BETA: Cmedina1
Kazuki looked at the silver-haired jonin from the corner of his eye as they walked out of the training grounds. He had half expected the man to get out of there quicker than the others; however, the copy-nin had surprised him by staying and he wasn't sure what to think about that. There were only two reasons he could come up with to explain Kakashi's behavior: he had been assigned to watch the redhead or he was curious. Either way, it wasn't an ideal situation for the new jonin; he would have to watch what he said and did around the tag-along.
Oh, well, he would worry about that when the time came. As it was, he still had a few hours before he had to meet with Naruto. What to do until then? He could go and have lunch at Ichiraku's. Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. Without waiting to see what Kakashi would do, Kazuki strode away to the ramen shop. It would be bittersweet to see the old man Teuchi once again but, for the great meal, he could do it. By now, seeing dead people walking around had lost the initial impact — at least, that's what he kept telling himself. Not bothering to see if he was being followed, Kazuki strolled towards the village and his destination.
Teuchi was just as he remembered him though younger, of course, as he sat on one of the chairs in front of the counter. The old man was as respectful to him as he was to any of his customers and Kazuki wasted no time in ordering his favorite dish of ramen. Without a hint of shame, he took a deep breath over his bowl and, heady from the incredible smell, proceeded to inhale the food of the gods.
"You're going to choke if you don't chew your food," came the monotonous comment by his side.
Without pausing, the redhead just shrugged his shoulders at Kakashi, who ordered a bowl as well and ate at the speed of light, making Kazuki snort a laugh.
"You shouldn't be talking when you eat like that," He said, pointing his chopsticks at the copy-nin before ordering another serving.
However, he wasn't prepared for the sudden "KAZUKI-SENSEI!" that had him choking on his noodles.
It had been a long day for Naruto.
Class had started and, like usual, he had been sent out of the classroom for one thing or another, he hadn't bother to listen to the excuse this time around. His nerves and excitement levels had been all over the place, making him unable to stay — relatively — still or pay attention during Iruka-sensei's class. The chunin had not being amused at the blond's lack of interest, so he had giving Naruto extra work. Ugh, why?! He had protested but, in the end, it hadn't done him any good.
Which is how he found himself now walking over to Ichiraku's before classes had finished for the day. That morning, when he told everyone within hearing distance he had gotten a sensei, no one had believed him. Sakura-chan and Ino had told him 'no one in their right mind could ever want him as a student, because he was nothing more than the class' dead-last. As a matter of fact, Sasuke-kun would have been the first to get a sensei outside of the Academy since he was so great and good at everything.'
Just thinking about it made the young blond frustrated. Why couldn't they see he tried just as hard, if not harder, than their precious 'Sasuke-kun'? But he would make sure they ate their words, especially after the training he would go through. Naruto could already see it: all the jutsus he would learn, the taijutsu. He would be the coolest kid in the Academy, everyone would hang around him wanting his attention and Sasuke-teme would be in the background jealous of him and all alone, and Sakura-chan would finally agree to go out on a date with him. Yes, he could see all of that happening but, first, he needed food.
However, he never thought he would see his newly appointed sensei slurping noodles as if he didn't have a care in the world.
"KAZUKI-SENSEI!"
The redhead suddenly went into a fit of coughs, which had Naruto pounding him on the back with enough strength to make anyone else's lungs be pounded out of their body.
When the coughing stopped, his new sensei just looked at him with rounded eyes.
"This is the second time," said a raspy voice.
"He, he, sorry," The blond said, a hand rubbing the back of his head.
The man sighed, "It's okay. Don't worry about it."
"You know Naruto, Harada-san?"
For the first time, Naruto realized there was someone else sitting next to the redhead. The guy had silver hair that defied gravity and a face mostly covered, only leaving one single dark eye visible. He was shady, Naruto decided instantly, but wondered how the man knew his sensei. Kazuki-sensei had not been in the village that long (that he knew), so how did the redhead know him?
"You can say that," Was his sensei's response.
Having enough with feeling ignored, the blond spoke up, "He agreed to be my sensei and is going to teach me awesome jutsus -ttebayo!"
The silver haired weirdo just blinked slowly at the news. The kid could've sworn he heard Kazuki-sensei snort a laugh.
Suddenly, Naruto realized something, "Wait!" He exclaimed, pointing a finger at the man, "How do you know my name?!"
