Chapter 67 New Traning

Hinata sighed as she was sitting in the back yard of her home her pet rabbit was on her lap as she pet its white fur. It had been over a week since Naruto and his team left and she was starting to miss him. She knew he would be back but she was so used to seeing him around the village. It got like this every time either of them had a mission. She was also wondering what Naruto would learn by the time he got back, he said he was also going to train some more with Jiraiya of all people. Although it took her a moment to figure it out, she wished he wouldn't call a legendary ninja 'Ero-sennin', it was very disrespectful.

But not only Naruto, but all of Team 7 would gain some kind of training. They were all going to get stronger and what was she doing, sitting around with her pet. It wasn't like she didn't want to train, Kurenai was out on a mission, Shino was doing some special breeding for some new bugs. Kiba was training with Akamaru.

She was thinking on how to get stronger as well, since she didn't want to fall behind and also because she wanted to be able to stand with Naruto. She wanted to become someone he could be proud of to be with. Yes, she knew that he always said kind things to her but she always had confidence problems as far back as she could remember. There was just so much expected of her as the possible next head of the clan, even when she was in the academy she had to study Hyuga clan laws, fighting style, proper manners and so on.

That training month with Sakura had been great because she felt that both of them had gotten stronger. She had gotten a lot closer to Sakura in that month she found that Sakura herself felt like she was weakest member of Team 7. Hinata could relate to that, Kiba and Shino seemed to be so strong to her. Now that Sakura was off training with one of the legendary Sannin, there was no telling how much stronger she was going to get.

'So what am I doing just sitting around then?' she asked herself. She needed to become stronger not only because she didn't want to be left behind but lately she had been thinking. She was to be the net head of her clan and she wanted to make her father proud. She had missed out on the chunin exams this year but there was another in six months, she wanted to be ready for that. She wanted to become someone better, working with Kurenai, Anko and Sakura for that month made her think of what she would do with her life.

Kurenai was closer to her than any other female adult, sometimes Kurenai reminded Hinata of her own mother. She was surprised by that thought, she missed her mother but it had been so long ago that she couldn't remember as much about her as she used to. It was a scary thought for her but maybe that was why she was so close to her team's sensei.

Anko and Sakura had shown Hinata that you were what you made of yourself.

Hinata dropped her rabbit onto the grass and watched him hop around eating some of the grass. She was surprised by how smart the animal was obviously it had some training as it knew to come back to her room and would actually go into the small open cage where he slept. She didn't have to worry about him and the entire clan by this point had seen her enough times with the rabbit to know it was hers.

"Ah I figured you might be here," a familiar voice said from behind startling her.

She turned to face her older cousin walking up from behind.

"You should be more aware of your surroundings," Neji told her as he tried to chide her as best as someone from the branch family could to the main house. "You are a ninja after all now."

"Ah your right, sorry, I was just lost in thought," She sighed knowing that she should be more aware but she felt safe here, this was her home. Then again, she still remembered that night she had been kidnapped, was that the reason he told her to be more aware? It was true that security had changed since that night but no security was perfect.

He sat down next to his younger cousin he had always looked out for her since they were younger, partly because as a member of the branch family he was supposed to but also because he was close to his cousin. Sometimes she and Hanabi were like the younger sisters that he never had, plus Hinata was the kind of person you felt that you had to look out for.

"So what is it that you are worried about?"

Hinata fiddled with her jacket as she did sometimes when nervous. "W-Well I was thinking of how to train to become stronger, I don't want to fall behind."

Neji knew that Hinata always had issues with her own strength so he wasn't surprised to hear this.

"Naruto-kun is training right now with everyone else and I'm not sure what I can do to become stronger."

He nodded his head as he thought about it, as far as he knew everyone else was training hard as well. That attack had taken them all by surprise and in many cases had been the worst combat any of the genins had experienced. Neji who had been a ninja for over a year couldn't remember a day where he had fought as hard as that.

Looking at her he had an idea that might work, given that Gai was busy they didn't have as many missions as they used to. His team often would train together when they didn't have any real missions but maybe he could help.

"Would you like me to help you in your gentle fist skills?" Neji offered.

Hinata looked up at him surprised, she knew that Neji was a true genius in the gentle fist, she had seen her own father offer some advice to his nephew at times when Neji's father wasn't around to help. To have Neji help her train would be a big advantage to her. It was true that her form was slowly coming along but Hanabi was getting better and Hinata wanted to make her father proud of her skills and impress Naruto.

"You would do that? Aren't you busy with your team?"

He shrugged, "we can train together still, but you are family and I should help you if you need me. If you want you can even join my team for training although I warn you, my team's training is a lot more physical than what you're most likely used to."

