"No visitors allowed," the nurse told Megumin and Naruto.

"But, we want to see Sasuke," Megumin said as she slapped her hand down at the counter the nurse sat behind.

"Yeah! Come on, lady!" Naruto added.

Megumin pulled on Naruto's sleeve. "We can just sneak around," she whispered.

The pair left the hospital lobby and snuck around the outside, looking for Sasuke through the windows. Megumin pushed her head against the windows, peering through them, only finding other, rather rude patients.

"Wait, what if he's upstairs?" Naruto asked.

Megumin snapped her fingers. "Use your shadow clones and form a cheerleader pyramid!"

"Oh! Good idea!"

Before Naruto could summon his squad, the window in front of them opened, and out climbed Kakashi. "Just what are you two doing sneaking around the hospital?"

Megumin's teeth chattered as she was about to run away, only for Kakashi to hold her belt like a leash and stop her like some kind of dog on a leash. It didn't stop her from trying to march away. "You're not going anywhere. All the patients have been complaining about two hooligans spying on them!"

"Oh, boy, Kakashi, do I have a favor to ask you!" Naruto said.

"Easy there, I already know what you're going to ask, but I think I've found a teacher for you, Naruto," Kakashi said.

"Teacher…?" Megumin went limp, making Kakashi hold her like a piece of luggage, with the belt as a handle. "I told you. I don't need a teacher, I just need to practice my explosion jutsu."

Kakashi dropped her. She fell flat and ate dirt. "Your explosions won't win you every match."

Naruto pointed. "You're going to train Sasuke yourself, aren't you!?"

Kakashi crossed his arms. "Sasuke - well, it has to be me because we both have Sharingan. That's why I found another teacher for you two, one even better than me."

"Yeah?! Who is it?!"

A ninja wearing circular sunglasses climbed out another window and joined the group. "Hello again, Naruto," Ebisu said.

Naruto gritted his teeth. "This pervert?!"

Megumin picked her head up. "Kakashi, you hired a pervert to train a young lady?"

Naruto stood between him and the grounded Megumin. "You're not getting anywhere near Megumin!"

"Pervert…?" Kakashi asked.

Naruto pointed at Ebisu and looked at Kakashi. "You should have seen how he reacted to my harem jutsu! He literally fainted with blood running down his nose!"

Megumin laid her head back down. "If you're the one with a harem jutsu, then maybe you're the pervert. Honestly…"

Taken back, Naruto's voice cracked as he shrieked. "What?! I-it's not like that! It's a jutsu designed to catch old perverts off guard!"

Ebisu placed Naruto into a headlock. "It's just a joke, anyway! We met way back, I was there when he met Konohamaru and we spent the day together!"

Naruto pushed Ebisu away and shot a glare at the man before he sighed and gave Kakashi a pitiful expression. "Still, why him, of all people?"

Kakashi twirled his hand around. "Ebisu is an elite trainer. There's a reason he's tutoring Konohamaru, after all. Plus, you need to work on your fundamentals."

Naruto groaned. "Ugh, fine! I'll try it out. But if it doesn't work out, I'm coming to find you, Kakashi!"

"That settles it then," Kakashi said. He waved them goodbye as he climbed back through the window and closed it.

"So, what's wrong with this girl?" Ebisu asked. "You're Megumin, right?"

She rolled over to face upward. "Earlier, I used my explosion spell at the tower and it drained all of my energy. I was able to move but I used all my energy trying to get away from Kakashi."

Ebisu hid his gawked mouth behind his hand. "Th-that was you?"

Megumin nodded. "I also blew off the Hokage's face a year ago."

Ebisu rubbed his temple. "I-I see… you're… that girl. Oh, Kakashi, what have you gotten me into?"

Naruto cracked a smile. "Having second doubts?"

"If it weren't for Kakashi, I wouldn't even be here, so how about you show a little respect and come on! Let's get started, both of you!"

