A day has passed after the Second Exam was finished, and Sasuke has yet to locate Kakashi. So he decides to take a break to visit Naruto and finds the very man he's looking for.
I'm sooo lazy, eh? Ehehehe…Anyways, here is the new chapter! It's a bit lighter than the previous on, methinks. Enjoy!
The Naruto Cast does not belong to me; they belong to Kishimoto Mashashi.
Kendra Taotou belongs to me.
Anyone's characters who are used in the current chapters will have their disclaimer put up as well.
Key
"Word" Talking
'Thought' Thinking
"Snake" Orochimaru Mentally Speaking
"What do you mean he's not taking visitors?" Sasuke demanded angrily, slamming both hands on the hospital countertop.
"We're sorry, but Uzumaki-san is not well enough to be visited just yet." The receptionist apologized.
Sasuke was about to retort, but a loud voice interrupted them…a very familiar loud voice…
"What the hell do you mean you can't train me!? Why do you have to train Sasuke!?"
Sasuke glanced back at the receptionist, a smug smirk on his face and an eyebrow arched. "Methinks you need to go over that again."
The receptionist grimaced. "Second floor, first door on the right at the top of the stairs."
"Thank you."
"Hush Naruto, this is a hospital. Be mindful of the other patrons." Kakashi said.
"But it's not fair!" Naruto whined. "What does he have that I don't!?"
"I'm sorry Naruto, but it's council's orders." Kakashi said. "Besides, when you're well enough, there are two people who have agreed to teach you."
"Oh yea, who?" Naruto grunted, pouting.
"They'll be here within the hour." Kakashi said dismissively. "Don't stress about it too much; I can assure you that it will turn out fine."
"Kakashi-sensei, Naruto." The door to the warden slid open and Sasuke stepped in.
"Oh, Sasuke-kun." The silver-haired Jounin waved. "Perfect timing. I was just about to go and find you."
Naruto gave Sasuke a withering glare, before jerking his chin up and looking the other way.
"Well, later Naruto." Kakashi turned to leave.
"Ah wait!" Naruto said desperately. Kakashi and Sasuke paused on their way out to look at him. "What is it?" The Uchiha asked.
"AT least wait with me until they arrive." The blonde pleaded.
Sasuke thought about this for a moment. "Hm…no."
"Eh!? WAIT!" But they were already gone.
Naruto glowered at nothing in particular. "Kakashi could have made a shadow clone to stay with me…even a cardboard cut-out would have done the job…"
As if on cue, there was a poof of smoke, which revealed a smiling cutout of Kakashi giving one of his traditional half waves.
"Haha, VERY FUNNY!" Came the un-amused shout.
"Come on, you need to go with Ebisu."
"Awww, but I want to keep burning up the ants with my death glare of DOOM!"
"If by 'death glare of doom' you mean by burning them up with a magnifying glass, then you can do that later."
"Promise?"
"…Suuure."
"Yay!"
The blonde cackled evilly to himself as he graffitied on Kakashi's face using a black sharpie he had found in the bedside stand.
HE was just finishing up adding a vampire mouth where he would assume Kakashi's real mouth to be when the door slammed open.
The blonde gave a startled yelp, dropping both cardboard cut-out and sharpie. "ACK!"
"Hullo shitling! Miss me?" A very familiar proctor stood in the doorway, Ebisu behind her.
"Y-you! And YOU! What are you two doing here!?" Naruto demanded, rudely pointing at them.
"Isn't it obvious?" Ebisu asked, clamping a hand over Kendra before the crazy proctor could respond. "We're here to teach you…"
"Nani!? Why you two? I beat you easily, and she….she just scares me!" Naruto whimpered and leaned back a little from Kendra, who, for unknown reasons, had started giggling madly to herself.
Ebisu glanced at the mad-woman, pushing his black sunglasses back up. "That was rude…both of you." He scolded. "If Kakashi hadn't asked me to help out, I wouldn't have…what the hell did you do!?"
It seemed as if the closet pervert had finally spotted the Kakashi cut-out on the floor.
"Uh…" Naruto swallowed thickly. "Well, you see…I…erm…"
Ebisu had a visible tick mark. "Uzumaki, I believe it is time to teach you proper respect! Get out of that hospital bed and run!"
"EEK!" Naruto gave a half yell and snatched his jacked from where it hung on a small coat rack, whipping it on, and jumping out the window.
"Hn…" Kendra had calmed down and started walking back down the stairs. "I'll take care of the discharging crap…"
"Fine by me." Ebisu answered. "I'll meet you at the ramen stand."
"Kay."
Naruto leaned on the bridge railing, panting heavily.
He had done every trick that he knew to escape Ebisu; using the wall blending trick, using shadow clones. Hell, he had even used a transformation jutsu disguise himself as that lady on the Come Come Paradie advertisement. Nothing worked.
"Tired already?"
"Argh!" Naruto gave a surprised yell, tumbling over the edge and into the water, which only went up to knees, thankfully.
Ebisu appeared where the kitsune boy had been but a moment before.
"Just give up already!" Naruto wailed. "You're so friggin persistent!"
"Why are you mad at me?" Ebisu asked. "I thought we agreed to a game of tag. I'm supposed to be persistent."
'That's true…' Naruto thought.
"Naruto, you should now know how good I am. Just give up so that we can start training."
"Don't kid me!" Naruto stood up. "I'm going to win against you, and receive training from Kakashi-sensei! Even if I have to beat you up!"
Ebisu chortled. "Looks like you've still got a bit of energy left."
Giving a battle cry, Naruto jumped into the air, readying a fist.
Ebisu watched him, feeling unthreatened. It was the wrong thing to do.
Suddenly the closet pervert was kicked from behind by a shadow clone, where he was then punched into the water, creating a remarkably large splash.
"Hehehe…" Naruto grinned, landing on the other railing, facing the direction where Ebisu had landed in the water. "Second time I've won. Don't take it too personally though; I'm sure I'll just keep on beating you."
Abruptly there was the tell-tell sound of a shadow clone dispersing.
'Nani!?' Naruto thought, eyes wide. 'You mean that was just a shadow clone? Crap!'
"What was that? I'm afraid I didn't hear you correctly." The real Ebisu appeared in front of him, and the boy fell backwards into the water, creating another significant splash.
"I think we both realize who the winner is now." Ebisu said smugly.
"Damn it…" Naruto sulked and looked away, not paying attention to the moving shadow in the water behind him.
"BLEEAARGH!" Kendra leaped out of the water, baring her teeth and wearing a sadistic and insane look on her face.
Naruto turned around to see his assaulter, only to scream like a little girl and faint.
While Kendra was busy laughing her head off, Ebisu picked Naruto up out of the water and headed for Ichiraku's.
Naruto sat as far away from Kendra as possible, slurping down his ramen so fast that the bowl of empty ramen bowl's growing ever more ominous to Ebisu and his wallet.
Kendra was seated at the complete opposite end of Naruto, since he refused to go near her after she had surprised him in the water. Ebisu sat between them, next to Naruto, as to try and reassure him. IT seemed to be working, but every time Kendra glanced over, Naruto would freeze up and watch her every move out of the corner of his eye until she went back to her meal.
In short, Naruto had become terrified of the rainbow dressed lady.
"Now Naruto- Oh for the love of Kami, stop whimpering whenever she looks at you!" Ebisu said, exaggerated. "She's not going to eat you!"
"She sure looked like she would back at the river." Naruto mumbled.
"Ugh, just stop complaining about it, or I won't teach you."
Naruto silenced himself immediately.
"Good." Ebisu smirked. "Now…After seeing your movement and analyzing what Kakashi-sama has told me, I can see that you're not too good at controlling your Chakra."
Naruto blinked wide blue eyes up at him. "Chakra…control?"
Ebisu sweat dropped. 'This might take a while.' "Right. I'll try to explain it as best I can, using Sasuke and Sakura as examples."
Ebisu took a deep breath before continued. "AS you already know, to perform Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, you have to mold chakra a certain way."
"Ebisu, the boy already knows that; get to the point already!" Kendra complained.
"Hmph." The closet pervert pushed his black sunglass back up his nose. ""Fine. I'll explain in detail how you are inferior compared to your teammates."
Naruto stared sullenly at his bowl. "That's a rude way to put it."
Kendara chewed the bottom of her lip, eyes half closed and eyebrows arched high. 'Ouch. Doesn't hurt to be gentle every once in a while, does it?'
"I'm treating you to Ramen, aren't I? So be quiet and listen. First, let's take a look at Sakura. She uses a simple clone technique. In her case, she can manipulate, mold, and control Chakra perfectly, probably better than most Chuunin. This allows her to create clones without wasting necessary chakra."
Naruto nodded.
"Now, in Sasuke-kun's case, he is not as adept as molding chakra. But he is able to control his chakra almost as well as Sakura, and wastes very little chakra." Ebisu droned on.
Naruto paused in eating his ramen and smirked. "Ha! I knew Sasuke wasn't as good as he appeared."
A tick mark appeared over Ebisu's eye. "You shouldn't be laughing! Since you are good at neither molding nor controlling you chakra…You end up creating replications with over twice that amount of chakra of both Sasuke and Sakura. You end up forcing yourself to create replications, which results in a major loss of chakra. Not only that, but you would most likely create only two to three clones."
Naruto set down what must have been his tenth ramen bowl, not saying anything as he listened to the end of Ebisu's lecture.
"As you can see, three people performing the same technique can have vast differences." Ebisu said, before turning to a depressed Naruto. "Actually….I was exaggerating in your chakra control performance. In reality, you just mold too much chakra and use of your reserves of it. It leaves you with a lack of strength."
"But there are times when I was better than both Sakura-chan and Sasuke!" Naruto burst out.
"That's because you have more stamina than they do!" Ebisu said, shocking Naruto. 'It is true the Kyuubi is the source of some of his strength, but it also makes it hard for him to mold chakra correctly…'
"Anyways, if you perform some of these exercises I have in mind, you can become stronger, and probably perfect your chakra molding skills a little more." Ebisu said.
"Really!?" The blonde brightened.
" I guarantee it." Ebisu said. "Now let's go."
"Finally!" Kendra exclaimed, jumping up from her seat.
"Ahem, your bill…" Tseuchi said.
"Oh, right- UAAHH!" Ebisu's glasses practically slid off his nose as he gaped at the amount of ramen Naruto consumed.
He turned to Kendra who looked away nervously and started inching away slowly. "I –uh, just remembered I had to do something! Later!" She made to get away, but Ebisu grabbed her arm and dragged her backwards. "Oh no you don't." He gritted.
"Thank you, come again!" Tseuchi and Ayame said, rubbing their hands together greedily.
"Ebisu-sensei, why are we at a hot spring? I don't think we've come here to relax…" Naruto said, walking ahead of the closet perv.
"HEY!" Kendra suddenly appeared in front of the jinchuuriki. "If you value your life, you won't take a step closer. From beyond here is the women's half of the onsen."
Naruto gulped and sidled backwards to Ebisu. "S-sorry…"
"Anyways…why did we come here? I wanna hurry up with my training!" Naruto said impatiently. "Do I train by relaxing in a hot spring?"
"No." Ebisu answered. "We're going to use the hot spring as a kind of motivator."
"Motivator…? Huh?" Naruto frowned in confusion.
Ebisu and Kendra led Naruto over to the railing, until the reached a part where there was a gap for no apparent reason.
"Whee!" Kendra leaped into the water, forming that hand seal for a transformation, although it wasn't anything like Naruto recognized. Moments later a monkey made out of water surfaced, somehow able to retain its form and be discerned from the water surrounding it. The monkey paddled around, humming an off-tune song to itself. Yep, definitely Kendra.
"Whoa!" Naruto exclaimed. "Is that what you're going to teach me!?"
"No." Ebisu said. "That is a technique known only to Kendra-san. You're going to learn how to walk on water."
Naruto eyes widened. "Is that even possible?"
"Of course!" Ebisu said. "I know from Kakashi-sama that you have completed the tree walking exercise where you do not use your hands. This is an application of it."
"What do you mean?" Naruto tilted his head. "And I don't remember much of that tree thing, except I can do it…"
"When you climbed the tree, all you had to do was gather the necessary chakra to your feet and walk up it. Trees are solid, so it was fairly easy, water, on the other hand…not so much. In short, this is an exercise to mold the chakra on your feet so you can walk on constantly shifting surfaces." Ebisu said. "To walk on water, you must constantly adjust the chakra on your feet into the water, and then balance the amount to be able to walk on it. This type of chakra molding is harder than the tree walking exercise."
Kendra paddled up to them, still a monkey, and clambered out, putting in her say. "The exercise is designed to teach you to control your chakra better by releasing a constant amount of it. You will need to be able to do this for certain techniques."
"…I don't understand." Naruto said flatly, arms crossed.
"I guess it's better to show you then. Ebisu." Kendra looked at her teaching partner, who nodded and formed a hand seal, concentrating chakra to his feet.
"First you accumulate chakra into the soles of your feet." Ebisu picked up. "Next, you release a constant amount of chakra to balance yourself." He walked to the middle of the stream and turned to Naruto. "And, as you see, this is the result of that."
"Cool!" Naruto exclaimed. "Alright, I'll try it too!" He made the same handseal as Ebisu and focused Chakra to his feet.
He walked forward onto the water and…
SPLASH!
Kendra laughed, and Ebisu shook his head, smiling. "Just as I thought."
Naruto jumped out the water, yelling. "Hot, hot ,hot, HOT!" He leaped back onto the firm rock.
"Just a sidenote…" Kendra said. "The water is around 60 degrees Celsius…If you keep falling in like that, you'll become as red as a well done lobster…Mmm, lobster."
"If it's that hot, then how is Kendra able to stand it?" Naruto demanded, standing up again.
"Look at me shitling; I'm a friggin monkey made out of water. Not to mention I've had to bathe in hotter waters than this, so don't complain!" Kendra scolded. "Now, try again!"
This went on for over an hour, and Naruto really as starting to look like a lobster.
Ebisu chuckled. Naruto was persistent, and he was glad the kitsune boy had befriend Konohamaru. If it hadn't been for him the Third's grandson might have kept trying sneak attacks forever. Not to mention he was much hard working.
'Naruto, you are probably a better teacher than I would ever hope to be…'
An amazing even occurred, distracting Ebisu from his thoughts.
Naruto took a step into the water. His foot started to slide in, but stopped at mid-shin.
"L-look!" Naruto cried happily. "I'm doing it!"
'Whoa….looks like he's starting to grasp how to control chakra.' Kendra watched on (still as a monkey), from atop a post.
'I never expected…Wow.' Ebisu pushed his glass back up again. 'It seems I have misjudged you…Naruto-kun.'
Suddenly Naruto gave a cry, pointing at something before falling over into the water. "Ack!"
"Hmm?" Ebisu and Kendra looked over to see…a white haired man giggling pervertedly to himself as he spied on the women.
'That's…' Kendra dove into the water.
Ebisu confronted the man. "I do not know who you are…but I will not allow any shameless acts in my presence!"
Naruto clambered back out of the water to watch.
The man looked behind him. "OH geez." Performing a handseal, he summoned a frog almost as big as a horse.
It opened it's mouth and shot out it's tongue, wrapping it around Ebisu's middle. It lifted the man up high before slamming him back down.
"Don't make a ruckus." The pervert said. "I don't want to get caught."
Naruto's eyes were wide. "Whoa…He beat Ebisu-sensei?"
Kendra swam unseen in the water. 'That's to be expected of…Too bad Ebisu didn't recognize him until it was too late.'
The blond e ran up to Ebisu, but spoke to the man instead. "Hey, hey, hey! What's with the giant frog? Who are you!?"
The man struck a dramatic pose. "I am Myouboku Mountain's Monk of the Frog Mountain! I am also known as the Frog Hermit!"
There was a sudden spurt of water from behind Jiraiya, and a little water monkey dashed away.
"Ack!" Jiraiya wobbled and looked behind him. "Oh. You've gotta be kidding me!"
As he turned fully around, there was a water spot on the seat of the hermit's pants.
And you thought you had seen the last of Kendra. XD
I was originally planning on making this chapter from the end of the preliminaries, all the way right before Gaara tries to kill Lee, but then I realized how long that would be. My estimate is it would have been around 25 pages…so yea. That would have been too long for a chapter, in my opinion, not to mention I figured you guys were impatient waiting for the next chapter.
Constructive Criticism and Compliments welcome. Flames and Spams will be laughed at.
Tropi