Author's Notes:I've gotten a lot of reviews after the last chapter. Thanks a lot. Seriously, reviews are like freaking crack. Nothing makes me happier than getting a bunch of reviews.

I've recruited some more help for writing. In the form of a reddit user, Aethum, and Phantom is still helping me out. So thank them for this chapter.

Some people where wondering why I was having Hinata practice acting like Ino or Anko. I actually found out my sister in law works with kids who stutter and acting is one of the ways to help. Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt and James Earl Jones all had stutters, but they've become seriously awesome actors.

Yes, Mother fucking Darth Vader had a stutter. Seriously, I found out months ago and that still freaking blows my mind. Seriously one of the greatest voices ever had a problem talking. When I think about that, I can't help but wonder the hell have I been doing with my life?

Apparently writing fanfiction. Speaking of that, here's the next chapter.

Chapter 21: failures.

The first clue Naruto had that someone was pissed was the angry screams coming from outside. It was enough to make him bolt out of bed and start running. Unfortunately for him, there were two problems; one, he wasn't in his own house - so his instinct to escape through the window instead sent him flying into a wall. Secondly, despite the fact that the infuriated owner of said voice was outside the building, her partner was not. After Naruto stopped seeing stars, he found himself in the vice-like clamp of the jaws of a large dog.

Moments later, Naruto and Kiba, both clad only in their boxers, were sitting in front of Kiba's mother. In the dim light she appeared to be foaming at the mouth. Survival instincts kicking in, neither boy dared to move, lest they get her ire directed at them. That and a humongous beast behind them was breathing down their necks, just daring them to make a break for it.

"I had a simple mission - track down some kidnappers, kill the bastards, don't traumatize the client's daughter, and come home. I did it in record time and this is what I come home get." Tsume half grumbled, half growled. "Not only is there a wall missing from my lovely home, I find out my son and his idiot friend tried to go AWOL to save a chunin! A chunin! With several years of experience over them!"

Kiba opened his mouth to defend himself only to quickly close it when his mother turned to face him.

"My son, who hasn't even perfected the Gatsuuga yet, tried to go save his sister several years his senior." Kiba seemed to be trying to make himself look smaller as his mother continued. "What were you thinking?"

Kiba looked up after a moment. "I wasn't. I just knew she needed help."

There was complete and utter silence for a breath, then a second, and a third, before Tsume responded. "I'm going to beat your ass."

"AND I SHALL HELP!"

All present jumped as Gai suddenly joined them. Somehow, his teeth sparkled despite it being four in the morning and there being almost no light out. Tsume shook her head as she tried to calm herself "It's fine, Gai, I can handle them."

"Nonsense! I was asked by the youthful flower Kurenai-san to help train Naruto! It would be wonderful to have Kiba join us!"

Tsume smiled and nodded. "Well, you can take Naruto. I want to have a... personal... touch with Kiba, as his mother."

"Aha!" Gai shouted. "I understand perfectly! I feel the same way with my wonderful student, Lee! Why just-"

"Thank you, Gai," Tsume said quickly. "You can take him now."

Gai flashed another dazzling smile, Tsume discretely tried to break a genjutsu that she knew he must have placed to get his teeth to sparkle like that. He grabbed Naruto and began to run.

"Wait! Gai-sensei!" the boy shouted. "Let me get dressed first!" Unfortunately, it seemed the tall man didn't hear him as they ran away.

Tsume turned toward Kiba and began to grin, her eyes seemed to glow in the night. "As for you... Get ready. You're gonna be learning a lot."

Kiba gulped, "Am I free to go?"

"For now..." In a heartbeat, Kiba was gone. Tsume watched him run, then looked at the destroyed wall of her house. She slowly turned toward Kuromaru.

"So," the big dog began, before getting all the air knocked out of him as his human partner tackled him in a hug.

"You hear that?" The woman asked between her laughs, "My little brat tried to save his sister! He's finally growing a pair! It's too bad I missed that! This needs a picture right next to his old chew toys!"

Kuromaru rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, your son is amazing for disobeying orders and trying to save someone who most likely didn't need it!"

"But he tried anyways! My baby's finally growing up!"

"Mom," a voice said from the broken down wall, "you're scaring us..."

Tsume turned toward her daughter, who had her three partners behind her. She ran over and slapped her heartily on the back. "Kiba's growing up!"

"Ow! Mom! Injured here!"

"Oh, sorry," Tsume said leaving her daughter alone. "You'll need to tell me everything that happened."

