-Some Road in Konoha-

-Later that Day-

Naruto could be seen walking the streets of Konoha, cat in his arms. He wasn't in his usual attire, however, instead sporting a look not unlike his new teacher, the Eternal Genin. Replacing the orange jumpsuit was a rather dark set of clothes: black open toed sandals, black shinobi pants, and standard issue Konoha chainmail. The only difference in clothes between Naruto and his teacher, outside of the lack of a pan on his back, was that the dark-brown tunic had been lost in favor of a black one with a dark orange hemming.

Naruto had to resort to begging to get that small amount of orange in his new look, luckily the Eternal Genin had relented.

As he walked, Naruto naturally thought back to his first interaction with the Eternal Genin, or Kosuke, as he had been told to call him.


Following the lesson on information and rumors, Kosuke had talked about the various things Naruto needed to keep in mind when taking on work. Since he was a wandering, or career, genin, Naruto was responsible for taking on his own work, which included selecting missions, meeting with clients, and any other pre-requisite work that needed to be handled. When on a mission, he would simultaneously be acting as the face of the operation, as well as the entirety of the workforce.

As such, Kosuke had brought to Naruto to a clothing store, and practically forced him to buy and switch into his new set of clothes. By the end of the impromptu shopping spree, Naruto had several sets of the new outfit he was expected to wear, and he was forced to promise to obtain a second opinion before he bought new outfits in the future.

It had pained Naruto greatly to not be able to wear more of his favorite color, but he had promised Iruka to respect and listen to Kosuke, despite it being complete bullshit in this case.

Having gotten several new sets of clothes, Naruto quickly summoned a clone, handing the items over to it to bring back to his apartment for safe keeping. Thinking back on it, while not quite sure if he saw correctly, he could swear that Kosuke was somehow surprised at the sight of him using the Shadow Clone jutsu. He could've just seen it incorrectly though, so he just continued on thinking about the rest of his time with Kosuke.

The rest of their time together was actually quite short as he only briefed Naruto on a couple more items pertaining to taking missions before promptly dumping him, leaving Naruto up to his own devices.

As Kosuke had put it, "No better way to learn than through practical experience."


That was more or less what had transpired between the two. Left to fend for himself, Naruto had essentially gone into the mission center, and selected a D-rank at random.

It was only after he had confirmed the mission for the third time, that Naruto realized that the lady who was giving him the mission was also giving him a sympathetic look, almost as if she felt sorry for him.

Not sure why he would be getting such looks, Naruto left the mission center with the details of his mission, D-rank: Find and Capture Tora the Cat. Nodding his head, happy with his choice, a simple mission like capturing a cat would net him around 10000 ryo. He'd just have to do it a couple more times for this month's rent to be handled.

Chuckling to himself, he had rushed off to complete the mission…Only to be on his way back to the mission center, cat in hand, in less than 10 minutes.

Arriving back to the mission center, Naruto got spooked when the lady who had given him the mission practically launched herself out of her chair, seemingly stunned to see him.

Questioningly, Naruto cautiously made his way up to the desk, where the lady was already frantically making a phone call. Not really paying attention to what she was saying, Naruto patiently waited for her to finish her phone call before he spoke.

"Uh, hello? I'm Genin Uzumaki Naruto in charge of the D-rank mission to capture Tora the Cat, reporting in on the completion of the mission, and requesting certification of the completion of the mission."

Naruto confidently went through the script Kosuke had taught him for turning in a completed mission, before quietly adding on, "Also, I'm new, where do I put the cat?"

Snapping out of her state of shock, the lady stamped Naruto's mission form, marking it as complete before she just uttered, "How?"

Confused, Naruto asked, "How? How what?"

Opening and closing her mouth a couple times, the lady finally managed to say, "How…how did you manage to capture Tora, the Tora, in what," she looked at the clock on the wall, "ten minutes?!"

Not really understanding what the big deal was, Naruto answered truthfully, "Well, the information included with the mission said the cat was lost somewhere in the park, so I started by heading over there. Naturally, I started looking from there. Getting into the mindset of the cat was a bit tricky, but I knew of a hollowed-out tree near a shop that has dried fish for sale. Sure enough, the cat was holed up there, munching on a stolen fish, so I snuck up on it and just grabbed it."

Even as he explained what he did and thought over why it was such a big deal, Naruto couldn't find anything that jumped out at him. It was just a cat that he'd captured.

Still in utter disbelief, the lady stiffly motioned for Naruto to follow her, as she said, "The cat can go here, in this carrier."

Putting the cat away, Naruto thanked the lady, despite her weirdness, as he left the mission center, occasionally looking back, only to see the lady giving him a weird look as he left.

Standing outside of the mission center, Naruto wasn't really too keen on taking another mission that day. He'd earn more than enough to get by just doing one mission a day, after all, he didn't have to split the money with anyone else. Not to mention the weird lady who was giving out missions that day.