"Yeah, right! You're worse at the fundamentals than I am!"

"Worse?! I beg your pardon! If you're only saying that because of that perverted jutsu of yours, it was only because I was dumbstruck you made something so stupid!"

"You were flattened out on your back like Megumin here!"

Megumin grinned and gave a thumbs up.

Ebisu lowered his head and grinned. "Fine, how about a little test - you two, run away as fast as you can, and if you two can get away, I'll resign. I could even arrange to take over some of Kakashi's duties and convince him to train you two."

"Naruto, leave me behind," Megumin said.

"What?!" Naruto said.

"It's okay," she smiled, with another thumbs up. "I can't move that much, yet. I'll just take Ebisu as my trainer. That way you can get Kakashi to train you, like how you wanted."

Ebisu furrowed his eyebrows. "What? Really? You want me to train you?"

Naruto grinned. "Didn't you hear Kakashi, Megumin? He's an elite trainer."

Megumin's thumbs-up vanished and her smile turned to horror. Naruto crouched to whisper into her ear. "That means his training regime… is worse than Kakashi's."

"No!" Megumin shrieked as she scrambled to get up and run away. "No! I'd rather just drop out of the chunin exams! Not again!"

"Just what did Kakashi do to her…?" Ebisu asked as he saw Naruto running the other way. "Hm? You two are splitting up?"

"Like you'll find out! Later sucker!" Naruto yelled as he ran away, too.

2

Megumin basically blasted off over the rooftops to get as far away from Ebisu as she could. However, no matter where she hid, the man found her. In the end, both Megumin and Naruto got caught and caved into listening to Ebisu.

As promised to Naruto, Ebisu bought them lunch. Of course, Naruto's choice was...

"Naruto, Naruto!" Megumin waved her hand at Ichiraku's. "Remember when we first met a year ago? Who'd know we'd be such good partners!"

"Oh, so you two knew each other before the academy?" Ebisu asked.

She nodded. "He was the first ninja from the academy that I met - we're actually neighbors, too!"

"My, you two are close, huh?"

Naruto rushed to take a seat, rubbing his hands together. "It's been a whole week - while I was in the forest of death, all I could think about was ramen."

Megumin rolled her eyes. "It's not that good."

"I beg to differ," Ebisu said. "I'm a regular here myself."

The three sat down and talked about chakra control. Megumin herself has great control, especially compared to Naruto who had to waste so much chakra to produce his jutsu. He's only able to do so due to his monstrous amount of chakra.

Although they both needed to train different things, Ebisu wanted them both to "walk on water." The same concept as wall walking, but advanced. He showed them the technique before letting them have a go at it themselves. At the edge of town was a hot spring. Outside the private bathhouses, near the thrashing waterfall was a shallow pool under the platform the hot spring resort was built on. Both of them made the same hand seal and built up chakra in their feet.

Though, Naruto fell through the hot spring's pool while Megumin easily walked to the other side of the spring.

"Careful Naruto, the water is hot," Megumin said, offering Naruto a hand. He hurried to grab her hand, but he still couldn't get a solid foot on the water. Instead, he climbed out and tried again.

"Amazing, you got it on your first try," Ebisu said, almost sounding disappointed.

"Guess you weren't expecting that," she said.

"Not exactly."

After several more tries, Naruto started to get the hang of it - although his feet were still within the water and he couldn't keep a balance.

"Well, I guess I'm going to go take a bath," Megumin said, but when she turned around, she saw some old man chuckled as he peeked into the women's bath. She tugged on Ebisu's sleeve and pointed at him.

"How disgraceful…" Ebisu charged at the old man. "That behavior is not allowed!"

The old man turned around. In a blink of an eye, he sat on top of a huge toad that suddenly appeared, which used its tongue to take hold of Ebisu and threw him into the foliage across the hot spring.

"Keep it down, will you?" The man on the toad said.

