Getting out of bed always was a grueling affair with nobody around to force him. Sometimes, after turning off his alarm clock, he would just relax his head back onto the pillow and stare out the window next to his bed. There was something about a cloudless sky that captivated him, the sheer vastness of it was enough to humble any man.

It was one of those days where he did not want to wake up. After silencing the awful ringing of his clock, he collapsed back onto his bed and pulled up the covers. Except, today was different: he had somebody there to force him out.

"It's high time we started training again," grumbled the demon, "I wouldn't be surprised if that annoying girl surpassed you this time." As if to accentuate the veiled insult, Kyubi projected a humorous image of Naruto lying unconscious at Sakura's feet.

Sliding his feet from under the covers, Naruto ignored the jest, "Man, it's all work and no play around you isn't it?"

"You had that run-in with those shinobis two days ago."

"I hardly call being ambushed by a group of elite Cloud shinobis fun," retorted Naruto, stifling a yawn.

"But you enjoyed it nonetheless, admit it."

The demon had a point there. Fighting those Cloud-nins had given him a rush, and not just from the adrenaline. It was completely different from his normal mindframe, like a state of heightened awareness. Nothing mattered anymore except for him, and his enemy.

"Yea," he admitted grudgingly.

"On a more serious note, you better hurry up and warm-up or you really will become inferior to Sasuke."

"Not likely with Sakura always hanging around him. I heard he actually changed his mind and is going to eat lunch with her."

"So he finally broke down," smirked Kyubi, "Not surprising, with a persistent girl such as herself. I'll wager even that Morino Ibiki fellow would break under such torture."

"Is that a sense of humor you got there? You better watch out, you're starting to act like me."

"Heaven forbid."

Running twenty laps around the village on his fingers proved a more difficult task than before the mission. Naruto tried explaining to the demon that it was not his fault the mission interrupted his training, but he would not have any of it. As a result, Naruto was sweating more than he was used to. Surprisingly, his fingers were holding up quite well, thanks to a special exercise Kyubi taught him during the mission.

To him, the training was all very well, but something nagged at the back of his mind. It had been there since the Nine-tails actually surfaced into his consciousness. There was no use denying it, today he would confront him about it.

"Remind me again what's so important about the fingers?" Naruto asked curiously.

A mental sigh. "Remember what that eccentric sensei said about his and the Hyuga taijutsu style?"

"Yea, of course. Tekken-fu and Jyuken-fu. So what's the relationship?"

"This is a combination of both."

A combination of Lee-kun and the Hyuga taijutsu? How exciting! To think he would finally be able to match those two move for move instead of relying on his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. The possibilities were endless! Sasuke would finally acknowledge him and maybe Hinata-chan would smile at him again in that weird way. Where had that come from? He had not seen her in a long while, why was he thinking about her right now?

"Are you listening to me boy?" without waiting for an answer the demon continued, "No of course not, I know exactly what you are thinking."

"Hehe, whoops," Naruto said blushing both physically and mentally.

"As I was saying, open-fist combat styles are more effective than closed-fist style."

"Why is that?"

"Two reasons. One, open fists offer the same advantage as closed fists, and two, it is also more graceful."

"So you're going for style over effictiveness," snickered Naruto at the thought.

"Remember this boy, it is easier to kill a man with two open fingers, than with five closed ones."

"What?! How does that work? Maybe if you crushed the windpipe…"

"Using two fingers, you apply the same force over a much smaller area of contact, whereas with a fist, the force is more dispersed, thus losing its full effect."

"I guess that makes sense."

 "Of course it does. Now that you're done, you better do that healing technique, we're going to Practice Area #44 afterwards."

Naruto audibly gulped at the last thought. Practice Area Forty-Four was where the second stage of the Chuunin Selection Exam took place. It was much more commonly known as the Forest of Death. On top of that, he still had some bad memories about what took place there: swallowed whole by a giant snake, that five-part seal, and seeing Ino and Sakura as friends again were not events he wanted to see again any time soon.

Standing in front of the massive fence, Naruto was harboring second thoughts about training. The perpetually dark forest appeared even more foreboding than it had a month ago, or was it just his imagination?

"So…uhhh, how do we get in there?" Naruto thought nervously. All the gates surrounding the massive practice area were locked.

"Just when I think I have you figured out, you surprise me even more," sighed the demon, "Try climbing it."

So with a deep breath, the orange-clad genin gritted his teeth and started to climb the wire fence. It really was not as bad as he thought it would be, although the wire metal wire cut a little into his fingers, and there were no real footholds. That was alright though, his arms had seen worse in his previous training.

Once on the other side, Naruto could not help but wonder what the point of coming to his area in particular for.

"How long are we going to stay in here anyway?" he inquired.

"About a week, I'd wager."

"Man, that's so long. But what about Kakashi-sensei and everybody else? What if there's a mission?"

"I'm sure they'll survive without you just fine."

"Well, whatever you say."

Walking deeper into the darkness, Kyubi explained a little more about the nature of his training. "It's the second phase of developing your stamina and strength," he stated, "Basically, this is going to be on a completely different level."

"Great," thought Naruto to himself, "It's like he really wants to kill me."

"Here is a good place to stop – by the way I heard that."

In front of the blonde-haired boy stood a massive tree dominating the entire clearing of the forest. Its diameter was at least several times his own size. There were no branches except near the top, and those were extremely thick as well. The clearing itself was not much to talk about either. Several bushes grew across the ground in a strange shape.

"Now, climb that tree," ordered the demon.

Sliding his hand across the weather-smoothed bark, Naruto realized it would be impossible to maintain a grip on it. "How do you expect me to do that without handholds?" he asked.

