Chapter 6

"What the hell was that!?" exclaimed Naruto. Suddenly, a masked man jumped and landed onto the huge sword stuck in the tree. He slowly turned around, glaring at everyone.

"Well, well, well, you're finally here. I was beginning to think my lackeys may have finished you off. But no matter, you're here now, so it's time...to DIE!" yelled the stranger, jumping down while pulling out his sword. Minato parried his sword with a kunai, buying the rest of the team enough time to get out of the way, but not before Mianto was captured in a Water Prison Shpere. The team ran off into the forest, trying to get Tazuna to safety.

"Hinata, stay here and protect Tazuna-san. Naruto and I will go back and try to rescue Minato-sensei. If we're not back soon, go off without us." explained Sasuke. Hinata nodded, and they went off to put their plan into action. Minato-sensei was trapped, surrounded by copies of the enemy ninja.

"Boys, he can't trap me if his arm isn't in the Water Sphere!" exclaimed Minato-sensei. Sasuke nodded, and pulled out a Demon Wind Shuriken from his backpack, flinging it at the original, slicing apart quite a few Water Clones in the process. He easily caught the shuriken, but didn't notice the second one traveling in its shadow. With no other choice, he jumped over it. Thinking he at last outsmarted the boy, he didn't notice the shuriken transform into Naruto behind him, and was only able to catch Naruto's kunai attack by using his other arm, freeing Minato in the process! Taking his opportunity, Minato-sensei quickly formed chakra into his palm, and began spinning it around rapidly, forming a small ball of violent chakra.

"Rasengan!" he yelled, thrusting the ball into the opponent, sending him flying off-screen, hopefully never to be seen again.

"Wow, that was some great teamwork you two! I'm proud of you guys. Now, I'm about to faint, so carry me to whereever it is we're supposed to go..." said Minato-sensei, proceeding to pass out from loss of energy inside the Water Prison Sphere. Naruto and Sasuke looked at the unconcious body lying before them. 'Shit...' they both thought. The 2 of them carried their sensei (with great effort) back to their meeting place. Hinata gasped when she saw her sensei passed out, and ran to help them.

"Come on," started Tazuna, "the checkpoint is just up ahead, he can rest there."

They dragged Minato-sensei to Tazuna's home near the forest. There, Minato remained unconcious for a few hours. When he awoke, his worried students bombarded him with questions (of course, not Sasuke though. He's a much more introspective person).

"Who was that? Where did he come from? Why did he attack us? What did you do to him?" asked Naruto and Hinata rapidly, earning an annoyed groan from Minato-sensei.

"If you guys will wait for just a second, maybe I'll answer! Now, the ninja that attacked us is called Zabuza Momochi. He is a powerful missing-nin from the Village Hidden in the Mist, and is quite well known for his assassination services. His prescence here can mean only one thing; he has sold his services to Gato, and we are his targets. There is no time to waste, my attack will most likely not have finished him off. We must begin some real ninja training to prepare you 3 for the difficult battle ahead. Come, I will teach you chakra control, now that I am awake. To the forest!" explained Minato, miraculously getting up from his resting place and rushing outside, followed by his students. He approached an assortment of very large, thick trees in the forest, signaling the Genin to stop.

"For your next assignment, you must each climb to the tops of these trees, without using your hands." Naruto and Hinata gasped, while Sasuke kept up his stoic appearance.

"How am I supposed to do THAT!? It's impossible!" argued Naruto. Minato smirked, walking upto the tree, and then up it. Naruto's jaw nearly dropped, and Hinata seemed speechless (isn't she always?). Sasuke just kept observing, slightly noticing his chakra fluctuations and how the chakra was gathered in his feet.

"You need to channel your chakra to your feet, not through it. Focus on the chakra flowing to your feet, and keep it there. Send too much chakra, and the tree will collapse under the pressure; send too little, and your feet won't stick to the tree. You have to find a balance. Go ahead, try it." commanded Minato-sensei. They each picked out a tree and tried it out. Naruto didn't exert enough chakra, so he fell off instantly. Sasuke exerted too much chakra, leaving a deep footprint in the tree trunk. Hinata, however, exerted just enough chakra, climbing up with great ease (kind of like Goldilox and the Three Bears, huh?). She felt embarrassed when all eyes were on her.

