"Oh that, that was a jutsu Kyuubi taught me while I was sleeping last night, he showed me the seals and explained how it worked, but I wasn't able to try it till now. It's called Shunpo."

'How appropriate. You should see if he'll teach it to you Ino, even with the speed training you're getting from the seals, that jutsu would be perfect for the style I'm going to teach you.'

'Okay, I'll ask him.' "Hey Naruto, would you mind teaching it to me, Kiku said that it would be perfect for the Kenjutsu style I'm going to learn."

Naruto's smile nearly split his face. "Of course I will, I was going to ask if you wanted to learn it anyway, but first you should let Kiku out and make some Kage Bunshin." A blue fire appear five feet from them and out of it came one of Naruto's clones, who made a silly face with his tongue sticking out at the original before dispersing when a kunai was sent his way. Ino giggled as Naruto sighed. "Whenever I make a large amount, there's always at least one like that, they never do what their told, sensei said they were anomalies or something like that."

Ino giggled again. "Seems to me like they're perfect clones, and all of the others are anomalies." She followed his suggestion of letting Kiku out and creating shadow clones, which was the highest amount she had made yet at twenty-five. They then went to the far side of the chamber. "So how does it work?"

"It takes a lot of chakra, so it can only be done in sort bursts, but what you do is while making the hand signs Bunta, Usagi, Saru, and then Uma, you focus chakra all around your body. The chakra speeds up not just your body, but your mind too so it can keep up and process what your eyes see, if it didn't I would think you wouldn't see anything until several seconds after you pass it by. I have no proof or anything, but this could be the jutsu that inspired the Hiraishin no Jutsu, though because of the stories about that jutsu it either takes less chakra to use, or the Yondaime had extraordinarily massive chakra reserves. Anyways, you want to give it a try?"

She smiled evilly and it sent a shiver up Naruto's spine. "Sure."

Naruto formed a cross with the index and middle fingers on each hand. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." In a small cloud of smoke, there were two lines of six clones parallel to each other with four feet of space between each clone. "There you go." She smiled at him and tossed Aijin Yaiba into the air and formed the hand signs as it started its descent. The sword disappeared from the air and reappeared in her right hand, its sheath in her left, and then she disappeared as well. There were flashes of purple throughout the group of clones, and after a few seconds they went up in smoke one by one, but Ino didn't reappear on the other side, instead Naruto felt her standing back to back with him, her blade sheathed again. He smiled widely. "I can honestly say I wasn't expecting that. You've got really good with that sword in the short amount of time you've had it." His shirt fell to the ground, cut on the tops of both shoulders, and down the center of the front and back, with not a mark on him. "Though if you wanted my shirt off, all you had to do was ask." Ino whacked him upside the head with her sheath, while her cheeks turned red.

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After training, Naruto and Ino made their way to the main chamber with the two kitsune behind them. "Your clones have mastered the transportation jutsu, and are progressing quickly with the others, but I'm running out of things to teach them. I may have lived for thousands of years, but I didn't particularly care about things that you humans knew."

Naruto shrugged. "Just means more time devoted to physical training."

Ino shook her head. "I swear all you ever think of is food and training."

"That's not true, it's just what I think about most often, can't live without food, and I have to train if the leader of Akatsuki is as strong as Tobi says."

They walked into the chamber to find it empty and Kyuubi's eyes narrowed. "Where is he anyway, I haven't seen him since you sent clones to the armory this morning."

"He's been in the armory with my clones all day, not really sure what he's looking for though."

"Look what I found!" Tobi came running into the chamber with what looked like two small square piece of paper in his hand. He handed one to each of them. "Here, push chakra into them."

Ino looked over the paper intently. "What are they?"

Naruto looked from the paper to Tobi. "Are these chakra papers?" The masked man nodded excitedly. Ino looked at him curiously. "Chakra paper is made from a tree grown with a constant exposure to chakra. They're used to identify a person's chakra affinity, Jiraiya-sensei told me that we'd test mine before the third year was over. He wasn't able to return to Konoha with me, so I never got the chance."

"Okay, so how do they work?"

