Ninja's hero

Naruto woke up groggily with a weight beside him. Groggily he looked over to see Sakura sleeping peacefully besides him. Normally he'd panic about the situation however Sakura was laying in her own blanket with her own pillow and separated by several sheets and their own clothes. He smiled until he realized the weight he'd been feeling was her taking his blanket. Shivering slightly he sat up and decided that he was now awake.

'No duh Kit'

'Oh go back to sleep Kurama'

'Gladly' The tailed beast fell silent. Silently getting up and leaving the tent Naruto looked around. Everyone else was still asleep in their closed tents, except Izuku, who was currently sat cross legged on the log past the campfire.

"Morning bro,"

"You been up all night?"

"No, I went to sleep when the fire died, sunrise woke me up,"

"It's barely rising now,"

"Correct,"

"You just woke up too huh?"

"About two minutes ago to be precise, I decided to meditate and see if there's any change in chakra nearby," A momentary pause, "About what I said last night,"

"It's cool,"

"No it's not, those people, they aren't my family and they never were, I never should have said that, you and Sasuke are my family, they never were, I may have blood relations to them but they are no family,"

"So what changes did you detect?"

"Nothing much, no-one closing in, but Hinata's team overshot a hidden chakra signature, it's incredibly weak, probably just a dropped scroll or something but it seemed familiar for the briefest moments, but it hasn't moved at all so it can't be a living thing, like I said, most likely a dropped scroll, not worth the detour,"

"Alright, should I wake the others?" 

"Sounds good," Izuku weaved his hands before putting his left hand ahead of his face, his fingers all crooked. Breathing gently a small stream of fire formed at the tip of his index finger and curved into a small bird before turning around and zooming towards the unlit pile of branches Izuku must've replaced before going to sleep. Immediately the fire crackled to life as the bird touched it.

"What was that?"

"Fire style, Warming Phoenix jutsu, derived from the Phoenix Flower jutsu Itachi taught me, instead of making several chakra controlled flames I make a single controllable fireball that lasts longer and burns hotter, it requires a little less chakra and has more movement,"

"Pretty neat," Naruto held his hand to the fire for a moment, letting his body adjust to the dewy morning air. A light fog sat in the breeze, peppering surfaces with condensation. "I take it breakfast is more fish?"

"I had a clone go to a nearby river and catch enough yes, I can use wood release to get us some skewers while you wake everyone up,"

"I'm already up," Sasuke's voice tiredly joined the mix, "You two aren't exactly good whisperers,"

"We weren't whispering,"

"My point,"

"Anyway, you two wake the others up, we're heading out as soon as everyone has eaten, same formation as yesterday," Both boys nodded.

"Well, what do we have here?" A Leaf Jounin stood at the tower, guarding the locked entrance. "Ten examinees at once?"

"We formed a large team, circumventing the disqualification rules," Naruto put his hand behind his back. "We have five scrolls, that's one per pair," Izuku, Sasuke, Sakura and Gaara followed his lead and handed the scrolls over.

"Really? That's a first, teams normally just hand over three scrolls,"

"Is there a problem with our solution?"

"No, not at all, it's just the first I've seen anything like it," The door was opened up, "Congrats, you guys all pass, now until the week is over you've got to live in the tower, just to make sure all partakers of the exam make it to the tower or are found by the Jounin doing sweeps for the injured,"

"Alright!" Choji pumped his fist "We did it,"

"Head on up guys," The Jounin moved out of the way and Naruto led the squad into the massive building. 

"Naruto care to do some training later?" Izuku asked impassively.

"Sorry bro, I was thinking of helping Sakura,"

"What?!" The pinkette snapped to attention and stiffened, "You mean no break?" Naruto grinned and Izuku began laughing.

"Oh no, kami no Sakura, the three of us never stopped training, you wanna keep up you're going to need to work twice as hard as we are to even come close to catching up," His brother answered. Sakura pouted at the greenette before turning to Naruto.

"Let's go start right now then!"

"Sakura, wait!" He let himself be dragged away from the group as Izuku and Sasuke waved him away to his resigned fate. The last thing he heard was Sasuke denying Ino her  training request while Izuku began talking to the Sand Siblings. "You want to start training right now? We spent the whole day travelling, don't you need to rest?"

"Nope! Izuku said it himself, I need to work twice as hard so that means no stopping!" The determination in her voice alone was almost enough to sway him. Almost.

"You'll hurt, a lot,"

"Don't care,"

"You won't sleep much,"

"Insomnia is the life of a ninja,"

"You'll need to eat tons,"

Pause.

"Y'know instead of starving yourself like you've been doing,"

Three.

Two.

One.

"How did you,"

"How didn't I know Sakura?" He countered her question before it even finished. "You were all too used to the effects of hunger on the body by our bell training, not once did me, Sasuke or Izuku see you eat more than a third than you should've, you started to show symptoms of severe dehydration before the exams, remember how your water bottle never seemed to run out, even though you'd put the minimum possible in?"

"I, yeah, what was that about?"

"I put a seal on your bottle to fill it with water from the reservoir in my apartment, you should have a few more days of it,"

"How, but my figure?"

