Chapter 26

Naruto and Jiraiya established a schedule for Naruto's training. Jiraiya would create two shadow clones along with Naruto. He would remain with the original, while the other two would practice in fuinjutsu and ninjutsu. Naruto was already master of fuinjutsu, so there was not much teach him that he didn't already know. Instead, they were working on new seals that he could use in the future. Not just in the chunin exams, but against other opponents as well.

Naruto's grasp on ninjutsu was pretty solid, not to mention his vast repertoire of them. He knew more C to B-rank jutsus rather than the A-ranks, and he used them very efficiently. He usually preferred using suiton and futon, but his katon and raiton were equally good. Jiraiya was training him in a B-rank fire jutsu, Katon: Honoo Sude (Fire style: Blazing hands). Since Naruto knew that his opponent was primarily a taijutsu type fighter, he would have to fight hand to hand at some point.

But Naruto knew that the Hyuga preferred to stick with their gentle fist. He already had a good repertoire of mid to long-range jutsus to fight. Also, he knew the gentle fist targeted the tenketsu, the points in chakra network that control the flow of chakra. But just like Tenten, Neji couldn't have found a worse opponent since Naruto didn't have a chakra network, so Neji's fighting style was already null and void. Add to the fact that the Hyuga see learning elemental jutsu beneath someone of their stature, and Neji is totally crushed.

The original Naruto was concentrating on increasing the speed of his reflexes in taijutsu against Jiraiya. Naruto found out on the first day of their training that Jiraiya was holding back a lot. Their routing was something like this: first, the Sannin would check whether Naruto's resistance seals were actually affecting him or not. Based on that, he would let it remain or change them to a higher level. Then he would tell him to just defend.

Naruto would have impressive bruises by the end of the defensive sessions. After half an hour of relaxation, in which his bruises would get healed, Naruto would be told to try and hit Jiraiya. And every single day for the first week, he was only able to hit the man five times at the most. Granted, his fighting style, the elemental fist, was as aggressive as it was defensive, not to mention had a minority of made up moves that he usually employed to finish a fight, he was still far from landing critical hits on the Sannin.

'Guess he isn't a Sannin in just name, after all,' Naruto thought as he relaxed in the onsen. Today was the first Saturday of the month, and he and Jiraiya did nothing but a small, time limited spar to evaluate Naruto's skills. Naruto had mastered the Blazing Hands in a total of just four hours, and spent rest of the week trying to incorporate it into his fighting style. Jiraiya had released him early because Naruto was to do his own training in the weekends. And Naruto planned to hit a long overdue task: his father's simulation room.

He had five more levels to go, and Naruto planned to hit four of them in the following four weekends. He was confident that he would be able complete with some, if not full ease. But he would worry about that later. Right now, Naruto felt nothing but exasperation along with resignation as he watched his godfather giggle perversely as he peeked onto the women's side of the bath. After their spar, Jiraiya had suggested they go to the onsen to relax. Naruto, the naïve idiot that he was, readily agreed, saying he could use a hot bath.

However, Naruto had planned on discussing a few things with Jiraiya about what he learned during the first week of the training month while relaxing. This was the first time he learnt that when Jiraiya suggested they relax in a hot bath, he really just wanted to peek on the women. Even though there were only two of them on the men's side, Naruto sunk lower in order to hide the fact that he was here with Jiraiya.

"Oh ho ho….this is good, very good," Jiraiya giggled lecherously as he gazed on the naked women on the other side. Naruto glared at his back fiercely, making the tiger hand seal. Chains of water rose up and wrapped around Jiraiya, viciously yanking him back into the water.

"Can't you stop being a pervert for just a moment and relax?" Naruto dryly asked him as his head came out of the water. Jiraiya looked genuinely offended at the question.

"What! That's just not possible! Being a pervert runs in my blood!" Jiraiya proclaimed graciously, even pumping a fist to prove his point.

"As if that's something to be proud of," Naruto grumbled as he got up, wrapping his towel around his waist. If he stayed any longer, he would faint from dizziness.

