Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Juniper ❯ Training II ( Chapter 6 )

Agent's Spiel: A double dose this time. The next chapter (really just the third part of this chapter) will be up some time tonight.

Naruto will be using alternate means of communication:

Single quotation marks `' will be used to represent sign language.

Back slashes / will denote Naruto writing what he is saying.

Italics mean you are reading the characters thoughts; congratulations on becoming telepathic.

Of course in order to confuse all of you more, anything in bold is writing that isn't Naruto's. This'll probably be the only chapter I'll use this one in; if it comes up again I'll give you fair warning.

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Training

- Day 1 -

Sasuke woke up with a pounding headache and cursed Kakashi. He looked around and spotted Naruto and Sakura off to his right. He wasn't surprised when he checked for his weapons only to see that Kakashi hadn't returned them before dumping the three Genin wherever they were. Sasuke stood up and stretched, looking around before doing a double take. He took in a deep breath as he realized what he was seeing; he released the breath and walked over to his teammates, roughly shaking them awake.

Naruto shot up and looked at Sasuke frantically before his jaw dropped. “I don't know where we are,” Sasuke told him.

“There's sand in my hair,” Sakura growled, looking to her teammates for answers. “What did that stupid sensei do to us?”

`He drugged us,' Naruto signed, but neither Sakura nor Sasuke understood the signs. Naruto glared at the two before his face brightened slightly. He walked forward down the beach towards the wetter sand and wrote /drugged/.

Sakura saw what he was doing and walked forward to see what he had written. “He drugged us,” Sakura repeated, making sure she had understood Naruto.

“It must have been in the water. He took all of our weapons as well,” Sasuke told her.

Naruto shook his head frantically and pointed at a small pile of objects at the edge of the tree line about ten meters behind them. Sasuke turned around to look at what Naruto had seen and walked towards it while Sakura and Naruto followed. The three knelt down to inspect Kakashi's generous parting gift of three kunai, four scrolls, and three wristbands. Sakura scowled and picked up the kunai handing one each to Naruto and Sasuke before tucking her own into the waistband of her shorts. She glared at the scroll on the top of the pile; that man has a sick sense of humor, she thought as she read the bold note. Read This First! was printed on the outside of the scroll next to what she assumed was Kakashi's version of a smiley face.

“Might as well do what it says,” Sasuke muttered.

Sakura reached forward and picked it up slowly unrolling it.

Sakura,

Since I'm sure you're the one reading this, I'd like you to relay several bits of information to Naruto and Sasuke.

First: the island you are stranded on is one kilometer from shore. Do not attempt the swim as there are very vicious fish inhabiting the water surrounding you. The good news is that all of these fish are edible and a wonderful source of protein.

Second: the wristbands are to be worn at all times while the three of you are on the island. I will know if you take them off, and you will not like what happens if you do. They are for your safety as well because they will alert me if you die.

Third: the other three scrolls contain the following:

Further instruction in sign language for all three of you.

Training instructions for the three of you to follow during your stay on the island.

A surprise! Do not open this one for another two weeks. I would recommend finding a way to keep track of time, because if you open that scroll too early I'll know, and I won't be happy.

Last: have fun!

Sakura glared at the scroll before dropping it and picking up the third scroll, marked Instructions, and opening it as well. While she did that, Naruto leaned forward and snatched up the three wristbands. He slipped one of them on his arm and handed the others to Sasuke and Sakura to do the same. Sasuke sneered at the band and placed it reluctantly around his own wrist.

“I hate him,” Sakura stated, staring at the scroll in horror and then glancing to the wristband she had just slipped on. She tossed the scroll to Sasuke and began clawing at the wristband trying to pull it off. That pervert! Telling us we couldn't take these things off was pointless if they were designed to suck up all our chakra and use that as glue so they can't be removed.

“Let me get this straight, these things bind our chakra so that we can't use jutsu while we're here,” Sasuke stated.

“Apparently all of our training while we're on the island is taijutsu,” Sakura agreed, looking back over at the scroll. “We're supposed to spar each other everyday, combined with laps and other exercises. I can't believe he wants us to run around this whole island so many times,” she muttered.