"Sasuke eats at least nine times a day to maintain his muscle mass, granted they aren't banquets but you could call them each a separate meal, Izuku eats three times more than Choji to stay healthy with his workout, eating won't change your figure so long as you exercise in a way that matches it, so our newest training session," A notepad and pencil appeared from nowhere, a skill he had picked up from Izuku, "Creating Sakura's diet of determination,"  

His left hand dropped palm down to smack a fist from his chest while his right hand rose to catch another. His right leg came up to block the side kick aimed to knock him over. Naruto stood on one foot, his arms still in position. Sakura's left fist struggled in his grip while her body wobbled to keep balance. "To put it simply, you're still slow, your power has increased nicely but you're still not at the rise you should be on," A brief pause "No prizes for guessing why ei-,"

"I know, my whole starvation to look good thing was a crappy idea,"

"Language," Naruto bit his tongue as Sakura blinked at him. "It just slipped out,"

"Is there anything I can do to improve right now?" They both relaxed.

"Results will always take time, on the plus you are faster than you were, the problem is you're still slow," A crestfallen look, "But I suppose it isn't fair to really judge you by my abilities, instead we'll go by how much I hold back,"

"Is that supposed to make me feel good?"

"He was barely using a percent when you first sparred," Izuku's voice interrupted. "Now he's on about two and a half, which is remarkable progress, when we spar against Shiakamaru and the like we could barely get away with a percent," The praise did a lot to lift her spirits. "But do not think you can rest on your laurels, the moment you know you can defeat your enemy is the moment your enemy defeats you,"

"Uh, what?"

"What he means is, when you think you're better you start getting lazy, laziness breeds mistakes, mistakes get you killed," Naruto shook his head, "Izubro likes to speak in proverbs he pulls out of nowhere,"

"You're good at translating,"

"I call it Izugarble, because he speaks garble," A genuine giggle from Sakura was well worth the cuff around the back of his head.

"If I can speak bluntly," He coughed "And I don't mean to offend you here," Naruto shook his head and smiled support to Sakura. "You're slow, not only that you are weak, you waste time with slow, loud attacks, they certainly do damage I won't deny but that is if they hit, and that is a big, big, if, firstly work on being silent, pushing some of your chakra into the space around you will deaden most noise, like how Naruto or Sasuke can jump from branches silently, that's going to be your first mission, learning the ninja art of silence, then Naruto can work on your speed with you and-," Naruto's eyes flicked around the room as Izuku paused.

"You sense it too?"

"Yes, door, far left, not much movement, definitely alive, definitely familiar but I didn't care to memorize all our classmates signatures," A kunai was drawn, "It could even be an enemy from the written portion," Protectively stepping in front of Sakura, the blond bared his fangs. "You can either come out now or we will find you!" The sheer indifference in his voice worried Naruto, would he really hunt someone down just for eavesdropping? "You forget Naruto, most missions involve information gathering, where better to get it than the source? Come out, now!" A figure stepped from the doorway with her hands raised.

"INO?!" Both the blond and pinkette yelled in surprise.

"Of course it'd be Yamanaka, Sasuke is in his room right now, reading a book as usual, hopefully Hatake didn't give him any porn," The greenette shuddered.

"Um, actually I was kinda looking for you guys,"

"They're all yours," Izuku smirked as he leant to body flicker away.

"What are you guys,"

"Negh!" A noise somewhere between a strangled cat and a siren as Izuku jumped an entire foot in the air. "Gaara! Kami boy, do you want to give me a heart attack?!" Naruto laughed at his brother, scaring him like that was almost impossible for anyone to do it.

"No, Sasuke made a bet that I couldn't,"

"Uchiha!" Izuku called out to the air. "What can we do for you anyway?"

"You wanted to see if you could replicate my sand control, there isn't really any better time to do it," The greenette contemplated for a moment and nodded. Naruto watched him turn to the door. 

"Oh, Yamanaka, I forgot you were here," The blonde's face fell. "What can we do for you?"

"I was hoping you guys could train me as well? I saw how you guys fought in the forest and,"

"No," Naruto shook his head, his brother nodded in agreement. "Sorry Ino but we can't train you,"

"Why not?" As he went to open his mouth the greenette lifted a hand and took over.

"You only desire to be a ninja to impress Sasuke, you lack any training in jutsu's beside your family technique, your taijutsu is subpar, your athleticism is alright, barely, your accuracy is so bad I'd be more worried for Naruto when you're throwing something at me,"

"H-hey,"

"To put it as bluntly as possible," Izuku held up three fingers, "You are too weak, too slow and too superficial for us to train you,"

"W-w-whatever!"

"That being said, we could use this time to bring you up to levels we can train," He looked over his shoulder, "Right Naruto?"

"Yeah, absolutely, we could whip you into a shape we can build on," Ino seemed overcome with joy and smiled. "That being said there's going to be a few rules,"

"Like what?" The blond shook his head sympathetically.

"Number one, you complain, you're out, any and all complaints will not be tolerated, number two, you stay on point, if you ever flake or try and get out of it we will never train you again, number three this is the worst one," Naruto smirked, "There is no such thing as a break, once you start a training session you do not rest, take a minute or otherwise until the day's session is over,"

"That means you need to stop starving yourself unless you want to die,"

"Huh?"

