Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of its characters.

Chapter Ten: Enter Akatsuki

Naruto's eyes shot open and he attempted to sit up in his hospital bed. The hospital staff had resorted to tying him down as soon as he was admitted after his third visit. Glaring at nothing in particular, he tried to remember which of Anko's antics had put him in the hospital this time. Each time he had been sent to the hospital because of training, Sasuke and Hinata were right there with him. The first time had been their GST. After attempting to get to the top of the building in Anko's 'tree-climbing' test, the three of them had been treated for chakra exhaustion, snake bites, the broken arm that each of them had been dealt and varying amounts of poison from said snake bites. It seemed that as much as Anko seemed to want to injure them, she was holding back. Their broken limbs had clean breaks, and aside from a little inflammation from the exercise she was testing them on, were easy to fix. The poison was clearly one of the weaker ones that Anko had available. No member of the team even became unconscious during the exercise. Team 7 had needed a week to recover from the test, and Naruto was again bound to the bed.

Following the tree-walking, Anko immediately upped the anti. She had them proceed to water-walking, and to keep up the theme, she again didn't tell them how. After revealing that it was more difficult than the previous exercise, Anko gave Team 7 two weeks to learn how to do it and left. Unlike before, Kurenai refused to tell them how, saying that teaching tree-walking in the first week was one thing, but that water-walking was definitely something that they needed to wait to learn. They tried to talk with Iruka, but he was busy assigning missions to the new teams, as well as teaching some of the new academy students. Finally, team 7 found the theory of the exercise after spending three days in the library. Implementing the theory was a lot harder than they thought, and they spent a week just trying to keep above the surface of the water.

The three of them were finally beginning to mesh together and work together. While each of them still had their own personal insecurities, facing challenges as a group had made team 7 grow a lot closer. Hinata was now somewhat more open, but still had trouble because she didn't want anything she let close hurt her. Sasuke was gradually letting down his shield. He had acknowledged that his teammates were strong, and that they could potentially help him with his goals. Naruto felt that he had finally found a semblance of a family in his team, and didn't allow the glares that the villagers gave him from time to time bother him. Seeing as Anko was not giving them missions until she deemed them ready, she had put them all on an allowance for the time being. It was enough for them to take care of themselves, even though Hinata had access to the Hyuga funds, and Sasuke was the sole heir to the Uchiha fortune.

When Anko had finally tested them for the water-walking, team 7 was prepared. Not knowing what to expect, they had come up with a single way to up their immunity to poisons, and they felt they were ready for anything. Anko had come and explained the rules. They were to stand on the surface of the water while she used various Jutsu in attempts to distract them and cause them to fail, and they had to hold it for one hour. Team 7 tensed up ready to use their plan in case she attempted to break another limb, but she didn't do anything, instead calling the first student out onto the surface of the water. Eventually the three of them passed, but each of them had sported burns from Fire Jutsu, and Sasuke's hair was standing on end from when he baited Anko and she hit him with a Lighting Jutsu.

The next time the group met, Anko told them that although they were not yet ready to go on missions, they had gotten to a sufficient level for her to actively participate in their instruction. While Sasuke and Naruto cheered that they would finally be able to learn Ninjutsu, Anko corrected them and told them that they would be spending time learning Taijutsu. Hinata was happy to hear this, but Naruto and Sasuke were not. They spent the next month working on Taijutsu, in various stages. First they just had light sparring matches. Anko urged the team to not use the same move more than once and to try to come up with new ideas. She wanted them to keep loose in their moves, and referred to the motion of a snake many times. After one week of that, she had them start doing their spars on walls and tree surfaces. She forced them to go all out, and made each of them maintain their grip on the surfaces they were standing on. This was especially difficult for them because they were not staying in a single location. After that, Taijutsu spars on the surface of the water. Team 7 did not find this exercise as difficult as the previous one. If they lost their concentration, they would sink into the water, but at least they wouldn't go flying through the air, or suddenly slip and hit the ground.

