Chapter 3 - The Teams are picked

A few weeks after the incident everything is fine, Maikeru has been off in the forests working on his chakra skills away from the eyes of others while they relaxed. He also

learns better techniques with his blade trying to figure out ways to use his chakra with the blade itself to make it a more worthy weapon. As he is constantly training he has

absolutely no idea what is going on in the village itself. Focusing on primarily making himself strong enough to be a decent leader he also read books and scrolls he had

brought with him.

Back in the village the freshly graduated kids are relaxing at the ramen shop or playing games with each other not worrying about anything. From time to time you can see a

large group of girls walking around flirting and giggling or a large group of boys leaning against a building whistling and commenting on the girls. Although most of the time its

primarily shoppers that are wandering around as well as people heading to the Hokage's office to ask for assistance with something giving the up coming teams missions.

On the first days of missions Maikeru was the first student at the meeting place and was bouncing around like a hyper child. As the other members showed he remembered

that the teams were now made up of not three yet five members now. The other students to arrive where Ashuri, Tonichan, Raye and, Tenshi. Ashuri was a master of

disguise it being her bloodline limit she could change her form to any she so chose without trying. Tonichan was an elemental fighter focusing mainly on water and ice. Raye

had the ability to move silently as well as invisibly being one of the best stealth artists in the village. And Tenshi was a medical and trap expert being able to locate traps

without using chakra.

As soon as Kakashi arrived there was muttering between the other student about his age and if he was the right person to be teaching them. The mutter stopped quickly as

four kunai whistled through the air embedding in the ground at the tip of each of their boots causing Maikeru to smirk as he had not joined in. Instead he turned and bowed

to his sensei his eyes remaining locked on him. The other students surprised to see him act in a manner that was completely opposite of what he had shown during the

academy training. They then follow suit and bow to the man yet make the mistake of bowing their heads as well each getting a smack on the backs of their head causing

them to whine and complain.

"First rule of thumb is to never take your eyes off a person, there is no telling what they might do." Kakashi says the corners of his eyes showing he is smiling. "Now today

we will be doing introductions as well as telling us your primary goal and, then I will inform you of what we will be doing tomorrow." He says as he leans back against the

railing looking as the kids.

"Alright that sounds fine with me!" Maikeru says as he stands. "I am Uzumaki Maikeru and my goal is to either take my fathers place as Hokage or to start another village of

my own to be able to aid this village as well as others." He says returning to his seat.

After he sits Tonichan rises to her feet. "I am Inuzuka Tonichan and my goal is to create a huge safe haven for animal." She says before slowly returning to her seat.

Followed by her Tenshi stands. "I am Akimichi Tenshi and my goal is to one day be able to teach younger generations." Becoming furious at the fact Kakashi chuckles she

stomps her foot returning to her seat.

"I am Inuzuka Raye and my goal is to one day be able to help others." She says no one being able to completely pin point her location.

Smirking Ashuri stands straitening the wrinkles out of her clothes. "I am Haruno Ashuri and my goal is to be the best that I can be no matter what the cost." She says

before sitting back down."

"Alright now that we all know each other lets continue so that you can go home and relax before the harder learning starts." Kakashi says as he looks the children over.

"Tomorrow we are going to be doing the same exercises that a few of your parents had to endure. I am not that bad of a person yet you will soon learn I am not one to allow

slaking in the least." He continues pulling five small packages out of a large duffle sitting next to him. "Take one of these each and head home to get prepared. I have

supplied you all with enough items to last a month or so." He continues watching the students get their packages. "Oh and tomorrow morning at five we will meet at the

large stone. Do not be late or you will receive punishment." He says as he vanishes.

Maikeru then begins to walk down the path back to the center of the village and suddenly feels someone tapping him on the back. He turns to see that the other kids are

watching him and that the person who had tapped him was Ashuri. Continuing to watch him they all begin to open their packages to see what is inside them, taking the hint

Maikeru sits back down and opens his. He finds a new leg pouch, two new belt pouches, and an assortment of kunai, shuriken, a windmill shuriken and, an assortment of

small bombs ranging from gas to smoke.

