Naruto - Part 7

Naruto wasn't entirely sure what had come over him when he'd told Hinata to call him big brother. It had seemed like a good idea at the time...or at least a funny idea, but there way no denying that the girl definitely gave out 'little sister' vibes.

Naruto could plan his own training with exacting precision and execute that plan without fail, but when it came to other life decisions he tended to be rather impulsive. Case in point was the incident with Zabuza's sword. What kind of man told a hunter-nin of unknown ability to strip, get down on his or her knees and lick their ass? And contrary to what Haku had thought, Naruto hadn't known her gender when he'd said that, he had just really wanted to use that insult on someone. He was in fact intending to use it again, because he felt cheated due to the fact that Haku's mask had prevented him from seeing the expression on her face.

But there would be time for figuring out his own impulses later, right now they needed to find a team of unlucky bastards that were going to donate an earth scroll to Team 7. They had already heard some screaming in the distance, meaning that some poor bastard had already gotten hurt or killed. Their own heaven scroll was safely sealed in Naruto's coat.

Before they could even decide on a direction to go in, Naruto saw a strange blotch of colour in the trees that had no business being there. The blond quickly thought up a plan to capture the unlucky idiot who thought that going after them alone seemed like a good idea. The small clearing was all but perfect, so there was no need to find a better spot.

"Stay here guys, I need to take a piss." Naruto told his teammates and headed for the bushes.

Sasuke and Sakura were confused by this. Naruto had never before displayed any concern or shame about relieving himself right in front of them before. Sakura's protests about doing that in front of a lady only made him ask where she saw any ladies and if they were hot. Not that they weren't grateful that the blond was for once displaying some basic courtesy, but it was seriously inconsistent.

Before they could question it any further, Naruto came walking out of the bushes.

"Alright lets go Sasuke, Sakura."

Sasuke's eyes widened in realisation and he flew towards Naruto with his leg extended in a kick. Naruto was hit directly in the chest and went flying.

"What's the big idea Sasuke?" Naruto demanded with a scowl.

"What are you doing Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked somewhat franticaly, not wanting her teammates to fight amongst each other in the middle of this creepy forest.

"Naruto rarely calls us by name and he would have been more than able to block that kick." Sasuke explained with a scowl.

"Hey, you're right!" Sakura exclaimed in realisation. Their blond teammate usualy called them by the rather unflattering nicknames of princess and pinky or whatever else struck him as funny at the time and it was true that Naruto would never have gotten hit by an attack like that.

The impostor cancelled the transformation, revealing himself to be a Genin from the Hidden Rain, wearing a strange off yellow wet suit and a rebreather.

"Unlucky, now I have to use force." He said to himself, seeing that he had screwed up the impersonation.

He charged at Sasuke, intending to disable him and demand the scroll, but the Uchiha jumped into the air and began making hand seals immediately.

"Katon: Hōsenka no Jutsu(Fire Release: Phoenix Fire Technique)!"

The volley of fireballs shot towards the other Genin, but he was quick enough to dodge them. Unfortunately for him, he looked back at the Uchiha and never saw the blond coming towards him until he was held in a chokehold.

"Unlucky. Didn't I tie you up?" The Rain Genin asked with resignation, knowing that there was no way for him to escape this one.

"I untied myself." Was the dry response from the blond.

"So you knew that he was going to do this?" Sasuke asked with a scowl.

The Uchiha was angry about this, because Naruto had been one step ahead of him yet again.

Meanwhile, Sakura was feeling pretty bad about herself, because she had been useless yet again. In fact she hadn't done anything particularly useful since they'd been assigned to the same team and it was a pretty depressing to think that Naruto's harsh words all those months ago after their bell test had been true.

"Sure did, I'm not sure which idiot thought that yellow was a good colour to use when hiding in a forest." Naruto explained. "Now lets see if this weirdo has a scroll on him."

"Lucky, I don't." The idiot in question responded.

"What if I decide to beat the location of your teammates out of you?" The blond asked pleasantly.

"Lucky, we split up and decided to meet up near the tower in a few days, I don't know where they are."

"What if I decide to kill you because your way of talking annoys me?" Naruto questioned further, still pleasantly

"Unlucky."

"You're damn right it's unlucky, but lucky for you, I'm not in the habit of killing helpless idiots unless they're rapists or murderers. You're not one of those are you?"

"Lucky, no." There was notable relief in the voice of the strange Genin.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After knocking out the odd Rain Genin with a luck obsession, Team 7 made their way further into the forest, intent on finally making some kind of plan and getting the required earth scroll when they were yet again interrupted.

The interruption this time however was much more severe. None of them sensed anything about it or had any warning as a sudden powerful gust of wind struck them. Naruto got the worst of it, due to the fact that he was right in the middle, unlike Sasuke and Sakura who were at the very edges of the technique. Fortunately he was also the most sturdy of the three of them, so he managed to root himself to the ground with chakra and wasn't blown away very far.

"What was that?" Sakura asked fearfully.

"A powerful wind Ninjutsu." Naruto told her, looking around warily for their unseen attacker. He was deeply unnerved that he couldn't detect the slightest hint of a threat anywhere nearby, even though he knew it was there.

"My fire will be able to overpower him in that case." Sasuke stated confidently. He had read up on elemental stregths and weaknesses and knew that fire was strong against wind. He had been severely irritated to discover that Naruto's wind was stronger than lightning and his water stronger than fire, but had been mollified by the fact that the blond couldn't actually use Ninjutsu.

"Don't be too sure of yourself princess, that wind technique just now was a lot more powerful than anything I've ever seen you use. It was probably strong enough to turn your fire back against you, elemental weakness or not." Naruto cautioned. He was not liking this situation in the slightest.

"You should listen to your teammate Sasuke-kun." A darkly amused voice said from above, making them look towards the figure that had appeared there just now.

It seemed to be a kunoichi in the standard outfit of the Hidden Grass, beige robe and wide brimmed hat, though the purple rope belt was something of an oddity. She had a distinctly creepy expression on her face however and all three members of Team 7 were getting bad vibes from her.

Sasuke and Naruto nodded shortly to each other and attacked in unison without saying another word. They didn't like working together despite being on the same team for several months already, but they could see that the enemy in front of them needed to be taken seriously. They disregarded Sakura as a combatant, because they were both of the opinion that she was nowhere near ready to take on someone as potentially dangerous as this Grass kunoichi.

Their waryness turned out to be well founded as the enemy seemed more amused by their attacks than anything else, easily keeping up with both of them, despite Sasuke using his two tomoe Sharingan and Naruto's considerable speed and strength. Naruto soon found himself facing off against the kunoichi alone, as Sasuke was kicked away.

The disguised Orochimaru was somewhat intrigued by the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki fighting him. All reports had told him that the boy was an utter failure as a shinobi and yet he seemed to be quite strong and fast, even if it wasn't nearly enough to keep up with him. Though if speed and strength was all the the blond had, then the Snake Sannin was going to be quite disappointed. He was in fact wondering if the blond was going to start using any of the Kyuubi's power soon.

Naruto's thoughts were going in a different direction. By now he had ascertained that whoever this was, they were the most dangerous enemy he had ever fought, even more so than Kakashi. Every attack was dodged with a boneless fluidity that couldn't be entirely human and it was only a matter of time before a counter attack came. The blond knew that he would have to do something to surprise the mysterious kunoichi, or else he would never come close to landing a hit. He had never been more glad that he kept all of his abilities secret for as long as possible, as that would likely be their only saving grace right now.

Orochimaru himself had just about grown bored of dodging the relentless attacks of the tall blond and was about to get rid of him so that he could focus on Sasuke. He didn't dare kill the blond for fear of inciting the wrath of Akatsuki, not to mention that he wanted the Uchiha to progress to the finals. The Snake Sannin might be one of the most powerful shinobi in the Elemental Nations, but he wasn't fool enough to think that he could stand against that many S-rank shinobi alone, especially since some of them were stronger than him individually.

He had already dismissed the blond as a loser who relied entirely on his speed and strength to overpower weaker opponents when Naruto shocked him.

The blond had been able to see that the strange kunoichi was taking him even less seriously then before and chose that moment to strike. After another dodged punch, Naruto swiftly extened a chain with a bladed tip from his forearm, which was the closest point to his opponent.

