Chapter 9 – Tree Climbing and Jutsus

Kakashi woke up in an unfamiliar room. A woman walked into the room and said to Kakashi, "I see you are awake. The kids will be glad. They've all been worried about you."

Almost as soon as she said it the 3 genin entered the room. Naruto ran over and said, "Hello Kakashi-sensei. How are you feeling?"

"I'll take a week to recover." Kakashi replied. Then he noticed an uncertain look on Naruto's face and asked, "What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

Naruto looked at him seriously and said, "Unfortunately Zabuza is still alive."

The others gasped and Tazuna, who had just entered the room, exclaimed, "How can you be sure?"

"Think about it." Naruto replied. "How did the hunter-nin dispose of the body?"

"How should we know?" Ino asked. "He carried the body away."

Everyone gasped and Kakashi said, "So that is it. He really was rescued."

"Aren't you making too much of this." Tazuna replied. "Besides you checked he was dead."

"Think about the weapon." Naruto and Kakashi said at the same time. Naruto grinned and said, "You can go Kakashi-sensei."

"Well as Naruto-kun and I were saying, the ninja used flying needles. Since the needles have a low lethality record then it would be easy for a person experienced with the human body to fake a death." Kakashi explained.

Naruto continued saying, "I did some research when we got here and there is a small muscle on the neck which is easy to hit and can fake a death if hit precisely."

"In other words Zabuza survived." Kakashi finished. "You must have given this a lot of thought after it occurred to you here."

"I didn't realize it here." Naruto replied getting disbelieving glances from everyone else. "I realized it before Zabuza was carried away."

"Then why didn't you say something. We could have beaten them." Ino screamed at Naruto.

"I couldn't tell." Naruto replied. "I knew Kakashi was injured and tired after the battle with Zabuza and I did not feel like we would win going against a ninja stronger than Zabuza."

The group, if possible, gaped at him even more before Kakashi chuckled and said, "Very good Naruto. I agree, he was the stronger of the two and frankly you guys would have lost had you tried to fight him."

"Then what do we do Kakashi-sensei?" Ino asked.

Kakashi sat up and said, "We train because we will face him again."

At that moment a boy walked into the room and said, "What is the point. You will all be killed by Gato."

Tazuna ushered him over saying, "Hello Inari. These people are the ninjas here to protect me."

Inari hugged him and said, "What is the point of them coming when they will surely be killed."

Naruto stood up indignantly. "We won't die asshole. We are ninjas and I am the hero who will save you guys."

Inari scoffed and said, "Heroes don't exist" before he left the room.

Kakashi stood up on his crutches and said, "Well anyway, please come with me you guys. We will go to the forest." As he tried to walk he fell back over. Then he said, "Maybe in a few days."

Near the place of the battlefield Haku tended to the wounds of the injured Zabuza. He brought a metal tool close to his face before his hand was caught. He looked down to see Zabuza had awoken. "Hello Zabuza-san. Nice to see you awake."

"Hello Haku." Zabuza replied as he sat up.

"You will need at least a week to rest with those injuries." Haku replied. "Had it been me I would have been up immediately but you are different."

Zabuza smiled grimly and said, "Your innocence, purity, intellect, and strength are what I like about you Haku."

Haku blushed and replied, "Will you be able to handle them again. They injured you badly."

Zabuza turned serious and he said, "With time I can learn more about and eventually defeat the Sharingan but there was another kid there who caused a lot of trouble. He was very good with chakra control. He was able to use Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and used those clones to create chakra shields. I feel he had a great power within him as well but I believe you can get him."

Haku blushed again and said, "Thank you for trusting me Zabuza-san." Then Haku got up and said, "Now let's get you to the hideout."

Two days later Kakashi was able to walk and lead them into the forest. Naruto, Ino, Sasuke, and Kakashi stopped when they reached a large group of trees. Kakashi turned to face them and said, "This is where we will be practicing. We will climb trees."

"How will climbing trees help us get stronger?" Ino asked.

"There is a catch." Kakashi admitted. "You will climb them with no hands."

"Is that possible?" Ino asked.

