Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto

Piece of the Puzzle

Chapter 7: Get into Your Element

Momo was having the most wonderful dream. She dreamt that Naruto had found a way for him to be the same age as her, so they could be together. She thought he was really cute as a kid.

They spent their time playing like the children they were instead of child soldiers. When Momo got too exhausted from playing she fell asleep in his arms. The pink-haired girl did not want her dream to end. Unfortunately it did, right when it was getting good.

In Momo's dream, after she fell asleep Naruto carried her back to his apartment and put her down in his bed, where they snuggled together. When dream Momo woke up she and Naruto were both in adult bodies.

Dream Naruto said he used his transformation skills to give Momo a mature look. Since they already had fun being kids, it was adult fun time now. Dream Momo, having taken sexual education courses in the academy, knew what that meant.

She and dream Naruto began seductively undressing for each other. When both of them were completely nude they took a moment to admire each other.

Naruto was tanned and in good shape, but not overly muscular. Momo had peach toned skin, with a good figure, perky breasts a little bigger then Sakura's, and long, luxurious pink hair.

The two of them, now having completely exposed themselves to each other, moved in for the next step. Momo laid down on the bed, and Naruto moved himself over top of her with his face inches from hers. Momo could feel Naruto's hardening member press against her.

As they gazed into each other's eyes their lips trembled in anticipation. In a few seconds they would be one. Slowly, they moved closer to have their first kiss when suddenly…

"Squawk!" A bird came roaring into the field.

Naruto and Momo woke up with a start. Seeing the position they were in, both blushed and moved away from the other. Momo was very surprised, as she did not know how they ended up like that.

'It looks like I passed out. I must have been more worn out from our spar than I thought.'

She looked over at Naruto, who was still transformed.

'I'm amazed he can keep it up for so long.'

She was unaware of the double entendre of her thought.

Momo then turned her attention to the source of the squawk that woke her from her dream. Nearby was a hawk, apparently hunting for mice.

"That's one of father's summons. It must be have been used to pass a message to someone and it's now taking a break to hunt for mice. They come here occasionally to do that." Momo explained to Naruto, who nodded in understanding.

She then tried to remember how she ended up asleep with Naruto in the training field.

'Did I fall asleep? I thought I was dreaming, but I can't remember any of it.'

If Momo had remembered it she would have found being in Naruto's presence very awkward. As it was, Momo was now well rested and ready to continue her training.

"Okay," Naruto began, "if you're all rested up now, we can start the next phase of your training, but first…"

Naruto then turned back into his normal self. Momo was disappointed, but settled for having the handsome adult Naruto back. Now she was interested in what could be next. She stood at attention, eagerly awaiting what Naruto had planned for her.

"Since we've begun our training you've mastered the basic three, and got a good grasp of how to wield your tonfa. We'll continue to do some light sparring exercises with them to get you used to using them. Nothing as rough as earlier though."

Naruto grinned sheepishly at that, but Momo did not mind. She would not be able to improve well enough if her instructors held back against her. Momo's opponents in the chunin exams certainly would not.

"I can't help you with illusions or fire techniques, but your parents can if they have a chance. You're good enough at them already, even better then me, so we don't have to worry about that right now."

While Naruto had meant to praise her skills in those areas, his words also reminded Momo that her parents had been too busy to help her lately.

'I only get to see mother and father in the mornings and evenings. In the morning I have to get ready for training and in the evening I'm too tired from training. At least I get to spend all day with Naruto-sensei!'

Every cloud has a silver, or in this case, orange lining.

"So," Naruto said, noting a brief look of pain on Momo's face but dismissing his worry as it was immediately replaced by one of joy, "it's finally time for you to learn the special technique I've prepared for you. Can you guess what it could be?"

Momo had no idea.

'I've been so busy I haven't had time to even think about what it could be. All I can guess is that it's something to help me in close quarters fighting, earth elemental, and something Naruto is good at. So what's his specialty?'

It did not take a genius to figure that one out. As soon as Momo asked herself that question, she knew instantly what Naruto wanted her to learn. She was positively giddy now, and could not hold back her excitement.

"It's the earth clone technique!" She replied excitedly.

"That's right. It's actually the basic earth elemental clone technique and not the advanced earth release: shadow clone technique I usually use. Turn on your sharingan so you can copy the hand seals. Then I'll explain how to perform the technique so you can do it yourself."

Momo was a bit disappointed that she would not be able to copy the whole of the lower ranked technique and would have to master it on her own. Copying the hand seals would be enough to get her started, as she could observe how Naruto's chakra flowed for the elemental shaping of the technique. The rest would depend on her own skill with the earth element.

Naruto made the hand seals, and Momo copied them.

"Alright, now since you have an earth affinity you have two options for how to create the clone. You can either use the dirt all around us, which would be easier, or create it within yourself." Naruto explained.

