Chapter 11: Juggling Life

Chapter eleven – Juggling Life

"Fine art is something wonderful that's left long into the future... eternal beauty." - Sasori

It was nightfall, but no one inside the base would know the difference. Within the cave it was always dark, the only light they had was from torches giving off a red tinted glow, stationed around the base.

After Minato followed them to the food area, Naruto had met with the rest of her team. Greeting Anko with relief and happiness, but was only met with a grunt and a nod. She made it obvious for everyone that opinion hadn't changed while they were apart. So Naruto guessed they still weren't on friendly terms.

Minato had instructed them where they could go get food and where the sleeping headquarters was located before he went back to whatever he'd been doing before. Disappearing into the continually busy crowd in the direction of the medic station.

After a short recap of their mission so far, where Naruto's miraculously healed shin was focused on a little too long for the blonde's liking, Orochimaru started telling them about the next stage of their mission.

From the maps on the table Naruto quickly found out that she was currently in what in the future would be known as Otogakure. Feeling a sense of irony Naruto had snorted and peeked up at her sensei, but Orochimaru had pretended not to notice the girl's reaction.

From here they would go a little further north, up to the sea, and then walk east towards the land of hot water. That land was dangerous in these days, and Naruto wasn't looking forwards to this stage of the mission. But once they got through the land they would get to the land of Frost and here they would find Shimogakure, their destination. The main task of the mission was to deliver a scroll to someone in Shimo which Orochimaru was keeping safe for the duration of the mission.

What it entailed was all hush, hush, and when Naruto had asked she'd received a biting reply.

If everything went as planned, this would simply be a tracking mission, but because of the many risks two teams had been assigned to go. This hadn't been about reaching the front line base at all, but about getting to Shimo.

The Hokage probably loaded them with supplies to be useful since they were heading in that direction. At least that's what Naruto had concluded. Hiding a yawn behind her hand Naruto listened on while Orochimaru went through the finer details. They wouldn't split up as they had done before, but they would walk in two groups, one before the other with about half an hour space in between them.

Orochimaru and Choza knew how to contact one another on short notice in case backup was needed. Naruto guessed it would involve snake summons.

After the details of the mission were clarified, and that they wouldn't be leaving the base for a few more days, everyone started eating dinner with renewed vigor. Though Naruto had barely returned to the table with a bowl of rice before Orochimaru spoke up again.

"I have a new exercise for you Naruto." Said Orochimaru from his corner of the table. Naruto was situated in the middle and she looked blankly back at her sensei. What was it this time?

He threw two round things at her, and on instinct she caught them both before they could drill holes in her head. The palms of her hands stung and she looked at the objects she'd caught with curiosity.

Two white balls.

She looked confused back up at Orochimaru. Not able to guess what the hell this meant.

"You're going to learn how to juggle. Once you can manage those two, I'll give you a third. Then a fourth. You need to train your mind to multi task and juggling is an art in controlling patterns. Controlling patterns in time and space. An exercise you are pitiful at. So eat up and go learn how to juggle." Orochimaru told her in a bored voice before grabbing at his chopstick and continued with his meal.

Naruto looked shocked back at the snake sannin, not sure if he was messing with her or just gone more insane than he already was. Her eyes trailed over the other people around the table, most of them seemed confused, but didn't say anything. Though Anko was grinning into her bowl of rice.

Quickly Naruto put down the balls next to her plate before reaching for her chopsticks. What the sannin was playing at she couldn't guess, but Naruto still had some left over stubbornness in her.

She would show that snake. She was going to learn how to juggle in record time, and then she was going to put the balls on fire and throw them at him. She'd come up with something more elaborate later, but for now that's where her main thoughts lingered by.

So once the party split up Naruto went to a more quiet part of the cave, the rocky shore closest to the underground lake where people didn't venture too close to, and started. It was surprisingly hard. Naruto had once seen a performer do it with five, and they had been kunais instead of balls, but Naruto had more than enough trouble with two.

Shisui was a patient audience, though he looked like he was sleeping more than watching for the first hour. Anko was training with Orochimaru a little ahead of them. He was drilling her on some of his nastier kinjutsu. Some reptile thing Naruto had no interest in learning herself.

It took her two hours before Orochimaru threw the next ball to her. Or at her. Naruto barely caught it, and the two balls she'd been juggling crashed to the ground and rolled away.

