had to rub his eyes, as another hazy figure seemed to overlap over Sasuke. This boy was wearing a similar dark jumpsuit to Sasuke but had short hair and was wearing goggles much like Naruto used too.

'Obito?' Naruto thought, though he had no clue where the name Obito came from. Naruto quickly turned toward his female teammate and closed his eyes tightly when instead of Sakura, he saw a dark haired girl with two purple rectangles on her cheeks.

'Rin?'

Again, Naruto had no clue where the name Rin came from but he somehow recognized the figure.

"Naruto, what the hell are you doing?" a sharp voice snapped out, drawing Naruto from his thoughts. Looking up, he saw Sakura glaring back at him. "Hurry up you idiot or you're going to be left behind."

Shaking his head, Naruto channeled some chakra into his legs and leapt off the branch that he had stopped on. He quickly caught up with his team and settled back into formation. However every time he blinked, Naruto felt as if his hands were twitching to perform some sort of jutsu. In his head, Naruto somehow now knew the hand sign chains for all the jutsus: Shuriken Kage Bunshin, Kunai Kage Bunshin, Kirigakure no Jutsu, Suiton: Hahonryū, Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu, Suiton: Mizurappa, Raiton: Gain, Raiton: Jibashi and several others. One jutsu that really stuck out in his 'memory' was something called the Rasengan. 'Now that looks really kick ass!' Naruto thought.

Looking back ahead, Naruto pondered whether or not to tell Kakashi about this new 'knowledge' but then thought better of it. A feeling of disappointment welled up within Naruto, though the blonde had no clue as to why. 'Why should I? What really has Kakashi taught us? Aside from tree walking.'

A new string of 'memories' flashed through Naruto's head. He saw a miniature Kakashi watching on as Obito and Rin struggled to preform the chakra control exercise. "All right that's enough for today you two," Naruto felt himself say. "Now it's time for taijutsu practice."

Obito and Rin leapt down from their trees and walked over to where Naruto and Kakashi were sitting. "Hey Minato-sensei, can I fight Kakashi-teme today? I know that I can beat him!" Obito asked.

Naruto had to stifle a chuckle at the young Uchiha's excitement. "Perhaps later Obito but first you and Kakashi will watch me and Rin-chan."

"All right sensei," Obito whined.

"As if you could beat me anyway," Kakashi scoffed.

"What did you say!" Obito shouted.

'Wow, Kakashi seemed to be just like Sasuke, such a bastard,' Naruto thought. 'I mean, I know that I consider Sasuke a rival and I want to surpass him but I think our rivalry is a lot fiercer than Kakashi and Obito's. And it seems that their sensei actually paid attention to them, instead of reading porn and being three hours late.'

'Look at our team and Kakashi's own, Sasuke is an arrogant brat who thinks that he is all that, even though I know that this mission was a wake up call for him, no longer the big fish in the small pond eh Sasuke,' Naruto thought. 'Sakura is a unfit to be a ninja at the moment, all she cares about is Sasuke. Rin was never like that, she might have had a crush on Kakashi but she focused on the mission first. Me and Obito are similar that's for sure.'

'And Kakashi-sensei isn't doing anything to change us, it's honestly a miracle that we survived that mission,' Naruto thought. 'What have I been doing? I have just been expecting Kakashi to come to me with jutsus and training and easy ways to get stronger not asking for his help. I need to get stronger and sitting back and waiting isn't going to make me get any stronger.'

Team 7 reached the village gates just as the sun was setting behind the Hokage Monument. Naruto looked up and saw the four faces of the Hokage looking out over the village. 'That's the face of that Minato guy? But that's the Fourth Hokage! Why in Kami's name am I seeing memories through the Fourth Hokage's eyes?'

"Come on you three, the Hokage will want to see us," Kakashi said. "Once we have been dismissed, we'll meet at Training Ground 7 the day after tomorrow."

