Never Alone Part 3.

Chapter VI
Mission Accomplished


Out of the three Genin, Sasuke and Sakura were shocked but Naruto was impressed. Kakashi told them something that seemed like it should have been already known, “Work smarter not harder.” and he began walking out of the park. They followed him, the day seemed long and both Sakura and Sasuke seemed tired but Naruto looked as refreshed as he did before the “mission”. Sakura asked how he was able to have so much energy and he just told her that it was the training with the frog hermit, but he knew that it was the excess chakra from the demon fox.
“So why are you thinking of me child. What do you want?” the baritone voice of the demon resonated in his mind and he could feel a warmth in his abdomen. Naruto answered him without speaking, ‘Sorry about disturbing you, but I was wondering what you think about my teammates and sensei?’ Naruto had always thought useful the advice of the fox demon. “What can I say, except that they aren’t as annoying as you were when I first began to talk with you. But the boy with the dark hair he seems like he’s up to something and I don’t trust him. The girl seems cute, for a human, but you have the other one. What was her name? Oh yes it was Hinata, wasn’t it. Either one would do, for someone as scrawny as you, but all of them seem rather weak for the progeny of Konoha, the village that sealed me in you. The man on the other hand, has something up his sleeve; he is more powerful than he cares to show.” The demon fox was making a lot of sense but what he had said about Sasuke Naruto didn’t really want to believe him. ‘Well I don’t really see why you don’t trust Sasuke, but I can see that on the others you make a lot of sense. I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’ve ever been in love, I mean if demons can be in love. Because I think I might be in love with Hinata, and I want to know what I should do next.’ Naruto had not been paying attention to what Sakura had been saying and barely caught the end of her sentence. “… so what are you doing later on Naruto?” Sasuke glanced at Sakura with a surprised look, and turned to walk away. Sakura said goodbye to Sasuke and he didn’t even look back to her. She kept walking with Naruto and talking with him, he told her that he didn’t have anything to do and he didn’t really know the town all to well. Sakura offered to introduce Naruto to her friends, the entered a restaurant and there they found a platinum blonde girl and two others, one was eating the grilled beef on the barbeque and the other didn’t seem to want to be there. Sakura said hello to the group, “Hello Ino pig, Choji, and Shikamaru, how are you all?” Naruto was shocked at what Sakura had said to the girl and Naruto introduced himself after the girl named Ino retaliated by calling Sakura “Forehead”. With the introduction they all sat down and Naruto ordered another meal for all of them and said he would pay for it. Shikamaru told Naruto that it wasn’t a good idea to pick up the tab when Choji was one of the people eating. Naruto noticed that it was the same girl from the flower shop and asked her if she worked there, she just told him that it was her families business and she helped out every once in a while. Shikamaru asked Naruto how he had been able to catch Mizuki, and when Naruto asked who that was, Shikamaru told him it was the lavender haired teacher that had tried to kidnap Hyuuga Hinata. Naruto told them that he had been on a date with Hinata when they had been attacked and he told them what had happened. He caught as look of sadness fill Sakura’s eyes when he had mentioned that he had gone out on a date with the Hyuuga, but she quickly hid it when she heard what he had done to stop the kidnappers, he neglected to mention the demon chakra he had used. They were all amazed and a little skeptical, all except Sakura she believed every word of it.
The group left and then there were two. They talked a little longer but when it came time to pay Naruto stood and pulled out his frog coin purse. Sakura was shocked at how expensive the meal had been but Naruto had no trouble paying the amount on the check. They went walking a little more, but soon they had run out of things to talk about and were just walking. They somehow ended back on the bridge where not only had they met as their first time as a team but also the spot where Naruto had fought the four ninja. They stood leaning against the rail for a long time and didn’t say anything, but then Sakura checked her watch it read 7:30. She asked him if he thought she was pretty and then she leaned closer to him. Naruto didn’t know what to do; he had never been asked a question like that before.
“Sakura, you’re very pretty and I can’t see why Sasuke wouldn’t want you to be his girlfriend.” Naruto didn’t see what Sakura was doing but caught her just in time; she had tried to kiss him. He grabbed her by the arms and held her away from him; she was a bit shocked at what he had just done.
