Author's Note: Wow, so I feel really embarrassed ///. First, I have to say Thank You to Dragon-tyjet. This wonderful person pointed out to me that I posted my chapter six as chapter five. I also want to thank everyone that has review so far, it makes me rather giddy receiving them then reading them. Second, it has come to my attention that I'm using 'funny words'. If this is so, please tell me where these words are so I can go back and fix/replace them ^-^ I've been looking for a Beta so things like these won't happen, but atlas, it's been a fruitless search so far. So until I do in fact find one, please bear with me.
Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Naruto. Though I do own this plot line and my few OC's.
It was a few hours later until Akimi and Akimitsu finally woke again. By that time, the sun was already setting, shops were closing, and children were returning home to join their family for dinner.
Of the two, Akimi was the first to wake, beating her twin brother by mere seconds. Yawning and stretching, Akimi sat up, wiping the sleep from her eyes. Her brother simply stretched, grumbled, and rolled back on to his side to where he was facing the wall, fully determined on going back to sleep.
"Well hello to you too." Ryuu spoke, chuckling at Akimitsu's behavior.
All he got in return was some incoherent mumbles, making him laugh and Naruto smile a ghost of a smile. Standing up from his chair across from Naruto, Ryuu went and stood in between the two beds.
"Come on you two, you've slept enough. It's time to get up now." Though he spoke to both of them, he reached over and shook Akimitsu's shoulder since he was the one most likely to end up asleep again if given the chance unlike his sister who just looked slightly dazed.
Akimitsu, in a feeble attempt to be left alone to resume sleeping, raised a hand and batted at Ryuu's that was still shaking his shoulder.
"Nooooo." He moaned out, "Go 'way. Sleep good"
Naruto rolled his eyes, though there was still a small smile on his face showing his amusement at the situation. Ryuu, on the other hand, smirked, a smirk that promised something bad for the sleepy teen.
"Have it your way, Akimitsu." was all Ryuu said in a sing-song voice before giving said teen a sharp and sudden push, knocking him off the small twin sized bed onto the floor.
With a loud yelp of surprise, Akimitsu tumbled out of bed; bring the sheets and pillow with him. The only sign that he was 'okay' was the loud moan of pain that he gave, causing Naruto's smile to widen in even more amusement, Ryuu lean over the now bare bed, smiling down at the crumpled teen, and Akimi to start laughing at her brother, all sense of sleep gone.
Sitting up and rubbing his head, Akimitsu glared at Ryuu, who just smiled back innocently.
"What? I thought that you might like it better on the floor." Ryuu tilted his head, grinning impishly.
"Bastard…" Standing up fully, Akimitsu dusted off invisible dirt before heading off to the door that led to the bathroom mumbling colorful words under his breath the entire time.
Naruto watched as he stalked off, an eyebrow raised. When the bathroom door opened then slammed closed, he looked back over to the highly amused Ryuu and giggling Akimi with a semi-serious looking face.
"Maybe it's just me, but I don't think that he's a morning person." Naruto hummed to himself, rubbing his masked chin, pretending to think it over.
This caused Akimi to start laughing all over again and for Ryuu to chuckle.
"No, I don't think so either." Ryuu responded, shaking his head. "After Akimitsu gets out, you can go in Akimi and then we all need to go over what we're going to do with the time we have from now until the first part of the exam. We have eleven days, so we have to use them the best we can to both get use to our new surroundings, and get in some more team practice for you three." He suddenly grew serious, crossing his arms over his chest. "You all have to remember, we have only been a team for a few days now, while all of the other teams have been together for at least a few months.
"You three are going to have to learn to work together; if you are to have any chance of winning and coming out as chunin's, you'll have to be able to help each other all you can, wither we're all a real team or not." He looked pointedly at Naruto towards the end of his little speech.
Both teens nodded with a determined look in both of their eyes that matched that of Ryuu, Akimi then looking to be lost in thought. Just then, the bathroom door opened, showing Akimitsu in the doorway, his toothbrush loosely grasped in his hand.
"Well then," the teen spoke with a smirk in place, "what are we all waiting for?" He, too, had a determined look, all thoughts of sleeping forgotten for the time being. Akimitsu was met with a mixture of smirks and wide grins.
