Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I wish I did, because if I had Naruto would have grabbed Zabuza's sword like he did in this story!

WOW! This chapter is almost 3X as long as the others. Enjoy!

Momochi… Naruto!

Chapter 4

Training with Anko was very interesting. She was without a doubt the most energetic kunoichi I had ever encountered. Despite this hyperactivity, she was also one of the most dedicated ninja I'd ever seen, beaten only by Rock Lee and Gai.

Because I trained with my sword on my own, she forced me to fight without it during our sparring matches. I discovered that Orochimaru was a far better taijutsu fighter than I'd suspected, as she fought very well, and gave me tips than she claimed to have been given herself by Orochimaru.

More than that, though, she drilled the most ingenious genjutsu theory I'd ever come across into me.

Flashback

"Normal genjutsu works on a rather brute-force principle, whatever you may have been taught at the Academy," she was explaining. "The basic theory of genjutsu is creating an image scenario in your head, one that must be practiced beforehand, and both creating the image in your opponent's mind and forcing them to believe it to the point that they can smell things that aren't there.

"This method works on an entirely different level."

End Flashback

(Author's Note: I'm still working on this theory myself. Once I finish it, I will repost this story and make any changes necessary.)

Crazy as it was, I began to notice things about the ninja around me that even in my old life I'd never noticed nor thought about before.

I was rapidly beginning to despise most of the rookie nine. Sasuke seemed to be the only one besides me who actually understood what they'd signed up for when they joined the Academy.

Sakura and Ino apparently had joined up entirely for the purpose of pursuing Sasuke. That their jobs would eventually require them to kill, maim, and torture had not even entered their minds.

I had no idea why Shikamaru had joined. Sure, he was focused and smart enough to be a decent shinobi, but he had no drive whatsoever. The same could be said of Choji.

Shino, well, even with my new training regime I couldn't read him at all.

Kiba was loud like "I" had been, and wild as his dog. Maybe that was why he'd joined, so he could get a patrol job and spend more time in the forest and get paid for it?

As for Hinata… she was cute and all, but she was not a shinobi. Not really. I'm glad I had that talk with her.

Flashback

"Oi, Hinata!"

She spun around, red as a cherry. "N-n-naruto-kun… ohaiyo."

She appeared startled, but I'd made no effort to conceal my presence, even stepping harder when I thought she hadn't noticed me. "Hinata, why did you become a ninja? Did you know what you were signing up for?"

She looked away, and her response was so quiet that no one but me would have heard it at this range. "Yes, I knew what I was signing up for." She looked up, blush gone. "As for why… I am my father's heir. I must be a strong ninja, or…"

"Or what?" I pitied her. She was stronger than the series had shown, I thought, but she still was not a shinobi.

"Or he will replace me with my younger sister and transfer me to the branch family."

"Oh, that sucks." She winced. "Sorry, that was insensitive of me. So, how old is your sister?"

"She's seven. (Is this right? Does anyone know?)

Now I winced. To be replaced by a seven-year old… that was rough. "So, how can you stop him from replacing you?"

"I must become strong." Her voice had become hard, obviously repressed anger against her father.

"Well, that's easily fixed, isn't it?" I grinned at her, Naruto's shit-eating fox smile covering my face.

Now she was back to the Hinata I knew. "Eto… how?"

"Well, you know what weak is, right?"

"…hai….?"

"So, what does strong mean?"

"Eto… it means… able to stand and fight when it hurts to move… and to win when you have nothing left… right?"

"Exactly. The weak part of you is the part that goes soft on an enemy. The part that tells you to sit and rest when there is work that must be done. The part that tells you to cry or flinch or scream when injured or frightened. The part that says you have nothing left to give when the battle is not over.

"It's the part that makes you afraid before you've done anything at all, or makes you nervous about telling someone you like them." I winked. Her face dawned with understanding while blushing like a tomato at the same time. "So long as you are able to recognize and ignore this voice of complacency, you will be strong." My spiel completed, I was walking away.

She called out after me. "Naruto-kun… how will I know when I am strong?"

"You will know," I replied without turning, but with warmth in my voice, "when the voice of weakness doesn't speak to you anymore. Now, get training! The Chuunin exam is coming up, and you teacher will probably recommend you. You'll die as you are, so train hard."

End flashback

A bit harsh maybe, but I had to make sure she got the message. Hinata was cute, but she wasn't really my type. Maybe if we weren't ninja… but since we were, I wanted I girl that I could trust to not get herself killed on a mission.

BREAK

All of my Kirigakure work thus far had been to combat the Byakugan. With one month to go, I realized that I hadn't considered the Sharingan in the slightest.