"What happened?" Naruto asked as he climbed out of the spring.

Megumin and Naruto walked to the other side of the bridge, in front of the old man. Naruto threw his fist up in the air at the man and whined. "You knocked out my trainer! Just who are you, anyway?!"

The man twirled his long, white hair around in a circle and threw his stretched hand out. "Who am I?! I'll tell you! I'm the Hermit of Mount Myoboku, the Toad Mountain Sage, Jiraiya!" The man boasted, ending it with sticking his tongue out.

Megumin, amazed and smiling, hopped up and down as she clapped. Her eyes gleamed as she pointed at the man. "You! You will be my teacher! You're the only one worthy!"

"Him?! Well, he better do something after he disposed of our teacher!" Naruto said as he pointed his fist at him. "Better take responsibility!"

"I'm not doing anything for you two brats! Besides," Jiraiya smiled. "I'm busy with research."

Megumin cringed as she glanced at the door that led to the women's private hot spring. "Research? Don't tell me…"

"That's right," the man said as he pulled out a book. "I'm that Jiraiya, the writer of many great novels! Make-Out Paradise!"

Megumin tugged on Naruto's sleeve and whispered into his ear. "That's what Kakashi is always reading."

"Kakashi's a pervert, too?" He whispered back before he made an annoyed moan. "Either way, you messed up my training!"

"Training? You mean that water walking technique, so easy that the girl did it on her first go, but you're having such a hard time with?"

Naruto twitched his nose. "Yeah, that one. At least teach it to me, you owe that much!"

"There is no way! Plus, I don't like being around kids. Only women old enough to be reading the material I'm researching."

Megumin rushed past them and into the women's bathhouse. "Hey, there's a guy out here trying to peek!"

They screamed and scrambled to leave through the inside door. Jiraiya slumped his arms before he started to walk the other way. "You wonder why I hate being around kids. Just who are you, anyway?!"

Megumin cracked a smile as she hid one eye with her hand. "You've finally asked, huh?"

She twirled her hands around, punching her stretched-out fingers and palms out - electric sparks and fire flew out like a small firework.

"From another plane of existence, I've arrived here to thwart the impending doom that has abducted this world! Yes, it is I! The most talented archmage of the crimson demon clan, wielder of explosion magic and explosion release! My name is Megumin!"

"Megumin, huh? That's a strange name."

"H-hey! Why does everyone always make fun of my name? To me, everyone here has a strange name, and mine's normal!"

Naruto made a hand seal. "So, you only like older women, huh?"

"What're you a genius? That's what I said!" Jiraiya said, poking his fingers at him.

Naruto used the transformation technique, turning into a slender, tall, beautiful woman wearing barely anything. Megumin gave a disgruntled look as she watched in disappointment.

Jiraiya squealed and gave two thumbs up. "Now that's a jutsu! A-plus! You are a genius, a testimony to your hard work!"

Naruko bent her knee, raising her leg up. "Then, will you train me?"

Jiraiya crouched over to look at Naruko's body. "Definitely! But, only if you keep this form."

Naruto let the jutsu wear off. "Forget it! You're just a little pervert!"

"I am not!"

"Yeah?" Naruto's eye twitched. "Then what are you?"

Jiraiya made a giant, teeth showing smile as she raised and lowered all his fingers as if he was playing the piano. "I'm a giant one!"

Both Naruto and Megumin took a step back, but Jiraiya made a real smile. "I'm just kidding. Fine, I'll look after your training - just do what you did earlier. Let's see."

"Really?! Okay!" Naruto said.

As he was about to try walking on water again, Megumin pushed him into the hot water. He thrashed out of it and raised a fist at Megumin. "What was that for?!"

With a flat expression with a hint of disapproval, Megumin stood tall over him. "It was for the jutsu you just did in front of me."

Naruto's face went redder. "O-oh… I'm sorry."

Once he climbed out, he took off his jacket and shirt.

