Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Genin ❯ Chapter 4: Omen ( Chapter 4 )

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Nor do Sakura, Sasuke, or any of the other characters mentioned or described herein. I haven't even bothered to get permission from their great and august creator. Feel free to sue me if you wish, but you won't get anywhere. Not only do I have no money, but as a college student, I have LESS than no money. That's right. A negative net worth. Have fun, Mr(s). Lawyer! Also, I will be using adult language in this fic. If you're not supposed to read such language, GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

Genin

By: Flashfyre5

Chapter Four: Omen

Sasuke slipped out of the room in which Naruto and Sakura were still celebrating and glanced down the hallway to his right, then to his left. Seeing Tsunade walking slowly down the hall, conversing with the Mizukage in quiet tones, he nodded and set out after them. He had soon caught up with the slow-moving pair. A smile spread across his face as Sasuke realized that there wasn't so much a conversation as there was a story being told- by the notoriously long-winded Mizukage. Tsunade was smiling, and nodding at the appropriate places, but it was fairly obvious to Sasuke that she was simply humoring the old man. As he approached, he did his best to swallow his annoyance at Naruto's promotion. He was about to ask the Hokage a favor, and if he let his discontent at the promotion of her `pet' ninja slip, he knew she wouldn't do a thing for him.

"… So then, just when I thought I had him, it turned out that the bastard had just sent another Mizu Bunshin after me," the blue-robed man rambled on. Sasuke decided that this presented an appropriate time for him to interject into their conversation.

"Hokage-sama," he said simply, bowing a bit for decorum's sake in front of the foreign dignitary. Both Tsunade and the Mizukage turned to face the black-haired boy.

"Ah, Sasuke," Tsunade addressed him, relief showing on her face. Sasuke could only estimate as to her gratefulness at being rescued from another of the Mizukage's stories. "Mizukage-sama, this is Uchiha Sasuke, sole survivor of the Uchiha clan," she said to the Mizukage. The blue-robed man nodded his head a bit, allowing Sasuke to come out of his bow.

"I've heard of you," the Mizukage said, nodding after a moment. "Yes, you were on the team that killed the rogue shinobi Momochi Zabuza. Ironically, that's just what I was talking about," he continued enthusiastically, having found a segue back into his story.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I need to see Hokage-sama in private," Sasuke said with another little bow. Tsunade's smile seemed to settle into an expression of relief.

With a nod to the Mizukage, she said, "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that duty calls." The blue-robed man sighed, then returned the nod.

"I suppose that I should prepare my entourage for departure," he admitted. "As always, it has been a pleasure." To Sasuke he said, "It was nice to meet you, Sasuke. I wish you luck on the Jounin exam." Tsunade looked sideways at the door to another uninhabited room, and Sasuke moved to get the door for her.

"Thank you, sir," he said as he moved towards the door, trying to seem, at least, politically appropriate. Though the Water and Fire countries were not enemies, they were not allies either; prudence was dictated in this situation, and even Sasuke knew not to offend such an important foreign dignitary.

"Have a safe return journey," Tsunade wished him, then ducked through the waiting doorway. Sasuke followed her and slid the door shut quietly behind him. Tsunade leaned up against the far wall and breathed a great sigh, presumably of relief. She held a finger in front of her mouth for a few minutes, as they waited for the Mizukage to pass out of hearing range.

"Damn, thanks for saving me there," Tsunade finally said, dropping her finger.

"You won't be thanking me after I show you this Hokage-sama," Sasuke said, unzipping his jacket. "Something happened to the seal last night."

"What?" Tsunade exclaimed, her attention secured. Sasuke just shook his head and turned around, dropping his jacket to the floor. The Hokage approached to get a better look, but she didn't need to. It was apparent from across the room that most of the protective seals were gone.

Tsunade's eyes widened slightly, but before she could say anything, Sasuke said, "The curse seal looks like it's gone too. I'm not sure, though." Tsunade pushed the left strap of Sasuke's undershirt off of his shoulder and examined the area where the curse seal had, for such a long time, adorned his body. Slowly, and with a little pressure, she ran her fingers over the area.

"What the hell?" she asked to herself, pushing a bit harder. Sasuke put his left foot a bit forward, to steady himself against the pressure that Tsunade was now applying.

"This is going to hurt a bit," Tsunade warned him, and Sasuke braced himself. He felt her molding chakra and spreading it out on his skin. Then it pressed into the area where the curse seal had been. It felt to Sasuke like a burning needle was forcing itself into him, burrowing its way into his rib cage from behind. He bore the pain with a grunt. Then the pain was gone, and Tsunade backed away a bit. Sasuke took the opportunity to pull the arm of his sleeveless t-shirt back into place, and pick his jacket up from the floor.