Hana sighed. "Long story short? Naruto saved my life." Tsume slowly nodded. Hana bit her lip and then looked at her mother. "I think... I think Naruto deserves to be Once Marked."

Tsume stared long and hard in her daughter's eyes. "Hana, that's-"

"Mom..."

Tsume smiled and pressed her forehead to her daughter's. "Tomorrow, tell Hokage-sama that we want the Once Marked members for a meeting. We'll need the Wise Wolf's permission."

"I'm sure she'll give it."

Gai finally dropped Naruto off in front of the gates. They had to stop and go back so Naruto wasn't running around the village in his underwear -and because Naruto refused to wear that amazing green jumpsuit. As much as he wanted to, he did not want to see what the Inuzuka would do to him if he returned wearing it.

Gai and Naruto were actually the second and third to arrive. The first being Lee, who was running in place, upside down, on the frame of the gates.

"Yosh!" Gai shouted upon seeing his student working already. "I see you have beaten me here already, Lee! As my punishment for myself for being late, I shall run around Kohona once on my hands before the others show up! And, f I cannot do that, then I shall do our entire morning run on my hands!"

Lee, in response to that, stopped running in place before switching to doing pushups, still upside and hanging from the frame of the gates. "And I shall endeavor to do two thousand push ups before you return! And if I cannot do that, I shall hop around the village on one leg!"

"Yosh! Then be ready to start hopping, Lee!" Gai shouted before taking off. He began screaming, "YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUU-" before he turned the corner and his shouts could no longer be heard.

Naruto, having learned his lesson yesterday, decided not to try and join in, and, instead, sleep. He only got a few a minutes of sleep before he felt someone wake him up. He opened his eyes and saw a girl with her hair in two buns. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. "Morning, Tenten..."

"Good morning," she said, with more energy than one should have at four in the morning. "Where's Gai-sensei?"

Naruto looked around and saw the third member of this team facing away from Lee, who was still doing pushups. "He's running around the village."

"Already?" she said with a groan. "Great, he'll be all fired up and want to run more today." Naruto stood up and brushed himself off. A moment later, Tenten asked, "Can you hear that?"

"It's Gai-sensei," Neji said quietly from his position.

At the mention of Gai-sensei, Lee began furiously doing more of his upside down push ups as he let out a long and steady shout. Which, for a moment, drowned out what the others were hearing, before Gai turned the corner.

"-UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUTH!" the man finished shouting as he jumped by pushing off the ground and flipped in the air, as Lee hit the ground, flashing his sensei a Nice Guy pose and smile.

"Ah! Lee! Did you beat your challenge?"

"Yes, I did! Gai-sensei!"

"Excellent! It seems I have failed mine! I'm proud my students have shown initiative!"

Neji and Tenten both scoffed.

"Yosh! Now, let's begin our early warm up! I shall do the entire run on my hands! And if I cannot do that-"

Naruto, Tenten, and Neji all ignored Gai as they all began to run. Only Lee stayed behind to up the ante of their training. Slowly, Neji pulled away from both Tenten and Naruto. The older girl glanced at Naruto and smiled. "I'm surprised. I didn't think you would have been able to go again today after last time."

The blond shrugged. "I recover quick."

Tenten nodded. "That's obvious. Anyone else would be bedridden. We ran over twenty-five miles." She paused for a moment as she thought. "Well, we did, you maybe ran about twelve. You fell apart about half way in."

"Remind me again why we're doing this again?" Naruto groaned.

Tenten laughed, before she was almost knocked over by a green blur named Lee. "I'm not sure myself. I think part of it is to keep those two off our backs."

Naruto stared after the green beast that had just blown past them. "Bushy-brows and Bigger Bushy-brows?"

Tenten laughed at his nickname for the two ninja. "Yeah, those guys."

Naruto sighed. "I don't think I like running."

Tenten waved it off. "You get used to it after a while. Do it long enough and it gets kinda zen. Just putting one foot in front of another. You get to forget you're running even though you should by all rights be passing out."

Naruto shook his head. "Definitely didn't get to that point yesterday."

"Tenten, focus on your training." Neji called out from in front of them. "Don't waste time chatting with..." the older Hyuuga trailed off as he tried to think of an appropriate word for Naruto, he looked back for a moment before deciding. "him..."

Naruto raised a fist at the Hyuuga, while still keeping a steady pace. "What's your problem?"

"Neji..." Tenten said quietly.