"T-The Hyuga-s-style taij-jutsu requires g-great chakra control..." she timidly tried to explain her prowess. The young rivals ran right back into it, this time Sasuke exerting too little chakra, and Naruto exerting too much. The pattern continued, and soon they became quite frustrated. Minato decided they needed a break. Sasuke decided to rest, but Naruto just kept going...and kept failing. Now that he was close to her, he could ask her the favor he wanted.

"Hey, Hinata, I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" asked Sasuke.

"S-Sure, S-Sasuke-kun. W-What is it?" she replied.

"Well, whenever I try to exert a little more chakra, I end up exerting much more than I intended. So I was wondering if you could use your Byakugan to see what's going on in my chakra coils. Can you?" he asked nervously.

"O-Of course." she said, activating her Byakugan. What she saw astounded her. Most people's chakra coils were thin, like wires, and a regular ninja's were about twice the size due to regular use, but Sasuke's were almost quadruple the regular size! There was a lot of chakra flowing through them, too much for a Genin to effectively control. The strangest part was his chakra core. This is a small sphere of chakra in the stomach, which is the main pump for the body's chakra. Usually it's about half the size of a ninja's fist, and the color ranges from light blue, for regular ninja's, to bluish-green for Eight Gate useres and medical ninja. Sasuke's was twice as big, and was a dark red color. Periodically, a thick slip of red chakra would be pumped out with the regular chakra, causing an imbalance that would disrupt the regular chakra flow, and these red slips would become more common when Sasuke tried to exert chakra. Hinata was quite surprised, and a little frightened, but she figured out how to help. By carefully blocking off a few minor tenketsu (chakra points) she could divert the flow of the diluted chakra and make it flow harmlessly out of his bellybutton, which is near the source so the red chakra couldn't get in the way of his chakra flow. Once his ckakra control got better, his tenketsu would automatically unseal as his body adjusted to his new, controlled chakra flow. Hinata timidly explained what she needed to do to help, but didn't tell him about the other details, as she thought he already knew about his irregular chakra system. He agreed to it, and she quickly and expertly blocked off a few tenketsu in the stomach. It felt strange to Sasuke, ticklish but relaxing. He tried to climb up again, and did it on his first try. One step after another, he became more and more excited, until he was running up the tree, screaming. Naruto, watching this whole extravaganza, used his jealousy-ridden adrenaline to fuel his chakra, finally finding the balance to do it.

'If Sasuke-teme can do it, then so can I!' he thought, running up to catch Sasuke. Sasuke noticed Naruto gaining on him, and really pushed himself, going faster. Naruto did the same. Soon they reached the top, neck-and-neck, but of course, their rivalry wouldn't let them stop there. They kept trying to run, even though there was no tree left to run on. Gravity soon kicked in, pulling the reckless ninjas down. It also soon dawned on them that they were plummeting down over 30-feet. Luckily, before they could make any dying confessions, Minato-sensei, doing the whole sensei thing, caught them both in mid-air.

"Ok, next time, realize you guys can't run on air yet! It would save us all unneeded grief and anxiety." nagged Minato-sensei. The boys turned to eachother, smiling and out of breath.

"Want to race again?" asked Naruto.

"If you actually put up a fight this time." replied Sasuke. Practice went on for hours as Naruto and Sasuke refused to quit. Hinata periodically climbed up the trees as well, so as not to get rusty. Eventually, the three tired out, so they all went back to Tazuna's house for rest and relaxation. Of course, being the rivals that they are, Naruto and Sasuke couldn't leave their competitions alone for a few minutes, and thus they soon began to choke. The two threw up the recent contents of their dinners, and the first words out of their mouths were, "More food!" Hinata was quite surprised at the amount of food they were consuming. She had never seen someone eat so much, let alone two. Minato was forced to intervene, lest the two vomit again. Tazuna left, heading to work on the bridge. His ninja bodyguards followed. When they arrived, they noticed something peculiar. A very thick mist clouded the surroundings, and two human silhouettes were hiding in the mist.

"Oh no..." whispered the team in unison. Things were about to get crazy...