Caged Birds Lullaby

chapter 15

Two figures were crunching low on the ground, gathering herbs and putting them in the basket that was in-between them.

"What were you doing here all night?", asked the figure in a pink kimono, looking over at his blonde companion.

The girl gave him a wide smile as she placed a herb in the basket.

"I am training, dattebayo!"

The long haired boy gave a low chuckle.

"I see you have a hitai-ate on, you must be a ninja, and a strong one. Why do you train then?"

"Well…I guess I want to prove a point to someone..", the girl wondered, a finger on her lower lip. Se looked so..innocent.

"Naruto-chan, do you have precious people?"

The question caught the blonde girl off guard.

She nodded, a faraway look on her and a small blush on her cheeks.

"I train to protect them too. I wont even let them get hurt, especially him..", she whispered.

The boy flinched and looked away, picking up the basket.

"What about you, Haku-chan? Do you have precious people?"

"Yes. I would do anything to make his dreams come true."

"He must really love and cherish you then.."

The boy didn't answer. Instead, he stood up.

"Naruto, you will become strong. Fighting for your precious people, that's when you will be most powerful, even if you lose all hope. I believe in you."

With that, he smiled and turned to leave.

"Oh, and by the way..", he sniggered, walking back to her and lowering his head, mouth close to her ear.

"I am a boy."

Seeing her jaw drop, he snickered and with a last wave, left.

On his way, he passed her teammate, the black haired boy.

I wish it could be different. But the next time we will meet, will be a battlefield. I don't want to fight you, I don't want you hurt, but..it is inevitable.

Forgive me..

"Oy, dobe get over here!", grumbled Sasuke, hands in pockets.

"Hai, hai, teme..", Naruto snorted, gathering her scroll (which was already reinforced with the blood seal again) and her jacket.

"Don't tell me you trained all night"

"Bingo teme! I can climb the tree now!", she smirked, running past him in the direction of Tazuna's house.

That..that dobe!

Growling at the fact that she was getting stronger then him…no wait, this was Uzumaki Naruto, the idiot dead-last, so what if she finished tree-climbing earlier then him? He will finish it too, and beat that dobe!

Glaring at the ground, he trotted after her.

A few more days passed. During that time, all 3 gennin trained. It was mostly tree climbing, meditating and planning.

Sasuke reached the top of his tree the next day after Naruto did. After that, Kakashi had Sakura continue the exercise, in order to increase her chakra, since apparently, she had very little of it.

This led to a good, long lecture on chakra again. But in the end, Naruto and Sasuke didn't feel that bad. After all they had much more chakra then the pinkette, meaning it was harder to control. They took turns guarding the bridge. Naruto secretly practiced her elemental manipulation as well. Well her 'secret' was easily busted by her sensei, who caught her easily.