Chapter 70 Hard Times

For the past few days the only thing on Naruto's mind was to complete the rasengan, he had gone up to the second stage but the third part he was having a hard time with. He was currently in an open field littered with small craters from his previous failed attempts. He knew that he could get this but he was running out of time.

For days he had been trying to get this right but he couldn't get it, he had to compress it all down and also keep up the spinning chakra by pouring more power into it. Doing both at the same time was proving to be too much for him. He couldn't focus on both at the same time, either he would lose focus on one of the two and the rasengan would become unstable. Keeping both in balance was the key but it was a lot harder than it sounded.

Currently he was on his back looking up at the night sky, he only had two days left and he couldn't get past this stupid wall he hit in his training. Well he wasn't going to give up, that wasn't him, he would force his way through this like with everything else if he had to. Now if only he could move his body to get up and do it again.

"Naruto are you okay?"

Naruto looked over to see Sakura walking over to him and kneeling down.

"Hey Sakura-chan, just taking a break is all." He told her.

She didn't believe him as she looked at his hand there were nasty looking scorch marks on his palm. Sitting down she looked at it, it looked kind of nasty and very painful as well. From seeing how Sasuke's hands got from trying to master that new jutsu of his she could tell that Naruto was trying not to make her worry. It was a good idea that she had gone to check on him.

"Seriously you're really overdoing it like usual," Sakura gently took his hand and saw him wince. "See, it hurts just by a light touch doesn't it?"

"Only a little." He muttered then Sakura pinch it as he yelled out. "Okay-okay it hurts a lot more than that!"

Sakura sighed as she started to pull out bandages and looked at the healing ointment she had left. From patching up Sasuke she barely had any left as she frowned. "Honestly I'm going through too much of these healing supplies on you two. I'm not even sure how effective this will work on this."

"Maybe I could help?"

Both young ninja turned to see Shizune walking over to them. She had been watching Naruto struggle with the move for awhile now in the trees hidden from sight. There was something strange about the young boy and she was curious about him. Watching him put so much into his training was also admirable as well. He hadn't stopped training for days, he always came back to the hotel tired and usually being carried by Jiraiya.

So today she had silently followed him to see if he was making any progress, she knew that Tsunade didn't expect the boy to make it and was making plans on what to do after she won her bet with the boy. A part of her hoped that the boy would win, she wanted Tsunade to put away her past and move forward, to go back home. Shizune knew that Tsunade wasn't really happy living like this but she was also too stubborn to do anything else.

She was now kneeling down next to Sakura looking at the boy's hand, there was a lot of chakra burns into the flesh. "May I see that?" Shizune asked Sakura for her ointment and looked at it. She placed her finger into it and smelt it and tasted it a little. "Ah, standard ointment treatment."

"You can tell that?" Sakura blinked at the woman's skill to tell all of that from just smelling it and tasting it.

Shizune smiled at her, "I'm Tsunade's apprentice so I know many different types of treatments. But I think I have something better." Shizune placed her hand over Naruto's as glowing green chakra was seen as Naruto looked at his hand. There was this strange warmth flowing into his hand as the pain was slightly fading away.

Pulling her hand away revealed that Naruto's hand looked a little better. Shizune pulled out her own supplies as she started to wrap Naruto's hand up.

"What was that?" Naruto and Sakura asked at the same time.

"That was medical ninjutsu it uses chakra to help heal injuries as well as a few other things. Tsunade-sama created and refined hundreds of techniques. In fact many say that she ratified the medical ninja core into the best the world has ever seen. Konoha casualties were lowered ever since she started teaching her techniques." Shizune said proudly.

"Wow, that's handy to have," Naruto could flex his fingers again.

Sakura paused to think about it, given how much Sasuke and Naruto got hurt and she usually tried to fix them up. Seeing this technique was something interesting and it might be helpful, she tried to keep up with the boys but they just had more chakra than her and their skills were different. She tried but it only seemed that her skills were more supportive at times.

"Can anyone learn this?" Sakura asked the older woman. "I mean do you need large chakra for this or something?"

"Actually the best medics are those with the best chakra control," Shizune stated as she finished her work. "It's very delicate work so you need a good amount of concentration and chakra control because a lot of the techniques can be very subtle. Sometimes you have to heal things as small as veins or even working on trying to fight infections. Not everyone can do it either as it also requires much studying and remembering a lot about the human body."

