11 11 The importance of the basics

I I I

Naruto laughed as the ANBU chasing him ran smack dab, face-first into a solid mud wall that had been disguised by a Veil to look like a continuation of the normal street.

Yes, it was to laugh for.

Submerging himself into a puddle (one of several made by smashing a water barrel - he'd learned from the mistake of the Demon Brothers) he let his pursuers pass by, then doubled back the way he'd come.

Suddenly having techniques, Naruto had felt the urge to use them, and you did not get better battle-like conditions without the threat of actual death than you did by having the ANBU chase you around the village for having used a creatively shaped Earth Style Wall technique to fashion an arm on the Hokage monument to have the beloved First Hokage picking his nose.

An Earth Flow River to reshape the Second's face so he was staring at his own golden prize in gleeful fascination, and the Third Hokage eating his own booger with a look of joy over the taste of it.

He'd even used those above techniques to give the Fourth Hokage two hands and sink his face palm-down into them over the other Hokages' antics.

No, life did not get much better than this.

Water surged up out of toilets to drench kunoichi and add them to the chase when the ANBU were not a sufficient challenge by themselves.

Laughing, Naruto took off running pell mell, chased by most of the kunoichi from the restroom, who in turn drew the ANBU back to following after him. Soon the group had him cornered, or at least so they'd thought, until the boy disappeared with a soft 'pop' and a puff of smoke.

Veins bulging they took off searching for the real one amid angry mutters about a Shadow Clone, and Naruto, who'd used a simple Body Switch to change places with one, joined the chase as just one more angry kunoichi while they all began running after a second Naruto clone.

A second later he was switching back with a copy to leave two of the ladies who'd once been teachers at the Academy submerged up to their necks in the dirt of the road, while he left other clones to doodle on their faces and play with their hairstyles.

By the time the massive chase group returned from their false hunt, those women had freakish hairstyles and were covered in scribbles down to their exposed necks - And this time Naruto was back among them, this time in disguise as Kakashi, and suggesting they all go and search the training grounds... where Naruto had previously set up multiple pie traps.

Yes, life really didn't get any better than this.

I I I

After outsmarting most of the village on a chase and pursuit game, Naruto was ready to try his techniques under more serious conditions. Namely, that of an actual test experience.

Yes, it was time to die facing Orochimaru again.

Among the many scrolls given as gifts to Sasuke that the Uchiha had never used was a treatise on the sealing arts, specifically, on how to create your own explosive tags.

And, well, that was just begging to be used!

Now Naruto didn't kid himself. He was nowhere near expert on any of his new skills. He hadn't even gotten all thirty of them to work yet, but it was past time for him to break loose and have a little fun.

Even, yes, by drawing the Snake Sannin into the Amazing Exploding Forest of DOOM! BWAHAHAHAHA!

It all failed miserably, of course, but that was the closest he'd ever gotten to actually giving the sannin anything close to a real workout. Besides, the army of Shadow Clones forming Earth Style Walls to block his attacks (until he'd started to use higher ranking techniques able to break through them) and others using Fireballs and Grand Fireballs to roast him, or attempt to do so, actually, had been really fun to orchestrate!

Orochimaru had cut lose with some real winners of his own there, too! That wind thing he'd done that practically leveled all before it was nice, although even so a substantial portion of his clones had survived by simply resorting to the Underground Move jutsu Kakashi had used on them in their first test as rookie genin!

Heck! They'd even gotten close enough to scratch one of Orochimaru's Mud Clones! Naruto considered that a major achievement!

Of course, they'd leveled several acres of forest to do it, but still! Those exploding tags had been useful after all!

He'd even pressed the guy hard enough to earn the right to be skewered on his sword. The sannin had never even bothered to pull it out before! The genin felt honored to have earned the right to die on it, seeing as how that marked a major improvement in his threat level, to have made the sannin resort to it!

No, it was the sort of thing he wanted to repeat, after he'd had a chance to more fully refine his mastery of those jutsu, and possibly learn the rest of the contents of Sasuke's private library!

After all, if he could do that much using rough and raw techniques, might he not do better once he'd gotten them more fully refined?

It was the sort of thing he had to know!

I I I

Naruto was high, walking on clouds. He had finally done it! He had learned some awesome techniques! Okay, he may still rank as a genin, but he felt more fully a chunin every day!

Why? Well, consider!

Iruka was a chunin focused on book learning, and now Naruto was just as well educated, if he didn't have a bit of an edge on his old teacher. So, in that one way he was qualified for the new rank.

His medical skills were... feh. Best not to mention them. But even though his practical abilities stank, and were only somewhat above Academy level, he still had some ability in that department when most of the chunin hopefuls he knew of did not! AND there was not just his practicals to consider! Sakura had graduated the ninja academy with the highest test scores in their year, and the worst of the practicals, evening out almost exactly in the middle. And, well, if the Uzumaki boy could rate such a test on his medical abilities right now he'd have similar results. The academics were all there, even if his practicals weren't.

