10

Disclaimer: I own Naruto.

/~/

"When one test ends, another begins, Uzumaki Naruto," Tenzo spoke in monotone. "You won't succeed unless you come at me with the intent to kill."

Naruto spared the sentence one moment of thought, inwardly reflecting on how ludicrous the statement sounded, before reminding himself that this was a jonin. He likely wouldn't be able to kill the man anyway.

That wouldn't stop him from trying, however.

Tenzo fought back a slight smile as he watched his charge think on the task for a moment. At least he has some common sense, the ANBU thought with satisfaction. Many rookie genin would simply charge in without a thought, either paying the order no heed or so confident in their skills they thought they could actually lay a finger on their instructor. Kakashi had told him as much had happened with his squad.

The former Captain knew well that it took a ninja of a certain skill to even be able to lay a finger on him were he taking the test seriously, but, just as he was no normal jonin, Uzumaki Naruto was no normal genin.

He might even sweat a little.

Wind roared to life around the boy's blades as he charged at speeds beyond most his age. Tenzo gave a single nod at the tactic; Naruto correctly assumed that the little kunai trick he'd used earlier wouldn't work twice.

Full frontal, however, is too simple minded. The jonin unsheathed his assassin's blade in less time than it took to blink, bringing the ninja-to to bear in a strike that would relieve Naruto of his head.

The genin didn't disappoint.

Showcasing his agility, Naruto came to an abrupt halt just outside the radius of Tenzo's slash, pivoting on his right foot and channeling latent momentum and chakra into a burst of speed that sent him sprinting around his new sensei in a perfect circle.

Ah, Goken, Tenzo thought. The distinctive tactic was first developed by the renowned taijutsu master Maito Gai, though the style's creator rarely ever used the technique anymore. He was beyond such simple maneuvers.

His students, however…

The idea was to use pure speed to limit the enemy's sight, the sheer quickness causing the user of the technique to blur to an indistinguishable shape. With the enemy's attention split between trying to see the user, as well as trying to predict where the strike would come from, the Goken user would strike.

Tenzo re-sheathed his blade in the exact amount of time it had taken to draw, bringing his arms up almost level with his eyes, elbows pointed outward and his center of mass lowered in what could only be described as a defensive stance.

It wasn't a moment too soon, as Naruto came hurtling out of his circle directly behind the jonin, right foot poised and body coiling into a perfect trademark Konoha Senpu.

Tenzo rotated quickly, the upper part of his left arm catching the brunt of the powerful kick, hardened muscles unyielding under Naruto's assault. An involuntary wince escaped his emotionless demeanor even so; the boy kicked hard.

Such a thing wasn't about to stop him, however, as he lashed out with a lightning fast right handed jab. Naruto just barely avoided it by leaning his head to the side, but the genin paid it no heed, striking with dual cross slashes of his knuckle knives as his wind chakra screamed.

Tenzo leaned back to avoid the first, but had to duck under the second to avoid having his head sliced off. The jonin used his lowered position to ram his shoulder into Naruto, the though blow lacked its normal power as Naruto had jumped backwards to right himself after his strike. It still had enough momentum to force the genin off balance, however, and Tenzo pressed his advantage, bringing his left elbow up and under Naruto's chin in a brutal strike that sent the boy reeling.

Naruto recovered fast, but not fast enough to stop getting backhanded across his face by Tenzo's left hand in a continuation of the jonin's last strike. The blond lowered himself instinctively, growling as he tasted blood in his mouth.

Tenzo nearly smirked beneath his mask as the boy raised his knife laden hands to be level with his head, unknowingly mimicking Tenzo's own taijutsu stance. Good instincts; they'll help him learn quickly, the jonin thought with praise.

Chakra racing down his legs, igniting nerve endings, Naruto burst forward, knives poised to behead Tenzo once more. The masked man took a single step back to right himself in preparation, and Naruto took the opportunity to move into a fast moving circle once more.

This again? The boy should know better, the new jonin thought, somewhat disappointed but still wary. Tenzo lowered himself into his defensive stance once more in expectation.

Naruto wasted no time, hurtling out of the circle in another perfect Konoha Senpu, this time to Tenzo's right.

The jonin almost sighed. A quick rotation had the former ANBU captain poised for a perfect block, his left hand ready to grab the inclement kick, while the right would grasp Naruto by the neck. The tactic hadn't worked the first time; the boy had to learn never to use the same tactic twice, no matter how harsh the lesson would be.

He made for the grab, only for the body of his new student to pass clean through his hands like a ghost.

Bunshin! But when did he have time…Tenzo thought with alarm and a small hint of satisfaction. So the boy was smarter than that after all.

An instantaneous Kawarimi carried Tenzo outside of Naruto's circle, the substitution with his Moku Bunshin seamless as reflexes born of endless high level missions kicked in.

He reappeared some thirty yards from his new student, and turned just in time to watch the blond obliterate his Bunshin with Fuuton: Renkudan at point blank range.