"Ah Team 7, welcome home," the Third Hokage said warmly as the group entered the Hokage's office. "It seems that your mission went longer than you expected, how did you all enjoy your first C-rank mission?"

The room was awkwardly silent for a moment, as Hiruzen examined the three genin before him. "Kakashi, your report?"

"Hai Hokage-sama," Kakashi said. "The mission to escort the bridge builder Tazuna was successful but the client Tazuna lied about the details regarding the level of his mission request."

"Oh? Explain," Hiruzen ordered.

"On our way to the border we were attacked by the missing nin duo known as the Demon Brothers," Kakashi said. "I felt it wise to trick them into believing that they had ambushed us, to discover what their true objective was. Genin Uchiha was able to fend off the pair for a moment while I ascertained their target then I returned to the group and took care of the pair."

"And their target was?" Hiruzen asked, his voice deepening.

"Their target was the bridge builder Tazuna," Kakashi said. "It seems that the CEO of the Gatou Corporation, Gatou Monji, had managed to put a stranglehold on the Wave country. And he had hired ninja to eliminate Tazuna as the man's bridge the only thing keeping Gatou from having a true chokehold on the country. After discovering that Tazuna had lied to us about the mission parameters, I discussed the situation with my genin and then continued on with the mission."

"You decided to continue with a mission that was obviously outside of your genins' capabilities," Hiruzen snapped. "Just the presence alone of the Demon Brothers brought the mission up to a B-rank!"

"I felt confident that I could handle what was coming, and all three of the genin decided to continue the mission," Kakashi said, though he could feel a bead of sweat beginning to trickle down his back at the heavy glare that his commander was giving him.

"Don't blame Kakashi-sensei jiji," Naruto piped up. "We all decided to keep going and help Tazuna-san."

"Be that as it may Naruto, your sensei should have known better than to continue on," Hiruzen said sharply. "Continue Hatake!"

"Yes sir, as we reached the Wave country, we found ourselves facing Zabuza Momochi…"

"What!" the aged Hokage's voice boomed out, causing the three genin to flinch and Kakashi to rub the back of his head sheepishly.

"With the help of genin Uzumaki and Uchiha, I was able to defeat Zabuza though he was able to escape with the help of his apprentice who we thought was a Kiri hunter-nin," Kakashi said. "After recovering from chakra exhaustion, I then trained my team for a week, as I surmised that Zabuza would need at least a week to recover from his injuries."

"And what did you train Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke in?" the Hokage asked.

"Tree climbing," Kakashi answered, knowing that the Hokage wouldn't be happy with that answer. And Kakashi was right.

"How long have you had your team Kakashi?" Hiruzen asked.

"Six weeks," Kakashi answered.

"And you only just now have taught them tree walking, a basic chakra control exercise that all other genin know two weeks outside of the Academy! What have you been teaching them Kakashi!?"

"Teamwork and formations," Kakashi said. Hiruzen rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Kakashi, we will be having a long discussion on your teaching methods," the Hokage said. "But since you four have returned, I am to surmise that everything worked out in the end."

"Yes Hokage-sama," Kakashi said. He then gave the rest of his report, leaving out Naruto's Kyubi episode, though the Hokage knew that Kakashi was still leaving something out.

"All right, Team 7 you are dismissed, Kakashi stay behind, we will be having words," Hiruzen ordered. Sasuke and Sakura quickly left the office, Naruto trailing behind them. As he was leaving, Naruto looked up and saw the portraits of the former Hokage. The picture of the Fourth Hokage caught Naruto's eye and made him freeze.

'Minato, I'm sorry I took up all your time,' a pained female voice filled Naruto's ears.

'It's ok Kushina, Naruto, listen to your motor-mouth mother,' a man's voice, weak and watery, added. 'Find a dream and don't stop until you've achieved it. We believe in you son.'

"Naruto, are you all right?" Hiruzen asked. Naruto blinked.

