Tesseract

by Time Parad0x

Naruto after having witnessed his friends and family dying right in front of him during the 4th Shinobi World War decides to travel back in time to prevent the events leading up to it from occurring. Jaded by those experiences, Naruto ends up shortly before the start of the 2nd Shinobi World War. [Naruto U., Mikoto U., Mei T., Tsunade S., Kushina U., Akiko H. (Hinatas Mom)]

12. Chapter 12 - The first Training

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

This chapter was edited by PraetorXyn

Chapter 12: The First Training

We met with Naruto-onii-chan at the village's gates as agreed, handed over our mission report scrolls, and then followed him outside the village.

"What is so special about this training ground 44?" I asked.

Instead of Naruto-onii-chan, Mikoto chose to answer my question.

"Training ground 44 — also known as the Forest of Death. It is a circular area twenty kilometers in diameter. Enclosed within is a forest whose origin is said to go back to the First Hokage who grew it with his Mokuton bloodline limit. As a result, it is inhabited by a large variety of species far more deadly than their cousins living outside the forest, which brought it the moniker 'Forest of Death'. It is said that even seasoned chūnin run the risk of dying in that forest and according to my knowledge it's normally used to simulate combat situations in dangerous environments."

"That is pretty much the gist of it," Naruto-onii-chan agreed. "Aside from that, the ones making the most use of the forest are the occasional ANBU squads. Meaning that while we're here, we won't be bothered and won't bother anyone. We'll have all this," he gestured at the huge area behind him with trees hundreds of feet high and dozens of feet thick, "to ourselves."

A grunt of pain came toward us through the canopy, accompanied by a flock of birds rising into the sky. It didn't sound like a human — perhaps an animal finding its end at the hands of another animal. Either way — it emphasized his words, and I couldn't help myself but gulp at the prospect of going in there.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that I was seemingly the only one affected by what we'd heard. I wondered if there was anything that could bother Mikoto, given how stoic she always seemed to be. Akiko also seemed to take it in stride. I steeled my nerves; a leader — a Kage — walks at the front. Especially now, with Akiko going for Naruto-onii-chan, I couldn't allow myself to show any weakness. He was mine, and I would never permit some tramp like her to get close to him — never!

"With that being said," Naruto-onii-chan continued, "I'll go ahead and explain what it is we are going to do here. Every day after our daily mission, we'll come here. The first thing we'll do is a mock mission — parts of it at least — the details will be subject to change from day to day to keep things interesting, and to keep us entertained." He smirked, "One thing, however, will be a constant throughout all those mock missions: we'll be attacked — an ambush, somebody following us, you name it. The general idea is to make this as realistic as possible, while at the same time getting you all some experience in how to handle such situations."

"So it will be like our true genin exam?" Mikoto asked.

"In a nutshell, yes. I won't go easy on you, and for the foreseeable future, your goal in that training exercise will be to survive the initial attack, to disengage and flee the fight."

"Flee the fight," I repeated, shocked. "What about you?"

"I can take care of myself — in case I can't, you as you are now wouldn't make any difference and would only add to the casualty count. Which is exactly why we do this to give you a fighting chance." I didn't like hearing that. Training to leave him behind didn't sit well with me — I would rather stay behind and fight with him, but I couldn't deny his words; currently, I was too weak to make a difference, and I hated it.

"Fighting chance? How does that work?" Mikoto wanted to know.

"In most cases, focusing on and taking out the presumed strongest person in another team is the preferred operating procedure of most shinobi. So, in any case, I'll take the brunt of their initial attack — you just have to worry about surviving what they throw at you, and hope that I can last long enough so that you can take care of the enemies tasked with keeping you occupied in a way that allows you to flee."

"But wouldn't that mean he'd join up with his friends fighting against you?" I asked. What was left unsaid was that this would worsen his chances even more.

"He might. I won't deny that," he affirmed.

"That is the whole point," Mikoto stated. "He is prepared to sacrifice himself so that we can live. If we are to go back trying to help him, not only might we get in his way — his sacrifice would have been in vain. Wasted for nothing."

"What if he doesn't rejoin the fight?" Akiko inquired.

I was baffled. How could they just go over this like it was nothing — take Naruto-onii-chan's death for granted? How could they? Especially after what she said about him at lunch. What a superficial bitch!

"Well, he'll most likely try to follow you, leaving marks for his comrades to follow. Chances are he won't try to engage you on his own — if he lost you for just a moment, you could lie in wait for him. It's safer for him to wait and stay close to you than it would be for him to do anything by himself, but I wouldn't count on it. You are genin after all — most jōnin won't see you as a credible threat, so you should be prepared for anything."

"I like that outcome more," I said. Surprise, written on the faces of the two girls.

"You idiot — that is the worst outcome," Akiko stated.

"No, it isn't," I vehemently rejected her words.

"Care to elaborate, Hime?"

"It's the only way we're of use to you, Naruto-onii-chan." Looking at the other girls, I said, "If we can't help him or fight them because we're too weak, then the best we can hope to do is to draw one of them away."

"To make the fight easier for him, increasing his chances." Mikoto concluded, "If he wins, he can then follow us and take out our pursuer from behind while expecting reinforcements."

Naruto chuckled "Yeah, in theory, you are right — but as you all are gonna learn during these exercises, nothing in battle is certain, and things don't always go according to plan. What's the saying? Right... 'everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.' So expect the best, but plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised."

"Isn't the best way to avoid all that to not get ambushed?" Akiko asked while shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"Of course, it's as you say," Naruto-onii-chan said with a smile on his lips. "But even if we make extensive use of, for example, your eyes, there's no guarantee that it won't happen. For one, as far as I'm aware, using the Byakugan requires chakra. It might not be overly much, nevertheless, even small amounts add up over time, and you might not always be in a position where you can spare even that. Coming from a fight or expecting to get into one are both such situations. Then again, it's just conjecture on my part, but constant or prolonged use of your eyes strains them, am I right?"

"Yes," she reluctantly confirmed.

"Making it another reason that you might not always be in a position to use them. What is the suggested interval for their use that you shouldn't fall below outside the village while not engaging in a combat or pursuit operation?"

"Five minutes."

"Hmm — average travel times of shinobi is around one kilometer per minute. Meaning in the worst case of two groups unknowingly advancing on each other, this means at least a distance of 10km is used up during a pause. So I gather the expected range of your eyes is beyond the 10km — I would wager around twice that, to allow for some buffer — in regards to higher speeds and to allow for some time to get ready, right?"

"How?" she stammered.

She only received a small smile from Naruto-onii-chan "Hmm, you have a point under normal circumstances. It would indeed be difficult for somebody to successfully ambush us. Still, we can't rule it out. That's after all what this is all about — training you for that eventuality so that in case it actually happens you know what to do." He paused for a moment mulling it over.

"That's what we are gonna do in order for you not to spoil all the fun to be had in our fake mission. You are forbidden from using it outside of battle."

I could see Akiko open her mouth when Naruto-onii-chan added, "For today. We will see what we are gonna do in the future. Five minutes is an eternity; a lot can change in that amount of time."

He then bent down and picked up a loose branch from the ground. With some quick work, he made it into a pointer. Turning to a small spot in the shadow of a stone boulder bereft of any noteworthy vegetation and using his pointer, he started drawing a large circle in the dry ground and then slowly added more details.

"This is the Forest of Death. As you can see, the whole area is surrounded by a perimeter with a fence consisting of forty-four gates spread equidistant around it. A river is flowing through the forest from north-north-west into the center and then forks south-east of it, one fork leaving the forest to east-south-east and south-south-east. In the very center, there is a tower surrounded by a thick forest inhabited by deadly creatures. For our mission, we are going to assume that tower is an allied outpost, and we are to relay confidential orders to it, which are written in this scroll," he said, removing a small red scroll from his belt.

"As far as we are aware, there is no hostile presence anywhere near the tower located on our side and quite some distance away from the border. In essence, a standard mission without expected enemy contact. Any questions?"

"Who is in charge of our forces in the tower, and how do we recognize him?" Akiko asked.

"The commander is an Akimichi by the name of Tomoya. He has a vertical jagged scar on his left cheek."