"Yes it is, now listen carefully." Kakashi answered. "I assume you all know about chakra so I will continue with the explanation. Now this exercise makes you put chakra into the soles of your feet. With that chakra in you feet you can stick yourself to the tree and walk up it." The group watched as Kakashi gathered chakra into his feet and hobbled towards the tree. When he reached it Kakashi walked right up the side.

'Cool.' Ino thought happily. 'With this I will be better than Sakura.'

'I will master this fast.' Sasuke thought.

'Damn it. This is too easy.' Naruto thought.

'If you do it I will teach you two jutsus.' Kyuubi offered. 'We can train elsewhere while they do this. Ino won't be as good as Sakura for sure and Sasuke will be a little better than the other time since he trained with you and Hinata.'

"Now gather chakra into your feet and run at the tree." Kakashi instructed. "Make sure not to overdo it and make sure to not put too little."

Sasuke gathered his chakra in his soles and ran towards the tree. He made it about a third of the way up before he marked the spot and cam e down. 'Damn this is harder than I thought.'

Ino raced towards the tree and made it about a quarter of the way up before she too fell down. 'This will take a while but I will master it and win Sasuke's recognition.'

"That was easy." Naruto called. The others all looked up and saw Naruto had made it up the tree.

"Very good, Naruto-kun." Kakashi stated. "I did expect more from an Uchiha though."

'How did that dobe do it so easily?' Sasuke wondered.

'Wow he is good but still not as good as my Sasuke.' Ino thought to herself.

Naruto jumped off the branch and onto the ground. Kakashi also got down and turned said, "Naruto, you are the best at chakra control. You can either practice this to build stamina or practice on your own. Tomorrow you will guard Tazuna at the bridge."

"I'll practice on my own." Naruto replied. Then he walked away further into the forest.

While he was walking Kyuubi talked to him and said, 'Easy for you since you've already mastered it. Now I will teach you two harder jutsus. First though, go find an open field.'

Naruto walked until he came to a large clearing. He situated himself near the middle and thought, 'I am ready. Can you explain the jutsus?' He couldn't hold back the grin he got whenever he got to learn new jutsus.

'Hahaha, you are as impatient as always. The two techniques are called Suiton: Mizu Jitsugen no Jutsu and Suiton: Mizu Teikiatsu no Jutsu. The first on you will learn will be water materialization. Do you know what air is composed of?'

'No.' Naruto answered honestly.

'Well the air is comprised of many gases. There is oxygen which we need to breathe, there is carbon dioxide which we give off, there is nitrogen, and there is water vapor. This vapor is the gas form of water. By getting hot it evaporates and becomes a gas. This first jutsu will allow you to turn that water vapor into water that can be used in battle.'

'Cool!' Naruto exclaimed. 'Teach me now. Teach me now.'

'Fine now be patient. When you use this jutsu you must change the heat of your chakra. You can do this with concentration. If you lower it to just the right amount the vapor will turn to water. If you make it too cold it will turn to snow or ice and if you make it too warm then it won't change.'

'So I locate the vapor around me and change the temperature of my chakra.' Naruto said back. 'It doesn't sound too bad.'

After about an hour of practicing Naruto had found the right temperature and was practicing constantly changing to that temperature and keeping it steady. 'You are doing well kit. This is the easy of the two jutsus though. I also want you to practice speeding up the transformation of the water. Keep doing it until you can do it almost automatically and very fast.'

'Damn. This will take a while.' Naruto complained.

'I think you will get the hang of it by the end of today. Then I will teach you the other tomorrow.' Kyuubi instructed. 'Oh and in case you haven't noticed you have a visitor.'

Naruto was drawn back and saw Kakashi watching him practice. He turned to the bushes and said, "Hello Kakashi-sensei. Why are you spying on me?"

Kakashi was embarrassed and quickly got out of the bushes. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I was very interested in seeing your techniques."