Wood chips soared skyward as Tenzo studied his student. Crafty use of ninjutsu while leaving the taijutsu as a smokescreen; good instincts, and no hesitation when it comes to landing decisive blows. He either knows that he won't touch me, or he's just taking this test far more seriously than I had thought.

The jonin wasn't quite sure which option was running through Naruto's head, but he didn't much care. Both would serve his purposes here.

Time for a bit of pressure. Both Yuugao and Kakashi said he needed to exercise his sadistic side a bit more; this would be a perfect opportunity.

Naruto glanced through the haze of wood chips warily, mind ablaze with thought. Wood was really only used for Kawarimi by ninja, not to form clones. That this jonin could do so hinted at a skill Naruto, like the rest of the ninja world, had thought lost with the Shodai Hokage.

Could it be…he thought with uncertainty. Already, this new sensei of his was proving formidable in many ways.

His mind was saved from having to try to answer the myriad of questions surrounding the jonin when the still floating wood chips in front of him morphed into sharpened blades resembling kunai. Blue eyes widened almost comically as Naruto realized how trapped he was, before lightning fast hand seals had wood impacting wood rather than flesh and bone courtesy of a substitution.

His Kawarimi left him momentarily disoriented, reflexive though it was, and the blond shook his head a few times to clear out the cobwebs.

He apparently shook his head a few too many times, as when he refocused a second later, the clearing was filled with black clad clones of his new sensei. Naruto cursed sulfurously at the sight, before retrieving his knuckle knives with a lightning fast swipe at his waist, fuuton chakra exploding down their lengths.

Senses screaming, Naruto leapt backwards to avoid a hand that burst from the ground to grab his ankle. He landed lightly on the balls of his feet, but immediately was forced to sway to the side to avoid a stab from another clone. A quick weight shift had him in position for a counterattack of his own, but the appearance of yet another black clad figure at his flank forced him to strafe to his left to make space.

Belatedly realizing that he was completely encircled by the mass of black clad clones, Naruto blurred into action as the ninja-to wielding doppelgangers rushed him. Moving almost too fast for the untrained eye to catch, Naruto wove in and out of the mass of clones, avoiding their attacks with seeming ease and always by only a hairsbreadth.

One stab to the chest was dodged with a spin to his left; the spin led to another in the opposite direction, as Naruto planted his right foot and used his momentum to move in the complete opposite direction, neatly avoiding a slash at his neck.

An idea struck him as he ducked under a punch, and he planted his hands on the ground and pushed upwards, sending his body skyward. He sheathed his unused knives in their holsters at his waist, before speeding through the hand seals of a katon jutsu he had secreted from the Archive years previous, but only now had the time to practice.

Just as he was about to release the Grand Fireball, his sight of the mass of clones ten yards below him flickered for an instant. What? he thought with alarm, before the obvious answer lodged itself in his brain.

Genjutsu!

None of the clones had actually touched him, each of their attacks easy enough to avoid, and he hadn't made any counterattacks due to being far too occupied with dodging the numerous swipes and slashes at his form. He had just assumed they were like the Moku Bunshin he had reduced to wood chips before.

Add to that his momentary disorientation, and the conclusion was obvious.

The knowledge that this was, in fact, a test of his abilities reasserted itself, and Naruto realized that it was natural for this new sensei to test his genjutsu ability.

And he had failed in it spectacularly.

The pent up chakra from the Gokakyuu no jutsu was growing too hot to bear, so Naruto released the Grand Fireball on the mass of illusionary clones with a rage filled grunt. The fire swirled in the clearing for about five seconds before Naruto released the jutsu and fell back to earth, breaking his chakra flow for good measure even though the latent chakra in the air from his ninjutsu would have dispelled the genjutsu anyway.

The blond genin landed without a sound, staring down the single form left in the clearing, his form seemingly untouched by the fiery hell Naruto had unleashed on his doppelgangers.

The two locked eyes for a moment, one impassive, one steaming with anger, before Tenzo was suddenly in Naruto's face before the boy had a moment to comprehend what was happening.

Naruto took a punch to the face and an elbow to his ribs before he started reacting. The jonin was fast, and he left Naruto with little time to respond to the sudden bout of violence.

The genin ducked under a high elbow, only to receive an uppercut to the face that sent him reeling. It was the space made from the blow, however, that gave Naruto the precious half second he needed to regroup, and he launched his counterattack with all the ferocity Goken embodied.

His first two haymakers were blocked by Tenzo's raised forearms, hands near his head once more, but Naruto adjusted quickly. He lowered his center of mass accordingly, realizing that he wouldn't be able to land so much as a legitimate hit on the man while standing tall, and struck out with one of the lightning fast jabs he usually reserved for when fighting with his knuckle knives.

It wasn't to be.

Tenzo redirected the jab with the outside of his left arm before grabbing it, using Naruto's forward momentum as leverage to rotate his body inwards to deliver a shot to Naruto's elbow. A duck under the offending appendage had Tenzo in position and the jonin capitalized by viciously elbowing Naruto in the face, sending the genin's head snapping backwards as blood flowed from his newly bleeding lip.

The black clad man wasn't done, however, taking the opportunity to deliver an elbow to Naruto's left leg, two back-fists to his chest, a second elbow to the right leg, before finally grasping the boy by his neck and flipping him to the ground in a brutal show of strength that had Naruto bruised, disoriented, and gasping for air as he lay still on the ground.

Tenzo observed the fallen form of his charge silently for nearly a minute. The boy was recovering, slowly but surely. Air which he had gasped for seconds earlier now came in steady breaths. It was a recovery time far faster than ninja many years his senior and in their primes.

"Jinchuriki, those created at birth at least, are physical marvels unlike normal humans; even by shinobi standards."

Tenzo showed no outward expression at the proclamation, electing to let Sarutobi continue unimpeded though he certainly held questions.

"The effect of a biju's chakra on a human over time has never truly been documented," the Sandaime lectured. "But snippets of information about many of the known jinchurriki state similar observations about physical prowess in relation to their normal shinobi counterparts. They move faster, recover quicker, and, given the correct training, are far stronger than normal shinobi."

"And that's just physical?" Tenzo asked.

Sarutobi nodded. "Yes. The far reaching effects of the demon's chakra effect everything from physical recovery to chakra capacity." The Sandaime locked eyes with Tenzo. "I take it you are far more versed in the more charka intensive effects that surround most who harbor tailed beasts?"

"Of course, Hokage-sama." Tenzo nodded.

"Good. While my son…" Tenzo noted how the old man didn't even flinch at the mention of his newly deceased son, not that he expected him to. "…sought to enhance Naruto's ninjutsu capabilities and play to the boy's immense talent in that area, I would ask you to concentrate more on the physical, taijutsu aspects of the boy's development."

"Hokage-sama?"

Sarutobi almost smiled at the unspoken "Why".

"A jinchuriki's body is malleable, even at an age where most normal humans stop developing as their genetic structure and past nutrition have a set blueprint as to what the body will eventually be. While I'm not saying to break the boy's bones and reset them in certain ways, I do believe that a more physically oriented training style would benefit the boy in the long run, as it would play to the great strength he will no doubt possess one day."

Tenzo frowned, the expression in full view as his mask was off – he was still uncomfortable without it at times. "A new taijutsu style?"

Sarutobi smiled. The captain was quick like that. Along with his stellar record and unorthodox abilities, the sharp mind of a trained commander was why Sarutobi had chosen him for this job.

"Indeed. While Gai certainly did Naruto a favor in taking him under his wing, his Goken style is far too rigid for one not fully devoted to taijutsu." The smile morphed into a grin of satisfaction. "I believe Naruto himself has come to understand this, though he has found little to do about it without proper guidance."

Tenzo nodded, in thought once more before an idea struck him; one that Sarutobi had likely been after from the beginning. "Shinzo Kara?"

He was rewarded with a grin that bordered on nostalgic. "Rather fitting, no?"

"Indeed, Hokage-sama. Though, I wonder how is he to learn such a style in such a short time? I am only to be his sensei for a short time, and even to be adept at the style takes months of training…" the former ANBU captain trailed off, the answer to his question smacking him in the face even as he asked the question.

At this, Sarutobi's grin became almost gleeful.

"'The hell?"

Naruto had taken over a minute to fully recover from the beating he had taken, only to receive a scroll to the face as he sat up. He caught it before it reached the ground, however, and turned an appraising eye to it.

"Kage Bunshin?" he asked aloud, reading the title.

"A corporal clone technique that forms a doppelganger directly from the chakra of the user," Tenzo recited from memory, having copied the information from the Forbidden Scroll of Seals onto the scroll his charge now held.

The voice of the jonin who was to be Naruto's new sensei drew his attention from the scroll to the man, drawing a raised eyebrow from the genin. The man, formerly clad in only black, now wore the standard uniform he often saw on all of Konoha's ninja. Navy fatigues covered by a forest green flak vest were offset by the standard equipment pouches in their appropriate places. The only distinguishing feature on the man was the mask style hitai-ate that Naruto knew was similar to the one worn by the Nidaime Hokage.

That, and the wooden chair the man was sprawled on lazily that seemed to both grow directly from the ground and conform to every line of the man's body, almost as if it grew from him as much as it did the earth.

Naruto shrugged off the sight of the dead bloodline ability, electing to save his questions for later and concentrate on the obviously important scroll.

"I take it I'm supposed to learn this," he stated more than asked. Why else would the man give him the scroll?

"Indeed. The Kage Bunshin is a B-ranked restricted technique due in part to its monstrous chakra drain on the user," Tenzo lectured. "Due to your…extenuating circumstances, it's been decided that you would find the technique to be a boon rather than a detriment."