"How many of our shinobi are stationed there, and are they patrolling the area?" Mikoto wanted to know. It made sense to inquire about that — friendly fire was a valid concern, and I was angry at myself for not having thought of it first.

"Twenty shinobi — divided into five separate teams. Since they were ordered to keep watch over the area, patrols are to be expected. However, they are ordered to not draw any undue attention to themselves, and that order also extends to us. Meaning we're not to use the flare tags I gave you — because this time, I didn't inform the ANBU that we would use them. So please — if it's not a life or death situation, refrain from using them. I'd rather us not get in trouble. Anything else? No? Okay,"

He removed two scrolls from his back, rolled them out onto the ground, released a seal on the first one, and a set of ten kunai appeared from the small smoke cloud. "To reduce the possibility for injuries whenever we are going into the forest, our attackers are using training weapons. Meaning blunted kunai, and you are to equipped with these seals," and he released another storage seal — this time from the second scroll and a batch of paper appeared with intricate seals written on them — "of my own making, delivering a slight electric shock to anyone hit by them. Not enough to injure, but it will hurt. Pain is, after all, the best teacher in order to learn not to get hit. I also prepared training explosive notes," he said as he released another seal, "they are completely harmless and will release a multi-colored glitter, simulating the explosion — if any of it sticks to you, that means you were hit by it — the more glitter, the more severe the injury you would have suffered. I would recommend staying clear of any explosions — it's a pain in the ass to remove the glitter from your hair. Trust me, you don't want to know how much of a pain."

"The rules are simple: if you are hit somewhere — either by a kunai or an explosion — you are supposed to fake injury. If the area hit is vital, you are out for the rest of the mission. Understood?"

"Yes," we three chorused.

"Good — you will also find smoke bombs in those seals. Take what you need; we start in five."

I took a batch of his fake explosive tags and put the real ones I had in my utility belt between my mesh undershirt and my shirt in order to prevent mistaking them in the heat of battle.

Akiko took a good chunk of smoke bombs for herself, while Mikoto followed my example and just took some of the fake explosive notes. With a few minutes to spare, we were ready to go and formed up in front of Naruto-onii-chan.

"Ready already?" He asked and received nods from us as a response.

"There is something else I have to mention." His face turned serious, the playfulness gone. "Every person — be it shinobi or civilian — you will come across in our exercises will look like a variation of me. Some will be younger, older, fatter, or female but clearly similar in looks to me, while all our enemies will always look like the one that attacked us during your genin orientation." It took me a while to notice, but his mouth was moving differently than it should — the words I heard not matching the ones his lips formed.

"If you come across anybody else during our training exercises within that forest, proceed with extreme caution. They are not — I repeat, they are not — part of the exercise, no matter what they want you to believe. Is that clear?"

"Yes," I said.

"Crystal," came from the two others.

"Why..." I started to inquire as to why his mouth wasn't aligned with what he said.

"The reason I'm using ventriloquism to talk to you is rather simple. There is a chance that you will be under observation in enemy territory. Sound travels only so far, making listening in rather difficult if you can't get close. Sight is another beast altogether. So from now on, when we are on a mission outside of the village, we will only relay mission-critical intel either by holding a hand over our mouths, protecting it from sight or by using ventriloquism as I did. Here," he said as threw each of us a scroll "within you will find the basics of how to learn it. I expect all of you to be proficient with it by the time we leave for our first C-rank mission, which should be after we complete our obligatory twenty D-ranks. Learn it on your own time. It is a useful skill to have, even though some of your family members won't get the expected benefit from learning how to read lips out of watching us in the future."

Naruto-onii-chan gave Akiko a knowing smile, which she returned as she said. "They'll have to get over it."

"I'm sure they will."

Was he saying what I think he was? He was about to turn around when I grabbed Akiko's sleeve. "Wait a minute, are you spying on people?"

She just shrugged, "It's hard not to with these eyes."

"All the time... no matter what they are doing..." my mind drifted back to this morning and what I did in the bathroom. I could feel my head heating at the thought of someone watching me doing that.

Akiko looked me up and down as a condescending smirk appeared on her face, "well, probably not you. There isn't much to see, let alone hold someone's interest."

Before I could process her words, she broke her sleeve loose from my grip and walked toward the gate behind Naruto-onii-chan.

Having overheard our exchange, his face still displaying a grimace, he asked, "Everything alright?"

"Just peachy," I grit through my teeth.

That damn bitch, who did she think she was? I was so gonna kick the shit out of her — even going so far as to make sure that when I was done even her family with those pervert eyes wouldn't be able to recognize her.

"You know if you're gonna kill her, I know the best spots around the village to hide the body," he joked. Hearing him say that — taking my side — helped ease my anger, for now. There would be a reckoning, and I would make her eat her words, that was for sure.

I fell into step with Naruto-onii-chan as we walked to the gate. Written above it clear white letters was the number one.

Withdrawing a key from his pocket, he opened it and closed it behind us after we all filed in. "Don't get too used to the surroundings. We're also going to enter the forest from a different gate each time. We wouldn't want the scenery to get repetitive and stale after a few days, would we?"

With those words, he jumped into the trees. Uneasy, I was scanning my surroundings. While doing so, I noticed I wasn't the only one to do so — Akiko and Mikoto did too, even though they weren't as obvious about it as I was. "You coming?" Naruto-onii-chan prompted, to get us moving.

I made my way up into the trees and followed closely behind Naruto-onii-chan, jumping from tree to tree. Suddenly there was another strange sound drowning out the coalescing ambient noise of the forest. Focusing on the sound, I was sure that what I heard were the death throes of an animal — a big one. My eyes darted to my right, trying to locate the origin of the sound and to find out what it was that just made a kill.

Finally, my efforts were rewarded and penetrated the leaf canopy to catch a glimpse of a huge shadow hunched over something else when I heard a male voice saying, "Eyes where you are going."

Following Naruto-onii-chan's advice, I reluctantly took my eyes off the canopy and refocused my attention to the front when my foot landed on a moss-overgrown branch, the hissing sound of an explosive tag about to go off was the only warning I got.

Reflexes taking over, I pushed myself with everything I had to get away from the branch, narrowly escaping the resulting explosion that stained the branch and its immediate surroundings with rainbow-colored glitter. Landing hard on the ground, I drew my kunai, ready to meet our attackers, when a shriek to my left had me turn in that direction.

Standing there covered from head to toe in glitter was Akiko, as was the ground surrounding her. She must have stepped or landed right on top of another explosive tag. Served that bitch right — a grin was about to grace my face at seeing her plight, but much to my regret, I couldn't enjoy the view for long when smoke bombs went off all around us, hiding her from my view. What was worse was that I heard another hissing sound nearby. Without hesitation, I jumped up to one of the nearest branches to escape an explosion once more.

Two things then happened simultaneously. I saw three shinobi clad in the same ugly purple — like the one who attacked us yesterday — attacking Naruto-onii-chan. I retracted my hand, priming the kunai in my hand to be thrown at one of them as I noticed that the hissing sound wasn't getting any quieter despite me being suspended in the air and getting away from where I just stood.

A horrible realization hit me. The tag must be on my person. Sticking to my shoes for sure, I just managed to twist my feet in such a way that I could look at them; nothing. Cushioning my landing, I patted down the body parts my eyes couldn't look at and once more found nothing sticking to my back. Where else could it be?

That was whenI finally caught on. There was just one place remaining I hadn't looked so far, reaching for the equipment bag at my hip, I was just about to open it as it puffed out and glitter exploded out from it, turning me into another rainbow-colored failure.

I pounded my closed fist into the tree trunk I was standing on and immediately regretted it once I felt the pain flaring up.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mikoto being thrown through some branches, flying back first toward the ground. She managed to twist herself in time, thereby avoiding injury. However, she landed on the forest floor crouched down on all fours, needing all her limbs to absorb the force of her impact. This cost her, as by the time she looked up again, an attacker had emerged from the smoke and lingered right next to her, brandishing a kunai at her neck.

"Dead," he said in a muffled voice and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

There were three puffs of smoke that followed the first, and a second later, Naruto-onii-chan jumped down from a branch and joined Mikoto on the ground, waving us down to him.

