A/N: Ah, my mistake Befread. It's fixed now.
Naruto got up very early, while it was still pitch black outside. He let out a long yawn, and then rubbed his eyes, blinking away the blur as he looked at the clock on the wall. It was four o'clock, which surprised him at first, but then he remembered that they had gone to sleep very early the night before, so that would explain why he was up so early.
He looked over at Ino, who was still fast asleep in the bed. Since he didn't want to wake her, he got up as quietly as possible, and slipped into the bathroom. Since they hadn't bought any soap, shampoo, or towels, he had to use all of the supplies that the hotel provided when he took his shower. He felt very clean as he got out of the shower since he had been unable to take one for the past few days.
Ino's eyes fluttered open to see the dark ceiling above her. She glanced at the window, which revealed that it was still dark outside. As she sat up she stretched and yawned, thinking about where Naruto might have been as she noticed his sleeping bag was empty. She then got her answer as she looked towards the bathroom and Naruto walked out in just a towel. His torso was quite a bit more muscular than she would've thought, and his stomach was covered in what was very close to a six-pack.
She made a small squealing noise as she looked away quickly and covered her eyes.
"Sorry," she said in a voice much higher than she usually used.
"Oh, umm, I thought you were still asleep," Naruto said awkwardly, as he blushed furiously and rushed to get his clothes and return back to the bathroom.
Ino giggled a little bit at the situation, but nonetheless got out of the bed and waited for Naruto to get done so she could get a shower. When he walked out of the bathroom this time, he had his new black suit on, covering his entire body, but had the mask part pulled down around his neck for the moment.
"Well, that's much better," Ino said, giggling.
"Don't act like you didn't like it," Naruto said in a mock-conceited voice.
"Whatever. In your dreams," Ino replied, winking at him jokingly as she passed him on her way into the bathroom.
Naruto shook his head, grinning, as he walked to get the rest of his clothes and Ino shut the bathroom door behind her. He strapped his katana to his back, slipped on his flak jacket, and wrapped the utility belt around his waist, buckling it near his right hip. He pulled up the mask part to cover his face, and proceeded to pack up his sleeping back.
"Sorry to disappoint, but I'm a little more clothed than you were," Ino joked as the bathroom door opened.
"Oh darn," Naruto replied jokingly, as he turned around to see her fully clothed.
"So, are you ready to go?" Naruto asked, his voice switching to a more serious tone.
"Ready when you are," Ino replied, strapping her kunai holster around her right thigh.
"Well, then let's head out. We're lucky that we still haven't run into any more hunter-nin. I say we can run for a good bit of time, and around noon or so, we can stop to eat and then train, if that sounds good to you," Naruto explained.
"Yeah, I did say I'd start training you today. Well, I'm fine with that plan," Ino said, smiling.
"Great. Let's get going," Naruto said.
He grabbed the key and the rucksack, and they went down to the lobby, where they checked out. The cashier told them to have a great day as they left and headed east. For the first hour or so of running, they didn't talk to each other much. Naruto decided to break the silence, as it was starting to make him a little uncomfortable.
"So, can you teach me anything about the theory of medical ninjutsu?" he asked.
"Sure. Medical ninjutsu, above all, takes a very precise amount of chakra control. The user has to be able to locate the injury, and focus the exact amount of chakra around that exact point, and the chakra will help to fill the wound. Basically, all you have to learn is a good amount of chakra control, and the ability to excrete that chakra from your hands. The most common and useful medical technique that I know is the Mystical Palm Technique," Ino explained.
"Oh…great," Naruto let out with a sigh. "I suck at chakra control."
"I don't know about that. I think you may just be better than you think. That Rasengan of yours, Tsunade-sama has told me about it. Apparently Jiraiya-san told her that it takes a good bit of chakra control, bringing together a necessary amount of chakra to a focused point. That's how medical ninjutsu works, but just to a much higher precision. You judge the severity of the injury, match the amount of chakra you need to use to that severity, and then bring it out and focus it to the point of the injury."
"So, in your case, you are constantly healing something that is constantly deteriorating. So, we have to figure out ahead of time just how severe the injury would be, and then figure out how much chakra would be necessary to continuously heal it. Now, cells getting cut is a very serious injury, so I would assume that you would have to continue using up a rather large amount of chakra," Ino continued, shooting Naruto a nervous glance, having just informed him that it might not be possible to do what he wants to do.
"It's okay. One of my strongest points is that I have a very large amount of chakra, so running out won't be a problem unless I would have to use the Wind Rasengan multiple times," Naruto said, shrugging off what would be a pretty big problem for most people.
"Okay, then that's good. And obviously, the injury is in your wrist cells. We already know that. So I just need to teach you how to channel the right kind of chakra into your hands, the chakra control, and the amount of chakra to release. So, hopefully, it won't take long," Ino explained with a smile.
That was definitely good news. Naruto didn't want to have to spend too much time learning the medical ninjutsu since he also wanted to learn another type of elemental chakra manipulation. They continued running for another hour or so until they reached a clearing.
"Ah, this looks like a good place to train for a while," Naruto said, stopping.
Ino stopped beside him as he dropped the rucksack to the ground. But then he seemed to tense up randomly, and Ino noticed his hand reaching for his katana.
"What's wro-," she started, but his hand covered up her mouth, muffling the rest of the word.