"Well it seems that he thinks we are all going to be going through some extensive training." Tonichan says strapping her new pouches on Maikeru noticing that they are

twice the size of their olds ones. "These pouches are not only bigger, yet more durable." She continues tugging at one.

"I hope he doesn't plan on us doing to much to soon." Raye says following Toni's lead and twirling one of the kunai on the tip of her index finger. "These weapons also seem

heavier than what we used at the academy." She says swiftly slipping the kunai into one of the pouches.

"I dunno what he plans on doing, yet I do know that I want to be completely prepared." Maikeru says as he finishes storing his weapons his windmill shuriken being placed

in its sheath along the back of his waist. "I have heard stories of what he put my father through and I plan on surpassing all of that group of students. We are his first team

since that one." He continues as he turns heading down the path waving to the others. "My advice it to make sure you are ready both mentally and physically tomorrow." He

finishes smirking.

"Well I dunno about you three, yet I do know that I have never seen that him act that way." Tenshi says as she watches Maikeru walk away." He was also so lazy and

ignorant while at the academy.

"I know what you mean, yet for once he seems to know what he is talking about." Ashuri says as she begins to walk down the path. "He seems a bit more interesting than

before. We might want to keep an eye on him there is no telling what might happen given who his father is." She continues as she starts to job down the path back towards

the village the others following behind.

Remembering the story his father had told him Maikeru heads to the ramen shop and orders a bowl taking the time to eat as a chance to think. He focused primarily on the

speed that he knew the old sensei possessed as well as the fact that he had a Sharingan. His thoughts running through his head quite quickly he continues to run the

stories through his head also stopping to think about the bell and how that training exercise had gone. Chuckling he finishes his noodles and begins to head to his usual

training spot thinking if the bell was brought into things how he was going to manage to get the others to work with him instead of trying to get it alone.

As he nears his preferred place of training he stops knowing that he is not alone, that he had been followed from the ramen shop. Quickly he vanishes from the spot he had

previously been standing and appears behind his stalker surprised to see that it is Ashuri. "What are you doing following me around?!" He asks angrily as she turns to face

him a look of surprise grafted onto her face.

"I just wondered where you were heading. You are never in town and you act completely different than you did when we were in the academy." She says looking back and

forth at him to the place he had stopped. "Where did you acquire so much speed?" She asks in awe.

"Not being able to use chakra I trained under Lee Sensei. So I gained speed and strength so that my Taijutsu was strong enough to make me a formidable opponent to

someone who can use it." He says feeling nervous being this close to her, and the fact that she had followed him.

"I see, so what is it that drives you so hard?" She asks leaning back against a tree.

"I am driven due to who my father is, and what he has accomplished." He says turning and walking towards Akagahara and suddenly vanishes again leaving a small cloud of

dust.

"We will see what is waiting at the end for you." She says just after he vanishes a venomous looking crossing her face momentarily.

As Maikeru reaches his usual training spot he draws his Katana and pulls into a stance moving the statue to activate the defense puppets. As the puppets pull out of the

ground he realizes that there is something different about them, that they are moving differently. One of the puppets come at him with amazing speed and he is thrown off

balance one of the other puppets hitting him from behind throwing him through the air. While in the air Maikeru twists himself so that he can block the kunai heading for

him, when he lands he looks again and sees that they had taken on a formation.

"I see they have upgraded them, they are both faster and smarter!" He thinks to himself chuckling. He charges forward pulling be his sword and connecting with the

kunai of one of the puppets breaking and spinning quickly to block the three kunai of the puppet to his right. He then quickly has to flip backwards as a rain of kunai

hit the ground where he had standing quickly blocking another two as they nearly connect with his chest. "It seems that they are also programmed to kill now instead

of taking the intruder hostage" he thinks to himself as he takes his sword in his right hand pulling a wakizashi with the Hyuuga family symbol on it with his other. Grinning

he darts back into the group of puppets stopping as they circle him he stands and crosses his arms above his chest then takes on his uncles familiar stance grinning.

