"Well, we're here," came the call of a young blonde woman as a group of five teenagers walked into a small town on the border of Hi no Kuni and Kaze no Kuni.
"Yeah, now I can get Tayuya to the damn hospital and start my new life," a blonde boy in the group stated with a little regret noticeable in his voice.
"Yeah, anyway, we're going to go and book a hotel, you should get the bit… I mean Tayuya to a hospital then meet us in back here after you've done everything you need to okay," the black clad boy of the group said before they split themselves into two groups and headed in different directions.
"Hello can I help you?" the receptionist at the hospital asked as a pair of teenagers walked in (well one of them was being carried).
"Yeah, I found this girl trapped under a fallen tree a couple of days ago, I think her legs are broken," Naruto informed the receptionist.
Of course hearing the boy say that the girl's legs were possibly broken caused the receptionist to call for a doctor immediately. It wasn't long before Tayuya was taken for an examination.
Naruto hadn't really bothered about staying, he wanted to get a break from the girls constant verbal abuse.
So here he was walking along the street with his wallet Gama-chan in hand, looking for some clothes that wouldn't cause him to be spotted from over a mile away. I mean sure, he had an unhealthy love of orange, but even he realised that he couldn't continue to wear NEON orange and live.
So here he was walking around town trying to find a clothes store that appealed to him when he realised that Temari was walking along the same street.
"Hey Temari!" he shouted out causing her to turn to him.
"Oh, Naruto what are you doing here?"
"Uh, I think my clothes might cause me to get killed, do you think you could help me?" he asked her with hope clear in his voice.
"I don't see why not, I mean it's not like Kankurō gave a time for us to meet up," she replied before they walked into a clothes store.
Gaara and Kankurō were waiting patiently by the front gate of the town when they saw Temari walk towards them with another blonde. The two nearly didn't recognise him now he was no longer wearing his hideous orange jumpsuit.
His new attire consisted of a pair of black combat boots, a pair of black cargo pants held up by a tan leather belt with a silver skull as it's buckle and a form fitting long sleeved white shirt covered with an open, short sleeve, black button up shirt.
"Okay then, I'll take that," Kankurō stated as he pointed at Naruto "as you were buying some new clothes, about time too."
"Yeah, sorry about that," Naruto said apologetically.
"It's okay, I was planning on getting you some new clothes first anyway, you really needed them if you don't have a full team backing you up," Kankurō stated calmly.
"We've also tested his affinity… he's a wind type," Temari informed Kankurō.
"That's good, it means you can actually teach him something," the older of the two brothers claimed.
"So are we going to train?" Naruto asked the trio.
"Oh, yeah come on, let's get to a clearing," Kankurō said as the group left the area.
It didn't take the group long to find a clearing, where they immediately got serious.
"Okay, Naruto, we will be trying to teach you the basics of nature manipulation and puppetry, do you have any questions?" Temari was the first to speak. When she noticed him shaking his head to indicate that he didn't have any questions, she continued, "Okay, nature manipulation and puppetry each take years to learn, even longer to master, so we're just going to teach you the basics so that you can continue to practice after we've returned to Suna. First things first, in order to use Fūton jutsu you must first be capable of creating Fūton chakra, you will have to try and visualise your chakra spinning against itself to create an edge, the finer the edge the sharper the Fūton chakra, if you get the manipulation right you should be capable of cutting through anything, from say a leaf to a rock," when Temari had finished her explanation she walked over to a tree and pulled a leaf off of it before saying "I want you to try to cut this leaf with your chakra."
She was definitely surprised when the blonde in front of her placed his hands in a cross seal and shouted "Tajū kage bunshin no jutsu" before the clearing was filled with approximately a thousand Naruto copies.
"Uh, Naruto, why did you waste your chakra like that," Temari deadpanned.
"Eh heh, before I met Tayuya, I sorta discovered that I learn whatever my clones learn when they disperse," when he told the siblings this, their eyes widened in realisation, he could train his skills for several years in a single day.
The group of Naruto's each pulled a leaf from a tree and started doing the exercise, and just as Naruto was about to start attempting the exercise himself, Temari pulled him to the side.
"Naruto, you do realise that with your clones learning the exercise, you would be better off using this time to train your body right?"
"heh heh, I guess I didn't really think about that," admitted the blonde.
"Well then, give me 500 laps of the clearing followed by 500 push ups, then 500 sit ups, 500 squats then repeat until I say so!" commanded the Suna girl.
It had been five hours and Naruto's training for the day had finished. To put it simply he was completely exhausted, Temari had kept ordering him to increase his speed, which in turn caused his muscles to burn and to make matters worse, all of his clones had dispersed at the same time, giving him 5000 hours of experience in an instant. Of course this caused him to pass out on the spot, but not for long. When he woke up he attempted to cut a leaf with his chakra and found that he was capable of doing it almost instantly.
After that revelation he decided that he definitely needed something to eat. The meal was uneventful, with the only noteworthy thing being Naruto complaining about lack of ramen.
After finishing the meal, the Suna siblings led him to the hotel they had booked, and once in his room, he immediately collapsed on the bed before starting to sleep like a log.
The next morning found Naruto waking up early, feeling completely refreshed from his previous night of training. After getting a quick breakfast he decided to pay Tayuya a visit to see how things were.
"Hey Tayuya, how ya doing?" the blonde asked quietly as he entered her hospital room.
"Oh I'm just as fucking great as can be considering my fuckin legs are broken!" she nearly screamed at him.
"Sorry, anyway, do you know when you'll be discharged?"
"Not a fuckin clue."