He removed his hand again, shushing her to make sure she didn't say anything again. He slowly drew the katana from its sheath to make sure it didn't make a sound. Ino was wondering why he was doing this. She hadn't heard anything or noticed any movement, but Naruto was acting like there was someone or something around them. Then, she heard it; a very faint rustling to her left. She quickly drew a kunai and threw it in that direction. She heard it go through the leaves, but nothing else. She didn't hear a thunk as if it hit something, or a clanging of metal as if it were deflected. That was strange.
"What is that?" she whispered to Naruto, pointing at a weird-looking clay bug on the ground.
"Crap!" he exclaimed, grabbing her around the waist with his free arm and leaping away from the spot, kicking the rucksack away as well.
Apparently, she had asked at precisely the right time. As she was jerked away from the clay bug, it exploded. She felt a little heat on her back, but luckily no pain came along with it, so they narrowly avoided the explosion. They skidded to a stop, and she saw Naruto looked confused but determined at the same time.
"I thought you were dead," he yelled out to nowhere in particular.
Ino was thoroughly confused. Who was Naruto yelling at, and how did he know that the bug was going to explode? Then, he saw a blonde-headed person walking out. He had his hair tied in a pony tail and bangs covering his left eye. She did, however, recognize the cloak he was wearing. The black cloak with red clouds on it symbolized that the person was from Akatsuki.
"While you and Sharingan Kakashi did give me quite a bit of trouble, you weren't able to kill me," Deidara said.
"Now, I would've never expected the Leaf Village to let you go out alone with some weakling like that. They're practically begging you to get captured," Deidara said, an evil grin on his face.
Naruto didn't bother explaining the situation. He leapt at Deidara, swinging his katana at him. He dodged, but Naruto pumped wind chakra into the blade, extending it. The wind chakra reached Deidara, leaving a cut in his stomach. But then the body turned white. Naruto swore under his breath. It was just a clone. Now he had no idea where Deidara was, but Deidara knew where they were.
He then noticed another white bug near him, and leapt away from it, avoiding the ensuing explosion. He landed on a tree branch, and looked around. He no longer had any idea where Ino was, and still had no idea where Deidara was. This wasn't good at all. He then heard another rustling in the leaves, and leapt towards the spot, not attacking yet in case it was Ino. But it wasn't. It was Deidara. So he swung his katana at him again. This time, Deidara ducked, knowing that Naruto could extend the blade with wind chakra. He then kicked at Naruto's hand, knocking the katana away.
He then spun and punched Naruto in the stomach. Naruto was about to dodge, but he then noticed Ino in a branch above him out of the corner of his eye. He took the punch, but then grabbed Deidara by the wrist, and Ino jumped from the branch, kicking at Deidara's face. Deidara was able to bend backwards to avoid the kick, and then kicked Naruto's elbow, forcing him to let go of him.
He jumped back, reaching into the case on his waist for more clay. Naruto quickly formed the cross tiger seal.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," he said, and a clone appeared next to him.
He reached back his hand, and starting gathering chakra, letting the clone keep it in the form of a sphere.
"Don't think the same technique will work on me this time," Deidara said, a smirk on his face.
Naruto ignored him and leapt toward him when the Rasengan was done forming, plunging his hand towards Deidara. Deidara acted quickly, taking out his hand and forming a clay wall. The Rasengan plunged into the wall, but it was too thick, and it didn't reach all the way through. What was worse is that it made it deep enough that Naruto's hand partially went into it, and the clay formed tightly around Naruto's hand. He tried to jerk it out, but wasn't able to.
"NARUTO!" Ino yelled out in fright.
Naruto turned to see Deidara coming at him, his foot aimed at his face. Naruto tried again to jerk his hand out of the clay, but to no avail. Deidara's foot connected with his face, and a shooting pain erupted in his cheek. He felt his feet leave the tree branch, and heard a sickening crack somewhere around his elbow as his body was sent flying, but was kept in place by the hand that was still stuck in the clay. He was now hanging limply from the clay wall with a bloody nose and a broken arm.
"Now, this is useful. I'll be rewarded greatly within Akatsuki for bringing in the infamous Kyuubi, even though I wasn't even assigned to him," Deidara said menacingly from a tree branch behind Naruto.
Ino leapt toward Deidara, aiming a quick punch at his face, which he easily dodged. She then leapt back a few feet to dodge a kick. She then threw a fistful of hairs at the space in between them, and slammed her hands on the branch, and pumped chakra into her hair.
"What the-" Deidara exclaimed as he noticed he could no longer move.
Ino had used the same trick she had used against Sakura in the Chuunin exam. She pumped chakra through her hair that trapped Deidara, not letting him move from his spot. Now she formed the strange seal and prepared to use Shintenshin no Jutsu.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter," Deidara muttered, forming half of the ram hand seal with his right hand.
Ino looked around as to why he did this, and saw it just in time; another clay bug was right next to her. She quickly stopped pumping chakra into her hair and leapt away, barely avoiding the explosion. Then clay hit her in the back, forcing her into a tree. She noticed she couldn't move. Deidara had used clay to pin her to the tree.
"Well, now I have you both captured. However, unfortunately for you, I don't need you to be alive," Deidara told Ino menacingly, walking toward her with a kunai in his hand.