"Next time I throw a ball you'll catch it and still keep the three balls juggling." Orochimaru stated with a creepy smile. Naruto shuddered but nodded mutely.

If Naruto had thought two was difficult, it was nothing compared to three. Genma came over and gave her a few pointers about timing, but didn't seem to be any better at it himself when she asked him to demonstrate.

In the end she felt a good night sleep was the best way to progress with this. It was impossible to know what the time was, she didn't own a watch, but Shisui had long since fallen asleep against the wall of the cave.

After waking Shisui up and half dragging him to their sleeping area, she started preparing for bed herself.

Sleepy, but hardly as exhausted as Shisui was, Naruto went to bed. They had a corner where their sleeping bags and a couple of borrowed futons had been placed out for them. Naruto lay down in between Shisui and Genma who was already fast asleep.

The surface was hard and uneven. Not caring, and rolling onto her side she stared into the back of Shisui's head while she tried to fall asleep.

Her mind drifted randomly to when she would have enough money to go to Ichiraku ramen stand to how to patch thing up to Anko and over to trivial things such as where she'd put her hairbrush before she left for this mission. It was not with her, and she doubted Anko would let her borrow hers.

Shisui's hair wasn't very interesting though, so she tried to sleep on her back. Around the hall people were still buzzing around, and she found it difficult to sleep in such an active room. There were also people sleeping in random places around the corners of the cave. Freeing up the middle ground for those still working.

While waiting for sleep she overheard a few conversations of people passing by.

"…and the eastern route is completely inaccessible, Boa never..."

"…so sick of plain rice..."

"...the village is now occupied by Iwa ninja..."

"…let's just say I made it worth her while, if you know what I mean."

"…missed Shibi's funeral, but I'll go lay down flowers when I return to Konoha. His brother was…"

The last comment made Naruto look up. Her mind spinning with some sort of recollection at the name 'Shibi'. Was that someone she'd heard of? But whatever Naruto was attempting to remember wasn't coming back to her.

The stone ground was uncomfortable so she turned to the other side. And was met by the sight of Genma who was drooling a little. Naruto stifled a snicker.

She was tired, but sleep still wasn't easy to achieve. It was hours later, after Shisui had rolled over and was now occupying half of Naruto's spot, that the blonde fell asleep. She had just made sure to kick the Uchiha a few times beforehand, so he drowsily managed to get back to his spot.

Naruto had no idea what time it was when she was shaken awake by Genma. She was confused at first because there was a weight on her neck that wasn't caused by Genma's shake.

Pushing the uncomfortable thing away, only to realize it was a hand, she looked sideways to find Shisui splayed out as if he was sleeping in a king sized bed instead of a narrow futon.

It was his arm that'd been lying across her neck, but not in some sort of hold. He was laying on his back, his arm pin straight to each side, one across Naruto, as if he was dreaming about greeting a long lost friend.

Genma looked like he had just woken up himself. His hair was without the bandanna and it was sticking out in every possible direction. Naruto noted that her hair looked like that too when she had her hair short. As a child the first time around everyone had thought she was a boy because of her short hair.

Naruto sat clumsily up, feeling like she hadn't slept at all while she looked groggily around. Anko was already walking about, packing up her things and fully dressed. Gai was nowhere in sight but Ebisu was having a conversation with someone Naruto didn't know.

Shisui on the other hand was still deeply asleep and showing no signs of waking up anytime soon. Naruto kicked him.

"Bwah!" The Uchiha cried and shot up, his arms still outstretched on each side. Naruto raised an eyebrow.

"What the hell? You're horrible to sleep next to Shisui, dattebayo. I don't remember you being this restless before." Naruto muttered and dragged a hand though her hair. Thinking back to the mission they'd been on so far and the outing with Kakashi. But the latter didn't count that much. He'd been fever ridden then. But the other times? Well, they hadn't slept next to one another then. Maybe he always was like that normally. Shisui lowered his arms and looked confused around.

"What?" Muttered Shisui, one hand trying to force sleep from his eyes while the other pushed down his sleeping bag to his waist. Shisui looked up at her and then suddenly grinned.

