Starting over

#42 Training

Naruto POV

“Well, I think we should go to the Hokage and ask where it would be safe to train, since we don't want to cause any trouble around here.”, Temari said earning a nod from me and Gaara. We went out of the room and into the busy streets of Konoha. Apparently the people really believed the story of me dying after being banished causing them to say that I had to be unlucky to look so much like 'the demon’. Of course no one said these comments directly but I heard them once my back was turned. Temari took my hand smiling at me, trying to push these words out of my mind. I smiled back at her and we walked like that into the Hokage tower. Gaara went up to the receptionist and asked for a short audience with Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After a short wait the receptionist told us that we could now enter the office.

“Hello Gaara, Temari, Naruto.”, the Hokage greeted us while putting away some files. “Hi. We have a few questions.”, I began. “First of all, do you have a training ground that we could use, since we still have a week until the exams start?”, I asked earning a surprised look from the elderly man. “Yes indeed I have one available. It's here, training ground 17.”, Sarutobi said showing the three children the location on a map he had pulled out. I nodded and went on to the next question I had. “You didn't tell the people that Danzo's stories were lies. Why?”, I asked, earning questioning looks from my teammates. “Well, you see, I figured that it would be better for you if they did believe that you died. If they knew that you were still alive there would be demands for me to send out assassination squads to get rid of you. I mean they will know the truth when you get to the final stage of the exams.”, Hiruzen explained. Temari gasped at the mentioning of me being hunted and I took her hand to calm her down. “Yeah, I know. But they will know even more after the exams.”, I said with a wink. Hiruzen smiled knowing that I had begun to learn my parents techniques. “Well we'll be off, we still have to train for the exams after all.”, Gaara said, with a look at me and Temari. The third Hokage nodded and bid us farewell.

We looked around at the training ground the Hokage had assigned us to, the whole place was surrounded by a sense treeline. There were a few dummies on one side of the clearing, on the opposite side was a small lake ok which a few ducks were currently swimming and the rest of the ground was covered in grassy ground with a few trees here and there. “Now what are we going to do?”, Temari asked as we sat down to discuss our training for the week. “Well I think, it would be good to get a look at what we have to improve on so I would say, that today we'll do a sparring match, Naruto and you against me, but with the restriction that Naruto can't use Kurama's powers or the Hiraishin. That way we can get a good grasp on your teamwork and I think that you two will be able to show me my weaknesses.”, Gaara suggested. Temari and I nodded at which Gaara vanished in a cloud of smoke.

“I guess he wants to start immediately.”, Temari noted as we stood up. “Yeah I guess so.”, I said drawing my predator sword and summoning Akira with my free hand. The tiger bowed its head to me and asked why I had summoned her as there seemed to be no enemies in the vicinity. I explained to her shortly about the training and what we were going to do, while Temari readied her fan and scanned our surroundings for her brother.

We were ready when Gaara struck. There was a small wave of sand that hunted Akira around so she couldn't help us defend against Gaara's main attack. Temari swung her fan deflecting the sand that came her way while I was guarding her back. Then Gaara came and threw a few senbon at me, knowing I couldn't just dodge them, since they would then hit Temari in the back. As I blocked them he used this moment to come closer and tried to cut me with another kunai. I blocked it with my sword, and we entered a short power struggle which was ended by Gaara who sent a wave of sand at me which caused me to jump away. Temari meanwhile had pushed chakra into the wave that was following Akira, dispelling it. We regrouped and looked at Gaara who was standing there going through a few hand seals. I could see his eyes and immediately went into a defensive stance. He had apparently already activated his link to shukaku since his left pupil was yellow tinted. After he finished his hand seals his body glared up with a chakra cloak which made me, Temari and Akira back away a bit. Akira growled and in an instant she jumped in front of us blocking the sand wave that rushed towards us. She knew that she would have been defeated so she dispelled herself shooting one last apologizing look at me. I took a step forward, shielding my girlfriend a bit, we had discussed this in advance for the exact situation where Akira would be defeated. Gaara fell for the trap and attacked Temari from behind. Obviously he didn't see that Temari was ready for it as he was surprised to see Temari dismissing his attack with her fan and following it up with a kick to the redhead's face. Gaara was launched back, crashing face first into one of the trees. As he stood up I saw the sand of his sand armor crumbling on his chin. He reached behind his back and pulled out three kunai that he immediately covered with sand. His sand gourd that he used to carry was replaced by a small bag of sand that he always carried on his belt, using the sand to make new sand as soon as he felt danger arise. The sand covered kunai grew larger until they were the since of my sword. Gaara threw them all at once at us, making them go even faster by casting a small window wave. Temari knew her fan would not be any good against these kunai and quickly ducked under two of them before rolling to her left, evading the last projectile that her brother had thrown. I readied my sword, knowing that it's special metal would be strong enough to withstand the impact of the shukaku-enhanced kunai. After Temari had ducked under the first two, I parried one of them with my sword while sidestepping the other one. The third kunai caught me a bit off guard. I managed to jump over it, backflipping to avoid getting my feet impaled. Once I landed I looked at Temari and nodded and we went to attack when Gaara shot his hands up, signaling us to stop the fight. “We have some company.”, he simply stated looking over to the trees near the pond. Temari and I went over to him and readied ourselves, waiting for the people Gaara sensed to show themselves.

“Show yourself, we don't want to play around!”, Temari shouted and as if on cue Gaara let his sand burst out from the ground behind us, forming a wall. That's when there came four blours out of the trees onto the clearing. The first thing that I noticed was the obvious hairstyle of the man that stood in front of the team.

“Kakashi Hatake.”, I said coldly. The one eyed shinobi looked at me surprised. “I see you have left the Anbu and decided to become a sensei. Why do you and your team try to spy on us?”, I asked, causing the jonin's eye to widen even more.