"You heard us," Naruto folded his arms, "Sakura could you just stand next to her for a second?"

"Uh, sure," The pinkette nodded before walking over to her old/ex-friend. The two stood at an identical height with the same kind of stance and body type. Naruto sighed and shook his head.

"Ino, I'm going to give you a dietary plan, you are to follow it to the letter, I don't care what you think you will follow it understood?"

"Yosh!"

"Good, now go and get some food,"

"What?"

"I'm not training you on an empty stomach, go and eat, and I don't mean a single leaf of spinach or something, I mean actual food, go and eat some ramen with beef or a type of meet, because you're going to need protein, while you're at it eat some bread too, you'll need a lot of carbs,"

"Are you mad? My figure will,"

"Stay exactly the same because we're going to be making you exercise to use the calories you eat, how much do you think I eat a day Yamanaka?" Naruto could feel his brother narrowing his eyes.

"I don't know? Three bowls of ramen a day?"

"Three times more than Choji on his best day, spread over nine or ten meals a day,"

"WHAT?!"

"Muscle mass Ino, I need to maintain and increase it so I put more in to get more out," His head flicked "Let's go Gaara, Naruto it's all you," With that the two flickered away.

"Damn you Izubro," Naruto grumbled as he stared at the empty space his brother had just occupied. A shadow clone appeared beside him. "Ino, you're going to eat and I'm going to make sure you do," The clone walked over to her and grabbed her wrist. "And we won't stop until you're unable to eat anymore," The blonde seemed to stare in dismay before a loud growl was heard. "But don't eat too quickly, got it?" The pinkette stared at the original Naruto. "Now Sakura, we'll start of with some warm up sparring, ready?" He struck a battle pose.

"YOU GOT DUNKED ON BIIISSSHH!" Izuku's voice radiated through the tower. Naruto paused, catching Sakura's ankle as she tried to kick his head. There was no way they were able to do that here. Izuku had only just found a place large enough back in the village, the tower surely didn't.

"WHAT IS DUNKING?!" Gaara's cry of confused frustration consolidated Naruto's concerns. 

"Uh, Naruto, could you uh, let me down please?"

"Hm? Oh, sorry," He realized that during his thought process he'd been holding Sakura up by her ankle. Letting the pinkette drop he grabbed her wrist. "Come on, we're going to investigate that noise," They trudged through the hall ways of the tower and up several flights of stairs. Naruto was following Shukaku's chakra since Izuku was hiding his perfectly after some serious practice. They two arrived in a large sparring hall that had several lines drawn on the floor. On both the left and right walls a single hoop had been attacked by some piping with a flat piece of wood mounted on the back of each hoop. Gaara stood an arm from Shukaku trying to prevent Izuku from passing him. The greenette was bouncing something between his hand and the floor. It looked to be a bomb ball painted the same orange as Naruto's jumpsuit, however it wasn't detonating.

"What are they doing?" Sakura mumbled as they watched Izuku lean out one way, the ball in his far hand before rapidly pulling his arm back and spinning on his heel. His body revolved around Gaara, who had leant towards the ball in an attempt to take it from Izuku. The moment he was behind the redhead Izuku had leapt and lifted the ball over his head. Flicking his hand the orange ball soared up and into the net on the left wall before hitting the floor. Izuku cheered and celebrated while Gaara seemed to cry in confusion, Shukaku's chakra gave off a similar vibe. 

"You can't be serious," Naruto walked over to Gaara and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Go sit down Gaara, I got him," Izuku was bouncing the ball on the floor between his hands.

"Oh so you wanna play?" The greenette gloated, only he, Naruto and Sasuke knew what the game was.

"Basketball?" A game Izuku remembered from his old world, he'd written several of them down in a journal to bring to Konoha over the years they had trained. It had taken ages to find a place suitable for any of them and basketball was the first. They'd managed to find a cheap building and hollowed it out before converting it into an indoor play area, or 'court' as Izuku called it. There were many rules to the game but the boys played with only three. The ball must bounce with every other step, you can't fight your opponent using any form of jutsu or otherwise, and anything inside the half circle around the net was two points, while anything on the outside was three. "Really?"

"What? Chicken?" He caught the basketball which was named after the game instead of the other way around. Izuku smiled, "Come on, it's been a while since we actually had fun training?"

"Oh this won't be training," Naruto shook his head, "It's gonna be a murder," He threw the ball up. "Shadow Clone jutsu!" Six clones appeared to give him a full team. Izuku did the same and now the court was full. The real Naruto caught the ball as it came back down, bouncing it straight away. 

"Playing a game and you didn't invite me? I'm hurt," Sasuke mocked offense as he walked into the middle of the court. "Alright, I've got the timer going, let the match, start!" Naruto opened it up by charging forwards, the ball bounced with each step. As an Izu-clone stepped to block the ball was suddenly thrown to a Naru-clone. The blond team slowly began breaching the defense of the green until Naruto was facing the real Izuku just in front of the net.

"Which way big guy? Which way?" Naruto mocked as he leant both ways, keeping the ball just far enough away from Izuku's reach.

