"Naruto," Sakura-chan whispered, "stop moving! You're rocking the boat."
"Sorry, Sakura-chan," I whispered back. I settled down into my seat on the boat that was carrying us across the sea to the island of Wave. I was filled with nervous energy, though, and my hands and legs kept shifting around.
Very soon now we would be encountering Zabuza for the first time, and I would finally get a chance to see what I could do against an opponent of his caliber. The very first battle with him was still burned into my mind, from the moment his sword impacted against the tree trunk and he appeared to the climactic clash between him and Kakashi-sensei. The specifics of the battle changed, a great deal in one case, but it always started like that and always ended with Haku transporting Zabuza away.
Not this time! This time I was ready with my super-awesome Kage Bunshin Barrage, and I was going to stop Haku right then and there. If we didn't have to do that fight on the bridge and that midget bastard Gato didn't interfere, I could save Haku this time!
Before I knew it, we had completed the trip and were getting out of the boat. Our guide wished us luck and then hurried on his way, looking relieved to be leaving. My tension just kept getting higher and higher as we walked through the woods, and eventually I was visibly shaking and jumping at every sound, wondering if that was finally Zabuza showing up.
"Naruto, you don't need to be so nervous," Kakashi-sensei said quietly. "You guys are doing well as a team, and I'm here to protect you if anything goes wrong."
"I'm not nervous, Kakashi-sensei," I replied, scoffing. "I'm excited! I just know something awesome is going to happen soon."
"Stop trying to act cool, Naruto," Sakura-chan said, rolling her eyes. "The only awesome thing that's going to happen is finally getting to sleep inside."
I heard a small rustle in the bush nearby, and flung my kunai at it instinctively. A moment later a white rabbit scampered out, looking terrified. That was it! That was what happened just before-
"Everyone, get down!" Kakashi-sensei yelled as I registered a heavy whooshing sound. I dove to the ground, noting that Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme were doing so as well and that Kakashi-sensei had pulled Tazuna-jiji down with him. Zabuza's sword slammed into the side of a tree a moment later with a loud thunk, and then Zabuza himself appeared, standing on top of the sword with his back to us and looking totally badass.
"Well well, if it isn't the Hidden Mist's missing-nin Zabuza Momochi-kun," Kakashi-sensei said, just like he always did. This was another one of those weird things that always happened the same way.
"Everybody get back," he continued, "this one's on a whole other level. It will be a little tough... unless I do this." Kakashi-sensei then raised his hand and adjusted his headband, revealing his sharingan for the first time... this life, anyway.
"You appear to be Sharingan Kakashi," Zabuza said, looking over his shoulder. "Sorry, but... the old man is mine."
"Surround and protect Tazuna-san. Do not enter the fight. That is the teamwork here," Kakashi-sensei said.
He said that every time too, despite the fact that we had to save his butt every time. Kakashi-sensei and Zabuza kept on talking, chatting back and forth about the sharingan this, sharingan that. I didn't see what was so great about it, honestly. It didn't keep Sasuke-teme from getting his ass kicked in the Chuunin Exams, and Kakashi-sensei still had trouble against Zabuza even when he was using it the whole time. Meh, whatever.
Ah, Zabuza finally jumped onto the water and used his Hidden Mist technique. Finally, the fight was starting!
Sakura-chan, Sasuke-teme and I were all gathered around Tazuna-jiji, watching for any sign of movement in the thick mist.
"Liver, lungs, spine, jugular, carotid, brain, kidneys, heart... which one should I go after?" came Zabuza's disembodied voice from the mist. It was kinda freaky the first time – and was still a little bit freaky – but repetition had dulled the fear. Sasuke-teme was still as freaked out as ever, though, and Kakashi-sensei had to calm him down just like he always did. Sakura-chan handled it much better, but she was awesome like that.
Then Zabuza appeared in the middle of our group again and he and Kakashi-sensei started fighting for real. As always, Kakashi-sensei ended up in the water trapped in that bubble prison thing and Zabuza made some water clones to attack us. Normally I had to work with Sasuke-teme at this point, but not this time!
"Only when you are listed in my Bingo Book, can you start calling yourselves ninjas... you are not ninjas!" Zabuza's water clone called out mockingly.
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I snapped. He said that every time, but it still pissed me off to be insulted like that.
My clones swarmed over the water clone, kicking and punching with abandon. The Zabu-clone whipped its sword around and took out a good chunk of them, but one landed a solid hit with a kunai and the Zabu-clone collapsed into water again.
"Ha! Take that, No-Brows!" I yelled.
"Oh? It looks like you've taught your brats a thing or two, Kakashi," Zabuza said.
"You ain't seen nothing yet! Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I called out again.
More clones popped into existence, beginning a familiar battle cry. "U- Zu-" they started as they kicked Zabuza, but that was as far as they got.
Zabuza's sword whipped through the air, moving far faster than seemed possible for what was essentially a sharpened slab of metal, and took out each clone in turn. The first kick had landed, but Zabuza had barely even shifted and didn't act like he even felt it.
Dammit, at this rate he was going to destroy them all!
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I called again, desperately. I'd never actually tried to use the ability twice against the same person before though, and I wasn't sure what would happen.
At first, I thought nothing happened, as I didn't see any of the clones appearing, but then as Zabuza destroyed the last visible clone the water underneath his feet erupted and my clones poured out, each latching onto him with all their strength.
His sword kept whipping around and taking out my clones left and right, but his footing on the water was destroyed and he lost control of his bubble thing, freeing Kakashi-sensei.
"Fuck yeah!" I yelled as Kakashi-sensei landed on the water and began his water dragon duel thingy. I didn't have to rely on Sasuke-teme at all this time! I was definitely getting stronger! "Did you see that, Sakura-chan?" I asked, turning towards my teammate. Her eyes were fixed on the show Kakashi-sensei was putting on, though. I was kinda disappointed, but the whole making a dragon out of water thing was more awesome... I guess.
I shook that off, though, because Haku would be showing up at any second and I needed to be ready.
Two needles flew out of nowhere and nailed Zabuza in the neck. He collapsed bonelessly to the ground a moment later, and then Haku was there. Kakashi-sensei was next to Zabuza's body, checking his pulse. It still seemed kinda odd that he didn't figure out the ruse immediately, but whatever. Kakashi-sensei went through his bit about hunter-nin and all that, and then Haku used a shunshin to move next to Zabuza's "corpse." I had to act now, before Haku disappeared.
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I yelled, pointing at Haku.
…
Nothing happened.
"Naruto!" Sakura-chan hissed, punching me to the ground. "Don't attack ninja from another village!"
"What the hell?" I cried as I leapt back to my feet. "Kage Bunshin Barrage! Kage Bunshin Barrage!" Nothing.
"Naruto!" Kakashi-sensei barked angrily. "Stand down!"
"But he's not a real hunter-nin!" I exclaimed. "Real hunter-nin do the head-chopping thing! You told us that!"
Kakashi's eyes widened and he whipped around, but Haku had already disappeared with Zabuza.
Dammit.
Shortly after that, Kakashi-sensei passed out from using his sharingan too much and I ended up carrying him all the way to Tazuna's house. I didn't want to make Sakura-chan do it, Tazuna-jiji was too old, and Sasuke-teme was too broody, so it was Kage Bunshin to the rescue!
We got introduced to Tsunami-nee-chan and Inari. Tsunami-nee-chan was still as nice as ever, but Inari was stuck in his Sasuke-wannabe mode. I'd tried to snap him out of it early before, but it never seemed to work until that fight on the bridge. Ah well, I knew he'd turn out awesome so I could handle it for a little while.
The next day dawned bright and clear, and Kakashi-sensei finally woke up.
"First off," he said, "good job on noticing that it was a fake hunter-nin, Naruto! Even I overlooked that one."
I blushed and rubbed the back of my head, embarrassed.
"Now, the bad news is that means Zabuza isn't dead, and he'll be back with his friend. I'd estimate we've got a week before he is fully recovered, and we're going to spend that time preparing as much as possible."
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?"
"Yes, Naruto?"
"Do we have to wait a week? Couldn't we go find them now?"
"Hmm...," Kakashi-sensei said, rubbing his chin. "Well, let's think about that. Sakura, what do we know about the enemy forces?"
Sakura-chan looked startled at first, but she quickly adopted her thoughtful look. "Well, we know that there were at least four of them – those two guys we fought on the road, Zabuza, and the fake hunter-nin. We took out the first two, Zabuza is out for a week, but the hunter-nin is completely fine."
"Good so far. Sasuke, what else?"
"Hn," Sasuke-teme grunted. "The hunter-nin probably spent the whole fight watching us and knows at least some of what we can do. They also have Gato's resources backing them, so we could expect a large number of hired bandits and thugs, possibly even additional ninja."
"Also good. Naruto, what do we have on our side?"
"Three awesome ninja and a bastard?"