Orochimaru was too close to dodge and he had never expected such an attack, which is why the chain punched right through his upper abdomen and pinned him to a tree.

Sasuke, who had picked himself up just in time to see this, and Sakura who had been watching the whole thing with fearful hope that her teammates could beat this new enemy, were both silently relieved that it was over. Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but that Grass kunoichi had really scared him.

The relief turned to disgust and horror as they saw the a new enemy crawl out of the mouth of the Grass kunoichi. The man that had shown up in such a monstrous manner was very pale, with slitted yellow serpentine eyes and he looked very angry.

Orochimaru was indeed very angry. He had dismissed the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki too quickly and payed the price for it, even being forced to use his skin shedding technique to save his life. He would have loved to mark the blond with a cursed seal and take that chakra chain ability for his own, but it couldn't be placed on a Jinchuuriki, which meant that he would just have to leave it be. He was still going to get back at the blond for injuring him though.

The Snake Sannin sped towards the blond and landed a series of powerful hits on him that Naruto simply couldn't defend against. The last attack was a kick directly to the chest that sent the blond flying. Before he could land on the ground or against a tree however, a giant snake that Orochimaru had summoned earlier rushed out of the woods and caught the blonde in its mouth, not even slowing down as it swallowed him and sped off into the forest.

Orochimaru turned to the shocked looking Sasuke and Sakura with a sinister smile. "Well Sasuke-kun, lets see if you can do as well as your teammate."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Naruto was feeling an inordinate amount of disgust. He wasn't normally one to be overly bothered if he wasn't squeaky clean, but being covered in the digestive fluids of a snake was a bit much. He could feel that the oversized serpent was moving at great speed and knew that he had to get out of the damn thing.

The problem was that his chains couldn't find any purchase on the insides of reptile. Everything just seemed to slip off the slick insides without doing the slightest bit of damage. He couldn't even tell which direction the mouth was. He couldn't use the Rasenyari either, because his hands were pressed too close to his body and he couldn't get enough room. He was actually starting to wonder if he would ever get to use that particular move. It was a lethal attack and so far the only fight that might have warranted it had been against Zabuza and even that had turned out fairly peaceful. He hadn't attempted to use it on that creepy grass kunoichi because if he couldn't hit her with his fists, then he wouldn't be able to land the Rasenyari either.

Left with no choice, Naruto started creating shadow clones like crazy, making the entire experience even more claustrophobic, but eventually the snake ran out of room in its gut and burst open.

Once all the clones had dispersed, Naruto stood on the grass covered ground, covered in snake guts and other unpleasant things. A quick storage scroll unseal over his head left him drenched in water, but at least most of the gunk was gone. His clothes had seals on them to repel liquids of all sorts, not enough to do much, but enough to keep the clothes dry in any and all situations, for which he was very thankful right now. A quick application of chakra to his hair left him looking like an angry porcupine for a short while, but at least the blond mane was dry, though smelling of snake guts and looking less than clean.

With all of that done, Naruto knew that he had to find his teammates and fast. He remembered the face of the snake using shinobi now that he had time to think about it. Orochimaru of the Sannin was quite the infamous figure after all and it wasn't that hard to find a picture of him or a short description of his abilities.

Naruto took a long look around the patch of forest he was in and gave voice to his thoughts.

"Where the fuck am I?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning, Naruto was still looking for his teammates and he was not in anything close to resembling a good mood. He was tired, cranky and he just wanted to collect his two idiot teammates and get some sleep in the tower.

He had encountered a team of older Konoha Genin, who had donated their earth scroll, so that little concern was taken care of. He hadn't been particularly interested in fighting them at the time, but the three of them had come upon the idea that this exam was a great time to kill 'the Kyuubi'. Naruto had long since resolved to treat people the way they treated him, which in this case meant that Konoha was down three Genin. He remembered those three as one of those who had taken part in a beating many years ago and Naruto wasn't feeling very forgiving right then.

His luck finally seemed to have improved somewhat as he caught sight of Sakura, Sasuke and a whole gaggle of other Genin engaged in some sort of scuffle.

Well, at the moment only Sasuke was doing any engaging, by way of dislocating the arms of a Genin with the musical note symbol of the Hidden Sound, though he was looking very odd with the black flame like markings spread over his skin. The smile on his face didn't look altogether stable either.

Sakura was looking less than healthy and had apparently decided to give herself an impromptu haircut. Lee seemed to be down for the count as well. Team 10 was lurking in the nearby bushes, looking rather scared and Lee's teammates were just observing the whole thing from a tree branch.

"What the hell have you two been up to?" Naruto questioned, pulling attention to himself.

"Naruto! You're alive!" Sakura exclaimed in relief. She had honestly thought that the blond was a goner after being eaten by that snake.

Any further conversation was cut off by the fact that Sasuke had caught sight of the blond as well.

Sasuke felt like he could take on the world, so drunk was he on the power that the cursed seal gave him. Catching sight of the blond that had shown him up at every turn, he wanted nothing more than to beat his teammate into the ground and prove to himself, once and for all, that he was the stronger. It didn't matter to him right then that they were teammates or that there were enemies around. Dropping the crippled Zaku, he charged towards Naruto with an enraged yell, not even hearing Sakura yelling out his name and pleading with him to stop.

Naruto could see that something was badly wrong with the Uchiha, but that could be dealt with later.

Though Sasuke was moving a lot faster than Naruto had ever seen him move, it still wasn't as fast as the blond was capable off, not to mention that he was so enraged that he was moving in a very straight line.

Naruto charged towards his teammate in the same predictable manner, but dodged around him at the last second, grabbing the back of his shirt and slamming him into the ground, sending Sasuke back to unconsciousness from which he had just awoken. Sasuke had of course seen this move with his Sharingan, but he hadn't been fast enough to react to it.

With the situation pacified, Naruto turned towards the three Sound Genin, who had taken his short scuffle with Sasuke as an opportunity to regroup.

"What did you little bitches do to my underlings?" He asked menacingly.

The sound team was absolutely petrified of the blond, who had taken his curse sealed teammate down as if he was an academy student. They already knew that they were no match for a Sasuke empowered by their masters' cursed seal, so they were under no illusions of being able to match up against this new threat, especially with Zaku's dislocated arms. This all meant that it was time to do some groveling and bribery and then hope that the muscle bound blond wasn't interested in chasing them down.

"We're sorry, please take our scroll and spare us." Dosu said, setting their heaven scroll on the ground and then hauling ass out of there, his teammates right behind him.

Sakura was so relieved that it was over and that Naruto was back that she couldn't even bring herself to protest about being called an underling.

Team 10 had taken the whole thing in with a sense of shock. Shikamaru had known that the blond was stronger than his status as dead last would make people think, but he hadn't expected him to be able to take down Sasuke that easily, especially with that weird dark chakra that Sasuke had been using.

While everyone was gawking at him, Naruto had pulled aside Sasuke's shirt and was taking a look at the markings that he had on his neck, as he had seen the flame markings recede back towards it. Narrowing his eyes at what was to him obviously a seal of some sort, he turned towards Sakura to ask a question.

"Sakura, how did he get this mark placed on him?"

"Oh, um...that creepy ninja bit him and it appeared. He introduced himself as Orochimaru. Do you know what it is?" Sakura told him and asked in concern.

"It's a seal of some sort, though it's pretty sloppy Fuinjutsu work from what I can see. If he really applied it with a bite then there's probably more to it than just Fuinjutsu though. Judging by what I saw of the effects earlier, I'd say that it's some kind of cursed seal." Naruto said, though mostly to himself after the first sentence.

His mentioning of a cursed seal and his apparent knowledge on the subject had drawn Neji's attention immediately, but the fate obsessed Hyuuga didn't say a word.

"Well, no use getting worked up over it now, I'll take a closer look at it at the tower. I'm sick of this damn forest already."

"But we still need an earth scroll, it's just our luck that these guys had another heaven scroll." Sakura bemoaned from her place on the ground. The kunai that Zaku had thrown at her had left her too injured to be of any kind of use and Sasuke was out cold as well. She wasn't even sure if she could walk properly since one of the kunai had hit her in the leg.

"It's a good thing that I ran into a team of idiots who had an earth scroll while I was looking for you guys then." Naruto remarked.

Sakura could only sigh in relief at hearing this, never more glad to have Naruto on her team. The blond might be abrasive, oversexed and exasperating in many ways, but there was no denying that he got things done.