"I'm ok jiji," Naruto answered. "Just zoned out there. Kakashi-sensei, what was your sensei's name?" he asked.

"Minato," Kakashi answered. Naruto nodded slowly as the pieces began to fall together.

"I will see you at training the day after tomorrow," Naruto said. "Jiji."

"See you then Naruto-kun," Kakashi said. The blonde nodded to the Hokage before leaving the office. Kakashi turned to the Hokage.

"Sir, during the battle on the bridge, Naruto managed to access its chakra," Kakashi said.

"How?"

"It seems that during the battle, Sasuke took a hit that was meant for Naruto, and Naruto thought that Sasuke was dead and grew enraged," Kakashi said. "And ever since waking up, Naruto has been different."

"Different, how?"

"He has been quiet, and we have constantly had to regain his attention," Kakashi said. "Is it possible that something happened to the seal?"

"I do not know, I will recall Jiraiya," Hiruzen said. "I wanted him to return in time for the Chunin Exams."

"Oh those are approaching quickly," Kakashi said.

"You do know that your team will be expected to compete," Hiruzen commented. "And I might agree, this graduating class is made up nearly exclusively of clan heirs and it would look good for the village if they competed."

"Have you told the others?" Kakashi asked.

"No, I am leaving the decision up to you three but something is stirring in the leaves," the Hokage said as he packed his pipe and lit it with a Katon jutsu. "I fear that something is quickly approaching our village and it does not bode well for the Will of Fire. Train your team Kakashi for the next week, hard. I want them ready even if you do not nominate them."

"Hai," Kakashi said. "By your leave sir." Hiruzen nodded and Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke.

==============================================Scene Break=======================================================

Naruto arrived at the front door to his apartment as if on autopilot. Withdrawing the key from his kunai pouch, Naruto unlocked the door and let himself in. Absently flicking on the lights, Naruto trudged his way through the ramen containers and dirty clothes to his bedroom. 'I'll clean it up in the morning,' Naruto thought. The blonde barely made it to his bed, shucking his jacket aside, before collapsing on the mattress and falling asleep.

"Where am I?" Naruto asked out loud as he looked around his surroundings. He seemed to be in the bowels of an enormous sewer with a faulty drain system. He was standing in ankle deep water. Naruto froze when a deep, rumbling chuckle echoed down the tunnel. Slowly Naruto made his way down the tunnel until he came upon a massive room with dozens of pipes leading up into a ceiling shrouded in darkness.

"So my jailer has finally deemed me worthy with his presence," a deep, dark voice boomed out from the shadows. Naruto shivered at the voice's malice-filled laugh. Naruto froze once more when he saw two massive red, silted eyes staring out of the darkness at him.

"Who…who are you?" Naruto stammered.

"You know who I am boy," the voice chuckled darkly.

"Where am I?" Naruto asked.

"We are in your mindscape."

"Why am I here?

"I brought you here boy."

"Wait, you are the Kyubi!" Naruto realized. Out of the gloom came the massive jaw and fangs of the Kyubi no Kitsune. "Why did you bring me here? And how did you?"

"I brought you here because something has changed in this seal," the fox growled. Naruto looked up and saw that a large piece of paper with dozens of symbols written on it.

CLANG!

Naruto leapt backward as the fox surged forward, slamming into the bars. The seal and bars glowed blue before the fox was pushed backward.

"Are you afraid boy? You should be, because I will get out of this seal and devour you," the Kyubi snarled.

"You killed my parents didn't you? That's who that blonde and redhead I've been seeing in my dreams, memories or whatever," Naruto asked.

"Of course I did, that damnable Fourth Hokage and that woman," the fox growled, malice dripping from his tone. "They were your parents. Do you hate me?"

