Training for the exams

The Forest of Death

It took Naruto five hours to find his abandoned cottage. Why did it take him so long you ask? Well for one he never read a map before so he got lost. And two he was attacked by man-eating plants, animals, and it was in the SS part of the forest. And if you didn't know he SS part of the forest is really dangerous, only high ANBU members and the Hokage are allowed in it. And for Naruto he's a lucky bastard not to get killed.

Now the cottage was the size of an average two storey house with a basement. It had a kitchen with a table and four chairs, a stove, and an empty fridge all powered by a generator in the basement.

The house/cottage had two bathrooms with a shower/bath, sink, and toilet.

Other than that those rooms the cottage/house was completely empty...until Naruto opened his scrolls.

Now the house had a couch, a recliner, and two lamps in the living room. He put three beds into the three bedrooms, along with some dressers, nightstands, and lamps.

And the basement was now a library, it was filled with scrolls containing jutsus, history, the human autonomy, and other various books. He also stored some of the weapons he stole from those bandits. As he was sorting through some scrolls he heard someone knock on his door. Naruto opened the door to see a panting Hokage.

"Hey old man how are you doing?" he snickered.

"Very funny Naruto, can I come in." Sarutobi said sacastically.

"Sure."

When Sarutobi got into the house, he was astounded that Naruto already moved in.

"So Naruto when did you get all of this furniture?" asked Sarutobi.

"I got them from the bandits I killed."

"Really, so how do like living here in the SS part of the forest that I accidentally gave you?" the Hokage asked nervously.

"I actually like it, its very dangerous, I can train here without people spying on me, and it keeps people from hurting me." Naruto replied.

"Yea, well...anyways here's the scrolls you asked for." said Sarutobi as he reached into his robe, and pulled out ten scrolls. "Well I'll see you around, oh and Kakashi is going to see you guy's tomorrow a 2:30, later Naruto."

"Bye old man." said Naruto as he went back to work.

After a few hours of working on his house, Naruto finally went to bed feeling safe for the first time in his life...well as safe as you can get in The Forest of Death.

The Next Day

Naruto woke up a 5:30 and went into town to do some shopping.

His first stop was the grocery store; where he bought grapes, lettuce, carrots, other vegetables, meat, orange juice, cereal, milk, and of course ramen.

He went to the cashier, only to notice that he was drowsy.

"Hey mister cashier, I would like to buy these groceries." Naruto said.

"Hmm...let's see grapes, lettuce, carrots, some other vegetables, meat, orange juice, cereal, milk, and ramen. That would be one-hundred and seventeen dollars and seventy-five cents." the cashier quietly checked and bagged the groceries.

As Naruto paid the man he came to one conclusion, store owner's were not morning people so they don't recognize him. Thereby making things cheaper for him.

His next and last stop was the pharmacy, to purchase some aspirin. When he got there he heard a person talking and coughing.

"Hey ( cough ) do you ( cough ) have my cough ( cough ) medicine yet?"

"Yes Hayate it came in at 4:00, here you go." said the shop owner.

Hayate is one of Konoha's Special Jounins. He's also the one who was judging the Chuunin exam's third stage preliminary matches. He is said to be one of the most talented shinobi of the leaf, but his ( apparently ) chronic sickness seems to have made him weak. He has bags under his eyes and doesn't look healthy at all.

He wore the standard Jounin vest, black shinobi pants, blue sandals, and a bandanna. His hair was brown, and his eyes were black, but what Naruto noticed was he had a katana.

'Hmm...I wonder if he's willing teach me kenjutsu?' wondered Naruto as he followed his out of the store, and onto Training Field Twenty, and jumped into a bush.

Training Field Twenty

Naruto watched Hayate do some practice cuts with his katana then shouted a very weird technique, "Dance of the Crescent Moon" he created three shadow clones, attacked a training dummy with extend-able swords in a complicated sword-dancing pattern, and destroyed it.

"( cough ) You can come out now ( cough )." Hayate said.

Naruto got up and simply scratched the back of his head while giving Hayate a sheepish grin.

'So, the Kyuubi kid is back huh...but why is he talking to me?' he noted neutrally, not really having anything against Naruto personally.

"So when did you notice me?"

"Since the ( cough ) pharmacy."

"Wow you're good." said Naruto

"Let's cut the ( cough ) chit-chat, what do ( cough ) you want with me?" Hayate asked.

Naruto stood straight up, looked him in the eye and said, "I would like you to train me, in the art of kenjutsu."

"And why ( cough ) would I do that?" he asked intrigued.

"You are probably the best swordsman in Konoha, you've mastered the Dance of the Crescent Moon at a young age, and my sensei would not train me even if I asked." Naruto replied.

"Who is ( cough ) your senesi? ( cough )"

"Kakashi Hatake." Naruto said making the man frown a bit.

"And who's on ( cough ) your team?"

"Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha."

"Uchiha." Hayate spat venomously.

"Huh, did I say something wrong?" Naruto.

"The Uchiha's are ( cough ) the reason, my brother ( cough ) was killed during a ( cough ) important mission."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"And let me ( cough ) guess Kakashi is neglecting ( cough ) you and the Haruno girl ( cough ) for the Uchiha."