"That makes two of you." Naruto laughed. "Sasuke also spied on me when I was practicing my demon eyes technique. I also have my demon eyes on now so no one can copy my jutsus. As teammates I expected you would ask me before trying to copy my techniques though. I said it to Sasuke and I'll say it to you Kakashi-sensei. We are teammates so you can just ask to see my jutsus. I won't necessarily let you copy them or show you them all but I will show what I see as needed. Any particular ones you would like to see?"

Kakashi was red in embarrassment by now but said, "Well I'd like to see the chakra blade, chakra shield, and your new water jutsu."

"Okay." Naruto replied. "Just don't steal them and don't tell anyone else."

Naruto preformed each of the jutsus for Kakashi who was extremely interested. When he finished Kakashi turned to him and said, "Those are some good techniques. Who is training you?"

"A couple of people." Naruto replied. "I learn taijutsu from Gai-sensei and I learn ninjutsu and genjutsu from my other sensei."

"You are learning taijutsu from Gai. I'm surprised he took you as a student." Kakashi stated.

"I used you to get him to agree." Naruto replied sheepishly. "I said I'd go to you for training if he didn't take me on as a student."

"I see. Well if you ever really do want my training I'd be willing to help." Kakashi said as he started to walk towards the house.

"Kakashi-sensei, I don't think you know what you just agreed to." Naruto smirked. 'Well I guess it is back to work.'

The next day Naruto sat on the bridge as he was instructed to do by Kakashi. 'So when do I learn the next jutsu.'

'How about right now kit. I will teach you the jutsu on top of the water. You will learn to use the water materialization to use this technique where there is no water but for now we will use the water around.' Kyuubi explained. 'Now get down.'

Naruto jumped down from the bridge and onto the lake. 'So how does this jutsu work?'

Kyuubi growled and said, 'I will tell you now be patient. First I must ask you a question. Do you know what the elements are?'

'Easy' Naruto scoffed. 'They are earth, fire, water, wood, wind, light, shadow, thunder, and ice.'

'Good. We demons also use these elements in our jutsus. We have jutsus that only people with demon blood can learn. I will teach you the demonic jutsu for each element. The first one I will teach you is water. Suiton: Mizu Teikiatsu no Jutsu is a devastating technique. I picked it now because we are surrounded by water. It will be harder on land.'

Naruto nodded and asked, 'Okay so how do I do this?'

'The seals are ram, dragon, horse, dog, tiger, and demon.' Kyuubi answered. 'In this technique you use your chakra to spin water at enormous speeds. This creates a cyclone which can be fired at your opponent. Now try making the seals and concentrating on spinning the water. Then release the cyclone you create.'

'I can do this.' Naruto thought. He made the seals and started to spin the water around him into a small cyclone. The water took shape and Naruto tried to release it but it just dropped down.

'Kit you have to force the cyclone towards your opponent. This control will be even harder when you don't have water around you so concentrate.' Kyuubi commanded. 'The size of the cyclone was very small. As your chakra grows you can create larger ones and eventually decide which size one to use depending on the amount of chakra you use. Now keep practicing.'

After about an hour Naruto could form the cyclones but still couldn't fire them. He made his seals again and concentrated his chakra. He forced it forward while still keeping it spinning. The cyclone, to his surprise, shot forward at incredible speed. The people working on the bridge all looked down and gasped at what they saw. Naruto had made the cyclone and shot it forward. It had gone onto the land and decimated a number of trees. They all had the same thoughts, 'Wow that kid is strong.'

'Good job kit. You will also learn to control how far it goes eventually. Now try it again. And try and make it bigger.' Kyuubi instructed.

After about another hour Naruto was exhausted. He went back onto the bridge and sat down to watch what was happening. He saw a man walk up to Tazuna and tell him that he wanted to quit. Tazuna let him quit but told him he was being a coward. The man left and Tazuna ended the work for the day. Tazuna then walked over to him and brought him to the market. Naruto was astounded by what he saw. It was horrible. The place was un-orderly and everything was of low quality. They walked in a store and Naruto gaped at what he saw. There was practically no food there. They had tiny amounts of food out for people to buy. It almost made him sick thinking about people living this way. They bought the food they needed and as they were walking home Naruto felt a small tug at the back of his jacket. He turned around to find a small boy with his hands open. He reached into his pocket and found some candy. He gave it to the boy who brightened and ran off. Tazuna walked next to him and said, "People here need the bridge to survive which is why we must finish it."

