Despite the fact that I am writing this, Kishimoto owns Naruto.
Chapter 11: Training and Drunks
The Next Day
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke arrived at 8am again, just like Kakashi-sensei had ordered. He was late. Again.
"Now I am willing to bet that unless we do something about him, Kakashi-sensei will be late every day" Naruto lamented.
Sasuke turned to him. "What did you have in mind?"
"As of now, nothing. Give me a little while to think about it" Naruto said. "Do you two want to spar while we wait for Kakashi-sensei?"
"Ok I'm in" Sakura said as she looked at her teammates.
"Why not" Sasuke put in.
Naruto took in both of his teammates. "Just light sparring for now, who knows what Kakashi-sensei will have us do when he gets here."
At exactly 9am Kakashi-sensei showed up in a leaf shunshin. When he became visible he had one of his eye smiles and his right hand up to wave hello. "Yo"
"You're late" Sasuke and Sakura shouted.
"Sorry, I got lost on the road of life" Kakashi deadpanned then looked at Naruto "I'm surprised, no 'you're late' from you Naruto?"
Naruto looked at his sensei, completely serious but with an evil glint in his eyes. "What is the point? I've already realized that you are going to be late every single day until we figure out how to prevent it."
Kakashi couldn't help but shudder. "I see… We'll save that for later, what can you do? Normally I wouldn't ask but what you showed yesterday was so far from the normal level for academy students that I want your honest opinion of your own strength and what you want help with."
Sakura looked at her friends and saw their reluctance to reveal anything, so she decided to go first. "I usually wear 35 pounds on each arm and 40 on each leg, though I'm just about ready to increase each one by 5. I also have a resistance seal that is at level 4."
Kakashi's head snapped up at that. "Where did you get a resistance seal?"
"Naruto created it two years ago."
He then turned to Naruto. "Naruto, how did you learn to make that seal?"
Naruto almost started to panic before he thought of the seal on his hand and the books that came out of it. "I've got a storage seal on my right hand; it used to have books in it, including a bunch of books on Fuuinjutsu. I learned how to create that and this" Naruto quickly demonstrated his clothing's ability to change colors "from those books."
Kakashi turned back to Sakura. "Sorry about that, the resistance seal is something my sensei created, that you had one was very surprising. Please continue."
"Ok, where was I… I have as close to perfect chakra control as you can get and I am working on the final stage of nature transformation for my water affinity."
Kakashi's already wide eye went even wider.
"I know a few low level medical techniques and genjutsu that I taught myself but not many and no elemental jutsu either. As you might have guessed, those are the three aspects, along with Taijutsu, that I want to improve in."
Kakashi turned to Sasuke next. "Sasuke can you go next, I've got this suspicion that Naruto's will be the hardest to take."
Naruto chuckled at that. "Yeah you're probably right."
"Fine, I'll go next" Sasuke said. "Like Sakura, I've got weights that are at 55 and 60 pounds for arms and legs and I am nearly ready to increase them. My resistance seal is at level 5. I've mastered my secondary affinity for fire and have started on my primary affinity for lightning, though I am only on the leaf exercise. I focused on my fire affinity because I could get my hands on fire jutsu, the most powerful which I used on you. I know a couple others like Gokakyu (Grand Fireball) and Ryuuka (Dragon Fire). I would like to learn some lightning jutsu and to activate my sharingan."
"Saving the best for last I see" Naruto said. "I don't know how much weight I carry, but I have a gravity seal that increases in very small increments when my body is completely used to its current level. The resistance seal I have is at level 14, but I just increased the level recently."
Kakashi had been surprised before this completely blew him out of the water. A twelve-year old that could not only move with a level 14 resistance seal but do it without showing much effort.
"I have more chakra than Jiji and very good control. I know we can all do the tree climbing, water walking, and kunai balancing exercises but I can also make chakra strings and have mastered the waterfall climbing exercise. However despite my good control, I will never be able to use Iryo jutsu or genjutsu. My chakra is too chaotic to allow me to do so. But I can break Genjutsu and see at night thanks to my Kitsune-me" Naruto paused for a few seconds. "I have mastered my wind and water affinity and am working on the final exercise for earth. I know the Kage Bunshin, and I have to say I love the memory part. I know a couple other jutsu and am working on a few of my own. I am also really good at Kenjutsu but the sword I'm working on isn't complete yet, it should be in a few days though. As you might have guessed from the seals I've made and how you ended up paralyzed yesterday, I am very good in Fuuinjutsu and I can use them in battle in a way that I don't think anyone else can. I don't really know any elemental Ninjutsu so I would like to learn some." Naruto started scratching his head. "Hmm… I think that is about it."
"Since you three are using resistance seals to train, how are you managing those?"
"We keep them on at all times but train without them one day per week" Naruto explained "that way we are used to the speed we move without them as well and don't lose coordination with them shut off."
Kakashi decided to put off thinking too deeply about their skills until he was alone. "Ok, I have to say, I'm beyond impressed. Usually the first thing I would work on is teamwork exercises and we still might do a few but they won't be first priority. When a team is first made, the team members generally need time to get used to each other and learn how all members work but you three have obviously worked together before. Did you three train together too?"
Naruto looked at Sasuke and Sakura before answering. "Yeah, the three of us, Shikamaru, Chouji, Shino, and Hinata all trained together. So we all know each other pretty well."
"I see, that explains quite a bit" Kakashi said. "Instead of the teamwork exercises we will focus on Taijutsu to begin with. The reason I am starting with that is because if you are not good enough at Taijutsu, you will get the opportunity to use jutsu. After you get to a certain point, you will train in Taijutsu without the resistance seals. At that point I will also start teaching you jutsu. While I can teach you Ninjutsu of all elements and some Genjutsu for Sakura, I cannot teach you medical Ninjutsu but I will look for someone who can. Sasuke we will train to awaken your sharingan. This will consist of you trying to follow movements of me when I am moving faster than you can normally register. We will start there and if that doesn't work we will think of something else. Naruto, you will start by working on breaking Genjutsu without using your eyes then we will start working on jutsu. Does anyone have any questions?"
The three teammates looked at each other, then at Kakashi and shook their heads.
"Good" Kakashi said before rubbing his hands together. "In that case let's go to the Hokage tower and learn the joys of D-rank missions."
As soon as they had reached the Hokage tower they went to the mission assignment desk and found another consequence of Kakashi-sensei's habit of being late. Practically no missions were left. They had been forced to accept a mission to paint some random citizen's fence, which was where they found themselves.
"This is ridiculous" Naruto said as he brought a paintbrush down. "I had heard that D-rank missions were bad, but I never thought that they were just chores! I'd much rather be training than this, hell, I'd even rather be cloud watching like Shikamaru then doing this."
Sakura turned to give Naruto a glare, displeasure written all over her face. "We don't like it any better then you, but we have to have at least ten of these D-rank missions before we can be assigned a higher ranked one."
"I know, I know, but still…" Naruto said.
"If you know then just work faster so we can finally finish and go train" Sasuke said angrily.
"Fine" Naruto said as he went back to work.
They finally finished painting the fence about an hour later. Since they were done Kakashi-sensei had them go back to the mission assignment desk and hand in the mission scroll with their client's signature showing that the mission was complete.
"Ok team" Kakashi said "I'm going to dismiss you for today as I will need to prepare for your training, so meet me at training ground 7 tomorrow at 8am just like today."
"Whatever" Naruto said to Kakashi before turning to his friends "I'll see you two tomorrow".
"See you tomorrow Naruto" Sakura replied.
"Later Naruto" Sasuke echoed.
Naruto immediately went home and took the dimension scroll off of his back then hung it up on the wall and opened it up. It turned out that when the dimension scroll was not sealed in the storage seal on his hand, time flowed at the same rate as the normal world.
Walking up the long flight of stairs, Naruto was hoping that at least the blood duplication seal was complete. Actually he hoped that both that and the seals he was using to for his sword were complete, but he was being realistic.
It seemed that he was in luck. When he reached the top of the steps he found all of the clones that had been assigned to work on the blood duplication seal had moved over to work on the seals for his sword.
"The five clones that were working on the blood duplication seal," it turned out that it was a bit disconcerting to suddenly have five of yourself turn to stare at you at the exact same time, "dispel".
The five clones dispelled giving him the information about making his newly developed seal. Since the seal works, it will become part of the Chishio Bunshin when it is made. I will have to add a stasis seal to the back of the seal paper. That way the paper won't just dissolve in the blood it creates. It will take 60 percent of my chakra but I might as well try it now when I know that I have nothing important that I have to do immediately.
His mind made up, Naruto grabbed one of the seal papers that his clones had inscribed with the proper seal and turned it over to quickly add a stasis seal. That complete he bit his thumb and let a few drops of blood fall on the blood duplication seal, then he channeled chakra into the seal and quickly performed the hand seals necessary to create a Chishio Bunshin. Interestingly enough, the last of the five seal sequence was the same one that was used to create Kage Bunshin, giving credence to the belief that the Chishio Bunshin was based on the Kage Bunshin.
As soon as Naruto finished the necessary hand seals he went to one knee, exhausted. He looked up to watch as the blood pouring from the blood duplication seal started growing upward. At first it was just a little lump but that quickly changed as it rapidly grew taller, eventually taking on Naruto's shape. Despite the clone having Naruto's shape, it was still the color of blood. That only lasted until the blood seal finished producing the required amount of blood, then it started taking on the correct colors. Starting from the nose, the color spread until it covered the whole face, then head, then upper body, then the clone was complete, a perfect copy of Naruto that wouldn't dispel with a single hit. The Chishio Fuuin Bunshin was now complete.
Ok, let's test this out Naruto thought. "Ready to spar?" he asked the Chishio Bunshin.
"Let's do it Boss."
"Just Taijutsu."
Over the next twenty minutes, Naruto definitely confirmed that the Chishio Bunshin could take a hit, dish them out as well.
Next, I'll have to test how long it lasts. "Ok, you are to stay here and supervise the other clones in training, focus on the earth manipulation training and wood manipulation training.
"Ok boss. Just one thing, if we get far enough in the wood manipulation can I go out to examine the different properties of trees?" the Chishio Naruto asked.
"Hmm… I don't see why not. But if you do, start with fruit bearing trees and see if you can manage things like berry bushes and root vegetables. It would be a great advantage if I could grow my own food considering how little money I make right now and the fact that I no longer receive an allowance. After that is done, you can examine other trees to discover their properties. A good place to start would probably be training ground 44; there are some really odd plants in there. Oh and when you go, make sure you are under Henge."
"Gotcha Boss" Chishio Naruto said before running off to work with the clones he had finishing up his earth training.
Then Naruto headed over to where he had his clones working on the seals for his sword. "How is the seal coming along?"
"It is almost done boss. Probably late the day after tomorrow or early the day after we will be finished" one of the Kage Bunshin said. "We have all of the separate parts complete and we are just working on the master control that will allow it to activate and integrate all of the parts. It will also determine the shape of the sword and convert some of the normal chakra you channel into wind chakra that will coat the condensed chakra blade to give it the ability to cut through almost anything. That way you can channel other types of chakra into the blade depending on the situation, it is still vulnerable to fire attacks considering it has a wind chakra layer so the ability to channel water chakra over the blade could be important. Come check in before you go to bed tomorrow boss, if we aren't done by then we will be by the next morning, then you can start engraving the seal on the Hiraishin kunai. It will have to be on them considering they are made of chakra conductive metal."
"I see" Naruto said excited that his weapon was nearly complete. "Keep up the good work and one of you come and get me if it is finished sooner."
"Understood boss" the Kage Bunshin agreed.
Finally Naruto went to check on the clones working on ice manipulation. Instead of talking to them when he reached them he simply ordered them to dispel. A minute or so later, when he had finished sorting the information he was even happier. His clones had managed to create shuriken from ice, a far cry better than the simple ice cubes he was making before. He quickly made another batch of Kage Bunshin to continue the work on ice manipulation, making 20 this time.
"Ok guys, since you have gotten down the shuriken, it is time to start working on kunai" Naruto ordered his clones. "When you can make kunai, work on making them it high speed. I want to be able to create ice kunai and shuriken in a second or less. Then work on making them sharp, these dull shuriken wouldn't do me any good in a battle."
Naruto paused for a moment to think on the training his clones were doing before he realized something. He didn't have any clones working on using the Hiraishin. He was still stuck at only using it three times in a row and that would leave him exhausted.
I'll have to make a bunch of clones work on that as soon as my sword seal is complete Naruto thought as he sat down on the ground and started practicing with Iruka's jutsu. Since he could now perform it with only two seals, it was more useful than before, but not as useful as it could be. After performing it for the first time he realized he wouldn't be able to practice for long, using 60 percent of his chakra to make the Chishio Fuuin Bunshin then 20 Kage Bunshin had drained him more than he thought.
After about 45 minutes of training the Chakura Hankyouteii no Jutsu (Chakra Echolocation Technique) Naruto decided to call it a day and quickly left the pocket dimension. Reaching his apartment, Naruto got ready for bed and went to sleep.
The next day Naruto took a chance and didn't arrive until 8:55am. It turned out to be a good gamble as only Sasuke and Sakura were there, sitting with their backs against two of the training posts.
Naruto just went up to them and sat with them, his back against the final post. "So, how long have you been here?"
"Sakura was here when I got here ten minutes ago" Sasuke said.
Sakura turned to look at him. "8:30" she said simply.
Sasuke turned from the opposite side. "We really need to do something about his habit of getting here late."
"I'll look into it" Naruto decided before using Iruka's jutsu. He immediately noticed that Kakashi-sensei was standing in the same place as the day before. He decided to practice the jutsu until Kakashi-sensei arrived.
After Naruto used the jutsu a couple more times he was brought out of his thoughts when Sakura spoke up. "What are you doing Naruto? It feels like you are sending out waves of chakra."
Naruto looked up at her confused for a second before a look of understanding appeared on his face. "Sorry, I forgot you can sense chakra. It is a jutsu I recently learned that allows me to sense my surroundings. Now that I think of it, I completely forgot to mention it to Kakashi-sensei yesterday."
"Forgot to tell me what yesterday?" Kakashi asked as he appeared behind them with shunshin.
"You're late" Sakura nearly screeched.
"Sorry, I ran into a black cat on my way here so I had to stop at a temple and get my luck cleansed before taking the long way to get here" Kakashi said. "Forgot to tell me what?"
"When you asked our skills, I recently learned a jutsu that allows me to sense what is happening around me. Like how you were standing in front of a stone on the other side of the training ground for the past hour" Naruto said annoyance obvious in his voice. "Now that I think about it, you should know that Sakura is a sensor too. Though I don't know how good of a sensor, I only know that she was able to sense me using the jutsu I just told me about."
Kakashi-sensei looked thoughtful for a few minutes after hearing that before turning to Sakura. "In that case I will change my training schedule a little bit. After we get you up to a certain point in Taijutsu Sakura we will work on improving your sensor ability before we move on to Nin or Genjutsu. Being a sensor can be an incredible advantage in a fight. You can sense if someone is trying to ambush you and if you get good enough you could even tell what type of attack is going to be used against you." Kakashi-sensei then turned to Naruto. "How good are you with this jutsu and could you teach other people?"
"I'm starting to get pretty good with it" Naruto told his teacher. "I can use it with one less hand seal then I could originally and once I get good enough to use it with no hand seals I will start working on refining how well I can sense everything. I was told that if I get good enough with it, I will be able to read a book with my eyes closed while doing it. I don't want to worry about how well I can sense things until I can perform it with no external signs. Right now I can sense and recognize chakra signatures and get a general ides of the shape of my surroundings. I can't teach this to anyone else because first it isn't my technique to begin with and second it would take too much chakra for just about anyone else to use effectively."
"How much chakra are you taking about" Kakashi-sensei asked curiously.
"I could probably use it all day and not feel the strain too much. If someone with chuunin level reserves tried to use it they could probably use it five or six times before exhausting themself. This is both because I have huge reserves and because some of the chakra that I use in this technique is reclaimed. That won't be the same for anyone else, my chakra just likes to stick together," Naruto said trying to find the right way to explain the effect, "so while some of my chakra is reclaimed no one else's would be."
"I see… Keep working on it in your spare time" Kakashi-sensei said before making a familiar hand sign and creating two copies of himself. "Naruto and Sakura go with one of the clones, like I said, we will all start on Taijutsu. Sasuke will move to training for his sharingan and some Ninjutsu, Sakura will move to sensory training, and Naruto will move to dispelling Genjutsu without using his eyes. Anyone have any questions?"
"Why do I have to work on dispelling Genjutsu when I can just activate my eyes to dispel them?" Naruto whined, not liking this at all.
"What would happen if you ran into someone who creates Genjutsu through a different sense, like hearing or smell? What if the person using Genjutsu is good enough to make you think you already have your eyes activated but you don't? Even with your eyes, you are very vulnerable if you can't dispel Genjutsu the normal way" Kakashi-sensei explained. "Any other questions?"
No one said anything so Kakashi-sensei continued. "Good, in that case everyone split up and we'll train until lunch. After lunch we'll take another mission and if we have any time left we'll go back to training."
With that, the three genin followed their respective Kakashi-sensei and began working on Taijutsu.
Kakashi was really impressed with his genin, not only for the abilities they had described the day before but also for their Taijutsu. Sakura was the furthest behind but considering she came from a civilian family that wasn't that surprising. Sasuke was next but his style was made for use with the sharingan which he didn't yet have. If he did manage to awaken his sharingan he would probably be much closer to Naruto's level. Naruto was a real mystery to him, the style he used reminded Kakashi very strongly of his sensei's but at the same time there were places where it didn't at all. Even without that, Naruto's style was somewhat random and very difficult to predict and he was much better with it than should be possible, easily on the higher end of chuunin and would be nearing Jounin level within a year or two.
It was actually interesting for him to teach Sakura. He wasn't actually a sensor himself but it was interesting to train one. To help her he was channeling a great deal of chakra into one of his hands and having her follow his hand with her eyes closed. At first she had a difficult time doing it but she seemed to get the hang of it after a little while. Of course, as soon as she did he decreased the amount of chakra in his hand. When she could sense his movement even when there was practically no chakra being channeled he would move further away… or maybe start teaching her to recognize different types of chakra. He would decide later, it would take a long time before she reached that stage.
Sasuke was pretty much what he had expected. He was very good at Taijutsu and would improve quite quickly. Most of the time that they spent together was with him moving around Sasuke too fast for him to see. At first Sasuke couldn't even catch his afterimage but before the end of the day Sasuke had begun to track him, still couldn't see him but was starting to improve. After they had done that for an hour and a half (with an hour spent on Taijutsu) he had started to teach Sasuke a lightning technique, Raiton: Kangekiha (Lightning Release: Wave of Inspiration), which generates a great deal of lightning around the hands and if used in conjunction with Taijutsu could be extremely dangerous. Kenjutsu too, if he ever learned any. He had gotten to the point where he could make his hands throw off tiny sparks of electricity.
Naruto was still an oddity. Without his Kitsune-me he could barely dispel a Genjutsu if his life depended upon it. He was correct about having Kage-level chakra reserves but since he had it at such a young age combined with the Kyuubi's chakra giving him more than one type of chakra naturally he just couldn't sense when chakra not his own entered his system. He basically spent two and a half hours trapped in several low-level Genjutsu. It would take an insane amount of time and effort to make him proficient in escaping Genjutsu.
Surprisingly Kakashi was having fun. Usually he would just abandon his genin to their own devices as much as possible so he could read Icha Icha, but with potential like he was seeing that just wouldn't be something he could realistically do. That didn't mean he couldn't make them wait for him at times…
After two days of training with their Jounin-sensei, the three genin could officially say he was a good instructor. He was focusing on improving their weaknesses while improving their overall skills. It had actually surprised them considering how late he always showed up had given them the impression that he would be abnormally lazy with their training, but he wasn't. The only real complaint they had about him was how he always arrived late and gave stupid excuses.
After finishing their training Naruto went to eat an early meal at Ichiraku Ramen as a treat to himself because he knew that the clones he had working on his sword seal would be finished. As soon as he was done, he hurried home and went to the training ground in his dimension scroll.
Naruto went directly to the see the five Kage Bunshin that were working on the sword seal. "So is it finished?"
"Finished Boss!" the first clone said.
"Good. You five, dispel" Naruto ordered.
The five clones dispelled and Naruto sat down to sort out the memories that he had received. Good, it automatically generates the shape of the sword with highly concentrated non-elemental chakra. Then it has adds a small and extremely fine coating of wind chakra that allows it to cut. If it becomes necessary, I can channel different types of elemental chakra into the sword with that extra chakra interfering with its formation. So I can add water chakra to give me greater fluidity in wielding it and prevent the wind chakra coating from being disrupted by fire jutsu or I could channel earth chakra to give it a far greater impact. The clones even incorporated a chakra recognition seal so only I can use it. They even managed to find a way to hide it beneath the Uzumaki spiral so it can't be easily deciphered. Hmm… what is this? While the shape is set, the size is not. That could be useful if I ever need to strike someone just out of my range but it will probably take three or four times as much chakra compared to the amount needed to form the sword… I would definitely call this a success. I will have to engrave this on the Hiraishin kunai but I will also need some precautions… I will create a paired summoning seal that summons them to my right hand and keep one in the storage seal on my kunai pouch with the rest staying in the dimension scroll. Maybe I should create a storage room at the bottom of the steps so I don't have to run all the way up to the training ground… I can worry about that part later.
Naruto immediately went back to his apartment and was about to start making the necessary seals when he realized he didn't have any of the equipment needed for engraving. He quickly grabbed the scroll holding his Hiraishin kunai and ran out; heading to Higurashi Weapons, hoping that he could get engraving tools there or use theirs.
Walking into Higurashi Weapons Naruto saw a friend that he hadn't seen for over a year.
"Tenten, it's been a long time since I last saw you, I missed you. How have you been doing?" he asked as he walked toward the check-out counter.
Tenten looked up when she heard Naruto's voice. "Yes it has been a really long time, almost a year actually. I've been good doing pretty well other then the fact that two of my team members are complete training nuts and the third has this huge attitude problem. How about you? From the hitai-ate I guess you passed. Who's on your team?"
Happy to see his friend in such high spirits Naruto quickly answered. "Of course I passed. My teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura and our Jounin-sensei is the ever late Hatake Kakashi."
Tenten doubled over in laughter. "That's rich. Your Jounin-sensei is my Jounin-sensei's 'eternal rival'; at least that's what he says."
"Really?" Naruto asked. "What is your sensei like?"
Tenten just sighed. "He is a complete training nut who is always shouting about the 'Flames of Youth'. I told you how he wears a full body suit made of green spandex. Well, he has managed to infect one of my other teammates with both inflictions, even his awful bowl-cut hairdo. My teammate Rock Lee has practically become a clone of my Jounin-sensei except he is still a little shorter. It is really creepy sometimes, especially their 'sunset of youth' Genjutsu. Just remember this: if you ever see them start to hug, look away as quickly as possible unless you want to be traumatized."
"That is actually pretty scary. Thanks for the warning though."
"Ok now that my rant about my team is done, what did you come for?" Tenten asked before quickly continuing. "Not that I mind seeing you though."
"You know good I am at Kenjutsu, right?" Naruto asked?
"Of course, we have sparred quite a few times after all. But what does that have to do with your visit, unless you are coming to buy a katana…"
"Yes and no. I came here about a sword but I already have it finished. I decided to make one since I don't have the money to buy one. I came here to buy engraving tools or ask to use yours" he replied seriously.
Tenten looked very confused at his words. "How would engraving tools help you finish a sword?"
"There really isn't an easy way to explain it to someone who is competent at Fuuinjutsu without an hour or so, could I just show you?" Naruto asked.
"I guess so" Tenten looked thoughtful for a second "come on back. Normally I wouldn't let people do this, but Tou-san likes you and you have technically done work for us before."
"Thanks Tenten!"
Tenten led Naruto into a room in the back of the shop and showed him a worktable with all of the tools he would need to engrave the seals on the Hiraishin kunai. "You can use this area to do your engraving."
"Thanks again Tenten." Naruto said as he looked at all of the tools laying in the work area but not everything he would need, "Tenten is their some kind of magnifying tool, I want to make this really small? That way it would be harder to look at the seal work and so it will actually fit where I want it to."
Tenten walked into another one of the rooms and came back with a device that was similar to a microscope but less powerful and with room to manipulate things while they were being viewed. "Will this do?"
Looking up from his preparations, Naruto's face lit up. "Perfect."
Seeing everything ready, Naruto quickly took out the scroll he had his Hiraishin kunai sealed in and after unsealing them he laid them out in two neat rows of ten.
"Hiraishin! How did you get your hands on Hiraishin kunai!" Tenten shouted.
"Oh these, you like them? I made them to look like the Yondaime's weapons; he is one of the people I respect the most after all. Then again you don't find many kunai with real hilts either and that was something I needed for this" Naruto said, giving the story he was planning to tell Kakashi-sensei and anyone else who asked.
"Ah, that makes sense" Tenten admitted.
Over the next two hours Naruto painstakingly engraved the sword seal on the Hiraishin kunai, on the wide portion of the blade just where the three prongs separate. They looked like Uzumaki spiral about two centimeters across at a general glance but under magnification an incredibly intricate seal became visible.
When he had engraved all of the sword seals, Naruto went back and engraved the transmission half of a paired summoning seal on the bottom of the ring that all kunai have. Just like with the dimension scroll, he was planning on placing the reception half of the summoning seal on his hand, though the right hand this time. After he finished engraving the summoning seal on the kunai he created a Kage Bunshin and had it create the other half before arranging the kunai so he could touch all of the new seals one at a time. Then he went through and paired the summoning seals, but as he touched them one at a time he also gave them a summoning order so he would only summon one kunai at a time.
Naruto sighed in relief. "Ahh… finally done" he said as he sealed all but one of this kunai.
Tenten, who had been heading back to check on her friend's progress, came running when she heard those words. She was really excited to see the results of the work he had been doing for the past three hours. Her father followed after her. He had come back about an hour after Naruto had started working, not that Naruto noticed that… or anything else for that matter.
"So you're done?" Tenten asked excitedly.
"Let's see this thing you have been working on then" Kaizuki said as he walked up behind his daughter.
"Kaizuki-san, when did you get back" Naruto asked, surprised at seeing Kaizuki.
Kaizuki let out a short bark of laughter. "About an hour after you started working, at least according to Tenten. I actually sat here and watched you for a good fifteen minutes and you never noticed. It was rather amusing to see someone who is usually so alert become so oblivious to everything besides his work. So let's see what you've got."
Naruto nodded before handing the unsealed kunai to his clone. "Just to be careful, I did just finish making the seal after all."
The clone channeled chakra into the sword seal and a glowing blue katana blade appeared with a light green coating.
"Do you have something we can test it against, something that a sword normally wouldn't be able to cut?" Naruto asked as he stared at the glowing blade in his clone's hand.
Kaizuki just nodded still staring at the sword before he went through another door. After a minute or so he came back with what looked like a ruined ninja-to. "Here try this. It may no longer be usable but it wouldn't easily be cut through by a normal katana."
Naruto took the blade and held it straight out to his side. "Try cutting it, but only the end. I want to try something else" he told his clone.
The clone nodded and brought down the blade it was holding. The katana cut right through the ninja-to Naruto was holding barely meeting any resistance. He just looked from the blade in his clone's hand to the end of the ninja-to and back again. "Damn, talk about dangerous" he said as he took a couple steps back. "Try to cut it again from there, but watch the roof."
Kaizuki and Tenten just looked at Naruto like he was crazy, at least until the clone brought the sword down until it was pointing very slightly toward the ceiling. Then the sword was suddenly three feet longer and the clone brought it down gently through the ninja-to again, cutting off another portion.
Naruto was wearing a very content smile. "Now hold it out and tilt it to the side so the flat is to the ceiling."
"Ok boss" the clone said as it took a stance that was very similar to Naruto's had been with the glowing katana held out to it's side and the edge facing Naruto.
"Perfect." Naruto brought down what was left of the ninja-to on the side of the katana. Instead of the 'clang' sound that would occur when two metal blades met the impact between the two blades created a 'ping' sound.
"Even better" Naruto said to himself while playing with his chin. "We have tested the ability to cut, which is extremely dangerous. It can extend like I thought it might be able to. How was the chakra drain by the way?" he asked as he turned to his clone, completely forgetting that he could get the information if he just dispelled the clone.
The clone pondered for second. "Not as bad as we thought. The amount of chakra it takes to form the blade is about the same as it takes to use Kage Bunshin but the upkeep is about the same as using Henge. When extending it to that length it took about three times as much chakra but the further it extends, the more that will increase."
"Good, so it is usable in battle" Naruto said. "Did you feel any fluctuations while using or extending it?"
"No boss. The chakra flow was smooth and I didn't feel any abnormalities. But why didn't you just dispel me to find that out?"
Naruto just slapped his face. "I'm an idiot. Please dispel."
The clone dispelled, leaving the kunai to fall to the ground. "I guess it is time to test the last function." Saying that, Naruto channeled some chakra to the summoning seal on his right palm. The kunai disappeared from the ground and reappeared in his hand. "Good, no smoke or anything, I was hoping there wouldn't be any."
Tenten looked at Naruto with stars in her eyes. "Can I have one of those? Please, please, pretty please? You made twenty of them after all, can't you spare just one?"
Naruto was truly sad that he was going to have to tell her no. "Sorry Tenten, these only react to my chakra. I made them that way, hid the seals, and even added a paired summoning seal so I wouldn't have to worry about them being used against me. I really don't want to have to fight against my own creations. And no offence Tenten, but this takes Jounin-level reserves to really use effectively."
Kaizuki looked at the young blond with approval. "Good decision. With a weapon of that caliber, you definitely don't want to have to worry about that or your hard work being recreated."
"I'm glad you approve" Naruto said as he started walking back toward the front of the store. After bowing to both of them he said "Thank you for letting me use your equipment" before leaving.
Naruto had finally admitted that he had no clue how to change Kakashi's inability to be on time. After five days of him being late every day, he was going to ask for help. Until this point he hadn't even told his parents about his team, but now he was going to ask for some help in figuring out a way to fix his sensei.
With that in mind he had gone into their portion of the mindscape on a mission.
"Kaa-chan, Tou-san" Naruto called out when he found his parents on the beach.
Kushina looked up when she heard him call out. "What is it Naru-chan?"
Seeing both of his parents looking at him, Naruto decided to get right to the point. "I need some help with my sensei."
"What's wrong with him?" Minato asked.
"He is a pervert that always goes around reading those Icha Icha books in public; he even reads them when he is walking down the street. That isn't the worst part. He is ALWAYS late and makes up these stupid excuses like 'I got lost on the road of life' when he is really standing looking at this stone on our training ground for an hour strait."
"Sounds like a combination of Jiraiya-sensei and Obito" Minato commented.
"Who is your Jounin-sensei and what is your team anyway?" Kushina asked at almost the same time, here face slightly grim.
"I'm on team 7 with Sakura and Sasuke. Our Jounin-sensei is Hatake Kakashi" Naruto supplied.
"Kashi-kun became a pervert! How did that happen?" Kushina wailed.
Minato looked shocked. "Kakashi… Late, are we talking about the same person?"
"You know Kakashi-sensei?"
His parents spoke at the same time. "He was on your Tou-san's team" "He was on my genin team".
They turned to look at each other before breaking out in laughter. Minato finally broke out of the laughing fit. "Pretty Ironic actually. The Shodaime and Nidaime trained the Sandaime as team 7. Sarutobi-sama trained the Sannin, Jiraiya-sensei in particular, there. Jiraiya-sensei trained my team there. I trained Kakashi, Rin, and Obito there. And finally Kakashi is training you there."
Naruto was both interested and annoyed at the sidetracking. "While this is all interesting, can either of you think of a way to get rid of his addiction to being late?"
Kushina got an evil glean in her eyes. "You said he is a pervert. How did you come to that conclusion?"
Naruto just rolled his eyes. "You mean other than the fact that he walks around all day reading those books in public? Well, when we took the bell test, we completely overwhelmed him by the way, Sasuke used Katon: Karyuu Endan while I held him in a paralysis seal and Sakura grabbed the bells. But the important thing was that we accidentally burned the book he had been reading when he was 'testing us'" he made air quotes when he said that "and when he realized that a bit crazy. He was crying over the book saying 'My precious, my poor precious, what have they done to you?'"
Minato was struck speechless at that but the evil gleam in Kushina's eyes grew to epic proportions. "I have the perfect thing. I originally made this seal for use against Jiraiya but if you make it activate conditionally, in this case if he is late to a meeting that he set the time for, it would work perfectly. Come with me and I'll teach it to you" she said as she started laughing evilly.
Two days later found Team 7 waiting for Kakashi… again. Naruto had actually arrived at the time that his sensei had set, 8am.
He had wanted to do this the day before but he had had to stop at the bookstore to find the correct deterrent that would prevent Kakashi from ever being late again. For this to work he had to place a seal mark the book whose contents he wanted Kakashi to see every time he opened his book, Icha Icha's parallel yaoi book: Icha Icha Men. Once he had finished that he had gone home to prepare for today.
The second he had arrived he started using the chakra echolocation technique, he was almost ready to decrease the number of hand seals to one. A day or two more practice and he would be able to do so. Kakashi had actually been at that same rock before Naruto had even arrived at training ground 7. He stood there and looked at the rock without moving until exactly 8:59 when he used shunshin and became a blur to Naruto's senses.
"Yo" Kakashi said catching Naruto a little off guard.
Naruto went up to Kakashi and using the Uzumaki sealing method he cursed Kakashi with a touch as he grabbed the hand Kakashi had used to wave. "Kakashi-sensei let me give you a warning. If you are ever late to a meeting again you will regret it for the rest of your life, you will be mentally scarred in a way that you will never be able to forget. After the first time you are late, it will get worse every time."
When he finished his little speech his entire team was looking at him. They looked like they were afraid that he had gone mad or something like that.
"Naruto, are you all right?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto turned from his sensei to Sasuke and Sakura and gave them a victorious smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I figured out a way to keep Kakashi-sensei from ever being late again, though it may take a couple of days to work. But Kakashi-sensei has been warned. If he doesn't take the warning to heart, it will be his own fault" Naruto said with a dark expression before his face brightened. "On a better note, I finished my sword. Actually I finished a couple of days ago but I wanted to test it out and get used to how it handles before mentioning it."
That caught Kakashi's attention. "Really, why don't you show us this sword."
"Ok Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said and brought out one of his Hiraishin kunai, but before he could activate it Kakashi grabbed it from his hand.
"Where did you get this Naruto?" Kakashi asked forcefully, letting him know that Kakashi would not let him do anything else until he received an answer.
Naruto quickly channeled chakra to his right hand. The kunai disappeared from Kakashi's hand and reappeared in Naruto's. "Pretty cool, isn't it. I modeled it after the Yondaime's Hiraishin kunai" Naruto said and watched as Kakashi's face relaxed.
"I see. But you said you had finished your sword. Even if that is a special kunai, it is still a kunai. Knowing you there is probably some kind of secret to it, especially if you went to the precaution of putting a seal of some type that allows you to summon it back to yourself."
Sakura spoke up. "Yeah, please show us what it is. You made a big deal about it so show us already."
"Fine" Naruto said before channeling chakra to the sword seal. The glowing greenish blue blade appeared, drawing gasps from his team.
"What is that?" Sasuke blurted out.
"That is my sword of course" Naruto joked like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "It is a highly condensed chakra blade with a thin layer of wind chakra for cutting purposes. When I was testing it out, it was able to cut through a ninja-to without much of a problem."
Sasuke was practically drooling. "Naruto, can I have that?" he asked without thinking about it.
"Ugh… not you too! My friend Tenten said practically the same thing when she saw it. Her family owns Higurashi Weapons and she let me use the engraving tools to apply the sword seal to my kunai. She said almost the same thing when I first activated it" Naruto said before turning to Kakashi. "She is one of your 'eternal rival's' students"
Kakashi immediately paled.
"His eternal rival?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah Tenten said he was a guy that wears a green full body spandex suit with a bowl cut. She never mentioned anything other than he thinks of Kakashi-sensei as his eternal rival. And Sasuke, even if I gave you my sword, you wouldn't be able to use it because I made sure only I can activate it."
"Damn" Sasuke swore.
"Ok, enough admiring Naruto's sword. It is time for training, you three know the drill."
Even after Naruto's warning the previous day, Kakashi was late. Team 7, minus Kakashi, were waiting for their sensei to arrive and it was already 8:55. Like yesterday, Naruto was keeping track of his sensei, who was standing at the same stone
Naruto had an evil gleam in his eyes when he turned to his team, if anyone that had seen his mother on one of her pranking spree had seen him then they would have been running away as fast as they could. "Well, I guess Kakashi-sensei is prepared for the consequences of being late" Naruto said as he rubbed his hands together.
"You mean that speech you made yesterday wasn't just a joke?" Sakura said incredulously.
"Nope, from now every time he is late he will be punished. I applied a conditional seal. Every time he is late to a meeting that he sets up from now on he will be punished in a way that will never be forgotten. When he tries to read Icha Icha he will see instead the yaoi version: Icha Icha Men. It is a punishment that will last for 24 hours. If he is late again it will last for 48 hours, then for 72 hours. You get the idea. While this wouldn't be punishment for most people it will be for our Icha Icha addict sensei."
When Naruto finished his explanation both of his teammates had nearly identical gleams in their eyes.
"This will be good" Sasuke said, unintentionally mirroring Naruto as he rubbed his hands together.
Just as that was said Naruto felt Kakashi blur before appearing in front of them. "Today we'll go get a mission first then train the rest of the day."
Naruto turned and whispered to his friends. "I guess it will happen quicker than I thought" he said before turning and heading toward the missions office in the Hokage tower. "Let's go!"
Just as they were about to cross the bridge to leave training ground 7 the three genin heard a high-pitched scream that they thought was a little girl until they looked back and saw their sensei. They ran back to him and knelt by his side.
"My precious, why have you betrayed me? Who in Kami's name would do something like this? Why is my precious yaoi!" Kakashi practically screamed the last part.
The genin broke down, laughing so hard they felt like they were going to throw up. When they finally got themselves under control Naruto spoke up. "I guess that is what the cost of being late is Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi rounded on Naruto so fast he could barely see it. "You! You did this!"
Naruto cut him off before he could really get into it. "No you did it. I just made it so that if you were late to a meeting again you would regret it. I told you yesterday, if you are late again you would be mentally scarred in a way that you would never be able to forget. Your subconscious decided what would do that" Naruto lied through his teeth; he really didn't want his sensei to know that he was the one who chose the punishment. "Though it will last 24 hours and every time you are late you will get 24 hours more yaoi time, if what we were overhearing was correct. It is something like Magen: Narakumi no Jutsu (Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique) but it only activates if you are late."
The next day Kakashi-sensei was on time. The day after he wasn't and you could find him pouting all day. Naruto wasn't really sure why he was late when knew what would happen if he was. On the other hand, maybe he just thought it was a one-time thing.
Kakashi-sensei wasn't late after that; Naruto guessed he really didn't want the yaoi punishment again. Actually that wasn't quite true. He was late one more time but that was more of Naruto's fault.
Since Naruto could still sense him spending time at the same stone, he was curious and decided to find out what he was always doing at the same place.
The next day Naruto arrived at 7:30 and made his way to the other side of the training ground where Kakashi-sensei was. For a few minutes and noticed that he did indeed look at a particular stone without moving more than necessary for breathing. The stone he was looking at was actually more of a giant plaque with hundreds of names on it.
Naruto decided to just ask his sensei what the meaning behind it was rather then wait and end up making him wait. He walked over to stand next to his teacher because he didn't want to disturb Kakashi-sensei too much. "Kakashi-sensei, I've been meaning to ask you what it is you stand here to look at for an hour every day before you come to the team meeting?"
Kakashi looked up slowly, as if coming out of a daze. After several minutes he asked "how did you know I was here?"
Naruto felt like he was talking to an idiot for a second or two. "Remember how I told you about the sensory technique I can use? When I told you about it, I mentioned how you were standing in front of a stone for an hour before our meeting?"
Kakashi seemed to lose the last of his dazed. "Ah yes, I was a bit out of it for a minute. I'm a bit impressed you could sense what I was doing from such a distance though."
"I could use it to sense further than this actually, it really depends on how well I compress my chakra when I use the jutsu" Naruto explained. "I actually plan on using as a bit of a chakra control exercise when I get good enough to do it without hand seals. From what I know of the technique, the greater the chakra compression the further I can sense when I use the technique so I will try to reach the same distance with less and less chakra used. But what are you doing here sensei?"
Kakashi looked down at the stone sadly. "This is a monument to the heroes of this village."
Naruto followed his sensei's gaze and saw two names that stuck out: Uchiha Obito and Namikaze Minato. "So this is to honor the dead then."
"Correct, I come here to pay my respects to the dead."
"Who do you come to mourn? I know the Yondaime was your sensei but who else?" Naruto asked as he turned to look at Kakashi.
"Uchiha Obito and Rin, they were my teammates" Kakashi admitted sadly.
"So is he the Uchiha you received your eye from?"
Kakashi spun around to look at his student. "How did you know about that?"
"Are you kidding me? Your nickname is Copy Ninja Kakashi. What type of eyes allow for copying jutsu? Why do you always wear your hitai-ate covering your left eye? I just made a conclusion based upon the facts I have" Naruto defended.
"I shouldn't be surprised any more but for some reason I am. Now I have explained what I do here could you please allow me to pay my respects for another…" Kakashi looked at his watch "15 minutes."
Naruto just looked at him like that was the stupidest thing he had ever heard. "But you're not paying them respect. You are indulging in self-pity" Naruto asked while thinking about what his father would say to Kakashi. "Do you really think the people you have lost would appreciate the fact that you are using them as an excuse to stand here for hours doing nothing when you could be doing something productive? Do you really think they would thank you? Do you really think this is the best way to keep their memory alive?" Naruto turned to head back and meet his team. "Just tell me this, what would they tell you to do? I'll leave you alone to think, see you later Kakashi-sensei.
After that Kakashi-sensei didn't arrive for over two hours after their meeting time and when he did he looked slightly haggard. Naruto decided to leave it alone as Kakashi-sensei would probably need to work it out on his own.
Since that day Kakashi-sensei hadn't been late. Naruto also couldn't sense him staring at the memorial stone for hours on end, so maybe he had gotten through to him. That had brought Team 7 their current situation; they were standing in front of the missions desk and the Hokage after a morning of training and completing a single mission.
Of course that mission was supposed to be hard but once they found Tora it had turned out to be pathetically easy. Naruto had set up a sleep seal and Sakura and Sasuke had chased Tora right into it. Considering that the seal would last an hour, all they had to do after that was take the cat back to her owner.
With that they had completed the ten D-rank missions required for a C-rank and the genin were excited knowing that they might get an actual mission rather then another chore.
The Hokage in his ceremonial Hokage robes and smoking his pipe was sitting behind the desk with Iruka-sensei and a couple other shinobi. "Hmm… Kakashi's Team 7 let's see… you can babysit an elder's grandson, do some shopping in a neighboring village, or help with potato digging."
Team 7's faces fell, at least until Kakashi spoke up. "Hokage-sama, with all due respect, I think my team is ready for a C-rank mission. They are all far stronger than could be expected for genin fresh out of the academy."
Iruka exploded a bit at that, but not as much as could be expected because he knew his former students are strong. "But they are just rookies! Everyone starts with D-rank missions and works their way up."
"They may be rookies, but they are ready to take their next step. They are ready for a C-rank mission" Kakashi replied calmly.
The Hokage pondered that. The fact that it was Kakashi himself and not one of his genin requesting a more difficult mission probably meant they were indeed ready for it. "If you think your team is ready for it, I'll give you a C-rank mission" the Hokage agreed as he grabbed a scroll marked with large C's. Opening up the scroll the read it and said "Your mission will be the protection of a certain individual."
Naruto let his excitement get the better of him for a second and asked "Who? Who?" but caught himself before he said something stupid like "A feudal lord? A princess?".
"Calm down, I'll introduce him. You can come in now." The old Hokage called out, making sure he could be heard by anyone outside the door.
Suddenly the door was slid open and a man holding a bottle of sake and stumbling a little walked through the door. He had a length of rope tied around his fore head right under his slightly spikey grey hair and above small oval-shaped glasses and grey goatee. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that was such a deep brown it was almost black and a pair of beige pants. "What's this?" he said before taking a swig of sake "They're all a bunch of super brats. Especially that girl with pink hair. Are you really shinobi? Who ever heard of a shinobi that naturally stands out so much?"
Knowing of Sakura's temper, Kakashi moved behind her so he could grab her if necessary. He knew that it wouldn't be when he heard her voice. "And what right does an old man who is drunk in the middle of the day have to say that to me?"
"I can say it if I want, I am the super bridge builder Tazuna. I expect you to provide me with super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge I'm working on."
"You might be a 'super bridge builder' but you really need to sober up. I can smell the scent of sake just wafting off of your body, I honestly didn't know that was possible" Naruto said.
Kakashi turned to Naruto then to the Hokage. "We accept this mission, Hokage-sama." Then he turned back to his team. "Meet me at the front gate in one hour and be prepared for a two-week trip."
As Naruto left he saw his sensei dragging the drunk along with him. Naruto quickly went home and prepared everything he would need for two weeks: extra clothes, food, medical supplies, his map, sleeping/camping gear, and extra weapons. He sealed his supplies into four storage scrolls which he stored in waterproof cases and put them in the scroll pockets that took the place of cargo pockets on his pants. Then he hung the dimension scroll off of his back with ninja wire and left his apartment. He reached the front gate about twenty minutes early and thought about the mission.
This mission is slightly strange Naruto thought Tazuna-san paid for a C-rank mission which generally means bandits and the like. But he made it here without a scratch on him and he didn't buy any supplies here, which means that he could make it back to Wave Country without any problems. Then there is the fact that he is drunk in the middle of the day which says, to me at least, that he is nervous or scared. I highly doubt that he is worried about bandits so there is probably something else going on that is scaring him and we should be wary of whatever that is.
Just as he finished thinking about the mission, Sakura showed up followed by Sasuke a few minutes later. Naruto decided to warn his friends that they were probably going into more danger then a simple C-rank mission should entail.
"Sasuke, Sakura" Naruto said and waited until they reached him. "I don't know what Tazuna-san is hiding, but be prepared for more danger than a C-rank. There are just a few things about Tazuna that don't add up and make me wary of this mission. Just keep on guard."
Seeing his friends nod thoughtfully was a relief for Naruto. So he settled back in and waited until their sensei and client arrived to begin their mission to Nami.
A/N: Not too much going on this chapter other then some training and pranking and preventing Kakashi from being late too often. The real action starts next chapter with Team 7's trip to wave. Considering I'm still leaning toward Naruto x fem. Haku, Next chapter marks the introduction of a potentially important character.
Next Chapter: Riding the Waves
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