Nightfall by freowin

Chapter 9: Before The First Task

Sasuke arrived at the location of their team meeting in a bad mood. First he was ignored and disrespected by Naruto. And then the red headed jinchuuriki Gaara also saw him as nothing but a pest. Just like the brooding Uchiha, Sakura was also in a pad mood. Her grand plan to get a date out of Sasuke by helping him capture Naruto had failed miserably.

It turned out they were the first of team seven to make it to the meeting spot only half an hour late. Hinata was usually the first to arrive but she also knew that Kakashi's poor track record at arriving on time meant that she would usually show up about forty five minutes late. While Sasuke and Sakura would usually arrive together after an hour.

(With Naruto)

Naruto found a quiet training ground next to a large forest. 'This should be perfect, hopefully I can get some training in here without any more distractions' the blond thought to himself.

He sat down in the center of the training ground clearing and sat in a cross legged in a meditative position and slowly levitated himself five meters above the ground.

Naruto sat perfectly still and channeled chakra around him levitating rocks as a way to train his gravity manipulation. The more chakra he put into the jutsu the larger the radius of the levitation field would extend.

This was the scene Akimi and Haku walked in on. "What is he doing?" Haku asked.

"This is how he trains to control gravity, when he first started he could use some basic moves if he was desperate but could not control how long his jutsu would last for or how much power he put into his attacks. he would sometimes use his Shinra Tensei and blow away great big chunks of earth" Akimi replied.

"Is it safe to go near him?" Haku questioned looking at all the floating rocks and branches in mid air.

"Sure it is! But you will probably get trapped in his jutsu until he releases it" Akimi answered with a laugh.

"So what we just wait for him to finish his training before we can go anywhere near him?" Haku asked.

"Not exactly, we just have to get his attention" Akimi replied.

"You really know a lot about him huh? I guess you would have to seeing as he was the only person your age around for the past couple of years" Haku said.

"Hm I guess so. But there is still so much about him that is a mystery to me. He never really talks about his past, outside of small things that happened here in Konoha. He hides a lot of pain in him, I can see that. But I guess you could say I know him better than most. after all he is my best friend" Akimi said trying to liven the mood at the end.

Not waiting for Haku to reply the dark haired kunoichi picked up a small rock and tossed it at Naruto knowing the gravity field was only below him.

The small rock hit the meditating Naruto right in the head. The sudden shock forced the blond jinchuuriki to drop his jutsu sending him crashing onto the ground in a heap. "Ow what the hell!" Naruto yelled, pulling himself up into a standing position.

"Well we had to get your attention somehow!" Akimi yelled in response.

"Did you think of maybe just calling me?" Naruto said rubbing the spot on his head where Akimi had hit him with a rock.

"I thought you were tougher than that. To think Jiraiya-sama thinks so highly of you, maybe he should take on another protege, someone who can take a hit" Akimi joked.

"Yeah very funny. So what did you guys want?" Naruto asked walking over to the kunoichi.

"Well we were thinking that this would be a good time to train together as a team. After all the chunin exams are supposed to be taken in teams. We wouldn't want to get eliminated because out teamwork isn't up to scratch" Haku said.