After thinking for two hours about whether or not Sasuke would be able to copy my jutsus, I decided that the possibility was negligible. Kakashi couldn't see through Zabuza's mist, and not only was he more experienced at fighting in general than Sasuke; he also had a higher level of Sharingan than Sasuke and more experience using it. Perhaps Itachi might be able to find me, or even copy the jutsus I do under the mist somehow, but until I had to fight him I had little to worry about from Sasuke.

Except… 'Oh fuck.' Kakashi had already shown in the manga (I haven't seen the anime very far) that he had no problem training Sasuke personally to deal with specific enemies. I didn't know whether Sasuke had asked Kakashi to train him in preparation for his fight with Gaara in the manga though, and right now that would have made all the difference.

If he had asked for help against Gaara, then I had little to worry about for the time being. Sasuke would only have asked for help if he knew he had no chance of training hard enough to beating someone in the given time limit. Even now, he still considered me to be nothing more than a dobe, so I wouldn't have to worry about him training specifically to fight me until the month before the Third Exam.

Still, to be prudent, I began to consider ways of countering the Sharingan directly. I had found out from one of the other jounin sensei's that the Chuunin exam would begin one month from tomorrow, which gave me approximately two months and ten days to prepare to fight Sasuke in the third exam. I had noticed that they hadn't paired any teammates together in the preliminary exam, and I hoped that would continue. Even if not, I might not have much to worry about. I would just have to be certain to make more teams fail the Second Exam if I found out that they could.

At our next training session, I asked Anko about it (we usually met once a week). "Sure, they can, but they usually avoid doing that. Unless a really huge number pass the Second Exam, they program the screen to not choose teammates to fight. They feel that it puts unnecessary strain on the bonds of the teammates. There's almost always a fight between teammates in the Third Exam though."

Well, that settles that. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to make sure some of the other teams fail though.

BREAK

Thus far, my training with the myrmidon was going fairly well. He hadn't upped my weights to Rock Lee level yet, but then again, I was dealing with a ridiculously heavy weapon. That was training in and of itself.

I was out in my practice area, training, when a familiar, and despicable, presence made itself known behind me. I immediately halted my sword practice, and tossed the weapon into a tree, where it stuck. Without missing a beat, I began running through the basic taijutsu kata taught to us in the Academy.

Now, I could have surprised him by calling out to him, but I decided to feed his ego a bit so he wouldn't look "underneath the underneath." So long as I wasn't doing anything he didn't know, any use of the Sharingan would be wasted. Also, I probably needed to brush up on my basic taijutsu anyway. I got sparring practice with Anko, but that was just for experience sake. I needed to focus on it for a while, and since I didn't have a taijutsu style entrusted to me by my family (like Choji and Neji) or a particularly taijutsu-skilled and enthusiastic teacher (like Rock Lee), the basic stuff was all I had to work with.

I noticed I wasn't moving much faster than I had been before I started training like this. I decided that it was a product of wearing 300 kilograms of weight. I was wearing a tank top, but my bracers didn't look like anything special, so Sasuke didn't noticed the strain of my muscles, indicating that I was fighting some heavy resistance. Had Neji or Rock Lee been here, they would have known exactly what to look for, but I had two advantages.

One was that Sasuke simply didn't seem to know what weight training like this could do, so he didn't know what it looked like or what to look for.

The other was Sasuke's arrogance. He had come out here (I was certain) to confirm to himself that I wasn't training hard enough to be much threat to him, and if I was, to copy what I was doing so that he would stay ahead of me. Since he didn't see me doing anything special, he would confirm to himself that I was just a dobe, and that he was superior to me.

This meant he wouldn't question why I had thrown away my sword the moment he got in range. He would just assume that I had gotten fed up with trying to use the thing. Thus far, I hadn't looked in his direction, so when I finally turned enough for him to see my face, I made sure that I was wearing a frustrated expression. His genius mind would make the connection, and he would assume coincidence. This would not have worked on Neji, or Shino, or Shikamaru or any of the other geniuses (or even most regular ninja) I know or have heard of because none of them had a superiority complex anywhere near as bad as Sasuke.

It was funny how being so superior magnified your little weaknesses.

I continued training for about two hours, which is what my old stamina and Naruto's attention span would have allowed. I rested for way too long, cursing loudly about "Sasuke-teme" not beating me, and how I would become Hokage, and then got up and began doing the same thing. Thus far, I had repeated the same kata 87 times, and I had noticed that it was becoming harder to sense Sasuke's presence. It hit me. 'Damn, I'm glad I threw my sword away when I did. He's been using the Sharingan the whole time, making sure I wasn't doing anything he wasn't doing. I wonder how his superiority complex is rationalizing using his dojutsu for this long on a "dobe". Hmm.'

I had wondered for some time how Sasuke had managed to copy Rock Lee's speed for the Third Exam. He never got to see Rock Lee moving at full speed, nor did he get to see him with his Gates unlocked. How could he have possibly copied his entire fighting style and even his speed from that little encounter before the First Exam? It didn't seem possible. Every time Rock Lee had fought after that, Sasuke had been either unconscious or simply not there.

