They were in a clearing not far from the one where they had faced Zabuza, but further away from the river and deeper into the small woods of the port city. Their objective that day was to train and clarify some things that the jounin had noticed during their trip. During the days they stayed still it was evident that something strange was happening to the little Uzumaki, since they left Konoha he seemed more distracted and startled than usual, seeming to be frightened by the slightest movements and presences after the adrenaline of the attacks had passed.
"Naruto," he called after teleporting with a shushin to his side without any warning, even though the boy had already turned his face in that direction and was huge-eyed from hitting him. Which confirmed the platinum men's suspicion. "You can feel the presence of the others, can't you?"
"I... I don't know. I can feel something coming towards me, but... But I can also feel everything around me. It's as if even with my eyes closed everything shines, each thing with a different intensity, I don't know..." he said, a little uncertain.
"Everything?" was the older man's turn to widen his eyes. "You feel the energy, the chakra of everything?"
"I only know that my senses have been screaming since we left the village. I've never felt anything like this." the boy added after confirming.
"Sensei, what does this mean?" Sakura looked at her teacher, curious about the exchange.
"It means that Naruto is a natural sensor."
"But how can that be, when he himself said he had never felt anything like that before?" Sasuke's turn to ask, somehow the two intelligent people in the group had fallen into this dynamic without even realizing it.
"If the sensation is as extreme as he is describing he may have unconsciously suppressed it to protect himself since it would probably be too much for him, it would overwhelm him to stay if it is active in a ninja village." he theorizes, as he thought about the possibilities and what he needs to check out.
"Overload how?" the pink girl looked at her colleague a bit worried.
"In the ability to concentrate, paralysis by an overload of senses, it can even cause pain in more serious cases." the genins made faces at such an alarming answer. "I guess the reason Naruto took so long to react and was injured during the Demon Brothers' attack was because of this overload."
"It makes sense, he was really acting strange after we left the village." the Uchiha remembered the random faces he made as he looked around.
"You also wouldn't be okay if everything around you seemed to glow so brightly that you were blinded and the air became so intense that it was hard to breathe." the boy defended himself with a hint of bad humor, but it was his manner of speaking that alarmed the silver one.
"Are you still like this? Everything around you is making you sick?"
"It's slowly getting better, I think. For the first few hours, it was pretty unbearable, things were so bizarre that it seemed I couldn't even feel or hear the world around me anymore." the smaller one pondered.
"The tendency is to get better as you get used to it and train this ability." the teacher said and looked back at the boy. "But I'm afraid we don't have much time to get you as functional as possible again, I think it's possible that we were tricked by that shinobi boy who technically killed Zabuza."
"What do you mean, Sensei?" they asked, not understanding exactly what that meant to them.
"The vital points that the needles hit would be perfect for inducing a false death, and it is suspicious that he did not destroy the body right there, which is usually the standard procedure for this type of situation, to avoid the possibility of a third party stealing the body," he explained, since he knew that the younger ones didn't have this information.
"If you suspected this then why did you let them escape?" Sasuke asked genuinely confused.
"The boy didn't seem hostile toward us and we needed the opening to get Tazuna to the house. Besides that the fight using the Sharingan left me exhausted, I couldn't fight another opponent at that moment. I didn't expect a second shinobi, which surprised me and was a mistake on my part that could have cost us our lives." the adult admitted, part of him ashamed and disappointed with himself.
"You just bought us more time, basically." the ravenette understood.
"Exactly, in these days I hope to be able to teach you some things that I hope will be useful and will improve your chakra control, which will help make you last longer in a fight." he clarified. "That's why it's important to find out how accurate chakra reading is and how much it affects you, Naruto. This ability can be a great asset since it decreases the chances of being caught by surprise."
"I remember reading that sensors are useful but relatively rare, is that true?" Sakura asked, but the other two were also curious, especially the blonde.
"They are, for both questions. Not every ninja has the aptitude to feel chakra with accuracy to be a sensor. And a well-trained and capable sensor can sense enemies and comrades from miles away, chakra-based surprise attacks are felt possibly before reaching the target, and a genjutsu needs to be extremely powerful to capture and confuse the sensor." the three are stunned by the information, but the elder signaled for them to wait. "But sensors, like anyone else, are not perfect. There are ways to fool and overload a sensor to the point that it becomes useless. Only 5% of ninjas have the potential to become sensors."