"You're a loser." Neji said simply. "The dead last. Compared to us, you're just excess weight."

Naruto exploded. "Oh yeah! What the hell do you know?"

Neji sent Naruto a pitying glance. "Because people cannot change, expressions like elite and loser are created. Tenten is an elite kunochi, her talent with weapons is unmatched. You? You're a failure. The dregs of the academy." Neji began to pick up the pace. "If we were to keep ourselves at your level, we'd all be useless."

Naruto began to increase his pace to over take Neji's, just to prove something, but then Neji said something else.

"Come on, Tenten, let's leave the failures behind. Naruto can understand that, can't he? After all, it's why we're... working... with him."

"Neji, aren't you being a little bit too rude here?" Tenten said as she also increased her pace.

Naruto slowed down. What did he mean by that? He wondered to himself.

Gai came up behind Naruto and slapped him on the back. "Keep moving, Naruto! Don't let the flames of youth die out!"

Naruto increased his pace again, still much slower than what he had before, as he mulled Neji's words over in his head. Was he talking about... Hinata?

Kurenai woke up with a start when she sensed something moving in her apartment. Her mind was running through ten different possibilities, the last one being Anko had gotten inside her apartment again to accost her. At least, that was before she remembered that Hinata was spending the week over. She got up and proceeded to walk out into her living room, where Hinata was silently sneaking about.

Kurenai coughed into her hand, and Hinata jumped up like she had been caught stealing from a cookie jar. "S-s-sorry!" Hinata began.

Kurenai waved it off. "Ah-ah-ah, remember those acting lessons we were going over yesterday."

Hinata nodded slightly, and took a breath. She put her hands together and used the henge technique to turn herself into Anko. "Sorry, Kurenai-chan! I was just looking around!"

Kurenai leaned against the wall. "What were you looking at?"

Hinata, as Anko, turned around and looked back at what had her attention before. She was quiet for a moment as she tried to think of what Anko would say. "I was looking at your books!" She paused and Kurenai could see Anko turn red as Hinata tried to act more like Anko. "I was hoping f-for something kink-kay!"

Kurenai paused then said, "Okay, I know I said we can pretend to be Anko, or Ino, but why don't we try someone else?" Note to self, tell Anko to stop being so damn perverted around Hinata. She got the inflection a little too right there. "How about... hmmm... let's do Naruto this time."

Hinata reappeared for a moment before she changed shapes into a familiar blonde boy. Though this version just a little too tall, a little too broad at the shoulders, and a little more handsome than what the boy really looked like. Kurenai fought to tone down her smile as Hinata unintentionally gave away just exactly how she saw the boy.

"Kurenai-sensei..." Hinata said with Naruto's voice. "Sorry for waking you."

The jonin waved it off. "It's fine. Do you want to have breakfast?"

"Yeah! That'd be great!" Hinata said with only a moments hesitation. She followed Kurenai into the kitchen. The shy girl disguised as Naruto leaned against the door way. Her shy demeanor slightly poking out from her disguise in the way she moved her arms in front of her, as if to hide her from the world. "Kurenai-sensei? Can I help?"

"I think I can manage, though I do appreciate the thought."

"O-oh, okay."

Kurenai stopped reaching for a pan and glanced at Hinata. The return of the stutter telling her that something was wrong. "Why?" she asked.

Hinata tapped her fingers together, an action Naruto wouldn't have made, but she kept her voice steady and kept it sounding like Naruto's. "I don't know how to cook, but I'd like to learn."

Kurenai smiled. "All right, in that case you get to cook today!"

The henge dropped. "M-me?"

Kurenai pointed at the fridge with a frying pan. "Grab the bacon out of there and a few eggs. Don't worry, this will be easy."

Hinata quietly followed Kurenai's orders. Kurenai put the pan on her stove top and pointed at the bacon. "Lay those out into the pan, don't let any of them overlap." Hinata dutifully performed the task, and at Kurenai's urging she turned on the heat. Slowly, the bacon began to sizzle.

"Okay, now flip them," Kurenai ordered. She watched for a moment as Hinata did so, before she asked her student, "So, why are you interested in cooking?"

Hinata paused for a moment, then said quietly. "W-when I-I get sealed... I-I'll need to cook..."

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the sizzling from the bacon. Kurenai forced herself not to stare at her student. Instead she remembered what Hiashi had told her. Hinata has a sparring match against her sister in two weeks. Hanabi has a strong case for her position in the clan, which Hinata is losing. Hinata needs to win.