Fifteen minutes later found the three teens and one adult standing in front of a training ground much like the one that Naruto stumbled across all those years ago. The only real difference from then and now was the missing lightning, thunder, and rain. With the sun now fully down and the stars just starting to come out, Ryuu found the place quite perfect for what he had in mind.
Walking until he was in the middle of the clearing, Ryuu turned to face his team of 'genin'.
"Okay. So, if you three are going to be fighting and working together, you all will need to be able to tell where the other two are so that you can either help them if need be, or avoid hitting them while in the middle of a battle. The last thing that you need is too accidently injure your own teammate while up against enemy shinobi. You might as well just surrender to the enemy if that happens. Following along so far?" He waited until all three nodded before continuing. Ryuu grinned a devious grin. "So, in order to get use to locating each other, which you could also use to locate, hidden ninja you three are going to play a little game that will help you with both."
Akimitsu and Akimi visibly faltered at the mention of playing a game while Naruto raised an eyebrow. Naruto held no doubt that whatever Ryuu was going to have them all do would in fact help them in one way or another, but knowing Ryuu, and going over all of his past trainings whenever Ryuu decided to phrase any of his past training like that…
'Well,' Naruto silently though, 'this should be interesting at least'
"What, may I ask, game are we to play?" Naruto questioned out loud.
Ryuu's grin widened, causing the twins to squirm slightly.
"Isn't it obvious? You three are going to play the wonderful game of…" Ryuu trailed off, trying to add suspense to the situation. Sadly, it worked.
Akimi and Akimitsu leaned in while Naruto just raised an eyebrow again, waiting.
"Hide and Seek!" Ryuu finally exclaimed, beaming at them as he crossed his arms over his chest.
All three teenagers started at Ryuu blankly, though the blank look was nothing new for Naruto. After a few moments of Ryuu smiling and the three teen's just staring at said man as if he were crazy, Akimitsu finally spoke, breaking the silence.
"Let me get this straight." He closed his eyes, rubbed his forehead.
"You want us," Akimi took over, pointing between Naruto, her brother, and herself to emphases what she was saying, "to play Hide and Seek as a form of training?!"
Naruto just shook his head, crossing his arms over his chest much like how Ryuu had his own arms crossed. "Why am I not surprised…" he trailed off, looking up to star filled night as if the answer would suddenly appear before him.
Ryuu went from smiling to pouting, his arms still crossed. "Ah, come on you three. It would be perfect as practice. What's a better way of finding each other than playing Hide and Seek in the dark? This way, you'll really need to pay attention to your surrounds, either trying to hide from the seeker, who in a real battle would be classified as an enemy shinobi, or trying to locate those hidden while said hidden have to find each other as well as stay hidden from the seeker. Then there's the fact that the one who plays as the seeker also gets extra practice in as trying to locate those you're chasing, which you all could use if chasing after an enemy that is trying to lose you.
"Add that with the cover of night, which can either help you or give you away if not careful just makes it all the better for this exercise. It all depends on how well you three use and pay attention to your surroundings that will determine wither the night will either cause your downfall or victory over the other two. That and you all get to have some fun." He finished with a cheeky grin.
The twins sighed at the same time, nodding their heads.
"Fine, we'll play." They both spoke in worn out voices, still finding Ryuu slightly insane even though his explanation made sense to them both.
Ryuu clapped his hands together, smiling again at the twins before turning his attention to Naruto. The twins followed his lead. Naruto stared back.
After a few silent seconds, Naruto finally sighed.
"Fine, I'll also play your silly game, Dragon. But don't think that I'll like it."
When Naruto got done speaking, Ryuu looked as if Christmas came early. He was use to the usual emotionless teen putting up a fight whenever he suggested playing a game that also counted as some type of training. Never had he given in as quickly as he just did. In fact, Ryuu was use to having to provide numerous reasons as to why such childish games like Tag, Marco Polo, I Spy, and now Hide and Seek could be seen as training for creative shinobi that most never even think about doing. In fact, it was only because he was playing the game Hide and Seek when he was a child still in school that he thought of using his charka to help hide his foot prints from showing up on top of the sand which would always end up giving his hiding place away.
"Good, good. Now all that's left is to set up the boundaries, make some rules that fit to what we're aiming for, and decide who 'it' is first."
It was with two small groans and a light sigh that the three teens set to work to begin their new form of training.
The sun was just beginning to rising as the tired group of teens and sole adult made their way back into their hotel room.
