"Anyways," he said once he regained his mental composure, "when I was training with Kakashi, we had Yamato to help because he was able to suppress the Kyuubi's chakra. But obviously he isn't here, though I still have a solution. I've recently noticed that I've been more able of containing the Kyuubi's killer intent and chakra once it starts to leak, but it takes some trouble and time. So if you see any red chakra starting to surround any of me or feel any killer intent, you need to get under some kind of shelter as soon as possible. Can you promise me you'll do that?"
"Of course," Ino said, nodding with a very serious look on her face.
"Thank you. Then I can get started with training once we're done," Naruto said, nodding with a smile.
They finished eating in a comfortable silence. The fish was still good, but Naruto could tell it was going to start getting old after a while. He sighed, hoping that he and Ino would be ready to take on Orochimaru and Sasuke somewhat soon. While he could eat ramen every day of his life, fish was not the same way.
"Okay," Naruto said, standing up as he finished eating. "Time for training!"
Ino had finished as well, and couldn't help laughing at the wide grin plastered on his face that accompanied his thoughts of training.
'This guy really loves to train, doesn't he?' Ino thought as he made the cross-tiger seal and the area was suddenly full of blondes dressed in black suits and dark gray flak jackets.
Ino stood up and decided to get started on her training as well. Meanwhile, Naruto opened one of his water scrolls and read over the beginning. He nodded along as he read, and soon rolled it up and went to work.
'So I was wrong in thinking that I needed to make the leaf wet. That seems to be very advanced training in trying to make water appear just from the moisture of the air. To start I have to pull water from a water source and make it float in the air.' Naruto summed up in his head after reading.
"Hey Ino, I'll be right back. I gotta go get some water from the river," Naruto said.
He and some of his clones picked up all the pots, pans, cups, and everything else they had that could be used to hold water in and they all travelled to the river. They filled up all of it with water from the river and brought it back to the campsite, setting all the containers on the ground, spaced out enough for all the clones to have a spot near one of them. They then began the training.
All of the Narutos held out their hands, and focused their minds completely on the water, trying to make it move with every fiber of their mind. Meanwhile, Ino held out her hands in the Shintenshin seal and looked at the birds that were luckily soaring around above them. She followed one with the seal, wondering how well she'd be able to control the jutsu in the air for the first time she was trying to do so. Finally, she decided to go ahead and try it.
"Shintenshin no Jutsu!" she said.
She suddenly felt an odd feeling, like she was leaving her own body, and she saw as the bird she had aimed at seemed to be getting closer. She tried with all of her might to follow the bird, for it was flying away, or just to turn her body at all. She thought she felt herself move slightly to the left, but wasn't sure if it was psychosomatic or not. As she had clearly gone way past the bird, she cancelled out the jutsu, and immediately felt herself back in her body. As she sat up, she looked around. There were still several Narutos around multiple containers of water, looking determined. She wondered how long she'd been unconscious after cancelling out the jutsu due to missing her target. She noticed that Naruto had pulled up his mask again. She wondered why, but shrugged.
She stood up, dusting off her clothes and yawning a bit. It was strange that just one miss could make her so tired. She wondered if it was because she had managed to move somewhat, or at least she thought so, which might have made the jutsu more tiring than it usually would've been. This seemed like a logical conclusion, and also made her feel better about her progress. This seemed to signify that she had indeed moved somewhat, and not just thought she did.
She looked over and saw that there were about 50 Narutos all gathered around various containers of water, all seemingly doing nothing. Although they all had their masks up, their eyes were narrowed and brows were furrowed in intense concentration. Whatever he was doing, it must be useful for something, though Ino had no clue of what.
Naruto was looking down intently at the bowl of water in front of him. The water was rippling at the moment, and, as he felt no wind, he thought this was likely the result of his training so far. It had been rippling for about a minute, but no matter what he did, thought of, or tried, it wouldn't do anything else. Finally he stood up, wiped his forehead with the back of his hand, and dispelled the clones. He instantly felt a wave of exhaustion as he looked down at the bowl of water, which was slowly stopping rippling.
"You were out for a while," Naruto said, seeing that Ino was now standing up. "I had to dispel a lot of clones to make sure I didn't lose control."
"Really?" Ino asked. "How long?"
"About an hour. I just got done training for now. I figured I could take a break," Naruto said.
