AN: Hey I'm back, pretty sure its only been like two or three weeks, but eh.
I'm posting chapters 13 and 14 now then 15 and 16 next week just so that its all finally at a point where its moving into new chapters at which point they be posted monthly again. Plus arc 4 has some of my favourite chapters I've done so far.

Chapter Title: Hidden in the tree leaves
Arc 3 Part 5

"So, you never explained why we're in the Hashirama forest," I said to Toyohisa as we walked along a beaten dirt path through the enormous trees.

"I've brought you here because it's generally pretty quiet and nice to look at" my Uncle answered as I followed him.

Today was the beginning of our training together, before we came out I went to see Hinata in Hospital and she was awake, she seemed super happy to hear that Naruto had taken to defending her after she was injured, though she berated me for attempting to cut Neji down saying that she still liked him even if he didn't like her. I told her who Sasuke and I matched up against in the final, she was concerned for us seeing as the Suna ninja had been pretty suspicious this entire time, but overall she was just happy we were okay. Sasuke had actually visited at the same time so he told us about how Asuma set him up with Kakashi for the month of training. Hinata was saddled with being in Hospital for the rest of the month at the least, so I planned to visit a few times a week, keep her company and all that.

Come to think of it, I wonder who Kiba will end up training with seeing as his Sensei who was likely the best tracker in the village as far as I was aware, had just pissed off to middle of fuck off nowhere with some kid from another team.

Back to the training though, I had already sort of been using weights for training like Sasuke had as well, but Toyo wanted to give me actual weights and some weighted clothing he brought for me, I was actually super impressed with his preparation and things he'd done. I'd put the weighted clothing on for a few minutes to see if it was the right size and man was it heavy, the clothing was just the Konoha blues, he hadn't said I needed to wear the training weights yet though. That brings us back to why we were walking through the forest, it was one that connected to the Nara forest if I remember correctly.

We had been walking for what felt like forever but was closer to an hour when the treeline broke out into a large open grassy plane, it was probably half a mile in diameter with a large pool formed underneath a waterfall at the back of it where a mountain-backed the area, it looked really pretty. My Uncle walked over to a table with benches seated around it near the catchment of the waterfall and sat his stuff down motioning for me to come over.

"Alright now I can answer in full why we're here, putting it simply we'll make the journey here and back part of the training with your all your weight, other than that it's because here we won't be bothered if we accidentally set a tree on fire" He stated with a laugh at the dismay in my face after he said the journey was training.

"So what's first then?" I was eager to begin with this.

"Well, you already know what your elemental affinities are right?" I nodded "Then we can work on them, so you've got better control with it or we can learn a few Jutsu." He suggested/asked.

"Ah… well, Dad actually helped me out by making a book of Jutsu and techniques he wanted to teach me so if we want to do that stuff we should bring him out here with us." I said somewhat bursting his bubble.

"Actually that's a good idea, Yeah, how about that we snag my brother when we come out next time, so he can teach you that stuff and I'll help." It seemed like he found what he wanted in the bag he'd brought.

He threw the weights to me, they were pretty heavy considering I was going to have them on my arms and legs, they were ten pounds each leaving me at forty total, not counting the already ten pounds of weighted clothing I had. Ume had made me fight her in the fifty-pound armour that she had once, and man can I say that was super hard, we only did that for two sessions before she decided it wasn't worth it. Toyo told me to start running around and just sort of getting used to the weights for a bit, he suggested running around the entire Village, and so I did. It was heavy, hard and uncomfortable.

I decided to stop off at Ichiraku for lunch on my run around the Village, mainly because it was the first stall I came across before my legs gave out, and Naruto was there scarfing a bowl down as fast as he could, I went under the curtain and asked for pork ramen and sat down next Naruto. What uncle Toyo didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

"Hey Naruto, how's your training going?" I asked as I paid for my food.

"It's alright, but when I went to train with the closet pervert I found a super pervert that summoned toads!" he said emphasizing by pointing with his chopsticks wildly.

"Ah… right… So how are they the perverts if you're the one with the so-called 'Sexy Jutsu' that you made?" my eyebrow was arched.

"Cause! The closet pervert fell for it! And the super pervert was the guy that wrote the crap the Sensei reads all the time!" wait- the crap Kakashi reads? Did he mean-

"Wait, wait did this Super Pervert say what his name was!?" I was excited at the prospect of meeting the Toad Sannin.

"Err… he somthin' 'bout Jiraiya, I think?" he answered.

"That's awesome as shit Naruto! That's one of the Legendary Sannin! He was the Sensei to the Yondaime!" I raised my voice as I got excited but was cut off when someone walked into the stall.

"Right so he's off running around the village, so we have time fo-" Uncle Toyo and his wife Rei who was dressed in her ANBU stuff without the mask walked in.