Momo had studied earth techniques before, and knew what Naruto meant by create it herself.

'If I didn't have a source of material around for the clones, I would have to mould the earth from inside of me using my own chakra, and basically throw it up to create a clone. Not going to happen.'

"I'll just use what's already available for me. The finals will be held in the stadium anyway, and there's plenty more there as well." Momo replied to Naruto.

She then performed the hand seals, very quickly too as she was very good with them, and called out the technique's name, if only to help with her concentration.

"Earth clone technique."

Momo focused on a patch of dirt in front of her. Slowly, a pile of it began to rise, but quickly crumble away. Momo was disappointed, but Naruto cheered her up.

"Don't worry about it. It's a low rank technique, but still takes some degree of elemental manipulation to work. With your skill that won't take long to accomplish. So, the next step is to work on that, and I know just the way to do it."

Naruto then walked over to a tree, and pulled two leaves from a branch. He then walked back to Momo, and handed her one.

"This is the basic exercise for changing your chakra into an element. Watch, but without your sharingan."

Momo had her sharingan turned off already; Naruto's request was just a reminder that she had to learn this on her own. She watched as the leaf held by Naruto turned to dust in an instant.

"That's how it's done. Use your chakra to dry out the leaf and decompose it. It would be easier if you knew water manipulation, as you would just absorb the moisture in it. That's why even though earth and water are opposing elements; a lot of people can use both."

Momo nodded at Naruto's explanation, and began the exercise herself. She closed her eyes and focused her chakra into the leaf, imagining the moisture evaporating, and the leaf crumbling away. To her surprise, her hand became warm, then suddenly felt like something burned it.

Momo opened her eyes in shock. The leaf was gone, but only because it had burned up. Naruto, noticing her reaction, spoke up.

"It looks like you channelled fire chakra into it instead. It did get the same result, but it won't help you learn to use earth techniques."

Momo was disappointed, but she understood what went wrong.

"I'm too familiar with fire manipulation. Moulding my chakra into the earth element is going to take some time."

"That's right." Naruto said. "Don't worry about it; we still have plenty of time to work on it. As long as you get this exercise done, you should be able to use the earth clone technique. Just keep practicing. Oh, one more thing."

Naruto then reached down and took the hand Momo held the leaf with in his own. Momo's heartbeat started racing, but she managed to stay under control.

"I was worried you burned your hand, but it's fine." Naruto said.

Momo's heartbeat slowly returned to normal as he let go of her hand.

'It's okay, he was just checking to make sure I was okay.'

Naruto then pulled some more leaves down for Momo, who continued to practice changing her chakra into the earth element. Some of them still caught on fire, so Momo knew she had a long ways to go. She would not give up though, and was determined to succeed and prove herself.

'I'll do this, no matter what! I'll turn this stupid leaf and anything else I can get my hands on to dust! Then I'll prove I'm a great ninja to my father, my mother, and to Naruto-sensei! Then someday, when I'm a great ninja I'll fulfill my dream too!'

The leaf she was holding then burned up.

"Ahh!" Momo screamed.

'This is going to take a while.' Naruto thought as he moved into a meditative pose. 'I might as well get comfortable.'

It was well past noon now. Naruto and Momo met for their training at nine a.m. every morning, spent an hour running warm-ups and stance drills with their tonfa, then had a light spar. Their unplanned nap gave them some time to rest, so neither noticed they missed lunch.

Momo was now surrounded by several small piles of ash, mostly from burnt leaves. She still had trouble with using her earth element instead of fire. Momo was not the type to get frustrated, or at least show it. Each time she burned a leaf she quietly accepted another from Naruto and tried again.

Naruto had been meditating while observing Momo occasionally to make sure she did not burn or exhaust herself. He was currently pondering what he could do for her.

'We can't move on until she's mastered this step. If I taught her the shadow clone technique it would speed things up, but that would be grossly irresponsible. For now, even if it takes days I'll have to wait until she's ready to move on.'

Momo currently had a leaf in each hand, and was focusing intently on them. That is until a loud grumbling noise disrupted her concentration. Naruto grinned and did his trademark pose.

"Sorry, that was me. Since we skipped lunch I must be hungry." He said to Momo.

Momo was about to say it was okay, when a cute little growl interrupted her.

"I guess I'm hungry too." Momo said with an embarrassed blush.

She then remembered the ramen she made, and how she was going to thank Naruto for his gift with one of her own.

"I completely forgot, but I never thanked you for the tonfa. They're really great, and I will master them in no time, believe it!"

Naruto smiled at his student's enthusiasm, although she had not actually thanked him, merely acknowledged that she did not.

"Think nothing of it. I'm just happy to have helped out one of my former team-mate's kids."

