Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Once Kakashi had woken up from his so-called 'nap', he had almost immediately, after eating of course, written out a plan for the team to follow for the next week. It was rather simple: strengthen their weaknesses, and improve their strong areas.
Sakura has small chakra reserves. Although she had brought their capacity up a tenfold during her time on team 7, she still can't hold even half of what Naruto or Sasuke can. On the other hand, she was becoming more skilled with weaponry, strategy planning, and genjutsu was definitely a possibility-and from what Kakashi knew, she had already started studying the subject. Sasuke is too arrogant. The Uchiha holds himself in high priority, and mostly only utilizes the jutsu that he had learned from the Uchiha scrolls, limiting his knowledge vastly. But the Uchiha can also work well and fast when required, being a main tank, he utilizes his knowledge to its fullest ability. Finally, Naruto is too down-putting. Unlike his raven teammate, Naruto doesn't always use his vast knowledge and understanding in battle, preferring to limit himself to learn more about his teammates. Although, he has the potential to be a strong leader and teamworker-with the potential to rise very high in the ninja ranks some day.
While the three genin had very different areas to improve on, they could definitely help one another achieve the main goal; improvement.
Setting Naruto and Sakura up for mock fights would be good. It would require Sakura to use her planning skills to overcome her strength difference between her and Naruto, in addition to the fact that she would have to drain her reserves of chakra to almost empty to keep up with Naruto, and Naruto would be required to use and jutsu no more than two times during the entire fight, making him use more jutsu's that he is less comfortable with. Sticking them on the side of a tree would make it all the more interesting, too. Naruto and Sasuke could share their knowledge on jutsu, widening Sasuke's reserve of them, and making Naruto more comfortable with teaching his fellow teammates. Sasuke and Sakura could work on weaponry together, with softer blows and slightly dull weapons, both participants would be able to improve their skills with their weapons, improve their agility, and learn to use more things than just jutsu, as Sasuke doesn't always use said things during fights. A sharp and well-aimed kunai could quickly turn the tides in any fight.
As Kakashi drew out his training plans, he grinned evilly. Although the team wouldn't be able to perfect anything before Zabuza recovered, he would work them until they dropped. They don't know what's coming for them.
~The Next Morning~
Naruto stood up from his fuuton, stretching his arms high above his head.
"Morning Sasuke~," the blonde called cheerfully to his still half-asleep roommate.
"Ngh," Sasuke moaned, rolling towards the wall and away from his too-cheerful teammate.
"Nyah! Sasuke is too mean!"
With a hearty sigh, Naruto turned to the door. "Don't expect me to save you any breakfast."
Sasuke stood up as fast as he could. Naruto's stomach is like a black hole, he could eat for days and still be hungry.
"I'll be right down," Sasuke said, his hand snapping up to his forhead in a mock salute.
Naruto chuckled, walking out the door with a wave. "See ya down there."
Downstairs, Naruto found that the rest of the household was already awake. Tsunami was standing by the stove, an apron around her waist. Next to her stood Sakura, a knife in hand and chopping up some vegetables. Inari sat gloomily on the windowsill that looked out across the village, his back to his hung-over grandfather that sat slumped at the table, with Kakashi not too far down the table from him.
Naruto took up the mostly peaceful scene, noting the slightly evil aura surrounding his brother, not even bothering to ask. 'I don't even want to ask,' Naruto thought to himself with a shudder.
Taking a seat across from Kakashi, Naruto called over to Tsunami. "Tsunami-san, when will breakfast be ready?"
"In dear time, Naruto-kun," Tsunami called back, momentarily stilling Sakura's hand and showing her a better way to cut the spinach.
Naruto sighed, accepting the vague answer with a heavy heart.
"Naruto, Sakura, once Sasuke manages to drag himself down here," Kakashi called up from his spot, looking away from a parchment that sat in front of him. "I'll inform you of our new training regime."
"Hai," the two responded in an eerily similar way.
Five long and slow minutes passed before Sasuke arrived in the kitchen.
"Please tell me there's still food," the raven muttered to himself, looking around the room.
"Hasn't even been served yet," Tsunami confirmed, making the Uchiha sigh in relief.
"Ah, now that we're all down here, team, gather round." Kakashi motioned his team over.
"Do you mind, Tsunami-san?" Sakura questioned, placing her knife down.
"Not at all, Sakura-chan. It's nice to have another female around here every once in a while."
Sakura walked over to the table where the rest of her team had already gathered.
"So, I've lain a training program for you guys for the next week so that you're at least mildly prepared for Zabuza when he returns."
Kakashi continued to go into detail of the plan he had lain out the night before. As he continued to drone, the team slowly grew more depressed as they realized how demonic their sensei really is.
"Usu, will they still be alive for dinner in three days time, Kakashi-san?" Tsunami questioned, walking to the table with plates resting in her hands.
"Well... we'll find out soon, won't we?" Kakashi replied, a grin evident on his face even with the mask covering it.
Shortly after breakfast, which consisted of omelets and rolls of slightly stale bread with rice, the team headed out in the direction that Tazuna had said led to a clearing. Apparently this area was about a ten minute walk away from the village and was slightly off in the forest. Tazuna had informed them that although there wasn't much in the clearing, it would be about as much privacy they would be able to find anywhere within a twenty-mile radius.
Being ninja, though, it took the team three minutes flat to find the place.
"First things first, do you all remember the tree-climbing exercise I taught you a few months back?" Kakashi began as he wandered around the sight, checking the place out.
"Yeah," the three genin replied simultaneously.
"Wonderful," Kakashi cheered, clapping his hands together like a happy child. "Naruto, Sakura, you'll be having mock fight. Naruto, you're limited to using any jutsu a total of two times, and yes, that includes the clone jutsu."
Naruto groaned.
"Sakura," the jounin continued, ignoring Naruto. "You have a smaller amount of knowledge on jutsu than Naruto, and smaller reserves, too. This exercise will help you utilize your planning skills with your skill difference between you and Naruto, also it'll help you practice your weaponry and jutsu." Kakashi paused. "And you'll be fighting on the side of that tree over there. First one to touch the ground first looses." Kakashi pointed to the skinniest tree around.
At this, both genin felt their eyes go wide with surprise. "What?!" They exclaimed loudly together.
"Sensei," Sakura cried, "I wouldn't be able to last ore than five minutes!"
"And I don't have very many jutsu that use only a small amount of chakra! I'll be out of chakra before nightfall!"
"Well, Naruto," Kakashi sweatdropped, "I'm pretty sure that won't be a problem. And Sakura, that's the point." He eye-smiled.
The sensei turned away from the two genin who were looking ready for their death.
"Sasuke, you'll be working with me for a little while. We need to expand your jutsu library, and finding out your chakra type wouldn't hurt out either."
"Hai, sensei."
"Begin!"
Naruto and Sakura raced over to the pointed-out tree, reaching their destination in no time.
The fight started off slowly, with Sakura trying her best to conserve the precious amount of chakra she holds and fending off Naruto's attacks at the same time. Her current strategy was quite simple: rile Naruto up. If Naruto lost his temper, his chakra control would decrease significantly, and he would stand the chance to accidentally blow himself off the tree by applying too much chakra to his feet, or falling down by applying too little.
The only problem was; how was she going to anger him without getting herself killed?
Naruto, on the other hand, was doing his best to use as little jutsu as possible and work with his weapons instead. As it currently stood, Sakura had been doing a lot of training with her own weapons and might prove to be a match against Naruto in the near future. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not. Also, using too many jutsu too early in the fight might result in him running out of jutsu to use. With his only real plan being to overpower the pinkette and tiring her out, running out of jutsu was not an option.
Kakashi and Sasuke hung around for a little while, watching the other two battle it out on the tree. Sakura was doing quite a lot of dodging, jumping from the bottom of one branch to another, kunai and shuriken following her everywhere. Soon though, deciding that the two wouldn't be finishing any time soon, Kakashi motioned Sasuke to follow him a little way away from the clearing to a small patch of flowers and herbs beneath three great trees.
"Sasuke, take a seat," Kakashi commanded, motioning to the spot in front of him as the sliver-haired man lowered himself to the ground.
Sasuke did as commanded.
Kakashi took out a small square of white paper, similar to the one he had given Naruto not too many months before. "Channel your chakra into this paper," Kakashi said, handing over said piece of paper. "It'll tell us what type of chakra you wield."
The raven took the paper, and did as told once more. The paper burst into flames, but Sasukes fingertips were coated in a small amount of dirt.
"Interesting..." Kakashi muttered, grabbing Sasuke's hand, studying the dirt. "I don't know if I knew any fire-earth Uchiha's. But I admit, I hadn't really thought about it, either."
"Aa. I haven't either." Sasuke shrugged.
"Rarely, now that I think about it, do these two jutsu come together." Kakashi tapped his chin. "However, I think we'll be able to use this to our advantage."
"Hm?" Sasuke looked up at his sensei, obviously curious.
"Lava."
"Lava?" Sasuke questioned.
"Hai. Lava. When you combine two different types of chakra, you can create a second element, so to speak. For example, lightning and wind can create a magnet release. Although, there's only been one person to be able to use that. It's said that you need a kekkei genkai to be able to use that, though. Lava release, however, is very possible for you. Combining these two chakra's however, doesn't come naturally. It requires hard work and dedication. Also, it can't be truly said if you'll ever actually be able to utilize this technique. Some people can and others can't. Life isn't fair like that."
Sasuke nodded once to show his understanding. "Ne, Sensei, what would I do if I wouldn't be able to master this?"
"Well, we'll save that for later. First, you're going to learn how to use the different types of chakra."
~Back With Naruto and Sakura~
'This tree... it's never going to be normal again...' Naruto thought to himself as he traded blows with his opponent.
Sakura had stopped running away and began to fight back almost as soon as Sasuke and Kakashi left the area. The blond couldn't help but wonder if she had been originally holding back because she was embarrassed to fight in front of her old crush.
He was soon proven wrong.
Sakura would move very fast. She would come in, take a shot or two at Naruto then run further up the tree, making it nearly impossible for Naruto to take a direct hit. It's impossible to know when she'll come back down again-an unpredictable way of fighting. It was a smart strategy, considering her disadvantage in the fight, but boy, was it getting on Naruto's nerves.
"Sakura!" Naruto shouted as she dashed away again. "Could you please just decide?! Up or down?! Stop running away!"
Sakura giggled, but didn't stop. "Come catch me, Naruto!" She taunted, dashing away again.
Naruto growled, and channeled more chakra to his feet and fell down, a small explosion going off where his feet were originally. 'Crap!' Naruto mentally shouted. 'She's intentionally provoking me! Sakura's trying to make me mad, and what's worse is... it's working!'
Naruto caught himself on a lower branch, and after swinging himself up to the top of the branch, he paused and took in a deep breath, calming himself.
"That's not going to work again, Sakura!" Naruto shouted up to the pinkette.
"Oh really?" she shot him a sly grin. "We'll find out about that, won't we?"
Naruto grinned right back. "I guess we will."
The two continued to battle, and as the minutes went by, Naruto became more accustomed to Sakura's fighting, getting used to the spontaneous way of fighting she had begun to use.
"Wind Release: Swirling Leaves!" The weak wind jutsu shot up Sakura, who easily dodged.
"Is that all you've got, Naruto?" Sakura taunted.
"Hn," Naruto grunted, grinning. "That was only the appetizer!"
Sakura looked up, realizing that when she was dealing with the jutsu, Naruto had moved above her. The jutsu was only a distraction.
"Lightning release: Final Light!" The B-class jutsu shot down at Sakura, a single ray of lightning that was shooting right for Sakura. Taken by surprise, Sakura had no way to dodge.
With a great boom and a flash of white light, the lightning connected with Sakura. Naruto paused, resting himself against the side of the tree. Suddenly, Sakura appeared where Naruto was, and Naruto was falling.
With a startled shout, Naruto barely caught himself on the stump of the branch where the lightning had connected with the tree. Above him, Sakura was panting, her clothes and hair slightly burned from the intensity of the lightning.
"You... used substitution?" Naruto gasped, pulling himself up.
"Yeah," Sakura groaned back. "I nearly did it too late. You were the first thing that came to mind when I did it."
"Well, interesting as that may be, this battle hasn't stopped." With his declaration, Naruto shot up at his opponent, who readied herself for the upcoming impact.
~Back to Kakashi and Sasuke~
"Sensei," Sasuke called with a groan, collapsing to the ground. "I just can't figure out how to control the earth."
"It's not the whole earth you're trying to grasp, remember. Unlike fire, you're just taking a small, very small, section of what's around you. It's a matter of the fraction."
"It just doesn't make sense!" Sasuke growled, slamming his fists into the ground.
"Just think about it. I'm going to check on your teammates. Take this time do meditate or something. Just think about it, and when you think you can grasp it, pull on it and do it."
Sasuke groaned but nodded. "Hai, Sensei."
Kakashi didn't reply as he walked away from his student.
"Grasp the idea, grasp the idea." Sasuke sat himself upright, laying his hands in his lap and closing his eyes. "Grasp it, and take it."
Sasuke sat there, not moving, not noticing the squirrel that ran across his foot, chasing after a nut. Or the buck that peered into the small clearing with fright before dashing across to join its family. It was like the raven was oblivious to the world.
His chest seemed to be frozen, no air entering or exiting. His hair swaying slightly with the directionless breeze in the clearing. All was still.
Until the earth under Sasuke began to move, rumbling with a deep tremor. The buck and his family bolted, and the squirrel flashed up a tree. The earth, trembling and shaking, slowly began to move upwards.
Sasuke's eyes shot open, his mouth twisting into a grin.
"I've caught it. Grasped it. Pulled it."
A/N
So there you go! First chapter that came out on time in a long time. Thank you, thank you. I know, I'm epic.
Have I already said that listening to epic music is a really good motivator to writing? Because it is. AND ALMOST 200 FOLLOWS! CAN YOU BELIEVE HOW FREAKED OUT I AM?! IT'S AMAZING. Thanks so much! Seriously. :D
~firefox26 over and out
