Seeing this Naruto decided to add some incentive, "If you prove that you can be useful to Sasuke, he may pay more attention to you."
That seemed to do the trick as Sakura started running up the tree.
As Sasuke glared at him, the Naruto clone sighed. "You know glaring at me won't help you with your tree climbing. I suggest you use a little less chakra than before."
"I don't need your help dobe!" Sasuke said. He turned back to the tree and began running up it, albeit he used less chakra. For a while it seemed to be going fine until he slipped. He marked his progress and jumped back down. Looking up he glared at his mark. It was only five steps above the first one!
Damn it! Sakura got this in one try! I'm an Uchiha and I haven't even gotten half as far as she has. Sasuke thought as he glared at the tree.
"You need to relax Sasuke," Naruto's voice came from behind him. When Sasuke once again turned his glare on him, Naruto sighed. "Look, I'm trying to help you."
"I said I don't need your help!" Sasuke shot back. "I'm an Uchiha, this is no problem for me!"
"That's not what it seems like from where I'm standing." Naruto shot back.
"I said I don't need your help dobe!" Sasuke grit his teeth.
Naruto looked at Sasuke for a moment before he shrugged. "Fine, I'll just be sitting over at that tree, watching as you continue making a fool of yourself teme."
Sasuke narrowed his eyes as the Naruto clone sat down and leaned back against a tree. He turned back to the tree he was working on. He would complete this exercise without the dobe's help! He was an Uchiha!
As Sasuke continued working, none of them noticed the small figure who was staring at them as it left.
Within their base the hunter ninja watched over the bedridden Zabuza, mixing some of the herbs they had.
"So even you have come back defeated."
The hunter ninja turned his head to see Gato standing in between two thugs. One of them was shirtless with a black hakama, and an eye patch on his right eye. His left shoulder was adorned with a vine tattoo pattern while he had barbed wire tattoos running down his arms.
The other was wearing a baggy gray jacket festooned with many pockets, a pair of black shorts and a black beanie on his head.
Both of them had a hand holding the sheathes of their swords, trying to make themselves look menacing.
Zabuza's partner thought the pair looked pathetic with their posturing.
"It looks like the Kiri Ninja are pretty pathetic." Gato continued as he moved into the room, feeling confident now that Zabuza was bed ridden. "You can't even avenge your men, how pathetic. And you call yourself a devil?"
"…" Zabuza said nothing, causing both of Gato's ronin to start unsheathing their blades.
"Hold on for a moment," Gato held up a hand as he continued walking up to Zabuza. He stopped at the bed and looked down at the Kiri missing ninja, "Hey. There's no need to stay silent."
Gato began to reach out his hand towards Zabuza's throat, but before it could get there the hunter ninja grabbed onto the business man's wrist.
"Don't touch Zabuza-sama with your filthy hands!" The hunter ninja snarled, giving him a glare that looked like it would burn straight through the fat business man.
"Hey let go! Let go you fucking- ARGH!" Gato shouted, only to scream as the hunter ninja snapped his arm, then tossed him back.
The two ronin moved their hands towards their swords. However, their eyes widened when they found the hunter ninja between them, holding their own swords against their throats.
"You shouldn't do that," The hunter ninja said. "I'm really pissed off right now."
Gato and both his cronies began to sweat.
"One more chance!" Gato shouted as he stood up and shook his unbroken hand in a fist. "I'm giving you one more chance to complete this! If you fail, I'll make sure that every ninja in Kiri knows where you are!" Gato and his two thugs left, slamming the door on their way out.
"Haku," Zabuza said, getting his partner's attention. "You didn't have to do that."
"I know," Haku said with a smile, spotting the protrusion in the sheets that showed Zabuza was holding a kunai. "But it's still too early to kill Gato. If we cause a commotion right now, the hunters will be after us again. We must be patient."
Zabuza sighed. "Damn…I hate it when you're right."
"Right about what?"
Hearing the voice, Haku and Zabuza looked over as the door opened to see the Akuma brothers walking in.
Later that night the Konoha ninja were sitting at the dinner table with Tazuna and his family. Naruto and Sasuke were shoveling food down their throats; Sakura had her head on the table and looked like she was going to pass out. And Kakashi was, much to the displeasure of Tsunami, reading his porn.
"So Sasuke, Sakura, how's training going?" Kakashi asked as he flipped a page of his book. He would have left since he finished eating almost as soon as the food had been set in front of him, having eaten so fast no one could even see him take off his mask, but it would be rude to leave while the others were eating.
"Hn." Sasuke grunted, somehow still able to make that sound despite his mouth being full of food.
"Ugh…Naruto's a slave driver…" Sakura groaned, not even bothering to lift her head up. Out of all the genin she had had it the hardest, since she did not have the stamina of the others.
"Really?" Kakashi asked turning to look at Naruto who was on his fourth serving of rice. "So how was your training Naruto?"
Naruto stopped shoving food down his gullet and swallowed what he already had in his mouth before answering, "Well…I'm making some progress, but its slow going." Naruto frowned as he thought of his training, "I'm doing better at learning the Shunshin than elemental manipulation however."
What! He's learning the Shunshin! Sasuke questioned in his mind, just adding another reason to be mad at Naruto.
"That's natural," Kakashi said. "After all, elemental manipulation is a Jonin-level training technique."
Naruto's going through Jonin-level training! Sakura wondered in shock.
Sasuke seethed even more at hearing that the dobe was learning something that a Jonin normally learned. Standing up he stomped out of the house, slamming the door closed behind him.
I should have seen this coming…Kakashi sighed. I probably shouldn't talk about Naruto getting stronger in front of Sasuke.
"I wonder what crawled up his ass and died," Naruto looked over at the door Sasuke had stormed out of before shrugging. "Though, I'm surprised it could with that twenty foot pole he's already got sticking in there."
"Naruto-baka! Don't make fun of Sasuke-kun like that!" Sakura shouted, standing up and rearing her fist back to hit the blond.
Naruto just looked at her, "Do you want me to double the amount of training you're going to be doing tomorrow?"
Sakura's mouth snapped shut as she sat back down, not wanting to even go through the training the blond had placed on her again much less have it doubled.
"That's what I thought," Naruto nodded his head and turned back to his food.
"Actually Naruto," Kakashi started. "Since you seem to be much farther than your teammates, I was hoping you could go with Tazuna-san tomorrow."
Naruto blinked for a few seconds before shrugging, "Sure thing sensei."
It would just mean he had to wake up earlier and get his Kage Bunshin working. He looked over at Tazuna and gave the man a reassuring grin.
"Well it looks like you'll be saddled with the best protection we've got old man! I won't be letting any of Gato's thugs near you!"
"I'm sure," Tazuna chuckled at the boy's cocksure attitude. After having seen Naruto come up with that plan to help his sensei, he no longer doubted the blond shinobi.
Everyone continued eating for a little while longer, until Sakura noticed something about the picture hanging on the wall behind Tazuna.