"Yes," Naruto snarled. "If it wasn't for you, my parents wouldn't be dead, I wouldn't be hated by nearly the entire village. If it wasn't for you…"

"Do not blame me for your misery boy, I smelt a chance for freedom when I was wrenched from your mother's cursed seal and I took it. If it wasn't for your damnable father or that man's Sharingan, I wouldn't be stuck inside you."

"You said something had changed with the seal, what did you mean?" Naruto asked, filing away the fact that the Kyubi mentioned the Sharingan as well as being sealed in his mother for later.

"I do not know boy!" the fox snarled, barring its fangs. "I don't wish to know what goes on in you human's head but I no longer sense a pair of presences in the seal. I haven't since you called upon my chakra back in the Wave."

"Whatever fox, I hope I never see you again," Naruto growled. "Now how the hell do I get out of here?"

"It's your mind brat, you control it, figure it out for yourself," the fox snarled. Naruto glared at the fox as it receded back into the shadows of the cage.

Naruto slowly opened his eyes, and saw the worn darkened white ceiling of his bedroom. Robotically, Naruto rose from his bed, knowing that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Pulling on a pair of sweats and a thin shirt, Naruto left his apartment and made his way to his favorite thinking spot, the top of the Fourth Hokage's head.

Naruto didn't met a single soul on his way to the Hokage Monument and felt a sense of peace wash over him as he sat down on top of the Fourth Hokage's head.

"Why?" he whispered. "Why did he pick me?"

"Minato couldn't force another family to give up their child if he wasn't willing to do the same," Hiruzen's soft voice filled with regret answered Naruto's whispered question. Naruto turned to see the elder Kage watching him. "Perhaps we should continue this talk in my office?"

Naruto nodded and stood up and walked over to the elder Kage. Hiruzen placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder and in a swirl of leaves, the pair vanished from the top of the monument.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Naruto asked when the duo had returned to the Hokage's office.

"How?" Hiruzen asked. "How could I tell you that you were the son of the Fourth Hokage? How was I supposed to tell you that your parents were two of the greatest heroes that this village has ever or will ever know? Your parents had many enemies both in and out of the village, and I decided that it would be safer for you that no one know your heritage."

"Do you have any idea how much pain you've caused me jiji?" Naruto shouted. "Thinking that my parents abandoned me! You would only tell me that they died fighting the fox, you were the only one in the entire village who said anything like that. Everyone else would just say that my parents abandoned me because I wasn't worthy of having parents!"

Naruto, who had tears streaming down his cheeks, looked up at his grandfather figure who had gone stock still and pale faced in anger. The young blonde could feel the beginnings of Hiruzen's KI seeping out from the older man's control. Hiruzen noticed that Naruto had stopped screaming and was now looking slightly scared. With a deep breath, Hiruzen reigned in his growing anger and turned back to the young blonde that was a grandson to him.

"Naruto-kun, I apologize," Hiruzen said. "I know that you don't wish to hear that but that is all I can do."

Naruto wiped his eyes. "I know jiji," he muttered. "I know that you did as much as you could but it is going to take me a long time before I can even think of forgiving you or the village for what you've all done to me. And I will never forget it either."

The Sandaime Hokage felt his advanced age at the young blonde's words. "I can understand why you feel that way Naruto-kun," he said. "If I was in your position, I don't think I would be able to stand up as well as you have. You are the strongest person I know Naruto-kun, your parents would be extremely proud of you right now, I am."

Naruto nodded. "Hey jiji, do you have any idea what a chakra affinity is?"

"That's quite an interesting change of subject Naruto-kun," the Hokage chuckled. "Why would you want to know about such an advanced subject? Normally one doesn't begin training in their affinity until they are at least a Chunin."

"But Sasuke-teme can shoot those awesome fireballs and Kakashi-sensei has that sweet lightning hand thing."

Hiruzen chuckled at the enthusiastic Naruto. "Very well Naruto-kun," he said. "A person normally has a chakra element that they are naturally tuned toward. You know what the five elements are, correct?" Naruto nodded. Hiruzen strode over to his desk and opened a drawer.