I could understand how speed could be copied. The Sharingan allowed the user to copy even the smallest muscle movements of its target, so it stands to reason that it would be able to copy its intensity. That easily explained why he couldn't move that fast for as long as Lee could, as the human body would require months of conditioning to withstand that level of muscle use.

Which meant it was really good that Sasuke was so far away. His Sharingan wouldn't be able to copy my muscle contraction intensity at this range, since he wouldn't be able to see enough detail. I wondered if he knew that?

But still, how had Lee's entire fighting style been copied? Then, it hit me. He hadn't. Kakashi had.

'That… son of a bitch!' My own sensei had stolen the only valuable skill that someone with nothing had, and had given it to someone with everything. Sasuke might have been able to fight Gaara without it. I don't think Gai would have been angry with Kakashi for stealing Lee's speed for himself. He couldn't have helped it. He'd needed the Sharingan to be able to follow the fight at all from what I'd gathered, and it seemed like the "copy" function couldn't be switched off. Hell, I wouldn't have been angry with Kakashi for that either.

But he'd stolen it and gave it to his prize student. The level of wrong there just couldn't work itself into my conscious. For the life of me I couldn't understand why Gai hadn't killed Kakashi after that display. I would have. If somehow Kakashi, or Sasuke, had been able to steal the Rasengan from Naruto, I was damn sure that Jiraiya would have killed the both of them. And it would have been the right thing to do, considering how wrong that was.

It was different to steal an enemy's technique, because they were trying to kill you. But stealing an entire fighting style from a fellow Leaf ninja, just to help you fight better… it was like raping a comrade. Sure you got your rocks off, but you had to betray a friend to do it.

'Enough. I don't need to think about this anymore. I've made the decision that Kakashi is a complete asshole for doing that, and Sasuke is an arrogant fool. I don't need to let this disrupt my training.'

So I continued with my katas.

BREAK

The month passed by much in that fashion. Every two or three days, Sasuke would come out and watch me, presumably with the Sharingan active, for several hours, and then leave. After the first week, I was able to predict what days he would come out, so I hit upon a strategy.

I created an Advanced Kage Bushin (I had discovered these while working on the Kage Bushin tai Bakuretsu). The only real difference between these clones and the normal shadow clones I made were that they had a complete Inner Coil system, making them virtually indistinguishable from a regular person. I simply added in approximately the same amount of chakra I'd had 4 months ago, added a little more, and sent it to my old training spot.

The first time, I sat there, watching Sasuke as he watched my clone. I was way off to the side, out of his peripheral vision, but his higher senses didn't kick in because I was technically still in sight range. I pulled out a pair of binoculars and aimed them at his face, looking specifically at his eyes. If somehow he'd copied my Kage Bushin technique, his should not be able to use the Sharingan. 'I see… red eyes. I can only see two marks. Can't see the third, but I doubt he has it yet.'

That confirmed that it was really him watching my Kage Bushin. I left, now certain that he'd been fooled by my clone, and found a new spot further up-river to train at. Since chakra was no longer necessary to lift my weapon, I made sure to keep all of my tenketsu closed so I wasn't leaking any chakra.

The end of the month came. We'd just completed a mission, and I was walking away from the meeting place. Up till now, I had been suppressing the lion's share of my chakra so that my "teammates" (I didn't really consider them such) wouldn't notice the difference. If Kakashi noticed, he didn't let on.

In truth, my chakra resolve had nearly quintupled during the last five months.

I turned a corner, and saw a familiar sight. A rather tall boy dressed in black, carrying a bandaged cylindrical object on his back. A rather sexy blond girl, a bit shorter than him but unfortunately taller than me, stood near, a large war fan on her back. Nearby, I could sense a violent presence.

'So, the Sand sends its finest.'

Unperturbed by the strangers, I casually strolled up to the two in the street. "Good day, fellow shinobi of the Sand. What brings you to Konoha? The Chuunin Exam, I presume?"

Now, I wasn't deliberately trying to be charming, but I was trying to be friendly. Eve so, Temari blushed slightly as she answered. 'He's cute!' "Yes, actually. I'm Sabaku no Temari, this is my brother Kankuro. Somewhere around here is my younger brother Gaara."

"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. Is that your brother there in the tree?"

Gaara stepped into view, hanging upside-down from a branch. Temari blanched slightly, obviously terrified of her brother, and said, "Yes, that's Gaara. How did you know he was there?"

Kankuro: 'This guy is really good. Gaara's stealth skills are elite.'

"Well, he did a fair job of concealing his presence. However, youki1 is not so easily disguised."