Naruto really did think nothing of it, but Momo felt differently.

'His former team-mate's kid? Is that all I am to you?' Momo thought dejectedly.

"Alright," Naruto began, "what do you say we have lunch now? I forgot to bring any so we can go back to Ichiraku today."

Momo perked up a bit at this. Naruto's indifference to their relationship brought her down a bit, but now she had another chance to get him to like her more.

"Actually, I made some ramen for us. I wanted to give it to you as thanks for the tonfa."

Momo then pulled out the sealing scroll she kept it in, and with a poof two steaming bowls of ramen appeared with two sets of chopsticks.

"Wow Momo, that's great! Thanks a lot!"

He then pulled apart the chopsticks and began to devour Momo's homemade ramen.

"Mmm, this is great! You did a good job!"

Momo, as always, was pleased by Naruto's praise.

"It tastes familiar too. Where did you get the recipe from?" Naruto asked Momo.

"I learned how to cook it from Hyuuga Hinata. She said it was one of your mother's recipes. She also said it was only acceptable." Replied Momo, the last part spoken under her breath. Naruto still heard it.

"Don't worry about that." Naruto said. "Hinata loves ramen as much as I do, and since she's a great chef herself she's really strict about cooking standards. If you keep practicing you'll get really great at it someday."

That cheered Momo up. The girl looked up from her own ramen at Naruto.

'Yeah, and someday you'll see me as more then your former team-mate's daughter too. Someday you'll be all mine.'

Naruto, despite eating hot ramen felt a cold shiver again, but it was gone and replaced by a warm feeling right away.

'There's that feeling again. I hope I'm not coming down with something.'

Little did Naruto know that someday he would catch a bug, a lovebug.

The events of that day set the pace for the next three weeks, leaving four days before the finals. Naruto and Momo would meet up, stretch and do their morning exercises. Then they would have a spar to improve Momo's skill with her tonfa.

Naruto gradually increased the difficulty level as Momo improved, and introduced new tactics for her to pick up.

Momo now saw through the basic clones mixed with the shadow clones by watching their feet to see how the ground was affected. After she learned to do that, he stopped using them.

Another advanced move Naruto employed was having his shadow clones replace him should he get hit. He devised a training game where if Momo hit him once, she won the match. Hitting his clones did not count.

Momo understood that once she mastered the earth clone technique, she could use them for replacements to save herself. Unlike the shadow clones which were chakra constructs, and could use techniques, the earth clones were just dirt held together by chakra, so Momo would have to use the replacement technique herself on them.

The final tactic he demonstrated was to have his shadow clones disguised as rocks or thrown shuriken and kunai. Momo would step near one, only for it to reveal itself and launch a surprise attack.

After Naruto used that in a spar, Momo understood why he had her master the basic three. Naruto showed how those moves could exponentially improve his use of the shadow clone technique, and Momo was eager to try those tactics with the earth clone technique once she mastered the leaf drying exercise.

Once Naruto felt that Momo understood the lesson he had imparted on her, he finally showed her how to use the body flicker technique. Naruto did make her promise not to use it to run around town, as she could exhaust herself fast. Rather, it was for quick escapes or fast victories in battle.

That was quite odd considering it was primarily used for travel by higher ranking ninjas. Only Uchiha Shisui and Naruto himself had mastered it to a degree that they could use it in battle. Naruto hoped Momo would be the next person to do so.

Naruto also had her practice her skill with ninja wire. He explained that once she developed her earth manipulation, she could focus it into a special chakra conductive ninja wire to harden it so it would be difficult to cut. It would also be heat resistant, so she could channel fire chakra into it to burn her opponents while they were securely restrained.

As Momo's skills increased, her clothing changed to accommodate them. She now wore fingerless gloves with metal plating to protect her hands in combat, and from burns while training or using fire techniques. Momo took them off when she did the leaf drying exercise, since they seemed to get in the way. Thanks to her younger brother Arashi, she was skilled at treating burns anyway, so any minor wounds she suffered while working on her elemental manipulation exercises she could easily treat.

In addition, Momo's arms and legs were now covered in bandage wraps, like the Akimichi or Hyuuga use. Before she just wore elbow and knee covers like her mother used to wear. Momo was tired of patching herself up after a long day of training. The bandage wraps were a good way to protect herself from cuts and scrapes.

Momo was currently working on the leaf drying exercise again. Naruto was nearby, sparring with his clones. Momo did not need him for this part, so Naruto had been taking advantage of the privacy of the training grounds to train on his own.

Momo took a leaf in one hand, and placed her other hand on top of it.

'Okay, focus now, you can do this.'

Momo focused her chakra into the leaf, moulding it into the earth element. She imagined the moisture from the leaf disappearing, the leaf itself disintegrating into dust.