He would hit the simulation later tonight, so right now he had nothing to do. As he walked towards his apartment, he absently wondered, "I wonder what kind of training Sasuke is going through."

Elsewhere, Sasuke sneezed, causing to slip into the water with his hand still alight with lightning, shocking him.

XXXXXXX

Naruto panted as the simulation got over, his opponent lay beaten before him. It wasn't tough, but it wasn't easy either. A wave of satisfaction passed over him as he went through the fight in his head. This time, he had managed inflict most of the bruises onto his opponent instead of himself.

His opponent was crafty, and his fighting style was something Naruto had never seen. He fought almost like he was dancing, weaving around in circular patterns. His hands were almost always on the ground and kicks were inverted, the force behind increased with each maneuver. However, Naruto was able find the weakness of this style. As offensive it was, only evasion tactics were used by his opponent to escape his attacks. There weren't many blocks, so the upper body's only way to not get hit is to keep continuously keep moving in an acrobatic way.

Naruto, however, was able land in a few attacks before getting annoyed. His opponent's patterns were too erratic to find an opening and exploit it at the same time. So Naruto himself improvised. An opponent with a style like that can be dealt with many ways, but the option that stood out the most to Naruto was the use of brute force. Up until now, Naruto had only attacked the opponent. However, Naruto enhanced his fist with his chakra and punched the ground hard. The force behind it was not what Naruto expected it to be. A few cracks spread around the impact area, but the force was enough to make his opponent stumble, just for a moment.

Just what Naruto needed. In a flash step, he appeared before the attacker and slammed his fist straight into the stomach. The human body isn't strong enough to withstand the amount of force that Naruto put in the punch. Added with the fact that the last punch was enhanced by the Blazing Hands, and his opponent was out for the count.

Naruto flashed into his apartment, groaning and looking forward to a hot shower after the session. He was to start his summoning training from Monday, so that was something to look forward to. He took off all his clothes and grabbed a towel from the rack, entering the bathroom and closing it. He sighed in relief as the hot water poured over him, washing all the grime and dirt from his body as well as soothing his muscles. He stood in there for over twenty minutes after which he turned off the shower, wiping the water off him and tying it at the waist. Exiting the bathroom, he shut the door and paused before for a moment before turning around, eyes narrowing. After a moment, he sighed and relaxed. He proceeded to get dressed and eat dinner before retiring to sleep.

He failed to take notice of the crow perched on the lamp post outside his apartment, an ominous sharingan in its eye socket.

XXXXXXX

"Yosh! You ready to learn the awesomeness that is summoning?" Jiraiya questioned loudly, grinning like he knew something Naruto didn't. Naruto just stared at him in a deadpan. Jiraiya began to feel uncomfortable under the deadpan, coughing into his fist in order to maintain his dignity.

"Alright, summoning is a pretty simple jutsu, with a little amount technicalities. The chakra requirements for each summon differ greatly. Take me for example. If I put a large amount of chakra in the jutsu, I am likely to get a bigger and a stronger summon, like a battle toad, than when I put in a small amount of chakra, which is when I get a messenger toad. You will have to adjust accordingly to your summons," he explained. Naruto had to admit that whenever Jiraiya was serious like, it was actually possible to see how intelligent he was.

Nodding to Jiraiya, Naruto bit his left thumb, allowing blood to come out. He then went through the hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground, pumping a little more than a quarter amount of his chakra. 'Kuchiyose no jutsu!'

While the sealing array spread out from beneath his hands, nothing else happened. Naruto rose and eyebrow in confusion. Jiraiya noticed it and smirked, "While not shouting out the name of your jutsus is admirable and very useful as a habit, this one is a special case. You have to verbally pronounce it."

Naruto rolled his eyes at that and exclaimed, "Kuchiyose no jutsu!" In a large puff of smoke, it revealed that Naruto had managed to summon Takeshi, the boss of foxes. The large summon easily towered over the entire forest they were in, providing a great view to Naruto, who stood upon the fox's head.

