Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

Warning: I've never written an actual fight scene before so... I'm just going to apologize beforehand

Chapter 7: The First Day

A week later:

Light flooded through the closed window of the simple room. The early morning sun brought light into the room due to the shades being carelessly left open. The room consisted simply of a closet, a mirror, a bookcase, and a bed, just the simplest commodities for a legend in the making. The floor was an absolute mess however, clothes were thrown carelessly on the ground, a pile of empty ramen cups were in the corner, and scrolls were left half-read on the floor. Lying on the bed in a mess of sheets was a young boy with wild blonde hair and fox-whiskers on his cheeks.

The light in the room finally made Naruto lazily open his eyes. His vision was hazy from his deep sleep as he looked around in his surroundings. Instead of being disgusted by the mess, the boy just smiled, finding solace in the chaos around him. Once his vision had been rid of the sleepy haze, he looked through the window at the beautiful weather. It was sunny with not a cloud in sight, the temperature was neither hot nor cold, and birds were singing songs of love to their mates. It was a perfect day to start training.

'Oh shit,' he thought as he struggled to tangle himself out of the mess that was his covers. Once he had escaped from the clutches of his bed, he quickly went to get dressed. He opened the door of the room to grab the stack of clean clothes for the day that were invariably placed in front of his door every day for the past week. Today, it was black ANBU style pants that had an orange stripe down the pant leg, a mesh shirt, a black jacket of tough material, and blue gloves. He quickly put on his clothes, falling only once while putting on his pants due to rushing, and left the room.

He rushed to the dining room where he had all of his meals, save for the ramen that he sneaks into his room. The large hallways were uncharacteristically quiet, with no sign of the rambunctious members of Akatsuki anywhere. Not that Naruto minded, his mind was still groggy from sleep and didn't feel like dealing with their shenanigans for the time being. Upon entering the dining room with the incredibly long table, Naruto noticed the lack of presence of any member from the criminal organization. He made his way to his usual spot at the table and found both breakfast and a note on his placemat.

He read the note:

"Eat this quickly and make your way to the training grounds we showed you yesterday, we are waiting for you. Try to come quickly, knowing the two idiots, they'll start fighting if they just keep waiting and I'd rather not have another training field destroyed. –Izumi"

Naruto debated on throwing the note away after he was done with it, but since it was from Izumi, he kept it. Naruto followed her orders and after saying grace, ate the large amount of rice and fish on the plate at a pace that would be considered disgusting if anybody else saw it. When done, he put his plate in the sink in the kitchen that was directly adjacent to the dining room. The last time that he had tried to leave his plate on the table, Konan threatened to castrate him.

'I'll never let her see my room,' the boy thought, in fear of losing his gonads.

He quickly made his way to the training grounds, not getting lost in the large and complex base owned by the Akatsuki. He finally got to the door that led to the outside training grounds after about five minutes. He opened the door up, to reveal a view of a large forest. In the center of the forest was a small clearing of open grass that had a pond in the center.

Standing in the center of the pond as if it were perfectly normal were all of the members of Akatsuki . When they noticed their new apprentice's presence, they simultaneously turned. Naruto smiled at the sight of his new family. It was a true smile that could brighten up the day of anyone, and it did. All of the members smiled back, except for Konan, she held a softer expression though. At the sight of Izumi smiling, Naruto blushed a bit and rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Kisame snickered at this, and chalked this up to a long list of such occurrences in the past week. He couldn't help but make fun of Izumi for it, "Izumi, you're already wanted for the murder of your clan, now we'll have to add stealing to your list of crimes," he said in a sarcastic tone.

Naruto cocked his head, not quite getting at what Kisame was hinting at.

Izumi while appreciating the joke, did not want to be bested by her disciple in messing with others, "At least I don't get off on fish, geez Kisame, did your mom have sex with a fucking shark?" Kisame had no response to this, as he had wondered the same thing. He knew he had been bested by her and shut up as a sign of submission.

Pain decided to start the long day of training before they got sidetracked like they always did. He coughed loudly, getting everyone's attention, "Now, Naruto we are about to start your first day of training. We will not all train you today. You're not ready to study the more complicated stuff until we get you up to snuff in the basics, such as your conditioning, chakra control, taijutsu, and evasion. Therefore, Kakuzu will work with you all morning on conditioning, after lunch I will work on your taijutsu for two hours, after that Deidara will handle your chakra control, and Izumi will work on your chakra control after dinner," Pain explained.