"Naruto!?" Megumin yelled.

"I can't focus with these wet clothes so deal with it!" He yelled back, focusing on his training.

That was when both Jiraiya and Megumin noticed the seal that appeared on Naruto's abdomen. A four symbol seal, with a five symbol seal on top.

"Hey, Naruto, raise your arms," Jiraiya said.

"Huh? Why?" He said, doing as commanded, ignorant to what had appeared on his stomach.

Jiraiya jabbed all his fingers of one hand into Naruto, unsealing the odd number seal. Naruto slouched over and held his stomach. "Hey, what was that for?!"

"Oh, just hit some pressure points to relax you. You did say you were having a hard time focusing. Now, try the technique again."

"Okay then," Naruto said. Without any trouble whatsoever, Naruto walked on the water as easily as Megumin did on her first go.

Megumin and Jiraiya smiled and nodded at each other. No one up until now knew Naruto was handicapped like that. She stared at him as he ran and hopped around the water with a huge smile on his face. It's amazing he had come this far.

3

In her apartment, Megumin fell to her bed, ready for a good night's rest. It had been a long exam in the forest, after all. She missed her bed.

"Megumin." Though, someone had other ideas. "Wake up!" Kakashi said.

Megumin screamed awake, sitting up and realizing her bed was in the middle of a forest. "Huh?! What?! Where am I?!"

"It's time to wake up," Kakashi said, standing at the top of her bed. "You're going to need a lot of work if you're going to beat Gaara."

"This has to be a nightmare!" She said, pulling her covers over her head. "I'm just sleeping, dreaming of explosion magic!"

He let out an evil laugh as he pulled up his headband, revealing his Sharingan. Rather it was Kakashi showing his true, distorted colors, or Megumin's imagination that he was a monster.

"It's time to train, Megumin~!" He said in singsong.

"No! I refuse, I want Jiraiya to train me!" Megumin tried to run away, but a bunch of snakes grabbed and held her. "Naruto! Sasuke! Help!"

In the true appearance of what transpired, Kakashi looked bored as he watched Megumin wrestle with her blankets. "Poor girl has no sense of reality…"

He sighed and helped her out of the blankets. "Megumin, you need to calm down."

"Blast!"

"Wait, no!"

Kakashi's eye widened as he saw Megumin's hand sparked, ignited, and aimed for him. He barely got out of the way of the explosion. In the meantime, she ran full blast through the forest.

As she jumped over some giant tree roots, she got captured by a string and tied to a tree. The first thing Kakashi did was seal her hands with some bandages.

"Alright, that's enough. I realize our first training session was a little rough, but I'm here to help. Honest."

She pouted and looked away. "You pushed me into a giant whirlpool!'

Kakashi chuckled. "How about this - after we train this morning, Jiraiya and I do a joint training session with you and Naruto, and once Sasuke is recovered, he joins in on the fun, too?"

She looked at her dangling feet. "I… Well, that way, you can't abuse me like before."

"It wasn't abuse, Megumin."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night. But... fine, it's a deal."

"Good. Now, we have to work on your speed." He threw something down on the ground in front of her, which made debris fly up in the air. Like Rock Lee's weights. "Put those on, and do ten laps around the village."

"What?!"

As she jogged around the village, the orange sun rose from the horizon like a beautiful explosion spell. Soon, it wouldn't be a cool morning, but a dry afternoon and Megumin would still be doing her laps.

"This is more of Guy's style of training, but we really needed to work on your speed," Kakashi said, jogging by her side. "I would have asked him to train you, but two of his own students are also in the final exam."

After her final lap, she sprawled out on the ground and looked at the clouds above. Kakashi seemed to know very little about Gaara's fighting style but seemed to believe speed would be a big factor in defeating him.

Kakashi stood in front of the sun, giving her shade. "Feels like I did two explosion spells in a row," Megumin said.

Kakashi made a soft laugh. "I think that's enough running, for now."

