Chapter 24: A Month of Training

The next day she is at the location that Asami sensi told her to be at. So she was hanging out on the spot by the river. She had no idea who her teacher would be, and she didn't think it was going to make a difference, she just needed someone who was different and she didn't know their skillset.

But, Yuri never knows what Asami sensi is thinking, she could be training Yuri right now for all she knows. Though, Yuri doubts it honestly. Asami was more worried about Isamu fighting than Yuri.

Asami sensi appears with a smile on her face. "If Isamu asks if you saw me, tell him you and I had lunch."

While she is used to Asami's antics, this is a whole new level. She must have something in store for Isamu if he has to find her all the time.

"It's only 8 in the morning." Yuri smirks.

"Point." Asami leans against the bridge. "Listen Yuri, I told your teacher he can bring in others to help you, I welcomed it. I told him to train you as hard as he wanted. I did not tell him about your clans ablitlites. Once a week though I will be coming in to train you and he will train Isamu. There I will test you." Asami sensi pauses. "But be careful, I want you to spend an hour after developing the others you have taken. Along with other things. I told your trainer you had water, wind, fire and earth release."

"Four? Why not just two?" Yuri looks at her teacher.

Wondering why she would tell the teacher that many. With Yuri knowing that many, she might as well be seen as a threat! And she only used Earth release in the preliminaries. She frowns, not understanding.

"He knows a lot. He will be able to teach you more about some of the other releases. I want you to learn as much as you can. But under no circumstance are you to use lightning, or copy him."

She nods her head. She understands the reason for Asami Sensi asking this of her. She would be careful. No copying this teacher. She needed to be careful about it, and she was planning on being careful about it.

"Understood."

Another taste comes into her mouth. Bone broth. She moves her head, and sees another Uchiha. He looks familiar, at least it isn't Izumi. It would be a bother to her if it was her. She doesn't know the other two all too well since they didn't live with Mikoto.

"Ah, Doki!" Asami sensi greets. "This is Yuri Chibana."

"I know. She hangs around Sasuke." The man says.

She looks at Asami. "I know Doki. He didn't come around much. Why is he training me instead of Sasuke?"

Doki and Yuri only stare at each other. She didn't know too much about him, even though she has grown up around him, Yuri isn't too sure what he can teach her. And he normally is in the police force. They never interacted too much before.

"Kakashi is training him, and Naruto is being trained by Ebisu." Doki says.

At that Yuri begins to laugh. Naruto told Yuri about that sensi. Naruto didn't like him too much. It was funny to her and she saw Asami sensi shaking her head. Even Asami sensi has to admit it was funny! Yuri would love to watch Naruto being trained by Esibu!

"Well, I will leave you two to it. I'll be back in a week." Asami vanishes and she is left alone with Doki.

She turns to him. She might as well lay out one thing crystal clear to her sensi right now.

"One thing, I do want breaks to visit Hinata, Lee and Kenji in the hospital. I promised I would visit them daily." Yuri puts her hands behind her back.

Doki shakes his head. "We will be taking breaks for Lunch and Dinner. Your time is yours."

Yuri smiles. "So what are we starting with?"

By lunchtime Yuri was on the ground panting. Doki was standing there with his arms crossed. He had been drilling her hard, having her come at him many times and him even attacking her. She was just short of having to use lighting and anything else she needed. She even had to fight against his sharingan.

It was exhausting and she felt her chakra was low for it being midday. Just showing how much he was drilling her.

"Sloppy is what you are. You aren't finishing any moves."

Yuri looks up at him and glares. "Normally I have–"

"This isn't normal. In battles you need to finish your attacks. And stop switching them in the middle."

"But Asami sensi taught us to be unpredictable."

She sits up as Doki shakes his head. Asami sensi had taught them to be unpredictable. Was Yuri losing that? She was smart, yes, and it's how she made it through the preliminaries.

"Not all things need to be unfinished. Your thoughts are moving too fast and you aren't thinking things through well enough." Doki shakes his head. "We need to get your thoughts slowed down so you can think. You think Shikamaru lets his thoughts get out of control."

"No… he's always too calm." She snickers.

"We gotta get it slowed down. We are breaking for lunch though."

Doki vanishes leaving Yuri by herself. She lets out a sigh. She needs to slow down her thoughts? How was she supposed to do that? With how many things she knew it was impossible. But she also knows Kakashi knows so many things he probably has a lot of thoughts going through his head as well. Which doesn't mean anything to her. She needs to slow down her thoughts?

