Chapter Ten – Teamwork
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"ALRIGHT MAGGOTS, TIME TO START YOUR TRAINING!" Anko yelled as she hurled a bucketful of water over the sleeping genin. All three almost catapulted themselves out of their blankets as the icy-cold water sluiced down on them, shocking them from their slumber. As all three scrambled upright, Anko put the bucket down.
"Alright, listen up scumbags! Kakashi's gone, and left you three in my tender hands, and because of certain… considerations, he hasn't been able to teach you like he wanted to. That means that I'm going to hammer what you need to learn into you. You will hate me, you will curse me, you will come to know me as the most sadistic bitch in the world, and I will lap up every second of your suffering and cause you to suffer more! Now get outside, it's time for early-morning calisthenics, and the one who does worst gets to be my new senbon target! Move!"
Anko stepped back, raising her kunai so that she could lick its edge, but the trio had already fled. With a grin guaranteed to give nightmares to anyone who saw it, she ambled after them.
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"Alright you scumbags.," Anko growled as she prowled around the three genin, two of whom were almost paralysed with fear and the third obviously disturbed by her actions. "Kakashi told me what he was doing, and you three are the worst possible excuse for a team I've ever seen. He's tried to get you to learn teamwork, and failed big time, so since the gentle approach has failed, and since the council is preventing him from using harsher methods himself, he's left you to me! And I was trained by the biggest, most sadistic bastard ever, and now I get to do it to you."
Sakura gulped and Anko's grin somehow became even more cruel as she strode over to a nearby tree and walked up its trunk, pausing briefly before walking back down.
"That was the tree-climbing evercise. You do it by channeling chakra to your feet. Too much, you get blasted off. Too little, you slip down. You will start now, and if I think you are giving it less than your all…"
The three genin watched with wide eyes as Anko threw a kunai that sliced through an arm-sized branch, causing it to fall to the ground.
"What the fuck are you three waiting for! The trees are there, MOVE!"
They moved.
A small noise alerted Anko to the fact that she wasn't the only one outside the house and she turned to see Tsunami looking at her worriedly.
"Aren't you being a little… harsh on them?"
Anko sighed and dropped her normal psychotic persona act.
"Better that I'm harsh to them now and they learn what they need to, rather than going soft on them like the Civilian Council wants and letting them all get killed because they've overestimated their skills and decided to fight rather than retreat. We're ninja. Soldiers of Konoha. There are so many things that can kill a ninja, or end a ninja's career that it isn't even funny, and it's worse for Kunoichi. These three need to learn that they aren't Kami's gift to the world, that they can be hurt, injured and possibly killed no matter what they do. They need to find their limits, so that they can work out how to improve them or work round them. If I don't push them now, force them to get stronger and more resilient, then when they face an enemy, they'll just break."
Tsunami looked rather disturbed, but she nodded slowly.
"I… think I see. How much training will you give them?"
Anko snorted.
"As much as they can take, then a little bit more to force them to improve. You don't know how bad they are, how thecivilian council screwed with the academy to try and make it easier to pass. Their class, only nine passed the final tests, the ones set by ninja rather than civilians. Nine out of over thirty-six. And all but one were from a clan, even if Gaki's been denied his."
"Gaki?"
"Naruto." Anko sighed. "Pretty much everyone knows about his burden, although most blame him for it even though it wasn't his fault. And the civilian council declared that the man everyone knew was his father, hell, was proven to be his father by blood-testing, was no relation to him at all. Apparently they were trying to snag him for a private shinobi group that answers to the council, but they misjudged what their actions would do and realised too late that by cutting his links, he had no reason to stay and was too powerful for them to prevent leaving. Wish I'd been there to see the look on their faces, especially since the old man would have defended Naruto's right to leave. Anyway, Naruto's the Shinobi's Shinobi. Trained by the best Ninjitsu master and the best Taijitsu master of Konoha, with lessons from several others… and enough strength to throw a tree like a kunai. That sword of his? Solid metal, heavier than steel, yet he waves it around like it was paper. He's a one-man army. These three? They're still not even recruits. Excuse me…"
Tsunami watched as Anko strode off, yelling at the trio of genin.
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"Oh Kami, that woman's a monster." Sasuke groaned as he slumped down at the table and started to devour the plate of food in front of him.
"She's… Naruto's sensei…" Sakura shivered and Sasuke looked at her strangely.
"Why are you so fixated on that dobe?"
"My… my mother was one of those who voted for his heritage to be stripped from him…" Sakura whimpered. "I… I'm scared he may decide to… make me have a training accident and… it scares me when he's near…"
"The council decided that despite all evidence to the contrary, Naruto was not the son of the Yondaim Hokage and the Red Hot Habenero." Sai said tiredly from where he was sitting, having just finished his food. "He has since, with the help of the Hokage, declared that he is the founder of a new clan, the Shadows of the Tiger, and claimed the Rasengan as his clan jutsu. Until recently, he has been working on adding an elemental component to it."
"And how do you know that?" Sasuke asked as Sakura hunched in on herself.
"I deployed some ink-mice to watch him." Sai said with a slight shrug. "I felt it was best to keep an eye on dickless."
Sakura froze. "Hold on, you call me Ugly and Sasuke Smiles, so if you call Naruto… how big is he?"
Sai held his hands up and Sakura's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets.
"No way! He's that big! Wait… Hinata… byakugan… sees through things… Oh Kami, that's why she went after him!"
"Actually, she fell in love with him before she had learned how to use the Byakugan." A scarily familiar voice said from behind them. "I've managed to talk to her when she was… watching Naruto train, and it was his refusal to quit that got her attention. I wonder if Kakashi's told the idiot about how Hinata feels about him, those two could make a great pair."
The three genin sat in shocked silence for a moment, then an evil chuckle caused them to tense.
"Of course, if you've got enough energy to gossip, you have enough to train. Back to the trees! Now!"
With a yelp of fear, Sakura catapulted herself away from the table and scrambled through the door, Sasuke and Sai behind her. Anko smirked and concentrated for a moment, producing a Kage Bunshin and sending it outside before turning to the stairs.
"You may as well come out, kid. I know you're there."
There was a deep silence from the top of the stairs.
"Come on down. I won't hurt you, and I think you need to talk."
For another minute, nothing happened, then the figure at the top of the staircase slowly descended.
"Inari, right?" Anko asked. "We didn't really get to introduce ourselves. I'm Anko. You look like you've been through some rough times."
"What do you know about it?" Inari grumbled and Anko laughed, earning a shocked glance.
"About your situation? Nothing except what your mother told me. But I know all about rough times. Sit, it's time for you to learn."
Inari sullenly sat down.
"I know all about suffering. When I was young, I was the student of Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, the three strongest ninja in Konoha. I, a simple orphan, was his apprentice, learning from him Jutsu and fighting styles. But I was young and naïve.
"I didn't know just how twisted and cruel he was, but when his experiments on kidnapped orphans were discovered, experiments which were almost always lethal, he fled. And like a good little apprentice, I went with him.
"And that was the biggest mistake I ever made.
"He had no-one else to experiment on, so he experimented on me. Poisons, jutsu… I still have the damned curse seal that he placed on me, just here. It means that if I try to use too much chakra, it reacts and ccauses incredible pain, and Orochi-teme can trigger the damned thing whenever he wants.
"Eventually, he abandoned me. I wasn't evil enough for him, so he threw me away like a piece of trash. I managed to get back to Konoha, where almost everyone treated me like shit for having been taught by that bastard. I had no family and, at first, no friends. Eventually, a chunin named Kurenai managed to become my first true friend and through her, I met several others. I hold them close to me and they helped me to get past what that bastard did."
Anko paused and saw Inari's expression.
"My story's bad, but Naruto's? His is worse. On the day he was born, a monster attacked Konoha. Only the chakra of a newborn could be used to defeat the monster, but the villagers didn't understand what had happened and instead of seeing Naruto as a hero, they saw him as the monster reborn. The fact that both his parents were killed in the attack didn't help.
"When he was only four, he was thrown out of the orphanage. Not that it had made much difference, they were too scared to actually hurt him, but what they did was worse. They ignored him and locked him in an empty room for the slightest reason. By the time he was thrown out, he was malnourished and had learned less than children half his age, because no-one wanted to talk to him.
"Then some bastard threw a rock at him and his Kekkei Genkai activated, giving him incredible reflexes and strength. The downside? No control. It took over five years, and the constant training of two elite ninja, a Taijitsu master and a Ninjitsu master, before he got to the point where he could safely give someone a hug without accidently breaking their ribs or spine.
"And then his lineage was revealed. His father had been a great warrior, renowned across the lands, and his mother a Kunoichi almost as famous. But the civilians on Konoha's council refused to believe that one they saw as a monster could be the son of their greatest heroes, so they passed a law stripping his lineage away from him and removing the money that he should have inherited. And he couldn't stop them because someone had tried to steal his father's techniques, and the resulting fire had destroyed the documents proving who he was.
"You think you have it bad? Trust me kid, you still have family who care for you. You still have a home and you aren't hated by everyone. You have it easy. Think about it, Naruto and I went through hell and we still carry on. You? You've had it harsh, but compared to us…"
Inari froze and Anko strode to the door.
"You need to get a grip, kid. Don't try to forget the bad things, but concentrate on what you still have. And think about what you'll do to protect them."
Inari didn't move as Anko closed the door behind her.
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Anko stared at the trio in the dawnlight.
"Good news, maggots! Today, you only do tree-climbing if you feel like it. I have something else planned. A lesson in stamina, evasion skills and the need to learn to move fast. And it's called… Holy shit! Don't get eaten by the giant summons! Kuchyose no Jutsu!"
A large cloud of smoke formed and dissipated to reveal a giant snake. Anko lazily pointed.
"Get them!"
The snake lunged forwards and all three genin sprinted off, Sakura screaming in fear while Sasuke left some liquid behind. Anko smirked and moved to the porch, leaning against one of the support pillars.
"How likely are they to get eaten?" Tsunami asked from behind her and Anko snorted.
"They won't. I asked my summons to chase them, scare them, maybe bash them a little, but he won't actually eat them. Just make them think he will. I promised Kakashi I wouldn't kill them."
Tsunami paused as a silent yet incredibly scared Sasuke dashed past, the summoned snake striking at the ground just behind him.
"Do you do this sort of training to Naruto?"
Anko chuckled. "Naruto would uppercut any summons I called straight back to their world, or use that giant blade of his. Gaki's a total powerhouse, he just needs to learn to control it. Nah, speed, stamina and strength ain't a problem with Gaki, it's control that's the issue, and he's got quite good at it. His reflexes are so boosted that I can't even hit him with my shadow snakes from four paces away, and he's pretty much surpassed me in traps and general trickery. All he needs is experience and hints on teamwork, and since he often does things with teams eight, nine and ten, he's learning that as well."
"Which team are they?" Tsunami asked as a white-faced Sakura sprinted past, intent on escaping her pursuer.
"Team seven." Anko shrugged. "The Uchiha is incredibly arrogant, the girl is an Uchiha fangirl who needs to seriously wise up and the pale boy… I don't know, but there's something off about him. The girl is terrified of Naruto, her mom was one of the ones who voted for him to be stripped of his heritage. I don't know if he'll ever really get on with them. Still,it led him to get those kitties of his. Heh, still wish I'd been there to see the Old Man realise what they really were. Come to think about it, he probably knew from the word go, him and that scrying crystal ball of his."
A series of explosions sounded and Anko raised her eyebrows appreciatively. "Sounds like someone took down my summons. Damn, I'll have to congratulate whoever it was."
"You don't seem upset by that." Tsunami noted, obviously puzzled. Anko smirked.
"Are you serious? One of them has the guts to fight back, there may be some hope for them yet. Okay, you brats! One of you just dispelled my summons, you get the next hour free, then we start the game again! Scram!"
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"Water walking." Anko said as she stood atop the lake, glaring at the trio of genin clad only in bathing costumes. "Take what you learned from tree climbing and apply it here. You'll need to use more chakra and contantly adjust it, otherwise you'll fall in. By the end of today, I want you walking on water for at least ten minutes before falling in. Girl, your aim is five as your chakra reserves are so pathetic. On the plus side, you should get this faster than the other two. Begin!"
From the porch, Anko watched as her Kage Bunshin oversaw the trio. Inari stood beside her, his gaze flicking between the genin and her.
"How are you doing that? You're there, but here?"
"Kage Bunshin, shadow clone." Anko explained. "I created a copy of myself and when the copy dispells, I get all the new memories from it, meaning that whatever it learned, I learn. I can create about four or five before getting tired, Kakashi can do maybe twenty and Naruto can do almost a thousand, but he's got incredible chakra reserves."
Inari's eyes widened, then he looked up at Anko.
"Can I learn to use this… chakra? I hate being weak."
Anko frowned. "It's better that you ask Kakashi when he returns. He knows how to teach the basics, my methods are… harsher than his."
Inari flinched as the Anko-clone threw a kunai at Sasuke, who barely managed to dodge it.
"Kakashi… yeah. Okay."
Anko smirked.