"Again."

Naruto's eyes narrowed as he glared as his godfather. "I've run through this exercise at least twenty times, old man."

Jiraiya leaned forward and thumped him on the head. "Lip me again and I'll make it another twenty." His face was seldom serious, but there was no glimmer of humor or mischief to be found today. "You wanted me to teach you seriously? This is how it's gonna be. You do what I say, when I say it."

His godson opened his mouth and immediately closed it. Jiraiya jiggling a kunai in his direction had absolutely nothing to do with it.

"Alright, I'll do it again."

"That sentence was severely lacking something."

"Alright, I'll do it again, sensei."

Jiraiya nodded in satisfaction. "That's better. Now hop to it."

Naruto channeled chakra to his legs and leapt forward, his body bent over the ground. He landed on a tree branch and immediately sprung off it. A single leaf from the branch fell to the ground.

"Stop."

Naruto rolled mid-air and planted his feet on the ground. Neither dirt nor grass stirred upon his landing.

"What is it now?"

Smack

"What is it now, sensei?"

A calloused hand picked the leaf off the ground, twirling it in Naruto's face. "This is what we are trying to fix, Naruto. A single decent tracker can detect this leaf fell off the branch unnaturally."

Yellow hair shifted to the side as Naruto tilted his head. His hitai-ate was wrapped carefully at the bottom of his pack, preventing anyone from immediately recognizing his origin. "Leaves fall off trees all the time, ero-sensei. Why is this one different? How can you tell?"

The elder ninja held the leaf out to Naruto. "You tell me."

Naruto scratched his head and took the leaf, glancing over it. "I dunno."

"That won't do. What was the phrase…ah, look underneath the underneath!" Jiraiya beamed at Naruto.

"I don't think that's what that phrase was referring to, dumbass."

Smack

"I don't think that's what that phrase was referring to, dumbass-sensei."

"I don't think I give a shit what you think, twerp. Now look at the damn leaf all day if you have to."

Naruto sat down with a thump, glaring at the leaf for the next thirty minutes. There was no sound other than the breeze and the bugs.

"Naruto."

Naruto sprung to his feet, mildly startled. However much Jiraiya's face was seldom serious his voice was practically never stern with him.

"I'm training you to be a ninja, Naruto. Being a ninja is more than having cool ninjutsu or being powerful. A ninja is aware of his surroundings at all times."

Jiraiya paused, struggling for words. "More than that, a ninja just is awareness. There can be no distinction between being aware and being aware. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yes, sensei."

"Tracker ninja's hone their senses to an extreme. Some ninja come with natural talents, such as the Byakugan, or the famed noses of the Inuzuka. Ninja who specialize in tracking, however, are trained to absolute edge. They are not combat fighters because their chakra is so keenly attuned to the senses."

Jiraiya typically taught through example or trial-and-error, rarely lecturing. Naruto had learned through experience that his lectures were lessons to be taken to heart. Lessons that one did not forget, ever.

"Tracker ninja chakra-control is second only to medic-nin and then only because medic-nin use a wider variety of chakra. Tracker-nin constantly have chakra running through their eyes, nose, ears and mouth. They see, taste, smell and hear everything. Ninja who can control their chakra this finely are usually pulled into ANBU and trained specifically for tracking."

"Eh, sensei, what does this have to do with the leaf?"

"Let me think of how to relate this to you…" Jiraiya thought for a moment. "Ah, Naruto, when you take on the chakra cloak, you've described a feeling of being aware of everything. You can feel shifts in the wind, the breaths I take, the shift of bugs in the grass. You remember that?"

"Yes?"

"Imagine being that way every day, every mission and everywhere you go. You see so clearly that you know the difference between what a naturally fallen leaf looks like and what one looks like that has been broken from a tree."

"I guess I understand." Naruto rubbed the back of his head, not entirely certain of what he had been told.

"It's a little more nuanced than that but we don't have the time and I don't have the inclination to delve into chakra sensing or pattern recognition."

Jiraiya picked the leaf off the ground where Naruto had dropped it. "This leaf is your life. Whether this leaf stays on the tree or does not, that is the difference between you living or dying."

Naruto stared at him blankly eliciting a sigh from the Sannin as he pinched his nose.

"At some point in your shinobi career, you will have to run from your enemies. Your cover will be blown or you will have vital information for the village. Any number of situations can come up that require you to retreat with your life rather than fight."

Jiraiya started pacing as he talked gesturing animatedly. "Simply put, there are three levels of ninja, Naruto. Cannon fodder, kill-on-sight and run-on-sight. Your true level is at kill-on-sight but most would perceive you as cannon fodder, kid."

Naruto started indignantly but was forestalled by Jiraiya's outstretched hand. He was in full sensei-mode now.

"This is a good thing. It keeps you alive longer to train and reach beyond that level before they're even aware of you. The ninja thrives and survives on subterfuge and misdirection.

Any mission that requires you to run away, not for your life, but for your mission, immediately bumps you to kill-on-sight. This is because any mission that requires this means that you have vital information that the enemy does not want you to have, at any cost. The real-world application of this concept is much more complicated, of course, but this analogy should do.

In this situation, the enemy releases their best resources to contain you. If your enemies are ninja, they will have tracker-nin on you faster than you can think. Every step, every move, every breath you take must be measured and careful. You must calculate how fast you can move against how much unnatural damage your surroundings will take.

These processes must be ingrained, they must be a part of you, Naruto. You must become what you practice. It cannot be conscious thought."

Naruto was once again sitting, staring wide-eyed at Jiraiya.

"This is what it means to be a ninja of jounin level or higher. We train and train and train until it is no longer training, it is a state of existence for us. I know you want to reach that level and much further, Naruto. It takes time and a hell of a lot of training.

That is why we will practice twenty times, thirty times, a hundred times until you have perfected this. Because everyone else is doing the exact same damn thing. If you fail in one area that your enemy has succeeded in, you're dead. If you slip up because you haven't practiced enough and your enemy has put in more effort, you're dead.

High-level ninja combat is not about who is stronger or knows more ninjutsu, it's about who makes the first mistake. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, that first mistake kills that jounin within one second or less."

Jiraiya sighed heavily and squatted in front of Naruto before his serious expression suddenly broke into a wide grin.

"So, how about we do that again and then we'll go get some ice cream?"

Naruto shot up, whooping loudly. "Hell yeah!"

He paused and stared at Jiraiya suspiciously. "Are you bribing me, ero-sensei?"

Jiraiya's face was a study in indignation and innocence. "I would never! The mere thought offends me!"

Naruto shrugged and turned away. "As long as I get my ice cream. And I sincerely doubt any thought offends you anymore, you old perv."

Jiraiya would most likely have made a witty retort, had he not, at that exact moment, been studying a magazine of questionable morality.

Naruto did not want to know where he had been hiding that. He thought he'd burned them all in retaliation for the Prank.

Oh, well, there was always next time.