Author's Note: I AM SO SORRY FOR POSTING SO LATE! AAAH! I've been swamped with studying for the MCAT so I completely forgot that this even existed till I got an alert that someone favorited it. I'll work harder to post more often because you guys deserve that from me.
I also want to address some reviews, which I am extremely grateful that you guys sent me.
Like A Pro: Your guess was spot on. I won't type out her name since that's spoiling things. I will probably bring that up again so I don't want to give things away to those who don't know yet.
Megachrisfan: Thanks! I can see why you feel Naruto's too smart too quickly. But, I think he was always bright. He just didn't have things to nurture that like he does now. I'll try to modify the pace a bit. I'll also work to incorporate the advice you gave me better too. As for why someone might announce their weapon's ability, that's just them being cocky. Which is what I wanted to portray.
Kazenami Akito: Thanks!
AscendedAbyss: I know that it's a bit disappointing that I didn't stray from the plot lines when I moved away from the canon. But, I do want to stick closer to canon because that's just the direction I want the story to take. I don't want plot points early on to change very much because I think it takes away from the story later. I also love Kishimoto's original take and just want to modify it a little to what I wish would've happened.
Naruto (anonymous): He's using a few because there are drawbacks which he's trying to avoid.
TinkaPrime: You're not a bother! Keep up the suggestions! I'll definitely incorporate more stuff that you recommended since they were A+ suggestions.
Anyway, thanks everyone again for reading and your invaluable reviews. I'll get a pairings poll up and definitely post faster!
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"Hey" – Normal people talking
'Hey' – Normal people thinking
"Hey" – Demons/Large Creatures talking
'Hey' – Demons/Large Creatures thinking
"Hey" – Inner Sakura
The Tale of Namikaze Naruto
Chapter 7
The next day, the genin gathered at training ground 7 eager to see what their sensei would teach them following their first A rank mission which was also, ironically, their first non-D rank mission. The genin arrived early, promptly at 6 a.m. as Kakashi instructed, and began to wait for their teacher.
Naruto sat with his back to a tree, reading the book that the old Hokage had given him on fuinjutsu. Having mastered creating sealing scrolls, explosive tags, and silencing seals, Naruto was attempting to understand more complicated sealing theory in order to learn new seals. He wasn't having much trouble understanding the content, which was great but was struggling to figure out what kinds of seals would be the most beneficial to learn in the long run.
Sasuke was sitting nearby reading a scroll from his family's library on the Sharingan in order to understand it a little more. The scrolls could only be read by one who possessed the special eyes but even then were vague and provided hidden hints as to the use of the eyes. He was hoping that Kakashi would be able to help him more.
Sakura sat nearby and read her own book, though this one did not pertain to the ninja world at all. The title of this book was Rokusho and Julie: A Ninja Love Story. Occasionally the pinkette would glance up at Sasuke and blush.
In this manner two hours passed and the genin found themselves becoming impatient.
'I should've known he'd be late.' Naruto thought. 'I forgot he had this habit since he was so good about being on time earlier.'
As the clock struck 8, however, Kakashi suddenly appeared in front of his students in a puff of smoke.
"Yo." He said holding his hand up in greeting.
Immediately Sakura sprung up pointing her finger at the scarecrow. "You're late!" She shrieked causing all three males to wince at the volume.
Kakashi eye-smiled. "I know. I'm sorry. I forgot to set my alarm last night."
The genin rolled their eyes at the lame excuse.
"What are we going to do today sensei?" Naruto asked eagerly, stretching a little to loosen his muscles before training began.
"Today, Naruto, we are going to evaluate this morning where each of you stands after the mission and then we will train based on that till lunch time."
Sasuke stood up and began to stretch as well. "How are you gonna evaluate us?"
Kakashi eye smiled. "With a quick spar against myself of course."
The genin sweat dropped a little before beginning to warm up.
"Who's going first?" Sakura asked.
"You are!" Kakashi said taking a few steps back. "Come at me with an intent to kill!"
Sakura sprung at Kakashi drawing a kunai and began to attack Kakashi with a few slashes and stabs to try and push her sensei back. However, Kakashi didn't step back to dodge the slashes as he usually did. Instead, he stepped into her guard cutting the slash off with a right knife-hand hooking block and then hammered into Sakura with two quick left vertical punches to her solar plexus that caused Sakura to bend over as the breath left her.