“Sakura what are you doing?” Naruto was just as shocked at Sakura’s actions, as Sakura was at Naruto’s actions. In what seemed like an eternity they stood there and then Sakura came out of the moment and pulled herself out of Naruto’s arms.
“I thought you said I was pretty.” Sakura seemed really put off by what Naruto did.
“You are pretty, but it’s just that I’m with Hinata and I really love her. Don’t take it hard it’s not that I don’t like you… but I have her and she’s the one I want right now. Let’s not let this get in the way of us being friends or teammates, I’ll still teach you if you still want to learn.” Sakura smiled a sad smile but after he told her that he would still teach her she apologized and said goodbye. He stood there for a while and finally realized that he really did love Hinata, and all it took was someone to shock him into saying it to himself. He got home and found Neji in the living room watching T.V. there was also the girl Tenten whose hand he was holding. He said hello and went to his room to sleep, but he took a cold shower before he hit the sack. He had the dream again the one where Hiashi puts the seal on Hinata and hurts her for the sheer pleasure of it. He woke up and his alarm clock read 1:00 a.m., and he felt like he wasn’t going to get anymore sleep that night. He got up and went to the restroom to wash his face; he finished and found Neji in the kitchen eating a cup of ramen. Naruto put some water to heat and sat down across from Neji.
“You didn’t tell me that you and Tenten were together.” Naruto poured the boiling water into the cup of noodles. Neji went a little red and began playing with his ramen; he spilled the metaphorical ramen and told Naruto how it had happened. He told him that when Tenten had heard about him being banished she found him and without saying a single word she had hugged him. He told Naruto that when they had stopped hugging she had told him that she was there if he needed someone to talk to. Naruto was listening intently to his friend’s words, but ate his noodles as he paid attention. Neji told Naruto that he had just came out and told Tenten that he had harbored a crush on her for a long time. Neji smiled and had just finished his ramen when Naruto informed Neji of Sakura’s actions; Neji was shocked but felt a little better when Naruto told him that he had done nothing with the pink haired girl. But mostly because he had used his Byakugan to see if Naruto was lying, he was not lying. Neji asked what Naruto was going to do about Sakura and if he was going to tell Hinata.
Naruto told Neji that a relationship built on lies does not hold ground, and he convinced Neji and himself that it was in his and Hinata’s best interest to tell her the truth. Naruto told Neji that he was still going to be friends with Sakura and teach her along with Neji, but that he would need to be more careful with his remarks. They shared an innocent laugh, and Naruto told Neji that they would be training Neji in his new fighting style that morning. Naruto had just finished and Neji had thrown his cup away, when Neji asked what style he would be learning.
Naruto informed Neji that he didn’t know, and Neji nearly doubled over from the shock. Neji asked what he meant when Naruto said he didn’t know, and Naruto told him that it was completely up to him. Neji didn’t really understand and when he tried to get a little more information Naruto just said goodnight and told Neji that he would need some rest for the day ahead.


Chapter VIII
Training Day

Naruto got a chance to catch some shut eye before 3 o’clock, but while his body was resting his mind was elsewhere. He was now face-to-face with the fox demon again, this time he did it intentionally. He asked the demon a question, “Could you tell me what style I should teach Neji and Sakura?” Naruto had done this only for himself before and now he was doing it for his friends. Jiraiya had asked Naruto about where he had learned his taijutsu and Naruto just told him that he had made it up from watching other types of fighting and mixing them. But Jiraiya had always mentioned that the style seemed familiar, but he had never been able to put his finger on it. Naruto didn’t want Jiraiya to know that he could talk with demon fox so he never told him where he had learned the style. Jiraiya was also happy that he hadn’t needed to teach Naruto taijutsu, since it wasn’t his strong point.