"Looks like you finally grew some backbone Sakura, good for you." The blond remakred offhandedly, but Sakura smiled anyway. That he had even called her by name instead of some derogatory nickname told her that he wasn't dismissing her efforts, even if she hadn't achieved much. She knew Naruto's way of thinking well enough by now to understand that he respected courage even if there wasn't any power backing it up.

Not wasting anymore time, Naruto created shadow clones to carry Sasuke and Sakura.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Sakura protested.

"You're injured and I'm not in the mood to waste time anymore, so you'll just have to pretend to be a sack of potatoes until we get to the tower." Naruto said as he started moving.

Team 10 exchanged looks and quicky snatched the forgotten heaven scroll that the sound team left, which just so happened to be the one they needed and ran off after Naruto. They were under no illusions about the strength of their team and sticking close to the apparently very strong blond seemed like a great idea right about now.

"Hey Naruto, wait up! Let us go with you!" Ino called out as they ran after him.

Neji and Tenten had by then recovered the unconscious Lee and left to find some shelter until their teammate woke up. Team 10 had lucked out in the fact that they didn't need a heaven scroll, so there was no point in taking the one left by the sound team. Neji had considered attacking Naruto for the earth scroll, but even he wasn't confident enough in his ability to take on the blond and Team 10, who he suspected would back him up, at the same time. Not to mention that Tenten would probably protest such an action.

Several minutes later, Sakura commented on something she had noticed while playing passenger on Naruto's shoulder.

"Naruto, why does your hair smell so gross?"

"I was eaten by a giant snake, did you expect it to smell like sunshine and daisies?" Naruto asked back sarcastically.

The silent Team 10 exchanged incredulous looks and wondered just what the hell Team 7 had gotten into in the relatively short time that they'd been in the forest.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It was the third evening of the second part of the exam and Naruto was bored. They had arrived at the tower the previous day, without encountering any further difficulty, but this meant that they had to wait until the full five days were up. Which was why Naruto was currently sitting on a balcony, leaning against a wall, at the top of the tower, just enjoying the wind that blew at that height. Not like there was much else to do at the tower, especially since that sexy proctor Anko wasn't around to play with.

Kakashi had showed up and sealed Sasuke's new hickey with the Evil Sealing Method, which had been somewhat interesting to see. Naruto knew how to do that particular seal himself, but hadn't thought it would be particularly useful. Apparently though it was the best that Konoha knew how to do in regards to Orochimaru's cursed seal. He was considering the merits of figuring out a better countermeasure or even a way to remove it. Cursed seals were tricky business to remove, which was why Naruto was so interested in them.

His musings were interupted when he heard the sound of another person coming up to his perch. Soon it was revealed to be the shy form of Hyuuga Hinata.

"O-Oh, u-um...I d-didn't know a-anyone was h-here, I'll leave." She stuttered out and turned to leave, not wanting to be a bother.

"None of that now, get over here and sit down next to your big brother." The blond told her.

Hinata developed a blush but did as she was told and sat down next to him, maintaining a polite distance.

Naruto wasn't a big fan of any type of politeness, which included polite distance, so he hooked an arm around her and drew her closer, making her give out an 'eep' and advance her blush to the next level.

"So, what brings my cute little sister all the way up here?" He asked casually, still keeping his arm around her. Naruto figured that if he had told her to call him big brother on an impulse, then he might as well act like one.

Hinata couldn't help but feel embarassed by the closeness and physical contact, but it also felt wonderful. Except for Kurenai-sensei, nobody had hugged her in a long time. She didn't even remember getting any kind of comforting physical contact from her father. Which was why being held like this by the much bigger blond felt like she was being protected from the world, like she could hide in his coat and the world would leave her alone.

She didn't know the blond too well, but he had always been nice, if not all that polite. He had seen her train and had approved instead of frowned down at her, he didn't care if she wasn't a prodigy as long as she worked hard, which made it easy for her to like him. She had been surprised when he had told her to call him big brother, but if he was willing to treat her like a little sister, then that was perfectly alright with her.

"Um, I-I'm wo-worried nii-san." She confessed. Hinata knew him well enough from the times he had come around to work with Kurenai that he wouldn't scold her for feeling worried.

"What about?"

"I'm worried that we'll have to f-fight each other." Hinata congratulated herself for almost getting that sentence out without a stutter.

"We'll definitely have to fight, since the third phase of the exam is always a tournament, but you're worried about fighting someone in particular aren't you?" Naruto guessed.

"Y-Yes, my cousin, Neji." She confirmed.

"Oh, that asshole. Why are you afraid of him?" The blond asked. He knew that Neji was an ass, but didn't know why his own cousin would be so afraid of him.

"Neji nii-san h-hates me. He blames me for his father dying." Hinata said quietly.

Naruto frowned in confusion, unable to come up with any logical reason as to why Hinata would be to blame for that. "Why?"

The shy girl explained to him the kidnapping attempt by Kumogakure and the political fallout that had eventually resulted in the death of Hyuuga Hizashi.

"Now that's just stupid, you were three years old, did he expect you to fight off a Jounin or something?" Naruto scoffed.

"It's not that, Neji hates all of the main house." Hinata protested, her stutter having subsided now that she was more used to the situation.

"But he takes it out on you because he knows you won't retaliate."

Hinata just lowered her head sadly, since she couldn't argue with that. Neji knew that she hated the caged bird seal and would never use it, so he felt safe in lashing out at her. Her father allowed it to happen because he wanted her to stand up to him, but she never did, making her even more of a disappointment in his eyes. She knew that her father was just waiting for her to use the caged bird seal to remind Neji of his place, but she would never do that. The caged bird seal represented everything that she hated about the Hyuuga and she would die before she used it.

Naruto's arm lifted away from her and for a moment she was afraid that he was disappointed in her too, but then his fingers started playing with her hair. She flushed happily at the pleasant contact, but tried to keep her focus on his words.

"So why won't you retaliate?"

"The only way I could do that was by using the caged bird seal, and I would never use that."

Naruto was quiet for a few minutes after that, just playing with her hair. Hinata had to struggle not to fall asleep while he was doing this.

"You're actually pretty ashamed of your clan aren't you?" Naruto asked with certainty.

It seemed fairly obvious to Naruto after putting together everything that he knew about Hinata and her clan. The girl walked around without any real confidence or pride, doing everything possible to remain in the background as if she expected everyone to dislike her on sight. That was more than just the disapproval of her father would cause.

"N-No! I..." Hinata protested instinctively, before remembering that this wasn't her father or the clan elders. "...yes." She finished with a whisper.

She was terribly ashamed of it. The main house felt so proud of themselves just for being the main house while the branch house had to suffer a bitter slavery. Having spoken to the clan elders before and seeing the arrogance that all but oozed out of them, Hinata didn't believe for a second that the purpose of the caged bid seal was to protect the Byakugan. If that were the case then everyone in the clan would have a seal on them, not to mention that there were ways to get around that seal if someone was determined enough to get their hands on the Byakugan. A branch house Hyuuga would suffice for breeding purposes the same as a main house one after all, and the caged bird seal didn't have an infinite range. No matter how they claimed to be the strongest and most noble clan in Konoha, Hinata could never see the main house as anything but monsters and she was ashamed to be one of them.

Even the branch house held themselves with a pride that she had always felt was undeserved by the entirety of the Hyuuga. Worse than the pride though was the festering resentment that she could see was seething beneath the surface of the branch house members, or at least those who weren't as good at hiding their emotions. Most of the branch house members were perfectly well aware that they were slaves in all but name and it was creating an unstable boiling pot that was only held in check by the threat of the cursed seal branded on the foreheads of the branch house. On one hand, all Hyuuga were taught to always be proud, but then that pride was trambled on by the knowledge that they had to obey every command of the main house under pain of death. Hinata feared that if the caged bird seal was ever removed at this point, it would result in a slaughter of the main house by the far more numerous branch house.

Despite her fears thnough, Hinata couldn't help but feel that the main house would deserve it, she just hoped that if it did happen, little Hanabi wouldn't be hurt.

She confessed all of these thoughts to Naruto, hoping to get his opinion or advice on the subject.

"You're probably right, if the caged bird seal was removed right now, it would likely end with a massacre."

