Got a lot of Kakashi hating reviews last chapter… I kind of expected it, even though I knew it was going to be resolved in this chapter… I don't hate Kakashi, even if he's kind of annoying, and Kakashi definitely doesn't hate Naruto in my story. He just was trying to do what he thought was best.
The problem is as I mentioned before, Kakashi isn't really that great of a teacher, but since he's a Jounin and a genius, he thinks he knows what he's doing… well he's wrong about that, and he's coming to realize it.
By the way, thanks for all the reviews in the last chapter, I was surprised by the increase, I think it was like 20 reviews, but not sure… tried my best to answer everyone that had questions, and I really liked the detailed reviews I was left, it really helps me see where I stand in the story and what needs to be fixed or addressed.
Had a really hard time getting a song for this chapter, lol. I dunno why. Nothing seemed to fit well.
101010
Everybody's got their problems,
Everybody says the same thing to you.
It's just a matter of how you solve them,
What else are we supposed to do?
Part of me, won't agree,
Cause I don't know if it's for sure.
Suddenly, suddenly
I don't feel so insecure.
Hell Song – Sum 41
101010
"Naruto."
"Mhmm…"
"Naruto, wake up."
"Wha… AH!' Naruto jumped out of his bed in shock, "What the hell, Kakashi-sensei? It's the middle of the night!"
The Jounin gave him an 'eye smile,' "Just checking up on my favorite student."
"You couldn't ask me how I was in the morning?"
"You seem to be very angry with me in the morning; I was hoping your disposition would be friendlier at night." The man picked up the photo that Naruto had on his dresser of Team 7.
"I'm angry because you refuse to train me!"
"Naruto I train you along with the rest of the team." Kakashi replied patiently, "But until you catch up with the others in taijutsu and chakra control, I can't teach you jutsu, you don't have the capability to learn any."
"My taijutsu is good now!" Naruto insisted, "And I've been improving my chakra control."
"Really?" Kakashi asked skeptically, "I've hardly seen any improvement in your fighting when we do team training."
"How the hell am I supposed to show better chakra control when you forbid me from using the only useful technique I know?"
"Hmm." Kakashi paused, "Granted." The Jounin admitted, "But what about your taijutsu? Your form seems better, but you don't seem any stronger or faster."
"That's because I'm not using chakra for team training!" Naruto replied impatiently.
"…What?" Kakashi said after a moment, "You mean to tell me you don't use chakra at all?"
"Not unless I need to jump!" Naruto replied, "You can't tell? I thought you were supposed to be a Jounin!"
Kakashi ignored the insult, "Naruto you're supposed to use chakra to augment your physical abilities, every ninja knows that, you're a genin fighting a Jounin, how could you do so without chakra?"
"It never made a difference anyways! Before I stopped doing it all you did was knock me around, afterwards the same thing. But I get extra training in running around and tossing weapons at you or the target, I max out my workout so it's not just team training I'm doing!"
In some weird way that all made sense. Below Chuunin level, there were usually no ninja training without chakra to improve themselves, because learning how to use your chakra to augment speed and strength was so important. Kakashi really hadn't been noticing Naruto during their team exercises, every time it was the same thing, Naruto is too slow, Naruto's form is strange, break through it. Instead he had been moving away from the blonde, instead focusing on the other three.
"Naruto…" Kakashi finally said, "I was wrong."
"What was that sensei? I didn't hear you."
"I was wrong." The masked man repeated in amusement, "Tomorrow you'll be training along Sasuke. At this point and time I don't need to give out much personal attention since its ninjutsu, but when we get into taijutsu we'll have to think up a different arrangement."
"Yes!" Naruto cheered, "Just wait 'til I show you how awesome I am tomorrow sensei!"
Kakashi ruffled the blonde's hair affectionately before turning to leave through the window, "Go to bed Naruto. You have to wake up early tomorrow."
101010
Instead of dealing with an angry Naruto again, the team was relieved to find that the blonde was in good spirits, greeting them all happily.
"So you worked things out with Kakashi-sensei?" Aiko asked in disbelief, "Just like that?"
"Well, he said he was wrong."
"He did?" Sakura's eyes widened, "I don't think Kakashi-sensei has ever admitted he was wrong since we met him… ever."
"Well this time he did! So now I get awesome training today with Sasuke!"
"Just don't get in my way, dobe." Sasuke rolled his eyes, so much for having private training to himself. Most likely Naruto would talk him to death and he wouldn't get any training done at all.
Naruto remained happy and cheerful the rest of the time, even the day's mission couldn't get him down. The team had to try and walk ten of the Inuzuka dogs, who appeared to hate Naruto. Stuck with three of the meanest dogs, Naruto was dragged around for two hours yelling at the stupid mutts to stop… they didn't listen.
Finally the mission was over, leaving four genin with very sore arms and a well rested Jounin instructor who had caught up on his reading in a nearby tree at the park.
"Wasn't that fun?" Kakashi asked cheerfully, he received three death glares and an impatient voice, "Sensei, is it time for the training? What jutsu am I gonna learn first? A fire one? Is it the water one you taught Sakura? Huh? Tell me!"