"You can't cross me son," Izuku boasted as Naruto lifted his hands over his head. He jumped. Naruto didn't. The blond dropped his form into a low crouch and ducked around Izuku. Once he had passed his brother, Naruto put all of his power into one leg and jumped up, lifting the ball above his head. The net grew closer and he dropped his hands until his fingers wrapped around the ring and the ball hit the ground. He hung for a second before dropping to the floor.

"Oh yeaahh," Making his voice a joking growl as he drew out the 'yeah'.

"Woooh!" Sakura cheered, Naruto knew she had no idea but she was still being supportive.

"So you wanna handicap?" A clone disappeared, "Sakura, come on over, we'll teach you how to play," The pinkette paused and stared.

"If you have Sakura, I'll take Gaara," Both ninja-in-training walked over to the court. Izuku handed the ball to Gaara as Naruto gave Sakura a brief description of the rules.

"So, we need to stop them getting that ball in our hoop and if we can we'll put it in their hoop over there, we can't use jutsu to trick them or attack them, keep bouncing the ball as much as you move, see the line on the floor?"

"Yeah?"

"We get three points behind it, two points inside of it,"

"Alright, I think I got it,"

"Awesome, let's get going then," Naruto nodded to Sasuke, who was now holding the ball. Izuku and Naruto stood in front of the other as Sasuke stood between them. The ball rose into the air.

"Begin!"

Naruto sat down before leaning backwards to lay down. "I believe that's the game,"

"What are you guys doing?" He looked over to see Ino with his shadow clone leading a group into the hall.

"It's a game, from where Izuku's from, we've got an area set up in the village to play too," The group was composed of the other Konoha 12 and the pair of Sand siblings. "Why are you all here?"

"We heard a lot of yelling and scuffling," Shikamaru shrugged "The noise was troublesome,"

"I was wondering where you two went, I finished eating like an hour ago," The clone was dismissed and Naruto frowned before laughing.

"Yeah I suppose after starving yourself for a while a single bowl is about your limit, don't worry Ino, we'll get you on the up and up by the end of the week and that's a promise,"

"I came to find Uzumaki Izuku," Kankuro held his hands in his pockets.

"Right here, Izuku will do fine,"

"You expressed an interest in puppetry earlier, would you care to learn? Kazekage gave me permission to share the basics,"

"So you're up for some advance taijutsu lessons?" The greenette kept his voice level but Naruto could see from a world away his brother was a kid in a candy store right now.

"Sounds like a fair trade, but you will need to make your own puppet,"

"I've had a shadow clone crafting one while I trained, it should be in the outside training grounds now,"

"You're learning puppetry as well? Aren't the Shadow Paralysis and Mind Transfer enough?" Shikamaru shook his head. Izuku just chuckled.

"Where I'm from, none of you can go, so when I return I'll need to train my own squad, found my own village, not only that I need to be strong enough to fight every threat out there, so I'll learn every jutsu ever and be the Sage of Six Paths of that world,"

"You are something else dope," Sasuke smirked, "Well, since we got time, I wanna practice the Rasendori,"

"And I need to create my own chakra infused Rasengan," Naruto supplemented. "First I gotta control my wind chakra first,"

"NAMIKAZE!" A new voice rocked the air. It was punctuated by the clashing of steel. Naruto looked to his left wide-eyed to see Izuku with a tanto in a reverse grip blocking a sword aimed to take his head from his shoulders. The wielder was a black haired girl their age, dressed in a red garb, missing the right sleeve and very basic flak jacket like the ones chunin and jounin wore. She also wore fishnet tights and a skirt the same red color as her shirt. "Get out of my way," The swords wobbled as she tried to force her way past.  Izuku was silent, a casual movement sent the kunoichi across the room. The ten genin behind them were whispering about Izuku's speed.

"I didn't even see him move," Temari whispered. Sasuke just frowned and looked between the facing opponents.

"Minato Namikaze acted as anyone would in a war, speaking of the Third Ninja World War is over,"

"Minato Namikaze killed platoons of Stone nin, he will go through the pain he inflicted when his son is,"

"Minato Namikaze is dead," That caused a pause. "He died twelve years ago when the kyuubi no kitsune attacked Konohagakure and sealed the nine tails into his only son minutes after he was born," The sword leveled at the group began shaking. "What? Questioning your conviction? Resolve not strong enough to kill someone who suffered as it is?"

"As the,"

"Lord Third forbade anyone from discussing Naruto and anything to do with the circumstances of his birth or his parents, as it stands right now I'm going against everything he's ever told me," There was dead silence. "Honestly if the ANBU heard about it they'd try kill me and everyone else in here for just mentioning it," Everyone except Izuku went pale. "But for now they don't know, since you attacked a shinobi on neutral grounds we could declare war against your village again, do you really wish to do that?" The sword was fully wobbling now. "Could your village survive an onslaught from Konoha? If I am the standard Genin are held to what about the Chunin, Jounin, the ANBU? Naruto has suffered alienation from everyone save for seven people, one of them is dead, the other is a rogue, the other five are in this building, four of which are in this very room," As if on cue Sasuke, Shikamaru and Choji all stepped up beside Naruto. "The information I told you is enough to get you killed if you ever say a syllable of it ever again,"

"And what is to stop me telling the Tsuchikage?"

"Circumstance,"

"What?!"

"Tsuchikage-sama," He mocked, "I learned that Minato Namikaze is dead, how? Well, I uh, I tried to kill this Konoha boy that looked like him," His arm moved in a practiced movement until the tanto was almost upright in his hand. "And then I got my ass kicked by four shinobi that leapt to his aid, kind of causing the very war we're preparing for right now,"

"You would challenge us to war?"

"Challenge you?" In a dramatic show Izuku lifted his foot as if going to take a step. He was in front of the kunoichi before it touched the ground, his fist closing around her neck. "You make it sound like I could stop holding back for once,"

"I am the,"

"I don't care if you Onoki's first born second born or third grand-niece six times removed," Naruto watched his brother flick his wrist and send the girl stumbling, "The great fence-sitter has some level of wisdom, clearly you do not,"

"Even though you are correct," An old voice interrupted "I would appreciate it if you didn't threaten my grand daughter with war, since it is outside of your jurisdiction,"

"Onoki," Naruto knew that voice and he tensed, that voice belonged to,"

"Hiruzen, I would like to make it known my granddaughter's actions do not reflect that of the Stone village, we are quiet enjoying the peace, this was simply children being childish,"

"No Onoki, playing ninja in the park is childish and while I may accept that the actions do not reflect your village, attacking a shinobi on neutral grounds is cause for war, I'm afraid Uzumaki is right,"

"You're goddamn right I'm right, I can't remember a time I was goddamn wrong," Izuku crossed his arms, the tanto had disappeared somehow.

"Izuku that is enough,"

"How and why did you two come here?"

"Kurotsuchi never checked in with her team for lunch, we were worried something had happened to her, since her last sighting was in the building we wanted it searched and since Kurotsuchi is Onoki's granddaughter, we decided to do it ourselves,"

"Fair," He shrugged. "Kurotsuchi, was it?"

"What's it to you?"

"Uzumaki Izuku, just Izuku will do, I'm the blonde's adopted brother," His index finger tapped his neck. "And we've learned a few of Namikaze's jutsu," Naruto's eyes widened as he saw the girl's neck get covered by a black marking. Both Onoki and Grampa Third stared in shock. "For want of a better phrase," She pulled a mirror from nowhere and inspected her neck, only to gasp.

"Tag you're it,"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

"Nothing dangerous, it's a simple technique marker for the Flying Raijin Jutsu, since we aren't at war there is an opportunity to be allies, this is essentially a saving grace for you, focus some chakra into the technique and I can be by your side instantly no matter where in the world I am in relation to you,"

"It is a way to sneak past our borders!"

"No it is a way of me coming to save my allies in times of crisis," Izuku corrected. Naruto coughed into his hand.

"While yes, he does use it to come to a person's aid, he originally marked you for attacking me so that if you were to try and fight us again, he could get to you and send you to any one of his markers before you could even blink, it is a relatively simple jutsu that requires a single hand seal the complexity arrives with the technique marker and the actual moving to the destination, we've studied this jutsu for a long time and the best way to describe it is a summoning jutsu,"

"You summon yourself to your kunai? That seems relatively simple," Onoki gawked. Izuku laughed.

"More like, summon the world to us, you see us appear somewhere, as if we are moving, but to us, it is the world that is moving, which is why it requires such strong chakra, not to mention the technique markers are fuinjutsu based seals that are three cells intrinsically linked to make the larger seal, not only that but you must know which technique marker you wish to move to, which is where the focus comes in," 

"You can't pick a single destination, you won't be in a single destination, you can have an arm over there, a leg over here and your head back where you started," Naruto chimed in. "Even then if you try and chain them together you need to have a strong focus and serious chakra control, otherwise you'll leave bits behind that you kinda need,"

"And how could you ever know all of this?" Kurotsuchi challenged.

"Well it turns out that even if your body is in pieces, it isn't in pieces, the mistake in the jutsu spreads you over space-time but you're still whole if that makes sense, and we found out because a my shadow clone didn't poof out of existence when his leg was the other side on Konoha and his torso was stuck in our apartment, for several hours, in fact he could still remotely control them, it just took a lot of energy," Izuku shrugged "Still he lasted until sunset and was able to fight once we gathered all of his pieces together," He sighed at the kunoichi staring kunai at him. Naruto shook his head.

"Izubro, let it out," Sasuke looked at him in bewilderment. Everyone in the room save for the three dropped to a knee, even the floating Onoki fell to the floor. Naruto felt his ears pop. Sasuke grunted signifying he was suffering something similar. In truth Izuku was letting his primal chakra radiate out to fill the room. The overwhelming pressure had caused everyone to unwillingly drop, Naruto and Sasuke were used to it since Izuku would meditate in his room and the whole apartment would become full of the power. If Naruto was being honest Izuku wasn't letting all of it out, if he did the room would being to fall apart. The ninja around him would all fall flat on the floor and even Sasuke and Naruto would be reduced to a knee. Kurama was wary of the chakra Izuku contained, since it appeared to limitless. As if on cue several ANBU attempted to enter the room.