"Well that sounds perfect for Sakura-chan!" Naruto said suddenly. "She always got stop scores on all the tests and she did the tree climbing exercise on her first try."

"Really?" Shizune looked at the girl she remembered that it took herself five times to climb the tree when she learned it. In fact doing the tree climbing exercise in one go was practically unheard of. Shizune looked at the pink haired girl and was starting to wonder maybe this girl had some hidden talents after all.

"If you want I could try and teach you a couple simple exercises to see if you have any talent for it."

"Really?" Sakura was happy to hear about it, anything that would help her become a better ninja was welcomed.

Shizune nodded happily, it would allow her to get to know the girl more and also it might be nice to help see if she could train the young girl. "We can start tomorrow but let's get Naruto-kun back to the hotel."

"No way I can still train!" Naruto protested.

Shizune looked at the young boy with a determined glare. "You are going back to the hotel and you are going to sleep. You are suffering from chakra exhaustion not to mention chakra burns on your hand. You need to recover and that's what you're going to do. Now are you going to behave or are you going to be difficult?"

Naruto didn't say anything after the lecture from Shizune and Sakura's opinion of the other woman was starting to grow a she picked the boy up and started to tell him about all the troubles the human body could suffer through with chakra exhaustion and pushing it too far. Sakura listened in both learning a few things and also somewhat enjoying Naruto getting lectured on their way back to the hotel.

-Konoha Hospital-

In a bed of the special observation wing of the hospital was the silent form of Kakashi Hatake. He had lost consciousness from the fight with Itachi and hadn't woken up since. The doctors were confused by it as they couldn't find anything physically wrong with him. They were still working but they were unable to figure out why he hadn't woken up, other than some type of trauma had been inflicted. Currently he was the only patient in the room but not the only person.

Kurenai was there to visit him as she and others did from time to time. Gai certainly came in as did Asuma, plus others that either worked with Kakashi in the past some even Kurenai guessed from ANBU that still regarded the man as someone they honoured. But out of everyone Kurenai had never seen Anko and she was starting to wonder what had gotten into that girl. Her man was here in bed and she wasn't around? It didn't make sense to Kurenai and at first she thought maybe she just missed her but talking with other visitors they hadn't seen her.

In fact Anko was keeping a very low profile and hardly anyone had seen her.

Kurenai looked at the still form of the man in the bed and saw the mask on his face, she asked a nurse about why it was still on. They said there was a standing request from Kakashi that if he was ever put into the hospital he wanted his mask on most of the time. It was an oddball thing to request but since it was Kakashi, Kurenai figured it was just something he would do. The door to the room opened and she was surprised to see one of her students, Hinata walking in with a small vase of flowers.

"Hinata?"

"Ah! Kurenai-sensei, sorry I didn't know anyone else was here."

Kurenai smiled at the young student, "Don't worry about it, so you're here to see Kakashi too?"

Hinata nodded, "He always treated me nicely growing up with Naruto-kun." Although she had never said it, Hinata considered Kakashi almost like another uncle. She remembered how he was always kind to her growing up and how sometimes he would supervise her and Naruto as children when they played together. He had even given her presents on her birthday and all kinds of other little things.

Slowly she moved to the side of the bed and placed her flowers on a table nearby as she looked sadly at the man. He had always been a little larger than life to her, a famous ninja and yet a good father and man. Looking at him now in this bed so weak, it brought back memories of her mother and she prayed every night for Kakashi to get better so that Naruto wouldn't know the pain of losing a parent.

"Are you okay?" Kurenai noticed the pain look in her eyes but also how slow she was moving. "Lately you've seemed a little tired when we can arrange to have practice and you seem sluggish."

"Uh...I-I've been getting help from Neji-niisan," Hinata blushed at being found out she wanted to keep it a surprise for Naruto of course. "I've been getting up early with him and meeting his team."

"Wait you're taking training lessons from Gai?" Kurenai wasn't sure how to take that. Gai was a master at getting someone physically fit after all but he did go overboard a lot. The fact that Hinata was doing this worried her as Hinata wasn't really built for that kind of work. Another sensation was that Kurenai felt a little embarrassed that one of her own students went to another teacher for help. She tried to get with her team as much as possible but with how crazy things were it was just really difficult.