"Easy, Naruto." Kakashi replied, "First things first. Sakura, I want to see your jutsu mastered by tomorrow for team training. Can you do that?"
"Y-Yes, I think so sensei." Sakura sounded uncertain, but Kakashi nodded anyways.
"Alright, Aiko, you and Naruto will be joining Sasuke today. Next week Aiko you will be going back to your scheduled day."
"Eh?" Naruto was confused, "Aiko-chan you didn't train yesterday?"
"Aiko decided to take up your defense yesterday after you left," Kakashi said in amusement, "She refused to train unless I started to train you as well. It's the main reason I came to speak to you last night."
"Really?" Naruto was touched by this, "You really did that for me, Aiko-chan?"
The Uchiha girl blushed in embarrassment, remembering her outburst the day before, "Well it wasn't fair to you that Kakashi-sensei wasn't helping you out."
"Yes," Kakashi confirmed, "It wasn't fair. But now let's try and rectify that, shall we?"
Kakashi quickly set Sasuke back to work on some kind of lightning technique, and then handed a leaf to both Aiko and Naruto, who looked at it questioningly.
"Aiko, I want you to burn that with fire chakra." Kakashi ordered, "Naruto, cut yours in half with wind chakra."
Aiko immediately set to work… and in a few seconds the leaf was burning to a crisp. Naruto just looked confused, "How do I do it?"
"I expected as much." Kakashi replied, "Aiko has been training with fire jutsu her whole life. Naruto, this is the first step in getting used to using elemental chakra."
"Cutting a leaf?" The blonde boy scratched his head, "I don't get it!"
"You aren't used to gathering chakra in such a way that it acts as elemental chakra, in your case, wind. This technique will help you with that, you gather your chakra into the leaf, much like you did with the chakra paper a few weeks ago. But unlike the paper, the leaf isn't responsive to your latent elemental chakra, so you have to focus on converting it yourself."
"Convert it how?" Naruto asked curiously, this was all new to him.
"There are a lot of people in chakra theory who think about those kinds of things," Kakashi said in dismissal, "What it really comes down to is you imagining the gathering chakra acting as a blade of wind, cutting the leaf."
"So it's like a cutting jutsu!" Naruto replied in excitement, "That's awesome!"
"Well," Kakashi replied, "Not quite. But it will definitely make it much easier to learn and control wind jutsu later."
So Naruto set to work trying to cut the leaf as Kakashi took Aiko down to the river side, and began to teach her a new fire jutsu. Cutting the leaf was harder than Naruto imagined it would be. He had grown used to extending his chakra out from him using the leaf control exercise, but it was completely different trying to actually cut the leaf with his chakra.
After ten minutes, Naruto still had made no progress, but he had accurately gauged the amount of chakra it was taking him to perform the exercise, and how many Kage Bunshin he could afford to use in the next two hours without wearing himself out for later. No doubt he would need a couple hours rest, however. It might set back his chakra control training but…
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
Kakashi watched in interest as fifteen Narutos gathered their own leaves to join the original in his trial. He knew Kage Bunshin could gather information, but using them for training was something no one had really done before because of chakra constraints. Even more interesting was the way Naruto set up his clones, in little pockets of four.
"What are you doing, Naruto?" The Jounin asked curiously, the other two genin looked confused at their strange teammate's antics.
"Melding our minds!" Naruto replied, as if it were obvious, "If we touch, we can think together, but separate at the same time, see?"
Kakashi actually didn't see, but was trying, "You're… increasing your brain power?"
Naruto shook his head, "No, if we sit like this, whatever my Kage Bunshin learn from the exercise, so will I. You can transfer information just by touch instead of dismissing them."
"…I didn't know that." Kakashi replied thoughtfully, "But then again, I can't use Kage Bunshin as extensively as you." Naruto cheeks tinged at the inadvertent complement, as he set to get back to work.
Naruto's methods were strange, Kakashi had to admit, but he made progress by leaps and bounds. Every fifteen minutes, a Naruto would get up from each group, meet in the middle, touch hands and then move back to their own knots. By the end of two hours, a tired Naruto presented him with several jaggedly cut leaves.
Kakashi was impressed, "I expected it to take you much longer, I have to admit. Now you have to refine the cut."
"Refine?" Naruto looked confused, "What do you mean sensei?"
Kakashi picked his own leaf and channeled his chakra, the leaf split in two, and it was cut quickly and cleanly, as if done by a sharp knife. Naruto's looked like someone had cut it with a spoon.
"Oh!" Naruto nodded with understanding, "So I just need practice, right?"
"At the rate you go, it shouldn't take you more than a couple of hours." Kakashi replied, but the blonde shook his head, "I need some time to rest so my stores will get back to normal."
"How much chakra do you think you used?"
"Hmm… I think about three quarters of my reserves. I'll need at least an hour or longer to get them close to normal." Naruto estimated based on previous experiences, "I don't like to take them all the way to zero until the end of the day when I can just sleep it off, cuz it means I need longer breaks between my training exercises."
"So you'll summon more clones and perfect it after some rest?" Kakashi asked, trying to get a feel for his strangest student's methods.
