Chapter 4 Training the pairs

I DON'T OWN NARUTO

"mahogany. That is all." - the fat man pirate

As soon as Hinata fainted, Naruto was at her side in a flash. "Hinata! Are you okay? Answer me!" he yelled, not quite grasping that she was just unconscious. Everyone around him Sweatdropped. Even Raigin who had only met Hinata once could see that she was completely overwhelmed by the thought of Naruto. How dense can Naruto be?

"she's fine Naruto, calm down." said Raigin. "just back up and give her some room."

Naruto obliged, and took a step back. A few seconds later, Hinata woke up, and Shikamaru had to restrain Naruto to prevent Hinata from fainting again. Once everyone had calmed down, Raigin had a few more words for them.

"alright kids, here's the deal. Every day, you will spend the first half of school in Iruka's class. And after lunch, you will come to my class." he began. "now, we are first going to learn about all firearms. That includes pistols, shotguns, and rifles. Then we will be dissecting a bullet, and you will make your own. Once we reach that point, you will learn anatomy and create your own rifle. Any questions?"

Ten-Ten raised her hand. "sensei, why do we need to learn anatomy? We already did that in the academy."

Raigin looked at her and said "if that's the case, what is the best point for assassination if you want a silent kill?" he asked.

Ten-Ten thought for a moment. "would it be the neck?" she asked hopefully.

Raigin smirked. "I'm sorry, that's wrong. But you have the right idea. The best point for assassination is the occipital lobe, at the base of the skull. Hitting that point means instant and silent death."

By this point, Ten-Ten had a notepad out and was taking notes. Everyone sweat dropped at this. And by some weird coincidence, Rock Lee was passing the classroom at the time, and drew inspiration from Ten-Ten's action. Thus, the Rock Lee as we know him was born. Thanks a lot Ten-Ten.

"in any case, being a sniper takes a lot of mental capacity and patience. As such, this course is more demanding than the regular shinobi course." explained Raigin.

Naruto groaned, realizing that there was a lot of book work in his future.

During the next four years, the small group of wannabe snipers had learned more than any one of them had expected to learn. They had learned all about firearms fairly quickly, and what each one was best suited for.

After they had learned that, they had moved onto stealth and concealment. In this field, Naruto had issues. When they had first started, Naruto discovered that he had a serious problem. He could not sit still for more than 20 minutes. While that may be considered pretty good by any normal person, a sniper often has to remain still for hours at a time. Naruto just got extremely bored, and then he started to fidget and move, and he would then be spotted by Raigin.

In response, Raigin had Shikamaru help Naruto by inventing mind games that would occupy the blonde's mind while he waited, and Naruto's skill in concealment had increased exponentially, and was improving every week.

Naruto and Hinata's relationship had improved by leaps and bounds too, as expected when you are basically spending all day with someone. Hinata stuttered and blushed less, and Naruto found that he could confide in Hinata if he ever had problems, and Hinata could always confide in Naruto, as well as train with him. As a result, Hinata's crush on Naruto diminished, but her actual love for him grew. Naruto was still pretty much clueless.

Once they had the basics of stealth covered, they had moved onto making bullets and weapons. The small class had gathered in a class room, to discover four piles of parts on the desks.

"Okay guys." began Raigin. "Today, we will be learning how to clean, inspect, and assemble a pistol." the class, minus Shikamaru, cheered at this. They had been waiting to work with guns for a while now, and they finally get to start. "now, as you can see, there are several parts on your desk. Your task is to use your knowledge of weapons to assemble this pistol in 30 minutes or less. When your done, let me know and I'll-"

"finished!" yelled Hinata.

Everyone stared at her. Hinata was the last person they thought would ever shout, even less that she would be the first to build a firearm. Hinata started blushing under all the attention.

"what?" she asked, still blushing. Raigin just stared.

"you just completed a project that would take me at least a minute to do, and you did it in 45 seconds." he said, a look of surprise on his face.

"it just sort of happened, I saw the parts, and I just moved." said Hinata, looking nervous. However, instead of being annoyed as she expected, Raigin just laughed.

"and people say your not a prodigy!" he exclaimed. "Hinata, do you know how hard it is to assemble weapons as fast as you can? You are the only one I know who can." said Raigin, Beaming at the girl. "If you're this good at building a pistol, I can only imagine how you shoot!"

With that said, Raigin picked up Hinata's pistol, loaded a round, and shot at a target in the room. The bullet went right into the target, and the gun barely jumped in Raigin's hand.

"amazing, you've even managed to eliminate recoil by using the extra parts in that pile! You are a real genius Hinata!" said Raigin, a look of pride on his face.

Naruto immediately went and put her in a headlock. "That is amazing Hinata! I knew you were an awesome partner!" he said, while giving her a noogie.

As it turned out, Raigin's hunch was right. Hinata was a natural at everything pistols. She was a dead shot at 50 meters, and every pistol she worked on became a work of art. All of her pistols had some sort of modification to them, and they functioned so well, the entire class was given a pair to use. Hinata herself wore four pistols, all on a brace she wore over her coat.