"Yes." he replied.

"I'll help you, ( cough ) but it might ( cough ) kill you." said Hayate.

"Deal, oh I have to go its almost 7:00. Got to train" replied Naruto while running away.

Naruto was running to Training Field Seven, until he heard screaming and ran towards it.

Naruto ran towards the screaming as fast he could. He hopped up on the fence and observed the scene in front of him. There was two people in front of him one was a blonde-haired girl carrying a giant fan, she seemed to be in a conversation with the other stranger. The 'stranger' was wearing make-up on his face and had ,what naruto assumed was a weapon, bandaged and placed on his back. He was also holding Konohomaru in his left hand. "Let go of Konohomaru right now you meanie." Naruto looked over to the left and saw, Moegi, Udon, Sasuke, and Sakura.

Moegi was shouting at the stranger telling no demanding him to put Konohomaru down this instant. On the other hand Udon was on the ground shaking, Sakura was looking worried but trying to apologize to the two ninja about what happened, and Sasuke was in a fighting stance and was more than willing to show off his 'skills'. From the emblem on their headband Naruto guessed that they were sand ninja here for the Chuunin Exams. ( Kyuubi told him about it ) He decided to get closer and listen to the ninja's conversation.

"What do you think you are doing kid?"

"Let me go you big bully!" Konohamaru shouted.

"Kankuro, just put him down." the blonde girl said in a bored tone.

"After I teach this brat a lesson."

"Wait till Naruto-nii-san gets here. He is going to kick your ass." Konohamaru shouted with boost of hope.

Naruto frowned under his mask, he couldn't well do nothing and Konohamaru was like his little brother, so he decided to intervene.

He pulled his sword out, and ran at Kankuro hitting his hand with the flat end of his blade. Breaking it and dropping Konohamaru.

Naruto looked at the ninja in front of him, he looked at his forehead protector, "Sand-nin, you must be here for the Chuunin exams, you are a guest in the leaf and you will behave as such."

Temari was surprised, at the boys restraint, the blond clearly could have taken her brother apart at that moment, though whether he could in a full blown battle remained to be seen. She generally had a low opinion of Konoha ninja's but this boy looked younger than her youngest brother yet stronger than herself or her brother beside her. She looked at his mask, and his blue eyes through the mask which turned to her, she found she could not look away, it was clear the boy was intelligent and his confidence seemed absolute but not arrogant, he was tempered as if by fire, all this she saw from one look.

The sword swung away as did the blonds gaze from the kunoichi, he re-sheathed his sword. "Besides I don't think your companion is pleased."

Gaara's eyes widened ever so slightly, he abandoned what he was going to say to his brother as he stood under the branch of a tree.

Naruto noticed the girl and the black clad boy visibly begin to shake, in a swirl of sand the red haired boy appeared in front of Naruto. "Who are you?" Naruto observed the redheads expression, the look in his disturbing eyes, the odd tattoo with the kanji symbol for 'love' on his head, and the way he held himself casually.

The other ninja didn't answer; he just looked into the blue eyes of the stranger before him. The atmosphere changed as Gaara began leaking out killing intent, watching for the blond's response.

Naruto just continued to stare at the redheaded Sand-nin, his arms crossed he looked into pale green eyes, the killing intent simply washing over him even as it grew.

Temari was shivering under the pressure of her brothers foul intent, she looked at her other brother to see he was fairing no better, looking at the four people with the blond they were not suffering as bad as herself but they had were looking at the blond, apparently his presence was powerfully strengthening and as she too looked at the masked ninja in her shock almost forgot her own fear. The blond boy just stood there and returned her brother's gaze, his body perfectly steady and though his expression was firm there was no fear there. She had never met anybody that had been able to simply dismiss her brothers killing intent as if it was nothing, her fear grew once again, she was afraid of this boy.

Naruto worried for the others and decided enough was enough and flared his own intent from nothing to match that of his opponent for a mere fraction of a second. The breath left Temari, Kankuro and the other Konoha-nin but Gaara's intent suddenly stopped. There were seven sharp intakes of breath as relief swept over Udon, Konohomaru, Moegi, Sasuke, Sakura, and the two other sand-nin. Gaara spoke in his usual almost dead voice, "I am Gaara of the Sand these two are Kankuro and Temari, you are?"

"Naruto." Naruto kept his tone blank, he didn't like this boy at all. ( courtasy of Naruto-pwns-Kyuubi )

Gaara nodded, "Interesting." He glanced at his siblings, "Let's go." Without argument the group left. As they left Temari and Kankuro saw the glint in Gaara's eye, one that they recognised, Gaara had found someone he wanted to kill.

Naruto looked around; he saw the Konohamaru corps, Sasuke, and Sakura, he told them to go home and left.

3:30

Naruto was pissed not only was Kakashi late, but his teammates were trying to get him to talk.

Thankfully Kakashi arrived, only for the pink haired banshee to scream your late.

"Sorry, but I nominated you three for the Chuunin three only have a week to train, so good luck." said Kakashi as he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"Later loser's I have to train." said Naruto as he went towards the Forest of death.