Naruto glanced up at the sky and noticed that it was getting late in the afternoon. He startled Sakura and Sasuke when he tapped them on the shoulder, but once he had their attention he signed, `What next?'

Sakura looked at him blankly, and his inquisitive look turned to a scowl. He couldn't understand how they still couldn't understand something that he knew Iruka had taught them. He jabbed his finger at the sun's position hoping they would figure out what was going on on their own. “It's getting late; we should make sure we're prepared for the night,” Sasuke stated.

“Right, we'll need a fire, and food, and some type of shelter for at least tonight. We can work on something more permanent tomorrow. For tonight at least we should probably stay out here. Tomorrow or the day after we'll explore the island more fully, but we shouldn't wander into it. Right, Sasuke-kun?” Sakura said.

Sasuke scowled at her change in demeanor but nodded in agreement. “One of us should look for food while the others get firewood and see if there's anything that can be used for a temporary shelter,” he added. “The main problem will be starting the fire. With our jutsu disabled we'll have to start it by hand, but we don't have any matches, flint or other tools,” Sasuke drifted off when Naruto tugged on his sleeve. The blond pointed to his kunai and held out his hand expectantly.

“Naruto, you already have one kunai, you don't need more than that,” Sakura chided.

`Let me borrow your kunai and I'll see if Pervert was telling the truth about the fish,' Naruto signed in explanation.

“All I caught in that was `kunai' and `Pervert',” Sasuke told him.

Naruto turned to Sakura hopefully but she looked just as lost as Sasuke. “I recognized `borrow' as well, but we already knew that you were asking for the kunai,” she told him.

Naruto pouted pitifully as he tried to come up with another way to explain. He finally reached down for the scroll and pointed to the section where Kakashi mentioned the vicious yet edible fish and then back at the kunai. `I need more than one,' he claimed, hoping they would understand.

“You're going to try and get some fish? So you want more than one kunai to use?” Sakura asked, hoping she had understood what he was trying to tell them. He nodded and Sakura let out a sigh of relief. “There's no harm in trying, but if they're vicious enough to keep us on the island then I don't know how you're going to catch any,” she told him. “Sasuke and I will see if there's anything in the interior; we'll be back in thirty minutes. Don't leave the beach,” she added as she and Sasuke handed him their kunai and walked off along the edge of the tree line.

When they came back about half an hour later, Naruto was sitting impatiently next to the scrolls. Three fish were speared on the kunai waiting to be cooked. “There wasn't anything that would really be useful in making a shelter, at least not anything that we could throw together before the sun sets tonight. We might find something tomorrow if we go farther in,” Sakura told him as Sasuke set up about arranging the wood for a fire. He handed Naruto three thinner sticks to put the fish on before turning back to the wood and trying to figure out how to light the fire.

Naruto rolled his eyes and handed the sticks to Sakura. He removed the fish from the kunai and handed them to her as well. She looked at him in confusion but shrugged it off and took them. While Sakura prepared the fish for roasting, Naruto took off his jacket and turned it inside out. He caught Sasuke's attention as he began feeling around for something in the lining. When he had found what he was looking for he undid some of the stitches in the hem and reached inside the lining, before drawing out what looked like several matches, but the sticks were flimsy, which explained how they had stayed inside Naruto's coat and never broken or shown through.

Naruto walked to the edge of the beach and disappeared for a moment before coming back with a handful of grass and leaves. He placed the smaller kindling underneath the wood Sasuke had organized and struck the match on the bottom of his boot. He carefully guarded the flame as he led it to the kindling. Once that was lit, he walked back to the woods and grabbed more so that they could keep the fire going until the larger pieces lit. Once he had made the second trip, Sakura and Sasuke had caught on and they joined him at the edge of the tree line picking up dried kindling.

Once they had gathered a good amount, Sakura sat down by the small fire and continued feeding it as the larger pieces began to catch. “I doubt it was your own idea to sew matches into your jacket,” Sasuke stated, too proud to actually ask for the information he wanted to know.

Naruto glared at him but answered anyways, `Sensei did it.'

“We'll need more wood to last through the night. I'll stay here and make sure this lights properly and start the fish, but you two should find more. Make sure you don't go too far from the beach,” Sakura told them.

