Suna's Kekkei Genkai

Chapter 2: Training

Another chapter!!! I've got a whole bunch of ideas for this fic and they all came to me today at school. I also thought of a good ending for it, but SNG poined out that you would all kill me, bring me back to life and repeat the process, so I changed it slightly. But I'm not telling so you have to wait till then.

Tsunade sat crosslegged on the grass at the edge of an open area in the woods, glancing over her book at a small dark figure growing bigger as it came closer. She hadn't really believed Temari and Kankurou when they told her that Gaara hadn't had any training since he was six and had no physical training at all, but now she was starting to believe it. He hadn't gone two laps around the clearing and he was ready to collapse. In fact....

Gaara stopped in front of her and collapsed on his hands and knees panting heavily. Sand was easy to run on, but he wasn't use to the hard ground and grass. Exausted he crawled over to Tsunade and collapsed again in the shade.

"You still have six more laps to run," Tsunade told him, turning a page in her book.

"I can't," Gaara panted. "It's too hot and my legs hurt."

"That's a good hurt," she informed him. "And it's barely eighty-five degrees."

"Hurting isn't good. Why didn't the sand stop the hurt?" Gaara asked.

"You shouldn't rely so much on the sand all the time. The pain in your legs is a good hurt. It means you're getting stronger," Tsunade said. "Get up and finish running or your legs will hurt even more later," she set a bottle of water down next to Gaara and stood. "I'll be back, don't you dare skip out." she turned and left, leaving Gaara alone in the clearing glaring at her departing back.

Tsunade entered an ice cream stand and ordered some. She was grumpy now. She had tried to return the book she had been reading to her office and was met with several jonins and enormous stacks of paper each were holding. They told her she had to do them now and set them on her desk. She sat down as they left and read and signed a few before getting up and trying to leave, but was caught and sent back. She read and signed a few more then climbed out the window and left. She was Hokage! No one should be telling her what to do.

"How's the training going?" Jiraiya asked sitting down next to her.

"The kid can't run two laps around the clearing without collapsing."

"It is very humid today, you know," Jiraiy told her. "I saw the sand girl just walking down the street looking like she was going to collapse herself."

"They live in a desert!"

"It's actually hotter here because of the humidity. They're not use to it (that took SNG forEVER to understand. Then she heard it in her science class and was like "ooooo! scientifical!)," Jiraiya took the ice cream he had ordered some time during their conversation and I forgot to put it in and am feeling lazy.

"Aren't you suppose to be training Naruto?"

"He just went on a mission with his team. Some easy job or something, he was pissed off about it," Jiraiya said waving good bye and walking off. "Don't be to hard on the kid."

Tsunade sat in silence for a while. She was being bombarded with various flashbacks.

They're not use to it.

No one has trained him since he was six.

Who would train me?

Don't be hard on him.

Why didn't the sand stop the hurt?

The sand does everything for me.

Gaara's just like me.

Tsunade sighed. What the hell was she doing?

Gaara leaned against a tree and drank the last of his water. It was too damn hot in this village! On top of that, his legs hurt and his chest hurt, and on top of that Shukaku was laughing at him. He was so tired and Shukaku knew it. If only he could just--

"All done?" It was her. She was back. Damn woman.... Gaara turned his head away from her in clear reproach. "I brought you something." Gaara glanced at her hand.

"What is it?"

"Ice cream." Tsunade set the cup and spoon on his stomach. "It tastes good and it's cold." Gaara picked it up and tasted it. He paused to savor the sweet cold taste then ate the rest. "Sorry I was harsh." she said sitting next to him.

"You should be."

Tsunade gave him a death glare. 'Ungrateful little--'

"Thanks," came a tiny mumble.

"What?"

"Thanks." Gaara stood up quickly and walked away, stumbling slightly from his tired muscles. Tsunade smiled after him.

"Gaara, would you like to go on a mission with Team 7? It's a simple one, so you might get bored, but I think you'd enjoy it." Tsunade called after him.

"Who's Team 7?"

"Naruto's team." Tsuande saw Gaara stop and turn slightly.

"Ok."

Anyone looking at the Sand-nins new residence and property would think that it was a place of peace and tranquility. Until you look towards the lake and see an enormous cyclone sucking the water out of the lake and dropping it back in. Temari was quite pleased with her new accomplishments with her wind. Not only was it refreshing when the water came back down, spraying her, but it looked cool too. Her fan was no longer needed as she could summon destructive winds with a flick of her wrist, but she loved her fan and decided to still use it. If you also looking into the woods behind the house you would see a frustrated Kankurou and exasperated Neji.

"Kankurou?"

"What?"

"You're hopeless."

"I know...."

A while later

When Neji finally let Kankurou go the puppet user ran into the house and locked all the doors. He went to his room and turned the music on with the volume all the way up. He went down stairs to the kitchen and made himself an icepack to lay over his very sore eyes. He laid down on the sofa with his icepack for a while, listening to his music.

The door opened (more like kicked open since it was locked) and he heard Naruto's loud voice. Looking up he was met with the funniest sight he'd ever seen and he wondered if his overusage of the Kiokubun'ya was making him see things. 'Hell with seeing things, this is funny!' he decided.

Naruto had walked Gaara home from the mission to see his new house. The mission apparently had been some painting job; and Naruto seemed to have started a paint war. Their hair was no longer red and blond, but blue and white. In fact Gaara was blue from head to foot, and had probably lost the battle to Naruto since the leaf gennin had not as much paint on him.

"Hey, puppet man!" Naruto greeted loudly.