With gritted teeth, angry at myself for being outlasted by Mikoto, I left my branch and made my way over to them.

Naruto-onii-chan was waiting for us, standing a few feet away from a slowly dispersing cloud of smoke. We eventually ended in a loose square when he asked, "So from the top, what did you do wrong?"

"I did not expect Akiko to use smoke bombs the way she did," Mikoto stated. "She was hampering me more than my enemy. I had to move away from the others to a place I was sure no smoke bomb landed."

"Which then made it easier for the enemy to pick you off one by one," Naruto-onii-chan mused. "It's commendable that you already tried to incorporate the ideas presented to you just yesterday in this fight, but what you seem to have ignored in the process is the very fact that you're a team. You are supposed to act as one entity — especially if you want to stand a chance against the superior opponents I'll sic on you in these exercises. It would be a different matter entirely if you'd have been on your own — then you could have smoke bombed the whole forest and no one would have complained. On the other hand, whenever your teammates or allies are present, it's of utmost importance that you make sure before using battlefield altering tools or ninjutsu that they're not negatively affected. It could mean the difference between life and death."

Encouragingly he added, "Don't fret. It's something that requires a lot of practice and experience to get right. No one expected you to get it right on your first try while on a newly formed team. We'll work on this together. By the time we are done, you'll be able to use them not only safely, but also with a maximum possible effect on wrought upon your enemies."

"What else was it you did wrong besides that Akiko-san?" He then asked her.

"I activated my Byakugan too late. I was already in the air when I saw that I was falling toward the trapped forest floor. There was nothing I could have done to avoid it," It seemed like her pervert-eyes weren't that good after all.

Naruto-onii-chan nodded at her, clearly pleased. "Good analysis — I hope you learn from this. There are ways to change the location of your landing, even mid-flight. You could have attached ninja wire to a kunai, thrown it over a branch, and used it to swing to a safe location. Of course, even if you did, there would have been no guarantee it would have worked. Your enemy would have tried to prevent you from doing that by either blocking or redirecting your kunai, or by severing the ninja wire attached to it. Nonetheless, it would have given you a chance not to get blown up."

Addressing us all, he said, "a shinobi is at his most vulnerable while airborne; not being able to change direction is always dangerous no matter the circumstances. I hope you all keep that in mind going forward and try to reduce the time you expose yourself in this fashion to an absolute minimum whenever you can, but this is also something you can take advantage of in a fight, because your opposition suffers from the same problem, so you should always be on the lookout for the opportunity to capitalize on it."

Turning his head to me and taking me in, he asked, "Hime, what about you? What was it you did wrong?"

I had no damn clue. In fact, I was wondering about that too. How and when was somebody able to slip me an explosive note? From the moment we entered the forest, I was alert. I should have noticed it if somebody came close enough to me to plant an explosive tag on me, let alone inside my bag.

"No idea?" he prompted.

I shook my head in response.

"Then why don't you tell your teammates what happened? Perhaps they can help you puzzle it out," he suggested with a twinkle in his eyes. Now I really wanted to know what happened.

"We don't have all day, Dead Last," Akiko leered.

My head snapped in her direction, a retort already on my tongue.

"That's enough!" Naruto-onii-chan barked.

"I apologize," Akiko said, subdued after being chastised.

Ignoring her statement, Naruto-onii-chan renewed his prompting, "Hime."

"Well, I landed on the branch and saw the explosive tag on it. In order to avoid being caught up in the explosion, I jumped away and landed on the ground. That was when there was another sizzling noise. Having seen Akiko falling prey to an explosive tag on the ground, I assumed this to be the same thing and jumped up to a branch, only to realize the sizzling didn't stop or get faint. Although, I should've been no longer close to it. Fearing it might be stuck to my body, I checked myself over, unable to find it at first, since it wasn't stuck to easy to reach places like my shoes or back but inside my utility bag. When I finally found it, it was already too late and blew up right in my face." I paused a moment, looking straight at Naruto-onii-chan, I continued, "The thing is, I've no idea how it got there."

"Any ideas?" He then asked my teammates.

"A jutsu, perhaps?" Akiko suggested, "because I'm reasonably sure that no one got close enough to her to slip anything into her stuff."

"Unlikely." Mikoto objected, "because if it was a jutsu, why stop with her when they could have done this to all of us? Why limit themselves to doing this to only one of us?"

"A restriction of the jutsu, perhaps?" Akiko doubled down. "A cool-down? Or a range limit and only Kushina got close enough?"

"While a reasonable assumption in general, you have no proof of it being a jutsu, and I have to agree with Mikoto," Naruto-onii-chan interjected, "the points she raised are actually valid reasons against the jutsu theory."

"Sabotage," Mikoto suggested next, only to be immediately shot down by Akiko.

"Can't be. When could somebody have tampered with Kushina's equipment? We were both with her since dinner. There is just no way someone could have managed that under both our eyes. It's even more doubtful that it could have occurred in the forest. We were alert and were moving at a fast pace through it." She shook her head, "No, it had to be a jutsu of some kind."

"I agree," Mikoto started again, and Akiko had a smug grin on her face at hearing that Mikoto agreed with her, but that grin quickly disappeared with every word spoken after that. "Kushina's equipment could not have been tampered with since our shared dinner, but during our stay at the orphanage, we separated. There is no telling what happened during the time we were apart. It could have happened there for all we know."

"It didn't," I vehemently protested, even resorted to raising my voice.

"You sure about that?" Naruto-onii-chan inquired with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I am, dattebane!" Immediately after the word 'dattebane' escaped my mouth, my hands darted in front of my mouth clasping it. Unfortunately, I was too late and everyone present heard it if Akiko' snickering was anything to go by. My eyes narrowed dangerously at her, but even moreso, I was angry at myself for another slip of the tongue.

"So let's give Kushina the benefit of doubt. Where else could someone have messed with her stuff?" Naruto-onii-chan asked. Silence was the answer to his question.

After some time, Mikoto voiced her thoughts. "If it did not happen within the forest nor the dinner or the D-rank mission, the only remaining possibility, however, how unlikely points at it happening on the way to our meeting spot. Pretty much anytime in between you checking your equipment and meeting up with us." Another pregnant pause before she asked, "You did check your equipment before meeting up with us following regulations, right?"

Suddenly I was the center of attention, nervously turning my right foot inward in front of my left. Too embarrassed to meet their eyes, I confessed, "I forgot."

"You forgot? How can you forget to do that? It was the first thing the academy drilled into our skulls: always make sure your equipment is in working order before putting it on," Akiko berated me. "and you just forgot and, as a result, got yourself killed. Great, that's just great. You couldn't be any worse if you tried."

"You've some nerve to criticize me, as if you're so much better or didn't you jump right into a minefield and died before even I did, the Dead Last," I retorted, "If that is the skill level of this year's second-best then I'd rather stay exactly where I am, content at being able to outlive you."

We directed angry stares at each other, before it could come to blows Naruto-onii-chan cleared his throat "Now, with that out of the way, how about we return to the matter at hand?"

He then directed his gaze at me "Hime, I hope this was lesson was enough to impart to you the importance of checking your tools and convincing yourself that they are in order. Granted, sneaking an explosive tag inside of it might have been a bit much. Ultimately your life and that of your teammates depend on the fact that everything you take out of your bag works exactly as it's supposed to."

"I got it," I said, eyes downcast.

"You'd better. Because should this lesson ever need a repeat, you can be sure I won't be as nice about it the next time," Back to addressing all of us, "So with your individual mistakes out of the way and reaching the conclusion that your teamwork needs a lot of work, who of you can tell me what every single one of you did wrong?"

Stumped, I looked at the others, but they didn't seem any less surprised by this allegation.

"Nobody?" He challenged. Still, nobody answered him, he took a step toward me and softly grabbed my right arm hanging at my side, lifting it up for all to see.

"What do you see?" He asked Akiko and Mikoto.

"It is just an a..." Akiko started saying only for Mikoto to interrupt her "a weight — the weights we put on this morning in order to help train up our bodies."