"But sensei, you said that Naruto is a natural sensor. What does that mean?" looks at him confused by the term.
"It means that he naturally has the ability of a sensor, and just needs the training to refine it. Only 1% of ninjas are born with this ability. But from his description, he is also able to sense natural energy, coming from plants, animals, and even the earth itself, which in fact is extremely rare and is what I believe is responsible for his abnormal behavior in the last few days, since he literally feels everything around him, I can only imagine how stunning this is. It was also the reason he was able to sense the rabbit that some of the ninjas used in the replacement, he instinctively understood that something was wrong and was a threat." he reminded them of the moment.
"Natural energy? Is that a kind of chakra?" the blond asked trying to digest everything, the world was really enjoying filling him with information lately and he was already getting a slight headache because of this story of him being a sensor.
"It can be considered that he is. It is an energy that when absorbed can be used as chakra, but it is extremely difficult to control. Known users are very few, as it can have negative effects on the body, in extreme cases kill untutored beginners. From Konoha, only 4 people were able to acquire the Sennin Mode, as it is called, and not all of them are able to control his full mode. The first of them was the First Hokage, theories say that it was thanks to this that he was able to create Mokuton but nobody knows how for sure, so he was the only wood user in the world. There is also some relation of this to the invocation type affinity and some claim that it is the invocations that are able to guide the users in the process." the youngsters were totally immersed in the adult's words. "Back on topic, I don't expect Naruto to be able to control this immediately, it may take years to reach its full potential. Him being able to sense nature's chakra is a possible sign that he might one day be able to use this kind of chakra. But what we will try to do is to try to help him to adapt, to get used to our chakras, and to be able to tell when somebody is nearby."
"Does this mean that I'll stop getting headaches all the time because of the chakra around me?" Naruto looked slightly hopeful, the last few days had been terrible in that regard.
"Have you been feeling this all the time?" he repeated, frowning.
"Well... Yes. When we were attacked I think it decreased a bit, but they say adrenaline affects our bodies a lot, right?" the adult nodded in confirmation, not expecting the boy to come to this conclusion on his own. But the news itself was bad, it showed that he was more sensitive than he imagined and they didn't exactly have much time.
"And why didn't you say anything?" it was a question that the adult didn't even know if he wanted the honest answer like in the poisoning situation, it just showed how much they had failed him.
"It didn't seem important, and I thought it would pass soon." he shrugged his shoulders.
"We have to increase his resistance then." he decided more urgently. "We need to find out your current limit." then he called the other two genins close by for a little test, they would all activate their chakras at the same time to see how the blond would do. Once they did, the boy only saw his vision go completely black before he woke up lying on the ground, he had briefly blacked out. After a few more tests, with two of them repeating the procedure and altering the doubles and then alone the grayish one came to a conclusion. "It seems that for the time being he can only handle more chakra when he is on adrenaline. The proximity of where the chakra also seems to be an important factor, since you only blacked out when we were all together and on your side. The amount of chakra each of you have changed the type of reaction from you, which is expected."
"Is he going to be okay?" Sakura asked, still surprised that her colleague had fainted, so this is what sensei had meant when he said that you could overload a sensor?
"He will be fine. You can rest assured. We will just have to be careful with the exercise, doing it one at a time to give him time to get used to it."
"Sensei, you said that the exercise would help our chakra control. What are we going to do?" the Uchiha asked finally.
"Kinobori Shūgyō. You guys are going to practice climbing trees." he was faced with confused and incredulous faces. "-But only without using your hands. Like this." demonstrated the technique without any effort, it was already as easy as breathing for him.
"Wow!" the pink girl exclaimed, impressed and thinking how something like this could be useful.
"What you will have to do is simple: take and focus the chakra on the soles of your feet while you are climbing. The exact amount depends per person, as it depends on biotype, body structure, and weight, so it will be by trial and error," he explained after getting down and handing a kunai to the ravenette boy. "You go first."
"Ok." the Uchiha took a deep breath and ran towards a tree, taking a few steps before slipping to the ground. -New. -I don't know what to do," he said before running back to the same tree, this time putting too much chakra into it, which hurt the bark of the poor tree. "Dammit, I forgot to mark how far I went."
"You'll have to do that later. Sakura, your turn," he said after checking that the Uzumaki was ok.
