A/N: Chapter 4 starts now!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Unlocking One's Potential Part 2

It was 1:00 in the morning, and any active off-duty ninja in their right mind would be trying to get as much sleep as possible. The last thing any Konoha ninja wanted was to go through rigorous training, dangerous missions, and dragged-out meetings with the Hokage without a wink of sleep.

But Naruto was never known for being in his right mind...

After mastering one of the Rikudo Sennin's taijutsu katas and strikes, the Kyuubi had instructed Naruto to go to one of the nearby streams at the edge of the training ground. As Naruto made his way over to the stream, he spoke to the Kyuubi.

'A stream... Kurama, you're not making me give up ramen in exchange for f-'

"Yep." The Kyuubi answered before Naruto even finished.

'FISH! C'mon Kurama! You expect me to eat fish 24/7 from now on! That's not much of a variety of nutritious foods, y'know!'

"Settle down, brat! Fish is brain food, and God knows you need it. Also, I never said you had to eat it 24/7. We'll still be visiting Ichiraku's just as often as usual. You can still order ramen as well, but you'll be eating in moderation. Instead of the large quantities of ramen like what you're used to, you're going to be ordering..."

'W-What?' Naruto asked while fearing his fate.

With an evil voice and shrewd smile on its face, the Kyuubi answered with false exuberance.

"THE GREENS! HEALTHY VEGETABLES, SALADS, AND ALL! STRAIGHT FROM ICHIRAKU'S HEALTHY CHOICE MENU! AND THE PRICES ARE GRRRRRREEEEEAAAATTTTT!"

'NOOOOOOOOO!' Naruto screamed in his head as he fell to his knees dramatically at the edge of flowing stream.

'How do you even know what's on their menu?!'

"With the number of times I've seen it in your memories, It's no surprise I eventually memorized it... Unfortunately..."

'Hmph!' Naruto falsely pouted at his unfortunate situation.

"Yes, but more on that later... Anyway, it's time to hunt for a midnight snack, so make a few clones and tell them to draw out some fish to the surface of the stream. Then, take aim with your kunais and strike the fish that pop up."

'Why not just make one clone, transform it into a net, throw it in, and be done with it?'

"If I have to say it, then I'll say it. You need the target practice, Naruto. In combat, shinobi rely on more than just chakra. Efficiency with weaponry is also important. Besides, a meal tastes better knowing that you busted your ass for it. NOW HUNT!"

Naruto nodded, made five clones, and got to work.

As Naruto threw his kunais, he slowly started to improve his aim and throwing style. Small things like the speed and angle of one's wrist as they flick the projectile affected so many things. To make matters worse, Naruto was aiming at the fish at one o'clock in the morning, so it wasn't so easy in the dark...

But after a good hour of trying to hit the airborne fish with kunais, Naruto was slowly starting to hit his mark. By two o'clock, he had managed to catch five fish.

"That'll do for tonight, and probably for tomorrow as well. Now put on your jacket and headband again so we can go home."

Naruto dispelled four of his clones, made the remaining one transform into a bag, put in the fish, got his belongings and started walking off of the training grounds.

As he walked away from the stream, he suddenly froze while in mid-stride.

"What's wrong?" the Kyuubi asked. "Let's head on home."

'... I don't know... But, I think... there is a scroll in the stream..." Naruto answered as he turned back towards the stream again.

"Stop screwing around, brat. Let's go home already."

'I'm serious, Kurama!'

"Well then, how do you figure that? You didn't even swim in the stream!"

'Check through my memories, then. Maybe I'm going crazy, but I can see myself trying to catch a fish in the water. And while I'm doing that, I see a scroll submerged in the mud underwater.'

The Kyuubi looked through its host's memories, and surprisingly... it found the memory that Naruto had described.

"Well, well, well, it looks like we've learned another trick to that shadow clone jutsu of yours. Not only does it give you the power to summon an infinite army, you'll retain the memories of your clones after they're dispelled. I wonder if the same applies to their experiences... This trick could come in handy in the future."

As the Kyuubi explained its analysis, Naruto made a shadow clone as he stood by the edge of the stream again.

"Get that scroll for me, will you?" Naruto said to his clone.

The clone nodded and jumped into the stream. After a good minute, it had resurfaced with a muddy green/red scroll in its hand.

As the clone gave the wet and muddy scroll to Naruto and dispelled, the Kyuubi spoke.

