Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any of it's characters. I do own all of the characters I introduce and the storyline of this fanfic.

Thanks again for the reviews. En Satsu Koku Ryuu Ha: If you actual read my notes you would see this: "I got some ideas for this fanfic by reading other people's works so if something sounds familiar, it probably is". It's the same basic idea, Naruto leave with someone to become stronger. There are tons of stories like that. If you would have read more then the first chapter, you would notice that this story is different from "From Cherub to Devil" (which is a very good story, may I add).
Sorry for the ranting people, but comments like his just kind of take the fun out of writing.

It had been over a week since Naruto left Konoha with Hannoki. The memories were still there, but he was trying hard to push them away. His "friends" still showed up in his dreams, but he was now able to ignore it somewhat.
He woke up at sunrise, just as his teacher had instructed him. The one thing he couldn't get used to was sleeping on the ground. He always woke up with a slight backache. Hannoki was already awake and was getting some things out of his pack to eat. "No warm food this time, I'm out of matches to make a fire," the man informed Naruto as he tossed him a piece of bread.
Naruto caught it and started eating. 'Great, after a bad night, I now have to eat dry bread.' "Ne sensei, that means we're heading back to the village, right?"
"No, I still have plenty of things that don't have to be cooked. We'll be checking up on our friend Kagai, I hope they found him already. I can do that by myself, you can train by yourself."
"But what should I train? I already did the Fire Blast technique."
"That's true, but I have a little challenge for you."
Naruto raised an eyebrow.
"Before I teach you a new technique, you have to figure out a creative use for the previous one I taught. Combining it with another technique you already know is also possible."
"That shouldn't be too hard. Let's see, what can you do with a fireball." It didn't take Naruto too long. "I can light the fire so we can eat some cooked food!"
"You're correct, although I made it pretty obvious for you. Do you think you would've come up with that if I still had matches?"
"Hey, don't underestimate me!"
"Whatever, kid. The next one is also a fire jutsu, it's called Mythical Fire Flower. It's pretty high level, so it should take some time." Hannoki proceeded to show the hand seals and finished with a small demonstration.
"I'll be able to do it before you return!" Naruto boasted.
"It's not that hard once you have proper chakra control and are able to do fire techniques. I'll be leaving now."

When Hannoki arrived at the spot where they had left Kagai, it was empty. To make sure nothing happened, we went into the Grass village. He tried not to draw attention, specifically staying away from the inn. Hannoki listened a bit to the chatter of some older women, they were talking about a strange man that was found tied to a log. He couldn't gather any more useful information from their conversation, so he decided to return to see how Naruto was doing. Before he left, he got a little "present" for Naruto.

Hannoki was greeted by a swarm of flames coming at him. He looked pleased. "Well done Naruto, I see you're already able to do it."
"Of course, this is easy!"
"Remember the challenge, I won't teach you anything new until you come up with something creative. In case I forgot to mention, you can only use the same trick once."
"Hmm," Naruto said while sitting down. He was thinking hard.
"You better hurry up the thinking, I don't have all day."
A few minutes later, Naruto still hadn't come up with something.
"You really have no talent for this, Naruto"
"Don't worry, I'll come up with something." Naruto's mind started to drift off. He didn't know why, but he remembered the chuunin exam. "I got it!"
"Oh, tell me."
'I'll show you." He did the seals and breathed the fire towards his sensei.
The teacher dodged the flames. "So, what's so special?"
"Look at where they hit."
Hannoki looked and saw that there were shurikens stuck where the flames had burned a tree. "Oh, nice. Shurikens hidden in the flames."
'Sasuke can be helpful at times too,' Naruto thought to himself. Instantly the memories came back, but Naruto suppressed them. That was all over now, he wasn't in Konoha anymore. He didn't have to worry about those people anymore.
"I won't teach anything new right now. I have a little something for you, thought." A grin was visible behind his mask. He showed Naruto the bag he had brought with him from the village.
"What is it?" Naruto asked as he looked in the bag. It contained addition weights.
"You're used to the current ones, so I decided to make them a bit heavier."
"You won't go easy on me, will you?"
"Of course not." The grin got bigger.
The weights were a lot heavier, at least double the weight of the previous ones. He was barely able to stand.
"It won't do you any good to stand still. Let's get moving!"
"Not tag again." Naruto sighed.
"No, this time you can just run a couple of rounds."
Naruto sweat dropped.
"Those 10 laps won't run themselves, move those legs!"
Naruto slowly started running.
"You better hurry up. You won't get any food before you finish."

