Alright, like last time, if you like darker stuff, check out the new story as I release chapters, "Burden of Two Fates." Other than that, I hope this chapter makes up for the shortness of the last one. Still not feeling great, but I have a responsibility to put this stuff out.
Usual disclaimer, I don't own any of the material involved, other than my own concepts and story deviations.
Evening, Same Day as Zabuza Battle - Tazuna's Home
After the battle with Zabuza, the team brought the exhausted and physically taxed Asuma safely to the home of their client, Tazuna. Tazuna, understanding the situation at hand, soon left them be to rest while checking in with his family, and the going's-on within the village. After a few hours, as the night overtook the village, Asuma finally awoke from his slumber, prompting the four Genin to pelt him with questions.
"Sensei, sensei! How the hell were you walking on water?!" Naruto shouted, face beaming at the prospect of performing such a miraculous task. Ino, however, shoved him out of the way, seeking a more important answer.
"Asuma-sensei, I know you're still tired, but can you explain what was going on with that random shinobi?" she reiterated, her face stern, yet concerned. To her left, Choji nodded in agreement as he munched away.
"I think more importantly," Tenten started, gently grasping her chin, deep in thought, "Is why an oinin would use senbon...those things hardly kill. They're usually used for knock-outs and sometimes acupuncture."
"Bingo, Tenten. I don't think that was an actual Kirigakure shinobi," Asuma replied, confirming the girl's concerns. "I think that was a ruse. Shinobi like that are supposed to dispose of the body on the spot, not take it away. Zabuza is likely alive, and has an accomplice."
Giving the kids a moment to process the information, the Jounin sat up from his futon and rotated his arm once more, wincing a bit as he felt something creak. As he stretched, Naruto seemed to be contemplating the information at hand, but that idea was quickly thrown out the window as he suddenly rushed over to his teacher's side.
"Okay, but seriously, you walked on water!" he exclaimed, eyes once again sparkling with curiosity and vigor. "Can you teach us how sensei? Huh, huh?!"
Laughing at the boy's enthusiasm, he waved gently at the whiskered boy's face as Ino yanked him back by the collar, chiding him while spewing information about etiquette and respect. Slowly trying to get up, Asuma silenced both of them quickly.
"I won't be teaching you that yet, but I will be teaching you lot a similar trick," he stated, gritting his teeth as stiffness caught up to him. "Ech...I'm sure Tenten already knows about it, considering she's been doing this longer, so she'll be a big help. That said, do we have a crutch on hand? I think I twisted something..."
On cue, Tazuna entered the room with a contented smile on his face and said crutch in hand, handing it off to Asuma before sitting down with the group. Asuma, once comfortably seated so as to stay eye to eye with Tazuna, addressed him.
"Not to bring you down or anything, Tazuna-san, but we have a real problem on our hands," he stated, fully expecting the grin to drop off the client's face, as it did almost immediately.
"Can't even let me be happy they're safe for a few minutes...what's the problem now? You took down the big guy with the sword, and there's no way Gato has anyone stronger. We're in the clear, right?"
"Anything but. After some thinking, we've come to the conclusion Zabuza is still kicking," Asuma replied, keeping his stern demeanor even as color drained from Tazuna's face. "He's going to need a good bit of time to be back on his feet, like me, but things are better than they seem. I know I did some real damage to him in our fight, so even if he shows up soon, he'll be worse off than us."
With that statement, Tazuna's fear seemed to be eased quite a bit, as he breathed a large sigh of relief. Over the course of half an hour, Asuma explained exactly what the plan was for the coming days, as well as an explanation of how long it'd take him to recover, the worst-case scenarios, and easing the older man's worries that his family could be at risk. Once everyone was satisfied, the group all settled in to sleep for the night.
Strangely, though, Tenten noted that Ino and Naruto were positioned in fairly close proximity to each other compared to how most Genin their age would behave. Conversely, Choji was quite far from them in the small space that they had to share, leaving the oldest of the kids a bit confused as to why the two would be comfortable like that so young. Unwilling to waste precious sleep over contemplating it, however, she quickly went to sleep herself, anticipating the training that her fellow Genin were going to endure.
Elsewhere, Location Unknown
In a darkened room, the oinin that had supposedly killed Zabuza kneeled over his motionless form, gently probing at his ribs. Upon finding the location damaged by Asuma's fierce strikes, they sighed, and reached for the two senbon buried in the swordsman's neck. As they were about to touch them, though, Zabuza's hand suddenly shot up and intercepted, gripping the two needles and ripping them out from his own neck, eyes bloodshot and filled with rage.
"You shouldn't do something so reckless. Had you not pulled them out straight, you could have done permanent damage," the masked shinobi declared calmly, as though this was normal behavior.
"Don't lecture me, Haku. How long will it take to get back out there?"
"Unfortunately, the two bottom-most ribs on your left side are fractured at the bare minimum - meaning at least six weeks for them to mend," the now-named Haku answered, prompting Zabuza to sit up, despite flinching in obvious pain. "Restrain yourself, please. I can speed up the process with certain herbs, but even if I do, it will take near a month. You can't fight properly in that condition!"
"Feh...that damn Konoha nin will be back on his feet in no time...even if I break my ribs off entirely, I'm going to CRUSH that man!"
"...if you rest, and allow me to perform some intrusive techniques, I may be able to bring you to a condition where you can fight, though it will still hamper you. One week will be enough should you allow it."
Zabuza, still in his anger, stared at Haku for a brief moment, before his expression shifted slightly. With a nod, he slowly settled back down as Haku probed his chest more, wincing on occasion as pressure came across the injuries he had sustained. Inwardly, he noted that this was going to be a hellish week.
The Next Day, Sunrise - Forest near Tazuna's Home
In a small clearing, the four Genin were gathered with Asuma, the latter leaning on a crutch and puffing away on his cigarette. Typical to the loudest of the team, Naruto could only barely keep his patience, rocking left and right while seated, frustration evident on his face as the Jounin kept them waiting. Ino, to his right, kept shifting between bored stares towards Asuma and glares at the impatient fellow blonde. To her right, Choji did what he always did - eating without a care in the world. Tenten, completing the team, stood behind the three, leant against a tree as she waited for Asuma to finally get to the point of their training.
"Alright. So, to make this quick, this is chakra control training in practical form. You wanted to walk on water, Naruto," Asuma stated as he hobbled towards one of the thicker trunks, "Well, first you'll walk up a tree."
As their teacher approached the tree, the group merely stared on in confusion, sans Tenten, who merely leaned her head back and closed her eyes, waiting for things to advance. As Naruto prepared one of his trademark outbursts, he stopped himself, mouth agape as Asuma almost casually went vertical, moving up the trunk of the tree as easily as if it were level ground.
"Now, this isn't really that hard. Simply put, focus chakra to the soles of your feet and you can stick to most surfaces," he stated calmly, even as his vertical ascent found its way along a branch, leaving him upside down as though it were normal. "I want you all to give it a try before I say any more - you'll see firsthand how important your control is here."
With silent agreement the three seated Genin got up, Choji even putting away his chips to concentrate on the task at hand. Each of the three approached their own training tree, and with a slow, simultaneous breath to calm their nerves, all three moved to step up it.
Almost immediately, the difference between them all became clear. Choji, despite his clear attempt at concentration, took one step up the wood before slipping clear off, dropping on his back with an exceptionally loud thud. Naruto, on the other hand, managed to get a few steps up, only to be met with an extraordinarily loud cracking sound and the bark shattering beneath his foot, sending him tumbling backwards. Ino, mid-way up the trunk and sticking perfectly, stopped and watched him go flying, eyes wide as the tree the Jinchuuriki was on cracked in half, falling away in two.
"Well, wasn't expecting that," Asuma stated, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple as the tree crashed to the ground. "Bit extreme, but you see the problems. Too little chakra, you don't stick. Too much, you usually get pushed off...in this case, looks like you used enough to just break the thing entirely."
Rubbing his head in embarrassment, Naruto stepped back up and looked over at the only successful member of the standard team, seeing Ino casually sitting on one of the higher branches, grinning and waving, as if to gloat about doing it with little effort. Before he could shout in frustration, Asuma pulled out a pair of kunai and chucked them at Choji's tree and another one, clearly for Naruto, at a point even with Ino's perch. Said girl hopped down to ground level, joining Tenten off to the side.
"You two are gonna practice 'til you can climb up these things like its second nature. When you're done, you can help on guard duty. Ino, you're with me for now. Tenten, you hang back and help with teaching."
"Got it, Asuma-sensei. Shouldn't take too long with some help," she replied, doing a cheeky backflip up onto the trunk and sticking like it was second-nature. "If you two need help, don't be afraid to ask!"
Grumbling to himself, Naruto quickly ran over to his new tree and went to run up it again, turning down his intensity, but still getting shoved off it. Thankfully, this time the tree didn't break entirely, but the damage to the bark was still noticeable. Choji, on the other hand, managed to begin sticking to the tree on his second attempt, but not without a few slides downward each attempt. With a smile, Asuma dropped from his hanging position and walked off with Ino in tow.
After about half an hour of watching Choji quickly manage to hone his tree-walking ability and see Naruto fail miserably over and over, Tenten began to get impatient. Despite her unwilling allegiance to the loudmouthed Uzumaki, his incompetence in regards to chakra control was infuriating. It wasn't much longer before Choji reached the kunai marker, while Naruto still couldn't get more than a few steps, and Tenten decided to step in.
"Alright, Choji-san, you're good. Head off to town and catch up with the others, we're gonna hang back."
"Gotcha!" he replied, dropping down to the ground, his extreme weight causing the impact to crater. As he left, he could be heard mumbling, " Sooo hungry...hope there's something good to munch in town..."
Once he was out of earshot, Tenten turned to Naruto, just in time to see him fail once more, dropping like a rock to the ground. Shaking her head, she stepped over and placed a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from taking another attempt at embarrassing himself. In response, the boy looked over to her with frustration evident on his face, eyes sad.
"I don't know what's going on, Ten-chan...no matter what I do, it's either too much or not enough!"
"Listen, Na...wait, Ten-chan...?" she said, cutting herself off before shaking her head and disregarding the new moniker. "A-anyway, I'm guessing the problem isn't necessarily your fault. From what I've seen of you, you have massive chakra stores. Probably on par with some Jounin."
"And? What does that have to do with this?" Naruto responded, frustration replaced with confusion.
For this particular boy, having massive chakra stores wasn't much news. Even in the academy, practicing jutsu wasn't ever a problem, as he never seemed to run out. The first time his reserve had even been taxed until now was when learning his Kage Bunshin technique, and even that just left him a little tired.
"Okay, listen. The reason Ino could do this so easy was because she's got basically no chakra compared to you. The less you have, the easier it is to control. Choji, however, has a larger pool, but his clan techniques use similar methods to tree-climbing by focusing it to the limbs, so it was just a matter of doing it differently. You, Naruto-kun, have such a massive pool that it's hard to control. Like trying to divert a chunk of ocean into a pool with a cannon. Get it?"
"U-uh...not...really? Besides, the more I mess up the less I want to do this stuff. Its cool and all, but not worth it!"
Looking at the boy, Tenten tried to think of something that could help. Head tilted down, fingers on her chin, and eyes closed, she carefully dug through her knowledge of the boy, little as it was, and carefully weighed the options. As Naruto watched on, she slowly started tapping her foot, and the boy watched it with odd focus. Obviously, seeing her think so hard was interesting to him at some level, but it wouldn't last long.
"Got it. You've mentioned how much you want to out-do that Uchiha guy before, right?"
"Agh, don't even bring up Sasuke! He's such an ass, always acting so high-and-mighty!"
Smirking, Tenten raised a finger to Naruto's face, prompting him to lean back slightly.
"Well, I'm sure Sasuke is learning the same technique. How much would you like to rub it in his face that you learned it better than him?" she said, smirk widening into a small grin as his eyes lit up.
Without even replying Naruto leapt to his feet and charged at the tree, now forever determined to learn the technique and earn superiority over his self-proclaimed rival. His panda-bunned ally watched on with hands on her hips as, with no real advice given, the boy doubled his previous achievement before dropping, and how quickly he went back to it.
"Didn't think that'd work as well as it did," she said to herself, stepping back a bit in case he got too overzealous and broke another tree. "At this rate he may just blow past it to the top."
All that was left was to hang back and watch him work his heart out, and relax. Though, for a student of Maito Gai, relaxing was rarely an option, something Tenten fully accepted into her life. As Naruto began burning rubber, or bark in this case, the weapon-master-in-training began working on her marksmanship and summoning speed. Naruto's work ethic was somewhat contagious once he got going.
Another short one, sorry. Along with my usual problems I'm facing a severe case of procrastination and writer's block. No real excuses on this one. I'll try and pump out either a new chapter of this soon enough or a new chapter of Two Fates, whenever I can manage to get my mood up properly. I have no plans to stop again, so don't worry about that.
Criticism is both wanted and appreciated. Also, I'm surprised at seeing people from other countries (with other languages) dropping reviews. It's nice to know I'm reaching various cultures with my writing.