"Well," she said after a moment. "It's gone, all right. If it had been there, my chakra would have activated it." Tsunade stood in place for another long minute as Sasuke zipped his jacket up and pulled it forward, so that the overly large neck was to the front. "I just have no idea why the thing's gone," Tsunade finally said, shaking her head.

"It wasn't Jiraiya's seal?" Sasuke asked, his thoughts racing. /If it wasn't that pervert's seal, then what could have…?/ the raven-haired boy wondered.

"No. It didn't have that kind of power," Tsunade denied, biting her lower lip. "Orochimaru was the only one of us that was that good with seals…" she trailed off, looking at Sasuke. After a moment she continued, "You know, the seal would probably dissipate if Orochimaru were dead. That's the only thing I can think of."

"And who would have that kind of strength?" Sasuke asked, somewhat worriedly. Tsunade shook her head and shrugged in response.

"I have no idea. It might not even be that. Maybe he got tired of supporting the thing. With Orochimaru's skill in seals, anything is possible," Tsunade admitted in a defeated tone. "If he is dead, it might have been as simple a thing as someone sneaking into his room and slitting his throat while he was sleeping. Considering the timeframe, it's a possibility," she continued with a shrug.

"No way," Sasuke denied, stepping forward. The sound of a hard sandal striking against a wooden floor echoed in the room for a moment. "Orochimaru's too smart for that."

"Well, we have no way of knowing," Tsunade said with another shrug. She pulled a chair from the side of the room and sat down on it with a soft sigh. "Ever since I got here, Orochimaru's been almost impossible to track. Each and every spy we've sent after him has been killed. So, to be frank, any possibility is just as good as any other." As Sasuke was about to start refuting her again, she continued, "It might not have anything to do with Orochimaru at all. It's possible that your body has just become so attuned to the seal that it absorbed it. All that we know for sure," the Hokage paused, allowing that statement to settle in, "Is that the seal is gone."

Sasuke deflated, looking down and to the left. After a few minutes, he turned and walked out of the room, quietly opening and closing the sliding door as he passed. The boy looked up after he left, thinking about the implications of all that Tsunade had said.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice startled him out of his reverie. Sasuke turned to his right to meet Sakura's gaze, quickly replacing his mask of indifference.

"What is it?" he asked casually. Sasuke didn't see Naruto anywhere, which pleased him somewhat. The raven-haired boy had no desire to see Naruto at the moment.

"Well, I just thought that we should get together later today and train a little, just so that we know each others' strengths and weaknesses," Sakura explained, smiling softly. Sasuke could tell that she was still coming down from Naruto's shared euphoria.

"Whatever," he replied, really not too interested in training with either of the two. "Where and when?" he asked simply.

"Umm, at two," Sakura began, rather put off by Sasuke's greater-than-usual level of dismissiveness. "We're going to meet in front of the memorial. You remember where it is?"

"Yeah," Sasuke replied, turning to leave. "See you there," he called over his shoulder, half-waving back at her, only the first two fingers on his hand raised.. His thoughts turned again to all the possibilities involved in the disappearance of the curse seal. He didn't even notice Sakura's faint "See ya" as he walked out the front door of the offices.

/If my body just absorbed it,/ he wondered to himself, looking up at the bright sun. /Then why would it take four of the containment seals with it?/

* * * * * *

Naruto felt like he was walking on air as he hopped from building to building. The almost-midday sun beat down on his back, and he welcomed the warmth. /Chuunin,/ the blond-haired boy thought excitedly. /I never thought that they'd let me be a chuunin./

His wallet felt unusually fat in his pocket; Naruto had just collected his weekly pay. Waiting for him, almost as if Tsunade had anticipated his advancement, was an envelope labeled simply `back pay.' Inside, along with his normal paycheck, was enough cash to pay his rent for six months. A short note that he'd discovered inside revealed that Tsunade was paying the difference between his former genin level and his now-proper chuunin level for all the B rank missions that he'd managed to complete thus far. The sudden windfall surprised Naruto, but he had skipped meals far too often in his lifetime to turn town free money when it was offered to him.