"What are you looking for?" Naruto asked.

"Ah, here it is," Hiruzen said, standing up and showing Naruto what he was holding. It was a small piece of paper.

"What's that?"

"This, Naruto-kun, is chakra paper," Hiruzen said. "You just channel a small amount of chakra into it and it revels your chakra affinity. If the paper gets set on fire, you have a Katon affinity, if it gets wet, Suiton, crumbles, Doton, splits, Futon and crinkles, you have a Raiton affinity. Now of course that doesn't mean you can't learn jutsus that are not of your affinity, it just will be more difficult to learn those jutsus. Jutsus of your natural affinity will cost less chakra to use and will usually be more powerful. Do you understand?"

Naruto nodded rapidly, even though he already knew what Hiruzen had told him somehow. A voice in his head, not the fox's, had sprung up and explained the test, an unfamiliar face, a face that was framed by long white hair and had two red lines of make-up on his cheeks appeared in Naruto's mind's eye with the voice.

"Go ahead Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said, holding the piece of paper out for Naruto to take. The blonde did so and channeled a small amount of chakra. The paper spilt down the middle, one side turned wet while the other crinkled in on itself.

'Three affinities! And at such a young age,' Hiruzen thought. 'His father had Futon and Kushina-chan had Suiton, but for Naruto-kun to have both and Raiton as well is certainly a surprise.' "Well Naruto-kun, congratulations," the Hokage said. "You certainly are living up to your reputation of being the most unpredictable ninja." Hiruzen made his way back to his desk and opened another drawer and withdrew three scrolls.

"Here you are Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said handing over the three scrolls.

"What are these?" the blonde asked.

"They are scrolls on elemental manipulation for your three affinities," Hiruzen said with a soft smile. "They contain the exercises for Suiton, Raiton and Futon manipulation. I am sure that you will find them quite useful in learning to control your chakra."

"Thank you Hokage-sama," Naruto said, cradling the three scrolls as if they were newborn babes.

"Now off to bed with you Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said. "You will need to get some sleep to recover your strength for tomorrow. I am sure that Kakashi will be quite surprised when he learns that you have three affinities."

The Hokage must have noticed something in Naruto's face because he then asked. "What's the matter Naruto-kun?"

"Kakashi-sensei hasn't really been paying attention to us, well me and Sakura-chan, he mainly focuses on Sasuke," Naruto admitted. Hiruzen's face grew hard.

"I will be having a discussion with Kakashi in the morning about his training methods," the Hokage said. "I think when you meet with him tomorrow, he will have a different outlook when training you all."

Naruto nodded. He tried to stifle a yawn but the aged Hokage caught it.

"Off to bed with you Naruto-kun," Hiruzen chuckled warmly.

"Night jiji," Naruto said as he turned toward the door.

"Good night Naruto-kun," Hiruzen said. When the door to his office closed, Hiruzen sat heavily down at his desk and leaned back. "Minato, Kushina, you would be so proud of your son," he said. "And you would also string me up by my toes for what I have done. I have failed your son, and I know that when I meet you two again you both will be taking out your pound of flesh. But I swear with all the life that is left in my body, I will see that Naruto will become the hero that you both knew that he would grow to become. Then perhaps Kushina-chan, you won't kill me again." Hiruzen shivered as a cold wind blew through the office.

=============================================Scene Break========================================================

Naruto arrived at Training Ground 7 just before the team's scheduled meeting time of 7am. He knew that Kakashi would arrive at least two hours late but Naruto couldn't fall back asleep so he decided to just make his way to the Training Ground. Neither Sakura nor Sasuke were there when Naruto reached the Training Ground. He sat at the base of the same post that he had been tied too when they first became a team. Opening the Futon scroll, Naruto began to read.

"Naruto, Naruto, NARUTO!" Sakura's voice slammed into Naruto's ears.

