A/n: Ok, so, I've got nothing to say, on with the story.

Disclaimer: How many times do I have to tell you dammit. I don't own Naruto.

"Blah": Talking
/Blah: Thinking
… Blah ...: Scene change
(Blah): A/n

Chapter six: "READY... BEGIN"

4:00 am.

The alarm clock rang right next to Naruto's ear. He jolted awake and tried not to wake Kuri as walked across the room. He walked into the bathroom and took a shower. After his shower he wrapped a towel around- his waist and put some clean clothes on and got a sack, he packed a lunch and his weapons. He looked at the clock.

4:40 am.

He looked over to Kuri.

/She's so beautiful, even when sleeping. Should I just leave, or should I awake her up and tell her I'll be seeing her later?/ In the end, he didn't say anything. He walked over to her and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Bye Kuri-chan," he muttered silently as he backed away. Then Kuri rolled over in her sleep. Obviously something was disturbing her. She felt around in her sleep but could not find whatever it was she was looking for. Her eyes snapped open.

"Naruto-kun, where are you?" she looked around in the darkness. "Oh yeah, I slept in my own bed," Eyes not adjusted to the dark yet, she slowly got out of bed and walked over to Naruto's bed. Noticing he wasn't there started to panic.

"Naruto-kun, where did you go?" Her head swivelled in the dark as she sat down. Then she saw him. "Oh, I thought you left me," She got up and hugged him tightly. Unfazed he hugged her back.

"Well, I've got to get going for a training mission, with Kakashi-sensei. Bye Kuri-chan," He said as he moved to walk out of the apartment but Kuri would not let him out of her grip.

"But, I don't want you to leave," she hugged him tighter.

"Kuri-chan, if I don't go I'll never become a ninja," he gazed into her eyes intently, showing how much this meant to him.

"Oh fine. See ya later Naruto-kun," she said as he left she followed him to the door.

"Naruto-kun," she stopped him.

"Wha-," he stopped because of Kuri's lips pressed against his. The expression on his face went from stunned to content. He wrapped his arms around her making their bodies touch. "Kuri-chan, I have to go now," he said breaking their kiss.

"Right. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that,"

"It's all right, but that's the second time you've kissed me while I'm in the middle of a sentence,"

"Well, you're so irresistible. I couldn't help myself," she smiled innocently at him.

"Sure, I'll see you later all right?"

"Right, bye Naruto-kun," Kuri closed the door as she walked inside and sat down at the small table.

/Wow, I already miss Naruto-kun. I'm so lonely/ she sighed and got up and went back to bed.

7:00 am.

Kuri slowly sat up and stretched. She lazily made her way to the kitchen area and started to make some tea. Then she heard a knock at the door.

/What the hell… / she moved to the door and opened it. On the other side was an extremely concerned looking Iruka.

"Iruka-sensei!" she was both surprised and pleased. She jumped on him and gave him a hug.

"I need to speak with you," his voice was serious.

"Fine, come on in," she jumped off of him and stepped aside and allowed Iruka to walk in. Closing the door behind him she asked,

"Would you like some tea, I was just making some,"

"Yes, please,"

"All right, just a moment please,"

Kuri rushed over to the kitchen area and got out two cups, filling them with hot water she added the tea and walked back over to Iruka with both cups.

"Here's your tea,"

"Thank you,"

"Your welcome. Please, make yourself comfortable," she sat down at one of the chairs at the table, Iruka did the same.

"Kuri, what happened last night between you and Naruto?"

"Um, uh well," she began, turning more and more red.

"Why are you blushing?" Iruka looked suspiciously at her.

"Oh, um last night, I told Naruto I was sorry, and he forgave me," she said with a nervous laugh.

"Is there something you're hiding from me?"

"What? Me ,hide something from you! I'm appalled! Well would you look at the time I better get dressed. It was great seeing ya, bye," she pushed him out the door and let out a huge sigh.

Knock, knock.

"I also wanted to know about the sword," he said through the door.

"Oh, is that all. I'm so sorry," she quickly opened the door. She bowed in apology to Iruka.

"Well what about the sword? What happened to make its blade so dark?"