Key word: Attempted

The moment they came to the door they all froze in place. Naruto just stared. Izuku folded his arms and the pressure began to lift slowly. "Let's make one thing clear here Kurotsuchi, while I am a man that won't use violence unnecessarily, I am also a man you won't want as an enemy," The kunoichi in question stomped over and stood staring him directly in the eye. A comical sight considering Izuku stood almost a full foot taller than her. Naruto came to the realization that he, Sasuke and Izuku were all taller than the ninja around them. Onoki and Gramps Third had shrunk due to age but the others were still at best a few inches shorter than the trio. Kurotsuchi continued to glare into Izuku's eyes angrily, almost challenging him to do something. Izuku looked back with an unreadable gaze before smirking. "Mine are bigger," The challenge was there, everyone saw it, everyone knew it, most already knew the outcome. Kurotsuchi narrowed her eyes into a dangerous glare and frowned. His words had challenged her but everything else, from his posture to the way his eyes seemed to bore through her screamed at her to stand down. Naruto only knew that because the feeling coming from his brother made him want to surrender.

"Are they?" Kurotsuchi growled. Naruto's face fell flat, Sasuke gave him an identical look. They knew Izuku, they knew Izuku's humor, what came next was.

"You wanna see?" Obvious. Kurotsuchi went bright red, Izuku remained cool and calculating. As Onoki and Third opened their mouths to interrupt both Naruto and Sasuke silently indicated to let this keep going. Miraculously the kunoichi composed herself and glared back to him.

"At least buy my dinner first," Absolute silence from the retort, even Izuku would have to-

"Sushi place, avenue by the parks in Konoha," Hold on.

"When?" This wasn't.

"Thursday next week," How was he.

"Alright," This shouldn't.

"It's a date," WHAT?!

"It is," Kurotsuchi turned on her heel and walked out of the room, Naruto looked between the two ninja in pure shock. He nearly went cross-eyed from looking in both directions. It was Kankuro who broke he silence.

"HOW THE FUCK?!" Izuku just turned to Onoki.

"She's strong, I like her,"

"I guessed," The Tsuchikage replied with a blanched face. "I guess peace is coming quicker than we anticipated Hiruzen,"

"I supposed it is Onoki," Third was just as shocked and numb. "I need to find a successor and fast, I'm getting too old for this codswallop,"

"As am I Sarutobi," Both old men pulled out pipes and left the room. There was silence until Kankuro decided to repeat himself.

"HOW THE FUCK?!"

"I can't believe they gave us a month between now and the fights," Naruto laid on the floor throwing a small ball to the ceiling repeatedly. 

"It's to allow us to recover from the week and get into top form," Izuku was practicing against a wooden dummy. It was segmented into three pieces with cylinders poking out of all three to act as arms and legs. Each piece rotated individually. He watched the greenette, knowing some chakra was being sent into the dummy to get it to spin autonomously. He was dressed in regular training gear, a loose top and baggy jogging bottoms. His feet were bare against the stone floor of the room. For a moment the only noise was Izuku's arms and hands thudding into the wood. "It also gives you time to train Sakura and Ino, hopefully they both make it through the preliminaries,"

"Yeah, otherwise I'm not that great a sensei,"

"You gotta be kidding me right? If those girls can last five minutes against their opponents it'll be a major improvement,"

"Unless it's each other,"

"Then it's just a war of attrition, one that Sakura would win,"

"You think?"

"I know, Sakura was slow to improve at the start, Ino won't be but even if she skips through a few stages, Sakura has a head start, to to mention her Strength of a Hundred Seal training inadvertently increases her stamina," He ducked under several arms and lifted his shin while sticking his arms in odd angles to deflect the arms of the segments. Everything reversed and swung back around. "Even if Ino was able to start the same training, she'd have to store fifty percent of her chakra for a few days to catch up to what Sakura has done over the months,"

"Wait, seriously? Couldn't she just put like three quarters in and be done with it?"

"Increasing doesn't exactly work like that Naruto, if you increase a group of fifty people by twenty percent you get sixty people but then the twenty percent becomes twelve people instead of ten, Sakura's been increasing her chakra reserves while storing it away, the five percent she stores today is bigger than the five yesterday and smaller than the five tomorrow, Ino would have to put her body through hell to catch up so quickly,"

"And you already know how to?"

"Of course,"

"So why not tell her? Or offer to help her?"

"Because it is for her to decide and her to listen, so I'll tell her when she decides to listen," Naruto smirked as he looked over to his brother, his arms and hands moving with the ball without thought. Until his wrist flicked and Izuku caught the ball while still practicing with the dummy. "And anyway, I have training to do,"

"Izubro, you gotta take a break at some point,"

"Danzo harvested a clan's worth of Mangekyou Sharingans, implanting them into his right eye and right arm, he almost had Shisui's if Itachi hadn't been close that day, I don't care how many times he uses Inzanami, I will bring him in to pay his dues and get Itachi pardoned, Shisui didn't die for this, and I won't let Itachi die a rogue," The dummy got faster.

"Izuku, you know the three of us,"

"Are going after him but I will be fighting him, I'm the Primal user, I will have the best,"

"Kurama, not to mention Sasuke is an Uchiha, that means he's got the natural power of the Sharingan, the three of us will be able to fight him,"

"And what of me?" Sakura knocked on the door, "I don't know who Danzo is but it he's done something against my teammates then he's got to answer to me too," A small fist pump from the pinkette. "You know that no matter what I'm part of team seven, we're going to find this Danzo and bring him to justice,"

"Justice will be him rotting in a cell, he needs to hurt first," Izuku growled.

