Disclaimer: I do not own any of the anime/manga/movies/etc. that I write about; otherwise I would be a millionaire NOT writing on fanfiction publishing my own ideas.

Chapter 3

Naruto was snoozing contently on his bed, sprawled so that half his body was sticking out of the covers and had a bit of drool coming out of the side of his grinning mouth while he dreamed of opening the world's first 'All-You-Can-Eat" Ramen bar. The sun had started peeking through the window, casting an ominous shadow over the blonde's sleeping figure. Suddenly, Naruto awoke to a sense of foreboding and immediately rolled out of the way, just as four claw shaped marks appeared on the pillow right where his head was not a minute ago.

"W-what the crap?!" Naruto shouted as he untangled himself from the floor where he crashed after the near death experience. It was then he noticed the tall tiger-like figure crouching on his bed with an amused grin on its beastly face. "What's the big idea Tora!?" Naruto barked out angrily as he got to his feet while keeping his eyes on his new summon/mentor.

The previous day, after the bakemono summon got the duo out of the underground temple, Naruto had directed Tora to his apartment. While initially worried on how other people might react to the large summon's presence, the tiger informed the seven year old that unless he wanted people to see him, his presence would be all but invisible to the naked eye. As it was getting late, Naruto offered Tora to sleep on his couch until he could afford a guest bed but the summon refused, saying he'd prefer sleeping on the roof as opposed to sleeping in a, and I quote, "Monkey smelling concrete cage." The boy bid his new 'friend' goodnight but was promised to experience "training from hell" the next day. Back to the attempted murder…

"It's quite simple brat," Tora informed his summoner with a fanged smirk, "Sense you want to be a ninja so bad I'm going to teach you all the tools you need to survive until I no longer deem necessary. That was simply lesson number 1: situational awareness. From now on I'll be launching sneak attacks on you at any given time until you can avoid me without even thinking about it!"

"Are you crazy?! You nearly killed me with that attack!" Naruto bit back irritably, cranky both from the attack and the fact that it was the crack of dawn.

"Oh please, if I wanted to kill you, you'd be dead before even the Shinigami realized it," Tora growled back before gaining a sadistic smile on his face and said in a creepy sing-song voice, "And now for lesson number 2: try to avoid me for the next hour!" he roared the last part as he leapt at his summoner, claws and fangs bared.

It was going to be a long morning…

Time Skip

Fortunately for Naruto, it was the weekend so he didn't have to worry about explaining to Iruka-sensei why he was covered in painful scratch marks and one or two bite marks. He huffed as he prepared a bowel of instant ramen and waited for the agonizing three minutes before his breakfast was done. Tora was watching him in a semi bored state as he idly licked the stray blood off his claws. "You know," the summon began, "I may not be an expert on human anatomy or nothin' but shouldn't you try having something better for you than noodles so early in the morning? You're going to need your strength brat for the training I plan on putting you through."

Ignoring the shiver that ran down his spine at the mention of more "training," Naruto simply said, "I know I could probably eat better, but ramen is the best I can afford with my budget that I can get from Old Man Hokage until I can start taking missions of my own. Besides," at this Naruto grinned, "ramen is too good of a food to pass up!"

Tora simply shrugged his furry shoulders and said, "Makes no difference to me. However, if you'd be interested I can share a tip or two about hunting and gathering food. Can't have my summoner keeling over 'cause of poor food choices now can I?"

Naruto turned and gave a big grin. "I'd like that," he said sincerely, since those skills would undoubtedly be useful for whenever he became a real ninja and was required to take long term missions outside the village. Plus he was grateful for all of the help the tiger-like summon has offered him so far. "Now, would you like to try some ramen?" Naruto asked as he prepared a bowel of his own.

"Eh, why not," Tora said with another shrug. Naruto poured another bowel of the ramen and set it before his new sensei and the tiger carelessly picked up the entire bowel and chugged the whole thing in one go. After letting out a satisfied belch and picking his teeth with a clawed finger he said, "Mm, not bad. Not really the same as meat but passable."

Naruto was happy that the summon liked the ramen, but of course he really wished that he didn't downplay God's gift to mankind like that! Taking a deep breath and trying to count backwards from ten to calm himself, Naruto said, "So Tora-sensei, where are we going to train at?"

"Hmph, should call me 'Lord Tora' at least," the bakemono mumbled loud enough for Naruto to hear and then said in a normal tone, "Well brat, since you're so eager why don't we go there now?" Before the blond could even comment or question his teacher he found himself being yanked up into the air by Tora's long main of hair that acted as a lasso and found himself being dragged out of his apartment's open window into the morning sky. While this was happening, Naruto was frantically trying to eat his ramen that he was able to snag from the table while hanging upside down and trying not to spill any.

Time Skip

Naruto found himself dangling above a vast amount of forest, still being held around the ankle by his summon's hair. "Um, Tora-sensei…what are we doing here?"

"This is where you'll be training at for the next 48 hours brat," the silver-eyed tiger said smugly, "I took the liberty of looking for the best place for your survival training and this seems to be the best." In truth he'd listened in on a conversation carried on by two drunken jonin walking by Naruto's apartment the previous evening and they were saying how Training Ground 44 was going to start being used in the Chunin Exams from now on and how they couldn't believe they'd send kids into the Forest of Death of all places. Intrigued, Tora went to check out the fabled training grounds and was satisfied that it would serve as good survival training for his new charge. "For now though, TRY AND STAY ALIVE!" Tora shouted out as his hair unwrapped itself from the boy's ankle.

"HUH?!" Naruto was able to gasp out before he was unceremoniously dropped 20 feet onto the forest floor right on his bum. Grumbling as he stood up while rubbing his abused rear end, Naruto had looked up and was about to curse out the summon before he heard an ominous growl to his left. Hesitantly, Naruto turned to look at the source of the noise and noticed three huge regular tigers looking at him like he was a juicy steak. Gulping audibly, Naruto slowly backed away while stammering out, "Uh…nice kitties?"

The tigers simply roared and started to give chase to the easy meal. Naruto gave off a very "manly" scream and ran for his life, the tigers in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, still floating above the canopy in a reclined position with his arms resting behind his shaggy head, Tora gave a rumbling laugh as he watched his blond brat's life-or-death struggle. Little did the brat know that he had come upon the tiger den during his visit the previous evening and, due to his obvious affinity towards the large cats, was able to convince them to help out with this little tortu-I mean-training exercise. The native tigers would chase his charge until he looked ready to collapse and then come back and begin the chase anew every few hours. This would hopefully build up the blonde's endurance and survival instincts as well as making him stronger. And if things got to rough, the tigers had orders to back off and if possible help the blond idiot. But there was no need to tell him that now was there?

Hearing another "manly" scream echo through the forest, followed by the roars of several tigers, Tora smirked to himself. Perhaps he'd use this 48 hour period to further reacquaint himself with the brat's village. After all, his summoner seemed to have his hands full at the moment.

For Naruto, it was going to be a long, long, Looooong two days. And the best part was, he had school to go to right after! This was just not his day.

AN: So a little shorter than I wanted, but I was just wanting to introduce what Naruto and Tora would do initially for training, and next chapter you'll start seeing the fruits of said training in the academy. I hope this satisfies you all as I hope to try getting more of this and my other stories out soon, just so long as my muse decides to get her but off the freaking couch! Till next time, please Read and Review!