Naruto grinned and nodded to her before following Sasuke back away from the beach. They had made several more trips and Sakura promised that if they made one more, the fish would be ready. Naruto happily walked away and Sasuke followed rolling his eyes. The dark haired boy walked back onto the beach several minutes later and added his load to the large pile for the night.

As he sat down on the other side of the fire, Sakura handed a fish to Sasuke and the two waited silently for their third member to come back. A moment later a crashing noise came from the trees behind them. Naruto broke away from the tree line and rushed towards them, repeatedly looking back at the woods he had just exited. He dropped onto the ground next to them and began frantically signing the same thing over and over again.

Sakura watched his behavior with growing alarm and finally pulled him over to the wet sand on the beach and told him to write it. /Monster/ Naruto wrote, glancing back towards the forest in alarm. “What do you mean?” Sakura asked.

He held up his kunai and showed her the trail of blood along one edge. “What did you do, trip and cut yourself on it?” Sasuke asked wryly, walking up close enough to see the blood. Naruto frantically shook his head and pointed at the message he had written for Sakura.

“Did you kill something out there?” Sakura asked.

Naruto shook his head again. `I was attacked. It was huge, but I managed to hit its arm and it went away,' he told them.

Sakura watched intently and was happy that she could understand most of what he had said. “If it went away then it probably won't pursue you out here. You might have treaded on some animal's territory out there, so we'll be careful to avoid it tomorrow,” she claimed.

Naruto gaped at her and watched in confusion as Sasuke and Sakura walked back to the fire and the food they had left there. “Come on Naruto, eat,” Sakura called to him. Naruto glanced warily at the tree line and cautiously walked over to join them. He refused to sit with his back to the trees and shot the darkening area frantic glances every few minutes.

That night they slept huddled around the fire. At Naruto's insistence, which took him nearly half an hour to get across to Sasuke and Sakura, they kept a guard awake at all times. When Sakura was woken to take her shift at what was probably close to four or five, she grumbled and occasionally sent glares at Naruto's sleeping form. She stopped glaring when she realized that even asleep he didn't look like he was getting much more rest than her. In fact, if the coughing meant anything, Sakura was fairly sure that Naruto was getting sick. Maybe he didn't dry off fast enough when he was finished fishing earlier, she thought shrugging and turning back to put a bit more wood on the fire.

 

- Day 2 -

An hour later, the sky was beginning to grow light and Sakura was beginning to nod off. A loud popping noise shook her from her doze; Sakura jumped but quickly realized it was just the fire and was settling back in when she heard a sharp crack from her left. She spun around and tried to see inside the woods. Her breath hitched when she saw a large shadow dart through the trees and she stood up pulling out a kunai while taking a step closer to Sasuke. Naruto had begun coughing again behind her and she winced as a particularly harsh one escaped his lips. She glanced along the edge of the trees for as far as she could see, but there were no more signs of whatever had alerted her.

Sakura didn't notice that Naruto's coughing had stopped and was taken completely by surprise when the blond boy tapped her on the shoulder. `What is it?' he asked.

She blinked at him for a moment before shaking her head. She glanced back at the woods once and shrugged it off. This is all Kakashi-sensei's fault. He has me so stressed out that I'm seeing things, she fumed setting a few more sticks on the fire. She turned back to see Naruto watching her in confusion. He finally moved his hands and a sign that Sakura recognized from earlier. “No I didn't see your monster,” she told him exasperatedly.

Naruto looked at her suspiciously for a moment before sighing. `I'll go get some food,' he told her. At least she assumed that's what he was telling her; she really needed to spend sometime with that scroll on sign language that Kakashi had left them. Maybe she and Sasuke would learn quicker if they didn't allow each other to speak while they were on the island or something like that.

“Just make sure to dry yourself off quickly this time. I think you might be getting sick and it won't help us if you're sick while we're here,” she warned him. Naruto shot her a bemused look but shrugged it off. He started towards Sasuke to wake the other boy up but Sakura intercepted him. “Let Sasuke-kun sleep; he was up most of the night keeping watch at your insistence,” she told him. Naruto scowled at her and looked like he wanted to protest. Sakura wasn't sure if he didn't because her glare scared him or if he thought it was futile because she wouldn't be able to understand him anyway.