"You have sleeping marks on your face, Naruto. And what happened to your hair?" He said half asleep, half chuckling. Naruto touched her cheek, and felt texture where there normally wasn't. She must have slept with her cheek against a rock before she woke up. Naruto pouted back at Shisui.

"Hey, at least I don't sleep like I'm a bird in flight, dattebayo. I woke up with your hand in my face. And yesterday you rolled around so much I had to kick you to get you to lay on your side." Naruto shot back.

"Hey, I can't control how I sleep." Muttered Shisui and blushed.

"Neither can I." Naruto replied and pointed to her face.

"Seriously… I don't think I've ever seen hair stick up like that." Genma said, a little more awake now and chuckled when Naruto turned on him.

Automatically she let her hand run through the strands. Grimacing when she realized it was standing more upwards than downwards. Looking at her wrist she found the two hair bands she used to put them into piggy tails, but was too lazy to attempt at that hairdo now.

Instead she put it up into a high ponytail and flattened it out as much as possible. Her bangs fell out almost immediately, but Naruto couldn't find it in her to care today. Over a week had gone by without a hairbrush, and there would be weeks until she had one again, so this was the best she'd be able to do.

After getting dressed in the locker room, more like locker cave, Naruto walked alone over to the food section on the upper landing of the main hall, where most of her comrades was already sitting and eating breakfast.

They had three days to rest before they set out for the second stage of the mission. Orochimaru was constantly meeting with people at the base. Delivering messages and planning things his students wasn't allowed to know.

And since none of them were allowed outside it meant they had a lot of spare time to just sit around and be bored. But in between meetings Orochimaru made sure to give them tasks, mostly exercises to work on while they were in the hideout.

Naruto used her time to continue learning juggling. While Orochimaru was freaky and evil and cruel and disgusting, he was also smart.

Naruto had concluded that there might be things she could pick up from him that would later be to her advantage the day she killed him. She looked forward to that day, but in the mean time she needed to play along.

Killing Orochimaru now was the same as getting herself executed for treason. Konoha didn't know what the freak was capable of doing and that Naruto would be doing the village a great service. Which was truly something that frustrated her.

This play pretense was getting old very fast, not that she struggled hard to keep her emotions in check. Orochimaru knew fully well how she felt about him. What she didn't know was what he wanted.

The first thing she did when tackling juggling was making around fifteen kage bunshin, and all sixteen Naruto started attempting to juggle with three balls. This was about technique, and while clones were less effective with muscle memory than it was with chakra exercises, she still counted on the bunshin to speed up the process some.

It must have been quite a sight for the rest. Multiple Narutos dropping balls every other moment and strolling aimlessly around without paying attention to where they were walking as they juggled.

One walked straight into the underground lake and popped into smoke. Another clone found itself inside a fully active operation without having noticed it was even in the medic area, and another managed to get in the line of fire of Anko's new technique.

Naruto was just grateful it hadn't been the real her that had taken that hit. The clone's last memory was of an intense itching that had made her want to tear her own skin off because it was so irritating.

After four hours she dispelled all the clones and used their gathered memories to juggle. It worked, and Naruto found herself able to juggle both faster and without mistake with the three balls. The victory was short lived though, because Orochimaru threw another ball to her.

Naruto didn't manage to keep juggling while he threw, but she did stop them from falling before catching the ball. Scowling to her sensei she wordlessly did what he wanted. But not before wolfing down a bowl of rice for lunch and catching up with Shisui and the rest.

Ebisu was helping out at the medic station together with Gai. Carrying equipment to different stations, or assisting with getting patients drinks and food.

Shisui was working on his kenjutsu with Genma. The two boys were getting along great, and both loved to use blades in battle. While Genma favored his senbon, he also specialized in other weapons. He had a katana while Shisui preferred his tantō, and during lunch he eagerly tried to gesture about something that had happened in the last few hours while Naruto had been juggling. He was so excited it was hard for him to stop talking.

"… and then Genma came at me. His katana has a much longer reach than my tantō, his arms too since he's taller, and it forces me to think differently. I tell you it is great practice for when battling enemies. The situation is always the same for us because we're young, but Genma-san showed me some really cool techniques. When you're finished juggling I'll show you! And then there was this side step trick, what you do is..." And so forth, and so forth. Naruto nodded along, trying but failing to catch everything because of the speed the Uchiha was talking at.

