Naruto POV

"Hi Gaara, how did it go yesterday?", I asked as Temari and I met him at sunrise in the training ground that the Hokage had given us. "It was revelatory. Apparently Orochimaru plans on attacking at the finals. He wants to fight the Hokage while his forces and a guy named Kimimaro fight with the remaining shinobi. I don't know who this Kimimaro guy is, but the way Kabuto talked about him he seems to be incredibly strong. We have to watch out for him. Also Sasuke seems to be playing some sort of role in their plan but I have no idea what he is supposed to do. I will use the rest of my free days to shadow him, since Kabuto has orders to stay low and not attract any attention.", Gaara explained. We nodded, agreeing with his plan. "Alright, let's get to training.", I said unsealing my predator blade. Temari took out her battle fan and opened it slowly, while Gaara let his sand flow around him. "Any restrictions?", I asked before anyone could start an attack. "Wait a second, let's make sure no one spies on us.", Gaara said, lowering his kunai and letting his sand float to the ground. Temari also closed her fan again looking at me with expecting eyes. I just chuckled and resealed my katana before opening one of my pouches taking out a pencil and some sealing ink. I quickly drew a small seal on a stone, before putting chakra into it. The seal glowed and then a wave of chakra was shot out in all directions, stopping approximately hundred meters away from the stone, which included the treeline that was lining almost the complete training ground. I grinned at my teammates signalling that the barrier was complete. "Alright, no restrictions.", Gaara said, bringing his hands up again and letting his sand go underground, probably making more sand for other attacks. Temari readied her fan and took a defensive stance. I again got my sword out of its seal and took out one of my hiraishin kunai only to stab it into the ground where I stood. I put my second hand on the hilt of my sword, seeing that it was meant to be handled by an adult, it was a bit too big and heavy to be swung one handed by a thirteen year old boy like me.

Our little standoff lasted for a few minutes, neither of us moving. Then suddenly I felt a large chakra spike coming from Temari who was already swinging her fan in a wide circular motion creating a large shockwave that was speeding towards Gaara and me. Gaara brought his sand shield up while I simply jumped high in the air to dodge the massive attack. I was glad that I didn't try to block it, since I saw that Gaara's sand wall had gotten a few massive dents and even a small hole. Then I saw my blonde teammate smirking at me, before throwing a bunch of kunai and shuriken at me. Obviously she thought that I couldn't dodge her attack since I was still in the air but I simply took out another hiraishin kunai and teleported to the one I had put in the ground at the start of our match. Temari's eyes went wide as she saw that and she didn't watch her side since Gaara's sand came speeding towards her. Temari turned just in time to evade the sand but had to jump up in order to do so, which put herself in a very bad position. I used that and went on the attack myself, putting the hiraishin kunai in my hand back into my pouch and charged at her with my sword. She blocked my first strike with her fan but could not block my second strike in time and just like that my sword was on her throat. Temari closed her eyes and let her guard down. I took my sword of her throat and turned around, blocking some kunai, that Gaara had thrown. My girlfriend put her fan away and walked a bit away from the fight, since she was already eliminated. I looked at Gaara before going through a few handsigns. When I was done a large gust of wind formed and shot at Gaara, causing him to put his sand up again. I used this and the fact that Gaara couldn't see what I was doing to make a shadow clone and have him hide soon as Gaara had collapsed his sand wall I lunged at him with my sword, pumping chakra through it. The chakra in combination with me swinging the blade caused a large blade out of air to appear and make its way towards my redheaded opponent. Gaara dodged it by simply ducking down, which caused the blade to travel further and smash right into the trees at the edge of the training ground. I looked at Gaara with a smirk as my clone shot out of the ground and tried to grab Gaara's arms. He didn't have much success however and was blocked by a wall of sand that formed almost instantaneously. Gaara commanded his sand to kill my clone and then turned his attention back to where I had stood. His eyes went wide, when he didn't find me there anymore. I was meanwhile pushing out chakra to hinder Gaara's sand from interfering while charging at him from the side with my sword drawn and chakra flowing through the blade, making it glow. Gaara saw me at the last moment but made the fatal mistake of trying to block my sword with a kunai, which was promptly cut in half by my sword. Gaara, just as Temari had done earlier, dropped his guard and closed his eyes, admitting defeat.

Temari came to us smiling and hugged me from behind. "Congratulations.", she exclaimed, referring to me winning our little training battle. "Well , from what I have seen, you guys have improved a bit since we had last sparred. Temari, I think it is pretty obvious what you have to do, since you lacked the physical speed and strength to block my attack in time. Gaara, I think you have to work on your perception and your instincts since you have failed to see that my sword had chakra running through it, which caused you to try to block it, without dodging it.", I said coming to the conclusion of our training. "Yeah, I agree with you. Honestly I have very little to tell you, you lack a bit of chakra control, which causes your jutsu to be a bit underpowered, but that is basically it. I couldn't find any other flaws in our fight.", Gaara replied with Temari nodding in agreement.

Then we heard a scream. I looked in the direction of the noise and saw that it had apparently come from the trees. I smiled and looked at the stone where I had put the seal, only to see that the seal was glowing bright red. I chuckled darkly. "Seems like someone has tried to get to us.", I stated, before standing up. Temari and Gaara also stood up walking on either side of me towards the source of the scream.

As we walked through the trees we saw something that was absolutely hilarious to us. Sasuke and Kiba were both sitting on the ground, holding their heads while Sakura was standing next to Sasuke crying a bit and asking him if she could bring him anything. I couldn't keep my composure and burst out laughing, alongside Temari who was already holding her stomach. Gaara was the only one of us to be calm, although I could see that he was desperately trying not to laugh. Sasuke and Kiba immediately jumped to their feet realizing that we stood there. Sakura was a bit slower and was startled by the sudden movement of her crush. When Temari and I had calmed ourselves enough to not laugh anymore we looked at the three genin with expecting eyes. "Why did you try to get to us?", Gaara asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes. "We didn't try to get to you! Not everything is centered around you, you narcist.", Sakura exclaimed loudly. "You know as well as we do, that there is only one reason you three would try to get to this training ground, see as the training ground of your team is located far away from this one. You tried to spy on us again.", Temari stated with a sigh. "What is this barrier?", Sasuke asked suddenly catching the attention of me and my teammates. "This barrier is none of your business.", I replied, enraging the Uchiha and his team.

"I demand you tell me how you created this barrier!", the Uchiha screamed. Even though we were only a few meters apart I did nothing as he drew a kunai. "Make me.", I replied calm, putting an arm around Temari. Sasuke angrily yelled and charged at us but promptly hit the barrier again and got thrown back a few feet, whilst also getting shocked. "Do you think, they will ever learn?", I asked my teammates ignoring the cries of pain from Sasuke and the various insults thrown at me by Sakura and Kiba. As Sasuke slowly got up he said something that caught my attention: "You little asshole. I will take everything from you, even your little bitch of a girlfriend. You will tell me how you did this barrier and then I will kill you!", he screamed. I perked up at the part where he had called Temari a bitch. Temari, who had previously leaned into my side, took a step aside and Gaara did the same, knowing that now the Uchiha had fucked up.