She watched as he shuffled away, kicking up a great deal of sand as he went. He shrugged off the majority of his clothing and Sakura blinked in shock. She raised her hand to brush through her hair and realized that her forehead protector was gone. That's why I never saw them before, she realized, he wore his forehead protector around his neck. She shuddered slightly and turned away quickly; she was used to seeing scars on older shinobi and even some of her friends bore inconsequential scars from training accidents. But it was more than obvious that Naruto's didn't come from any sort of accident, they also weren't exactly what one would call inconsequential.

Naruto returned fifteen minutes later with three fish just like the night before. His jacket and shirt were back in place and Sakura had to admit that she was relieved when she noticed the scars were mainly hidden. Naruto handed Sakura the fish and while she was busy he snuck over to annoy Sasuke. He grabbed one of the sticks near the fire and reached over to poke the other boy. Sasuke reached out and grabbed the stick from him before it could hit and Naruto pointed at him and opened his mouth to yell accusingly.

Sasuke raised an eyebrow condescendingly as Naruto continued to flounder about wordlessly. The blond finally came to rest several feet from Sasuke and plopped down. He crossed his arms and turned away pouting and refusing to look at either of his teammates. Sakura glanced over when she realized that Sasuke was sitting up and turned to Naruto angrily. “Didn't I say not to wake him up,” she accused.

Naruto turned to gape at her and frantically signed what she was sure was an excuse, but she didn't catch any of what he said. At least this time I don't have to feel bad about not understanding him; he's so flustered that I'm pretty sure he's messing up on his own. She rolled her eyes at him and went back to turning the fish over the fire. “This'll take a bit longer,” she told them after she had gotten sick of the stifling silence that had descended upon them. “Why don't the two of you spar and get that out of the way. The earlier we finish the exercises he set out for us the faster we'll be able to search the island.”

Naruto turned to glare at Sasuke but the dark haired boy simply ignored him and stood up. Sasuke moved farther down the beach and waited stoically for Naruto to join him. “Hurry up, dobe,” Sasuke called out as Naruto sluggishly made his way over. Naruto glared at him but continued at his slow pace. “At this point sparring with Sakura would be better than this,” Sasuke said disdainfully. Naruto stopped about five feet away and then lunged at the other boy, snarling.

Sakura rolled her eyes as their sparring match turned into a wrestling competition. She sincerely hoped that Kakashi wasn't watching this because she wasn't sure if he'd count what they were doing as “constructively working on their combat skills”.

Sasuke cursed and recoiled when Naruto's harmless grappling turned into a fist full of sand in his eyes. Naruto used his moment of blindness to land a punch to Sasuke's right eye. Sasuke lashed out in return and, still blind, tackled Naruto to the ground where they resumed their grappling. However, Naruto maintained an advantage because Sasuke couldn't stop to rub his eyes and the sand continued to cause irritation which created blind spots. Naruto landed five more hits that Sasuke knew were going to leave nasty bruises and he wasn't sure if he had managed to return the favor with any significant blows.

Sakura finally broke up their “spar” and told them to come eat. Naruto immediately made his way over to her and sat down, gratefully accepting the fish she handed him. He began eating smugly as Sasuke limped over to them. Sasuke couldn't quite remember when Naruto had landed a kick on his knee but it hurt like hell.

After eating, Sakura suggested that they run the laps Kakashi had told them to, so that they could get a feel for the size of the island. After that they could complete the sparring and explore the island a bit more in hopes of finding a spot for a more permanent camp. Without reason to argue, both boys agreed and they took off. The island itself couldn't be more than a kilometer and a half in circumference and they had seen at least two streams that seemed to cross through the island in an X-shape. They passed their camp for the fourth time and prepared to finish their last lap when Naruto stopped and added more wood to the dying fire, before allowing them to move on.

They returned to find that someone had put the fire out, with water judging by the wet sand surrounding the messy ashes that were all that was left of their fire. “Do you still have a match or two left?” Sakura asked, turning to Naruto.

