Chapter 4

(The Next Day…)

The next morning saw Naruto doing much the same as he did yesterday. His clones had split off into four groups of twenty-five, they would again work on chakra control, taijutsu, boujutsu, and then reading and fuiinjutsu (Calligraphy for the moment).

Meanwhile, Naruto would do his physical workout. It was a little harder than before, Naruto had decided to increase their weight by ten pounds, so he was having a few problems. But he still managed to pull through his routine and this time, he was not quite as exhausted, since his body was already adjusting due to the Kyuubi.

Naruto began having his clones dispelled in groups of ten, that way he would not pass out from memory overload. He created four more and told them to go out and hunt.

Meanwhile, he was getting the things necessary for the fire pit. However, as he was walking Naruto heard the distinct whistling of kunai, a sound he had grown intimately familiar with yesterday during his battle royal.

Dropping the rocks in his hand Naruto rolled forward, pulling a kunai from his pouch at the same time. Standing back up Naruto looked over where he had been to see an odd flat kunai sticking out of the ground. Looking around the blond tried to find where the person who tossed the kunai was located, even going so far as to channel chakra through his nose and ears. When he didn't find anyone Naruto became impatient.

"Oi! Show yourself before I kick your ass!" Naruto shouted, a bit of his old self coming back.

Several kunai were launched from within the trees. Naruto dodged some and blocked others, tossing his kunai into the trees they had come from. He was not very good at throwing kunai, having been focusing on other aspects, but he had merely wanted his opponent to reveal himself.

Or rather herself.

For it was a female who jumped out from within the trees. As she landed on the ground in front of him Naruto got a good look at the woman. Said woman was wearing clothing that could be considered more of a lack thereof than anything else. She had on a dark orange miniskirt that barely covered her unmentionables, a fishnet shirt that once again did really nothing to cover her, it was especially bad since she had no bra under it as far as Naruto could see. Over that she had a tan trench coat that covered just enough of her breasts that Naruto could not see her nipples. She was wearing a pair of standard shinobi sandals with shin guards over them and had a Konoha headband on her head that held up dark purple hair that looked kind of like Shikamaru's pineapple hairstyle.

The sight of this woman, who Naruto actually found really beautiful (read sexy, he's just too innocent to think that right now) and yet at the same time frightening for some reason, made him blush and look away.

Of course, this caused the woman to grin at him. "I take it you like what you see kiddo?"

"W-well… I… um… it's… er…" Naruto blushed as he began to sputter nonsensical words.

Anko's grin widened. "You know I usually castrate men for staring at me, so you should be lucky I'm making an exception this once."

Those words seemed to reboot Naruto's mouth as he turned back to her, "you know, I really don't think you have any right to attack men for looking at you. Since your clothing, your wearing, or perhaps I should say the clothing your 'not' wearing makes you stand out more than Sasuke-teme does when he's running around town from his fangirls."

"Oh-oh," Anko said with an amused smirk, "so the gaki can speak, after all, you know I had almost taken you for a mute."

Naruto scowled, "look I'm not in the mood to play games with you… whoever you are. I need to get back to my training, so why don't you tell me why you're here or leave."

"Now don't take that tone of voice with me gaki," Anko said in a teasing tone. Before Naruto could even blink, Anko tossed a Kunai that cut across his cheek before reappearing behind him, another kunai held to his neck.

Holy shit! Naruto thought, his eyes widening. She's fast! I didn't even see her move!

"I was just curious to see who was training out here is all," Anko said in a pouty-sounding voice as she wrapped her arm around his neck and pressed her chest into his back. She grinned as Naruto released an involuntary shudder and his blush came back full force. "Really, I mean when you get a new neighbor it's common courtesy to greet them."

"N-Neighbor?" asked Naruto as he tried to ignore the feeling of the woman's breasts pressed against his back. Having never had to deal with any kind of physical contact from a member of the opposite sex, except for the times Sakura hit him, he had absolutely no clue what to do in this situation.

"Uh-huh!" Anko said with a grin as she leaned closer to him. Naruto blushed when the woman licked the blood off his cheek, causing Ank's grin to widen, though she was slightly disappointed and confused when she saw that it was already healed. "This training ground is right next to my home away from home," she pointed over to the Forest of Death.

