A Ninja's Lap: Chapter Thirteen

Her eyes widen as she watches from the other side of the training grounds. Yes, granted she and kitty had chakra now, but they weren't professional ninja, not by a long shot.

So when she sees Gaara knocking kitty over with his sand, she's left wondering what the hell was going on.

As far as she knew, Gaara's vicious nature had all but disappeared long before kitty and fern had their mishap of falling into the Naruto world...

Her eyes scan over the two of them, there was something not quite right. They hadn't trained a lot lately, mostly because Tsunade was busy with hokage things and Naruto had been off on missions with his team. Even Gaara had had to take a break for a few days due to his council member's turning up at konoha, requesting his authority over something or other.

Kitty, she noticed, wasted barely a second before spinning her body on the floor and trying to kick Gaara's legs out from under him, his sand catching a hold of her leg.

Fern was sure she'd be alright...

She turns back to naruto, who was about to begin a small sparring session with kiba, and she smiles.

"Naruto, when are we going to learn the cool stuff?" She asks, and he smiles widely at her, his blue eyes crinkling in the corners as she speaks.

"That depends on when Granny Tsunade and Gaara believe you have the ability" he replies, and Fern is left wondering whether or not that would be soon rather than later.

Judging by the fact Gaara had Kitty stuck in sand cage, kitty huffing and sat on the floor of said 'sand cage', it would be later...much, much later.

"I SWEAR TO KAMI, ONE DAY I'LL BE STRONG ENOUGH AND I AM GOING TO OWN YOUR ASS GAARA!" Kitty fumes, a little bit of kitty rage building up.

Fern laughs, moving out of the way of a few kunai as naruto and kiba begin their spar, heading towards Kitty and Gaara.

The 'sand cage' was obviously Gaara's idea of a joke, as his eyes seemed rather amused at kitty's outburst.

Reaching the two of them, still giggling at kitty's poor angry face, she says to Gaara, "maybe you should let her go".

Gaara looks at her for a moment, and then looks at kitty, "but...she's a cat in a cage..." He replies.

This sends Fern into hysterical fits of laughter, had Gaara of the sand ACTUALLY attempted to make a joke? She wasn't sure, his face was a cool mask, although his amusement in his eyes seemed to increase.

Kitty on the other hand, did not find this funny one bit, staring at them both with angry kitty eyes. "This isn't funny!" She growls.

Eventually, Gaara let's her go, his sand seeming to melt away from the sand cage form, and kitty glares at him, although this just makes Fern laugh a lot more, and Gaara even cracked a slight smile.

"Come on you lot, let's go get something to eat" Naruto calls to them, standing with Kiba, shino and Hinata.

Fern links arms with kitty, reminding her of the first time they had walked towards konoha, and she smiles at her dear friend, who slowly came out of her rage, smiling a little back.

A loud ferocious noise escapes her as she hurls one of the kunai, a pleasing thudding sound of it hitting the target, throwing herself into a forwards cartwheel, skidding as she lands her feet on the muddy grassy ground, sinking into a crouch as she skids a few feet, with sudden force, slinging the last kunai behind her, through her blind spot. The same noise as before resounds, and she snaps her head to look at the target, high on a tree, and she smiles brightly, "I DID IT! I DID IT!".

"Ohmygod! Well done Fern!" Kitty cries, running from her standing position at the far side of the field, sprinting over to Fern, who was standing triumphantly in the middle of the training field.

She high fives her friend, a bright smile on her slightly pink lips. Fern was smiling back, proudly. After what seemed about 100 or more attempts, she'd finally succeeded.

And nothing showed it than Fern currently was; her smile was so bright and wide, she knew she'd just done something she'd always wanted to do!

Every since the first time she'd discovered Naruto at home she'd instantly fantasised about running with the ninja's, looking badass in amazing outfits, and being skilled in the ninja arts.

This was just one step closer to all of that...

Fern hugs her friend tightly, "I am so happy we wound up here", she whispers quietly to her friend. Kitty hugs back, just as hard.

"I know, same here, isn't it wonderful?" Kitty replies, her voice soft and quiet.

The shared sweet moment between them comes to an end, and kitty breaks the hug, surveying the surrounds, her eyes scanning and taking note of the small group of people at the side of the training grounds.

It had, as much as they had wished it wouldn't, been raining the entire day, and had only just cleared up, leaving the field a muddy grassy mess, with large puddles of water in areas.

It had been a number of weeks since both kitty and fern had had some chakra transferred to them from Naruto and Gaara.

The Kazekage and a number of other konoha shinobi had begun to up the level of training the two endured, Fern just happened to be the one who was better at aiming and precision.

The two girls hurry their pace and make their way over to the edge of the training grounds, sludging through the mud and the random puddles scattered across the field.

Although it made everything seem so dreary and unpleasant, the rain water accumulating on the training grounds was ideal for training.

As Gaara had put it; "you never know what conditions you end up with on missions as a shinobi". That meant a lot of muddy training through the recent rainy weather, much to Ferns utter disappointment.

As she looks up at the sky now, the clouds looming overhead, she sighs. She really hated the weather, but not even a chance of horrid weather would dampen her now amazing mood. She'd just done something she'd never dreamt she would.

As the two girls near the little group, who had been watching from afar (and from underneath the protection from the rain of a large set of trees Fern noticed), her eyes note Naruto, Kiba, Hinata and a few others.

"Well done fern!" Naruto cries out happily as he hi-fives her.

His praise seemed to broaden her accomplishment even more, and Kitty pipes up, "I wish I could aim like that". Indeed, kitty was far too clumsy to be able to aim at a huge elephant, let alone a wooden target in the middle of the forest.

Although kitty was subsequently crap at aiming and all, she had found a little bit of solace in the fact she was doing well with dodging attacks (which she obviously was also crap at before). The chakra from Gaara had improved her speed and strength, by considerable amounts, and that's all she really seemed to be content with.

Fern on the other hand, wanted to learn it ALL, She wanted to become a shinobi as fast as possible, even if it meant keeping up with this straining training every day. They didn't know how long they'd be here for anyway...

Kiba comes forward towards the three of them, akamaru at his heels as usual, "Kitty, I dare you to spar with me".

"Erh, but-"

"No butts! Tsunade wants you in tip top shape before long"

Kitty groans a little. "But you'll beat me!" She replies back, looking a little weak.

"That's the whole point" Kiba replies, smirking, "shame you're too easy to spar" he says, winking.

This was all too much for Kitty to hear, she hated seeming weak. "Right, that's it, spar, RIGHT NOW" she retorts before he can continue his teasing.

"You can do better than that!" The voice was taunting and light, mocking her as she spins around, kunais in both hands, aiming with as much precision as she can muster.

She tries to focus on this near-newly found energy pulsating throughout her body. Gaara's chakra seemed to vibrate with kiba's movements, as if trying to direct her towards his location, although she already knew where he was.

She flings the kunai at him through the tree branches, and he dodges easily, cascading down onto the muddy floor with a sodden thump, mud splashing up a little.

In return he produces a few shuriken of his own and flings a couple in her direction, which she narrowly misses, one skidding right past her side. Her hair flips as she dodges a second set, working herself closer to him with every shot he throws at her.

She knew he was being this easy to taunt her. It was as if this was amusing him (it was partially amusing her, she admitted it).

She glares at him, her hazel eyes filled with frustration, as she dances around him, throwing a kunai in his direction, then gracefully skidding across the muddy ground, through a large puddle, all on her knees. Her movement sends her straight behind him and she knocks one of his legs, sending him reeling over, but being more balanced, he grabs her leg and uses his strength to sharply pull her up, slinging her around and letting her leg go.

A sloshing sound eminates as she slides across the floor on her back, throwing as many shuriken as she had in her pouch at him as she skids, meaning he has to bounce about from side to side, and to her utter bemusement, one catches him on the arm.

A loud curse escapes his lips, akamaru barking loudly on the other side of the field from where naruto, fern and hinata were (they'd agreed he wasn't allowed to deploy akamaru on her since it wasn't a fair fight).

She laughs in triumph, possibly getting a little too cocky with herself, standing up and slowly circling the perimeter around him, their eyes locking. It was survival of the fittest and kitty didn't doubt one bit that he was more fit than her.