Naruto happened to glance downwards at just the right moment to see the Ichiraku ramen bar pass underneath him. He caught himself in the next rooftop and looked back at the restaurant, fingering his fattened wallet. Finally, Naruto grinned. /If I can't celebrate today, then when can I?/ he thought to himself, sliding down the side of the building, his left hand holding him to the side via a water pipe. Just as he was about to enter, Naruto pulled out a wad of cash from his wallet, then burst through the cloth-draped entrance to his favorite restaurant.

"Gimme one extra-large miso ramen with everything!" he said to the cook, slamming down his wad of money. The cook looked at the money, then up at Naruto questioningly. "I just made chuunin," Naruto explained cheerfully, sitting down.

"WHAT?!" a surprised voice roared from a few stools to Naruto's right. In his hurry, Naruto hadn't bothered to check and see who else was in the ramen bar. Those villagers that still loathed him avoided the Ichiraku like the plague, and those that came knew enough not to start any trouble with the restaurant's best customer. As such, Naruto never really had any reason to check and see who else was in the establishment.

"Konohamaru?" Naruto managed to utter before the smaller boy engulfed him in a full-body bear hug. The momentum that Konohamaru had amassed in his leap knocked them both off of Naruto's stool and onto the ground.

"They didn't say that you'd passed," Konohamaru said, his voice a little shaky, as if he were holding back tears. The younger boy burrowed his head into Naruto's chest as he spoke, not letting up on the bear hug at all. "I only wanted to be chuunin because you did too. I was so sad when you didn't make it and I did," Konohamaru continued, his voice becoming less emotional.

"Well, I made it," Naruto grinned, patting Konohamaru's head. "Now, can we get up? I'm starving," he requested sheepishly. Konohamaru pushed himself off of Naruto's prone form, then offered a hand to help Naruto rise as well. Naruto accepted it, and brushed himself off. "I missed breakfast this morning," he said by way of explanation, both to the cook, who was more than a bit busy with Naruto's order, and to Konohamaru, who had pulled his own bowl over so that he could sit next to his idol. Naruto sat himself back on his stool, then examined the wad of money he'd left on the counter.

"Your tab's paid off," the cook explained as Naruto counted his somewhat-reduced wad of cash. The man had been more than patient in waiting for Naruto to pay off the debt he had manage to incur over the past few years of eating, with the occasional unpaid meal. The total had become quite substantial, almost a full week's worth of pay for Naruto, and had resulted in his temporary banishment from the ramen bar.

"You didn't take enough," Naruto said, shaking his head as he tacked on the cost of a super-deluxe miso ramen to his until-then existing tab.

"Don't worry about it," the cook said, waving a hand in Naruto's direction. "Now that you're paid up, I can afford to treat you to a meal on the house, to congratulate you on your promotion."

"Thanks," Naruto grinned, leaning back and pulling in a deep breath, then letting it out. "I love the smell of this place almost as much as the food, you know," he said to Konohamaru, who was in the middle of sucking up a string of noodles. The younger boy nodded in response, the action causing the tail end of his noodles to swing up and whip him in the nose. Naruto laughed, and Konohamaru joined him once he'd swallowed his noodles.

"Now, tell me if I'm wrong," a deeper voice interjected into the conversation. "But I thought I just heard that the infamous Uzumaki Naruto just made chuunin." Naruto spun around on his stool, and was only partly surprised to see an old friend standing behind him.

"Hey, Lee!" he exclaimed. Naruto hadn't seen the green-garbed ninja in months; Lee had, apparently, taken off to go on an extended training trip with Gai. "Have a seat, both Konohamaru and I got promoted. We're celebrating!" Naruto explained, swatting the seat next to him. Lee grinned and moved to sit down with an easy grace that belied his size.

And size he had. Naruto was again impressed by the sheer stature of his black-haired friend. When he stood up straight, Lee was well over six feet tall; the tallest person in Konoha by a significant margin. Moreover, the man was well built. Lee had never stopped training, and it had paid off dramatically. Rippling muscles covered his body from head to toe. He had the kind of physique that most girls could only dream about, and the fact was well known. To nobody's greater surprise than his own, Lee found himself to be the object of many a young woman's affections, despite the fact that his eyes still bore the same unnerving level of focus and determination that so many people had found initially disconcerting. He still wore the same style of simple, green jumpsuit that he had taken to wearing while under Gai's tutelage, except that he now wore his chuunin vest over it with pride.

"One beef ramen!" Lee ordered as he sat down next to the two. He fell into an easy conversation with Naruto, one which Konohamaru joined in after allowing the two to catch up. When Naruto and Lee's food came, the conversation slowed for a little while as the two proceeded to devour their respective lunches. Konohamaru kept the flow of the conversation going until Lee finished his meal and was able to rejoin fully. Naruto took a while longer to catch up, since his bowl, when it had come, had been veritably overflowing with delicacies. He had savored each and every bite; the last time he'd eaten something this extravagant was on the night before his first attempt at the chuunin exam finals.