Okay… maybe Doki had a point.

She gets up and goes to find Shikamaru or Sasuke. But she ends up running into Ismau. He seems to be out of breath. Makes sense, Asami sensi wanted to work all her students to the bone, and Isamu was getting the brunt of it.

"Isamu! How is it going?" Yuri offers him a smile.

"Awful. I have to find Asami sensi before I eat lunch. She did this to me yesterday too."

Yuri chuckles. "Listen, I haven't seen her, and if I did…"

"You have to say you have eaten lunch with her." Isamu finishes.

"Well, ya."

"Great. I'll see you around. Lets hope I make it through this." Ismau runs off.

Yuri shakes her head. Leave it to Asami sensi to play hide and seek with Isamu. He was probably running around like a mad man trying to find her. And it only made things funnier to her. Isamu was good at tracking, but it seemed Asami sensi was doing this for another reason. Not that it would help her. She was stuck with Doki.

She makes it back to her apartment, where she finds Sasuke sitting outside of it. She smiles. Finally! Someone who she could talk to about it. Though… she was sure he had to train as well.

"Come in! I was about to have my lunch break. And prepare dinner so I can go to the hospital later." Yuri opens the door and lets Sasuke in.

She goes in and starts some rice. She is just glad he is here, it would be a pain if she had to try to find him or Shikamaru today. She was already tired from her training and just wanted some time to relax. Though… she could do that after the final exams were over. She just needed to have a few new tricks up her sleeve.

But Sasuke doesn't say anything, and she knows it's Sasuke. He tasted like Sasuke, and while she and Sasuke would have moments of silence, this one felt different. So she turns around and leans against the counter.

"Alright, what's up with the silence."

He looks down at the table. "Nothing… just, trying to sort something out."

She looks at him. "Oh ya? What is that?"

"Why do you flirt with the guy from the sand?"

His question takes her off guard. She blinks as she can only stand there. Why was he asking her this? It didn't make sense. And she wasn't flirting with him, she was trying to get information out of him! It was unfair to ask her when she could ask the same thing of him. Why flirt with Sakura or Ino? He was starting to.

And it was annoying at times.

"Flirting with Kitty boy?" She blinks. "Can I not flirt with people?"

He comes up to Yuri to where they are face to face. Neither of them speak for a moment. Sasuke never gets into her space, it was something he just didn't do. So when he did get into her space she would pay attention to what he needed to tell her.

And this was clearly one of those times.

"I don't like it. Because… as dumb as this sounds. I like you Yuri. And I finally get why Sakura and Ino got jealous when you and I talked. It's how I feel when you talk to Kankuro and Shikamaru."

Yuri doesn't know what to say. Sasuke… Sasuke like her? She… she didn't think he was capable of liking anyone. He seemed to actively hate everyone out in the open! But here he is, telling her he likes her. This has to be genjustu… right? She has to be imagining this.

Why does it feel like a dream? And why does she feel so happy about it? She shouldn't be so happy about it.

"I just… I opened up about it to my mom yesterday and she told me I should ask you out. And… I actually agree with her." Sasuke blinks and turns his face away.

Yuri does something on impulse. She kisses Sasuke's cheek. Pressing her lips together, she guesses she likes him to. She might have since they graduated. But she never admitted it to anyone. She didn't want to. Least of all to herself.

"I mean… What does being asked out even mean?" Yuri asks.

"Mom went through it. She said we would be boyfriend and girlfriend. And we would be together. And it's not like… end goal or anything. But like… I don't particularly like you flirting with Kankuro. Shikamaru… you do it to annoy him."

Yuri presses her lips together. "Makes sense… I mean we kind of just… I don't know."

There is another silence between the two of them. But she turns and finishes lunch. She needs to think about it, and her mind is racing. Sasuke confesses to her and she accepts his feelings. She knows so many of the girls from school would love to be in this position.

But she is the one here.

"You know… if we fight, I won't hold back." Sasuke comments.

"I would hope not. Wouldn't want you getting your butt kicked so easily."

Yuri chuckles and she can tell Sasuke goes to sit back down. She finishes lunch and hands some to Sasuke.

"In case you haven't eaten yet." Yuri smiles.