“You must first get them to tell you what animal they dreamed of tonight, and when you are teaching them you will have to show them exactly as I will show you when you tell them that they must meditate. While they meditate I will show you the style that they will be learning, but it will be harder because you will be teaching two people. And since I’m not in their head it will take them longer to master it since they can’t train while they sleep. Now run a few drills before you leave so I can see if you forgot anything.” Naruto began a series of punches and kicks, speeding up as he went but when he was about to break a mental sweat the Kyuubi stopped him. “Rest for the day you’ve got ahead child.” Naruto said his goodbye and that was when the darkness came and then there was a dream. Naruto had a dream of himself fighting a silhouette of a man along side his new friends. When Naruto got to close the man would kill his friends with a wave of his hands. The man would come close to revealing his face but he would be just out of reach, he thought he saw Sasuke’s face one second and then a man he had never known before. That was when he heard his alarm go off and he woke up in a cold sweat.
Naruto looked at the clock it read 7 a.m., he took a bath and got his supplies ready, he then woke up Neji and told him to get ready and meet him at the training grounds gate. And Naruto asked Neji what animal Neji had dreamed of and Neji told Naruto that he had a dream of a wolf. Naruto said a quick goodbye and told Neji that he was going to go wake up Sakura, and ask her the same question. He went to Sakura’s house, it wasn’t that far away. He rang her doorbell and was greeted by Sakura in an apron and a spatula in her hand. She saw Naruto and asked what he was doing at her house so early. Naruto just answered by telling her that now was the time they were going to train. She told him that she had just finished making breakfast and she had too much of it left over, so she invited him in and sat him down at the table.
While Naruto ate he asked what Sakura dreamt about and she told him that she had dreamt of an ape. He didn’t ask her about any thing else, but when they finished, Naruto complimented Sakura about her cooking and she had a barely noticeable blush. Sakura led Naruto out the door and told him she would meet them at 8 o’clock, so he left and was happy she hadn’t taken the denial personally.
He got to the training grounds and signed in for three hours, it turned 7:55 when Neji arrived. Neji had wanted to ask Naruto about Sakura, but she had just arrived when he was about to open his mouth. She greeted Naruto and introduced herself to Neji and he did so as well, and she was very giddy at what she was about to learn.
“What I need you to do is go into a meditative state, and I will figure out what I will teach you.” They sat in the center of a clearing, and found the quiet of the morning helpful in the meditation. Naruto had also gone into meditation, and he had immediately found himself in front of the demon. Naruto had the animals they had dreamt of and he was prepared to teach them the styles. Naruto greeted the demon “Hello Kyuubi-sensei, they are ready to be taught, and I am ready to teach them. Good, because I am ready to teach you their styles. As I’ve told you before, I can make it so time passes slower in your mind so I can teach you much but it would not take as long as in real time. Let’s begin your training in their styles.” Naruto had begun his mind training and the others sat in their positions. Twenty minutes had passed before Naruto got up and told both Sakura and Neji to stand, Naruto walked towards them and told them what they would be learning. “Neji will learn the wolf fighting style which he had found to be quite aggressive.” Naruto then turned to Sakura and told her that he would also be teaching her a new fighting style because it would help her increase her chakra so she could perform the jutsu’s he will teach her. Naruto began by telling them that they would have some heavy training ahead of them and to buy some weights for their strength training they will do.
He told them that they were going to learn different style because their bodies were made differently, and that they had different strengths. They didn’t disagree with their sensei, but asked why they were learning their specific styles. Naruto answered them by stating that their styles were attuned with their spirits and that they were going to get very powerful as they became more attached to their animal. He asked them if they knew any one who used an animal based taijutsu and they both answered with the name Kiba. They said that he fights like a dog because his family has familiars in the form of their pet dogs. Naruto told them that their style is a weak branch of the wolf style and that the only reason that they are so strong is that they are not completely attuned to their animals. He told them that just because you’re from the same clan does not mean that you share the same animal spirit. Naruto then told them that when he shows them the style it will seem awkward for him because it is not his animal, and that it will not be as strong when he uses it as it would be when they use it. He started Neji out on some punches that had a weird looking fist and kicks that would normally hit vital parts of the body. And the attack style that Naruto showed Neji was very odd, because Neji would have to run up to his opponent at a very fast pace and then at that speed if he hit the person with one of those weird fists the person would be really hurt or knocked down. He explained that the fist resembled a wolfs mouth and that the attack style resembled how a lone wolf would attack, that he wouldn’t be able to take anything big down one his own but with the attack pattern he could do serious damage without as much chance of getting hurt.
