"Now remember: It's easy to grow, but you have to maintain control. That's the point of this exercise. It's easy to just blast yourself up to over 300 feet tall, but takes finesse to reach a size between your standard height and your max height. Got it?"

"You bet!" Naruto said, standing up and positively quivering with excitement. "Can I start?"

Sakura nodded and Naruto concentrated on growing. Within seconds his body was bulking up at an alarming rate, his jump suit stretching to contain it. Sakura shaded her eyes and looked up as Naruto passed ten feet, then twenty, then thirty, stopping at thirty five feet. Sakura nodded and shouted, "Good work Naruto! Keep it up!"

Naruto nodded and concentrated again, continuing his rise up into the heavens. As Naruto and Sakura trained, they had no idea they were being watched. Hinata had been worried about Naruto since she had heard about this whole situation. She had been gone on a mission withe Neji when it had all happened and had come back to find Naruto hospitalized. She had visited him several times over the course of his invalidity, dropping off gifts of medicine which Tsunade politely accepted on Naruto's behalf. When she had heard he was out, she had searched the village high and low to find him. Now that she had she was too shy to approach him. Especially since Sakura was there. She knew that Sakura liked Sasuke, but had seemed to be paying more attention to Naruto, only leaving his side when he was out to tend to other patients with Tsunade or Shizune. Hinata wanted to talk to Naruto if even for a minute, but knew she'd never get the nerve to. She sighed as she watched, wondering what was going to happen with Naruto.

As Hinata watched Sakura and Naruto, Kakashi was strolling through town looking for his new team. Asuma had been easy to find, since he was working right outside the Hokage's Mansion. He had been at his full ten foot height and was helping Kiba fix a building. Kakashi had explained the mission and Asuma left Kiba grumbling that he had to finish the job himself. Finding Iruka and Shikamaru proved easy as well since they were both working at the same apartment, both at their full heights. Iruka saw the two Jonin coming and said, "Hey Kakashi! Asuma! What's up?"

Kakashi said, "Business I'm afraid. The Hokage has a mission for all of us. That includes you Shikamaru."

Shikamaru groaned and said, "It's not bad enough I have to spend all my time working, now she wants me to go on a mission? What a drag..."

Iruka shrank himself down to normal size and said, "What's the mission?"

"Apparently four members of Akatsuki have been spotted near the borders of the country and they appear to be heading for the Leaf Village." Asuma said. "Our mission is to investigate what they're up to."

Iruka laughed and said, "That shouldn't be too hard. All we have to do is grow and--"

"Sorry, but no." Kakashi interrupted. "She doesn't want us revealing our secret yet and we're not to reveal our full heights even if we get into a fight."

"Oh..." Iruka said. "Well that makes things a little more difficult."

"It's only reconnaissance, so we probably won't be getting into a fight." Asuma said. He turned to Shikamaru and said, "Shrink already Shikamaru. We've got to get going."

Shikamaru yawned and said, "Nah, I don't think so. That mission sounds like a snoozer."

Asuma sighed and said, "Now is not the time to be lazy Shikamaru. Now come on!"

Shikamaru shook his head and said, "Sorry Asuma-sensei but I really don't want any part in this. I'm sure the Hokage wouldn't mind finding someone else to go in my place."

"Somehow, I don't think she'd be too happy if she knew you were planning on disobeying a direct order." Kakashi said, imagining Tsunade's reaction to the news if they were to report it to her.

Still, Shikamaru seemed to be ignoring them all now. This wasn't going to be easy.