Chapter 17 as years go by

The last few years had it's ups and downs, Naruto of course was doing well in school and although he was doing great at the physical skills of a ninja, Sasuke beat him out of the scholastic scores. Over the years they had formed a strong rivalry always trying to outdo the other in everything. He had to admit though one of this favourite moments had been when Sasuke had been a bit too annoying Naruto tried out a technique his father taught him. Mainly you pulled someone under the ground so just their head was left.

Naruto knew this one well since his own father pulled it on him during sparing matches from time to time, and he hated that move. But he had to admit pulling it on someone else was sure worth it, Sasuke had been livid as he tried to get out of the ground and just to add insult to injury he had also taken one of his father's books. He still remembered that day with Sasuke glaring at him and Kiba on the ground holding his sides.

"Oh man this is great!" Kiba roared as his very own dog Akamaru that he had gained last year. His family had finally thought it was time for him to get his own dog and he loved that day when on his birthday no less he had been given his own puppy. The two were inseparable and the small white dog was barking as well.

Shikamaru had to admit it was pretty funny and so did Choji, thankfully it was just the guys at the moment as well.

"Hatake you better get me out of this or so help me I'll kick your masked ass!" Sasuke said at him.

"Aw and here I was going to read you a story," Naruto said sitting down and pulled out one of his father's books.

"Hey what's that?" Kiba asked.

Naruto grinned under his mask, "Just something of my dad's, now let's see oh here's a good part."

Naruto read on and he had to admit seeing Sasuke turn bright red from embarrassment was hilarious. Choji had actually stopped eating and looked frozen, Shikamaru was trying to stare up at the clouds with a blush on his face, Kiba however was on the verge of a nose bleed but wanted to hear more. Naruto was thankful for the mask as well.

"Naruto what are you doing!?"

They turned to see Ino and a few of the other girls walking towards him looking a bit pissed.

"Just reading a story to Sasuke and I think he likes it." Naruto grinned.

"No I don't you idiot and get me out of here already!" Sasuke said still all red from what Naruto had read to him. He had never thought those kinds of things before and he was seriously getting pissed off at still being stuck in the ground.

"Naruto get Sasuke-kun out of there right this minute!" Ino demanded at him.

"Fine but finish the story will for the guys will you?" Naruto handed her the book and she looked at it curious as to what it was. Sakura and Hinata were also there and looked over the blood's shoulder and started to read over her shoulder. All three girls had to admit it looked like some kind of love story, something to do with some type of forbidden love of two members of opposing clans. It was very romantic how the two characters were admitting their live for the other, then they kissed, then kissed some more...and...didn't stop.

The girl's got very red in the face and Hinata actually feinted at that point thankfully Sakura caught the girl as she was as red as her dress. Ino suddenly dropped the book like it was poison.

"Hey careful that's one of my dad's books," Naruto said hauling Sasuke free.

Ino marched right over to him and looked at him, Naruto saw the fury in her eyes and tried to say something in his defence but never got the chance to open his mouth as Ino slammed her fist into his face, "You perverted hentai!"

The girls didn't talk to him for a week after that, although Hinata tried to talk but the images in her young mind kept making her feint when the subject came up, plus she couldn't look Naruto in the eyes after that. Although even she had to admit Naruto had the beating from Ino coming to him for that, although she did forgive him first out of the girls, Sakura lasted another week giving him the silent treatment until he apologise for the hundredth time, as for Ino well he had to promise to help out with her chores at the flower shop for a week straight.

That wasn't the last thing either, Naruto had discovered by his twelfth year in life girls, woman and just how good they looked. It didn't help that when Kakashi tried to teach Naruto about the 'birds and the bees' he read his Icha Icha book to him. Although Naruto now knew more about sex than he ever wanted to know, although he personally didn't understand a few things like if it was really possible for a three some to work in real life. When he was learning the hedge technique he had been trying to find a way to beat his father in their sparing and an idea formed.