"Of course not!" Naruto laughed, "I still have my chakra control exercises to go through, they're not easy you know! Today isn't taijutsu day but I still have to do my workouts… I have a lot of stuff to do, I'll finish this tomorrow then you can teach me awesome jutsu!"
Kakashi was confused, he let his students train individually, but he was beginning to realize it was leaving him out of depth on the exact nature of what they were doing when they weren't with him.
"What kind of chakra control exercises are you doing?"
"I'm still on the leaf one."
"That's the most basic one, Naruto." Kakashi was a bit disappointed, but Naruto's control was pretty bad. Naruto agreed, "Yeah it's hard to move and keep the leaf balanced at the same time. But I'll get it down soon!"
"Move…?" Kakashi racked his brain, "Naruto, the leaf exercise just involves keeping it stuck to your forehead, there is no movement."
"I'm done with that part." Naruto dismissed, "Now I'm on the part where I have to keep it stuck while fighting, it's really hard."
Kakashi shook his head, he was getting a headache. He had never performed anything like what Naruto was talking about; he would have to check out the exercise at the library before he attempted a discussion with his confusing student.
Naruto left his befuddled instructor behind for his home, where he took a nice shower, checked on the clone that was still reading the history book, and then was out the door again moving towards his own personal training area. Closing his eyes, he estimated his reserves as nearly full, a trick he had begun to pick up.
It seemed too fast, at a little under an hour for his reserves to be filled again. Was it possible that they were beginning to fill faster than they were before? Naruto really couldn't tell, maybe his state of mind affected the rate at which his reserves refilled themselves. He was definitely happier than he had been in the past few days.
Making another quick estimate based on the time, Naruto summoned up eleven clones and got to work. The clones and himself gathered leaves, and practiced walking around while sticking them to their foreheads
He tried something a little different today, every thirty minutes a group of four Narutos would sit out, and mind meld, trying to think of ways to improve in the difficult exercise for fifteen minutes, before returning to wandering, walking around with the others, sharing information through touch. Another group would wait fifteen more minutes before taking the old group's place.
Naruto figured it wouldn't hurt to try, and knew at the least he would conserve chakra to maybe go on for a longer period of time. As a result however he received some pretty wild ideas from the clones, some of which were very useful. Naruto had an interesting mind, which he passed on to his clones. As a result, they were able to think of little improvements to the exercise to make it easier on him to master.
One clone came up with the idea of walking in a straight line at first while keeping the leaf stuck. This had limitations, because Naruto couldn't walk in a straight line forever, but another clone figured that walking in a straight line with only one turn could begin to be a gradual introduction to turning, and more turns could be added later as Naruto became comfortable.
This idea provided the most fruit, walking in straight lines and only turning once every fifty feet or so, Naruto was able to keep the leaf on his head for ten minutes. His clones began to see similar results. More turns kept being added, and Narutos began to walk in new directions, and progress slowed. But by the end of a whopping five hours, Naruto summoned back his clones, and could confidently walk around for five minutes with quick, sharp turns while keeping the leaf stuck.
Resting himself and the clones had turned out to be a great idea, as it was less taxing on Naruto's reserves. Five hours was a peak he had never reached before, and it cut into his normal workout routine of punches, kicks, and his other exercises without chakra. It was well into the night after Naruto had finished his entire workout, but he went home happy.
If his clones could train as such for five hours then that would mean all he had to do was increase the amount of clones to cut down the hours spent training. The break schedule for each group of clones would have to be revised… but that wasn't really a big problem.
After another shower and a cup of ramen, Naruto slept.
101010
"Before we start training together as a team," Kakashi started the next day, "I'd like you four to spar to see how much you've improved."
The genin nodded, Aiko glanced at Sasuke, and Sakura glanced at Naruto. Kakashi then said, "Naruto against Sasuke, and Aiko you will fight Sakura."
"But," Aiko's face mirrored the surprise they all felt, "Sensei shouldn't we…? I mean, shouldn't I fight Sasuke?"
"You fight your brother every day," Kakashi said dismissively, "Now, Naruto and Sasuke you're up first."
"With chakra?"
"Yes Naruto. Do your best." Kakashi confirmed.
The two eyed each other, and Sasuke smirked before getting into his favorite beginning stance. Kakashi nodded, "Alright, anything goes. Just try not to kill each other."
Naruto nervously fell into his own stance, waiting for Kakashi's signal. The Jounin gave them a nod, and it began. Sasuke quickly made the first move and was on top of him in seconds.
The punch went straight for his face, but Naruto automatically blocked, using the other boy's momentum, he shifted his weight back, holding the Uchiha tight and driving a fist into his stomach. Unlike a clone, Sasuke didn't disappear when he was hit.
"Oof!" Sasuke's eyes popped out of his sockets, stumbling away from the blonde, gasping for air. Naruto got back into stance automatically, his eyes and ears scanning for more enemies, his Kage Bunshin loved to trick him and attack when he thought he'd won.
Sasuke wasn't going to be done in, apparently. The boy stood up with a glare, trying not to grasp at his aching stomach. Where had the dobe learned to punch like that?