"Iruka sensei, have you ever heard of the Blade of Elements?"

"Yes, Wh- Oh," he understood.

Kuri quickly opened the door and allowed Iruka to enter.

"What are you doing with such a sword?" Iruka looked at the sword with a questioning look.

"Well, it's a family heirloom. It's something Kuma gave me," her eyes quickly turned silver and started to water.

"Oh. Who was Kuma?"

"Kuma, was my onisan. He was the only one who- who accepted me being friends with Naruto. He was my only friend in the family. My parents hated me. They could never accept me. That's why they allowed me to learn how to be a kunoichi, they were hoping I'd die in battle,"

"How do you know that's true?"

"I heard them say it. They didn't know I was there. I spent most of my time in the forest with Naruto. They weren't expecting me to be home for several more hours. I went home early because Naruto got hungry and I was going to get some food for him. I knew I would have to sneak the food, so I was really quiet while at the house. I heard them arguing with Kuma when I was leaving with the food. I didn't care much, until I heard Kuma say my name," she sniffed.

"Why did he say your name?"

"They were arguing about the sword and I,"

Flashback

A little girl around 6 years old was quickly sneaking down a dimly lit hallway. She was wearing a loosely fit pair of overalls with a red shirt underneath, one of the overall straps was hanging off her shoulder. Her dark brown hair, was tied up in a ponytail just poking past her shoulders. She was holding a fairly large sized bag, filled to the brim with riceballs. She quickly ran past a room occupied by 3 people. One of them was around 16 years old wearing a muscle shirt and black arm warmers. He was wearing black cargo pants and had a shuriken holster on his right thigh. His dark green hair went down to his shoulders. His hitai-ate was worn around his neck. He was standing up arguing with two people. The man was wearing cerulean colored robes with a golden trim. His gray hair thinning, framing his face which was contorted with anger. The woman was wearing pink robes with orange trim. Her dark brown hair was surrounding her entire body because of the way she was sitting. Her faced showed stress and anger. On the table in front of them was Kuri's katana.

"Musukosan, this conversation is over," The man stood up showing that he meant what he said.

"Otosan, this conversation won't be over until Kuri-chan is dead," replied the boy.

The little girl sneaking along the hall stopped.

"It won't matter if that girl is dead or alive, she will never have the sword," commented the woman.

"As long as I am alive, my imotosan will get this sword. I won't take no for an answer. When she is ten I will tell her about the sword. I will teach her how to use a sword. I will not allow her to be deprived of her birthright, it's just not fair," said the teen.

"It's not a matter of what is fair or unfair, but of what is decided. What is decided is that you will have this sword. Besides she'll never have the sword if she dies at a young age in battle," the woman sat up as well.

"Wh-What do you mean by that?"

"I mean, that she will be allowed to become a ninja, but she will die,"

"How do you know she's gonna die?"

"I'll make sure of it,"

The man and woman walked out of the room. Turning to the opposite direction of Kuri.

"Hey, I'm not done yet!" yelled the teen after them.
They simply ignored him. When Kuri saw them turn down corner of the corridor she ran into the room. The boy saw her an fell to his knees, arms spread wide. She ran into his arms.

"Kuma-onisan, what were you talking to them about?" she looked into his dark brown eyes. Her eyes were quickly shifting colors. He looked into them and chuckled.

"What are you doing with all that food anyway?"

"Shh, I'm taking it to Naruto-kun," she said in a whisper.

"You spend so much time with him. You two are going to get married one day,"

"You really think so?" her face showed hope. "I- I mean, Eww," she quickly turned away.

"You are so odd," he gave her a weird look and laughed.

"I love you onisan," she hugged him again.

"I love you too imotosan," he hugged her back.

"Why are you the only one other than Naruto-kun doesn't hate me?"

Kuma's face immediatley turned sympathetic.

"You should take that food to Naruto before otosan and okasan see it," he said nervously trying to avoid the question.

"Ok," she answered happily grabbing the bag and running out of the house.

End Flashback

"Oh, you seem to have been very close to Kuma,"

"Yeah, I was, but. He was ki-," she looked away quickly trying to hide the tear rolling down her face.