"Naruto, it's rude to point at people," Chastised the redhead, making the kid drop his arm and focus on him, his eyes immediately drawn to the new accessory his sensei sported.
"You have a forehead protector dattebayo!" Naruto couldn't contain his excitement, "Does that mean you're staying in the village?!"
The redhead chuckled and nodded slowly, "For as long as they want me here."
"YES!" he exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. Now, he could be able to hang out with the ninja whenever he wanted!
"Hello, Naruto," Old man Teuchi greeted him, placing a bowl of his favorite ramen next to Kazuki-sensei.
"Old man!" Without prompting, the kid plopped himself on the stool and proceeded to devour his meal. It was so good! Nothing better than Ichiraku's ramen to fill his belly.
"Say, Naruto, why aren't you in class right now?"
… Uh-oh.
Slurping the noodles and swallowing the last one to get some time to answer the question — though it felt more like a command — he nervously looked at the redhead, afraid of what his reaction might be.
"Uh, the sensei got tired of me not being able to stay still and told me to leave." He admitted, twitching slightly on his chair.
Something flashed behind the older man's eyes that eerily reminded the kid of the eyes that seemed to follow him wherever he went, making him flinch away unconsciously from his sensei.
However, Kazuki-sensei never did anything to him or insulted him. Instead, the man just let out a deep sigh.
"Well, on the bright side, that just means we have more time to train, don't we, Naruto?" He said with a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.
Wide eyed, because he had been expecting a lecture, Naruto could just nod repeatedly, pulling a chuckle out of Kazuki-sensei.
"After we finish eating, we'll go to the training grounds and we'll start," Was the last thing the redhead said before the both of them returned to their food.
"Do you mind if I watch Harada-san?" asked the silver haired man and Naruto realized he had forgotten all about the other ninja.
"I don't mind and please, call me Kazuki, Hatake-san"
The sketchy ninja's eye closed to for a U shape, which creeped Naruto even more. How did his eye do that?!
"Then you must call me Kakashi, Kazuki-san"
"Now, Naruto, I want you to show me everything you've learned at the Academy."
As soon as the three of them had reached training ground seven (bringing back some good memories for Kazuki) the jonin had created a shadow clone, which had walked a few feet away from the original.
"You'll fight with my clone and I'll watch. At the end, I'll know what your level is and we'll go from there," He told the kid, who was practically vibrating with excitement.
"Hai, Kazuki-sensei!" No sooner were the words spoken that Naruto attacked the clone, which just sidestepped the punch easily.
Kazuki inwardly sighed at this. It seemed he would have to start by teaching his younger self some patience.
"He seems very impatient."
Kazuki hummed, giving no other indication he had heard Kakashi, who was leaning against a tree a few feet away; his ever-present book on hand.
"He'll learn patience. He'll have to."
The sound of a page turning was heard before the former ANBU commented, "He's the dead last of his year, what do you think you can teach him that the Academy teachers can't?"
Was it him or was Kakashi being too talkative for… well Kakashi? The redhead looked at the man who he had come to love like an older brother through the corner of his eye, wondering what he was trying to accomplish by being here with them. Protect Naruto from an unknown shinobi? Probably. Get to know Kazuki? More like keep an eye on him since he knew his younger sensei didn't trust anybody easily, especially new faces, so the theory that he was trying to protect Naruto from Kazuki seemed more plausible. Wouldn't it have been better if the jonin hid himself to do though? So, what exactly was Kakashi trying to accomplish by being on plain sight? If Kazuki wanted to hurt Naruto in some way, the ex-ANBU would've had a better shot at catching him if he had hidden himself.
As the redhead opened his mouth to reply, the sudden influx of memories cut him off. Well, seemed like he had more to work on than he originally thought. Damn, he was worse than cringe-worthy at this age; he had forgotten just how bad he had been.
"Okay, Naruto," Kazuki walked over to where the blond was sprawled on his back.
The kid slowly got to his feet, flinching slightly where a punch from his clone had gotten him good, but he was already healing, so Kazuki didn't worry about it.
"Now, your taijutsu is weak," The kid opened his mouth, but Kazuki held one finger up silencing the protest, "The basics you have cannot even be called that. Your form has so many holes you'd be killed within a second not to mention your balance is off and your punches leave you with more damage to your hands than what you do to your opponent," Kazuki knew he was being savage, but he wasn't about to sugarcoat the truth, "Your speed is not even worth mentioning. The only thing you have going for you is that you can think on your feet, you're resilient, and have above average stamina, though I know of people younger than you who could go for a longer amount of time without needing to rest," Then again, those people were geniuses, but Naruto didn't need to know that.
