Kyuubi's Calm Chapter 3: Training Begins!, a naruto fanfic

No part of this plot, my own characters, or text can be used without my permission. I do not own Naruto or any of its characters, but the plot and Yasu and Akira are my own and copyrighted.

Chapter 3: Learning

The sun came up through the window. I yawned and stretched. I suddenly remembered something. Aw crud. I threw on some clothes and put a kiwi in my mouth, not bothering to wonder where it came from. I swung onto Akira and we galloped off the ninja academy doors. I jumped off Akira before he stopped and Sasuke looked at the sun.

"Ten minutes late, but that's alright. Let's get started." He began walking, so Akira and I followed. Sasuke explained the hand signs and we came to a barren area of the village, an empty market where a few early risers were preparing for their Sunday shops. Sasuke demonstrated the fireball jutsu here, and I watched, amazed, as he blew fire thirty feet into the air. A shop-keeper elbowed another and they pointed at Sasuke, also amazed. I figured I'd gotten a good trainer.

"Now, it's hard to get the fire to actually appear, because it takes a bit of chakra, and you need to focus. Try the hand signs, then build up some chakra." I practiced the hand signs until I could do them flawlessly (took about 10 minutes) then I built up chakra. I began to get the sort of blood-boiling feeling that came when I was about to fight, and Sasuke supervised, directing me to aim for along the dirt path.

"Fireball jutsu!" A flame about five inches long swirled out from my mouth. Sasuke chuckled, but it wasn't like he was making fun of me.

"Build up the chakra again, and remember I've done this many times before, so it does take practice. Try to feel the flame in your chest before letting it go, if that helps at all." I tried a few more times, and each time I got a three-foot long flame. I'd used about a quarter of my chakra. Sasuke sighed, smiling. He came over to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and pressing down firmly but gently.

"Relax, and build up chakra, without trying the jutsu." I took a deep breath, letting the chakra well up inside me. "Now do the hand signs." I did. "Feel the flame, then let it go." I took a deep breath.

"Fireball jutsu!" Akira snorted out ten-foot flames from each nostril, and Sasuke and I had to dodge. Akira reared, and Sasuke looked thoroughly surprised, and I was as well. I guess I hadn't built up my own chakra. Sasuke sighed. "Let's try this again." He glanced nervously at Akira. "Maybe he should go to where you can't see him. And where blowing fire is safe." Akira leapt to a rooftop by a surprised shop-keeper's cart, and I sensed him sit down. "Okay, try the same thing again, within yourself." I relaxed and built up my own chakra, sensing it as my own this time. When it was built up, it was nearly ten o'clock. I opened my eyes and made the hand signs, feeling fire in my chest, as Sasuke had said. I let the fire build until it felt like it would come out anyway.

"Fireball Jutsu!!!" A stream of flames shot out of my mouth, going about fifteen feet. I held it for a few seconds, then let it die. Sasuke grinned and some merchants applauded.

"All right, do it a couple more times, then I'll have to train myself." I built up the chakra again, paying special attention to whose chakra it was. After I'd made two more fifteen-foot streams of flame, holding the last one for five seconds, Sasuke patted my shoulder. "That was really good for the first lesson. Once you get used to fire, the other jutsu get easier. See you next Saturday, same time? Don't be late." I nodded. Sasuke departed, and Akira appeared at my side.

"He's a bit… cool, don't you think?" I stroked Akira's shoulder, then swung up onto his back. "We'll have to train daily to keep the weight off you. Let's get to the ninja training grounds." I leaned forward and Akira trotted off. We arrived at noon, and Akira looked out longingly over the field. I set him loose by dismounting, and we walked around the field to the dummies I'd thrown my kunai at yesterday. There was a box at the base of them, and I picked my weapons out of it.