4

For the next few weeks, all Naruto and Megumin did was train. Megumin with her speed and explosion release, Naruto with his summoning technique. Once Sasuke recovered, Kakashi overlooked most of his training while Jiraiya overlooked Naruto's.

Kakashi suggested to Megumin to take it easy for the week before the exam and let her muscles repair themselves. Even though Kakashi still worked hard with Sasuke - something about perfecting a jutsu. Honestly, they barely saw Sasuke. What a shame, Megumin wanted to invite her team out somewhere before the exam. She never got the chance as Sasuke trained until the last minute, and Naruto, having finally summoned a frog the size of the hospital he stayed at, passed out for three days straight.

By Naruto's hospital bed, Megumin and Shikamaru played shogi, waiting for Naruto to wake up.

"You're not mad at Naruto?" She asked.

Shikamaru only responded after he moved a piece on the board. "Why would I be mad? I don't care much about becoming chunin. I thought becoming a ninja was going to be an easy job, but it's a lot different than I thought it'd be."

Megumin waited to respond until she shifted her own piece. "He's going up against Ino, right?"

"She's going to be a tough opponent for him, having seen his shadow clone jutsu. Our sensei Asuma and her father made sure to outfit her with better jutsu to fight with. Honestly, it's scary…"

Megumin looked at Naruto, wondering if he'll be alright against Ino. At that moment, Naruto jumped awake. "Where am I? What day? Why are you here, Shikamaru?"

Shikamaru's nose twitched before he sighed in annoyance. "Well, I first came to see Choji, but they said you were sleeping here, so I came by and saw Megumin here."

"Choji is injured?"

Shikamaru grinned as he held up a basket of fruit. "His stomach is. He ate too much meat. I brought some fruit, but they said he wasn't allowed to eat it."

Naruto chuckled. "Let's eat it in front of him."

Megumin glared at them. "You two… are worse than scum."

The three of them walked to Choji's room, who was just lounging in his bed. Though, at the sight of the fruit, his stomach growled. "You guys… why would you bring that here?"

They sat it down at the edge of his bed, and the three of them gulped it down. Choji gawked and screamed. "What are you three doing?!" He roared as he leaned to grab a banana, but Megumin slapped his hand away.

"The doctor said you can't eat any!" She yelled.

With an angry expression, Choji let himself fall to the bed and buried his head in the pillow. However, the shenanigan came to a halt when Ino walked into the room. The three pranksters froze in place with cheeks full like a gopher and fruit debris all over their mouths.

With a look of great disappointment, Ino closed the door.

After the fruit was gone, Shikamaru stayed to talk with Choji while Naruto got dressed and left the hospital with Megumin.

"Are you ready for tomorrow?" He asked. "That Gaara guy…"

She nodded. "I think so…"

Naruto made fists and stomped the ground. "Man, I didn't get paired up with any of the people I wanted to fight! They're all fighting each other!"

"It's a tournament. Just win your match."

Naruto made a wide smile. "Yeah! And whoever I fight in the final will be the strongest! Can't wait until everyone sees me take them down!"

"Too bad Sasuke is still training," Megumin huffed. "The day before should just be one of relaxation."

"Oh!" Naruto rubbed his stomach. "That fruit made me hungry, wanna go get some ramen?"

"You should eat something a bit more nutritional." Megumin waved her index finger before she pinched her nose and waved the air. "And when's the last time you bathed?"

Naruto held up three fingers. "Well, I went to the hot spring right before I mastered the summoning jutsu, and I was asleep for three days… so, three days."

Megumin made a sour face. "If you go bathe, I'll consider going on that date with you."

"D-date?" Naruto blushed. "Whoa, I didn't mean it like that!"

The bashful Megumin looked away and poked her index fingers together. "I mean… why not? I-I wouldn't mind. We could go somewhere… private and out of the way, like that hot spring you and Jiraiya trained at."