The two blonds could hear the excitement in Tobi's voice when he spoke. "You push chakra into them and it will react in a different way for each element. Some chunin and almost every jonin has at least two, Kage normally have three, once and a while you'll find someone with four, and sometimes, though it is incredibly rare, someone will have all five." Tobi was practically bouncing up and down by this point. "So, come on, let's see what you've got." Ino looked over at Naruto to find him with the paper held between his pointer and middle fingers and focusing completely on it. The paper looked as though it had gone through a blender. Tobi cocked his head to the side. "That's strange, I'd have never thought you'd have such a strong wind affinity. Your turn Ino."

Naruto turned to her with a smile. "Yeah, come on Ino, let's see what you got." Following Naruto's example, she pushed chakra into her piece of paper and it damn near exploded in her hand. "Well that explains how you got Gokakyu no Jutsu so quickly, jutsu with an element that you're aligned with will be easier to learn than the others, but you'll have the hardest time with water jutsu, since they oppose your element."

Tobi nodded his head in agreement. "I can show you the first step in learning how to use you elemental chakra tomorrow if you'd like me to."

Naruto shook his head. "I can't tomorrow sorry, there's something I need to take care of."

Ino rolled her eyes. "Come on Naruto, just tell us, no need to be vague."

Naruto sighed, knowing he wouldn't be able to get out of answering. "Each summoning contract has a Boss summon, and each Boss has a test of sorts for initiation of new signers. I made a promise to Gamabunta, the Boss Toad summon, that I'd finish my initiation before my three years with Jiraiya-sensei were up, and I'm running out of time."

"See that's wasn't so hard, so what do you have to do?"

Naruto smiled mischievously. "Sorry, can't say, it's a secret kept between signers and their summons." Again Ino rolled her eyes, but she didn't press the matter.

--------------------------

Day Nine: Seven pm

Ino sat in the main chamber trying her best to ignore the popping sounds continually coming from the training chamber. Tobi came out of the armory and sent a look towards the chamber. Ino looked at him, gone were the cloak and black shirt beneath, and in their stead was a skintight sleeveless blue shirt. She frowned a little at the fact that his mask was still in place, they had spent nearly a week with the man and had yet to see his face. "He's still at it huh?"

Ino sighed. "Yeah, I really wish he'd give it a rest already, he's been at it since he got back, and it's really starting to get annoying. What could have gotten him so worked up?"

Tobi seemed to look off into space in something resembling a thinking pose. "He may have failed his test and had his contract with the Toads terminated. From the information Akatsuki gathered, he's made several strong bonds with members of the Toads, and is one of a select few to have been given the honor of riding atop Gamabunta's head, two of the better known ninja in that group are Jiraiya of the Sannin, and the Yondaime Hokage. To lose those bonds he's made over the course of three years would be devastating to all of them." The ear splitting sound of a huge quantity of clones being destroyed at once interrupted them and then there was silence.

After nearly ten minutes of silence, Naruto had yet to come out and Ino was starting to get worried. After several more minutes of silence without any sign of Naruto, Ino went in to check on him. She found him face down on the floor, his clothes were now rags. She ran over to him and rolled him over gently, he had minor cuts that were slowly healing all across his body. 'He seems to have taken quite a beating, perhaps he was knocked unconscious, that would explain why all the clones disappeared at once.'

Ino snorted. 'With a head his hard it's more likely he worked himself to exhaustion, though I've didn't think his stamina would run out so quickly.' She sighed. 'I guess I should get him to where we're sleeping.' She made the hand sign for Kage Bunshin, and another Ino appeared next to her. They each placed one of Naruto's arms over their shoulders, and one of their own around his back to get him to his feet. Despite the weight from both of their seals, Ino got Naruto to the bed chamber quickly and laid him down. Immediately afterwards, her clone dispersed and she turned to leave.

"Sorry about making you carry me Ino, I guess I got a little carried away." She turned back to find his eyes were barely open, and hadn't moved from where she'd placed him, showing he was fighting to stay conscious.

"Don't worry about it, everyone's got to blow off steam sometime, especially if Tobi's guess is right and you failed your test with the toads."

Naruto let out a light laughter. "No I didn't fail. The truth of the matter is I passed the day I first summoned Gamabunta, I just had to do one final task to make it official."