"Give up, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked, sounding amused.
Instead of answering, Sasuke rushed Naruto again, but this time he feinted the punch and chopped a kick to the blonde's knees. The boy responded by jumping in the air and flipping behind the Uchiha, coming in with his fist, which was blocked.
Naruto hadn't fought anyone with a different style than him since the academy, where he had no style at all. Sasuke's style was quick to defend and quick to respond, in some ways it seemed designed for someone who could counter faster than Sasuke, and it made the boy clumsy. His fists weren't where they were supposed to be, his legs moved into a new position before the rest of the body caught up.
The blonde didn't really get it, but it definitely made it easier to fight Sasuke. Naruto had to admit, Sasuke was very fast. The first punch had clearly been from the Uchiha underestimating his taijutsu abilities and speed.
Naruto suddenly got a punch under Sasuke's guard, hitting him in the side, it was a glancing blow, but he was able to follow up with a shot to the jaw, which sent Sasuke flying backwards.
The boy was undeterred, sending flaming fireballs at him with the Katon: Housenka no Jutsu attack. Naruto avoided them all easily enough, and was back in Sasuke's face before he could use another ranged attack.
The taijutsu battle raged on, and Sasuke was getting clearly frustrated with his inability to get past Naruto's guard. Naruto was wondering if he should drive the Uchiha into the forest, where he could wreak havoc with his bunshin, catching him in trap after trap.
He never needed to though, as Sasuke's feet once again moved too fast for his body, allowing Naruto to break past the weak guard and slam in a powerful haymaker to the face, sending Sasuke into a tree. The boy made an attempt to stand, but was clearly dizzy from the last punch.
"Alright." Kakashi stepped in, "That's enough. Good fight boys."
Sasuke didn't seem to think so, but shook hands with the blonde, while fuming inside. Sakura and Aiko then fought, even though it was hardly a fight, over faster than the boys' fight. Sakura's perfect technical academy style was no match for Aiko's speed and clearly superior taijutsu.
Giving Sasuke more of a chance to rest up, Kakashi gave them all a few suggestions based on the fight, "Naruto, your training is obviously paying off, continue it. Sasuke, I would suggest following Naruto on his training schedule, you were obviously too slow. The flaws in your taijutsu are apparent, but cannot be corrected at the moment. Sakura I suggest you do the same as Sasuke."
Sakura nodded shamefully, it was hardly a month ago that she was easily better than Naruto, now he was beating Sasuke when it seemed she had hardly changed since the academy.
"Aiko can you beat your brother in a fight?" Kakashi asked the Uchiha female, who shook her head. "Then you should do the same as the others. Naruto's method of training obviously works well, even I sometimes forget that training with chakra can severely damper any speed and strength you wish to gain… now, time for team training."
The four genin stood, and Sasuke gave one last glare at Naruto, the other boy had only won because he had a better training regimen, out of a book that Sasuke had suggested they get for him at the library. It meant nothing that he lost; in a month he would destroy the blonde in a fight. A dead last was not meant to defeat an Uchiha.
It would never happen again.
101010
"Ahg! This sucks so much, why can't I do the stupid jutsu!"
Aiko watched as Naruto ran through the seals of Katon: Housenka no Jutsu again, and received nothing for his troubles. She was puzzled as well, Naruto had more than enough chakra for the jutsu, his seals were right, but he didn't get any results.
"Maybe you're just not good with fire jutsu." Aiko guessed, and Naruto pouted, looking rather cute.
'Cute?'
"But I don't have any other jutsu." Naruto whined laying down on the grass, "You and Sasuke have like a million fire jutsu, and all I really have is Kage Bunshin."
"Well fire isn't your element." Aiko sat down next to her blonde teammate, "I mean your wind training is going well, right?"
Naruto grumbled, "Kakashi-sensei hasn't even taught me any jutsu yet, all I'm doing is cutting things in half."
"I bet once you get it right, Kakashi-sensei will teach you an awesome jutsu…" Aiko suggested, trying to motivate her teammate. It seemed to work.
Naruto leapt up, "Yeah! You're right Aiko-chan; I have to get back to training, thanks!"
"What about dinner?"
But the blonde was already gone, she had suggested to Naruto that they go get dinner at Ichiraku, but didn't really get a straight answer. The Uchiha again felt rather stood up at the moment, but brushed it off.
'Definitely NOT cute.'
Aiko went home instead of going to Ichiraku's by herself, and was met with the face of a petulant Sasuke, who was lying on couch resting his sore muscles.
"Where's dinner?"
"Eat out."
"I'm too tired." Sasuke groaned.
Aiko glared, "I go through the same training you do, Sasuke. Why don't you make dinner for once?"
"I don't want to."
"You mean you can't cook." Aiko rolled her eyes, "Go get udon or something, you lazy bastard."
Sasuke sat up in his seat, "Weren't you going to get dinner with Naruto or something? I remember you said you'd bring back takeout for me."
"I didn't say that."
"Yes you did," Sasuke was puzzled for a second, before he smirked, "Heh, the dobe ditched you didn't he?"