Akiko's eyes widened in realization, while I only grimaced. I was there in the store with Naruto-onii-chan when he bought them, giving me a greater exposure to them than the others, and I still forgot about them.

He removed his hand from mine and allowed it to drop to my side.

"Exactly!" He barked, "The weights that — no matter how inconsequential you think them to be — are hampering your movements make you just a little bit slower. Speed, which could've meant the difference between evading an attack or a glancing blow, or a glancing blow and death. So why is it that every single one of you didn't release them? We're, after all, simulating life and death combat here, or would you keep them on even with your life on the line? Perhaps I haven't been clear enough in telling you this: you are shinobi. It is your duty to survive and accomplish the mission. To do that, you're to use every single resource at your disposal, no matter what it may be; I don't care if you have to crawl to your destination and bite your enemy to death. You'll do that as long as it can help you achieve those goals. Is that clear?"

He was clearly angry at us. I have never seen him like this... no that wasn't right. He was angry with Tsunade, but back then, his anger wasn't directed at me, so it was a new experience. Although I knew he would never hurt me, I couldn't help but shiver. He was that scary... all the while, he didn't even mean it.

"Is that clear?" He repeated his words more forcefully.

Opening my mouth, trying to answer him my voice failed. Gulping, I had to try again and managed to get a weak "crystal" out.

Glancing at the others only Mikoto didn't seem to be overly affected by his display.

"Good," Sighing Naruto-onii-chan raked his fingers through his hair, and the presence bearing down on us vanished.

After taking a look at each of us, he continued in his usual friendly tone. "It seems it will take some time before you actually manage to survive long enough so that anything I can teach you about tracking will be of practical use during our exercises."

Hearing him say that for some reason made me feel terrible. He was disappointed in me. I didn't want him to... I wanted him to be proud of me, too. I reigned in my digressing thoughts, balling my hands into fists. I vowed to never make Naruto-onii-chan feel bad on my account. Family shouldn't do that — ever.

"So let's shelve that for the moment, and let's talk a bit more about ambushes." He began his lecture, "Understanding how they are done will not only help you set them up — which will definitely be something you will end up doing in the future to get rid of pursuers — but will also help you survive them. So what is it you need to ambush somebody effectively?"

"We need to at least know where the enemy is coming from — whether by knowing their destination, route, or by having the means to track them — in order to be able to set up an ambush in their path," Mikoto said.

"Good," he praised her "that is the first requirement that has to be met. Without a real chokepoint along the path from gate one to the tower that could be used as a suitable killing zone, our enemies made do with what they had and just lied in wait, hoping we would run into them. What else?"

"We somehow need to stop their advance," I said. "It's no ambush if they can just waltz through."

"Another good point, Hime," he said. "Usually, a sudden obstacle or threat is thrown into their paths, and then the surprise attack — in most cases from concealment — starts. As you have seen during the ambush on us, this was achieved by placing explosive tags into our path. It stopped our advance and scattered us. Anything else?"

"They attacked us from both sides," Akiko said. "Initially two of them were hidden in the trees to our right and two to our left. Three immediately went after you, and the others waited — only attacking after it was clear which of us wouldn't be taken out through their secondary traps, their first one, the stopping gap pushed us into."

"Very good, but why were they coming from the side? Why not from the front or from behind or anywhere else?" When nobody offered an answer for some time, Naruto-onii-chan presented one himself.

"In front of us was their first trap. To attack us from there would have meant crossing or being hidden in that area themselves — an unnecessary danger. Especially if they did their job right and turned that area into a field of death — it would have been suicide. Our retaliatory attacks aimed at them might have forced them to evade or trigger their own traps while being right in the middle of them. An attack from the back is also highly impractical. For one, we would have needed to pass them at some point; if they weren't hidden well enough, a fight could have ensued a good distance away from their ambush site. They also would have needed to follow us at least a short distance, which would also increase their exposure compared to just staying hidden, allowing us to detect them — giving us the chance to turn around and attack them, voiding the advantage of their prepared ambush site."

"Which leaves them with the sides," I added.

"That does not make any sense. If they blocked us going forward and attacked us from the sides, we could have just fled by going back the way we came," Mikoto concluded.

"We could have," Naruto-onii-chan conceded "usually; however, the way would also have been blocked the moment we walked into the trap. It's not always practical though; depending on how they plan to block the way back, it would have meant that we would have had to get past those means. Similar to the situations if they would have hidden themselves there. We could have noticed something amiss or triggered it early — which as a result, instead of locking us in, could have locked us out. The fight or flight response might have played a part in their decision of how to set up their trap."

"Have you ever seen a trapped animal, backed into a corner with no way out?" I nodded at his question. Back in Uzushiogakure, everyone from my class had to kill a cat from a litter we raised ourselves. The first one had it easy — the cats assuming we came to pet them like any other day. Unable to make sense of the kunai we each held, that drastically changed after the first one died and the metallic scent of blood permeated the cage. Suddenly they started struggling in our arms, scratching and biting. Some of those cats who were held in a loose grip on their necks even managed to break free only to prolong their struggle as they had to be hunted down one by one.

Phantom pain on the back of my hand accompanied the memory of the look of betrayal on Mio's face as I slit her throat and her beautiful black with brownish-red sprinkled pelt turned red in her blood. Of course, on a rational level, I knew that I must have imagined the whole thing since cats are unable to have facial expressions. After all, the academy went to great lengths to tell us about it. This was the very reason cats were chosen in the first place for this task — to minimize the impact it had on us while still making sure we had what it took to become shinobi. Still, I couldn't get her out of my mind or forget her, my beloved pet, my first kill.

Wiping away the single tear at the corner of my eye, I refocused on Naruto-onii-chan's voice. "Their desperation will make them fight you tooth and nail. Twice as hard as they usually would under different circumstances — even though their attempt is utterly futile and their fate sealed — just to sell their lives at the highest cost possible to make you pay for killing them."

"We humans react the exact same way. If you know that your death is a foregone conclusion, and if you can shed your fear of dying — the fear of your opponent's weapon burrowing itself into your flesh. If you can manage that — instead of trying to avoid it, stepping into the range of the attack — you'll get close to your enemy, really close, and it'll create a chance to take them with you. On the other hand, by offering your enemies the option of a retreat — it doesn't even have to be a real option, it only needs to look that way — independently of whether they chose to take it or not, it'll take the edge of their desperation. They'll subconsciously believe that they might just get out alive, and if the fight turns sour, they just might take you up on the offer of retreat and show their backs to you. I'm sure you're aware that it's far easier to stab someone in their back than it is to stab them in the front."

"Interesting," Mikoto said in a way as if she had just been told one of the secrets of the universe.

"I'll think we leave it at that for now. With you aware of the basics, I'm keen to see what you'll make of it tomorrow, and we will go from there. The same goes for your teamwork; for today, we'll focus on your individual skills to start you along the way to becoming legends." Taking in his surroundings he said with a wide smile, "But first, let's relocate — the tower is a more fitting setting for that."

Turning around, he jumped into the trees. Taking a short run-up, I bounced on a tree trunk and followed Naruto-onii-chan into the canopy. Seeing him a short distance away, I sped up and got closer to him. Akiko and Mikoto followed a short distance behind.

"What is it you are gonna teach us?" I asked him.

"Curious are we?" He said chuckling, "you'll have to be patient like the others."

"Moah, don't be that way Naruto-onii-chan, you can tell me. I won't tell, I promise."

His smile grew wider and he moved a little closer mischievously leaning over "Yoouu..." he stretched the word raising my anticipation, "will have to be patient."

I wasn't sure what he saw when my face fell, but he started laughing and nearly lost his step while he was wiping tears away from his eyes.

Arms crossed over my chest I turned away from him mumbling, "Jackass!" under my breath. I wasn't amused one tiny bit.

"Don't be that way, Hime." He said, ruffling my hair, "I'm just kidding," while skillfully avoiding my attempts to get him to stop by slapping his hand away.

"Seriously, you okay? I know how deep words can cut sometimes. You know that I'm on your side. If you want me to lay down the law or talk to Akiko... whatever you need... I'll do it. You know that right?"

"Family sticks together," I mumbled.

"Now and forever," he agreed, "but you don't have to take this. There's nothing you have to prove — not to me, yourself, or anyone else — let her talk. She'll eventually eat her words. You are already the strongest kunoichi I know, and she will realize this too in the near future."

"Tss, — as if."

"That was not what I meant, and you know it." He softly chided, "If I was talking about battle prowess, I would have told you that you have the potential to become truly great — that is, if you can follow my lead, Hime. I'm gonna make you so strong that your enemies will shake in their boots just hearing your name."

"Thank you for believing in me," I whispered with a warm feeling spreading throughout my body.

"Now and always, Hime. Now and always."

A moment later, his words still resonating with me, the tower came into view. There was barely enough time to get my blushing under control before we reached it; somehow, I managed.

The Tower, if it could be described as such, was an imposing structure. Contrary to what I imagined, it wasn't just a small lookout tower overlooking the area, as it turned out it was a veritable fortress.

A large circular structure more than 100m in diameter and more than twice as high was making up the center of the structure. The tower was surrounded by a large fortified wall made out of the same brownish bricks looming over the moat.

Leaving the protection of the forest behind, we stepped onto the large grass-covered field in between it and the structure.

"Let's go inside. The animals know better than to get close and disturb your training."

We entered the structure by walking over the lowered drawbridge and entered the inner courtyard. I was surprised to see that it had a section close to the tower full of carefully planted trees, each of them being a set distance apart from each other. None of the trees was exceeding 20 meters in height — a far cry from the trees surrounding the structure — and were therefore entirely hidden from view from the outside with the wall reaching at least twice that.

Naruto-onii-chan was walking straight for them. Walking right into their midst, he picked out a tree and leaned his back against it.

"I think by now, each of you is aware of how important teamwork is in an actual combat situation with those two tastings I gave you. As I told you earlier, we will come back to that. For now, I would like to take a look at your individual strengths and weaknesses, and talk with you about in what direction you want to develop your skillset — including learning to wield a weapon, if you want. To start us off," he reached inside his coat and produced some small sheets of paper. "We should find out what your elemental affinities are before we go any further."

He offered one piece of paper first to Mikoto, who was standing to his right. After she took one, he moved on to Akiko standing in between Mikoto and me until finally, it was my turn. The paper looked ordinary. There was nothing special about it as far as I could tell. My teammates seemed to have come to the same conclusion after they were done inspecting it.

"What you are holding is Chakra Induction Paper, also called by some as litmus paper. It is made from a tree grown with chakra that gives the paper the ability to resonate with someone's innate chakra nature. This allows us to relatively easily determine it by channeling a little bit of chakra through it. If you've got a fire affinity, it'll ignite and turn to ash, wind it'll split in two, lightning makes it wrinkle; earth will turn the paper into dirt and crumble it away, and if you have water, it'll get wet."

"Go ahead, channel a bit of chakra through it and tell me what you have."

"It will not be necessary in my case," Mikoto said, holding out her hand with the paper in between her fingers.

"Why is that Mikoto? Because being able to use a fire jutsu certainly isn't the equivalent of having a fire affinity. Were you tested in the past?" Naruto-onii-chan wondered.

"No, but I am an Uchiha," she stated.

"So?" Naruto wondered.

"We all have a fire nature."

"Are you sure about that? Because I've known an Uchiha who didn't have a fire affinity but a lightning one."

"That is impossible."

"Why? Can you say with absolute certainty that there's not a single Uchiha whose nature isn't fire? You can't, because your clan never bothered to test it. They just assumed it to be the case, because it was a dominant feature of your clan in the past. But who is to say it hasn't changed, or that you aren't an exception to the rule? If you're right, by testing you, there is no harm done. But if you are wrong, and for the sake of argument, say you have a wind affinity, and we wrongly assume you have fire and start you off learning the one element that would be the hardest for you to learn. We would, in essence, sabotage your development. I'm not willing to do that."

Sighing, he added. "I know some clans — yours, in particular — are looking down on every other element as being inferior. But that is in no way the case. Aside from the elementary vulnerabilities, there is no element better or worse. They all have their unique strengths and weaknesses depending on a lot of factors. In case your clan is too deluded to see that — well, I probably won't be able to change their prejudice. You, on the other hand, as the heiress achieving greatness with something besides fire might — should you not have it. Imagine, given your already displayed proficiency with fire, what you could achieve should it turn out not to be your affinity."

"Go ahead, use it," he prompted.

Reluctantly she did. The paper between her fingers caught fire and turned to ash in the blink of an eye.

Mikoto looked up at Naruto-onii-chan wordlessly telling him, "See, I told you so."

He took it in stride and just smiled at her, giving off the impression that it was far more important for him to have made his point than to be right — which I somehow thought he still was, anyway.

His voice calling out Akiko had me abandon that train of thought. "What do you have Akiko?" She was staring down at her fingers and the wrinkled paper in between.

"Lightning, it seems," she emotionally said as if unsure what to make of it.

Naruto just absorbed the information. Like before, there was no surprise, no real reaction. I still had trouble reading him when he didn't want me to. But when he didn't it was scarily easy to do so, and I got the very distinct impression we were just telling him things he already knew.

"Hime, what about you?" At his question, I looked down at the two pieces of paper in my hand.

"Wind," I answered.

"The same as me," I heard him say, "I knew we had more in common than our love for ramen." We are the same — take that Hyūga bitch.

"It doesn't matter," Akiko declared and threw her paper to the ground. "We Hyūga don't use elemental jutsu."

"Which I think is a mistake," Naruto-onii-chan told her matter-of-factly.

Incredulously Akiko protested, "A mistake? The Hyūga clan is one of Konoha's most feared and revered clans. Our taijutsu is unbeatable. There was no need for us to resort to elemental jutsu in the past, and I don't see any reason why that should change."

"Your clan did well — I'll give you that, by for the most part relying on Jūken and your eyes, but they didn't do great." He lectured her, "If you remember, I told you yesterday that your clan's greatest strength — your taijutsu — doesn't make you unbeatable. Quite to the contrary, it only serves to make your fighting style one-dimensional: easy to predict and to evade, and now, hundreds of years later — without any real change to your fighting style — everyone knows about it."

"Mikoto, what is it your clan saying about the Hyūga in battle? How are you told to approach them?" He asked her.

"To avoid close combat at all costs and attack them from a distance."

"I think you get my point. The reasons your clan wasn't forced to adapt to everyone knowing about the soft counter utilized against you are straightforward. For one, your eyes make you excellent trackers, and thereby give you — under real battle conditions — a really good way to dictate the circumstances under which a battle occurs. Your clan has learned to take advantage of this; some of you perfected this to an art form. In addition to that, long-range fighters — and by that I mean shinobi who have the ability to stay consistently more than 100m away from their opponents while still being able to attack them for prolonged periods of time with their full strength — are exceedingly rare. Meaning there are barely any shinobi in existence who outright hard counter your clan's skill set. If not for those two things, your clan wouldn't be nearly as highly regarded as it currently is. Should this ever change — well, let's just say your clan's mindset will get you into real trouble one of these days."

Dropping his stern lecturing attitude, he added. "Haven't you ever heard the saying: 'Sometimes the path to greatness isn't to blindly follow the path trodden down by your predecessors, but to make your own?'"

She, like Mikoto before her, seemed to consider his words. "What is it you are proposing?" Akiko finally relented.

"I thought you would never ask," he said with a big grin.

"What would you say if I said I could make you into a long-range fighter so dangerous that your enemies would rather try to take their chances in fighting you — a Hyūga — at close range before allowing themselves to be at your mercy at a distance?"

"With all due respect, I would say you are full of shit," Akiko said dryly.

Naruto-onii-chan burst out laughing. It took him a second to get himself back under control. "Yeah, I expected you to say something along those lines — just not in those exact words. I wholeheartedly expected something a little more flowery."

He had a point. I'd never heard Akiko talk like a human. With her holier than though attitude, using words that only a commoner would use in her eyes was completely out of character.

"Perhaps a demonstration is in order," he removed a scroll from his belt and rolled it open on the ground. Kneeling down, he released a storage seal, and in a puff of smoke, a bow and some arrows appeared.

Inspecting the white arrows, he muttered, "No, those won't do," and then released another seal way further along with the scroll, this time releasing a different kind of arrows.

Satisfied, he took one of them and the bow. For the first time, I got a good look at what he was holding. It was a composite longbow, that much I could clearly recognize. What struck me as odd was that it seemed to be made of a single piece of what appeared to be white wood, instead of a combination of wood and horn intertwined with each other like normal bows.

There were also some protrusions, spikes at the top and bottom of the bow. I could only assume they were added in an attempt to give the wielder the means to fend of enemies in close quarters.

In the middle — a short distance above and below where you were supposed to hold the bow — there were also spikes. If I had to guess, those served more as a cross-guard protecting the wielder's hands than anything else.

Either way, it gave the bow a wicked look — far more martial than any other bow I had ever seen.

Getting a closer look, I had to reassess my initial observation. It wasn't wood it was made out of, but bone, with not a single mark on them. With it came the niggling question, "what kind of animal was large enough that you could make a bow out of its bones?

"A bow? You have got to be kidding!" This outcry brought my mind back to the matter at hand as Akiko expressed her bitter disappointment. "I have never heard of a shinobi using a bow, and that is for a good reason. The projectiles are slower than a kunai thrown by a shinobi with around the same range while also lacking in rate of fire. As a result of this, arrows fired are easier to deflect and evade."

Disdain was clear to hear in her voice as she continued. "It's a weapon for peasants and samurai."

"Aren't you a little bit too quick to judge?" Naruto-onii-chan asked, "You haven't even given me the time for a demonstration."

"There is no point," Akiko said.

Raising his eyebrows at that statement, he replied. "The least you could do was wait til you've seen what I have in mind before dismissing this out of hand" Akiko wasn't budging, sighing he complained. "How about a little bit more trust in your sensei?"

Satisfied with a single black arrow he took from the stash lying on the scroll Naruto-onii-chan stood up from his crouched position. He then proceeded to draw back the sinew of the bow a few times with varying strength without nocking an arrow; only testing its tension.

All of us were more or less tense watching what he did. When he was done — suddenly aware of the attention on him — he felt compelled to say, "It has been some time since I had this beauty in my hand."

Taking a deep breath, he said, "Let's get this show on the road. Akiko-san, would you please be so kind to be my eyes and use your Byakugan to locate a roughly human-sized animal somewhere at the outer edges of the forest and then tell me its exact location?"

"Outer edges — from here that is ten kilometers," I exclaimed.

"Well, I'm a little bit rusty. That's probably the farthest I can manage until I reacquaint myself with archery again."

"You've got to be kidding," was Akiko's unbelieving response.

I wouldn't have been so vocal. It, after all, was Naruto-onii-chan claiming he could do this — but even I had my doubts.

Ignoring her outburst, he said, "I'm waiting."

Resigned, she activated her dōjutsu, veins near her eyes bulging. "There is bear 9897m to your eleven o'clock."

"Exactly to my eleven o'clock?" Naruto-onii-chan demanded to know.

"No — eleven o'clock 14 minutes and 39 seconds or,"

"340.25 degrees." He finished for Akiko, nocking the arrow and slowly withdrawing the sinew to his chin.

"What is the height above the ground?"

"His feet are 1.54m above ground, and his head is 3.24 extending to 3.60," she answered.

Naruto-onii-chan took another deep breath, and out of nowhere electricity flowed down the arrow, arcs of lightning blue lightning crackling, then he let loose. A loud booming sound echoed through the area as the arrow vanished at incredible speeds into the woods. He then slowly lowered the bow, his attention focused on Akiko.

She just stood there until a few seconds later, her eyes widened comically, pressing out, "Impossible. How... how did you do that?"

"What happened?" I questioned.

"His arrow killed the bear. It went right through its head. It went through anything in its path —piercing trees and stone like it was nothing — and stopped a kilometer outside the forest, drilling itself up to its shaft into a boulder just after the lightning finally dispersed."

Mikoto's eyes also seemed to widen a fraction at hearing this. I couldn't help but grin. I knew he could do it, and it deeply satisfied me to see his skeptics disabused of their notion he was full of shit.

"Ever wondered why a bow couldn't compete with a shinobi using kunai?" He said instead of answering her question. "It's the lack of a sufficiently suitable material. The stress put on a bow if drawn is considerable by just so much as two to three hundred pounds of draw weight. This, as you probably know, is a far cry from what a trained shinobi can accomplish. There's just no commonly accessible material able to keep up with the strain of, let's say, a thousand pounds of draw weight. This happens to be the crux of the whole matter, because speed, range, and penetration are all factors tied into the draw weight of the bow, with only draw weight numbers in the lower hundreds of pounds possible, before reaching the point where the bow starts to lose its structural integrity until it eventually snaps would make for a rather underwhelming weapon. It would only be able to compete with or outclass other ranged weaponry for a short amount of time, while also being unreliable to deliver a set amount of shots before breaking. This resulted in the weapon being rightfully discarded as a viable option. Nowadays, we barely use anything besides weapons that solely rely on the muscle strength we shinobi can produce ourselves, like kunai."

"But what if we could change that?" He asked, "A bow with draw weight in excess of thousands of pounds ranges measured in kilometers, arrow speeds beyond what a kunai could hope to achieve. Wouldn't that make for a great weapon, even for a shinobi?"

Comprehension dawned on Akiko. Entranced, she was reaching out for the weapon only for Naruto-onii-chan to pull it away from her grasp.

"This you'll have to earn. It's a one-of-a-kind weapon, and its previous owner was very dear to me," his voice was nearly cracking at the end. "So you need to show me that you are worthy to wield it — only then will it be yours. Besides, you wouldn't even be able to draw the sinew with your current strength."

"Who was she?" I asked Naruto-onii-chan. Seeing his face contort for just an instant before he could school his expression already made me regret my question.

With a pained expression and a sad voice, he chose to answer, "She was something else; shy, compassionate, hard-working, kind, intelligent, and a real beauty on top of that. I think what I came to like the most about her was her caring and loyal nature, the fact that she always had my back."

"She is dead," I surmised.

"Yeah, unfortunately, she is," his pained voice expressing regret. Via a snort, he called himself to order. "Enough about that. Akiko-san, do you know why I would even consider giving you this weapon? Instead of using it myself or handing it to somebody else like Mikoto or Kushina?"

"Because you aren't suited for it, and neither are they," she replied.

"Go on, elaborate."

"Wind cuts, fire burns, and lightning pierces; they have the wrong affinities for using this weapon."

Mikoto interrupted Akiko's remarks, "Just because we do not have the right affinity does not exclude us from learning the element in question."

"True — following the elemental vulnerability circle with fire beating wind, wind beating lightning, lightning beating earth, earth beating water, and water beating fire — also makes Kushina relatively well suited to learn lightning, since it should be the easiest element for her to learn right after wind. You would only have a bit more trouble doing the same. However, that doesn't change the fact that somebody with an affinity will always be able to outdo someone without. There will always be a gap in the ease with which the element can be wielded, the power, and the chakra cost; assuming they are the same in everything else when it comes talent, dedication, and skill."

"But that isn't the real reason," I interjected.

"No, it isn't — it's my eyes. Under ideal conditions, standing on a flat surface with no obstacles, the visual range only gets limited by the curvature of the planet, permitting for observation of objects on the ground within roughly 5km. This also marks the maximum possible range under perfect conditions you could hope to operate at when it comes to unguided and linear ranged weaponry. Of course, this limit can be increased by elevating your position, something that we both can do equally easily. What makes the difference in the equation is the Byakugan. Not only does it allow me to look through any and all obstacles — allowing for perfect tracking of targets even behind cover when the line of sight to any one of you would have been broken — but it also allows me to ignore the planet' curvature..."

"Because you can look through the earth," I finished the sentence for her.

"Exactly — meaning my effective range is larger and is only limited by how much farther I can see than you in any given situation with total clarity and the penetration power I'm able to bestow upon the arrows. In case the weapon holds up, I could achieve ranges in excess of four times or more than anyone of you could under the same conditions, and that is without considering the Byakugan's ability to magnify far away objects or its perfect night vision."