"It doesn't look like an elemental jutsu scroll to me, Naruto. I don't really know if it's all that valuable to us... But if the scroll is sealed tightly like that, then it's possible that the writing inside the scroll hasn't been smeared by the water. Looks like we keep getting luckier by the minute, brat!"

'Really?! That's fantastic. Let's head home, eat, and open this thing up!'

"DON'T FORGET TO SLEEP, NARUTO! YOU'RE ON DUTY WITH TEAM 7 TOMORROW, REMEMBER!?"

'Alright, alright, fine.' Naruto answered as he walked off of the training grounds and headed home with his bag of fish and muddy scroll.

"By the way, your team is probably worried about the way you've been acting lately... You need to start acting like your loud oblivious self again. You can't let them know that you're communicating with me, training by yourself at night, or that you've figured out the identities of your parents."

At the fox's words, Naruto actually tensed a bit as he was walked through the empty village square to his apartment.

Of course he would keep his contact with the Kyuubi and his late night training sessions a secret, but the identities of his parents had been a matter that Naruto forgot about completely...

He was so preoccupied with his training that he forgot that he knew the identities of his parents now...

'Namikaze Minato and Uzumaki Kushina.'

Just saying their names in his head made his heart flutter for some reason. What was this sensation he was feeling in his heart that he had never felt before? Why was it suddenly making him feel... happy?

The Kyuubi smirked from within its cage as it read Naruto's thoughts and saw his confusion over his emotions. It was no surprise that Naruto didn't know what "Love" felt like. After all, he had only ever experienced something relatively close to it from the Sandaime or his academy teacher, Iruka.

As Naruto continued to ponder this, he made his way into his apartment.

Without wasting any time, he prepared two of the fish while putting the other three in the fridge. As they were being cooked, Naruto changed to his... house clothes.

The Kyuubi was against Naruto wearing his HIDEOUS pajamas for even a moment longer. He said that they were far too childish to be worn by the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi, whatever that meant...

So he told Naruto to do away with them. After all, the orange/blue tracksuit he normally wore was already bad enough.

Anyway, Naruto had finally settled down and enjoyed his freshly cooked fish. Meanwhile, he wiped down the muddy scroll he had found with a paper towel.

'Alright, you ready to open this baby up?' Naruto asked in his head.

"Don't get too excited. I told you before, it doesn't look like an elemental jutsu scroll."

Naruto began to peel the semi-dried scroll from itself and opened it.

POOF!

A sudden cloud of smoke suddenly engulfed the small apartment.

"What the..." Naruto and the Kyuubi said in unison as the smoke cleared.

The opened scroll had unsealed five green body weights. Two for the arms, two for the legs, and one for the waist.

"A storage scroll for weights, eh? I take back what I said before. This scroll is something to get exciting about..." the Kyuubi commented.

Naruto immediately took a hold of one of the weights. To his surprise, he could feel it getting heavier in his hand.

"Naruto, let it go! These weights are adjusted with chakra! You're unintentionally putting in too much!"

Naruto immediately let it go as it dropped to the wooden floor with a heavy thud.

'So they really are just weights, huh? Alright, I'll start using them tomorrow. For now, I'm going to bed.' Naruto thought with a yawn as he put the weights back in the scroll, tossed the scroll aside, and went to bed.

"Sounds good." the fox answered.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

'Aw man, give me five more minutes...' Naruto thought to himself as he shifted in his bed.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Naruto started groaning as he tiredly sat up in his bed. He glanced at his alarm clock. It showed the time as 9:15 am. He was supposed to meet up with Team 7 at the training grounds at 11:00 am for training or another lousy D-rank mission. Honestly, who would want to get out of bed to do a stupid D-rank after they had just done a C-Rank-turned-B-Rank mission? And who on earth would wake him up so early with the damn knocking?

As the knocking continued, Naruto noticed that it wasn't coming from the direction of his door. It was coming from the large window next to his bed with the large white curtain keeping the sun out.

"This scent... He's probably here to see you about what happened yesterday..." The Kyuubi stated.

Naruto sweeped his curtain aside to see none other than Kakashi-sensei waving happily through the glass.

It took a second for Naruto to recognize Kakashi, but he immediately shot out of bed when he did. He dashed for the bathroom, rinsed his face off, and ran back to the closed glass window.

As he opened it, he called out to his sensei.

"Morning Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto said with a toothy grin as he remembered the fox's words about acting "normal".

"Morning Naruto, I know it's early but I wanted to come see how you were doing. Can I come in?"

Naruto stepped aside from his open window and bed as Kakashi jumped into the apartment.

"As messy as ever, I see..." Kakashi said as he looked around Naruto's apartment.

"W-well, y'know how it is when you're working hard to be next Hokage and all! Nothing but training, sensei!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kakashi slowly walked closer to Naruto as he made eye-contact. Finally, he spoke out.

"Right. Anyway, Sasuke and Sakura told me some interesting news yesterday. Apparently, you said no to FREE RAMEN and a chance to beat Sasuke. Now I know that can't be Uzumaki Naruto. You've also been rather... reserved lately. Is something bothering you, Naruto? I'm your sensei, and I always want to help." Kakashi said while giving a thumbs up and delivering his signature eye-smile.

'SHIT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY! KURAMA! HELP ME OUT HERE!' Naruto thought.

"Relax, this'll be easy. Say that you were still grieving about Zabuza and Haku's deaths. Say that the thought of their deaths slowly sunk in while you were leaving Wave and that you felt like you couldn't be Hokage because you didn't save them." the Kyuubi said with confidence.

'ARE YOU KID-... actually... that's pretty good...'

"Well... the truth is, Kakashi-sensei..." Naruto spoke out while pausing to get the full effect he wanted. He didn't want to lie to his sensei, but desperate times called for desperate measures.

"Hm?" Kakashi replied while watching his student closely. The truth is, Kakashi was very worried about Naruto and he was hell-bent on knowing what was bothering him.

"I just felt really sad and guilty about Haku and Zabuza dying... I know that they were our enemies for a while, but I thought maybe... maybe I could've done more to help them... or even save them. Then, I thought maybe I don't have what it takes to be Hokage because I'm not strong enough..." Naruto finally said while pulling off a half-true teary-eyed look.

Kakashi sighed in relief as he had finally heard the boy's reason for not being himself. He closed his eye while putting his hand on Naruto's shoulder. Finally he spoke.

"You can't blame yourself for something that was out of your control, Naruto. Zabuza and Haku were able to leave this world behind in peace because of you. So even if it was only a little, you did help them. You did save them. I'll bet that if they were here now, they'd feel bad that you were giving up on your dream to be Hokage." Kakashi said earnestly.

A very small part of Naruto actually had been feeling the way he had lied about to Kakashi, and Kakashi's words truly did clear away Naruto's doubts.

"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto answered genuinely with a small smile.

"Anytime, Naruto. Now get yourself ready and don't forget about meeting us later. Don't stay at Ichiraku's for too long, because I have something important to talk about." Kakashi replied.

"...This is coming from the sensei that shows up three hours late everyday..." Naruto said with a playful smile.

And that's how Kakashi knew that his student was right back to his old self again. There was no longer anything to worry about.

"Ma, ma, We'll see." Kakashi replied as he disappeared in a puff of smoke from the middle of the apartment.

"Impressive, you should get an award for a performance like that." The Kyuubi said jokingly.

'Actually, I don't think... it was a total lie, Kurama...' Naruto thought back as he went off to shower, get dressed, and have some leftover fish before going to Ichiraku's.

'Okay, let's go!' Naruto thought to himself as he began exiting the apartment.

"Wait Naruto, before we leave, put on those weights we found yesterday. Don't worry about the adjusting, I'll handle it for you." The Kyuubi said.

Naruto went over to the scroll he had tossed aside last night, unsealed the weights, and put them on beneath his tracksuit.

Moments later, he could feel the weights slowly getting heavier. Then, they stopped.

"Alright, that should do. When it become easier to move around in that state, we'll increase the weight. Now let's go to Ichiraku's... FOR THE GREENS!" the Kyuubi shouted happily as Naruto scrunched his face at the Kyuubi's words.

They headed out.

After surprising the living hell out of old man Teuchi and his daughter Ayame with his order (One pork ramen and three Ichiraku salads), Naruto walked off to the training grounds to meet with Team 7.

As he strolled forward through the village square, he heard a voice call out behind him.

"H-Hey Naruto!" It shouted happily.

Naruto turned around to see platinum blonde-hair, pale white skin, and cornflower blue-eyes looking right at him. Slightly surprised by the sudden closeness, Naruto took a small step back.

"H-Hey... Ino?" Naruto replied while tilting his head slightly in confusion.

Naruto had seen Ino quite a few times back at the academy. Every time he saw her, it was always "Sasuke this and Sasuke that." She would constantly bicker with Sakura over being the one to win the Uchiha boy's heart.

She had never said a single word to Naruto directly, so he had assumed that she was another one of the kids who blindly hated him because her parents probably did. She also could've hated him because he didn't respect her precious Sasuke-kun as much as everyone else did. Whatever the case was, he knew that she probably didn't like him... Still, he never hated Ino... After all, Shikamaru and Chouji liked her. And those two allowed Naruto to hang out with them when everyone else rejected him...

Unfortunately, Naruto never spent much time with those two either...

Damn upperclassmen and their stupid threats to hurt anyone he associated with...

Ino was also Sakura's close "friend" in a sense, so Naruto always tried to keep the relationship between them neutral by staying out of her way.

Overall, it was awkward talking with Ino alone like this. Was he right about her hating him? And what did she want from him?

He could only struggle as he thought about what to say to her.

Suddenly, Ino's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"So, how are you?" She asked with a pleasant smile.

In all honesty, Ino was a bit nervous. She had never spoken directly with Naruto before. She had never stood so close to him either. But even so, she really wanted to get to know Naruto. After all, he was the only boy in her class that she had never spoken to. All the other girls at the academy were shy about talking to boys. But unlike them, Ino found it to be very easy. Hell, she had even spoken a word to unapproachable guys like Sasuke or Shino... by just saying "Hi".

Hey... It still counts... Even if they didn't respond to her...

But with Naruto, even THAT was impossible.

He was always too busy wreaking havoc in the academy because of the countless fights with the upperclassmen, the insane pranks, the loud confessions of love for his beloved "Sakura-chan", the endless shouting about being Hokage, the numerous attempts to ditch class, the non-stop scoldings from Iruka-sensei, and the on-going one-sided rivalry between him and Sasuke-kun...

Sasuke-kun...

Whenever she saw Naruto bothering Sasuke or trying to rile him up, she wanted to tear him to pieces for distracting Sasuke from her gorgeous self.

But that didn't change the fact that she wanted to get to know him. She wanted to know more than just the four simple things that everyone else in Konoha knew: He liked Sakura, he hated Sasuke, he loved ramen, and he wanted to be Hokage.

She was Yamanaka Ino, after all. Konoha's Nosy Princess of Secrets & Gossip.

She had considered talking to him when he sat alone on the academy tree swing sometimes, but Ino would ultimately walk away because she didn't think it was a good time to try. He just looked too depressed for some reason...

But since they weren't in the academy anymore, this was her chance. Here he was, walking straight out of Ichiraku's ramen shop. She even had a conversation topic that she could bring up with him. Naruto had done a dangerous mission at Wave, come back quiet and depressed for some unknown reason, and begun training rigorously late at night.

'Thank you, Forehead.' She thought as she recalled Sakura talking to her about her mission at Wave. The girl had kept bragging on about the time she had spent with Sasuke for a good hour, which got rise out of Ino. However, she had also briefly mentioned Naruto as well.

While she recalled her memories, Naruto broke her out of her thoughts.

"I'm good... How are you?" Naruto answered simply while returning a small pleasant smile of his own.

"NARUTO, WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?! WHAT DOES THE BLONDIE WANT?! 'How are you' MY ASS! THIS CONVERSATION IS TOO STRANGE!" the Kyuubi said as he observed the conversation.

'...Kurama, I'm just as lost as you are... Just relax, I'm sure Ino is just being nice before she tells me what she wants... Still, it's not easy talking with someone you barely know... I have no idea what to say right now...' Naruto answered with slight panic.

Ino's voice brought him out of his conversation.

"...I'm good..." Ino replied.

And with that, there was LONG silence between them... Very long...

'WHAT DO I SAY NOW? SHE HASN'T TOLD ME WHAT SHE WANTS YET!' Naruto thought as they both stood still in the middle of the village square, looking at each other's eyes.

'Wh-What the hell, me?! Why am I suddenly freezing up like this?! I NEVER FREEZE UP! NEVER! C'mon, say something! Ask him about his mission like you planned! C'mon! You're the one that called out to him first, so you need to say SOMETHING!' Ino screamed to herself in her head as she stood petrified.

The truth was, she wanted to back out of this right now. This was just too weird. She mentally cursed herself for even getting Naruto's attention in the first place. Now, Ino's reputation for being the spunky smooth talker was being tarnished. However, her stubbornness and pride had refused to let her body move.

All she could do now was stare into Naruto's face. His deep cerulean blue eyes, six whisker-marks on his cheeks, and his uncombed blonde hair. The good thing about looking straight at Naruto's face like this was that she could tell exactly what he was thinking. Luckily, he was just as confused as she was. In fact, he may have even had a little bit of fear in his eyes for a second, too.

It was really reassuring to know that Ino wasn't the only one feeling this way.

Unfortunately... The awkwardness of being friends with each other's friends, but having no personal connection to each other was blatantly obvious now...

Naruto had his pride, and he could also be stubborn as hell when he wanted to be. He would never look away from someone due to a lack of confidence, no matter what the situation was...

THIS one was no exception.

At least, that's how he would've acted. If he was still the same old Naruto...

But he wasn't, he was growing up now... And he wanted to change himself into someone better. Someone who could notice the smallest things easily and act in a mature way.

So as he stared into Ino's face, he saw her confusion at the situation as well. There was some fear in her eyes, but he saw something else too... Was it hate? No... It looked like... pride and determination... to not back down. He knew that look better than anyone, after all.

Naruto was already putting the pieces together in his head. Her question about how he was feeling, the strong determination in her eyes, and everything else. It seemed like Ino wanted to be friends with him. Naruto was a bit worried that he might have been reading the situation wrong, but it really did look that way...

And Naruto never said no to a chance at making a new friend. He would gladly toss aside his pride and stubbornness for that.

He couldn't imagine why one of Sasuke's top fan-girls would want to be friends with him, though...

Nevertheless, he broke the silence first.

"Ino, I've got to go now. So I'll see you around, okay?" Naruto said with a small smile as he turned around and quickly walked off.

Some villagers had heard him mumble something about heavy ass weights as he walked away.

To say the least, Ino was shocked.

Two big things stood out to her as Naruto walked away.

The first thing was that the normally easy-to-approach loudmouth goofball: Uzumaki Naruto... went completely frozen in silence in front of her... and he had the same effect on her...

Why?!

What the hell did they have to be so nervous about?!

She just wanted to be on the same level with him as Shikamaru and Chouji were! Besides, she noticed that she had a lot of things in common with Naruto: They were both blonde, blue-eyed, extroverted, confident, stubborn, and boisterous. How hard could it be to get along?

Secondly, Naruto had technically "given up" first and run away from their conversation.

Yes, folks. The Great Uzumaki Naruto, who is renowned for never backing down in whatever he does, actually GAVE UP against Ino...

But she was really thankful for it, too...

If the awkward stare-down of silence had lasted any longer, Ino would've probably lost her pride as a smooth talker and broken down in tears.

It was a strange feeling, but Ino couldn't help but smile as she looked at Naruto's back. She knew that he was much more stubborn than she was, but he had thrown away his pride first to stop her from feeling any more uncomfortable.

'Looks like there's a lot more to Naruto than what meets the eye...' Ino thought to herself as she turned around and walked in the opposite direction.

The people around her heard her mumble something about a dumbass, while she walked with a smile on her face.

Naruto had arrived at the training ground to find Kakashi, Sakura, and Sasuke waiting for him. He was surprised for two reasons: First, he was surprised to find Kakashi there before him. Secondly, Sakura and Sasuke were staring at him with intense looks of worry on their faces.

Trying to maintain his "normal" character, he started off the conversation:

"KAKASHI-SENSEI, YOU'RE ACTUALLY ON TIME TODAY! NO, SCRATCH THAT! YOU'RE EARLY!" Naruto screamed his head off in surprise.

Immediately, the looks on Sakura and Sasuke's faces changed to surprise.

After taking a moment to regain their composure, Sakura was in her usual Must-Punch-Naruto-For-Being-Naruto mode while Sasuke was back to his usual scowl.

"You're too loud, Naruto!" Sakura blurted out as she punched him upside the head.

But on the inside, she was glad to have Naruto back to his old annoying self again.

As Naruto rubbed his head, he spoke.

"Ow, ow, ow, that wasn't necessary, Sakura." Naruto replied.

Everyone caught the sudden lack of the -chan at the end.

Sakura was completely baffled, but didn't comment on it at all.

Meanwhile, Naruto looked over to Sasuke. Instantly, Sasuke noticed his eyes on him.

"Dobe." Sasuke said while looking back at him slightly confused.

The Dobe-Teme banter was their usual ritual of communicating with one another. To deny the ritual, after just dropping the -chan from Sakura's name earlier, would clearly show that things weren't back to "normal".

"Still up for that fight, Teme?" Naruto asked with a playful smile.

"Hn." Sasuke grunted while turning his head to the side.

Finally, Kakashi started talking.

"Alright, Team 7. Listen up. This is important."

All three members quickly focused their attention on Kakashi.

"From this point on as Team 7, we'll be doing nothing but High D-ranked missions to High C-ranked missions everyday. These missions normally range from stealth and infiltration to taking out bandits and low level missing-nins."

As the news slowly sunk in to all three members, Kakashi continued.

"My purpose for doing this is to hone your skills as shinobi in practical situations. After the mission at Wave, I told you guys that all three of you had grown and that I was proud of you. Now, at this point, I believe that doing more missions at higher difficulties will continue to stimulate your growth as shinobi."

All three members nodded.

"...Well, that was easy. I was expecting you guys to disagree with me." Kakashi said in surprise.

"Nah, I just didn't want to do any more boring low level D-rank missions." Naruto answered.

"Missions are a good form of training." Sasuke spoke out.

Sakura, hearing Sasuke's opinion, quickly went into her fan-girl mode.

"Yeah, definitely!" Sakura concurred.

"Good, well then... On to today's mission..." Kakashi said.

After completing the mission of tracking down some bandits through the forest, Kakashi went off to make his report to the Hokage. Meanwhile, Team 7 would perform its usual routine of splitting up to go their separate ways:

Sasuke would be the first to leave, with Sakura on his tail desperately trying to get him to take her out on a date. Finally, Naruto would go after Sakura trying to get her to accept a date from him. At this point, Sakura would lose her focus on Sasuke and beat up Naruto. Naruto would give up for the day and go home, while Sakura would also go home because she lost sight of Sasuke.

... Except Naruto didn't do his part.

Instead, the team split up with Sasuke and Sakura heading in one direction while Naruto went off in a different one. To the training grounds.

It was about 6:00 pm, but Naruto wasn't hungry or tired from his mission. He had eaten his rations, and he was always naturally energetic thanks to his tenant. Even with the new weights he was wearing...

As he arrived at the training grounds, he spoke in his mind.

'Kurama, you're awake, aren't you?'

"Hmph, you thought I would sleep and miss your exciting performance, brat? Nonsense. Today, I had fun watching you try to blend in. But I also have my fair share of questions to ask you..." the Kyuubi said.

Naruto was surprised at this.

'Shoot.' he said.

"We both know you never had any real feelings for Pinkie, but why did you decide to drop the '-chan' bit from her name now?"

Naruto smirked at this. He knew his team had been very surprised at how he addressed Sakura. Knowing that the Kyuubi was also a bit shocked was pretty funny.

'Well... Yesterday... When I was walking home from here after my training, I thought of my parents... I thought about how much they loved each other and how much they loved me. I decided that I wanted to find the same feeling that they had found for each other. My one-sided "crush" on Sakura doesn't have that same feeling, so I just let it go. I only want to use the "-chan" bit with someone I really do care about...' Naruto said while scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"...You're growing up, Naruto... I'm impressed... Fine, next question."

'Yeah?'

"...Why did you run from Blondie?"

Naruto knew this would come up, but he didn't like the way the fox phrased it.

'Hey! I didn't run! I just had somewhere to be!'

"HEHE! Excuses, excuses..." the Kyuubi answered with a chuckle.

Naruto went silent for a minute then spoke.

'...I don't know... I guess I... can't really talk to her... for some reason. And she looked like she wanted to leave, but didn't want to say anything.' Naruto replied honestly.

There was a long pause. Then the Kyuubi answered.

"...I take it back, you're still an idiot."

'WHAT?! HOW?!'

"You fear some girl for an unknown reason and you run away from her - Classic idiot move."

'OKAY, THAT'S IT! I DIDN'T RUN AWAY! I JUST HAD SOMEWHERE I NEEDED TO BE!'

"Excuses, excuses..." the Kyuubi repeated.

'GRR! ENOUGH! LET'S START THE TRAINING ALREADY! WE'RE WASTING TIME!'

"Sheesh! Alright, alright. Relax, brat. I was just messing with you. A little bit of friendly teasing is all." the Kyuubi said sincerely.

And so, they began the late-night training session.

A/N: Chapter 4, guys. R&R. Next chapter, there will be a timeskip. For those of you worried, I promise to not make Naruto too OP. :)