Weeks Later:

Doki had been late many times, but he always surprised and attacked her. Doki and Yuri had many discussions about calming her mind down in battle and thinking about something. They even went over all the justus she knew and he helped her refine them. Explaining he had copied a lot of things. They spent a whole two days prefecting all the things she knew, so much she had passed out from over use of her chakra. But when Asami sensi checked with Yuri, she was impressed with how more refined Yuri was.

Yuri and Sasuke were… alright. Yuri had no idea how to navigate it. She had been talking to Mikoto a little about it and she was still clueless about how to act. It doesn't feel like anything changed between her and Sasuke, just a little more awkwardness. And she would sit with Kenji daily. He was getting better and he told her Sakura was visiting him. Yuri even told Kenji about her and Sasuke. And he seemed happy for her.

Word had seemed to spread.

She was expecting Sakura and Ino, but so far? Nothing. It was silent. She was prepared for both of them to come to her and question her. It was strange, Kenji said Sakura was really relaxed about it, and she was even glad. Yuri was just worried about things happening.

And Shikamaru hadn't said anything, nothing really changed between her and Sasuke though. It was still a friendship and she didn't know what being in a relationship fully meant. Even though she had talked to Mikoto about it, she just wasn't sure about it.

Plus, Sasuke had vanished with Kakashi somewhere. She had no idea where. He didn't even tell her. Which… of course annoyed her to no end. It annoyed Mikoto as well, though Shikamaru seemed to be amused by it.

Naruto was still out as well, Ebisu was back, saying Jirya took over Naruto's training. She was glad about that though. Jirya was a better teacher for Naruto and would give him the information he needed to survive in the finals.

Doki was training her harder and harder. He had brought a few other Jonin along and was pushing her really hard. She was training from dawn to dusk. It was exhausting, but it was so worth it so far. She was seeing improvement and Doki said the last week would be light physical training but helping her calm her mind down in battle, and just to act.

Yuri was on a break. She had gone to see Lee. While he wasn't awake when she was there, she would just sit with him for a few minutes. Just so he knew she was there. She even heard Lee had gotten out of bed a few times to try to train. She knew that Sakura was visiting him, and she wanted to see him. She only knew because there was always a fresh flower for him in the vase. Which made Yuri smile.

Kenji and Hinata had lunch with her. And it was there they would catch up. Kenji and Hinata wouldn't tell her about Isamu and Shino's training. She understood that. Kenji even came and watched Yuri train a few times, and he even admitted to Hinata it was just as brutal.

She was even having lunch with them now when Shikamaru, Choji and Asuma came in.

"Ah, you guys are here. Mind if we join?" Asuma asks.

"Um… sure." Hinata mumbles.

She had gone a little more into her shell for now. And Yuri was worried, but she would have to deal with it after the finals. That fight with Neji must have messed her up a whole lot, even her recovery, she couldn't help train anyone. Yuri knows she would have liked to help Shino train, but it was impossible. She felt like she had a whole list.

Shikamaru slides in next to her.

"Yuri! I heard Doki Uchiha is training you." Asuma opens up.

"He is. It's been pretty brutal." She nods and smiles softly.

Asuma leans in. "He doesn't know though… Does he?"

She shakes her head. "No. Asami sensi made sure he didn't know. And no way is he ever going to find out. He is wanting me to take it a little easier."

"Good! Shikamaru is doing the same thing!" Asuma orders some meat for the table, even though they already had some cooking.

Yuri narrows her eyes. More food? That would be too much for all of them.

"Se–sensi… we already have some food." Hinata mumbles.

"Oh it's for Choji." Asuma comments.

Yuri frowns a little. She is about to say something when Shikamaru elbows her. "It's an incentive for Choji to train with me. He's costing Asuma a small fortune."

With that Yuri has to laugh. Of course Choji needs to have an incentive for training. While it helped him, Asuma must be suffering. But Choji is a food motivated guy, and Yuri respected him for it. It was hard being a ninja, and one with his family's ability, they needed a lot of calories.

"Oh, and Yuri, I heard some interesting information from Ino. She seemed… almost too casual."

All the talking stops. All the eyes turn to Asuma Sensi. Yuri already knows what it's about. Asami sensi had teased her about it last time they had spoken. It was a pain honestly. Nothing was going to work out well with this though.

Even the sensi's knew about her relationship.

"What's that?" Yuri asks.

She notices Shikamaru turns to some meat and begins to pick at it. Kenji and Hinata seem to ignore it and Choji is more focused on the food in front of him. But even she can tell he doesn't want to get involved.

