Disclaimer: Part fur of 'Real Shinobi.' I am planning to make this its own fic someday, would like to finish Reunion first.

Good Training

Days turned into weeks and the three Gennin became quite adept at several skills including navigation, cartography, drafting, and surveying.

"Arg," Naruto screamed, "I can't sit still any longer. Can't we go outside or something?" The boy froze with a look of horror on his face as the two Jonin instructors turned around with twin looks of joy on their faces.

"Since you asked," Kei began.

"So shall you receive," Kenji finished.

"Can't we sit this one out?" Keiko asked hopefully.

"Yeah," Harumi agreed, "we're perfectly happy sitting in here all day."

"What they said," Naruto said glumly, "I'm the one that wanted to go out so they shouldn't have to come with me."

"We wouldn't dream of breaking up the team," Kei said with a smile, "would we darling?"

"No in a million years," Kenji agreed, "come along children."

"We've been saving this lesson for quite a while."

"Sorry guys," Naruto whispered to the two girls as they followed their teachers out of the warehouse.

"It's alright Naruto," Harumi whispered back.

"Yeah," Keiko said, "you heard them. They've been waiting for an excuse to do this to us anyway."

"It was always gonna happen," Kei agreed, showing that she'd been listening in on their conversation, "we just weren't sure when."

The two instructors took their students into the slaughter house and to one of the large drains that dotted the floor of the large structure.

"This," Kei said as she lifted up a small grate, "is a drain. It goes into a pipe that should be just large enough for each of you to squeeze into and it drains out into a river in thirty meters."

"It's filled with some of the foulest things you can imagine," Kenji added, "blood and fecal matter are two of the main ingredients."

"You three are going to crawl through it," Kei said firmly, "you are going to do it again and again until it no longer bothers you."

"The only thing I want to hear is who wants to go first," Kenji said.

"I'll do it," Naruto volunteered after a glance at his two teammates.

"Very good Naruto," Kei said with a smile, "who's next?" In rapid succession, the other two Gennin entered the pipe and began the unpleasant training exercise.

The two instructors were more then a bit surprised when Naruto rushed back into the room a few minutes after he'd entered the pipe and made a beeline towards the drain.

"What are you doing Naruto?" Kei asked sweetly. "Didn't get enough the first time?"

"Harumi's stuck," Naruto said as he crawled into the hole.

"She's too large?"

"No," Naruto said quickly, "she just can't keep going. Keiko is trying to pull her out and I'm going to push."

"You better hurry then," Kenji said. The thought of telling the boy that they'd lied about the size of the pipe and that either one of the Jonin could have saved the girl at any time never crossed his mind. "Wouldn't want her to stay in there too long would we?"

"No sensei," Naruto agreed quickly.

"Such wonderful children we were blessed with," Kei sighed, "I'd better go to the exit to help Keiko clean Harumi up." The Jonin happily skipped out of the room and to the outlet to wait for her students. After a few minutes, Keiko appeared followed shortly by Harumi and Naruto.

Harumi was pale white and shaking in fear as the other three cleaned her up a bit. "I'm sorry," she choked, "I . . . I'm sorry."

"It's fine," Kei assured her friend.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, "and we won't have to do that again so it's okay right?"

"I'm afraid that isn't strictly true," Kei said serenely, "Naruto and Keiko do not have to do it again. But I'm afraid that Harumi has to since she froze in the middle. Unless of course you three would rather do something else?"

"That's not fair," Naruto shouted.

"Neither is life," Kei said with a shrug, "well?"

"Can we go with her?" Keiko asked in a low voice.

"I don't see why not," Kei agreed.

"Well what do you want to do Harumi?" Keiko asked. "Can you do it again?"

"I think so," Harumi said in a shaky voice.

"Then let's go, better get over your fear now then on a mission right?"

"Right," she agreed.

"Alright then," Naruto shouted, "let's go." They walked back to the slaughterhouse and to the drain pipe.

"Are you sure you can do this?" Keiko asked.

"Yeah," Harumi said with a quiver in her voice. "Like you said, better to get over this fear here then on a mission."

"And I'll be right behind you," Naruto said loudly, "to give you another push if you need it."

"And I'll be in front of you," Keiko added, "we are a team after all."

"And teams do things together," Naruto finished.

Their two instructors were waiting for them when the tumbled out of the pipe with twin looks of pride on their faces.

"How'd it go?" Kei asked. "Did any of you freeze up?"

"No sensei," Harumi said, "I don't like it but I did it."

"Excellent," Kenji said cheerfully, "and we have good news for the three of you."

"What kind of good news?" Harumi asked suspiciously.

"We only have one task to do today," Kei said with a smile, "and you get the rest of the day off."

"For certain given values of day off," Kenji interjected.

