Chapter 21: New Teachings
A month had passed since the events of Nami no Kuni. The group had brought Suigetsu with them and the Hokage had offered him a choice, become a registered genin of Konoha, or face execution. Needless to say, Konoha was now in possession of two of the seven swords of the mist, and a new genin recruit. Suigetsu was not yet placed on a team, instead Sarutobi had decided to add him to the temporary roster, replacing either Hinata or Gohan, Hinata when she had clan meetings, and Gohan when he was teaching the Jonin how to use ki in battle.
True to his promise, Gohan had gone to train with Piccolo once a week and had regained much of his strength. Gohan had also changed his outfit, returning to his purple gi with a red sash, along with a weighted cape much like Piccolo's.
Gohan had also taken team 7 with him a few times. Dende taught Sakura how to heal with ki, Popo trained Sasuke and Naruto, and Kakashi joined Piccolo and Gohan, though the silver haired Jonin found it nearly impossible to keep up with them, even with his Sharingan.
Over the four training sessions, Sakura had grown the most, with one day a week dedicated to ki healing, and one day dedicated to chakra healing she was growing adept in both. Her Suiton attacks were also coming along excellently, and she was beginning to develop an affinity for Doton through her continued training.
Naruto had trained mostly his physical strength while with Popo, using his Fuuton techniques and ki to propel himself forwards and deliver a single powerful attack. He had also learned the Kamehameha technique from Gohan. His Suiton was at the level of Suigetsu, and the two regularly fought to see who could use a stronger Mizurappa.
Sasuke had trained his speed as opposed to strength, with his Sharingan he could see the patterns in an opponent's attack, but that would mean nothing if he couldn't move fast enough to utilise his knowledge.
Kakashi was now at the level that Yamcha had been before his death, with the silver haired cyclops able to defeat nearly any other shinobi in the world.
Today however, was different. Kakashi went with Popo to train his speed and Sasuke, Sakura and Naruto were trained privately while Gohan went for to fly around for a few hours.
Piccolo was ruthless, pounding the genin into the ground, but both got up and attack each time. Sakura eventually joined them and it became a team training exercise.
Sasuke charged first, a flurry of fast swings with his sword caused Piccolo to dodge backwards, Sakura slammed her hands to the ground, causing a small earth wall to pop up behind Piccolo's feet, the Namekian tripped and Naruto jumped upwards, charging a Kamehameha and shooting it towards Piccolo, who moved out of the way before slamming his elbow into Naruto's neck, sending him to the ground. Piccolo then moved to attack Sakura, who covered her arm in stone and swung forwards with all her might, Piccolo caught her punch and winced slightly, but shattered the stone -and all the bones in Sakura's hand- with a powerful grip, then threw Sakura to the ground.
Piccolo turned to Sasuke and put his hand up, blocking a fireball with a small ki blast, then stretching his arm to grab the Uchiha by the leg and slam him into the ground.
"Get up and try again." Piccolo growled. The three got up and tried again, each time slowly getting better and better. The Namekian smirked, 'I make really strong students.'
Goten was teaching his teammates how to channel ki when Kurenai walked into his backyard, she stood and watched them as the group followed the demi-Saiyan, doing as he said without complaint. The red-eyed jonin watched Hinata push her hand forwards and shatter a tree that was fifty feet away. She watched Kiba jump up and gather a brown energy around his hand, then slamming it onto the ground, sending out a shockwave that caused her to fall. Shino bounced on his toes, an indigo aura surrounding him ashe held out his hands in front of him, creating a deep indigo orb of power. She smiled, 'Kakashi, my team will catch up to yours.'
"Goten." She walked into the yard more, "Can I try too?" She asked.
"Sure." Goten smiled and began to instruct her.
A week later, Kurenai was surrounded by a pink aura, Hinata by a light green aura, Kiba by a brown aura -with Akamaru in his coat- and Shino by an indigo aura.
"Goten, you are amazing." Kurenai smiled as she looked at the demi-Saiyan, who was surrounded by a golden aura while zipping around, leaving golden lines in his wake.
"I know." He beamed from right in front of her.
Hanabi knocked awkwardly on the door to the house that Videl was staying in. Tenten had told her about their team's progress in ki, and Hanabi wanted to grow stronger.
"Hey Hanabi." Videl opened the door and let the girl in.
"Hello Videl." Hanabi smiled, "I was wondering if you could do me a favor."
"What is it?" Videl was curious, she didn't know Hanabi too well, but she knew Hinata as the Hyuga heiress was on Goten's team, and they were ALWAYS in the backyard.
"I heard from Tenten that you taught your team to use ki in a fight, I was wondering if you could teach me."
"Sure, I've got practice with them today, so if you're free why don't you come, Gai-sensei won't mind at all."
"Alright." Hanabi followed Videl to the training field, where the rest of team Gai was already training. Neji was moving through targets with amazing speed, striking each one with a two fingered jab that left a large hole. Upon closer inspection Hanabi could see the faint fuschia aura around his fingers. Tenten had a violet aura surrounding her as she shot ki blasts towards Gai and Lee, who were both either punching or dodging them while covered in spring-green auras.
One particularly large blast flew towards Gai and he let loose a mighty roar, slamming into the blast with his fist, the ki surrounding it taking the shape of a tiger's maw.
Vidle then cleared her throat, "Hey, I've brought Hanabi, she wants to train with us."
"YOSH!" Lee shouted, "HANABI, WE WILL HELP YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH BURN TO THEIR FULLEST!"
"That's the spirit Lee, now Hanabi join Lee and I as we run two hundred laps around Konoha, and if we cannot do that then we will climb the Hokage Mountain with just our chins!" Lee and Gai then ran off, dead set on finishing their personal challenge.
"Well, I guess once Videl teaches you the basics I'll help you train with your ki, or you can ask Neji, you guys do use the same style right?" Tenten said, walking up to Hanabi.
"Yea we use the same style, but I'd prefer training with someone that doesn't use my style. It expands my knowledge." Hanabi said, "Like when am I ever going to have to fight someone who uses Jyuken?"
"Fair point." Tenten shrugged.
It took a few hours for Hanabi to get a hang of ki circulation. After getting the hang of it, she learned that if applied to her Byakugan, she could see ki circulation as opposed to chakra circulation. Videl taught Hanabi to make ki blasts, but the Hyuuga was not very adept at that skill, instead she used ki much like Neji, as a tool to increase her close-range offensive abilities.
After a few hours, Tenten called it quits, and Videl left as well. Hanabi decided to stay and challenge Neji to a spar.
The two stood apart from each other, when their eyes met they both dashed forwards, activating their Byakugan, Neji ducked under a powerful ki-enhanced palm strike, and lashed out with his own strike, aimed for Hanabi's stomach. She spun out of the way.
Neji took the opportunity to leap forwards, aiming a dual-handed palm strike at her chest. Hanabi crossed her arms to block the blow, but Neji stopped mid-attack and spun, slamming his foot into her face and sending her flying, Neji then let his fuschia aura surround him as he pulled one hand backwards, while keeping it in a palm strike position. Neji shot his hand towards his cousin, a burst of energy flying at her and knocking her into a training post and ending the spar.
"Wow Neji, you're really strong." Hanabi said as she stood up.
Neji said nothing as he walked away.
Hanabi sighed and walked home, 'And I'm going through this again tomorrow too.' She thought as she headed home.
Kai looked upon the bandit camp. It was their fourth C-rank so far, and this was the third bandit camp they'de had to deal with. The white haired God-runner calmly made a scythe and changed into his Thanatos form, a black cloak forming around him, hood covering his face in darkness.
Beside him was Teren, who was already in his Fuujin form, a traditional ninja suit colored green with the Konoha symbol on his forehead protector. He had a dagger in either hand.
Arthur was in his Raijin form, bulky gold armor with a golden longsword in his right hand. His wide smile showed how much he was going to enjoy the fight.
Tempest was on the other side of Kai, wearing a long blue dress with a wave pattern at the bottom. She held a spear in her left hand and was forming hand seals with her right, "Suiton: Kaimetsu Nami." She whispered, a large wall of water rising and destroying the left half of the camp.
"Let's go." Kai said, turning into a shadow and appearing in the middle of the camp, swinging his scythe, catching a few bandits with the blade and killing them instantly, turning their souls into energy, he raised one hand and formed a purple ball of ki, "Reaper Ball." Kai said, shooting the ball towards a group of bandits, turning them all into souls.
Arthur jumped down onto the battlefield with a shout of "Raiton: Kaminari Ochiru!" slamming onto the ground and sending waves of electricity out of his blade, stopping the hearts of the nearby bandits.
Teren did not use a large scale technique, instead preferring the Shunshin, killing hordes of enemies with his daggers like a farmer cutting down weeds.
"Good job." Kazuma said, floating down towards us, "That was actually pretty good." He smirked, "Now we're going back to Konoha, we have a Chunin exams to compete in."
On Kami's lookout, Kakashi had just finished his training with Popo for the day, and was heading back to the Time Chamber. He saw his team resting, and Gohan watching from the side.
"Guys, I hate to say it, but it'll be some time before we come back here." Kakashi said as he walked in, "I've registered you all for the Chunin exams."
"AWESOME!" Naruto shouted.
"And promise me one thing." Kakashi said, "No ki unless your opponent uses it first."
"Promise." Was the unanimous response of Team 7.
So, that was my filler chapter. I hope you liked it. Anywho, happy late new years, let's hope 2017 isn't as much of a shitshow as 2016 eh. Well, tell me what you liked/disliked and I'll see you guys next time. Thanks for reading.
Translations!
Suiton: Kaimetsu Nami = Water Release: Devastating Wave
Raiton: Kaminari Ochiru = Lightning Release: Thunder Crash