He nodded and pulled several matches out of his pocket to show her. “Hold on to those no matter what,” she instructed him. “Let's hurry up and finish the rest of the stuff Kakashi-sensei wanted us to do and then we'll move inward. Naruto, while Sasuke and I spar catch as many fish as you can. We'll take them with us,” she added. “Then while you and I are sparring, Sasuke can collect more wood to take with us. That way we won't have to spend time looking for it later.”

Naruto nodded and they all went their own way. Within an hour they were ready to move out and Sakura suggested that they follow one of the streams so that they wouldn't have to worry about coming to the beach as often. They had been walking for a while when Sasuke stopped short. Sakura and Naruto quickly moved up to his side, but he simply pointed down at the damp mud they were walking through.

Sakura moved in front of the two boys and bent down to inspect the footprint that Sasuke had found. Naruto curiously leaned down next to her and tried to size up the print by comparing it to his own foot. The footprint was at least three times as large as his own foot and it hadn't been made by anything human, unless that human had been born with only four toes, and what looked like a claw in the back. “Why is this the only one in the area?” Sakura asked aloud.

Naruto pantomimed walking and then stretched his arms as wide as he could, but Sakura and Sasuke looked at him dumbly. “I know that wasn't actual sign language and I have no clue what you were trying to tell us,” Sakura told him. Naruto's proud smile quickly turned into a scowl and he turned away from his teammates for a moment before quickly turning back. He knelt down and splashed some of the water from the stream onto the mud and then wrote /long stride/ before pointing to a second foot print in the middle of the stream.

“Actually, you could have signed that and both of us would have understood it,” Sakura told him a bit apologetically. Naruto glared at Sasuke, despite the fact that he hadn't been the one to say it, and jabbed his finger again at the second print in the stream.

“Whatever this was passed here heading towards the beach,” Sasuke stated. “And this doesn't look that old. We should be careful until we figure out just what's on the island.”

`It's a monster,' Naruto told them as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Sasuke scoffed at him but Sakura wasn't so inclined to ignore his claims anymore.

She glanced around at their surroundings and sighed. “We should keep going,” she told them. About an hour later they found an area that Sasuke and Sakura thought would suit their needs. It wasn't too far from the small streams, so they would have water nearby and they'd be able to make it back to the beach easily. “First things first, let's rebuild the fire. I don't really see what we'd manage to do for shelter; hopefully the trees will provide some if it rains,” she told them, placing the scrolls on the ground.

They quickly went about gathering enough kindling and setting up the fire. When it was set up properly, Naruto pulled out a match and lit it. With almost extreme care, he slowly moved the match to light the kindling, making sure that a stray breeze didn't come along and extinguish it. When the kindling was lit, and Naruto was occupied with slowly adding more to it, Sakura turned to examine their supplies. It won't kill us to eat fish for a while, but we really have no clue how long Kakashi-sensei intends to leave us here. It would probably be best if we take time over the next few days to see if there are any other animals or edible plants on the island. Gathering wood in general won't be a problem, but if it rains we'll need something to put over the fire to guard it and it could make it difficult to find dry wood. So we should make sure we always have more than a day's supply of wood and find a way to cover it with something to keep it relatively dry, Sakura thought, trying to remember everything she had learned from Iruka about survival.

Her train of thought was lost when she heard a branch snap off to her left. Any doubts about Naruto's monster were driven from Sakura and Sasuke's minds as they saw what was crouching on a tree branch at the edge of their clearing. “Whatever you do, don't let it put the fire out,” Sasuke whispered, moving his kunai in front of him defensively. Naruto slowly placed the remaining matches securely in his pocket and pulled out his kunai. Sakura took out her kunai and inched towards the fire, checking to make sure the small fire was okay as she did so.

The creature in the tree watched them curiously for a moment before dropping to the ground. Sasuke and Sakura stood up, but Naruto remained crouched next to the fire. The thing was a lot easier to see in the afternoon sunlight. It had to be close to eight feet tall, and its shoulders were at least as wide as he was tall. Just like the footprints they had found suggested, the creature had four toes on the front of the foot and an odd talon like digit on the back.

It had brown leathery hide and sparse but coarse looking patches of fur or hair on its body. Its neck was elongated and had a small ridge of even coarser looking hair along it that trailed down the back. The head was like no animal Naruto had ever seen. It was small and circular in shape with two huge bulging eyes, and Naruto could only hope that that meant the brain inside of it was small and stupid. The mouth was a thin line, but Naruto could see the ridges of sharp teeth protruding from the top jaw.

