Chapter 4: Reality Hurts
The next morning, I woke up unable to go back to yesterday's dream with Sakura-chan. Instead, I had been battling the Kyuubi in the middle of the village. I can see why the village feared it so; the beast shrugged off anything I threw at it and none of the jutsu that I had read about in my ninja story books could go through its thick fur. Thankfully, I woke up just before the thing was about to eat me, but the shaking still hadn't completely stopped.
My bed was a pool of sweat as I groggily tried to ground myself back in reality.
"Great," I groaned, "more laundry for this weekend."
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
I ran through the rooftops of Konaha to find my team waiting at the bridge with sensei nowhere in sight. 'Kakashi-sensei now,' I thought surprised. I have more than one sensei now. As the events of last night came back to me, I found myself shaking in excitement at learning more about how to make my dreams real. I wonder what he will teach me first?
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
Kakashi-sensei finally arrived half an hour later. This time, there was no sound from Sakura-chan or I as we stared at him. Scratching his head sheepily, he muttered an excuse about sheep running to Snow Country to cool down before gesturing at us to follow him.
He brought us to the same practice field as the day before yesterday and made sure we stretched this time. My body was still sore from the first day of training and yesterday. After stretching, he had us run laps around the field while dodging around raised pits of dirt that would suddenly pop up. I idly wondered what jutsu he was using to do this, but was more concerned with the push-up penalty that was slowly, but definitely, going up as I stepped on more and more dirt piles.
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
My muscles strained with fatigue. They screamed at me to stop, and I would. I totally would- if sensei was warming up his index and middle finger so warningly at me. I was in no mood to see the 'completed' version of his super ass-poke.
200. I had had to do TWO-HUNDRED push-ups. By the time I was at 120, I couldn't get back up. Even Kakashi-sensei approaching me wasn't enough to get my muscles to obey my will. Just as I was thinking I was a goner, Kakashi-sensei, bless any listening spirit, allowed me to finish the rest with three sit-ups per push-up missed. It was still hard, and my upper body felt like an immovable boulder, but I was finally able to make the penalty. Unfortunately for Sakura-chan, she still had 30 more sit-ups to do- and she looked like she was on Death's doorstep.
"Ara, Sakura, you really need to work on your stamina," Kakashi mused over a broken Sakura-chan, unfazed by her furious glare. Smiling, Kakashi continued, "well, I suppose I can let you make up for it tomorrow…but I'll have to double it. Everyone, rest for a few minutes. We'll begin tree climbing again and then sparring to finish up our training for today."
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
Tree climbing passed similar to yesterday. I was gradually making progress, but Sasuke-teme was making higher heights, while Sakura-chan was already working on going up and down without tiring.
Determined, I kept at the exercise until I heard Kakashi-sensei tell us to break for lunch.
Turning around, I was just as surprised as my teammates to see sensei standing next to a blanket filled with food. There were tonkatsu sandwiches, salad, fruit, and sushi gloriously laid out in the open. It made me suddenly wary as I wondered if this was a trick.
Raising his hands peacefully at the met suspicion, Kakashi-sensei smiled at us and explained, "Well, I know we're a team and all, but we really don't talk much. So I checked up on my fellow jonin teachers and found that a common way to bond is by eating together. So, let's eat!"
Warily, we joined him and sat on the blanket. We observed with skepticism as sensei reached for a sandwich before our skepticism turned into wonder as we were about to see what was under his mask.
Almost in slow motion, the sandwich neared where his mouth would be. "Itadakimasu," murmured sensei as he closed his eyes in anticipated delight.
Suddenly, there was a puff of smoke that had us all jump to the side to see what was the threat. As the smoke disappeared, a dog appeared. What in the world? Where did he come from?
Raising his paw in a lazy greeting the dog opened his mouth. "Yo," he casually spoke. He talks?!
Confused, we looked to sensei for direction only to see him happily chewing a medium-sized bulge in his cheek. Ah! We missed it!
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
After a lunch mixed in with whispered questions about what the dog was here for, we finished eating and looked at sensei for questions- a very seemingly oblivious sensei that was radiating a smug aura. Honestly, there's nothing easy with this guy.
"Well," began sensei while gesturing to the dog, "I'm sure you're wondering why I brought Pakkun here for." Again, the dog greeted us with a woofed "Yo."
"Sensei…what is he?" asked Sakura-chan
"Well, he is a pug. I've had him since I was little," answered sensei.
As expected, he totally answered our question, but didn't help us in the slightest. I felt my mouth twitch in an exasperated grimace.
Not receiving any response, sensei sighed, "You guys are no fun." At this, we glared at him as a team. We really needed to do something to get him back for all our suffering.
"Well, Pakkun is part of the dog clan that I have a summoning contract with. He is one of many other dogs that I ask to help me in tracking down targets-"the now-named Pakkun interjected with an indignant huff- "and one of the smartest, cutest creatures that I have yet to meet," continued sensei in a humored deadpan voice. Pakkun puffed out his chest in pride. Well, at least this dog has personality. Kakashi-sensei is just annoying.
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
Kakashi-sensei later asked Pakkun to stand at the sidelines while we sparred with sensei's clones again. We had more questions about the summoning contract, but sensei said he would answer them later.
I stood across sensei, thinking over what I could throw at him this time. Meanwhile, he was standing there, giving me an expectant gaze. He had stopped bringing out his book since yesterday when I told him I wanted him serious about our training. Don't know what would have happened if Sakura-chan and Sasuke didn't back me up, but I'm glad they did. I suppose Teme ain't that bad.
Gah. Focus!
Thinking up a opening feint with a follow-up combo, I dashed at sensei and gathered my chakra for assisting Kage Bushin. They would over me as I opened with a feint on sensei.
Just as quickly as they pounced on sensei, the clones disappeared in bursts of smoke. Faster than I had planned, but still good enough to cover what would look like my attack. I ran through the smoke to punch at where I previously saw him. Not meeting resistance, I struggled to find him. He wasn't there anymore!
Leaping to the side, I felt solid resistance against my left shoulder as I ran against a body. It was sensei! Realizing too late, it was all I could do to pull up my arms to prepare myself as I felt sensei pull me up by the legs and fling me into his knee.
I met his knee at my chest, and by all spirits, it hurt! Even with my arms between my chest and the knee, my breath was knocked out and I could only weakly kick at him with my free leg as I took hasty breaths to recover.
I felt my position shift upwards and was reoriented with him locking my arms and torso against his chest. "If you do not control your self- and all your bodily functions like breathing, your opponent will control them for you," sensei scolded into my ears.
As he released me, I leapt away from him to regain a normal breathing pattern while sensei waited patiently. Okay. Control yourself, Naruto. You cannot let your body be controlled by the other. You learned this already. Don't let him control your arms and legs; don't let him control your breathing- my pace! Don't let him control your pace! I realized he wanted me to prevent my pattern from being controlled by the enemy.
With a grim smile, I planned out my next steps.
I ran at him at a dead sprint and breathed heavily for effect. If I can make it look like I have one pattern, but actually use a totally different pace, I can affect what he thinks my pace will be!
I leapt at him once again and waited for his reaction. He dodged to the left and left me in mid-air as his arm rose to snatch me in mid-action again. Turning into a roll, I flung my arms out in a spinning pattern to smack his hand away. I landed in a crouch on the ground and sprung back to him with renewed vigor. He was expecting a tired me, but I've got him now!
No good!
His raised arm twisted with his body to smack me backwards and his other arm gripped the collar of my jumpsuit. I managed a yelp at the sudden change in momentum before my head was pulled and slammed into his palm. Sensei then pushed me back, causing me to uncontrollably roll backwards.
Darn it!
I could have sworn I had him. Rising back to my feet, I met the amused eye of sensei as he started commenting again.
"It's good to see you learned to fake your pace, Naruto-kun. But you forget that I have already seen your capabilities. Of course it would be suspicious for someone as hardy as you to be so tired after just a quick exchange. So, a feint would be a logical course of action since it's not like I did anything suitably damaging to make you breathe so heavily when you ran at me."
Seeing that I was listening, he continued, "You also have the habit of going for acrobatic air stunts that leave you vulnerable. It's hard to change directions in the air until you land. I know you have bushin to help protect you, but that's still a vulnerability you'll have to fix or change your style."
"Well," said sensei as he settled into a stance, "I might as well test your defense before the day is over."
As he charged, the only thing running through my mind as I tried to defend was how much of a gap there was between sensei and I. I'll fix this gap! I must to become Hokage!
0000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000000000
It was towards the end of the afternoon that I finally made a breakthrough. I would be learning how to turn dreams into reality soon with Asuma-sensei, true. But...could I turn reality into dreams?
Thinking on this, I tried to link what I was doing now with how I would be fighting the Kyuubi in my dreams. I was a lot faster in the dream; could I become faster now? If chakra is the key to turning dreams into reality, is chakra also able to turn reality into dreams?!
Breaking away from sensei, I waited until I was a fair bit of distance from him before breathing slower with deeper breathes. I could feel sensei waiting for me to prepare my attack, so I took more time to gather myself.
Reality is dreams with chakra. Chakra lets dreams become reality. Chakra will let reality become dreams.
I felt chakra spread through my body as I repeated these words to myself, forcing my mind to understand and use this idea. Once I felt enough chakra had gathered into me, I put more chakra into my legs like I did in the tree-climbing exercise only to allow the chakra to overload once again and explosively assist my sprint to sensei.
Fast.
I was very fast for just that one moment of time. I almost ran into sensei with how fast I was going and how much attention I was putting into concentrating chakra into my legs. I barely had time to raise my arms and dodge around sensei to his right side where his eye was covered. With a deep release of breath, I kicked upwards at him and stepped on his intercepting forearm to elbow his neck from both sides with my elbows.
Attack. Block. Attack. Duck. Keep close distance. Attack. Go around him. Attack again.
Over and over, I kept trying to land a hit on sensei as I pushed more and more chakra into my body. I could feel myself heating up as I began to lose some of my speed. It was slow, at first, but I started to see that I was slowing back to my regular speed the longer I kept up my attack.
With one last attempt, I lunged at him from under his guard for a knockout punch to end the spar, but was caught under my chin by his knee.
Everything faded into blackness
A/N: Hope you guys like it. And please review.