"Do you think there is any way to stop it?" She asked hopefully.

"Only if something can be done to calm the branch house down before removing the seal. Even if the seal stays on it's possible that a revolt might happen, you can only step on people so long before they lash out after all."

"But how could we do that?" Hinata asked in distress. Naruto didn't comment on the 'we', even though he didn't have any particular interest in helping the Hyuuga with their issues.

"No idea, but I do know that the Hyuuga would need to get over themselves before any kind of change can happen." Naruto stated.

"What do you mean?"

"The whole clan has a serious problem with their pride, They strut around as if their pride and dignity makes them invulnerable. Before anything can change, they need to figure out that pride isn't armor, it's not even a strength. They're so proud that they refuse to learn anything except the Gentle Fist, willingly weakening themselves in some idiotic desire to prove that their own fighting style is superior to everything else."

Hinata was quiet as she absorbed this and silently agreed with the blond. She had never understood why it was frowned upon to learn anything other than the traditional Gentle Fist, but the way that Naruto explained it made sense.

"Anyway, we've gotten seriously off topic. You said you were afraid of your cousin?" Naruto abruptly got the conversation back to it's original purpose.

"Yes, if I have to fight him, I know that he's going to do his best to humiliate me, maybe even kill me." Hinata said despondently. Despite everything, she still loved her cousin and it hurt her that he had become so hateful towards her.

"If you end up fighting him, then just do your best and be proud of yourself for it. Your best is all that you can give after all and nobody has any right to ask more from you, especially not people who have never supported you. I know that Neji has more raw talent and training with the Gentle Fist than you do, but you have nothing to be ashamed of even if you lose and don't let anyone tell you different. Who knows, things in your family might improve you don't let it bring you down so much and focus on improving yourself instead. Remember that Kurenai-sensei and your teammates are there for you."

Hinata was silent for a moment before she hazarded another nervous question, blush returning in full force. "Um, wh-what about y-you nii-san?"

The blond just grinned at her good naturedly and answered. "Of course I'm there for my cute little sister. Tell you what Hinata, if you do your best in the exam, I'll even help you out with your training."

Hinata gave a blushing smile and promised herself to do the best she could, even if she ended up facing Neji. She wanted to do her team and her newly aquired big brother figure proud. The shy Hyuuga was infinitely glad that she had approached him before the start of the second phase. His supporting words did a lot to calm her fears and his promise of help with her training was something that she was terribly curious about.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next evening, Naruto was once again sitting on the balcony. Hinata had come by already, wanting to spend some more time with him, but had gone off to bed soon after, due to the fact that the second phase ended tomorrow and she wanted to be well rested.

Anko still hadn't come around, making him come to the conclusion that she was probably only going to arrive once the second phase was over if even that. Naruto was quite honestly a bit disappointed about that. Anko was quite the character and he was sure that they would get along famously. He had plans on seeking her out afterwards one way or another, just to mess with her if nothing else.

Suddenly he became aware of another presence near him.

Looking to the side revealed it to be a red headed Sand Genin with a large gourd made of what appeared to be sand standing nearby. The redhead turned towards him and Naruto saw two teal colored eyes with thick black rings around them, he wasn't sure what to make of the kanji for 'love' that seemed to be carved into his forhead, just above his left eye. If Naruto were to judge by the dark rings around his eyes and the not entirely sane look on the boy's face, combined with the gourd, then he would have to guess that this was the Ichibi Jinchuuriki that Xanna had warned him about.

He had seen this particular Genin during the first phase, but hadn't paid overmuch attention to him at the time. He wanted to find out more about him, but he didn't want to somehow provoke him into a fight. Since he wasn't being attacked, Naruto figured it was safe enough to start a conversation.

"Nice night isn't it?"

The redhead just stared at him without answering, but Naruto wouldn't be dettered so easily.

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto, who might you be?"

The redhead continued to stare, but when Naruto didn't look away he finally answered. "Sabaku no Gaara."

"Nice meeting you Gaara." The blond said with a smile. Despite Xanna's warning, the Ichibi Jinchuuriki didn't seem to be too bad.

"I look forward to killing you and proving my existence."

Maybe I was a bit too optimistic?

"How would killing me prove your existence?" Naruto asked with a golden eyebrow raised, genuinely curious.

"My village put a monster in me, trying to turn me into a weapon and now I can't even sleep. I was deemed a failed experiment and assassins were sent after me, but I killed them first. Killing them proves that I exist, that I won't be erased. As long as I keep killing, I will exist and mother will be happy."

Naruto frowned at hearing that little speech. For one thing, it appeared that Gaara did not have an easy time of it in Sunagakure. For another, it looked like he was reffering to Shukaku as 'mother', which didn't make any sense at all. That part about being unable to sleep would also explain why the boy was looking so unstable.

Naruto also got a chilling view at what he might have become if Xanna had decided to do something different. As a child he had been massively dependant on her for his mental stability, if she had decided that she wanted him to be crazy, then he would have been.

"Did Shukaku tell you that?"

Gaara's eyes snapped to him sharply, surprise clear on his face. "How do you know about Shukaku?" He all but growled.

"You could say that we're brothers of a sort Gaara. You had the Ichibi sealed in you and I had the Kyuubi." Naruto revealed. He wasn't exactly lying, since he did have Xanna sealed in him, she just wasn't there anymore.

Gaara's eyes widened in surprise before a strange smile made it's way onto his face. "Then you know what it's like, you know that it makes sense to only love yourself and live only for yourself."

Naruto sighed, as he expected that his next words would likely not be to the redheads liking.

"I know what it's like for people to want nothing to do with you because of that and I know what it's like for people to try and kill you for it, but i don't love only myself or live only for myself."

Gaara looked confused and was starting to get agitated, so Naruto continued talking.

"I've found people who accept me and love me and I'll do anything to keep them safe. Kyuubi is also a lot more reasonable than Shukaku appears to be and has done a lot to help me. A lot of what I do is because of my love for her."

Gaara clutched at his head when he heard this, mumbling what sounded like placating words to 'mother'. Either way, this little episode made Naruto think that the seal holding Shukaku was dangerously weak, if the sand demon could so easily invade his consciousness.

"Then you are weak! Loving others is a weakness and I will prove it to you by feeding your blood to mother!" Gaara stated. He knew that he couldn't do it right now, but when the invasion began, he would get plenty of opportunity to crush both this blond and that Uchiha.

Naruto ignored the death threat and gave Gaara a proposal that he felt would go a long way towards stabilising the redhead, if Naruto could manage it. "You know Gaara, I'm pretty good with Fuinjutsu, if you want, I could take a look at your seal and see if I could make it better, maybe even allow you to sleep."

It would also allow him an opportunity to see if there were any strange oddities in the seal that were causing such odd behaviour in Shukaku.

Gaara was now looking at him with a conflicted expression. If Naruto had to guess, then the redheaded boy was desperate to be able to get some sleep, but didn't trust him enough to meddle with his seal out of fear of being killed or something. Gaara seemed like the type who didn't trust easily.

This was confirmed when Gaara vanished in a sand style body flicker without giving an answer.

Naruto wasn't put out by this. That had honestly gone better than expected and at worst, Gaara would be gunning for him in an effort to 'prove his existence'. He wasn't entirely sure if he would be able to fix Gaara's seal, but it was worth a try.

With his mind on Jinchuuriki seals, Naruto slapped himself in the forehead. He could have been inspecting his own seal for years now, but had more or less forgotten about it. Since it was empty, things couldn't go horribly wrong if he tinkered with it. If he could learn how the Reaper Death Seal functioned, then he would surely be able to fix up Gaara's seal and do who knows what else with the knowledge gained from the most complex of Jinchuuriki seals.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

All of the Genin who had made it through the Forest of Death were waiting in the combat arena inside the tower. Kabuto and his team had been the last to make it through, a bedraggled and worn out looking team of sound Genin not far ahead of them. The Hokage, along with all of the Jounin-sensei's of the teams who had made it this far, plus Anko and another proctor had met them there.

The sickly looking proctor, Gekko Hayate, had just informed them of the need for preliminaries. There had been a few protests, but nothing too bad, since most of the contestants were actually rested. The perpetually coughing man had also explained the rules, which basically amounted to 'anything goes until I say stop'

Kabuto had decided to give up due to lack of chakra, giving Naruto a good idea as to why the silver haired teenager never got promoted.