"Is that okay?" Hinata hadn't really considered if Kurenai would object or anything. "I just wanted to get stronger and also Neji-niisan is helping with my family's style when his team can't train."

Kurenai couldn't fault the girl after all she had confidence problems so if this was helping her become a stronger person then Kurenai really couldn't say anything against it. Thinking on it maybe it was for the best Hinata really had no skill with genjutsu and seemed to only be able to use the water skills she had trained with. Her physical nature was one of the young Hyuga's drawbacks. She wasn't built for power which is what the gentle fist wasn't about thankfully. So maybe this physical training would help her not only in that area she lacked but maybe for her confidence.

"Just don't overdue things okay?" Kurenai told her student. "I know that Gai can get pretty intense at times with his training so try to not get injured because of it."

Hinata nodded her head, after that first day of training she was so tired and sore she wanted to crawl into her bed and sleep. The early mornings were hard to get used to but Neji had always been there for her to help her through things. Even giving her little hints as to how to cope with it all, Tenten was also helpful as well for the girl. Still the training was very hard but she didn't mind she felt like she was getting stronger because of it.

"Now if you'll excuse me," Kurenai made a move to the door. "I have to hunt someone down and get some answers."

Kurenai tried the usually places, first Anko's apartment but it was empty, and then she tried the few places she knew Anko liked to go to but no luck there either. After that it was trying to track her down by asking if anyone saw her. So far Anko as keeping a really low profile most people haven't even seen her. Eventually Kurenai tried looking for Anko in the training areas. It took seven tried to finally track the woman down and oddly enough she was in the Team 7 training field. Most likely because it was the one she knew wouldn't have anyone there.

Kurenai watched as Anko had thrown her jacket over a stump and had protruded some rope and tied it around one of the trees. She was currently beating the hell out of it with her fist which Kurenai was thankful to notice that they were at least wrapped up. This was a training technique to strengthen your hands and it could get very nasty if a person went overboard. The rope was to act like padding in a way from the bark of the tree but remain a hard surface to toughen up your fist against.

Anko had sweat pouring off her body and looked to have been at this for some time.

Kurenai was able to walk right up to the woman who was so focused in her own little world that she couldn't notice anything around her.

"Anko, what are you doing here?"

Anko stopped suddenly and turned to look and Kurenai could see that the woman's face wasn't very healthy by the looks of it Anko hadn't been sleeping well lately. Said woman just shrugged and went back to punching. "Just training."

"I'm surprised you haven't seen Kakashi yet."

Anko paused a bit, "Is he awake?"

"No."

"Then what's the point?" She continued on throwing her first as though she was battling something in front of her, instead of deep inside of her as Kurenai was seeing.

"The point is that your boyfriend is in the hospital, have you even seen him at all?"

"A couple of times."

"Anko stop this!" Kurenai grabbed the girl's writs in mid strike and forced Anko to face her. "What's gotten into you? This is nothing like how you act."

"How would you know?" Anko shot back angrily. "How does anyone know anything? Unless you can read my mind you can't know how I'm supposed to me so what makes you say that this isn't 'normal' for me?"

Kurenai wasn't seeing where Anko was going with this the woman was obviously upset but seemed to be keeping it all inside. Sure a ninja wasn't supposed to show emotions but there was a different between not showing it and letting them eat you up inside. Kurenai calmed down as she spoke more gently to her friend.

"Anko what's wrong? Please tell me I'm your friend and I can see that something is wrong."

Anko just turned to face away as she placed some light punches into her training spot again although more slowly. "I'm thinking of breaking things off."

Kurenai's eyes widened, "Wait you mean breaking up with Kakashi? Why? I thought you were happy together?"

"You call this happy?" Anko said bitterly. "If I wasn't with him would I be feeling the same way now? It's better not to have attachments, to live your life without someone there. Hell I've done it for more of my life so why can't I do it again? Sure the sex was great and it was nice but it's just not worth it if he dies and then what? The doctors can't help him so what if for the rest of his life he's stuck like that?"

Anko placed one more punch against her target as her body started to shake. She hated this feelings she hated feeling this weak inside. She never felt so powerless and she despised feeling powerless, ever since that day when she had been betrayed the person she had looked up to the most her entire world had changed. At first things had been hard on her, she had been interrogated for any information on Orochimaru but she couldn't remember anything anymore.

