Eating and Training

A cold encounter with another mysterious person leaves Midori bewildered. Training commences with Naruto putting as little effort in it as possible and just as it nears break time friends appear to join in.

The boy had stopped walking, started to turn his head to face Midori, then for some reason he just continued walking without even so much as making eye contact. Midori watched him go, then quickly bought what she needed and ran back to her house.

 

When she returned home Kiba bandaged up Kiki and informed her that Kiki's foreleg was broken and was suffering a mild concussion. Midori made up a breakfast of bacon and rolled omelets, then gave Akamaru and Kiba some. It was gone in a matter of minutes. Kiba sighed as he finished. "Your a really good cook Midori." he smiled. Akamaru barked in agreement.

 

Midori smiled slightly back 'What a day...' she thought. She was exhausted and the spot Itachi had touched on her cheek felt like it was on fire. Midori brought her hand to her cheek. "Something wrong?" Kiba asked, he was staring at her hand. "No..." she sighed. Kiba didn't look convinced. "So what happened to you two?" he repeated his earlier question. Midori put her hand down and looked away. "I really don't know" she murmured weakly.

 

"You know, you didn't have to cook anything for us..." Kiba appeared to have caught the hint that she wasn't going to tell him what had happened. "Well, Kiki likes it and I don't hear any complaints from you." Midori smirked at him. Kiba shrugged his shoulders "What can I say? We like anything we can sink our teeth into." She suppressed a laugh, but smiled.

 

Midori gave Kiki some of the bacon and surprisingly she managed to recover some of her energy and was tearing away at it. "See? Thats my point, although I have to leave soon so I can make it to practice." Midori said thoughtfully. "So are you taking Kiki?" Kiba asked. "Well thats entirely up to her now isn't it, Kiki?" Midori smiled and pet Kiki on the head softly. The brown pup barked happily and started to lick her fingers. "Well that's decided." Midori chuckled. Kiba and Akamaru stayed to talk a while longer, then left around 10:00am so they could go train.

Midori and Kiki met up with Kakashi's team at the training ground and repeated their schedule from their last training, starting with Naruto. "Alright, I wanna get a lot stronger today!" Midori told Naruto determinedly. "Alright! Uh...what happened to her?" he pointed to Kiki whom barked determinedly in Midori's arms. "Long story..." Midori's expression darkened. "Uh...I guess I'll ask again later!" Naruto said waving his hands in front of him with a panicked expression on his face. Midori smirked at this.

 

They practiced Taijutsu for about two hours on the dummies that were set up. Midori smiled and fell back in the grass, Kiki limped over from under the tree of which she'd sat and started to lick Midori's face. "Ha ha! You've gotten a lot better Midori! Faster too!" Naruto laughed and laid down beside her.

"Good..." she trailed off thoughtfully as she stared up at the sky curiously. "Naruto?" Midori looked at the blond-haired boy. "I want to fight you. I know I can't beat you, but I still want to try." Midori smiled. Naruto sat up and looked down at her with his goofy smile. "Okay! I'll try to go easy on you." he flashed her a cocky grin. "Suit yourself." Midori stood up and dropped Kiki back off under the tree. Naruto just watched her. Midori smirked as she put Kiki down softly. In a mere blink of an eye she'd reached into her weapons pouch and sent a shuriken whizzing past Naruto's head. The weapon had gone deep into the tree behind him.

Naruto's shocked expression was priceless and Midori laughed. Naruto took that as his chance to take her off-guard and appeared behind her, ready to grab her. Before he could touch her she ducked under his arms and kicked him hard into a far tree, leaving an indent. Naruto grunted as he hit the ground. He jumped to his feet and his hands moved swiftly to perform signs.

 

In a heartbeat there appeared over a hundred shadow clones. Midori looked around, she was surrounded. She smirked and then they all came after her at the same time. Midori dodged, kicked, punched and threw her weapons at the Narutos. This battle went on for over an hour, Midori's eyes lit up as they flung themselves at her again. "Chakra." she murmured and tried to send her chakra to the soles of her feet and before the Narutos got to her she ran up a tree and hid carefully. She had no idea if such a move would actually work, but if chakra really was what you could make of it she wanted to put it to the test.

 

"Whe-where'd you go?! How do you know how to do that?!" Narutos yelled in unison. Midori kept silent so she'd be in cover until she spotted something moving in the bushes by the Narutos. She had barely made it up the tall tree before she had put too much chakra to her feet, almost pushing her off the tree entirely. Midori dropped from the tree and attacked all the Naruto, making them disappear all at once as she drove punches and kicks as quick and silent as the wind.

 

Finally one was left and she punched him in the face, sending him flying upwards, then threw shuriken hard enough to pin him by his clothes to a tree. Midori could hear Kiki howling in the background as if she was cheering her on. Then she spun around and threw a kunai into the bushes where she had seen the movement.

Nothing happened so she just shrugged it off. "How did you do all that?" Naruto exclaimed from where he was pinned. Midori walked over to him "I don't really know, just instinct I guess." she replied with a smile. Midori pulled a shuriken that'd pinned him and he fell abruptly to the ground. "Ow..." he groaned.

 

"How impressive!" came a familiar voice. Midori looked around and so did Naruto. "Who are you?" Midori called. When a figure stepped out of the shadows and his face came into view. Midori rolled her eyes and sat down with a thud. Akamaru jumped into Midori's arms and started to lick her face rapidly. Midori smiled and picked Akamaru up under his small arms. "So why are YOU here?" Midori sneered playfully. "Oh! Hey Kiba!" Naruto greeted. "Aww, you make me sound like a person you don't wanna be around." Kiba smiled at Midori and nodded to Naruto. "Hey" he said back.

Just then two other people appeared behind Kiba. "You can do a lot of damage for a new ninja." Kiba smirked. "You were able to get past Naruto's Shadow Clone jutsu and nearly get one of us in the head." Kiba showed her a log with a kunai driven deep within it. "Yeah! She's like so amazing! Although I was going easy on her.." Naruto piped up. Midori smiled at Naruto, then back to Kiba as she put Akamaru back in the grass.

 

"So who had the close call?" Midori asked curiously. "Hinata." Kiba answered and looked at Hinata. Midori blinked and what she did next surprised everyone. She appologized and gave Hinata a hug. "Sorry about that Hinata-chan, didn't know it was you." Midori smiled. Hinata seemed embarrassed and started pushing her index fingers together as she spoke. "I-its okay. I used a substitution jutsu before it hit" she said quietly. Kiba and Naruto were speechless, while Shino just stared blankly at the girls.

 

Midori was happy that her training today had gone well. Personally she imagined that her luck wouldn't last long. She was especially glad that Kiba's team decided to join them. Her joy was not obvious to the others. She had plenty of energy today knowing that Kiki was going to get better soon and progressing faster in her training was a major bonus. As Midori's mind sifted through her feelings of the sunny day that made the other day pale in comparison she suddenly became aware again to the others.

 

All there was was silence. "What?!" Midori growled. "Oh, nothing." Kiba and Naruto said in unison. 'Heh, I think they're scared of me..and think that I'm not normal' She mused. Midori, Kiba, Hinata, Naruto, and Shino ended up training together for another two hours.

Reviews

[Sseoni]

Great chapter! You work really fast! I'm glad that Kiki is getting better and Kiba is starting to appear a lot more in these chapters... I think that's a good thing... I have no idea. I was really amazed at what Midori did to fight off those shadow clones that Naruto had made. Very impressive! That was funny when Midori apologized to Hinata and hugged her. Great chapter! Keep writing! Full support all the way!