"Shut up." Aiko sat next to her brother on the couch with a pout, "I'm pretty, aren't I? Who wouldn't want to go to dinner with me?"
"You aren't that pretty."
Aiko growled.
"Er, I mean you're gorgeous, he's probably gay." Sasuke quickly corrected, "Can you make me dinner now?"
Aiko threw a pillow at him.
101010
The next month went great for him, in Naruto's opinion. Sure, he was still broke and living off cup ramen, fish, and whatever rabbits or other small animals that didn't break out of his traps, but he was making visible progress in his taijutsu and chakra control.
Unfortunately his ninjutsu was a bit stuck, because after he had finished the leaf exercise, Kakashi handed him a rock in its place. Naturally Naruto complained, and Kakashi didn't just explain, he showed him.
Kakashi took him to the Konoha hospital where one of the only other wind users in the village was currently resting in intensive care. The man had apparently tried to use his affinity like a tornado of razor sharp sickles… but he hadn't trained for such a thing, so instead of the sickles spreading away from him and towards his enemy… they had torn him apart, leaving literally half a man, missing half a leg and an arm.
That was why Naruto had to progress much more slowly than the others, Sasuke and Aiko had been controlling fire for years, and lightning techniques had to be made from the body's own bioelectricity combined with chakra… air was everywhere, one wrong move, saturation of his chakra in one incorrect way, and any jutsu Naruto tried to perform would turn back on him, slicing him apart.
So Naruto worked everyday with his bunshin, learning more about his wind natured chakra. He watched in amazement as it cut him, and how the wounds closed so quickly he could watch the progress. Was that natural or from Kyuubi…? He didn't know. Along with his other exercises, the rock took up a majority of his time, and when he slept he dreamt about it.
A few days ago, he had struck success; he and his clones had managed to produce one jaggedly cut in half rock. Kakashi dutifully informed him the cut needed to be cleaner, but admitted to Naruto that he had never done the rock exercise, and could not demonstrate a clean cut. So Naruto had continued working, and the cuts grew cleaner every day, he was close.
His other trainings progressed nicely as well, Kakashi informed him that his normal non-chakra workout was too easy for him now, and convinced him to double his efforts, along with adding a morning run to his workout, which at this point had advanced to five miles. He still sparred with his bunshin, but it was like a game now.
Chakra control progressed slowly but surely, he had all but finished with the leaf technique, it felt like ages since he had started the first step. He had combined fighting with bunshin with keeping the leaf on his forehead, while they did the same. It was a slow interesting experience, especially at first when all the Narutos kept stopping to pick up and reapply dropped leaves. Now it had matured into an art, one Naruto enjoyed because it forced him to practice consistently using his chakra in two different ways (augmenting his speed and strength, and holding the leaf,) while fighting.
Team training was basically cut to half of the week, Kakashi to the rest of the group that they do as Naruto did, and try to complete their objectives without using chakra. At first it had seemed like an interesting idea to them… until they ran out of stamina thirty minutes into the exercise and dropped dead.
They were improving, but slowly. Sasuke and Aiko struggled with his original workout schedule, yet they kept at it, keeping pace with Naruto, except he was now doing twice as much as they were. Sakura had been unable to cope, and Kakashi suggested that it was best she only did a fraction of the workout.
Unlike Naruto, his teammates didn't recover the day after from their muscle straining exercises; Sakura was the worst of the group, struggling to move her muscles at all after her first workout session with Naruto coaching her.
Kakashi had quickly realized how weak his team was without chakra, which was a problem since only Naruto seemed to have huge reserves of chakra, about three times the size of his own. So despite their constant complaints, the team was stuck doing non-chakra workouts, Kakashi secretly wanted to enter them in the Chuunin exams that were coming up soon, and he wouldn't do it unless he was sure they were ready.
The genin usually spent their late evenings together, usually at the Uchiha home. Whenever the other two teams could, 8 and 10 joined them. Naruto had never really been close to any in the academy, although he had hung out with Kiba, Chouji and Shikamaru sometimes.
Now he was hanging around with all of them, learning about them and their clans, troubles, and expectations for the future.
Hinata's family life sucked and her father was a jerk. The first few times he had talked to her she just seemed to perpetually faint. Eventually she got used to his presence, but he still wondered what that was about. The main problem the girl had was confidence issues, even though the one time they sparred it only took one hit from her to send him to his knees, if only for a few seconds. The girl refused to fight him afterwards, because she didn't want to hurt him ever again. The blonde sometimes wondered how so passive a person could ever become a ninja, but Hinata was one of the nicest people he had ever met, and was glad she was his friend. She still turned a bit red whenever he said it though, Naruto had no clue why.
Ino loved to talk. More than Naruto liked to, or even Sakura when she got on a Sasuke rant. The only other blonde in the group liked to use him as a sounding board for ideas, and because usually he had no idea what she was talking about, and just agreed with her, "Hmm…? Oh yeah, sure." Was his main response.
Shino didn't seem to like to talk, but appeared to appreciate the fact that Naruto thought his bugs were 'wicked cool,' and went out of his way to show the blonde exactly what new specimen he had added to his collection, and how it could be used against an opponent.