"That's good! Here I go!" she declared and promptly went towards the tree, surprising even herself when she got there on the first try. "Huh?" she took a few slower steps up and down before sitting down on a branch. 'That was easier than I thought. I'm awesome, shanaroo!
"Naruto, now you."
"Hai." -he stopped facing a third tree before hesitating. He knew he had too much chakra and almost no control, that was the whole point of his current training with Danzo! He should go with everything to get a sense of what not to do right away? "Here I come!" he picked up speed and went up, but as soon as he started to climb his foot created a hole in the tree, which made him fall hard to the ground. To the point that his butt hurt. The other three presents looked at the damage caused in disbelief, although Hatake must have imagined something like this coming.
"It looks like the ones who will need to keep training are Naruto and Sasuke. Which is to be expected since they have the largest chakra reserves." the two boys looked at each other in surprise. "Sakura, since you have a natural talent for chakra control, you will supervise the builder together with me while I give you another exercise to practice. As things develop from here we'll see if we can strengthen your taijutsu if there's any time left."
Since the Uzumaki needed to get used to their chakra it was decided that the two boys would train together, which would help build up a resistance in the blond by the hours of exposure to the other's chakra constantly. Other than that the teacher decided that it would be good to teach the blond to meditate, also for the purpose of helping him get used to his new heightened senses. But since this was also a good exercise for control, the three genins would do it together a few times a day.
The boys would only take short breaks for some snacks, and water and to catch their breath. But even if they struggled for a whole day they made little progress, so later Sasuke decided to ignore some of his pride and asked his classmate how she had managed it so easily, with Naruto listening equally puzzled. They also returned to Tazuna's house for meals, where they heard reports from the pink one about how the village was, now that she had seen it with her own eyes. She had never seen so much poverty and people in such a bad situation.
On the second day, Naruto noticed that the normal way was not working for him, since the Uchiha was now far ahead of him in climbing. So he decided to try something different, something more like what he was learning in his sessions with Shimura. During them, he was learning that his chakra worked differently than others and so what was simple for others was not for him.
'How was it really? First I have to focus and feel my chakra going through my body...' he closed his eyes and concentrated. He spent a few minutes just doing this, which drew confused looks from his teammate. 'Now let's try to do it slowly and try to guide it to my feet and remember the feeling of it there...' when he was confident that he had already memorized the feeling he went slowly towards the tree, only in it would he be able to see how much he should take there. He synchronized his steps with his breathing, it was easier when he used the rhythm of something pre-existing to guide his chakra. Apparently, it was working and...
"What are you doing?" Sasuke asked, causing him to open his eyes and lose focus. He narrowly managed to mark how far he had gone before he fell.
"I was trying to climb the tree until you distracted me!" said glaring at the other with his eyes, slightly frustrated. The other had the decency to blush since this had not been his intention.
"It's just that you stood still for a long time and then suddenly, when you moved, you climbed higher than before," he explained himself and pointed to the tree, where there was actually a considerable space between the previous and the most recent markings. -How did you manage to do that? You almost caught up with me just now, when you were having trouble earlier.
"Huh... Doing it?" responded, to the other's frustration.
"Don't 'doing it' me! You had a whole preparation process before getting it!"
"I can't explain it, okay? My chakra works in a strange way," he spoke sincerely and shrugged.
"What do you mean?" the Uchiha looked at him confused.
"Can you explain how you can breathe?" the other denied with his head, it was something instinctive as far as he knew. "It's like this, you can't explain it with words."
"I get it..." -he said without really understanding, but understanding the analogy.
They went back to training and spent hours without stopping, they spent the night doing this without even realizing it. Both were just a few steps away from reaching the top of their respective trees. But they would still need more time to master the technique completely. In these two days the brunette noticed that the Uzumaki had much more stamina than he did, it took longer for his breathing to fail with the exercise. And the boy didn't consider himself someone who tired quickly, so he was impressed.
Did this have to do with the possibility that he really was part of the Uzumaki clan, as they are suspecting? If he remembered correctly, it was a clan that possessed high vitality. At least that was what had been documented. However, he didn't approach the other on the subject again. He had not forgotten how the blond had reacted to the subject when they had spoken to him that day in the library. He had never seen the other one so closed off. And now with this confusion about him being a sensor, Sasuke thought it best not to press him any further. They had more to worry about and would have plenty of time to research this later.