Ignoring the pain, Sakura threw a punch at Kakashi that the jonin dodged before stepping back.
As the white haired man stepped away, Sakura formed a fast set of seals and called out her jutsu.
"Earth Style: Flying Thrown Rocks" She called before firing five rocks the size of Kakashi's head at him before moving in, expecting the white haired man to dodge.
Again, however, she was surprised as Kakashi stepped into the attacks, swaying and bobbing like a boxer to avoid the attacks. Sakura tried to back pedal only to find that Kakashi hand quickly made his way into her guard. As she began to react, another two hard punches found their way into her solar plexus causing her fold over again.
Again, Sakura showed surprising resilience despite not breathing well and formed another group of hand seals. "Earth Style: Earth Wall"
A quick wall of hardened dirt sprung in front of Sakura as Kakashi punched at her. Sakura sighed and tried to catch her breath as the wall gave her a moment only to find that Kakashi easily scaled the wall and was sitting on top of it.
"Don't let your guard down Sakura. Here I come."
With those words, Kakashi was inside Sakura's guard again. He easily landed four more hits to her solar plexus before viciously landing two hook punches into her liver causing the pinkette to collapse, too exhausted and hurt to fight back.
Kakashi helped her up and moved her to the side, letting her lean against a tree.
"You need to focus on guarding more Sakura." He said as Sakura tried to catch her breath. "You have to expect reactions contrary to what you want and prepare for it. We'll work on your defense a bit since that's crucial to all medical ninja and that's the route that we've begun you on."
Sakura gave a pained nod as Kakashi turned to Sasuke.
"Your turn Sasuke. Let's see what you've got now that you have the sharingan. I'll be hitting you in the tradition of the Uchiha, so you'd better not hold back."
Sasuke nodded and quickly prepared, activating his sharingan.
"Hajime!" Kakashi announced and Sasuke immediately began to form hand seals. "Fire Style: Grand Fireball!"
He blew a large ball of fire towards Kakashi who easily dodged the fireball only to find Sasuke moving. Kakashi began to throw punches at Sasuke who easily predicted their movement and began to dodge.
Suddenly, though, Kakashi's punches began to connect despite Sasuke seeing the attacks coming. One punch caught Sasuke in the nose which caused the boy to stumble. As soon as he began to stumble, he quickly found himself unable to block any longer and Kakashi ruthlessly began his attack on the Uchiha.
Sasuke found himself being pushed back as Kakashi's punches pounded his face in multiple directions before a harsh knee slammed into his gut. Before he had time to recover, an upper cut forced him upright. With that, Kakashi simply pushed Sasuke over, causing the tired boy to collapse.
"Did you find out the weakness of the Sharingan, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked smiling down at the aching boy.
"It doesn't matter if I see an attack coming if it's faster than me." Sasuke groaned as he tried to collect himself.
Kakashi nodded. "Yes. You're too slow. We'll work on that. You also need to vary your technique. You used one jutsu and it wasn't much use at all."
Kakashi waited for Sasuke to move away before turning to Naruto.
"Yeah. Yeah. My turn. I get it." Naruto said. He stood and stretched a bit and then moved to stand across from Kakashi.
"Hajime!" As soon as Kakashi's call finished, Naruto charged forward towards the silver haired jonin. As he did, he drew a kunai which he threw at Kakashi's head before kicking sharply towards the Jonin's knee.
Kakashi easily caught the kunai that Naruto'd hurled at him before using the flat of the kunai to smack Naruto's face before the kick landed. As the blond stumbled from the sudden hit, Kakashi took a step back and quietly observed.
'He's developed a lot. His capacity for decision making has increased. He's become a fairly decent taijutsu fighter for a genin. Let's push his limits though.'
Naruto made 4 shadow clones and began to rush towards Kakashi with them, deciding to use the numbers to his advantage. Unfortunately for him, before they could do much, Kakashi popped them with fast precise hits. Then, Kakashi engaged the original Naruto attacking so that Naruto had no choice but to rely solely on taijutsu.
As Kakashi attacked, Naruto decided to do the same and mix in attacks with the defense that he was forced to put up against the jonin's taijutsu. However, each attack he tried was quickly shut down before he could even begin it, and none of his blocks seemed effective as Kakashi easily found his openings and pressed them. Quickly, Naruto found himself on the ground, his entire body aching.
"Learn anything Naruto?" Kakashi said smiling from above him as the orange-clad genin groaned as bruises began to spring up all over his body.
"Yeah. You're really good at taijutsu." Naruto said slowly sitting up.
Kakashi rolled his single eye. "Yes. I am a jonin. What else?"
Naruto thought for a moment before continuing. "I don't really have a style of taijutsu still. I'm pretty good at fighting, but you knew when I was going to attack and how. More than that, you always saw my openings and I couldn't really guard them."
Kakashi nodded as the blond boy explained. "Exactly. Part of that is just that I have much more experience than you in combat. But, most of that is your lack of a particular style. You also still need more variety in your arsenal but building for you a strong taijutsu based foundation will set you up to more effectively use ninjutsu and whatever else."
Naruto nodded and sat up, his bruises healing surprisingly quickly. "So, I should find a style and learn it?"
"No. I've been looking for a teacher for you. I think he'll be the best person to teach you taijutsu. Anyway, let's start training today with some chakra control. Walk up and down a tree once and then run 10 laps around the lake."
After the simple chakra control drill, Kakashi had the genin split up and work on elemental manipulation. First, he had Sasuke work to keep a leaf from burning by using his fire chakra to only allow the center of the leaf to catch fire. As the Uchiha began his training, Kakashi moved to Sakura whom he had work on manipulating a rock by having it move around in zigzags using her chakra. He didn't really need to give instructions to Naruto, who was still focused on getting a clean cut into his leaf.
This exercise continued till lunch, by which point only Sakura had success with her training, thanks to her excellent chakra control.
"So, where to for lunch today?" Kakashi asked as the genin sat in the shade around him. The weather was warmer than usual for a typical Konoha day and they were really feeling it. Naruto had abandoned his orange jacket in favor of just the pants and a shirt. Sakura fanned herself with a small paper fan that she'd been carrying and even Sasuke struggled to maintain his collected demeanor.
"Ramen!" Naruto jumped up excitedly.
"Ew! No way Naruto-Baka! It's way too hot for Ramen!" Sakura shrieked pointing a finger at the boy.
"It's never too hot for Ramen Sakura! Ramen is the gift of the Gods!"
Kakashi rolled his eyes. "Well that's one for ramen and one against. Sasuke?"
"Hn. (I don't want Ramen. It's way too hot. Something cold would be really nice. How about cold Somen?)"
"That's an excellent idea! Somen sounds wonderful. How about that Sakura, Naruto?"
Naruto gave his "how the hell do you understand that" look to Kakashi before shrugging. "That sounds good actually."
"If that's what Sasuke-kun wants, I'm all for it!" The pinkette yelled excitedly causing the brooding genin to sweat drop.
"Great! We can discuss what's next there!" Kakashi said as he began to walk with the genin.
As the team ate their cold noodles, Kakashi began to explain how the next phase of training would take place.
"After this, we're going to be splitting up. Sasuke and Sakura, the two of you are going to be with me. I'm going to work with both of you. Sasuke, we're going to work on your speed and Sakura, we'll work on some jutsu so that you can have more impact in a fight."
"What about me, Sensei?!" Naruto asked, frowning that he was being separated from his team.
"Naruto, for the next two week, you will be training with another instructor and his team, Team Nine. Team Nine's sensei is the village's best taijutsu specialist and he'll be best suited to train you."
Naruto nodded excitedly. "So he's going to teach me a style?"
Kakashi shook his head. "Gai's style is too different for you and he's already got a student to whom he's taught it. It would be silly for you to have a style that's famous. Instead, we agreed that it would be best for you to develop a style that works for you with the shadow clones."
Naruto nodded excitedly. "Awesome! After that, I'll be for sure the strongest member of the team."
"You wish, dobe." Sasuke said. "I'm not letting you get ahead. You'll just have to settle with being second."
Kakashi eye smiled at the interaction before continuing. "Unfortunately for you, Naruto, that also means you have a reputation to maintain."
Naruto turned to his sensei. "A reputation?"
"Yep! You have to actually dress like a real ninja!"
Naruto groaned. "Does that mean shopping?"
"Absolutely! Go to this store and buy real clothes. And more equipment." Kakashi said handing Naruto a piece of paper.