"Well, there are two ways you can climb a tree: either make do with what you have, or you can make your own handholds," was the reply with what Naruto could have sworn was a mental wink.

"Make your own handholds…" he muttered to himself. Running his hand over the trunk once again he wondered how that was possible. Probing for weak points was useless, it was still a healthy tree. "Maybe if I used a kunai," he thought about that for a second then rejected the idea. That most likely was not the point of the exercise. Developing finger strength seemed to be important in this training…surely Kyubi was not serious.

Realizing the inevitable, Naruto drew a large breath and exhaled slowly. Pulling his arm  back, he closed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut in preparation of what was about to happen. With his hand in the shape of a claw, he stabbed his arm as fast as he could into the tree just like he saw his sensei, Kakashi, do it when using the Chidori.

Pain shot through his fingertips as his hand almost collapsed from the pressure. Determined not to shout out, Naruto grimaced and let the pain wash over him. Opening his eyes, he found his fingers slightly buried in the wood, though not enough for an adequate hold. "And I have to do this until the top? This is gonna suck."

"How else do you expect to become strong?" smirked the demon.

"Hmph, you aren't the one breaking your hand."

Using his other hand, the genin rammed it into the same spot, this time creating a large enough hold. Hoisting himself up a little, he quickly realized that the awkward position he was in would drastically lower the amount of strength he could put into each hit. "Ugh, you bastard," Naruto projected, "You knew this would happen. You set it up specifically so I would fall."

"Aye, what better way to build up your pain threshold than this?"

"Sadist." The fox was right though; he would emerge much stronger, if he could survive. Falling down from that high could be fatal.

Over the next few hours, and several bruises later , Naruto struggled to climb higher on the tree, but it was proving much more difficult, just like he anticipated. More than a few times he lost his grip and fell with a thud to the ground. Unlike his training for the Rasengan, this kind of training had nothing to do with chakra. His fingers were riddled with small splinters and the skin was raw. Still he pressed on.

It was soon starting to get dark; taking a break he leaned against the tree and gazed up towards the sky. He could see all the marks he made on the trunk going up three quarters of the way until the first branch. Near the end, he started to get the hang of it. It was not so bad – stab, hoist, and repeat. Still, he had taken a large amount of falls, each one higher than the other. Suddenly, a growl from his stomach reminded him he had not eaten anything since noon, or six hours ago.

"Man, my stomach's killing me, I need to eat," Naruto grumbled.

"Well, isn't there a river in this area?" replied the demon.

"Yea, its off to the east."

"Your fishing abilities should be sufficient to catch a few fish, I think."

With a shrug Naruto set off towards the same river where him and his team rested at during the Selection exam. Having spent two days in order to rest, he was familiar with the terrain. After arriving at the river, he realized there was a slight problem: he was alone this time. Catching fish was going to be more difficult.

Wading into a knee-deep area kunai in hand, Naruto stood as still as possible waiting for some fish to swim by. His patience was rewarded as a fat specimen lazily swam by his legs. Carefully taking aim, he deftly threw his kunai…and missed! "Shit, how did I miss that throw?" he wondered in disbelief.

"Have you forgotten about light refraction?"

"Yea, yea. It's dark, I can't see very well."

"If you aim a little to the right, you should be able to hit one."

Slightly skeptical, Naruto again stood waiting for an unsuspecting fish. Lady Luck seemed to be with him that day for after a few minutes, another decent sized fish swam up the river in search of less turbulent waters. "Calm…relaxed…" Naruto repeated to himself "…and strike!" Taking the demon's advice to heart, he aimed a little towards the right and was rewarded with the feeling of his kunai piercing the soft fish flesh.

Brandishing his kill like a prize, Naruto started to think this training might not be so bad. All he had to do now was cook the fish. "No matches…Great, how am I supposed to cook it?" complained the genin.

"If the fire won't come to you, then you go to the fire," intoned Kyubi.

"What kind of a stupid quote is that? That doesn't help!"

"Simply put, use a fire type jutsu."

"Oh ok," started Naruto sarcastically, "I'll just use my ultra-secret katon jutsu that even I don't know about."

"Before you get saucy with me, let me finish explaining. All fire-type jutsus begin with the horse and end with the tiger seals. Aside from that, think hot." Another mental wink.

"Think hot, huh," the boy muttered to himself. After gathering some wood, Naruto relaxed in comfortable position, trying to clear his mind. After concentrating for a little bit, he initiated the jutsu.

Horse.

Tiger.

Mimicking the way Sasuke performed his fire jutsus, Naruto placed his fingers to his lips and finished the technique, "Katon: Kakyuu no Jutsu!" he said, expelling his breath towards his pile of wood.

Success! A small stream of flames erupted onto the wood, igniting it ablaze. Laughing at his newfound skill, Naruto realized the possibilities ahead of him – there were so many more  jutsus he could learn, or even develop himself. Munching on his roasted fish, he chuckled at the thought of Sasuke's face once he would see he was not the only one who could  perform katon jutsus.

Stretching out after his meal, Naruto searched for a place to spend the night. He knew there were some wild animals that prowled around the woods at night. Also, some strange insects populated the area, like those huge centipedes.

"You know," started the demon, "The safest place is usually in a tree."

It was a while before Naruto fully understood what Kyubi was really trying to say. "Sadist…" he muttered in defeat.

Author's Notes: Poor Naruto has to climb a tree if he wants to sleep safe L. Anyway, once this training section is over there should be a bit more action, and romance! So don't despair.

Katon: Kakyuu no Jutsu should translate to Fire Type: Fireball skill. I sort of guessed about that since I don't know Japanese.