Chapter 90 The Grate Hawk

Naruto looked around as Jiraiya had been leading him to the coast. To pass the time one their journey Jiraiya had been teaching Naruto along the way. They ended up in a southern part of Fire Country somewhere along the coast. It was generally warm in his country but it was a lot warmer on this beach that Jiraiya had led them too.

It was full of people in swimsuits going about having fun as Naruto gave a sideways look at Jiraiya, although the man did look like he was looking for someone he did get this perverted grin sometimes as his eyes lingered on someone (who Naruto correctly guessed was a woman in a good outfit) but still went back to scanning the area.

"I swear if we're only here for you to look at women I'm going back to the village and telling Granny," Naruto said flatly.

"Damn it I keep telling you that we're here to get you some much needed physical training and I can't think of anyone better for you than him. He just likes hanging out around here." Jiraiya explained to the boy.

"So who is this guy anyway?" Naruto asked crossing his arms.

"His name is Takamura," Jiraiya told him. "He's the best fighter in this area if not most places, at least physically. He knows a lot about fighting techniques, damn it's just too hot here."

He wiped his brow the heavy clothing he had been wearing was not beach friendly. He saw a stall that was selling drinks. "Look I'll get us a few things to drink and I'll tell you all about him, just wait here for me okay?"

"Alright," Naruto shrugged as he placed his hands on the back of his head he was starting to sweat too and was thinking of taking off his vest. He watched Jiraiya walk off as Naruto was left looking around. It didn't seem to be anything special about the place, just your ordinary beach. Lots of people were around having fun, for a moment he kind of wished everyone was here.

He could see his dad sitting under an umbrella reading with Anko getting a tan next to him, Sasuke would most likely be looking bored, Lee and Gai doing swim training, the girls all having fun in the ocean. For a moment he actually picture the scene with him on the beach with the guys watching the girls have fun, especially imaging how Hinata would look.

His moment passed and he felt the weight of their absence hit him like a cold blast of water. It hadn't been that long but he was already missing everyone. He missed waking up in his home to see his dad already up, missed seeing his friends, Hinata, even the mountain with all the faces on it he missed. Hell he was starting to miss that demon cat...well okay that might have been a bit too far he would never miss that cat from hell.

His thoughts were broken by a woman's scream as he quickly looked around and saw that some large guy had picked up a woman caveman style as she was beating her fists on his back.

"Let me go you jerk!" she cried out.

Naruto wasn't the type that would let some jerk do something like so he quickly ran forward and kicked the large guy in the back. He yelled out dropping the girls as he whirled around pissed looking for who had just hit him. Naruto was actually surprised the big guy hadn't fallen from the hit, the guy was a lot sturdier than you would think.

The girl thankfully ran off as Naruto finally got a good look at the man in front of him.

The guy was big, over six feet tall and built like a gorilla. He also had the world's most bizarre hair that he had ever seen, Naruto had never seen or heard of what he would later find out that it was called a curly pompadour. The hair just stuck strait out from the head in the most bizarre way to Naruto.

Well regardless it was time for this overgrown gorilla to learn some manners. He quickly ran over to the problem as stopped not too far away.

"Hold it you jerk, leave her alone!" Naruto shouted at him.

"Huh?" The large man got a good look at the guy who gave him a cheap shot in the back. He hadn't expected a kid as he then gave Naruto a dismissing look. "Beat it brat."

"I'm not letting you do this kind of crap." Naruto told him getting into a fighting stance.

The guy gave him a look and then just gave out a bellowing laugh, "Oh so you want to try and fight me? All three feet of you?"

"I'm not that short you overgrown gorilla!" Naruto hated people who did short jokes at him, he was the shortest of his friends, hell even Hinata was slightly taller, not by much but this kind of things could give a guy a complex.

"What did you call me shrimp?" He glared at him but then noticed that the women were long gone by this time. "Damn it, look at what you did!"

"Saved some girls from a major perverted gorilla?"

A vein could be seen throbbing on the large man's face now as he punched one of his palms with a closed fist. "Okay time for a little brat to learn something."

"Bring it on!" Naruto rushed in as the man took up his own fighting pose, Naruto jumped at him aiming for a kick to the guy's chin. What he hadn't expected was the man to suddenly move and then vanished. For a split second Naruto was confused on how the guy could move so fast out of his vision. He landed and was in the middle of turning figuring the guy was somewhere behind him now.