After lunch Naruto went back to her training spot by the lake in a bad mood since both her teammates were doing cooler things than she was.

Juggling… She was almost certain by now that Orochimaru was playing a prank on her.

It was late into the afternoon that Minato came up to her, his face curious and amused as he watched her attempt and fail to juggle with four balls.

"Is this a hobby of yours?" He asked teasingly, Naruto didn't have time to look back at him, her eyes were strained towards the clumsily moving balls in front of her.

"No. Apparently it…." Naruto trailed off when one of the balls was thrown with too much force, making the whole thing collapse for the thousand time that day. Two of her clones did the same.

"Gah!" Naruto growled and bent down to pick up the balls before they had time to roll away again. She wasn't going into that lake for a fifth time.

Minato chuckled and picked up one of the balls that had rolled over to his feet and handed it to the clone that'd dropped it. "You have a lot of chakra. You've kept fifteen clones up for the whole day. Just having fifteen clones on its own is impressive, but your method is really unique. Not to mention you're eight… That's unheard of really." Minato said, badly disguised curiosity lazed into his voice while Naruto started to juggle again.

"Really?" Naruto muttered, pretending that this was news for her. She wasn't sure what to say to him.

Naruto had always had large reserves. But more so now than she had originally when she was eight because her old reserves had come back with her though her body had de-aged. It was a bad combination, but Naruto was slowly learning to control it for every passing week.

She just wished she could use her clones for this sort of thing. But even a thousand clones couldn't speed up the development of her chakra coils.

"Yes. Jiraiya-sensei has told me a lot about you of course, but it's a different thing to hear it then to see it. I half thought he was exaggerating." Minato shared with her and sat down on a rock a little behind where Naruto stood.

"He does that a lot. I don't blame you for being skeptical." Naruto replied and smiled to herself. She felt a growing urge to succeed all of a sudden. To prove herself in front of her father. It was a stupid technique, juggling of all things, but it was at least something.

None of her sensei in the past had spent much time observing. Out of all of them Orochimaru was actually the most attentive. Kakashi and Jiraiya was more the type to explain and then go do something else. It forced her to think for herself, but it also made the progress slower.

She had been forced to find her own answers, and maybe that was the most important lesson they had ever taught her.

"Still…" Minato said with a fond smile Naruto couldn't see. He got to his feet and studied her technique. "I'm guessing Orochimaru is making you work on coordination and multitasking. I admit I heard a funny story just now. Something about a spinning water sphere?" Minato asked and tilted his head.

Naruto was too concentrated though, her lip was sticking a little out and her brow was furrowed while she tried to get the rhythm right. She had a habit of using too much force when she threw a ball up, messing up the regular speed needed to keep all four balls moving in the same rhythm.

"Uhu..." Naruto answered as the balls started flowing better. A more fluid speed was in her wrist movements, and instead of tensing up she felt her shoulders relax. Naruto almost closed her eyes, wanting to relax even more, but quickly realized that would be a huge mistake. She wasn't that good yet.

While she worked Naruto was counting how many times she could juggle before it all fell. If she could keep it up for two more minutes this would be her personal best.

"That's interesting. It's actually similar to something I'm working on." Minato said off handedly. Following her movement with interest.

"Oh?" Naruto squeaked. One of the balls lost its rhythm, and she passed on the weird sound for her trying to correct her mistake instead of her nerves about the fact that Minato had already drawn that conclusion.

"Yeah. It's called rasengan. It's a powerful attack already. An A rank attack but it's not completed. You used suiton to create a spinning water sphere according to Orochimaru-sama. He described it as low D rank at its current level, but that it had potential to become a lot more powerful. How fast was it spinning? And he said you used a clone to focus on spinning it in the opposite direction? That's why you are training on juggling according to him. So your brain will grasp different actions simultaneously."

All the balls fell into a heap. Naruto sighed as they rolled away for the umpteenth time.

Instead of collecting them she looked back at Minato still sitting behind her. "It didn't spin very fast, but if it hit hard enough into something it would probably do some damage. I used a clone because I can't think opposite things at once. Like looking left and right at the same time. But a clone can do that job for me. I didn't know that was why I was juggling though. I thought Orochimaru wanted me to look like a fool all day for being so rude. He does like his little revenges." Muttered Naruto and bent down to pick up the ball closest to her.

