Ch. 13 Dan's Training

Rain woke up the next morning, opening her eyes slowly. She felt fully refreshed, however something was missing. Gazu was not in bed. She looked around his room to see it just as empty as his bed. Just then Gazu's door opened and Gazu came in with a large try of food.

"Well I see you are up, enjoy your sleep last night?" Gazu asked. "Oh," she blushed. "Yes, but what is all this?" Gazu chuckled at her, "Your breakfast silly, I woke up early and was bored, plus, since you are my guest here, I figured I would make you breakfast. It's one of Don's dishes; I hope I got everything right."

"Really now?" she said as he placed the trey of food on the bed where she was. "Yeah, after we became chunin, my parents figured I was old enough to take care of myself and that included cooking, which I did not know how to do, so I asked Don to teach me some stuff. I hope you like it." Gazu replied.

Rain picked up a utensil and took a big bite of the food. She began to scarf it down really quickly, "Oh, wow this is really good! Don taught you well!" she said happily. "Thanks Rain, I tried." He said modestly. Rain finished her breakfast and Gazu got up and walked towards his door to put the dishes up downstairs.

"Get dressed and we will talk down stairs." He said. Rain nodded and she did so. Gazu was sitting at the dinner table, when Rain came down stairs and joined him. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?" "It's about Dan, I know we don't really like him but we are stuck with him, so we might as well try to make the best of our situation." Gazu started.

"So what do you suggest we do?" Rain asked. "Well, the village squad festival is coming up in about a week. Why not spend this week training Dan, testing his skills and trying to make him better. I know you said he will never fit our standards, but let's give him at least somewhat of a fighting chance on a mission with us. Besides, for all we know, he could be used as our squad meat bag." Gazu continued.

Rain laughed at Gazu's last sentence, "Our squad meat bag, that's hilarious, completely ingenious Gazu!" Gazu smiled back at her, "So what do you think? You willing to help me lead squad seven and get this chump into some sort of shape?" Rain nodded. "Only problem we have is that we will be fighting in a different division as him. He will be all alone. We will have to train him like hell if he is to even stand a chance in a three on one match at the festival." Rain nodded.

Rain and Gazu left his house and began to walk through the streets looking for Dan. "You know Gazu, we should have probably figured out where we could find him first when we found out he was our new squad member." Gazu thought for a second, "Well, we have been at it for a while now, looking in all the possible places he could be." He paused. "I think I might know where he is."

"Where?" Rain asked, Gazu began to run and Rain followed him, "You'll see." He said. They ran and eventually came to the small street/ alleyway where Temari lived. Sure enough they saw Dan standing at her doorway.

"Oh, come on baby, come on out, I just want to talk." Dan said. "Go away you pervert! Stay away from me!" Temari screamed. Dan managed to open her door and then Gazu and Rain watched as he was instantaneously flung back against the neighboring building's wall but a great gust of wind and the door was slammed shut.

"I like a girl that plays hard to get." He said. He got up and walked to Rain and Gazu who were watching the whole seen awkwardly. "Oh, hey guys. How are you two today?" Dan asked. "Fine, just fine." Gazu said before Rain could start off with something crude. "I hope you are ready Dan," Rain said "because today is your first day of training with Squad Seven."

"You bet!" he said excitedly. Rain sighed, "Come with us." Rain and Gazu lead Dan through the streets. "You see that Dan?" Gazu said pointing to the Village Squad Festival banner. "Yeah." He said. "We are going to train you this week for that. We aren't going to let up on you, if you can't make it through this week's training; you are dead meat for the festival. Rain and I will be in a different division as you so you won't have our support."

Dan gulped. "Ok…" Gazu, Rain and Dan, finally made it to a training spot. "Oh, wow, this is a cool area, is this where you two guys train a lot?" Dan asked. "Most of the time." Gazu replied. "You sure that isn't the only thing you two do all the way out here alone?" Dan said smirking.

Rain and Gazu then glared at him. "You're dead wimp!" Rain said and Gazu summoned his swordsman. The two of them took out their rage on Dan from that last comment he made. Between the two of them, they critically hurt Dan. Dan, lay on the ground entirely immobile. "Crap, that hurt." He said.

"You're lucky; we had to hold back as to not kill you." Gazu said. "So don't go shooting off your mouth like that again or we will not hesitate to kill you next time, got it?" Dan nodded in fear. "Why did you have to rough me up so bad?" Dan asked naively. Gazu came up and kicked him hard in the ribs. "You idiot, you obviously have forgotten what village you live in. This is the Sand Village, we have to be powerful here or you will die, and that includes not showing your opponents any mercy. You honestly believe that your opponents at the festival will be any different? You will be facing three on one matches. If can't even put up a tiny fight against me and Rain combined, then you might as well go find yourself another squad."

Gazu walked back to Rain and turned around back to Dan who was on the ground. "Now get up, you are going to fight us." Dan got up with all his might and stood in a broken stance because he was badly injured. He then fell right back to the ground.

"Come on Rain, we are leaving." Gazu said. "What about Dan?" she asked. "We leave him here. We will come back for him in the morning. He can't go anywhere." "If you say so Gazu. Maybe a night in the dirt will change his attitude." Rain replied.

Dan spent his night lying in the dirt, using what little chakra he had left to heal his wounds. Then next morning Rain and Gazu came and found him lying on the ground wide away, staring at the morning sky. "Well, are you going to fight us today?" Gazu asked. "Dan got up and took a stance, "I will." He replied.

Days went on but Dan failed to put up even the least bit of a fight. It was the last day and Gazu and Rain walked away from the training area angrily. "It's been a while week of training and he has not even bothered to put up a fight." Gazu said angrily. "He's dead for the festival." Rain said. Gazu sighed. "Well, we did all we could, it'll be up to him to fight at the festival, if he's alive, that is."

Gazu escorted Rain home and then went home himself. The next day would be the festival.