The four had sat there staring at each other for what seemed like several minutes when all of a sudden the creature lunged towards Sakura. She hopped out of the way; surprisingly enough, it followed her. Sakura dodged again as the creature swung one of its clawed hands towards her head.

Its feet kicked up dust as it ran forwards and Naruto's eyes widened when he realized the dirt was causing the fire to splutter. He quickly set more grass and leaves hoping to keep it going until the larger wood caught. Naruto glanced at Sasuke and saw him preparing to dash towards the monster. He stood up as Sasuke took off and jumped towards Sakura, who had been struggling to dodge all of the creature's attacks.

Sasuke stabbed forward with his kunai, hoping to drive the beast backwards. He succeeded somewhat, but after a moment of avoiding Sasuke's attacks, it merely jumped over him and towards Naruto and Sakura. Sakura screamed and moved away but Naruto stood his ground and struck forward with his kunai. He missed the hit and had to duck in between the thing's legs. While behind it, he jumped up attempting to land a kick on the back of its head. The large creature spun around and batted Naruto away while he was still in mid air.

Naruto hit the ground with a thud and skidded backwards straight through the small fire and into one of the trees. He sat up and rushed back over to where the fire had been, once he was sure that Sasuke and Sakura were keeping the creature busy. He focused on gathering up as much of it as he could; Naruto was happy to find that some of the smaller pieces hadn't actually been extinguished, so he put them together and added some more allowing it to quickly rekindle.

Sticking his burnt thumb into his mouth he stood up and saw that the beast had kept its attention on Sakura and Sasuke the whole time. He moved slowly around the fire while Sasuke was fighting it and prepared to throw his kunai at it, when the creature stopped its attacks and jumped up through the trees, disappearing. He blinked and looked around in confusion. Sasuke was looking up at the canopy of the trees expectantly, but nothing happened. They stood in silence for almost five minutes and the monster failed to return.

“Are you alright, Naruto?” Sakura asked, looking over. She was surprised to see that he had already managed to repair the damage to the fire that his fall had caused.

Naruto nodded and signed, `It only attacked you two.'

“Maybe it decided you weren't worth its time after you ran away from it yesterday,” Sasuke taunted.

Naruto growled, but Sakura sent a glare his way and he backed down slightly. “The good thing is that it didn't manage to put out the fire,” she said.

`It didn't go after the fire,' Naruto told them, but neither of his teammates was paying attention to his hands and they missed the signs. He sighed in frustration and looked back down at the thumb he had burned. He blinked when he realized that it didn't hurt anymore and the skin looked perfectly fine; it wasn't odd for him to heal quickly, but normally the little things didn't heal that quickly.

“We need to set up camp better so that it can't attack as easily. The fire needs to be put in a place that's accessible but harder to put out, so it definitely needs something over it. And we should make sure that we always have dry wood available, so we should have some here and cover it with something,” Sakura decided.

Naruto blinked at her and turned to Sasuke, surprised to see that he was nodding in agreement. `Aren't we going to do something about that thing?' he asked. When he realized that neither of his teammates had noticed for a second time, he marched up to Sakura and tapped her on the shoulder.

“Naruto help Sasuke gather more firewood; I'll try to figure out what to do with the fire here,” she told him, without turning around. Naruto growled slightly and turned to Sasuke to try him, but he was quickly ignored.

“Let's go dobe,” Sasuke said to him, walking out of the clearing.

Naruto mouthed the nickname and glared in Sasuke's direction before taking off in the opposite direction. Neither of his teammates seemed to notice; Sasuke continued on his way and Sakura began examining the clearing trying to figure out a way to protect the fire. Over the next hour Sasuke returned every fifteen or so minutes with another load of wood, and Sakura began to become suspicious when Naruto didn't return once. After his fifth load Sakura stopped him and told him to look for Naruto instead.

By the time Sasuke returned an hour later - and without Naruto - Sakura had dug out a fire pit and done what she could to cover some of the wood he had gathered. “Where is he?” Sakura asked, turning around to face him.

