--Naruto training--
Chapter two
Later that day, when the sky turned from a Stunning shade if light blue to a more astonishing shade of orange, sakura was laying down on her bed thinking about the best way to follow naruto undetected. "I could use transparency jutsu, but do I really need to go overboard trying to find out where naruto goes everyday? The dunce probably wouldn't see me if I had a sign attached to me saying 'I'm following you!'" Sakuramumbled to herself. she chuckled at the thought. "But then again, he has surprised us before. Better to be safe than sorry." She got up and walked over to the bathroom and turned on the shower as she undressed. She stepped in the shower and let the warm water run down her body and wash away the grime and filth from the days training as she pondered about what naruto was up to. "Now that I think about it l, naruto has been acting different. He seems slower and clumsy than usual, but it's not very noticeable. And he hasn't been cracking as many jokes as he usually does." She thought as She stepped out and dried off. She then walked into the room and put on a white frilly nightgown and got in bed and fell asleep wondering what discoveries the next day would bring.
--The next day--
Sakura woke up at the usual time and put on her clothes for the day. she then went downstairs and ate breakfast before saying goodbye to her parents and walking to the training area to wait for the others. When she got there she sat down on a bench to wait. A couple minutes later sasuke turned the corner and walked over to the training field. He remained standing as they both waited silently for naruto and kakashi. As they waited sakura started thinking about narutos behavior for the past couple of months. "Naruto was fine up until the fight with gaara. After that he seemed to be more withdrawn from everyone, even us. He seemed more irritable and less humorous than usual." She thought to herself as she stared at the sky, which usually was beautiful and held a certain awe for her, but today seemed dull and unimportant. "But naruto was more or less his normal self after that. There were some changes though. He stopped cracking jokes a lot and he rarely got into it with sasuke anymore. Whenever sasuke world say something demeaning to him he would just say "whatever" and continue with whatever he was doing. And He got slower and his movements seemed more awkward than before. It seemed like it took more effort to do the things he normally did, but I just assumed it was his body healing from all the damage he took while fighting gaara because he seemed to get better and move more like himself. You would hardly notice a difference in his movements now." Sakura thought to herself as she saw naruto walk around the corner to join them. "Good morning guys!" Naruto said as he approached the two. Sasuke ignored him as sakura said good morning back to him. They sat in silence for a while as they waited for kakashi. "Good morning. Are you ready for training today?" They heard from behind them as kakashi seemingly came out of nowhere like he always does. "Today we will be doing testing our individual strength against an opponent. You'll each be facing a member of cell eight in a one on one match. You'll win by either knocking the opponent out, getting them out of bounds or of they quit. There will be no time limit and no rules. This is a test of how strong you are as an individual so give it your best, but please don't try to kill your opponent." Kakashi said as the members of cell eight came into view. Kiba was in front with akamaru on his shoulder and was followed by hinata, who was hiding behind kurenai slightly. Shino was close behind them with a swarm of bugs around him. Kiba walked up to naruto and. Smiled confidently "I hope I get to fight you so I can show everyone that it was a fluke that won against me!" Naruto just ignored him and walked away "hey, don't just ignore me and walk away! Who do you think you are!" Kiba said as he tried to walk after him but was stopped by shino "don't. There's something different about him today. I doubt you provoking him is a good idea kiba"shino said as he observed the way naruto was behaving "Pfft. Whatever, he's not worth my time anyway." Kiba said as he sat down. "Gather around and listen" kurenai said as she pulled out two plain wooden boxes "one by one a member from each cell will pull a number from one of the boxes. Cell seven will pull from the left box and cell eight will pull from the right box. the two matching numbers will be opponents. We've already explained the rules so when I call your name, grab a number from the box. Sakura and shino, come pick a number." Sakura and shino went up and picked a number from their respective boxes. "I got a three" sakura said as shino looked at his. "one" was all he said. "Ok then, hinata and naruto, come pick a number" kurenai said as she wrote down sakura and shino numbers. Hinata blushed a dark crimson as she looked at naruto as they walked up to the boxes. Naruto looked at her and saw that she was red in the face "are you ok hinata, your face is kinda red." Hinata would blush more as she responded "I-I'm fine". "Ok" naruto said as he reached in and grabbed a number. "My number is one" naruto said as he walked back and sat down. Kiba groaned and exclaimed "now how am I going to show everyone how much better I am than you!". Naruto just ignored him as Hinata reached in and pulled out a number. "I got a two" hinata said sheepishly as she returned to her seat. "Alrighty then, that means sasuke will fight hinata and Kiba Will fight sakura" kurenai said writing down the rest of the numbers. Kiba groaned again "why do I have to fight such a weak opponent!". "Who are you calling weak you idiot!!" Sakura yelled as she punched him in the gut and sent him reeling in pain. "Owww, that hurt!" Kiba said as he clutched his stomach. "Ok kids lets save the fighting for the ring" kurenai said as she led them to a 40 by 40 food square in the field. "This is where you will be fighting. First up will be naruto and shino, followed by hinata and sasuke, and will be ended by sakura and kiba." Naruto walked to the middle of the ring with shino "good luck naruto" shino said as he shook narutos hand. "Good luck to you too shino, and May the best man win" naruto said as they both walked to their respective ends. Kurenai waited until they were both at their ends and said "The battle will begin in 5...4...3...2...1... Begin!!"
--End--