After finishing lunch, the three youths sat on their stools at the Ichiraku ramen bar and joked and laughed boisterously. The lunch rush came and went, but the boys didn't notice. Eventually, Naruto happened to glance upwards at the wall clock; it read 1:19 in the afternoon.

"Well, guys," he said, one hand over his stomach. "I've gotta meet Sakura and Sasuke. I'll see you later," Naruto grinned, pushing himself off his stool and onto his legs.

"Do you have to go right now?" Konohamaru asked, looking disappointed. Naruto nodded his head, thinking, /Sakura wanted to meet a 2:00. I gotta deal with Kyuubi before then./

"Yep," Naruto said, shrugging a bit. Then, he remembered something that he'd been meaning to try. "Hey, Konohamaru, I wanna try something out later. I'll give ya a call, okay?"

"Sure, Naruto-niichan," Konohamaru replied, his disappointment evaporating.

"Smack that smug bastard once for me," Lee joked, flashing the blindingly white grin that he'd learned from Gai. It was clear from his personal feelings, which he had never made any effort to hide, that he meant Sasuke.

"I just might," Naruto returned, leaving. "See ya!"

"Did you hear that Naruto-niichan's making a run at the jounin exams?" Naruto heard Konohamaru say just before he passed out of earshot. At that point, he leapt upwards to land on someone's porch, then again and again until he was hopping from rooftop to rooftop.

/Damn, I've put this off for too long,/ Naruto thought with a grimace. His stomach twitched; it was almost enough to trip him up, but he caught himself before he had to land on the next rooftop. /I wish that the Fourth had actually put some long-term thought into this damn seal. If he had, I might not be in this situation./ Soon, Naruto had moved beyond the residential zone of the village, and was forced to continue on foot. /Damn fool forgot that as a person grows, so does his ability to generate chakra. The overflow system his seal's got was fine for me when I was a kid, but now Kyuubi's generating more chakra, through me, than the seal can keep up with./

/It's no big deal, I guess,/ Naruto admitted to himself as he moved into the forested area that surrounded the shinobi memorial. /I just hate having to call on that damn thing./ Finally, he burst into the clearing around the stone monument. A quick glance around confirmed that he was alone; this fact brought a small smile to Naruto's face. He didn't like to be around anyone when he called on Kyuubi; if he did, he ran the risk of hurting them. Naruto made his way over to the monument and sat down, his back to the engraved side. He pulled his legs in and crossed them, then folded his hands in his lap. With a deep breath and a slight increase in the volume of his music player, he closed his eyes and did what he knew he had to do.

/Hey, Fox-shit. It must be getting crowded in there with all that extra chakra you've got. Give it up,/ he demanded mentally of the nine-tails demon fox, nestled quietly in his navel. As always, whenever he did this, Kyuubi was slow to respond. Both of them knew that if Kyuubi kept building up chakra, he might be able to burst through the protection that the seal gave both Naruto and everyone else. Eventually, though, as always, the chakra came. Naruto was careful to keep his own chakra suppressed, and unmixed with this new, red batch. A faint red aura began to pulse around the blond-haired boy.

Naruto couldn't help but grin. He loved the feeling of tingling power that Kyuubi's chakra gave him, even though he hated the fox itself with a passion. Slowly, he began to exhale, even as he concentrated the flow of Kyuubi's chakra into his mouth. Without performing any hand seals or making any attempt to mold the chakra, a little jet of flame spurted out of his slightly pursed lips. Some might call it an impressive show of chakra control, but Naruto knew better. Even now, he had to use up much more chakra than most other people needed to to perform a jutsu of any kind. This was simply a parlor trick, but one that was useful to him.

The little tongue of flame that Naruto was breathing out was simply ignited chakra; by concentrating chakra into his breath to a certain point, Naruto had discovered that he could cause it to ignite, burning up the chakra in the process. It was grossly inefficient, and had no practical use inside or outside of battle, except to use up a lot of chakra in a short amount of time. Slowly, the feeling of over fullness in Naruto's belly diminished. When he had expelled his breath fully, he drew in another breath and exhaled slowly, the little tongue of flame leaping from his lips again.

