He had lost track of time. By his guess he and the team had been in the wilderness for a couple of months. Everyday they ran some type of scenario before ending the day with team taijutsu training before heading back to camp. Today was a three against one, it was a bit different as it was taking place at night. He was currently being hunted but that was about to change. Gathering his chakra he pushed out of his body and tried to maintain its shape. It was a full dome and he was hyper aware of everything in it. He had to end this fast because this particular sensing technique ate through his reserves. He could feel them, just on the outskirts of his senses. Leaving his hiding spot he walked out into the open.
"Ah, you think darkness is your ally?" His taunt seemed to work as he could feel something rushing toward him from his left, right and directly behind. He would need to neutralize the biggest threat first. Spinning around he ducked and launched a high momentum uppercut right into Sasuke's chin. Keeping his senses up he leapt to the right and intercepted Sakura and caught her off guard. Pinning her to the ground he placed a kunai to her neck, effectively ending the exercise.
"Well done everybody." Kakashi suddenly appeared with no prior warning." We'll do some reflection before heading to bed."
"Naruto, tell me why your team lost." The boy's face scrunched up as he thought.
"Well we knew about his sensing before the match started. What we didn't know was how far or how well Maruku could sense. Then when time was running out and he made himself a target we all rushed him without coming up with a plan hoping we could get him with numbers. Is that right?" Kakashi smiled as he nodded.
"Thats exactly right Naruto well done. Now Maruku tell me what you could have done better." He frowned in question as he tried to think.
"I could have hid better. Time was almost up and there wasn't really any reason to bait them. I know that technique drains chakra really fast and there was no guarantee that I could have reacted fast enough to get the take down. However I was surrounded on all fronts and it could have been easy for them to catch me off guard if I wasn't sensing. " Kakashi nodded.
" You guys are progressing well. So for a reward we'll skip tonight ending taijutsu. You'll need the extra energy for tomorrow's lesson. Now then, off to bed." With his orders spoken the four gening rushed back to camp.
They were up early the next morning, going through routine of exercises when sensei appeared.
"Who can tell me what these are." In his hands were four slips of paper. Maruku stepped forward confident.
"It's chakra paper right? It's supposed to tell us what our natural affinity is."
"Yes it is. Everyone's reserves have grown large enough for me to feel comfortable letting you begin to learn elemental ninjutsu." He handed one slip to everybody.
"When I say you'll channel your chakra through these and we'll see what you have. Sasuke you're first." The paper shriveled up before it started to smoke.
"Lightning and fire. Naruto your turn." His paper split straight down the middle.
"Wind. Sakura go." Half of her paper crumbled to dust and the other half was wet and soggy.
"Earth and water. Maruku." He channeled his chakra and was surprised that his paper erupted into fire. Dropping the little remains of his paper he stamped the fire out and blew on his slightly burned fingers.
" Well its safe to say that you have a strong fire affinity. Are you alright?" Maruku nodded.
"Ok, Naruto, Sakura, come with me and I'll get you started. Maruku I want you to pair up with Sasuke and he'll help you. Sasuke when you think Maruku has a good grasp come find me." The team split up into their groups with Maruku and Sasuke heading over towards the edge of camp.
"Alright so how is this supposed to work?"Sasuke looked thoughtful at Maruku's question.
"Well the first thing you should work on is heating your chakra. Gather it and imagine it as a flame using chakra as the fuel." Maruku closed his eyes in concentration. Doing as Sasuke said he gathered his chakra in his palm. Fire, fire, fire that was internal monologue as he tried to maintain the mental image of a flame. Feeling something warm in his hand he opened his eyes to find a small fire flickering in the palm of his hand. He grinned and looked at Sasuke who had his own small smile on his face.
"You take to fire almost as well as an Uchiha." Maruku felt touched at the compliment as he watched the other boy walk away in search of Kakashi. With his fire nature unlocked he continued his solo training trying to manifest his fire to different parts of his body. Concentrating on making the fire even hotter he watched as it seemed to morph very briefly into something almost entirely new. Focusing on a high heat Maruku watched his hand as the fire it contained was changing.
" Maruku get over here. It's time for today's exercise." The flame flickered out of existence as his concentration was broken. He would figure out this anomaly later. Running over to the rest of the team he prepared himself for what was undoubtedly going to be a long rest of the day.