"You train there!" Naruto asked incredulously. He did not know what was in there, but if what he had heard the other day was any indication, it was not a friendly place.

"Yup!" Anko said, smiling at him. "It's such a great place, all the creatures there that would like nothing more than to kill you, the giant tigers that love to feast on human flesh, spiders, man-eating plants…"

As Anko continued to list off all of the 'amazing' animals that could be found within the forest, Naruto was thinking about other things. Dear Kami! This woman must be fucking crazy to go in there! And listen to her talk, it's like she gets off on life and death situations! As he continued to listen his mind went down a different path. Although she does seem strong, I didn't even see when she threw that kunai, and then she moved right next to me in an instant. It was obvious that when she had first gotten my attention she was toying with me. I wonder…

"You know, you never told me your name," Naruto interrupted the scantily clad kunoichi, who was currently talking about the best way to eat Dango, how she got on that topic without Naruto noticing is anyone's guess.

"Well since you're asking, why don't you tell me your name first gaki," Anko said.

Naruto gave her a cheeky grin. "Since you interrupted my training to introduce yourself, I believe it's common courtesy for you to give your name first."

"Heh well, I suppose you got me there," Anko smirked. "Well alright! I am the super sexy Mitirashi Anko!"

Naruto gave the woman a grin as he turned around after she let go of him. "And I'm Naruto, Uzumaki Naruto! Future Hokage of Konoha!" He stuck out his hand, "Pleased to meet you!"

Anko blinked in surprise, wait this is the Kyuubi gaki? The last time I saw him he was wearing that hideous orange jumpsuit. She had not seen the boy often. Usually, she would spot him after he had done some kind of prank and started running from the chunin, jonin, and occasional Anbu afterward. She actually found the boy's pranks to be pretty funny and had always looked forward to seeing what kind of havoc he would cause next.

Anko looked the boy up and down; well he definitely 'looks' more like a shinobi in that. I wonder what happened to his jumpsuit?

"Pleasure to meet you gaki," Anko said, taking the hand and shaking.

One of Naruto's eyes twitched, "you know I told you my name so you would use it."

Anko's grin threatened to split her face, "I know…"

Naruto was about to growl at her when he remembered how fast she had been and his disgruntlement vanished. "Hey, Anko?" said the woman looked at him. "That was really awesome the way you were able to throw that kunai so quickly, and then you got behind me like super-fast. So I was wondering if you would be willing to help with my training?"

Anko's eyes actually widened for a second. She had not thought he would actually request something like that, or request anything at all really. Truthfully she had just been curious to see who was near her turf, since most people stay away from any training ground near the Forest of Death, and had hoped that he would amuse her.

However she thought about the request, she would not be able to spend much time with the boy, but she was curious. She knew of the child, hell everyone knew of Uzumaki Naruto. Aside from being just the 'Kyuubi brat' as some of the civilians had called him, he was also known as the prankster king from hell, as well as the dead last of his class. In fact, she had heard that the only reason he graduated was that he managed to help that Chunin academy teacher Iruka catch Mizuki with a high-level jutsu.

Yet here he was, training with a butt load of Kage Bushin, truly an ingenious training method and something she suspected only he could really do. He was still totally rough around the edges, she could tell that he had just started learning his taijutsu style, even with the clones his moves were sloppy. Better than most on their first day but still sloppy.

"What makes you think I would want to train a brat like you?" asked Anko.

Naruto growled as his eyebrows twitched. "Hey! I'm not a brat! You stu-" He stopped right there and clenched his hands together, taking several deep breaths. Getting himself back under control he looked at Anko and smirked. "Because if you train me, you'll be able to brag about how you trained the Future Hokage of Konoha."

"Future Hokage of Konoha huh?" Anko mumbled with a smirk. She had been getting bored with the monotony in her life anyway, who knows, maybe training some brat would actually be fun. "Ok, you got yourself a deal Gaki, just meet me at the entrance to training ground 44 tomorrow and we'll begin the to- I mean training."

"Which training ground is training ground forty-four?" asked Naruto, completely oblivious to her slight slip up.

Anko grinned and pointed to the forest where he had heard all of the creepy-ass noises coming from the other day.