"AH!" Naruto jumped, landing on top of the post with a kunai drawn and raised. Blinking, he realized that Sakura and Sasuke were looking at him like he was nuts. "What the hell Sakura? Why'd you yell in my ear?"

"You wouldn't answer me baka," Sakura snapped. "I've been calling your name for like a minute now, and you didn't answer. What are you reading?"

"Nothing, just some jutsu scrolls," Naruto answered quickly. He gathered up the journal and sealed it back in Kushina's scroll.

"You were reading?" Sasuke scoffed. "I didn't know that a dobe like you could read."

Naruto growled deeply and tightly gripped his kunai, wanting to slash the blade through Sasuke's chest. 'A ninja must always remain in control of their emotions,' Naruto heard his father's voice whisper in his head. 'Don't get mad, get even,' a second voice brought Naruto's head up. A grin crossed Naruto's mouth as he recognized his mother's voice, and how similar they seemed if she would say something like that. Stowing the kunai, Naruto stood up and stretched, groaning in relief as several bones, tendons and ligaments popped. Sakura turned away in disgust.

"Why are we even here if we know that Kakashi-sensei isn't going to be here for another two or so hours?" Naruto asked.

"We don't know that baka," Sakura snapped. "We could show up late and Kakashi-sensei could be waiting for us."

'Who would have thought that Kakashi would have taken up Obito's excuses,' Naruto thought. "Come on Sakura, Kakashi-sensei has never been on time for any of our meetings, aside from when we first left for the Wave," Naruto said. "Why don't we do some training while we wait?"

"You're going to need all the training you can get dobe," Sasuke sneered. "But I could use a warm up, let's see if you can even land a blow."

Naruto breathed in deeply through his nose, trying to calm himself down as well as drown out Sakura's shouting out encouragement for Sasuke. Naruto saw Sasuke take the opening stance of his family's Interceptor Style. A hazy image floated in front of Sasuke, a boy Sasuke's age wearing a blue jumpsuit trimmed with orange and goggles with orange lenses and ear protectors. Sasuke noticed Naruto starring off into space and surged forward, fist raised to nail Naruto across the face. However, as Sasuke's fist rocketed toward Naruto's face, the blonde hair boy's eyes snapped back to attention and his right hand came up and slapped Sasuke's fist aside. Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise as he struggled to keep his balance, he hadn't expected Naruto to block his opening salvo.

Naruto slid behind Sasuke and aimed a strike at Sasuke's back. Sasuke used his forward momentum to plant his hands on the ground and then whipped his legs around in a spin kick. Naruto ducked under Sasuke's kick and used a sweep kick to knock Sasuke's arms out from under him. Sasuke rolled forward, landing on his feet and spinning around, eyes wide.

"Looks like the first point goes to me eh Sasuke," Naruto said as he settled into a stance that he had never used but it felt as natural as breathing.

"What stance is that?" Sasuke asked.

"Not sure," Naruto shrugged. "But it feels right if you can understand that. I'm sure that you practiced your family's katas enough that it became effortless."

Sasuke nodded, he could easily relate to what Naruto was saying. He had always believed that in order to be successful as a ninja, you couldn't worry about remembering your katas or hand seals. So to combat this, Sasuke practiced endlessly on memorizing his family's taijutsu style's katas until he could perform them without even thinking.

Naruto darted forward; Sasuke activated his Sharingan on reflex as he ducked under a punch from Naruto. The Uchiha heir launched his own punch at Naruto's midsection. He connected but it wasn't the solid blow that Sasuke was hoping for. Naruto saw that he wasn't going to be able to dodge Sasuke's strike fully, so he angled his body so that instead of Sasuke's fist knocking him directly in the sternum, most likely a staggering blow, Sasuke's blow only clipped Naruto's side. It stung but Naruto just shrugged the pain aside. Naruto stepped inside Sasuke's outstretched guard and landed several quick blows. None looked very strong but Sasuke leapt backward clutching his left arm and side, a frown marring his normally stoic face.