Naruto's true strength lay in carbines. True, they didn't have the reach of a rifle, but Naruto specialized in firing a barrage of bullets with near perfect accuracy. He now carried one on him at all times (think M1 carbine).

Of course, everyone still learned how to shoot a rifle, and everyone was a rated marksman. In fact, Raigin was so impressed with his group, he got the Hokage's permission to go on training exercises outside the village. And that is what is happening now.

It was cold. Very cold. As to be expected at 6:00 in the morning. Naruto was laying on the grass, covered in a gillie suit, looking down the scope of his rifle. Hinata lay next to him, looking through a targeting scope, looking down at the fake village that was erected for the exercise.

They had been laying there for several hours already, and the cold was not helping their patience. Naruto's mind games were getting boring, but he knew he needed to pass this test. Being the adopted son of Raigin didn't give him special treatment, and if he failed the test, Naruto would have to retest in 3 months to get his rifleman's license once he was a shinobi. The test was graded based on how many targets you hit during the exercise. There were a total of five targets that you had to hit. Hitting all five gave you an Elite marksman rating. Missing one target makes you a standard marksman, so on and so forth.

There objective was simple. One shot, one kill. Raigin would send several clones into the city, and then disguise them as civilians, and one of those clones is the target. The point of this exercise is to be patient, but have enough focus to nail a target in one shot, without hitting a civilian.

The real difficulty of the exercise was that you never knew when the target would enter the area, or what the target would be.

"do you see the target, Hinata-Chan?" asked Naruto, not looking away from the scope.

"I don't see it yet, Naruto-kun." replied Hinata, her Byakugan active. Naruto groaned.

"geez, we've been sitting here for hours, and still no target? Do we have the right place?" he whined.

"yes, Naruto-kun, this is the right place." said Hinata patiently. They lay there in silence for several minutes, scanning the village below them for any sign of their target. Suddenly, Hinata saw something.

"Naruto-kun, there is some sort of seismic disturbance outside the village, 150 meters northwest." said Hinata, looking through her spotter scope, Byakugan still active. Naruto turned his rifle in the direction Hinata indicated, and adjusted the scope.

"One click left… Two clicks down…" he said, adjusting the knobs on his rifle. Satisfied, he looked down at the earth in front of him, which had started bulging a little bit. Then, in a shower of earth, a shinobi jumped out of the hole. Acting on reflex, Naruto fired his rifle.

With a bang, the gun spat a bullet out of its barrel at the speed of sound. The small bullet hit the man right in the chest, and he fell. But he did not dispell, like a clone should. Instead, he did something that made Naruto and Hinata's blood run cold, he started to bleed on the ground.

"holy shit!" exclaimed Naruto. "I think I just killed him! We gotta go and tell sensei!" he started to get up and run, but Hinata stopped him.

"hold on Naruto-kun, there are several more people coming out of the hole the first one made." and sure enough, ten people filed out of the hole, and looked at their comrade. Almost immediately, Naruto realized that this was very bad. Not only had he just killed a ninja, but he killed a Iwa ninja! Naruto may have just accidentally started a war between Iwa and Konoha.

Its clear what needs to be done. The nins must be silenced. Trying not to move more than he could help, he pulled out his tac-radio. He had to get in contact with Raigin, now.

"Hinata-Chan, cover me for a minute." Naruto tuned into Raigin's frequency.

"Raigin-sensei, we have a serious emergency situation. I have just shot and killed a Iwa nin, and he had friends. What should we do?" he asked. Static was all that answered him. He was starting to get worried. He turned to Hinata. "what should we do?"

Hinata was about to answer him, when a signal flare was launched into the sky. A green flare. Raigin had just given them the green light to engage. As soon as the flare went up, the Rock nins sprung into action, five heading for Naruto and Hinata, and five heading for Raigin.

"shit! Hinata! Take 'em down!" shouted Naruto, unsealing his carbine. Hinata in turn drew two of her pistols, and began to twirl them on her fingers. "Snipers Art: Incapacitation!" she shouted, bringing her two pistols to bear.

She fired two times, one shot out of each weapon. Flew towards the enemy, and hit two of them in the shoulder, and the nins, who were in the air at the time, spiraled to the ground, unconscious for the time being.

At the same time, Naruto had taken aim at one of the enemy nins. He fired his carbine twice, and his shots hit the nin in the chest. Needless to say he didn't get up again.

Now that the nins had reached the pair, Naruto and Hinata were forced to separate, and tried to gain some distance between their opponents. Naruto's opponent, who was wielding a katana, preformed several hand seals. "Earth style: Mud Wall Jutsu!" he shouted, and a wall of earth rose from the ground, Naruto's bullets deflecting harmlessly off it.

Naruto quickly realized that this was going bad real quick. His opponent was at least Chunnin level and had him outclassed in ninjutsu and taijutsu. The only real advantage he had was his gun, and even then there were long odds.