Jiraiya was gaping at the gigantic summon that Naruto had managed to summon on his first try. 'Kami, I didn't know that the foxes were this powerful! This guy could easily tower over Gamabunta, and that guy's size is no joke at all! How the hell did Naruto manage to summon him on his first try?! And judging by the giant sword, this guy's easily skilled in kenjutsu. Naruto really did land a treasure with the fox contract,' Jiraiya thought in awe as continued gazing the summon.

Takeshi blinked when he didn't find any threat in front of him, so he addressed his summoner. "Naruto-san?"

His voice snapped Naruto from his mental dance of victory. "Ah, Takeshi-san. I was practicing the summoning jutsu to get used to using it in the future."

Takeshi gave a sound of realization, "I see. In that case, allow me to give you a little advise. Whenever you use the Kuchiyose no jutsu, state what type of summon do you want to come to your aid. Battle summons are always on standby, so you don't need to state this for battle summons. But I have to say, it is nothing short of impressive for you to manage to summon me at your age," he complimented Naruto.

Naruto blushed at the praise and rubbed the back of his head, chuckling sheepishly, "Thank you, Takeshi-san. And please, just Naruto is fine."

Takeshi chuckled, "Very well, Naruto it is. And don't hesitate to call me if things get difficult for you, Naruto." He dispelled himself after that, returning to the realm of the foxes. Naruto easily landed in a crouch beside a stunned Jiraiya.

"What the hell was that brat?!" Jiraiya almost yelled with wide eyes.

Naruto gave him an innocent look, "What do you mean?"

Jiraiya pointed a finger at him, "Don't give me that look! How the hell did you summon the boss of foxes in your first try?! Even I didn't manage to summon the toad boss on the first try!"

Naruto gave him a confused look, "All you have to do is pump the chakra and based on the amount, you get the summon, right? I pumped a significant amount in the jutsu right now."

Jiraiya had calmed a little from Naruto's explanation, but was a little curious too. "Just how much did you put into it?"

Naruto shrugged, "A little over a quarter of my chakra." Jiraiya nodded absentmindedly, but then he really registered what Naruto said and whipped around to stare at him.

'Is he for real?! A little over a quarter?! Most people his age would have had chakra exhaustion trying to summon the boss and they would still fail. But then again, his reserves are steadily being increased by the seal, so that's that,' he thought speculatively.

"Well, brat, since you have shown that you can already summon the boss, we'll try to reduce the amount to see what you can get. Who knows, you might even get a personal summon of your own," Jiraiya suggested, mentally smirking when he saw Naruto's eyes lighting up at the words "personal summon."

Naruto grinned at the thought of having a fox partner. That would be so cool! He ignored Kurama's grumbles of 'I'm right here' and cut his thumb, flashing through the hand signs and slamming his hand on the ground. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

A burst of smoke revealed that he had managed to summon a white fox with black markings on its upper body, standing up to Naruto's waist. It had a white tail swaying lazily behind it while it peered up to Naruto with curious green eyes. "Who are you?" It's tone, a soft tenor, held a hint of curiosity mixed with cautiousness.

Naruto grinned and pointed towards himself with his thumb, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the newest summoner of the Kitsune. Nice to meet you!"

He watched as the fox's eyes brightened up and almost laughed when the fox introduced itself in a similar manner, pointing towards itself with its opposable thumbs, "You are the newest summoner?! This is awesome! My name is Raiden, the second son of the boss of the Kitsune and the most awesome Kitsune ever! Pleased to meet you!" Man, Naruto had to stop himself from glomping the fox because his voice was just so damn cute!

Naruto laughed at Raiden's introduction and said, "Pleased to meet you too, Raiden. You are actually the second summon I've summoned, you know."

Raiden frowned, "The second? Who's the first?"

Naruto smiled proudly, "Why, your father of course!"

