"New Sunshine"

Chapter 10: Basic Water Training: Gatekeeper Duo

Where Ino gets a crash course in the water...

A shiver ran through Kakashi's body as he entered his greatest nightmare: the First Ninja Bank of Konoha. Instead of traditional walls, the exterior was filled with glass panels, giving the building a unique appeal compared to most other banks. The building looked fragile, but Kakashi knew it wasn't at all.

The interior was pure white, resembling a hospital room, Kakashi's second greatest nightmare, where men and women walked around wearing expensive work kimono. No elaborate patterns, just monochrome; most were blue but a few were black or steel gray, made of the finest fabric he had ever seen. No ordinary bank would require its employees to wear such attire, but then again, this was no ordinary bank, this was Hiashi's bank.

"Hatake Kakashi!" A large woman turned the corner, her curly brown hair trembling with anger. "Take that mask off now!"

"Well, if he's not my favorite bank manager." Kakashi raised his hand in his usual greeting gesture.

"This is no place for ninja to play," the woman warned. "Take it off or I'll fire you!"

"Is there a problem?" Hiashi asked as he and Hinata walked through the sliding glass doors.

The woman pointed at Kakashi accusingly, "Sorry, sir, but this ninja refuses to remove his mask!"

"I'm fully aware of Kakashi's habits, but he's here on official business." Hiashi's lavender eyes settled on the woman, "Kakashi is excused from this point on. Have I made myself clear?"

The accusing woman's hand dropped to her side, all the anger that had once bubbled up from her vanishing, replaced by a terrifying fear. "Yes, sir. Forgive me, Hatake-san, I wasn't aware of that." The woman bowed to the jounin.

"It's okay." Kakashi looked around the bank, at the various offices, "Then tell me. Where do you keep your records?"

XX

"Let's go." Naruto exclaimed cheerfully as he placed another pile of books on the desk in a somewhat haphazard manner, the dust covering the books revealing that they hadn't been used recently.

"And this is it?" Ino looked at the books with a raised eyebrow, afraid to actually know the answer.

"Volumes one through eight are about chakra manipulation. The third one was written in detail by him himself." Naruto boasted proudly. Ino shivered as she looked at the pile of books on the left, which ranged from water techniques to chakra control to nature transformation.

"This is going to take us forever!" she said, banging her head on the desk in defeat.

"Well, you said you wanted to do individual training." Naruto pulled a chair next to her and sat down slowly, immediately placing his elbow on the table with his head in his hand.

"I know, I know." Ino said, "But with all these books it would take me months to read them!"

"Well, I don't think we could train the way you did." Naruto said indifferently, unaware of the consequences of his comment.

Renewed, Ino pushed her head off the desk and turned towards Naruto, "You mean there's another way besides just studying?" Her eyes lit up at such a possibility.

"Well, that's not what I meant. You'd have to have a good amount of chakra to be able to do that. And we'd need someone to explain the basics to us first." Naruto immediately leaned back to create some distance between himself and the woman as she stalked closer to him with each passing second.

"Come on Naruto, drop it!" She leaned closer, causing the jinchuriki to fall off his chair. "Ah!" Came the scream, forcing a laugh to escape her throat.