Katara was near the ramen bar when she saw a middle aged woman whispering something around Naruto.
“There he is again. What a loner” one of them whispered.
“He claims to be waiting for a friend” another whispered.
“Like anyone would be friend with that nine ta-”
“Sshh!! Don’t say that! Remember what the hokage said!” snapped one of the women.
Katara glanced over at Naruto who was just sitting there ignoring the women’s remarks; although Katara knew he was irritated by them.
“Naruto….what they’re doing to you….criticizing you….its not fair. It doesn’t matter whether or not you nine tailed fox inside you. It’s not right!”
Katara walked up to the group of women.
“Listen up ladies! Naruto has a lot of friends! I am one of them! And if you insult Naruto, you’re insulting ME! And I do NOT like to be insulted. GOT IT?!” Katara said as she shot them a death glare.
They just kept quiet.
“I’ll take that as a yes!” Katara said as she sternly walked up to Naruto. He has a smile on his face.
“Katara…” he said.
“Yes?”
“Thanks!” he said with the same smile on his face.
“He must’ve heard my friendly conversation with the ladies.” Katara thought.
“Hey what are friends for?” Katara said with a smile.
“Come on let’s eat!” she said and sat next to him.
Katara ordered as medium chicken bowl or ramen while Naruto ordered two large bowls of beef ramen.
Naruto was slurping the noodles into his mouth, chewing his beef with his mouth open.
Katara’s left eye began to twitch.
“Does he really need to be that loud” she thought as she ate her noodles quietly.
A lot of people where staring at Naruto.
After he finished his first bowl he burped and immediately started with his next bowl of ramen.
Katara lost her appetite watching him eat.
Soon, Naruto eating his two bowls ramen while Katara was half finished with hers.
“How could he finish so fast?”
“Are you going to finish that?” he asked with his mouth full of ramen.
Katara’s left eye began to twitch.
“You’re STILL hungry?” she asked.
He swallows the noodles and nods.
“Here” Katara said as she pushed her bowl in front of him.
He grins and starts to eat.
After Katara ate with Naruto at the ramen bar, she was walking home.
“I still need someone to train me. Should I ask Kira to train me? She’s probably to busy in missions to have to train me. After all she’s a jounin.”
After Katara got home she saw Kira lying on the floor like always. Deep in her own thoughts.
“Here goes nothing” Katara thought as she walked in front of Kira.
“Ummm….Kira?
“Yes?” Kira said as she looked up at Katara.
“I was wondering if you could train me”
“Sure” she said.
“Great! When do we start?”
“Meet me tomorrow at the middle of the forest as soon as class ends” she said.
Tomorrow after class…..
Katara ran to the forest as soon as class ended. She was excited to train with Kira.
“I wonder what she’ll teach me first” Katara thought as she ran to the forest.
Katara arrived to the center of the forest, leaning over a tree, waiting for Kira.
“Where the heck is she?”
She took out a book entitled famous justsus.
“I might as well make good use of this time and study.”
“Henge no jutsu. A very common and basic skill, it gives the user the appearance of another person or object. Mastering required to graduate from the ninja academy of the Leaf Village….*flips page* Baika no jutsu. A special technique passed down in the Akimichi clan which allows the user to increase size of one part of the body or even the whole body for a short time”
“Baika no jutsu uses a lot of calories.”
“Calories! Not chakra!” Katara couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
“What a great way of burning calories!” Katara chuckled a bit louder.
“What’s so amusing?” someone asked.
Katara looked up from her book and saw Kira.
“You’re late! Where were you?”
“I was lost on the road of life.” She said.
“Yeah right”
“Let’s just get to the training” Katara said impatiently as she putted her book back to her backpack.
“So what are we going to do first? A fancy jutsu?” Katara asked with excitement.
“Nope. We’re going to start with……laps” she said.
Katara fell onto the ground.
“LAPS?!” Katara asked in a furious tone as she got off the ground.
“Laps” she repeated.
“You can’t be SERIOUS! LAPS I RUN AROUND ALL THE TIME! I should be doing my bending or Taijutsu or Ninjutsu or-” Katara was interrupted by Kira.
“We should stick with the basics before doing any justsus or bending” Kira said as a-matter-of-fact.
“Fine then. Will it make me stronger?” Katara asked calmly.
“It will allow you to have more control over your stamina and increase you speed.”
“All right then. How many laps should I do?” Katara asked.
“Fifteen laps around the forest”
“F-fifteen?” Katara asked and gulped.
Kira nods.
“You’ll need to train extra hard to catch up with your classmates skills” Kira said.
“It was so easy to study from the book…..but training……is a whole different topic. This is going to be tough.”
“Whatever it takes to become a ninja….I’ll do it!!” Katara said with determination.
“I am glade to hear that” Kira said as she walked away.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“I’m going home. It’ll take you the whole day to run laps. When you’re finish just return home” Kira said as she continued to walk away.
She walked 5 steps and stopped.
“One more piece of advice. Don’t faint from exhaustion” Kira said and walked away.
“Faint? From exhaustion?” Katara worried but quickly shook her head.
“I shouldn’t think of fainting. It’ll only discourage me” she thought and began to run.
On the fifth lap in which she was running Katara tripped over a branch and fell onto the dirt. She had twisted her ankle. The rocks on the ground had scrapped her arm when she fell.
“I can’t go on like this I think I’m going to faint any minute know”
______________flashback________________________________
“Tch….weakling.” Sasuke muttered as Katara winced from the pain.
____________end of flashback____________________________
“But there’s NO WAY I’m giving up. I’ve already declared to be Sasuke’s rival. I’m going to prove him that I can be strong. I can do this!” with those encouraging thoughts on Katara’s mind she pushed herself out of the ground and leaned to the nearest tree. Then she bended some water out of thin air and drank it.
The sun was setting.
“I better pick up the pace if I want to finish before dawn.”
Katara stood up and began to run.
It was dark when she finished her fifteenth lap.
She was panting for air. Her thighs were aching. She could feel a stabbing pain in her thighs.
She was surprised she was still able to walk home. She was limping back home from her twisted ankle. Her legs felt wobbily.
Her clothes where stained with dirt and mud. Katara’s shirt was soaked with sweat, but the occasional rush of cold wind would cool her down.
When Katara arrived home it was 3:00 a.m she went straight to her room and collapsed onto her bed.
