"Come on, you can do better than that."

I charged after Horo and kicked. His hand came up to block me, then he grabbed ahold of my ankle and flipped me over. I landed crouching on all fours, panting hard. Horo raised a brow and frown slightly at me.

"What?" I asked, standing up.

He stared at me a while longer, then shook his head. "You keep going for the obvious attacks," he told me. "If you're that predictable during a real battle the enemy will have you down in no time."

I nodded and came after him again. I've been training with Horo for almost three week now, and although I hated it at first, I soon found myself moving much much much faster than I did before. And my attacks? Well, consider the fact that I can break through the trunk of a tree a huge step in my favour.

I swung my leg out at him and he ducked beneath it. His arm shot out to punch me but I blocked it and punched after him as a counter attack. It slammed straight into his stomach and he flew backwards.

"Not so obvious now, am I?"

Horo chuckled as he got to his feet. "Maybe not. But you're punches are still too weak."

"What? No they aren't! I can punch straight through a tree!"

"Please bear in mind that the tree you punched through was as thin as your arms."

I rolled my eyes. "Ha ha. I seem to recall it being as big as your head."

"Funny," he muttered.

"Lea-chan!"

I turned around to see Sakura coming towards me, waving.

"Hey, Sakura," I greeted.

"We haven't seen you around for a while. What have you been up to?" She held a basket full of flowers in her hand.

I pointed to Horo. "Training with this old geezer."

"Will you stop calling me that?!" Horo shouted from behind me. Sakura giggled.

She stuck out her hand. "Sakura Haruno. Nice to meet you."

Horo smiled. I frowned at him. Why was his face so red? I think there's a virus going around...

"Horo Maken." He took her hand, smiling down at her so hard it started to look creepy. "Nice to make your acquaintance. Although I hope we can be friends."

Sakura withdrew her hand slowly. "Uh ... yeah, sure."

I sighed. "So what are you doing here, Sakura?" I asked, hoping to drag her attention to me. Horo was obviously making her uncomfortable.

She held up her basket of flowers. "I was just collecting these for Naruto."

I frowned. "What happened to Naruto?"

She rolled her eyes, the look of annoyance she only reserved for Naruto on her face. "He pushed himself too hard and now he's in the hospital."

"What?!" I turned to Horo. "I have to see if he's okay."

He shook his head at me. "He's fine. A day's rest is all he needs. So no need to go down there."

"But-"

"We still have a lot of training to do."

Sakura patted my arm in assurance. "Don't worry Lea, he's right. A days rest is all he needs. And knowing Naruto, he wouldn't stay in the bed for long. I'll tell him you said hi."

She waved at me as she walked away. I sighed, frustrated that I couldn't go see my friend. I couldn't see anyone anymore. It was training training training. All day, every day. Which meant the social life I never really cared for at first was moving farther and farther away.

"Stop sulking and get up. I have a new jutsu to teach you." That lifted my spirits a bit. I loved learning new jutsu. But I didn't show it as I slowly got to my feet.

"What new jutsu?" I asked.

Horo smirked and stepped back. I watched as he bit his thumb, drawing blood, and did his hand signs so fast I barely caught them.

"Summoning Jutsu!"

There was a loud popping noise and a huge cloud of smoke. I stepped back, shocked. What the hell just happened? Where did Horo go?

"Looking for me?" came his voice. I looked up.

Horo ... Horo was ... standing on top of a frog. A huge, massive frog. I screamed.

I scrambled as far away as I could possibly get from the slimy creature.

"Where the hell did that come from?!" I shouted at the old man, hiding behind a boulder.

"I summoned it! Where else? Stop hiding and come back here!"

"Get rid of that nasty thing first!"

"NASTY?!" the toad roared, and the ground beneath me shook violently. I fell to my butt.

"Ow, ow ow," I muttered, getting to my feet.

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING NASTY? I AM GAMA BUNTA!"

"I don't care who the hell you are?!" I shouted back. "You. Are. Nasty!"

"WHAAAAAT?" Gama Bunta came after me. I squealed like a little girl and ran like a coward. I didn't care though. I didn't want that thing touching me.

"Gama! Stop it!" Horo shouted at the large toad. Gama didn't heed his command whatsoever. Instead he drew his dagger, which was a million times larger than my sword. I didn't even think of unsheathing Machaera. He would do anything right now.

The large dagger glinted as he held it up to kill me and I nearly passed out then and there. I shot it as fast as I could, skirting around the trees to confuse him. It didn't hinder him though. He just charged right into them.