I reached the same conclusion as her. To be fair, it wasn't that hard. The implications, on the other hand, were mind-boggling. If she really were to get to a level she alluded to be possible, she would become an absolute nightmare. Able to take out enemies from far outside any range they could react, or even detect her. She could make killing shinobi into a sport without any trouble; an assassin without equal.

At that prospect, I considered, for just a moment, to be nicer to her until I reflexively squashed the sentiment. As if that would ever happen — bitch.

"Very good analysis, Akiko," Naruto-onii-chan praised, "So what do you say — do you want to give this a try?"

"Yes," she clearly stated. Still, there was a moment's hesitation. Apparently, I wasn't the only one who caught it because Naruto-onii added.

"Don't worry — I won't allow the skill your clan prides itself upon to fall by the wayside. I haven't forgotten about your dream to advance the Jūken to the next level. In fact, I've got an idea in mind on how to use your affinity to help improve it. I'm sure you will come to appreciate it; it might even be the start of evolving it to the next level. Hmm, I wonder if your clan would credit me for it, or if my part would be lost in the annals of the history?"

"What do you mean?" The disbelief she openly displayed at Naruto-onii-chan's earlier claims vanished, giving way to honest curiosity.

He leaned closer to us, and I unconsciously did the same, but instead of answering, he said in a mischievous whisper, "that is a secret."

Groaning, I said, "You are so mean."

"I'm really not — besides, I can only start her in that direction after she's completely mastered her element," he explained.

"How long would that take?" Akiko inquired.

"On average, two years." She wasn't the only one slumping her shoulders at his words. Two years until I have mastered my own, that was a long time. "Don't let that deject you. I'm fairly certain each of you will beat that time by a huge margin. You aren't exactly average, are you?"

Grinning, I could only agree with his assessment. We were anything but.

"So Akiko, I want to start your individual training on using a bow and the first exercise of your elementary mastery." He took a step back to his scroll and placed the bow on top of it.

That reminded me — I wanted to take a closer look at those white arrows, which were seemingly made of the same material as his bow. Bending at my waist, I picked one up. The arrow was perfect, with no imperfection I could see or feel. "Why didn't you use any of those arrows?" I wondered as my fingers trailed their length. The material it was made out of was smooth and cold to the touch.

Glancing my way, he said, "Because they aren't easy to replace. While I'm in possession of a considerable stock, those arrows are special. They have similar properties to chakra conducting metal." My eyes widened at that. This would mean every single arrow had to be worth a small fortune. "And I wasn't keen on going arrow hunting after we are done here."

"What kind of arrow was it, you used?" I asked. He had no trouble channeling his chakra through it.

"Those," he said, pointing at the black ones still in the open, "are just your run-of-the-mill normal arrows."

Returning my attention back to what I held in my hand, I noticed a few things. It was a singular piece without any markings of it being processed in any way, as if it was grown, but there were some small imperfections at the tip. Straining my eyes, it turned out that I was wrong: not imperfections, but small seals. They were tiny.

"Good eye," Naruto-onii-chan praised from the side having observed me.

"What do they do?"

"What do you think would be useful for a projectile to have?" He countered my question with one of his own.

My train of thought got interrupted by a comment made by Akiko "Be careful not to overexert yourself. The only thing you will get out of furrowing your forehead in thought will be wrinkles."

Before I could give a retort Naruto-onii-chan softly laid his hands on my own, painfully closed around the shaft of the arrow in my hand. A curt shake of his head was all it took to calm me before I could follow through on my first instinct to ram the arrow between her eyes.

I took a deep breath. It helped in regaining my emotional balance after enduring another attack from her. Something I knew I couldn't allow going unanswered. "I'm just trying to keep up with you before some clients get the wrong idea and assume Mikoto and I to be your daughters," I said in retaliation.

Ignoring my words the same as he did Akiko's he proceeded as if nothing happened. "Here, I'll show you," Naruto-onii-chan said as he carefully freed the arrow from my grip. Balancing it into his palm, he channeled some chakra into the arrow, and I witnessed it disappear from sight, becoming invisible.

No, not quite, straining my eyes, I could make out hardly noticeable light refraction at the exact position the arrow should have been. Barely distinguishable from true invisibility. He then proceeded to close his hand around the shaft and with a quick swipe threw it into the tree behind him.

I saw the bark split where the arrow impacted the tree, however, the dull sound this should have created was missing. It was surreal; as if a part of reality got removed. If I didn't know any better, I would have checked for a genjutsu. By the time I finished that thought, the arrow — starting from the tip — slowly became visible again as if a blanket returning it back to view was slowly drawn over it.

I involuntarily shuddered — silent and sightless arrows would make an attack next to impossible to detect, in addition to the piercing power of a lightning-enhanced arrow — the chances for most to survive being on the receiving end of that bow suddenly dropped to zero.

"I have never seen anything like..." No, not important, "Did you make those seals yourself?" I blurted out.

"Yes," he said over his shoulder as he was walking over to the tree to pull out the arrow.

"Will you teach me, pretty please?" I begged.

"Of course, Hime," he responded with a comforting smile. Crouching down, he placed the arrow back onto the stack he came from and resealed them again. His wandering eyes looking over the seal came to a sudden stop above another seal. With practiced ease, he released the contents.

It was another composite longbow. It looked ordinary — made of wood — and while clearly made with great expertise even to my untrained eye, it couldn't compare to the other one — not by a long shot.

"Here, Akiko," he said as he handed her the bow and the stack of black arrows. "This is a good bow to start with, to work your way up. I've got a few more where this one came from you need to master before you are ready for the..."

"The other one," she said in understanding. "Thank you — sensei," and bowed her head.

"So with that out of the way, I also got something for you two. Not that groundbreaking... Nevertheless, I hope you might take a liking to it."

He unsealed a sword and threw it toward Mikoto. She caught it with little trouble. My curiosity nearly got the better of me; drawn in by the sword, I nearly missed Naruto-onii-chan throwing a scroll my way. As a result, I almost let it drop to the ground.

"That was mean," I complained.

With a smug grin on his lips, he retorted, "a shinobi has to be alert at all times."

I decided to ignore this for now, but only because I wanted to know what he got for me. On closer inspection, I recognized the scroll in my hand. It was the very same one he received from Kaito-san, curious.

"Wow!" Akiko exclaimed, drawing my attention to whatever it was she commented. As it turned out, it was Mikoto unsheathing the katana that elicited her reaction.

I couldn't fault her for that — my eyes also widened at seeing the sword out in the open.

The tsuka (sword handle) was black courtesy of the tsuka-ito (grip tape) wound around it — befitting the reflective black blade of the sword, the very reason for her yelp — the dark metal a clear indication of chakra conductive metal being used in the blade. As a rule of thumb, it is said the closer to the color black a blade is, the more of it was used in creating it. As a result, given the price of the metal because of its rarity, there are barely any weapons out there consisting of more than thirty percent of it — usually giving weapons a dark sheen. However, this sword was dark as the night while still retaining the reflective properties of metal.

The weapon of my great-uncle, a family heirloom, in the possession of his branch of the family for two generations; a weapon, according to his testament not as valuable as the swords of the nine swordsmen of Uzushiogakure, nonetheless it was still up there with them — so seeing this weapon was a shock.

If what he said about the bow from earlier was true — this would make the sword about as valuable -

"Aren't you interested to see what is inside Hime?" Naruto-onii-chan berated me good-naturedly, "The scroll won't unseal itself."

Right, now that I have seen what he gave the others — or in the case of Akiko promised to her — I really wanted to see what he got for me. Rolling the scroll open, I unsealed what was inside.

Two gauntlets appeared in front of me. Their color pitch black just like the sword currently held in Mikoto's hand. "This is for me," I asked unbelievingly.

"Of course, Hime. I thought they would go really well with your adamantine chains to give you a means to defend and attack should somebody manage to overcome and slip through..."

"YIWIWIW" I squealed and jumped into Naruto-onii-chan's arms.

"Thankyouthatssoogreatthankyousomuch"

"You are crushing me," Naruto-onii-chan pressed out.

"Sorry," I demurely said after I released him from my bear hug.