It took weeks of practice but he finally got it down, the next time they spared he unleashed one of his ultimate secret justus...the Sexy Jutsu. Kakashi had been so shocked to see a young teen and very cute and beautiful naked girl with such an irresistible pout on her face he didn't have time to recover when the hedge dropped and Naruto scored his first solid hit on his father.

Kakashi looked up from his spot not sure to be proud of his son's inventive nature or he should wonder where he came up with that idea. He got up and dusted himself off and looked at his son who he knew was grinning under that mask of his. He looked at him for a moment before speaking, "I'm not even going to ask Naruto but I'd be careful about that around certain people."

"It's my anti-pervert move dad, it works great on them." His son laughed.

"How do you know it works so well?"

"Easy I used it on the Old Man and several others and they were laid out with huge nose bleeds! It was great!"

"Just don't use that in class I don't need to come after school again this week," Kakashi said as he got himself ready. "Okay so now you got two choices son, you either can do the three climbing exercise to improve your chakra control or sword fighting training."

Naruto wasn't sure what was worse, the tree climbing he learned six months ago and it took him forever to get that down and it was boring. Although he did admit it did work really well but although the sword training was a lot more fun he usually ended up with lots of bumps and bruises. He ended up with the sword training he could heal quickly after all so he didn't mind. Kakashi grinned under his mask as he was hoping for that, now he could get him back for using that new technique on him.

After a few hours Naruto managed to end his training for the day and ended up walking around the village. He was still feeling some of the blows his dad had given him and was wondering if that was bordering on child abuse with the training at times. He was grumbling about his father not being able to take a joke and was wondering what he could do today.

He knew that Kiba and Shino would be busy working with their families today, Ino and Sakura were most likely training today as well and those two could be scary when they got into competitions. Hinata was getting some training with her father and little sister as well. Naruto thought about his best friend and was glad that she was back to her old self although he missed Hannah Hyuga when he visited the Hyuga home. Hinata's father was a bit more stern after that but thankfully it seemed his brother was able to help curve that a little.

Then he thought of Neji and a smile broke out under his mask, he had graduated last year and was put on a team of all people his Uncle Gai, he laughed his ass off when Neji told him that. He actually felt a bit sorry for Neji he knew that Gai could get a little overboard with training but he was interested in meeting the team, there was this kid Lee that sounded nice and a girl Tenten as well. He hadn't seen his Uncle Gai and Neji in a long time too with the missions they went on. He knew where they trained and he decided to take a little look to see what this team was like.

-Team Gai training grounds-

IN the field that Team Gai used their sensei was currently teaching Lee some more taijutsu moves while Tenten was sparing with Neji, and he had to admit he liked this team, sure they were a bit unorthodox but then again knowing Gai beforehand helped to adjust faster. That is he thought it would before him and Lee got this very close bond the led to some disturbing scenes. Although at the moment he had to concentrate since if he wasn't Tenten would cut him up to pieces. With his bloodline activated he saw the incoming weapons and would step out of the way, or deflect them.

She was very good, she moved with speed and agility and with such deadly accuracy that he actually wondered if she had any Hyuga blood in her family. She always would smile and laugh as they spared even when he tried to remain focused and passive. In a way she reminded him of Naruto only less hyper and not as loud. She was easy to get to know and even though he never told anyone he actually found her attractive but never hinted at it.

He knew the risks of getting involved with a teammate and also what it would mean down the line, the seal on his forehead was an ever constant reminder of what awaited for his own children and he didn't think a non-Hyuga would cope with that being done to their children. He was pulled out of his thoughts as he caught someone watching from a branch, he smirked to himself a little as he reached a pause in the sparring.

"Tenten can you send a kunai seventy-five degrees high, and fifteen to your right into that tree over there?" He asked her and he saw her confusion, "We have an uninvited guest."

Now she understood and quickly threw her kunai into the leaves. A scream was heard as someone fell out of the tree and landed heavily onto the ground. The training stopped for the entire team as Tenten got a good look at the boy, he looked to be about a year or so younger than her, with blonde spiky hair and wore black pants with an orange stripe on the side, an orange t-shirt over a black vest with pockets and a black mask with six orange slash marks that looked like whiskers.

