Now the one month before the chunin exams.

I do not own Naruto, the OCs are mine.

Also I need to mention that chapters may start to come up much slower now, semester coming back and all.

Please enjoy this chapter and review let me know your thoughts.

Naruto: The Kaseki Clan

Chapter 14: The one month wait

The winners of the preliminaries assembled at the arena. The Hokage explained to them that they were given a month to prepare for the finals. Their opponents were arranged and they were dismissed.

Naruto Vs Neji

Sasuke Vs Gaara

Kankuro Vs Shino

Shikamaru Vs Dosu

Winner of the last match will fight Temari.

Naruto was at the hospital, looking for Sasuke when he was approached by Kakashi. "Hey Kakashi-sensei. I need your help." Naruto went up to him.

"Stop right there. I know what you are going to ask. I can't train you Naruto." Kakashi said to him.

"What? Why not" The blonde asked.

"I got other matters to deal with Naruto. I don't have time for you as well."

Naruto grumbled, but then thought about something, he moved in closer to whisper to Kakashi, "Is this about Kabuto?"

Kakashi paused, and then he whispered, "Yes, but I need you to keep a low profile on that."

"And then what about Sasuke? He had some kind of mark on his neck." Naruto quietly asked.

Kakashi then whispered, "Sasuke will be alright. Trust me."

"What is going on Kakashi-sensei? What are you not telling me?" Now Naruto was getting suspicious.

"I need you to leave this to me. I need to you focus on training for the finals ok?" Kakashi placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"But what am I supposed to do Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"I want you to focus on your fundamentals." Kakashi said to him. "And how is focusing on my fundamentals going to help me beat Neji?" Naruto countered, crossing his arms.

"If you focus on your fundamentals, you would be able to fight Neji more efficiently alright?" Kakashi said.

"And I also got someone to help you."

"Really? And who is it?" Naruto raised an eyebrow.

His answer was a whistle behind Kakashi. Naruto looked to see who it was.

Kaseki Kohaku.

"Koha-nii? You're going to help me." Naruto asked. "Um, yeah. Although it's kind of spur of the moment thing." Kohaku said.

"Hey could you wait outside for a moment?" Kohaku asked Naruto. The blonde nodded. He left the hospital, leaving the Kaseki and the Jounin.

"You do know I have a mission at night right Kakashi? And you're supposed to be his teacher." Kohaku said to Kakashi.

"Yeah, but my hands are completely tied at the moment." Kakashi said. "I just need you to help him with fundamentals, and your mission shouldn't take too much out of you right?"

"Anything can and does happen Kakashi." Kohaku said.

"Well if anything, I'm sure I've seen him returning to the village, you know who I mean right. Even if he does not want to Hokage to know that he's back, I'm sure you can help Naruto to seek him out. Or you can get Ebisu to train him." Kakashi said.

"And please don't teach him a technique that is so menacing." Kakashi added.

Kohaku lowered his head a bit. "Guess he did not waste any time showing it."

Kakashi then said, "Even I don't know what that technique was. You give your clan's technique freely now?"

"No, no. It's more complicated than that." Kohaku said.

"Well anyway, I leave Naruto to you." Kakashi said. "It's interesting. We may have been there at the beginning, but you were the one who was really with him."

"You could say that Yugao-san was too. And Iruka." Kohaku said.

"It's fairly obvious what you are to him."

Kohaku's eyes began to narrow. Kakashi then said, "To him, you are like a bro-"

"I'm not his brother." Kohaku tone was now cold and there was a slight hint of guilt. "Just someone who is helping."

With that, Kohaku left to join Naruto, leaving Kakashi to wonder about the Kaseki's change in tone.

When Naruto saw Kohaku coming out of the hospital, seeing a change in his face. "Hey, what's wrong?" Naruto asked.

"Uh it's nothing." Kohaku quickly put on a small smile. "So Kakashi wants me to help you with fundamentals."

"Uh yeah." Naruto said.

"But before that can we check out that shark tooth? Oji-san wants to look at it." Kohaku asked.

Naruto and Kohaku arrived at the apartment. Once Naruto opened the door, Kohaku took in the horrid sight.

Removing their sandals, they stepped in. Kohaku looked around, clothes all over the floor, empty ramen cups on the table, a cockroach moving on the wall.

"Look at this room! What a complete slob!" Kohaku exclaimed, opening the window. Naruto made a sheepish smile, rubbing the back of his head.

"I guess I shouldn't complain, he doesn't really have a parent. Who the hell am I to say." Kohaku thought.

"Sorry, um why don't you just get a couple of clones to fix this place up?" He suggested to Naruto. The blonde made a cross seal, a couple clones appeared and starting to clean up the place.

"You've been here your whole life after the orphanage?" Kohaku asked

"Yep, it's not much, but its home." Naruto answered.

"You should clean this place up, get some furniture, and maybe this place would be comfortable for others." Kohaku suggested. "You know? Like a palace in an apartment."

Naruto thought, then said. "Maybe some other time."

"Where is the tooth?" Kohaku asked. Naruto pointed at a shelf above the bedside table. The tooth was rested upright leaning against the wall, next to it was the bell that Naruto took from Kakashi.

"I will be getting that back right? I mean it's my souvenir." Naruto asked.

Kohaku said, "Yeah, you will get it back. Just something that Oji-san wants to look at."

"What's so important about it?"

"He wants to confirm the species of the shark. Because it's sudden appearance along with the other sea predators from your mission is a bit of an alarming news. Not to mention with the sauropod vertebrae that was found." Kohaku explained, holding the tooth.

"Anyway can we get some lunch first?" Naruto asked. "Alright let's get out of here." Kohaku said. They left the apartment, leaving the two clones to fix up the place.

Through some convincing, Naruto was having lunch with Kohaku at the BBQ restaurant instead of Ichiraku Ramen.

"You should probably widen your range of food choice. Ichiraku Ramen all the time, it's not really a healthy way of living." Kohaku suggested.

"Oh come on, it can't be that bad." Naruto said.

"You keep eating ramen all the time, it's not exactly what ladies would be comfortable with." Kohaku tried a different approach.

"Where did that come from?" Naruto asked.

"I'm just saying. Also you used that Jutsu in the preliminaries?"

"Well yeah. Everyone was so surprised when I pulled it off, especially Sakura-chan." Naruto dreamily said again.

"And I thought I told you to use that technique responsibly." Kohaku said.

"Well yeah, I've only used it once. And only for a very short time."

"And again with Sakura?"

"Don't be like that, I just know that Sakura-chan is into me."

"Would you like me to tell you the story about your future self again? Sakura will be chasing Sasuke for so long, but Sasuke settles down with-"

"Ok, ok stop." Naruto interrupted.

They finished their lunch and made their way to the Kaseki compound. After they dropped the shark tooth off the main building, Naruto and Kohaku were sitting on the field with a small group of Ankylosaurus.

"Alright so who are you going to be fighting first?" Kohaku asked, holding his back pouch in front of him.

"Hyuuga Neji. That guy is a real pain. Calling me a failure, and that I would stay that way. And he was so cruel to his cousin Hinata." Naruto answered.

"Hmm. The Hyuuga Clan, the strongest clan in the village. And they are particurlary sensitive of keeping that status." Kohaku emptied his back pouch.

"Also there is the three sand ninjas we've before. Gaara the one with the red hair, something is definitely off with him."

"Hmm, so that's his name Gaara." Kohaku pondered.

"Hey what's this?" Naruto asked, picking up a small vial with a needle. In the vial was a peculiar liquid.

"It's a tranquilizer. It puts enemies to sleep." Kohaku answered. "Whoa, cool." Naruto began to fiddle with the vial.

"Be careful with that, there's enough in there to knock down a Triceratops. If you shot yourself in the foot, you would go down before you even know you had an accident." Kohaku warned him, the blonde quickly put down the tranquilizer.

"So Kakashi wants me to help you with fundamentals." Kohaku said.

"I suppose. That's what he said. But why don't you teach me another technique, like before?" Naruto replied.

"You think I just give clan's Jutsu freely like that? It was a trade remember?" Kohaku replied. "Well what have you been doing with the Shadow Clone Jutsu then?" Naruto asked.

"Missions. D-ranked ones. I make clones do the missions that aren't strenuous." Kohaku said.

"What? Just lame missions?" Naruto asked.