"Which means that you get to clean and repair your equipment," Kei explained, "before you do anything else."

"What are we going to do?" Naruto demanded.

"Afraid we're going to crawl through the pipe again," Kei said sympathetically, "sorry Harumi."

"I'll be alright this time," the girl said quickly.

"And we'll be with you this time," Kei said, "Kenji on point and I'll take the rear."

"Can you even fit in the pipe?" Keiko asked. "You said we had to do it before we got too big."

"We say a lot of things," Kenji said with a grin.

"Not all of them true," Kei agreed, "in this particular case it was so you'd underestimate the size of the pipe."

"And now you know how inaccurate information can play tricks on your mind," Kenji said.

"Not our fault you took things at face value," Kei added with a hurt look, "as if we'd put you in that kind of situation without a way to help you if something happened."

"And it did," Kenji added, "to Harumi."

"Nothing to be ashamed of," Kei said quickly, "it was the purpose of the exercise to get this sort of thing out of the way before we had to deal with it on a real mission."

"You'd be surprised at how few villages have adequate guards on their sewers," Kenji mused.

"Then why didn't you save me?" Harumi asked in a small voice.

"Because your team had already taken care of things," Kei said proudly, "just like they were supposed to."

With that last lesson, the team retired from the training field and returned to their warehouse for some much needed rest.

"My turn to pick the meal," Naruto cheered as he walked into the small space that served as their kitchen.

"You want me to touch up your knives again?" Keiko asked.

"Will it take long?"

"Shouldn't need more then a few swipes on the steel," Keiko replied, "even as bad as they are. Which reminds me, I should have your new set ready today if we have enough time."

"Thanks," Naruto said gratefully. The two of them retired to the kitchen to prepare the meal.

"Could you hand me that mug?" Keiko asked. "This one needs a bit of a touch up and I don't feel like taking it out to my bench stones since these things are gonna get scrapped soon."

"Uh . . . okay," Naruto agreed, "what are you going to do with it?"

"The bottom wasn't glazed," the girl replied, "and thus can be used as a sharpening stone. Neat huh?"

"Yeah," Naruto agreed in fascination, "it is. Are there any other things you can use like that?"

"Lots," the girl chirped, "why don't I show you later?"

"Okay," Naruto agreed, "thanks."

IIIIIIIIII

The students assembled on their training field the next day well rested and ready for whatever their instructors were going to throw at them next.

"Today, I am going to breathe fire at you." Kenji said with a grin. "You are going to use a super cool Jutsu to burry yourselves in the earth where you'll be safe from the flames. Any questions?"

"Could you teach us the super cool jutsu before you breathe fire at us?" Keiko asked with a hopeful look on her face.

"That sounded more like a request then a question," Kenji mused. "But to answer your question, yes I believe I could."

"I meant to say, will you?" Keiko added quickly.

"Would make things less sporting, wouldn't it?"

"But it would also prevent your students from being horribly scarred," Harumi said quickly, "and you wouldn't want that would you? The other instructors would laugh at you."

"And we can't have that," Kei giggled, "can we dear."

"I'm not sure I'd be able to survive the taunting," he agreed. "Okay, first thing you have to do is . . ."

IIIIIIIIII

The third Hokage monitored their training with a fatalistic attitude. 'They'd be ready in time or they wouldn't be,' he told himself, 'all he could do was trust his instructors and do offer whatever help he could.'

His gaze wondered around the room until it settled on one particular scroll. 'The boy did have the chakra and the stamina for it,' the treacherous thought went through his mind.

"I suppose it wouldn't hurt to run the idea past his instructors," the Hokage mused, "and if Kei and Kenji don't like it then no more need be said about it."

IIIIIIIIII

Kei and Kenji arrived in the Hokage's office and looked at the old man with identical expressions of expectation.

"I was considering the idea of releasing a couple of the forbidden techniques to your team," the Hokage answered their unasked question, "and I would like to get your input before deciding."

"Which techniques?" Kei asked.

"Kage Bunshin and another of your choice," the Hokage replied.

"Naruto does have the reserves to pull it off," Kenji mused.

"And it would increase the mission's chances of success exponentially if he managed to pull it off," Kei said softly.

"On the other hand," Kenji said, "Bunshin is his worst technique."

"And there are quite a few things we'd like to cram into their heads before we have to use them in real world conditions." Kei shared a look with her husband. "We'd like to try it," Kei said finally.

"Worst that can happen is that he fails," Kenji sighed, "I'm going to need access to the captured jutsu library if you agree to let us try."

"Of course," Sarutobi agreed, "anything else you would need?"

"Equipment and the chance to get first pick on missions," Kei replied.

"Done." The Hokage smiled at his two Jonin. "Good luck."

"Thank you."

AN: Polish by dogbertcarroll