"I understand," he took a final sip of his tea and looked at the clock. "Wow, it's 8:10 already, I better get going. Bye," he said as he left.

"Bye, Iruka-sensei," she called after him.
When he was gone she took a quick shower, got dressed, fixed her hair, ate breakfast, strapped on her sword, and ran out the door. As she ran toward the Cell 13 meeting place and met Ryu on the way.

"Hiya Kuri-chan," Ryu said running up to her.

"Oh hi Ryu-kun," she replied smiling at him. He immediately started blushing.

/Maybe she likes me. I can't blame her I do have to admit I am pretty hot/ Ryu thought as he looked at Kuri who was looking at him oddly.

"Ryu-kun, why are you blushing?"

"Well you see the thing is-," he was stopped by Kuri.

"You can tell me later right? We have to see Mikori-sensei," she continued running in the direction of Team 13's meeting place.

"Uh, right," he said running after her.

Once Kuri and Ryu finally reached their destination, they both fell backwards breathing heavily.

"That... was... some... run... huh?" Asked Ryu looking at Kuri.

"Yup... sure... was..." Kuri looked back at Ryu and the two of them laughed while gasping for breath. Just then Yoshi arrived in a puff of smoke. He took one look at Kuri and Ryu and shook his head while looking away.

"You got a problem?" Kuri got up and shook a fist at Yoshi.

"Actually I do,"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, I was wondering how I ended up with a couple of nobodies like you two. Seriously, he's a loser and you actually live with a loser,"

"What do you mean I live with a loser?"

"I'm not a loser," interjected Ryu.

"Who asked you," replied Yoshi.

"Hey, you haven't answred my question yet!" Kuri was about to punch him.

Yoshi glared at her.

"How could anyone possibly live with Naruto. It's completely insane," he walked away showing he was finished.

"Grrr,"

"You live with Naruto?" RYu looked a bit stunned.

"Yeah. For the longest time. He's my best friend,"

"Oh, so he's just a friend then?"

"Yeah, just a friend. Why?"

"No reason, I just wanted to know. Um, hey, can you meet me hear at around 7:30 tonight?"

"Uh, yeah, sure why?"

"You'll find out why when I see you later," Ryu finally walked over to the stone he sat on the day before. Suddenly there was a large puff of smoke and Mikori appeared atop the largest boulder.

"Morning team," she said looking at them. They each had a different look in their faces. Yoshi looked annoyed, Kuri look slightly confused and Ryu looked content.

"Well, ignoring the looks on you annoyingly small faces, today, I want to see how well each of you can fight. In the end only one of you can fight me, but to determine who it will be there will be a set of preliminary round. So I can evaluate each of you," she pulled a leaf out of her weapons pouch.

"What's that for?" asked Ryu calmly.

"This is a leaf,"

"Well we can see that," stated Yoshi in a pissy tone.

"Yes, but do you know what's special about this leaf?"

"No," the three genin answered.

"It measures you abilities and strengths so that the fight will be as equal as possible,"

"Oh," they replied in unison.

"So to see who will go first, I'm going to spin the leaf on its end. When it falls, whoever the tip is pointing at will be in the first match, Then I'll spin it again to see who your opponent will be,"

The three genin stayed silent as their sensei stood the leaf up on it's tip and spun it. The leaf spun for about 45 seconds before landing.

"All right!" Ryu happily said punching his hand through the air. Mikori spun the leaf again. It took about 10 seconds before landing again.

"How, can that loser be anyway strong enough to be my equal?" complained Yoshi seeing he was going to battle Ryu.

"OK, so our first match will be Ryu versus Yoshi. I hope you two are ready,' Mikori said as they went to the center of their training area.

"Whatever," said Yoshi putting his hands up in an offensive stance.

"This will be great," Ryu put himself into a defensive position.

"OK, READY... BEGIN!" shouted Mikori.

A/n: Ok, that's it for the 6th chapter. I swear I'm so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sooooooooooooooo sorry for taking so long to update, but I had writers block (and still do) so this chapter was short and it sucked. But oh well. Anyway, thanx for the reviews. Well bie, I'll try to get the 7th chapter out soon (hence the word TRY )