Kurenai controlled her breathing to avoid giving Hinata any insight into her thoughts. She needs to beat her sister. Her main problem is her intent to attack her sister, let alone anyone else. Can I get her in gear in a week?

Hinata looked at Kurenai then back at the bacon, then flipped them without being told by Kurenai. Kurenai looked at the girl and thought grimly Do I have a choice?

"Don't worry, Hinata, we won't let that happen."

Hinata looked up at her sensei and smiled. "Thank you, sensei..."

Kurenai put her hand on her shoulder. "Take the bacon out and put it on a plate. Break the eggs into the pan. I'll be back real quick." Kurenai went into her room and quickly put on her normal clothes. She let out a slow breath as she gathered as much chakra as she could, drawing ever little bit she possibly could before she intoned, "Kage bushin no jutsu."

A copy of her appeared and nodded at her before moving to her window and jumping out. She went back into the kitchen, and looked over Hinata's shoulder and reached for a spatula. "Here, use this to take the eggs out an put them on plates."

"Y-you got dressed?"

"I feel better if I'm wearing my normal clothes. Spend enough years acting a ninja, you become uncomfortable without a weapon," she said as explanation. "Come on, let's eat."

Meanwhile, her clone made it to Naruto's apartment. It knocked on the door. After a moment the door was pulled open. "Kurenai-chan! Come in!"

Kurenai took one step in and suddenly was assaulted by several smells. It was a series of smells, but they combined into one she recognized immediately - pure unadulterated fear. She walked in and saw that Naruto's living room and had been turned into a torture and interrogation playground. Three men where stationed over tarps, meant to ensure no amount of blood would stain the floor. One was hanging upside down, another was hanging upright, and the third was strapped to a chair.

Kurenai sort of pitied that one.

"Sorry about the mess, some playthings came over last night," Anko said almost skipping around the three men. "This one I'm calling Aho," she said moving the upright one's head from left to right. She then moved to the next one. "This here is Gohu," she said making the upside down one sway back anf forth slightly. "And that guy's name is Jinmusha, cause the fucker bit me," she said spitting towards the one in the chair.

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying your assignment..." Kurenai said with little emotion.

"Thank you!" Anko said as if Kurenai's response was genuine. Anko pulled up another chair and sat in it. "So, let's get down to it, you're not a morning person, and I can feel the chakra draining off you slowly. You're a clone, obviously shadow clone too. You're here for something."

"Hinata. I need her to win a fight against her sister in two weeks. Her sister is more talented in Jyuuken."

Anko leaned back in the chair, keeping it balanced on two legs with nothing else touching the floor. "Toughie," Anko answered honestly. "Let's face it, only who could do it for sure is Gai."

Kurenai shook her head. "I'm saving that for punishments."

Anko turned toward her prisoners. "I might try that sometime."

"I'm not sure Gai would like that..."

Anko waved it off, still keeping her balance on the chair. "I can just tell him they need their flames of youth rekindled because they were doing some horrible unyouthful things. That would damage his own youth just to hear of them."

"That'd... probably do it," Kurenai admitted and thought to herself privately, Seeing as that's how I got him to help me.

The man in the chair began to groan as he came out of whatever had knocked him unconscious in the first place. Kurenai turned around and threw the man into a genjutsu, immediately he started screaming. She threw up another one to keep the room quiet.

"Kurenai... that's my job!" Anko whined as she slammed the chair down onto the floor again.

"We're talking right now, and I'd prefer to get this done quickly so I don't have to make another shadow clone. This takes a lot out of me."

Anko looked at the one she called Jimusha. "And that-"

"Anyways, I need to get Hinata up to speed."

Anko sighed. "Honestly, it's not like you can work the miracle. The only one who can do that with taijutsu is Gai. If it were a matter of genjutsu you'd be the miracle worker. She has to be the one to do it. What does she want in her taijutsu?"

Kurenai thought for a moment, then dispelled.

Anko looked at the silently screaming man. "She didn't dispell the illusion..." she said murderously.

Back in her apartment. Kurenai blinked twice as she got the shadow clone's memories. She twirled her chopsticks, which were senbon re-purposed for now, in her fingers and asked Hinata, "Hinata? Remember what I said yesterday, take what your passion is and make it your weapon?"

Hinata nodded hesitantly.

"I was thinking we should incorporate that into part of your taijutsu training, but I want to know what you'd consider your passion is?"