There was hurt and frustration in the kid's face and the tension around his frame made Kazuki feel bad for being so blunt, but he pushed those feelings down. He had to do this if he wanted his younger self to grow; it didn't matter that Naruto hadn't had someone who took serious interest in teaching him properly.
Once again, he cut off what the blond had to say, "Good thing is, you can fix all of that," Giving the kid a smirk, he asked the question he knew would get Naruto pumped, "How do you feel about learning a jutsu?"
From his stunned face, the blond had obviously not been expecting that after the savage critique he just received. However, his face soon morphed into one of pure, unadulterated bliss.
"YES, KAZUKI-SENSEI!" again, Naruto's fist flew to the air high above him, "What are you going to teach me? How to breathe fire?" He asked rapidly in excitement.
Kazuki shocked his head, "The jutsu I'm going to teach you is going to be the basics for you to learn everything else. I expect you to learn it in only a few hours," The kid gave him a wide-eyed look, making the smirk Kazuki already sported widen.
"Now, look closely to the hand seal I'm making," The redhead put his hands on the seal he didn't need to use anymore and Naruto copied him, "The jutsu is called Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
Once he was satisfied Naruto had gotten the hand seal right, he nodded, "Good. All you need to do is channel some chakra into it and you'll get your first shadow clone." With that, he left the blond to his own devices, going back to sit by the tree Kakashi had claimed as his own.
The copy-nin was looking at him with a narrowed eye, which he ignored, focusing instead on the training regimen he would have Naruto do after he learned his signature jutsu.
He couldn't teach him the Rasengan at this point since no one could know Kazuki was related to the Yondaime, but he could teach him Fuuinjutsu—
"Don't you think that's too advanced for him?"
Blinking, Kazuki returned to reality and turned to the older ninja.
Shrugging, he said, "Naruto has a very high amount of chakra, can't you feel it? It just leaks out of him like waves," Which doesn't explain how he's able to sneak up on me, he thought frustrated. Twice! What kind of sensory shinobi did that make him? "He'll be able to handle the jutsu just fine, Kakashi-san."
The copy-nin just hummed, returning to his book.
Making himself comfortable on the ground, Kazuki pulled out a scroll from his pant's pocket and opened it to reveal a set of brushes, ink, and paper, attracting the attention of the silver haired man. The redhead could feel the lone eye burning the side of his face, but Kazuki ignored it, picking up the seal he had been working on.
After a few minutes of working on the sealing array that just didn't want to cooperate, Kakashi spoke up.
"Are you a Fuuinjutsu Master?"
Kazuki chuckled, "Sometimes, other times I feel more like I'm an inexperienced genin all over again," He commented absentmindedly. Maybe he was looking at the seal from the wrong perspective. What if he incorporated a stabilizer between the wind and fire kanji? Yes, Fuuton and Katon complimented each other, but that didn't mean they shared the same amount of power unless the chakra channeled to them individually explicitly made it so since fire tended to incinerate everything in its path and wind cut if the intent wasn't clear. Also, he wanted the wind to make the fire burn stronger instead of extinguishing it if the Katon aspect of the seal wasn't strong enough. Maybe just a stabilizer wouldn't be enough…
Hours passed without Kazuki looking up from the array. He hadn't noticed how long he had spent leaning over the design until a shout snapped him out of it.
There, in the middle of the training grounds were two Narutos.
"I DID IT-TTEBAYO!"
"Congratulations, Naruto," Kazuki said with a chuckle, "Well done, now put as much chakra as you can and show me how many clones you can make."
Kazuki didn't need to look at Kakashi to know the copy-nin was giving him a deadpan look.
Putting his hands together, Naruto made the hand sign, "HERE I GO!"
The whole training ground became filled with the cheers of hundreds orange clad blonds.
Out the corner of his eye, Kazuki could see Kakashi's dumbfounded expression and couldn't resist the smirk and "I told you so" that he sent the copy-nin's way.
"Good job, Naruto," The redhead turned his attention back to the blond, pulling another scroll from his pocket, "You can rest now."
Naruto's mouth visibly watered when the kid saw what the scroll contained: bento boxes.