Naruto nodded at the indirect reference to the Kyuubi sealed within him. The chakra drain that most ninja would find instantly debilitating likely wouldn't even faze him.

He broke the seal on the scroll and unfurled it without a flourish, beginning to read with rapt attention he truly only reserved for learning new ninjutsu. Tenzo watched the boy with calculating eyes the whole time.

"Any questions?"

A wry smile crossed Naruto's face, though he didn't look up. "Plenty. Your name would be a good place to start."

Wry amusement seemed to transfer from student to sensei, as a similar smile broke across Tenzo's unmasked face. "Call me Yamato," he said simply.

Naruto nodded, still absorbed in his reading, though he noted the difference in "call me" and "my name is". Knowledge was power, indeed. ANBU then, the boy thought with some certainty. Most regular shinobi didn't have classified names, after all. He spared a second of thought to he and his team being assigned an ANBU for a sensei, before dismissing it. Nothing bad could come of intensive training, at least in his mind.

He was almost finished with his reading when his eyes came to a halt above a passage about the jutsu's effects. Blue eyes met black sharply, and the newly dubbed Yamato broke into a smile.

"Memory and sensory transfer?" Naruto asked. If this was what he thought it was…

"The other reason why this jutsu is classified as restricted," Yamato said.

"Physical training?"

The jonin shook his head. "Only the knowledge of it."

Naruto nodded. Even without physical gains being directly transferred to the user of the technique, the Kage Bunshin was still a massive boon to his training. The amount of ninjutsu I could learn with this…Hell, even taijutsu could be practiced, Naruto thought with a growing excitement.

"Why?" he asked Yamato.

"A learning implement. The Hokage believes that direct training in ninjutsu is something you don't require at present, and the technique will help you break down and master any new jutsu you happen to come across," Yamato stated. The Hokage was adamant about not directly teaching Naruto any new ninjutsu besides this one. "Let him find them on his own," he had said, a wry smile on his wizened visage.

"Taijutsu then."

A satisfied smile split Yamato's face. "That is what I'll be training you in for the foreseeable future, among other small things."

"And my team?" Naruto had no idea how many points he had inadvertently won with the jonin with his simple statement of concern for his teammates.

"They have been similarly tested, and will receive training tailored to their needs as well as group training." Yamato offered the boy a small smile. "Rest assured, Team Ten staying together is in the interests of the Hokage, and I'm here to help you grow into a functioning and cohesive unit."

Naruto nodded, shoulders sagging slightly in relief that his team would be staying together. It was an unvoiced fear of his that they would be broken up and trained separately, but it appeared that wasn't to be the case.

"So…" Naruto trailed off.

"So, I shall begin your taijutsu and physical training once you've mastered the Kage Bunshin."

Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Any particular style?" he asked dryly.

"Indeed," Yamato said patronizingly. "Shinzo Kara, though you wouldn't have heard its name despite your familiarity with it."

The genin realized he would be learning whatever style the jonin had used so effectively against him in his test. A smile split his face at the thought of using the brutal techniques against his enemies, rather than having it used against him.

"Lightning fast, physically uncompromising, and viciously –"

"Brutal?" Naruto finished cheekily.

"You noticed," the jonin drawled.

"I did."

"Yes, well…" Yamato shifted slightly in his seat, the wood responding to his movements to provide perfect support regardless of his position. "It is a seldom used style anymore, its creators having been wiped out at the start of the Second Secret Shinobi World War, but it is effective, and based solely on the intent of the user. Do you want to kill? Do you want to maim?" Yamato said, gesticulating at Naruto to get his point across.

"ANBU style?" the boy asked in reference to the many taijutsu styles that ANBU were forced to learn upon their entrance to the program.

Yamato was mildly impressed with the boy's knowledge. The Sandaime did say he was good at gathering information… "Yes, though it originated in what was once known as Uzu no Kuni." The jonin carefully gauged his charge's reaction. "Specifically, from the shinobi village of – "

"Uzushiogakure," Naruto finished for him quietly, eyes lowered at the thought of his dead ancestors.

"…you've heard of it," Yamato stated more than asked.

"I can do my research," Naruto said quietly. "Certain subjects motivate me to dig more than others," he finished somewhat cryptically.

Yamato nodded, taking note of the change in his student's tone and mood. Maybe I should have been less blunt, he thought in retrospect. He wasn't used to dealing with children, and certainly not orphans with emotional baggage.

"Do you think of them often?" he asked gently. He too was an orphan, and could sympathize with wanting to know about one's family. Unfortunately, he had never actually found who his was.

Naruto shrugged, visibly collecting himself. He didn't like thinking about his family. "Only if I can't help it. Thinking about them does me no real good, does it? Best just to move on."

Yamato nodded. While jaded, especially coming from a pre-teen, it was a good outlook to have on life for a shinobi. There were things that you just couldn't change, and dwelling on them did no one save your enemies any good.