"You and Sasuke? Can't say I'm surprised. I am surprised Ino was taking it so well." Asuma leans on the table.

"Ya. I've been waiting for her or Sakura to come after me… but nothing has happened yet." Yuri lets out a nervous laugh.

Shikamaru groans. "Stop being a drag Asuma."

He backs off and Yuri turns back to her food. She doesn't like the shift that took. And she wonders if she made the right move… but she did like Sasuke. She couldn't pretend anymore, and she shouldn't have to. Admitting she likes Sasuke for a while was rough, it threw her off for a while but she had just regained balance.

It didn't feel real though since Sasuke had run off.

"You know… Sasuke running off is really lame." Shikamaru whispers.

"You're telling me. He's probably off training with Kakashi somewhere." Yuri snorts.

Taking a bite of food as Choji puts more food on the table. Luckily she, Kenji, and Hinata had paid for their meal, so now it was on Asuma to pay for Shikamaru and Choji. Yuri sits back, and she is annoyed all over again with Sasuke.

How could he not tell her? She thought they were supposed to be open with each other! Not running off… he knew about her training schedule. Why didn't he tell her? Even Mikoto thought he told her.

"Relax." Shikamaru starts. "I am sure he has a reason."

"Moving on. I see Asuma sensi has been training you hard." Yuri shifts and glances at Shikamaru. "Especially since he enlisted Choji to help you."

For a second, Shikamaru doesn't say anything. Just stares at Yuri. She rarely switched topics, so the fact that she did probably spoke volumes. Plus it annoyed him when she did it. But she didn't want to deal with it.

"Ya. It's been until I can barely stand. It's been a real drag. I don't know why I signed up for this lame thing."

"Probably… probably because you like a challenge." Hinata says.

Yuri and Shikamaru both look at Hinata. This causes Yuri to chuckle and try to cough to cover it up. Shikamaru shoots her a look. It's true though. He can say things are a drag, but he never puts in minimal effort. He enjoys telling her how he succeeded, even the whole squad. Everyone liked to achieve something, but Shikamaru wouldn't be left behind. Even Asuma laughed.

"She has you there Shikamaru." Asuma laughs.

"I agree." Kenji starts. "You have to beat a challenge. No matter how lame it is."

This leaves Shikamaru grumbling. The conversation continues and Yuri feels more at ease before she has to go train a little more.

A day before the compitetion, Yuri and Shikamaru make their way to the hospital. She heard Naruto was there. Choji was in there too, but that was for eating too much, and she and Shikamaru laughed about it. Even saying they saw it coming. She hadn't heard from Sasuke at all, and this was a nice distraction. They set up Shogi and begin to play.

"Man is he ever going to wake up? Maybe the kid croaked." Shikamaru says halfway through their match.

"Hush Shika. He's just out." Yuri comments.

Shikamaru sighs as Yuri makes another move. She almost has him, and Shikamaru knows it. She was one of the few people who could get close to trapping Shikamaru. Of course… he always beat her. Her and Shino were close in skill level.

"What a drag, you've gotten better at this."

She smiles. "Of course I have. Doki is teaching me to calm down and think."

But Yuri tasted something awful. And she knows the taste. It means danger. Blood. Heavy tastes of blood. She gulps and knows going to Lee's room is more important.

"I should check on Lee…" Yuri mumbles.

She leaves the room right before Naruto comes out of it. She rushes to Lee's room and lets out a sigh. No one was here yet. She was happy about that. That taste… the blood… she needed to ensure he was okay. She hides under his bed and knows it's Sakura. She comes out and lets out a sigh.

"He's here Lee… I just hope I am enough." Yuri mumbles.

She turns around and sees Gaara standing there. The two of them stare at each other. She needs to keep Lee safe. At least until Shikamaru and Naruto figure out why she left.

"Get out of my way."

"No. Unless you want to fight, I will not." Yuri knows she might have to fight hard.

Gaara doesn't say anything, nothing happens and sand starts to circle her. She might very easily die here. And never fight, but she could have died protecting Lee. Something she needed, and she would be sure Gaara was punished.

"I… I can't move my body."

She smirks as Shikamaru and Naruto come in. Naruto even punches Gaara. Yuri raises an eyebrow as the sand remains still on her.

"What do you think you're doing here you rat?" Naruto yells.

Of course he is yelling. So long as he doesn't wake up Lee, she doesn't care.

"Ow! Go easy!" Shikamaru yells. "I'm using my shadow possession justu."