They had been playing their new and improved game of Hide and Seek the entire night with only a few breaks here and there, but even those were short. A few minutes if Ryuu was feeling nice. Never let it be said that Ryuu can't turn a harmless children like Hide and Seek and turn it into a full body workout.
To make matters even worse for the already tired group of teens, around one in the morning, they attracted the attention of two ANBU who were out on patrol. After they got done talking to Ryuu who was explaining what they were doing out so late, it was to the three teenagers horror that the two Black Ops offered to join in, saying that it would be 'delightfully fun' for them and 'more of a challenge' for the Naruto, Akimitsu, and Akimi.
Naruto just thought that they wanted to get out of patrol duty.
And if Akimitsu's dark mutterings and Akimi's evil glare that was directed at the ground, they shared Naruto's thought.
So, it was with suddenly heavy feet and hung heads that the three teenagers agreed, allowing the two highly amused ANBU Black Ops to both join their 'game' and be the new seekers.
When the two ANBU members finally left them at day break, Naruto took back his earlier thought of the lot of them being pathetic. How very, very wrong he was. The four that Ryuu and he met earlier must have been new to the position, because the two that joined in on their training were anything but weak.
As the twins plopped down of their separate beds and Ryuu headed back over to his spot by the window, Naruto had to admit silently to himself, as he sat opposite of Ryuu, that at the end of the day, (or at the start of a new one he should say) Ryuu's idea of training was once again both a great learning experience and, for the most part, as in when he and the Takahashi twin's got use to the presence of the two fierce ANBU members, fun.
Though fun or not, Naruto made no future plans of going and seeking the two ANBU's out just to playing another round with them, or any other ANBU's for that matter, if he could help it. He rather not give them another chance to fiercely attack either him or the Takahashi twins without worrying about the chance of causing a war between The Hidden Waterfall Village and theirs.
After all, as Ryuu pointed out when he gave the okay for the ANBU members to use some of their less dangerous moves and techniques, it was all in the name of learning how to better their skills as ninja's.
Ryuu, seeing as they were all too tired to really move, got up and headed for the bathroom, fully intent on taking advantage of the situation by taking a nice hot shower even though he did almost nothing besides watch them train and give the rare comments here and there.
He wasn't even able to take two steps before Naruto's voice stopped him.
"And what do you think you're doing, Dragon?"
Ryuu stopped, silently cursed, and turned to face a glaring Naruto. Rubbing the back of his head, he gave a nervous laugh.
"Ah, I was planning on taking a shower, what with not having one for two days and all." By then, Akimi and Akimitsu were also glaring at their temporary jounin leader.
"I don't think so, Dragon! We just got done working our asses off by dodging attacks from some of Konoha's top shinobi, then trying to do the impossible and find the hidden ANBU. Not to mention doing it all in the dead of night! If anyone one is going to be taking a shower, it's one of us, not you!" Akimi hotly stated, her voice raising with each sentence. Ryuu shrunk back.
Even if he was a supposed deadly shinobi, feared far and wide for his skills, facing a tired, pissed off kunichi was never good for any mans health, and Ryuu knew that pretty well.
So, it was with a hung head that Ryuu went back over to his seat across from a by then amused Naruto, allowing Akimi to get up, grab her pajamas and things that she would need for a shower from her bag, and stomp into the bathroom.
When she was done, Naruto allowed Akimitsu to go next, making Ryuu grumble under his breath. Once he, too, was done and out of the bathroom, Naruto finally got up. Before heading into the bathroom with his own change of sweats and lose shirt, he patted Ryuu on his shoulder, his eyes shining with amusement.
"How 'bout you set up our beds, hmm? It will give you something to do."
Naruto took a quick step back, avoiding Ryuu's swat that was aimed at his head.
"Yeah yeah." He grumbled, glaring lightly at his adopted son. "Get moving."
Naruto snickered as he walked into the bathroom.
When Naruto was done showering, he was met with two home made beds on the floor composed of multiple blankets and a pillow each, sleeping twins on their own beds, and a sulking Ryuu who was still sitting by the window.
Drying his hair with a towel, Naruto gave Ryuu a ghost of a smile.
"It's all yours Dragon." Naruto spoke in a sing-song voice as he dropped his towel in the hamper that was located in the bathroom.