"Hey!" Sakura-chan said. "Quit talking about Sasuke-kun like that!"
"Ha! So even you think he's a bastard!" I crowed triumphantly.
Sakura-chan recoiled, looking shocked and began frantically waving her arms in denial. Sasuke-teme just grunted, giving me a weird look. Kakashi-sensei coughed suspiciously before he replied.
"I was looking for something a bit more objective than that, Naruto."
"Alright," I grumbled. "We've got an exhausted jounin and three genin."
"Better," he said. "Back to Sakura. What is our mission?"
"To protect Tazuna-san while he finishes building his bridge."
"Correct," Kakashi-sensei said, doing his smiling eye thing. "With all of that in mind, what would you do, Naruto?"
I sighed, dejected. "Focus on protecting the client while preparing as best we can to fend off any attacks," I said.
Kakashi nodded. "In other circumstances," he said, "your idea might have worked, but we don't have the resources to send any of our team into hostile territory. Now then, let's start the training."
He stood up, picked up the nearby crutches and began hobbling out into the woods. He seemed to pick his spot at random – I don't think it was the same clearing every time, anyway – and motioned for us to stop.
"Before we get into, though, I want to talk to you about the ninja ability, chakra," he began.
"Argh! Can't we just skip that, sensei? We all know this stuff already!" I yelled. I really didn't want to suffer through his explanation again.
"Hmm... well, if you're sure. What we are going to be doing today is... climbing trees!"
"Sensei...," Sakura-chan said slowly, "we can already do that."
"Ah, but you'll be doing this without your hands!"
I noticed Sasuke-teme perk up at that, and he eventually asked, "How?"
"Well, watch," Kakashi-sensei said. He placed one foot on the tree, then raised his crutches and pressed them against the tree. A moment later, he was hobbling up the tree just like he'd been walking on the ground earli-
"Holy shit!" I yelled, pointing at him.
"Yes, it is quite...," he began, but trailed off as I ran up the tree and stopped next to him, staring at the crutches.
"How are you doing that?" I asked. I noticed Sakura-chan walking up the tree and stopping next to us, looking curious as to what I was talking about. Sasuke-teme was still on the ground, glowering at the three of us. I wasn't interested in that, though.
"I... see you both already know this exercise," Kakashi-sensei said slowly. "I must say Naruto, I'm very happy with your diligence in training. You too, Sakura."
"Thanks, sensei!" she said, smiling widely.
"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, how were you doing that?"
Kakashi-sensei didn't answer immediately, giving me a very strange look. Finally he said, "The same way you are now?"
"Nono, not that! The thing with the crutches! How were you tree-walking with the crutches!"
He blinked. "Oh, that. That's a much more advanced type of chakra manipulation. I'm not sure if you are-"
"Can you show us, sensei?" Sakura asked. "We've already learned water walking, and we don't know what to work on next."
"You have?" For once, he actually sounded genuinely surprised. "You both have. What about Sasuke?" he asked, turning to look at the boy who was still standing at the base of the tree.
"I'm sure he already knows-" Sakura began, before realizing that her crush hadn't joined them.
"Sakura-chan ran into me while I was practicing and I showed her how to do it. She picked it up a lot faster than I did, though," I added ruefully. "Sasuke-teme never sticks around to keep training and I never see him outside of team meetings."
"Hmm...," Kakashi-sensei said, rubbing the side of his face. "Why don't you two head back to Tazuna's house and wait for me. I'll be along shortly."
I stared at him for a moment, trying to wrap my head around what he'd said. This had never happened before.
I accompanied Sakura-chan back to the house in a daze, trying to figure out why Kakashi-sensei was changing up the training this time when he always did the same thing before. Even when I showed him that I knew tree-walking and water-walking, he just told me to keep practicing. The only thing I could think of was because Sakura-chan knew how to do it too.
We settled down in the living room to wait, and I quickly noticed that Sakura-chan looked worried.
"What's wrong, Sakura-chan?" I asked.
"Do you think he's mad at us?"
"Huh?"
"For training outside of the team meetings? Or maybe for training without Sasuke-kun?"
"No way!" I yelled, jumping to my feet. "Kakashi-sensei isn't mad at us! He's probably going to give us a super-awesome new jutsu."
"Well, you're both right and wrong," Kakashi-sensei said as he entered the house. "I am definitely not mad at you," he said firmly. "In fact, I'm rather happy that you are both taking your ninja career seriously enough to train on your own time."
Sakura-chan calmed down and blushed, and I nodded sagely.
"On the other hand, I'm not going to be teaching you a 'super-awesome' jutsu either."
"Aww," I groaned, disappointed. "Why not?"
"Before we continue, let's head out back," he said, ignoring my question. He lead us out to the dock behind Tazuna-jiji's house, stopping when we were at the edge of the pier.
"Please demonstrate the water-walking exercise," he directed.
With a shrug, both Sakura-chan and I stepped off the pier, smoothly landing on top of the water. Well, Sakura-chan made it look smooth anyway, as she barely made a ripple when she landed. I ended up splashing some water as I landed, but stabilized quickly and turned to face Kakashi-sensei triumphantly.
He nodded thoughtfully as he watched me, then turned to look at Sakura-chan. "How long can you stay on top of the water?" he asked her.
"Only about twenty minutes," she admitted, "but I've been getting better!"
"Alright," he said, "here's what we're going to do."
"Ninja are weird," Tazuna-jiji muttered.
"Ah, come on, jiji, cut us a break!" I whi- asked politely. "Kakashi-sensei is making us do this!"
Tazuna-jiji just shook his head and turned back to his work on the bridge. It was a bright, clear day and the bridge builder was trying to make the most of it, snapping orders to the workers left and right. Large wooden beams were being hefted about and all kinds of other work that I had no idea what it was for was going on.
"Hey, Sakura-chan?" I asked, leaning against the side of the bridge.
"I'm not talking to you right now, remember?" I heard her reply.
"But Sakura-chan!"
"Argh! What is it?"
"I need another chopstick."
She didn't reply immediately, and I leaned out further and looked down. "Hey, Saku-ack!" I yelped, scrambling backwards to avoid the piece of wood hurtling towards my head like a kunai. It curved through the air and eventually landed on the bridge a few feet away from me.
"Thank you!" I called out, making sure to stay away from the edge.
Kakashi-sensei had decided that Sakura-chan needed to work on her endurance and that I needed to refine my control even further. He had also decided that since we were both much further along in our training than he had expected that we could take up our duties guarding Tazuna-jiji while training at the same time.
My training exercise was to pick up a kunai by channeling my chakra through a slim piece of wood and making it stick to the kunai. He said I could hold the chopstick normally at first, but eventually he wanted me to do it while making the chopstick stick to my finger as well.
Sakura-chan's exercise was a lot simpler; she just had to stand on the side of the bridge. Kakashi-sensei had decided that wasn't enough, though, and so she was also in charge of supplying new chopsticks whenever I broke one. I thought we were going to buy some, but Kakashi had just cut down a convenient tree branch and shoved it into Sakura-chan's hands, telling her to carve off another chopstick whenever I needed one. He'd been very particular about how she was supposed to do it, too, although I hadn't really followed that part very well.
I picked up the squared off piece of wood – Sakura-chan was getting much better at making them, as this one even had a slightly tapered point – and crouched down next to my kunai. I'd determined early on that the chopsticks lasted a lot longer if I had the kunai on the ground first; they tended to break almost immediately if the kunai was in my other hand and I let go of it.
I focused, trying to feel my chakra moving through the chopstick. Kakashi-sensei said it had to flow in and out evenly, just like the chakra flowed through my body. After a few seconds, it felt like it was working right, so I poked the kunai with the chopstick. I held it there for a second, struggling to feel my chakra entering the kunai, and pulled on the chopstick slightly. I grinned widely when the kunai moved along with it – I was really starting to get this part down.
I moved the chopstick a little more, grinning as the kunai kept moving along with it. Now came the hard part, though. I slowly, ever so slowly, started to lift the chopstick into the air. My eyes widened in anticipation as the tip of the kunai tilted...
Then the chopstick exploded in my hand. Again.
I grumbled to myself quietly, picking more splinters out of my hand, and turned back to the edge of the bridge.
"Hey, Sakura-chan?"
I gulped when I heard loud stomping sounds coming towards me. I cringed when I saw the edges of an angry aura peek over the side. I dodged when Sakura herself hopped onto the railing and threw a small chunk of wood at my head.
"How many of those damn things can you go through, shannaro?" she snarled, panting in rage. She hopped onto the surface of the bridge and took one step towards me, then her knees suddenly buckled.
I sprang forward to catch her, and she ended up leaning on my shoulder as I eased her down to lean against the railing.
"Are you alright, Sakura-chan?" I asked worriedly.
"I'm... fine," she said, still panting. "Just... need to... rest."