Without further prompting needed, he took one, opened it and with an "ITADAKIMASU!" Digged in using the chopsticks by the other boxes.
Kazuki held out a box and chopsticks for Kakashi, which the older ninja took with an imperceptible nod.
Once everyone ate their fill, the redhead put everything away inside the scroll and pocketed it, turning to the kid.
"How are you feeling, Naruto? Do you think you can continue?"
Naruto nodded rapidly, "Hai, sensei!"
Kazuki smirked at the blond's enthusiasm. It was refreshing to see, especially after living through the Fourth War, where people had lived each day with their hope of survival slowly dying out.
Pushing himself to his feet, Kazuki motioned for Naruto to follow him to the middle of the training ground.
"I want you to create one clone," He stated.
Immediately, Naruto made the hand sign, "KAGE BUNSHIN NO JUTSU!" and there was puff of smoke before another Naruto appeared next to the original.
The redhead crossed his arms, one hand on his chin as he thought about how to explain to his younger self chakra and what he was doing wrong.
"Do you know what chakra is?" He went with the question instead, deciding it was better to know what the kid knew.
Naruto closed his eyes, deep in thought and copied Kazuki's posed without realizing it.
"It's what we have inside us to do jutsus"
Cue sweat drops from both shinobi. Kazuki resisted the urge to facepalm. This was going to be harder than he thought.
"No," How was he supposed to explain this? He gave a sidelong look at his own sensei, but the man just eye-smiled at him like this was Kazuki's problem and was on his own. Screw you, Kakashi, screw you.
"Chakra is the combination of physical and spiritual energy within your body. Through training, you can expand them, building your spiritual and physical reserves, which makes you have more chakra," So far, Naruto seemed to be keeping up with his explanation, as the kid nodded, "However," He stressed, "it's not about having huge amounts of chakra, it's about how you use it that matters.
"From what I sensed, you built up more chakra than what you needed to create the Shadow Clone, which makes the other chakra that you didn't need unusable and makes you tire faster and unable to use jutsu to their full potential. Are you following me so far?"
Naruto nodded, letting his hands fall to his sides, "Hai, Kazuki-sensei. I create more chakra than I need."
… That wasn't half bad.
"Exactly. So, what you're going to do now is practice chakra control. It'll help you in the long run to conserve your chakra and use jutsus to their full potential without wasting chakra and making you tired quicker."
"ALRIGHT!" Naruto exclaimed, pumped, "When am I starting?"
Kazuki chuckled, glad the explanation part of the training was over, "Right now. I want you to create three squads of ten, so create thirty clones," He amended when he saw the confused look on the blond's face. "One group will focus on Taijutsu, one on chakra control, and the other one on Fuuinjutsu while you run laps around the training ground."
Naruto flapped his arms like a bird, "WHY?! Why do I have to run?"
"Because," Kami, he didn't know whether to curse or be glad he had never been a sensei before, "physical energy doesn't grow through clones only spiritual, which is such bull I can't even begin to explain." Taking a deep breath to stop the rant that was threatening to burst out of his chest, he continued, "So, you're going to run to build up your stamina and condition your body."
Creating three clones, Kazuki waited until Naruto created his thirty and divided them in groups, each ten following one of the redhead's clone.
"For chakra control, each of you is going to attempt to climb a tree without using your hands," Came one of clone's voice, who went to show his squad what he meant. The 'awws' distracted the other Narutos, who vocalized their displeasure.
"Hey! How come we aren't learning that?!"
"That's so much cooler than Taijutsu —ttebayo!"
Obviously, the Kazuki clones had reached the end of their patience.
"Do you want to become stronger or not?"
To the real Kazuki, it was eerie how in sync his clones were.
Some of the blonds hung their heads, while some heh'ed in shame.
"Now, do what I say."
Noticing the original blond hadn't yet moved from where he was standing, Kazuki raised a brow, "What are you waiting for, kid?"
Snapping his attention to the man, Naruto dashed away.
"He definitely has the stamina to learn this way," Kakashi mused from his spot.
Kazuki drew a hand over the side of his face in tiredness, walking back to his previous spot. He only hoped tomorrow would be better.
Hey everyone! Thank you for the reviews and hope you guys enjoy this new chapter :)
slythefoxx2: I always thought Hiruzen hated fighting and was a pacifist. He would only fight or do something if or when he had to.
Mw: Thank you so much! That means a lot to me :)