Disclaimer: I do not own any characters.

Naruto takes over

Chapter 3: Training with Sakura

"Naruto! It's time to go. Take the books with you if you want. And go back home to have a good rest. I'll be training you tomorrow. Be ready, it'll be a straining day." Jiraiya told Naruto strictly.
It was afternoon when Naruto walked back home from the Hokage Tower excited about tomorrow's training.

"I wonder what Peverted sennin is going to teach me tomorrow!" Naruto said to himself.

As he was walking, he met Hinata on the way. Hinata was very shy to wave to him and she looked down onto the floor as she was walking pass Naruto.

"Konnichiwa Hinata!" Naruto greeted Hinata energetically.

"Ko...konnichiwa, Na...naruto-kun." Hinata replied nervously.

Naruto had nothing else to say to Hinata and since she did not start any conversation, he decided to bid her farewell instead of standing in the middle of the path doing nothing.

"Well, I've got to go. Good luck Hinata!" Naruto ran off.

Naruto was walking back home when he suddenly thought of an idea. "Heh heh, I can go look for Sakura-chan now to ask her to help me with these books." He walked to Sakura's house and rang the doorbell.

Sakura was enjoying her beauty sleep when Naruto was still ringing the doorbell. After a while, the noise disturbed Sakura and she immediately shot up. "Who is that?! It's so late now (afternoon!) and someone is disturbing me?!" Inner Sakura thought. She woke up and open the door to find Naruto standing outside her door.

"Nahn deska..." Sakura said with a scary tone.

"Sakura-chan! I need you to help me with these ninja books!" Naruto pointed to the books he was carrying.

Sakura shut the door without replying Naruto and climbed back onto her bed.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto said with tears streaming down his cheeks as he pressed the doorbell repeatedly again.

Sakura got irritated and opened the door. "Fine! I'll help you!"

"Yay!" Naruto exclaimed and rush to get into Sakura's house.

"Chotto matte! I have yet to change! Stay outside here and wait." Sakura stopped Naruto.

After a long time, Naruto thought to himself. "It's been 4 hours..."

Then the door opened. "Finally!" Naruto thought. "Come in!" Sakura's voice rang out.

Naruto went into Sakura's house and made himself comfortable on the floor. He took out the books he brought from the Hokage tower's library.

Jiraya was walking back home too, and he had a heavy load on his mind. "Is Naruto really the perfect candidate? Maybe Tsunade should reconsider and get someone else to tryout too. No no, I shouldn't doubt Naruto. What am I doing?!" Jiraya was very deep in thinking and did not see the pole in front of him. "BAM" Jiraya's face smacked right into the pole.

"So, your training management must change. Right, you should not strain yourself too much, take a rest every 1 hour or so. Vary yourself to different types of training. Example, shurikens, transformation, replication etc. Do not keep training on just one. You can train on one major technique and train some basics too. It'll make your skills balanced." Sakura was reading and explaining to Naruto a chapter in the 'Training Management' book.

Naruto sat on the floor in his usual style with his hands crossed and eyes closed.

"Naruto! Are you listening?!" Sakura asked angrily when she saw Naruto's eyes closed.

"Training management must change. Should not strain too much, take a rest every 1 hour plus. Different types of training. Don't keep training on just one. Can train on one major technique and train some basics. Makes your skills balanced." Naruto repeated in point form. He opened his eyes and gave Sakura a smile. "I was not sleeping! I was absorbing what you said."

Sakura smiled to herself. "Naruto really has grown."

"Okay, good. Let's carry on then."

"Ahh! Sakura-chan! That was a very great lesson!" Naruto stood up and stretched himself. He looked at the clock in Sakura's house. "Nani?! We studied throughout the night?! It's the next day already!"

"Eh heh heh. Sorry Naruto. You have something on today?" Sakura asked apologetically.

"I've got training with perverted sennin!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Perverted sennin?!" Sakura replied. "I've been with a pervert's student for the whole night?! God knows what he teaches him!"

"Can't say anymore. I've got to rush! See you Sakura-chan!" Naruto's voice rang as he ran to the forest for training.

"Where's that Naruto?! He's late for 15 minutes already!" Jiraiya thought angrily. "Is he serious about training or not?!"

"Perverted sennin! Sorry I'm late! I've been studying with Sakura-chan!" Naruto came running towards Jiraiya.

Jiraiya saw that Naruto was still carrying the same books he carried yesterday and smiled to himself. "So he really is serious. I'm relieved."

"Okay, so the training starts. Since you were 15 minutes late, I shall have to punish you. Practise throwing your shurikens. Aim carefully at the head of the dolls I drew on the tree." Jiraiya said.

To his surprise, Naruto did as he was told without complaining. He would usually ask Jiraiya to skip the basics and carry on with the major things.

"I wonder what he learns with these books." Jiraiya thought as he picked out Naruto's books. He flipped to the page where Naruto and Sakura studied just now and read through. "So he really did use the theory in this book. Not bad."

After a while, Jiraiya stopped Naruto and saw that his shurikens all were very close to the 'doll's' head. "Very good Naruto, you've almost master the aiming of shurikens."

"It's so difficult! If I've aimed once correctly, where can the other shuriken go?" Naruto asked puzzled.

"You'll get to know how to do it. Now, I'm going to teach you a jutsu on shurikens." Jiraiya threw a shuriken and did ram, rat, bird, boar and tiger handseals. "Kage Shuriken no Jutsu!" Immediately, another shuriken came out from then first shuriken's shadow. Both shurikens hit the dolls' head.

Naruto wasn't surprised. "Perverted sennin. I know how to do shuriken replication, why are you teaching me that?"

"Haha. Naruto, I know that you know how to do shuriken replication. Spend these 3 hours mastering this jutsu."

"NANI?! 3 HOURS JUST FOR THIS JUTSU?!" Naruto shouted out in disbelief.

"Hai." Jiraiya said. Short and sweet, and left the forest.

"Ahhhhhhhhhh! How can you abandon me?!" Naruto said with tears streaming down his face.

Naruto had no choice but to proceed with his training and complained to himself.

After 3 hours.

Naruto was still training and was getting good at shuriken shadow replication when Jiraiya came back.

"Naruto! How did you feel alone? Terrible? Haha. So, how's it going?" Jiraiya asked.

"Pretty well." Naruto replied.

"Okay, that's good. Naruto. Now, I shall fight you. The rule is, you can only use Kage Shuriken no Jutsu."