Shikamaru was his only worthy shougi opponent, their matches lasted hours, and Shikamaru's plans were always subtle and hard to see. Naruto had to study the board for minutes just to see the plans and how to counter them, and Shikamaru in turn would do the same. For all their matches, the two were about dead even in wins, every time they met they seemed to play a match. Team 10 was amazed that anyone could match Shikamaru in shougi, and Ino had taken to calling Naruto 'the idiot savant,' much to his annoyance.
Although Sasuke ignored him outside of training for the most part, Sakura and Aiko were great teammates. Sakura awkwardly apologized for her treatment of him in the academy, and the two began to train together constantly. The pink haired girl marveled at Naruto's taijutsu, which had improved at an astounding rate, and mourned the fact that the blonde could now easily defeat her. Naruto insisted that the only reasons he could beat her was because one, he had more chakra, and two he had been training his speed and strength since he had left the academy.
Naruto added that since Sakura already had great control over her chakra, working out without augmenting her chakra could greatly benefit her. So the girl started to take Kakashi's order more seriously, and often trained alongside Naruto in his own workouts, it was slow progress for the girl who didn't have Naruto's amazing stamina or recovery, but she was improving.
The morning of his personal training day (that he shared with Sasuke unfortunately,) Naruto proudly delivered Kakashi the most cleanly cut rock he'd ever seen.
"Good, you're ready to take the next step after we get our mission for the day."
"Jutsu?" Naruto asked excitedly.
"Maybe."
Naruto didn't like maybe, but didn't argue. They completed their mission, catching a lost dog which was completed rather quickly. After a quick lunch of left over rabbit he had stored in his fridge, Naruto rushed back to the training grounds and met Kakashi and Sasuke. Aiko and Sakura had already left, saying something about a girls day out. Naruto figured that meant they wanted to train together or whatever girls liked to do.
"So Kakashi-sensei what awesome jutsu are you going to teach me now? Huh? Is it really powerful? Is it?"
Kakashi handed him another rock.
"…I already did this one."
Kakashi smiled, "Now you have to build up the number of clean cuts you can make. You can't go on until you cut the rock into eight clean pieces."
"No way!" Naruto shouted, "I wanna learn a jutsu!"
"Naruto…" the Jounin sighed, "I understand your rush, but I'm setting you down on the same path my sensei went to perfect his wind affinity. He was one of the greatest wind elemental users in the world."
Naruto's demeanor changed, "Wow he was? Did he retire or something? Can I meet him? Huh, Kakashi-sensei?"
"No," Kakashi looked… sad. "He died, Naruto. Fighting the Kyuubi."
The blonde's face fell, "Oh…" Naruto reflexively touched his stomach, "I'm sorry, Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi patted him on the shoulder, "It's alright Naruto. Now, if you get four clean cuts and eight pieces you can move on… and if you cut yourself while doing it, you have to start over."
Naruto groaned, but Kakashi laughed, "Don't worry Naruto, this is actually a pretty simple step, you already know how to cut the rock, now its just about summoning multiple blades at once, which isn't as hard as it seems."
"Hey sensei?" Naruto asked, and Kakashi turned back.
"Yes Naruto?"
"Who was your teacher?"
"…You probably wouldn't recognize him by name, but his title. Yondaime Hokage-sama."
With that, Kakashi went to Sasuke to give him tips on something he understood a lot better, lightning and fire jutsu, leaving Naruto awed that his sensei was trained by the man who Naruto idolized, and trying to cut rocks with the help of his bunshin. If the Yondaime could do it, so could he.
Naruto had to admit, Kakashi was right. By the end of the session he had cut himself several times, but had three jagged cuts in his rock, once he hit four all he had to do was make the cuts cleaner… this was definitely a fast step.
Unfortunately he had taijutsu training now, so cutting the rock would have to wait… Naruto had become a stickler for his schedule, something very surprising since he could never even stand to show up to the academy on time. Waving goodbye to his sensei and Sasuke, the blonde ran off to continue his training.
101010
"Boss! Fight me!"
His friends watched in amusement as Naruto fought off a short brown haired kid in a really long blue scarf. The rookies had been out for a walk after a long day of training and missions, then suddenly this kid came out of nowhere from under a square rock and demanded to fight Naruto.
"Get- off- Konohamaru!" Naruto struggled to push the punching kid away.
"Having trouble with a kid, Naruto?" Kiba laughed,
"No! I will defeat you and become next in line to be Hokage!" Konohamaru struggled to land a solid blow on Naruto, who was determined to just push the little kid away.
"What?" Naruto yelled, "No way, I'm the next Hokage!"
Konohamaru jumped back, "Take this! Oiroke no Jutsu!"
Suddenly, Konohamaru was replaced with a beautiful and leggy brunette… a very naked brunette.
Kiba choked, and suddenly flew back as a stream of blood left his nose. Shikamaru closed his eyes, and Chouji stopped eating his chips to stare in shock. Shino turned away quickly to wipe away the small amount of blood that came out of his nose.
"Hn." Sasuke was unimpressed, "Teaching kids your stupid tricks, Naruto?"