"Want to train Akira?" A few heads had turned; not many ninja had seen a horse out on the field before. I saw Shikamaru lounging in a tree not far away. I paid little attention to any other ninja, and Akira positioned himself in front of the targets. I threw my kunai at him, and they would have been direct hits had we not trained on this before. Akira leapt into the air and disappeared, reappearing a second later twenty feet away from the starting point. I continued throwing weapons at him, and he caught a few, dodged the rest. The ones he caught he brought back. On our third round of weapons, I noticed a dull pain in my side. I looked down and saw the scratch where Neji had nicked me yesterday. It was only a red mark, almost gone, but still irritating.

Akira gathered my weapons and brought them over, dropping them at my feet. I carried 15 shurikan and 10 kunai with me, and Akira brought them all.

After I'd packed up, I decided to shop for some medicine for my cut. We stopped by the hotel and I brushed Akira to make up for missing it that morning. I remembered to put the 'out' sign on my door, and we left. I took Akira up and down the streets, asking for a medicinal herb shop, and soon found one. I noted the directions to it, but when I walked out I saw the ramen shop a few places down, so I just remembered that. I went back home, or so I called it now, and made a small salve that I applied and wrapped up the scratch with a once-around bandage. I stored the herbs I'd bought in the bottom drawer in the corner, and the gauze wrap next to it. I'd bought three fifty foot rolls. That should cover it. My first day of training had gone pretty well so far, but I wanted to practice the fireball jutsu some more. I took Akira to the wall around the village, and we followed it until I saw a small gate. Some ninja watched me leave.

I found a clearing about a mile out from the village and began working on the calmness needed for the jutsu. I also practiced sensing the difference between my chakra and Akira's. I admired my clearing: it had rocks, trees, grass, and about 200 square yards from the base of a cliff / hill. I chose a particularly large tree and drew some targets in it with my kunai. The targets were little 'x' marks, 5 inches wide. I built up my chakra at my feet to increase speed and ran at the cliff, holding shurikan. I ran up the cliff and spun around near the top, where I began charging. I felt so exhilarated from my first days that I felt like letting go. I tore down the cliff as fast as I could without tripping over my own feet and smashed into a smaller tree, which, to my pleasure, was uprooted and had a large impact mark from my foot. I stood it back up with help from Akira, and we headed back to the village.

On the way I passed a small stream, and marked my spot with an 'x' in the ground. I followed the stream and came upon a small river. I followed that too, and came to a nice area along the river bank. I heard someone speak nearby and ducked into the bushes nearby. Akira leapt into a tree's lower branches silently, then shrunk himself by his weird abilities.

"Did you hear something?" I looked around for the voice, being as silent as possible. A ninja stood on the opposite bank, behind some shrubs. Another was with him, and they wore headbands, but they were blank. The other was a female.

"No." However, they both paused a moment. I held my breathing slow. I'd sneak away as soon as I determined they weren't a threat. They looked like the bandits that had tried to steal Akira and my belongings. They resumed speaking and I began backing away silently.

"I can't believe we let the horse get away. Are you sure they came to this village? What if they took off through the forest?" –The male.

"I would have seen them leave the trail. I'm sure they are still in the village. We'll still get what we want." –Female.

"I guess you're right, we should get in the village somehow, though, so we can look for the horse there. We need to kill him as soon as possible. The only reason he got away last time was that girl. This time, she won't interfere. Not now when we have the hellhound. We'll just have to turn him loose, and he'll have that black stallion done away with, and maybe a few residents of the village." –Male.

"Yeah, the hellhound." She appeared to kick something, and I heard an awful snarl that made me shiver. "Good thing he's in that crate, he'd probably kill us all. Let's plan our disguises for infiltrating the village." With that they took off, carrying a thick wooden crate between them. I stood after a minute of silence and sighed.

"Why would they be after you, Akira? Are you so powerful? Cause I don't think you've ever breathed fire before today. If that is enough to scare you, then you can't have done anything worse." He jumped down, transforming to his regular size. We went back to town, and when the gatekeepers stopped me for ID, I told them to be on the lookout for a couple of blank-headband ninja, because I thought they were after my horse. They nodded, but didn't seem too concerned. People couldn't get in without giving valid ID. I went back to the training grounds and saw Shikamaru still sitting in the tree.