To his right, Naruto hear what sounded like, to him, at least, a derisive snort. He paused in his exhalation and cracked an eye to attempt to locate the source of the sound. It didn't take long; almost immediately, Naruto saw Sasuke leaning against one of the trees surrounding the clearing. Naruto closed his eye and released his remaining breath in a single puff, which made a little fireball. Then, he opened his eyes and pushed himself to his feet.

"Still relying on that demon for your strength, fox-boy?" Sasuke asked Naruto, his voice betraying the derision that the raven-haired boy felt towards Naruto.

"Shut the hell up, Sasuke. You've got no idea what it's like to have to live with this thing every day," Naruto shot back, his arrogance matching Sasuke's derision. "Besides," Naruto continued after a moment, a wicked grin crossing his face. "The only reason that you think that the Kyuubi's an unfair advantage is because you can't have it!" the smaller youth accused him. Sasuke's eyes widened a bit, and he pushed himself away from the tree. Before he could say anything, Naruto continued, "The damn fox is no different than your Sharingan. It's just an advantage, one that only I can use. Quit whining about it already!"

"Take that back," Sasuke demanded, his eyes cold. He kept a careful control on his anger; he couldn't believe that Naruto was implying not only that he was stronger, but that Sasuke needed something of the fox-boy's to keep up

"Hell no!" Naruto said, shaking his head. "You're a fuckin' hypocrite, you know that? Nobody's allowed to use a shortcut if they aren't you!"

"Shut up," Sasuke demanded again, his body literally shaking with rage. Barely inside the too-long arms of his jacket, his hands balled up into fists. The accusation of hypocrisy had almost sent him over the edge.

"No way!" Naruto returned, his anger brimming to the surface. "I say what I mean, and I don't take my words back. You need to grow the hell up, Sasuke."

"Shut up!" Sasuke roared, charging forward, his right fist cocked. Naruto, not in a fighting stance, didn't have enough time to react, and took Sasuke's punch to the face. He stumbled back a few steps, then raised his left hand to rub his cheek.

"Is that the best you can do?" Naruto taunted, grinning, as he slid into a defensive fighting stance. Sasuke responded with a growl, then broke right. /Shit!/ Naruto thought frantically as Sasuke raced around to flank him. /He's moving faster than Kakashi-sensei even!/ Naruto dove forward just in time to avoid another punch to the head, this one leveled at him from his right side. As he rolled to his feet, Naruto thought, /The scary part about that was that he went all the way around behind me before taking his swing./

"Gonna call up that fox?" Sasuke taunted, having skidded to a stop. "You know that you can't even touch me without it."

"Not on your life," Naruto returned, forming the hand seals for his favorite jutsu. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" The clearing was suddenly filled, from end to end, with Kage Bunshin clones of Naruto. Sasuke had a mere two feet on any side of him before the wall of bodies hemmed him in.

"That was just using my own chakra," almost a thousand Narutos taunted the dark-eyed boy. "And I've got plenty left to take you down with," the real Naruto finished alone, surrounded by his clones.

"We'll see about that," Sasuke returned, quickly forming a series of hand seals of his own. As he finished, his hands crackled with blue chakra and dancing electricity. "Raimei Genkotsu no Jutsu!" he declared, then blurred into motion again. Naruto cursed, and his clones responded by rushing forward, kunai drawn. Sasuke was forced onto the defensive, and was slowed somewhat by the press of bodies on all sides, but he danced around the clones' attacks gracefully, if not easily. As often as he could manage, he would press a finger or two onto a clone's body. Electricity would dance from his fingertips up the body of the clone, which would then explode into a puff on ninja smoke. After a few moments of this, to no real effect, Naruto called off his clones. Depleted significantly, they glared at Sasuke from around the clearing. Sasuke himself was standing in a defensive stance, his hands still crackling with energy. The raven-haired boy wore a great smirk.

"You know," Naruto said after a bit of a lull, "The funny thing about the Kage Bunshin is that the clones are always the exact same strength. The only thing that putting more chakra into the technique does is make more clones." Naruto stared hard at Sasuke, a smirk spreading across his own face. Suddenly, all of the clones in the clearing exploded into ninja smoke, leaving the two boys alone again. "Which is why I fixed it," Naruto finished, his smirk blossoming into a full-blown smile. He put the first two fingers of his hands together again, forming the hand seal for the Kage Bunshin, save for one thing; his fingers were interlaced.

"Honshitsu Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, and two explosions of ninja smoke behind him signaled the completion of the technique. One clone stepped from behind Naruto and to his left; another stepped to his right. The one on his left reached down and turned up the volume on the his digital music player.

"Ready, boss?" the one on his right asked, grinning confidently.