Naruto glanced at the girls, who were staring daggers at him, he gulped and quickly raised his hands in defense, "Hey, I didn't teach him that!"
Konohamaru poofed back to normal, "Hey, yeah you did boss."
"Shh!" Naruto covered Konohamaru's mouth, "Shut up!" Konohamaru bit his hand and Naruto howled in pain.
"Naruto." Aiko growled, "What have I told you about that little trick?"
"Er… don't ever do it again?" Naruto replied nervously.
"Yes."
"Get him!" Sakura shouted, and she, Ino and Aiko pounced on Naruto, beating the hell out of him.
"Hey, kid!" Kiba had stuffed a couple of napkins in his nose to stop the bleeding, "You wanna teach me that move?"
"What's in it for me?"
"K-Kiba-kun!" Hinata was the only one not beating on Naruto, and she was watching Kiba and Konohamaru with disapproval in her eyes.
Kiba leapt back nervously, "Heh h-hey, Hinata I was just kidding!"
"Hmm." Shino pushed his glasses up his nose, "A most… interesting, technique."
"We saw your nose bleeding, Shino." Chouji said, Shino chose to ignore him.
"Troublesome technique." Shikamaru corrected, watching Naruto getting beat on by their three female friends."
"It's stupid." Sasuke snorted, "Who would fall for that?"
"Anyone who isn't gay?" Kiba suggested, looking straight at Sasuke.
"…What are you saying?"
"Nothing!" Kiba replied innocently, and the other genin chose not to meet Sasuke's eyes.
The Uchiha scowled, but decided it was too unimportant to try and figure out what his 'friends' were talking about. Instead he imagined how he would beat up Itachi, like he always did.
"Ow!" Naruto cried.
"Shut up!" Ino replied, "You deserve this for making a stupid technique like that!"
"Keep kicking him." Sakura agreed, "Until he never does it again!"
It was not a good day for Naruto, but hey, Konohamaru 'technically' beat him up… or at least got him beaten up. That's what the kid tells himself at least.
101010
"Yes I win!" Naruto smiled triumphantly doing a little dance, "That makes the score 11 to 9! I'm pulling away, Shika!"
Shikamaru grumbled.
"What's that Shikamaru?" Naruto grinned, "Did you say 'Naruto you're amazing, I wish I were you?'"
"I said it was luck."
"Take that back!"
"Ino distracted me and I didn't see your counter defense seventeen moves in. That ruined the game."
Naruto scoffed, "Ino spent the whole game talking to me, you don't see me complaining! Admit it, you lost, you lost, you lost!" Naruto continued his little dance while the others watched in amusement. They had all met up at the Uchiha apartment, their hangout of choice as there were no parents.
"C-Congratulations, Naruto-kun."
"Aww thanks Hinata-chan!" Naruto gave her a one armed hug, which sent the Hyuuga girl into a deep blush, although she didn't faint.
"It's still early." Aiko noted, checking the clock, "Usually you guys take longer."
"The seventeenth move-"
"It's cuz I'm so awesome obviously."
"No one likes a sore winner, Naruto." Ino finally said, getting a little annoyed with Naruto's antics.
"Then why are you in love with Sasuke?"
Ino growled and shoved her fist into the back of Naruto's head, "Shut up! Sasuke-kun is very gracious in victory, right, Sasuke-kun?"
Sasuke grunted.
"No, Sasuke-chan is a sore winner." Aiko deadpanned, which sent Naruto into another fit of laughter despite his aching head. Shikamaru began to clean up the board, and Naruto helped him put it away.
"Let's go spar." Kiba suggested, and Naruto quickly agreed.
"Yeah! Hinata-chan can show me that move again, Gentle Punch or whatever."
"Uhm, th-that's Gentle Fist, N-Naruto-kun."
"I'm beat!" Sakura groaned, "Why do you want to train more, Naruto?"
"It's sparring! That's not training, that's fun!" Naruto insisted, but except for Kiba and Naruto, no one wanted to go out and spar. Instead they stayed in, Sasuke demanded udon, and Aiko allowed him to order in for everyone, although they all insisted paying for their own bowl. Even Naruto was able to scrape up some cash, he had cut back on cup ramen, instead eating mainly fish, rabbit, squirrel, and whatever berries he could find that weren't poisonous.
"So Ino-chan, did I tell you how I beat Sasuke in a fight?" Naruto bragged for the umpteenth time.
The platinum haired blonde rolled her eyes, "Yes Naruto, it still sounds like you got lucky to me."
"What?" Naruto started to regale them again with the tale of how Sasuke had to surrender to his might, which became more fanciful every time. This time it included an extra battle, where Naruto beat Kakashi as well and the Jounin had to surrender control of the team to the blonde, and they would go on A-rank missions forever until Naruto became Hokage-
"No one cares, Naruto." Kiba muttered, "Stop making stuff up."
"What was that, dog breath?"
"What? Dog breath! Why I outta…"
Sakura slammed her fists into both of their heads, "I'M TRYING TO REST DAMMIT! SHUT UP!"