“I can't find him,” Sasuke answered not really looking her in the eye; instead he turned to inspect the small clearing he had chosen.

“Where could he be?” Sakura asked. How the hell could he not find him? Naruto wears orange for cripes sake! And the island isn't that big, she wondered as Sasuke continued to ignore her.

“Well we can't just leave him out there, can we?” she asked, looking at him for answers. Kakashi-sensei's going to kill us if we lose Naruto, she thought pathetically.

“He'll come back before it gets dark,” Sasuke told her; he ignored the pink haired girl as she spluttered in response and turned to add more wood onto the fire.

“Back by dark?” Sakura muttered darkly, later that night after the two had eaten and were preparing to settle in.

“It's too late to search for him again tonight; we'll have to find him tomorrow,” Sasuke stated. Sakura froze and laughed nervously; he wasn't supposed to hear that, she thought despondently. This is all Naruto's fault; now he's got me worried and insulting Sasuke-kun.

- Day 3 -

Naruto woke up and stretched, making sure not to fall out of the tree he had spent the night in. He wondered when his teammates would realize that he was barely fifty feet from them but he didn't feel like giving himself up, doing so before they found him would be too boring. He climbed, the normal way, to the top of the tree and noticed that the sun was just rising and that meant his teammates probably wouldn't wake for some time. Instead of waiting around, he took off on his own towards the nearby stream to get a drink and maybe find something other than fish for his teammates to eat; a gift might make them a bit less angry at him, even though it was their fault that he had left in the first place.

He had just finished splashing his face with water when he noticed an odd reflection in the ripples he had left behind. As the ripples faded and he realized what he was looking at his eyes widened and he forced himself to slowly turn towards the figure standing in the tree behind him. It didn't seem to be preparing to pounce or anything; it was just watching him curiously. Experimentally, Naruto took a step to his left, farther up stream from the monster but not into the stream, and when the monster did nothing he took a second and then a third. He managed six steps, moving steadily back towards their campsite, before the monster moved, jumping over Naruto's head and landing in another tree effectively blocking Naruto's escape.

Naruto frowned at the monster that still refused to attack or even show any hostility. This time he decided to just be direct and he took several steps forward hoping the monster would just let him leave; however, when he was just three feet away from the tree the monster was sitting in it growled at him and dropped down from the branch to stand in his way. Naruto cautiously backed away not wanting to risk being hit by the monster like he had been the night before. When he was standing in front of the stream again the monster was apparently satisfied that Naruto wasn't going to try and escape so it jumped back up to his perch and settled down.

Naruto sighed in annoyance and looked around inquisitively. If he had been back where he had started he would have been able to cross the stream easily enough and then, if the beast wasn't as fast as it looked, he might have stood a chance of losing it in the forest. As it was, the stream behind him looked deeper and much wider than the neck to his right. In order to cross he would have to swim either to the other shore or to the shallower neck, either way would give the monster too much time to catch up to him.

As the monster continued to watch him, Naruto grew bored and finally sat down, throwing a baleful glare in the thing's direction as he did so and signing, `I should name you Pervert too. You're as annoying him.' He sat up a bit straighter when the monster seemed to momentarily lose its balance. When it righted itself, its head was ducked and its shoulders were shaking as if it was laughing.

That's just creepy, Naruto thought, settling back down as the monster didn't make another move. He was still there two hours later when voices from the forest behind the monster told Naruto that his teammates were awake and heading his way. He stood up slowly and noticed that the monster seemed to have been alerted to their presence as well. Glancing around Naruto tried to find something to throw so that he could alert his teammates to what they were walking in to. With the only rocks being in the stream itself and too far away for the monster to let him move he took out his kunai instead.

“Well where all did you look last night?” Sakura asked loudly. Apparently the monster didn't like her tone as it repositioned itself to move towards her. Its jump was halted when Naruto's kunai hit the trunk of the tree it was standing on just inches from its nose. It angrily turned its attention to him and away from the two Genin that had appeared ten feet away.

Okay, weaponless with a giant monster angry at me. Maybe I should have just let it eat them, Naruto thought as the monster landed on the forest floor and took a step towards Naruto, completely ignoring his surprised teammates. “What an idiot.”