Raiden's eyes widened, "You managed to summon my father?! You must be really strong then!" Naruto just closed his eyes and nodded, enjoying the moment and completely ignoring Jiraiya, who was gaping at the both of them.

'Kami, he's just like Naruto!' he thought as he observed them converse. Raiden seemed come to some realization as he tugged at Naruto's lower, gaining a curious look from the boy.

"Naruto, do you know what this means? You summoning me?!" His voice seemed to grow with excitement as he voiced his question.

Naruto raised a confused eyebrow, "No, what does this mean?"

Raiden shook his head with wonder, "It is a requirement to summon the boss of any summoning clan after you sign the contract, Naruto. However, whomever you summon next, becomes the summoner's personal summon!" He finished with a significant amount of glee in his voice.

Naruto also started grinning and at the end of his explanation, he engulfed the fox in a hug, burying his head in his fur. "Which means you are my personal summons now? We are going to have so much fun together, Raiden!"

The fox also laughed in happiness, and it was then that Naruto remembered something. "Oh, Raiden, I almost forgot. This is my godfather, Jiraiya," he introduced the smirking man sitting behind him.

"Finally remembered me, huh Naruto?"

"You are the toad sage?" Raiden's whisper had the unmistakable feeling of awe.

Jiraiya grinned and exclaimed, "Indeed I am!"

Raiden began to shake in excitement, "Kami-sama, I can't believe you have such cool company, Naruto! This is the first time I've met a summoner of the toad clan, let alone a sage!"

Jiraiya was basking in pride that even the summons he hadn't heard of before seemed to know who he was. But that feeling of pride quickly shattered when Naruto spoke, "Seriously, he's not that cool Raiden. He's a pervert."

Jiraiya shouted in defense, sounding extremely offended, "Wrong! I'm a super pervert!"

However, Raiden shook his head, amused by the antics of the large man, "I'll remember that in the future. It is nice to meet you, Jiraiya-sama." Turning to Naruto, he poked him in the chest, "Naruto, don't you forget about me. Summon me whenever you can, okay? Even if you just want to hang out or talk. I've been told I'm a great listener."

Naruto smiled and nodded, rubbing Raiden's head. Raiden then dispelled himself back to the summoning realm.

XXXXXXX

The next two weeks were spent like the first week, since Naruto already had an excellent grasp on his summoning. So they spent the next two weeks speeding up his taijutsu and adding jutsu to his arsenal. Naruto had learnt four more jutsu, one jutsu for each of his affinity and had improved his fighting speed considerably.

For lightning, he had learnt Raiton: Raikou Kousen no jutsu (Lightning style: Lightning beam technique) A B-rank jutsu. He had found this jutsu in the Nidaime's library. A beam of lightning twice as wide as his arm; if it hits the target, the target will experience a fantastic amount of pain and will be heavily stunned, not to mention unconscious from the pain. Even if it's a near miss, the effects will be of some effect due to small bolts of lightning escaping. While he won't be using this against Neji, it was still a very useful technique for live capture.

For fire, he had learnt Katon: Menimienai hi (Fire style: Invisible fire) A B-rank technique Tobirama had created with the help of someone named Uchiha Kagami. After molding chakra, Naruto would expel a single, colorless beam of gas from his mouth. However, upon getting in contact with a target, the gas will spontaneously combust, and the strength of the resulting explosion will depend on how much chakra Naruto put into it.

For air, he learnt the Fuuton: Reppuushou (Wind style: Gale wind palm) A C-rank technique created by someone in the Senju clan. After forming the needed handseals, the user basically had to send an open palm thrust towards his opponent, which is capable of causing severe injury. Naruto can also use this in conjunction with a thrown weapon to increase its power.