Hinata set down her chopsticks, the one actual pair Kurenai had. She was silent for a moment, and it seemed like the whole room was still while she thought. Then Hinata looked up at Kurenai. "I want to be untouchable."

Kurenai smiled, then nodded. "Then we'll work on that."

Much later, after a dinner -which once again involved lots of dango and many of the same faces as yesterday - Anko had returned, demanding more dango in payment for Kurenai ruining some of her fun, and Ino, because Kurenai had asked.

They had started off with light combat training under the same rules as yesterday; no jutsu - no summon jutsus especially - no ninja tools, no cheap shots, no chakra manipulation, no punching, and no kicking.

After Anko knocked Ino unconscious they had to add "no head-butting" to the list as well.

Kurenai sat with Ino, who was holding a cold, wet cloth to her forehead and watching Anko train Hinata.

"DODGE!" Anko shouted as she threw a rock a little larger than their weapon pouches at Hinata at very fast speed. "DODGE!" Anko repeated just as loudly when she threw another stone at Hinata, this time faster.

Ino grumbled, "She has to be using chakra manipulation. There's no way she could throw them that fast otherwise."

Kurenai nodded. "Are you gonna yell at her about it?"

"DODGE!" Anko shouted as Hinata was currently flipping through the air as several went flying at her.

"No way, you do it. You're the jonin."

"I have a rule, when someone gets that look in their eyes I don't talk to them."

"DODGE! KA-HA-HA-HA!"

"I'm gonna start living by that rule too."

"Good decision."

Ino groaned. "I think I'm hallucinating. I see a yellow blot under the tree there..."

Kurenai looked past the flinging rocks and spotted the same thing. "You're not, Naruto is trying to stalk us."

Ino sat up. "Really? Usually it's Hinata."

Kurenai turned toward Ino with a raised eyebrow. "Hinata stalks you?"

"No, she stalks Naruto. You didn't know?" Ino asked, completely baffled.

Kurenai shook her head. "That... hasn't come up..."

"Oh."

"I'm gonna have to deal with that..."

"I don't think she'll do it anymore."

"I meant Naruto."

"Oh, right. Good luck!"

Kurenai sighed then proceeded to quickly make her way over to Naruto. Hinata was far more concerned about the rocks trying to pulverize her than her sensei getting up. She made her way over to Naruto, who waved at her listlessly as she approached. The first thing she noticed was the ink on his hands and the sealing tags stuck in his jacket.

"Seems like you've made some progress on sealing," Kurenai stated.

Naruto shrugged. "A little, Kiba's got better handwriting though."

"I see..." Kurenai stated. She followed his eyes to see he was watching Hinata. "Why are you here?"

"I really screwed up didn't I?" Kurenai focused on him. He stuck his hands in his jacket pockets and kicked the ground. "Neji said something today. That I made a good decision leaving Hinata behind cause she was a failure. That... that wasn't what I was thinking at all. I just didn't think."

"You're right," Kurenai said. "You didn't think." Naruto did nothing but nod glumly. "The question now is, what are you going to do about it?"

Naruto ran his hands through his hair, leaving a bit of black in it from the ink. "I don't know. I walked over here trying to figure out how to apologize, but..."

Kurenai thought for a moment. "You know what, Naruto? I think you think faster on your feet."

"What?"

Kurenai let out a shrill whistle. When Anko paused throwing rocks for a moment Kurenai shouted, "Anko, play with Ino for a bit! Hinata-chan, please come here for a moment!"

"Kurenai-sensei!" Naruto pleaded, but it was too late, Anko was chasing after Ino, who wisely was running like the dogs of the Inuzuka were after her. Hinata slowly made her way over.

"Come on, Naruto, time to pay the piper."

Hearing Naruto gulp in fear was music to her ears.

A moment later, Kurenai left Naruto and Hinata alone. The two of them sat under a tree for a few minutes. Neither of them said anything, and neither of them looked each other in the eyes. Hinata fiddled with her fingers, and Naruto played with the tags in his pocket.

The silence was broken with Naruto screaming and running his hands through his hair. "I CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING!" he shouted toward the direction that Kurenai had walked off in.

Hinata, of course, jumped at Naruto's reaction. "N-Naruto, wha-"

The blonde stood up and and just bowed deeply. "I'm sorry, Hinata."

"F-for what?"

He rubbed the back of his head as he sat back down, but he still didn't look her in the eye. "I screwed up. Big time. I don't know how to make it up to you. I... I should have asked you to come with at least... when me and Kiba ran off like that."