He had just started his turn when a sudden impact to his head turned out the lights, he hadn't even gotten to really register the blow, hell looking back on it later, he couldn't even remember where the blow came from. One moment he was turning and the next he was staring up at a ceiling feeling like the side of his head had been cracked opened.

Naruto blinked a few times looking up at a wooden ceiling with a slow moving ceiling fan.

"Huh?" He blinked again as the world slowly came back into focus, it took him a moment to remember what happened, he remembered a fight and that was it.

"About time you woke up," Jiraiya's voice got the boy's attention. He turned to look to his left to see the old hermit sitting on the floor next to him. "I swear I can't leave you alone for a minute."

"What happened?" Naruto asked trying to get up before the old man placed a hand on his chest.

"Hold up, you took a good hit to the head, I'm no medic but give yourself a little time to put everything back in order." The man told him.

Naruto's head was bounding, he couldn't remember the last time he got hit that hard. He reached up to feel a wet cloth on his head. "Where are we?"

"My house." Another familiar deep voice said and a flash of recognition hit Naruto as hard at the pain in his skull. He quickly looked over to see that overgrown large man sitting there as well not looking pleased at all.

"The hell!?" Naruto jumped up despite himself. "Why are we here, this guy was harassing some girl earlier!"

"Oy! I was being nice!"

"You picked her up like a damn caveman!"

"She insulted me, normally when people do that I knock them out so I was being nice!"

"Hold it you two!" Jiraiya slapped his hands together hoping a new fight didn't break out. He knew that this man's personality was one of the worst kind and it was going to be a bit hard getting them to get along but he also was here for a reason. "Naruto, this is Takamura the man we came to see."

Naruto paused for a second before bursting out again, "Are you insane? Why the hell would I want to train with this guy, he's a huge jerk!"

"Says the little brat that went down with just one punch," Takamura teased him grinning like a sadistic monkey at him.

"You only caught me by surprise!"

"That's enough you two," Jiraiya was slowly starting to lose his temper at the two as he felt a headache coming on. "Look Takamura I came to you because I figured you of all people would be able to help him in some of the finer techniques."

"Why should I?" Takamura asked picking his nose looking bored. "I got other things to do ya know."

He knew that Takamura was a very hard person to get anything out of, the man was more stubborn like a bull. Although there were ways of leading a bull if you could entice it with something it wanted and he knew just the things that Takamura liked. Jiraiya pulled out a scroll as he hefted the scroll for show.

"Well that's too bad, you see while I'm training him I won't have that much time to write anymore and if I have to find someone else that's going to have to take a lot more time." He sighed for show as he saw the large man eye the scroll. "I only got the first few chapters done of my next story, if I had someone train him I could spend some more time writing and finishing it."

"Old man," Takamura said slowly looking more serious now. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Oh this?" He waved the scroll at him, "yes this is the work I've done so far on my uncompleted novel."

Naruto suddenly realized that this guy was a fan of Jiraiya's books, thinking back he shouldn't have been surprised.

"Tell you what, if you agree to train him not only will you get to read this but I'll get done my next book that much sooner."

Takamura grinned at the prospect as there was the complete collection of Jiraiya's books along with other such books on a small shelf next one of the walls.

"All right I'll do it," He then turned to Naruto and grinned. "You better get ready because tomorrow you're in for hell."

-The Next morning-

Naruto found himself on the beach as Takamura led him here, Naruto had changed into a pair of shorts and t-shirt s the early morning sun hadn't warmed the area up yet but it soon would once the sun had a chance to get a bit higher.

"So what are we doing here?" Naruto still wasn't sure about this guy or any of this.

"Well first thing I noticed about you in our fight is that you're too slow," He told him as he stretched up.

"I'm not that slow," Naruto told him feeling a bit offended by that.

"Oh yeah?" With that Takamura suddenly in a flash moved up into Naruto's personal space. It caught the boy by surprise as he flinched back. "See that? In a fight if you can dash into a person's space that fast you can get in the first shot in a fight and if you make it count that one shot can end the fight."

Naruto had to admit he made a point and he still didn't get how a guy this big moved that fast.

"First off take off your shoes," He told Naruto as he himself was barefoot so he wanted Naruto to be as well.

Naruto shrugged as he took them off.

"Alright, I'm not going to go easy on you so you better keep up," He grinned and then took off like a rocket.

