Arigato gozaimasu for all your reviews! More than 100 of them already! Keep them coming this way, I live off them. Anyway, on with the story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto
Chapter 8: Challenges for the young
Naruto had been waiting for some time now. He was getting restless and curious. No matter how much he trained, patience would never become one of his virtues, being the hyperactive person he had always been. He knew Shikamaru would eventually come up with a good plan of sorts. The last attack aimed at him was more than ten minutes ago already so he expected another attempt any second now.
After another minute of waiting he had enough of it. The remaining part of his patience had disappeared and the boy was annoyed, very annoyed.
"Are you giving up already? There isn't much time left," he taunted his students.
No sooner had those words released their grip on his lips or a barrage of kunai and shuriken were launched at him from three different directions. Realising he would be unable to dodge them all, he could only retreat to the only side left unattacked.
As he was about to land, he noticed the mistake he had made. A large, unnatural shadow was spreading itself around the area where he would be forced to land. "Kagemane no jutsu," the Jounin thought as he quickly performed a technique himself. "Kage bunshin no jutsu," he said. Three clones materialised hanging in the air around him. They quickly grabbed him and by using each other as a slingshot, Naruto was tossed outside the reach of Shikamaru's shadow jutsu.
"Not bad guys, not bad at all," Naruto said. "Perhaps there is some hope left for you guys."
Upon hearing a sound behind him, he quickly turned around. He looked at Sasuke, who was finishing some hand seals. "Katon - Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" (Fire Element - Grand Fireball Technique), he yelled as a fairly large ball of fire erupted from his mouth. Naruto immediately performed some hand seals himself. "Suiton – Suijinheki." (Water Element - Water Encampment Wall)
Sasuke was shocked. Not by the fact that his sensei performed this jutsu. He expected no less from a Jounin, no matter what age they are. The reasons behind his shock were the one handed seals. He was hoping he could copy some jutsus from him, but found himself unable to do so.
Naruto released the water barrier and leapt away from the Uchiha. He didn't get far as one of his students was waiting for him. Hinata, trying to push aside her self-degrading thoughts moved towards him and readied her attacks. She assumed her Jyuuken stance and attacked.
Naruto didn't have too many problems fending off the Hyuuga heir, though the sight of Shikamaru unnerved him. He knew about his friend's strategic capabilities. Currently, the young Nara was sitting in a lotus position with his hands put in some sort of an odd circular-shaped form. Ino stood in front of him, ready to defend her team mate in case Naruto attacked him.
Sasuke rejoined the attack. Together with Hinata, he managed to push Naruto further into the clearing. With Hinata continuing her assault, he engaged into another series of seals and took a deep breath. "Katon - Housenka No Jutsu – (Fire Element: Mythical Fire Flower Technique)"
The blonde Jounin quickly raced through his own seal and replied
Doton - Doryuuheki (Earth Element:
Mudslide Barrier). When he dispelled his defence, he noticed he was
alone. All of his opponents had disappeared.
He slowly walked towards the tree, under which four Konoha forehead protectors were positioned. Suddenly, when he was still a good distance away from the target, three puffs of smoke rose up. Without hesitating, Ino, Hinata and Sasuke jumped up to a surprised Naruto. Earlier, when Naruto was unable to see them for two seconds when the wall of earth was rising, they quickly moved closer to the tree and used Henge to transform themselves into small pieces of rock or twigs.
It took him a few seconds to regain his composure and get himself out of this mess. Just as he wanted to jump up, he froze.
"Kagemane no jutsu…. successful," a smirking Shikamaru said as he walked towards the others, effectively causing Naruto to walk away from them and further apart from the tree.
"I sense that your hold on me isn't that strong Shikamaru-kun, one chakra boost and I'm free again," Naruto calmly stated.
"I know Naruto-sensei, but unfortunately for you I'm not alone," he replied. He knew he couldn't hold the jutsu for long against a strong opponent. Sweat was starting to drip from his face. He turned his head around; enabling Naruto to see what was behind him.
