Kunai and Chain Chapter 4
Iruka gave Naruto his first bit of real world advice telling him that as long as he was underestimated, he could always come out on top. Add to the mix Naruto's neat ability as an Uzumaki to form chains and a lot of stuff happens. Featuring a Naruto with the attitude of a champion and the brains of a rock. You never know what will happen when dealing with the village idiot.
o.o.o
Naruto arrived at the designated training field at eight a.m. sharp as instructed by his sensei. Unfortunately, said sensei was nowhere in sight.
"Well looks like sensei's late again." Naruto said as he approached his two teammates that were sitting against a tree stump impatiently.
"Who does he think he is?" Sakura shrieked earning a cringe from both Naruto and the ever stoic Sasuke.
"Hn." Sasuke added, agreeing with Sakura's outburst.
"Well, it is training right, so we can get started without the lazy bastard right?" Naruto asked his comrades, starting immediately with his stretches as he eyed his teammates.
Sakura looked like she was about to voice her disapproval before Sasuke surprisingly lifted himself up from his spot and began to mimic Naruto's stretches.
"Dobe. What was that you did yesterday?" Sasuke asked, hoping that he could conceal his eagerness and intrigue. After Sasuke had returned home the previous night he had spent a lot of time thinking. He sparred against Naruto in the academy many times and although his general skills and form were far from perfect in their match against Kakashi, he showed up. Naruto was the only one of them that seemed to actually surprise their jonin adversary. His clones were much more useful than the clone technique taught at the academy, and then the chains were an even bigger surprise.
Sakura perked up at the question her crush had asked the blonde and added onto it. "Yeah. I've heard of solid clones, but what were those chains that came out of your arms. Iruka-sensei never mentioned any kekkei-genkai or jutsu that resembled that."
Naruto looked to his two teammates. He hadn't expected them to actually show interest in his abilities. Sakura, for maybe the first time ever wasn't mad at him or yelling. She was actually interested in what he had to say. Sasuke, despite trying to hide it was also obviously eager to hear his answer.
"It's no big deal really. I couldn't do the normal clone technique so I learned this solid clone technique and that's how I graduated. And the chains, I don't really know. I was messing around with my chakra and then I ended up accidentally making them. I really don't know how or why I can but I can so I'm gonna use 'em." Naruto said with a smirk. He liked being listened to without being made fun of.
"Dobe. Fight me." Sasuke suddenly said which got an 'eep' in response from the pink haired kunoichi.
"This is a bad idea. Kakashi-sensei could be here any minute and what if we have a mission this morning and you get hurt." Sakura replied in protest but was simply brushed to the side as Naruto took off his supply pack and the jacket to his jumpsuit.
"You're on teme. Try not to get hurt." Naruto said grinning like a fool.
"As if you could hurt me dobe." Sasuke said slipping into his signature taijutsu stance.
Naruto in response slid into his own brawling stance.
The boys nodded and sprang forward, ready to test their teammate and prove their superiority.
Naruto dug a kunai out of his pouch and Sasuke did the same as they approached each other. Sakura was worried for Sasuke, even though she truly believed that he was the strongest genin in the village. Naruto seemed to get hurt all the time and walk it off so there was no reason to worry for the class clown. Sasuke wouldn't actually hurt him now that they were teammates… or would he.
As their kunai were about to clash a sudden puff of smoke appeared and two arms shot out, reaching for each of their arms that were holding kunai, using their momentum against them to hurl the two in opposite directions.
"Sensei!" Sakura squealed in surprise before collecting herself. "I told them not to fight but they wouldn't listen. I swear!" Sakura shouted, hoping to at least save herself from the scrutiny of their new sensei.
Kakashi sighed before he looked over the two that were currently brushing themselves off and picking themselves off the ground.
"Well, I was about to help an elderly old lady cross the street, but instead I had to rush here because I sensed my students were about to get in a fight." Kakashi said sternly addressing his two male student.
'Yeah right. He was probably wandering around so he could show up late like he did the last two times.' Sakura thought dismissing her sensei's scorn.
"Alright so what are we doing today Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, hoping he would get to do something exciting.
"Well, I was going to start this group with missions right away…" Kakashi started, being interrupted by Naruto's shout of excitement, "... but since you two were in such a hurry to get in a fight, I think we might just start off with some training instead." Kakashi finished, to which Sakura visibly deflated.
"Gahh my orphan stipend runs out this month. I NEED MISSIONS TO PAY RENT NOW."
"Well you should have thought of that before you two decided to pick a fight." Kakashi coolly responded. "Now that that's decided, you two can go ahead and spar now." He said as he pulled out his orange icha-icha book and started to giggle.
"But sensei, you just reprimanded them for fighting not even fifteen seconds ago." Sakura practically shouted.
"Since I'm technically your supervisor, I could get in trouble if my cute little genin are caught sparring unsupervised. As long as I'm here, I'm not liable for any accidents so you can do whatever now." Kakashi said before turning back to his book. 'Well, I'm actually really interested in how this turns out. From what I saw, they should both be at an almost even level. We'll see if I'm right about these two.' Kakashi pondered without lifting his one uncovered eye from the pages before him.
He could keep tabs on them without letting them know he was paying attention. Besides, from what he knew about Sasuke from his files, he would try to show-off if he knew his sensei was paying attention. At least if he just thought it was just a spar with his teammate, he would be fighting for his own pride and wouldn't do anything showy to risk a loss.
From what Kakashi knew about Naruto from his file and his own observations, Naruto would give it his all no matter what. To him appearances didn't matter, as was made evident yesterday when he tried to use the sexy jutsu on him. For Naruto, a win was a win, no matter how it was achieved.
The two boys grinned once more and took off to meet each other in the spar.
The air rushed past Naruto's ears as he sped to his opponent, and they met halfway, kunai releasing a clang as they intercepted each other mid air.
Once they were within arms distance, they lashed out at each other with the blades in hand and their feet, hoping to catch the other off guard one way or another. Naruto would aim for Sasuke's legs to catch him off balance but Sasuke was just that much faster than Naruto that he could jump over his sweeps and counter with a hit of his own. Naruto would then throw a punch while Sasuke was in the air, knowing well that he couldn't dodge while he was falling in the air, and Sasuke would just grab the blonde's arm to use as leverage and swing himself out of the way of danger.
Despite the fact that Naruto was aware that Sasuke outclassed him in taijutsu alone, the blonde continued his relentless assault. Punch after punch, kick after kick, the blonde only hoped to wear away the raven haired boy's defenses.
While most of Naruto's overt attacks were easily dodged, a few still managed to catch the Uchiha by surprise, although with his speed and reflexes, he would still pull off a block to avoid damage.
Unfortunately, blocking was not a good option for Sasuke, as he quickly learned because even if one of the blonde's jab's were blocked, they still pushed him back each and every time. In this case, blocking didn't mean avoiding damage. It meant taking a slightly smaller amount of damage, which still hurt like hell.
'When did the dobe get this strong?' Sasuke wondered in the heat of the spar, whilst landing another kick on Naruto's chest, pushing him back five feet, finally putting a stopper on his reckless assault.
Sasuke wasn't worried. Even though it appeared like the blonde shrugged everything off, he still did take damage from every hit. And eventually it would all catch up to him. And it was clear that the dobe was taking much more damage than he was.
Sasuke reengaged his blonde opponent with more vigor, hoping to end it before he himself took too many hits.
o.o.o
"Go Sasuke!" Sakura shouted from the sidelines as she watched her teammates duke it out. Just because she was a kunoichi now did not by any means imply that she had to stop her fangirl tendencies.
Sakura was happy to see that Sasuke had the upper hand in the spar but she had to admit to herself that Naruto was not completely embarrassing himself like he always did in the academy. In all honesty, she knew there was no way that she could keep up with her blonde teammate as he was now.
"Who would you say is winning right now Sakura?" Kakashi asked his student, little orange book still in hand. He wanted to see what the girl thought of her teammates. In the academy report on one Haruno Sakura, Kakashi found that she was a genius by many standards, one of the most intelligent students to come out of the academy in a long time, but he had to know how her knowledge transferred to the field. If her intelligence could be applied to analyzing shinobi battles.
"Well Sasuke-kun is winning obviously. Naruto hasn't gotten one clean hit off on him and Sasuke has gotten more than a few good hits onto Naruto." Sakura responded to the question. She was in awe at how Sasuke moved. Naruto was faster than her, sure, but Sasuke wasn't getting hit. He was on another level completely in terms of speed. In addition to that, he just seemed so graceful in her eyes. Weird, calling Sasuke graceful, but he was. He could weave and avoid most of what Naruto threw at him with just speed but he also moved with a practiced rhythm. The movement came naturally to Sasuke, whereas Naruto seemed to just wing it. The blonde was clearly flying by the seat of his pants, hoping to land a hit but taking so much punishment in return.
"Well technically you're right." Kakashi said to his student. And she was. Naruto didn't get a single hit off without it being blocked while Sasuke had landed multiple punches onto the blonde. The Uchiha was moving at a faster tempo altogether so it was an easy conclusion to come to. "That is, Sasuke is winning for now." Kakashi added on.
"Huh?" Sakura said questioningly, wondering what her sensei could possibly be thinking that would turn the match around. "Sasuke was the top of our class, rookie of the year. He's probably the strongest genin in the village. There's no way he can lose!" Sakura stated, firmly believing in what she was saying to her superior.
Kakashi let out a chuckle at her confidence in the Uchiha. Pshhh, strongest genin in the village? There was no way. Kakashi thought back to team Gai and their genin. Then according to gai, his clone had never beaten the Hyuuga kid in a spar before. Those two were on a different level than Sasuke entirely and they were both still only genin. Say what you will about Gai, but he did know how to train his genin.
"Well let me put it this way Sakura. What would you say are Sasuke's strengths?" Kakashi asked.
"Well he was the academy's best taijutsu user by far. I don't remember him ever losing a spar back then. And other than that he knows some fire jutsu and I think he can break out of genjutsu already so he's pretty strong all over." Sakura said thinking over her experiences with the Uchiha. She knew about the fire jutsu because he used one in the fight against Kakashi the day before but also because she once snuck into the Uchiha compound and watched him train before he spotted her and kicked her out. And she knew about the genjutsu because once her, Ino, and a few of the others from the Sasuke fan club recruited one of the active genin kunoichi to put a genjutsu on Sasuke to make him spend the whole day with them. He caught on and ran away though. He also didn't go to the academy for a whole week after that to avoid the people that had just assaulted him.
"Well there you go. Sasuke is well rounded, but as you said, he excels at taijutsu. Now Naruto. Strengths? Weaknesses?" Kakashi questioned.
"Naruto was the dead last at a lot of the stuff in the academy. I guess he was pretty good at taijutsu, only losing to Kiba and Sasuke, but other than that, he was really an awful student." Sakura responded.
"No, think broader. Not just the academy, but think to yesterday how he fought."
"Oh. Do you mean the solid clones? Or the chains?"
"Exactly. Naruto is pretty good at taijutsu, but Sasuke is a prodigy. Naruto more than makes up for that in his ninjutsu. As of right now Naruto is holding back a lot and he just might be able to overwhelm Sasuke is he goes all out." Kakashi said explaining to the kunoichi. 'Although Sasuke also has a trump card. I just don't think he knows about it yet.'
The girl was having a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that Sasuke, who looked like he was dismantling, actually might lose. The longer she watched the fight, the more she noticed. Every time Naruto landed a punch, Sasuke would stagger back a bit despite the block. On the other hand whenever Sasuke landed a punch, Naruto would brush it off with only a mild cringe of discomfort on his face.
Moments ago it looked to her as if Sasuke was in a league of his own, but now she could see that he wasn't destroying Naruto. He was simply outpacing him.
Kakashi took a glimpse of his student's puzzled face before once more focusing his eyes on his book and his mind on the action before him.
o.o.o
Sasuke engaged the blonde with more vigor and pace than he had before, ready to end the short battle that had taken place.
To say that the two exchanged blows would be an overstatement. Maybe at first they had exchanged blows, but now Sasuke had sped up to a point that Naruto could no longer keep up with. For every time Naruto lashed out with a punch or kick, Sasuke would retaliate with a combo of two or three. Every time Naruto would attempt to dodge, Sasuke used his movements against him and hit him even harder.
Whereas at the beginning of the spar, Naruto took three hits for every time he hit Sasuke, now Naruto managed to land a punch once every ten hits from his opponent.
Sasuke picked up the pace and Naruto was gradually falling behind.
Of course in terms of taijutsu, where Naruto was concerned, speed did not mean knockout power. Sasuke could hit him over and over but one hit was never a game changer for someone like Naruto. He was hit so much in his life that if there was one thing he knew how to do well, it was brushing off a punch. Naruto could walk off a hit better than probably any genin and chunin alike in Konoha but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt. In fact, with every hit Naruto would slow down just a little more. Not that it would be noticeable to most people watching, but it was noticeable to those who knew what to look for.
Naruto couldn't match Sasuke punch for punch. Well at least not if there was only one of him.
The blonde took a lot of punches in the latest skirmish against his teammate and he had enough so he jumped back to create some space and immediately launched some kunai at his opponent in order to prevent Sasuke from attacking him before he could get his jutsu off.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)"
Naruto made his most familiar hand seal and fifty clones popped into life around Naruto.
"Now let's see how you like being smacked down, huh?" Naruto antagonized his opponent before giving his clones the signal to apprehend his teammate.
Sasuke ran.
He ran like hell.
One Naruto was trouble enough but fifty of them was too much. Even if he could take care of most of them, only two or three punches from someone as strong as Naruto was all it took for an actual knockout, and he didn't want to risk it. So he ran.
o.o.o
Kakashi just gave Sakura a look as if to say "I told you so."
o.o.o
Sasuke ran, and as he ran, he took in his surroundings to see if there was anything he could use to his advantage, and he spotted something that fit exactly what he needed. Sasuke followed the river that flowed through the middle of the training field and ran alongside, knowing that the clones wouldn't be able to catch up to him because he was faster, although he was still sweating how just how close behind they were.
Sasuke finally found what he had been looking for and crossed the bridge that led him to the other side of the river, the clones of his teammate not far behind him.
"I've got you now dobe." He whispered under his breath before turning around and spewing out a large fireball at the cones that were in a narrow line along the bridge.
"Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Grand Fireball Jutsu)"
The fireball was aimed true and began burning the clones to a crisp before they each popped out of existence.
That is before the clones began systematically diving off of the bridge left and right and swimming across.
'Welp. Didn't expect that. Shit plan B then.' Sasuke thought as he began engaging the straggler clones in taijutsu. At first fighting the clones went swimmingly for him. He had no problems as the first batch came at him, but as they kept coming, and more and more started attacking him simultaneously, Sasuke was hitting his limit just dodging the blonde army's attacks, let alone dispelling any of them.
As it so happened, his fireball had destroyed twenty of the clones and he had gotten to another five before the remaining clones began to converge on him and he was overwhelmed.
It took everything he had to avoid getting hit, and not only that, but Sasuke had to repeatedly turn around so that he could cover his own blind spot. Talk about a nightmare.
Sasuke continued dodging, and after about thirty or so seconds of hellish evasion Sasuke finally noticed an opening on one of the clones that he didn't hesitate to take.
Sasuke rushed to the clone and with as quick chop to the head displaying a precision that came with practiced ease, the clone disappeared out of existence. Sasuke spent a split second too long mentally celebrating his victory that was about to become short-lived.
Normally, for any other shinobi it would be much more efficient to land a hit on their opponent in a place that would temporarily disable the like a chop to the neck, or a jab at one of his joints. Or even a swift kick to the leg in order to reduce mobility. Every half decent shinobi knows these kinds of things. Unfortunately for Naruto, he did not have to benefit of 'knowing things' so his clone tackled Sasuke into the river.
And all of the rest of the clones jumped in right afterwards to try to push their advantage.
Meanwhile, the real Naruto who had fallen behind earlier to check on the injuries Sasuke had landed upon him was just crossing the bridge over the river now, watching as his clones jumped into the river to lay a beating down.
Unfortunately for the Narutos, water made the move much, MUCH, slower.
In the water, Sasuke peeled the one Naruto off of his back, reeling that he had let the dobe get a cheap shot like that in but he quickly twisted the arm of the Naruto on his back, putting him in enough pain to make him dispel himself.
After the initial threat was taken care of, Sasuke dispelled every one of Naruto's clones in the water one by one. While he was in the water, Sasuke took advantage of the fact that the clones moved slower to the point that he could easily take them apart. It was odd. to him it seemed that now that they were moving at that speed, Sasuke could suddenly see all the openings in the attacks of the clones. It was as if they had become predictable.
Sasuke took care of the last few clones and swam to the edge of the water where he saw Naruto standing and watching about twenty yards away. He pulled himself out of the water and gave the blonde a small glare that replaced the smirk he had plastered on his face earlier.
"Hn. Ready to give up yet dobe?" Sasuke asked, silently hoping the blonde would forfeit now.
"Not a chance teme!" Naruto shouted as he once more made the ram seal.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)" He shouted and fifty clones popped into existence behind him. "You took care of the first fifty, how about fifty more?" Naruto yelled maniacally as his clones charged his Uchiha teammate.
Sasuke braced himself as the clones charged him, but as soon as the first one reached him, everything slowed down. The clone jumped in with a reckless punch for his face. Typical Naruto. Normally he would just duck to the side and counter with a hit to the stomach or kidneys, but this time, Sasuke noticed the momentum of the clones, and how he could redirect it at his other adversaries. So Sasuke did just that and eliminated three clones in one move.
As the clones all converged upon him once more, he no longer felt the pressure of being overwhelmed by the clones. Instead he was… calm?
He wasn't afraid of getting hit anymore because now there wasn't a possibility of getting hit. He could see it all coming, every single blow the blonde intended to land upon him, but more importantly he could understand what was the best path to take in order to avoid it.
Sasuke's perception had seemed to slow down entirely to the point that everyone including himself was moving in slow motion.
Every movement of the clones was highlighted, and it seemed like his eyes were drawn to every single weak point and opening he saw.
The Uchiha didn't doubt his instincts, so after seeing the opening before him clear as day, he refused not to act upon them.
Immediately the tide of the battle turned. Sasuke was no longer on the defensive like he had been against the previous batch of clones. His eyes were moving at five times the speed of his body and he could perceive everything his opponent was attempting to do as soon as he started doing it.
Kick to the chin of one clone, a punch to the solar plexus of the next. Dodge the strike of a clone coming up to the right of him. Counter with a roundhouse kick. Get a glimpse of how the clones behind him were moving. Predict their attacks as they were making them. Kick back to eliminate the most imminent threat. roll under another punch to get to an area less crowded with clones.
One by one, the clones were disappearing, and they didn't even stand a chance of landing a hit on the Uchiha.
Naruto just stood and watched in awe as Sasuke seemed to be turning the tables on him before his eyes. From what he saw earlier, Sasuke was no match for his clones when they were attacking as a group, but now even with fifty of them clustered around, hungry for a beatdown, he couldn't lay a hand on the Uchiha.
Boy was he glad that he decided not to join his clones in the fight because their demise all seemed extremely painful.
'Shit. So how am I gonna play this.' Naruto thought to himself going over his options.
Don't look at me. I'm not helping you fight a genin. The giant chakra entity contained in his gut decided to voice.
'It's not like I was asking you for your help you dumb furball. I can take care of the teme all by myself for your information.' Naruto responded with ire at his literal inner demon.
Yeah. Looks just like it. If that's what you call him killing a hundred of your clones without looking too out of breath.
Easy for you to say when all YOU have to do is step on someone to kill them. You're seriously huge.
And you're not tall enough to even look most of your comrades in the eye. Kurama responded with a bit of humor in his voice.
'Oi! I'm not that small for my age. We can't all be hundred foot tall monster you know' Naruto mentally shouted at his captive.
You're still a runt.
'And you're not helping! I still need to find a way to beat the teme!'
I told you, I'm not helping with that.
'Then let me think you damn fox!'
As Naruto was attempting to come up with a plan Sasuke was finishing up with the clones. What started as fifty quickly dropped down to ten, but just because there were less enemies did not mean that Sasuke was about to slow down. Every second a clone would face its demise, and so after a brief ten seconds, the field was once more clear of everyone but Sasuke and the real Naruto.
"How about now. Ready to give up dobe?" Sasuke asked, though this time he was hoping for a no. He'd just gotten the feel of fighting the clones, and now, he was ready for anything the blonde threw at him. He was excited to see how much farther the dead last of his academy class could push him.
"No way in hell teme!" Naruto shouted back.
Now that Sasuke finally wasn't fighting and was facing Naruto though, he noticed something odd.
"Wait, shit, why the fuck are your eyes red. Are you having an aneurysm?"
That's a big word for a runt like you.
'Not now you damn fox.' Naruto thought as he focused on his adversary, who seemed puzzled by Naruto's last statement.
Sasuke turned around and looked to his reflection in the river.
'That's… that's the sharingan.' Sasuke thought in awe at his development of his dojutsu. 'So that's why fighting the dobe's clones suddenly got so much easier.'
He then turned back to Naruto with an enormous grin on his face. It was a dangerous looking grin. The kind a kid gets when they just found something they know they shouldn't have, but they decide to use it anyways.
"Dobe are you ready to see the real power of an Uchiha." Sasuke yelled maniacally.
Naruto was having none of it, but he still did more time to think of a way to beat the rookie of the year..
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu). So you beat fifty. How do you like your chances against a hundred clones?" Naruto yelled as a hundred clones did indeed appear around him.
"Big mistake dobe. These eyes let me copy any ninjutsu that I see. Get ready for this to be thrown right back at you. KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU." Sasuke shouted whilst forming the ram seal.
'POP' A clone came into existence next to Sasuke.
'POP' The clone immediately dispelled.
'THUMP' Sasuke's unconscious form hit the ground.
Naruto just watched as his teammate fell unconscious.
"Wait. SHIT HE REALLY IS HAVING AN ANEURYSM." Naruto shouted pointing to the fallen genin.
No he's not…
'Does that mean I won?'
o.o.o
"Well that's my cue." Kakashi said as he heard Sasuke's attempt to make a shadow clone, immediately disappearing in a shunshin.
'What? What does he mean by that?' Sakura thought before a moment later witnessing Sasuke's clone disappear and the Uchiha falling unconscious.
Sakura watched as Kakashi appeared next to Sasuke's unconscious form picking him up.
It was then that a scary thought hit Sakura. 'Sasuke-kun… just… lost… to Naruto. That's just wrong.' She thought before Kakashi appeared before her with Sasuke still slung over his shoulder.
"Sakura go get Naruto and bring him here. It looks like we won't get to taking a mission today so I'll just give both you and Naruto something to work on while I take Sasuke to the hospital. Sasuke just has chakra exhaustion so he should be fine for training tomorrow." Kakashi said to his subordinate.
"Hai sensei!" Sakura shouted as she took off back to get Naruto.
As soon as she was gone Kakashi then opened up his mind to analyzing the outcome of the match. Both of his students had amazing potential.
Sasuke was indeed a genius and a prodigy. He was faster than any genin that was straight out of the academy as far as he could tell. Faster than both he was and Itachi was for sure, although that wasn't a great comparison because he and Itachi graduated the academy before the age of seven and Sasuke was twelve right now. But even without the speed, Sasuke's taijutsu was almost flawless. He had great for and defense, and it was clear that his taijutsu was clan based, meant to synergize with use of the sharingan. Now that Sasuke was fighting against someone on even footing, instead of someone that outclassed him, it was clear that Sasuke was far ahead of the program. When he was about to get overrun by clones, he thought calmly and made a run for the bridge where the crossing was Narrow and he could pick the clones off. After he began using the Sharingan, his speed and taijutsu all came together like pieces of a puzzle that made him even taijutsu flawless. That Sharingan was just unfair to have.
Naruto on the other hand was strong. If Sasuke's speed impressed him, then Naruto's strength and tenacity were all the more impressive. He was a rock. Sure, the academy records were correct in classifying him an idiot, but he wasn't too far gone. Kakashi could definitely whip the boy into fighting shape. Especially since he showed a real knack for on the fly strategies when fighting him. The clones were an army in of themselves, and making clones didn't wind Naruto at all. They seemed to take absolutely no toll on him in the quantity that he was making them, which was definitely a plus. He could use them more efficiently, but that was for later. Other than that, the kid had to be taught some taijutsu style because there was no way in hell he would let one of his students fight with so much reckless abandon. Kami forbid he run into someone that actually did have some real knockout power in one of their punches and he was done for.
Kakashi was brought out of his musings as his two conscious students appeared before him.
Naruto looked a little worse for wear, slightly bruised from the earlier punches he exchanged with Sasuke, but there was a lot less damage on him than there should have been.
"Sensei did you see me kick the teme's ass?" Naruto shouted hoping that his sensei would acknowledge him as the superior genin.
"You do know that you didn't knock him out. He was knocked out because he tried to use a jutsu that took too much chakra." Kakashi said sternly. Upon seeing Naruto visibly deflate at hearing that his victory over his teammate had an asterisk next to it, Kakashi smiled under his mask. Oh how he loved crushing the spirit of young naive genin. It was the little things in life that you had to enjoy.
Sakura on the other hand brightened up at hearing this. "So Naruto-baka didn't really beat Sasuke-kun then?" She said excitedly, glad that her crush was still technically undefeated.
"Nope. He beat him all right." Kakashi answered as Sakura was also saddened. Two for two. Naruto wouldn't be happy if his win wasn't completely his own and Sakura wouldn't be happy if Sasuke lost period.
"Well follow me over here" Kakashi said as he dropped Sasuke unceremoniously on the ground earning a shriek from Sakura.
"Leave him. He's a shinobi. He's tough. He's going to the hospital anyways so it won't matter if he's any more bruised." Kakashi said as he pulled the pink haired kunoichi off of the Uchiha and dragged her to the edge of the wooded training area.
"So what are you gonna teach us sensei? Some cool new jutsu? Or how to turn invisible? Or that fireball thing Sasuke can do?" Naruto asked, ecstatically jumping around hoping for his sensei to teach him something that would blow the competition out of the water.
"Today you're learning how to climb trees!" Kakashi said, almost giggling at how dejected his students looked.
"Everyone can climb trees sensei." Sakura said with a deadpan.
"Yeah. I've been doing it since I was like four." Naruto said to his superior.
"Well, it's tree climbing, but without your hands." Kakashi clarified, although Sakura was still confused as to what he was talking about.
"Oh, you mean tree walking." Naruto said, understanding what his sensei was going to show them.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. "You know how to tree walk? I didn't think they went over it in the academy."
"They don't. I asked Iruka-sensei for help with chakra control and he told me that it was the first chakra control given to most genin teams. And no, I can't do it. When I was trying to figure it out I found out I could make the solid adamantine chakra chains and I sorta got really distracted." Naruto said sheepishly, putting both his hands behind his head with a grin plastered over his face.
Kakashi sighed a breath of relief. Watching genin attempt tree walking was one of the best sources of entertainment for the experienced shinobi of Konoha. He didn't want for that to be taken away from him.
"So listen up. What you have to do is channel some chakra to the bottom of your feet which will allow them to cling to the tree, or any other solid object really. If you use too much chakra then the chakra will expel and push you off of the tree but if you use too little then you'll just slide down. If you use the right amount of chakra, it'll look like…" Kakashi started walking up the tree until he was parallel with the ground "this."
"Sweet!" Naruto yelled immediately running at a tree without clinging to it at all, falling on his head.
"That's great enthusiasm Naruto but you're going to have to focus if you plan on getting this right." Kakashi said. The jonin then pulled two kunai out of his pouch and tossed them to the feet of both the genin before him. "Use those to mark your progress. I'll be back in a couple minutes after I take Sasuke to the hospital." He said, disappearing in a shunshin taking the black haired boy with him.
'Might as well get started.' Naruto thought as he picked up the kunai at his feet and got to work.
With three consecutive tries, Naruto got three consecutive bumps on his head. Naruto did not fall gracefully. In fact, Naruto didn't do anything gracefully.
Each time Naruto fell, he picked himself up, ready for another try. That was his talent. The ability to pick himself up no matter what. After about ten tries though, he was getting pissed. He had finally been able to somewhat stick to the tree after focusing but he would still rocket off after two or three steps without fail.
"Sakura-chan. Any luck? Because I'm having a hell of a hard time wi-" Naruto cut himself off as he looked to the side to see Sakura fifteen feet up the tree next to his, calmly walking higher and higher.
"SAKURA-CHAN. HOW ARE YOU DOING THAT?" Naruto practically yelled.
Unfortunately for Sakura, this ruined her focus and caused her to loose grip, slowly sliding down at first but rapidly gaining speed on her way down.
Naruto had the intelligence to atleast run to the base of the tree and catch her, hoping to get her gratitude for doing so. That is not how it played out though.
Naruto rushed and caught a screaming Sakura bridal style at the foot of the tree.
"Ahh I gotchu." Naruto said as she landed in his arms.
"BAKA. You made me fall. LET GO OF ME NOW." Sakura practically yelled, attempting you punch Naruto for distracting her, and for holding her bridal style.
'Only Sasuke-kun is supposed to hold me like this.' Sakura internally swooned.
Naruto, not having any common sense whatsoever, listened to Sakura, because if he knew one thing, it was that Sakura was scary when she was mad.
So he did as she asked and let her go, dropping her right on the ground.
That earned Naruto a Sakura style beating that left quite a few bumps and bruises. Sakura then did feel slightly bad for hurting her teammate because he was just trying to help, so she told him what she did to focus for the tree walking and then continued on her own attempts to make it to the top.
After a couple minutes of struggling, Kakashi reappeared with a lawn chair and as always his Icha-Icha book, taking a seat behind the two so he could have some first class entertainment while he read some first class literature.
'Hn. It almost seems as if Naruto is more bruised and beaten than he was when I left. Oh well, not important.' Kakashi thought as he opened his book and relaxed.
o.o.o
Naruto and Sakura ended up heading back to their respective homes at about six o'clock that night. Kakashi had informed them that normally training would be from eight until about two, and then they would do missions until around seven in the evening so they were done just a tad early today.
Sakura had gotten the hang of tree walking really quickly, and she could do it right within half an hour. Kakashi simply shrugged it off and sent her to try out water walking in the river that ran through the training field, which she also figured out completely within an hour. Sakura's problem was chakra though. The first two hours she was okay, but by the third hour, she couldn't take a single step up a tree without sliding down (she gave up on water walking at that point because she kept falling in and getting wet).
Kakashi told her to keep at it because she needed to expand her chakra capacity. What better way was there than keep using chakra when you were at your limit. It's not like tree walking consumes chakra in bursts like many jutsu, so it wouldn't cause a case of chakra exhaustion. It would just force her to control the chakra that she still had better.
Naruto on the other hand was having the exact opposite problem. He had so much chakra, that he had trouble keeping it all under control.
By the end of that night Naruto was just beginning to feel a slight drain on his chakra, after spamming clones in the morning to fight Sasuke and repeatedly expelling huge burst of chakra out of his feet whenever he failed the tree walking exercise. By the time the two genin left, Naruto was beginning to finally get the hang of tree walking, not that he could even come close to reaching the top.
Naruto reached twenty feet off the ground at the highest point after all those hours of work, but he was making progress.
Even Kakashi was surprised that a kid that had almost four times as much chakra as he did could catch on at such a speed.
The kid had determination in spades.
o.o.o
After the two genin left from their training, one of them was hungry and frustrated while the other was hungry and exhausted. That's why as the two walked down the empty street coming from the training ground, Sakura couldn't refuse Naruto's invitation to come eat at Ichiraku's ramen stand with him
Despite the long day of training, the Naruto and Sakura reached the stand in record time.
"Oi, old man! Fire up the stove. I need some ramen on the double." Naruto shouted as the young Ayame appeared out of the back room to take both of their orders.
"Naruto! Have some manners." Sakura berated her teammate only to be waved off by Ayame.
"Don't worry about it. My dad doesn't mind. Naruto's here so often that he's basically family." Ayame said in response to Sakura's outburst. "So Naruto, you're already bringing another girl here? What happened? You get tired of the other one already?" Ayame asked, teasing the young customer.
