Yes, I wrote more. Shocking, I know.
I didn't want to drop the story.
I really like this story, it's the only story I've ever come back to.
That's kind of sad if you think about it…
Anyway, Happy Valentine's Day since a majority of this was actually written on the Day of Love.
Some was the day after...
Not that this chapter has anything to do with love or anything…
If it seems weird, then my bad, I've got a cold…
This chapter's art is Naruto treating his team to ramen, Mitsuki is arguing with Naruto, Obito is eating, and Haru is reading a book.
"Naruto-sensei, you apologized to Mitsuki-chan right? After telling her about training?" Haru asked, sitting on a stone over looking a small cliff. He, Obito, and Naruto had been waiting there for the better half of an hour, waiting for the female member of their squad to appear. Neither he or Obito had seen the girl since she'd walked out of the hospital, where they'd been released from just over an hour ago.
"I said Sorry, man, girls always take everything I say the wrong way," Naruto griped, crossing his arms behind his head. Obito stared at his childish sensei from the base of one of three wind stricken trees the trio had gathered beneath.
"You told her where training was… right, Sensei?" Obito asked slowly. His grey eyes watched as Naruto froze on the spot, before slumping over.
"Kuso…" he whined, looking somewhat pathetic. Both male genin stared at their Jounin sensei as the same thought went through their head.
'Idiot…'
"All right, I'll go find her then," Naruto said. Haru sighed at the blonde Jounin and slid his sunglasses higher up on his face.
Sometimes he actually wondered if he really was the smartest person on the team, sure, Obito was one of the best in the class, when it came to everything. But for the mental stuff? Haru had everyone in there eating his dust, and still managed to help them with it. And what he couldn't teach them, well, there were other things their class did to prevent anyone from flunking out.
As Naruto began to walk away, the sound of yelling reached Obito and Haru's ears, coming from the exact opposite direction that Naruto was going.
"Sensei!" Haru called to the blonde. Naruto looked towards his male students, who were both standing and staring off into the distance. That's when Naruto heard the yelling as well.
"WILL YOU STOP FOLLOWING ME ALREADY?" a familiar voice shrieked.
Mitsuki's form became apparent in the high contrast of the bright sun, and she looked mad. There was someone else walking somewhat behind her, not yelling but a faint murmur caught in Obito's slightly sensitive ears.
"THEY'RE RIGHT THERE! NOW GO AWAY!" Mitsuki shrieked once more, storming over to her teammates. She had a look of absolute fury burning in her eyes, but the one who the fury was directed towards didn't seem at all frightened by it, no, if anything the boy was amused by it.
"Are you sure that's them? People could be impersonating them until I leave and then they'll kidnap you and you'll never be heard from again," the boy said, walking closer by Mitsuki.
"If you do not SHUT THE HELL UP and leave already, I'm going to send you flying!" Mitsuki snarled, stomping towards her teammates.
"That doesn't sound so bad, I've always wondered what it was like to fly-"
"USABARASHI! SHUT UP!"
Watching the exchange between his student and the Suna Nin, Naruto began to laugh. A lot. So much in fact, that it stole all three of his genins' attention from the fight to him.
"Sensei….what are you laughing at?" Haru asked. He pushed his sunglasses higher up on the bridge of his nose. But Naruto kept laughing still, pointing towards the frowning purple haired kunoichi and her grinning annoyance.
"Hi Naruto-sama, nice to see ya again. Sensei had me bring Mitsuki-chan to your training. You forgot to tell her where it was," Usabarashi said, grinning widely at the laughing blonde Jounin.
"So he sent you? Oh man!" Naruto doubled over, laughing even harder. The Suna genin didn't take this laughter as insulting, just kept smiling.
"I told him I helped her back to the House yesterday, and he said I should help her whenever you do something wrong during you guys' stay in Suna," the boy said, grinning proudly. Mitsuki glared at him, cracking her knuckles in anger rather than her just usual habit popping.
"I really do not like you," she said, slowly popping each joint in her left hand. Usabarashi smiled at her even more.
"Really? After such a small amount of time we've spent together, you've already grown to love me?" he asked, earning dumbfounded stares from all three Konoha genin.
"Oh, my god. Sensei, how much trouble would I get into for killing the Kazekage's student?" Mitsuki asked as she turned to face her slightly sobering sensei.
"A lot, so don't, because then you wouldn't learn the cool new tricks I'm going to teach you today. Thank you for bringing my young Genin here Usa-kun, tell your Sensei that he does have a sense of humor," Naruto said. He exhaled once, breathing off his laughter though a grin remained on his tan face.