"You're not the most conventional student either, Naruto-chan. But he seems genuinely interested in your development. He thinks that attack could become very powerful. He is tinkering with something similar, but he's in a foul mood because it isn't working that great for him." Minato chuckled at the end and gave a wry smile to Naruto.

It was impossible for her not to return it, and she chuckled at the idea of the great Orochimaru sitting in a corner trying to do what Naruto had done a week ago. Maybe he'd take up juggling too. That would be priceless to see.

"So you made a clone to do the things you couldn't..." Said Minato thoughtfully. "That… is interesting." He said to himself, he seemed to be growing more and more cheery for every passing moment and suddenly he rose to his feet.

"I'll show you my technique and I want to hear your thoughts about something." Minato said and raised his arms. Naruto froze, not believing she was in this situation in the first place.

Mutely she nodded and took a step closer. Now clutching all the wayward balls in her arms.

The ball of chakra fired up and started rotating intensely. The blueish-white light illuminated their corner of the cave while Naruto watched without held breath. Her throat had closed off while Minato smiled gently over the rasengan. "This is my technique, the rasengan. It's pure chakra that's spinning rapidly in many directions simultaneously, creating a chakra orb so intense it can drill holes in just about anything. But it's not complete. I want to add my nature affinity to it, but haven't succeeded with that yet. Do you think a clone could solve the issue for me? The problem I have is concentrating on so many things at once, just creating the rasengan is taxing."

Naruto took a step closer, her eyes fixed on the rasengan. Yes, he was correct. Naruto had used two clones to make the rasen shuriken, but Minato would probably only use one.

What made her so emotional though was that Naruto was giving something back. This was her father's technique. The one he'd struggled so badly with and never seen completed. She wanted to give him that joy, but she was also afraid he'd get hurt in the process. Naruto could only use the rasen shuriken while in sage mode. She needed the accelerated healing to not rip her own arm off. Could her father use sage mode too?

"I think that would work." Naruto said enthralled by Minato's rasengan.

She missed using the rasengan, and she realized she was looking at it like it was the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen. "But I think it would be very dangerous. This is almost touching your hand. The chakra burns… You'd rip your arm off. Maybe if you could throw it? Or could continuously heal yourself somehow while adding the nature affinity?" Naruto bit her bottom lip to stop herself from explaining everything you had to do to add nature affinity to the rasengan. Technically she shouldn't know the technique at all, but it just drew her to it.

"Throw it?" Minato asked surprised. Naruto nodded and turned towards the underground lake. Concentrating on the water she started concentrating. Using all her willpower to do what she'd done the week before.

Soon the sphere was again rotating in front of her, but a lot slower than what Minato's rasengan had. Naruto wondered if she should get one of her still juggling working clones to come out and help with the rotation, but instead she attempted to improve the attack on her own. Concentrate on multiple things at once. Make it flow. Give it a rhythm.

She smiled satisfied when the sphere started twisting in multiple directions, losing its form slightly, but not by much. It was also spinning a lot faster than it had last week. Maybe Orochimaru's exercises weren't that stupid after all.

Minato looked startled at what she was doing. Naruto was close to the water edge but she wasn't touching it. Making it safer but more difficult. She was focusing her chakra at a singular point in the air. Not the palm of her hand which had a better reference and closer to her chakra coils.

"This is what I was doing last week. Orochimaru suggested I'd try mixing up the directions but it's difficult. Just the amount of chakra alone would tear open my hands if I was too close. At least that's what I fear, dattebayo." Naruto said carefully. Thinking through her words before she said them aloud.

It was easy to forget herself in front of Minato. The fact that he was so clever didn't help the matter either. If she messed up in front of him, he was not going to miss it.

It became too much for her, her head was boiling over and the water splashed back into the lake. A few clones popped behind her and Naruto turned around to see nine Narutos stare back at her. All of them on the verge of popping.

So her chakra was that unbalanced. She couldn't even keep up fifteen clones while she was doing techniques like the suiton rasengan. Or a toned down version of the attack at least.

Naruto didn't realize she was frowning until a hand touched her shoulder. Looking up she stared right into Minato's blue eyes. The exact same shade as her own. Like usual he was smiling, but he looked appreciatively down at her, and almost proud.

