Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

.

Chapter Forty-Five

Training For the Finals

.

Hinata spun and wove through her uncle's attacks, his hands missing her by fractions of an inch as she danced through the fight. Pulling away, Hinata cocked an eyebrow as Hizashi took advantage of her retreat to re-open the six tenketsu that her own strikes had closed.

"Very good, Hinata-sama." Hizashi said with a slight nod of approval. "That was not the classic Juho… have you integrated it with Uzuken?"

"You know Uzuken, uncle?" Hinata asked despite herself and Hizashi's lips twitched in a slight smile.

"I sparred against Uzumaki Kushina when she was younger." He said in explanation. "I recognized some of the moves you used. I assume that Naruto-san taught you?"

Hinata nodded in confirmation.

"Then he has done a good job." Hizashi commented as he dropped into the first stance of Jyuuken. "We have tested your defense, now… attack!"

.

"Hiashi-dono…" Neji said, then he paused as he clan-leader raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "I remain confused as to why you would oversee my training. I am, after all, from the branch family…"

"There are several reasons." Hiashi said, lowering his guard and motioning for Neji to do the same. "The first is that I have seen your potential and wish for it to be nurtured that it may become all it can be. The second is that as you are my nephew, I have an interest in having you show Konoha that the Hyuuga clan is powerful in both numbers and skills. The third reason you may not like as much… it is to give my daughter a challenge."

Neji blinked. "You… do not believe that I can win against her?"

"My daughter is highly skilled in Juho, but I do not know what she has learned from Uzumaki-san. She also has the Uzumaki Armour. Should she be forced to use it against you, your chances of victory will be severely reduced. The Armour negates the strikes of the Jyuuken and is immune to projectiles, so your archery will not be of any advantage either. Instead, let us work on a raiton technique…"

Neji blinked. "…raiton? Why raiton?"

.

.

Lee slumped against the tree, his normal exuberance in abeyance as he mopped at the sweat adorning his brow.

"You have done very well, Lee." Gai smiled, although he was looking almost as disheveled as his student. "To have finally mastered the fifth gate…"

Lee smiled and tried to straighten up, but merely succeeded in sliding down the tree, coming to a stop in an almost-boneless sprawl at the base of the tree. Gai moved over to his side and picked him up.

"You need to recover now." He said without his normal bombastic manner. "Learning how to use an extra gate means that your body needs to adjust. You can restart training the day after tomorrow."

"Yes… Gai-sen… sei…" Lee managed before his eyes closed. Gai smiled at his sleeping apprentice.

"I am proud of you, Lee. If I ever have a son, I would wish for him to be like you."

Lee smiled slightly in his sleep.

.

.

The hammer's glowing head described a series of perfect arcs and ellipses as Taromaru, his skin shining from his Kekkei Genkai, practiced his Katas. On the other side of the training hall, Haku and Suigetsu sparred with Haku launching senbon at Suigetsu and using them to block his sword.

Terai watched them, then his gaze moved to the door as it opened and Honoka stepped through.

"I checked the Uzumaki House and the original isn't there." She said with a sigh. "Apparently, he's training at Mount Myoboku under…"

"Jiraiya of the Sannin." Terai finished, earning a look of surprise. "Mount Myoboku is the home of the Gama Clan and their summoner is Jiraiya."

Honoka nodded. "His clones were still active, though. How long can a shadow clone normally last?"

"Depending on use, between six and twenty-four hours, normally." Terai mused. "Why?"

"He's been gone for a week!"

"What?"

.

.

The clashing of swords echoed through the training room as Kimimaru and Chojuro exchanged blows, thrusts, parries, deflections and counters with the ease of long hours of practice while Zabuza loomed to one side. Beside him, Kajika sulked, one hand occasionally rubbing the pommel of his sword until finally Zabuza turned to glare at him.

"Stop. Pouting."

"But it wasn't fair!" The shark-hooded genin complained. "I was up against an ice user!"

"You were. It happens. Tough." Zabuza growled. "If I remember rightly, you thought that Shibuki would be all you needed to win and Haku used your focus against you."

"But… we're the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist!" Kajika protested, then he froze as he felt a kunai against his throat.

"Yes, we are, or will be once more." Zabuza said with an overly-calm voice. "But the Swordsmen could use other weapons as well. They could think of ways to fight that didn't require them to use their great blades. Why do you think I've declared Kimimaru to be the eighth Swordsman when he carries no sword?"

Kajika shrugged helplessly and Zabuza grinned mirthlessly behind his wraps.

"Kimimaru doesn't carry a sword, he is a sword. I carry Kubikiribōchō, but I have trained to embody it, rather than just use it. Chojuro is learning the same but you… your arrogance is impeding you. Until you can become one with your blade, until you learn when to use it and when not to, you will not be a true Swordsman."

Zabuza flexed his hand, causing the Kunai to vanish and he stepped away.

"Now, run through the first katas again, but this time, keep your eyes closed!"

"Hai, sensei!"

.

.

Ino pouted as her team left the mission office with another D-rank.

"This sucks." She complained. "At least Forehead's team saw action and Sakura got to see the preliminaries, even if it was as a med-nin trainee rather than a fighter, but… the Tora mission? Again?"

"You do need to practice your tracking skills." Asuma supplied with an amused smirk. "After all, during the second stage, you didn't find a single team to confront."

"Because lazy over there suggested we spiraled in to cover as much area as possible!" Ino protested, glaring at Shikamaru.