"Shikamaru! Could you teach me some strategy?" He looked down at me and my horse, and sort of fell out of the tree. He landed in a crouched position and I jogged up to him.

"Alright, but pay attention. I get bored easily, twice as easy if you're bored too." He began drawing in the dirt with Kunai and used sticks to demonstrate people's positions, all the while explaining the situation. "Solve the problem." He said, and I thought for a bit.

"If I were to move over here, then he couldn't throw any Kunai because he might hit his partner. His partner can't dodge because of the surroundings, so they'd charge and if I dodged right, they'd collide?" I asked, and Shikamaru nodded.

"Or, you could leap into the air straightaway, throw kunai, and they'd have to move around, easily causing them to spring the traps." I paid sharp attention and Shikamaru described situations until dark. I suggested many good plans of action, he said in the final review, but there were easier ways if you looked at it from other's point of view. I learned many good strategies, and when it was time to go, he smiled, which unnerved me for some reason. He seemed like he was too bored to smile at anything. "You know, you're not so boring."

"Umm... thanks?" I smiled and swung onto Akira, waving goodbye. Akira began cantering and took a leap onto a rooftop, blowing flames out his nose. I watched in amazement as the flames blew back, flicking at his sides and near my legs. They were definitely real; maybe there was more to Akira then I'd thought. That night after I'd brushed and cleaned and bathed, I forgot about the crate and mysterious ninja.

Sunday morning found me running around the village. I finished three laps by noon, Akira had been with me the whole way, and I went to the ninja training field. There I found Kiba, or he found me, because Akamaru leapt onto my shoulder good-naturedly as I looked around. I flipped Akamaru onto his back and rubbed his stomach. Kiba approached.

"Ready for some animal training?" He took me to a box and cut it open, simply saying, "Defend yourself and train this animal." The box opened and out stepped a wild wolf. It looked around at its surroundings and focused on me: Akamaru had taken Akira and they were watching from a safe spot. The wolf charged at me and I ducked at the last second and flung it into the air over my shoulder. It landed and spun back at me. This time when it charged I yelled.

"Stop!" The astonished wolf skidded to a confused stop. I walked up to it and reached out for its head. It snapped, predictably, but I moved around behind it, using its forward motion to shield myself. I placed my hand on its neck like a dominant wolf and forced it to the ground. The wolf flipped to its back in the surrender position and I slowly released it, snarling under my breath. Then I turned my back and faced Kiba in the branches. "Is this good enough?" The wolf slowly rose behind me, and I called it to my side. It gradually obeyed. Kiba leapt down and the wolf started charging. "No!" I said sharply, and it stopped. Kiba grinned, and I released the wolf. He ran off into the forest.

"So you know the ways of wolves. Good, that's the hardest to teach. Do you love animals?"

"Yeah, almost all of them. I just don't really like lampreys. Also, most types of sea-things. I like most fish, sharks, whales, and eels, though." He shivered.

"I don't really like anything besides mammals." My lesson continued as Kiba explained to me the dominance method of predatory mammals. On my way home, I ran into Hinata.

"Hey, Hinata." She looked around nervously until she spotted me coming up on Akira. Then she smiled. "You can pet Akira if you want." I recognized the longing look she had; it was the exact one I sometimes had for horses, but I always kept Akira with me. "In fact, where are you headed? Akira could take you there." She looked up at me and I swung off Akira's back.

"Are- are you sure?"

"Don't worry, he'll be great, all you have to do is lean forward to speed up, lean back to slow down, and look where you want to go. He can tell."

"But… how will you get home?"

"I'll walk. I can't ride him everywhere, I might meld to his back." We laughed a little. "When you arrive home, just tell him to go and he'll come find me."

"Are you really alright with me riding him?" Hinata looked so hopeful, but didn't seem to want to impose.