For water, he learnt not a jutsu, but the secret behind creating water out of thin air. It was what Tobirama was known for throughout the entire shinobi world. Usually, condensation is used to derive water from vapors. However, Tobirama did not have the luxury of creating vapor in the middle of a battlefield and then condensing it to form water. Therefore, he would cleverly saturate the air around him with his chakra, without losing control of it, so that whenever he was in need of water and no water body was near, he would simply mold the chakra-saturated air into water, thus negating the disadvantage that water could not be used without water bodies. What was amazing basically meant turning a battlefield into a geographical advantage. With your chakra saturating the air, Tobirama could literally use it to do anything.[This is what I could come up. A bit of BS, so please bear with me]

For fuinjutsu, he completed the chakra suppressing seal he was working on with Jiraiya. He made it so that upon application, the chakra of the target would be completely locked. Which meant they were completely helpless unless they had something to outrun him without chakra. Another thing he came up with was slapping resistance seals on his opponents. Simple, but very effective, something he would use against Neji.

All in all, with the help of his shadow clones, Naruto spent almost a week to entirely master the first three techniques, meaning using them with the minimum amount of handseals. He was still working on Tobirama's chakra saturation technique, using it discreetly without letting your enemy know. However, it's useless against a sensor. It was the last remaining week of the month, and Jiraiya had said that the last week was fully for Naruto train himself. That was good, since Naruto, with his nigh limitless spamming of shadow clones, had the chance to test his learnings in a battle simulation.

It was the second day of the last week and Naruto was taking a water break, his t-shirt and jacket having been discarded for a while to avoid them from getting drenched in his sweat.

"So, what do you think of my training, Raiden?" He asked after taking a sip of water.

Raiden watched his summoner, sitting some distance away. "Well, it's definitely intense. You sure work hard for all your genius, Naruto," he dryly commented. When he was first summoned, he was delighted when Naruto asked him to give him some company while he trained. He had then proceeded to watch with wide eyes as Naruto summoned an army of around five hundred shadow clones for an all-out battle against them. Raiden had asked, just out of curiosity, that how much chakra had Naruto just spent making the clones.

"I'd say, a full three-fourths of my total reserves," Naruto had replied after a moment. Raiden had dumbly nodded and watched as Naruto proceeded to decimate his army. He had paid close attention to what Naruto had said and was doing some mental calculations.

If Naruto spent a whole three-quarters of his chakra, that meant he would be close to light chakra exhaustion if he spent anymore. But Naruto had explained it to him that whenever shadow clones are dispelled, the chakra returns to the original, along with the memories of that clone. Raiden observed that Naruto had started with taijutsu, destroying a dozen clones at first. Then, he used an elemental jutsu, whether it be fire or air or water or lightning, to destroy another group. He would then switch back to taijutsu, then use a jutsu again.

It was a cycle, Raiden realized after intense observation. Naruto never used any jutsu if he didn't have sufficient chakra to not collapse into exhaustion. But the funny thing that Raiden realized, was that he couldn't understand whether Naruto was losing chakra or gaining it back. If it was simply taijutsu, Naruto would be gaining all the chakra back without any expenditure of his remaining reserves. But since he occasionally used a jutsu, it was hard to determine. In the end, he just presented Naruto with his theory and asked his opinion for it.

Naruto had thought for a whole five minutes and then replied, "I'll put a pin on it, but I'm not thinking about it now." Turns out, Naruto was mentally exhausted as well, because he gained the memories of five hundred clones in just two hours, so he won't be exerting anymore today. Raiden was surprised he had remained conscious after all that stress.

Naruto chuckled, "You say it like geniuses don't have to work hard." To his surprise, Raiden nodded, completely supporting his point. Naruto corrected him right then.

"Raiden," he said softly, sitting beside the fox so that his head was on Naruto's thigh, "That is a belief which isn't right. People misunderstand what genius actually means. They believe that someone who achieves something great without appearing to work hard is hailed as a genius. But that's not true.

"Genius is just a great capacity for hard work. Take me for example; I have excellent chakra control, which allows me to grasp jutsus very quickly. But learning jutsus and mastering them are two totally different things. It is my genius that allows me to grasp concepts so quickly and easily," he stroked Raiden's head tenderly, having the fox's undivided attention, "But only through hard work can I master them completely. That is what genius is. Genius is the beginning of something great, but it is hard work that sees you through the finish. Genius is nothing without hard work."