While Neji practiced his style on a dummy, Naruto turned to Sakura and told her that her style relied on her physical strength and her ability to adapt to the situation because of her intelligence. She paid very close attention to Naruto; he then showed her the punches she would be using. It was more like pounding than a punch and they were fast, and the kicks were not much but they did look like they had a lot of power behind them. They both seemed like they were taking to the styles like a duck to water, and Naruto couldn’t be any happier that they were his best friends and becoming stronger than they already were and that he was helping them do it.
“Now there are some jutsu’s you will need to know if these styles are to be used to their full potential.” as Naruto said that both Sakura and Neji stopped what they were doing. They were bewildered that a taijutsu like theirs could use ninjutsu and genjutsu, but Naruto explained. He explained by showing them his taijutsu, which happened to be a fox form. He told them that foxes are tricky creatures and therefore the style uses many genjutsu’s to confuse the mind, eyes, or all senses at once. He told Neji that is why he seemed to disappear when they had fought, also that the genjutsu was stronger because he was using the fox style. He asked them how they felt when they were using the styles, Neji answered, “I felt like the longer I kept doing the moves the stronger I got. I could feel the chakra running through me getting stronger and more focused, I even used my Byakugan to see what was going on with my chakra coils and saw that they were flaring up with out me even trying. And I could almost hear a wolf howl it was a little weird.” Neji finished his description and Naruto just nodded his head and agreed. He then asked Sakura about what happened to her during her training and she answered with, “How do we know our chakra to enhance our fighting styles?” she started with a question.
“First off, you Sakura can enhance your strength with chakra and you can elevate your senses to that of an ape. Plus since you have a library of jutsu’s in your mind you can find the ones that work better for your style. Now onto you Neji, your style is not so different than Kiba’s in that your senses will increase. They include your sense of smell, sight, hearing, and you can give off a very powerful killer instinct towards your opponent. I don’t know much about the jutsu’s that work best with both your and Sakura’s styles, that is why I want you both to go through your jutsu’s while in your styles. In the next couple of training sessions I will teach both of you some of my own jutsu’s which tie into your animal form. There is going to be a certain jutsu that I can only show you after you have mastered some of the taijutsu, but that’s enough of my rambling on. And Neji when you train I want you not to rely on your Byakugan to much, but try and see if you can use it to your advantage.” Naruto was about to tell them that their time was going to end in about twenty minutes when Sakura asked Neji to spar with her, and he agreed. If it was time to leave he would just tell them, so he let them spar.
Naruto had already tried sparing against himself in his mind, and apparently the animal forms were matches for each other even when he used his own in a three clone fight. Maybe that is why they were forgotten, but they are still very powerful and these styles are ancient also so maybe they had just been lost in time. But Naruto had brought them back by introducing them to his friends, and that was when his mind came back into real time. He watched as Neji tried the punches he had been showed and Sakura blocked by pounding into the ground and lifting slabs of dirt as shields. And when Neji would let his guard down Sakura tried one of her kicks but Neji had heard her coming at him and he quickly evaded as she slammed both of her fists into the ground creating a large crater. The dust cleared and that was when Neji began his tirade of attacks on Sakura, he would run at her and reach for her with the fists and Sakura would evade by using the trees she had run into. Naruto told them to stop, and that it was time to leave. They asked what time it was and he told them it was already eleven and that it was someone else’s turn. He led them out and asked them how they felt. They told him that they still had plenty of chakra left, and they asked him why that was. He just told them that they had tapped into a hidden chakra system that not many ninja know about; it’s hidden because too many ninja’s at such a power level would be uncontrollable. That was when he realized that he might have just told them a little too much.
“Let’s get some Ramen.” Naruto had just changed the subject so as not to have to tell them any more.