A/N: Hey, Everyone! Thanks for the reviews. Don't really have much to say on this chapter, only that Sakura's going to find out what REAL training is like. If she thought training with Kakashi was hard, wait till she find out what Gai does with his students. Though I think you already get the idea.

Read and Review, please!

Naruto-Heart of Honor: Nine

As the sun slowly rose the next morning, the camp was coming to life as all of the Shinobi were making their way towards the mesh tent to get some breakfast. Some of them were still stretching and yawning as they went, Sakura being one of them. She was still a little tired but not as much. She was starting to get used to getting up so early after all the time she had been there.

"Hey, morning."

Sakura blinked a few times as she tried to wipe her eyes from sleep before she turned to look at Neji as he approached her. She gave him a wave as she made her way into the breakfast line. "Morning, Neji. Sorry about last night." She muttered. "I know I should have waited till you were done training. I just didn't expect you guys to show up at that area of the river."

Neji shook his head as he folded his hands behind his back, looking forward. He looked a little bored but it was something that Sakura was used to by now. "It's not your fault. You were trying to get washed up. Though, you probably should have waited till I was training with Gai-sensai before going to the river. But at least you didn't get caught." He told her. Sakura only shrugged before waving as Naruto came bounding towards them with Sasuke behind him. She gave them silent good mornings before they collected their breakfast. "What do you think today's going to be like?" She asked as they sat down. Rock Lee, Shikamaru, Kiba, Shino and Sai soon joined them at their table, all muttering their good mornings. Rock was the only one to look cheerful about it though. He was pretty much the only one who was such an early, early riser.

"Well, our team is going on a hike!" The young Gai-clone said cheerfully.

Neji slowly nodded as he ate his food. He didn't look entirely thrilled, but he didn't mind either. He just hoped that Lee wouldn't bug him. Sakura just smiled and shook her head. "That sounds like fun. What do you guys do anyway? How does Gai-sensai train you?"

Lee was grinning at her, as he got very excited. Neji, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes and folded his arms. "Did you really have to ask?" He asked with a little annoyance. Sakura frowned but then looked at Lee when he began to bounce up and down on the bench. "We work on our strength, Zaku, to become the strongest and most invulnerable Shinobi in the army!" He said in a loud and bold voice.

Sakura rose her eyebrow but then shook her head as she looked at Neji to see if that was true. She wouldn't take Lee's word for it very much. Neji only shook his head as he leaned back a little. "Lee's telling the truth. Gai makes us work on our strength, though I don't see the point in my case. My clan has been using the Gentle Fist techniques for a while. So I don't really need to use strength to defeat my enemies." He told her in a low voice. Sakura tilted her head with a little curiosity. She wasn't sure what that was. She faintly remembered that her father might have said something about the Gentle Fist techniques but he couldn't tell her too much.

"Gentle what?" came Naruto's voice.

Sakura turned around on her bench to see Naruto, Sasuke, Sai, Shikamaru, Shino and Kiba walking up towards them, the energetic blonde being the only one yawning. But he was interested in what Neji's Gentle Fist Technique was. But he wasn't the only one. Even Kiba looked interested into finding out. Both his and Akamaru's head was cocked to the side with curiosity. It made Sakura smile to see how cute the puppy was looking.

"That's Gentle Fist Technique." Neji said with mild annoyance. "It's a technique that only my clan can handle using. It's connected with Byakugan eye. The Gentle Fist technique allows me to attack certain areas of one's body, sometimes paralyzing them for a short time. I guess you can say with the Gentle Fist, I can attack pressure points, certain veins for the blood flow, even one's heart, if I wished." He told them calmly. Sakura and Naruto both looked rather alarmed by the sound of that. They hadn't known that Neji knew that kind of technique. Now that Sakura actually thought about it, she only knew about the Byakugan eye and that was it. She wasn't sure what else he knew.

"Wow, Neji. I didn't know you could do that." Shikamaru said lazily. "Remind me to never piss you off again then."