He still cringed at how it felt that first month of Gai's training to 'break them in' as he once put it. All those very early days and insane physical training made him ache for weeks. Getting up he brushed off his shorts and he looked at her.

"Well if you have some free time we can get starting right now if you want."

She got up quickly, "Thank you Neji-niisan."

He gave her a small smile, "I told you, we're family so I should help you if you ever need it."

-Team 7-

Sakura breathed deeply as she looked at the trees in front of her, sweat was covering her body and she felt like she could just drop at any moment but she still was trying to get this new jutsu down. One more she went through the hand seals and thrust out her hand. The water whip shoot out and wrapped around a branch, she pulled hard. The point of this was so that the whip would be strong enough to hold a person. If it fell apart or wasn't strong enough then it wouldn't be any use. When she first started it took a few tries to ever get the jutsu working, then it was to actually wrap around the target.

She gave one pull and for a second it held but then the water broke apart and she fell to her knees, that was it, that was the last try she had in her, she was nearly completely out of chakra. She fell onto her back and sighed. This whole week had been nothing but training while Jiraiya went searching for Tsunade.

Looking to her side she wanted to see how the others were doing. Naruto was still working on the rasengan he was getting close to bursting the balls at this point. Maybe in a day or two he would get to the next level, whatever that was.

A loud zap and crack sound followed by swearing was heard. She looked to see Sasuke flexing his left hand. He had stopped using his right one since he couldn't close it anymore, most likely it would take a nights rest for him to be able to close it again she bet. She normally would care but she was just too tired to really move at this point. All the water training was taking its toll on her but she felt that she was getting stronger.

Sasuke looked at the metal bar that was sitting in the grass he flexed his left hand as he bent to pick it up. This was turning out to be a lot harder then he thought, his right hand couldn't close and the tips of his fingers felt a little numb, so he had stopped using it in case he did permanent damage to it. Picking it up Sasuke could feel the slight heat of it from all the electricity being sent into it but thankfully not too hot.

He sighed as he took a deep calming breath. He had been at this for a week but every failure brought him one step forward. He no longer had the electricity shooting out of the piece of metal so he was glad for that much. When it leapt from the bar it literally could and would go in any direction. He had zapped himself a few times from that Naruto had nearly gotten a good one once too. This was why he trained as far away from Sasuke as he could now.

Sasuke thought about the feel of the jutsu, he could feel the energy wanting to go through the bar to the end and jump out and he had figured out how to stop it with his chakra but then it was like trying to hold a wild animal with his bare hands. The power wanted out and didn't care what Sasuke wanted. It was very difficult but if he could master it then he could figure out how to put it into any metal weapon.

Plus it wasn't only this, but what if he could shape the chidori? He knew that putting the chidori into his hand was the first step he had spent a month learning that technique alone. He had struggled to keep the power in his hand, but putting it into another object was different. With his hand he had his own chakra network to work with, an inanimate object was different.

Picking up the metal rob he calmed himself as he focused on making the electrical energy into his hand and prepared to send it into the metal.

For Naruto he was working hard on this next stage of the rasengan. So far the rubber ball wasn't breaking. He sat on his but cross legged as he focused he could see places in the ball bulge out in several places but still he couldn't get it just right. He tried putting in more power but he lost focus of keeping it stable and it would fall apart. He needed to control it long enough to put in more power, each time he tried each time he got a bit closer. Currently he was trying again and he thought that for one moment a small break might happen but then the chakra ran out. He scowled as he glared at the ball as though it was personally offending him.

He had to keep putting in more and more chakra but to keep the spinning motion as well was hard for him.

"Okay, one more try." He muttered to himself.

In the trees watching them Jiraiya smiled seeing them, he noticed that Sakura was out first, he wasn't surprised as her chakra levels weren't on par with the boys, but he did notice she lasted a least an hour longer this time. He had been hidden in the woods for the best couple of hours watching them and seeing how they were doing. He might have to give a few hints if they couldn't break through the walls they were up against.

Personally, he felt that a person really could only truly learn by doing it and learning it yourself. Every mistake you made only added up to the experience you could gain, at least that's what he liked to say and it wasn't exactly a lie. But he couldn't be in two places at once, the town they were near he had picked up a trace of his teammate. It had taken some time and some persuasion on a few men that had apparently loaned her money that she hadn't paid back.

In the end he had ended up paying for Tsunade's dept but at least he gained some information out of it. He had a better idea of where she was heading now. She usually had certain patterns that he found over the years, after all no one knew her like he did. Plus he knew the few cities and towns she wouldn't dare show her face, not after some unpleasantness, usually her getting angry and that temper of her causing trouble.