Naruto nodded and said, "We will make sure it is finished." Then the two walked to the house. When they got there Naruto excused himself and he went back to the water. He worked on his technique for about an hour before he knew it was time for dinner. He went back to the house and sat down in his spot.

Dinner was a battle as Naruto and Sasuke both tried to eat more than the other and both threw up a couple times. After dinner Ino got up and walked to a picture. She looked at it and saw a corner was missing. She turned around and asked, "Why is there a corner missing in this picture? Inari was staring at it all dinner."

Tazuna, Inari, and Tsunami all froze and looked down before Tsunami said, "That was my husband."

"He was called the hero around here." Tazuna stated gravely.

Inari got up and ran out the door. Tsunami hurried after him and said, "Dad I thought I warned you about not talking about him." Then she ran out the door.

"I see there is a story that we don't know." Kakashi stated. "Care to tell us?"

Tazuna looked sad and said, "It started when that man came to town. Inari's dog was stolen by a bunch of kids and one threw the dog in. Inari felt bad but he couldn't swim. Then one boy pushed Inari into the water. The dog learned to doggy paddle and swam to shore but Inari would have died if he were not saved by that man. Inari was saved and when he asked why, then man replied that he would protect the people he cared about with his hands. He and Inari did everything together and he eventually became part of the family. The town started calling him the hero when he saved part of the village by swimming across a raging river to tie a rope to the emergency dam. It worked and he was praised as the hero. That was when Gato came. He tied the man up and hit him. If that wasn't bad enough he had him publicly executed right in front of Inari. Since then Inari hasn't been himself and he and the town have lost all their courage."

An awkward silence followed the story. Naruto broke this silence by getting up quickly. He turned to the others and said, "I'm going to train. I will prove that heroes do exist." He turned away and walked out the door.

Naruto walked until he arrived at a good training spot. 'So Kyuubi what should I do?'

'Try practicing using the two jutsus together. In this field there isn't any water so you'll have to take it from the air.' Kyuubi explained. 'Just change the chakra temperature and start the seals.'

It was early the next morning and Haku was gathering his plants. A bird came to him and flew over to another boy. He saw his headband and recognized him as one of the leaf ninjas protecting Zabuza. He walked over to Naruto and checked his pulse. Gently he nudged him saying, "Wake up."

Naruto opened his eyes and saw Haku above him. He sat up and said, "Hello who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I'm looking for medicinal herbs." Haku replied. "It's the herbs we use to make medicine."

"Cool can I help?" Naruto asked. Haku nodded and the two picked the herbs together in silence. After a little while Haku asked, "Why are you out here this early?"

"I'm training." Naruto replied.

"I see from your forehead protector that you are a ninja." Haku stated. "Why do you work so hard?"

"I'm training to prove to someone that heroes do exist and I want to be strong so that people will recognize me." Naruto grinned. Turning more serious he said, "I also want to be as strong as I can so that I can protect those people who are important to me."

Haku sat thinking about what to say before he said, "You will become much stronger if you have people to protect." He got up and started to walk away before he stopped and said, "We will meet again and you will be even stronger." Then Haku walked off.

Sasuke walked out of the door and headed towards the forest. 'Damn it I need to practice. Ino is catching up and Naruto did it in one try.' He walked further into the forest and towards the trees. Along the way he looked into a field and saw a huge clearing that was almost totally destroyed. There were gigantic craters in the ground and the trees around the clearing were destroyed. 'What happened here?' He continued walking and when he was almost at the tree he passed a boy who had a basket of herbs in his hands. He narrowed his eyes for a minute as he thought he recognized the boy. Not caring he continued until he got to the trees. As was about to walk into the training area he saw Naruto making some hand seals. He saw water materialize from thin air and Naruto make more seals. A cyclone formed in front of him and it suddenly shot out and decimated a group of trees.

'How is that possible?' Sasuke thought, amazed. 'He can't be that strong.'