Haru's eyes widened behind his sunglasses, and he looked towards the dark haired boy. "You're training under the Kazekage?" he asked, shock bleeding from the scoffed at her teammate, walking past him to go lean against one of the trees Obito was NOT standing underneath.
"So what if he is, we're training under the guy that beat the Kazekage, though you two weren't awake for those delightful trips down Memory Lane," Mitsuki said. Sarcasm was etched in her voice, but the stories were probably a distraction device to keep her mind off of her fallen teammates. She kind of liked hearing the idiotic stories about her Sensei when he was a genin.
"You enjoyed the stories and you know it Miki-chan. Catch you later Usa-kun," Naruto said, grinning. Usabarashi nodded once, still smiling, and disappeared in a swirl of sand.
"Holy Hokage, he creeps me out," Mitsuki said, as soon as all traces of the boy were gone. Naruto chuckled at his genin, walking back towards the center point between the three trees.
"Okay team, today you're going to learn about chakra control," Naruto declared. All three of the genin stared at him for a second, not saying anything.
"Are we doing that tree climbing thing?" Obito asked curiously. He'd seen his dad do it plenty of times, but he'd never asked him to show him how, he always said that he'd be trained better by a sensei who wasn't going to worry about his only son falling from a tall branch. It was annoying.
"We're climbing trees?" Mitsuki asked, unimpressed. How were you supposed to learn chakra control from climbing trees? That was a ridiculous idea and Mitsuki couldn't really see how it would help with chakra training.
"Sensei, how will that help with our chakra control?" Haru asked. He looked from the tree he was closest to, towards his sensei. What purpose was there for climbing a tree? You didn't need chakra to climb a tree.
"By not using your hands. At all," Naruto said, walking towards Obito's tree. The three genin watched their sensei with curiosity that soon turned into fascination as he focused his chakra and began to walk up the tree!
Mitsuki felt her jaw unhinge slightly, though she didn't open her mouth like an idiot would. Haru's eyes widened slightly as Naruto walked up the side of the tree towards the thickest branch, walking on top of it.
Naruto looked down at the genin, grinning like normal before he let himself fall back, his chakra focused to hold onto the branch as he swung down to hang on the underside of the thick tree branch like a bat. He turned around to see the shocked faces of both Haru and Mitsuki, Obito just watched passively, like he'd seen all this before.
"So, how do we do it?" the silver haired genin asked crassly. His father taught him the basics of things, when he wasn't working, but he'd never taught him proper chakra control. How could Obito become a better ninja if he didn't understand the basics of control.
His father only told him "If I teach you everything, what will your sensei have left to teach you?" But usually that was right before he had to go do Hokage business. He'd only been Hokage for two years, but he'd barely seen him for any of that time other than meals. Obito wanted his dad back…
"Focus your chakra into the base of your feet. But you need to be careful, too little…" Naruto trailed off as he released his chakra, falling to the ground and landing silently on his feet. "And you won't stick. Too much and it will repel you off the tree and damage the tree. I'd like you guys to not damage the trees, Suna doesn't have many."
"And if we finish early?" Mitsuki asked, sure of herself with being able to climb the tree all the way to the top. Naruto chuckled.
"We'll see when we get there," he said. "Now start. Oh, and you might want a running start. Use a kunai to mark your progress."
All three genin nodded their affirmation, drawing their kunai from various holster spots, and began to gather their chakra into their feet. Obito looked at the tree, determining it's thickness with how much chakra he'd need to get up the tree. Mitsuki used a wild guess, for trial and error purposes.
Obito and Mitsuki took off running towards the trees, Mitsuki took five steps up before she was repelled off the tree. She flipped herself so that she wouldn't land on her back. Obito had gotten nine steps up before his chakra slipped it's hold from the tree. This resulted in Obito pushing himself off the tree to land on his feet.
Haru had a different method; he simply walked up to the tree and placed a foot on it, measuring his chakra to what he'd need to walk up. Once he found a suitable balance, Haru began to walk up the tree with an ease that made it seem like he did this in his spare time. Mitsuki and Obito watched with fascination as Haru walked up to the highest part of the tree and swiped it with a kunai before calling down to his sensei.
"Naruto-sensei, this is pretty easy," Haru grinned, his sunglasses falling onto his forehead to show off the joy in his dark blue eyes. His face looked insanely happy, he'd never been the first to get anything right in practice. It felt good. Great even. Haru no longer felt like the weakest member of the team.
"Great job Haru-kun, That's the quickest I've seen anyone do it," Naruto said, grinning with pride for the genin. Mitsuki bit her lip, she was happy for Haru, most definitely she was. But she really wanted to show Naruto that she could get this easy.
Obito stared up at his comrade, a light smile on his face and a jovial laugh trying to surface. He was happy for his teammate, truly. Obito knew he'd get it eventually, but it was nice to know that his comrade had such amazing chakra control.
"Come on you two, I don't want Haru-kun to be the only one to get this right off the bat," Naruto razzed, grinning deviously. He was teasing, he knew, and it was mainly towards Mitsuki. Mitsuki would be the most infuriated by his teasing, therefore would be the one most dedicated.
Both Genins tightened their grips on their kunai, and began to run towards the trees. Both higher up than last time, actually they both got higher than Obito's previous height, but again they fell. Obito's chakra repelled him from the tree at eighteen feet, and Mitsuki's chakra lost it's hold at fifteen. The trees were about fifty feet high.
Mitsuki looked up at the top of her tree, glaring heavily. She was thinking. If her first try had been too much, and her second try had been too few, then she need to her chakra into a middle ground. It wasn't exactly a science, it was logical.
Haru watched his teammates try and try to climb to the top of the trees, sitting atop the boulder where he originally was with Naruto asleep on the ground a few feet away. They looked like they were slowly getting it, they didn't need his help, and obviously wouldn't be getting any help from their Sensei. Haru watched his teammates, watched them learn and go higher and higher up the trees. They were so close to getting it.
Obito liked this exercise. It was a trial and error thing, first you try, find your error, and try again. And you keep doing that until you succeed.
He and Mitsuki were resting on the ground, Obito was slightly out of breath, and if Mitsuki was she didn't show it. She just looked angry.
"I think I got this," she said, pushing herself up off the ground. Obito didn't join in the little race, but chose to watch the kunoichi to see if she succeeded this time.
Mitsuki focused the chakra into her feet, and then raced up the tree. She kept going higher and higher, keeping her chakra focused and even for the tree. Obito watched her. She was going to do it, she was going to make it. That settled it for him, he needed to climb up that tree in the next five minutes so that he wouldn't be seen as the weakest.
"YES!" Mitsuki crowed hanging from the top of the tree. Her kunai was stuck in the top of the tree, and her legs were wrapped around it's thin trunk. She'd gotten it! It hadn't even been an hour since Naruto had assigned the task, and she'd done it!
Naruto opened his bright blue eyes, proving that he had been awake the entire time, and stared up into the tree. He didn't smile, didn't make a single expression, just stared up. His genin were proving to be something else, already having some hold of chakra when it had taken him and Sasuke a couple days. It had only been an hour. Naruto turned his gaze towards Obito, who was running up the side of his own tree until he reached the top, and shoved the kunai in.
Well damn, now Naruto had to plan something else. He laughed off his lazy grumpiness and pushed himself into a standing position.
"Congratulations guys, now we move onto something harder," Naruto said.
"Like what?" asked Mitsuki as she slid down the tree.
"The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
"Shadow Clones?" asked Obito. Once he got low enough on the tree, he jump down and landed nimbly on his feet.
"Yup."
"Isn't that a Jounin level technique?" Haru asked from his rock. It was his rock, he claimed it for the day. He would not give up his rock…
Where was his canteen, he was starting to feel a bit warm… Haru peeled off his two shirts and dropped his black long sleeved shirt onto the sand beside his rock before donning his white shirt again.
"Haru-kun stopping stripping for us, it's going to distract the female member of our team," Naruto teased. All three genin stared blankly at the blonde ninja, though Haru had a slight blush on his face.
"Sensei, you're an idiot. Now are you really going to teach us a Jounin level technique?" Mitsuki asked, brushing off the previous comment. She wanted to learn a higher grade technique, one that could help her perfect a jutsu she'd been working on.
"Believe it," Naruto said, grinning.
-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-
"Where's Usabarashi? He's late again…" a brunette twelve-year-old girl whined, lying on the warm sand. She, along with a younger blonde boy and a red headed man, were sitting in the desert waiting for the third member of their genin squad.
"Sora, I've sent Usabarashi out on a mission, he'll be arriving shortly," the red haired man said. He looked at the young kunoichi with ringed eyes, eyes that never displayed any emotion for as long as Sora had been his student. Probably longer than that, but she'd never really looked at him before being assigned as his genin.
"Hai, Kazekage-sensei," she said, defeated.
"Is he following around that tiny little kunoichi from Konoha again? I'm tired of him getting distracted like this," a boy complained, digging his foot into the sand.
"Tadao, you think so little of me that I'd get distracted by a pretty girl?" came a familiar happy voice behind him. Tadao didn't have to feel the sand blowing against his back to know that his other teammate had arrived. He turned to face him, green eyes glaring.
"So you think she's pretty."
"Have you seen her hair? It's so pretty under the Suna sun. Besides, she's quite strong willed, not like some girls I know who just go along with whatever anyone asks of her," Usabarashi said, staring pointedly at his female comrade. She merely shrugged as she sat up.
"I'm an easy going gal, what can I say?" she grinned. She pushed herself up to stand, and towering easily over her two teammates.
"Bah, you two are ridiculous. Sensei what are we doing today?" Tadao asked, turning towards the stoic Kage.
Gaara stared at his genin, wondering how he'd managed to get such loud people for his team. But they were skilled, he'd give them that, which was why he'd requested to train the trio of students. Usabarashi and Sora were twelve, but Tadao was only ten, excelling above anyone else in his class.
"Sora, I want you and Tadao to fight today. Your puppetry against his wind chakra," Gaara said. The two genin nodded.
"Hai, Sensei," they said simultaneously.
"Usabarashi, come with me," Gaara ordered the dark haired genin. Usabarashi had been watching his comrades throw insults at each other, a smile for once not decorating his tan face.
"Hai, Kazekage-Sensei," Usabarashi said, tearing his eyes from his teammates. He followed Gaara towards a spot farther away from their teammates, where they could just hear the sounds of their fight. Usabarashi focused on his Sensei.
"Usabarashi, you're learning the third eye technique. It will be handy for you to learn in case you need to spy on your enemy," Gaara said.
"How do I do that? Ball of sand, focus my chakra to it and from my eye?"
"Your optic nerve, you link chakra to your optic nerve in whichever eye feels dominant to you and then to your hand that's controlling the sand and ultimately the sand itself."
"Sounds tricky. Wanna bet how long it'll take before I master it?"
"No, just work on doing it efficiently. Now press a finger on your dominant eye and focus on the flow of chakra there."
Usabarashi did exactly as he was told to do by his Sensei. He was a sand user like his sensei, so he'd be able to learn the most from him. Sora and Takao had some days where they trained with Kankuro-Sensei or Temari-Sensei, but usually they all had their trainings with the Kazekage.
He was distracted though, by a memory of that smile Mitsuki wore yesterday when he'd led her to the Kazekage house. That made him smile as he practiced his jutsu.
-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-Break-
"Sensei, can we take a break?" Mitsuki asked. She was on her hands and knees, panting deeply. They'd been at this for hours, and Naruto wanted them to be able to make more than two shadow clones at a time in the quickest amount of time. Obito was sitting against a tree, sweating horribly and panting. His eyes were closed. Haru was in the worst condition, sitting in front of his rock, panting, sweating, and trembling.
Naruto looked up at the sun, squinting at it. So far, the most the genin could do were two clones in fifteen minutes, he didn't expect them to be like him and be able to make a thousand, but he had been the worst genin and his year and he'd gotten it quick. Naruto might need to lower his standards a bit about them.
"A break would be good right about now. Come on, I'll treat you guys to lunch. Gonna meet up with an old friend and his team," Naruto said.
"Don't tell me we're going to meet with Usabarashi," Mitsuki said. She glared heavily up at her sensei, she had no desire to spend anymore time with that happy go lucky idiot. Naruto laughed.
"Fortunately for you, no."
Obito looked to Mitsuki's confused face as she looked back and forth between him and Haru. Obito shrugged, their Sensei apparently had a lot of friends in Suna.
"So who is it?" Haru asked.
"You'll see when we get there. Now come on team, I can hear your stomachs from here," Naruto said. At that moment, all three genins' stomachs began to let out feral sound growls.
Naruto was laughing as the genin followed him back to the village.
Okay, sooooo?
How was it?
If it was too crazy and weird, my apologies, I am ill.
On the plus side to being sick, I have a coloring book and crayons!
It's so awesome!
Okay, time to answer my lovely reviews!
Bookworm73: Again I say, you are great! Lol, thanks for coming back and reading! Naruto will never change, he's still a knucklehead. An adorable knucklehead though. : )
hypnotic flames: Mitsuki's phobia? We'll see about that… Thank you for coming back and reading again, and reviewing again! So far you have the most reviews, you get a cookie! Or a cupcake… I know, you get a coloring book and crayons because who doesn't want that? Lol : )