"Damn it Neji you told her to do that didn't you!" Naruto accused the older boy pointing a finger at him.

"Oh I didn't know you were there Naruto." Neji said faking innocent.

"Bullshit! She could have killed me!"

"Hardly, Tenten can hit a target one hundred times out of a hundred, give her a target and she'll never miss." Neji said to Naruto who paused for a moment to take that in as he was impressed with it but then went into yelling at the boy a bit more. Tenten felt her cheeks slightly heat up at Neji's compliment of her abilities it was nice to know he thought of her skills so highly.

It was then that he took a good look at the girl with Chinese puns and a pink styled shirt. "You know Neji you never said you had such a pretty girl on your team.

Tenten actually felt a slight blush on her cheeks from the compliment, she never focused on her looks but it was still nice for a girl to hear that from a boy now and then. Neji however had a slight flash of emotion on his face that Naruto caught when Neji saw the girl blush from the compliment.

'Oh so Neji may finally like a girl huh? Oh I so have to tell Hinata this, maybe we can have some fun and break him out of that Hyuga shell of his.' Naruto grinned under his mask seeing Neji give him a slight glare.

"Ah Naruto-kun one of my most youthful friends!" Gai jumped into the scene and took one of his poses.

"Hey Uncle Gai how's the training going?" Naruto asked.

"Wait, Uncle Gai?" Tenten asked, she had no idea that Gai had any other family other than his parents.

"Actually Naruto is the son of my friend and rival Kakashi Hatake, but I've known Naruto-kun since he was a young boy and he thinks of me as an uncle." Gai told them.

"Wait Kakashi...Wasn't that the guy you lost a came to rock, paper, scissors to?" Tenten asked.

Naruto smiled under his mask, "So what's the score is my dad ahead now?"

"Kakashi may be ahead but I will soon pull ahead of him and show him that the power of youth prevails over all, right Naruto!" Gai said and then noticed that Naruto was examining his finger nails.

He looked up sharply, "Huh? Oh sorry were you saying something Uncle Gai?"

Gai face faulted at that and then jumped up, "There's that hip and too cool attitude of your father! You should embrace the power of youth Naruto!"

Neji just shook his head he had seen this many times before, but still he had learned to enjoy the show when Naruto would act like Gai to get under his father's skin and then act like his father to do the same for Gai. It was also how he managed to convince the two adults into several competitions of his own choosing. He never forgot the one when they had to go from one end of the village to another balancing an egg on their noses or the time he suggested wrestling a muddy pig.

"It's always the same with them," Neji sighed.

"Neji how do you know this guy anyway?" Tenten asked.

"He's friends with my cousin Hinata for years and well, he's sort of become a friend of the Hyuga clan," he explained to the weapons girl. Tenten was wondering how the kid managed to do that, it was rare for any clan to admit friendships to someone outside of the clan and the Hyugas were no exception to that.

"Naruto I want to introduce to you one of my prize pupils, this is Rock Lee!" Gai said introducing a young boy that looked almost exactly like a younger version of Gai. The boy had been waiting for the right moment to jump in and to introduce himself.

"I am Rock Lee and I'm honoured to meet a family member of Gai-sensei even if you are not related by blood, I can see the fires of youth burning bright inside of you!" Lee proclaimed to him and giving him his own pose with blinding smile and a thumbs up.

Naruto looked at the boy for a moment before turning to Gai with a deadpan expression on his face, "Uncle Gai have you been performing illegal cloning experiments on yourself? Is he your secret love child or something or did you turn someone normal into a copy of you?"

Tenten starting into fits of giggles and Neji had a small smirk on his face with that one.

"Naruto although I wish Lee was my child sadly he is not but he is a true genius of hard work just like you are Naruto." Gai told him.