Hinata took a slow and deep breath as she thought about how Anko or Ino would act. She tilted her head up and tried to put up a confident air. "You should have," she said firmly.

Naruto jumped at that. Hinata cringed a little, but he looked her in the eyes and slowly smiled.

"Yeah, you would have been so helpful during that. I mean, I was walking in blind. If there was anyone I needed then, it was you. So, I'm sorry. I just didn't think. I'm sorry, and I promise that it won't happen again."

Hinata spoke quietly, but surely, "I forgive you."

Naruto's smile, which had been nervous at first, now grew to a big full smile. "Thanks, Hinata-chan!"

Hinata turned red, but demurely smiled back as she began to fiddle with her fingers.

Naruto took a look around. "Looks like you've been training hard."

Hinata once again was quiet before trying to show some of the spunk that Ino had. "K-Kurenai has me practicing dodging, a-and acting..."

"Acting?" Naruto asked raising an eyebrow and looking at Hinata strangely.

Hinata looked down at her hands. "I-I d-don't like my st-t-tutter."

Naruto continued to stare at her. "Why?"

Hinata curled her legs up and began to hug them, the action causing some pain as she felt her legs beginning to bruise from the hits Anko had managed to deliver. "I-It m-makes me like a f-failure."

Naruto thought for a moment then looked away. He was quiet as he remembered Neji calling him a failure earlier. "You're not a failure, that's me," he said with brutal honestly. "I'm just a loser. I may appear strong, but that's because I act all tough. I'm always just so... frustrated from always failing..." he whispered as he looked at one of the seals in his pocket.

"That's not true," Hinata said with a quiet conviction. "Even when you always fail - in my eyes - you're a proud failure! When I look at you," Hinata began playing with her hands as she continued talking, "I get an intense feeling in my heart. Because..." She paused as she continued to find the words she wanted to say. "You're not perfect, but when you fail you have the strength to get back up. I believe that's what true strength is. I... I think you're an incredibly strong person, Naruto-kun!"

Naruto was utterly speechless for a moment. Then he jumped up and faced her. "Well, then! If I'm a proud failure then you are too!" He smiled at her and flashed her the biggest grin he possibly could. "You didn't stutter once there!" He scratched the back of his head. "And... I don't think that you having a stutter is the worst thing in the world. You don't need to act like someone else, just act like who you wanna be! I mean... you're kinda weird." Hinata hung her head slightly. "But I think I kinda like a person like you!"

Hinata began blushing furiously.

"Ah jeez! Are you getting a fever again?" Naruto asked panicking. He looked her over and then shouted. "You're bleeding!" he said pointing at her leg. "Hold on a second! I got bandages somewhere!" he said as he began pulling sealing tags out of his pockets. Pieces of paper fluttered everywhere. Eventually, he scrambled and found the one he was looking for. He put his hands on the center of the seal and intoned, "Release!" Smoke flew out of the paper, and all the tags floating around were scattered as a gust of wind came out of the tag, which messed up Hinata's hair. In his hands were some shredded bandages, he hiked up the leg of her pants, and quickly ran the bandages over and around the wound, which was rather minor.

Moments later, he finished. He pulled down her pants leg and smiled at her. "There we go! That's better." Hinata barely even moved as her brain still struggled trying to catch up to what was going on. "Hinata?" Naruto said waving his hands in front of her face.

"NARUTO UZUMAKI..." Naruto jumped and slowly turned around. Coming out of the woods was a horrible beast named Tsume Inuzuka. "I hope you didn't think you could escape training today could you?"

On her shoulder's was Kiba, who painfully looked up at Naruto. "Save... your...self..." he said quietly.

"Shut it, boy! Kuromaru! Sic!"

Her partner came flying out of the woods, and Naruto began high tailing it out of there. Screaming, "Bad day, bad day, BAD DAYYYYY!"

Just as quickly as they had come, the Inuzuka matriarch and her partner had left. Moments later, Ino, Anko, and Kurenai came back. Anko picked up one of the tags left on the ground. "Brat really needs to work on his hand writing. I'm scared to unseal this thing."

"Aaaaand... now I'm terrified," Kurenai said as she backed away from Naruto's seals.

Ino however was right next to Hinata. "Wow! Those lessons are working! You were like, three words from confessing to him! You go girl!" Ino said giving Hinata a thumbs up. When Hinata didn't move Ino moved closer. "Hinata? Hinaaaata..." Ino called out while she waved a hand in front of the girl. "Umm... Kurenai-sensei? I think we lost her..."