"Go!" Naruto ordered, charging forward. The clones on the left and right of him broke in their respective directions, racing around to flank Sasuke.

/Damn,/ Sasuke thought, keeping an eye on the clones that were flanking him. /These are a lot faster than his Kage Bunshin clones. Doesn't matter, though,/ he grinned, his confidence showing itself. /One touch of my Raimei Genkotsu and they're gone./

Then Naruto was there, and Sasuke was pressured into trading blows with the shorter youth, who was attacking with a speed that was, frankly, surprising to Sasuke. He had never seen Naruto move with this kind of speed before. Sasuke was still faster, but he knew that once the clones closed in on him in a few seconds, he'd be very badly overmatched if he didn't do something quickly. Sasuke took a precious second trading blows with Naruto, to no real effect, since the raven-haired boy was still on the defensive.

Sasuke took a risk, and threw his own defense to the winds as he launched a furious counterassault against Naruto. They traded blows at the same moment, Naruto landing a heavy punch to Sasuke's gut, while Sasuke connected firmly with Naruto's right shoulder. The sheer force of Naruto's blow knocked Sasuke back; the blond-haired boy was strong, now, as well as being possessed of an almost inhuman amount of stamina. Naruto, after being struck with the Raimei Genkotsu, was forced to take a half a step back with a yelp of pain.

"Enjoy the electrical burns," Sasuke taunted, regaining his breath. Then the clones were on him, and he was completely on the defensive, struggling to keep the surprisingly fast replicas from striking him.

The real Naruto looked down at his jacket, saw the burnt and blackened circle outlining where Sasuke had struck him, and exclaimed, "You jackass! You just ruined my jacket! Do you have any idea how much these things cost?" The blond-haired boy charged into the fray once more just as Sasuke landed a punch on the clone on his left. Electricity crackled over the clone's body, and it fell back. Naruto took the opportunity to punch Sasuke hard in the face. The dark-haired boy stumbled back before tipping over, his nose bleeding profusely from where Naruto had glancingly hit it. Sasuke knew better than to stay down, and pushed himself to his feet as quickly as he could. The whole right side of his face, where Naruto had struck him, was swelling up, and he did his best to keep his right eye from swelling shut.

/Damn, he hits hard,/ Sasuke thought, shaking his head to clear it. When he again focused on Naruto, he thought that his vision had gone bad, because he saw three people advancing on him.

"I hit the clone!" he protested, falling back half a step.

"So?" the Naruto on Sasuke's left asked, his chest blackened from where Sasuke had struck him.

"They're different from shadow clones," the middle Naruto explained, grinning faintly. "Now, come on. You can do better than this, can't you? I haven't even broken a sweat yet."

"What?" Sasuke exclaimed, backing off a little more as the right Naruto got a feral look in his face and cracked his knuckles. Sasuke realized as he looked at the three that, aside from the electrical burns, the three looked fine; fresh even. Sasuke cursed inwardly; the stress of maintaining the Raimei Genkotsu for so long was beginning to wear on him, and if he hadn't even begun to tire out Naruto, things were going to get bad quickly. With a grimace, Sasuke allowed the Raimei Genkotsu to fade away, even as he closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment.

"Sharingan!" Sasuke shouted, his eyes flying open. Immediately, he knew that something was different; the chakra patterns that he saw surrounding Naruto and his clones were very different from the usual little balls of chakra that he usually saw while using the Sharingan. Now, he saw chakra faintly blanketing their bodies, twitching and moving as the muscles themselves did. The trees and plants that he saw behind them glowed with chakra as well, something that he'd never seen while using the Sharingan before. Suddenly, he understood.

/I've mastered the Sharingan!/ Sasuke exulted to himself, pulling himself to a full, standing battle stance. /It's just like Kakashi-sensei said; I can see Naruto's chakra as his body's cells produce it. I should be able to copy him as he molds his chakra too./

"Now you're done," Sasuke gloated, flashing his newly enhanced eyes at Naruto. "I've mastered the Sharingan. With my speed, I can do anything that you can, only faster. You might as well give up now, Dobe-kun." Even as he boasted, though, Sasuke's mind raced. He didn't understand how Naruto's new technique worked, but it was obvious that the clones could take at least some punishment. The raven-haired boy was confident that he could win any one-on-one fight with Naruto now, but a three-on-one still presented problems. /Damn,/ he thought to himself angrily. /I should've tried the Sharingan first. If I had, I'd have clones of my own to fight Naruto with now./ Even still, Sasuke could see the massive reserve of chakra that Naruto had not yet used; it wasn't tinted with Kyuubi's red taint in the least.