"Then why'd you work yourself to exhaustion?"

Naruto looked away. "I'm sorry Ino, but I'd rather not talk about till I know for certain." Ino nodded and left him to rest. Naruto stared up at the stone ceiling for several minutes before sleep took him with one question on his mind. 'Why didn't you tell me Kaa-san, Jiraiya-sensei?'

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Ino stood in the Training chamber with her eyes closed, Tobi not ten feet from her, with a leaf held between her hands, smoke coming up off it, and a small hole through the center with red embers round the edges of the hole. The hole wasn't extending towards the sides of the leaf and Ino had sweat on her forehead, her face scrunched up in concentration. A small device in Tobi's hand started to beep, and he hit a button silencing it. "Great job Ino, you were able to hold it for an hour straight. You should rest up, you look exhausted. We'll start the next step tomorrow."

She nodded and started toward the sleeping chamber, before she even made it to the turn off for the bathing chamber, she felt her legs give out from under her. Inside of falling to the ground though, she felt herself wrapped up by two arms. Looking up, she found herself staring into the startling cerulean eyes of her fellow blonde. "Looks like I'm not the only one to over do it during training." He helped her to her feet, but didn't let go.

Ino blushed when she realized not only this, but also the fact that her eyes were still locked on to his. She quickly looks away slightly. "Thanks Naruto, but you know you can let me go now."

Naruto chuckled lightly and shook his head. "You carried me, it's only fair that I return the favor." She opened her mouth to protest, but she stopped, knowing he wouldn't change his mind. He smiled when he saw her give in and helped her down the hallway.

When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring up into the clear blue sky and the smell of flowers all around her. "Ino, there's something I wish to speak to you about. Please come to me." Ino pushed herself up to her feet, finding herself on a hillside covered in roses of every natural color and violets. At the top of the hill was a sakura tree in full bloom, and in the distance was a feudal castle with tall outer walls and a metal bar gate instead of a solid wooden one. She made her way towards the gate, behind it laid Kiku in her fox form. "I'm sorry for pulling you in here while you were resting Ino."

"It's alright Kiku, so what was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"It's about your relationship with Naruto." The kitsune saw Ino sigh and gave the blond an apologetic look. "I know you don't want to talk about it again, but I feel I must tell you why I've been pushing the idea of mating with him." The blond looked up at the kitsune curiously and Kiku took a deep breath before continuing. "As I'm sure you know, I was pregnant when I was sealed within you." Ino nodded. "What you don't know, is that I was only days away from giving birth and when I was sealed, my soul wasn't the only one to be removed."

Ino's mouth hung open and her eyes were wide with shock. "You mean that your children were sealed in me as well?"

"In a sense yes, but at the same time they are not. Since they were never born, their souls are within mine. It's like they were sealed into me before I was sealed in you."

"Okay, I understand that, but what does that have to do with me sleeping with Naruto?"

"He is the container of their father, and I believe that if the two of you were to conceive a child, the soul of one of our children will essentially be born along with yours'."

"You mean like twins?"

"It's possible, but there are three other possibilities as well. The two souls could merge into one creating a kitsune-human hybrid, or that they will be two separate entities that share a single body similar to how we do, except without a seal. However I've never heard of anything like this happening before so it's also possible that my children will never be born."

"How many children were you going to have and have you told Kyuubi about this?"

"Only two of them were sealed, so I assume either that any others were stillborns or that was all you could handle. And no I haven't told him, I don't think I could handle it if I told him only to find out later that it isn't possible. Please don't tell him or Naruto till we know for sure."

"Alright, but how will we know when the time comes?"

Kiku gave a fox's equivalent to a smirk when Ino blushed realizing what she had said. "I'm able to feel them within me as I could before."

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When she woke up, she found herself laying on her side, her back pressed up against Naruto's chest and his arms wrapped protectively around her, his face buried in her hair. She smiled as she turned around in his embrace and snuggled closer to him while wrapped her arms around him as well. She was caught by surprise though when he rolled on to his back, pulling her on top of him. "You know Ino, if I were somebody else, I would probably take advantage of this situation."

"But if you were somebody else, we wouldn't be in this situation. So how long were you planning to let me think you were asleep?"