Raiden gazed at Naruto with wide eyes, who just looked at him with a small smile on his face. The fox could only shake his head in awe as he began to see Naruto in a new light. "I always thought that geniuses never have to work hard, but I never looked it from your point of view," he mumbled, his head resting on Naruto's thigh. Naruto was wise beyond his years, that was for sure.

"Why, you got some genius you are competing against?" Naruto enquired.

Raiden just sighed and took comfort in Naruto's scratches behind his ears. "My elder brother, Toshi, is a part of the trackers of the Kitsune, and he is regarded a genius in almost every way. He already has gained two tails and is close to achieving the third. My family always says I should be more like him," he grumbled.

"He sounds interesting."

"Trust me, he's a douchebag," Raiden replied as they collapsed into a peaceful silence. While Naruto wanted to say something, he kept quiet, not wanting to interfere in what was clearly a family matter. Raiden, on the other hand, was thinking about what Naruto had said. If what he said was true, did Toshi really worked that hard to be where he was? Was he just seeing the tip of the iceberg? More importantly, if hard work was the key, was he not working hard enough?"

The questions plagued his mind for a while as Naruto kept scratching his ear.

So lost in their thoughts they were that they didn't even notice the presence behind them. "The sunset looks really beautiful from here," a female voice commented from behind them. Their reactions were instantaneous.

Raiden was on his hind legs on an instant, taking the offensive stance of the Kitsune fighting style, a snarl displaying his sharp teeth. Naruto himself had whipped two of his kunai into his hands in an instant, coating them in wind chakra and getting into his usual offensive stance, muscles tensed for any action. Only when he got a good look at the speaker did he relax.

"Raiden, relax. She's a friend," he sighed. Raiden looked at his partner before relaxing, turning his eyes onto the girl.

Temari looked at both of them with something skin to amusement. She inspected the fox, then Naruto. Based on what she had seen from the last five minutes, they seemed to be pretty close. She had also gotten a good look at the bare upper body of Naruto, both front and back and she had to admit, he was definitely hot, hotter than most of the males she had seen. She marveled at how defined his muscles were for his age; his chest muscles were clearly developed for someone his age, not to mention his abs. The perfectly chiseled six-pack caused her to blush deeply, imagining not-so-straight thoughts about her and Naruto being in an intimate position, being embraced by his powerful arms-

"How can I help you today, Temari?" The voice broke her out of her thoughts and she desperately tried to regain control of her blush. Naruto and Raiden, who now was a little taller than Naruto's shoulder on his hind legs, looked at her quizzically. Raiden turned to Naruto and looked at his face, as if looking for something.

He smirked when his nose picked up traces of arousal from both Naruto and Temari. If he was smelling correctly…

"Naruto, is she your girlfriend?" He bluntly asked, not even hiding his smirk when both of them turned to him. Temari looked at him with with slight anger, her blush not receding at all. Naruto looked at him with wide eyes of disbelief and a slightly open mouth. Temari regained her wits faster than Naruto, who still looked agape at his partner's suggestion.

She almost swung her fan at Raiden. "Why you-" That was as far as she got when she stopped when Naruto got in front of the fox, holding a palm up and a small smile on his face. "It was a joke, Temari. He's a bit of a joker."

Turning his face so that he faced Raiden and and Temari couldn't see him, he gave a death glare to Raiden. The fox would have been intimidated greatly if not for the slight blush on Naruto's face. "Go back," Naruto mouthed. Raiden winked at him and mouthed back, "All the best," before going back home.

Naruto barely resisted from bashing the fox's head. He took a deep breath and turned back to Temari, whose eyes were a bit lower than his. He became acutely aware for the first time that he was naked above his waist. He tried to salvage the situation with some light flirting, "You see something you like?"