"A slumber party without me? You guys really," Sasuke sighed as he entered the room. "Anyway, Izuku, you always remind me to not let the rage lead me,"

"But I never say don't let it motivate you, I've been pushing to beat the warhawk known as Danzo, he's got Sharingans galore and I'll rip each and every one out until he wishes I killed him,"

"Izuku, no," Naruto frowned, aggression wasn't an unnatural display for Izuku but this level, it was new.

"I could barely match Orochimaru, who didn't come close to Danzo, not to mention we'll have to tear our way through ROOT before we get to him,"

"ROOT?"

"A group of highly skilled ANBU that used to work for Konoha, but they don't anymore, they packed up and deserted with Danzo after the Uchiha massacre, we later discovered he was the cause, both of our Sensei's were Uchiha, one was Sasuke older brother, we lost them both due to the massacre,we hate Danzo and ROOT isn't much better than him,"

"Can you keep up with ANBU though?"

"Contrary to popular belief, Orochimaru is stronger than ANBU, honestly at this point, once the exams are over, I'm telling Sarutobi the four of us are going to be ANBU,"

"Telling him?"

"He isn't getting a choice, honestly the three of us could fight through the ANBU if we wanted to, remember we've broken into the Hokage office because we were bored, more than once,"

"But me too?"

"Well we can't leave our team mate behind now can we?" Naruto offered smiling widely. "Plus by the time we're done training you, you'll be ANBU no problem,"

"You're sure?"

"No but whenever Naruto says he's going to do something he has this way of bending reality so it happens, no matter what he says, or what he can do," Sasuke grunted. Sakura giggled again. "One time he said he'd hit a target in the centre with a kunai without looking," He suppressed a laugh.

"He made a thousand shadow clones and they all threw it at once, a creative solution but it looked so stupid," Izuku finished.

"Great, awesome, done mocking me?"

"You should know by now dude, as your best friend and brother respectively, Sasuke and I are never going to stop, just like we do for him and you two do for me,"

"Like the time you blew up your lunch after trying to seal it away?"

"Is that why there was rice in your hair for a week?!" Sakura turned to the greenette who shrugged.

"I still find a grain when I shower every now and then,"

"But it was months ago!"

"I know," He responded darkly, refusing to look anyone in the eye. "I don't like to talk about it," His mumbled response was barely audible. The other three descended into laughter and all began chattering about more light-hearted topics.

"AKAMARU, STOP!" The four all paused and looked for the source of the voice, eventually Sasuke decided to open the door. A small pup decided to charge in and begin smelling Izuku. The greenette seemed to shuffle in surprise and discomfort with Sasuke almost laughing and Sakura giggling quietly. Naruto however, stared at the pup named Akamaru and watched the door.

"Um," The Inuzuka heir charged into the room. "Care to explain why Akamaru is sniffing my thighs?"

"Uh, well," Kiba scratched the back of his head, "It's because he smelt something familiar in your-," Akamaru barked several times. Everyone watched the pup as Kiba shook his head. "There's no way he's what you smelt, he was the other side of the forest,"

"Uh, what?" More barking.

"You can't be sure because I know it's not him Akamaru!" A few growls and several barks. "Even if he was using a shadow clone, why wouldn't it react to us?" A very long growl. 

"What are you on-,"

"He could've easily taken the three of us by making more shadow clones, it wasn't him, even if the chakra scent was similar," Team Seven froze, a similar chakra scent, to Izuku? That meant one very bad thing.

"Wait, Inuzuka, he recognizes a part of my chakra scent?"

"Well, yeah, earlier this morning, we passed by this abandoned campsite," Izuku froze for the briefest of seconds, too quickly for anyone but Naturo who noticed and narrowed his eyes slightly. "And just past that we felt this chakra, it felt really weak, like a forest animal that hadn't eaten for a few weeks," Izuku's knuckles began going white. His hands were hidden under his scuffled clothing, hidden from everyone. Naruto's keen eyes kept scanning his brother for other signs of hidden panic. "But yeah we passed the camp and then Akamaru is adamant he smelled something,"

"Something?"

"Well, like I said it felt like an extremely underfed animal, and like it was trying to hide from everyone, everything, it was so still and afraid," Izuku got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Right well, after that revelation, I'm going to train, if your mutt,"

"OI!"

"Thinks I smell of a weak, dying animal, then I need to clearly improve everything about my abilities," That wasn't true at all. "So if you don't mind, I'm heading to the training rooms," He disappeared silently with the Flying Raijin and Naruto quietly sighed in his mind. A presence like Izuku's wasn't a bad thing, if they had good intentions. The worry lay if the arrival had bad intentions, if they purposefully found whatever gate way Izuku stumbled through and planned an invasion. Naruto knew who his brother would stand with and that comforted him but the fact another like him had found their way into the Ninja world? That can't be a good sign. Sasuke and Sakura also got up while Kiba turned around.

