Chapter 53 prepration

With the fights over the winners were gathered up in front of the giant statue of the hands, the Hokage as well as the jonins were all there as the final part was done. Everyone would be gotten a random number for the next round of fights. One by one the genins went up and took a green ball with a number on it. Once they called out their number their name was written on a board that had been brought in. Once the names were placed it was then that everyone could see their matches.

First final matches would be Sakura vs Ami, Naruto vs Gendo, Lee vs Dosu, Sasuke vs Gaara, Neji vs Shino, and finally Temari vs Shikamaru.

Neji didn't look too happy about that as he had wanted the Suna girl, but if he defeated Shino he could fight her if she won. Then again the fact he was up against Shikamaru could easily mean that she would win. He had nothing against the boy, it was just that Shikamaru was the laziest and undisciplined genin he had ever seen. The girl was obviously the total opposite so the odds were in favour of him meeting up with her.

The Mist ninja didn't look even phased by the death of their comrade, they did give cold looks to Gaara who just ignored them. Both of them were hoping to fight Gaara in the final rounds, although no one knew how Mist really operated other than Mist ninja, but failure was not tolerated. The fact that one of their own was killed only meant that he was weak and would have died at any rate. He should have tried to take the Suna boy down with him as the Mist didn't shy away from death.

Out of all the greater ninja nations, they were the smallest but it wasn't the face they were an island country, or their location, that kept them save and a force to be feared, it was how they fought. They fought with embracing death. They killed without hesitation, attacked without worrying about their own safety. If death was assured then you were to take your enemy to hell with you. That is what it meant to be a Mist ninja, you were to become demons and monsters of death and mayhem.

That was why they were one of the strongest, and why no one had invaded their lands in a long time. Because everyone knew that you would have to pay in blood for every inch you stepped.

After the Hokage dismissed them the teams were filling out of the area. A safe path would be given to the teams for the quickest way out of the forest but Kakashi had other things to do at the moment. So far he had to trail all three of his students for the final round. He had been thinking on this, each student would need to be trained individually in order to win and even survive this. Kakashi didn't like that two of his genins were going up against those Mist genins. Plus Sasuke just had to get that Gaara kid as well. At any rate he wouldn't be able to split his attention between all three and still get them ready.

He moved off to make sure that he would be able to get at least one student training by someone he trusted.

"Anko can I speak with you?" Kakashi asked as he walked up to his girlfriend.

"Sure what is it?"

"I need a favour."

She smirked at him, "Again, well just because we're dating doesn't mean its for free. So what do you need me for?"

"I want you to train Sakura for me for the month," Kakashi said to her. "I have a new Justus that she can learn and she'll need to learn them. I can't teach her but you can, plus I think she looks up to you. Also I know you can help her out and I trust you."

Anko was surprised by this and felt happy that he was trusting her with one of his genins. Sure she had helped out before but this was a bit more different, he was placing the life of his genin in her hands. She had seen what that Ami kid had done. Sakura would need to really get some training in, to survive a fight with that girl. Plus she had to admit the search pink haired girl had been impressing her lately. First in the forest and now in the arena, she was curious as to what the girl could do if really pushed hard.

"You know what, I'll do it for free. I like the girl and tell her that in a couple of days I'll come by her place. I need to get a training area ready first so I hope she doesn't mind."

Kakashi nodded, "That's good a couple of days is all I need to set things up. Thanks."

"Not a problem." She grinned at him.

Now with that out of the way he needed to track down the person he wanted to train Naruto, plus he needed him to take a look at that seal on Naruto's stomach. He had gotten lucky with the opponent but he could already see that people were giving him questioning looks. It had to be hard to keep that a secret from everyone and if this kept up, they might figure it out. But it was Naruto's choice to tell them he wouldn't interfere. Sometimes a parent had to let a child make their own choices in life. It was the only way to truly learn and grow at times.

-Forest of Death Tower: Hospital area-

The Tower had its own medical area given that this place was designed for holding battles. Each person was given their own room so that each person would heal in peace. Once they were stabilized they would be moved to the main hospital in the village for further care. At this moment Neji was standing outside the room for Tenten, he had been waiting for over an hour before the medics told him that he could visit her but only for an hour. She needed her rest after they had fixed her up.

Neji saw Lee and Gai as well but Gai just gave him a thumbs up. Neji sighed as he went in and gently went to the single bed in the small room. Tenten was lying in the bed, the medics had taken her hair out of the buns and it was all loose. He felt his cheeks heat up as he looked at her, she had a few bandages here and there but she looked peaceful like that. Even kind of, beautiful.