"How are you doing this?" Sasuke demanded.

"I don't know," Naruto said. "I'm just doing what comes naturally."

"What's going on here?" a stern, yet somewhat amused voice asked from the edge of the sparring circle.

"So you decided to show up Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto quipped. "And just when it was getting good."

"Kakashi-sensei! You're late!" Sakura screamed, pointing a finger at the silver haired man, who scratched the back of his head in an embarrassed fashion.

"Sorry, I had to stop and help an old lady take her groceries home and then a black cat crossed my path so I had to run twice around the village, you know bad luck and all that," Kakashi said. Sasuke and Sakura groaned at the terrible excuse from Kakashi while Naruto chuckled warmly.

'Kakashi with Obito's personality, that's going to take some getting used too,' Naruto thought. He shook his head, tossing aside his thoughts that were melding with his father's. 'Tou-san said that he would put some of his and kaa-san's chakra in the seal for some reason, I wonder if when I used the Kyubi's chakra in Nami, the seal activated and something happened cause the seal to absorb their chakra into me. It would sort of explain why I was dreaming about my parents from their points of view, and how I have any idea what I'm talking about,' Naruto thought.

"So Kakashi-sensei, what are we going to do today?" Sakura asked. "Not more D-rank missions I hope?"

"No," Kakashi said. "Hokage-sama has decided to give our team a week off from missions since our last one was upgraded from a C-rank to an A-rank. So today we will be expanding on what you were taught in Nami."

"Tree climbing?" Naruto asked.

"Correct."

"But we already know how to climb trees with our chakra," Sakura whined.

"That might be true but you haven't mastered it," Kakashi said. "You have only mastered this exercise when you can stay attached to a vertical surface for three hours straight or are able to fight on a vertical surface without having to think about channeling chakra. So you three know the drill, get to it."

Sakura and Naruto groaned while Sasuke sneered but the trio of genin made their way over to the group of trees that lined the sparring circle. Slowly, Naruto made his way up his tree focusing on completing the exercise correctly rather than getting it done first. He knew that his amount of chakra dwarfed Sasuke's; even Kakashi's chakra level was barely a third of Naruto's chakra level. Naruto was confident that he would outlast the other members of his team, so he solely focused on sticking to the tree upside down for as long as possible as well as walking on a high branch. He figured that having the blood rush to your head was a good deterrent to concentrating, and made the exercise harder.

Kakashi watched from his perch in a nearby tree, his cute little genin might think that he wasn't paying attention to them and only reading his Icha Icha, but Kakashi was actually watching the team. When he arrived, only twenty minutes late a new record, Kakashi was stunned to see that Naruto and Sasuke sparring. Well maybe not that surprised at the fact that they were fighting, but that Naruto was winning was the surprise. As well as taijutsu stance that the blonde had been using, it looked like a cross between Minato-sensei's style and Kushina-sensei's style. But that was impossible, Naruto had only known about his parents for one night, hadn't he?

"Kakashi-sensei, I can't go on," Sakura whined as she leapt down from her tree.

"All right Sakura, take a ten minute break but then you're going to do it again," Kakashi ordered much to the horror of the pink-haired kunoichi.

"But, but, but…"

"No buts Sakura," Kakashi said sharply. "You have the smallest chakra reserves of any of the recent graduates, and the only way to increase those reserves is too exhaust them each day and push past your limits. The main reason you have such perfect chakra control is because you have so little chakra."

Sakura began tearing up. Even her sensei thought she was weak.

"You're not weak Sakura," Kakashi interrupted her thought process. "You just don't have the shinobi lineage that Naruto and Sasuke does. So you will have to work harder than them to gain more chakra. Having such exceptional chakra control is a boon for such a young shinobi; I think you'll be quite suited to genjutsu or medical ninjutsu, both of which require excellent chakra control. Who knows perhaps you could become the next Tsunade of the Sannin?"