Both of them paled, and Gaara twitched before disappearing in a flash of sand and joining us in the street. His eyebrow raised. "You can sense youki? There are few enough ninja who even know of it."

"Well, let's just say you and I seem to have something in common, container of the Sabaku no Shukaku."

Now they looked scared, and somehow impressed also. "As I was saying, do you need help?"

Temari recovered quickly. "Actually, since Kankuro lost the map, we've been trying without success to find the hotel we were going to stay at."

"Oh? Which hotel is that"

"The Desert Oasis."

"Oh, I'm sorry, they closed down about five months ago."

Temari looked worried. She turned to Kankuro. "Now where the hell are we going to stay?" she demanded.

"How the fuck am I supposed to know, you idiot! I don't live here!"

"Please, if I may?" They both nodded, glaring at each other. "I have some extra room in my apartment, and I have guests so rarely. Perhaps you could stay with me?"

Temari, ever polite when shown politeness, answered, "We wouldn't want to impose," but she looked hopeful.

"I never have guests, and there's so much room I don't use it makes no difference."

BREAK

The three agreed, but Temari insisted on repaying me somehow. So I suggested a date. Face redder than a desert sunset, she agreed.

Sometime ago, I noticed that no one else lived in the same apartment building as me. I talked to the landlord, and it turned out that no one wanted to share a building with me. So, I offered to buy the land and building from him. Since no one else wanted it (the Hokage had forbidden evicting me), he was steadily losing money paying for the utilities for a building this size and taxes. He wanted it off his hands more than he wanted a good price.

I got the whole building for 900 ryo (about 90$, this was cheap but not dirt cheap for their universe, adjusted for inflation this was about $3000).

I'd spent much of my free time fixing up the building with help from my Kage Bushins, to the point where I was sending an advanced Kage Bushin on missions instead of coming myself. It was a four-story building, and after being fixed up (instead of buying new parts, I simply scrounged them up or made them) I was able to rent out the bottom floor.

All told, I spent about 1200 ryo buying and fixing it up, and after collecting the first month's rent (I had to have it cheap or no one would room with the "demon"), I'd made back half of what I'd bought it for. I'd made the top floor my living space, and the third floor was just storage. Since I didn't need hired help (the previous owner couldn't afford it since I was the only renter) I saved a lot of money, and after two months I'd made back the full 1200 ryo (less taxes and expenses).

Now in the third month, more of the rooms filled up, and I raised the rent. There were 30 rooms to a floor, and I'd been charging only 20 ryo a month (adjusted for inflation, about $70 a month); after I raised that to 60 ryo per month, I was seeing a genuine profit margin.

Since I had extra room, and they were my guests, I didn't charge the Sand Trio.

END CHAPTER

Author's Notes: Wow. I can't believe it took me this long to write this chapter. For those of you looking for action, I'm going to try to get all the way to the preliminaries next chapter. Well, this is nearly 3X as long as the previous chapters.

I've also been working on my (finally) newly titled story "True Survivor in an Undead World", and that's part of the reason why I was so late releasing this.

So, Naruto is a businessman! The fact that he is taking in a fair profit line will matter later on in the story, as I plan to have him build his own Clan manor later on, and since land in central Konoha is just as much of a premium as in normal cities, this won't be cheap.

As you can tell, I'm not a big fan of Sasuke. There won't be senseless Sasuke-bashing, but I will make sure Naruto kicks his ass during the Third Exam I want to make it good though, and think everything through, so it won't be just a beat down.

Some people have asked about the Kage Bushins. Yes, a normal Kage Bushin does have an Inner Coil system. Yes, they can use jutsu. However, the Inner Coil system of a normal Kage Bushin is incomplete, meaning it cannot sustain itself. Kage Bushins slowly drain chakra (or at least they do in my story) the longer they are active. These Advanced ones do not consume additional chakra, as they have a limited ability to refill their own reserves. One can even sever the link between a Kage Bushin and its creator completely and the clone will be self-sustaining for a limited amount of time (no more than two hours by my story). However, they cannot refill it past the point of their original chakra endowment (that is, however much Naruto gives them when he creates them, that's their maximum).

Also, not all of the chakra, expended after a Kage Bushin is destroyed, is returned with a normal Kage Bushin. Almost all of it returns with these. As a final note, the Sharingan is able to distinguish a Bushin or Kage Bushin from a normal human, seen in the manga during the fight with the Rain-nins in the Second Exam. However, because the Inner Coil system of the Advanced Kage Bushin is complete, it cannot tell.

I noticed that some people complained about the lack of fighting. Well, training is important, too. Simply saying that Naruto trained very hard for five months is pointless, and it detracts from a rich story. There will continue to be flashbacks, but chapters where the main focus is training have officially ended.

Also, as for why the Sand Trio came along so easily, one it's free, and two, they are expecting something nasty from me, so better that they are close so that they can see it coming.