"Get over yourself, Sasuke," Naruto returned, shaking his head. As he did, the cords of his headphones whipped around in front of him. "Sure, you're fast, but it sure seems like that's all you've got. I mean, if this is the best that you can do, you've been slacking off ever since our last fight, except for speed, maybe."

"Bullshit," Sasuke replied, more confident than ever. At first, as he'd examined the clones, he'd been badly confused; they looked exactly like normal people. This was confusing to him, because the one advantage that the Sharingan had over the Byakugan was that it could detect clones with unerring accuracy. "And call off your two friends, Naruto. The Henge doesn't fool me any more. Who are they, Konohamaru and Sakura? Maybe Ino?"

"What?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"I've got your trick now, Naruto. Those two are just normal people using Henge to look like you," Sasuke replied, grinning, as he pointed to his left eye. "You can't fool the Sharingan, no matter what. Those are real people."

"I wish," said the Naruto on the right. The one on the left nodded its' agreement.

"Nope, wrong again. The trick of the Honshitsu Bunshin no Jutsu is that I actually replicate myself on a cellular level. The two of these guys," Naruto boasted, setting a hand on the shoulder of either of his clones. "Are, for all intents and purposes, real people. They even generate enough chakra to maintain their bodies without my help."

"That can't be!" Sasuke exclaimed, his eyes widening. Even as he did, he was able to see that the two Narutos on either side of the center one, were generating chakra at a slower-than normal rate… and in exact tandem with one another. "The amount of chakra that it would take to make even one of those things…" he trailed off, trying to find some way not to believe Naruto.

"Is enormous," Naruto finished with a grin and a nod. "And it is. I doubt that you even have the chakra resources to make one of these babies now, even if I let you copy the technique. Then again," he continued, his grin turning to a smirk, "Chakra generation is the one thing that I've always been better at than you, even without Kyuubi. So, are we gonna finish this, or what?" Naruto asked cockily, the three of him each sliding into a battle stance.

Sasuke looked at them, the Sharingan eating up his chakra reserves quickly. Mastered, it used much more chakra than it did when un-mastered; somewhere in the back of his mind his respect of Kakashi was raised a notch, for being able to maintain the damn thing for so long. After only a few minutes, he could feel the intense strain of maintaining it for any length of time. Slowly, Sasuke sunk to his knees, shaking his head. /As long as there's three of him, I'm not going to be able to beat him,/ Sasuke thought to himself. /And if he can make more, like he says…/

Sasuke hear a pair of explosions, and looked up to see that Naruto's clones had vanished. He let the Sharingan drain from his eyes as he looked up at Naruto.

"Sasuke-kun!" Sakura's voice rang out across the field. Both boys turned to see Sakura running towards them. As she drew close enough to see Sasuke's swollen face and Naruto's relatively unscathed form, she dropped to her knees next to the raven-hared boy to examine him. Sasuke pulled away reflexively, but Sakura would have none of it; she caught Sasuke's head and examined the bruise more closely.

"Hi, Sakura-san," Naruto said sheepishly, blushing a bit.

"What were you thinking?" Sakura exploded, jumping to her feet. "You can't just go around picking fights with Sasuke-kun, you know," she lectured Naruto, who retreated before her.

"But I didn't!" Naruto protested, his hands raised as he did his best to look innocent.

"Well, you can't just beat him up like that, just because he isn't as strong as he used to be, relatively speaking. Especially since it's not his fault!" Sakura continued to ream Naruto, ignoring his protests.

"But my jacket," Naruto tried again to protest, his frustration building, but Sakura would still have none of it.

"So what? You've got half a dozen more just like it. It'd do you good to wear something else for once," she countered, her anger stoked again. She had, thus far, forced Naruto back a full five paces, and didn't look like she was going to let up any time soon.

"Fine!" Naruto exclaimed, his patience at an end. "I'm outta here. You can go play doctor with Sasuke- see if I give a rat's ass!" With that, he turned and leapt off into the forest, leaving the two alone in the clearing. Sakura returned to Sasuke's side and examined his injuries again. This time, he didn't protest.

"He can hit pretty hard," Sasuke began, trying to break the awkward silence.

"Not really," Sakura replied absentmindedly as she pulled a bottle of antiseptic and a small cotton ball from a pouch hanging from her belt in the back. "He's no stronger than Shikamaru or Neji, physically."