Neji only lazily smirked at him as he looked at him. "Remind yourself, Nara. Because I certainly won't." He told him. Shikamaru grimaced before he sank down on the bench and began eating some of the fruit on the table while Shino was now eyeing Sakura. It was almost the same look that Neji had given her the first time he looked at her. The thought of him figuring out what she was made her groan.

'Please don't tell me he has some kind of secret eye thing too.' She thought before looking towards the door when the Elites entered. She perked up a little when she saw Kakashi being one of them. He was having a deep conversation with the Shinobi Elite, Ibiki. They looked rather serious about something. But when they entered the mesh tent, Kakashi glanced around and his eye paused on Sakura before it was quickly moving back to Ibiki. That really made Sakura frown. It was almost like Kakashi was avoiding her.

The Shinobi Elite, Gai, on the other hand, looked straight at Sakura and grinned before he practically danced across the tent over to their table. "Good morning, youthful Shinobi!" He practically sang, giving them a sparkly smile and thumbs up.

Lee jumped to his feet and copied his father. "Good morning, youthful Sensai!" Then he laughed with Gai, while the others just sweat dropped and watched dully. "When are we going to learn that awesomely awesome jutsu you promised us, Master?!"

Gai just grinned as he placed his fists onto his waist, giving him a nod. "Oh, don't you worry, young Rock Lee! You'll be seeing it today." He then turned his black eyes onto Sakura, was still a little weirded out by both father and son. She was trying her best to eat her breakfast and not try to provoke them into doing anything else weird. "Oh, Haruno Zaku. You will be joining my team from now on to increase your strength." The Elite suddenly announced.

Sakura jumped on the bench and nearly inhaled her food when she heard that. She coughed and choked on the bits of bacon until Neji started clapping her on the back to make her cough it up. Shikamaru, just as alarmed as she and the others, handed her a jug of water so she down whatever else was lodged in her throat. After she was freed of food in her mouth and throat, she looked wide eyed up at Gai, almost too stunned. "What?!" She gasped. "But I thought…..!"

"Oh, it's not that bad! Kakashi ordered me last night that I was to train you to work on your strength." Gai said grinning. Though within his mind he was thinking, 'And he wants to stay away from you for a little because you're making him feel gay.' But he decided that he wouldn't tell her that part.
Sakura tilted her head before she looked towards Kakashi, who was still talking to Ibiki, not looking her way at all. She wondered why in the world Kakashi suddenly wanted her to be trained by Gai. Did it have something to do with what happened the night before? She didn't know what was going through Kakashi's head. Had she done something wrong or was something he did? She wasn't sure. "But…uh….not that I don't have a problem with it. It's just I thought that….." She tried again.

Gai shook his head as he kept on grinning at her. "Don't worry about it. I'll explain it to you later." He then turned around, flicking his long black bangs out of his eyes. "All right, team! We're moving out in ten minutes. Hurry it up and eat so we can go have some fun!" And then he marched off.

Rock Lee immediately began wolfing down his food while Sakura shared a glance at Neji, who looked just as confused as she did. Neither one could figure out what exactly had happened.

"Hmm. I wonder why Kakashi suddenly turned you over to Gai for training." Sasuke muttered out loud as he glanced at the pink haired girl. Sakura shook her head as she rubbed her nose. She really didn't know what she could say to answer that. "I have no idea." She told him honestly. Neji shook his head as he stood up, flipping his long black hair over his shoulder. "Maybe he just thinks you're not the strongest Shinobi. In a way, you are." He told her. "You are the strongest when it comes to Chakra control but when it comes to physical strength, you are the weakest."

Sakura pouted as she placed her chin into her hand. "Oh great. So I'm the weakest. That helps so much. Don't I feel special." She muttered bitterly.

The other young men just smirked or shook their heads. Kiba only shrugged as he gave some of his bacon to Akamaru to wolf down and Lee frowned at her, looking offended. "Well, you should feel special, Zaku! Out of all of the Shinobi, Gai-sensai is the strongest in Physical strength." He grumbled. Shikamaru crinkled his nose but nodded. "Well, that is kind of true. He knows some pretty hardcore Taijutsu from what I've heard." He looked over at Lee. "Hasn't he showed you how to use some kind of technique that lets you punch the ground and it causes fissures or something like that?"