After they were basically exhausted they finally decided to take a break. Naruto sat down leaning against a tree in a shady spot and decided he was going to try to meditate for a while, something he was basically doing whenever he could since it was helping with the headaches and getting used to the chakra of the others. When the older man looked at his colleague again, he looked as if he had fallen asleep, so he decided to fill his canteen with water. He was thinking how little was left to master the skill on the way back and was surprised to see that there was someone approaching the blond's sleeping form with an outstretched hand, he immediately tensed up seeing that it seemed to be going towards his neck. But before touching the boy's shoulder, to the Uchiha's surprise (and relief), the Uzumaki opened his eyes and silence settled on the scene.
"Who...?" he was interrupted by the unknown person, who seemed to be around their age.
"You're awake, that's good! At this time if you sleep outside you might catch a cold or something worse." the person smiled, leaving them both a bit stunned; it seemed to be a girl.
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked the question they both wanted to know.
"Oh, he wasn't alone?" the other boy just showed the water canteen as an answer to that. "My name is Haku, this is the best time to harvest medicinal herbs so I was startled to see someone lying here."
"Is this what you came here to do?" Naruto asked, rubbing his eyes to dispel his tiredness.
"Yes, someone important to me is ill so I want to help him recover." the girl smiled thoughtfully but went back to picking the herbs she had gone to get. "And you? What are you doing here so early in the morning?"
"We're ninjas, so we have to train," Sasuke answered proudly, pointing to his bandana, the other's gaze lingered there longer than usual.
"These herbs... Are they for pain?" -the blond looked at what she was collecting. Clearly, they were not the same as the ones they had in the village, but they were very similar.
"Yes, they are good against infections too." she was amazed that the boy seemed to know a little about the subject. "Why are you training so hard? she pointed to the boys' dirty clothes.
"To get stronger," they answered together, which made both of them blink and look at each other.
"Why do you want to get stronger?" she looked at them both with curiosity. "Is it to protect someone?" at the suggestion, the Uchiha stopped what he was about to answer, confused by the sudden suggestion, while the Uzumaki frowned, what do you mean protect someone? He didn't have -need- anyone!
"What?" the dark-haired boy tilted his head to the side.
"A person only becomes really strong when they have something they want to protect. Only then do we become really strong." he explained, as the two Genin looked on and stopped contemplatively. "Do you understand?"
"Yes." Sasuke knew what it was like to have someone important to him, he loved his family and wanted to have the strength to protect them as they would protect him.
"No." the concept was completely alien to the blond, he was always alone, and people always left him alone.
"What a shame." she looked at the smallest of them. "I hope you find someone someday, living without a purpose is sad." she turned to the other boy. "You are already on the road to becoming truly strong."
"Huh... Thanks, I guess," he answered without knowing what else to say while his teammate seemed stunned by the conversation, stopping to think he had been seeing many sides of the blond that didn't make much sense and were totally different from what everyone knew from the academy.
"We'll see each other again." said goodbye, getting up and holding the basket with the herbs he had collected during the conversation. "By the way, I'm also a boy," he said this more for his own amusement, to the amazement of the others, who didn't expect it since the clothes he was wearing were more feminine. But it was a great way to disguise yourself, people expected less threat from girls who appeared fragile after all (the look on their faces when she revealed herself to others was always priceless too).
"..." the two Konoha ninjas stood still while they processed the information and Haku was leaving. When they finally came out of their trance they turned towards the house, where they hoped it was time for breakfast, they were starving.
"Sasuke?" Naruto called after a while, the boy turned to his classmate. "I think he's a ninja."
"Why do you think so?" he asked before feeling like an idiot. "Did you feel chakra on him?"
"Yes. I wasn't sure at first, but after a while, that alone makes sense, because training with you doesn't give me a headache anymore," he said after thinking about how to explain.
"So you're sure it's an unknown chakra." Sasuke added. "When we get to the house we have to talk to the sensei."
"Yes. We do." he agreed, and they walked the rest of the way in silence. Both were thoughtful about what had occurred that morning and the words they had exchanged.
Notes:
I usually post earlier, but this week was kind of chaotic, I hope you guys' week was better! Anyway, the important thing is that I was able to post. I hope you enjoyed it! Let me know what you think about the development of the characters so far!
Remember: feedback is always good and welcome, I love to know what you think and your theories for what comes next. Questions are welcome too, although I won't answer them with spoilers, of course!
Hope to see you in the next chapters!
See you next week!