There stood Hinata and Sasuke, each on one side behind him. Sasuke had his hands in the Tiger seal, indicating that he was ready for another Katon jutsu, while Hinata stood in her Jyuuken stance, her hand lying on Naruto's shoulder.
"You have nowhere to go Naruto-sensei," Sasuke said. He obviously enjoyed the situation. He enjoyed being in control of his instructor, even if it was just for a minute. "If you try anything Hinata will hit you with her Jyuuken style and I will burn your ass."
Naruto smiled. "Ah, I see. Three to hold me down, while the fourth gets the forehead protectors." He could sense Ino approaching the tree with the targets lying underneath.
"No tell your ape to back off or we'll have to hurt you," Sasuke arrogantly demanded. He felt great, knowing he could hurt the Jounin any moment.
Again, Naruto just smiled as Shikamaru gave an agonising scream. "He's releasing an immense amount of chakra, I'm losing my hold," Shikamaru moaned. He knew he had to act quickly and lied down. His next action shocked Naruto.
Shikamaru's right hand moved to his leg. He seemed to grab something and put his empty hand above his own heart. Meanwhile Naruto saw his own hand moving towards his weapon pouch and take a kunai out. His hand then moved to his heart as well.
"I have my weapons pouch down lower on my leg than you do, Naruto-sensei," he explained. "When I just had my hand in no-man's-land, yours actually took a kunai. Now stop releasing your chakra and calm down." He finished as he started to move his hand closer to his chest, forcing Naruto to do the same. The tip of his kunai touched his jacket and the blonde grimaced as he could feel the sharp object trying to pierce through his skin. He had no choice but to back off and do what he was told.
Hinata reacted by rapidly disabling Naruto's arms and legs by sealing his tenketsus in those regions. Sasuke still stood firm, his hand maintained in the Tiger seal.
"Hurry up Ino!" Shikamaru screamed at his team mate, who was about to pick up the four targets when the small ape came running again. As the summon was about to snatch the forehead protectors, it stopped in its tracks.
A surprised Ino looked at the ape and saw that there was an unusual shadow around it.
"Pffffft, just in time," Shikamaru sighed. With the final remainings of his strength he had managed to place a circle of shadows around the target, with the exception of a small path to make it possible for Ino to walk up to them and finally pick them up.
Naruto noticed he could move again, albeit with great difficulty because of his closed tenketsus. He sat up and saw Ino holding up four Konoha forehead protectors triumphantly in the air. At the same time, the ape summon vanished in a puff of smoke.
"Well done guys," he congratulated everyone before telling the other to sit around him. When they came closer, they were shocked to see that he could move his limbs normally again.
"T-That's im..impossible.." Hinata stuttered.
After all of them sat down, he started explaining. "I have….an ability which allows me to heal incredibly fast. Consider it a bloodline limit," he lied.
He smiled proudly at his students. "As you understood the purpose of this test and even managed to defeat me, you all passed the Genin test. All four of you are now officially Genin."
Ino was the only one to cheer loudly. The others were either too tired, shy or grumpy to show their excitement.
"Now we need to discuss some things," The Jounin instructor continued. From tomorrow on we will commence active duty as a Genin squad from Konoha. The first couple of missions will all be D-ranked, to give you a chance to get used to life as a shinobi and to build some cohesion in the team. You guys need to learn to work together and trust each other. That way, you will all get stronger and you can learn from each other.
He saw that everyone understood what he was saying he started talking again.
"Besides our missions, we will also train as a team and with the other two Genin teams that passed earlier today. Do you know who are on Gai's and Asuma's teams?"
Everyone nodded in confirmation.
"Once per week, all three teams will train together with either Hatake Kakashi or Yuuhi Kurenai. They specialise in Ninjutsu and Genjutsu respectively. During that day, I will be away on missions myself."
"A-Ano N…Naruto-sensei," Hinata asked. "Will we still have time to train on our own as well?"