Ino poked Hinata lightly and the girl fell over, blushing furiously and smiling like the blonde idiot who just ran away. Anko just laughed and Kurenai face-palmed.

Later, Kurenai and Anko stopped at the Kurenai's apartment, Hinata with them. Kurenai unlocked the door and turned. "Thanks for the help today, Anko, I think we really did make some progress."

"More help tomorrow for more dango?" Anko said smiling, as Hinata shivered.

"I'm not sure I can afford that, Anko. How about a bottle of sake instead?" Kurenai counter offered. "One, just one."

Anko sighed. "Okay, I was hoping to get some more, but oh well."

Kurenai let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Anko." She turned toward Hinata. "You get some rest. I'm going to go check on Naruto and Kiba first. Kiba's mother has me worried."

"O-okay," Hinata said quietly, "d-do you think we can train with them tomorrow?"

Kurenai patted Hinata's shoulder. "Maybe. We'll see." Kurenai turned toward Anko. "See you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow!" Anko said smiling. When Kurenai disappeared, Anko grabbed Hinata by the arm before she could get inside. "Just a minute. I got something for you."

"W-what?"

"Look, I know I scare the shit outta you. Hell, I scare the shit out of Kurenai and a lot of other jonin. So, consider this a peace offering," Anko said handing her a book. "It's a novel, but it's got some basic descriptions of sealing in it. Read through it, and you might be able to help that blonde idiot of yours, eh?" Anko said smiling and patting the girl on the head somewhat affectionately.

"T-thank you."

"Any time," Anko said smiling, before she too left.

Hinata smiled as the door closed. She had to admit that the snake mistress was a terrifying teacher. But as scary as she was, she was a great teacher, and she put her all in everything that she did - similar to another ninja that Hinata knew. She felt better after the conversation that she had with Naruto earlier that day, and it seemed like Anko was trying to make up for the snakes she had unleashed on Hinata earlier.

Hinata sat down on the couch in Kurenai's living room and ran her hands over the book before opening the book and beginning to read.

Meanwhile, in the forests of the Land of Waves, Sasuke stood staring at the base of a tree. His progress was slow, too slow. He hadn't made much progress at all since the first day, the scratches congregating in single clumps where Sasuke felt he had breakthroughs. Sasuke wondered for a moment if he should ask Kakashi-sensei for help, but he quickly shook his head to the idea out. He didn't need others to get stronger. He was the elite. He could do this.

On the other side of the forest, Kakashi and Shino were playing a game, again, this time it was a form of tag. Sakura started the game with four pieces of paper, stuck to her skin with pine resin. There were four pillars set up, each with with four pieces of paper on them. The game was won when Sakura got all the pieces of paper off her by placing them on the pillars. She lost when they were all placed on her.

While Shino and Kakashi post ripped those pieces off the pillars and tried to place them on her. Kakashi was impossible to dodge, but Shino was the bastard. He'd leave his bugs behind, so the paper would be hidden on her. So Sakura couldn't see the paper, or feel it rustling in the wind.

She lost all the games, except one.

Kakashi's clone had taken three pieces of paper and slapped them on her forehead. "There you go, my cute little student, you have another forehead protector now!"

Sakura grabbed the pieces of paper and looked her sensei in his lone eye. "Kakashi-sensei..." she said calmly.

Shino stopped moving, his insects detecting something amiss.

"Yes, Sakura-chan?"

"I... am... not... your... cute... little...STUDENT! SHANNARO!"

Kakashi's eye went wide as Sakura flew at him using her Shunshin-no-jutsu. He dodged with plenty of time, but what was really terrifying was when her fist hit the fifty year old tree behind him. She destroyed the trunk. Both Shino and Kakashi used the same body flicker technique to put some distance between Sakura and themselves.

"Kakashi-sensei... I believe we may have made a mistake. Why? Because I did not know Sakura had that in her..." Shino whispered to his sensei as Sakura destroyed another tree.

"Shino," Kakashi whispered back, "I agree."

The two were quiet as Sakura stormed over to one of the pillars and proceeded to take off all the strips of paper on her and punched them into the pillar. "Take that! Who's the loser now?" Sakura shouted.

"Kakashi-sensei... I admit, I'm very jealous."