"Come out Sasuke." Naruto called into the bushes. An embarrassed Sasuke got out of the bushes and walked over to him. "That is the second time I have caught you spying on me. Are you trying to steal my techniques?"

"No." Sasuke answered quickly. "I was walking here to practice the tree climbing when I saw you. I was too curious to reveal myself."

"I don't care." Naruto replied. "You can't copy this technique no matter how hard you tried and you can't even do tree climbing. Where is the strong Sasuke I grew to know?"

Sasuke growled but didn't retort with anger. Sasuke didn't want to do it but he had no choice. Gathering his courage he asked, "Well can you help me then?"

Naruto thought about it before he said, "Yes I will help you. You must agree to one condition though."

"What condition is it?" Sasuke asked.

"You must let me train you in activating your sharingan." Naruto grinned. "I need a strong teammate."

Sasuke smirked and said, "You've got yourself a deal."

Later that day Naruto entered the home carrying Sasuke. Kakashi, Tazuna, Inari, Tsunami, and Ino were all sitting around the table and gasped when Naruto carried Sasuke's unconscious form into the house. Ino got up immediately and ran over to Sasuke. "He is okay. Just passed out." Ino stated. Then she turned to Naruto and asked, "How did he get like this?"

"We were training." Naruto answered curtly. "He just overdid it a bit."

Ino was raging. Suddenly she seemed to grow at least 5 times as big and yelled, "A BIT! HE IS UNCONSCIOUS!" Naruto shrunk under Ino's gaze but after a few minutes she calmed back down. Everyone else had sweat dropped and was staring at Ino like she was a monster.

Naruto saw his chance for escape and said, "I'm going to take a bath and then go to bed." He quickly ran out of the room before he was stopped and headed towards the bathroom. He took off his clothes and got into the steaming water. It felt awesome. 'So tomorrow's the day. I will fight Haku. But what should I do. I don't want Haku to die. He would be a great asset to the leaf if I could get it to work.'

'You could knock him unconscious so he wouldn't interfere in the battle with Kakashi and Zabuza.' Kyuubi suggested. 'Then after he wakes up you could explain to him that Zabuza had died and convince him to come to the leaf.'

'That sounds like a good idea.' Naruto thought. 'I guess I will try that.' Naruto got up from the bath when his hands started to wrinkle and tied a towel around his waist. He made his way to his room and got dressed in his pajamas. He was almost ready for bed when he heard a knock at the door. "Come in" he called. He was surprised as Ino made her way into his room. "Why did you come here Ino?"

Ino blushed and said, "Well I wanted to apologize for earlier. I was too irrational. Sasuke woke up and told me what happened."

"It's okay." Naruto replied. "Ino can I ask you a question?" When Ino nodded he continued, "Why do you like Sasuke?"

Ino blushed and said, "He is good looking and um forehead girl likes him."

"Those aren't very good reasons. I don't think you really know much about Sasuke." Naruto answered. At the angry look Ino was sending him he hastily said, "I'm not trying to get you to not like him. In fact I will tell you about Sasuke but you have to do something for me in return."

"It depends what it is." Ino answered. 'What is he up to? This is good though. I could learn more about Sasuke.'

'Perfect. Now I can do it.' Naruto thought. He grinned and said, "I would like to train with you when we get back to Konoha. In other words I want you to grow stronger and I will help train you."

Ino thought about the proposition. It wasn't bad. It was in fact a good chance for her to become better. "I accept your deal."

"Cool." Naruto smirked. "I do need strong teammates. Now if you wouldn't mind I'm going to bed."

AN - Well technically I didn't post the day I said but I haven't gone to bed yet so please cut me some slack. People may have qualms about the elements but whatever. I like this technique. It's one of my favorites. Complete devastation. Great against large amounts of people. Naruto has just struck deals with both teammates in which he'll train them to make them stronger. He also got Kakashi to offer him training. As so many of you pointed out I could have had Naruto pretend he couldn't do it but I wanted him to learn the technique and it seems unrealistic to hae him pretend he can't do basic chakra control excersises after the battle. Thanks!