Chapter 3: Training montage
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Naruto was not feeling very cash money right now. The news given to him by his Jiji made him nervous to train. Wondering if he was punched in the gut the right way, the Kyuubi would be destroying the village in five minutes. He had made up his mind though, after training today he would go learn about seals.
He was broken from his thoughts when he reached the Uchiha compound. It was on the southeastern edge of Konoha, with any market, or the village proper around one mile away. He went to the eastern edge of the compound where there was a big training field. Surrounded by forests on three sides with a lake covering the fourth. As he cleared the brush to enter the training field he saw Sasuke practicing.
"Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu" Sasuke roared as he was trying to keep the fireball alive for as long as possible. Sasuke knew his personal record was twelve seconds, and the goal of the week was to up those numbers to thirteen or higher.
After completing the exercise he saw Naruto and walked up to him "You aren't used to waking up this early, are you dobe?" Sasuke asked, trying to break the ice.
"No, not normally. This is going to take some effort to get used to."
"Alright, the goal of this day before we reach Kakashi for training is to learn your elemental affinity. All Uchiha learned this when we turned five, so you have a lot of catching up to do if you want to be any good elementally" Sasuke said
"Hell yeah, I'm game, I want something cool, like lightning or fire. Something flashy to use while destroying a castle or saving a princess." Naruto said getting excited about this training.
"Not so fast though, this training does come at a price. This paper we are about to use doesn't come cheap, and you're going to see some pretty high-speed Uchiha training doctrine. The cost of us working together will be for you to teach me the Shadow Clone Technique. We didn't have it in our vaults, and it's too valuable for me not to use." Sasuke spoke, hoping it would work.
"Too easy, just say you copied it off a Jonin once you get the Sharingan. Don't throw it out in front of sensei because he'll kick my ass if I taught it to you. Deal." Naruto said quickly, not wanting to throw away this opportunity.
Sasuke then led him inside the compound to a dojo. Once getting inside he opened up a lockbox with strips of paper in it. Once he got it out he handed it to Naruto and said: "Alright Dobe, channel your chakra into this sheet of paper and we will see what your nature is."
Naruto then channeled his chakra and saw the paper cut in half cleanly, seeing that he was excited "Yup, I'm shit and that proves it! I'm going to be the best ninja ever."
Sasuke was looking at the instruction manual with it when he said "Alright, we've got paper cleanly cut in half, quickly too. That means you have a very strong affinity towards wind, the rarest element in Konoha. Good luck finding a master for it." Sasuke said now, seeing the confused look on Naruto's face.
"You are lucky though," Sasuke said. "The Uchiha didn't just copy fire jutsu due to our affinities, we have jutsu of all natures, and training doctrine for each." He said as he was looking for the wind section in a closet. After about five minutes he found an old scroll titled 'Wind: Training and techniques' and he tossed it to Naruto.
"A lot of elemental training is trial and error, it took me six months to get past the leaf exercise. Once you get past that you can use more than rudimentary techniques, you'll see a list of techniques you should be able to perform before and after you complete the exercise. Now it's my turn, I have to learn the Shadow clone Jutsu"
After about 15 minutes of trying, Sasuke could make one clone. It was sickly and could barely move, but progress was progress and he was proud of it. Naruto looked down at his watch to see the time "Oh Shit, we're late. We gotta move" Naruto said while grabbing his stuff. They rushed out of the compound to make it to the training field.
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Kakashi was looking at Sakura on the ground in the front leaning rest position doing pushups. Her teammates were 15 minutes late, and that meant she had to deal with the pain.
"UP"
"Discipline" Sakura completed a rep
"DOWN"
"Need more" Sakura brought her body down to the floor
"UP"
"Discipline!" She completed another rep.
Down
Need more" She went down to the floor again
UP
"Discipline!"
Naruto and Sasuke dropped down from the tree line next to Sakura and they could see the anger in Kakashi's eye.
"RECOVER"
Sakura stood upright and the two men could see she was getting worked for the last fifteen minutes. Sakura looked at both of them with anger but she didn't say anything.