That caught Sakura's attention.

Rock Lee just grinned as he nodded vigorously and bounced on the bench. "Hai! He's showed that to Neji and me, but I'm the only one who'll use it." He sent a glare over to Neji, who rolled his eyes. "Neji says that he doesn't see a point in using it."

"And I don't." Neji said dully.

Sakura just tilted her head as she thought about that technique that they just mentioned. She thought it would probably be useful if she could punch the ground and cause fissures or earthquakes. She wondered if it was even possible for her to learn it. She would have to ask Gai if she could. But with a shrug, she quickly finished her breakfast. She was still wondering why Kakashi had ordered for Gai to train her now and she would have went to ask him if he hadn't disappeared on her.

Not more than ten minutes later, Sakura found herself trudging behind two very cheerful Shinobi in green and an annoyed Neji. She couldn't help but laugh as she followed them. She wondered where Gai was taking them, seeing that they were leaving the camp. They were heading deeper into the dark forest with packs on their back. Sakura could hear Gai humming a merry song as he led the three into the trees.
"Zaku," Sakura looked over at Neji when he spoke quietly to her. "Last night, after the incident with the river. You didn't happen to run into Kakashi, did you?" He asked. Sakura felt herself starting to blush but she nodded. She knew she couldn't lie to Neji, not that she would. He had become one of her closest friends. He was looking out for her, even though she was a female. "Yeah. I ran into Kakashi last night. He was reading one of those Icha Icha books." She almost laughed when Neji made a face. So obviously he didn't like those books either.

Neji then looked forward. "What happened? Did he get mad or was he annoyed?"

Sakura frowned as she thought about what happened the night before she shook her head. "No. He wasn't mad or annoyed. He was actually kind of nice to me. For once. I guess he was just reading his book when I came along. We talked a little while, actually having a pleasant conversation and we even laughed at something stupid. And then he got a little weird. He took off saying that it was getting late and that we had to be up early. I guess I can understand why he wanted to get some sleep but ever since then, I get the feeling that he's avoiding me." She told Neji.

"Hmm." Neji said before his snorted. "I guess I'm going have to keep my eye on him them."

Sakura only frowned when he said that. She wasn't sure what he was thinking. He was too hard to read. But without saying anything, she looked to Gai when he finally came to a stop. She watched him look around before turning to face the three Shinobi, grinning like an idiot again. "All right! This is the spot!" He then took off his pack and placed his fists onto his waist. "Since Zaku is starting his training with us today, we'll show him what we've been doing. Start stretching until I say and then we'll begin." He told them. Of course, Neji and Lee were already starting to stretch. Sakura only paused before taking off her pack and followed suit.

After five minutes of stretching, Gai stood up straight before looking at the three with his stupid grin. He looked rather excited, but that wasn't anything new to Sakura. She always thought he looked like that. "Okay. Now then, Zaku. Since you have no idea what exactly we do during our training, we're going to start with a warm up sparring match. Neji, Lee, why don't you two start?"

Rock Lee threw a fist up into the air, looking very excited while Neji just shrugged. The two of them walked a little ways away from where Sakura and Gai were standing and faced one another. As soon as they were looking at one another, they snapped into a battle stance, eyes locked on one another's. They looked so serious, almost like they were enemies. It kind of scared Sakura, in a way. She had never seen them like that before. But she watched anyway.
"Argh!" Lee yelled as he rushed forward, fists flying with fury. Neji just kept on his serious face as he went into a defensive mode, letting Lee's fists come close to hitting him but with extraordinary speed, he blocked the attacks. Between the young man came a strange and dangerous dance of Taijutsu. They were weaving in and out of each other's fists before lashing out at one another. Then Rock Lee jumped forward, grinning at Neji while shouting, "Leaf Gale!" He moved rather quickly, ducking low to the ground and trying to kick Neji's feet right out from beneath him.