It made Naruto want to cry and hide in a corner.

"You've done a great job, Naruto-chan. But I think you're reaching your limit. Maybe you should take it easy for the rest of the day. It might be difficult for you, seeing as you're no doubt a hard worker by nature. But sometimes resting is the best way for your mind to proses all the information it receives. And you've practiced for fifteen people already today." He said and pointed to the clones.

The blonde nodded, a shy smile adoring her lips. With her stomach full of butterflies she dispelled her clones. Nothing could have made her day better because her father had just praised her. Even Orochimaru's constant presence and a grim war couldn't down this feeling.

Naruto had trained all evening anyway, but she hadn't used clones. By the end of the day she could juggle four balls pretty well, but it wasn't to the standard Orochimaru was expecting of her just yet.

Still, Minato's encouraging words kept her in a great mood for the rest of the day.

The following days went in a similar fashion. Juggling with clones and helping out around the base. Naruto was put on kitchen duty one afternoon. Which was basically to pour rice into bowls for hours and hand them out to hungry ninjas.

It was entertaining for her though, because every now and then she'd meet ninjas she recognized from her own time.

She saw Shikaku again, who shared a short conversation with her before leaving to eat together with Inoichi, Ino's dad, at their table together with Choza. Then she saw Kiba's mum. She was a lot younger and was talking excitedly with her dog alone at a table. Naruto guessed Kiba's odd habits came from his mum.

She saw Shizune too. The girl looked almost just like she remembered only shorter. She smiled politely without speaking to her before taking her meal back to the medic area in the back. Naruto staring wide eyed after her and wondering where Tsunade was at the moment. It was just absurd to see Shizune without Tsunade around the corner.

By the time she went back to train she had served rice to Hinata's father and who could be no other than Neji's dad. They looked identical, so who was who was a mystery to Naruto. They were talking pleasantly with the Hyūga woman that had looked over Naruto when she'd first arrived to the base.

There had been a lot of Uchihas at the base, most of who greeted Shisui while they came and went from the base. And at one point she was shocked because Danzo, the old war hawk, came to get a bowl too. What he was doing there she couldn't guess, she couldn't imagine him out on the battlefield for some reason, and had mutely served him and the two ninjas escorting him.

On the fourth and last day of their stay at the base Naruto could juggle like a pro. She had no less than seven balls flying high in the air while she walked and talked with Shisui.

He was having a hard time taking her exercise seriously, and had taken to tease her. "So you think you're going to join the circus now? Ninjutsu probably isn't as exciting now that you have found your calling in life, huh?"

Naruto had thrown a ball straight at his face, shutting Shisui up for about five minutes before he continued with his puns.

Anko was still giving her the cold shoulder, and if Shisui's teasing was annoying it was nothing to the smirks she received from her other teammate. She didn't say anything, which was probably what bugged Naruto the most, but the snorts Anko had a habit of releasing in Naruto's presence spoke more volumes than anything Shisui had said.

She was seriously considering challenging Anko to a battle, because they had always sorted out their differences with spars in the past. Unlike with Sasuke, where she understood him better when they fought, with Anko it was just a way to release some tension. Some frustration and a way to get so tired they would be too exhausted to continue arguing.

Anko was too similar to Naruto for her not to understand the older girl. She knew that Anko was angry at Naruto for not respecting the man she looked up to, and for having gained too much attention from Orochimaru as of lately.

No matter what Naruto said, it was hard to justify her opinion without revealing what she knew about Orochimaru, and it was making things worse for every passing day without clearing the air between them. Except for the sneers Anko was barely acknowledging her at meal times anymore.

On the last day at the base Naruto was distracted from Anko's hostility though. By their sensei that was, again, giving out new tasks to his students before rushing off to do whatever it was that was taking up his time here at the base. After sending Shisui to train with a woman who specialized in doton techniques, and Anko was told the third stage to a jutsu called; 'Reptile venom technique' he turned towards his youngest student.

"Now that you've more or less mastered juggling, I want you to start a new exercise." He said in his normal unnerving voice. Naruto only nodded.

"Have you ever seen puppeteers before? Or more accurately, have you seen puppets being used in battle?" Orochimaru continued, and Naruto raised an eyebrow. Was that her new task? That sounded… A little cool actually.