"Please go away," Kankurou groaned. "I have a headache.

Naruto laughed then said somethign quietly to Gaara and left. When he was gone Kankurou laid back down with his icepack. Gaara sat down and removed his shoes, but when he started to get up his muscles began protesting and he changed his mind and stayed where he was. Kankurou grinned glancign over at him.

"Why so blue?" he asked for a dumb joke.

Gaara glanced in his direction, but no glare appeared on him face. "I'm looking evilly at you right now."

Kankurou gave one of those tired half hearted but fully meant laughs. He looked over at him again wondering what the Hokage had put him through when he noticed Gaara was dripping paint all over. "Gaara, go take a bath, your going to drip paint everywhere."

"No," Gaara replied, staying where he was.

Kankurou sighed loudly and got up. "Look, I'm as tired as you are. I do not want to have to carry you up the stairs, but I will if I have to." Gaara didn't move. "The bath will make you feel better I promise," Kankurou told him. Gaara shook his head, flinging drops of paint onto the floor. Kankurou glared at his back then reached out and picked him up.

"Put me down!"

"No."

"Put me down now!"

"Or you'll do what?" Kankurou asked walking up the stairs.

"I'll squish you!"

"Just try," Kankurou replied feeling very bold. No answer. "Well?"

"I'll do it later," came the mumbled answer.

Kankurou laughed dryly as he entered the bath room. He set Gaara down and turned to leave. "I hope I don't have to undress you as well," Kankurou said as he walked out. He received Gaara's glare as he began to remove the paint covered clothes from himself. Later Kankurou came back in with a towel and his own robe for Gaara. "Your hair's still blue," he told Gaara.

"I know!" Gaara glared at him.

"You want some help?"

"No."

"Ok," Kankurou turned to leave.

"Yes."

Kankurou stopped. "Huh?"

"I do."

Kankurou smiled without turning around. "Bring the shampoo stuff down to the basement. There's a big sink down there,"Kankurou told him. Ten minues later, Kankurou was smiling at his work: the now completely redheaded Gaara. Gaara didn't return his smile but miserable went back up the steps tripping on Kankurou's too-big robe. On the bright side he did feel oddly refreshed and lightheaded, but he was still dog tired.

"KANKUROU!!!!" Kankurou cringed at Temari's screech. "WHY IS THERE BLUE PAINT ON THE FLOOR?!?!"

'Shit...' Kankurou went up the stair to try to explain himself.

"AND WHY IS--what?" Temari stopped screeching when Gaara said something quietly. "Oh. SORRY KANKUROU!!" she shouted thinking he was still downstairs when he was right in the doorway to the kitchen.

"IT'S OK!!!" he yelled back.

All three plopped down on the sofa with a loud sigh. Their life sucked.

The next day was hell for Kankurou and Gaara. Neji had decided to put learning how to control his chakra flow to his eyes, Kankuurou would concentrate on working with the things he wanted to do with the bloodline limit, such as the taijutsu. Neji didn't know the Sand's taijutsu, but he could teach him the basics and Kankurou could work from there. However, before he taught him anything, Neji told him he need to be more physically prepared, and told him to run laps and exercise some. One of the finer points of physical training is the sleep you get afterwards. Gaara however could not get that sleep and probably didn't know about it so he was in a bad shape when Tsunade came to 'train' him, making him run more to get himself use to the ground. Kankurou dicided to join Gaara and the two brothers ran around the clearing, and even extended it more then Tsunade had meant for Gaara, as they began competing for things like who could go the longest, and who was in front. This took both their minds off the amount they had actually run so they ended up going almost double the amount before Tsunade stopped them. Neji had come over to 'Gaara's training area' to see how Kankurou was doing and was shocked when Tsuande told him how much both had run.

The two went back to 'Kankurou's training area' and Neji told him he changed him mind. Neji began going over with the sand-nin the basics of taijutsu kankurou already knew, which actually happened to be a lot, the puppet-user just didn't know how to apply it. Kankurou also showed him the stance Suna's taijutsu had. His year of being a puppeteer caused him to lack greatly in them though, but Neji patiently corrected his stance where he saw openings. He also taught him palm striking from the stance and the movements involved. (sorry to those that I've lost. My dad teaches martial arts and I'm talking from that. Those of you who have no idea of what I'm saying I am sorry) Neji then told him to pick a tree and beat it up.

Gaara sat on the grass in front of Tsunade as she explained how to demolish something, like the enormous boulder Tsunade had founs and carried into the clearing. Gaara wasn't sure if he believed her when she said she could reduce it to pebbles with a flick of her finger, but he was interested all the same.

"Everything solid has a centerpoint on it that is it's weakpoint. destroying that centerpoint and the rest of the structure crumbles," Tsunade told him.

"How do you know where it it?"

"It's something you feel, like how much chakra you need to climb a tree or wall."

"Can you really break that thing with one finger?"

Tsunade sighed. "Yes."

"By finding that centerpoint?"

"No, I was born with incredible strength." She glanced at his disbelieving expression. She gave him a snobby look then with a 'ho-hum' look on her face, flicked the boulder with her index figer. It cracked, then shattered crumbling to the ground in tiny pieces.

Gaara stared.....for a loooong time with his mouth hanging open in shock. Inwardly he gave a tiny grin. 'I wanna do that...' he thought to himself as Tsunade instructed him to use the smaller rock she had mad to find the rock's centerpoint.

aw-wite!! sorry if my spelling or whatever is off. I took my contacts out and so I can't see th screen well unless my face is like two inches away, except then it make typing hard so it's all just a big complex situation.