"The style?" Naruto asked, eager as ever to steer the conversation back into safer waters. Safer waters that had nothing to do with his feelings about his deceased relatives.

"Ah, yes." Yamato shifted himself once more, and Naruto watched as the wood moved with him. It was somewhat disconcerting. "Shinzo Kara, beyond standard katas that you will be learning, is truly all about being knowledgeable of your surroundings. Whether those surroundings are people, trees, weapons, doesn't matter," the jonin lectured. Naruto got the impression that this wasn't the first time the man had made this speech. "Knowledge of actions and whatever reactions you choose to implement."

"A defensive style?" Naruto asked, as that is what such a style would be classified as. Surely not.

"In the way I use it, yes," Yamato confirmed. "You, I suspect, will bring a more offensive oriented mindset to the style."

Naruto raised a blond eyebrow. "I wasn't aware that a "mindset" could be brought to a taijutsu style."

Yamato shrugged. "With most, more rigid styles, the mind of the user only truly effects how hard they hit, as there are only a set number of moves and katas that one can use while still conforming to the style. With Shinzo Kara, while there are certain patterns and even katas, the mindset of the user is everything. When put in to practice, there is a constant choice that has to run through the user's mind. 'In reacting to this, do I seek to kill, or to maim, or even to not injure?'"

Naruto nodded at the explanation. "No matter what though, each option hurts."

"That they do," Yamato confirmed with a wry smile.

Naruto settled back in thought, his eyes drifting to the opened Kage Bunshin scroll. He wasn't entirely sure why he was learning this new style of taijutsu, but he wasn't going to complain about it. As much as he was comfortable with Goken, it was far too rigid for someone who wasn't completely devoted to taijutsu. He would never be so one dimensional, at least not by choice.

He had been in the beginning stages of trying to create his own taijutsu style, one far less rigid than Goken, but only the Heavens knew when that might have actually happened, let alone if it would have happened. And now he had this dropping neatly into is lap, with a B-ranked clone technique that would help him everywhere thrown in as a party favor.

At this point, from the viewpoint of a shinobi in training, things couldn't be better.

It hardly counted as a consolation prize after losing Asuma, but it would help him move forward in the long run.

"So when do I start learning this stuff?" he asked Yamato.

A raised eyebrow met his query. "When you learn that jutsu," was the answer.

Naruto blinked once, grinned, and settled down into his training mindset.

I'll get along with this guy just fine, he thought with satisfaction.

/~/

"I don'tlike this guy!"

Naruto just rolled his eyes at the complaint that was now fast becoming Ino's most used sentence. Unfortunately, he was alone in this, as in a surprising twist of the norm; Kiba was fully backing up her claims of hating their new sensei.

He really didn't see what the problem was.

He voiced as much, and promptly winced at the openly hostile looks his team sent him. He rolled his eyes again, out of sight of course. Leave it to Ino and the mutt to finally agree on something, and that something being disagreeing with him. Honestly, he felt like he was on a team with children sometimes.

"Sensei!" he called. Yamato, sitting as always in that weird chair of his, opened his eyes. Naruto didn't thing for a second that the man had been sleeping. He had been thinking.

A slight smirk crept up the man's face – about the only emotion the man showed on a regular basis. "Ready, then?"

Naruto gave a single, curt nod, steeling himself. The pre-teen turned once to look at his two teammates, locking eyes with Kiba. The boy nodded back, though with considerably less intensity. Naruto just sighed; he'd have to have a long talk with the two of them after this session was over. It was due.

Refocusing, Naruto stared down his new sensei for less than a full second, before breaking into a full on chakra enhanced sprint at the man. Peripheral vision degenerated to a blur as Naruto moved, true tunnel vision only staved off by an intense concentration that didn't allow the blond to slip into Shunshin.

Ten meters…five meters…come on, Kiba!Naruto mentally screamed. Almost three meters from his waiting sensei, Naruto felt the distinctive grip of chakra take hold of him for a split second, before disappearing just as quickly as it had come.

Useless mutt!

Two meters from Yamato, Naruto halted the majority of his forward momentum, gripping the ground with chakra for leverage, and rotated himself into a counterclockwise spin that carried him past his waiting sensei. Feet planted, tendons screaming, Naruto came to a full stop on the other side of Yamato, arms raised to his eye level in anticipation.

He wasn't disappointed.

Blurring almost too fast for the genin to see, Yamato struck out with a right handed haymaker that was blocked by Naruto's left forearm. Countless hours of clone training memories came to the fore in the blonde's mind, and he moved to grab the offending appendage and turn defense to offense. Chakra laced fingers slipped over Yamato's retreating hand, finding justtoo little to grab hold of.

Plan B, then.

Naruto shuffle-stepped to his right, managing to neatly avoid a thrust kick from the jonin, and ducking under a follow up that would have landed him in a nearby village. The genin lowered his center of mass before lashing out in a sweeping low kick at Yamato's legs, aiming to relieve his sensei of his balance.