If she'd rated genin rank for that, then maybe he deserved the same on his medical abilities. Just don't ask him to fix up anybody's wounds. But that still made him a genin-effective on a talent where most would rank a flat zero!

On seals, he had explosive tags and storage scrolls, both exceedingly useful mainstays of that professional specialty, and more than most of his grade could achieve.

That reminded him. He'd have to drop by Tenten later and see if he could teach her explosive tags. The mistress of thrown weapons could gain a useful addition to her arsenal if he could teach her that quickly, as a few kunai bearing tags mixed in among her usual barrages could add a significant punch to her already deadly style.

On martial arts... Okay, chunin was not the grade he'd grant himself on those being only a top rookie genin in effect. There were many among the hopefuls who were better, even if he did have throwing weapons at the same training level, while they generally had only the academy basics.

That wasn't something he could push up for now, so he wasn't going to worry about not being better, as he currently couldn't help it. At least with his fast healing and general toughness he was not so much of a pushover. Sure, he could be beaten, but at least he could give a credible fight before going down. And while there were stronger among the hopefuls, there were also many weaker than he.

Illusions? Well, while he didn't know many, what he had he used, some quite effectively. Call it another genin rank skill.

However, with his new skills from having read Sasuke's unwanted scrolls, he felt quite unashamed in proclaiming his ninjutsu abilities that of a solid chunin! Even a fairly flexible one!

The thing was, you add many of these genin level abilities together and you'd be looking at a chunin rank ninja, as the real genin were often pathetically specialized, having only one or two abilities at their grade, not six or seven!

Okay, Naruto didn't have seven yet either. Only four at genin grade and two at chunin. But two was enough to enter the grade, having earned it, and he was not about to stop acquiring specialties!

There was, for example, the extremely useful and yet previously neglected art of stealth. A priceless ability for ninja, and yet somehow left out of his academy education. Odd that. It made you wonder, why had they admitted him at all if they'd been so determined not to teach him?

But still, no use crying over spilled milk. There was a remedy for that. He had access to Sasuke's scrolls whenever he wanted them, and among them were the instruction manuals for the courses he'd missed, stealth among them.

Stealth specialists were highly useful to ninja villages, as those were the ones you relied on for certain things you didn't trust to other ninja. A combat specialist was useful for combating the enemy, but not so much for crossing his lines or delivering messages reliably.

Also, spying came into that field, which made the youth recall what Ibiki had said at the end of countless written tests so far - those examinations were not about seeing what kind of knowledge they'd crammed into their heads. The test questions were purposefully too hard for most to answer. No, the first test of the chunin exam was about their information gathering abilities.

And, well, that was another specialty that Naruto had been neglecting. Well, no more! Spying was something you just had to do sometimes, and if that was the case, he was going to be good at it!

A Hokage could not afford any weaknesses! And he was closer than ever before!

It was an amazing day to be alive for Naruto Uzumaki.

I I I

"I think we should split up," Sasuke decided.

An upside-down Naruto descended from above him, suspended by wires he was holding in his hands. "And I think that's a TERRIBLE idea! Look at Sakura, do you think there is any ninja in this forest who COULDN'T defeat her? For that matter, you aren't so hot yourself, big-shot."

He gave the prodigy an impudent grin before withdrawing on his wires.

"Naruto!" Sakura scolded, but couldn't put any real feeling into it, as he was right. Just about any ninja she'd ever met could... "How did you learn to work with wires?" she demanded.

Naruto's impudent laugh was her answer until the boy swung out of the trees to land on a branch above her, pulling a scroll out of his jacket to show it to her. "Here. The String Reeling technique, one of the most basic of the wire based techniques. It's useful to tie down and restrict opponents. If you're good enough you can even use the wires to assist in your own movement by swinging, rappelling and, once you're good enough, ascending. Kakashi used this once on Sasuke when he was a kid, and I've been learning it lately."

"Oh," Sakura sounded humbled by this demonstration, as she'd always based her confidence in her ninja skills on the fact that she'd always been better than Naruto.

Now that wasn't seeming to be the case any longer.

Naruto's grin widened. Sasuke hadn't so much as noticed the technique scroll as his own, taken from the Uchiha's apartment and a bundle of discarded newspaper left rolled up in its old dust jacket.

And yes, Kakashi had once used the technique to restrain Sasuke when he was a bratty kid, to get him to listen to something. And, as something of an apology, had sent him the scroll with the technique the next day, which the bastard had, to all appearances, been too proud to read.

That seemed to be a pattern between them.

For Naruto, though, it had been a doorway to whole new abilities, and not inconsiderable ones at that. When Sasuke angrily declared that he couldn't find another team to prey upon with his noisy teammates hanging around, and that they might as well make camp, Naruto strung trip and warning wires all around the place where they were going to be staying.