"Wow. I never thought I'd see the day where you would want a break after only an hour of training," Ino said, raising an eyebrow.
"Well, the clone training does tire me out quite a bit," he said, shrugging as he picked up his sword and started swinging it around, fighting an imaginary enemy.
"That's not a break!" Ino yelled at him, laughing.
"Sure it is," Naruto said with a grin. "This stuff doesn't wear me out. It doesn't involve chakra, and this is physical training. Considering I've just been standing around doing nothing the last hour, I could use a little bit of movement," Naruto explained as if telling her the sky was blue and grass was green.
"Whatever you say," she said, rolling her eyes and returning to her training.
By the time night fell, both were lying on the ground, breathing heavily. Naruto had made a good amount of progress in training his sword technique and his Suiton control. After returning to the Suiton training, the Bunshin Training Technique showed its magic. While he had only been able to ripple the water before dispelling the clones and gaining their benefit, when he returned to the training, he was able to slosh the water around so that a lot of it spilled out of its container. By the time he dispelled the clones for the second time and then tried a little bit more just to see his progress, he was able to pull out a small drop of water and levitate it. After that, however, he was too tired to do anything, even his sword training.
Ino had made a similar amount of progress. Though her training was frequently interrupted by large breaks due to her missing her targets, on the fourth try, she had managed to make enough movement that there was no mistaking it for psychosomatic. Similar to Naruto, though, after that time, she fell to the ground, barely enough energy to roll over and look at the sky.
Soon, she realized that Naruto had come over and laid down next to her. She barely concealed her blush, and then silently chastised herself. Why would something so simple and stupid make her blush? Why was she starting to act so bashful around Naruto? It was stupid. She just ignored it and continued to look at the night sky.
They just both laid there in silence for a long time, staring at the night sky, enjoying its beauty and enjoying the peacefulness. Ino started to feel her eyelids becoming heavy, and could barely fight off the sleep that was quickly overtaking her.
"The night sky is beautiful, isn't it?" she said sleepily, and without really realizing what she was doing, she rolled onto her side, rested her hand on Naruto's chest, and fell quickly to sleep.
Naruto's face burned and he knew he couldn't even attempt to deny it anymore. He was falling hard for Ino. When they both lived in Konoha, he had never really considered Ino was a potential love interest. He had noticed that she was somewhat attractive in her own way, but beyond that, he never even gave her a thought. He was too focused on Sakura and on training. But now, in the few short weeks they had spent together since he captured her, his feelings for her had grown at an alarming rate, and he now liked her more than he had ever liked Sakura.
With Sakura, it had always just been a crush. Sure, at some point it seemed to evolve from a crush to something more, but he never really couldn't see himself without Sakura. Now, with Ino, she was constantly on his mind, he was constantly nervous around her, and when he pictured himself back in Konoha after this attempt was over, he always pictured him spending time with Ino. He wasn't exactly sure what love felt like, but he knew he was closer to it now than he had ever been before.
He wondered if Ino felt the same way. She seemed to be sending those kind of signals at him, but Ino had always been naturally flirtatious, and she could just simply be feeling more comfortable with Naruto now that they knew each other better. Naruto could feel the insecurity he always felt around girls in the past coming on him. He really liked Ino, but he doubted he would ever be courageous enough to tell her about how he felt. It was really funny, how he could go against the strongest criminal organization in the world and against the strongest Juubi in the world without much fear, but when he thought about the prospect of telling Ino what he had been feeling recently, it scared him so much he felt sick.
He rolled on his side as well to face Ino, instantly noticing that as he did this her arm slipped to be around his waist, and their bodies were now mere inches apart. A small lock of hair had fallen in front of her face, and he gently brushed it out of her face. He couldn't help but notice how beautiful she looked as she slept. As he also felt sleep coming upon him, he rolled back onto his other side, causing Ino's arm to fall back onto the ground, and he closed his eyes. Before he drifted off to sleep though, he heard her scoot over in the grass, and felt her arm wrap around his waist again.
'Did she do that in her sleep, or did she do it consciously?' was the last thought that passed through his mind before he fell away into a wonderful sleep.
A/N: Sorry for a rather shorter chapter, and for how sappy this chapter is :P But this story IS a romance as well as an action story, so these parts have to show up sooner or later!