Caught in the Middle

Chapter 17

Rasengan and Chidori

Part 2

I'm back bitches! What's up everybody, I've returned with more Naruto goodness. These Rasengan training sessions are getting a little annoying to write, mostly because I'm trying to go roughly with how they went in the show, meaning I've got to find which episodes they're in, the watch them all the way through. Annoying, but worth it.

So anyway, final exams are coming up for me and probably a lot of you. I'm a little freaked, I'm gonna be a Senior next year, yikes! Good news is, I took the ACT about a month or so ago, and I finally got my scores back. Turns out a scored a 24 on the actual test, and completely killed the national average for the writing portion (which was optional). All in all, if I so choose, I don't even have to take the test Senior year now; I could get into college with the score I have now.

Okay, I've rambled long enough, sorry about that. READ!


It was late in the after evening, nearing the end of the day. It was getting slightly chilled on the mountain, so Naruto had put on a light hooded sweater during his training session. He'd begun learning the Rasengan the previous day, but had made little progress today. Jiraiya made him quit after some time, much to his protest, to teach him other skills. They had gone through some new martial arts stances and a few techniques for him to practice, but now that he was free of the sage, he was back to trying to pop the water balloon.

He was still having the same problem he was yesterday, the balloon, while stretching and vibrating, was not popping. With each failed attempt his frustration increased until he finally just tossed it away. Luckily, Karen was sitting around watching him, mostly because she lacked the strength to move her legs thanks to Kakashi, and caught the balloon before it struck the ground.

"Just settle down Naruto, it's nothing to get so worked up about."

"Yes it is, I only have five more days to learn this spell, I'll never make it at this rate!" he exclaimed.

She sighed and set the balloon down in front of her and began rolling it between her hands. "You're putting way too much pressure on yourself, just relax. I know it's important to you because it's your dads spell, but it's also one of the strongest on record. No one's expecting you to just pick it up like that."

He turned to face her. "You saw what it did to Sasuke though, if I had that kind of attack, it'd give me a total edge, and I'd be able to…to…"

Karen raised a curious eyebrow. "To…what?"

Naruto wasn't even listening; he was too focused on what she was doing with the balloon. It rolled back and forth, swishing the waters left to right, up and down. As he observed the movement, inspiration suddenly struck him.

"Oh my God…Karen you're a genius!"

"Yeah well, you know…wait, why am I a genius?"

Naruto's expression grew more and more excited. "Just toss it here and I'll show you!"

Without further questions, Karen tossed him the balloon and he took a deep breath. His hand whipped around the balloon as fast as he could possibly manage, swishing the water. He took what Karen had been doing and applied to the technique; he was rotating the water in two different directions, hopefully creating enough force and friction to pop the balloon.

He swished the water around and bit down on his tongue to keep concentration. He pumped more magic into the balloon until the built up pressure was too much and the rubber sphere popped in a shower of water. Naruto immediately shot up and cheered in success.

"Yes, I nailed it, and it's all thanks to you Karen!"

He rushed over and hugged her before running off to get a replacement balloon and show Jiraiya. He and Karen had been sitting outside during the sunset, and Jiraiya was with Kakashi back in the cavern. In his excitement he almost tripped over his own feet a few times on his way inside, but was able to catch his balance each time and make it safely into the main area of the cavern where his two teachers sat.

"Jiraiya, Jiraiya! I finally figured it out, how to pop the balloon!" he said, coming to a halt just short of running straight into the old man. The sage looked up at him with a bewildered expression.

"Alright, grab a balloon and show me what you got then kid."

The blond nodded and ran over to the sack containing all the balloons, grabbed one, filled it up with water from a nearby canteen, and tied it tight. He rejoined the two other men and sat cross-legged as he held the balloon out with his left hand. Like lightning, his right hand shot all across the surface of the balloon, manipulating the water within as he'd done just a moment ago when he tested it out with Karen.

In no time at all, the water filled rubber ball popped and water sprayed into the air in all directions.

Jiraiya nodded in approval. "Impressive kid, care to explain how you did it, just to be sure you actually learned something."