At that Lee's eyes lit up with fire, "Naruto is it true that you are a genius of hard work? There are many geniuses like Neji here who are gifted with talents for being a ninja but then there are those of hard work that Gai-sensei says work hard to surpass others."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Well, that's what Uncle Gai always tells me but I have to work hard if I want to be Hokage one day!"

"Ah! That is a worthy dream, you truly are inspired to reach for great heights! My dream is to be a great ninja even though I can't use Ninjustu or Genjutsu, but I will not let that handicap me and I will show them all that I will be a great ninja!"

"Wait you can't use either?" Naruto asked and learned of how Rock Lee's chakra coils were abnormally underdeveloped to the point he couldn't use them like a normal ninja. He listened and yet this boy trained his heart out in Taijutsu and knowing Gai he was training hard. "Well I guess then we have something in common then, I have abnormally large chakra reserves or so my dad says and he says that it also causes me to have the worse charka control he's seen. It's hard for me to do the simple things because of all the chakra in my body, I still can't do a simple clone yet and it took me forever to learn the other things."

"But I work hard to overcome that and I will reach my dream of being Hokage!"

Tenten sighed, "Great now we got another one..."

"I wouldn't dismiss Naruto just yet he's not your normal or average ninja," Neji said to her and she looked at him surprised. "You see when he was a small boy he managed to save my cousin from a kidnapping attempt and gravely injure a ninja, he also took a kunai to the chest and lived."

Tenten's eyes widened at that and looked at the boy who was being challenged to a spar by Lee and who seemed excited for it as well. She was trying to figure out the puzzle that was Naruto Hatake and she and Neji watched as Lee got into his usual fighting pose and Naruto got into one fighting poses that his father taught him.

Gai of course was being the referee at this point and he called the match a go, Naruto leapt out first as Lee stood his ground. Naruto threw a punch only to have it intercepted, so he twisted with a kick and Lee jumped back. Naruto didn't stop though he had to keep Lee moving and guessing as he tried to see what kind of fighter he was. Thanks to some training from Gai himself he knew a bit of the style that Lee was using but obviously Lee was knew a lot more about it then he was.

There was also something that caught his attention as they fought and that was that Lee was really, really fast. He was definitely faster than he was and when he felt a blow land there was some serious power to it. Naruto took a hit to his shoulder and went with a roll to take the shot and jumped back up facing Lee. It was times like this he wished he knew some offensive justus but all he had was the training things like tree climbing and the academy stuff with the exception of clones.

Tenten and Neji watched with interests as Naruto took the pounding by Lee but just kept on going, in fact Naruto managed to get Lee with an elbow strike to the ribs at one point when Lee left an opening for Naruto. Neji watched knowing that Naruto trained a lot and with different teachers, he could see the influence in his fighting style which was a mix of various moves from Kakashi, Gai's own style and what he assumed was from that woman Anko who really gave Neji the creeps.

Tenten was impressed that a boy still in the academy was holding out so long against Lee, she had to admit the blond certainly was giving Lee a workout and she noticed that as the battle went on Naruto seemed to find more and more weaknesses in Lee's style. It wasn't much to give him an edge but it did allow Naruto to dodge and get out of the way of the more powerful moves now and again.

"Man how come you're so fast Lee? I mean I train a lot but I'm not that fast," Naruto said ducking a whirlwind kick to his head.

"Gai-sensei has me on a special training regiment that increases my speed and strength." Lee said dodging a few aerial kicks by Naruto.

"Hey Uncle Gai how come you never tried that with me?" Naruto asked him while fighting.

Gai smiled and chuckled a bit, "I did but you're father thought it was too much."

"Oh how so-OW! What the hell!?" Naruto had went for a block with a kick from Lee by kicking the boy's shin but instead of flesh and bone there seemed to be something else covered by the orange leg warmers. Naruto was hoping on one foot holding his shin cursing as Lee stopped in respect.

"I'm sorry Naruto I didn't meant for you to hit my leg weights."