Naruto felt an involuntary shiver run down his spine but agreed anyways.

After all, how often was it that he actually had someone aside from the old man pay attention to him?

(The Next Day…)

Naruto cursed as he dodged the incoming snakes that were launched at him from the left. Jumping over to the next tree branch Naruto panted a bit as his cuts healed and the bit of snake venom in his body was flushed. Standing up Naruto looked around in fright.

He had met Anko today just outside of training ground forty-four as asked. Naruto had been hesitant to follow her when she had begun walking in the forest, but at her insistence, he had followed. Almost immediately after that, the hunt had begun and he had been running ever since.

Anko had disappeared and then began to play a game of death tag, using snakes, kunai, and anything else she could think of throw at him. He had yet to see her since, only catching a few glimpses of her here and there, right before she launched a snake or some other projectile at him.

To top it off there were all of the creatures that were in here that seemed to be flocking to the noise he was making in his haste to get away from the crazy snake using jonin. Everything from giant-ass spiders, to large man-eating plants, were there, and all of them tried to kill and devour him. So he had to not only worry about Anko but also worry about the creatures in the forest.

Training my ass! Naruto growled to himself. I'm starting to think she just wanted to torture some poor sap, and I was unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He was beginning to regret asking Anko to help train him.

Hearing a snap from behind Naruto rolled to the left, just dodging a giant spider that had tried to land on top of him. Grimacing, Naruto grabbed a kunai and wrapped an explosive tag around it. He had tried early on to kill these things another way that would be less wasteful but had learned that he did not have enough physical strength to kill them with just muscle power yet, even when it was enhanced by his chakra. And Naruto had not actually bothered to learn jutsu either, preferring to get his basic skills in chakra control, Tai, and boujutsu up to snuff.

He told himself as soon as he was out of here he was going to learn some jutsu that would get through these things thick hides.

As the spider began to move towards him Naruto threw the kunai, it managed to hit the creature right in the left eye, one of its only weak points. This was the only good thing this damn forest had given him right now, better aim since without it he would have been killed from wasting so many kunai.

The creature shrieked and thrashed in pain, however, it still continued to charge after Naruto. Putting his hands in a ram seal, Naruto activated the explosive tag. He jumped off the branch as the creature's head exploded in a gout of blood and brains.

Bouncing from branch to branch Naruto eventually landed on the ground. He leaned up against the tree, panting as he tried to get a breather.

Before he could, however, several kunai came at him from above. Naruto pulled out his own kunai and deflected some away from him as he rolled across the floor. Coming up on his feet Naruto's eyes widened as Anko swooped down on him like some kind of bird of prey.

He dodged her first kunai slash, jumping back as he tossed his own kunai at her. Anko merely caught and threw it back twice as fast. Naruto was able to dodge the attack but was not fast enough to dodge it entirely and ended up getting a knick on his left arm.

Deciding to test his taijutsu, Naruto ran towards Anko. He ignored the fear that welled up inside of him when he saw her grin.

Anko flicked out her hands and shouted "Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake)!" Several snakes were launched from her sleeves. She had used this jutsu enough in the time he had been running from her that Naruto had come to expect it and dodged to the right.

What he did not expect was for the snakes to change in mid-direction, coming at him from behind and wrapping tightly around him.

"You know charging at an opponent who is clearly superior to you is just stupid," Anko said with a large grin on her face, she had actually had fun today.

Naruto winced as his bones compressed. "Yeah I kind of figured that, but at the moment I don't have many jutsu to use. Kage Bunshin, Henge, Kariwimi, and my own Oiroke No Jutsu and that's it. None of those can be used for long-range attacks, and you're too fast for me to track to even think of using my kunai."

Anko nodded, "this is true, but you should have taken the time to think ahead and set up some traps or something instead."

"It's kind of hard to do that when you're busy fighting for your life," Naruto deadpanned as Anko's snakes disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Anko rubbed the back of her head, "yeah I suppose it is huh?" Naruto's eyebrow twitched. "But then again in real life, you're going to have to think quickly or you'll get yourself and others killed in the field."

Naruto winced as he rubbed his sore ribs, "yeah I know…"

"Now then," Anko rubbed her hands together. "Since I was kind enough to help you train, you're going to buy me some Dango!"