"Alright, first I remembered back to how the balloon looked when you rotated it. The surface was really bumpy and eratic, like the water was boiling on the inside, so was trying to figure out just how to make it look like that. It wasn't until just a minute ago that I figured out the problem; the reason my balloon was so smooth was because the water was only going in one direction. I needed the water to collide with itself, so I started moving the water in multiple directions by balancing the balloon with my left hand, and applying the magic with my right. Karen gave me the idea."

Jiraiya grinned and chuckled while giving his godson a thumbs up. "Well it's definitely a strange method, but it works. I have to admit I didn't think you'd get it any time soon, but since you've proven me wrong, lets see what else you can do. I'll move you on to the second stage of training."

Naruto grew a wide smile filled with pride, and laughed excitedly. Jiraiya knelt down near the sack that held the balloons, and pulled out a while ball about the same size. He tossed it to him, and the blond caught it with ease.

"I'll tell you what to do tomorrow, for now just hold onto it. In the meantime, you're still done with training, so feel free to do what you like."

"Got it, we'll start in the morning."

With that he gave them both a short wave and turned to head back outside. He stepped up the rocks to the threshold of the cavern and his eyes were hit with the concentrated orange beams of light of the dropping sun. He breathed in happily and looked to his left, and saw Karen leaning against the wall as she had been when he rushed in. He walked over and plopped down next to her, sitting with his right hand propped up against this right knee.

"Well, I finally finished stage one, I get to start the second one tomorrow."

"Good job, I knew you'd figure it out eventually."

His smile stayed plastered to his face. "Actually you gave me the idea when you were rolling the balloon around, so really it's all thanks to you that I figured it out."

"Oh, so that's why you called me a genius."

"Yeah, but you're a genius most of the time anyway, so it's not like it was anything new."

She snorted and playfully nudged his side with her shoulder; he responded by doing the same, the both of them laughing to themselves. They sat there for a while watching the sunset again. Karen sighed and leaned over on her side a bit, resting her head on Naruto's shoulder. At first the blond had to push back the urge to suddenly stand up, but after a moment, he just sat back and kept his eyes forward, calmly letting the rush of heat drain from his face.

They stayed like that until the sun went completely underneath the horizon. The sky had lost all light save for the crescent moon hovering high above, and the sky twinkled with bright stars, their glow uninhibited by large city lights. Naruto glanced over; judging by her light steady breathing and unmoving body, he knew Karen was fast asleep. Not surprising considering what she'd been doing all day.

After a moment, he found himself staring at her, and smiled. He brought his free hand up and brushed away some stray hair hanging over her face. It was nice, but he eventually lowered his hand and sighed, a sad frown sliding onto his face.

"Man...why am I doing this to myself."


The next morning, Karen awoke early in the morning. She yawned and stretched out her arms and legs to free them of the stiffness of disuse during the night. She grunted and sat up, feeling something fall into her lap. She looked down and saw a thin gray sweater that had been draped over her during the night. She easily recognized it as Naruto's sweater, and smiled, and found herself gripping it tighter than she normally would. She quickly relaxed her grip, and after standing up and brushing off her clothes, noticed said blond was gone and wondered where he was.

Down the mountain a ways near the stream, Jiraiya and Naruto sat across from each other, the younger holding the rubber ball he'd received yesterday.

"Alright, so now we're on the second level of training. Now, while the object of the first level was rotation, this one is all about power. This ball is a lot thicker than the balloon, and there's no water inside, so it's going to take a lot more effort. I want you to rotate the air inside the ball and make it pop just like you did the water balloon."

He nodded and looked down at the ball. 'Alright, so if I'm supposed to burst this thing, then the method I used on the water balloon should work just as well here, I just need to use more power.'

Naruto extended his left hand, and began firing his right hand around the surface of the balloon. He rapidly pumped more energy than he had before into the process, and swirled the air inside in all different directions. For all his efforts though, all he was rewarded with was a few bumps bubbling to the surface, then nothing.

He growled and glared down at the ball. "Damn, this is gonna be harder than I thought."

He took a deep breath in and exhaled while loosening up his arms. "Alright, let's try this again."

Naruto built up even more energy than last time and held out the ball. He suddenly released it and pushed it through his right hand, swirling the air inside the ball it high speeds with his rapid hand movement. Even with the added energy put into the equation, the result varied little from his previous attempt.