They were now all waiting to see which two fighters would be chosen by the randomized electornic board.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akado Yoroi

Sasuke smirked at his opponent, fully confident that he could easily defeat the much older Genin, who he concluded must be a wimp if he was still a Genin at his age.

Naruto had tossed a grin at Anko, who had moved to stand next to Kurenai and her team after the Hokage finished with his speech on the purpose of the Chunin Exam, making the woman grin right back. He realised that the two women must be friends, which he found somewhat surprising considering how very different the two of them were. He found it hard to imagine the reserved and proper Kurenai being friends with the free spirited Anko, but it must work somehow.

All of the Konoha rookies, with the addition of Team Gai were in fact standing together, though Neji looked rather constipated at having to stand next to his cousin. Hinata herself seemed to be doing her level best to not let Neji's obvious dislike of her affect her, keeping in mind her conversation with Naruto.

When everyone except the two fighters had left the arena, Hayate announced the start of the match.

Sasuke immediately lept backwards, wanting to get some space from his opponent to learn what kind of fighting style he had, while Yoroi just stood there, looking rather cocky.

When Yoroi just kept on waiting, Sasuke lost patience and decided to go on the offensive, foregoing his Sharingan for now. The Uchiha survivor was pretty fast for a Genin, but not fast enough that Yoroi couldn't keep up with him, and Sasuke quickly found himself in a graple. Normally this wouldn't be a huge problem, but Sasuke immediately felt his chakra being drained with alarming speed.

The younger combatant managed to get away before it was too late, but he had still lost a large amount of chakra, considering the short amount of time that he had been held.

"There's no way you can beat me Uchiha, if you can't even approach me." Yoroi couldn't help gloating.

Sasuke glowered at his opponent and activated his Sharingan before charging into close range again. With his Sharingan active, Yoroi's movements became blindingly obvious and Sasuke had no trouble avoiding another graple, delivering a kick to his opponents side, sending him skidding away.

"If that's your only trick then this is going to be a short fight." Sasuke mocked his opponent with a superior smirk.

Yoroi growled before charging at Sasuke again, wanting to wipe the smirk off the Uchiha's face. Sasuke was easily able to predict and counter all of his moves thanks to the Sharingan and Yoroi once again found himself kicked away.

Bored with playing around, Sasuke charged at Yoroi and quickly executed his partially copied version of Lee's Front Lotus, which Lee had attempted to use on him during their scuffle prior to the first phase of the exam, finishing it with his self invented Shishi Rendan(Lion Combo). Yoroi was such a weaknling that he didn't even merit having a Ninjutsu used on him..

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!" Hayate announced, seeing that Yoroi was out cold.

Sasuke made his way back towards the observer platform where his team was standing, missing the slight frowns on the faces of Lee and Gai.

They both clearly recognised the move he had used, but weren't overly annoyed at the Uchiha for having copied it partially. After all, you couldn't copy how to open the eight gates, so the fact that Sasuke had copied the first part of the technique wasn't really an issue, it just irked them that it wasn't done through hard work.

Everyone once more turned towards the board, waiting to see who would fight next.

Aburame Shino vs. Abumi Zaku

Despite his damaged arms, Zaku seemed fairly confident that he could win, even though he claimed to have only one usable arm. Shino played on this and sent his insects to attack the sound Genin from behind, forcing Zaku to reveal that both of his arms were in fact usable, but it was useless, as the insects had plugged up his airholes, causing Zaku's arms to explode from the build up of chakra and air pressure, likely crippling him for life.

Sabaku no Kankuro vs. Tsurugi Misumi

Both of Kabuto's teammates were apparently cursed with a severe case of arrogant overconfidence, as Misumi was also utterly certain that he would win.

He thoughtlessly used his extendable, almost rubbery body to wrap his limbs around Kankuro, threatening to break his neck if he didn't surrender. The fact that Kankuro goaded him into doing it really should have clued him in on the fact that something was wrong, but he didn't pick up on it, which is why he ended up mangled inside Kankuro's puppet, Karasu.

Inuzuka Kiba vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Kiba gulped and looked to be incredibly unwilling to join Gaara in the arena, the sand Genin having already used a body flicker to get there. He remembered all too well what he had seen in the forest, remembered how Gaara had gleefully crushed those poor bastards that had run into him.

He was seriously considering forfeiting right away, due to the fact that he had no idea how to get past the sand shield that he had seen Gaara use. Akamaru was also doing his level best to hide in his hood, clearly of the opinion that discretion was the better part of valour in this case.

"Go on Kiba, just do your best." Kurenai urged, not truly understanding why her usually brash student was hesitating.

Kiba looked conflicted at the urging of his sensei and was about to head down to the arena and just hope he could forfeit before he died if things got out of hand, when he felt a large hand land on his shoulder, stopping him.

Turning to look revealed the hand to belong to Naruto, who was even now leaning towards Kurenai's ear and whispering something. If not for the seriousness of the situation, Naruto's reputation would have Kiba thinking that the blond was saying something dirty, he certainly wouldn't put it past him.

Kiba strained his ears to hear what the blond was whispering and could just barely make it out, despite his enhanced senses.

"Gaara is the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and he isn't mentally stable, if Kiba fights him, he will die."

Kiba had no idea what an Ichibi Jinchuuriki was, but the way that his sensei paled didn't inspire him with confidence. The absolute certainty in Naruto's tone didn't sound good either. No matter how much it stung his pride to hear it, he wasn't liking his chances either.

"Will Inuzuka Kiba make his way to the arena?" The proctor called out.

"Forfeit the match Kiba, you're not ready for him." Kurenai said to him urgently in a complete reversal of her previous words.

"Proctor, I forfeit the match." Kiba said back, fighting down the feeling of shame from just giving up. Had it been anyone else, he would have fought, but Gaara scared the crap out of him and he didn't want to die in a meaningless battle like this. Whatever an Ichibi Jinchuuriki was, it had to be bad if it caused his sensei to react like that.

Gaara looked disgruntled and gave Kiba a look that told him just how much he wanted to crush him into paste, making the Inuzuka swallow nervously. He gave the same look to Naruto for depriving him of his chance at killing someone.

Kurenai herself was highly thankful that Naruto had warned her about Gaara. If she had known just who and what Gaara was, she would have seriously reconsidered even entering her team into this exam. They might have improved a great deal, but they were nowhere near ready to fight a Jinchuuriki with a decent grasp on the powers of the Bijuu sealed inside them. Considering their particular specialties, they might never be ready.

It wasn't that she had any prejudice against Jinchuuriki themselves, but sending a fresh Genin against a mentally unsound Jinchuuriki is asking for a bloodbath.

Rock Lee vs. Uzumaki Naruto

"Yosh! It is my turn at last! And against such a youthful opponent!" Lee exclaimed enthusiasticaly, excited at fighting his frequent sparring partner seriously. It would have been great to fight against someone new to test his flames of youth, but a serious battle against Naruto was also an exciting prospect.

Naruto grinned, just as excited at the prospect. They had always sparred with their respective handicaps on before, since it was meant as training, but this time it would be a real fight.

Naruto took his coat off, leaving him shirtless and causing a few blushes among the females and a particularly loud wolf whistle from Anko. The woman even used her proximity as an excuse cop a feel.

"Take care of my coat little sister." Naruto said to Hinata and draped his coat over her shoulders without waiting for her to respond, causing her to blush.

"Ok nii-san." The Hyuuga girl said shyly.

Everyone looked at the two of them in surprise, not having the slightest clue as to where the sudden familiarity came from. Kurenai especially was surprised, but also secretly pleased about it. If there was anyone from whom Hinata could learn learn some confidence from, then it would be Naruto.

"Lee, Naruto, show everyone how brightly your youth burns!" Gai exclaimed with equal excitement as the two jumped down into the arena.

If he was honest with himself, Gai would have loved to have Naruto as his student. The blond Uzumaki was built like a steel wall and would have been perfect for learning the Gouken style Taijutsu that he and Lee practiced.

While everyone who wasn't used to the antics of the two green beasts were giving them strange looks, Lee and Naruto had gotten ready.

"Begin!" The proctor called out and retreated.

The two combatants just stared at each other for a while, before Naruto spoke.

"Before we start Lee, I want you to take your weights off."