The former ANBU captain leapt over the leg sweep, but Naruto had expected it. Having only fractions of a second, Naruto pivoted like the wind, coiling and uncoiling faster than ever before and launching a brutal elbow at his airborne sensei with all the speed and suddenness of a snake.

It connected solidly, the chakra empowered strike launching the former ANBU back and sending him to the ground. Naruto grimaced for less than a second, before, senses screaming, he turned rapidly, arms raised in his now trademark taijutsu stance.

It too proved futile, however, as Yamato occupied one of his arms with a cross punch before spinning Naruto off balance and sending him careening across the clearing with a kick to his exposed chest. The genin landed hard, and had a moment to glance at the downed and splintering form of Yamato's Moku Bunshin before grimacing in pain.

That hurt.

Falling back to the earth, Naruto took a leaf from Shikamaru's book and simply stared at the passing clouds for a few moments, reveling in the relative peace. It was about all he managed to get these days, in between personal and team training coupled with being Team Ten's new mediator. As frustrating as it was, he was forced to admit that the earlier vitriol both Ino and Kiba had been spewing at their new sensei wasn't an isolated occurrence.

It had been a sum total of two weeks since Yamato had taken the reigns of Team Ten, and it had been a rough going even from the very beginning. Kiba and Ino had been determinedly frosty toward the jonin, and the man's own aloof attitude, often times a bit robotic, certainly hadn't helped matters. Naruto had been left as the man in the middle, with Kiba and Ino committed to their private rebellion on one side, and Yamato stuck with simple reprimands – anything more would cause both of the genin to close up even more, that much was obvious to even Naruto – on the other.

And, really, short of beating the two of them, which Naruto was loathe to do, the boy couldn't really think up a way to get them to stop bitching.

A hand blocking his view of the clouds helped him back to the present, and the genin grasped it firmly, letting Yamato pull him into a standing position. He winced slightly at the fresh pain from where the man had kicked him. Now more than ever was he glad for the healing capabilities of the demon fox inside him. Without them, he would have been a bloody mess on the ground, given the number of times both Kiba and Ino had managed to screw up their current exercise.

Quite simply, they were instructed to Kawarimi with him as he moved in on his opponent, Yamato in this case, in order to sow confusion and take advantage of opportunities created by the first person. It was one of the many teamwork exercises that Yamato had brought to Team Ten, and, unfortunately, wasn't being handled well by two thirds of the team.

The only good thing coming out of it was Naruto getting some taijutsu practice against someone other than his clones.

The proffered hand disappeared just as suddenly as it had come, and Naruto watched yet another Bunshin of his new sensei fade. Blue eyes found the real man lecturing both Kiba and Ino back where Naruto had started his charge.

"The concentration is the most crucial part, and it is what you're currently lacking," Yamato said, his tone stern. "You've been familiar with the jutsu for years now, so the only thing holding yourself back is your mind."

Ino and Kiba both looked less than happy with the criticism, but only Ino spoke. "We're not rookies, sensei. We knowhow the jutsu works."

Naruto winced, hard. Both Ino and Kiba had been skirting around the edges of disrespect and outright insubordination for the entire two weeks Yamato had been their sensei. He'd brushed the majority of it off – the Sandaime probably told him to go easy on them for a while – but most of the two's little rebellion had been far from direct, the words spoken between them and occasionally Naruto, at which point the blond boy would try – and fail – to impart some form of common sense. This though, was overt, and Yamato had no reason not to put the two in their place.

"Is that so?" the man questioned. His voice was level and his face as impassive as ever, but Naruto could easily detect the undercurrent of frustration in the jonin. "Indeed, if that were the case, you wouldn't have so much trouble with what is by far the simplest of team based maneuvers in Konoha's playbook. As it stands, only your third teammate seems to be able to manage it."

Naruto had never really been one to be awkward – which couldn't really apply to someone who had been an infamous prankster in his younger days - but he couldn't really help it in the face of his teammates' resentful looks. It wasn't his fault he had picked up the technique quickly – months before really – they simply weren't concentrating. Hell, he was the one getting beaten down by their sensei every time Kiba or Ino managed to botch the technique!

"I wonder at what exactly you were taught previously, if such a simple exercise in a basic jutsu keeps eluding you."

The blond genin bristled at the implied slight against Asuma's teaching, but managed to reign himself in. This was a dressing down long overdue and, no matter how much he liked his teammates; he knew that they needed it. Friction like this needed to be resolved quickly or Team Ten might as well disband, given what their future effectiveness would look like.

While Naruto was restrained, his two teammates were not.

"Our sensei taught us well!" Kiba all but screamed, Akamaru adding his own commentary in response to his partner's emotions.

