Spoilers in both the story and the A/N at the end.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 3:
Minato and Jiraiya were now sitting by the banks of the river where both had learned to walk on water as genin. It was also where Kakashi had learned the trick. Probably where the kid would take his students when his time came as well. They picked up some sake on the way there, and now they were down to their second bottle.
"No need to thank me, Hokage, no need to." Jiraiya laughed as he patted his former student on the shoulder.
"Sensei, I'm never gonna get used to you calling me that." Minato said, as he scratched his head. "Last night I was actually thinking about doing it myself if he didn't come to his senses. I don't want Kakashi to stop here. The Sharingan... I personally believe that he'll be able to master it. No matter what those Uchihas say." Minato took another cup of sake. "I'm telling you, they are so arrogant! 'Hmph. As if a Hatake could control the Sharingan.'" Minato copied one of the men who had mentioned Kakashi's lack of skills. Jiraiya smirked. "He should be able to. He's a genius, you see." Minato said as he opened another bottle of sake.
"Yeah, and he must. If he doesn't train with that eye, he'll eventually get killed. It's hard to lead this life with a single eye. Especially after having trained for these many years with both eyes. Losing depth perception can be a serious problem. He's just too used to the sight. In a sense, that eye is saving him." Jiraiya took a flat stone and threw it at the river, making it bounce several times before it sinked down.
"Nonetheless, it's breaking him." Minato added and took another cup of sake. "But that can be solved." He looked at his sensei and smiled. "I'll stop by some time. Don't push him too hard, sensei." Minato knew Jiraiya was a man with great expectations. That was one of the reasons why he was able to become Hokage. Meeting Jiraiya's standards were what made him strive even harder as a kid.
"Don't worry. It's not like he's gonna die. Come on, I'm trying to save the kid, for god's sake." Jiraiya pointed at himself and exhibited that brilliant smile.
"Well, sensei, I trust you, so he's all yours." Minato grinned back.
"Heh." Jiraiya knew that Minato was still worried, but just the words made him proud. He had trained the young Hokage, after all. "How's it going with Kushina-chan?" Jiraiya asked as he took another drink.
"Perfect. It's just that I don't get to see her too often now." Minato responded sheepishly. "We are thinking of getting married by the end of this year."
"Ho, boy. That's some great news, ne?" Jiraiya couldn't believe that Minato was already at that stage in his life. "Already old enough to get married..." Jiraiya chuckled as he took another drink. Over the years, he had come to think of him as his own kid. He was the one who gave the kid the strength and the one who taught him how to drink, how to flirt, and how to survive.
Minato looked on as he tried to figure out what Jiraiya was thinking about. His sensei was like a second father to him, as he had trained under him all those years, and still took his advice into heart. All the lessons he learned from the great Sannin were practically what made him into the person he was right now.
No wonder he was willing to help him out with Kakashi as well.
After making sure that a couple of ANBU escorted the Hokage to his house, Jiraiya headed towards Tsunade's house. He needed to ask for a favor. He was aware that it was past midnight, and that Tsunade would probably get mad, but it was for the good of his student's student.
He knocked on the door and kept doing so for another two minutes before a furious Tsunade was looking up at him.
"Hey, I hope I didn't wake you up, Tsunade." Jiraiya put on his most innocent smile as he put up a shy hand as a greeting.
"And what makes you think that you didn't!" Tsunade blurted out as she tried to punch him in the face, but Jiraiya jumped a few feet away and kept smiling. Tsunade let out a sigh. "What is it?" She lowered her voice in consideration of her neighbors and went inside her house, and Jiraiya took this as a sign to come in.
"Well, I need to ask you to do something for me. Do you mind going to the training grounds with me?" Jiraiya asked as he followed her into her kitchen.
"Right now? What for?" Tsunade took a bottle of water from her fridge and a cup.
"I'll be training Kakashi starting tomorrow. If you could use your sheer force to break some boulders for me, dear Tsunade. And I'm setting up some stuff, too." Jiraiya was leaning against the counter and smiled.