I just nodded as I sat back, watching her. Her pink hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, and her red shirt was drenched.
"Hang on a sec," I said, hopping up. I ran over to where Tazuna-jiji kept the drinkable water and pulled out two bottles, one for me and one for Sakura-chan. I rushed back over and handed one to her. She took it gratefully, smiling at me, then chugged half of it in one go.
"Thanks, Naruto," she said as she screwed the cap back on. "I needed that."
"No problem, Sakura-chan!"
We sat there in silence for a bit as Sakura-chan recovered and I just enjoyed sitting this close to her. Eventually, though, I remembered that I was supposed to be training.
"Do you... have another chopstick?" I asked slowly, cringing when she glared at me. She shot her hand out to point to the block of wood she had thrown earlier.
"That's all that's left," she growled. "You went through that entire damn branch."
"... oh," I said, blushing. "Sorry."
She gave me another halfhearted glare, but eventually just shrugged it off.
We lapsed into silence again, and my mind began to wander back to my problem with the Kage Bunshin Barrage.
"Hey, Sakura-chan? Do you think you could help me figure something out?"
She eyed me curiously, but nodded. "Sure," she said, "what is it?"
"You know that Kage Bunshin Barrage move I used?"
She let out a quick laugh. "It's a little hard to forget since you keep yelling the name all the time."
"There's something wrong with it."
"Really? Like what?"
"Well, when I tried to use it last night, it wasn't working."
"Is it working now?"
"I... haven't actually tried it since then," I confessed.
"Well I won't be able to help much if I can't see you using it," she pointed out.
"Yeah...," I said. I looked around for someone to use it on, but no bandits decided to show up at that moment. The only people around were Tazuna-jiji and the people working on the bridge, and I didn't want to attack them... and of course there was no way I was going to attack Sakura-chan.
"Aha!" I said, jumping to my feet. I made a quick handsign and called out, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Several puffs of spoke surrounded us, soon clearing away to reveal four shadow clones.
"Oh, come on, Boss, this is just cruel!" one cried out.
"Yeah! This is clone abuse" another shouted.
"Report him to Hokage-jiji!" a third yelled.
"Better you than me!" I yelled. "Kage Bunshin Barrage!"
I felt that cold water sensation again, and one of my clones got dog-piled by a new batch of clones that popped out of thin air. I turned to face Sakura-chan and found her giving me a very odd look.
"Did you just... nevermind," she said, shaking her head. "What's wrong with it? It seemed to work fine to me."
"Do you think he's done now?" one of the clones whispered to another.
"Shh... don't remind him we're here," the other clone responded.
"Hey, I've got an idea," a third clone said quietly.
"I know," I said ruefully, "I felt it work this time... but last night it just stopped working for no reason."
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" one of the clones suddenly shouted, pointing at me. I whirled around, staring at my clone in shock, then cringed as I waited for the oncoming assault.
…
I breathed a sigh of relief when no new clones popped out to pummel me. Then I turned to glare at the mutinous clone. He was slowly backing away, waving his hands in the air.
"You would have done the same!" he shouted, before turning and making a run for it.
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I yelled.
"No fair!" he managed to get out before he was launched into the air and dispelled.
I turned back to Sakura-chan, who was now gaping at me with a highly disturbed expression on her face.
"See what I mean?" I said. "It doesn't seem to work all the time now. It never did this before."
Before she could reply, I heard another of the clones cry out, "Get him!"
I whipped back around just in time for the first clone to tackle me.
"Kage Bunshin Barrage! Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I snapped as I grappled with the traitor. The two remaining clones were yanked off of me and slammed onto the bridge, dispelling them. I slowly stood and dusted myself off before turning back to Sakura-chan yet again. Her mouth wasn't hanging open this time, but she was still giving me a really strange look.
"What?" I asked.
She shook herself and her expression shifted into a thoughtful look. "Well, it's worked every time you used it so far... it'd be nice if we could test it some more," she said, then winced. "Do you have to use it on a person?"
"I... think so?" I replied. "I can try that, I guess." I turned and spotted a chair nearby. "Kage Bunshin Barrage!" No cold water sensation, no clones popping out of nowhere. "Looks like it has to be a person," I said.
"Alright... I guess you need to make some more clones, then," she said slowly.
"No problem!" I said, quickly making the needed handsign and calling out the name of the technique.
"Whatcha need us to do, Sakura-chan?" the first clone asked. The other three just nodded in agreement, staring at Sakura-chan expectantly.
She didn't answer immediately, instead looking back and forth between the clones and me. "You aren't going to attack him or anything?"