"Hmm… if you'll teach me some chakra-blocking pointers tomorrow, then it'll be fairer I suppose." Hinata smiled.

"All right, I'll teach you. Meet you at the training field at noon. Could you give me a leg up?" Akira was kind of tall, now that I thought about it. As I helped her up, I thought of something.

"You know, this is the first time anyone besides me will ride him. Not to make you nervous or anything, I'm sure he'll be fine." Hinata tangled her fingers into Akira's mane and was smiling from ear to ear. I couldn't help grinning back, and sent Akira off with a gentle nod. As he walked away, I told Hinata I'd meet her there tomorrow. She turned and waved, still smiling.

I walked to the hotel and climbed up a ladder on the side of the building to the roof. I watched the sun go down, and when it was about ten minutes from setting, I saw a silhouette a block down, out on a balcony, right in front of the sun. I squinted and my heart skipped a beat as I recognized Naruto. I almost called out to him, but held back. I was sort of a shy person. Okay, a lot of a shy person. As I watched, he took a deep breath and glanced over at the hotel's front door.

Is he looking for me? He's probably just looking around. I don't know… maybe I should say hi. As I thought, he looked at the roof and spotted me. He also squinted to verify my identity, and then promptly leapt off the balcony, waving. In a few seconds he was running at me across the rooftop.

"Hey Yasu, how has it been? I've been thinking about you a lot." He blushed. "Uh… not like that, Jiraiya's not rubbing off on me. But I was wondering how you were doing with your training, and did you like that kiwifruit yesterday morning?" I smiled. It was good to talk to him again.

"Thanks for the kiwi, I was out of food. My training's going well. I have friends here now, and I lent Akira to Hinata for her until she gets home. She really likes horses. Also, Sasuke taught me the fireball jutsu. You know what? The first time I tried it I got a little flame," I held my thumb and index finger about three inches apart and laughed –Naruto joined in- "and after that, with a little more practice, I did the fireball jutsu- but it came out of Akira's nose! You should have seen him panic; the flames were ten feet long." I took a break to laugh a little more. "I can do it alright now though, see?" I stepped back a little and focused my chakra. I felt the flame, then blew it into the sky for a few seconds.

"Wow, Yasu. What else have you learned?" I felt like continuing, but was really self conscious. I realized I was doing all the talking, and wanted to hear about Naruto.

"I've only learned some strategies, and I knocked down a tree outside the village. I've also been practicing with Akira, and today Kiba taught me how to tame animals. But what about you? I'm sure your training was much better, seeing as you have a legendary Sannin as a trainer." Naruto made a face, and I laughed.

"All Jiraiya teaches me is chakra control attacks, but he said he was going to teach me something awesome soon. Tomorrow, though, he said his schedule was too full for training. He's probably going to go do 'research' for his novels."

"He writes?"

"Yeah, but you wouldn't want to read it. They're perverted, for guys."

"Have you ever read any?"

"No, I'm not a pervert like he is." He acted offended. I giggled a little, and when I stopped there was an awkward silence.

"So, um…"

"Hey, Yasu."

We spoke at the same time.

"You first." I said. He looked down.

"Do you want to come train with me tomorrow? I could teach you to walk on water." I looked at him, delighted.

"Yeah, I'd love to! But… I have to meet Hinata for training at noon. Could I meet you at sunrise?" He looked back at me.

"Yeah, I'll come wake you up. We have to keep more in touch. I know, we should go get some ramen sometime. What have you eaten recently anyway?" I thought for a bit, and realized I hadn't eaten anything since my small breakfast.

"Um… I had eggs for breakfast, and some salad." We were leaning on the small fence that circled the roof now, facing the sunset. He looked over at me. The bottom of the sun's orb touched the mountains. He opened his eyes and really looked at me, I could feel it. So I looked back. We leaned towards each other slowly. A shout from somewhere in the town split the moment, and we looked over in alarm. We could see a chicken flutter up to a rooftop. It was just a crate of chickens, dropped and broken open. We returned to watching the sunset, sighing quietly.