Kakashi turned toward his student. After waiting for Shino to continue to explain himself like he normally did, he was forced to ask, "Why?"

"Because with your Sharingan, you'll always remember this, with perfect clarity."

Kakashi just chuckled.

Kurenai walked up to the Inuzuka threshold. She stopped and stared at the broken-down door. It was the smell of fear that made her hesitate. She slowly reached down to draw a kunai from her dress and proceeded to walk in, layering herself in a multitude of genjutsu. The entry way was clear, except for the blood on the walls, the bloody hand prints about the size of a young teenager. She felt a breeze come from her right and she followed it to the source, finding a series destroyed rooms, and a missing wall.

That's when she saw movement. She tensed at first but soon realized it was Naruto. She jumped to his side and rolled him over. The boy was covered in splinters, blood, ink, and she really hoped that wasn't urine she smelled on him.

"Naruto," she said quietly, "Naruto! Wake up!"

"Huh?" the boy grumbled as she awoke him. "Kur-"

"SH!" Kurenai shushed him as she covered his mouth. "Quiet, understand?" The boy nodded as he quickly glanced about. "What happened?" she asked when she took her hand away from his mouth.

"Kiba's mother," Naruto whispered, "she came for us, said to give us training. She's trying to kill us!"

Kurenai looked Naruto over, and unfortunately came to the same conclusion. "Where's Kiba?"

Naruto shook his head. "I don't know. Inuzuka-san said she'd take him aside for special training when she finished me..."

Kurenai looked around, and saw nothing. "Can you move?" she asked. Naruto answered by getting up. "Follow me - no noise, suppress your chakra, and otherwise be invisible."

"Just like pranking, got it."

The two of them circled the house, when they heard a scream. Kurenai dropped all stealth to run to the source. She found Kiba dog-piled by Hana's dogs.

"Quit moving brat! Damn it, Mom! I'm a vet not a doctor!" the medical kunochi said.

The Inuzuka matron, who was laying against her partner, and had a bottle of whiskey in her hands, shrugged. "Just do your best, and make sure he ain't crippled."

Kurenai looked at the scene before her the ground about them was destroyed. A pipe had burst and was creating a small pool of water in the middle of the backyard. Akamaru was unconscious near Tsume, and Kiba was screaming in pain - most likely from the dogs that were biting him and trying to keep him in place, or from his sister twisting his one free arm to assist her partners as she tried to heal the boy even as she hurt him more.

"What... the..."

"Ah Kurenai-san! Good to see you!" Tsume shouted. "Oh! And Naruto's up too!"

Kurenai refused to react to Naruto hiding behind her. Instead she asked simply, "What's going on here?"

Tsume laughed. "Just some training. Naruto's pretty good at forcing now, might even be able to give me a good chase in a few years. Kiba on the other hand, well, I went over Gatsuuga, the Kobi Henge, and Dainamikku Makingu."

Kurenai mentally flipped through what she knew. Gatsuuga is the combined attack of an Inuzuka and his partner. Kurenai thought, Kobi Henge is a technique where two people worked together on a henge, and Dainamikku Makingu... Kurenai let out a sigh. "So I'm guessing that's what I smelled on Naruto..."

"Yep!" Tsume said happily.

Kurenai pointed toward the ever growing new source of water. "Naruto, bath, now." Naruto just slowly marched toward the water as he took off his jacket and shirt. She looked up at Tsume. "Did you go over some of the techniques with Naruto?"

Tsume shook her head. "Really, just the Kobi Henge. It's a useful technique. Otherwise I had him working on his stamina and reaction time."

"Other words, as a target."

"You could say that," Tsume said, unashamedly. "You wanna help train these two?"

The two boys stopped what they were doing to look up at their teacher, horror evident on their faces. Kurenai shrugged. "Might as well see if they've improved at all."

"Shit! Run!" Naruto shouted.

"Language!" Kurenai responded throwing a kunai at the boy, who dodged simply by moving faster than the knife. Kurenai raised an eyebrow. "He has improved." She responded by throwing another kunai, this time faster, and she managed to trip up the fleeing child. "But not by that much."

Later, after Kurenai had returned back to her apartment, Hinata slammed the book shut. Why in all the nations did Anko think she would want to read... that! Hinata couldn't stop blushing after seeing that sort of thing in such vivid details. She looked at the author of the book, Jiraiya. The man must have had such a vivid... imagination. The book was trashy and disgusting. Her family would have been ashamed.

Even bigger question though, was why did she read the whole thing?