"Then prove it," Yamato said flatly and so quickly that Naruto almost was forced to crack a smile at trap he had set for Kiba and Ino, though it certainly applied to him as well. If, after this, they continued to make their little rebellion a nuisance, they'd be dishonoring Asuma's memory, slighting all the work he had put into Team Ten's growth.

It took a few moments for other two thirds of Team Ten to get the jonin's ploy. They didn't seem all that happy about it, Naruto noted.

Yamato sighed, the first real show of emotion the man let slip for the whole day. Naruto noticed that the man became less robotic as the day wore on. The jonin decided to finish ahead for the day, and dismissed the team with a stern note to think on what he had said.

Naruto retrieved his pack from where he had tossed it some hours earlier, idly taking out an energy bar and tearing it open. A quick glance at the path that led back to the village showed Kiba and Ino already on their way out. Neither of the two appeared to be in much of a mood to wait for him, to Naruto's chagrin, so he had to hurry to catch up. He threw Yamato a nod on his way past that the jonin didn't bother to return.

Drawing level with his team, Naruto listened with less than rapt attention as Ino and Kiba muttered insults of varying potency, shaking his head all the while.

Finally having had enough of both, Naruto interrupted. "What the fuckis your problem?" The blond didn't flinch as the hostile looks of earlier returned. They were expected at this point. Undeterred, he continued, "We're supposed to be trying to get back to active duty and all you two are doing is fucking around like little kids!"

Ino looked like she was ready to deck him, but Kiba broke in before the blonde could get a word in edgewise. "What's our problem? The fuck's yourproblem? Asuma-sensei's dead and you're acting like nothing ever happened!"

And here was the heart of the issue. Asuma. Simple though the answer was, it was nonetheless extremely complex and difficult to deal with. From Naruto's perspective, Asuma had died a hero's death, but it had been of his own making. No one had forced him to stay in Wave and fight, but he had chosen to, dragging Team Ten with him into what would and should have been an early grave for all four of them. As much as Naruto would miss the man who had become such a large part of his life, he had to move on.

Ino and Kiba had no such thoughts, and only saw the hero's death their sensei had died, leaving them to pick up the pieces.

Naruto sighed. "Yes, he's dead, and I've moved on. Shit doesn't stop happening just because someone dies, and I'm not gonna be stuck flat footed when it does."

Kiba snorted and turned away, but Ino picked up the slack for him. "He's been dead for a month and you're already making it seem like he never existed! He was our sensei, not some… tool you can throw away!" the girl finished, pausing for a moment in the middle to find the right words.

"I know that-"

"Do you? Because it looks like you're having a hard time showing it!"

"-but that's not the point!" Naruto shouted over Ino's interruption, finally coming to halt with the village in sight just down the path. "Yes, he was our sensei. No,he wasn't just some tool. But that doesn't change the fact that he's dead and he would want us to move on. Getting petty about what Yamato tells us to do isn't about to bring him back."

"So that's it, then? You think you know best so you just go along with what this asshole of replacement says?"

Naruto had been emotional as a child. From irrational bouts of anger to distasteful pranks on the general populace, the boy had been one of the most openly expressive ninjas-in-training Konoha had ever seen. Those same emotions had been mostly bottled up in the years following his late night encounter with Uchiha Itachi, forced aside in favor of a more reserved and calculating persona that was necessary to become a ninja that would ever stand a chance against an organization of mysterious shinobi.

But that didn't mean he didn't have those same emotions anymore.

People had once been wary of Naruto for more reasons than just his tenant. They said he had a temper.

Those people were right, and Naruto wasn't one for what he saw as blatant stupidity in the face of a serious situation.

"Yeah, I am, because the guy knows what the fuck he's talking about! You're making it seem like sensei's death was some tragic accident. Well, I've got news for you two: Asuma chose his death! He made a decision that the mission was more important than his and our lives, and paid for it. I'm not about to let the same thing happen to us. Any of us," he added for emphasis, blazing blue eyes boring into the faces of his teammates.

"Just because you're scared doesn't give you the right to act like nothing happened!" Kiba broke in, fully regrouped as Ino sputtered from the slight against Asuma's judgment.

"I'm not. Shit happened and I'm trying to stop it from happening again! I'm trying to get stronger. You two fucking around, acting like a couple of spoilt brats back in the Academy, puts all of us at risk. What happens next time 'round – and there will be a next time – when shit hits the fan, huh? When the chips are on the fucking table and there's no one there to bail us out? I'll tell you what happens: we die! I'm not about to let that happen, and if that means that I have listen to a guy who's being put in as a replacement for Asuma – and an experienced jonin at that - so be it."

Looking back, he shouldn't have expected to have much of an effect on two people as emotional as Kiba and Ino; neither of them was particularly rational on their best days, nor were they objective on this matter in the slightest.

"You're a cold bastard, you know that, Naruto?" Kiba growled.

"And you're too idiotic to see reason, Kiba; both of you. I'll live with being cold so long as it keeps people alive."