"Gee, thanks." Ryuu's own tone was slightly sarcastic, his eyes rolling as he stood. "Choose which ever bed you want." He motioned over to where the two homemade beds laid; one next to the wall, the other next to it, though there was about two feet between them. He made his way into the bathroom, mumbling under his breath about 'rude brats that don't respect their elders'.
Naruto simply nodded, walking over to the one closest to the wall. Laying down, he closed his eyes, giving a soft "Night." before falling asleep, his lack of sleep catching up to him finally.
It was only a few minutes later that Ryuu stepped out of the bathroom, ruffling his damp hair. Laying down on his own bed, he, too, fell asleep rather quickly.
Outside, back in the same tree that the last sole AMBU used to sit on, the two ANBU members that were with them earlier glanced at each other. Nodding, the Snake masked one of the two left silently, leaving the Monkey to continue his silent watch.
When the Snake reappeared, she stood before the Hokage's office doors. No doubt he was awake and already working, so she had no reason to worry of waking the elder man as she knocked on the door sharply.
A muffled "Come in" was the reply, so the Snake masked women opened the door. Walking in to stand before the serious man, she bowed and waited for his to speak before she rose again.
"What do you have to report, Anko?"
When the women rose, she remover her mask and lowered her hood, reveling her face's features and showed off her unique purple hair color. Her lips showed a sadistic grin.
"Monkey and I began our shadowing of the team from the Hidden Waterfall Village at Six p.m. They stayed inside of the hotel until dusk. From the hotel, the man, 'Dragon', led them to training ground Five. Monkey and I watched them play the game Hide and Seek, which they were using as a form of training."
Here, the Hokage interrupted her. Raising an eyebrow in amusement, he asked, "Hide and Seek?"
Anko snickered lightly before she gave him the same explanation that she heard Ryuu give Naruto, Akimi, and Akimitsu. Once done, the Hokage leaned back in his chair, blinking.
"Now that's different." Here, he began speaking to himself. "I just may have to tell our own jounin's that have genin teams about it so they can try it themselves." Shaking his head, he motioned for the women across from his to continue.
Nodding, she did just that.
"At a little after one in the morning, it became clear that the jounin of the team finally took notice of us. From there, Monkey and I decided to try a different approach. After talking to the man 'Dragon', Monkey offered that we join in. He purposely made it seem like we were trying to get out our supposed patrol, hoping to cover up for why we were watching them. From the looks of it, they all bought it, though I not so sure about that kid Fox." She frowned as she spoke the teens 'name'. "About the entire time we were watching them, he showed almost no emotions. His control over his emotions put even some of ours to shame." Her frown turned into a sneer of annoyance. She didn't like the thought that some teen, someone younger than her could hide his emotions so well that even she could not even get a small sense as to what he was thinking or feeling. It made her feel on edge, slightly uneasy if nothing else. She hated the feeling.
"During that time, we were able to gather some of the genin's abilities. I doubt very much that what they showed us is the extent of any of their powers, but it's still quite a bit." She pulled out a scroll, sliding it across the desk towards the ageing Hokage. "'Dragon' finally called the training off as the sun began raising. At that point, we took our leave, though stayed in the shadows, watching them to make sure that they did indeed go back to the hotel. As soon as they all fell asleep, I came straight here, leaving Monkey to watch over the four as they slept."
Nodding, the Hokage picked up the scroll, opening and reading it to himself silently. Once finished, he rolled it back up and placed it back down on his desk, frowning.
"Thank you, Anko. Both you and Monkey are relived from your post. I will send in replacements to continue watching them." He spoke, waving her off absent mindedly, his mind still going over what he read from the scroll he was just given.
The women nodded, preparing the jutsu that would take her back to her partner. She left as silently as she came; leaving no sign that she was there to begin with except for the Hokage's secretary seeing her arrive and the Hokage himself.
Once she was gone, the elder Hokage leaned back in his chair, taking out his pipe and lighting it with a match. Taking a deep breath of the poisonous smoke, he then let it out slowly. Staring up at the ceiling, sighed, idle ling biting down on the pipe's mouth piece.
"What an interesting exam this has been so far, and it hasn't even officially started yet." He glanced back down, looking at the scroll that held the information gathered regarding the three genin's from the Hidden Waterfall Village.
He took another deep breath from his pipe, once again letting it out slowly.
"Just who are you really, Fox, Dragon…"