Jiraiya grinned remembering that one day he found a casino being rebuilt, when he had seen the roulette table imbedded into the ceiling he had known who it had been. Apparently she had caught casino cheating and had taken it personally.

Looking at his students he decided now was enough, if they pushed themselves too hard they wouldn't be able to move tomorrow morning. Walking into the small clearing he clapped his hands getting their attention. "Alright, that's enough tonight, we're going to have to break camp in the morning and get on the road again. I got a decent lead and we have to hurry before she runs again."

"How often does she run?" Sakura asked rolling onto her stomach and got into a kneeling position. She really didn't feel like getting up but the prospect of sleep she would crawl to her bed roll if she had to.

"Seems like a lot to me," Naruto muttered throwing the ball into the small pile. "So when are you going to help with our training? We've been working hard but you're always gone."

"Hey I'm a busy man after all," Jiraiya told him.

Naruto gave him a suspicious look, "You're not goofing off looking at women or going to those strange places with the oddly dressed women again are you?"

Jiraiya tried to hide his reaction to that, so maybe he liked to indulge a bit, he was entitled to a little time to himself after all. Plus those bars with the women were nice places to gather information as a lot of men went there to blow off steam. A few drinks with a good woman under your arm could loosen the tongues of a lot of men. So if he enjoyed himself while he was working well, that should be a problem then should it?

Unfortunately the kids had learned fast to keep their own money safely out of sight so Jiraiya had to use his own funds. It wasn't a major problem, but it was a huge pain to fill out all those expense claims and justify his expenses.

"Look we got an early day so get some sleep and tomorrow we'll be hitting the road again." Jiraiya tried to deflect the boy's accusation. "If you're quick maybe I'll give you some hints on how to improve."

The he found had a magic all its own as the kids silently started to shuffle to their tents. There were three tents in the area, one for Jiraiya himself, two for the boys and obviously one for Sakura herself. As he watched them go he decided to start on a small fire, in the campfire they had. They already ate but it would help deal with any animals in the area. Plus he had this feeling that they were being watching for some time now.

With the fire he could use that as a distraction while he searched the woods while the kids got some sleep.

Sakura noticed that Sasuke's hand had to be bothering him more than normal.

"I have something for that if you want it." She offered.

"It's fine."

"It's not fine you can't even make a fist can you?" she told him and his silence told her as much. She sighed as she wondered why all boys had to be like this. "Look just wait I got something that might help and if you can use your hand the next day then it's worth it right?"

Sasuke paused and considered it, his hand was bothering him and he didn't like that he couldn't really use it. He nodded his head as he watched their teammate walk into her tent and soon come back out with a small circular box.

"Hey that looks like the kind of thing Hinata-chan puts her creams and ointments in." Naruto said as he noticed the small thing Sakura was carrying.

"Yeah I learned a bit from her about this from that month long training with her," Sakura told them as she pulled open the top to show a light green ointment. "Pull off your glove."

Sasuke using his left hand did that as he tried not to wince at the pain he felt from it. Sakura lightly put it on the slight burn she could see on the palm of his hand. Sasuke noticed it right away as the ointment felt cool on his skin and the pain was slowly fading.

"It's got some healing properties but also has an agent in it that numbs the body slightly. You should put this on your hand every day until it's better," she told him as she finished putting it on.

"Thanks," Sasuke was truly thankful at least with this he should be able to sleep tonight without the throbbing pain keeping him awake. He was surprised she had this on her but it was good that she did.

Naruto smiled at Sakura, "Hey that's good to have it's a good thing you brought that with you."

"Yeah well, you two always end up getting hurt the most so I had learned to get this kind of stuff with me from now on. Honestly you two sometimes worry me."

"Hey I'm not that bad, at least not as bad as Sasuke," Naruto frowned.

"What do you mean as bad as me? You've been in the hospital more times than I ever have." Sasuke told him.

"Those were unavoidable!"

"I don't see the difference," Sasuke told him deadpan as he walked to his tent.

"Hey wait up you bastard, let me finish!" Naruto went after him.

Sakura only smiled at the two of them bickered over what counted as being put into the hospital but she felt that Naruto would lose this argument. But it was a good sign to her, with those two like that it meant that they were in good spirits. This had been a long week and she knew that Naruto was disappointed that he wasn't with Hinata or with his dad after not seeing them for over a month.

Sakura went into her tent as she pulled off her skirt and jacket, she debated just falling asleep as it, the ninja mesh she wore from Anko could be used to sleep in, even Anko admitted to having done this from time to time. Sakura just didn't care at that moment and hit her sleeping bag. She could still hear Naruto and Sasuke arguing as she slowly started to fall asleep.