"Good morning gentlemen, is there a good reason why you are late to training? Sakura had a good idea to be here fifteen minutes early, and I was here on time. ARE YOU GUYS SPECIAL" Kakashi yelled.
Sasuke shuffled on his feet "No sir, we had no reason to be late. It's our fault, don't make Sakura deal with our mistake." Sasuke said trying to spare Sakura
"Oh no, Dear Sasuke. You guys are a team, if one of you fails, you all fail. Or did my lesson from the survival exercise not stick?" Kakashi said with confidence.
Naruto interjected "No sir, it stuck. We just don't want to see someone messed up because of our failures."
"Good, then don't fail," Kakashi said succinctly before bringing out a pen and ink. "Sakura already had this happen to her. Take off your shirt boys. I've got a present for ya."
"What are we doing sensei?" Naruto said not wanting to take off his shirt.
"Good question, what do you two know about seals?" Kakashi said
"Not enough" Naruto spoke
"Nothing," Sasuke said
"Well, what is about to put on you are known as gravity seals. They are used to enhance the force of gravity on you to make training and movement more difficult. Sakura is currently set to 1.25x earth's gravity. You gentlemen, for being late will start at 1.5, any questions?" Kakashi spoke before waiting.
"When should we take it off?" Asked Naruto
Kakashi looked at Naruto appraisingly before answering "Five to ten minutes a day, and whenever you are about to get into a serious fight."
"Yes, Sensei" Both boys yelled.
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Five minutes and two disgruntled boys later Kakashi spoke up "Good, now that you guys are all prepared let's go for a five-mile run!"
"That isn't fair, you don't have a seal on you," Sakura said to Kakashi
"Oh yes I do, It's set to 4x. It's like walking through concrete, let alone even thinking about running." Kakashi said before taking off.
The three students not wanting to be outdone went after him. After a mile, all three students were keeping up. By mile two: Sakura was dying and the two guys were keeping strong. By mile 3: Kakashi was a mile ahead and Sasuke and Sakura couldn't continue. Naruto was barely jogging still. Naruto was the last to fall out but he couldn't complete the run either.
After finishing the run Kakashi joined his students back at the memorial stone. He was walking around taking stock of his students. He stopped pacing and spoke up. "By the time I'm finished with you a lot, you'll be able to run to the Hokage Monument and back with no problem. You're lucky I'm not giving you to Guy. He'd you all into the dirt.
The kids couldn't respond because they were all too busy on the ground panting. Kakashi was looking at them before speaking again. "You guys have ninety minutes to go clean yourselves up and meet the Hokage tower for a mission today, Dismissed"
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Team 7 had met up at the Hokage tower fifteen minutes prior to be safe, surprisingly, Kakashi was also on time. Kakashi walked in first with his three genin following behind, they found their way to the mission desk. Kakashi looked at the desk Chunin with a disarming eye smile "First one for team 7" Kakashi said happily.
The desk Chunin tossed him a scroll and Team 7 was already out the door, Naruto was the first to speak up "Sensei, what is it? Hunting down bad guys? Saving cats from trees? Saving a princess and blowing up a castle?" Naruto spoke quickly, his excitement getting the better of him.
They were making turn after turn in the village, going towards the clan territories before Kakashi spoke up "We are to go to the Inuzuka compound, and make sure that their ninja hounds are properly taken care of"
"That's bullshit, I want a real mission," Naruto said
"I want something that'll be good training" Sasuke spoke
"I'm just happy to play with some puppies," Sakura said happily
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Each member of Team 7 had five dogs in their hands. Kakashi and Sakura's dogs were behaving wonderfully, and they were happy to be there. Naruto and Sasuke's dogs were from Hell and they acted like it, dragging the two boys down the street.
"WOAH" Naruto Yelled
"CALM DOWN" Sasuke screamed as they were both sliding against the pavement
It took a couple of minutes to calm the other hounds down, but when they did the mission was smooth sailing from there. After the dogs were returned to the compound and the team was paid. Kakashi spoke up "Alright, so the training schedule will go as follows. Physical Training will start at 0730-0815, we will accept a D rank mission at 1000. Once the mission is completed, we will go back to the training field for individual work, and team drills until I release you. Does anyone have questions?"
"NO SENSEI!" The genin yelled
"Alright then, let's go back to the training grounds for paired sparring then"
The team made it back to the training ground, and the first matchup was Naruto vs Sakura. The two were standing five meters apart from each other waiting for the signal to begin.
"Naruto, no shadow clones. This is not a test to murder something, it is a baseline for me to see where you're at in a one v one situation. BEGIN!" Kakashi spoke
Naruto made the first move going towards Sakura with reckless abandon. Naruto moved quickly for an uppercut but Sakura dodged and moved back to gain more space. Naruto pursued relentlessly and after a minute Sakura couldn't move well and Naruto struck her cleanly in the jaw for a point.
"Winner, Naruto," Kakashi said with his Sharingan out, memorizing the way the students fought. "Sakura, you did well evading but you need to work on your stamina. Naruto, you're too much of a brawler, if a trained fighter came after they'd beat you in a heartbeat. Great work being aggressive though."
The next spar was Sasuke vs Kakashi, and while Sasuke was talented. He wasn't enough to make Kakashi sweat with his Sharingan on. Sasuke was left panting on the ground before Kakashi spoke again. "Good job Sasuke, you fought well and you have good technique, speed is something that can make you dangerous. Keep up the good work"
After the spars were over he sent the kids on their way home and he reported the progress to his leader
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The schedule Kakashi gave went well for a month, the students worked from 0730-1400 most days and they were exhausted afterward. He drilled them in shinobi tactics, team formations, battle drills, and other important information. For individual training, it was on a two-day set. One day was sparring, and the other was individual techniques and chakra control exercises.
Naruto and Sasuke were up every morning training together from 0530-0700, working on elemental manipulation, as well as elemental jutsu and tree walking
It was at the end of the third week when Kakashi had a surprise for them. "Good morning kids, today I'm going to teach you all how to climb trees…...without using your hands!" Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other with a smirk, while Sakura was sitting there looking clueless.
"By the looks of it, Naruto and Sasuke already know what I'm talking about. If you would be so kind to show me I'd be very impressed" Kakashi said before looking towards a tall tree in the distance
Both the boys made about three-quarters of the way up while Kakashi was explaining the exercise to Sakura. "Impressive, for two guys with pretty high chakra reserves that is quite the feat. Sakura, would you try please?" Kakashi said while moving with Sakura to the tree. What the boys saw made their jaws drop.
Sakura, with no real sign of showing effort. Walked up to the top of the tree and smiled at the boys down below. Kakashi spoke up "Well nevermind, I guess your display wasn't very impressive. My bad"
The boys were seething at each other, not wanting to be last to master the exercise, they renewed their vigor and tried again until darkness.
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Team 7 was sitting at Ichiraku Ramen after a long day of training. Naruto was sitting at the stool like a kid on Christmas and other kids were politely eating their food. Kakashi was just along for the ride.
After seeing the entire team get it down in one week, they decided to celebrate with a team meal and Naruto picked it because he was the one to suggest it. The team seemed happy and Kakashi was for it, he knew that this team had to grow up fast. They had to be the leaders of the next generation of Konoha and he would lead them.
Once their food got out the kids ate as their life depended on it, after five minutes all the bowls of Ramen were gone and Team 7's leader spoke up. "Be ready, tomorrow we will be putting our best foot forward and taking our first C-Rank mission. Have a day pack and a week-long pack ready for tomorrow morning. We will meet at the mission office at 0900, any questions?"
"No, Sensei!" the kids answered.
"Good." With that Kakashi left
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AN: End of chapter 3, I now have all the way to chapter 45 mapped out. So I have a good idea of how the story is going to progress. You can guess what happens next. Please review and do what you like. Constructive criticism makes me happy