The sand stops and Yuri shakes her head. She was betting a lot on Shikamaru and Naruto coming in. And it looks like it worked. She hoped Shikamaru would understand when she went to check on Lee out of nowhere.

Gaara only stares at them.

"Out with it. What were you trying to pull?" Naruto asks.

"Killing Lee." Yuri says.

There is an intense staredown between the boys. None of them seemed to have heard her. And that annoys her so much.

"I was going to kill him." Gaara says.

Him saying it makes chills go through Yuri's body. Everything feels more real with Gaara admitting to wanting to kill Lee. She is so glad she came here right on time.

"You already beat him once in the competition. What's your problem? Wasn't that enough for you? Do you have a personal grudge against him or something?" Shikamaru questions.

Yuri shakes her head. "Yes. He injured him… or hit him."

"I have nothing against him." Gaara says coldly, matter of fact. "It's nothing that complicated. I simply want to kill him, that's all."

Yuri widens her eyes. He… just wanted to kill Lee for fun? Just to kill something? It baffels Yuri into silence as she has the sand around her. He could have just killed her for the hell of it. And she wouldn't know. Somehow… It's worse knowing that.

"You know what? You're sick in the head! You're crazy!" Naruto yells.

"Yeah. You think we're gonna just stand by and let you do whatever you want? You sick selfish psycho." Shikamaru comments.

"It would also be a bad look for the sand. Seeing as we know how you attack." Yuri comments.

With how these sand guys are… it would make things worse for them. There is a treaty and they aren't in the ring. Killing a leaf genin just to simply kill him would cause an issue for everyone involved.

But… she doesn't think Gaara cares about that.

"If you don't stay out of my way, I'll have to kill you three as well." Gaara states.

She believes Gaara and Shikamaru bluffs. She knows he is, she knows the bluff is true for her. She has a lot she didn't show in the preliminaries. Things that she hopes she never has to show until she or her team are about to die. But Gaara isn't budging.

But Naruto makes a comment about having a demon inside him. Yuri looks at Naruto and stares for a moment, Shikamaru is trying to sush him though.

And Gaara agreed.

He goes on about having a sand spirit in him. About how he killed the woman who gave birth to him. Even naming the demon. Something clicks in Yuri's head. No wonder they taste similar. Both have a demon in them, that has to be the bloody cotton candy, it would explain the change in Naruto in the Forest of death. And might explain Gaara, they are similar.

But Gaara has no love, even his own father tried to kill him. How people tried to kill him over and over again. It had nothing but fear for Gaara, and she knows that might have been Naruto. If Iruka sensi hadn't befriended him and Yuri hadn't been introduced to him. So many things could have gone wrong. Yuri holds her reaction, as best she can.

He was a terror in the Sand. And still is by the sounds of it.

The things Kankuro said make sense.

Yuri keeps herself between Gaara and Lee though.

She can tell by Naruto's expression, she knows he felt similar. Except that Gaara had tried to be killed many times, and Naruto never did. Gaara was terrifying. And he still is, and she knows Naruto has to be the one to bring Gaara out of it.

She has to ask Jirya about it.

Sand begins to move. Yuri is ready to fight but Guy sensi comes in.

She is glad he came in when he did. Saying something about leaving it for tomorrow. But it causes a mental breakdown in Gaara. He even leaves quietly.

"All the same, I will kill you. Just you wait. I'll kill you all." Gaara says as he walks out.

"What a creep." Yuri says after a moment.

"You're telling me." Shikamaru says.

That night at the festival she and Shikamaru were walking around, they hadn't been talking much. Not after everything they witnessed, but she didn't mind being quiet around Shikamaru. He had been complaining about being there.

"Just… let's find your dad." Yuri finally says.

They find him… drinking with Ino and Choji's fathers. It was always nice to see their friendship, she found it so endearing. Shikamaru didn't though, which made it even funnier.

"What a drag." He mumbles.

And his dad launches into it being ancient times, and he forgot that Shikamaru was in the competition. That was even funnier to her. But she needed to sleep as well. Doki would have killed her if she didn't rest.

"I'm going home Shika. Night." Yuri turns and walks away.

Notes: Wow! Another chapter done! I have almost finished the last chapter of OG Naruto! I just need to edit it and make sure the ending is good and satisfying for everyone involved and can lead into Shippuden. Sorry I am posting a little late! I almost forgot today! Please leave a comment and follow the story!