"Yes Hinata-san, you all have either bloodline limits or particular family techniques. It's best when you families train you in those. For you…" he said looking at Sasuke, "…you will be trained by Kakashi occasionally to master your Sharingan. He is most qualified to help you since he holds one Sharingan eye." Sasuke looked shocked, surely no one outside the Uchiha clan held a Sharingan, even more so just one.
Naruto understood his confusion. "If you want to know how he got it, ask him yourself."
"Moving on to the next issue, I'm going to appoint a team captain, who will be in charge when I'm not around and I know who'd be just the right person for the job," he chuckled.
"That would be either Sasuke or Ino since they are probably the strongest and the most dominant of the group," Shikamaru guessed. "They seem to be the most capable people to be the captain."
"No Shikamaru-kun," Naruto surprisingly said as he looked straight at Hinata. "Hinata will be the team captain."
The shy Hyuuga didn't know where to look. She could feel three pairs of eyes practically burning through her. "I expect everyone else to listen to her at all times when I'm not around or when I'm not able to lead," he finished.
"N-Naruto-sensei, a..are you sure that y-you want me m..me to be c…captain?" She asked, gasping for breath.
"I do and please stop calling me sensei," he replied. "There is no need for it when other people aren't around. I'm younger than some of you guys." He snickered, knowing this would piss off Sasuke.
"We meet up here tomorrow at seven in the morning. From here, we'll go to the Hokage Tower to get you registered and to receive our first mission. I want to aim for completing 3 missions in the morning, so we can use the afternoons for training," he said.
"Before you leave, I'd like to speak to you individually for a minute. As team captain, Hinata will go first," he finished. In the meantime you can get to know each other a bit better. I suggest you tell each other about your jutsus and other skills so you know what to expect from the others during missions." He motioned for Hinata to follow him as he walked back to the manor.
Inside the manor, Naruto told Hinata to take a chair as he sat himself down at a large dining table in the kitchen an started talking.
"You must be confused about my decision for making you team captain instead of the others, right?" He gently asked her.
"N-Naruto-sensei, d…don't you think s..someone else w-would be b…better for this?"
Naruto gave her a pleading look. "Hinata-san I beg you, please stop calling me sensei when other people can't see or hear us."
"I wi…will……Naruto-kun, b-but only if y-you use ch…chan instead o..of san on me," she nervously answered. Naruto gave her a large fox-like grin and nodded.
"Look, I chose you because you need to loosen up a bit. You've got no reason to feel so low about yourself. See this as good practice for the future when you will become clan leader."
Hearing this made Hinata feel weak. "T-Tousan doesn't seem to s..share the idea of m-me becoming a g..good l…leader. He tells me I'm w-weak."
"Nonsense!" Naruto reacted loudly, causing Hinata to flinch in her seat. "You've just never shown him your true strength and potential. You have to stop holding back when you spar against your little sister. During a fight, she is the enemy. If you show both her and your father how strong you actually are and that she can't beat you, things will change. Your sister will realise she needs to work harder to keep up with you and your father will see what you're made of. Right now, you're holding yourself back, as well as your sister. You're better than that Hinata-chan."
Naruto's words seemed to have the desired effect as inside the Hyuuga's mind, realisation began to dawn upon her.
"Hai, Naruto-kun, I understand. I will show my true strength. I have lived like this for too long. I promise I will work as hard as I can," she thought.
The young Uzumaki could clearly see the newfound determination on his student's face. He smiled at her before opening his mouth again.
"Also, for the first time ever Genin squads consist of four Genin. Hokage-sama has requested for all Jounin sensei to nominate one of their students to receive medical training from both her, Shizune-san and Haku-kun. I want to nominate you as you are the most suitable candidate from this team with your Byakugan and excellent chakra control. After all, you weren't the first to be able up trees and on water for nothing all those years ago. Are you interested?"
Hinata felt a blush coming up. She couldn't believe the amount of confidence her sensei had in her.
"Hai Naruto-se…err…-kun. I'd be honoured."