Naruto's face went red and slightly gaped his mouth. Megumin has never been bashful about anything. Has she had a crush on him this entire time? And, the day before the final exam, she wanted to confront her feelings?

He smiled wide, thinking about her in a swimsuit. But then, having come to a realization, he made an angry face and bonked her noggin. "You just want me to carry you home after you use your explosion spell!"

She made a soft groan and rubbed her head. "Is it that much to ask?!" She pinched her nose, again. "You do need a bath, though."

He sighed. "Fine. I'll go to the hot spring. But after, if you want me to carry you home, you have to treat me to ramen!"

With a huge smile, she grabbed his arm. "It's a deal, Naruto! Hurry, let's go!"

Apparently, the hot springs were closed due to being wrecked by a giant frog. With a bored expression, Naruto turned and walked back to the main road of the village. "I'll just take a bath at home."

"There isn't time for that!" Megumin grabbed his sleeve. "I need to release this pent-up explosion, now! Let's just skip the bath!'

Naruto gave a horrified look before he showed some teeth. "First, ramen!"

Megumin squirmed and moaned as she rubbed her thighs together. "It-it needs to get out!"

Naruto facepalmed. "Why do you say it like that?!"

Megumin stomped the floor and stood her ground, getting up close to his face. Little droplets of spit torpedo onto his face as she shouted. "I need to climax. Now!"

Innocent civilians overheard and gave a bewildered look. Naruto groaned and pulled on her wrist, making her follow. "You're so embarrassing! Fine! Let's just go!"

At the bottom of the waterfall connected to the natural hot spring above, Megumin's eyes sparkled as she looked into the water. "It's been so long. Everyone has been too preoccupied to go with me…"

"Just watch your step," Naruto said, unamused.

She tapped the boulder she stood on with her staff. "Distorted oblivion, reign unto me the supreme ruination!" Her spell changed the sunny day to a gloomy overcast. The dark clouds above her circled around before they changed to colors of purple and red, thinning out as they circled around the explosive orb she created.

"Darker than dark, blacker than black! Red like my crimson red eyes! Like a scarlet night, show my true colors! Bend the laws of nature and ex~PLODE!"

Up in the sky, the explosion collided into itself, not really damaging anything. Her aim has improved, but still, she fell over into the water.

She floated on her back toward where Naruto was.

"Idiot," he said as he crouched over to pull her out of the water. "What's even the point?"

She smiled as she grabbed his sleeve.

"You still need a bath," she said, pulling him into the water, too. She must not have put her full power into the explosion, she was still able to move, albeit it felt like she had training weights on.

After she laughed and he complained, he crawled out of the water and tried to wrinkle out his clothes dry.

"Uh, aren't you forgetting about something?" Megumin said, unable to pull herself out. She tapped the rock she held with her finger, waiting to be pulled out.

"I really hate you sometimes," he said. He grabbed her hands and pulled hard. A little too hard, because she landed on top of him.

"What's your problem? Still ungentle as ever," she said, pushing on his chest to sit up. She blushed at the realization that she was closely straddled into his lap. Even he was speechless, having to swallow his spit.

Although she struggled, she pushed herself off him and sat on the ground, and pulled up her wet hood. "You did that on purpose, didn't you? Did you change your job from ninja to pervert?"

"It was an accident!" He shouted. "You're the one that pulled me into the water!'

With a pout, she sucked in her cheek and glanced at him. "If you want that ramen, you better carry me."

Due to Rock Lee never getting injured like in canon, Gaara had no reason to be at the hospital. Late upload. Have had this chapter ready for a while but I usually try to write two chapters ahead, and the next one is hard because of the fights. Besides the main fight, I'm going to keep the fights short. I dislike long, drawn-out fights just for the sake of action. Rather get on with the plot.

Changed the cover picture to what I'd imagine Megumin would wear, but it's ultimately up to the imagination of the reader what she'd wear.