"But Naruto, Gai-sensei told me to never remove them unless I am protecting a precious person." Lee protested.

"Well I'm not going to fight you seriously if you keep disrespecting me like that." Naruto retorted with a scowl.

"But I have great respect for you Naruto, you are most youthful!" Lee asserted with some distress.

"Well then take your weights off and fight me for real."

Lee was looking conflicted and looked towards his sensei for advice, but Naruto spoke to him again before he could open his mouth.

"Don't look at Gai-sensei, in a real battle, you won't be able to ask him for advice." The blond told him firmly.

Lee's face hardened in determination, knowing that this was true. In a real fight, he would have to use his own judgement. So he decided to remove his weights and give Naruto the fight that he wanted.

Throwing the heavy weights into a corner so that they wouldn't be in the way, he got into the Gouken opening stance, missing the looks of shock as people stared at the cracks and craters made when the weights landed.

"I am afraid that you will be unable to match my speed if I am not wearing weights Naruto." Lee said confidently.

"You think that you're the only who trains with a handicap?" Naruto asked rhetorically, reaching for a spot on his chest, just above where the Reaper Death Seal was located.

Fingers glowing with chakra, Naruto pressed them into the hidden seal he had placed there, lighting it up and then twisted as if opening a lock. All across his body, lines of Fuinjutsu script lit up, looking like chains winding around his chest, arms and legs, though the latter was hidden by his pants. As soon as they lit up, the script receded back into the central seal on his chest.

"What is that?" Lee asked with open wonderment.

"My resistance seals. They inhibit my every move and I do everything with them on. I eat, sleep, shower and have sex with them on, making every moment of every day a workout."

"YOSH! What a youthful training method!" Lee all but screamed, though he had a small blush on his face due to Naruto mentioning having sex with the resistance seals on.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Gai, just how much weight do you have your student carrying around?" Kurenai asked incredulously.

"As much as his youth allows him to carry!" Was the proud response, making everyone sweatdrop at the typically Gai answer.

When Naruto released the resistance seals, everyone was quite surprised, not having expected it in the least. Kurenai in particular was put off by it, because she wasn't sure if Naruto had won their spar with those seals on or not. If he had, then maybe she needed to consider putting more effort into physical conditioning. She wasn't sure if her pride could survive losing against a Genin who willingly handicapped himself to this extent, even if he did negate her ability to use Genjutsu.

"Did you arrange for those seals that Naruto is using Kakashi?" Gai asked, knowing that the one eyed Jounin had some ability with seals.

"I didn't even know he had them on, Naruto's ability with seals has already surpassed mine I'm afraid." Kakashi confessed.

"With neither one of them able to use Ninjutsu, this is going to be more or less a Taijutsu fight." Asuma commented.

"Naruto does have some Ninjutsu, but he looks more excited at the prospect of a straight on Taijutsu match." Kakashi countered.

The gathered Genin were silent as they listened to the conversation between their sensei's. Most of them were quite interested in this fight. Teams 7 and 10 were the most curious, as they knew that Naruto was a lot stronger than most gave him credit for.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Both Naruto and Lee shook out and stretched their limbs to get used to being unrestricted again, neither concerned about sneak attacks. There was a silent agreement that this was going to be a straight up martial arts fight rather than a real shinobi battle.

"Let us explode with YOUTH!" Lee shouted as a way of signaling his readyness.

"Yes Lee, show me your determination. Lets talk like men, with our fists in the language of bruised flesh, spilled blood and broken bone." Naruto replied, an excited, fanged grin splitting his face.

With nothing more to be said, the two combatants flew at each other, one with his precise Gouken and the other without any particular style at all, just raw combat experience.

Lee immediately became aware that Naruto held physical superiority and that he would need to be very careful of it. This was unusual for him, as he was used to being stronger and faster than his opponents, even if they were older. But when he tried to block a punch from the blond it felt as if he'd blocked a steel bar.

In short, Naruto was faster, stronger, had more reach and his body was more durable. His only true advantage was that the blond didn't use any particular martial arts, relying instead on his reflexes and instincts. Had this fight happened before they begun sparring together, he was sure the he could win without issue, but now Naruto could anticipate his moves due to sheer experience and the blond's own moves were much less sloppy than they had been.

Both combatants sped across the arena, never staying still, throwing a furious barrage of punches and kicks at each other. Lee did his best to evade the blond rather than block him and he begun to notice that his friend was starting to look angry, which confused him.

Their battle continued for several minutes longer, Naruto taking far more hits than Lee, who was very carefully striking only at openings where he could get a hit in without getting hit back. The stalemate was broken when Naruto suddenly roared furiosly and charged towards Lee with even greater speed than before, taking the younger Green Beast by surprise.

He still managed to avoid taking any serious damage aside from a bruise on his face, but now he was hard pressed to stay out of the blond's reach. Naruto had started attacking like a man posessed, ignoring blows that would have previously staggered him. Lee also noticed that his veins were bulging and his face was locked into a furious snarl, teeth bared and he could hear the growl in his breathing.

If Lee didn't know better than he would say that Naruto had opened the first gate, but if he had done that, then he would be faster and stronger than this, which left him at a loss as to what was happening. He was also confused by the fact that, no matter how enraged the blond looked, his Taijutsu technique hadn't gotten noticeably more sloppy, which is what Gai-sensei had always told him would happen if he got angry in a fight.

Wanting to get some space, Lee used one of Naruto's punches as an opportunity to vault over the blond, kicking him in the back of the head as he went, creating some distance from them.

He was given no respite however as he watched in shock when Naruto slammed his foot into the ground with a roar, gouging out huge chunk of the solid stone floor. The chunk of floor slid out of its place as if it had been scooped out with a spoon, flying a short distance into the air under the force of the leg stomp. Before it could fall back down, Naruto kicked it towards Lee, creating an improvised projectile.

Having no time to dodge, Lee was forced to infuse his fist with as much chakra as he was able and obliterated the stone chunk. His fist stung something awful after doing it, but nothing was broken fortunately. Chakra reinforcement was an amazing thing.

His short moment of triump was broken however when he felt a much larger hand clamp on his outstretched fist like an iron manacle. He tried to bring his other hand to bear, but it was caught in another iron hard grip.

In that moment Lee realised that the rock projectile had been a distraction. Now Naruto had him at close range, where he could make full use of all his advantages and Lee couldn't get away.

Naruto didn't hesitate to press his advantage, holding Lee's arms and slamming his legs into the smaller Genin with shattering force. Lee tried to retaliate, but his legs were a good deal shorter and the Uzumaki kept his arms fully extended to make certain that he couldn't do any significant damage.

Lee had only taken a few hits but he could already feel the damage done to his body. He knew that if he didn't get out of the blond's grip, then he wasn't going to last long. He decided to gamble on a desperate escape move, which would cost him the fight if it failed.

Jumping over the leg that had been about to smash into him, Lee tucked his knees close to his chest and slammed both knees into his opponents chin, continuing the turn and feeling his shoulders burn from being turned around so much. Fortunately luck was on his side, as Naruto reflexively released his hands, which was the only thing that prevented him from having his arms dislocated.

He immediately tried to go on the attack, as Naruto had staggered back due to getting hit in the chin so hard and was off balance. The blond however, turned all the way around quickly, making his long pony tail fly through the air and channeled chakra into it.

Lee jumped back hurriedly, pressing his hand to the cuts on his chest where Naruto's suddenly razor sharp hair had cut him. He was also sure that his ribs were at least cracked from the kicks that he'd taken while his hands were trapped.

Not that Naruto wasn't damaged, as the blond had taken a lot more hits, but as far as Lee could tell, he wasn't overly bothered by it. Clearly, it was time to take it up to the next level.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"What the hell?!" Kiba spluttered out at seeing the speed at which the two of them moved. "Weren't these two tied for dead last? Is there something about being dead last that makes people insanely strong and fast?"

He wasn't the only one that was shocked, as all of the rookies could barely believe their eyes. Naruto and Lee had long been dismissed as losers and yet here they were, moving with a speed that they couldn't even keep up with. Sasuke was using his Sharingan to keep track of the fight and copy Lee's Taijutsu while he was at it, but he scowled angrily when he realised that it was mostly useless to him without ridiculously intense physical conditioning.

"This is the result of hard work and youth!" Gai claimed with a proud smile.