"What?" Naruto asked, thinking he hadn't heard her clearly.

"Yep, that's right you're going to buy me some Dango since I was gracious enough to help you," Anko stated.

"But.. That's… but I… fine." Naruto sighed when he saw her pout, this would probably take the last of his money but she had helped him, and now that she had brought the 'I helped you' trump card, he would feel guilty if he did not do as she asked.

"Where are we going?" He held his head down as he mourned the coming loss of his money.

Anko smirked as she grabbed Naruto and began dragging him to her favorite Dango stand.

***

"Ah! That was good," Anko said, patting her satisfied stomach. She had taken him to the place she usually got Dango from, and like she had asked (commanded) he had paid for her meal...

… of fourteen plates of Dango. Naruto was actually unsure whether to be shocked or impressed that this woman seemed capable of eating almost as much as he could.

"Glad you liked it," Naruto said dryly, listening to his stomach gurgle a bit.

Anko blinked as she too heard the sound. "If you're so hungry why didn't you eat as well?"

Naruto sighed, thinking about lying to her, but he had been talking to her, or at least, he had listened to her ramble and found out her profession was in torture and interrogation, so she would specialize in catching lies.

"You already cleaned me out of money," Naruto said with a sigh, holding up his empty frog wallet. "Until I begin going on missions I don't even have enough money to pay for utilities…"

Anko actually looked down a bit at that, actually starting to feel bad that she had pretty much just eaten him out of all his money. Contrary to popular belief, she was not some heartless bitch like most of the villagers made her out to be. However she had to put up a hard front of the villagers would try to harass her as they had after her sensei… she shook her head of the thought and looked at the blond in front of her. "Then why did you actually agree to pay for my food?" She asked.

"Because you helped me," Naruto shrugged as if that explained everything. "You're the first person to ever help me this directly. Even Hokage-Ojisan hasn't helped me like that."

Anko actually felt worse at hearing that. "What about your stipend? You're an orphan, right? Don't you get some kind of monthly allowance or whatever?"

Naruto shrugged, "yea when I was a civilian. But now that I'm a shinobi I won't be getting one anymore since I'm considered an adult." He noticed her guilty expression and sighed. "Look don't worry about it, I can see about getting some kind of part-time job when I'm not on missions so it should be fine." That is if anyone will actually let me work.

Anko looked at him oddly before shaking her head. "You know, you're a weird kid. I eat away the last of your money and you tell me not to worry about it. Great… now you actually made me feel bad." She groaned for a moment and looked at Naruto. "So tell you what, I'll help train you when I'm not on missions or torturing some poor sap, for free instead. In return, all you have to do is start giving me a good fight."

Naruto looked at Anko for a moment, thinking about the offer. It wasn't bad all things considered. Yeah, she kind of scared the shit out of him… actually she really scared the shit out of him. But she was also super strong from what he had been able to determine today. Strong enough to wipe the floor with him at least. He gave her a large grin, "you've got yourself a deal!"

***** End

Sen'eijashu (Hidden Shadow Snake) - C rank offensive jutsu. Allows the user to project several snakes from their wrist as they make punching motions towards their intended target. The snakes bite and wrap around the given target, potentially inflicting multiple wounds. They are also capable of poisoning a victim.

Henge (Transform) - E rank supplementary. A basic technique taught in all academies. This creates an illusionary transformation that can be used to transform into objects, such as items, animals, or other people. This technique is merely an illusion and upon being displaced by an object passing through will dispel.

Kariwimi (Body Replacement) - E rank supplementary. This lets the user quickly switch places with another nearby object, usually a log but can be done with others like a plant, animal, or even a person, leaving the opponent to counter-attack. Many forms of the debate have gone about as to what kind of jutsu this is. Some are under the belief that this jutsu is in fact a space/time ninjutsu at its most basic (Space-Time Jutsu includes jutsu's such as the Hiraishin used by the Yondaime Hokage).

Oroikie No Jutsu (Sexy Jutsu) - E rank, or A rank, depending on who you ask. The technique utilizes the true transformation technique or shadow transformation in order to transform into a beautiful nude woman. Unlike standard transformations, this is a real transformation that creates a chakra construct that envelops the user.