Definitely should have let it eat them, he thought after hearing Sasuke's annoyed statement. Naruto took another step away from the monster, making sure that he avoided the water, and when it took a step towards him Naruto turned and ran. He could hear the monster moving behind him and tried to move off towards the trees but the monster lunged towards him precariously and Naruto only avoided being hit by dodging back towards the water. His landing was worsened when his foot slipped off of an exposed root and sent him sprawling backwards landing half in the water. He heard Sakura's shout behind him and pushed himself the rest of the way into the stream as his teammates approached.

Unfortunately, his escape was halted by the monster. The moment Naruto resurfaced on the other side of the stream it took a running leap and managed to clear the expanse and land on the shore in front of Naruto. Naruto rolled to the side and bounced back onto his feet as the monster moved towards him. Behind him he could hear one of his teammates swimming towards him and footsteps told him that another must have been running towards the shallower part to run across and help him. Hoping he was right Naruto took off in that direction. He had only made it three steps when the monster's arm smacked him in the side and into a tree. He tried to brace himself for the impact but his head snapped backwards and hit the trunk hard before bouncing back off and landing in a heap on the ground.

Once Naruto went down the monster veered off into the trees with Sasuke and Sakura right behind him. They pursued the monster for several meters before it suddenly disappeared. They listened intently hoping for a clue to its presence and when nothing came they turned back and headed back towards Naruto, wondering why he hadn't followed them.

The two reached the shore and Sakura started to panic when she didn't see Naruto anywhere. “Did he take off again?” she asked turning towards Sasuke. The Uchiha's response was to roll his eyes at her and point to the opposite shore where Naruto had collapsed. “He swam over there and then fainted,” Sakura stated in disbelief moving back towards the shallow neck again.

“Let's just get him back to camp. When he wakes up you can yell at him and then we'll train,” Sasuke responded.

When Naruto finally revived Sakura had already set three fish on the fire and she and Sasuke were finishing up their spar. He blinked at his surroundings in confusion and reached to touch the back of his head. It should have been bruised, but he felt no tenderness in the area. “Oh finally you're awake,” Sakura said, walking towards him. “I don't know what you were thinking by running off last night but if this morning is anything to go by then we'll fail unless we keep you with us at all times because it seems like the only thing you're good at is catching fish and getting yourself into trouble.”

Naruto glared at her and moved to retort before thinking better of it and turning away with a sigh. Sakura blinked at the easy victory but let it go. If Naruto wasn't going to argue it would make things run much more smoothly. “You and Sasuke should spar and then we will. After that, we'll do our laps and maybe look around a bit more,” she added.

`What happened?'

“Excuse me?” Sakura asked.

`What happened?'

“What do you mean `What happened'? What do you think happened? You fainted on the other side of the river after running away instead of following to help us track that thing down,” she told him.

Naruto shook his head frowning as his eyes squinted shut. All he could remember was hitting the tree. Sakura only rolled her eyes at his behavior and snapped her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. “Go spar against Sasuke. We need to get this stuff done or Kakashi-sensei will get angry.”

`Pervert won't get angry. He's doing this because if we die he doesn't have to teach us,' Naruto signed.

Sakura gave him a blank look of confusion and he turned away, pushing himself to his feet. This is going to be a long two weeks.

 

 

AR: The majority of this chapter was inspired by the training in Fullmetal Alchemist. If you've read or watched that then you know what I'm talking about. I hope you enjoyed it!

Also, Kakashi is just plain weird in this story. I'm honestly not quite sure what is going on with his character; he just sort of comes out the way he does and I'm too amused to change him. I certainly hope you guys are at least somewhat amused, but I have a really weird sense of humor and I can never figure out how much of what I find funny is getting across to the readers in the same sense.

If the thing about the matches confused you, it'll actually get explained more next chapter. Basically, the level of technology is selectively advanced; today most of us are used to seeing paper matchbooks, but wooden ones are older. There would be less of a reason for paper ones to be manufactured in the Naruto world so they weren't. Iruka got the matches from the same place Sandaime got the comic book for Naruto, but this won't come in for sometime. To be honest the only real reason for this distinction is so that Kakashi can yell at Iruka for ruining his fun next chapter!