When Naruto started looking enraged, they all expected him to swiftly lose due to one mistake or another, but were surprised when it didn't happen.

"Neji, can you take a look at Naruto's chakra?" Gai asked with uncommon seriousness.

Neji activated his Byakugan, Hinata doing the same out of curiosity and both took a look at what was going on with the blond's chakra.

"His chakra is flowing throughout his body wildly, much faster than anything I've ever seen." Neji said with some confusion. He had no idea what this meant. "Whenever he takes a hit, his chakra surges to that spot and it seems to heal him near instantly. It's using up a lot of chakra though, most Jounin would already be dead from chakra exhaustion if they used up that much."

Neji's explanation left even the Jounin there shocked, while Gai also had a glint of understanding in his eyes.

The senior Green Beast kept observing the fight intensely, noting that Naruto was fully in control of his own rage, using it to stimulate his body and chakra without allowing it to make him reckless.

He had heard of this, though it had been very rare even before the creation of the Hidden Villages and was now long since extinct. A state of being where fighters would enter a controlled rage, becoming near unstoppable for a short while, but at the cost of leaving themselves exhausted and vulnerable if they failed to defeat their enemy quickly. Though Gai supposed that with Naruto's insane chakra capacity, it wasn't quite as much of an issue.

"...listening to me? Gai? GAI?!" Kakashi raised his voice, finally penetrating Gai's thoughts.

"Huh? You say something Kakashi?" The Green Beast asked and everyone who heard it suddenly felt as if the natural order had been violated.

Blinking in shock at having his own gag used against him, the cyclopean Jounin decided to pretend it never happened and instead asked his question again.

"I asked if you knew what Naruto was doing."

Gai explained his thoughts, leaving everyone wondering just where the blond had learned to do that.

Was it from the Kyuubi?

All of the Jounin were wondering about that particular question, but none of them had ever sensed even a hint of the demon's chakra leaking from Naruto, so they reasoned that it was unlikely.

"Looks like he's got him now." Anko said with a grin when Naruto caught Lee's hands. She had to admit that using the floor as a weapon like that was truly inspired and damned impressive too.

The Genin were still staring stupidly at the fact that Naruto was apparently strong enough to do something that insane, most of them feeling rather physically inadequate when they compared themselves to the two lunatics fighting below.

Kurenai at least was comforted by the fact that Naruto wasn't moving noticeably faster than he had during their spar, which meant that he had fought her with his resistance seals off.

"Do not discount my student quite yet, he still has one last card to play." Gai said with a smile of pride for how well both were doing. Naruto might not be his student, but both were hardworking and if there was one thing that Gai respected, then it was hard work.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Omote Renge(Front Lotus)!"

Naruto slammed into the ground hard enough to crater it, making most of the spectators wince in sympathy. Lee had smashed the blond into the ground back first instead of head first like he might have usually done, since he didn't want to kill his friend.

Everyone expected the blond to stay down after that, as it wasn't really something that you can just walk away from, which is why they were terribly shocked when he got up.

"Sure enough, that really hurt." He said with a pained chuckle, circulating massive amounts of chakra to his back to repair the damage as soon as possible.

"How are you still able to stand after that?!" Lee asked in shock. Who the hell gets up after getting slammed into a solid stone floor by the use of a Kinjutsu? Lee was perfectly well aware that his muscles were now messed up and if Naruto was still able to fight at anything near the same level as before, then he would need to open more of the gates.

"You've got your own dream Lee and I've got mine. If I ever want to reach it, then I can't let myself be stopped by something like that." Naruto stated with conviction, making Lee almost burst into tears at how very similar they were.

"My regenerative healing factor also helps."

"Healing factor?!" Was heard from several people who were observing the fight.

Naruto just turned around and showed everyone his back, where a few cuts from the impact with the floor were steaming and closing rapidly.

"I've probably wasted more chakra on healing myself from that move of yours than the old man up there is capable of using, but pretty soon I'll be back to full health." Naruto explained, gesturing towards Sarutobi to indicate which old man he was talking about.

Lee knew at that moment that time was against him. Naruto had obscene amounts of chakra and if he allowed the fight to drag on, then he would lose just because of that.

"Kyūmon: Kai (Gate of Healing: Open)!"

"Oh shit." Naruto said to himself. There was no way he was going to come out of this the winner if that was as bad as it sounded, not to mention that Lee was starting to glow with the power he was releasing.

"Seimon: Kai (Gate of Rest: Open)!"

"Uzumaki Hijutsu: Tetsu no Nikutai (Uzumaki Secret Art: Body of Iron)!" As soon as he used the technique, Naruto felt his muscle strain and bulge to their very limit, his chakra hardening just beneath the skin and reinforcing all the muscle and bone, even creating protection for his organs.

Naruto hadn't actualy thought that this would turn out to be a useful move, considering the fact that he couldn't move while using it. It had seemed so damned promising when he'd first tried it out, only to discover that he was slower than molasses while he was using it. Considering the fact that Lee had been far faster than him even when using the Front Lotus though, the lack of movement probably wasn't going to be an issue anymore. At the very least he was glad that all that time he'd spent working this one out wasn't going to be a complete waste. As a final touch, he sent chains from the bottom of his feet to snake into the ground and keep him firmly rooted. Naruto didn't much want to be sent flying back into the air after just getting back on his feet.

His technique finished, Naruto positioned his arms along his sides so that Lee couldn't strike him in a spot where his insides weren't protected by his now steel hard bones and prepared himself for what he knew was coming.

"Shōmon: Kai (Gate of Pain: Open)!"

"Tomon: Kai(Gate of Limit: Open)!"

Lee had at first only intended to open three gates so that he would be able to use the Reverse Lotus, but after hearing Naruto call out that technique, he'd decided that he needed to go all out. Not wanting to waste even a second of his already limited time.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

All the spectators watched in mute silence as Lee furiously assaulted the stationary Uzumaki at speeds that they had never imagined were even possible. Throughout the attack, Naruto just stood still, not budging an inch.

"Why isn't he moving?" Sakura asked in worry.

"He can't." Hinata said quietly, Byakugan active and clutching at Naruto's coat worriedly.

"What do you mean he can't?" Kiba asked.

"He has condensed his chakra so much that he can't even move, but it is also acting as a shield." Neji answered, momentarily forgetting his animosity towards his cousin due to having all of his focus on the fight.

"So he cannot retaliate or dodge, he can only endure." Shino commented stoically, reminding everyone that he was still there. He'd been so quiet that they had almost forgotten about him.

"Those two sure are troublesome." Shikamaru muttered, making Asuma smirk at his student.

"If he's using his chakra as a shield, then he'll get out of this just fine." Sakura said confidently, knowing that Naruto had absurdly powerful chakra and Kakashi had previously explained how Lee's moves strained his body. All Naruto had to do was hang on for a bit longer.

"Don't be too sure about that, the Eight Gates are nothing to scoff at." Kakashi warned. "Take a closer look at Naruto."

Everyone heeded his words and did so.

He had his teeth clenched tightly and though it couldn't be heard over the noise that Lee was making with his relentless attack, they thought that the blond was letting out a grunt with every hit that Lee was making.

Lee was moving faster than any of them could see, smashing his fists and feet into Naruto with superhuman force from all directions. They all leaned forward reflexively when a spurt of red suddenly erupted from Naruto's mouth, through his teeth and running down his chin.

Lee eventually ran out of steam and was left panting on the ground, his muscles so damaged that he couldn't move to save his life.

Some distance away, Naruto finally released his technique, collapsed to one knee and puked out a considerable mass of blood, making several of the Genin blanch in disgust, most of them girls.

Both combatants were looking as if they were about one good hit away from curling up and dying somewhere, so nobody could quite believe their eyes when Naruto managed to stagger up to his feet and give a grin, his bloodied teeth making it look even more disturbing than usual.

"Looks like I win Lee." He panted out.

"It appears so Naruto." Lee answered. He wasn't truly upset about losing to Naruto. Both of them had been pushed to the limits of their physical ability and there was nothing else to do. Lee knew that Naruto was much like him and the fight had been truly exhilirating, even if both of them had ended up near paralysed from pain.

Naruto's healing factor however was working overtime to get him combat ready again, using up chakra like a black hole, which meant that Naruto still had a little bit left in the tank, while Lee had nothing.