But to his disappointment, Neji had seen it coming. He had leapt into the air just as Lee's foot nearly hit his while he made several quick hand signs. "Eight Trigrams Empty Palm." He muttered before thrusting out his palm.

Sakura wasn't even sure what happened but she could have saw a very faint energy wave blow right out of Neji's hand, hitting Lee and knocking him back against a log. She just stared wide eyed at the two, more than astonished that she could see them do something like these. She mostly knew Taijutsu and some of the Ninjutsu but this was amazing. She hadn't even learned any attacks like these guys had. She only knew a few that she had learned from watching her father.

"Ow!" Lee yelped as he landed against the log before pouting at Neji, who smirked smugly.

Gai just chuckled as he held up a hand for them to stop. Both immediately did when they saw him even start raising his hand. But the Elite's eyes went straight to the astonished pink haired 'boy.' "Surprised?" he asked, though Sakura couldn't even answer. He then made a face, as if he was thinking too hard. "What in the hell has Kakashi even been teaching you? Hasn't he shown you any jutsu at all? I would think that my Eternal Rival would teach you something."

Sakura only shrugged as she continued to look at Lee and Neji with surprise. She had not known they knew such skills like that. "Not really. We pretty much just train together, working on team strategies and all that."

Gai looked dully at her, clearly not impressed with his "Eternal Rival", but with a sigh, he reached up and rubbed his forehead. "Holy Youth of the youthful. You would think that my Rival would try and keep up with all of our techniques. But noooo. He just wants you to figure out how to create your own." He then grinned at Sakura, making her step back uneasily. "But once I'm done with you, you will not only be one of the strongest, but you will impress Kakashi with more than just your youthful and lovely looks, boy!" He said cheerfully.

"Ugh." Sakura said uneasily but then swallowed hard. "Um….okay."

Gai then nodded as he pointed to Lee and Neji, as if telling them to do something. "We shall begin as we always! We shall do 1000 pushups, then after that 1000 sit ups! And then we shall do 5000 crunches!" He told them. He didn't even see the wide eyed look of horror on Sakura's face as soon as those words were out of his mouth. She had a dreadful feeling that things were only going to get a little rough after this one.

And it somewhat did.

The training with Team Youth was pretty rough on Sakura. She couldn't believe some of the training techniques that Gai put Neji and Lee through. They had to do some of the most extreme training she had never wanted to do. It nearly took her all day just to get half way through pushups, which was what they started with. By that time, Lee was always the first one done, but that was because he pushed himself so hard to be the first one done. Neji was always annoyed with him and sometimes the Shinobi Elite. Sakura couldn't blame them. They sometimes did get a little too weird.
And of course, the fact that Lee could never surpass Neji made it more annoying because when he couldn't beat the long haired Shinobi in sparing, or hardly anything, the unusual young man would start whining before pushing himself harder. Sakura was only surprised that the harsh training hadn't killed the guy just yet.

What was better though, she was getting much stronger thanks to Gai. She realized that she was getting stronger. She was getting better in doing push ups and sometimes crunches, though those were the worst for her. She also began to realize that she was starting to get some strong muscles in her arms and when she decided to hit Naruto for being a perverted blockhead, he would start whining and rubbing nasty bruises on his arms. This seemed to please the weird Jounin, Gai, though. He was definitely keeping an eye on her, she could figure. Because shortly after she succeeded in making 1000 pushups within two hours, and having burning muscles, he decided to start teaching her some of his Taijutsu techniques.

And that was when things really got exciting for her.

Sakura had finally developed her very own jutsu that she couldn't wait to show off, but she had sworn to Gai that she would save it for the enemy. It almost made her smirk evilly to think of what would happen if one of Orochimaru's, or the big man himself, tried to pick a fight with her and she let the jutsu loose on them. She almost felt sorry for anyone who became the target of this jutsu.

And speaking of which, things were not going so well with the war.