"If there is money I'll take it." Kohaku shrugged. "Ok first I want to check out something. I want you to hold this paper."

Kohaku passed a small piece of paper that was in his back pouch to Naruto. "Put your chakra into it." He told Naruto.

Naruto did so, a moment later the paper got torn. "Huh, so you have a wind affinity." Kohaku pointed out.

"What's that?" Naruto asked.

"Your chakra leans towards wind element stuff."

"Oh wow cool."

"But sorry I can't really help you with wind element. Maybe if you check out the library or find someone who can help you with wind techniques." Kohaku said. "But Kakashi told me to focus on your fundamentals. Going back to the fundamentals. Your chakra control is pretty bad, even if you can walk on a tree. You exert an unnecessary amount to do simple things. But it can't really be helped, considering what's inside you."

Naruto knew what he was talking about.

"Well we can try to work on that. Follow me." Kohaku and Naruto went to the carnivore section. They entered Tenno's enclosure.

"Why are we here?" Naruto asked.

"We're here to walk on water. It should help with your chakra control." Kohaku said, standing next to the body of water in the enclosure. Kohaku explained to how to discharge the flow on chakra in a varying rate on an unbalanced surface.

Kohaku then took a few steps on the water surface, leaving Naruto to be bewildered. "Ok now you try." Kohaku said to Naruto as he went back to stand on land.

Naruto tried, but right after he took a second step he fell into the water. He poked his head out of the water. He looked at Kohaku, somewhere else in the water, bubbles rise and popped out of the water.

"Try again. And try not to fall right back in there." Kohaku said.

Naruto swam back to the land, he tried to walk on water, and he failed. He tried again, and he failed. This time Naruto felt something clamping down on the back of his jacket and t-shirt hard. Tenno came out of the water, standing on the land and holding Naruto by his jacket with his mouth.

With an angry growl, the Spinosaurus began shaking his head violently, thrashing Naruto about.

"AHH! DON'T EAT ME! DON'T EAT ME!" Naruto cried. Tenno continued to shake Naruto around.

"Tenno, put him down now." Kohaku said to the dinosaur. The Spinosaurus stopped, he looked at the Kaseki for a moment. With a grumpy snort, he opened his jaws releasing the boy.

Naruto plopped on the ground, Tenno went back into the water. Naruto got up and took a look at his jacket, it was all ripped apart at the back, and his t-shirt was torn up as well.

"Aw man, my clothes." Naruto whined.

"You ok?" Kohaku said walking up to him. "Yeah I'm fine." Naruto answered, standing up.

"Seriously it can't be that troublesome for you. Try building up chakra."

Naruto did so and Kohaku saw something through Naruto's ripped t-shirt. "Hey you seeing this?" The Kaseki pointed at Naruto's stomach.

"What is that?" Naruto looked at his stomach. "It's a seal. But I've never seen anything like this one before. It's not hurting you right?" Kohaku said.

"Well no, it's not hurting me."

"Hmm. Maybe you should get that checked out either way." Kohaku suggested. "Sorry but I'm not an expert in Fuinjutsu. Kakashi might have sent the wrong guy to help you sorry Naruto." Kohaku lowered his head.

"Ah don't worry about it. Do you know anyone who could help me with this then?" Naruto asked.

"Jiraiya-sama. One of the three sannins. I think he's back in the village." Kohaku said.

"Who?"

"Jiraiya-sama. He's one of the three legendary sannins. He's a real powerhouse. He's also the one who wrote Kakashi's book."

"He wrote that adult book? Well that certainly gives an impression." Naruto quipped.

"But like I said he's a real powerhouse."

"Well, where can I find him?"

"I can't really say for certain. But as you say, it gives an impression. Follow the screams, if you know what I mean." Kohaku said, and Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"Well anyway, maybe I can show something else. In case you are really left with nothing in the end." Kohaku offered.

"Really what is it?" Naruto's face perked up. "First let's get a new jacket and t-shirt for you. Considering Tenno gave yours some fashion touch up." Kohaku quipped.

They left the Spinosaurus enclosure. They stopped at Kohaku's home, and they entered in. Seated at the dining table was Kaseki Hiroko.

"Oka-san." Kohaku lowered his head.

She looked at Kohaku and Naruto for a moment. "Why is he here?" She asked Kohaku, and he was avoiding eye contact. Naruto noticed this.

"He needs new clothes. Thought I could give him my old ones." Kohaku replied, his voice sounded nervous.

"Fine." Hiroko said. The two quickly went up, Kohaku gave Naruto his old black hoodie jacket and white t-shirt that he had worn when he was a genin.

They left the house, made their back to the carnivore section. While they were on the path, Naruto then asked. "Hey uh does your mom hate me or something?"

"No, what makes you say that?" Kohaku asked him.

"Well she looked mean to you. And I thought maybe she didn't like that you were with me, because I have the ky-"

"No, no Naruto. It's not you." Kohaku stopped him. They didn't say anything else, and Kohaku brought Naruto to their designated location.

It was a dome, a huge one. They entered the dome through a metal gate, inside was lush vegetation. They made their way to middle of the dome. "What is this place?" Naruto asked.

"It's a birdcage." Kohaku said.

"For what?"

"You'll find out." Kohaku made a whistle. The sound of a wings flapping came from above, a creature then landed on Kohaku's shoulders. It had wings attached to its arms and legs, folded up. It had dark brown skin with a small thin fuzzy coat on its small body. Its head was a slighter big compared to its body, its eyes were red. Its teeth were small and sharp.

Anurognathus

In the small bushes, another creature came standing next to Kohaku. This creature was small as well. It had green skin, its tail was narrow and long. It had thin neck and narrow snout.

Procompsognathus

"Naruto, meet two friends." Kohaku said. Naruto looked at the pterosaur and the compy. The Anurognathus flew back up into the trees. "So Naruto, do you think you can take this guy on?" Kohaku crouched next to the compy as it chirped.

Naruto looked at the small dinosaur. "Well, yeah I guess. Shouldn't be too hard." He said.

"Really? How about try fighting two?" Kohaku asked.

"Yeah, two. No trouble."

"I see. Hey, Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Turn around."

Naruto was a little confused. He turned around, and his eyes widened. In front of him was a whole horde of compys. He didn't even hear them coming. He looked back at Kohaku, he saw him doing the hand seals ending with Rat. He stared at Naruto for a moment, then the compys quickly jumped and latched onto Naruto. One jumped on his shoulders and they looked at each other face to face.

"Relax, with me here, they won't attack you. Otherwise, well you're going to be covered in bites." Kohaku said. The compys soon got off Naruto as Kohaku undid the Jutsu.

"Alright now look up." Kohaku pointed up at the tree, Naruto had a pretty good idea what would be up there. He looked up and there was a large number of Anurognathus, a whole swarm.

He saw Kohaku doing the hand seals which ended with Bird. Kohaku stared at Naruto for a moment. All the small pterosaurs in the tree came flying down and began to swarm around Naruto and Kohaku, like bats. In the swarm, a genjutsu was being casted. All Naruto was seeing was the pterosaurs coming in to attack and bite him, he cried out and swatted them away but they keep coming. In reality, the pterosaurs simply continued to fly around the blonde and the Kaseki.

Kohaku made his hand seals, and the pterosaurs flew away from Naruto. The blonde just stood there and breathed heavily. "Relax, it was only a genjutsu. They didn't hurt you." Kohaku said to him.

Naruto looked at himself, seeing that see was unharmed. "Wow that was cool." He said to Kohaku.

After a long period of time, they left the birdcage and were at the Kaseki Compound arch. "Hey listen Naruto, I need to go. I got a mission in the night." Kohaku said.

"What? We're not going to continue?" Naruto asked.

"If everything turns out well, I might return soon and then maybe we can continue tomorrow alright?" Kohaku said.

"Oh ok, well goodbye Koha-nii." Naruto said. Kohaku flinched.

"Naruto."

"Yeah?"

"Can you stop calling me that?" Kohaku asked. Naruto had a surprised look on his face.

"Wh- what? Um, why?" Naruto asked.

Kohaku stammered a bit, "I- I j- I just don't really like it ok?" Naruto could tell something was wrong, but agreed anyway.

"Well ok then. Bye Kohaku." Naruto waved him goodbye. Before Kohaku left to get ready for his mission, he put his hands in a cross seal.

Night has fallen, Kohaku was on the rooftops, and he was watching Naruto sleeping in bed from afar. "So you're one of the Kaseki, never really had the chance to meet one in person." A voice came from behind him.