Naruto nodded, excited to finally get to training. He had been forced to stay in bed for the five days after Kurama had been released from him, as he had only been cleared to move yesterday. Zetsu, the medic of the criminal organization, had said that his body had taken a beating from the extraction process. That, along with the fact that his abnormally fast healing rate was lessened without the Kyuubi helping his Uzumaki blood, caused it to take five days to heal instead of only one.

All of the members of Akatsuki vanished into the trees in order to watch their new student's first day, while at the same time being out of the way. Only Kakuzu remained. Naruto was nervous, he knew he had ridiculous stamina, but the idea of being put through the ringer by such advanced shinobi made him sweat a bit.

"Well I'm going to start immediately since time is money not acquired from missions we could be doing right now. I'm only going to tell you that I'm going to be focusing on developing both your speed and stamina. Let's do a short warm up of ten laps around the forest and if you don't go fast enough for my liking I will whip you," Kakuzu said with a scary look in his eyes.

He then went up to the young boy with a seal in his hand and placed it on the boy's stomach. "So you can't use chakra to help you in this," Kakuzu explained briefly. In a voice that left no questions, he said, "Now go."

A distance away Kisame heard the warm up for the boy and felt sympathetic, most experienced jonin couldn't do what Kakuzu planned. The forest was around a mile and a half in perimeter. He looked over to Izumi, who was standing on the branch next to him and smirked, "This could get pretty kinky," Kisame said, "taking notes Izumi?" She only rolled her eyes in response.

Naruto set off at a pretty swift pace in order to not feel the sting of those cords. He only made it three hundred meters before he felt a sharp pain sting his shoulder. It made him wince at the pain. He picked it up another notch. This time, he made it four hundred meters before he felt the pain in his other shoulder.

This process continued until Naruto realized that Kakuzu wanted him to run at a full sprint. Even after that, the second that he would slow down by a slight margin, Kakuzu would whip him like a horse to make him go back to his fastest speed.

What made it worse was the fact that there were pitfalls and traps hidden on the perimeter of the forest. Naruto set off about half of them and would have to escape without using his chakra. All the while, Kakuzu would whip him, and say, "You just died on the battlefield." Naruto just grit his teeth and kept going.

Naruto's breathing grew haggard after the first lap. After the second lap, his legs burned like acid. By the third lap, Naruto had no energy left.

Kakuzu was growing harsher in his treatment of Naruto. He would be quicker to use the whip and his tone of voice grew incredibly annoyed.

Finally by the seventh lap, when Naruto's sprint was barely faster than a walking pace, Kakuzu had enough, "Why am I even wasting time on you, if a competent shinobi attacked you, you 'd have died a thousand times by now, we'll just stop here on the conditioning before you waste more of my time," Kakuzu said with a sigh.

Naruto just collapsed. Even with his massive stamina, he could barely get enough air. His muscles were on fire and his vision was foggy. This was the most tired he had ever felt. But more than that, he felt frustrated. He saw the disappointed look in his teacher's eyes and was mad. To sprint for ten laps around the forest was way too unreasonable!

Those were his last thoughts before he passed out.

Naruto opened his eyes to find himself looking at a ceiling. It was a tall ceiling that he recognized. He was on a couch and he turned his head to see the dining table with all of the members eating. 'Someone must have brought me here,' the blonde thought.

After much struggle, Naruto got up from the couch and walked to his spot at the table. No one acknowledged that he had came to the table and suddenly felt lonely. 'They must be mad at me for failing their expectations this morning, well it's not like they should have expected anything from me in the first place. I wasn't even that strong before, and now I don't even have the Kyuubi in me,' Naruto thought bitterly.

Naruto quickly ate his lunch that consisted of many sandwiches and went back to the training ground to await his next sensei. Naruto sat down in the grass and looked up at the clouds as they rolled by. The gentle breeze mixed with the warm sun made him feel at peace as he sat there. His vision however, was soon swallowed up by black and red. Pain was standing over Naruto in his Akatsuki cloak.

"You ready?" asked the orange haired man.

Naruto sat up with a groan and sighed, "I guess."

"I am going to be teaching you a taijutsu style called the snake strike," explained the man.

Naruto shivered, he had a strong dislike for snakes. The last experience he had with them involved a slightly pedophilic individual that scarred his memories. "But Ero Pain, I hate snakes," the blonde complained.

Pain hit the boy in the head for his use of Pain's least favorite nickname.