"Come get some dinner. I'll pay." Naruto said when the sun was half gone.

"No, I'll pay for my own meal. It's ok. I'm going to start small missions on Wednesday. I'm only an academy student, technically. I'll have to pass with a squad then wait for the Chunin exams before I can do any better missions." Naruto watched me in what I felt was a little awe.

"Alright, come have dinner though. You'll work yourself too hard and collapse. You need food in your system." He moved towards me so our arms on the railing brushed against each other, and the slight friction felt like it was on fire. My head spun. I watched the sun go down.

"Let's go." Naruto smiled. "Where are you planning on eating?"

"Wherever we get to first. Do you like ramen a lot? I almost live off it." I laughed and looped my arm through Naruto's to keep from falling off the roof. He pulled me away from the edge easily, bringing our faces real close again. I looked away, heart pounding in my ears. This was more difficult than Ninja training. I climbed down the ladder and waited. Naruto winked at me, backed up, then took a running leap off the roof. I laughed again as he landed in the street, doing a roll. He stood and brushed off the dirt.

When we arrived at the ramen shop, the cook greeted Naruto familiarly and started making his ramen without waiting to hear what flavor.

"He knows teriyaki's my favorite. What do you want? There's pork, beef, chicken- comes in barbecue or teriyaki- and-"

"I'll have the same as you." The chef heard.

"Alright, two teriyakis, coming up." He turned to his work and we watched (mostly I watched) curiously. "So, Naruto. You've got a lady friend? I hope she can make ramen, if you two ever settle down." I blushed furiously and I saw the chef glance back over his shoulder at us. "Am I serving a couple of red beets or ninja?!" He laughed and Naruto and I glanced sideways at each other. Sure enough, we were both red. "Well, miss, I think you'd like to know Naruto's never brought a lady friend here before. You should feel privileged. This is like his temple." I recovered quickly from the embarrassment when my ramen was placed in front of me. So… he'd never had a girlfriend? Suited me. I'd never had a boyfriend either, so we were both kind of like Genin in this situation. Naruto recovered quickly also.

"You know, Yasu, I've never brought anyone to my room either. Kakashi got in once, but I didn't let him in." I shivered. If he was suggesting what I thought he was… I glanced over, ramen dripping out of my mouth. He looked pretty innocent. I came to the conclusion that he was naïve enough to say something like that without any negative implications. He continued. "I've brought people here, though. My room's a mess; I wouldn't hardly take anyone there."

We finished eating in silence as the cook cleaned his materials. When he finished that, he leaned over to Naruto.

"You know kid; you're my number one customer. I'll make you a deal. Whenever you bring this girl, Yasu, was it? Well, when you bring her, I'll give you ramen half off. Hers included." Naruto slurped the rest of his ramen and smiled, wiping his mouth with a napkin. I put money on the counter for my bowl and Naruto put up his own money. The chef smiled. "Starting next time of course." He cleaned the counter and I stretched.

"Well, I should be getting to sleep; I'm going to learn to walk on water tomorrow."

"Okay. I'll take you home." I nodded, and all was as calm as could be. When we arrived outside the door flap, we exchanged a quick hug again before splitting up. "I'll wake you up tomorrow, so you won't be late. We have to get out early before Jiraiya."

"Alright, see you." We stood there a few more seconds, not wanting to leave. We looked up and smiled at each other again, for the last time that day.

"Goodnight."

We turned and left. Akira arrived a few minutes later, letting himself in again. I sighed and he placed his head on the bed, right under my hand, so I pet his forehead. "Goodnight, Akira." I gave him a quick hug before falling asleep, restless for morning.

I am well aware that my Fanfic is mainly about a character not found in the series. I'm not asking you to like it or whatever, I posted it because I wanted to. To tell you the truth, I'm hardly expecting reviews. It's for my friends to read, and family. If they want to. that's all. That's the last time I'll have this at the bottom.