The foamy crest of the water washed through the grimy riverbank, bleeding into the leaves and muck that had long been bonded together. Kakashi watched it carefully, exposed eye moving to-and-fro as the water came home to roost before running back to the sea. The chirping of frogs reverberated from the dirt, bouncing through the cold air. It was one of those days were every breath was illuminated by a puff of smoke, where mittens or at the very least, deep pockets became necessities.
"Sensei, why'd you bring us out here?" Sakura asked. Kakashi had specifically instructed the three to wake up early, which would've been fine had you not taken into account the differing positions of each squad members overton window when defining "early". Despite Kakashi specifically stating that everyone should have arrived by six thirty, the actual arrival times where wildly different. Sasuke had arrived at the river thirty minutes early, while Sakura and Naruto had arrived fifteen minutes late. The latter two had largely different reasons for their tardiness though, with Sakura sleeping in and Naruto just not understanding that you couldn't fit waking up, a shower that turned into a bath, getting dressed and mapping out what route you needed to take in the ten minute timeframe that he'd given himself as he woke up.
"Well, I would usually allocate our time today for brushing up on fundamentals but in your case, there's a distinct lack of fundamentals to be brushed up upon."
"Training." Sasuke quickly said.
"Yes." Kakashi gently nodded.
The boy's words had a different meaning to the other two genin at stand-by than just indicating the obvious. A while back, after a particularly brutal day of training, Naruto had realized that there were two distinct sides to their teacher. "Training Kakashi" and "mission Kakashi". One was snappy and sharp; one was snappy and lazy. Training Kakashi saw everything they did, mission Kakashi purposely tried not to. It had become almost a secret code to the three teens, whichever one being the first to identify him calling out either "training" or "mission" quickly.
"So, what'll we be learning?" Sakura questioned, to which Kakashi indicated to the lake.
"Well, I'm kind of hoping to kill two birds with one stone today. We'll be firstly using the same basis as the tree-walking technique to begin walking on water. Secondly, I want to help the three of you develop your taijutsu further. From what I've seen, two out of the three of you are severely lacking in that area."
Suddenly, his foot slammed down against the dirt, sending a large, thin stick of what looked like bamboo shooting up into his hand.
"Two of you will practice that water walking jutsu, the left-over one will face me in a skirmish on the riverbank. Your goal will be to disarm me of this stick and then plant it in the ground before I can knock you out of a specific radius. Any questions"
The three genin nodded, as Kakashi scanned a finger along them.
"My first opponent will be…" His pendulum-like finger indicated that he was lost in thought, doing a series of mental coin flips to narrow down the selection. "Sasuke. You two go practice the basis of the water technique. Just don't get too far out, I don't want either of you drowning."
"Woah, woah." Naruto's feet sloshed over the water, his chakra control barley holding him up. In a futile attempt to try and keep his head above water, Naruto would shift chakra to one of his feet, using it like an anchor. This obviously didn't work, leading to Naruto getting knocked off balance and plummeting into the water. It was a few seconds before he shot back up, spitting a large shot of water out of his mouth as if he was a drinking fountain.
"Good shot." Sakura joked, somewhat taken about by how far he had managed to spit the liquid. She herself was on shaky legs, just barley managing to keep herself afloat. The basics of sticking to water were similar to that of the tree walking, but the differences between a solid and a liquid made it so that you couldn't just transfer your skills from one to the other.
"Sakura, do you have a secret for this one as well?" Naruto asked her, clutching his hand around his hair like you would when draining a sponge.
"If I did, I'd be doing way better than I'm doing no-Eck!" She exclaimed, as she briefly started to sink under herself before course correcting. "I can't even take steps in the water. Kakashi said we have to try and move our chakra with the river's flow but even standing is difficult if you do it that way."
Naruto sighed in defeat, shifting to his back so he would float better. It was cold (no doubt Kakashi had intentionally picked today after reading this week's weather report) so even though his jacket was getting wet, he wasn't going to take it off. His gaze lingered up at the sky, taking in its color. It was obviously early, so the sun's awakening was still masked by lingering clouds that had delivered a sprinkle of rain before, but Naruto still thought it was pretty. Despite the clouds attempt to block out any light, pink tinges of sunrise still seeped through their lighter gaps. He must've stared at it for around thirty seconds before he realized the soft current was taking him backwards. He tried to scramble back up to his feet, forgetting he was in water. Instead of boosting him up, his flailing only served to make him sink a little bit deeper until he managed to shift chakra to his hands.
"Hey!" Sakura yelled, as Naruto climbed back into a standing position. His flailing seemed to have overruled the current that she had been basing her steps on, with ragged ripples replacing what had been a stable water top just moments before.
"My bad." He mumbled, only to then exacerbate the problem by falling face first downwards. Sakura would've laughed if she hadn't had to focus on the torrent of ripples that were now heading her way.
"Any questions?" Kakashi asked, crouched with the stick in his hand. He'd used it to draw a large circle around him and Sasuke, probably around six meters in length according to the Uchiha's calculations. If Sasuke were to be knocked out of the circle, he would "lose" the test, though any consequence of a loss was marginal. He'd just have to swap out with Naruto or Sakura for a while, so any stakes were more balanced upon his own sense of self-worth than anything else.
"If I get sent out of the circle in mid-air, does it still count as a loss?"
"I'd say it doesn't as long as your feet stay in the air, instead of a tree or something like that."
Sasuke nodded along with his teacher's instruction.
"Are you ready to start?" Kakashi asked, being met with another nod.
Crack!
Before Sasuke had even stabilized his head from it's bobbling, the stick came smashing into his abdomen. Normally, this would just hurt, but Kakashi's swing had enough strength behind it to send him flying back like a baseball. If he hadn't stuck his fingers out to slow his momentum, Sasuke would have been sent out of the circle in mere seconds. Instead, he came just inches away from that fate, fingertips slicing through the dirt ground as he tried to clutch on to it. By the time he'd regained his bearings, Kakashi was already in front of him, sharply kicking him in the side and sending him flying out of the area. Sasuke didn't completely lose hope, with the rule he'd just asked about being firmly lodged in the front of his mind. He just hadn't wanted to get into this predicament so quickly.
At the rate he was falling, he had probably three or four seconds before he hit the ground. He needed some sort of repellent to send him flying back-ways into the circle. A tree was the obvious answer, but that'd be a disqualification. Even a basic wind jutsu would save him but those were still far out of his capabilities.
Unless.
The process of fire-style was something he'd learnt pretty early on in his academy training. He'd seen his brother use it and wanted to replicate it, only to end up having to suck on ice for the next week as a result. Still, he remembered the process that fire-style was based upon, and the included using chakra as a fuse. If he were to cut that process off early, he'd end up with minor burns but the makeshift explosion caused by it would also launch him backwards. That was his hypothesis anyway.
His hands were a blur as they moved through the hand signs for the phoenix flower. The burning sensation swelled up inside him, bubbling closer and closer to his lips. Just as it reached a fever pitch, Sasuke bit down against it, causing a makeshift explosion to go off in his mouth. His momentum completely shifted left, sending him flying over Kakashi's head and back into the safe-zone. Clumps of dirt shot up off the ground when he landed, owed entirely to the force of the impact. In less than three seconds, he'd had to come up with a plan that would completely reverse his trajectory. The landing hadn't exactly been his number one priority.
"Impressive." Kakashi said, transitioning the stick around so that it was mostly resting against his back. Sasuke could tell he was going to start playing defensive, and wouldn't put it past him to simply stall for the rest of the day. If he was going to get that staff, he would have to outwit Kakashi in taijutsu. A brief red tinge glazed over his vision, signifying that his sharingan had been successfully activated.
"Hm, there it is." Kakashi had been itching to see if Sasuke would bust out his sharingan in this fight, so the boy activating his dojutsu brought a small, invisible smile to his face. This could potentially be tricky as he didn't know Sasuke's sharingan ability, adding an unknown variable to the equation of combat. The rational part of him doubted that it was anything serious, as Sasuke would most likely not be able to use said ability without training from him or, at the very least, two tomoe. On this front, he was technically wrong. Sasuke could definitely use his ability. As far back as the fallout from the Wave, he'd been privy to its presence and could use it at will.
The only problem was, he didn't actually know what it did. All it seemed to be was a white flicker that obscured his vision for a split-second and then vanished. The only theory he'd had about it was that it either wasn't finished developing yet (which would be a first according to all known records of the sharingan) or it relied on some move from the enemy, that he obviously couldn't figure out on his own. He shoved this to the back of his mind as he began to charge at Kakashi, the older man not quite ready for the increase in speed. Sasuke delivered two kicks to Kakashi's side, one managing to get past unblocked. Kakashi stumbled back, attempting to retaliate with a whack of the stick, only for Sasuke's leg to immediately shot out in a block attempt. Kakashi halted the attack, too late to realize that his student had done the exact same thing.
The block had been a feint, Sasuke kicking dirt upwards into Kakashi's face. Despite the success of this attack, it may not have been the wisest idea to attempt to blind the person who only really used one eye in the first place. Kakashi wasn't some blind-master prodigy who could fight without even the slightest need of sight, but a temporary patch of dirt in his face was something he could definitely recover from. As Sasuke shot upward to try and grab onto the stick, Kakashi spun it backwards onto his shoulders. With the Uchiha boy now out of position, Kakashi spun it back around and hit him square in the forehead, hard enough to knock him off-balance. The Uchiha began to stumble backward, his lack of balance being premeditated in Kakashi's plan. Before he could regain his equilibrium, Kakashi rotated the stick around the opposite way, aiming where the last semblance of Sasuke's balance remained, his legs. There was very little force required to trip him up, so he went stumbling to the ground. It was too late that Kakashi realized this may have been his intention all along. Sasuke had braced himself for the inevitable tripping that would occur as soon as Kakashi had attempted to knock him over. With a sudden grip on the stick, he weaponized Kakashi's own attack against him, falling backwards with enough power in it to take the stick with him.
SLINKT!
Before the jonin had managed to understand the ploy, Sasuke had already sunk it into the ground by continuing his backwards roll. He ended up on his legs, flecks of dirt running up his frame.
"Impressive." Kakashi said, taking hold of the stick once more and uprooting it.
"Thanks." Sasuke mumbled, somewhat disappointed that his day would now mainly consist of the water-walking. Any pride he had on the part of besting Kakashi was menial, as he could tell his sensei was only putting in the effort to match Sasuke, not to actually try and best him like he was in the bell test. Still, a win over Kakashi was something to be happy about, however large the asterisk that loomed over it was. He brought an arm up to his slightly chapped lips (having an explosion going off in your mouth, however nulled, would do that), wiping them clean
"Which of the others do you want next?"
Kakashi rubbed a hand against his chin, thinking for a moment.
"I think I'll observe how their water-walking is going."
He couldn't say he was impressed. Sakura was competent, at the least, being the only one who had managed to figure out that how to actually walk on water (even if her legs were wobbly) while Sasuke and Naruto scarcely found themselves in a situation where they weren't sinking.
"Good chakra control Sakura!" Kakashi called out, as he watched from the side of the river. "You two! Focus on reading the current."
Naruto took one step forward with the advice in mind, only for his foot to break through the water's surface like a loose floorboard. Obviously, upon seeing his friend go face first into the river, he wasn't that enthusiastic about having to replicate the action, especially with the weather. He gingerly placed one foot in front of the other, as if relearning how to walk, briefly bracing for the plummet only to find that he had managed to stabilize himself. Not well, mind you, but at least it painted a picture in Kakashi's mind of their respective chakra levels. When Sakura's feet touched the water, it resembled what you would think "walking on water" looked like. A slight ripple would run through the water top and then settle with every step. With Sasuke, the water would continue to squirm around his feet, as if it was struggling to keep him afloat. Naruto, in the meanwhile, almost stomped through the water with small geysers of froth uprooting from every step he took (which wasn't many considering just one would put him under the shroud of the sea)
The pair of boy's troubles were easy to diagnose. Distilling chakra to a certain part of the body added a decent amount of weight to it, enough to render chakra's magnetism useless. Sasuke was on the right track, with his chakra control still being above average when compared to a large majority of genin his age. Naruto on the other hand, was a special case. He had tremendous chakra reserves, that Kakashi had noted from the fight with Haku. It also seemed that his prior training in the academy had never actually taken this into account, causing him to use a relatively massive amount of chakra when he really thought he was using a percentile. He wondered just how much that defect manifested in Naruto's fighting style.
"Oy, Naruto!" He called out as the Uzumaki youth stumbled back to his feet. "Let's go work on your taijutsu."
Naruto beamed brightly, enthusiastically attempting to run over to Kakashi. Unfortunately, he neglected to remember the fact that he was incapable of actually running on water so that premature sprint quickly turned into freestyle swimming.
"Ugh!" He spat out some of the water that had gotten into his mouth, before standing straight back up. "Let's go Kakashi-sensei."
The older man said nothing as he led him away, leaving Sasuke and Sakura essentially unsupervised for the moment. The two of them quickly resumed their technique, with quite a clear contrast of quality. Sakura, soon enough, had become fully capable of walking without issue. F aster paces did well to trip her up, but with a simple walking speed, she could navigate the river with no issue. Her real objective now was to try and reverse her direction by walking backwards. She'd realized that it was, in all probability, a better idea to start with this than running as she'd grow more accustomed to trailing the waters direction without the fear of collapsing under herself.
Step by step, she walked back, as if relearning how to walk. The first few steps were difficult, with the kunoichi losing her footing initially but she soon got into the grove. All she had to do was mentally reverse the current in her mind as well as slightly increase the amount of chakra in her soles in case she slipped and needed to make a last second recovery. Soon enough, she began to feel completely comfortable walking backwards, almost as if she wasn't on water at all. Instead, she was on common ground, stranding herself up to-
THWACK!
The sudden feeling of backing into something almost caused her to tip off balance. Luckily, that excess chakra stabilized her, a fate that was not befallen to the person she'd obviously crashed into. A quick turn of her head revealed Sasuke, who was currently flailing around in the water.
"Ah! Sorry!" She squeaked, immediately reaching out a hand to try and help him pull himself up. Not thinking too much about it, he gripped onto it, barely managing to get back onto his feet even with the assistance.
"It's my bad. I was looking at my feet the whole time." He said, awkwardly stumbling as his feet threatened to give out on him from the water level.
"That's okay. I do it too most of the time, it's easier to tell where the currents going." Sakura said, twisting towards him slightly before having to move forward as the Uchiha boy fell back slightly.
"Right." Sasuke mumbled, trying to steady himself. It was in that moment that they both realized he'd still been clutching Sakura's hand. For a brief second, their eyes were caught in gridlock, both bracing to see if the other one would make the first move. Nothing of the sort came about, so they mutually put it upon themselves to try and break the chain in the most unawkward way possible. The exact opposite of this ended up happening, as the two of them pulling in opposite directions only caused their momentum to stall as their fingers locked. Eventually, Sasuke managed to unweave his hand from hers, but that was only after they'd long gone over the point of no return and it could no longer be ignored.
"Sorry." The unanimously said, voices overlapping. Both tried to come up with something else to say, but with the weight of embarrassment that was burning through them, the only things either managed to say were the first syllables of words before they cut themselves off, thinking it was best to just let the awkwardness ride itself out. Inner-Sakura was surprisingly intent to stay quiet as well. Instead of her usual berating, she'd curled up into a ball and had begun to comically weep to herself. When the sound of Sasuke audibly "tsk"-ing to himself became audible, that weeping became louder and louder.
Waaaaaaah!
"Hyah!" Naruto yelled, clones dispersing around him as Kakashi ducked and weaved through another one of his punches. Suffice to say, his teacher was both impressed and not at the same time. On one hand, his actual technique was far better than you'd expect from the person who nearly flunked the bell test because he stood in front of Kakashi for the whole hiding period. The taijutsu itself was not bad enough for Kakashi to dismantle with only the fundamentals of blocking and attacking, especially with the shadow clones backing Naruto up.
The biggest problem Kakashi found, was that Naruto natural balance was wonky. Really wonky. It had problem to be incredibly easy to bait him off balance by simply ducking around to the back of him. Instead of flowing with his natural momentum (a strategy that would be smart when taking into account how many moving elements his opponent would have to concentrate on in that case), Naruto seemed intent on halting any motion in favor of chasing Kakashi. This strategy lead to him crashing onto the ground one hundred percent of the time. Take for example, this current moment. Naruto leapt forwards, using a kneeling shadow clone as a booster, in an attempt to clock Kakashi with his fist. There was far too much downward momentum put onto this attack and it opened him up completely. Kakashi weaved to the side, using the stick to snipe him out of the air. The clone that had boosted him was quickly dispersed after a stomp, while Naruto landed hard on the ground. He rolled to the side, bringing him closer to the circles line. Two shadow clones appeared around him, both immediately beginning to rush forward at Kakashi.
This was somewhat tricky, if not all that intelligent, Kakashi thought. The clones had specifically distanced themselves enough from each other that if he were to take out one, then he'd leave himself open to an assault from the other. As they grew nearer, however, a plan of attack began to be visually spelt out to him. Taking a few seconds to think it through, he suddenly exploded into a bundle of speed, tossing the stick gently at the two clones. Specifically, he'd tossed the stick horizontally, so that both clones would be required to catch it. Before they could possibly react to this, he bounded over the two of them like something out of a high jump, launching his hand back and yanking the stick backwards. Since their balance and natural momentum were identical, if not worse than Naruto's, they were sent flying into the dirt were Kakashi easily disposed of them.
"Ah!" Naruto growled, as Kakashi easily closed the distance between them. The older man swung the stick at him, much like you would if you were holding a sword instead of a length of bamboo. That detail laid bare the true intention of the strike. If Naruto were to dodge it, he'd have to balance himself and fall back. Instead, he went completely flat footed and attempted to sock Kakashi in the jaw from where he was. Little did he know that the sword-like slash of the bamboo had actually been a feint, Kakashi pulling it back only to shoot it back up towards his chin. It hit hard enough to send Naruto flying back out of the circle. The boy's loss was cemented as pieces of dirt went flying from around his landing site.
"Yuck." Naruto groaned, sitting himself up to a seated stance and brushing the flecks of dirt off his track jacket. He tried to get as much of it out of him as he could before getting back to his feet and looking at Kakashi. "How'd I do?"
The jonin sighed, looking down at his student. "Well, at the very least your problems were easily unidentifiable."
"Huh?"
"There were two major flaws in your plan of attack. Firstly, your chakra control is dreadful."
Naruto pouted at the criticism, but its bluntness was earned. From the heavy aura that his shadow clones emitted, Kakashi could tell he was throwing away chakra as if he was scared that keeping too much of inside himself would kill him.
"Secondly, you don't seem to be taking advantage of your shadow clones as well as you could. You're overeager on the offensive and it leaves you open and off-balance."
Naruto stood there, grumbling with his hands in his pockets before turning to Kakashi. The pout was still visible on his face, and Kakashi was sure he was going to get an earful of complaints and excuses. But he didn't.
"So…how do I get better at those?" Naruto asked, eyes darting away in a pseudo-embarrassment as he asked the question. His wandering gaze and pocket-sheathed hands indicated the he wasn't exactly comfortable asking the question, but that was far better than what Kakashi had expected. With someone as boisterous and, at first glance, arrogant as Naruto was, any censure, however harsh, would usually cause them to freak out. Seeing him take it on the chin like he did made Kakashi think he didn't know Naruto as well as he thought he did.
"Well, I think everything ties back into your chakra control. You're using massive amounts of it for even things that require the bare minimum." He explained, tapping his chin. "This consequently causes your shadow clones to suffer. The vast amount of chakra you put in them causes them to become heavier and slower, so their easier to destroy. Until you figure out how to balance your chakra, any taijutsu fundamentals are unimportant."
"That's a lot to do, though! I can't just relearn how to use chakra!" Naruto protested, unprepared for the scope of what Kakashi was suggesting.
"No, you can't. But you can refine your current technique." Kakashi crouched beside Naruto so he could further assist the boy's movements. "Start using chakra. As little as you can"
"Uh, okay." Naruto did as requested, blue strands of energy faintly stitching themselves around him.
"Now, imagine you are a tap, and the chakra is the water. There's a glass in front of you, and you want to fill it up, but if you put too much water in the glass, it'll spill. Your chakra attacks are that glass."
The Uzumaki boy's aura began to become for tangible as he followed the advice, closing his eyes to improve his focus. For a few seconds, he remained stable, the chakra becoming bolder and bolder before suddenly, it became too bright. Leaves that had drifted to the ground were sent shooting back upward, as Naruto nearly dug himself into the ground due to the power of his chakra. The sudden shift of gravity sent Naruto collapsing downwards onto the ground, though he was quick back onto his feet.
"Was that better Kakashi-sensei?" He asked to which Kakashi had to try and find the nicest way to explain that it was only better because with how Naruto had been using his chakra prior to this, he would've exploded immediately instead taking a few seconds too.
"Yes. Just try to cut off your usage before the end where you implode in on yourself." The advice was barely truthful. Naruto still had a long road ahead of him before his chakra control could be considered anything other than bad, so controlling it would not be as simple as just being able to put a cap on it before it broke through restriction. Whether he could effectively shape the vast amount of chakra he had could also be an issue, but one that would need to be taken care of after he actually started to use it successfully.
"Naruto, I think you should go practice on the water for the rest of the day. It'll help your chakra control."
"Right." Naruto said as he began to walk off, slightly disheartened that he would most likely not be sparring against Kakashi again.
"Oh, and while you're there, could you send Sakura over?"
"On it." The boy said, having to yell as he was already a fair bit away from Kakashi when the order had been issued. He walked slowly back down to the riverbank, which gave Kakashi a bit of time to crunch the numbers in his head. They had three months, which was a lot of time, but there were gaping holes in Team Seven's basics that would need to be addressed. Simply not attending would be neigh impossible with how enthusiastic Hiruzen had been about them.
Sasuke was technically sound, and incredibly intelligent when it came to strategy, but he was over reliant on kick feints and natural talent. Any mistakes that were apparent in his game were concealed by his prodigy-like taijutsu and fire style but those mistakes were still there, amplified by the manifestation of his sharingan. If Sasuke were to run low on chakra, those mistakes would become incredibly lethal. Naruto essentially had the same problem; except he lacked the finesse and talent to mask those mistakes at all. At the very least though, his taijutsu had enough power behind it that it physically hurt to block and his application of shadow clones showed sparks of creativity that Kakashi didn't think he had. Too bad his chakra control meant he was essentially fighting with one hand tied behind his back.
Sakura was his biggest concern out of the three. No apparent talent for any non-basic ninjutsu or genjutsu, physically weaker than Naruto while also being strategically slower than Sasuke. She was definitely book-smart and crafty, but her best showings of this (her tree leave kamikaze, and the shattering of the ice mirrors) were all when she was under no apparent danger from an actual foe. She was definitely the one in most dire need of improvement, but in exactly what way was what remained to be seen. It didn't bother him too much.
They had a few more months until the exams after all.
Naruto wobbled and squirmed under himself, waving his hands in the air to try and increase his aerodynamic capability. It was a bit difficult to focus on the glass of water analogy when you were literally standing on water. Even when he managed to clear his mind, it remained hard to stay afloat. It was like he was a magnet and the water was…another magnet. He could barely take steps less the floor crumple out from underneath him.
SMACK!
Naruto completely lost balance and fell forwards, but his misfortune didn't end there. In a frankly stupid attempt to try and keep above water, he shifted all his chakra to his front side, which only made him bounce off the water top and sink through the water on his back. By the time he'd managed to poke his head up once more, he caught Sasuke looking at him through the corner of his eye. His lips were contorted to the right somewhat, stretching in something that couldn't be called a smile but was definitely more upbeat than his usual blank-faced expression. Naruto realized it immediately as the face Sasuke made when he was forced to hold in a laugh.
The Uzumaki boy distinctly remembered him making the same face after the two of them had been shopping for food. They'd quickly realized that with their collective Konoha state allowances, they could bulk buy fruit and the like for the discounted value that came with bulk buying. Sasuke would go into the shop, buy 24 apples instead of his usual 12 and then split them with Naruto for an amount that ended up being the same price that they usually spent. Now they received the same number of apples for a reduced amount of cash. It was a surprisingly ingenious scheme (especially when you realized Naruto was the one who suggested it), but the last time they'd tried it, something had gone very wrong. The pair had decided they wanted to walk the rooftops for a little bit, and were in the process of transporting their cart of apples upwards when Naruto had fumbled his grip and spent a hectic rain of apples onto the passersby below. What felt like an hours' worth of lectures from random people later, Naruto caught Sasuke's lips furrowing like they were now.
"Hey, asshole!" Naruto growled, clumsily getting back onto his feet. "Your mouth better tilt back to normal or I'm gonna walk over there and beat the shit out of you!"
"Good one. You were literally struggling to take a step two seconds ago." Sasuke replied, nearly shifting his face into a full-on smirk.
"I'm just warming up."
"You're warming up by looking like an alcoholic trying to walk in a straight line?"
"Hey shut up- "
"-Wobbly as fuck." Sasuke talked over the top of whatever point Naruto was trying to make which actually gave the usually motormouthed ninja pause. Silence replaced time that Sasuke was certain would've been allocated to Naruto screaming obscenities at him was instead devoted to the boy clasping his hands together. His face became one of neutralized Zen, as he imagined the flowing of the water through the pipes, it's fluidized synergy rippling within every single-
"How's this for wobbly!" He yelled, dashing on top of the water.
"Oh shit." Sasuke exclaimed instinctively. Naruto was surprisingly fast, and while he obviously wasn't going to do anything that would actually hurt Sasuke, the Uchiha realized that being body slammed either into or onto the river wouldn't be a fun experience. It didn't help that Naruto was actually surprisingly fast, crossing the distance of the water before it could think about falling out from under him. He hurtled forward; fists clenched. His form rocketed closer and closer, getting just within striking distance of Sasuke before the Uchiha ducked to the side with his foot extended. Naruto comically pratfalled over the trip, face-planting into the water with a laughable plop sound.
Immediately, Naruto began thrashing around within the water, but the rage-powered momentum he'd previously managed to hone was long gone. He couldn't even maneuver himself up to his feet until Sasuke offered him a hand (which proved difficult because it wasn't like Sasuke had much in the way of equilibrium himself). Naruto took it, only for Sasuke to quickly realize that the other boy was significantly heavier than he'd thought he was. The initial attempt to lift Naruto only ended with the Uzumaki being set down once more.
"Oh haha, really funny." Naruto grumbled as his blond mop of hair once again grazed over the water top.
"I'm not doing it on purpose. God Naruto, what have you been eating?" Sasuke grumbled, struggling to keep his grip on his friends' hand. At the very least, it was a good training exercise to try and keep them both from sinking.
"Nothing! Well, even if I did eat something, I burnt it off!" Naruto replied, swinging his arms around in protest. This action was quick to make Sasuke annoyed, god knows it was hard enough to keep a hold on Naruto before he started flapping like a madman. Upon closer inspection though, it may have actually revealed the root cause of the problem. In his frenzy, Naruto's hand brushed against his jacket, sending a fucking tidal wave of water coasting down his neck.
"Take the jacket off."
"Huh?"
"Take your jacket off. It's like a goddamn sponge." He grunted. It took a few seconds for it to register with Naruto. There was a small glimpse of hesitation, before he unzipped the jacket and took it off. Luckily for him, it's puffer like texture meant that it would float as tried to make his way back to his feet. Sasuke pulled back with enough force to get Naruto above water for the moment while he shuffled chakra to his lower body. It wasn't difficult to stay on top of the water while sitting down because of the larger surface area, a fact which Naruto took full advantage of as he reshuffled himself. To Sasuke's surprise, he didn't immediately stand back up and instead retrieved his floating jacket.
"Thanks." Naruto said, as he twisted the jackets fabric as if it were a washcloth. A stream of water sprinkled down into the river, its imagery creating a strange sense of unease in Sasuke. This unease only worsened when Naruto seemingly refused to stand up. Instead, he just sat motionless for a few seconds. His eyes were focused squarely on the water, limbs relaxed whereas they were usually rigid with energy.
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked after a few seconds, flummoxed by the fact that Naruto had not instantly bounded onto his feet (or at least tried to).
"I'm taking five."
Sasukes eyes widened. It was like, in the last two seconds, Naruto had been replaced with a completely different person because the Naruto he knew did not take fives. Hell, he didn't take ones even when he should've but it was clear from everything to his expression to the way his hair cartoonishly drooped over his features that Naruto was legitimately disheartened for reasons Sasuke couldn't figure out. It bothered him more than he expected it to.
"That's new for you."
"Well, ya know, everyone has to rest once in a while." Naruto said with an uncharacteristic lack of emotion. Sasuke was honestly just…baffled. It wasn't like Naruto had never failed before, in fact, he'd failed significantly worse than not being able to walk on water well so for him to shut off so completely was just odd. Sasuke dug his hands into his pockets with more aggression than intended.
Sling!
Naruto gave a brief look up at the sound, which belonged to a kunai Sasuke had thrown. The knife splashed downward into the river. That look quickly turned towards Sasuke, who returned it in full.
"First one to make it over there and get it wins." Sasuke said, hands stuffed in his pockets. His throw had been good with the knife landing a fair way away. It was so far away that Naruto doubted either of them would be able to get to it without simply swimming which showed in his face. He looked back down at the water, murmuring.
"Well, I don't know- "He hummed, reluctance once more taking Sasuke off-guard. Guard was exactly what he needed in this situation though as even the smallest display of confusion was all Naruto needed to strike. "-Sucked in!"
"Wha- "Before Sasuke could even realize what was happening, Naruto's arm had shot out and sweeped him off the ground. Sasuke's water walking was thrown off completely as he spiraled to the ground, becoming submerged in the lake. He couldn't be mad though. It was because he'd managed to kickstart Naruto's hyperactivity back to a less disconcerting pace. Or maybe it was because Naruto was so bad at water walking that he'd immediately eaten shit as soon as he'd tripped Sasuke up.
Either or.
Sakura leapt back, sending leaves at the wake of her feet as she dodged out of harms way. Kakashi had latched onto the offensive from the get-go, which she was not prepared for. She'd thought he'd be more cautious with his attacks, but instead he'd nearly tossed her out of the circle in the first seconds of the fight. Red marks ran down her skin where Kakashi had tagged her with the stick but the pain that radiated from them was nothing compared to the one that shot through her mind at every single opportunity for attack that she saw. They were there, almost glaringly so, openings in Kakashi's movements that left him prime for a counter yet her mind refused to act upon their sighting.
They were intentional of course, aside from the first. Kakashi had noticed Sakura's hesitation early, after he swung too hard on a kick and she apparently refused to follow through. Now, even when the openings for attacks were coming a few times a second, she still wouldn't attempt a counter of her own. It was strange, the basis of her taijutsu style was decent, more decent that Kakashi expected, but she refused to latch onto easy opportunities to punish his (intentionally) reckless fighting style. This meant that Kakashi could swing for the fences as hard as he wanted with no fear of having to defend.
WHACK!
He feinted out a swing of his stick with an overhead axe-kick that took way too long to execute. Sakura still didn't attack. Instead, she dodged backwards which obviously wasn't viable because Kakashi could keep swinging forever while Sakura would eventually dodge herself out of the outline of the circle and lose. Something Kakashi noticed, however, was that she obviously recognized the chinks in his armor. For a split-second, it would look like she was about to capitalize on them before she visibly changed her mind. This sudden switch only made her more reliant on defense and allowed Kakashi to further control the fight.
The stick slashed through the air, Sakura barley managing to roll out of the way. In a sudden shift of tactics, she ran towards Kakashi before leaping up and attempting to kick the stick out of his hands. It was a dead end of an idea, with Kakashi just using the stick to block the kick before it could even hope to disarm him of the weapon. Sakura, realizing this, launched backwards off the stick like a springboard before beginning to circle her teacher. The scraping of her feet over the leaf trail queued Kakashi into her location even with his vision focused elsewhere. His elbow shot backwards, intentionally skewed a few inches off from where he thought Sakura was. She spun around him, meaning she had a completely open shot on the offensive. Kakashi's elbow was pulled back, and his other hand was too busy to block anything. He was crouched down so unless he was going to pull out some real limbo shit, Sakura had a free move.
For a fleeting moment, it looked like Sakura might make the most of it and snatch the stick out of his hands. It was not to be. Sensing he might be able to counter, Sakura dodged backward. The next few moments went through in a blur. First Kakashi was open on the ground, then he wasn't there at all. At one moment, Sakura had control of the situation and the next she was being forcibly thrown out of the circle. The copy ninjas speed was so great that it took seconds for Sakura to realize she had, one, lost and, two, been ragdolled onto the ground. She stood up suddenly, looking down at her hands which had now been covered in stray leaves.
"Huh?" The she looked up and realized what had happened. Kakashi was in the circle, she was not. She'd lost, and really easily at that.
I didn't even see him move…How fast is he?
"You should try capitalizing on your opportunities more." Kakashi said, tone clear and sharp enough to cause her to look up.
"What?"
"Those openings were intentional Sakura." Her eyes widened slightly at this. To Kakashi it looked like shock. In reality, it was the effects of Inner-Sakura slapping herself across the head. Soon enough her expression switched from one of shock to one of disappointment.
"So, I'm guessing I didn't do well then?"
"No, not really." Kakashi was nothing if not blunt. "There will never be a situation in a fight where you'll be able to attack your opponent without risk of consequence. Well, maybe if you were fighting a toddler…"
The older man clutched his chin as if he were contemplating how you'd actually fight an actual baby before snapping back to attention." Anyway! You've generally got the basics down but it doesn't matter when you're so unwilling to go on the offensive. In a real fight, your foe will be nowhere near as sloppy and slow as I was there, so you'll have to make the most of the slim opportunities you'll have."
"Right. Sorry, sensei." Sakura mumbled, bowing her head in shame. Kakashi just sighed before taking a seat near the ground. He slumped his head into his hand lazily, exposed eye focused on the ground.
"Now what to do?" He murmured to nobody in particular (not even the student that was directly in front of him). Naruto was a non-factor unless he could sharpen his chakra control, Sasuke was in little need of maintenance and like Naruto, was probably learning more just running around on the water. That only left another few rounds with Sakura which he doubted she could win. Inner-Sakura agreed.
Well, let's face it, you suck big time. Time to go back to prancing around the river cause it's the only thing you can actually do.
"Sensei, fight me again." Sakura blurted, mouth moving quicker than her mind.
You're legitimately stupid.
"Hm?"
"I don't want to do it with your stick rules either. I just want to see if I can hit you."
Kakashi was surprised. Not surprised enough to make any audible or visual changes to what he had been doing just seconds before, but still surprised. An inexplainable amount of resolve had just swelled up inside the girl who had spent the last two minutes running away from her own potential attacks. However, he supposed neither of them had anything better to do.
"Alright." He said as he threw the stick squarely to the side. Hopefully Sakura would actually be able to take a swing by the end of the day. Her eyes looked up briefly. The sun was out in full force.
"Haha!"
"Get the fuck off me!" Sasuke yelled as Naruto's latest technique was put into action. The Uzumaki boy had sunk underwater and then shot up to grab Sasuke and pull him down too. What ensued was the most awkward "fight" that had ever transpired, consisting entirely of Naruto attempting not to get booted in the head.
Kakashi threw a series of kicks out in response, each one becoming more and more difficult to block just based on their intensity. The sun was beginning to fade now, if only slightly. She'd been knocked out of the circle eleven times. The kunoichi dodged out of the way of Kakashi's last kick, his balance being knocked off-center as it collided with the ground instead of her. An opportunity sprung forth from the broken ground, but it was one Sakura was too hesitant to take up. Upon realizing she wasn't going to attack, Kakashi once again began moving in a blur.
"Not good enough." He said, kicking Sakura in the shoulder hard enough to send her out of the circle once more.
"Eat it asshole, I'm ahead of you." Naruto said smugly, as he stood in front of Sasuke for literal seconds before Sasuke just took another step forward and matched him. Naruto immediately shoved Sasuke backward, only for the other ninja to let out a growl and latch onto his arm.
"Hey get off!"
"You shoved me first dickhead." The two bickered with little regard for actually staying on top of the water.
"Keep running your mouth like that, I'm going to beat the shit out of you!"
"I don't care. You've told me you're going to beat the shit out of me so many times that I'm completely desensitized to you saying it."
"Maybe I will this time though."
"Do it then pussy."
What proceeded was the saddest, most "grade-school" like scuffle with Sasuke walking backwards because he was, despite his words, legitimately scared Naruto might fly off the handle and attack him and Naruto throwing punches with the bare-minimum amount of power to make it look like it would hurt despite the fact that he was scared if he did actually hurt Sasuke that Sasuke would legitimately beat the shit out of him. This went on for a solid seven minutes, and only served to strand the two further away from the kunai.
It was later in the day now, judging from the sky. It's lush pinks and blues had begun to give way to a sunset orange. Sakura paid it little mind, more focused on trying to break Kakashi's defense. She'd initially thought him taking a defensive stance would make it easier to at least get a hit off, only to quickly realize she had less than no chance of even touching him if he didn't want her too. It felt like she was punching under-water but he was still on land.
She threw three strikes outward, but Kakashi didn't even bother blocking them. He was so quick on his feet that the attacks had no way of even reaching him and by the time Sakura had closed the distance, she was too tired to think up a strategy of value. Instead, she just kicked at his side, which was blocked. Then, using her free leg, she tried to jump up off the ground to try and kick him yet again. Unfortunately for her, giving all your momentum over to your opponent was a bad thing and Kakashi tossed her out of the circle like she was nothing.
"Yuck!" She groaned, having to rub her tongue free of leaves as she sat up from the awkward landing angle. It was in this lull that she finally got a glimpse of the sky. How many times had she fought Kakashi again?
"Dude, it's like far away but not at the same time." Naruto rambled, as he and Sasuke lay side by side on the river. It was dark at this point; the sun hadn't quite set but it was only a few minutes away from doing so. They hadn't succeeded in reaching the kunai, but they had succeeded in tiring themselves out so much that they were sat down on the lake with no hope of getting back to shore until Kakashi and Sakura came back.
"If I were less tired, I'd say that's fucking stupid, but now I get what you mean." Sasuke replied, voice dreary. Both had expended their chakra far too much, and were now conserving what they had left into their backs so that they stayed afloat (Well Naruto was. Sasuke had remembered that you just needed to lie on your back normally to stay afloat in the water.)
"What's taking them so long anyway?"
"I don't know. Maybe they forgot about us."
"Don't be an idiot. Kakashi-sensei wouldn't do that, Sakura wouldn't either."
"Are you sure? Why haven't they come back already then?"
Naruto paused for a second.
"…How long until our chakra comes back?"
"I think it's time for you to take a rest Sakura." Kakashi said, his posture barely even tenured while Sakura was practically slouched to the ground already. Her limbs were jelly, eyes sagged like she'd done an all-nighter, but she refused to stay down.
"No way. 'Gotta get one." She mumbled; voice completely slurred. Kakashi had little patience for it, looming over to Sakura like a lion would a gazelle. His arm clenched as the time to end this drew near. Raising his fist up, Kakashis arm came sniping down like a bullet with intent to punch Sakura hard enough to send her flying out of the circle. She was barely able to stand up, if she was knocked down it'd be the end of her for at least the next day. In his haste to knock the girl out though, Kakashi made one crucial mistake. He'd expected Sakura to be so tired that she couldn't move her arms, which wasn't true, she could barely move her arms. Therefor, Kakashi's punch left a massive opening that Sakura pounced on.
WAM!
There was no hesitation as her fist connected sharply with his chest.
"Got ya."
She had, technically. The punch had not even been strong enough for Kakashi to feel through the flak jacket. He hadn't even realized she'd hit him until she'd pointed it out to him, but it was still a hit. A hit that connected even though she knew she might get hit back. It actually took the older man off-guard despite its lightness. What really took him off-guard was when Sakura fully collapsed onto the ground.
"I was like a good 2 to 5 meters in front of him."
"You're such a blatant fucking liar Naruto."
Naruto and Sasuke's bickering continued long after Kakashi had managed to rescue them from the water's foothold. The four were sat around the riverbank, with Kakashi being the only one who felt like his joints weren't on fire and on ice at the same time. This still didn't stop Naruto and Sasuke from taking agonizingly slow swipes at each other. It indisputably late now, with the night sky's afterglow only being offset by the small fire Kakashi had lit in front of them.
"Settle down you two." Kakashi chided, doing little to resolve the petty squabbles that occurred between the pair. It did at the least shut them up for the moment, even if one of them occasionally threw a passive aggressive kick against the other.
"Hey, sensei?" Sakura suddenly asked, having not spoken in a while.
"Hm?"
"I just remembered. Wasn't today supposed to be a mission, not training?"
"It was."
Sakura briefly paused.
"…Then why didn't we do the mission?"
Her question was interesting enough that both Sasuke and Naruto's attention was now directed towards Kakashi as well. He supposed it was only right to tell them early.
"Have you three heard of the chunin exams?"
Sasuke nodded, while Sakura interjected.
"Yeah, we had a speaker come in to the Academy to tell us about it. Her name was Anko, I'm pretty sure."
"Oh yeah!" The remembrance of the name springboarded Naruto to recollection. "Wasn't she the coordinator of the whole thing this year?"
"God help us." Kakashi grumbled, trying and failing to keep his voice low enough so that the students couldn't hear. "Anyway, you're aware of the basic concept, right?"
"It's a series of trials that they use in the consideration for the nomination of chunins, the rank above genin." Sasuke said, words reading like they were ripped straight from a book (they were).
"Right. Well, this year's exams are coming up and I think it would be a good idea for you three to participate."
None of the three ninja had been expecting him to say that. Sakura quickly explained why:
"But we only became genin a few months ago sensei, isn't it a bit quick to jump up to chunin?"
"I'd say it's very optimistic to assume any of you will reach chunin on your first try. It's not uncommon to have to retake the exams an upwards of five times until you're given the rank."
"Didn't you do it on your first try?" Sasuke said, shooting a questioning glance at his teacher.
"I did but I also didn't struggle to walk on water for more than fifteen minutes if you want some perspective on your chances." Kakashi's voice was surprisingly calm considering he'd just blatantly insulted all three of his students. "The point is, I'm leaving it on you three to decide if you want to take it but every day we don't have a conclusive answer is another day we have to train as if you're taking it. Better to be prepared than not to be."
The trio of genin nodded in agreement.
"I'd recommend reading up on the exams. Decide if being a shinobi is really what you want to do." Kakashi's tone turned gravely serious all of a sudden. "The genin exam was the first step, the land of waves the second. These exams will lock the door behind you even if you don't reach chunin."
Kakashi turned to them with a sudden burst of grimness behind his eyes. Despite the warmth of their bodies, the three began to feel the cool air running up their spine. A sense of gravity that they had long forgotten lingered in the air.
"Remember, the road of a ninja is one that is constantly traveled but yet it's still uncharted. Funny how that is."
The only sound that could be heard for the next while was the chirping of the night-time frogs.