"It should have worked!" The teen protested and Asuma nodded.

"If there had been more teams, it probably would have. " He noted. "It was an excellent plan, but one which failed to take a single variable into account…"

"The number of teams." Shuikamaru sighed. "There weren't enough for the plan to work."

"Indeed." Asuma agreed. "You'd found out about the second stage before the first stage actually began, hadn't you?"

"It wasn't too hard." Shikamaru shrugged. "All I had to do was look at the records of the previous exams held here. The second stage is almost always held in Training Area forty-four."

"And you made a plan for it based on that." Asuma stated, watching as Shikamaru nodded. "And when you started the test, you didn't actually check on the assumptions you based your plan on."

"Something I won't be doing again." Shikamaru grumped.

"It was a good start, though." Asuma said soothingly. "And if you want, I can get you cleared for the records of the chunin exams held by the other countries so you can plan ahead for them."

Shikamaru nodded thoughtfully, then looked round.

"Where are Choji and Ino?"

"They went off that way in pursuit of Tora while you were commenting on the number of teams." Asuma chuckled and Shikamaru cursed before running off in the direction that Asuma had pointed. "Heh, I love still being a Jonin-sensei. Now, while they're busy, I'll visit Ichiraku's and have them send my weekly thanks to Naruto."

.

Tora ricocheted off the wall, evading Choji's desperate grasp by a hairs-width, then she dodged Ino's diving tackle before running back the way she came, both ninja in pursuit.

"Kagemane no Jutsu… success!"

Tora yowled as her body froze up, then another voice snapped out words she didn't recognize.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu!"

Shikamaru looked up from where he was crouching. "Ino? Blink three times if that's you."

The cat that was held by his shadow blinked three times and Shikamaru released his technique as Choji lumbered up, Ino's body slung across his shoulders.

"Troublesome." Shikamaru sighed as Ino (in Tora's body) leapt onto his shoulders and settled across them like a fur collar. "Alright, I guess we should head for the tower now."

Ino stared at him as if he was being unbelievably dense, then sighed and dropped her head onto her paws as Shikamaru stood up.

"Ino, I've got your body." Choji said.

"Let's just get this mission over and done with." Shikamaru sighed. "Then we can track down our troublesome sensei and maybe visit that onsen of yours again."

Ino mewed in agreement.

.

.

"Not bad." Jiraiya finally admitted as he looked up from the scroll. "This alone could almost get you recognized as a Fuuinjutsu Master. A storage seal that only seals unliving, un-anchored items within a specifically-shaped volumeof space. Impressive."

"Once you know how different seals work and deduce the underlying patterns, it's actually quite easy." Naruto admitted and Jiraiya whistled in amazement.

"Kid, it takes a lot to impress me, but you have just done it." He said quietly. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to reach that level normally?"

"I used Kage Bunshin…" Naruto offered and Jiraiya face-palmed.

"Of course you did. Get months of studying done in a single week… okay. So, we've got a few more spars to do, a few final lessons with the sages, then you can head back."

"I wonder how things are going back there…" Naruto mused.

.

.

Gaara growled as he stalked into his room to get changed. He had been scouting out Konoha for his designated target, but the blond had vanished without a trace, meaning that Gaara couldn't crush him like he wanted.

To add to his constant anger, Naruto's house and the area around it were protected by some odd seals that neither he nor his sand could penetrate, yet which Konoha ninja could walk through with ease. Gaara had spent almost an hour trying to get through the strange barrier, retreating only when he realized that he was actually running low on chakra.

Pulling a new tunic from the shelf, Gaara unfastened the straps holding the sand gourd and dropped it onto the floor.

"Gaara."

Gaara stiffened slightly at Baki's voice, but otherwise refused to react.

"Naruto is in the summons world. Hinata is being trained by her clan. Both are out of your reach for now. Wait until the third stage, then kill her in the arena."

Gaara gave a small nod to show that he understood and Baki left, closing the door behind him.

.

.

"Oh, I needed this." Ino moaned in pleasure as she lay face-down on a padded table that had been set up by the onsen. Three clones surrounded her, massaging her shoulders and back in order to help her relax.

"Mmmph… yeah, this is great! Thanks!" Choji said with a wide smile as he accepted another tray of food while in the pool itself, Shikamaru focused fiercely on his game of Shogi against Fu, who had proven to be a natural at it despite having learned how to play only a week prior but was almost holding her own on the floating board.

"This is good." Tenten sighed from her own table, where more clones were massaging the stress out of her. "I don't think I've ever been this relaxed."

"It's one of the advantages of using clones." One of the Kage Bunshins explained. "We get lots of practice and it adds up quickly. Not as fast as a sharingan, but we have advantages the Uchiha don't."

"Boss thinks that he'll be back in a couple of days." Another clone commented. "His training with pervy-sage… what?"

"Pervy-sage?" Tenten chuckled.

"He writes the Icha-Icha books." The clone said in explanation and Tenten blushed.

"He does? I wonder if he'll sign m… I mean… he writes that stuff?"

"How do you know about it?" Ino asked curiously and Tenten's blush intensified.

"My sensei said it was a most unyouthful set of books…"

"So of course, you had to check it out at once." Ino finished with a smirk. "Don't worry, my mom reads it as well. She once managed to get dad to try and role-play… but that was the day that the Academy closed early. Thank goodness for therapy, that's all I can say about it."

Choji choked on his sushi.