"Naruto. Naruto! Damn it, you're just as bad as Shikamaru! Get up you lazy bastard!"

She kicked him in the side and he flinched. "Ouch." His eyes opened and saw Ino standing over him. "What was that for?"

"You're sleeping when it time to train."

"What time is it?"

"Ten after twelve."

Naruto groaned. "Damn, and I was have the most wonderful dream, I think you were in it." The green of her eyes was replaced by dark violet.

Her face grew red and she lifted her foot and drove it toward his crotch. "Pervert!"

He barely rolled out of the way in time. "It wasn't that kind of dream!" He then spoke softly. "Damn, Kakashi said she had a temper, but this is no where near Sakura's. It's closer to Baa-san or a bear."

This just made things worse. Because even though he spoke softly, Ino had still heard him. "What the hell did you just say?!"

"Oh shit." She was running toward him, so he stood up and did the only thing that came to mind, ran like hell.

She chased him toward the other end of the clearing, but instead of running into the forest, he ran straight up the side of a large tree and kept going without falling off.

When he realized that she wasn't following him, he stopped and look back to find her. She was standing a few feet away from the tree staring up at him with awe. "How are you doing that?"

"If I come down, are you going to kill me?"

"Only if you don't teach me that."

"Alright." He pushed off from the tree and landed slightly behind her. "First lesson, tree climbing. Take out a kunai and concentrate your chakra at the bottom of your feet. It's best to get a running start at first, and when you get as far as you can, mark the tree with the kunai and try to beat that mark the next time. Sounds easy enough, doesn't it. Give it a try when you're ready."

Not one to back down from such a blatant challenge, Ino takes out a kunai and concentrates her chakra. She runs towards the tree and gets about half the way to where Naruto had been before the tree bark cracked under her foot. She quickly marks the tree as she is pushed away from the tree, and then uses it's force to flip in midair so she lands on her feet.

'I must have used too much, so all I need to do is back off a little.' She concentrates again, using less chakra, and runs toward the tree again. Her momentum carries her a few feet up the tree, but no further, she slipped.

Falling backwards, she braces herself for the impact. But instead of hitting the ground, she land softly with Naruto smiling down at her. She then realizes that she's in his arms and blushes.

"Trust me, the ground hurts, even from that height. So, do you want some help?" He sets her down and she nods. "The point of this is chakra control. Too much and you're pushed off, but not enough and you don't stick. You have to find the right amount and keep a steady supply of chakra to your feet, always keeping the same amount. Make sense?"

Ino smiled. "Surprisingly, it did."

"Good. I had to ask Sakura for the simple version."

"You learned this from her?"

"No, I learned it from Kakashi, but I asked Sakura to simplify his explanation."

'He looks embarrassed. Then again, if Kakashi taught him this then that probably means that Sasuke was nearby when he asked Sakura.' She stands up to try again.

As the sun goes down, Ino stands upside down on a branch thirty feet above the ground and Naruto is lying against the trunk five feet from her with his knees bent so his feet are touching it. The two of them watch the sunset quietly.

As the light begins to fade from the sky, Ino turns to Naruto. "Thank you for doing this Naruto."

"Don't mention it, I couldn't say no after all the nice things you said. Besides, I've got the next month off, it would have been really dull. Thanks to you, I have something to look forward to."

Ino looked surprised. "You mean you enjoy doing this?"

"Yeah, I'm normally training by myself, and there's no fun in that. There's no way of knowing if I've gotten any stronger."

"I know what you mean, it's been the same for me. Everybody here are either too busy or too damn lazy to help me with anything."

"Hey Ino, I have a question. Could you tell me the ranks of yourself and the other nine who took the chunin exam with us?"

"Okay. Unfortunately, Lee and I are still genin. Shikamaru and Neji are jonin, and everyone else are chunin."

"Damn Orochimaru, if it was for him I would have been a chunin the first time."

"Don't worry about that Naruto, since then you've been training under one of the legendary Sannin. You'll beat everyone at the next one."

His smile returned. "I suppose your right. Besides, if it weren't for him allying with Sand, I wouldn't have met Gaara. Sure, he may be a little crazy, but once you get to know him, he actually quite pleasant. As for the next exam, we have to be on a team to participate and even if we do get on one, I hope that I don't have to fight you, for both our sakes."

"What do you mean?"

"That mind possession thing you do creeps me out, and there's a place in my mind that is even dangerous to me. On top of that, we would have been training together up until that point, so we would know each other's moves and I will have taught you a few new jutsu by then. Before I can teach you the more advanced ones though, you'll need to increase your chakra control and your stamina. By the way, when do you want to train again?"

"How about every other day at noon, but if one of us has a mission, we pin a note to this tree. Sound good?"

"It's perfect. Remember to keep practicing tree climbing everyday for a month or two. After that, it will be so etched into your brain that when you use it, it's like you're not doing anything at all."

"I gotta get going Naruto, my parents will get pissed again if I'm not home for dinner. I guess I'll see you on Sunday then, unless I have a mission."

"I'll see ya then." She drops to the ground and lands on her feet. She waves to him and walks away, heading for home.