"Oh, anyway, I'm going to be training with Temari and Kankurō until you're better, or the end of the week, whichever comes first, then when you're ready to go, well I'll think of something," Naruto explained his plan to her gaining him a blank expression.
"If you're learning ninja skills then why the fuck don't you just become a fuckin mercenary?" the redhead asked the obvious question.
"I wasn't really thinking that far ahead," the blonde admitted earning a 'I'm fucked' from the former Oto nin, "Oh come on I'm not that bad," he almost shouted in protest.
"Not that bad, NOT THAT BAD! You stupid motherfucker! You aren't even fucking thinking of what the fuck you're going to do next, you need a fuckin plan you stupid prick, otherwise we're just going to get in an even shittier situation that we are already in!" she wasn't exactly happy with him at the moment.
Naruto was about to respond but decided against it, after all, she was right.
"Sorry, I've never actually had to plan anything before, it was always just shout that I would become Hokage and work my ass off when nobody would help me, I guess I should think of what I'm going to do , after today's training," it was easy to identify the dejected tone his voice took when he voiced his thoughts, then again Tayuya didn't exactly care.
"Yeah you better fuckin think of something," she threatened.
"Hai, anyway I gotta get going, you know, got training to do and all," and with that he left the room to continue his training for the day.
"Hey guys, am I late?" Naruto shouted out as he arrived at the clearing they had picked for training.
"Dude, we're not running a schedule, you couldn't be late if you tried," Kankurō decided to inform the blonde causing him to scratch the back of his head sheepishly.
"Anyway, today your clones are going to learn about puppetry, starting with chakra strings, after all, you can't use puppets without any strings to pull," the older boy informed the younger of the two.
"Okay then, making chakra strings is simple, you just eject chakra from the tip of your finger and condense it as much as possible, that's what gives it the strength to interact with objects like puppets. The biggest difficulty isn't forming the strings but controlling them, since while you move the chakra, you also have to make sure you keep it compressed or it will just give out on you, that is why puppeteers are usually trained from a very young age, it gives them more time to get the multitasking down," at the word multitasking, Naruto dropped his head, he was never any good at that, even with his clones.
Speaking of clones, after listening to Kankurō's lecture (well it felt like that to him), he immediately created approximately a thousand Kage Bunshin, which immediately started to try and form chakra strings, as Naruto started to do his physical conditioning.
It was lunchtime and Naruto was exhausted, since the group had decided to get something to eat, Naruto had decided to disperse his clones to find out if they made any progress.
He was amazed to find that most of the clones had managed to move the strings for at least a couple of seconds before their concentration gave out and the strings dispersed. Of course, when Naruto had attempted it after the clones had dispersed, he was surprised to find that he didn't even have to concentrate on maintaining the shape and could focus solely on moving the string, which proved to be just a little harder.
Of course Kankurō couldn't believe just how quickly the clones got it, it was almost like they had done it before.
"I can't believe how easy it is to keep my chakra strings in shape, it's almost like the Rasengan only without the spinning, wait, it IS the Rasengan without the spinning!" Naruto realised him his head as the group sat down for lunch.
"Hey Kankurō, I just figured out how I learned how to use chakra strings so quickly, ero-sennin taught me this jutsu called the Rasengan, I just realised that the two techniques are almost identical in the way they're performed, except the Rasengan has more to it than chakra strings," the blonde explained to the older boy.
"That explains it, and to think, you didn't even realise it until now," the black clad Suna nin chuckled out.
"Hey, to be fair chakra strings are just compressed strings of chakra, the Rasengan is a compressed ball of spinning chakra," Naruto decided to informed his sensei for the day.
"Okay, I'll let you off this time, just because of how different the technique must look, but just remember that unless you have a good excuse then be prepared to get tormented if you ever say something stupid again."
"Kankurō, shut up and eat before I convince Gaara that you are a valid target to kill," Temari ordered her slightly younger brother before he grated on the last of her nerves.
And with that the quintet returned to eating with Gaara remaining quiet yet again.
So the week passed by with Naruto training under Temari one day and Kankurō the next.
Utilising kage bunshin he was capable of getting the basics of both of their styles down. He managed to learn a single Fūton jutsu (Kamaitachi no Jutsu) even though he couldn't use it to its full potential without buying a battle fan.
His work in puppetry however was a completely different situation. After being taught how a puppet works (using chakra strings to pull internal mechanisms that activate the various traps throughout the puppet) he quickly managed to get the hang of it, even if he could only control one at a time.
Right now though, Tayuya was being discharged from the hospital and as such, the Suna siblings decided to return to Suna, and it's not like they had much left to teach him.
"Well, I guess I'll see ya around, I'll be sure to visit every now and then, who knows, I might find some work in Suna," Naruto said to the Suna siblings as they stood by the villages front gate.
"Yeah don't be a stranger, anyway are you sure you don't want a puppet off me?" Kankurō asked.
"Yeah, what would your sensei say if he found out you gave away village techniques?" the blonde boy replied, after all, handing out village techniques was technically a crime and the only reason the siblings did so was because of a sense of debt they had because of Gaara.
"He's right Kankurō, anyway, I do hope you visit regularly, Gaara is much happier around you, even if he doesn't show it," Temari decided to say her piece.
"Goodbye for now, Uzumaki Naruto, my friend," the redhead stated before the group turned to leave the village.
"Yeah, I'll see you guys around, after all, I am going to be the greatest mercenary the world has ever seen!" and with that final goodbye from Naruto, the trio headed back to Suna.
"Now to find the bitch," the blonde mumbled under his breath before starting his search for Tayuya.