A smirk begins to form on his lips, this confuses her, why was he smirking? She had the upper hand now!

Kiba produces a jutsu, sprinting in the blink of an eye to infront of her, a glint in his eye as he uses the jutsu with his hands, effectively blowing kitty backwards into the air, landing with a loud painful thud on the ground.

By now she was utterly drenched and covered in mud, her outfit stained brown and soaked with muddy water. Kiba wasn't much better, and he had specs of brown muddy substance on his cheek. He strides across the small distance, and she tries to kick him in the face by flipping over into a hand stand and up again. He dodges and grabs her arm. Her other small hand goes to punch him, however his strength and speed allows him to grab her other hand, forcing her back onto the ground again, and kitty sploshes backwards into a large puddle on the ground.

"I win" he says, holding one last kunai to her neck.

"Don't" she retorts, grabbing the tanned hand holding the kunai and twisting his skin, pulling him with all her might. His balance is off and he lands into the puddle as well resulting in more droplets of mud to splatter across them both, and kitty splashes his face with some of the puddle.

He grins but growls loudly as she splashes him, and she tries to escape by crawling away, him grabbing ahold of her ankle and dragging her backwards on her front a little ways through the puddle.

"Baka" she groans as she is then undoubtedly well and truly drenched with mud all over. She must have looked a sight to see. Really. She even felt mud inside her boots and in her hair.
She sits on him and begins trying to splash muddy water over him, and he overpowers her with his shinobi strength, flipping them over and beginning a wrestling match.

Mud was being thrown all over the shop. After a while of splashing and messing around in the mud, kitty gives in.

"I'd say that's a tie" she says, grinning at him.

His brown orbs look down at them both and he laugh haughtily, "I think the mud won really", flashing her a big smile.

Fern had begun to make her way over to the messy two covered in mud, amused. "I am not washing either of your clothes okay?" she jokes.

Kitty looks up at her and strikes a pose on her side, a fake model pose, Her hand on her hip and pouting for dramatic effect. Fern laughs, holding a hand out for her friend, to which kitty takes, using it to help her stand up. Leaving muddy ooziness on Fern's hand. She pulls a disgusted face at it and wipes it on Naruto's sleeve (he'd just reached them). Hinata was at naruto's side, looking at the two very messy and drenched people in front of her with wide translucent eyes.

Kitty looks at Kiba and smirks evilly, "hug!" And she hugs him, a loud squelch sound as their muddy torso's make contact, making kitty laugh.

She then tries to hug Fern, who begins to run away across the field, and kiba joins in, akamaru flopping and rolling on his back in the mud before chasing after his owner.

Naruto and hinata follow suit, at a slower pace. Fern was running as if her life depended on it, away from the two muddy monsters who were beginning to catch up to her head start. She squeals as a splash of muddy water comes her way, swiftly moving between the trees.

"Stop guys! This isn't funny!" She cries out as she runs away, although she was laughing loudly.

Kitty didn't think she'd ever had this much fun.

That evening, a certain red head had entered Kitty and Fern's little accommodation, checking up on them as he had been busy with official business for the better part of the day. He had slightly regretted not being able to attend the training session, but Suna matters were suna matters and they had to be addressed.

As he enters the livingroom, he comes face to face with the most peculiar sight; lots of clothing all strewn over the chairs. His eyebrow rises, what was all this?

His eyes scan the entire room, bits of clothing all over, some on chairs, a few on the floor and most importantly, no one seemed to be around. Pressuming it was because he hadn't bothered to use his chakra to detect them, he was sure he felt his own amount of chakra in another area of the house. That would be kitty he thought.

He then catches sight of something on one of the chairs, and he moves closer to investigate. He picks up the garment, it barely unrecognisable due to it being utterly covered in mud. What had they both been up to today? He'd have to talk to Naruto and find out. It was obviously something extremely messy...

He then inspects the garment closer, his sea foam eyes widening as he realises what it was. His face goes a little pink.

"Oh hey Gaara! I didn't know you'd be visiting tonight-"

Fern had come into the room, spotting gaara and she stops halfway through her sentence and mid-stride as she clocks him properly.

"Gaara...why are you holding Kitty's bra?"

A Ninja's Lap: Chapter Thirteen