"Leg weights? What kind of leg weights do you have on?" Naruto asked rubbing his shin. Lee looked to Gai and the man nodded his head and so Lee pulled up the leg warmers and Naruto's jaw dropped. There was a huge set of weights hidden there, actual bricks of metal and Naruto was thankful he didn't break his leg on it. Then another thought hit him as he saw the weights in order to move as fast as he was without those weights he would destroy him within seconds.

For the first time Naruto had met someone that was way above him, at least in speed and strength that he would need to surpass. He made a mental note to talk to his father about weights for himself although he didn't think he could handle those at least not yet.

"Shall we stop for now Naruto-kun?" Lee asked him although he was enjoying the fight. Naruto fought with such passion and intensity. It was very different from how Neji fought, always so controlled and centered. If Neji was a mountain then Naruto was like the wind, and he had seen how Naruto refused to give up at all and only came back with more force and determination. He truly was a genius of hard work and he wanted to see how much more Naruto could put into his fight.

Naruto tested his leg and got back into his stance, "Are you kidding I'm only warming up, I'll just have to remember not to hit that part of your leg again."

With that both boys smiled and started their sparing match again under the watchful eye of the Gai, Tenten and Neji. Naruto tried every move he could think of but so far nothing he had seemed to be able to put the other boy down. At one point he managed to duck then roll under the older boy and with a kick to the ground launched himself behind Lee, but Lee was prepared and grabbed Naruto's wrist and arm and flung him into the nearby trees.

When Naruto was thrown into a tree he thankfully had landed feet first and stuck there, he was glad all those months of practice and training with the tree climbing managed to stick him finally. He jumped off when Lee's fist made contact with the spot he had been at shattering the wood. He flipped into the air and with a midair twist landed facing Lee.

'How the hell am I going to beat this guy? He's like a mini-Gai and it's not like my dad has given me any justus that I can use on him. Hell I only know of a couple and they wouldn't work on Lee, damn it dad why the hell couldn't you have taught me a fire one like Sasuke has? The only thing I have left is...'

Naruto suddenly got a brilliant idea into his head and went into a familiar hand sign, Neji saw this and he groaned and covered his face with his hand. He had seen this before and he didn't need to be reminded of it. "Oh no please not that stupid thing."

"What, what's he going to do?" Tenten asked him. She watched and then Naruto yelled out a name that she thought was 'sexy jutsu' but she swore she heard wrong. Then there was a puff of smoke and suddenly a very cute naked girl in smoke suddenly appeared.

Lee froze in his spot as his young and innocent mind saw his first naked girl, he literally couldn't even think as his mind just stopped at the image. Gai yelled out in horror at the sight of it and Tenten looked mortified. Everything she had thought about the young boy was suddenly dashed at this blatant perverted act. She held onto her kunai very hard and was trying not to throw it at the boy.

Naruto dispelled it and quickly sent a jab into Lee's chin making the boy fall onto the ground with a stupid look on his face. Well Naruto knew it was a cheap shot but he honestly didn't know any other way to beat the older boy. He went over to make sure there were no hard feelings but the boy just didn't respond to him, he prodded him with his foot and still Lee was there on the ground with that stupid look on his face.

"Uh oh...I think I broke him, hey man you okay?" He picked him up by the shoulders shaking him.

"Naruto!"

From that loud and deadly tone from Tenten he dropped Lee and slowly looked around to see a very pissed off girl, she was suddenly having a small twitch in her left eye. "What the hell kind of jutsu was that!? Do you know how perverted and also how offensive that is to female ninjas?"

"Uh...no not really," Naruto said and quickly dodged a kunai being thrown at him thankfully Anko gave him plenty of practice with avoiding. "Wait-let me explain-will you stop throwing those-come on Tenten it was just a joke-hey that one nearly hit! How many weapons do you have on you anyway!?"

"Die you pervert!"

Neji signed as he looked at Gai was trying to snap Lee out of his catatonic state and at Tenten trying to kill Naruto. He looked to the ground as his shoulders slumped, "This was why I didn't want to introduce Naruto to my team, he's nothing but pure chaos."

Next up Chapter 18: Preparations for the Test