He saw as Temari's eyes snapped to his and had to hide his smirk at the embarrassment swimming in her eyes. He then saw her take a deep breath herself and calm down. She then smirked and replied in the same, light flirting tone, "Don't mind if I do. And it's quite a sight." She kept her smirk from widening when she saw him look away.

Naruto decided to address the issue, "So, any reason why you are here?" He walked towards his t-shirt and jacket. He quickly got dressed and faced her, arms folded.

She put one hand her hip, her smirk turning into a smile, "I just wanted to say, nice job in the prelims. You gave the dog boy quite the beating."

Naruto smirked and shrugged, "I had something to settle with him, that's all. And your fight was something to see as well. I feel bad for my fellow Konoha nin," he complimented, sitting down. He was surprised when Temari walked and sat down in front of him as well, a little closer than what was appropriate. 'But I'm not complaining,' he mentally smirked.

She shrugged, "Thank you for the compliment, but I believe it was just an unlucky matchup for her." Naruto nodded in agreement, having come to the same conclusion as before. He thought if he should ask her what was the jinchuriki of Suna doing in a foreign village, especially during something as important as chunin exams, but refrained. He could ask her later.

Temari looked at Naruto closely. He was quite relaxed, but his position was such that he would be able to react instantaneously if she were to attack him now. Speaking of which…..

"Say, would you care for a spar?" She asked, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. He gestured to himself, "As you can see, I have just finished today's training, so I'm quite tired." He watched her give a silent "aah", but the disappointment was clear. He had to give her points though; she was quite bold in her attempt at trying to learn his what his trump cards were.

Too bad.

"But," her head lifted up, "I wouldn't mind a short taijutsu spar." His smirk told her exactly that he knew why she asked for such a request. He hadn't said it, but he already knew why she was there. No point in hiding now, though.

"You are irritatingly smart," she grumbled, causing him to chuckle. He got up and held out a hand for her to get up. She looked at it for a moment and scoffed, but grabbed it nonetheless, allowing him to pull her up. Naruto looked down at the hand he held and just felt it for a moment. It was a bit smaller than his own, yet it fit perfectly in his own. He heard a small cough and looked up to see Temari's blushing face in a scowl. He immediately let go of it, a blush creeping up his face. He realized how creepy he must have looked. He cleared his throat and gestured behind him, "Shall we?"

That's how the next four days went. Naruto would summon hundreds of clones for an all-out battle to improve his application of newly learnt skills and techniques, fight for over two hours and then relax. Temari would come by sometime in the evening and they would spar. Naruto usually limited the spars with taijutsu so as to not accidently reveal some of his tricks. Temari had caught on as well, and didn't protest at all, preferring to keep her tricks a secret as well. They would make small talk after the spar, and then Naruto would offer to escort her back, but she would playfully refuse every time. Naruto always thought that she was being observed, which is why she refused every time. She didn't want to be seen getting too friendly with a Konoha nin.

Today was Saturday and so, Naruto planned to hit the simulation room one last time before the chunin finals. He had already completed till the fifth level, each time more difficult than the last. But every level gave him ideas on where to improve, which he practiced all week and apply it onto the next level. So this is why Naruto was at the apartment right now, sitting on the floor of his bedroom and looking at the thirty kunai in front of him.

He had already imprinted the seals on the handle of the tri-pronged kunai. One was the jutsu shiki for the Hiraishin, and the other was the seal he had developed so that the kunai could be stuck on the surface of water as well, allowing him to use them in the areas where water bodies were.

'You seem to be thinking something about last night, Naruto,' Kurama commented from within.

Naruto kept gazing at the kunai as he replied, 'Last night…I can't figure out why they are doing this.'

Flashback

Late last night, Naruto was sitting on top of his father's head, idly wondering on how the villagers would react to his reveal. 'I can think of two things. Either they would start worshipping me, or the villagers who have some morals left in them would feel guilty enough to commit suicide based on the reason that they tortured the son of their beloved Yondaime for years. What do you think Kurama?'

A chuckle sounded from within his mind. 'You know how the villagers are, Naruto. They would probably try to suck up to you after knowing just who you are, but I wouldn't mind witnessing the second option. What about you? Which one do you prefer?'