Thinking about what to do, he watched ninja come and go from the academy, nothing too interesting. That is, until one group arrived. It looked like a jonin with his three genin, and two of the genin were normal enough, just a Hyuuga and a girl with her brown hair pulled up into two buns.

However, the jonin and the remaining genin were what was strange, both wearing full-body, green, spandex suits with what looked like giant, black caterpillars crawling on their faces. Looking closer, the caterpillars were just their eyebrows, but even still, it was a strange look, made even stranger by their close resemblance to one another. If they weren't father and son, they certainly could pass for a pair.

Shaking his head, Naruto watched the odd group enter the mission center, before going back to thinking about what to do with the rest of his day. Maybe he should train? Or he could try to figure out reading?

Indecisive, Naruto stood there long enough for the odd group to come back out of the mission center. Once again, they caught his attention, and he noticed that the two normal ones of the group quickly left, leaving the two figures dressed in green there talking.

It was strange though, Naruto thought he heard screams of the word 'Youth,' and it seemed to be getting brighter.

"Kai!"

He hurriedly used the Genjutsu breaking technique to no avail, as the sun began to rise behind the pair as they embraced one another. Naruto cursed his past self for not having practiced breaking out of Genjutsus more, resolving himself to practice more in the future.

The only comfort he received in the moment was that nothing too bad should happen to him in the middle of the day in the village. Well, outside of the torture his eyes were currently going through.

Finally, the two figures split apart, no longer hugging, and the Genjutsu seemed to disappear. Wiping away the sweat that accumulating on his brow, Naruto watched as the taller figure ran off to who-knows-where, leaving the shorter green figure behind, alone.

Despite what he had just witnessed, Naruto was curious. Who were they? What was that Genjutsu? So, he approached the green figure to strike up a conversation, it wasn't like he had anything more important going on.

"Yo, what's up man? The name's Uzumaki Naruto, nice to meet ya! What was that Genjutsu you two just used?"

The green figure, having been called on, quickly spun around to face Naruto, instinctively muttering, "I can't use jutsu, why does everyone ask about Genjutsu when they talk to me?"

Seemingly brushing it off, the green figure introduced himself as Rock Lee, Konoha's Beautiful Green Wild Beast.

"Uzumaki-san, yes? Would you mind if we moved while we talked?"

Not really concerned with moving and talking, Naruto replied, "Yeah, that's fine," only to start caring a lot more when Lee hopped up on his hands to walk.

Not being able to contain himself at the peculiar behavior of his new friend, Naruto had to ask, "Why are you walking on your hands?"

"Ah yes, Uzumaki-san, you must curious. It's great for training your arm strength and balance. I'd very much recommend trying it yourself if you haven't already."

Honestly, the answer made sense to Naruto, Lee was training while on the go, it was really efficient, if a bit weird.

"Do you do that everywhere you go?"

Certainly not to the bathroom, at least.

Seriously, Lee responded, "If I can, yes. That is, unless I'm running instead."

Naruto was amazed, why'd he need to train that much.

"Isn't that a lot? Don't you ever get tired, or need to take a break?"

Nodding, or at least the best he could while upside down, Lee resolutely answered, "It is tiring, and I won't take breaks. Maybe a genius like Neji can afford to take breaks, but not me. The only way for me to catch up and surpass him is to be working while he's resting."

That shocked Naruto, what sort of genius was Neji? To push someone to walk on their hands everywhere, only to close the gap a tiny bit. And even crazier than the talent of this Neji guy, was the dedication this guy had to surpassing him.

"I get working hard, but couldn't you try something else to beat this Neji guy? Like I don't know, learn a new jutsu or two, and catch him by surprise."

Half-resigned, Lee replied, "I am unable to mold nor use chakra. I was born with a malformed chakra network, thus, the only way for me to defeat Neji and be a ninja, is through Taijutsu and the power of my body."

Naruto was shaken, he had begun to think that he had had it bad, with being stupid and not able to read from the Dyslexia. But here was someone who probably had it worse, unable to use chakra as ninja. It was inspiring really, despite his condition, he was still able to follow his dream of being a ninja and work so hard without falling into despair.

Lee was an interesting guy, that much was certain. And his story got Naruto thinking, 'Wait a minute, he can't use chakra, and is trying to defeat a genius of a ninja with nothing but Taijutsu and effort. He's gotta be some sort of Taijutsu master then, right? After all, it's the only thing he trains. I may be decent at Taijutsu, but there is definitely something I can learn from this guy, because it's not like I have a sensei to learn from.'

Putting words and action to his thoughts, Naruto asked, "Hey Lee, you only really train Taijutsu, right?"

Flipping up onto his feet, he nodded his head, now right-side up, saying, "Yeah. I mean, I do practice Shurikenjutsu as well, but it's mostly Taijutsu."