Naruto barely had any time to react as he ran after the man, they ran along the beach at a break neck speed, there was no warm up or anything just a full out run. Naruto hadn't seen someone run like this since Gai or Lee. After over ten minutes Naruto was gasping for breath as he was covered in sweat. The man was still going crazy fast without even breathing hard. He was starting to see that there might be a bit more to him than he thought. That's when he noticed something else and that was his feet.

He knew the usual aches and pains from running but this felt different, the sand was a lot harder to run on as it gave a lot more resistance than just regular ground he was used to. Taking off his shoes hadn't helped as he felt his toes dig into the sand to get the traction he needed.

Later Naruto wondered if they were going to run the entire coastline of the country before the big man finally stopped. Naruto nearly came to a crashing halt just barely keeping his balance as he bent over gasping.

Takamura wiped the sweat from his brow looking at the boy, "Take that stupid mask off, you'll need all the air you can get."

"It's...a...family...tradition..." Naruto managed to gasp out.

"It's stupid for training, besides if you can't breathe you're going to pass out."

Naruto mulled it over but he really needed more breath and the mask was cutting off some of the air flow. No one else was around plus it's not like all his friends hadn't seen him without it so he pulled it down to get more air. That's when Takamura pointed at him and started laughing.

"What?" Naruto demanded.

"You look like a racoon or something," He laughed even harder.

"Huh?" Naruto looked for a kunai and checked for his reflection in the metal. That's when he noticed that the skin of his face that was exposed to the sun was slightly more tanned than the part of his mouth that had been covered. His whisker marks didn't help as he glared up at the man.

"Anyways did you notice the change?" He asked Naruto.

"What you mean that it was harder to run, yeah."

He nodded his head, "Right when you run in shoes you don't exercise your entire foot, your toes don't get much exercise."

"Why is that important?" Naruto looked down at his toes although they did feel a lot more worn out than the rest of his body.

"Dashing," He demonstrated by suddenly getting inside of Naruto's guard area being right in front of him. "If you can dash right into your enemy you can land a perfect shot that can take the fight into your favor or end it with one blow. Remember how I knocked you out yesterday?"

"Yeah," He wished that the guy would stop bringing that up.

"Well this will make you faster for those quick movements you need, now let's run back to my place because the warm up is over." With that Takamura ran off at top speed.

Naruto ran after him curing his name with nearly every gasping breath by the time they were halfway back. Naruto hadn't been pushed this hard in a long time, by the time they got back to the small house on the beach he felt like his body was about to just drop. He was led around back to see a small personal gym in the backyard. There were weights that looked very used all over the place as Takamura motioned to two punching bags.

One was a regular one on a chain supported by a metal frame and although the other was supported the same way it was over stuffed.

"Alright after the running we're going to tap up your hands and start bare knuckle punching, followed by kicks, then elbow blows." Takamura told him getting some tape from a small box. "We don't got much time so I'm going to have to do this the fun way and break you down and build you back up."

"Fine with me," Naruto was grateful that he wouldn't run anymore today, although it might be harder the next day on him. Sure the Fox inside of him healed him but he still felt wear and tear when he pushed his body. His hands were finally tapped up as he started to go to the smaller one.

"Not that one, the bigger one."

"Eh!?" Naruto looked at the thing. "That's got to weigh two hundred pounds!"

"Three hundred actually," Takamura grinned as he gave a punch himself and actually moved the damn thing. The guy was a lot stronger than he looked which said something for the large muscular guy. Then he went to the smaller one and his punch made the smaller one nearly jump off the chain.

"If you can hit this thing that hard then when you hit something or someone lighter it will be like your blows are like bricks hitting them and not flesh."

Naruto got in front of the large training bag and gave a punch, he stood still feeling the pain shoot through his entire arm, it was like he was trying to punch through a damn wall.

"Hurry up, we still have to have you into the ocean and practice punching and kicks in that to get your speed up as well as training your body on learning to hit the weakest parts of the human body by pure instinct!"

"Alright!" Naruto punched again with his other hand gritting his teeth as he kept doing it switching hands. Each blow he could feel the bones in his hands rattle as the jolt of pain went up to his shoulders but he kept at it. He had to get stronger and if this was one way of doing it then he would do it no matter what he had to go through. He kept punching in the heat as Takamura watching giving him instructions when his punches got sloppy. Naruto wondered how everyone else was doing.