The Uchiha was busy pouting. He'd probably never forgive Naruto for having saved his life from Gaara by using an Earth Flow River to transform Gaara's sand to mud the instant before the Desert Demon was to have messily killed Konoha's pride and joy.

He'd even saved Sasuke's balls, which Naruto felt he was being particularly generous in doing.

No, having rescued the Uchiha, literally, from the grasp of death had earned him nothing more than increased brooding. Uchihas do not have to be rescued and Uchihas do not WANT to be rescued, and the Uchiha had it under control the whole time so why did you have to interfere?

Pathetic.

Whatever happened to Kakashi's lecture on teamwork? Oh, right, it only applied to Naruto, who had to support the teacher's favorite no matter how much of a pain he was being.

The next repeat after his discovery of those scrolls in Sasuke's apartment had Naruto teaching Gaara how to get the maximum amount of blood and pain out of one broody bastard.

Now he was thinking that might be due again, sometime soon.

Sakura's eyes widened in shock as Naruto sent over a hundred clones over the campsite to prepare the immediate area, some digging pits or rigging falling log traps, which she could at least understand, while others concealed small paper tags all across the zone. Her jaw finally fell wide open as the genin she'd always dismissed as useless fortified the entire area with traps and things she couldn't even understand.

Finally, when what she guessed was the original hopped down into a shallow yet wide pit in the center of this maze of death and raised a number of earth walls, then applied another technique that allowed one to control earth and stone to shape the whole thing into a dome, which he then crafted the outer appearance of to appear as simply another rock outcropping, of which there were many in this forest, she sidled over to Sasuke where he was brooding.

"Sasuke," she whispered, terrified. "I... I think this might not be our Naruto. He seems... AaiiEEEKK!"

The kunoichi had been flipped by her hair and pinned to the ground, a kunai held an inch from her eye by a grim faced Naruto, who then immediately released her, sheathing the weapon. "There. If I'd wanted you dead you'd be dead. And I saved Sasuke earlier, which means you both owe me your lives. Now shut up and let me work. If you knew anything about me you'd know that I have enemies who want me dead. This is a perfect opportunity for them, and I don't trust them to waste it. So get inside, the shelter's built. You'll be safe in there, at least I think so."

"Na... Naruto doesn't know any Earth jutsu." Sakura backed away from him, trembling.

Naruto rolled his eyes. Okay, he'd failed that 'act like myself' role pretty badly, but his attention was hardly on them, anyway. They were hardly the issue. No, he could tell something major was going to come stalking them soon, and in this forest at this time something major meant Orochimaru.

That meant he had to get the prey victims inside and under cover SOON!

"Yes, I do. And you know why? Because I know how to READ!" He slapped her in the face with the scroll on Earth techniques and while she was fumbling with that, grabbed her arm and force marched her into the hidden entrance of the concealed stone pillbox he'd constructed, two more clones bringing in the wire-bound Uchiha seconds later.

The entrance sealed with a resounding 'Boom!' felt by all inside, leaving them in total blackness, which got illuminated a moment later by a ball of white something held in Naruto's upraised hand.

"A camping jutsu, a very minor lightning technique, one used to provide light to read by so ninja could read notes or maps or things. I found it in a scroll I got from Hinata," he lied to Sakura before she could suspect him further.

The kunoichi nodded, still terrified and unconvinced. "Na... Naruto, what does Kakashi say is... is most important?" She tested him.

"Teamwork, but then he goes and shows that he doesn't believe what he says by leaving us all to wait for him while he wastes hours each morning, an action which says he's got no respect or liking for us."

Already a couple of clones had taken stacks of wood and laid a campfire, which another Naruto lit by snapping his fingers to create a flame on the end of one, which he then applied to the wood.

"Another camping technique," the original explained. "Here. Here is the scroll they're on." He tossed that to her casually. "They've got some really useful ones: The one to read by you already saw, and the one for lighting campfires and the like. There's also one for condensing water out of the air to fill your canteen, one using wind to erase tracks behind you, another wind one for dispersing smoke or disguising scents. Then you have an earth technique for softening the ground to make a pad to sleep on, which you can then reverse in the morning to eliminate traces of your camp, another earth technique for eliminating body wastes, dispersing them through a wide area of ground so they can't be used to track you, either."

The boy gave a careless shrug. "They're all very minor, but make life out in the wild safer and more comfortable. Though, if you were going to learn one, I'd pick the water one that lets you clean clothes or dishes, or give yourself a bath if you don't mind a harsh scrub by cold water. If we are out here a couple of days you'll need it."

There came a resounding boom from outside that was not caused by any of Naruto's copies, and he looked out toward the walls. "But I don't think we'll have the time. If that's who I think it is, then we're all going to die