Parts of her life had been stolen and she could never get them back again, plus she had been marked for life. She felt the cursed seal on her neck as it was a constant reminder to her like a brand on her soul that would never go away. It made her feel dirty at times that he had marked her as though she were his property.

It had taken time but eventually she had overcome it, some had thought she was a spy, others branded her because of her link to Orochimaru. Few were able to become friends with her but she just pushed it all aside. She was used to being alone, oh sure she had made friends along the way like Kurenai but when she went home she went home to an empty apartment. But then things had changed, she had met Kakashi and at first she was just a friend but became something more. So much more that deep inside that she was scared of it.

"Anko," Kurenai placed a warm hand on her friend's shoulder. "do you know how much I would love to be in your position?"

Anko turned to face the woman like she was mad.

"Here you are in a lovely relationship when..." Kurenai blushed as she fumbled with her own feelings. "You had the courage to actually try, I haven't been able to do that."

"So what if Asuma was there you would be in there crying over his body like the good little woman?" Anko sneered.

Kurenai coughed but continued on, "Yes, well not cry over him he wouldn't like to see me like that I bet. But I would be there for him, that's what it means to be in a relationship Anko, to be there for each other in the good times and in the bad."

Anko turned away as her fist balled up. "It wasn't supposed to be like this."

"What wasn't supposed to be like this?"

"It was just a fling at first," Anko shook her head. "We were just supposed to date a bit, have some nice sex and that was it but then I..."

Kurenai moved forward and placed both hands on the woman's shoulder she could sense that they were finally getting to the heart of the problem just a little more and they would get to it. "Go on, what happened?"

"It's stupid."

"It's not if it makes you this upset."

"Yes it is! It wasn't supposed to be like this, but then...then we started hanging out and starting to talk and share things. God I told him things I never told anyone you know that? Stupid of me, I kept everyone at a certain distance but then I have to open up to him of all people!" She punched once more into the ropes hard enough that Kurenai could see some blood on her knuckles.

"I'm sure you weren't the only one, I'm sure he shared with you as well and you know how he is."

Anko gave a sad laugh, "That's just it, I really do know how he is now. I have seen sides to him that no one gets to see. Don't you see? I was just out for a good time I wasn't out to fall in..." She stopped then as her arm dropped.

Kurenai gripped her a bit more tightly. "Anko this is important what is that it turned into?"

Anko didn't want to say the words she didn't want to admit it. She wanted to run from this because it scared her too much to face it. She had lived her entire life without feeling it so why now of all times? She had been prepared to just live her life going from one fling to the next with no real attachments. She figured she would just die in the line of duty and she had honestly made her peace with it. So then why had she been thinking of a new future for herself? One where she was glad to finally live her life completely?

She wanted to deny it, she wanted to bury it and forget about it but every time she thought of Kakashi on that bed and that she might never see him again as the man he was, it broke her heart. She had never experienced pain like this and it was only made worst because she couldn't have done anything to stop him from getting hurt. She had been there and she couldn't have done a single thing to help in the end. He had needed her and she couldn't have saved him and it only made the pain worse.

"Anko!" Kurenai shook her friend and turned her around and was shocked to see that Anko had tears falling. She had never known Anko to cry over anything, she had seen this women get a kunai in her shoulder and hadn't cried like this. "Anko, please what is it? You have to admit it, I can see that it's eating you up inside just let it out."

Anko didn't want to hear it, she wanted Kurenai to go away to have everyone go away and just leave her alone again.

"Anko you know that you are never alone," Kurenai told her friend. "You will always have the support of those close to you and I know that Kakashi will get better, you will see him again and whatever issues you have you can work them out with him but please whatever your holding onto just let it go."

Anko's resistant was breaking she could feel it she fought it tooth and nail but the thought of seeing Kakashi again, it broke something inside of her. She wanted to see him again, to talk to him to just have him in her life again.

"Damn you..." Anko's head fell as she felt her body shake. "Why couldn't you have just left me alone?"

"Because I'm your friend and I don't like to see you in pain. Now what is that that you weren't supposed to do?"

"I wasn't...I wasn't supposed to fall in love with him." Anko said gently as she finally said the words that had been haunting her all this time. "Everyone close to me ends up hurting me in the end at least that's what I always thought. But then you and others show up and then Kakashi...god I never thought I would know what love was. I thought it was just this stupid thing people called lust but it's not. I feel warm when I'm in his arms, I look forward to going to his place or waking up in bed together. I feel happy when I'm with him, really happy not just the regular kind."

Kurenai hugged the young woman as Anko eventually hugged her back. "It's okay, he'll be fine and all those wonderful things will be back in your life again?"

"But what if he's not? What if I lose him, all this time I thought love was just a joke but then that bastard made me fall in love with him so now what? I don't think I can take this, my heart hurts worst than when Orochimaru betrayed me." Anko said holding on tightly to the other woman.

"You have to have faith," Kurenai told her. "You have to have hope that it will all turn out alright, as long as he breaths you know that he'll never stop fighting."

She chuckled a bit as she pulled away wiping her eyes, "Yeah he can be a pretty stubborn guy at times. God look at me, I feel like such a girl."

"Well you are one," Kurenai smiled.

"Shut up," Anko dried her eyes. "You know what I mean I don't do this girly emotional crap."

Kurenai smiled as she looked at Anko, the other woman looked like she had a weight lifted off of her shoulders, not all of it but at least she wasn't being crushed by keeping all her problems inside. Anko was a good friend who had been given a lousy sensei that had taken advantage of an impressionable young girl who had worshiped him. It had left scars that many didn't see or even think she had but Kurenai could tell that they were there, hidden under all that acting out and childish personality.

Deep inside there was a young girl that had been hurt badly and was just afraid of being hurt again a second time. The worst things a person could face were the demons inside of you, to face yourself is one of the greatest challenges you could ever do in life.

"Feeling better?"

"I don't know," Anko said honestly. "I still feel like crap, if you tell anyone that I was like this I swear..."

Kurenai held her hands up, "It stays between us I promise."

Anko nodded and then her face fell as she sat down on the ground. "Damn, I can't believe I said it. I never even said it to him that I, well you know. I feel so screwed up inside over all of this but I want things to go back to how they were with him and myself. I want him back but I hate seeing him in that bed, it hurts every time I look at him."

Kurenai sat down and put her arm around Anko. "I know but think of how good it will be when he wakes up and you're right there with him."

"Maybe," Anko sighed as she pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on them. She hated waiting around and honestly how was she supposed to act when he woke up? Admitting to her feelings only brought up other issues, like what if he didn't feel the same or what if he did, then what? Things were simple and yet now they were all very complicated simply because she let her guard down.

Looking at her friend she smirked, "So you envy me huh? So does that mean you finally admit that you like Asuma and wished he would man up and ask you out? You know I could talk to him for you."

"Anko!" Kurenai shouted out as she blushed bright red. "I don't need you to do that!"

"Well you need some kind of kick in the ass," Anko sighed. "I went after my man and got him, show some interest in him I bet he would take it. I mean come on, use your sexy side to get his attention and you would have him eating out of your hand."

Kurenai hated it when Anko turned the tables on her by using Asuma part of it was because there was a little truth in what Anko said. She was interesting in Asuma, there was just something about the man that well, that was very attractive to her and she would be lying if she said she never thought what it might be. Seeing Anko and Kakashi so happy together sometimes was hard to take since although she masked it, Kurenai wished that could have been her at times.

Yes she was a ninja but she was also a woman at heart and sometimes you needed more than just your job and your duty to the village. Anko had gone after Kakashi and although this was a dark time for them, she could see how deeply Anko cared, even if the other woman had tried to hide from it.

"Tell you what," Kurenai couldn't believe she was going to say this. "When Kakashi wakes up, I'll ask out Asuma."

"You sure about that?" Anko grinned knowing how that might play out and making plans on watching it all happen.

"That's how confident that Kakashi will be okay, I'm betting on that so what do you say?" Kurenai asked stubbornly.

Anko only grinned larger, "No take backs on this and I mean a real date. Not hanging out as friends you have to say date and mean it like a couple."

"F-Fine," Kurenai turned her nose up blushing slightly.

"I'm going to hold you to it," Anko warned her. "God he better wake up soon." Anko now had two things to look forward to. "Hey Kurenai...thanks."

Kurenai only smiled back at her, "What are friends for?"

Next up Chapter 8: Dark Meetings