It was already afternoon when Naruto finally completed his task. He was exhausted, he had to use chakra to be able to run.
"From now on, you'll run 10 at the start of each day. This will help you build up your stamina and chakra supply. Even though you already have a lot of both, you will need all if it for the next couple of techniques."
'I'm not happy about all this, but at least I'm going to learn some kick-ass techniques.'
"We still have plenty of time today. Let's do some taijutsu training now.
"Sensei, can't I have a rest first? I just ran 10 laps!"
"In real combat, you won't have time to rest after running." Hannoki didn't wait for Naruto to respond and attacked with a right punch.
Naruto managed a combination of dodge and block. The weights prevented him from moving fast enough to dodge. He could barely raise his arms for a block either. To make things worse, his chakra supply wasn't high because of the running he had done.
"Remember, this is taijutsu training, so you can't use ninjutsu."
'He managed to place me at a disadvantage here, again. If I don't do something fast, I'm going to get beaten up badly.'
Hannoki didn't wait for Naruto to recover and continued with a left kick, which send the boy flying back. The next move came right afterwards.
Naruto ducked just in time for the punch to hit the tree that he had been leaning against. He suddenly saw a opening and used all his force to aim a punch at it.
The teacher caught the fist and used his knee to hit the boy's abdomen.
Naruto had trouble staying conscious after that last attack and stumbled back a little. He managed to keep at it and move forward again. He threw a couple of punches and a kick at his sensei, but none had any effect. Hannoki moved towards Naruto in order to land a punch. Naruto managed to dodge it, but his teacher finished the battle by hitting him on the back of his neck.
It was already getting dark when Naruto finally woke up.
"About time, I thought you were going to stay like that until morning." He handed a bowl to Naruto. "Eat up, you've worked hard today. Tomorrow I'll be teaching you something completely new."
"What's that?"
"Genjutsu. It'll probably keep you busy for a while."
Naruto sighed, he had never been able to do any genjutsu.

Back at Konoha, someone else was also training hard. During the day, Hinata received training from Neji. She was improving greatly and her self-confidence was growing. Right now, she was hitting a log using the Gentle Fist the Hyuga clan was famous for. Her mind wasn't on the training though, she was thinking about a certain boy.
"Hinata!" a voice shook her out of her thoughts.
"Ah, Sakura-san. What are you doing here?"
"I'm just walking a little to relieve the stress of the day. Are you still training?"
Hinata blushed a little. "H-Hai." She had improved, but was till very shy.
"Your relation with Neji has improved. I heard he's training you now."
"Yes. It seems that after the past chuunin exam, he doesn't hate the main family that much."
"That reminds me, the next one is in three months. Are you going to take it?"
"Our team will probably give it another try, yes. How about you?"
"Since we're missing a teammate, it will be kind of hard."
An awkward silence fell between the two. "S-Sorry about that," Hinata apologized.
"No need for that, it's not your fault. Besides, I know you probably miss him more than I do."
Hinata blushed a deep shade of red.
They sat in silence for a while.
"Ano, I should be heading home," Hinata said, while standing up.
"I should be going too, see you, Hinata."

While Hinata was walking home, she kept thinking of Naruto. There had been no reports about Naruto or Itachi lately. There were even unconfirmed rumors that they were in the Grass country now. Nobody knew why Akatsuki wanted Naruto, but she felt that the adults were hiding something from her.

Author's Notes:
I had to rewrite parts of this chapter because it was extremely short at first. Even shorter then my previous chapters. The next chapter will make a time jump and we'll see Naruto when he's a lot stronger already.