"Gama, I said stop!" Horo shouted again just as his dagger came down before me.

One more step and I would have been dead.

I fell to the ground, staring at my terrified reflection in the blade. I was shaking so hard...

"Gama, what did I tell you about attacking my students?" Horo asked him. I was still frozen on the ground, staring at myself.

"If I didn't listen the first time, why would I listen to you now?" Gama replied. "Look at her. She's a weakling."

Horo didn't reply. Slowly, my expression changed from one of terror to one of determination. I was tired of people calling me weak.

I got to my feet and faced them. "Teach me."

"What was that?" Horo asked.

"Teach me the Summoning Jutsu."

Horo grinned at me. "As you wish."

"But you have to get rid of him first," I added, my hand trembling a bit as I pointed. So much for confidence.

"No problem." And with a poof, the slimy toad was gone. I breathed a sigh of relief. Horo landed on the ground and walked up to me.

"Ready?" he asked me. I nodded. We headed back out to where we first were.

"These are the hand signs," he began. He showed me them one by one, going so slow it was insulting. I decided not to say anything however. Now that he knew I had a fear of frogs, he wouldn't hesitate to bring Gama back out.

"Got it," I said, after he was done.

"Try it."

I stepped back a little, grounding myself. I rested my hand on Machaera for comfort before biting my thumb and shouting the words. "Summoning No Jutsu!"

There was a loud poof, just like Horo's and I could have sworn I did it. Then I saw the tiny barely alive cat lying on the ground. I stared at it, then looked up at Horo. I had half expected him to laugh at me but he was staring at the mini cat too.

"You ... you were supposed to summon a toad," he muttered, half to himself.

I shrugged. "I didn't know I had to."

Horo came forward. He bent at the little thing. I watched as his finger traced the kitten's lines. It was then that I realized it wasn't any regular old cat. It had stripes on his head and on its back ... I had noticed before but now I saw it. There were tiny ... wings.

I frowned. "What's that?" I asked Horo.

He shook his head. "I ... I don't know." Then he stood and clapped his hands. "We'll figure that out later. I'm leaving but I want you to stay and master this jutsu."

"But-"

"No buts." He grinned at me as he walked away. "See ya!"

Kakashi's POV

I stepped into the Third Hokage's office and immediately both their eyes were on me. I walked into the room and bowed.

"You called for me?"

The Third Hokage looked from me to the other old man in the room and nodded. "Kakashi, this is an old friend of mine, Horo Maken."

I frowned. "Horo the Chakra Manipulator?"

Horo came forward. "Nice to meet you, Copy Ninja."

I nodded my greeting at him and then turned to the Third Hokage. "Why did you call me here?" I asked.

"Horo has been tasked with the job of training Lea," he began. I nodded, now understanding why I haven't seen her around. "He knows about her. Knows more about her, her family and her lineage than we do so I asked him to train her and watch her. So far he's observed the same thing we did. It's unusual but her eyes come out when she's angry, we knew this."

"But today," Horo picked up. "I was teaching her the Summoning Jutsu and ... and I had summoned Gama."

I nodded. I knew about the cranky old toad.

"She didn't want to at first but then she came around. The weird thing is, when she tried it, what she summoned was not a toad."

I raised my only visible eyebrow in surprise. "What did she summon?"

"It was small, which I had expected considering it was her first try. But instead of a toad, it was a kitten ... with wings."

"Wings?" I echoed.

The Third Hokage grunted. "We have no idea what it is. We've never seen a cat with wings."

"It also had weird stripes on its head," Horo added.

I shook my head. What in blazes could that be? What did Lea summon?

"We know all of the animals that can be summoned and none of them are cats with wings."

"That's what makes it so weird." Horo rested a finger on his chin, looking thoughtful.

I cleared my throat. "Knowing Lea she won't stop practicing until she got it right. Until she mastered it. We should wait until she can summon properly and see this creature, not just a kitten."

The Third Hokage nodded his agreement. "Horo," he said. "You head him. Keep watching her until she gets this thing right. Then report back to me."

Horo sighed. "I hate it when you boss me around, Hiruzen."

"Stop complaining like a brat and go do it." The Third Hokage took out his pipe and took a long draw. He didn't sound angry.

Horo sighed dramatically. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He lifted his fingers as farewell and was out the door.

I watched him go, then faced the Third Hokage. His eyes were closed and he was taking another long draw from his pipe.

"That's all, Kakashi," he said, after a moment. I nodded, glad I had been dismissed so that I could ponder about Lea somewhere else.