Even Naruto was quiet after that. The three teams spent the rest of the night with each other as company, nearing midnight; everyone went home before their parents freaked out. Even though they were ninja, they still had unwritten curfews that they couldn't pass. This only didn't hold true for Naruto, but he went home as well even though Aiko and (to a lesser extent) Sasuke informed him he could stay in the guest room anytime.
He liked the Uchiha siblings, but sometimes he wondered if Sasuke really even liked him, or anyone for that matter. The boy obviously cared for his sister, but everyone else seemed like an afterthought. Naruto couldn't figure Sasuke out; he isolated himself from the rest of them, keeping his distance.
Ambition… to kill a certain man…
That was the most that Sasuke had ever spoken in front of Naruto of his deepest, inner most thoughts. They were ninja though, why couldn't Naruto help Sasuke in his quest? Naruto was not oblivious; he knew he might have to kill as a ninja. Did Aiko want to kill the man who killed their clan as well? Did she, like Sasuke, have such an ambition?
Nothing ever seemed clear cut with the Uchiha, Naruto decided. One day they were the most powerful clan in Konoha, the next they had all been slaughtered by one member, only one. What kind of monster had that kind of power? To slay an entire clan, his own, by himself?
Naruto didn't know, but he feared for his friends. If he could kill over one hundred Uchiha, how could Sasuke possibly beat him?
The blonde's troubled thoughts carried over into his dreams, and his sleep was restless, full of faceless murderers and crying children.
101010
Naruto whistled a tune as he slashed a mark into the tree trunk and flipped off, a little too much chakra added there. He had finished the leaf exercise in chakra control and had moved onto the tree climbing exercise, which was basically running up and down trees using chakra to stick to the bark.
The trick was to use the right amount of chakra, and Naruto was finding it quite easy. He realized it probably wouldn't be if he wasn't used to using chakra constantly to hold the leaf while fighting, or at least moving. It was just harder to channel chakra to one's feet in comparison to their forehead. He and eleven of his bunshin had made quite a bit of progress in one session, and Naruto didn't expect this exercise to take much longer.
His book, which he had rechecked out several times because it was an awesome reference, said that he would have sufficient control if he could walk or run up and down the tree ten times. Really once he was doing that he should be able to stay on all day, until he ran out of chakra.
"Naruto?"
The blonde looked down to see Sakura, he flipped off the tree and landed in front of her, his bunshin equally moved to gather and greet the pink haired girl. Naruto ordered them back to their trees, and they did so, despite more than one calling him a slave driver.
"What's up, Sakura-chan?"
Sakura didn't know why Naruto was so insistent to call her 'Sakura-chan' instead of just Sakura, but since he did it with every girl, she ignored it. "What are you doing?"
"It's not obvious?"
Sakura smacked him on the back of the head, "Asshole! Just tell me dammit." Naruto rubbed the back of his head; this was starting to be a trend. Maybe he shouldn't have done this training at Team 7's personal training area.
"It's a chakra control exercise; after I finish it I'll be even more awesome than I already am!"
"Oh," Sakura looked at the Naruto clones that were continuing the exercise, "So you stick to the tree with chakra and run up it? Can I try?"
"Yeah!" Naruto grinned, "But I have to tell you, its pretty har-"
Naruto's eyes widened as Sakura ran up the tree, sticking the whole way, before turning around and walking back down calmly. The girl laughed at the expression on his face, "Jeez Naruto, your control must suck, this is easy!"
"It's not easy for me…" Naruto facefaulted, he had been at this for an hour dammit! How could Sakura do it in two seconds?
"I guess I'm just way 'awesomer' than you, this time." Sakura joked, sauntering away, "You have fun playing with trees Naruto. I'm going to get some real training done."
Naruto started up again furiously, muttering about the unfairness of it all. "Stupid chakra control, get better!" The blonde yelled, making it only halfway up to his old mark.
"What the hell!" Naruto scowled, "I guess this doesn't work if I'm angry." The bunshin all laughed from their trees, as their boss tried to calm himself through awkward standing quasi-meditation.
Sakura watched this from afar as she began to punch her usual log. Naruto was so weird, sometimes.
101010
K, that was the hardest chapter to find a song for, nothing fit well because there was a little of everything in it… good and bad. Last real filler chapter I guess, but I think these chapters only make the story better in the long run, plus they're nice to read in my opinion… nice to write too.
Some people feel like the Naruto hate from the village is a bit overdone, and really I kind of agree… but hey, its an AU, and I want it that way. Plus the villagers' feelings are going to play a major role in how Naruto's friends find out about the Kyuubi, but no, they won't do it all at once.
Also, a few people mentioned Sasuke was a bit TOO much of a prick, and I reread the last chapter and he does come off as prickish, maybe a bit too much… see, I don't want an Instant-Good-Sasuke story either, so maybe that influenced my writing a bit too much. Rest assured, one of the reasons Aiko is there is to help calm Sasuke where Naruto can't, because he doesn't have that familial bond with him. Other than loving his sister, Sasuke is pretty much the same as in canon… just placed in different situations, I hope I didn't screw him up too much, because he is an important character, and I do like him.
