Chapter 19 - Training Gets Tough

Note: I do not own Naruto
Chapter 18
Training Gets Tough

Dan didn’t keep the ninja waiting for too long. Every so often they would catch a glimpse of him somewhere close to them, throwing a kunai every so often, teasing them, leading them through a merry chase through the woods. His puppet however was nowhere to be found.

“This is impossible!” Sakura complained, “We won’t be able to see him, or catch him for that matter, when we’re surrounded in forest.”

“The only way I can think of is to cut the trees!” Shikamaru said, “I can’t think of a way to beat him when he keeps distracting me when I think! It‘s like catching smoke!” As soon as he finished, several shuriken flew out of the trees, throwing Shikamaru off his thoughts again.

“You’ll have to do better than that!” Dan yelled, “Poor TenTen is almost at her limit here.”

“WHERE IS SHE!” Neji bellowed suddenly, causing everyone cover their ears.

“Right here,” Dan said, appearing on a nearby branch. In his arms was TenTen looking beat and bleeding from her chest.

“N-Ne-ji…” she mumbled before fainting.

“YOU’LL PAY!” Neji shouted, charging Dan.

“Brother no, it might be a…” Hinata started. Neji was preparing to jump at Dan when the ground below him opened up and Dan’s puppet, with mouth wide opened, swallowed Neji and disappeared back underground.

“He’s good,” Dan said, dropping TenTen who fell and poofed in a cloud of smoke.

“Two can play that game!” Neji said, dropping down from a nearby branch. Neji chased Dan farther into the forest, while the others ran after them.

“But how did he escape?” Celine asked.

“He did a Substitution Jutsu a while back,” Shikamaru stated, “He did it a while back in case Dan tried to use his emotions against him.” The others stared at Shikamaru wondering how he knew this.

“What? I saw him do it earlier while you were watching the clue he gave us earlier.”

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Neji knew something was wrong from the time he started after Dan. He could see Dan’s chakra flow focused on his fingers, which was normal since the puppet was still nearby. But he was also focusing it into his eyes, like he had the Sharingan or Byakugan. Dan stopped and turned to face Neji so fast, Neji only just stopped himself from running into him.

“Gotcha!” Dan said, sending a punch Neji was too slow to avoid.=. The punch hit Neji in the gut, and he was sent flying into a tree nearby, crashing straight through it and smashing into the tree behind it. Neji tried to get up but Dan’s puppet came crashing into him from behind.

“Your eyes…” Neji managed before fainting.

“Maybe another time you’ll see,” Dan said. He picked up Neji’s unconscious body and started running.
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The group arrived at the broken tree minutes after the fight had taken place

“Whoa, they sure did a number on this place!” Temari said.

“We don’t have time to look around,” Shikamaru said in a surprisingly sullen voice, “We have our next clue.” Temari followed his gaze to and saw what he was talking about.

“He can’t help but mess with us can he?” Temari asked. What they were seeing were six trees held together with chakra with two circles drawn into the trees. One was smaller and was in the center of the larger one, and in the center of the smaller…

“Neji!” Hinata shouted, rushing to her cousin’s aid. He was spread out like a star with his legs and arms extending forming right angles. Below the two circles was a message that read:

Peek a boo! I see you! Look into the stars to find your next answer. I’ll be watching you from above.

“What can that mean?” Shino asked, “Is he going to give us a riddle every time?”

“The answer is the mountains,” Shikamaru said, “Neji’s body is supposed to be an eye. An eye watching down from above. Now where is the only place you’ll be able to look up on this field? The mountains are the only answer.”

“Congratulations,” Temari said, distain dripping from her voice, “You can figure out a riddle, but can’t figure out that an arrow is pointing behind you. Some genius!”

“Look, I didn’t think that Dan would do something so simplistic! If he did it every time I would know what to look for but…”

“But now I know to change it up!” Dan’s voice boomed from seemingly everywhere.

“Oh, I’m not here right now, as you are all probably looking around for me. Good job Shikamaru, but you still weren’t quick enough!”

“What do you mean?” Shikamaru asked, “I figured out the riddle easily, how could I have possibly… Oh no! Take a head count!” The group looked around but to their surprise everyone was there.

“It was a good bluff Dan,” Shikamaru said smirking, “But you can’t fool us by just making us nervous.”

“Oh really? Well then I suggest you try to come after me!” The ninjas tried to move but found that they were stuck to the ground.

“What?” Shikamaru shouted, unable to realize how he was losing a battle of wits.

“They’re Neo-Magnets,” Dan voice said, “They attached themselves to you when you were pondering over the riddle with Mew. And now that you are all caught…” The ground opened up beneath the ninja revealing a giant hole in the ground. The genin had enough control to move their heads down, and what they saw made them wish they hadn’t.

A hissing sound could be heard as the genin fell into the dark abyss. And in that dark abyss, two yellow eyes opened.

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Dan was on the side of the mountain that was next to the desert. He was truly surprised on how far the genin had got on their first try.

“Most don’t even make it to the forest,” Dan said to himself, “This is going to be an interesting year.” He started walking towards the desert, but the moment he put his foot down, the sand jumped up and snatched his leg.

“Of course,” Dan said, “I knew there was one more! I should really learn to make sure that they are all in one group.” The sand was crawling up his leg rapidly, but Dan pulled his leg away as if it were nothing.

(Sandman, Metallica)

“Okay Gaara, you can come out now!” Dan shouted into the air, “I wouldn’t hide underground, like I know you’re doing!” Gaara was too far under ground to hear what Dan was saying, but he didn’t need to. Gaara could feel vibrations underground that were too big and too close for his comfort. One was much smaller than the other, but it was much faster than the larger object. Gaara started shifting the sand around him, with the smaller thing shooting straight towards him. The chase continued for a several minutes as the small object was forcing Gaara unknowingly towards Dan.

Gaara hit the surface, gathering his sand behind him to trap whatever was following him. Dan’s puppet erupted from the ground and ran straight into the sand trap. Gaara was getting ready to crush it when Dan came rushing in, distracting Gaara from his prey. Gaara turned his gourd into sand and started sending different lighting shaped sand-bolts at Dan.

Dan dodged the sand easily, jumping when he needed to avoid the sand underneath him. Gaara was floating after Dan on his cloud of sand, smirking with anticipation. He would be the one who took Dan down easily. He would prove that he was someone to be messed with.

Although Gaara couldn’t see it, Dan too was smirking. He’s quicker than I imagined, Dan thought, I might actually have to fight him. Dan thought about it for a minute before coming upon the conclusion of: Nope, I’ll show them my true power later, when they earn the right to see it.

Dan kept dodging Gaara’s attacks, but he reversed his direction, going steadily back towards Gaara. He jumped in the air so quickly Gaara didn’t have time to react. He knew his sand would protect him, but he knew Dan had some trick up his sleeve.

Dan actually sped past Gaara, looking back and pulling his hands up over his head like you would lift something heavy off the ground. Gaara looked down to find the ground coming up to meet him. Dan was lifting part of the desert of the ground, in the same manner Gaara was holding himself in the air with his sand. Gaara’s sand cloud was almost touching the floating desert floor when a giant circle sunk into the ground revealing two giant yellow eyes.

Gaara had absolutely no time to react as the giant puppet came rushing out of the ground. It was in the image of a giant cobra, but instead of wood it had a steel frame. It opened up it’s mouth and swallowed Gaara, who came crashing down into the rest of the genin trapped inside.

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The group that wasn’t fighting was waiting back in the center of the field. Far off in the distance they could see a dust cloud growing larger and larger.

“Well they lasted longer than anyone else,” Tyrone said, “Most people are back here within 10 minutes.”

“How do you know Dan won?” Naruto asked, “It’s not like he always wins.”

Tyrone looked at him with a smile on his face and said, “No it’s exactly like that. You see, Dan has a habit of holding back unless there is really a need. Now you see that dust cloud out there? That’s him on his snake puppet. He always uses his that puppet in the first battle that he fights his students. And the puppet is nearly indestructible. It took Dan 6 months to make, it’s his own design based on other puppets weaknesses. It can burrow, fire thousands of weapons, and has a steel exterior. Its metal design gives it the name Steel Serpent.”

“There’s no way he could control a puppet like that,” Kankuro stated matter-of-factly, “The chakra required for that would have to exceed most Jounin.”

“That’s Dan for you,” Tyrone said, “He was actually an ANBU a couple years ago, but gave it up to become a rogue ninja. He has earned at least Jounin status in every ninja country and has been offered to lead the countries in a little less than half of them.”

“So why is he still a rogue ninja?” Jamal asked.

“That even I can’t explain,” Tyrone replied, “He has his reasons I’m sure, but I wouldn’t press the matter. Dan has a lot of secrets, but he shares the ones that he can.”

“Well if he can teach Gai-sensei then this man can do everything!” Rock Lee exclaimed.

“I sure can!” While the group had been intent on this conversation, Dan had arrived quietly, having his puppet burrow underground.

“Practice is over for today,” Dan said, “I have business I need to attend to so…” He chose this moment to have the snake’s head pop out of the ground.

“Inform the losers of the battle that they did well. I will see them at the exact same time tomorrow. Tomorrow we begin to teach everyone new techniques!”




I’m so sorry for not updating!!!!!!! My desktop wasn’t working and my mom needed the laptop to search for houses! I promise the next one will come sooner!!

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