"What?" Sasuke asked, looking up. Sakura grabbed his head and turned it back so that she could work on his cheek. "You mean… they're all stronger than me?" he asked, disbelievingly.

"You didn't know?" Sakura asked, surprised. She let go of Sasuke's head and allowed him to look her in the eye. He shook his head slowly. "I thought you knew. I just thought that you didn't want to talk about it," Sakura rambled, thoroughly surprised. "I mean, I know that it's just because of the curse seal, but still…" she continued, then trailed off as Sasuke's head dropped again. He stared intently at the ground as Sakura continued to dab antiseptic on his cheek with her cotton ball. A long silence passed between them.

"I can catch up," Sasuke said suddenly, looking up slowly. "I can catch up, even surpass them all now. I just need you to help me with something," he said, looking deeply into Sakura's eyes.

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked, withering a bit under his intense gaze.

"Just help me," Sasuke said, grabbing her by her shoulders. "If you do…" he trailed off, looking for the right words. "If you do, I will make you a part of the Uchiha clan."

*** Author's Notes ***

Well, this one is late, I know, by a full week, but I've got a good excuse, honest! I've been away from my computer on Spring Break. Plus, I wanted to put some real time into this chapter; it's very important in my Big Plan. Anyway, I hope that I made up for the delay with this one- it comes in at a seam-bursting 8 pages, where I will usually truncate myself down to seven, no matter what.

Also, I now have three prereaders! I want to give a great big shout out to Thermopyle, SxStrngSamurai13, and Kepelus for helping me make the transition between `good' and `great.' Especially Thermopyle- you've been with me from the start, and you've always pushed me to do better when I thought I was doing quite well enough. Thanks, guys.

Also, I want to thank everybody who's taken the time to review me, on the FFML, on Fanfiction.net, and the one, lone guy out there that sent me something off of Rokudaime. Thank you SO much, guys; I'm writing this thing for you. If you enjoyed it, I wanna hear about it. If you didn't, I wanna hear about it even more! (And especially why, so that I can fix it.) Keep the feedback coming, guys- as some of you already know, what you say to me has a direct and immediate effect. (This is addressed at the guy on Fanfiction.net that said that I didn't need the thought/speech definitions at the beginning of my chapters any more. Kudos, and thanks!) Anyway, I remain, as always,

~Flash (flashfyre5@msn.com)

Number One Song on Naruto's Playlist:

"The Outer Space Machine," by Rellik. This is a fantastic remix of the final boss theme out of Sonic 3. I love it, and I think that you will too. Find it here: (http://vgmix.com/song_view.php?song_id=944)

Character themes:

Rock Lee: "Viva Rock (Lee)," by Orange Range. You all know and love this as the ending theme for the third season of Naruto, with all the little Naruto chibis marching across the screen, right? Anyway, this seems so appropriate for our good friend, Mr. Lee. Download it at (narutofan.com).

Konohamaru: "Hot Stuff," by Stephen Malcom. This one's a remix of Lava Reef Zone, from Sonic and Knuckles. What can I say? Sonic is grooooving for me lately. Anyway, pick up this top-notch piece of aural satisfaction at the Overclocked Remix (remix.overclovled.org).

New Moves: (In order of appearance)

Raimei Genkotsu no Jutsu- Thundering Fist Skill (Sasuke). This skill is a natural evolution of the slow, lumbering Chidori. The Raimei Genkotsu is, functionally, a miniature version of the Chidori that can be formed quickly and uses little chakra. One set of hand seals is sufficient for as many Raimei Genkotsu as the user wishes to use, or has chakra for. Each strike with a hand while using the Raimei Genkotsu causes, in addition to the normal impact damage from an unarmed physical strike, electrical burns and a sharp jolt to the nervous system, which causes a small convulsion in the target. This easy, cheap skill can be disastrous to anyone trying to perform or maintain a powerful jutsu, and is very useful in a straight fight as well.

Honshitsu Bunshin no Jutsu - Essence Clone Skill (Naruto). With this technique, Naruto can create up to five replicas of himself that are accurate, right down to the cellular level. As such, they generate enough chakra on their own that they can maintain their bodies without any assistance from Naruto. These clones are exact replicas of Naruto in terms of physical capabilities, unlike the Kage Bunshin. Furthermore, they are able to withstand any blow that Naruto himself could withstand; to force a clone to dissipate, one must do to it injuries sufficient to kill Naruto himself. Naruto can cancel the jutsu himself at any time. Also, thought the clones generate enough chakra to keep their own bodies stable independently of Naruto, they do not regenerate any chakra that they use on jutsus or lose in any other way.