Chapter 6

A.N. Kishimoto owns all except my characters-Kiminari, and Kimiko, and later characters. Also I'm probably not going to follow any of the story line except a few small things. I may take the characters outside their natural personalities, but that's because it's my story, and it'll add to it.

Gaara's P.O.V.

I woke up to the sound of small feet running up and down the hallway downstairs. It had been four days since I sent my letter to the Hokage, and young Kimiko had progressed extremely fast. Her aim was nearly perfect; she only missed occasionally when she was throwing senbon. She had learned basic chakra theory, and absorbed many other things that Temari had taught her; and she still pressed to learn more. Every morning she would set herself a small goal or two that she would make possible by the end of the day. Apparently today had something to do with running.

Kimiko's P.O.V.

This morning when I woke up, I remembered the small set of ankle and wrist weights that Temari had given to me a couple days ago. I decided that today I would see if I could train in them. As I sat up, I looked at the small clock on the bedside table. What?! It's only 4:30?! I knew that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep; I had always been a very light sleeper, and once I was really awake, I stayed that way until I was really tired again. "Well then," I said to myself, "I guess running in the downstairs hall won't disturb anyone." And with that I lifted the weights, placing two pounds in each ankle weight holder, and carrying the wrist weight holders and about eight pounds of weights, went downstairs.

After about thirty minutes of paced jogging, I was starting to get a little tired, and a lot hungry. I decided that I would jog the hall ten more times each way, then I would stop for breakfast; by that time at least someone else would be up…hopefully.

I was on my way back down the hall-I had one more time to go both ways-when I heard someone's feet hit the floor on the level above. It sounded like it came from Gaara's room-good, someone who can actually cook.

I would never have told either Temari or Kankuro that they couldn't cook, but I'm sure that Gaara would have at some point if he had ever eaten their food. Although he usually made breakfast for everyone, he normally only had a cup of coffee or two for himself.

I suppose, when he woke up, he heard me running-the weights made my feet heavy and loud-, because once he was down stairs he rounded the corner to see exactly what I was doing. Just as he came around the corner, I was starting on my last run down the length of the hall. "If you hurry up, I'll make your favorite-ham and cheese omlets." He said with a small smirk, and with that I sped as fast as I could-with my seemingly renewed energy-down the hall and to the kitchen.

After we had eaten and the others had woken up, Gaara, Temari and I headed outside. Today they were going to test me on what I had learned over the past few days, and if I did well, then I would get to start learning simple chakra control.

"Alright, Kimiko." Said Temari, "Name each of these weapons, and their main uses."

I looked down at the weapons in front of me and pointed to each in turn while listing their names and uses. "Kunai-long distance and stealth; can be used for throwing letter bombs. Shuruken-close to mid-distance and stealth; also used as a distraction. Senbon-mid to long distance and stealth; can be used to kill or immobilize the enemy. Letter bombs…" A small pause. I really didn't know how to describe these any further so I simply said, "Bombs." After that, we moved on to my basic taijutsu and stances, as well as target practice. I passed everything with, according to Temari, what the ninja academy would call exceeds expectations.

Finally after all that was done, she said that I could start my basic chakra control. She gave me a few simple exercises to practice throughout the rest of the day. The first one I worked on was trying to "feel my chakra." After about a half an hour of feeling what I guessed it felt like, I decided to try the next-holding something to my palm while it faced down, or holding something to the bottom of my foot. After my first five or six tries, I succeeded in holding a pen, a mug, then a book, under my hand. I then went on to try this with my feet, and since I had already gotten the feeling of how to do it, I managed to hold the kunai to my foot after my second attempt.

A little while after lunch, I showed Temari my progress, since Gaara had to go back to his office, and asked her if I was doing everything correctly. Her reply was to simply take my hand and lead me outside. At first I thought I was doing something wrong, and she had brought me out there to show me how to correct my mistake. However, she simply smiled at me, and while pointing at the tree we had used for target practice, asked me if I was up for a challenge.

"Of course…What's the challenge?" she looked at me kinda funny, and asked me if I'd ever seen the kids at the ninja academy.

"No, not really. I try not to go past there. When I was little, Gaara-sama told me that I wasn't allowed to go to that school, so I never even thought about passing it." I also hadn't wanted to put up with the kids that I'd known from the orphanage; all they did was tease me, so why go looking for trouble?

"Well, once you've gained enough control over your chakra, you can focus it onto your feet, like you did when you held the kunai, then you can use it to walk up things like trees." My eyes grew huge. You mean, you can actually do that? "Once you get good enough, you can hang upside down from branches too, and sometimes, you don't even have to run on the ground; you can simply jump from tree to tree."

I was really amazed that someone could really do all that. I asked her if she'd show me first and she agreed. As she walked up the tree, I tried to imagine how she sent her chakra to her feet, and when she was done I was ready to try. I stood in front of the tree for a moment, trying to send my chakra to my feet, then took a few quick steps toward the tree. I made it up about six or seven steps, then fell to the ground. I sat there for a moment and thought about what I'd done wrong.

"Are you alright?" asked Temari.

"Yes." I said, "I'm just thinking."

"Ok, well when you think you've got the hand of it, call me back out." I just nodded.

I thought about how chakra moves through the body, and how it would travel to my feet. I tried it out a couple more times just sitting there. Then a thought hit me: I had only lifted a small kunai when I was practicing; I hadn't tried lifting anything heavier. Maybe, I thought, I have to think of the tree as something heavier, because I'm heavier. "I think I've got it," I called to Temari, who was just inside the kitchen.

She came out and saw me still sitting on the ground, and gave me an odd look, but said, "OK, let's see then." I stood up, took a few steps back, and went at the tree again. This time I focused my chakra much harder and even made it up to the first limb on the tree-which had to be at least nine feet off the ground- when Temari yelled for me not to go any higher up. As I stopped, I realized why she didn't want me too; I had left marks all over the tree where I had walked up.

I jumped from the branch and landed next to Temari. "What happened?" I asked her.

"You burnt the tree with your chakra." She replied. "That happened a lot with beginners. You used a little too much chakra but you still have the hang of it. Why don't we go in and start getting ready for dinner; you can even help this time."

"But I wanted to practice more." I said.

She laughed and said, "Fine, but try not to overdo it, OK?"I nodded, and went back to practicing while she went inside to plot our deaths at tonight's dinner.

When she finally called me inside, Gaara and Kankuro were back, and "dinner" was ready. Although I really enjoyed the miso ramen she had bought from the store -microwaveable, and ready to heat foods were the only things she could really cook- I didn't exactly care for the rice she'd tried to make. Luckily, I was starving, and Gaara was there to back her up; he'd bought some ginger senbei, and ingredients to make sushi tomorrow.

When "dinner" was done, I drug Gaara and Kankuro outside to see my progress. They both seemed very pleased. After they left, I stayed out and -now with the weights on- practiced and reviewed everything I'd learned over the past few days. Once I was satisfied with my work, I picked up my things, and headed to the guest bedroom. As I walked up the stairs, I realized just how sore I was going to be tomorrow.