He shook himself out of it as he tried to think of something else.

"Neji?" Tenten's voice called out to him. He looked to see her eyes were open as looking at him. When their eyes locked she suddenly looked away, almost in shame. "I can't believe I lost so badly."

"I thought I already told you that I was proud of how fierce you fought?" Neji said as he took the seat next to her bed.

"I know but still…I thought I was better then that." Tenten sighed, she wouldn't feel like this if she had only done better. There was nothing wrong with losing but losing that badly had hurt her pride as a ninja.

Neji knew how prideful she was, her ambition was to be as famous as the great Tsunade after all. He wasn't sure what to say, he wasn't that great when it came to personal stuff. "Tenten, we all think you did your best and we're all proud. The only thing you can do now is learn from it and get stronger."

Tenten looked up at the ceiling as she thought about that, it was true that she could learn something from this. She needed to come up with a way to get around that hole in her technique.

"It seems I'm fighting Shino but if I pass him then I'll be fighting the Suna girl most likely." Neji told her. "I'm not sure how to beat her but there is a month to plan for that. However there is the problem with Shino, with his bugs he can attack on multiple angles. There is a technique I could do, but I'll need you're help with it."

"My help?" She blinked at him.

He nodded, "I need someone I trust and whose skills are perfect for this. I need your strength in order to win, plus I'm sure between us we could think of something to deal with that girl's wind attacks."

Tenten felt her cheeks heat up slightly, he wanted to train with just her, for a full month? "You sure you want me?"

He took her hand in his and squeezed it gently, "There is no one else I would want."

Sakura had to wait even longer than Neji did, given that Ino had been even more injured. After being told that Anko would be her sensei for the month she had been a bit excited at that. But now she was just filled with worry, her oldest friend was laying in there and she felt so helpless. She wanted to be able to help but what could she do? Once again people around her were injured and she could do nothing. It was like the forest all over again, she only knew the basics that were taught in school about first aid. Not how to stop bleeding wounds, blood loss and major injuries.

She caught a waste basket to the side, there were bloody bandages that hadn't been thrown out yet, a feeling of throwing up nearly came to her. But she quickly put it down, now wasn't the time and she needed to see Ino first. She was asleep by the looks of it and she just sat there looking at her best friend in the world. She looked paler than normal and she was breathing deep, most likely she was under some kind of medication.

Sakura gently touched her friends hand with hers. "I don't know if you can hear me, but I'll get that girl back for this. I'm going to train hard this month and I will beat her, you have my promise on that."

After Sakura left she felt a new determination to avenger her friend, she saw her team had been waiting and nodded to them as they went in to check on her. Sakura found her team waiting around for Kakashi to show up. She cast a look to her teammates, she was a little worried about both of them for different reasons. But it was Naruto that had her concerned the most.

"So how is Ino doing?" Naruto asked.

"Better, but she lost a lot of blood. They want to keep her overnight to let her body rest before moving her." Sakura remembered the old bloody bandages she had seen. "She was so lucky, if that girl had cut into her wrists or something she would have bleed to death."

"Man these Mist guys are pissing me off," Naruto said angrily. "I mean what they tried to pull with Kiba and now Ino. Plus they weren't concerned at all that one of their teammates was killed."

"They obviously don't care about their teammates," Sasuke spoke up as he thought about it. "Remember that story Kakashi-sensei told us about how it used to be called the Blood Mist? I get the feeling that it's everyone for themselves there, it hasn't been that long and depending on who trained them, if they're from that older generation like Zabuza..."

He left it hanging as that reminded them of their encounter, they couldn't speak out about it just in case someone overheard. But they all remembered how Zabuza had been a very cold person before he had a change of heart. It might be a good thing that the Mist sensei hadn't been seen, not all genins had their sensei with them. After all with all the other teams here they had only seen one sensei from Suna. Even Kabuto's team didn't seem to have one with them.

"Well we got a month to train for them," Sasuke commented as the others nodded with that.

Sakura looked to Naruto, he seemed a bit better now than he had been earlier. She figured that maybe she could ask him what was bothering him and what was going on.

"Hey Naruto, do you want to talk about what happened?" She asked gently.

"W-What do you mean?" He asked trying to feign ignorance.

"She means the weird feeling you gave off in the forest and what happened with that guy you fought." Sasuke said point plank, he never was one to dance around a topic. He too had started to notice the odd things with Naruto and he didn't like people keeping secrets from him.