Rei laughed as I and Toyo looked like a deer in the headlights. "Hey Rei, Toyo…" I said as my Aunt continued to laugh.

"I guess neither of us are doing as we'd said we would, huh?" Toyo said.

"To be fair you said to walk around in them to get used to them and I never promised to finish the run in one sitting," I said as he shook his head with a smile sitting down with Rei and ordering.

[Scene Break]

The next day while Dad, Toyo and I were jogging to the spot Toyo had picked out for us yesterday, Dad started asking me about something I hadn't actually thought about in a while since it happened at the beginning of the first Exam.

"So have you had any of those episodes recently where your mind goes blank and your head experiences heaps of pain?" he asked coming up alongside me.

"Err… yeah, I did actually, I had one back right before the first Exam started, there was this guy I had a bad feeling about and the moment he spoke I had an episode in front of basically every Genin in Konoha. It wasn't as bad as the last one and I recovered pretty quickly too." I said also allowing myself to think about the situation again.

"Oh?" He looked at me wanting to hear more.

"It happened when this guy Kabuto Yakushi, he'd been some dropout guy that apparently failed the exam seven times and then his eighth this time, he was trying to hand out cards about people I think, that's what Sasuke told me after the fact anyway." I paused thinking for a moment. "He was super suspicious like now that I think about it those cards were dodgy… holy fuck! What if he's a spy?!" I said trying to play off somehow coming to that conclusion naturally.

Dad and Uncle Toyo seemingly stopped for a moment trying to figure out how I got to 'he's a spy' "Um… Takezou you have more proof than that don't you? Surely you wouldn't say something like that without more right?" Toyo asked.

"Well… I mean everyone said he was suspicious, so they didn't talk to him, and I was busy avoiding him in case it happened again so er… there was the fact that I overheard him talking about 'Lord Orochimaru' while I was leaving the hospital from a visit to see Hinata." Hopefully that would be enough for them to run it by someone, everyone in my family was aware that the trouser snake Sannin had attacked us because for obvious reasons I told them.

"Wait, wait, hold a minute when and where," Dad stated more than asked.

"The other day, the night after the prelims, as I said at the Hospital I was on my way out because they finally kicked me out, remember how I came home really late? It was then, I heard hushed talking and decided to eavesdrop like any Ninja would on stuff talked about in public and Kabuto was talking to someone and they mentioned it." Man, I hope this was believable cause I had actually gone out to see if a bar would let me drink. What? In mentally in my thirties, leave me alone. They told me to come back when I was sixteen. Plus killing those people in the Forest hasn't been something I can forget about easily, just thinking about it makes me sick.

"Hm…" Dad's face contorted into something akin to a thinking face before he spoke: "Alright, I'll go see if I can get someone to look into it." He said finally, just in time for us to arrive at the training spot as well.

We started off on that run around the Village like I was supposed to and this time I did it properly, mostly because both of them came with me to make sure and so they were warmed up to, when we arrived back at the park table with our stuff on it I idiotically asked Dad for a spar where he didn't hold back, putting it simply I lost by several miles. Man, I was getting super cocky about my skill, that was gonna get me killed if I didn't reign it in, and to think I give Sasuke shit over it. We spent most of the time just running through the first few pages of the book which was katas and such.

Before we headed home late in the afternoon I was playing around Jutsu combos with my wind ones and a few fire ones I learned, Uncle Toyo taught me this cyclone/tornado one I had planned to try master it over the next month and work it into a combo with The Dragon Flame Jutsu. Dad and my Uncle had shown me what it could look like, so I'd have an example to strive towards. It was genuinely beautiful to see in action, the combo of them was insane and destructive as heck. They ended up having to spend ten minutes trying to put the forest out with water jutsu, too bad it would be super hard for me to learn water jutsu, there are some cool ones, like the water dragon and such.

After going home and cleaning up I headed out into the village to find Naruto because I wanted to talk to him about something, and I was going to visit Hinata to see if she's feeling any better. It was actually pretty hard to find Naruto I went to the usual Ichraku, but he wasn't there when I went to the hot springs where I'd assumed he'd be with Jiraiya or Ebisu, where I found him was not really where I expected, mainly because I had given up on looking for him by this point and had gone to the Hospital to see Hinata, he was talking to her when I came by her room.

"Oh! There you are Naruto." I said walking into Hinata's room, there were more cards than the last time I visited.

"Heya Takezou! Were you looking for me?" he asked.

"Well I mean you're already here talking to Hinata which is what I was going to suggest you do before going against Neji, so I don't really have heaps to say all things considered." I scratched my cheek.

"H-how're you Takezou?" Hinata asked from the bed looking bored of only having white walls to look at.