"Training for the Sharingan?" Tsunade poured the water and looked at her old teammate. She had inspected Rin's work when they came back from the mission. She tried to fix it so that the boy could deactivate it, but nothing had worked.
"Yeah. But training his normal eye is first. Hopefully the dodging exercise will be enough. He has a lot to work on." Jiraiya grinned.
"Lack of depth perception, ne?" She drank down the cup full of water. "I'm coming. Just wait a sec." She added before going to her room to get dressed. Sakumo's son had always been a genius. She knew that all along. But even geniuses needed help from time to time.
Jiraiya smiled gently and when Tsunade came out, they headed towards the memorial stone, where he would be meeting the brat in the morning.
Once at his small apartment, Kakashi decided to gather his equipment for the training. Seriously, what did he get himself into? Training with Jiraiya? He surely was signed up for some challenge. He had some memories about Jiraiya that he didn't really enjoy thinking about. Kakashi sighed as he took his hitai-ate off. He carefully left his Sharingan closed and looked at himself in the mirror. He would have to get used to seeing with one eye, but also train the Sharingan. "Obito..." He closed his right eye as well and relived those moments once again. That second in which he lost his own left eye, and how Obito killed the enemy shinobi. His scar hurt whenever he thought about that blow that took his eye.
It was already late, so he decided to take at least a few hours' sleep before meeting with Jiraiya. He didn't know what to expect from the old man, but nothing was going to be easy in his current state. For the past month, ever since his sensei became Hokage, all he did were missions. Just like Jiraiya had mentioned earlier. The time that he could have spent training, he visited Obito at the memorial site, or his old house, where he used to live as a kid. He did not train at all. His body sure got weaker from his lack of exercise. Thinking of the price he would have to pay the next day, Kakashi fell asleep.
It was ten to six o'clock, and Kakashi was walking down the path that led to the memorial stone. He was wearing the standard jounin outfit along with the green vest. Ever since his father's tanto had broken in that mission, he had decided that he didn't need to wear the tanto holder anymore. That was three months ago, already. His hitai-ate was slanted once again, in order to save his chakra for the training. He knew he looked ridiculous, but it had worked.
As Kakashi passed through the countless trees, he spotted an obvious trap: there was a rope that would surely capture inexperienced shinobis and hold them down a tree's branch by their feet. Kakashi wasn't one, so he was able to avoid it. What he didn't see was a second rope a few feet away. This time, to avoid it, he had to jump a few feet back. Who had set these traps? As he landed on his right foot, Kakashi realized that there was another trap, so this time he used the Kawarimi no Jutsu and substituted his body with a log and reappeared a few feet closer to the second trap. He was hating this. Who would go through the trouble of setting these simple traps in such a canning way? His only guess was that the academy kids had been practicing setting the trap. Kakashi grunted and decided to be more careful. It would be more than shameful to fall in one of those and be late to training.
As he got closer to the memorial site, Kakashi had to dodge another set of traps, and from the last place he managed to land, he gathered more chakra in his feet and jumped farther than before to skip all the possible traps and to land in the clearing. As he did so, several kunais came flying directly to his face and upper body, which he received with one of his kunai. He didn't get to see one of the last kunai that came from his blind spot and it left a gash on his left forearm. As he received all the kunais, he didn't have the time to look at where he was landing: another trap. "Shit." Kakashi grunted as the rope tightened around his ankles and brought him upside down, hanging down from a particularly high branch. As he went up he saw the old man's long, white hair sticking out from behind another tree, a few feet away from his tree.
"So it was you, Jiraiya-sama." Kakashi couldn't hide his shame nor his anger. He shouldn't have been caught by such a simplistic trap. What was the old man up to?
"Yes, Kakashi. You did pretty well reading underneath the underneath, but you still need more practice." Jiraiya had been watching the kid avoiding and jumping through all those traps, and had thrown the kunais when he seemed to reach his goal. That had been pretty good for a kid who was receiving attacks with one eye. "No need to come down, yet, Kakashi. Get warmed up." Jiraiya ordered as he saw the brat taking out a kunai. Jiraiya sat down under the tree where Kakashi was hanging down from.
"How many do you want?" Kakashi asked with gritted teeth. He didn't feel like doing sit-ups this early in the morning. At least not when tied down from a tree's branch. He put his kunai back in his holster.
"A thousand." Jiraiya did his best not to smirk at the probably terrified expression of the little jounin. Not many people could actually do that many. That would take the kid a good hour to two. Meanwhile, he would work on his novel.
Kakashi started on the exercise that was assigned to him. As he counted off, he realized once again that he shouldn't have stopped training. He was dearly paying the price. It was crucial for shinobis to train every day, but he had skipped training for a month. Though Kakashi was sure that a thousand of these was a large number for any shinobi (even Jiraiya), he realized that he was really out of shape when he started to pant lightly, only after three-hundred of those. After taking a deep breath, he decided to slow down before he completely ran out of chakra. He was sure that the day had just begun.
Jiraiya couldn't help but smirk as the kid's voice that called out the numbers got quieter and sounded less and less energetic. "Already tired?" Boy, the brat was out of shape. "Oi, Kakashi. I didn't hear you after four-hundred-seventy-two. Start over from there." Jiraiya heard the young jounin sigh, and his voice got louder once again with number six-hundred-twenty-three. He had heard the kid when he said six-hundred, but he decided to punish him for letting himself get out of shape this much. "That will teach him." Jiraiya thought as he scribbled another note. Jiraiya began to think that it was too much fun to be teaching his student's student. There was no way that the brat would talk back or question his authority. If it had been the younger Kakashi, the one he used to train from time to time when he was a genin and eventually chuunin, it would have been different. The brat now was conscious of the age gap between them that was just too big. It simply meant that he had grown up a little and gained more respect for the Sannin. "Heh. Don't resent me, Sakumo."
Kakashi was reminded once again that Jiraiya was much nicer when not training him. The man ruffling his hair (no matter how much Kakashi hated it) was so much more comforting than this old man who practiced his authority over him. It would have been wrong for him to complain when Jiraiya assigned him an extra hundred or so, since he did let his body get out of shape. But oh, how he hated it. Kakashi respected the man. He was his sensei's sensei, after all. And, not only was he one of the Sannin but also someone his father (who Kakashi respected as a kid, and recently regained that respect for him) had called a friend and a man to trust. But, this man now sitting down under the shadows of the tree was having fun by torturing him. Just like he used to in the old days, when he was younger. Kakashi grunted once again when he saw Jiraiya's thousandth smirk. His side was starting to throb with pain, as if someone kept stabbing him with a blade. He still had another two hundred to go.
A/N:
Thanks to all the reviewers! It's really nice to know that I'm not the only one loving the relationships between senseis and students in the series.
Firstly, the idea of the traps. Yes, I thought I would upgrade it for someone as skilled as Kakashi! He is a jounin, after all. Hope it came out as good, and that it was clear. Let me know if something wasn't as clear!
One reason why I wrote how Kakashi struggles under Jiraiya's training is because I want to portray him as a character who works hard as well. Not just a genius. I saw some fics out there that describe the rivalry between Kakashi and Gai as something based on genius vs. hard worker. Just a thought, but I believe that Gai wouldn't have recognized Kakashi as his rival if he was just a pure genius. Which gives me just another idea for this story... mmm... this will have to wait though. In future chapters!
I tried to portray Jiraiya in character. He may appear as someone who fools around (with research and what not), but he knows when he needs to act like the adult he is. That's one of his characteristics that intrigue me so much. Knowing when is enough and being able to cover his flaws with charisma, maturity, and kindness. So when it came to the concept of him training Kakashi, Jiraiya becomes the strict and harsh instructor, showing his fondness for Kakashi inwardly, in his thoughts. At least that's what I got out of the characterization in the series. Someone very affectionate and caring of others. Oh, and of course, I had to mentions Kakashi's respect for the old man. (smile)
Next chapter will be a flashback. Sakumo's in it, so you can look forward to it! It will explain why Kakashi dreads the idea of being trained by Jiraiya, again (key word!).