"The snake strike style doesn't actually involve snakes. This style involves fast, precise strikes to vital areas. It's called the snake strike because like a poisonous snake, it only takes one attack to kill," Pain explained. Naruto became excited because of how badass it sounded.

"This is why we have you conditioning for speed, so that you can make it more effective. Remember, if a fight turns into a game of one-upmanship you are doing it wrong. It is best to be like a true ninja and go for the kill before the opponent has time to respond," Pain continued to explain. Naruto's mood suddenly shifted to depression at the mention of the earlier conditioning. Pain noticed this but decided to ignore it.

"Now I'm going to teach you the katas for this technique and we'll get into a quick spar to test how well you learned it," to this, Naruto nodded hesitantly.

Pain began to show the basic techniques of the taijutsu style. As Pain had said, Naruto found that the moves needed to be done quickly in order to be effective. There was very little power in each strike, but the lethalness more than made up for it. Instead of each move setting up for one big moment to win in a fight like Naruto's style, each individual strike had intent to kill.

Naruto learned some of the basic strikes that consisted of one or two kicks and hand strikes to the heart, eyes, head, neck, and groin. Pain slowly corrected his form to the point where it was perfect. He painstakingly corrected each small error in positioning and execution. The smallest error and Naruto would have to redo it, until Pain was satisfied. The hand strikes were also weird for Naruto. Instead of using fists to strike, the snake strike used the fingers outstretched like a blade.

After about an hour of practicing technique, Pain decided Naruto should use it in a spar. The two stood opposite of each other in the clearing, ready to spar. Naruto was nervous, he knew he was outclassed and new to this style, he just hoped he would get at least a good strike on the man.

"Hajime," Pain said.

Naruto jumped forward, jabbing at Pain's heart. Pain swept the strike aside. Naruto went for another jab aiming for the eyes. Pain ducked under the strike and sent him flying with a punch to the stomach. Naruto, seeing that he was flying towards a tree, used the tree as a spring board and flew back towards his combatant. He aimed a strike at Pain's throat, only to be grabbed by the wrist and thrown to the ground.

Naruto heard a crack and felt massive pain in his ribs. He gritted his teeth and launched a kick from the ground at the orange haired man. Pain just grabbed his foot and threw him. Naruto flew into a tree with a loud thunk! Naruto's breath got knocked out of him, his breathing was heavy. He got up and ran at the man again, launching a strike at his heart, willing for his fingers to make contact with the man. Pain just sidestepped the attack and launched a kick at the boy's knees. Naruto managed to jump in time to avoid it, only to be sent flying with a punch.

He got up and charged at the man, sending three swift strikes at his eyes, heart and groin. All three were dodged. Naruto launched himself in a flying kick aimed towards Pain's head. Pain ducked letting Naruto fly over his head. In an act of acrobatics, Naruto contorted mid air and sent a strike to the back of Pain's neck. Pain did a spinning kick aimed at Naruto's chest that connected, sending the air out of his lungs in a huff. In the air, Naruto used his fall to deliver an axe kick at Pain's head. He sidestepped, letting Naruto kick through air. Pain then turned, and kicked the boy, who landed across the clearing.

Naruto's movements were slow, his muscles fatigued. Naruto was bruised and battered. He was in a heap on the soft ground and he didn't want to get up. That is, until he remembered the calm expression that Pain had on his face, as if it was just a walk in the park. Naruto never expected to win, but he didn't think he would be that disrespected. Red engulfed Naruto's vision as he got up through sheer effort. He was huffing and heaving but he didn't care.

He ran at Pain one more time, and sent punch after punch towards the man, not caring where it hit, only that it made contact. He got even more frustrated when Pain dodged them all. Naruto sent a punch with all of his power towards his face. Pain pivoted in order to get behind the attack and sent a chop to Naruto's neck. It connected.

Naruto became unable to move as he lied on the ground with Pain over top of him. Pain had a look of disapproval on his face. He just sighed, "You would have lasted longer if you stuck with the snake strike until the end. Instead you lasted," he took a look at his clock, "two minutes and thirteen seconds, I expected better."

He shook his head and walked away saying, "Deidara will come in fifteen minutes, by that time you should be able to move again."

Naruto was frustrated. He gritted his teeth, and swore. This poor job he had been doing just proved the fact that he had failed being a ninja multiple times for a reason. He didn't know why they didn't just get rid of him. Now that he didn't have the Kyuubi, he had no ninja skills worth mentioning. He didn't have the basics down, and he didn't have much potential.