For a moment it looked like nothing happened, then Momo felt a wetness in her hand. Expecting another failure, Momo opened her eyes, moved her other hand away and looked at the remains of the leaf. Her hand looked a bit sweaty, and there was a wet powder in her palm. She had finally dried the leaf.

'I did it! I should do it again to make sure.'

Momo grabbed another leaf and placed it into the palm of her hand. Concentrating on it, she slowly turned it to dust. Excited over her achievement, she ran to find Naruto. She did not have to go far, as he had just finished a spar with his clones and was panting heavily. Momo ran up to Naruto and showed him her accomplishment.

"Naruto look, I did it!" Momo cheered excitedly, forgetting to address him properly, but he was too tired to care.

Momo took out another leaf, and dried it up in her hands. Naruto observed her, and gave his appraisal.

"That's very good. Normally it takes months to get this far, but you're a prodigy like your dad. He learned lightning manipulation and the Chidori in a month. Compared to that, this is easy."

Momo was smiling proudly. She would never get tired of seeing her precious people proud of her.

"Now, I want you to watch this." Naruto said as he grabbed a rock.

Momo was confused, but not for long as the rock in Naruto's hand suddenly disintegrated into dust.

"That's what you should be aiming for. You need to start focusing on drying out that leaf faster, and then move onto harder materials like wood, then stone and finally metal."

Momo was in a good mood from having completed her exercise at last, but that seemed to vanish when she learned she still had a way to go.

"Don't feel too down. Like I said, learning this takes months, even years for some. You've already started learning two elements, while some ninja don't bother at all."

Momo cheered up a little.

"I guess I've been too hard on myself. I should be proud of how far I've come, not depressed over how much further I have to go."

"That's the spirit! Now, why don't you let me catch my breath and we'll see if you have better luck with the earth clone technique."

Naruto got up and wandered over to a stream. Momo followed at a distance, unnoticed to him.

A funny quirk about ninja is their threat perception. For those who have lived long enough, they develop a sixth sense for danger. This allows them to be constantly vigilant. Should an enemy throw a poisoned kunai at them, they would dodge it by instinct alone. If a kid threw a Frisbee, they might not even notice.

That was why Kakashi fell for Naruto's chalkboard eraser prank. It was not that he did not notice it, the eraser just was not a danger to him. Had it been covered in poison or explosive notes he would have simply kicked the door in and let the dangerous eraser fall to the floor.

Thus Naruto, who was now stripping so he could cool down in the stream and wash away his sweat, had no idea Momo was watching him. After all, Momo would never do anything to hurt him and had no intention of doing so.

As Naruto placed his clothes into a pile, leaving him clad in only a pair of boxers with a ramen motif and Senju Hashirama's necklace, Momo spied on him from behind a tree. The girl was frozen in place from the sight of a nearly nude Naruto, and her sharingan had subconsciously activated.

Naruto stepped into the stream and lay down, letting the water flow over him. Momo continued to stare, unable to make a coherent thought as her mind was currently focused on committing everything she saw to memory.

Of course the sharingan was doing that for her, but Momo did not notice. Neither was she aware that the number of commas in her eyes changed from two to three, or that she had begun to drool.

After a while, Naruto got up from the stream. Using a water technique, he dried himself and started redressing. Momo, having regained her motor control, took off back to the training ground before Naruto noticed her.

"Ah, that feels better." Naruto exclaimed, now refreshed from his soak. "I wonder where Momo went."

Momo was not where Naruto left her. He looked around, and found her passed out against a tree, oddly not far from the stream where he just was.

"I guess she either exhausted all her chakra trying to dry all those leaves, or from training some more while I was gone."

Momo had actually passed out from mental exhaustion after replaying her recent memory in her mind, a sight she will never forget thanks to her sharingan. Between that and the panic of Naruto catching her, she fainted.

"I'll take her home now. It's getting late anyway."

Naruto picked up Momo bridal style, and carried her back to her house. Sakura answered the door, and did not question Naruto about Momo's condition as this was becoming a common occurrence.

Sakura carried Momo upstairs and put her to bed. That night, Momo dreamt of Naruto bathing in the stream, and of her joining in…

Author's Notes: The start and end of this chapter is the most sexual thing I have and possibly may ever write for a fanfic.

I think Momo's fighting strategy could be applied to Sakura in canon with success if she hadn't been a medical ninja. The only thing I'd change is her secondary element depending on who she's paired with. If it's Sasuke, Kiba or Lee, it would be fire. If it's Naruto, Neji or Haku, it would be water.

I did some research into Chinese zodiac signs to figure out what would be the best hand seal for the earth clone technique, and couldn't come up with a good one. By the way, if I made Momo twenty years younger then Naruto instead of nineteen, they would have had compatible signs, or animals, whatever.