"I'm doing alright, I started training with my Uncle and my Dad, oh and Sasuke has basically been kidnapped by Kakashi for the month so we can't bother him for conversation. Also, Naruto, while I remember, would you be able to introduce me to Jiraiya before the month is out? I want to ask him about something." The blonde tilted his head and nodded.

[Scene Break]

It was three days later when I was playing around with the Wind Style: Cyclone Jutsu trying to make them bigger because at the moment the ones I produced were about six to eight feet tall, but the one Toyo made was twenty to thirty feet tall. It was only a C-rank Jutsu apparently, so it wasn't too hard to learn all things considered, anyway I was with just Dad today because my Uncle got cucked by the Village and they put him on the roster again for duty without him knowing. Apparently, there was something going on that needed his attention, it might have to do with what I told him and Dad, but I'm not sure. Dad was mostly just standing around with a smoke giving me advice or sitting around and smoking giving me advice, occasionally he'd start a dialogue or I might depending on what I was doing.

Most of the week had been like this and with a few days left before it was out I wasn't too bothered by the idea that the rest of the month would be like this, though I imagine I'll hit an impasse in my learning how much better I can get. There really wasn't much that I was doing aside from beating the new jutsu into my system as much as possible and going off to visit Hinata, though I managed to find out where Kakashi had stowed Sasuke away at. They were out at a training field that was still technically Konoha but was outside its walls, the place was probably an hour or two out of the way, so it was relatively easy to take time out to go there which was what I planned on today, I was going to head home at eleven and make an abundance of food for lunch and head out at or just after noon.

I took a look to the sky and it was about ten- thirty or so, Dad was doing a few different stretches and jogging around when I looked over to him.

"Hey Dad! Want to spar?" I called to him from under a tree as I downed a bottle of water.

I think there was a morbid joke about him only having one arm because he looked at his non-existent arm like it had watch "Sure!" He called back after that. He came over to where I was and had something to drink before we went out into the opening and took our stances, he took advantage of the fact that I was Kenjutsu trained before taijutsu leaving me to have a lot of openings in my stance because of that. Maybe I should work on my Taijutsu? Nah, I'll just cut them up before they make me need to.

We both watched as a leaf fell between us waiting for it to touch the grass, the moment it did I rushed forward and went to kick his feet out from under, but instead I got a knee to the face, I scrambled backwards out of his range, he followed me keeping his momentum forcing me to grab for the dirt throwing it at him. I dodged away as his fist nearly hit me, standing up again I rushed and was thus flipped on my ass and sat on as Dad punched me, I held my block until a moment arose where I kicked him off me with both feet.

Dad rolled out of the way as I went to land on him, he kicked me in the ribs sending me flying across the ground, I slammed into a tree winding me, recovering I stumbled forward and continued my assault. We fought like this for another twenty odd minutes before Dad called it, we packed up quickly and made it home.

When I finished making the food, which was just a selection of club sandwiches, and headed out to the spot Kakashi and Sasuke were held up from what I remembered. I honestly think that Kakashi wouldn't feed him if he could get away with it, so my plan was this way to slowly take the world over with my cooking. Wait… wrong plan that was the backup if being a powerful pun master failed, anyhow the journey there was kinda interesting I guess, it was nice to see a different area of Konoha, one that I normally didn't get to most of the time.

When I turned up in the stone plateau there was a screeching that I would akin to the sound of birds chirping, oh… right. When I came out into the main opening Kakashi was stood there reading his book, Sasuke with messed up torn and ripped clothes was pulling his hand from a rock, the Jonin seemingly smiled as he noticed my presence and decided to substitute the crate of kunai next to him with the container of food in my hand, the suddenness of it made me drop it making them clatter. Sasuke's attention snapped to our direction.

"You are genuinely an asshole, you know that?" I said picking them off the ground and putting them in the crate again.

He shrugged as Sasuke came over "Hey… Takezou, what are you doing here?" he asked, taking a few sandwiches from the container.

"Well the idea of feeding you properly comes to mind because I doubt that he could," I paused jamming my thumb in Kakashi's direction earning a snort from Sasuke "and because I wanted to see what you'd be up to, plus I doubt I can beat my opponent so I'm not bothered by spilling secrets with you" I said getting some food for myself.

"I guess that's fair, so what have you been learning then? And how's Hinata since I last saw her?" He asked as we sat down, showing more concern than I had realised he would. Though I suppose he had been relatively open with us since before the exams, but it has just become more pronounced now.

"Before I answer that, what the fuck happened to your hands? they look worse than when we were learning about chakra nature stuff with Sensei."

Not long after I arrived and was subsequently forced to help train they went back to training and I bid my farewell, heading home as the sun was heading towards the horizon, by the time I arrived home which had taken an hour or so longer than it would have had I not done the race, the Sun was sitting on the horizon enveloping its last rays of orange upon the sky. The night passed without much incident, normal as ever.

AN: