Chapter 4:
Training and Preparations (Or: Motivations)
Naruto held his breath, as the tiny gondola glided across the still water. The thick fog reminded him of the fight against Zabuza, and the deathly silence didn't help ease his nervousness.
"We can't afford to be heard," Tazuna whispered. "No motors; they're too noisy. Even my whisper will carry for a long way in this weather. Gatou would just love to get his grubby little hands on me…"
Dasha stretched his chakra threads, ready for a fight at a moment's notice. Shigeru held several shuriken in his large palm, and Akane was armed to the teeth, quite literally, with kunai. Yasuo-sensei held a decidedly odd weapon for a ninja: a pistol and silencer. While impractical and noisy, and typically easy for one with good chakra control to disarm it, a pistol was still great in an ambush. Yasuo could get off one or two fatal shots before he would be forced to switch to conventional ninja weapons.
As for Naruto, his orange jumpsuit had been inverted. The white lining blended better with the fog, but it did make him very cold. He sat in the middle, next to Tazuna.
The entire time that they'd been traveling across the water, their rower had said nothing. Finally, he looked at Yasuo and murmured, "Are you really going to save us from Gatou?" Seeing the jounin's nod in the affirmative, the middle-aged man continued. "If you get the chance, kill Gatou, and kill him slow. He murdered my daughter. Killed her right in front of me because I was too poor to pay his 'insurance' fee…" By this time, the rower had tightened his grip on his oar to the point where Yasuo feared the pine would splinter in the man's hand.
The jounin sensei nodded solemnly. "You have my word, sir. If I have the chance to kill him, I will do so." The rower gave a sad semblance of a smile, and once more trained his eyes on the ocean before them.
An uneasy quiet set in over the ninja, and they could feel themselves soaking in the collective suffering of an entire nation under the thumb of a madman.
—SCENEBREAK—
The group climbed out of the gondola, and Tazuna paid the rower. "Get home safe," he muttered as the man pushed off back into the open water. The old man turned back inland, and pointed northwest. "My house is that way. If we hurry, we'll be there before my daughter serves dinner."
Like most other events in Wave country, the walk to Tazuna's house was a depressing affair.
The ninja strode through a small subset of the already tiny nation, and saw the effects of Gatou's oppression. Every house was boarded up, and most were leaning dangerously to one side or another. Naruto, even in situations such as this, was still hyper and curious. He wandered to the fringe of the group, peering in windows. What he saw made him physically ill. People were still living in those condemned, mold-ridden, cockroach-infested slums. It was not an existence Naruto would wish on anyone, not even the cruelest people he knew. These people were emaciated and covered in sores and open, untreated wounds. Their hair was long and scraggly, caked with dirt and blood. Their eyes sunk deep into their skulls, and held no light. They were like little glass beads. Tiny fires had been started in the center of one room or another, and the destitute, uncouth families would gather around it and roast whatever they had managed to catch; usually rats or insects.
Naruto felt something warm on his face, and reached up to feel tears flowing freely. He turned to his teammates, and saw mixed reactions. Akane was just as teary-eyed as he was, and Shigeru was biting on his lip to keep from crying. Yasuo-sensei looked completely enraged, and Dasha had just gone entirely robotic. The group hustled along, not wanting to be in this place of sorrow and horror any longer than absolutely necessary.
—SCENEBREAK—
Zabuza Momochi lay on a bed, as he had for the last day or so. His apprentice was beginning to worry if a senbon had struck too close to home. Finally, the Demon of the Mist coughed and opened his eyes, staring up at his young partner. "Haku, wasn't that cutting it a bit close?"
The masked youth nodded. "Yes, it was. But it couldn't be helped. Nagisa was all over you, and I didn't have the chance to line up a proper shot. It was either take what I had, or pick up your pieces."
Zabuza was obviously offended by the thought that he could have lost, but he finally relented. "…I suppose. Good work, Haku. Help me up." He started to sit up, when the teenage assassin placed a hand on his chest.
"No, Zabuza-niisan. You shouldn't move from this bed for at least three days. If you try, you might overload your nerves and become paralyzed. I clipped a nerve in your spine, I'm ashamed to admit."
The jounin grumbled slightly, but laid back down. At that moment, Gatou entered. "So, how's the 'patient,' Haku?"
"Conscious and pissed," Zabuza replied. "I got sloppy and arrogant, thinking that I could take Nagisa without accounting for his brats. The kids have talent, I'll give them that. But next time, I'm bringing Haku from the start, and we're killing the little bastards along with Yasuo."
Gatou grinned. "Yes…yes, that would be most desirable. Tell you what, Zabuza: you bring me Nagisa's head, and I'll double your pay."
"I can do that," the S-class nukenin grinned.
—SCENEBREAK—
Tazuna led his bodyguards to a rather large house in the wilderness. "We've been spared most of Gatou's raids by being this far out in the boonies. Plus, the acreage gives me plenty of room to store my building supplies."
The door of the house swung open, and a beautiful woman in her mid-thirties stepped out. "Dad! I hadn't expected you here for another hour or two! Dinner isn't anywhere near ready!" She looked past Tazuna to the five ninja behind him. "Uh, who are these men?" she asked, afraid.
"Relax, Tsunami. They're Leaf ninja, here to save us from Gatou."
Tazuna's daughter, identified as Tsunami, began to sniffle, crying with joy. "R-really? Oh, look at me! I must look like a wreck! Please, come in! Make yourselves at home! Our house is yours!"
As they filtered in, Naruto got a moment alone with his sensei. "Yasuo-sensei, why is Dasha so quiet all of a sudden?"
Yasuo folded his arms across his chest. "That's really for Dasha to share with you, Naruto. It's his choice to tell you if you ask him, but I'll warn you that it's a painful subject. I'd recommend that you hold off on asking him for a while."
The group entered the house, and Tsunami called out for her son. "Inari, Grandpa's home! And he brought friends!"
A little boy in a fisherman's hat came sidling around the corner. Noticing the ninja, he asked, "Who are you guys?"
"They're ninja, from the Leaf village!" proclaimed Tsunami. "They're here to save us from Gatou!"
Inari glared at the quintet. "What's the point!? You're all gonna die anyway! Why'd you even bother coming?" Tsunami tried to scold him, but the boy would not be silenced. "No matter what you do, you'll never be able to save anyone!"
Before anyone else could say another word, Naruto had grabbed Inari by the scruff of his shirt and hauled the child up to his face. "What'd you say, brat!? You think we're gonna die!?" He dropped the kid to the ground, where he landed with a thud. "What the hell do you know about us, huh? We're gonna kick Gatou's ass! Just you wait!"
Tears dripped from Inari's bloodshot eyes, and the child ran to his room and locked the door. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What just happened? I didn't even hit him, and he started crying!"
Tsunami looked down at the floor, a sorrowful expression on her face. "Perhaps I should tell you the story of Inari's fathers." She led them to the kitchen, and began dishing out food while talking. "Inari's biological father died before he was born, of a disease he had contracted on the high seas. When Inari was four, we had a newcomer to the village. Now, I'm not sure how it works in Konoha, but around here we don't get many new faces, so this man stood out. Even more so, he was easily recognizable because shortly after moving here, he helped save the city from a horrible flood. He swam against an astounding current, and tied lines to houses, flagpoles, and other sturdy structures. We used these lines to rescue those washed away by the waters. It was with his help alone that we all survived the flood.
"But then, Gatou came to the land of Wave. That monster immediately began to extort and torture our people, and Inari came home, bringing the news of Gatou to our household. At this point, the former newcomer had become a father figure to Inari, and was courting me." She stopped for a moment, to clarify. "And please do forgive me if I only use ambiguous terms for this wonderful man… It's still too soon, and it's so painful to speak his name. Someone once said his name in front of Inari, and my little boy broke down crying in an instant…" Tsunami stopped to dab her eyes with a tissue. "…This brave, brave man stood up against Gatou and his men; he even fought several of them and won. But then Gatou brought the full force of his business's dark side down upon our little country. The newest love of my life was the first man brought before Gatou. That monster had him held down, and personally ran him through… He made Inari, Pop and myself watch…" She trailed off, starting to cry. Tazuna stood up and led her to the table, while Yasuo dished out the rest of the food, remembering to save some for Inari to eat later.
Dasha was still silent, but the remaining three genin were livid. Naruto leapt to his feet. "That's it! I'll kill that bastard myself!!! Inari says we're gonna die; I say he just doesn't have enough faith in people! So I'll say it again: we're going to finish that bridge, kill Gatou, and save your entire country! BELIEVE IT!!!"
—TIMESKIP—
Naruto was awakened by Yasuo-sensei poking him with a kunai. "Get up, Naruto. You're so lazy… Dasha, Shigeru and Akane are already training."
Naruto made several odd sounds before stumbling on language. "Urmgh… Yasuo-sensei, what time is it?" Yasuo smirked. "It's four o'clock." Naruto sat bolt-upright. "IN THE MORNING!?"
Yasuo laughed aloud, nodding. "That's right, in the morning. Now get up before I light your hair on fire."
Naruto finally acquiesced, and ushered Yasuo out of his room so he could get dressed in peace. Donning his familiar roadwork-orange jumpsuit, he staggered outside to the most spectacular sight he'd ever witnessed.
Dasha, Akane and Shigeru were engaged in a three-way, free-for-all battle royal… on TOP of the nearby lake! They were shuffling across the water like it was solid ground!
Yasuo waited a moment or two for Naruto's jaw to reattach to his skull, and then patted the child on the shoulder. "You'll learn how to do that soon enough; for now, though, I want you to learn how to climb a tree."
Naruto managed to tear his eyes away from the bizarre skirmish long enough to look at Yasuo. "But sensei, I already know how to climb a tree. See?" He scampered up the tree like a chipmunk.
Yasuo barked a laugh. "Very good, Naruto. Now do it without using your hands."
Naruto's eyes bugged out. "How do I do THAT!?"
"Well, Naruto, it's very simple. It's—" At that moment, Akane, who had begun to retreat, leapt onto the tree beside Yasuo, hanging upside-down, stuck to the tree by the soles of her feet. She soon sprang off, dodging strikes from Dasha, who was in turn parrying Shigeru's heavy-handed blows. Akane launched her bandages at Dasha, wrapping one around his neck. He sliced through it with a kunai, and kept up his momentum. Shigeru grabbed him by the ankle, swinging him into the floor and receiving a boot in the face for his trouble. Dasha broke free and delivered several surgical strikes to Shigeru's joints before taking off after Akane once more. Staggering to his feet, Shigeru began to chase after his comrades.
Yasuo watched the trio run off. "…Well, it's like that." He looked at Naruto. "Well? Why haven't you started yet!?"
The frightened young men immediately ran up the tree, and promptly fell off, landing on his head.
—MEANWHILE—
Akane leapt backward through the trees, only occasionally looking to see where she was going. She was more interested in seeing where she'd been. Especially when Dasha and Shigeru were chasing her. Sighting movement to her right, Akane launched a barrage of kunai, resulting in scaring the piss out of a poor squirrel who was only trying to retrieve some acorns.
While Akane was inconveniencing local rodents, Dasha had a much bigger problem on his hands. Namely, a huge melee genin named Shigeru. The pair had doubled back to the lake once more, and Dasha was utilizing the open space to fullest effect. With nothing in the way, he could weave a complex web of chakra threads. Unfortunately, for as big and focused on taijutsu as Shigeru was, the stocky genin had a staggering amount of chakra. Each time Dasha would set up the perfect trap, Shigeru would perform a Kai seal and release a pulse of chakra sufficiently massive to shatter Dasha's offense.
Finally, Dasha just drew his kama and charged. The single-handed scythe whistled through the air before halting as Shigeru gripped Dasha's wrist. The red-haired ninja smirked, and lashed out with a whip of chakra. With one of Shigeru's hands occupied with restraining him, there was no way the broader teen could perform a Release seal. Shigeru decided to cut his losses, letting go Dasha's arm so that he could roll away from the Ame teen's whip of death. As Shgeru rolled aside, Dasha caught him in the jaw with a roundhouse kick, knocking him back upright. Dasha spun, delivering a vertical kick to his teammate's chin. Dasha's heel dug into Shigeru's jaw, launching him into the air. As the stocky teen hurtled skyward, Dasha launched a spiraling blast of razor-sharp chakra threads. He stopped them just before they reached Shigeru, and the bigger genin smirked sadly. "Yep, I lost again." Dasha nodded, grinning, as Shigeru fell into the water with a splash.
Before Dasha could gloat, seven strips of cloth wrapped around him! Akane stood at the treeline, laughing to herself. "Finally gotcha, Dasha!"
Dasha wagged a finger and exploded, sending a shower of bladed weaponry flying toward Akane. The edged weapons heading her way stopped in midair as Dasha appeared behind her, restraining the objects' flight with his chakra threads. "You lose, Akane." She was obviously frustrated, but took the loss gracefully.
The victor helped his friends into a nice, comfortable, dry clearing, where Shigeru warmed himself by a fire while Akane roasted marshmallows. "Good fight today," Dasha smiled. "Maybe we can do it again sometime."
His teammates looked at one another, nodded, and leapt on him with absurd battle cries. Akane was just wailing, while Shigeru screamed, "Hong Kong Phooey!"
—SCENEBREAK—
Hours after he had started, Naruto still had yet to climb that damn tree! At Yasuo's instruction, he had begun scratching lines in the tree to mark where he would reach at the end of a climb. He had managed to make it all the way up the trunk, but still couldn't stand in one place, nor could he climb up to the branches. He definitely couldn't hang upside down like Akane and Yasuo-sensei had demonstrated.
The little ball of energy was totally drained at this point, lying at the bottom of the tree and panting like an animal. Yasuo paced around him, clucking his tongue in a decidedly condescending manner. "You'll never beat anybody with a performance that abysmal. You won't be able to beat Sasuke, or Dasha, or Zabuza. And you certainly won't get Sakura's attention looking that clumsy."
Naruto growled, and spoke through gritted teeth. "You think I don't know that!? I'm not slacking off, here! I've never done anything like this before!"
Yasuo shook his head. "It shouldn't be this hard; it's just like sticking a kunai to your hand, only on a larger scale."
Naruto groaned. "Sticking a kunai to your hand? What's all that about?"
His sensei raised an eyebrow. "They never taught you to balance a kunai on your finger using your chakra?"
"They might have taught everybody else, but…" He trailed off, eyes misting over as he looked away. Yasuo approached Naruto. "Gaki, be specific. What do you mean, 'they might have taught everybody else'?"
Naruto shook his head. "No, I don't want to be a burden…" At increased prompting from his teacher, he elaborated. "Well, a lot of the time, the teachers would tell me I did something bad, and would make me go sit in the hall! I never even did anything! …So, I started pulling pranks. If they were gonna accuse me of doing stuff anyway, I might as well get to have the fun of actually doing it."
Yasuo clenched his fist. He knew that many people blamed Naruto for the devastation wrought by the Kyuubi, but he hadn't expected professional academy teachers to succumb to such infantile tactics. Great Kami, it was no wonder he was so stunted in basic ninja skills! He'd never been taught the fundamentals in the first place! Yasuo flipped open his cell phone and called up Dasha and company. "Guys, take five from killing each other. Naruto needs some special training. Yeah, those bastards kept crucial information from him. I want each of you to cover what he missed. Shigeru, you'll cover taijutsu. Akane, you'll educate Naruto in proper chakra control. Dasha, you'll cover ninjutsu and application of chakra control. Basically, I want you all to show him how to be a real ninja." Without waiting for their responses, Yasuo hung up. It was a command, not a request.
He lowered his hand and helped Naruto to his feet. "C'mon, let's go get some dinner. We'll start your real training tomorrow."
As Naruto staggered toward the house, Yasuo spared one more glance at the scarred tree. The kunai marks left in the bark were the same that he'd expect from a top academy graduate, and Naruto had done it without any chakra training at all. That boy would be a force to reckon with once he got some proper training.
—TIMESKIP—
The next day (or Day 1 of The Week of Torture, as Naruto called it) was spent with Akane, as she tutored Naruto in all of the lessons he'd missed. It helped, of course, that he thought she was cute. Made it easier for her to get him to listen.
As the day wound down, Akane had finally gotten Naruto comfortable enough to the point where he could chat with her as though she weren't tutoring him. "Akane-neechan?"
"Yeah, Naruto-kun?"
He stood on the base of the tree, one foot stuck to the trunk. He'd managed to adhered one foot to the trunk, but currently refused to try walking up the tree. "Mind if I ask why you became a ninja?"
Akane went to answer, but stopped and thought about it. "Well, the simple answer is that my entire family is a ninja clan. This is the family business. But the long answer… I suppose I became a ninja to be able to protect my family and myself. I see too many women in purely domestic jobs, trusting on their spouses, children or friends to do much of the work for them. They're all so…weak. I could never see myself become complacent like that, so I decided to not even give it a chance. I'm going to become a mighty kunoichi, and make my entire family famous as the folks who raised Akane Hozuka!"
Naruto laughed a bit. "You're so dramatic, Akane-neechan."
She folded her arms across her chest. "Oh yeah? How about you? Why'd you become a ninja?"