After Taijutsu training, Anko pronounced them ready for Ninjutsu training and for missions. True to her word, she did not accept any D-rank missions for her team. Their first missions were escort missions and delivery runs. Anko maintained their training regime and kept upping the difficulty. After completing their first two missions, Anko had the team return to the lake that they had used to test for water-walking. This time she wanted them to do the same exercise while standing upside down on the surface of the water. She explained that this exercise was used to cover a person's tracks, keep out of sight, and most importantly to keep quiet. The exercise was not that much more difficult than regular water-walking, but Anko wanted them to be able to stay under water for extended periods of time, and to do that they had to learn about the additional uses of the Chakra Circulatory System. Due to the way the Chakra Network was tied so close to the other systems in the body, such as the nervous system, and the circulatory system, a person could use the Chakra System to trick the body into working normally. While they were underwater, they had to use chakra to transfer air from where their feet were contacting the surface through the Chakra System to the heart, where the air would then be used as if it had been inhaled. Theoretically, if they were proficient at this, they could trick parts of the body to still work even if certain systems were damaged. Unfortunately, chakra couldn't be run through the other systems and would have to be fixed before chakra could be used again. Sasuke had a lot of trouble with this, and actually activated his Sharingan in his attempts to focus air through his body with his chakra.

Next, Anko had them start work on seals. Nothing extravagant, but she wanted them to know the basics; at least enough for storage and basic comprehension. Any idiot could go and buy their own Explosion Tags, but they may have been faulty and people with a rudimentary understanding in seals would be able to catch the mistakes, or simply make their own. After studying seals for two weeks, she assigned the team to study summoning scrolls. She wanted them to come back at the end of the designated time with an understanding of how a summoning scroll worked. At the end of the time, she produced her own copy of the snake summoning contract. While Orochimaru had written the original one, he had removed all of the people on the contract besides himself from his snake summoning scroll when he left. The majority of Anko's Jutsu were based off of the contract, and she had written her own. The terms of her contract also allowed her to summon only those snakes who did not demand sacrifices for their services due to a clause that she had written in. She had all of Team 7 sign the contract in blood, and they spent the next two weeks practicing summoning, and Anko's snake-based Ninjutsu.

Naruto smiled at the memories of the last four months. Team 7 had definitely gotten stronger. Then he frowned. Unfortunately, this trip to the hospital was not due to training, but rather an attack. On the last mission, they had been attacked by Itachi Uchiha, and for all of their strength they could not stand up to a former ANBU Captain. Itachi was clothed in a black cloak with blood-red clouds and a high collar, and he had a straw hat on his head. The collar and the hat essentially covered all of his features, but Naruto knew who it was as soon as he appeared. Team 7 resisted as long as they could, but it seemed since the Uchiha Massacre, Itachi had decided to favor Genjutsu and took out half of the group using a variant of Tsukuyomi. Instead of having the effects take a few moments in real time, he allowed it take an hour of real time, reducing the strain, and using his target's chakra to sustain it. Hinata and Sasuke were down quickly. Naruto and Anko quickly tried to end the fight so that they could get Hinata and Sasuke to safety.

Naruto shot snakes out of his sleeve at Itachi, who countered with his own. Anko could only assume that Orochimaru had allowed Itachi to sign his contract. The Sharingan would be able to copy the move, but the snakes came from the summoning contract. No Sharingan would be able to recreate the move without the contract. For a Genin, Naruto put up a good fight, but he and Anko were outclassed. Eventually, Itachi knocked Naruto out and he had woken up in the hospital. Hinata and Naruto were beside him. Their charts showed that they had not woken up since they had been hit by the Genjutsu three days ago. Their current status was similar to when Sasuke had been hit by Tsukuyomi before, and Ibiki had been unable to come and check on him. He was currently watching over one of his closest friends.

In another room, Anko was nursing two broken limbs, several burns, and had very low chakra. There were two doctors looking her over, but she wasn't even concerned about her well being. Her thoughts were full of turmoil and bounced from topic to topic very quickly. After Naruto was knocked out, Itachi seemed unbeatable. Why would he come back? How did he come back? He's a missing-nin for crying out loud. She winced as a doctor applied pressure and checked one of her worse burns, which happened to be third-degree. Itachi had used a black fire near the end of the fight. It had been one of his worst attacks, and was extremely devastating. After the initial attack, the fire had not gone out, and had continued to burn. The landscape of the area was completely changed. But after Itachi had used it, he had vanished. Where could he have gone? I didn't even feel his chakra or his presence moving away, he was just gone. No way was it a clone. That thing had way too much power to be a freaking clone. Again she grimaced as the doctors tried to set her arm and bind it to a splint. I have to tell the Third, as soon as these guys let me the hell out of here."

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A/N: I'm worried that some people might be able to see the way this is going. I hope that the twists and turns that are coming up will still keep your guys' interest. Coming up soon are the Chunin Exams. Major stuff will be happening. I hope you like it. Read and review.