"MAIKERU!" Someone yells from the tree line. "What do you think you are doing?" the person says again this time standing with his back against the teen.

"I am training what does it look like I am doing." He replies recognizing the voice as Chouji's. "I need to be ready for the Chunin exams when they arrive." He continues

straitening up.

"I see, well why didn't you ask someone a bit more difficult than these wooden dolls." Chouji says as his arm stretches and he set the statue back in place the puppets

returning to their hiding places.

"If anyone is to train me shouldn't it be Kakashi Sensei?" Maikeru asks as he sheaths his blades.

"I see so you do not think that any of us others are competent enough to teach you taijutsu? Chouji replies as he spins swinging a fist at Maikeru.

Chouji blinks in surprise as he realizes that Maikeru is balancing on his enlarged forearm smirking and waving his finger back and forth. Chouji grins then allows his arms to

return to normal using a roundhouse to try and catch the teen in the chest yet, Maikeru twists his body so that he is over the leg and uses his hand to right himself landing

on his feet. Grinning they both start moving extremely quickly as small dust clouds marks where their feet touch and the clash of metal on metal noting where they connect.

Both so enthralled by the spar neither notice that Lee had positioned himself on top of the statue watching the two with a big smile on his face. Suddenly he leaps forward

being notice just before his fist connects with Maikeru the youth blocks Chouji's kunai with his Katana in one hand and lifts his hand palm out blocking Lee's fist.

"Now how is this fair!?" He yells as both of the Sensei's charge at him grinning. Shrugging he takes on a defensive stance quickly reaching down and unclasping the weights

on his legs, he vanishes from the spot he had been standing moving so quickly he had not even left a dust cloud. Blinking both of his Sensei stop looking at the spot and

chuckling which they abruptly stop with they hear two more weights drop turning to see the teen fixing the sleeves of his jacket grinning. This time instead of using his full

speed he charges forward slipping his Katana back into its scabbard and pulling back his fist swinging. Chouji blocks the hit yet is thrown backwards hitting the ground and

rolling until his pushes up twisting back to his feet. Lee fairs better and blocks the swing yet is pushes backwards leaving two small trenches in the ground.

"Now that's not fair!" Chouji says a look of shock on his face. "You trained under Lee didn't you!?' He continues looking back and forth between the sets of weights.

"That he did." Lee says as he pulls his own weights off turning and looking at Chouji. "You might want to back out of this one." He continues chuckling and turning to face

the teen.

As he turns Maikeru charges chuckling and begins to swing their arms both moving so quickly that Chouji has trouble seeing the hits and blocks. This continues for a good

amount of time until the two swing connecting their fists and being tossed backwards from the ensuing shock wave. Lee pulls a wakizashi from his belt chuckling as Maikeru

draws his katana both charging at each other again the clashes of the blades creating sparks and the clang of metal on metal echoing through the clearing. Their movements

steadily growing faster and more concentrated causing the shock waves to roll over Chouji in a constant his hair being pushes flat the grin on his face widening.

"He is just like his father yet at the same time completely different." He says to himself as he continues to watch.

"That he is." someone says beside him. "Yet he is far more defined than I ever was." the person continues chuckling.

"Hokage Sama!" Chouji says bowing.

"How many times am I going to have to tell everyone to just treat me as another friend!" Naruto says smirking. "I may be Hokage yet I see myself as no better than any of

the rest of you." He continues resting his hand on Chouji's shoulder.

"Very well." Chouji says as he turns to continue watching the fight blinking in surprise as Lee is tossed backwards and against the boulder between the two onlookers.

"Very good Maikeru seems that you have trained far more than I had every expected." Lee says as he regains his feet. "Oh Naruto how are you?" he continues as he

sheaths his blade bending down and picking up the weights at their feet which he tosses to Maikeru.

"I am well, just here to get him for supper his mother has been waiting." Naruto says waving his son over.

Maikeru slips his weights back on and stands stretching as he sheaths his sword, he then jogs over sweat pouring down his face as well as a bit of blood from the sparring.

"Time for supper already?" He asks as soon as he reaches the three. Naruto nods and they say their farewells turning and heading back into town.