A/N: Yay! This reached 20,000 hits! (sighs) man... I've been so swamped lately... Due to fact I'm busy this is the last update of the year... not much to say about this year but 2015 will be a big year for me... why? It's my 10th Anniversary... anyways enjoy!

Chapter 9: More Training

In the Leaf Village Lee continued his training. Of course it was mostly just him slamming into rocks.

"He's not getting it…" muttered Neji.

"You're not getting it…" said Ranko.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Neji.

Ranko ignored him.

Meanwhile in the land of waves. Kakashi was sitting up on his own, still recovering the members of his team were getting ready for the day.

"Wait…" said Kakashi, "Before you go, there's something I need to tell you…"

"What?" asked Naruto.

"I think Zabuza is still alive." Said Kakashi.

"What?" asked Sasuke.

"You're kidding!" yelled Naruto.

Hinata said nothing.

"Tell me how did the Hunter Ninja kill him?" asked Kakashi.

"With Senbon…" said Hinata her eyes winded.

"What's wrong?" asked Naruto.

"It's very midcult to kill with Senbon needles." Explained Kakashi, "He wanted to make it look like Zabuza was dead…"

"You think it would be fine…" said Hinata.

"I think so…" said Kakashi.

Hinata nodded, as she already perfected the tree climbing exercises she had to protect Tazuna until the rest were ready.

Back in the village. Lee was still being slammed by the boulder.

"All right here goes!" he yelled.

That was when he poked it very hard, part of it went flying but it didn't completely shatter.

"We're going to need another boulder!" Ranko called out.

Neji paid little attention while Tenten was a little impressed.

"You're seriously impressed?" asked Neji.

"It much better than when I was training." Said Ryoga as he was leaving to get another boulder.

Back in Wave, Naruto and Sasuke continued they're training.

Sasuke fell off again.

"Hey you want to make things interesting?" asked Naruto.

"How so…" said Sasuke.

"Combine this with training your Houndour." Said Naruto.

"No…" said Sasuke, "He's just going to chase me into a tree."

"I know… but I think it will work…" said Naruto.

Sasuke just stared at Naruto.

Meanwhile at the bridge, Hinata did guard duty… but there were many layers to the guard duty.

She appeared to be playing with her Eevee.

"Are you seriously doing that?" asked Tazuna taking a break.

As he approached her, he jumped back, it was her eyes. Turned out she had her Byakugan activated.

"Oh sorry I startled you…" said Hinata.

"What was wrong withy your eyes?" asked Tazuna.

"Well I'm a Hyuga…" said Hinata.

Tazuna blinked then he remembered stories he heard.

"Oh your from that clan with the crazy eyes…" he said.

"Yes…" sighed Hinata with a sweat drop.

"Oh think I get your playing with your Pokémon to make it seemed like that your not paying attention but you are…" said Tazuna.

"Please don't ay that out loud…" said Hinata.

Tazuna froze realizing he just made a mistake.

"I think it's fine, but you shouldn't reveal things…" said Hinata.

"I won't bring it up again…" said Tazuna.

"It's okay… I should have informed you much earlier…" said Hinata.

Tazuna nodded.

Back with Naruto and Sasuke they needed to take a break.

"Man Hinata is lucky…" sighed Naruto.

"Yeah…" agreed Sasuke.

Both of them were quiet, they both knew the reasons why she was lucky.

Sasuke had no one, and Ash chose to be a trainer rather than a ninja.

"I was wondering something…" said Naruto, "Were any of the Route Missions available?"

"Route Missions" were special missions where ninjas were guard a point at a League Approved route in order to make sure bandits and Missing Ninja didn't' interfere with people's Pokémon journeys.

"Wait... Route Missions?" asked Sasuke.

"I think Mom and Ash told me about them once." Said Naruto, "I know Dad was on a Route Mission when he met mom and saved her…"

"So are they C Ranked?" asked Sasuke.

"I have no idea." Said Naruto.

"Maybe we should ask about them soon." Said Sasuke.

"Yeah." Agreed Naruto.

"So have you ever been out there?" asked Sasuke.

"Yeah." Said Naruto, "Mom and Pro. Oak once took me on a trip to an island that Ash happened to go to during that time…"

"So what was it like?" asked Sasuke.

"Fun… but I don't want to talk about what happened…" said Naruto.

"Why?" asked Sasuke.

"Just something embarrassing." Said Naruto brushing it off.

Sasuke shrugged, "Want to get back to training."

"Sure." Said Naruto.

They managed to get to the top of the tree by the need of the day and managed to hobble off to Tazuna's house.

They joined in on dinner. During it, Inari, Tazuna's grandson was grumpy.

"I don't know if I'm almost done yet…" said Naruto laughing a little, "But I think I am…"

"What good it will do!" yelled Inari who started tearing up, "You're just going to die"!

"What?" asked Naruto.

"None of this matters Gato is just going to kill you! And you don't even care." Said Inari, "All of this hard work is just going to be for nothing! And you don't care all you do is smile."

Naruto was silent.

"Are you really just going to sit there and cry?" asked Naruto, "You're nothing but a whiney little baby."

Hinata slammed her hand down on the table.

"Will everyone just clam down!" she yelled, then blushed.

Inari ran out of the room.

"Did something happen to Inari?" asked Hinata.

Tazuna sighed and told the story about Inari's step father and how he saved the town on time. However when Gato took over he was killed (in a rather horrific matter to boot) and made example of.

Everyone was quiet during the story.

"Way to go Naruto you just yelled at a kid who has issues." Said Sasuke.

"Everyone has issues." Sighed Naruto.

His teammates were quiet when he said that… they knew it was true.

That night at the Kazama-Ketchum household, Ash was cleaning up dishes.

"How is training with Lee going?" asked Ash.

"Neji's being a jerk like usual." Said Ranko.

"What's Neji's problem?" asked Ryoga.

"It's complicated…" said both Ash and Ranko.

"I see…" said Ryoga, "Oh have you heard word from the Hokage?"

"Not yet…" said Ash and Ranko.

Ryoga sighed… but at least it wasn't that bad this time… that was for sure…

Next Time: Training winds down... as it does Naruto has a very important conversation with a person... what will happen? Find out next time!