He turned to see a tall man with long white hair and a large scroll on his back.

"Jiraiya-sama. I was told you may had returned." Kohaku greeted.

"No need to be so formal with me. Kohaku." Jiraiya said.

"You know who I am?"

"Yeah I still keep tabs on what's happening in the village. Including the addition of the Kaseki Clan."

"Then you would know who has returned." Kohaku said to Jiraiya.

"Well I'm not really here for that."

"But only you have the power to bring him down."

Jiraiya then changed the subject. "I'll look after Naruto. You can rest easy now Kohaku."

Kohaku looked back the sleeping blonde and said, "Well, ok then." Kohaku took off, jumping on rooftops, leaving the sannin to watch over Naruto.

The Kaseki on his way back, until he managed to caught a glimpse of someone sitting on top of the Kikyo Castle. Someone with a gourd on his back.

Kohaku immediately stopped on his tracks, and hid behind a water tank. "Naruto said something was off with this guy." He thought, watching him carefully. He looked around and saw the sand jounin on another rooftop watching Gaara. With the jounin was another man that looked younger, he had silver grey hair a bit darker than Kakashi's and he was wearing glasses.

"What's going on?" Kohaku thought. He looked around the area, and he saw the other two sand genin he had seen before. They looked like they were scouting the area.

He looked back at Gaara who was not alone on the roof of the Kikyo Castle, it was a ninja from the Sound, bandages covering his head leaving one eye exposed.

He looked like he was preparing to fight Gaara. But Gaara started to change. Like he was growing a thick tail. His arm started to grow into a monstrous arm, the side of his face changed into a light brown like a monster racoon. Gaara charged right into the Sound ninja, there was a loud impact and a massive dust cloud, and when the dust cleared, the Sound ninja was revealed to be slaughtered and Gaara was on knee breathing heavily.

"What the hell? The sand sent a ninja like him here?" Kohaku thought, and looked back at the jounin and the grey silver haired ninja.

They appeared to be discussing something else and the silver grey haired ninja passed the sand jounin a scroll, then a leaf ninja came out of hiding and was running away. It was Hayate, and the sand Jounin was giving chase.

"Whatever is going on, Hayate is in trouble. Is the Sand invading the Leaf?" Kohaku stopped hiding behind the water tank, and went after Hayate. He could only caught a glimpse of two ninjas jumping on the rooftops.

He then heard the sound of blades clashing, he quickly made his way to the source. He tried to call out to leaf ninja.

"Hay-"Before he cold shout out to him, a kunai pierced into the side of his neck. He fell down, holding his neck and gurgling. "Hmm, you are going to be a problem." Someone came standing next to the fallen Kohaku. He painfully turned his neck to see who it was. He vision was blurry, but he caught a glimpse of grey hair, and glasses. Another kunai was thrown and pierced Kohaku's head.

Kabuto stood over the fallen Kaseki, and the fallen ninja dispelled in smoke. "Huh, a clone." Kabuto said. "This might really test the sand's loyalty."

Far outside the village, Kohaku had just finished his mission, he had just taken care of two bears that were attacking travellers.

He were deep in the forest when the clone that Kohaku made was killed. The memories went back into Kohaku.

Kohaku's eyes widened. "We have to get back now." But just when he was about the turn and head back, a massive puff of smoke appeared before him. Kohaku put his arms in front of him to shield himself. The smoke cleared, but it was still too hard to see what is was. Before he knew, a massive long, tail came towards him and blinding speed. The tail smashed into him like a whip, and Kohaku was sent flying through the forest, crashing through branch after branch and tree after tree.

He crashed into the ground, rolled on the dirt until he came into a halt. His head was bleeding, his mouth warm with blood, and he had twigs stabbed in various places.

He groaned and yelled in pain every time he pulled out the twigs dug into his flesh. Whatever was happening, he knew he had to get back no matter what was out there. He groggily stood up, and limped his way back. Whatever hit him earlier, would have come for him by now and finished the job. But since that did not happened, Kohaku would guess that the animal left or was summoned away.

Either way, he had to get back to the village.