-Near Konoha-

Two travelers were on one of the main roads that led to Konoha, mainly used by either merchants or ninja returning from a mission. The two tall men wore black cloaks with red clouds on them as they slowly made their way to one of the five great villages. These two were part of Akatsuki, a group of ninja made up of missing nin, they were criminals for hire, mercenaries that were paid to do dirty deeps that others needed to be done but couldn't pull off and didn't care who or how it was done.

For years they had silently been working in all the ninja lands but today was different for this two man team. They were Itachi Uchiha, the name fear and revolted in Konoha for the mass murder of his own clan. With him was another man of equal standing, this blue skinned shark featured killer was Kisame Hoshigaki the Monster of the Hidden Mist and one of the current Seven Swordsmen of the Mist.

"So you going to see home again huh?" Kisame asked his partner for the last few years.

"It won't be much of a home coming," Itachi said in an even tone hardly showing any emotion at all. "I severed all ties with that village a long time ago."

"Yeah killing your entire clan, all the women and children too, and they call me a monster," Kisame chuckled. "I have to say that impresses me, not many have the stomach for that."

"They were all weak," Itachi told him. "I watched the Uchiha falling into being too lax on their training and also relying too much on the sharingan to do all the work."

"Yeah but you use it a lot too," Kisame had seen his partner use his eyes many times.

"I have my reasons for that," Itachi didn't tell anyone that his vision was slowly going. When he didn't have his sharingan activated the world look blurry in the distance. He found this out a few years ago when he had to strain to see things in the distance that he didn't have to before. It turns out that when he gained his new level of sharingan, it came at a cost. He was losing his eyes but thankfully the one that told him about this new level also told him of a way around it.

When he had met the leader of the Akatsuki years ago and was told the true power that could be unlocked he had went with it. Of course maybe he should say the figure head leader Itachi had known that Pain wasn't their true leader but the man behind the shadows. It only made sense after all, only another Uchiha should have known the secrets of the sharingan. He had learned much and Itachi was thankful that he had spared Sasuke, soon it would be time to see who was stronger to see who had the right to rebuild the Uchiha.

Itachi believed in strength, in the strength of yourself but Sasuke was slightly different. He always felt that maybe Sasuke could be more than he was. Although the reason for this trip to Konoha was because of orders he had his own reasons.

Pain had heard of the attack and this was the perfect time to get into Konoha, they were busy with rebuilding and with mission, their security could also suffer from it. Although they would be on higher alert they couldn't have the man power they would need for it. Not only that, but Itachi from his years in ANBU knew secret ways through Konoha's defences that most of the ninja and villagers didn't even know about. Thos secret little ways in that people like Orochimaru and Danzo and his ROOT people often used.

They would be overlooked and so they could slip in that way.

With Konoha like this it was perfect chance to see if they could grab the Kyuubi boy, if they could attain him this early in the game then it would save them time later on. This would be their only chance for an opportunity this good, another might take years to come along.

Plus while he was here, maybe he would look up on his little brother and see how he was coming alone. If Sasuke had given into hate, he would be going down the path of their clan had been going. He would be their will and Itachi would show that the iron will of discipline and emotionless was the only path to true strength and power. If Sasuke could win then Itachi would know that his way had been wrong but he didn't feel that he was. Sasuke would lose and Itachi would gain the eyes he needed to rebuild the Uchiha in a new way.

He would totally erase them from the past and start over and his brother would be used to test that fate out. It was only fitting after all that the last two Uchiha would fight it out to see who would rebuild the Uchiha clan and in what image.

'Well there is one other Uchiha,' Itachi thought to himself as they walked a path he hadn't walked in many years. 'But with Sasuke's eyes I will be able to take him, I don't know what his full plan is but it can't be as simple as gathering all the Tailed Beasts, there has to be something more. Whatever it is, it will be a race to see who can complete their plan first.'

Itachi knew that the best way was to sabotage it but with Kisame here he couldn't really do that, not only that but he needed to know what the full plan was and that was to keep going along with it until he could figure it out. Besides even if they caught this boy, there were still plenty others they had to cautiously get. Some were very well protected or even connected to current rulers, they had to be careful as they have always been.

"So you think we'll have any trouble finding the kid?" Kisame asked his partner.

"Hard to say but I know who to ask for his whereabouts."

"Oh, and who is that?"

"The boy's father and sensei," Itachi simply said.

Next up Chapter 5: The Hunt is On

Keep in mind that when I started the first story, Itachi was still a villain in the series, so I decided to keep him a villain as I feel it makes him more interesting.