Naruto was forced to start jogging, as Lee had started soon after getting off of his hands.

"Well then, do you think you could give me some advice on training up my Taijutsu."

Hesitating, it was Lee's turn to ask a question, "I'd be more than happy to Uzumaki-san, but wouldn't your jonin-sensei mind? Don't you have missions to go on, not to mention the training your sensei gives?"

Naruto casually replied, "Yeah, that's not gonna be an issue, you see, I'm a career genin, I don't got no jonin-sensei looking after me. That's part of the reason why I'm asking you for help, don't really got anyone else to teach me, ya know?"

Lee turned to Naruto in shock, still jogging, "You don't have a sensei?! Don't they send you back to the academy if you fail your sensei's graduation test?"

Naruto casually replied, "Ah, well, you see, I didn't technically graduate. I failed the test, but then some stuff happened, and I ended up getting a field promotion to genin. Turns out, that sort of screwed up the system they had going, leaving me alone and without a jonin to guide me."

Nodding in understanding, Lee shrugged, "Must've been something big for you to get a field promotion while we're at peace. In any case, I can help you with your training whenever I'm not on missions or training with my team, in which case you can find me at Training Ground 8. That's where I train by myself, and if you see me there, you are more than welcome to join me."

Thankful, Naruto opened his mouth to thank Lee, before being cut off before he was able to.

"Of course, you probably would want to be able to train on your own, regardless of my presence, right?"

Stammering out an "Uh, yeah?" Naruto waited for Lee to continue speaking.

"In that case, I can recommend a few general exercises that you should be able to conduct by yourself. To start with, there's push-ups, sit-ups, and squats. Pretty simple and can be done anywhere. If you go to the woods, you can also do exercise there like pull-ups or hanging sit-ups. All of that will build up your strength. For cardio, you should either jog, like we are now, or you can also walk on your hands, like I did earlier. Swimming can also work as well."

It was a lot of information all of a sudden, and Naruto tried to remember every word. Some of it he had heard before, but others, like using trees for certain exercises or swimming was new.

After pausing for a moment to let Naruto process the information, Lee carried on talking, "If you buy yourself some weights, you can also do exercises with those. Although I'd recommend using body weights, and once advanced enough, chakra weights."

Naruto had never heard of body weights, nor the apparently more advanced chakra weights. Not to mention Lee couldn't use chakra, right, what was the deal there?

"Uh, Lee? I got a question."

Pausing his spiel, Lee turned to Naruto, "Yeah?"

"First off, what are body weights and chakra weights? Secondly, I thought you couldn't use chakra, so what's the deal there with you and chakra weights?"

"Good questions. Think of body weights as a special type of weight that you can strap to your body to carry out exercises with. They effectively will make your body, arms, and legs feel heavier while using them and training, then you take them off and your body will move much faster."

That made sense to Naruto, but he was still curious about the chakra weights.

"Chakra weight, on the other hand, are an application of Fuinjutsu that causes the same effect as body weights, except they are more compact, and usually a lot heavier, too. That's also how I am able to use them, as they are a type of Fuinjutsu that can run constantly once turned on."

"Oh, so someone else who can use chakra turns them on for you, then you wear them around. That makes sense."

"Yeah, I'm actually wearing a set right now on my legs," Lee pointed to his orange leg warmers, "they are beneath my leg warmers."

'Woah, you're telling me this guy's been doing all this with added weight. And I didn't see him do anything when he came back from whatever mission he was doing, was he wearing the weights the entire time as well?'

"Sheesh, let me guess, you wear those all the time as well?"

"Yup."

Of course, his guess was right, while the 'Beautiful' from his title might be up for debate, he definitely fit the bill of a 'Green Wild Beast.'

"Well, Uzumaki-san. My team and I just returned from a C-rank mission, so my sensei gave us the rest of the day off. I don't know what you have planned, but I'm going to go train, care to join me?"

Naively, Naruto replied with a "Yes," sealing his fate, although he was not aware of it yet.


Author's Note: Hey, its me, ThisCondor. Hope y'all are enjoying the story so far, despite it being a lot of setting establishment so far. Once again, it was a somewhat heavy dialogue chapter, which is hard for me to write. It is getting somewhat easier, but I'm always afraid I'm using the same word too many times. I will always appreciate thesauruses...

I'd also like to thank a guest reviewer, whoever you are. You gave me a lot of information regarding your own experience with dyslexia, and it will help me a lot when writing that aspect of the story. Once again, thanks, and if anyone else has experience with dyslexia, I'd be happy to hear from you as well. It'll all help with me crafting a better world and story for you to enjoy!

Also, if you enjoy this story, and would like to support it and other stories I'll write in the future, my pa-atreon goes by the same name, consider donating their to help me out.

Now I'm off to do some homework, if I finish that fast enough, I may start on the next chapter! :)