"Leave him, this is something he's got to deal with by himself,"

"How can you say that? He's your brother!"

"Yes but there aren't many like him, in fact up until just now we thought he was the last slash only of his kind, so this is something he needs time to work on,"

Hunger. That was the first thing he knew. As soon as his eyes opened the first time the unavoidable, unmistakable pang of hunger ripped through his being. It took little effort to ignore it. After all he'd gone weeks on only a slice of bread sometimes At this point, hunger, it was a friend to him. But that went for double now since it'd be accompanying him until he found food, since his diversion worked, Deku had no food and barely any drink. Hell he barely knew how to hunt to it looked like he and hunger were in it for the long run together. Then the scent hit his nose and against better judgement, he followed it. Through the small brambles, ignoring the thorns. He curled round tree trunks, under branches, over fallen logs until he found it. A small camp area. For the first time since opening his eyes he took in his surroundings. It was a forest, not much to explain there but it was also the dark of night, meaning he'd slept a whole day. It was probably the most sleep he'd gotten in... Seven? Years. Ever since the disappearance he'd been plagued by night terrors of a twisted mangled body. Deku took the fact he'd slept peacefully as a sign things were improving. The campfire in front of him was crackling but the place seemed abandoned.  Around the fire lay fish, skewered on sticks, even the shelter had been laid out with kit to sleep and a spare change of clothes. Black with dark green highlights, (ironic). Deku found himself smiling. A small not hung from a branch between him and the fire. Facing the way he'd entered. This was odd. Looking behind him found revealed that his route had led him onto a well worn path someone else must've made. Whoever set this up knew he'd be here and would enter from that location. Despite himself, Deku walked over and read the note.

Whoever you are,
Rest. If you found this place under the same circumstances I did you need rest. If you are allergic to the fish there are berries in the shelter, if you are not, eat the fish, it will help you greatly. There is a man on his way to this location, be thankful, he created this space and now I allow you to use it. Below are instructions to perform a basic jutsu that will light the fire if it goes out, below those are instructions to put it out. Focus on your mouth as you perform them. If you can't nice to meet you lady... Go home, you don't belong in this world. If you can perform it, I'll make a shinobi/kunoichi of you yet. Now eat and rest, the way you chakra was described suggests you won't wake up until the night. This is perfect, the fish should be cooked and the berries still fresh. Once the moon reaches the sky above your clearing the man will be there for you, his name is Uchiha, your name won't matter until you reach a place called Konohagakure, with any luck you can shed your old name. Rest well. 

Midorikage

 Several things to unpack. Deku wasn't allergic to fish and honestly he wasn't sure if he liked it or not. Grabbing a stick and looking at it he decided, even if it tasted horrible. Fish was going to be his new favorite food. Hopefully he'd never touch another slice of stale bread again. Second a jutsu? Like Ninjutsu? The illegal martial art? And chakra? Was that a quirk? But he was quirkless, so it couldn't be. Someone had sensed it, so it was probably more like xi or something. A natural life force, like the Tibetan monks once spoke of. Shinobi and kunoichi were ninja so that was simple. Deku glanced at his thin arms and bony legs. Ha! Him a fighter? What a joke. He'd have to wait for this Uchiha man, whoever he was, Deku hoped he was kind, or at least patient. Then the final mystery was Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves? Really? Why would anyone hide a- Oh, that's right, ninja. It was probably like a base more than a village though. It'd be military-like and he'd join as a new recruit. Hopefully they accepted twelve year olds. He chewed at the fish, considering his options. There was no-way he'd go back to the gateway, no chance in hell. He'd get lost if he wondered off too far, even so if this Uchiha was a secret psychopath then,

"You're awake," Shit. "Good," A tall man sat down the other side of the fire. "Kami I thought Izuku was bad,"

"Izuku?!" Deku froze "As in Midoriya Izuku? He's alive?"

"There's no-one with the name Midoriya Izuku in the shinobi world," Hope crashed down as fast as it had risen. "Eat the rest of the fish, we're going to travel for a month or so, then you'll be taken to Konohagakure," Uchiha spoke levelly. "If he told me right, you have a basic fire and water jutsu on that piece of paper, you'd better get to learning the signs or thigns will be much harder in the coming month,"

"What are you going to teach me?"

"Ninjutsu," But that was, "Like how to breath fire and cause floods, or how to create earthquakes and tornadoes in seconds," That's much different. "We'll work on other things but my friend asked me to make sure you were in a good shape to train hard before the month was over and looking at you," Uchiha pursued his lips. "It'll take time but I can also give you a basic for each elemental affinity,"

"How? I can't breath fire I'm,"

"Quirkless?" Uchiha smirked, "I had a boy say the same thing to me many years ago, now he's one of the best fighters Konoha has ever seen, or known, in a very long time, and he's only your age," Deku stared "So for now don't think low of yourself, I'll get you training ready in no time,"

"Yes sir!"

"Firstly let's start off with what I should call you, got any significant names?" Names? He'd known Deku. That clung to him like a weight back home. But now, now he wasn't home. He wasn't Deku. He could start over, go back when he was strong enough and show them what a man could do. All it would take it five words. Five words and he could finally be free of their clutches. He stared the man in the eye and took a deep breath.

"My name is,"