For a moment it looked as if the dog-ninja was about to throttle Naruto – who would have welcomed it at this point – but instead did the smartest thing he could and stormed off down the path to the village. Ino followed him without hesitation shortly afterward, but not before tossing Naruto a glare that tried to burn a hole in his face, blond hair whipping about in the wind.

Naruto was left on his own in their wake, standing at the entrance to one of Konoha's many dense, outlying woodlands. Frustration bubbled up in him for a moment before he spun abruptly, channeling chakra into a punch that shattered the trunk of a tree. The sapling tumbled to the ground with a crash as Naruto followed the rapidly disappearing forms of his teammates with his eyes, shaking his head all the while.

They would learn he was right. They would have to.

/~/

Twin ANBU on the rooftops halted across from one another without a sound. Heads turning in opposite directions, the elite shinobi surveyed the surrounding area with critical eyes. Save for the few forms of late night walkers or workers, the streets were empty.

Konoha was a shinobi village, and as the strongest, it wasn't surprising that foreign agents would do their utmost to infiltrate it. It was at this time, past midnight, that ANBU was in full force in their patrols. Infiltrators were caught weekly, almost daily at times, and every nook and cranny needed to be surveyed.

The first, a woman wearing a dog mask, flipped through a quick series of hand seals before nodding. Her partner, a lizard masked man, nodded back, brining his hands together in a ram seal. A single pulse of chakra, not big enough to disturb any sleeping villagers, emanated from the shinobi, the technique working to unearth anyone hidden in a genjutsu. It had the added effect of rebounding off of surrounding nearby chakra presences, alerting the male ANBU to anyone using natural cover. There was one nearby, but the chakra indicated they were sleeping on the inside of the wall.

Five seconds after the pulse dispersed, the lizard masked man sent out one more, just to be safe. Satisfied after finding nothing, he gave his female companion a nod. With a whiff of displaced air, the duo vanished into the night, having disturbed no one.

Using chakra to cling to the side of the building the two ANBU had just surveyed, positioned on the inner edge of a window, Naruto breathed out in a slow, steady exhale. The blond, clothed entirely in a blue so dark it could be black, counted out two minutes in his head starting from when he "heard" the two ANBU leave. He was no sensor, but two highly trained chakra presences were hard not to notice in a village full of sleeping people.

Reaching the one hundred and twenty second mark, Naruto deftly and silently leveraged himself, gripping the wall with chakra, and flipped onto the roof. Landing in a crouch, body low with his right leg extended in case of any sudden movements, the genin did a quick three hundred and sixty degree visual check of his surroundings. Finding no one, and mentally congratulating himself for avoiding the patrol, he relaxed for moment.

An easy smile crossed his face, concealed by a half mask though it was. It was almost fun for Naruto, indulging in what had become one of his guiltiest pleasures. Sneaking past patrols on his way to some late night – or early morning, as it was – training was a bit of a past time for the blond. As an Academy student, he wasn't given access to the training grounds without special permission, and no one ever seemed willing to give it to him.

So he made due, as he always did.

True, there was no reason for him to have to sneak past patrols to get in some late night training, as a genin he had full access to all but the Forest of Death – reserved for chunin and up – but it helped keep the hard earned stealth skills sharp.

Anyone could be fooled by a good enough cloaking genjutsu or ninjutsu, just like anyone could break a good enough genjutsu. It took real skill to sneak past patrols without using chakra, and it was one of the things that Naruto had taken pride in for years. Knowing where to hide, how to position the body and suppress enough your presence to seem like a chakra presence that was so close to the building's edge as to be inside it, how to move without expending chakra and go undetected in a village full of watchful lookouts; it was things like that that counted as real stealth.

Asuma had often said that Naruto was born to be an infiltration specialist. The man was right.

Taking a moment to feel the wind through his skin tight mesh shirt, Naruto surveyed his surroundings once more, before silently creeping his way to Training Ground Eleven. A Shunshin would have been quicker, but with how locked down a Hidden Village was at night, the speed technique was simply a way of asking to get caught.

Landing softly in the clearing, Naruto pulled back the blue bandana covering his hair to scratch his head before replacing it with a blue hoodie, shinobi grade, from one of his storage scrolls. Tight fitting clothing was a must when sneaking around, as loose garments flapping in the wind were a dead giveaway to any observant patrols.

Fully covered from head to toe in blue, Naruto brought his hands together in a cross shaped seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he murmured. Twelve puffs of smoke heralded the arrival of his clones, each clad in the same clothing as he.

A single nod greeted the doppelgangers, and they each moved into the nearby trees, disappearing from the original's sight.

Back in the clearing, Naruto centered himself, calling up the numerous lectures on his taijutsu Yamato had given him, as well as the hours of practice he had gone through with his clones. Taking a deep breath, Naruto drew his former sensei's trademark knuckle knives and made his way into the trees; tensed in anticipation for the rustlings in the dark.

/~/