"You really think so sensei?" Sakura gasped. She had read all about the legendary Senju Tsunade of the Sannin, granddaughter of the Shodaime Hokage, grandniece of the Nidaime Hokage, during the Academy.

"But you are going to have to work extremely hard Sakura," Kakashi said.

"Hey Kakashi-sensei, is there something else I can do?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked up and nearly fell out of his tree. Naruto was alternating from walking upside down on a high branch and hanging by his hands from that same branch.

"Naruto, how the hell are you doing that?" Sakura cried.

"Well, I know that I've got a whole bunch of chakra," Naruto explained. "And I knew that I would get too bored just hanging around, get it," the others groaned at the crappy pun, "Everyone's a critic, but I was trying to come up with ways to make this exercise harder, and then I figured if I had to keep changing where I was channeling my chakra it would force me to focus on controlling it and do it quickly."

Kakashi looked at his blonde student. 'That's pretty clever,' the silver haired jonin thought. 'By switching back and forth from channeling chakra to the soles of his feet and hands, he is splitting his concentration between two opposite places, which increases the difficulties of this exercise by quite a bit. Bravo Naruto.'

"Well then Naruto, why don't follow me," Kakashi said. "I think I have something that will keep you interested." Naruto released his hold on the branch and quickly fell to the ground, falling into a crouch as he landed to absorb the impact. Naruto jogged over to follow Kakashi, leaving Sakura looking confused and Sasuke fuming.

"So what now Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. "Are you going to teach me a badass jutsu or something?"

"Not quite," Kakashi chuckled. Despite the newfound maturity that Naruto seemed to possess, he was still Naruto. "This next exercise is still a chakra controlling one, it is the next step after tree walking."

"Water walking right?" Naruto asked. Kakashi looked at his student.

"How did you know that?" he asked.

"I'm not sure," Naruto said with a far away look. Inwardly, Naruto was cursing himself out. He didn't want anyone to know how he knew things that he had no business knowing, Naruto wanted an edge over his enemies. "I think I saw some jonin teaching his team a couple years ago, and I remembered you were walking on water during your fight against Zabuza."

Kakashi nodded, his curiosity sated but not satisfied. Naruto was displaying a maturity and perceptiveness that he hadn't shown in the Academy nor in the last few months as a member of Team 7.

"Yes my cute genin," Kakashi chuckled. "Water walking is much harder than tree walking, though the principles are pretty much the same. Water walking forces you to channel a constant amount of chakra to force a hardening of the water under your feet in order to stand on it, instead of channeling a fixed amount of chakra to 'stick' to the tree. Think you are up to it?"

"Of course Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto cried. "Believe it! I'll have this mastered in no time."

"Well then, I'll leave you to it," Kakashi grinned.

"Yosh!" Naruto saluted. Kakashi vanished in a puff of smoke as Naruto turned to face his new enemy, the lake that bordered Training Ground 7.

"Kakashi-sensei, where's Naruto?" Sakura asked when Kakashi returned to the clearing.

"He's over at the lake working on the next exercise," Kakashi said. "Once you two have mastered this one, you'll join him."

"How did Naruto manage to master this?" Sasuke growled. He didn't like the fact that the dobe was catching up to him, he was the Rookie of the Year, the strongest of their class and yet Naruto was working on an exercise that he wasn't. Gritting his teeth, Sasuke glared up at the tree and returned to the exercise.

A/N: Well there you have it, the first revised chapter of 'Naruto: Destiny's Worst Nightmare' formerly known as 'The Will of Three'. I have gone back to the beginning because I was not happy with the direction and execution of this story. I needed start from nearly scratch to make this story live up to the lofty expectations that I have for it, and make it more worthy of the 1K+ followers that it has garnered. Hopefully, the revised chapters will be up quickly but my muse and work schedule will be the deciding factors. Enjoy

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