Soon after she leaves, he hops down as well and walks to the center of the clearing. "Time for me to train." He uses his middle and index fingers to make a cross with his fingers crossed. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In a giant puff of smoke, he becomes completely surrounded by hundreds of clones of himself. He smiles. "If it worked, this is going to be fun." All of the clones rush toward him at the same time.

There is still a light left in the sky and Naruto is leaning over, breathing heavily, in the middle of the empty opening. He stand up straight and walks out into the forest.

---------------------

Although he bought new clothes, he still wore his old ones for training. Every other day for the next month went basically the same except they normally started out with Ino complaining about how boring her missions have been lately.

"I go back into active duty tomorrow!" He's smiling from ear to ear, but when he caught Ino glare, he quickly added. "Not that it hasn't been fun training with you, but the time between sessions was getting really boring. I like to stay busy."

Ino smiled. 'That makes sense, because he has always been hyperactive. I don't think that he could stand to sit still for more than a few minutes, it must be difficult for him to sleep at night.'

"Hey Ino, you alright"

She snapped back to reality. "Sorry, what?"

"It's nothing, you just spaced out for a minute. Anyway, since you mastered tree climbing and have gotten water walking down, I think that it's time to test your chakra control."

"How do I do that?"

He smiled a fox-like grin. "Easy, you fight a match over water, but it's not going to happen just yet because you can't use your family jutsu over water or your body will sink and you could drowned."

"Then what the hell am I suppose to use? It's not like I know much else, that's why I came to you!" He just continued to smile. "Does that mean that you're finally going to teach me a jutsu?"

"The ones I use require a lot of chakra and chakra control. While you may have the control, you have nowhere near enough power. Let me think for a minute, there has to be something that I can teach you to use." He walks over to a tree and sits with his back against the trunk and his eyes closed. 'Come on think damn it! There has to be something.'

'WHY NOT THIS ONE KIT?'

'Are you nuts? She'd kill me for teaching her his jutsu.'

'YOU WERE CONSIDERING IT BEFORE I SAID ANYTHING. TELL HER THE REASON WHY AND SHE MIGHT NOT GET AS MAD. AT MOST SHE'LL BEAT YOU TO A PULP, AND I CAN HEAL THAT.

The fox laughs sadistically. "You're going to be watching aren't you? I'll bet you'll be laughing the whole damn time."

'OF COURSE I AM KIT, IT'S VERY RARE THAT I GET ANY ENTERTAINMENT IN MY PRISON.'

Naruto sighed. 'I suppose it's worth a shot. Enjoy the show furball.' He opened his eyes and stood up. "I think I know the perfect one." His hands move quickly through a set of hand signs. He then moves one hand up to his mouth. "Katon: Hosenka no Jutsu." He blows towards his hand and a fireball erupts from the other side. It keeps going until it hits one of the wooden posts and explodes, but doesn't set it on fire.

Ino stood with her eyes wide. "That's… that's his jutsu."

"Yes it is. Even without the Sharingan, if you see it enough, anyone can copy it. Now the thief will know what it like to be stolen from."

He braced himself for the beating of his life, but it never came. "If you hate him so much, why didn't you just kill him? And don't give me that bullshit about Sakura not wanting you to."

"That is the reason! I promised Sakura I would try to bring him back alive and I never break my promises. The only way one of my promises would go unfulfilled is if I had died. Had Orochimaru had taken his body, then yes I would have killed him, but I still would have brought back his body."

"How can you possibly keep all of your promises?"

"I don't make promises I can't keep."

'That makes sense, I suppose.' She sighed. "Could you show me the hand signs again, but a little slower?" He showed her at half of his normal speed until she was sure she had gotten the signs memorized.

"We'll do the test in two months, until then be sure to practice all three things, especially the this one. It will help increase your chakra reserves."

"Okay! I'll see you in two days if neither of us have a mission. Thanks again Naruto."

"It's my pleasure. See you around Ino." Ino left the training ground and Naruto decide against his normal training routine. Instead he went straight home to rest up for the next day.

---------------------------

Tsunade knew that this was going to happen even before the blonde genin start shouting. The doors to her office burst inwards with such force that they left dents in the walls. "What the hell is the deal with the D-rank mission Baa-san?!"

Tsunade starts rubbing her temples. "Naruto, could you please be quieter? As for the mission, you're still technically a genin so I can't assign you anything higher."

"I trained with Ero-sennin for over two years, that's gotta count for something."

"It does. It means that when the chunin exam is held in six months, that you'll pass with flying colors. Until then you have to do D-rank missions because you're not on a team and have no jonin sensei. The only reason Lee goes outside the village is because Gai asks for his help on every mission except for A and S-ranks."

Naruto's anger fades surprisingly quickly and he smiles. "Thanks Baa-san, you just gave me an idea." He runs out into the hall waving.

She put her hand to her head. 'Please don't let it be what I think it is.'

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Hosenka no Jutsu- Phoenix Flower Jutsu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu- Shadow Clone (Copy, Replication, doppelganger etc.) Technique