-Konoha-

In the outdoor training grounds on the Hyuga estate as two young ninjas were training together and had been for the last hour. Hinata hit the ground on her side as she slowly pushed herself up, she panted heavily trying to get her arms back up into the style of her family but found her left arm wouldn't work.

Her eyes were already active as the veins pulsed by the side of her eyes as she saw that the chakra paths of her arm were shut down. With two fingers she jabbed them into her arm into the points to open them back up. She felt the chakra flow back into her arm as she flexed her hand.

"You're getting better at reopening your chakra points," Neji told her. "You used to have to take longer to get that right."

"Thank you," Hinata felt her legs shaking but tried to steady them.

Neji noticed this and felt she needed a break, "Why don't we take a moment to rest up?"

"I...I can still go," Hinata panted.

He could see that she was unsteady on her feet if this kept up she could actually get injured. "Well I need a break if you don't mind."

Hinata paused as she sighed and nodded her head, knowing what he was doing but she couldn't call him out on it. Perhaps she did need a break as she wasn't sure how much longer she could stand at the moment. They had been training for some time and she felt the fatigue starting to seek into her body.

"Okay," She told him as they made their way over to the side where bottles of water were set aside. Both of them took deep drinks of the cool water letting it fill them and reenergize them.

They sat down letting their bodies rest up as Hinata felt herself sink into the ground.

"You have improved since we started," Neji told her honestly as she had come far since their training together. She had improved on her stances as well as her speed and accuracy with the gentle fist style. The ability with her eyes had improved and her endurance had gone up a little too. He was actually proud of how far she was coming along but she kept pushing herself too hard at times.

"I'm still not as good as you Neji-niisan," She said holding her water and looking into it.

"You'll get there," He encouraged her, "You just have to get there at your own pace in your own way."

"You think so?" She asked him.

He nodded and smiled at her," I do, you just have to believe in yourself and do things your own way."

She felt more comforted by his words she had been trying so hard to become better lately.

"Hey Hinata you here?" Ino's voice called out from inside of the building behind them.

Both of the Hyuga turned to see Ino and Sakura walking towards the open doorway.

"We were told to find you here," Sakura said smiling.

"Yep, we came over to play," Ino joked as the two friends came to join Hinata outside.

Neji could see that Hinata's friend to came to visit her and he felt like he might be in the way if he stayed. Plus he didn't want to be stuck in a group of just girls as he might feel a little uncomfortable so he sought a way out.

"If you don't mind we can take a break for the day," Neji told her. "Since it would be rude to ignore your friends while they are visiting."

"Oh, okay then," She nodded her head a bit disappointed they would end but if she was honest she wasn't sure how much more her body could hold out.

With that Neji stood up and excused himself from everyone company. Ino watched him leave before commenting to everyone.

"Okay is it me or is he just too pretty for a boy?" Ino asked.

"I-Ino-san!" Hinata blushed at the improper way to talk about her cousin.

"What?" Ino shrugged, "You know he's pretty for a boy."

"You should have seen Haku-san," Sakura told her friend. "He actually can pass for a girl."

"What, seriously?" Ino blinked.

"Anyways," Sakura said sitting down next to Hinata, "How have you've been lately? You seem to be training a lot lately."

Hinata nodded her head looking down her fingers playing with each other as she had put down her water. "I just wanted to get stronger."

"Yeah we all do," Sakura sighed, "You have no idea how hard it is training under Tsunade-sama. There are moments I thought I would die."

Sakura had been doing the dodging training which required Tsunade to hit solid rubber balls at her with her super strength. It was done to 'motivate' Sakura to not getting hit, plus there was all the studying on top of that, then there was normal training with her team and missions. She was so busy these days that she wasn't sure when she would get her next break like she had today.

"So...you get anything from Naruto on the mail?" Ino asked curious but seeing how depressed Hinata got immediately regretted doing it. "Hey don't get all gloomy! I'm sure he's thinking about you all the time but can't send anything at the moment."

They knew that Jiraiya wanted to keep them on the move so any return letter would never reach them but also any letter that was intercepted could be traced back. Naruto did mention he would try and sent something if he got the chance so they figured that there were two people that would get any word from Naruto one would be Kakashi and the other would be Hinata.

"I just really miss him," Hinata kept the stuffed toy Naruto had given her in her room and usually had it with her in her bed some nights when she really missed him a lot. Just holding onto the item reassured her at times.

"We all do," Sakura said missing her friend. "Things are just too quiet around here without him for one thing."