"I became a ninja so I can get strong enough to be the next Hokage! Then everybody'll stop disrespecting me and start treating me like a person!"
Akane looked down, thinking of what a hard life Naruto must have had if becoming Hokage was the only way he could see to be treated like a human being. "…Naruto, why is everyone so mean to you?"
Naruto looked away. "It's nothing I did, I can tell you that. They hate me for what happened when I was born… I know this goes completely against the ninja code, but I can't tell you just yet. I have to be willing to trust you with more than my life before I tell you."
With that, he changed the subject, and started trying to climb the tree once again. This left Akane pondering just what could be horrible that, just to tell her what it was, he'd need to be able trust her with more than his very life.
——
The next day took a break from chakra and just went straight into combat. The instant Naruto had set foot in the yard, Shigeru had charged him with a hammer-fist strike. Now, hours later, the pair were eating s'mores around a bonfire, as Shigeru waxed theoretical on what techniques would be best for Naruto.
"…And it's obvious that you have a real talent for heavy combat, but you're even more gifted when it comes to stealth. I think we need to teach you a combination of feints, flips, and straightforward blows. You'll be able to switch at-will between slippery, rapid-fire attacks and single-strike haymakers. It'll make you a very versatile combatant, lemme tell you."
As Naruto took another bite of his marshmallow/graham cracker/chocolate treat, he asked the same question that he'd asked Akane. "Shigeru, why did you become a ninja?"
The big man grinned. "That's quite the story. Y'see, my family lives on the outskirts of Fire Country, in the mountains near Earth Country. That's actually why my family name is Iwa; our family techniques revolve around manipulating stone. But, my father had given up the way of the ninja. That is, until bandits attacked our village. Presumably they'd been heading to the Hidden Rock Village, but decided to stop over and steal all of our things. Now, my dad didn't take too kindly to that, and he showed them his displeasure by crushing every bone in their bodies. After I saw that display and heard the stories of the old clan, I knew I wanted to be a ninja and revive my clan traditions. I'm the next generation master ninja of the Iwa clan!"
This answer was invariably followed by Shigeru asking why Naruto became a ninja, which was met with the same response Naruto had given Akane.
——
Day 3 was a living hell. Dasha was a slave-driving teacher, pushing Naruto beyond his limits to the point where the boy was sure he would die. He began by forcing the preteen to form blades of chakra on his fingertips, and cut into a tree's trunk with them. This training dovetailed into practice with hand seals. Naruto quickly found that he was forcing plain too much chakra into his hands, and much of it was being dispersed into the air and lost! The duo worked hard to rectify this situation, and soon had Naruto summoning shadow clones with negligible chakra loss! Since the younger nin was only familiar with several jutsu, they could only focus on what few he knew. Dasha did his best to teach Naruto several more effective combat ninjutsu, such as the Grand Fireball, but with minimal success. After Naruto shot fire out of his nose, which was painful for him and hilarious for his teacher, they decided to call it a day.
The pair trudged back from the lake's edge, where Naruto had been practicing the katon ninjutsu, and Naruto asked the same question he had of his other teammates. "Dasha, why'd you become a ninja?"
The tall, gangly genin shrugged. "Seemed like the best option available."
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What's that mean?"
Dasha sighed. "You know how I froze up and went all robotic when we saw those poor people in that village?" Receiving a nod in reply, he continued. "I was an orphan, living in squalor much like that. One day, as I was fighting off bullies, Yasuo-sensei saw me and chased off the bigger kids. He told me that I had some rare potential, and offered me the chance to become a ninja, if I was willing to work for it. Basically, he'd pay my tuition for the ninja academy and provide me with room and board if I did work for him. I agreed, and graduated at the top of my class. I was placed with Shigeru and Akane, and we've been kicking ass ever since." He stopped to take a deep breath. "When I see people suffering like that, it reminds me of where I came from, and just how lucky I was that Yasuo-sensei came along when he did. If he'd showed up just a minute earlier or later, I'd probably still be living in that alleyway, living off of dead rats and garbage…"
Naruto had gone totally pale. He'd never expected such a horrible story from a fellow genin. In his own circumstances, Dasha had suffered as much as Naruto himself had.
The two walked in silence until Dasha finally grinned. "Better get some rest, gaki. Tomorrow you've got chakra training with Akane again!"
Naruto groaned and hung his head. Good lord, he was in trouble…