Even now everyone could see the blond's body becoming one giant purple bruise. The bruises quickly starting fading, though Naruto felt more exhausted than he had felt in ages.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto!" The proctor called out when he saw the Lee wasn't getting back up.

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While Sarutobi was lamenting the headaches that he just knew the council was going to cause him over all of the abilities that Naruto had revealed in this fight, the blond himself had made it up to the observation platform. Gai had gone with Lee, whom had been taken away by the medics.

"How are you feeling Naruto?" Sakura asked with some worry. They might not be very close, but he was still her teammate and he had set her straight about what it meant to be a kunoichi.

Naruto looked towards the pinkette and decided that it was a good time to continue screwing with her head.

"Horny." He said this by aiming a leer at Anko and Kurenai, the former grinning back with a small blush and the latter going very red faced. Fortunately he had managed to get most of the blood off his teeth by now, though there was still quite a bit of it on the rest of his body.

"Idiot, don't go announcing something like that so proudly... AND STOP LOOKING AT KURENAI-SENSEI LIKE THAT!" Ino started with a lecture and then went into a shriek.

This of course just drew more attention to the embarrassed Jounin, making her blush even harder.

Ignored by everyone, Asuma was looking a bit disgruntled, as he had developed an interest in the beautiful red eyed Jounin recently.

"What, you jealous?" Naruto taunted with a smirk, making his fellow blond splutter incoherently. "Don't worry Ino, it's not your fault that Anko and Kurenai are sexier than you, that's just the way the cookie crumbles." He continued, unable to help himself.

"Thanks for taking such good care of my coat Hinata, you're a real sweetie." He told the shy girl as he took his coat from her, making another girl blush.

"Ah, no problem nii-san." She said back quietly, secretly very pleased with the compliment and gentle teasing.

Standing away from everyone, Sasuke was grinding his teeth in jealousy. He couldn't have defeated Lee and Naruto hadn't even used his chakra chains to do it, which were arguably his greatest weapon. He had thought that the Sharingan would let him finally catch up to his teammate, but it wasn't enough. Even empowered by the cursed seal he'd been defeated and that was sealed now in any case. It seemed as if the gap between them was getting bigger instead of smaller no matter what he did and it was driving him crazy.

The following matches weren't anywhere near as exciting as the one between Lee and Naruto, so people wound down considerably.

Sakura faced off against Ino and both did their best, which would have been admirable if it hadn't been so sad. Aside from an fairly clever trap that Ino laid with her hair, it was all academy level tricks. Though it did at least prove that Sakura had been working hard to catch up, as Ino had been ahead of her considerably in the combat department when they graduated.

Tenten got the short end of the stick when she was matched up against Temari and was swiftly defeated, due to Temari's wind perfectly negating her weapon expertise. Naruto hadn't been too fond of the dick move Temari pulled by letting Tenten crash on her fan like that though.

Poor, shy little Hinata had her fears realised when she was matched up with Neji, but she kept her conversation with Naruto in mind and refused to back down. Despite being disadvantaged the entire time, she refused to do the easy thing and give up, wanting to make her team and newly aquired big brother figure proud. To her secret delight she even managed to land a few hits on her cousin, which was a first, though she was swiftly defeated afterwards. The approving smile on Naruto's face meant more to her than the pain she was in or the fact that she was going to be spending some time in the hospital due to internal injuries.

The forever lazy Shikamaru complained about having to fight Tsuchi Kin, because girls were troublesome. When he finally dragged his feet into the arena he fairly quickly outsmarted the girl and knocked her out.

Chouji finally got his turn, but looked like he wanted to forfeit rather than fight against Kinuta Dosu, remembering him from the forest. A promise of barbeque got him going, but Dosu eventually figured out that he could beat the Akimichi by transmiting his sound waves through the water in Chouji's body.

With all of the matches finished, the winners picked numbers in order to decide who would fight who in the finals.

Naruto sent an eager grin towards Neji, more than happy with the opportunity to beat the fate out of his head.

Gaara stared almost hungrily at Sasuke and Kakashi made a note to teach him the Chidori(Thousand Birds), since Naruto had already told him that Gaara used sand, being the Ichibi Jinchuuriki and all. If nothing else, it should allow Sasuke to survive that match. He wasn't sure if Sasuke could actualy win, but survival at least should be possible.

Shikamaru sighed despondently at having to fight another troublesome woman, this one blond, while the woman in question smirked at him.

Shino, Kankuro and Dosu didn't react at all.

Naruto was particularly pleased at hearing that they had a whole month until the finals. That would allow him to work on a lot of things, only one of them actualy having anything to do with his match against Neji. Naruto was actualy pretty sure that he could beat Neji as he was right now, but he really wanted to finish a particular technique so that he could try it against a Hyuuga. He'd been planning to ask Hinata to help him test it out, but this was even better.

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OMAKE: The corruption of Hinata.

In a slightly alternate universe.

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Sabaku no Temari

"Begin!" Hayate announced.

"Are you ready for this...little girl?" Naruto asked ominously, pointing a finger threateningly towards the quadruple ponytailed blond girl, the other hand clenched in a fist at his waist, as if ready to throw a punch.

Temari refused to be intimidated by her hulking opponent in the creepy black coat. She knew that if she let him get into close range, it was all going to be over, but if she kept him at a distance, then she could win.

"Alright! Lets get this started!" Naruto began, making Temari tense. "Hinata, Give me her body measurements!" He continued assertively, turning towards Hinata, his coat flapping open on the hand that wasn't pointing at Temari.

Everyones thought processes ground to to a halt in shock and confusion when they heard this.

"You got it nii-sama!" Hinata stated confidently, causing even more shock. Naruto had spent a good deal of time talking to her and she had come to understand that her big brother knew what life was all about. She had absolutely no problem doing anything he wanted.

"Nii-sama?!" Several voices asked in shock, Kurenai the loudest among them. What the hell had Naruto been telling the poor girl?

"Byakugan!"

Everyone realised that Hinata was actually intending to do as Naruto told her and could do nothing but stare with their jaws hanging as the Hyuuga heiress began talking as if she was reading a list.

Temari herself placed her hands over her breasts and groin as if it would protect her. She had been informed about the abilities of the Byakugan and had feared that it was used as the ultimate peeping tool by perverted Hyuuga, but she had never expected it from the shy looking girl.

"Sabaku no Temari, height, 5 feet 3 inches. 32 inch bust, 30 inch waist, 33 inch thighs."

"ALRIGHT! Now that I know that, victory is MINE!" Naruto exclaimed, his coat lowered down to his elbows and flaring wildly around him as he aimed a pelvic thrust at the sky.

"Kami damnit Naruto, that makes no sense!" Sakura shouted down in protest.

Hinata however hadn't finished yet and continued speaking after everyone had stopped talking for a second.

"She's wearing white cotton underwear with a flower print, daisies to be specific." The corrupted Hyuuga revealed shamelessly, feeling no pity for her fellow female. If nii-sama wanted to know, she would even tell him Kurenai-sensei's measurements.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Naruto roared, practically snorting steam. Temari could do nothing but stand there, looking utterly mortified.

"Lets go! Come on, daisies!" Naruto called out to her and charged, catching Temari off guard. He was on her before she could reach, his hands lashing out quicker than her ability to even keep up, though she did her best. He was also laughing like a lunatic the entire time.

Naruto disengaged and Temari felt a moment of elation when she hadn't felt any punches hitting her.

"I guess you're not as fast as you thought." Temari mocked, realizing that his earlier actions were meant to screw with her.

"Oh really?" Naruto said back with a smirk. At that moment, Temari's clothes suddenly ripped, revealing her flower printed underwear to everyone and making her briefly wish that Gaara would bury her in sand.

"Wh-What the hell you bastard?!" She screamed at him.

"Don't worry daisy, I'll leave just your socks on!" Naruto said back and charged at her again.

Temari dodged backwards while retorting. "When the hell have you ever seen a ninja wear socks?! AND DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME DAISY!" She finished with a scream nearly worthy of Sakura in volume, though not as ear piercing.

"That's your problem daisy!" The blond said, completely ignoring her warning about not calling her that.

Temari forfeited soon after, seeing that Naruto was too fast to hit with her wind techniques, fleeing the premises to find new clothes.

Naruto himself was beset by several angry females who wanted to know what he had done to sweet little Hinata.