Hinata on the other hand, was doing fairly well with her opponent. She didn't have as much problems as Naruto for two reasons. One: she had the Byakugan. Two: pistols are made for close combat. So Hinata had no problems shooting at the enemy, but that didn't mean she could hit him.

But there was one thing neither of them took into account. And that was the bag that had fallen off one of the Rock nins when Hinata had took them down. In that bag was a scroll. Not just any scroll, a storage scroll. And when the rock wall deflected Naruto's bullets, one of them hit the scroll.

Best mistake ever.

With a loud poof, four figures emerged from the ruined scroll. The leader to a quick look around, and noticed the battle. When it reached a conclusion, it said three words.

"Rico, surprise me."

One of the figures coughed, and suddenly, several kunai were in its hand. With expert precision, it threw them at Naruto's opponent.

The kunai buried themselves into the Rock nins back, and he died.

Free of his opponent, Naruto turned towards Hinata. He raised his carbine and fired two shots. His shots went wide, but it made the nin turned towards Naruto. This was the opening Hinata needed. She quickly fired twice, and hit the nin in the stomach and chest. With a pained gurgle, the nin fell to the ground, blood leaking out of his mouth.

Now that the danger was over, Naruto looked over at the four figures that had emerged from the scroll. What he saw made him question his sanity. Four penguins were standing there, and they were watching him and Hinata, while on guard. The leader spoke.

"Friend or foe?" it asked. Its voiced radiated authority. Naruto was still shocked. There were four penguins in the middle of fire country. And they could talk. You don't see that every day. Slowly, he lowered his rifle, and with a look to Hinata, who nodded, said "friend, penguin-san"

The penguins relaxed a little bit. Naruto could see that they were exhausted. The leader spoke again. "was it your bullet that opened that scroll?" he asked.

Naruto looked confused. "what scroll, penguin-san? I didn't see a scroll."

The penguin simply nodded and said, "then it was an accident. But still, thank you for freeing us. These nins captured us after they killed our summoner, and we have been unable to return to our realm since."

As he said this, several things fell into place in Naruto's head. They were summons, that's why they could talk. And they were stranded. And their last summoner was killed.

"is there anything we can do to help?" asked Hinata, who at this point had reached the same conclusion Naruto had. The penguin looked deep in thought for a couple moments, and then responded.

"actually, there is something you can do." as he said this, he hit one of the penguins, the heaviest one, in the stomach. The penguin coughed up a scroll, and the lead penguin held it out to the pair.

"I would like you both to sign our summoning contract. We may not look like much, but we are a powerful force to be reckoned with. Its also a thank you for freeing us from those nin." he finished.

Naruto and Hinata looked at each other, nodded, and took the scroll. They signed their name in blood, and the penguin swallowed the scroll again.

"right! Now that that's out of the way, time for introductions. I'm Skipper, team leader." said Skipper.

"I'm Kowalski, team strategist." said the tallest penguin. "and the big one here is Rico. He's mute and kinda stupid." Rico, in response, coughed up a tire iron and swung at Kowalski.

"what does Rico do?" asked Hinata. "Rico is our weapons specialist and our primary storage." said Skipper, hitting Rico in the stomach again, making him cough up a explosive tag. "Rico has several storage seals in his stomach, and has a ton of weapons and equipment stored in them."

"my name is Private." said the shortest penguin. "I am the scout and primary distraction for the team. And know that our names are out in the open, what's yours?"

"my name is Naruto Uzumaki. Future Hokage, worlds best sniper-in-training." said Naruto, striking a stupid looking pose. Hinata just shook her head, blushing in embarrassment, and smacked him on the back of the head.

"Naruto-kun, don't say those things in front of people you don't know. you'll give them the wrong impression. My name is Hinata Hyuuga. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"right then, now that we have summoners, we can go back to our realm. So thanks again, and feel free to call us for anything. Except housework. Then I'll have to kill you. See ya whiskers, white eyes." and with that said, the penguins vanished in a puff of white smoke.

Naruto turned to Hinata. This was all happening a bit fast for him. And he needed closure.

"did that just happen?" he asked her. Hinata nodded wearily. "yes Naruto-kun, it happened."

Raigin chose this time to make an appearance. He was covered in dirt and looked tired.

"are you both alright? Any injuries? And for the love of all things pointy, did anyone get away?" he asked franticly.

Naruto quickly tried to calm him down. "Dude! Relax, we're fine. The ninja are all incapacitated and…" Before he could finish, Naruto was finally hit with the shock of everything that had happened to day.

He had killed two men today, and had witnessed more death than any child should before they graduate. With a quick look towards Hinata, they both dropped too there knees and puked their guts out.

Well, theres the next chapter. sorry about the long wait, and it may be safe to assume that there will be another wait for the next one.

i have noticed that i haven't really done anything about Raigin being naruto's adopted father. i am sorry, but i dont really know how to write these things. if anyone would like to help, please feel free to drop a line in.

as always, please review. CIAO!