"He did know how to live things up," Ino agreed Hinata got a small smile remembering some of the better times when Naruto was around.

Ino looked at Hinata as she started to think on something, "You thought of letting your hair grow out?"

"Huh?" Hinata ran her hand through her short hair. "Is...is it bad or something?"

"No but it is kind of boyish," Ino tried to imagine her with longer hair like Neji. "You might want to think growing it out to surprise Naruto when he gets back. I bet if you start now it will be nice and long like mine." Ino flipped her long ponytail. "I think it would look good on you?"

"R-really?" She never thought about her looks much but she wondered if Naruto would like her with longer hair.

"It might work," Sakura had kept her hair to shoulder length as it was functional and yet also not too short. But Hinata might be able to pull off the longer hair look as most Hyuga did seem to use the style and for some reason it worked for them.

"I never really had long hair before," She wasn't sure how to even handle that, it seemed like it would be a lot more upkeep. But she remembered how lovely her mother's hair had been and how long and beautiful it was. Maybe it would be nice to grow her hair out after all.

"Well if you want any tips you can call on us," Ino said hugging the girl lightly. "We're friends after all right?"

Hinata nodded her head smiling she liked having friends and other female friends were really nice to hang out with.

"Well hopefully by the time Naruto gets back I'll land Sasuke-kun and maybe we can double date?" Ino asked Hinata already thinking about it in her mind.

"Huh, but I saw Sasuke-san with Sakura-san in the park two days ago," Hinata told Ino as Sakura stiffened suddenly knowing where this was going to go.

"Whhhat?" Ino drew out turning to look at Sakura slowly.

"We were just walking together is all," Sakura tried to play it cool although that hadn't been the first time they had hung out either. Things were moving slowly between them and she was fine with that, she had learned not to push things with Sasuke and so far things had been going well. The last thing she needed was a jealous Ino getting into that.

"Oh, and was that the only time?" Ino leaned over across Hinata narrowing her eyes.

Sakura knew that if she lied Ino would be able to tell that was the trouble when you knew someone since childhood. Ino was the closest thing to a sister she had in the world and that meant that they knew each other nearly inside and out.

"Well...we've hung out a few times," Sakura looked away feeling the blush slowly creep in.

Ino looked at her for a long uncomfortable moment before pulling back and giving a frustrated yell making the two girls jump in surprise.

"It's not fair!" Ino wailed. "Now I'm the only single one among us!"

"I-I think Tenten-san isn't seeing anyone." Hinata tried to help the blonde girl.

"Oh please you know it's only a matter of time before she and Neji get together," Ino sighed slumping her shoulders in defeat. "It just depends on who makes the first move there."

Ino really didn't want to be the only single girl among her friends, she started thinking of her options and the only boys she knew were close friends which could lead into some drama. Choji and Shikamaru were like brothers to her so that was out, Shino, well she didn't think she could handle his bugs all the time. There was Kiba and he had kind of a bad boy look but she wasn't sure about that.

She slumped even further feeling depressed, she didn't know any single guy that was worth dating? Maybe she should start looking around more often to people she didn't know, she didn't want to end up old and alone.

"Well it's not like Sasuke-kun and myself are dating exactly," Sakura said trying to get her friend not so depressed looking. Although she highly doubted that Sasuke would date Ino. Sakura had learned that Sasuke didn't care for what he called 'fan-girls' and preferred more mature girls, which was why Sakura had taken Anko's advice with how to deal with Sasuke, which had worked.

"So what would you call it?" Ino asked her friend.

"Well...just...really good friends?" Sakura offered as best she could.

Ino gave her a look like she didn't believe it and she was right in thinking that. Sakura tried to make the conversation about anything else.

"So Hinata, how is your training going?" Sakura asked quickly.

"Hey, don't change the subject!" Ino objected.

"You look like you're really pushing yourself," Sakura pushed on trying to ignore Ino's protest. "Maybe we can spar sometime and we can find out how far we both came. It would be like our training together in the chunin exams during that month long break."

"O-okay," Hinata might enjoy that. That training month during the exams had been a fun time despite all the training they had gone through it was better training with someone than alone.

"I know what you two are doing and we are going to talk about this later Sakura," Ino muttered crossing her arms.

Sakura was thankful for that break but knew that Ino was going to keep her word on that point. After that the three of them started to talk about happier subjects hanging out as friends usually do.

Next Up Chapter 28 : On the Road