Naruto sighed at Kurama's insinuation, 'I don't prefer either one. I would actually prefer if they just treated me like any other villager, but that won't be happening anytime soon, considering I'm the heir to two major clans of Konoha, lord if I make chunin.'

Kurama huffed, 'You humans confuse me terribly. An excellent opportunity for you to crush them beneath your heel for what they have done to you and you are considering letting them go? I would have made a meal out of them if I were you.'

Naruto chuckled, 'I don't see what's wrong in being the better man, Kurama.'

Kurama was about to say something when he sensed an influx of chakra about two miles away, along with negative feelings. 'Naruto, can you sense that?'

Naruto raised an eyebrow but spread out his senses nonetheless, sitting up straight when he too sensed the amount of chakra being molded. Just who was molding a chunin level amount of chakra at this time in the night?

Making a half-ram seal, he used a series of body flickers to get where the chakra signatures were. When he reached there, he was horrified what he witnessed.

He saw the prelims proctor, Gekko Hayate, locked in a battle with the sand jonin, Baki, if Naruto remembered correctly, and was losing, badly. He had numerous injuries on his person. If that blade of wind cut him, Hayate could kiss his life goodbye. He immediately acted. First priority was to get Hayate to the Hokage tower.

Baki held a blade of wind in his right hand, the other hand holding the sword of the proctor. He had to admit, Hayate was exceptionally skilled at kenjutsu and had almost gotten him, but his sickness slowed him down terribly, allowing Baki to gain the upper hand. "Try stopping this blade of wind!" He was about to shove it into Hayate's chest when a blur grabbed Hayate and dodged, making Baki miss completely.

Baki had just enough time to turn to his left, where he had seen the blur go, to witness Hayate disappearing in a blue flash. He cursed under his breath. 'Dammit, he escaped! Kazekage-sama won't like this.' He vanished in a wind shunshin to inform his leader. The thought of the flash completely missed him.

Naruto appeared in the Hokage's office, surprised to see the his jiji still working at this time of the night. ANBU surrounded him in an instant, the only reason not skewering him because he still held Hayate in a fireman's carry.

Hiruzen immediately stood up, "Tora, get Hayate to the medical wing of this tower immediately!"

The ANBU stepped forward, took Hayate from Naruto and vanished. Hiruzen turned his attention to Naruto and spoke in a commanding voice, "Report."

Naruto straightened up and narrated what happened. At the end of his report, Hiruzen sighed heavily and sat down. "I didn't know it was this bad."

Naruto asked in slight confusion, "What do you mean, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen folded his hands and rested his chin on it, "Naruto, on your suspicions, I assigned Gekko Hayate to keep a watch on Yakushi Kabuto. He was to report me any unusual activity that concerned the target. It seems that tonight is the first time he witnessed something significant, but was discovered and was likely going to be killed in order to keep the information from being discovered." He looked Naruto in the eye, "It is most likely that Konoha is facing the possibility of an invasion from Suna."

Naruto folded his arms, "I didn't know Suna had enough manpower to take on the strongest of the five on its own. In fact, from the books that I've read, Suna is the weakest of the five."

Hiruzen shook his head, "I know the Kazekage well enough to understand that he's not stupid enough to make such a bold move. Which means he has an ally." He had a suspicion as to who it was, but that was for him to deal with.

Naruto nodded, "That would surely be the case, but we can rule out the possibility of Kumo, Iwa and Kiri attacking. Kiri is still wrapped up in a civil war, Iwa is still recovering from the defeat in the last war. Kumo wouldn't want to break the peace treaty you had established over the Hyuga just yet, which leaves…"

Hiruzen filled in the blanks, "There's a new up and coming hidden village, whose genin have participated in the exams. Otogakure. It is possible, but we don't know for sure. Naruto, you must keep this meeting a secret. Not a word is to be let out, do you understand?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!"

"Dismissed!"

Flashback end