"Good," Naruto said with a smile. "I'll let the Hokage know. As for your training: the most important thing for you now is to get confidence, lots of it. Work as hard as you can on your Jyuuken style and if possible try to learn some Hyuuga Ninjutsu. Later on, I will start teaching you some other jutsu," he finished.
"You can go back now to see your team. Please tell Shikamaru to come in now. I'll come back to see all of you when I'm finished talking to everyone."
After Hinata had left it was Shikamaru's and later Ino's turn to come in. The shadow user was told to dump his lazy attitude and start working harder. Naruto explained that the more his friend trained now, the sooner he would become Chuunin and later Jounin. He was told that A and B-ranked missions pay a lot more than C and D-ranked missions, so by becoming a Jounin earlier, he would be able to retire earlier as well. This of course sparked the student's interest. Naruto also advised him to focus on his chakra capacity and taijutsu skills.
Ino was a whole different story. The only encouragement she needed was the prospect of defeating her rival Sakura. The Jounin's desperate attempt to convince her in dropping her pursuit of Sasuke was a bit more difficult. Naruto tried to reason with her by saying that Sasuke didn't seem interested in any girls at the moment. Stubborn as she was, Ino refused to completely give up on her crush at once, but she had to admit that she saw the logic in her sensei's words. At the end, Naruto advised her to focus on learning jutsu other than her family techniques and her taijutsu.
The last one to come in was Sasuke. Naruto wasn't looking forward to this meeting but he knew it was very important to get the Uchiha prodigy on board. He had no idea how to accomplish this though, so he decided to ask the boy instead.
"What do you want from me Sasuke-kun?"
The question surprised the boy. He remained silent for a second before answering.
"I don't care, as long as I get strong fast."
Naruto saw his chance. "That's fine, but I want to know what I can expect from you. Will you be doing what I tell you to do? Are you going to ignore the others or will you make an effort to be part of this team?" he asked him.
"Hmph… They'll only hold me back because they're weak," he said, his voice filled with patronising contempt.
This angered the blonde. "Is this what you want?" he retorted, raising his voice. "Do you want to stay an outsider, be grumpy and moody, and live without friends just working towards a goal you won't be able to achieve for at least another decade?"
This earned him a furious glare from the Uchiha.
"Yes Sasuke, that's right. I know everything. I know what happened to your clan, and about…..Orochimaru…."
Hearing the snake sannin's name angered Sasuke even more as Naruto continued.
"You know, that snake bastard killed my family too, in fact he used the same kinjutsu on both our families…."
This seemed to calm the boy down a bit. He understood that he wasn't the only one to have his family taken away from him.
Naruto was relieved to see that he was finally getting through to him.
"You're not the only one who wants to give that traitor a piece of your mind. I too have sworn to have my revenge on him. However, I refuse to let that desire for revenge to cloud my view of my priorities. Right now, I am still far away from becoming strong enough to beat Orochimaru and I'm a Jounin already. Imagine how much further you will have to grow before you can challenge him. The desire for revenge will destroy you long before that time has come Sasuke. Everybody needs a life besides their duties as a shinobi, even you."
Sasuke was very calm now. For a second, Naruto thought he saw a tear developing in the boy's right eye.
"I've been living alone for the last four years. I simply have nothing else in my life except for my revenge." No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't keep his emotions in check anymore.
For the first time in more than three years, Uchiha Sasuke cried.
"That snake took everything away from me!" he yelled as he slammed his fist on the wooden table. "He slaughtered my clan! Even now, I can't see my brother because of that bastard!"
Naruto remained silent. He knew how his student felt. He decided to simply wait for Sasuke to calm down. All those years of cropped up pain and anger had to come out. He looked at Sasuke, who was still trying to stop the continuous flow of tears that were coming from his eyes. After a few minutes, the young Uchiha finally calmed down again.
"I know how much everything sucks for you at the moment. You miss Itachi, don't you?"
Sasuke raised his head and looked up to Naruto, who had a sad smile on his face. "Do….do you know my brother?"