"Why, were you going to do something?"

"Oh you know me, I just woke up and saw you lying there and thought 'I should have my way with him right now.'"

A smile found its way onto his lips. "I'm sorry I'm so irresistible Ino, had I known I'd have never put you in this situation." She smacked him lightly on the chest as he laughed and after a little bit she started to as well. When they both calmed down, Naruto let out a sigh. "As much as I'd like to just lay here, it's time to get up and train, we only have a few more days before we have to head back to the village." Ino groaned, but pushed herself up and grabbed her sword while Naruto got to his feet as well.

They found Tobi standing at the end of the hallway waiting for them. "Are you both ready to start elemental training?"

"I am, Kyuubi said that my clones learned everything faster than he expected them to."

"Me too, Kiku says that my speed isn't quite where it needs to be, but it's getting there. So what are we doing today?"

"Well, you're going to attempt to create fire from chakra, while Naruto tries to cleanly cut the leftover leafs from yesterday down the middle with chakra. And Naruto, no clones, I want you to do it by yourself first. After that they can help you get use to using the natural wind chakra around you."

"How come you didn't let me use them last night then?"

"Because you hadn't gotten that far. There is a different point in each training regimen that you learn to manipulate the element in its natural form. Wind's and water's are the first step, lightning's is the second, Fire's starts in the second and ends in the third, and Earth's is the third. Now come on, we're wasting time." They all continued to the training chamber and Tobi pointed out to Naruto where he could find the leaves. "Naruto, what you are to do is release some of your chakra into the air and make a blade as thin and sharp as you can. When you can cleanly cut the leaf in two you can use Kage Bunshin to help master the exercise. I'll come see how you're doing in a little while." After Naruto left, Tobi turned to Ino. "Alright Ino, you did extremely well yesterday, and today's exercise will be somewhat easier, you'll be pulling heat from an preexisting source to ignite your chakra. I was in here earlier and started a small fire, you'll be using the coals as the heat source."

"Okay, but how do I pull the heat from something?"

"First you form a ball of chakra, not too big of one, you don't want to blow us all up after all, and from that ball make a tendril into the coals. The heat will travel up the tendril to the ball and, if done right, cause it to combust."

"What do you mean 'if done right'?"

"Well there are a few variables that could cause it not to work, but those are for you to figure out, you wouldn't learn anything if I just told you. Same rules apply to you as Naruto. Speaking of who, I'm going to go see if he's made any progress." Ino nodded and turned towards the hot coals. Tobi walked over to where Naruto stood, holding a leaf between his right index and middles fingers.

A barely visible cut appeared on the leaf off center as he reached the blonde. "Tobi isn't this the same thing I did to that piece of paper before?"

"Pretty much, but that paper is designed to amplify the person's chakra so they can identify their affinity, and given your paper's response, I'm surprised you're having such a hard time with this."

"I'm having a problem trying to give it a sharp edge, I can get it paper thin, but I can't make it sharp."

"Then let's try something else, close your eyes and release a small amount of chakra into the air." Naruto did as he was told and Tobi nodded to himself when he felt the chakra. "Good, now can you feel the chakra you released?" He received a nod. "Do you feel something like a tug on your chakra?" Again he got a nod. "That is the wind chakra reacting to yours. Wind is the hardest element to learn to use as you cannot bend it to your will as you can with the other four, you must coax it into doing what you want it to."

"How do I do that?"

"Use your chakra to tug back, but don't be too forceful." Naruto picked up another leaf and moved his chakra though the air towards the leaf, and the leaf split halfway down the center. "Better, keep working at it, you'll get it." Both turned at the sound of a small explosion and saw Ino coughing a bit, her clothes and skin blackened. "Must have used a bit too much chakra in the ball. I better go tell her before she tries again, I'll come back to check your progress later Naruto." The blonde boy looked worriedly over at Ino and nodded. By the end of the day, Naruto, due in a large part to his clones, was able to cleanly split a leaf into fourths in a fraction of a second, and Ino was able to draw the heat out of the coals and ignite the chakra in her hands with ease. The blondes went to sleep in each other's arms, completely exhausted, and knowing the next day would be even more trying as they would learn the next step.