'I still have to do this though, I promised that I would do everything possible for the Akatsuki, and I don't back down on a promise,' the boy thought to himself.

True to Pain's word, by the time that Deidara came, Naruto became able to move again. He heard his joints pop and his muscles burnt. There was a sharp pain in his ribs that didn't go away since the spar with Pain. His skin was already black and blue. He didn't want to see what it looked like underneath his shirt where he suffered the most abuse from Pain and Kakuzu. Overall, he was able to move, but barely.

Naruto watched as Deidara stuck a hand in a pouch, forming clay in his hands. Deidara looked at Naruto with a sadistic grin, "Run," he said. Naruto saw where this was going and jumped into the trees, ignoring the acidic feeling in his limbs.

Naruto jumped, tree to tree. His breathing haggard. Escape. He had to escape. His muscles burning, screaming at him to stop. He ignored that feeling in favor of the fear of the pain that would come from his sensei. Adrenaline coursed through his veins. His legs pumped, chakra being allocated to them to get away. Away from the explosions he knew would come.

And come they did.

Boom!

An explosion came from Naruto's left, about ten meters away. Naruto almost slipped of the branch he was on due to the explosion, but his chakra held him on. He picked up his speed. His limbs protested. Naruto's heart pounded in his chest. His lungs worked in overdrive. But he had to move. Had to escape.

Boom! An explosion to his right.

Boom! An explosion came behind him. This time it was closer. Naruto flinched and looked behind him.

He turned back to the front, only to be met with the sight of a white clay bird. Naruto quickly made his signature hand sign, "Kagebunshin no Jutsu," he yelled. Another identical copy of Naruto appeared next to the original and pushed the blonde to the side.

Naruto saw a flash of white. Boom! The bird exploded. The evasive maneuver didn't work as Naruto still got caught in the explosion.

Naruto opened his eyes to see the sunlight shining through the forest canopy above him. His ears were ringing from the explosion. His vision was fuzzy. His heart beat was still rapid. Adrenaline pumped through his veins, making his mind rush a mile a minute. His body was in pain and he had no strength left. He wanted to just lay there. No training he had ever done had been this intense.

But, the threat of danger was still looming. Through sheer force of will, Naruto got up and climbed the tree next to him. Every movement caused excruciating pain. But, he had to hurry, more of those blasted clay demons could come any second, and he couldn't run any more.

When he finally got to a branch, he hid his presence, the same way that he had hidden from the Konoha ANBU after a prank. He willed his breathing to slow. He hid himself in the shadows.

He only had to stay hidden from that sadistic bastard for about an hour before the evasion exercise would finish. He smiled knowing that the blonde Akatsuki member would never find him. Hiding was his only ninja skill that he was confident no one could match him in. He had used it many times to escape punishment for his pranks in the village.

He looked at the sun and felt its warmth. The cool breeze rustled the leaves on the branch that he was sitting in. He felt relaxed for the first time since his spar with Pain. He sighed in relief, closing his eyes as he leaned his head against the trunk of the tree.

A few moments later he opened his eyes. On the branch was a centipede. Except it was pure white. And glowing.

"fu-"

He never finished that sentence.

Chapter 7 End

A/N: Well I hope that wasn't too bad of an attempt. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I figured that Naruto's first day of training should be bad since he doesn't really know the basics and some of his stamina from the Kyuubi would be gone. If you think his teachers are being a bit harsh, it's because they are. But, there's a reason for that, which will be explained next chapter, hopefully. On another note, a fairly decent sized contradiction was pointed out to me (very respectfully) in the story by a reviewer. In the first chapter Kisame made a reference to Zetsu being able to heal Naruto if he rips his leg off during the kidnapping. This is a contradiction for two reasons, first, Naruto was under the genjutsu at the time and since I explained that all of the events in the genjutsu played out according to Naruto's preexisting knowledge and there is no way for him to know about Zetsu and therefore Kisame shouldn't have been able to say that, and second, I didn't even originally make Zetsu a member of Akatsuki because I hate his guts. In this chapter, I rectified the second part of this conundrum by making Zetsu a medic, which allows me to ignore him as a character while still fixing the mistake. I'm sorry though I couldn't come up with anything to fix the first problem that sounded reasonable. So I'm probably going to edit the first chapter eventually to change that line. I hope the slip up there doesn't affect the overall enjoyment of the story. To the reviewer who pointed that out, thank you. And if anybody else sees any glaring contradictions please let me know so I can fix them. Sorry for the word wall here and lack of dialogue in the chapter. Thanks for reading!