Naruto wasn't sure what to do at the moment he had thought about telling them the true many times, but honestly it's not something you can just tell people. He was still debating telling Hinata in fact he felt she had more of a right to know. He was in a relationship with her now so he had to tell her at some point, but there was still that fear of what would people think of his secrets. He didn't like it but sometimes you couldn't just tell people everything. He looked at his two teammates and knew that he couldn't keep them in the dark eventually.

Sakura could see that this was really bothering Naruto, he always seemed so sure of himself but now being so lost on what to do, she felt a bit bad putting him in a spot like this.

"Naruto you know you can trust us with anything right?" Sakura told him. "We wouldn't think anything less of you but if you don't want to tell us you don't have to. But just remember that we're your friends and always will be okay?"

Okay, now Naruto felt both bad and keeping his secrets and guilty. After everything they had gone through they did deserve to know something, what kind of friend would he be? He needed time to think, both on what to do and what to tell them, let alone how to tell them. It's not like you can just blurt out the biggest secrets you had. Maybe he could finally tell someone, this secret was like the weight of the world on his shoulders.

"Guys I know you're my team and I want to tell you...but it's kind of hard for me." Naruto said softly.

"So there is something," Sasuke commented as he sighed. "Well whatever, everyone is entitled to their personal lives but this isn't something we have to worry about is it?"

"No, in fact I only found out not too long ago," He figured that if they could understand a bit they might accept that much. At least for now they might. "But I can't speak about it in a place like this, too many people could hear it."

"Well...when you're ready we will be there to listen okay?" Sakura said with a smile.

Naruto looked at the two of them and he felt a bit better that they were patience with him. He smiled under his mask and nodded.

"Ah there you all are," Kakashi said walking up to them. "I managed to get things settled, so everyone meet me tomorrow at the usual time and place. Also Naruto, I will be working late on something so please don't wait up."

"Something important?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi nodded, "Just something to help deal with Sasuke's little problem with that mark. I would have done it sooner but staying around here and looking for help in training you all, well I got behind in my work."

"Help with our training?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi nodded, "Yes, I can't train all three of you. So I'll be training Sasuke, I hope you don't mind Naruto but I've trained you for your entire life and I felt you needed someone else's help for once. Don't worry the man I picked will certainly help you beat that guy you're up against."

'At least I hope I can find him, I know he's here but I need to make sure that I give Naruto a good teacher. Also I'm pretty sure I can convince him to train Naruto.' Kakashi thought to himself.

" As for Sakura, I hope you don't mind who I picked. She's very interested in training you for the month, also I'll be giving you some jutsu scrolls. It's time you learned to harness your elemental chakra and if I remember you tested as water."

"It should be very surprising to be able to use that against your opponent as I bet she won't be expecting that." Kakashi concluded.

Sakura grinned at that, anything that would help her was welcomed.

-Elsewhere-

It hadn't been easy for Kakashi to find him, he had considered using his dogs to find him but honestly he was still trying to avoid high chakra use, and summoning wasn't easy on your chakra. So he resorted to the old fashion way. He went looking for where any pervert would be, the adult book store was a bust and he had to force himself not to stay too long in there. Then there were the parks, public pool, but the hot springs was when he had finally found him. For a normal person or even an average ninja he would have been hard to spot, but Kakashi wasn't called a genius as a child for nothing.

There behind the wall of the women's section hidden behind some realistic looking bushes was Jiraiya as he was looking through a small peephole that he obvious had made. He giggled as he stop to write something down. Kakashi slowly made his way up behind him, he figured the man's attention was totally on the women.

"So how did the kid do? I heard you ran into some trouble in the forest." Jiraiya said not looking up from his notes.

Kakashi blinked in surprise, obviously even at least fifty the man's skills hadn't lessened. Well the man was a legend for a reason.

"Yes, Orochimaru was in the Forest of Death and I got the injuries to prove it." Kakashi tried not to clench his teeth at the thought of what the man had done to his genins and Anko. "He also put a curse mark on Sasuke."

That got Jiraiya to stop writing he knew a serious topic when one came up. "What do you plan on doing with that? Even I can't get rid of those damn things. I tried once with that girlfriend of yours when she first got back."

Kakashi was yet again surprised, "She never mentioned that."

"Oh she didn't know, as she hadn't been conscious at the time. They weren't sure of her loyalties that early on." He sighed remembering that day. He had been found and brought back to take a look at the seal when the girl was unconscious. He tried a few things but whatever Orochimaru had been playing around with wasn't anything he had seen before.

"Well I plan on putting a seal around it, it should help him at least search control it from activating." Kakashi told him and he nodded his head. "Also I'm here on a more personal matter."

"What's that?"

"I want you to train Naruto for the month," Kakashi said simply. "I can't train them all, I got Anko training Sakura and I need to train Sasuke as there are only a few things that only I can teach him. He'll need them to survive. Naruto's fight is going to be deadly and I need you to train him for me."

"What's the worst that can happen?"

Kakashi gave him a serious look, "He's up against a Mist member and they are out to prove something."

Jiraiya groaned in disgust, if a Mist ninja wasn't bad enough, one with something to prove was even worse.

"Plus I need you to take a look at him as well, Orochimaru did something to the seal."

Those words made Jiraiya drop his note pad, to mess with the seal that Minato put on Naruto was insane. Not even he knew the full extend of the seal, as it was the most complex and brilliant design he had ever seen. Sure he could copy the effects but there was something about the seal that eluded him. Then again, Minato had been a true genius with seals and ninjutsu. Someone like him only game maybe once a hundred years. But the fact that Orochimaru would do something so dangerous just proved how insane his team mate had gone.

"What are the effects?" Jiraiya asked as he got his pad off the grass.

"He seems to have trouble moulding his chakra."

Jiraiya thought about it, only a few things could do that, thankfully nothing came to mind that was dangerous like releasing that damn Fox demon among them again. Well he would have to deal with his, he couldn't have Orochimaru screwing around with things like that at any rate. Plus the boy was interesting, he still remembered their 'first' meeting at these hot springs. The kid was something to say the least. He planned on training the boy anyway when the time was right, in Minato's memory but it looked like he would have to start off a bit more earlier than he had planned.

"Have him meet me here tomorrow and I'll get started." Jiraiya said as he went back to looking at the beautiful women in the warm water again.

Kakashi only nodded as he left quietly, with that out of the way now he just needed to set up the seal for Sasuke that he would use tomorrow. He sighed, it was a long day and already it wasn't over with yet.

-Outside the Hatake home-

Naruto sighed as he walked home, he didn't really feel like eating only sleeping for a day. He was wondering what his dad would be doing but decided that he would find out soon enough. Plus he had to sleep on what he was going to do with his secret. Then there was this mysterious trainer, who was his dad going to pick? Was it someone that he knew like a jonin or someone special? He tried to think of what could possibly be the new trainer but honestly he wasn't sure. The only thing he knew was that it was a guy and that was it.

"N-Naruto-kun."

Naruto nearly jumped at the sound of Hinata's soft voice, he was surprised to find her behind him. He must have really been out of it to not notice her of all people. Suddenly he felt a lot happier seeing her there. "Hey there Hinata-chan, sorry you didn't pass but that was one hell of a fight. I'm sure you'll be a lot strong next time!"

Hinata gave a soft smile at this, he always was behind her even in her defeats. "T-thank you, I decided that I didn't want to fall behind so I'm having Kurenai-sensei train me. Shino-kun is training with his family and I wanted to learn more than just my family style. Kurenai sensei said she would agree but I came here for another reason."

"Oh?" Naruto wondered what it could be, then again he had the home alone maybe she wanted to make out? He grinned at the thought of them on the couch together for who knows how long.

"M-My father wants you over for dinner," Hinata said bursting his bubble. "He knows that we're dating and wants to meat you."

"But he already knows me." Naruto said confused.

She looked down playing with her fingers when she was really nervous about something. "No, I mean in a more, professional point. As in he wants to talk about us with you."

"Oh...that kind of dinner," Naruto said in a very defeated tone. He knew that kind of thing might happen but he had hoped that since Hiashi knew him so well he might let it slid. Apparently not and now he had to do this as well.

Hinata nodded, "If you can, can you make it tomorrow night? I know the training might start then but after that night we might not see each other for over a month." She looked a bit depressed at this and he suddenly realised that this would be a month without his girlfriend.

'Oh man this is going to be a very long month,' Naruto thought. 'If I want to see her one last time then I have to go through with this and get it over with at the same time.'

"Is this formal?" He asked with a sigh.

"He insisted," Hinata told him.

Naruto hung his head in defeat, "I'll be there by seven."

Hinata looked up happy that he would agree and hugged him tightly. He felt how her body pressed up against him. He also couldn't help but remember what she looked like in a swimsuit and out of it and what was pressed up against him. Well, maybe it wasn't all bad if he got hugs from her at least.

"Thank you so much." She told him smiling.

He couldn't help but smile back, "Well anything for my girlfriend right, what kind of boyfriend would I be?"

She giggled at him happy that he would agree to this, she just hoped her family would behave.

Chapter 54: Meet the Trainers