Starting over

#6 Strength

Naruto POV

"How are you so fast?", asked Temari panting as she fell to the ground exhausted. "I could ask you the same thing, i mean you are not allowed to go to the academy yet and still you know ninjutsu and are a damn good taijutsu fighter.", I retaliated, while sitting down, panting slightly myself. "Well, I asked first, so go ahead, tell me.", the girl demanded while sitting up. "Well, as I have told you, I tried to avoid contact with villagers back in Konoha, but whenever I failed to do so, they would chase me down and then release their pent up hatred on me, so I had to outrun them and therefore I had to become fast.", I told her, while piling up a bit of sand to lean against. "So, why is it that you know ninjutsu without going to the academy?", I asked. "Well, first of all, you can't possibly know my age, so you don't know if I would be in the academy or not, but if you want to know, I'm nine. Secondly, my father had me and my brothers trained so that we could defend ourselves against any possible attacks.", she said eyeing me suspiciously. "Well, I had my suspicions that you were younger than ten, so thank you for confirming my thoughts.", I smiled at her, concealing the fact that I knew she was three years older than Gaara, who was my age. "Then you are going to enroll in the academy next year." ,I stated. "Yeah, I am. But honestly I would say that you should enroll along with the three of us, since you are at least at our level and Kankuro, Gaara and I will enroll into the academy together next year.", she told me, while sitting next to me and leaning against the little dune I had created. "That would be great, I have to talk to Rasa about that.", I said, more to myself than to the blonde. "Well we have training scheduled tomorrow, if you want, you can come with us, I'm sure that Baki won't mind.", Temari offered while standing up and stretching. "Yeah maybe, I'll see.", I replied smiling, wondering what the young girl was doing. "Well, you up for another round? This time you will attack and I will dodge.", she said while walking a few feet away from me. "If I have to.", I said jokingly taking a few Kunai that were lying around from Temari's earlier attempts of hitting me. I positioned myself around ten feet apart from her, raising two kunai. Temari smiled at me as she into a defensive stance and got ready to dodge anything I could throw at her. I grinned at her, throwing the first two Kunai at her, which she dodged with ease. Although she had more problems with the pair of Kunai that were coming right after the first two she managed to dodge them too. I picked up a few of the shuriken that were laying around and threw them with as much speed i could and I saw Temari's eyes widen slightly as she had to substitute herself with an nearby cactus. The shuriken whizzed through the cloud of smoke as soon as it popped up. Temari stood around twelve feet to the right of me, panting slightly. I decide to switch to Taijutsu, because I didn't want to pick up any more shuriken or kunai. I launched a kick aimed at Temari's legs but she avoided it by jumping back a bit. I grinned at her and quickly overwhelmed her with a fury of punches and kicks after which I had her pinned to the ground. She was panting as she got up after admitting her defeat. "What the fuck is wrong with you? How can you be that strong?", Temari asked confused. I sat down, leaning once again against the little sand dune. "Well I had nothing to do the last few years besides hiding and training so yeah.", I smiled sheepishly while scratching the back of my head. She nodded understanding, obviously not wanting to delve further into my past. "So, what do you think of your new clothes?", she quickly changed the subject. "I like them, they don't restrict me while fighting, while still being elegant enough to be worn for special occasions. And I can always add a few attachments like senbon-holders or scroll-pouches.", I said. "Yeah, I knew you would like them", she stated smiling.

As the sun began sinking below the horizon, we stopped chatting and went to have dinner with Kankuro and Gaara. Stepping inside of the house, our eyes widened and Temari took two steps backwards. In front of us , on the couch , lay Gaara sleeping. Temari's eyes darted around his sleeping form. "Get away from him, he loses control whenever he falls asleep!", she stated , trying to pull me away from her brother. "It's fine, Shukaku won't get control that easily. After all his seal was fixed yesterday. ", I said , while shaking off Temari and heading over to the sleeping redhead. Temari watched closely as I took his blanket, which he had thrown of the couch and put it back on top of him. I smiled at Temari and walked past her to the door. Well, thank you for being with me today, I guess we'll meet tomorrow for training.", I said smiling while opening the door. "Where do you think you're going?", the blonde girl asked, as I was stepping out of the house. "I'm going to find a place to sleep for tonight.", I answered while scratching the back of my head. "Nonsense, you're going to stay in our guests bedroom, after all I said that you'll be staying with us until you can provide for yourself.", came a voice from behind me. I turned around and looked irritated and surprised at the Kazekage. "I don't want to trouble you anymore, I mean you already did grant me a citizenship and payed for my new clothes. I don't want to be a burden.", I whispered while looking at the ground. "I'm not going to let a child be without a home. Go on, you'll be living here for now. Your room will be right next to Kankuro's and across from Temari's. Now, let's get to bed, after all you'll be joining my children for training tomorrow.", Rasa said while pushing me back into the house.