Naruto nodded, grabbing the paper and stood. "I'll head there then. Where am I supposed to meet this, Gai-sensei?"
"Once you've changed. Head over to Training ground 9. He'll be expecting you. I have to warn you. He's a bit, um, eccentric. I'll be checking in from time to time so don't slack off either."
Naruto nodded before leaving.
Naruto approached the address that Kakashi'd given him to see a strange shop, with a large weapon's display and full of clothing, ninja equipment, and books. He stepped inside and began to look around. As he did, he heard a gruff voice behind him.
"Can I help you kid?"
Naruto yelped, with surprise, as he turned to see a tall, muscular man with a large beard. The man's massive arms were covered in scars and electric blue eyes peered out from behind his soot covered face.
"M, my name's Uzumaki Naruto! Kakashi-sensei sent me here to buy clothes."
The gruff, bearded man looked Naruto up and down once before responding. "I can see why. What kind of a ninja wears all orange?"
"There's nothing wrong with orange! It's the best color in the world!" Naruto yelled.
"Whatever kid, my name is Fujimura Toshiro and I make weapons and sell ninja equipment. Let me know when you find what you're looking for and if you need anything."
Naruto nodded before looking for clothes. Eventually, he settled on a simple black shirt that was fairly tight fitting with the Uzumaki swirl on the back with the Konoha symbol in orange on the front, a pair of black pants similar to those worn by Kakashi and decided to swap his blue ninja sandals for black ones.
After buying and changing into the clothing, as well as some more kunai, Naruto headed out towards Training Ground 9.
'Gotta admit. Kakashi sensei was right. I do look a bit cooler now.'
As Naruto arrived at Training ground 9, he was greeted by a strange sight. A green spandex clad jonin appeared to be hugging a clone of himself as they both cried. Suddenly, as Naruto got even closer, the grass and trees around him seemed to disappear to be totally replaced by a sunset and a beach. 'What the hell? It's supposed to be around noon!'
Naruto noticed two other genin standing nearby who turned to him questioningly. One was a girl with brown hair pulled into two buns wearing a pink Chinese style top with green pants. The other was a pale guy with long hair that was in a pony-tail and eyes that gave his family away.
"Um. Hi. I was supposed to be meeting a Gai-sensei here. But, I think I'm in the wrong place."
The girl shook her head. "No. You're in the right place. That's Gai sensei." She pointed to one of the hugging men, the jonin in the spandex with a bowl cut who by this point had stopped hugging his student to turn to Naruto.
'Holy shit! Those are massive eyebrows! On both of them! What the hell?' Naruto thought as the man addressed him.
"Ah! You must be Naruto-kun! I am the fierce Green Beast of Konoha, Maito Gai and your sensei's proud rival!"
Naruto winced at the volume before picking up on the word rival. "Rival?"
Gai nodded. "Indeed! We have had competitions from a very young age! Currently, our score is 49 to 48 with me in the lead!"
Naruto's face betrayed his shock. 'This guy must be impressive to be stronger than Kakashi-sensei. Guess you can't judge a book by its cover."
Gai continued. "I see you have met TenTen and Neji. This young man is Rock Lee!"
The Gai clone, now known to Naruto as Rock Lee, sprung forward. "IT IS NICE TO MEET YOU NARUTO-SAN! I shall strive to be a great training partner for you!"
Naruto winced again at the volume before responding. "Nice to meet you too."
"I assume Kakashi explained to you the purpose of your coming to train with me?" Gai asked Naruto.
"Yeah. My taijutsu is weak, so he thinks it would be good for me to formulate my own style."
"Indeed! I will be instructing you in this, but I cannot neglect my own students. So, we will train early in the mornings from 5 untill 8 and then late at night from 9 until midnight! We will begin tomorrow!"
"Hai sensei!" Naruto responded understanding the man's decision.
A.N. That's a wrap. Again, I really apologize for the shortness of this chapter and for the delay in updating. I'll work hard to post more often! Thank you guys, for reading! I hope you'll leave me reviews to lemme know what you think I should do!
As an additional note, I think I'm gonna have one small arc of sorts or no arcs before diving into the chunin exams because I'm personally really excited about them. Probably the one small arc but I'll appreciate any input on that.
As always, stay safe and prosper.