"Um… Yeah. Long ago." Naruto answered truthfully, her mind going back to the sand siblings and Kankuro with his many puppets.

"Good, I want you to do some basic exercises that are used by puppeteers. Namely chakra strings. It's a very fine practice that will take you a long time to master, but it's useful for chakra coordination. A puppeteer has extremely good control of their chakra and they move it in patterns over fine chakra strands that have to be kept under control at all times. If you can just get to the first stage of that, then I think it'll help you greatly in the long run. Though you'll only be able to practice this today and maybe the first day back on the road. Later we will not risk using chakra unless we're certain there are no enemies around. I'll demonstrate what you should be doing." Orochimaru said and went straight into a thorough and intricate explanation of how to create chakra strings.

He even stayed with her for over an hour, sending away five people who came up to him to talk about "important matters". Orochimaru wanted to be sure Naruto was working correctly before he started his day's agenda. Though the blonde hated having him linger around, his yellow eyes focused on her and correcting her every movement while she worked, she had to admit it sped up the process to get down the exercise.

The moment he left Naruto made her normal amount of fifteen clones, all focusing on the more tasks at hand. All of them immensely pleased they didn't have to juggle anymore.

The morning of their departure started similar to the other days at the base. With Naruto's back aching from an uncomfortable night sleep, and kicking away Shisui who was using her stomach as place to rest his feet. The boy was a really restless sleeper and Naruto was amazed he hadn't rolled across the entire hall during the night.

Naruto wasn't sure what the time was when Ebisu woke her up. The cave had the same light as it did when she fell asleep, but she was guessing it was early. Only the medic station was still active, and even that area was calmer than normal.

"Come on. We're leaving in an hour. You should get some breakfast and pack up your stuff so you're ready on time." Ebisu said before moving to Shisui next. He had more problems waking the Uchiha up though, as Shisui was as good as dead when he fell asleep. An earthquake probably wouldn't be enough to wake the boy up.

An hour later, almost on the dot, everyone stood outside the hidden base. Naruto blinked rapidly when her eyes met the bright morning sun, standing low over the horizon in the far distance and making her unable to look at anything without screening her eyes.

Orochimaru split them up into normal teams this time. So Naruto was again reunited with Anko, but disappointingly also Orochimaru. "Why did we carry those bags all the way up here, if we could just seal them into scrolls like we're doing with our supplies now?"Asked Naruto confused while looking up at Choza who smiled mischievously. It was her sensei that answered though.

"Though we're not in Konoha you are still my students. I'm making sure you're not completely useless. Physical strength is only achieved through hard work. I don't approve of short cuts." The sannin said with a challenging glint in his eyes.

"What?! We carried those things just to work on our physical strength? I do my fair share of strength training on my spare time, 'ttebayo!" Said Naruto outraged. She found it very unfair. As the smallest of the team she hadn't been loaded any less than the older ones.

"Yes. Now I know that if any of your teammates collapsed on a mission, you'd be able to carry them back." Orochimaru said off handedly.

"Yeah? That's what you would do if a comrade collapsed? Really?" Naruto shot back, her eyes flaring dangerously.

"Yes." Orochimaru snapped. But the glance she received was far from reproaching, it was loathsome.

"I won't believe that until I see it." Naruto muttered under her breath, feeling as if Anko was attempting to burn a whole in her head with the glare she was sending her.

The argument was avoided though, because soon after they headed out, leaving behind team Choza after agreeing on when and where to meet up for dinner. They were leaving half an hour later than them. Seeing as they were now heading for the land of hot water and a large group was not the best way to get through the country unnoticed. But splitting up in the same fashion as they had during stage one was not an option either. If there was an attack it was better to have the possibility of backup.

While they walked through the forest Naruto continued with what little progress she'd made on the chakra string exercise. She had been allowed to practice until Orochimaru said otherwise. The atmosphere in the team was damped by Anko, so Naruto found the distractionas a welcome. The other two were taking her example, and soon all three was working on improving some sort of technique.

It was the oddest chakra exercise Naruto had ever encountered. She was walking with a string in her hand while continuously shooting a small and continuous amount of chakra down the rope. It was all about fluidity. Apparently. But Naruto found it hard to know when she was messing up and when she wasn't. As Orochimaru said, it was an intricate thing.