"Nah," one of them said, shrugging. "You asked for us, so here we are."
"O...k then," she said. "First, can one of you try to use that move on the real Naruto?"
"Geh," I said, cringing. "Do they have to?"
"It's only fair," she replied, looking like she couldn't believe she was actually saying that.
"Sure thing!" the second clone said, sounding way too happy about it. "Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I breathed another sigh of relief when the attack failed to happen.
"Alright, so it can't be turned on the original," Sakura-chan said to herself, her expression starting to light up as she got caught up in the problem. "Now try to use it on one of the other clones."
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" the third clone snapped quickly, pointing at the second.
"Cheater!" the second one shouted, cringing. Still nothing happened.
"Or maybe the clones can't use it at all," she amended.
"Ah, man," they all said in unison, "that sucks."
"Alright," Sakura-chan said, turning to face me. "Now use it on one of the clones again."
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I said, and one of the clones found themselves pummeled out of existence.
"Hmm...," Sakura-chan said, resting her chin on her fist and tapping one foot on the bridge as she got lost in thought. "Again."
"Kage Bunshin Barrage!" I repeated. Nothing happened.
"There you go!" Sakura-chan said firmly, nodding in satisfaction. "You can only use it five times in a certain time period."
"What?" I cried, echoed by my clones. "That's cr- oh. So that's what the extra points do!"
"Points? What are you talking about?"
"Uh... nothing, Sakura-chan!" I said quickly. "How did you figure that out, anyway?"
"Well, you - the real you - used it five times just now, and the sixth time didn't work. You also used it five times yesterday – once on each of the two ninja on the road, once on Zabuza's clone, and then twice on Zabuza himself. You tried to use it a sixth time on the hunter-nin, and it didn't work, just like now." She nodded firmly, then her brow furrowed. "That's a really weird jutsu, though... never heard of one that had a built-in limit like that...," she said to herself, trailing off at the end.
I stared at her blankly for a long moment. "Wow, Sakura-chan," I said finally, "I knew you were smart, but you actually remembered all of that? I didn't even remember all of that, and I did it!" My clones just nodded silently in agreement, staring at her in awe.
She just grinned at me, that wide, beaming grin that did strange things to my stomach. "Now that we've got that sorted out, we should get back to training. First thing we need to do is get another branch..."
A/N: Naruto begins the long, arduous journey from newbie to player. I'll give him enough credit to avoid labeling him as a n00b.
I was this || close to having all of Sasuke's lines be "Hn." For instance, the scene where the team is talking about hunting down Zabuza was originally like this:
"Good so far. Sasuke, what else?"
"Hn," Sasuke-teme grunted.
"A thorough analysis. Naruto, what do we have on our side?"
While amusing for a little bit, though, I couldn't really justify it long-term. On the other hand, I did it for the first chapter, and I don't think anyone even noticed the difference. }:)
Other options included an "Uchiha Language Trait" (possibly translating everything Sasuke, Itachi, or Madara says into haiku or iambic pentameter) or treating Sasuke's dialog as bugged where all of his speech bubbles reference the same bit of text.
I went back and read the parts of the manga that covered the Wave Mission (fair warning, Haku is a girl - I dare anyone to refer to Chapter 21, Page 2 and tell me otherwise) and noted that Kakashi was still using his crutches as he walked up the tree. He probably didn't actually do in canon what I have him doing here, but it provided a good way to change up the scene and was a useful concept. Although, since they can tree climb with shoes on, it's nothing terribly new either.
The scene with the kage bunshin wasn't /just/ there for humor - there is a method to my madness, and it's actually suggested in the scene itself. Basically the clones Naruto summons are influenced by the reason he summoned them. Usually he uses them in battle and they all work together against the enemy. If he summons them just to mess with them or try things out, they will respond in kind... to a point. They know they are clones and will ultimately defer to the original if it's important, but they are also him with all the irreverence and annoying traits that comes with that.
Thanks to everyone who suggested abilities, skills, tweaks, etc. Hopefully I'll have an update to the Manual in the next few days that will show how the mechanics have gotten fleshed out.
Free (virtual) cookies to anyone who spots the less obvious examples where I've worked specific bits of the "game" into the story and correctly identifies what it's an example of; I have two specific ones in mind for this chapter. The majority of what happens in the "real world" is reflected in the "game" somehow, be it branching dialog trees, side quests, alternate paths, etc., but there are also places where the "game" influences the "real world" instead.
As always, thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews!