After watching Hinata being taken away and having Naruto return with blood drying on his hands the next match was announced. Guy's student finally had his chance to shine and wasn't shy about his joy, it far outstripped even Naruto's. He was going to be facing off against one of the genin that Kakashi had wanted to keep an eye on, Gaara of the desert.
Right off the bat it was clear to see this match up did not suit Lee well, his complete focus on taijutsu served to make him quite talented and his style was certainly reminiscent of Guy, but it also served little use in the face of Gaara's sand defense. Kakashi made sure to keep an eye on Guy who didn't seem too concerned and assumed there was something being kept hidden. When he dropped the weights he'd been wearing and moved at a speed Gaara seemingly couldn't follow things seemed to turn in Lee's favor. Despite Gaara himself not being able to keep up with his speed, the sand shield and automatic sand defense were working to keep Lee from doing any real damage.
What happened next was the beginning of when Kakashi had a serious issue with Guy's training and Lee's fighting style. He used the primary lotus opening the first of the eight gates.
Despite the power the technique promised the physical damage and drawbacks were too severe for Kakashi to ever have interest in ever opening past the second gate in battle and he never tried to learn how to open past the third gate. Guy had the ability to open all eight gates through teachings passed down by his father, but to teach them to Lee at such a young age was reckless. The boy simply didn't have the maturity to utilize such a dangerous technique and Kakashi didn't even know how many gates the boy could open.
The primary lotus normally left the user exhausted and in pain, but with Gaara's increased weight from the sand shield Lee was forced to use multiple strikes to get him into the air compounding the damage. Gaara was able to swap with a sand clone when Lee flinched with pain so the attack needlessly injured Lee allowing Gaara to sadistically toy with him. When Sakura questioned why Lee wasn't dodging Kakashi explained the technique and looked at Guy with hard eyes.
"So what happens now? If he can't fight anymore you'll have to call the match right?" Sakura asked Guy who shook his head.
"The Lotus of the Leaf blooms twice, so it's nowhere near over for Lee," Guy said looking proud.
"You didn't," Kakashi turned to Guy not hiding how much he disagreed with what he was sure was going to come out of Guy's mouth. The primary lotus and the first gate were bad enough, but extending beyond that invited issues that shouldn't be present in such a young ninja. Clearly he could open the second gate because he was able to recover from the damage and continue fighting, but even that recovery wasn't healthy it was simply forcing the body to fight on.
"Yes I did," Guy replied seemingly unconcerned, "he had the capability to open the gates and I simply allowed him to explore his potential" Kakashi was no where near satisfied with that explanation. Maybe it was having his own team that made him a bit more sensitive, but he'd never teach them such a technique not now.
Honestly he was disappointed in Guy, "I don't know what that boy means to you or what your reasoning is, but I've lost respect for you."
Guy whipped his head to Kakashi and finally showed anger, "You don't know anything about that boy."
"I don't need to know anything about him to know this can't possibly end well. If he opens enough gates with an undeveloped body like his own there's no way he'll escape without major issues going forward," Kakashi replied and seeing that emotions were clouding Guy's judgement he added, "if something goes wrong because he's needlessly using dangerous techniques it's going to be on your shoulders." In a fight for his life Kakashi could understand resorting to opening the gates, but Guy allowing Lee to do this for the sake of a battle that didn't actually matter was just a matter of desire and ego. The chunin exams would come again and if he took care of himself there would be many years to prove himself if that's what he wanted.
When Guy didn't respond Kakashi asked without needing to elaborate, "How many?"
"Five gates," Guy replied and although his tone was serious Kakashi saw him begin to smile when Lee opened the third gate. Having Guy as Lee's teacher was clearly great for the boy's improvement, but somewhat unhealthy in terms of the clear favoritism and connection Guy had with him. The match went exactly as he feared and ended with Lee's body incredibly damaged worsened by the fact that Gaara shattered an arm and leg with his sand. Kakashi wasn't about to tell Guy that he warned him so he simply led his friend back up to the stands after the medics told them Lee may never be a ninja because of the damage caused by the fight.
Kakashi would freely admit in an all out fight he didn't think any of his students would have beaten Lee and he could be considered a genius for his ability to learn to open five gates at his age, but it wasn't worth it. Frankly he blamed this all on Guy, it was his job as a teacher to find the place where he could train him to be as strong as possible without stepping past the bounds of safety. If he failed to do that then he at least needed to monitor things, he should have stepped in before Lee opened the third gate, he was too willing to let him fight for what he believed. On some level that could be seen as admirable, but Kakashi's team could risk their lives once they were adults and out of his care. Perhaps it was arrogant to say he could control his team easily enough to stop them from risking themselves for power, but he'd sure as hell try.
The Hokage's explanation of what was coming up was far too long when all he had to say was, "this is a tournament." Sakura was more interested in talking to Kakashi and checking on Sasuke and Lee. Her attention was fully awakened and they drew numbers and she saw the breakdown:
(Sakura vs Dosu)
(Naruto vs Neji)
(Shino vs Kankuru)
(Shikamaru vs Temari)
(Gaara vs Sasuke)
So at the very least Sakura would have her chance to take down the final sound ninja and this time it would be by her own hands. After her win, because she was going to win, she'd get to face Naruto or if not she'd avenge him against Neji. If that worked out she'd be in the finals hopefully against Saskue and hopefully not against Gaara because she had a feeling it was going to be one of those two. The other four were unlucky because they'd have an extra round before taking on Sasuke or Gaara.
The thing that was most important to her was that she and both her teammates ended up finishing the exams safely. She was pulled by her musings by Naruto who stood next to her he asked in a low voice, "Where do you think Sasuke is?"
"Likely the hospital, if he's stable and safe like Kakashi said then he's probably resting under medical observation," she replied wanting to finally put the concern out of her mind. More and more she was realizing she hated the unknown, the feeling that something could go wrong without her knowing until it was too late.
The moment he and Sakura were cleared to leave they headed straight to the hospital. Naruto was hoping that Sakura's guess was correct and that Sasuke was safely in recovery. The two walked in relative silence, Naruto assumed Sakura was deep in thought much like himself and likely about a number of things. Even if he put aside everything going on with Orochimaru and Sasuke ended up being fine once they met him in the hospital the next stage of the exams was coming.
Despite the fact that Neji was his initial fight he wasn't overly concerned about it, he was confident that he and Kakashi would figure out a way to beat the Hyuuga. Assuming his teammates won their fights he'd end up fighting against Sakura and then Sasuke. He cared about Sakura deeply and he was glad they'd have a chance to compete, but a fight against Sasuke meant much more to him. He saw Sasuke as his rival and whether or not the other male was willing to admit it he knew Sasuke felt the same.
When they arrived the hospital seemed to be operating normally which was likely a good sign, it meant that nothing extreme was happening and nobody was in direct danger. However he was less pleased by the receptionists response when Sakura asked for Sasuke's room number, "I'm sorry we're not allowing any visitors right now."
"Why? What's wrong with him? Naruto asked holding back very little of his frustration, he kept himself from getting overly upset in public, but the worry he'd been forcing down was bubbling back up.
"I can't really say anything," the receptionist replied carefully and Naruto was going to continue badgering her until he felt Sakura's hand on his shoulder.
"What can you tell us?" Sakura tried asking.
The receptionist was saved from answering by the appearance of Kakashi coming down the stairs. "Calm down, Sasuke is fine. I have a clone with him and the moment he can receive visitors I'll personally take you to see him," Kakashi assured them. How he always managed to get there before them and meet them at that moment was something Naruto needed to check out.
Naruto wasn't sure what his expression was, but he doubted it was extremely happy considering Kakashi quickly moved on, "Now, we need to focus on how to prepare you for the next round. For the most part I'm going to keep you separate during your training largely because you will be competing against each other and I'm sure you want to be able to keep your tactics and techniques secret. The only similarity in your training styles will be that the focus will start with how to defeat your first opponent and building off of that to give you a way to beat everyone. As the Hokage told you, winning the tournament isn't necessary you only need to prove yourself which can be done in the first round."
"You aren't going to train us based on what you'll be teaching the others, right?" Naruto asked wondering how Kakashi would train them all to their potential against their opponents if he happened to be training those opponents.
"We'll be training with what we know about everyone's current skillset and what we can reasonably infer that they'll be able to do by the time of the competition. However, that does not apply against team seven, when you fight each other it's your responsibility to be prepared. If you have anything you want to learn that you think will be effective against your teammates then you'll have to make suggestions and I will do my best to help you regardless of how useful it will actually be," he replied making sure to emphasize that it was up to them to plan for the fights against each other.
Naruto nodded and he saw Sakura do the same beside him, he didn't want to start worrying about her until he heard Kakashi's plans for him.
"One last thing," Kakashi added, "working will all three of you simultaneously for long periods of time will get difficult so I'll may bring people in to help me at times. I promise it will only work in your favor so don't be concerned, I'll still be your primary instructor and will set your curriculum. Now go home and rest I'll find you tomorrow to meet with Sasuke and finalize our plans." He pointed towards the door and Naruto left choosing to obey because he truly was worn out.
Kakashi watched the two walk away and once they were out of the hospital he decided to take the first step in preparing for his students training. He'd heard whispers that Jiraiya was back in the village and he could certainly be a great asset in training Naruto, regardless of Kakashi's issues.
Searching for the man proved to be a simple task because Kakashi might not be much of a sensor, but he was an excellent tracker and Jiraiya could be predictable. Finding the man crouched by a bathhouse wasn't surprising. Despite the ridiculous situation Kakashi didn't find any humor in it, old problems were bubbling beneath his skin.
"Ah Kakashi, what can I do for you?" Jiraiya turned to face him casually without Kakashi needing to reveal himself. Kakashi knew the toad sage could easily oscillate between being serious and joking, but apparently he could read Kakashi's mood because he remained cool.
Kakashi could certainly play this multiple ways, but he decided to be direct, "I'd like your help with training Naruto." He couldn't help adding, "I think you owe him that much."
"What do you mean by that?" Jiraiya didn't rise to the bait and get overtly upset.
"I'm asking for your support which, from what I know, is something that Naruto never received from you. I'm aware that this probably isn't my place to speak, but you did very little for him despite him losing his parents. He needed support and it wasn't given, so I believe you owe it to him now that you're in a position to help," Kakashi spoke resolutely not hiding much of his bitterness.
Jiraiya looked at him appraisingly for a moment before responding, "You're correct in saying that this isn't your place to speak especially since I'm not sure what high horse you think you're on. Only one of us was actually in the village with him and it wasn't like I was on vacation, I was working for the village. I can't get into everything, but I was dealing with many major threats to the village including Orochimaru."
"Yeah and somehow he still managed to come here and attack my students," Kakashi said almost sarcastically even if it was somewhat unfair the the older man.
"Are you sure you aren't just projecting your feelings on me? Your guilty conscience doesn't mean I'm to blame for everything," Jiraiya replied though his veneer of calm had faded as he tried to turn the tables.
Maybe he had a point, but Kakashi wasn't going to stop he was finally getting to speak what had been inside for so long. "I blame a lot of people for the difficult life Naruto was forced to endure. I blame the Third for thinking that a stipend and a crappy apartment were enough for an orphan to live happily, I blame the villagers for treating him horribly and acting as if he was some monster, I blame the people who should have been there for him for not being there, I even blame his parents for leaving him and forcing him to be a jinjuuriki, and most of all I blame myself for not doing more." After a brief pause he continued his voice becoming far more vulnerable, "When this all began I was a child who just finished losing the last people who cared about me and Naruto needed someone stable to be there for him. I was young and I was no where near stable," Kakashi finally finished letting out a large portion of the swirling thoughts that always sat in his mind when it came to Naruto.
"Kakashi-"
Kakashi cut the man off with his voice dropping in volume, but somehow becoming more striking, "I can understand why you refused to be Hokage when the position was offered, I can even see why you wouldn't want to live in the village, maybe I'd believe that you were trying to keep your connection low profile was to protect him. What I refuse to believe is that there is any reason you couldn't give something to Naruto or be there for him in any way. You were not that busy and you need to accept that you aren't blameless." Kakashi was always haunted by the thoughts of his past failures, but he'd reached the point where he knew he wasn't entirely to blame in every situation.
He could see that Jiraiya was affected by what he said as his face crumbled and he seemed apologetic when he finally had his chance to speak, "I don't know exactly how bad things were Naruto, but even without detail I can tell you wouldn't be so passionate if he had an easy life. You're right I should have been there for him and I wasn't. Without even thinking about it I used my mission to run from the responsibilities I had here. I'm sorry that it took me this long to recognize it and some day I'll need to give this apology to Naruto who deserves it."
It was an odd feeling, getting the apology he wanted, but still feeling a bit of bitterness buried in him. Jiraiya might have been able to sense that because he continued, "I don't think this is something you're going to forgive me for now and that's fair, but I'm happy you're giving me the opportunity to help Naruto and try to right the wrong I've done to him. For now I hope we can put our emotions aside and focus on helping him for his future."
Kakashi felt somewhat better after getting some of his thoughts out and Jiraiya had agreed to help him so he nodded, "I also want your opinion on removing a seal Orochimaru placed on him, I'll be able to research it, but that could waste time. I'll be meeting with them in the morning so please come to training grounds three in the afternoon and I can give you more information then. I hope that through helping him you're also able to foster a good relationship because everyone wins."
Kakashi left quickly, not quite running away, but feeling the need to shut his mind down and get back to planning.
Sasuke woke up in a room he didn't recognize, but quickly deduced he was in the hospital if the bed was anything to go by. Just after he rubbed the sleep from his eyes the door opened and his team walked in. Kakashi looked relaxed as usual, but Sakura seemed to collapse on herself in relief at seeing him and Naruto seemed to be excited about something. "I told you he was fine," Kakashi said as if he'd been reassuring two for a while. The fact that anyone actually cared so much would have seemed foreign before joining the team.
"So guess who made it past the preliminaries?" Naruto asked and before Sasuke said anything he pointed at all three of them in turn and answered his own question, "That's right, all three of us."
Sakura's smile was less overt, but she was clearly happy as Naruto gave a run through of their fights. Sasuke rolled his eyes, but made no move to interrupt as he listened to their successes.
Once Naruto finished Kakashi laid out the plans for training. It was going to be separate and there may be other people assisting, but he wouldn't give specifics until they were alone. Sasuke wondered what he was going to be taught once he heard his opponent was the creepy kid and apparently he wasn't a pushover. Kakashi created two clones and announced, "Training officially starts today Naruto you'll be in training grounds three, Sakura training grounds five, and Sasuke I'll be taking you to a nearby mountain location I often use to train."
Apparently Kakashi had already signed him out because Sasuke was allowed to follow him directly out of the hospital without anyone stopping them. Naruto and Sakura went in the opposite direction as Kakashi jumped onto the rooftops clearly expecting Sasuke to follow. They didn't speak as Sasuke struggled to keep up Kakashi's blistering pace and clearly recognized how much the older ninja held back when on missions with them. He was barely able to keep the man in sight as he chased after him out of the village and up to a somewhat desolate area that Sasuke didn't recognize.
When they finally arrived Kakashi turned to him completely unaffected by the run and asked, "Did that tire you out?"
"I'm fine," Sasuke bit back, but the fact that he was to saying it between heavy breaths probably cast doubt on the legitimacy of his statement.
"Speed is one of the things we'll be working on so you're first physical challenge is going to be running until moving at that speed is simple. I'm aware that you can't reach my full speed so I chose that as the minimum for long distance before moving on to bursts of speed at short distances," Kakashi explained without actually telling Sasuke the specific importance of increasing his speed.
"Why do I need to improve my speed outside of making me more efficient in fighting, I'm sure there's a greater point to it," Sasuke said allowing the half question to hang.
"Correct, you'll be learning something very special. I'm known as the copy ninja, but there is one jutsu is that I created by my own hands and I believe you are uniquely suited to learn it. I am passing this on to you and you alone, the chidori," Kakashi stated.
"What's the chidori?" Sasuke naturally asked.
Kakashi launched into teacher mode, "If you were watching on our mission to the Land of Waves then you saw me use it against Zabuza and Haku. It's an assassination technique designed to stab through any defense utilizing the lightning nature in an extremely concentrated form. To use it to it's full capability requires the ability to move at a high speed to provide force and a sharingan to track movements and prevent being vulnerable. Using the technique without those is still possible provided you have the skill, but you won't be able to use it as it's designed. That will be your trump card in breaking through Gaara's defense."
Sasuke watched as the used the technique and lightning bloomed from the center of his palm and surrounded his hand with the chirping of birds following. "This is the base form of the chidori. I've refined it through my repeated use into the lightning cutter which is really just a more focused version though it follows the same signs."
"You think this will be enough to defeat him?" Sasuke asked not having had the chance to actually see Gaara fight.
Kakashi tore through a rock with his lighning covered arm and answered with a smile, "After everything you learn to achieve this, and the other things I plan to teach you along the way I believe you'll beat him. Then you just have to worry about your teammates."
Sakura arrived at the training grounds following Kakashi as he explained his plans for her, "Sakura based on what you've told me about this sound ninja and seeing his fight I know you can defeat him. First and foremost we need a strategy that keeps him from getting too close and you don't want to be too predictable because you've fought him already." Kakashi launched into his explanation, but Sakura was fine with moving right into things.
"Right," Sakura nodded, "he has the ability to manipulate sound waves, but if it wasn't a three on one I think I could have taken him on my own."
"We can't forget he has a month to train as well and you need to operate without underestimating your opponent. A win is never definite and it only takes one slip up to lose. My job is to make sure you never allow yourself to slip up or to be so prepared that there's nothing your opponent can capitalize on," Kakashi explained and any worries Sakura might have had were buried under her determination.
"Do you have a specific plan?" Sakura asked because what he was saying sounded good, but that was still very theoretical.
"I went through a few options and finally decided that the best way to win fights against everyone you're facing would simply to build an environment where you're in absolute control," Kakashi gestured to the training field they stood on.
"How?" Sakura could feel herself getting excited.
"Here's a small example, but it's actually an earth style ninjutsu: Swamp of the underworld," he said going through the signs quickly and releasing the jutsu. Sakura watched as a portion of the ground seemed to melt into almost a mud pit, she couldn't tell how deep it was, but it was only a few steps across in any direction. "We aren't going to be learning earth style instead we're going to recreate it and multiple other techniques by teaching you one thing."
"What?" Sakura asked.
"Moisture manipulation," Kakashi spread his arms widely as if he was announcing something exceptional.
Sakura paused for a moment because that sounded, quite frankly dumb. "Isn't that what water style is, manipulating water into various techniques."
"Yes and no," Kakashi answered easily. He continued, "water style is certainly utilizing water, but when I say moisture manipulating I'm referring to controlling the water within substances that aren't liquids."
He ushered her back and created a clone which he sent to stand on the surface of the mud with a few signs he had the mud crawling up the clone all of which seemed simple and more like earth style than anything. Suddenly he used one sign and seemed to pull all of the water out of the mud leaving the clone trapped in a solid clump of earth. "The technique is reinforced with chakra so that left the clone trapped in chakra reinforced mudbrick, which is quite solid and prevents the target from moving."
"That's actually really cool, but the majority of that was earth style which we both know I haven't learned yet," Sakura pointed out though she expected Kakashi had more to say.
"Remember I said, we'll be recreating earth style using water. Even better you'll be creating the semisolid you want to use, the technique I used was a simple example. You could release water onto a solid surface during battle, use an existing source, or you could create a mixture of your own, reinforce it with chakra and seal it away until it's time to battle. I also plan on making it much simpler to utilize water without having to waste time pulling out scrolls."
"Alright, I'm ready," Sakura said not wanting to waste any time because she knew the boys were probably raring to go as well and she wanted to be prepared to face them after she beat down the sound ninja.
Naruto arrived at training grounds three practically buzzing with energy which Kakashi seemed happy with. "Alright I'm happy you seem raring to go. We spoke earlier about your chakra nature being wind and I know you've been practicing it a bit on your own time. That's going to be one of the major things we work on and since wind is the only nature I'm not proficient with I'm bringing in another teacher to help me."
"Who?" Naruto asked.
"His name is Jiraiya and he's a very skilled ninja who is going to help with the seal Orochimaru placed on you. We're lucky this all worked out, so listen to him and follow his instructions. I'll make sure to be here anytime you work with him and I'll step in if there are any problems so don't worry," Kakashi reassured him not that Naruto needed reassuring if he had Kakashi's seal of approval then it was fine.
"So why am I focusing on wind?" Naruto asked though he could already predict the answer to a degree.
"You aren't going to beat Neji in taijutsu, that's not me doubting your ability it is the fact that his greatest weapon relies on getting close to you and with a few calculated strikes preventing you from using your chakra. Of course that's ignoring his physical defensive capabilities which is why you need to include ninjutsu in your repertoire specifically some attacks you can use from a distance. That's why we'll start with some wind techniques that you can use offensively or defensively so you don't get in his attack range," Kakashi explained.
Naruto nodded along with his explanation before speaking up, "What about Sasuke and Sakura?"
"I told you that you'll need to come up with something on your own and make sure you don't take too long because you might run out of time. However what you'll learn from me can be applied in almost any battle if you utilize the skills well," Kakashi replied not giving any hints not that Naruto wanted any.
"Can you help me design a seal that reacts to genjutsu?" Naruto asked. When Kakashi gestured for him to continue Naruto explained, "I know breaking genjutsu is done by interrupting the chakra flow, can we create a seal that reacts to genjutsu and disrupts it for me? Sakura is good with genjutsu and Sasuke has the Sharingan now so I want something for reassurance."
"Of course," Kakashi agreed and Naruto felt like it was something that'd give him just a bit of reassurance on the battlefield. "Anything else in mind?" He asked.
"I may come up with a few things," Naruto replied cheerfully.
A/N
So the preliminaries are over and everyone is getting geared up for training. This time Kakashi will be in charge of training for all of them (all of his work with the three of them is definitely helping train his chakra reserves) rather than just Sasuke. Sasuke will still be learning the Chidori, however he will be learning other things as well which you'll see in future chapters.
I considered having Sakura learn earth style, but it doesn't make sense for young ninja to keep learning different styles repeatedly. (Sasuke is only able to learn a second nature so quickly because Lightning is actually his natural affinity not fire though he has an advantage in it due to his clan). Instead Sakura is learning more about manipulating water in the environment as well as other things I haven't mentioned yet.
Naruto is going to start learning wind style which was mentioned in the past, but Kakashi's specific plans haven't been mentioned aside from Naruto being able to be an all-arounder. Jiraiya will be helping Naruto with his training though we can obviously see that he isn't replacing Ebisu instead he's being directly recruited. So you'll see how that progresses.
Also obviously he just fought with Kakashi who as I've shown and mentioned a few times is a bit more emotionally unstable when it comes to his team (there's a lot he hasn't come to terms with.)
If you have questions or comments feel free to leave them or let me know what you think of this chapter and this story.