Next to her Shisui was walking with a rock in his hand while his face was twisted in a grimace. His face was steadily growing redder. Naruto had to stop herself from laughing out loud because of his constipated expression whenever she spotted him in her peripheral vision.

He was trying to crumble the rock into tiny pieces with chakra alone. He'd made some progress in the last month, and a defined crack was visible. But splitting it in two wasn't really the point of the exercise. It was crumbling, not cutting.

On Shisui's other side was Anko, clutching her wrist while muttering under her breath. Naruto wasn't sure what she was working on, but guessed it was some kinjutsu thing Orochimaru was teaching her.

Their sensei was keeping a lookout, and Naruto had enough knowledge of Orochimaru's skills to know he was good enough for that job.

They had to look very strange if someone was to walk by and see them. Naruto staring like possessed at a string, Shisui trying to break a solid rock with sheer frustration alone, and Anko looking like she was trying to curse off her hand. And Orochimaru, well, he looked odd no matter what context you put him in, so he was the icing of the cake.

But the further they got into the land of hot water, the less Orochiamru allowed them to use chakra. Only during breaks spent together with team Choza was when any chakra exercise allowed. And that was only on the days Orochimaru did a check of the area beforehand. He sent out snakes for a far distance and when they came back and told him what the situation was he would tell them if it would be safe to use chakra that day.

In general the mission was easy. Choza and Orochimaru had done a through search before entering the land of hot water, but the closer they got to the land of frost, the colder it got. Not to mention all the detours they had to take prolonged the trip by days.

The close proximity to the land of lightning was the main reason two teams had been sent in the first place, and after a week back on the road, and about twenty detours of various length, Orochimaru was getting snappy from how slow their progress was becoming. Naruto was now wearing her newly purchased winter coat. She had used more on it than she had planned, but with the dropping temperatures she couldn't find it in her to regret the decision.

Land of Frost was always cold, but especially during winter. They never lit a fire either. The area was teeming with Kumo ninjas. On the borders of the land of Lightning Orochimaru was so fed up with the situation he called for a team meeting for the first time since leaving the base.

"I'm going the last distance alone." He said in matter of fact tone during dinner. Choza looked startled, but nodded after a beats silence.

"What? Why? I want to go with you." Complained Anko. Not liking this at all.

"Because our group is too large, and I'll be able to move quicker on my own. There are more patrols here than we knew of and we simply can't spend more time taking detours. I'm needed back in Konoha." Said Orochimaru while strolling back and forth. He was creating a path in the thin layer of snow underneath their feet. Naruto could guess the traces of a group of eight ninjas walking through snow were also a factor in Orochimaru's decision. Still, she would rather be moving than sit and do nothing.

"But alone? What if something happens?" Asked Choza seriously. He looked uncertainly back at the six children in front of him and back to Orochiamru.

"I can deal with it. The concern is the young ones here. You'll need to look after them while I'm away, Choza-san. I'll return in four days. It should be enough time to deliver the scroll and return, but I'll leave one of my snake summons. They'll reverse summon to me in case you guys end up in a tight situation or have to relocate. If worse comes to worse Anko has started training in summoning snakes too. If she gets her wits together she should be able to send me a message if all else fails." Orochimaru instructed, his words causing a blush to appear on Anko's cheek.

"So we'll just sit here in the snow and twiddle our thumbs while you go do the mission for us? Seriously? After coming all this way?" Naruto muttered and sat down in the snow to sulk. Ebisu seemed to think similarly, but he had more tact and instead released a deep breath for everyone to hear.

"Yes. You'll stay here and wait because this mission was only given to you because your lack of experience in the field. Also a month without me would slow down your practice, and I'm still expecting you to do well during your exams. You're not ready for B rank missions yet, and the only reason you're here in the first place is because of me." Orochimaru stated, stopping his restless walking and looking up at the sky. It was cloudy just as it usually was in this area of the world. Snow was falling gently from the sky, but luckily there wasn't much wind.

"I'll leave as soon as we've found a decent spot for you to wait… We should set up the traps quickly too." He said to himself and turned on the spot and started marching into the mountainside. Naruto sighed and got to her feet again.

"Just great… Can we at least train while you're away?" Naruto asked, her tone bordering on whining.

"No! Now keep up." Barked Orochimaru.

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To be continued....