One crisp summer night, right after finishing taking a bath in the river, with Neji as the look out, of course, they both were walking back to camp when they heard voices within Kakashi's tent. They didn't mean to snoop but when Kakashi started yelling at someone, they couldn't help but just stand off to the side and listen.

"What do you mean that Orochimaru's troops have broken through the boundaries?! Exactly where did they attack?!" Kakashi's voice drifted out of the tent.

There was a quiet voice who answered and it wasn't easy to even hear it. So Sakura looked to Neji, frowning. "What's going on?" She asked in a very low whisper, leaning towards his ear. Neji just shook his head as he stared at the tent. "I'm not sure. I don't think it would be a good idea to eavesdrop but I'm curious too. Hold on a moment." He pulled her into the bushes and then activated his Byakugan eye.

From what he could see through the tent walls, Kakashi was standing over an injured Shinobi messenger, with most of the other Elites with him. The Shinobi ANBU Captain, Ibiki was in there, along with Gai, Iruka and a few of the others, he couldn't even remember their names; though it was Asuma and Genma. The messenger was in a terrible shape though. He was practically dead on the floor.
Iruka was reading a blood stained scroll, looking rather grave before handing it to Kakashi. "It looks like things are starting to get out of control, Kakashi. This is definitely Master Minato's handwriting. See for yourself?"

Slowly Kakashi nodded as he read the writing on the scroll. He recognized it all right. It was definitely his former master's handwriting. He remembered seeing the handwriting many times when he was younger. But it was what was written on the scroll that bothered him. "It says here that they've spotted Orochimaru's troops near the town they're protecting." He spoke in a low voice. "Minato-sama says that there are way too many and if they do attack, there won't be anyway of stopping them on breaking through."

"What's he planning, Kakashi?" Ibiki asked seriously.

Kakashi just shook his head as he studied the scroll for a long moment before he rolled it back up. "It states that they're going to evacuate the village, or might have a while ago seeing that this is a few days old. But they are going to stand their ground." He clenched his fist around the scroll, squishing it. "Kuso. I just know this isn't going to be good. We should start packing up the camp and make our way towards the Northern border. Just so that we can be a little closer to them if they need immediate help." He then nodded as he made his decision. "That's what we'll do." He looked around to his comrades. "Order your teams to pack everything up, and even tell the others. We're moving out. Meeting dismissed."

Quickly, Neji and Sakura hurried away from the tent and dashed for her tent where they could talk about what they just heard. They didn't want anyone finding out that they had eavesdropped on an Elite meeting. They knew they would get into serious trouble if they were found out. Once they reached Sakura's tent, they sat at the entrance, looking around with alert. Neji even activated his Byakugan eye to look.

"Wh-what was that about?!" Sakura gasped as she tried to catch her breath.

Neji shook his head as he just sat down on his haunches, keeping an eye out for anyone that would approach them. "It's not good news, that's what it was about." He glanced quickly over at her as she sprawled out on her bedding, still gasping. "Sounds to me that Orochimaru's Army is about to attack the Shinobi Commander's Troops."

Sakura sat up looking at him with wide eyes. She wasn't too sure who the Shinobi Commander was but she had a feeling that it was Minato Uzumaki-Namikaze. "The Shinobi Commander? You mean, Master Minato-sama, right?" She asked tilting her head to the side.
Neji nodded as he turned slightly looking at her now. He folded his arms to think about what to say. "Looks to me that we're about to enter the war." He saw Sakura tense up with alarm, making him shake his head. "Don't get afraid, Zaku. This is what we've been training for all year. I think we're all ready. Even you. You've learned quite a few new techniques that would save your life if you used them right. Especially that one that Gai-Sensai taught you."

Slowly, Sakura nodded. She knew that Neji was right. She had come this far, why not go all the way. After all, she was here for her father. She was here for the Fire Country. She knew that eventually this would happen. So no matter how terrified she was, she was going to fight this war with her men and they were going to win. They had to. It was for everyone's lives; her family's, her friends' lives, and for her honor.