Morning came, a grieving Yugao and her ANBU squad found Hayate's body. Izumo and Kotetsu were at the Konoha gates. They minding their own business until they saw someone on the path heading towards the village, to be specific someone crawling on the ground, making a blood trail as well.

The two chunin quickly went to help. "Hey! Hang on!" They called out, and slowly turned the person to see who it was.

Kaseki Kohaku.

He was breathing slowly, his skin was very pale. His eyes were lifeless, and he was still bleeding from his mouth and multiple stab wounds. It was a mystery how he was still alive.

"Kohaku? What happened to you?" Izumo said checking all of his wounds.

"Hay- San- Inva-"Kohaku softly mumbled in his bleeding mouth, before his blurry vision took over and Kohaku lost conscious.

"Quickly we got to get him to the hospital." The two tried their best to patch him up, and quickly brought him to the hospital.

All the members of the Kaseki clan gathered in the hospital, and after receiving the news from Choten, Naruto was there as well.

The doctors came to them after fixing up Kohaku the best they could. The doctor paused before he gave them the results. "At the moment, he's barely hanging on. It's a miracle he was still alive after losing so much blood. But he still needs units of blood in order to keep his systems functioning."

Choten who was holding a chiller box, knew the solution to this. "That's why we need to give him this." Choten took out something from the chiller box, packed red blood cells.

"He's a Kaseki. If he's going to make it through this safely, he's going to need this kind of blood. Dinosaur blood." Passing it to the doctor, they made their way to the room where Kohaku was.

Naruto was still wearing his new jacket and t-shirt. He was at the door watching Kohaku laying on the bed unconscious with bandages wrapped all over. The blood transfusion was set up, and Kohaku was taking dinosaur blood into his circulatory system.

"All we can do now is leave him to it." The doctors and the Kaseki clan members leave Kohaku to rest, except for Kaseki Hiroko.

Naruto watched as Kohaku's mother stood next to her son. She cupped Kohaku's cheek with one hand, and she placed a gift box on the bedside table.

Deciding to give her privacy, Naruto left the hospital. "Get better Kohaku."

But now Naruto was without someone to train him now. "Now what do I do?" He said to himself.

Wandering down the streets. Now on his own, he didn't really have anyone to help him now. Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, could he have asked Choten to help or Kichirou? He somehow found himself walking near the hot springs. "What Kohaku said about this Jiraiya guy? Follow the screams?"

"EEK! An old man's watching us!" A scream was then heard from inside the hotsprings. "Get that old creep!" A woman shouted. "Blind him!" Another shouted.

In a split second, an old man with long white hair jumped out of the bushes and high tailed out of there. In a gush of wind the old man, jumped on the rooftops fleeing from the women.

Right after that, the group of women ran out of the hot springs, only to run back inside considering they were all dressed only in towels.

"Is that our guy?" Naruto said to himself, thinking about the clues he was given. He tried to follow the guy, but he soon lost the trail.

"Dammit now where he'd get to?" Naruto was on the streets looking around. He heard another short scream, and then the sound of a slap. He followed the source.

"You disgusting old man!" Naruto saw a woman leaving a teashop. Soon after the same old guy came out of the shop.

"Well so much for that approach." The old man said rubbing his cheek.

Naruto then went up to him and asked, "Uh hello?"

The old man turned to see the blonde, inspecting him closely. "Oh it's you Naruto. Sorry but I'm in the middle of my research at the moment."

"You know who I am? And what do you mean by research?"

"Yeah research for my novels. Like this one." The old man, pulling out an Icha Icha Paradise book.

Naruto knew who he was. "You're Jiraiya?"

"Ha-ha! So you know my book. Of course you do, after all the reviews and ratings the fans give-"

"My sensei reads it. It's an adult book, so gives an impression about you, pervert." Naruto interrupted him.

"Anyway, I need your help." Naruto said to Jiraiya.

"Can it wait kid? I still have to get on with my research." Jiraiya tried to brush him away.

"No, no. My friend said you could help me. I got some kind of seal, and he said that you could help me with it."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed a bit. "Let's go somewhere else, and then you can show me." He said.

Hope you have enjoyed this chapter.

I got to say this mistake that when I was writing kakashi, I ended up writing Kakashit, pretty hilarious to me. Maybe someone should try to mke that into a joke, or maybe someone had done it already.