"Yes, I do," he replied. Before Itachi was sent away on his mission, he trained me for a while. We were friends…" Naruto said, reminiscing the moments he had with the Uchiha genius. "I miss him too."
Sasuke nodded in understanding. He found comfort from the realisation that he wasn't the only one in his situation.
"Here's my plan," Naruto started. "Become part of this team and show everyone the real Uchiha Sasuke. Make them proud of your clan. If you do, I will train you to the best of my abilities and when we're both ready we'll get our revenge on that traitor together, you and me."
He continued. "You are the strongest on the team at the moment, but that doesn't mean that you can't learn anything from the others. For example Shikamaru is much smarter than you and he is a master of strategies. Hinata has more talent in taijutsu than you do and Ino is the Genjutsu type. All in all you all have different areas of expertise, make use of that. If you use your skills to help your team mates, they'll do the same for you. If you accept them and befriend them, you will all grow. Besides that, you'll be a lot happier than you are now, that's for sure."
The next thing that Sasuke did left the normally talkative Naruto completely speechless. Uchiha Sasuke was smiling…..smiling……
Sasuke looked at his dumbfounded sensei. "I will, I give you my word. I'll try and some day you'll have to admit that I'm stronger than you," he finished with a slight smirk.
Naruto burst in laughter. "Yeah right, I'm not going to let an Uchiha with as little talent as you surpass me, I'll be Hokage!" he teased loudly.
"Alright, here's what I want you to do," Naruto started his recommendations. "You should work on your chakra control and taijutsu. Your Genjutsu is actually your weakest area along with chakra control, but once you have increased that, learning Genjutsu becomes a lot easier."
He continued. "Also, I want you to train on becoming strong without your Sharingan as well. If you rely on one asset too much, you will become useless if for any reason you can't use it some day. Still, you have to train it. That's why Kakashi will help you as I said earlier."
"Thanks," was all Sasuke said so Naruto chose to speak once again.
"One more thing before we go back to the others Sasuke. You'll have to earn your jutsu. I'm not simply going to give you techniques. Picking up jutsu from enemies is fine, but not here. If you truly want to become a strong shinobi, you'll have to work your way up like everyone else."
"Does that mean you'll be performing those one-handed seals again like when we fought before?" Sasuke asked.
"No, I'll still have to show you and the others which seals to perform. Yet, you'll find it impossible to copy anything from me, you'll find out how tomorrow," he mysteriously finished.
When the other saw Naruto and Sasuke returning, they couldn't believe their eyes when Sasuke greeted them. Everyone looked at Naruto, who smiled as he opened a large bag he had brought.
"I've got a little present for you for passing the Genin test and becoming active shinobi," he said as he dropped four brand new weighted suits on the grass.
"What are those Naruto-kun?" Ino asked. Before he could answer, Shikamaru spoke up. "Weighted suits, how troublesome…"
"Indeed," the Jounin instructor confirmed. "You won't be needing any speed for D-ranked missions so that will give you some time to get used to them. It will increase your speed and stamina. You're not allowed to use any chakra to move easier. Let your bodies cope with the extra weight. We'll go running every day."
"GRRRRMPGH," was all the lazy Nara could exclaim as he fell back into the grass. The thought of all this hard work made him sleepy already.
"Come; let's celebrate your new status over at Ichiraku, my treat!" Naruto enthusiastically proposed.
As they left, Naruto smiled from ear to ear. "That wasn't so bad after all. Maybe this whole instructor thing isn't such a terrible thing. Besides that, if I can't make it to Hokage I can always consider a career in counselling," he happily thought before snapping out of it.
"Hurry up guys! I'm starving!"
A/N
That's it for today. I hope you still like it. As I said before, from now on the story will slow down and assume a rather casual pace instead of the 'racing' format of the first 7 chapters.
Also, Blitz Kitsune has been kind enough to be the Beta-reader for this fic.
Please be kind enough to review, thanks!