He sighed heavily and leaned back, his hands aching a bit after that try. He held up the ball and looked at it; this was gonna take a while.


Later, on the other side of the mountain, Karen was also knee deep in training. She'd gone through rigorous physical conditioning to prepare for the technique that Kakashi was going to show her today. She sat cross-legged as Kakashi took off his FPBS jacket and rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt.

"Alright Karen, this is it. You've reached the necessary physical conditions, so I'll show you just exactly what you'll be learning."

He turned to his right and faced a large boulder about forty feet away from them. "Now, watch closely."

Kakashi immediately went through a series of hand signs and then shot his hand down to the ground, gathering magic into his hand, and suddenly lightning crackled in the agents palm, blasting away any earth or grass that happened to be in its way. The next thing Karen knew, Kakashi rocketed forward like a bullet; the only thing she could really make out was the glowing blur of the lightning. She watched in anticipation as Kakashi closed in on the boulder, and when he did, the explosion was instantaneous.

She waited for a few moments before Kakashi leaped back out of the plume of dust and dirt, landing briskly on his feet and wiping the dirt from his hands.

"And that's how its done," he said simply, "just do the correct hand signs and charge your magic in your hand. It might take a while to get just how much you need to charge, but it shouldn't take too long."

She nodded and glanced down at her hands. She flew through the hand signs she saw Kakashi use, and placed her hand down low just as he had. She pumped the magic into her hand and charged it. She felt a few sparks of static run in between her fingers, but nothing like the light show Kakashi had produced. She cut the flow of magic and grumbled.

Kakashi smiled and went back to his book. "Like I said, it'll take a while."


By the end of the day, Naruto was worn out. The sun was setting once again, and he had hit another dead end with his training. Almost no progress whatsoever for the entire day. He was on his back now, his arms burning from all the magic they had pushed through them throughout the day. He doubted he could even get up with the amount of strength he had left.

"Looks like you'll be sore in the morning," said Jiraiya's voice above him.

The blond looked farther behind him and saw the sage standing over his downed form. "I'm sore now, and I don't think I can get up."

The sage chuckled and grabbed the boy by his shirt and pulled him up, slinging him over his shoulder.

"This isn't exactly what I had in mind," he groaned.

"You wanted help, so don't complain. Your father never complained."

Jiraiya smiled when he found that was sufficient to keep him quiet the entire walk back up the mountain. Of course, he'd never tell his godson what a blatant lie that was. In fact, compared to Minato, Naruto was a perfectly behaved child; of course Kushina was an ever bigger handful and most of the boys personality came from her, but at least she never questioned his instructions. It might have been the ANBU training, but she was shockingly good at following orders despite her rebellious character. Minato had always been the one to deviate from the original plans and disregard instructions.

Once they had reached the camp and made it back into the cavern, they found that Kakashi had already brought Karen back, who was fast asleep.

"Rough day?" asked Kakashi as he flipped through to the next page.

"Not in the mood Kakashi, need sleep," replid Naruto groggily.

The masked agent chuckled but kept on reading his book, paying no more mind to the outside world. Meanwhile, Jiraiya set Naruto down and the boy immedeatly slumped down and crawled over to his sleeping bag. He was asleep before his head even hit the pillow.

Jiraiya meanwhile, stepped over and sat down next to Kakashi. "They sure are something aren't they," the sage commented.

Kakashi nodded, looking up from his book for the first time since his return. "Indeed they are."


Alrighty then! Another chapter comes to a close. Naruto and Karen are getting closer, so all you fluff addicts can stop bugging me already, seriously, it's getting old. I don't mind the suggestions and constructive criticism, but the PM's of "When are Karen and Naruto getting together, you need more romance!?" are getting extremely annoying.

It's coming okay, it's on its way, have some damn patience! By the time we reach the showdown with Orochimaru and afterward, everything will have fallen into place between them, but that's still about ten chapters away (or so). Until then, I'll try and step up the fluff a little bit, but it's not the only focus here, so again, have some damn patience.

Thanks to everyone who's leaving intelligent reviews and sending PM's that deserve a coherent response (you know who you are). Sorry I had to snap like that guys, but I really needed to get that out there.

Review and stuff please.