Naruto turned a dark shade of red and put both of his hands up behind his head. "No… I mean… well. No, it's not like that! She's on my genin squad so we just came after training." Naruto said without a hint of tact in his response.
Sakura also turned a shade of red that rivaled the intensity of her hair. "Yeah, that's it. It's not a date." She said, agreeing with Naruto's statement and shaking her head furiously at the thought of it being anything more.
Ayame just giggled. "I'm just teasing him, don't worry. So what will it be you two?" Ayame asked.
"I'll have the usual order of four ramen bowls. One miso, one shrimp, one chicken, and one beef." Naruto said with a smile on his face.
"And I'll just have the miso ramen." Sakura added her order before turning to Naruto. "So this other girl have a name?" She asked.
If they were gonna be eating together, it might as well not be in total silence. And this was good news. If Naruto had his sights on some other girl then maybe he would stop shamelessly hitting on her. Sure the attention was nice but seriously Naruto, get a clue.
"Hehe… she's just a friend I met that works at the weapons shop. She's a genin that graduated last year." Naruto said recalling the girl that he could actually call a friend. One of the few so far.
"Yeah. Does she have a name?" Sakura repeated.
"Oh. Yeah. Her name's Tenten. No last name. She was an orphan but she was adopted by the owner of the weapons shop."
"Tenten? Wasn't that the name of the number one kunoichi from last year's academy class." Sakura asked.
"What? She didn't tell me she was actually strong? Now I want to fight her!"
That earned Naruto a bop to the head from his teammate.
"No Naruto. You don't fight your friends just because you think they might be stronger than you." Sakura lectured.
"Well I fight Sasuke don't I?"
"Are you saying that you two are friends."
"Never with that lame ass teme." Naruto responded immediately. And he wasn't. Enemies was a more accurate description. Actually rivals seemed to fit the bill perfectly. They were rivals.
"As if Sasuke-kun would be friends with a baka like you." Sakura said matter of factly.
"Look who's talking. At least the bastard talks to me. I'm pretty sure he just ignores you whenever you talk to him." Naruto smugly replied.
That statement earned him another bop on the head.
"You don't know what you're talking about baka. Me and Sasuke-kun are meant to be together." Sakura swooned angrily at the blonde, mad that he would even bring up such a thing.
At that moment the ramen came, which was good because right now, Sakura's hunger rivaled her anger at Naruto.
Without another word exchanged the two started guzzling down their food.
Ayame shook her head as she watched them eat. 'What does that sensei of theirs do to them that would make them eat like this. For Naruto this is normal but that pink haired girl has been here before and she never ate this aggressively.' Ayame thought to herself as she walked back to the kitchen to let the kids eat in peace.
Four bowls and a couple burps later, Naruto had a satisfied belly as he watched Sakura finish her one bowl of miso ramen.
"Sakura-chan." Naruto spoke up.
"Don't start with me Naruto I'm still mad at you." She replied in between spoonfuls.
"No. Listen. I'm sorry, but I really think you're a great girl, so if the teme doesn't like you, it's his loss. It's not on you. Don't worry about what that prick thinks." Naruto finished leaving some wads of cash on the table to pay for his meal. "See you tomorrow Sakura-chan." He said before disappearing in the evening light in the direction of his apartment.
"Is he not paying for me?" Sakura mumbled sadly with her mouth still full of ramen.
"That would make it a date hun." Ayame said as she walked out of the kitchen.
o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o.o
Read. Review twice. Follow. Favorite. Repeat.
How are the length of these chapters working. I can make them longer or shorter based on what you all think but in my own experience, 5000 to 8000 words is a fair amount for a chapter.
Any shorter and I don't feel like there's enough content to be absorbed in the story again, but if it's longer I feel like it takes up way too large of a chunk of time to read.
Sorry it took a while to update but I've had midterms these past few weeks so I'm trying my best to update as often as I can in between murderous study sessions.
Who knows. My dreams of getting a college degree might actually come true.
Oh who am I kidding. I'm gonna drop out and be broke all my life.
Engineering is a bitch guys. It's soo much harder than high school ever was.
Anyway, enough about me. If you want to tell me something interesting about your life then tell me in a review!
That's a great idea.
Seriously, do it.
If you have any tips about the writing or content… REVIEW IT TO ME.
If you think I'm a talentless jackass who should keep it to himself Tell Me In A Review!
I did fail english in high school so I'm literally fighting nail and tooth to get my ideas out into the world. Who knows, I might be the next Hemingway.
And for those people who care and actually plan on following this by the update, I plan on updating every weekend that I don't have a midterm or final to study for, so that should be fairly often. Last time I updated three times in a weekend so who knows. I might just keep going.
But I would like to grant upon all thee good fortune for wasting your time on what I have to write. Thank you all.
Dattebayo Mother Fuckers.