Chapter 15

(At the stoke of midnight, before the meeting of Naruto and Doku)

The night was a very dark night. Light from the moon was very bright contrasted to the darkness of the woods. There were two boys. One with blonde hair, and the other with dark hair, streaks of blue. They were right in front of a tall oak tree surrounded by a bunch of other oaks.

"Who are you?" A voice whispered menacingly as he shoved the blonde into the tall oak.

"That is valuable information that I shall not tell you," the blonde replied.

"I will ask one more time, who… are… you," the harsh voice continued.

"You will never know, Sasuke Uchiha," the blonde whispered with poison in his words. He attempted to draw his sword in a blur of speed.

"S you know my name," Sasuke muttered as he grabbed the sword out of the young man's hand. "You are an Uzumaki?"

The blonde didn't answer. He glared into Sasuke's eyes, and the moon made a fierce reflection that added even more hate.

"That's what I thought," Sasuke sneered, "Go tell your brother, that demon fox, that I am waiting." Sasuke grabbed onto the young Uzumaki's collar, shoved him into the oak again, and then pushed him away. As the Uzumaki swiftly ran away, he yelled, "I will protect Naruto with my life! I will never deliver your message!"

As he faded into the night, Sasuke stood there and smirked with confidence, "You will tell Naruto, or else."

(Early in the morning, the day after Naruto and Doku meet)

"Begin!" Minato shouted as he stood in a fighting position, ready for the first attack. This was the first day of their training, and Minato had decided to start with the bell exercise, and make one of the three starve for the morning.

Naruto, Sakura, and Doku ran in different directions, away from Minato. 'I'm glad Naruto knows the word strategy this time,' He thought. Naruto ran around, and caught up to Doku.

"Now all we have to do is find-, "Naruto tried to say.

"I'm right here," Sakura announced.

"All right, let's do this!" Naruto yelled in his usual voice.

"Wait Naruto, we need a plan," Doku sighed.

"Oh, yeah… that would be nice," Naruto smiled.

"Ok then, we need to distract Da- I mean Minato-sensei,' Doku summarized.

"What were you going to say?" Naruto asked.

"Nothing important, just the slip of the tongue," Doku flustered, "Back to the plan. Anyone wanna offer as the distracter?"

"That's my job!" Naruto blurted out.

"Then I'll attack him by punching the ground to trap him in," Sakura offered.

"That'll work, but how do we actually trap him?" Doku pushed on.

"How about I grab him with my clones," Naruto replied.

"Sure, and I'll put my sword up to his neck. That would be the end if he was the enemy," Doku sounded quite excited as he said this.

"And I'll get the bells," Sakura finished.

"Let's go! Wait…" Naruto pondered. "How about I make a clone of each of you to trick him?"

"Great Naruto, you're actually getting smarter now!" Sakura joked.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled back. The team spread out, and Naruto ran ahead of them. He gave a thumbs up, signaling he'd spotted Minato. He made a clone of Sakura and a clone of Doku.

"Dad!" he yelled, "You'd better get ready!" Naruto conjured up another clone and formed Rasengan. He rushed towards Minato and tried to him. Minato dodged, and Sakura (the real one) ran out of hiding and punched the ground with a defying force. It created a huge crack, and made Minato stumble a bit. Two Naruto clones rushed up and grabbed his arms and legs. The third clone grabbed him around the waist.

"Ok Doku!" Naruto signaled. The real Doku ran up and pressed his sword ever so lightly against Minato's neck.

"Check mate," Doku muttered as Sakura grabbed two bells. *Poof* Naruto's clones disappeared.

"How'd we do, Minato-sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Awesome, but not good enough," He smirked. The clone and bells disappeared in a poof.

"Rasengan!" The real Minato shouted as he closed in on them. Suddenly, two others appeared, all with Rasengan. All three made contact with Naruto, Doku, and Sakura. They all gaped in shock, but quickly poofed away.

"That would've been interesting to have seen how those weak Rasengan would've been against real people. Maybe it was too strong?" Minato said to himself.

AN: Up next: Does the trio have another plan up their sleeve?