Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Naruto for I lost it in a bet to Kishimoto while I was in Japan... bummer...

Chapter 25: Memories in the Mist and Harsh Knowings

They all awoke early for training knowing Disara would wake them anyways. Toma, Naruto, and Hinata did 4 laps around the town with Inari and 5 inside of town so Inari could show them around and killings off two birds with one stone. Hinata enjoyed the sights and the sounds of the people as they laughed and relaxed unlike the stories she was told last night. Inari smiled at this happy that his big brothers girl friend was happy. He looked to Naruto to see him taking in all the new sights and sounds and Toma who just stared off into space as if he were in deep thought.

"It's so nice here." Hinata sits on the ground under a tree and looks to Inari. "Has it been this way ever since Naruto-kun's first mission?" She asks the young boy who sits next to her.

"Yeah… Everything when Naruto and the others showed up." Inari smiles up at Hinata, "I'm happy that they came, they helped me so much…"

"Well that was nice of them to help you." She smiles down at him and looks to Naruto and Toma who are sparing in the small field in front of them. She smiles when Naruto pins Toma down on the ground. "You know you two you aren't going to get anywhere if you keep fighting like that."

"We're not fighting!" Toma says quickly but Naruto tackles him and wrestles him on the ground.

"We're working on hand to hand combat." Naruto says and looks to Hinata and gives her and Inari his wide grin. She sighs and looks to the house noticing Disara approaching them.

"You guys I'd stop, Disara-sensei is coming." Hinata says and gets to her feet, Inari watches as all three of them go up to Disara as if she were giving them a mission, he watched intently as Naruto sighed and rubbed his head and Toma folded his arms across his chest. Before Inari could say anything more the three of them went off into the woods towards the small spring with Disara following.

Inari followed behind them trying not to get caught, he stopped when Disara looked back in his direction but when she turned her head away he began to follow again. Inari hid in a bush watching as Hinata and Toma got into the same stance and began to run through a series of hand signs. Hinata and Toma match each others speeds as they both yell out a jutsu at the same time.

"Holy Arts! White maiden jutsu!" They yell and two giant angels form behind them. Inari watches them as he stares in amazement. Toma and Hinata disperse the angels and look to one another smiling.

Naruto watches as he begins to form the Rasengan in his right hand. The Rasengan begins to spin with fire, wind, and lightning coming from it. Naruto smirks as he charges at Toma, Toma evades the Rasengan and the Rasengan hits a tree breaking the tree into really small pieces that are on fire. Hinata sighs as she hurries through some hand signs.

"Water style! Water dragon jutsu!" Hinata calls out and the water dragon hits all of the small pieces on fire and puts the fire out before it hits the ground. Naruto rubs the back of his head giving her an innocent look. She puts her hands on her hips and looks at him.

"Sorry Hina-chan…" He whispers to her, she smiles warmly and he relaxes and when Disara clears her throat they both look at her.

"Now since you three already did your jogging, I want 500 push ups, 300 sit ups, and 450 jumping jacks. Naruto I want you work on channeling your chakra into a thin line through this tree 100 times." Disara says.

"But I-" Naruto starts but she cuts him off.

"Hinata, I want you to work on your speed so you'll be running up trees with these 200 pound weights on, then you'll do 50 laps around the town after the 100 tree runs." She looks at Toma and smiles. "And you get to do the same as Naruto, try to channel your chakra into fine lines." She drops the weights for Hinata on the ground and walks back to the house. Naruto sighs as Hinata begins to put on the weights.

"You know Hina-chan, it's gonna be hard trying to do all those laps." Naruto says as he helps her tie them tight to her lower leg.

"So? I've got to at least try to do it."

"I know you can do it but it's gonna be exhausting so try to be careful." He whispers and stands up straight. "Ready Toma?" He looks at Toma and smiles. Before they knew it Toma and Naruto were racing to see who could get done first. Naruto closes his eyes and begins to think.

Flashback

"I'm not losing to you Sasuke-teme!" Naruto yells at the Uchiha standing next to him. The 13 year old boys continued to give each other death glares as Kakashi sighed and Sakura watched while cheering Sasuke on in her head. Before anyone could think about kicking the shit out of each other Kakashi began to explain the training.

"Now what you need to do is get to the top branch on the tree without using your hands." He smiles closing his one visible eye in the process.

"Fine." Sasuke says quickly and looks away from Naruto. When Kakashi yelled begin the two boys ran at the tree hoping they would beat one another only to fail and fall to the ground. Kakashi runs a hand over his face until he notices Sakura at the top.

"You both lost to Sakura." Kakashi said and the two boys quickly looked up the tree Sakura climbed to find her up at the top sitting on the branch.

"Ha ha Teme!" Naruto laughs at Sasuke as the Uchiha looks to him giving him a powerful death glare.

"Shut up dobe. She beat your ass too." Sasuke growls, Sakura giggles lightly as the two boys fight below.

"I'll beat you Sasuke-bastard!" Naruto cheers as he charges at the tree again but fails. The each kept charging at the tree as Sakura walked up the tree with ease watching them.

End Flashback

Naruto opened his eyes to see his tree broke with tons of little holes in it unable to understand how he did it. He looked to Toma to find him staring at him wondering how he did it.

"What did I do?" Naruto asks him but Toma only stares in disbelief.

"Ummm well first you zoned out and started mumbling and before I know it you go shooting chakra out of your index finger chopping the damn tree in half like you were some sort of psycho man who thinks he's god." Toma says in disbelief as Naruto stares at him for a moment.

"Wow… I wonder how I did it…"

"I don't know just next time try to stay awake when you do; I mean I don't want to end up being a puddle on the ground." Toma says and Naruto looks to him.

"I bet you I'll harness it before you." Naruto says but Toma ignores him.

"No you won't I mean you don't know how to control it so why the hell would you be able to beat me?"

"Because I know what brought it out." Naruto smiles.

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Training in the mist went on for weeks that consisted of staying out late and coming back to Inari's exhausted. Hinata had dragged the two boys' home countless times. As the weeks past the boy's chakra control increased and Hinata had become almost as fast as Lee in his normal stage. The night they were to leave to the grass village Inari, Tsunami, and Tazuna threw a giant party for their friends leaving. Tsunami had invited some of the people the group had helped during their stay and Naruto was embarrassed when everyone started saying how cute he and Hinata were. As they headed out for the grass country Inari gave them food, which Naruto ate almost immediately pissing Toma off since the food was for everyone.

"You know, I've never been to Grass village, I mean they don't have real fighting ninjas only healers… I'm wondering if we can really learn anything there…" Naruto says as he folds his arms behind his head.

"Of course you can learn something there, protection jutsus, trap jutsus such as springs and such, and Hinata can work on her healing jutsu while were there so stop complaining." Toma says as he shoves his hands in his pocket as if he were still upset about Naruto beating him.

"You two stop it; you act as if you're married." Hinata says as she folds her arms across her chest. "I'm serious maybe you two should date or something."

"But Hina-chan…" Naruto whines thinking that she would leave him.

"Don't' worry, I was just kidding." She smiles warmly and wraps her arm around his arm knowing she was too short to wrap an arm around his shoulders since he was now 6 feet tall and she was still about 5'6". She sighed when she thought about how she had grown, yeah she was a woman now and they only had a year and 4 months left but she had noticed how she and Naruto had changed. Toma hadn't changed much except his hair a little shaggier but she had changed a lot. She smiled at Disara who stayed quiet ever since they left.

"You know what? I hope they have some food that's really great tasting, I miss Tsunami's cooking already…" Naruto groans and Toma and Hinata laugh lightly.

"Yeah but you know Naruto once you have their food you may never have it again." Toma says but Naruto pulls Hinata into him and smiles.

"No, I can try to convince Hina-chan here to cook the dishes for me which I surely know she would do."

"Yeah, of course Naru-kun." Hinata smiles as he pulls her out of her trance.

"Well you three need to keep your head in the game." Disara says quietly. All three of them look at her and watch as her eyes stare blankly ahead down the road and her arms stay folded over her chest.

"Is something wrong Disara-sensei?" Hinata asks and before she knows it Disara turns her head to look at them.

"Of course something's wrong, you all act as if things won't change when you back, that you don't understand that you could very well die in the heat of battle never knowing the touch of a loved one, of having all your hopes and dreams slide down the drain. Of course you need to relax but in these times you have to be serious about what is going on." She says and they all stare at her.

"Disara-sensei we-" Hinata starts but is cut off by Disara.

"No apologizing Hinata. A ninja does NOT apologize to another they only show that they can do better." Disara says quickly. Hinata stays quiet and looks to the ground, Naruto wraps his arms around her and looks to Disara giving her a death glare. "Don't even start that Naruto. You know it as well as I. You will be killed out there if you don't keep your head in the game now I've given you more than enough time to get along with one another and now you'll train as hard as you ever had." She says and turns away from them. Toma watches her wondering why she was being this way.