"Don't worry about it, your enthusiasm was justified. It's not every day that you are gifted such a masterpiece. I very much can relate." A swipe of his right hand along his left underarm made it clear what he meant with his cryptic words when a gauntlet, similar to the ones lying on top of the sealing scroll a step behind me, appeared on his left hand.

With another swipe in reverse, this time from his wrist up to his elbow, the Gauntlet disappeared into nothingness. At my questioning look, he just said, "Seals" rolling up the sleeve on his left hand, he channeled a bit of chakra through his arm to make the intrinsic work adorning his underarm visible. "I'll show you how this is done tonight."

I was giddy at the prospect; not only would I learn how to do that while also getting a look at his sealing skills, but it would also mean spending more time together with him. A chance I wouldn't let go to waste to make Naruto-onii-chan mine. On my way back to my gauntlets, I sent a hard glare Akiko's way. I wouldn't allow that bitch Akiko to get any closer to him if I could help it.

Stepping over the scroll and seating myself in front of the open scroll with the gauntlets on display facing Naruto.

With great reverence that bordered on fear that my touch might actually damage it, I lifted one of them up. Of course, I intellectually knew my fear to be utterly misguided since those gauntlets were intended as armor, so touching — no matter how rough — could never hope to damage them if they were made out of normal metal, doubly so with what they were actually made out of; still, I couldn't help myself.

Holding the gauntlet in the air, I was immediately surprised at how light it was, assuming it to be heavy since was metal. My presumption that the interwoven armor plates were thin or only had a thin layer of metal on top of another material was dashed the moment I turned the gauntlet to get a look inside. Not only was there no second layer, but the black armor plates were thicker than even I imagined. The metal used to make just one gauntlet would easily suffice to forge two such katana, like Mikoto's out of it.

"Come on, try it on," Naruto-onii-chan prompted.

"Don't rush me," I shot back, slowly lowering my left hand inside. The inner lining was soft to the touch and felt good on my skin, clinging to it like a second skin. The same couldn't be said about the gauntlet. It was too large for my arm, which was unable to fully fill it out. Even my hand was lacking, not fully reaching the tip of the gauntlet; as a result, it was uncomfortable wearing it.

As I tried to move my arm, I also noticed that the gauntlet extended a good portion beyond my elbow, limiting the movement range of my arms in the process; the inner side prevented me from bending my elbow below a certain angle.

Looking at my hand, I noticed that the armored portion ended at the base of my fingers, leaving the palm solely protected with thick leather. On one hand, it would not infringe on gripping something. On the other hand, it meant no real protection. The tips of the fingers of the gauntlet were slightly elongated into claws, and — as I could attest as my unprotected hand got cut as I trailed along with it — those claws had a sharp edge.

"It doesn't fit," I complained.

"Too large?" Naruto-onii-chan asked.

"Yeah," I murmured.

"That is by design," he replied. As I raised my head uncomprehending, he elaborated, "You aren't fully grown. I had them made with your adult self in mind. You'll grow into them with time."

"How can you be sure about that?" I asked, worrying that I might stay short. Does Naruto-onii-chan like short girls? Would he still like me if didn't reach his head?

"You will," he said.

"I don't understand. Why not make them smaller and make new ones every now and then?" I couldn't help but suggest.

"Well, it wouldn't be practical. Gauntlets like this aren't just done overnight. In fact, the ones you are holding took ten days to make, despite it being a rush order and Kaido-san prioritizing them over his other work to finish them in time so I could gift them to you after your first mission. This means that every time they would have grown too small, you'd have been without your primary weapon for more than two weeks because refitting gauntlets isn't a simple resizing of some parts. On the contrary, it would require a complete rework of the entire weapon. Doing this every six months just isn't viable. Trust me; it's better this way than having to go on a mission without the weapon you're used to."

"But what if I don't grow into them and they'll never fit?"

"Listen to me," he insisted more strongly, "They will fit."

He said that with such conviction that I was sure it wasn't just mere conjecture. He was dead certain about it. Before I had time to ponder his words, he suggested.

"For now, if you were to wear some gloves beneath the gauntlets, it might be enough to make them fit. In case they don't within your scroll, you'll find a few slightly smaller gauntlets. Unfortunately, those are just made of normal metal."

Rolling the scroll out a bit more with my unclad hand, I noticed the other seals he was talking about. Softly caressing the gauntlet he explained.

"This chakra conducting metal has a few special properties. One of them is that every chakra — no matter what kind — surges to the outer layer of it. In the case of a hollow object, the inside is kept free of chakra, which makes this metal extremely suited for any kind of protective gear since whatever is inside — be it limbs or a person — won't be affected while clad within. It is nearly impervious to chakra damaging it, but this also comes with the drawback that it can disrupt techniques, siphoning up chakra and dispensing it equally over its surface."

Turning over the gauntlet I wore and trailing the inside of its palm with the fingers of my other hand, I was surprised that the cool touch of the metal was absent, and instead I felt leather. Following my actions, Naruto-onii-chan continued to say.

"As you might have already guessed, this would also be enough to interrupt your own jutsu. To circumvent this problem the palms aren't protected so as not to hamper yourself. Of course, depending on the technique you intend to use if it would require more than just your palm it still might be a problem. For that reason, the armor plates over your fingers aren't connected and are isolated from each other so that in the future, you can channel wind chakra through them with little trouble."

By that point, I detected a well-hidden mechanism of the gauntlet alongside the outer underarm.

"Careful!" Naruto-onii-chan called out to me, which had me immediately stop my exploration of it. "The gauntlet contains a hidden blade; we wouldn't want you to injure yourself now, would we? To release it, you have to align your wrist with your underarm and place your middle and ring finger on the base of your palm to trigger the mecha..."

His explanation got interrupted when a blade shot forward from the gauntlet, anchored above the wrist. It had a length of roughly my grown-self's forearm if Naruto-onii was to be believed. It extended for about the length of a tanto beyond my hand if I formed a fist. The blade itself consisted of the same material as the rest of the glove, a two finger-width symmetrical smooth two-edged blade that ended in an acute point.

"It seems you found it," He said good-naturedly. "If you touch the base of your palm again, you will extend the blade to its full length."

Full length? The blade was already as long as my forearm, it couldn't be any longer if it was retracted into the gauntlet. It just wasn't possible. Despite those musings, I did as he told me to and touched the mechanism again.

As a result, the blade lengthened further to more than twice its previous length — easily the length of a katana — just as he said it would.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

He gave me a look that conveyed disbelief at my question and emphasized it with his words, "How do you think it could be made possible, Hime? What is our last name?"

Uzumaki... of course, "seals," I muttered. Embarrassed at not having come to the obvious conclusion myself, I awkwardly scratched my head.

Taking it in the stride, he addressed Mikoto, "What do you think of your weapon? I know, at first glance it doesn't seem as impactful as what Akiko's might turn out to be, or as uncommon as Kushina's. Nevertheless, I'm confident you are gonna make it your own relatively soon. Besides, it is a weapon relatively well suited for an Uchiha."

Blinking, she raised her head from inspecting her weapon. "I do not follow."

"You haven't noticed?" He wondered only to suddenly tread back "My mistake — I forgot you are new to this and probably didn't receive any instruction for your eyes."

Shifting from one foot to the other, he told her, "Take a close look at the blade." She did as prompted. "Now shift the axis of the sword a little. What do you see that wasn't there before?"

"A reflection of myself," was the simple answer she provided.

"A very good, accurate observation. Now," he pressed, "tell me, what does it have to do with your eyes?"

"Targeted illusion uses one of the five senses to invade and take control over the chakra flow of targets cerebral nervous system to influence their perception and in some cases even their behavior. The Sharingan being a dōjutsu is only able to affect someone via sight, requiring direct eye contact. A limitation, given our clan and dōjutsu reputation that is commonly known. Meaning that everyone tries to avoid making eye contact with us as a precaution, thereby increasing the difficulty of my clansmen to use one of our greatest assets."

She stopped there with her explanation, seemingly struggling with something.

"Go on," Naruto ordered, superseding whatever it was she was conflicted about because she continued to say.

"Some of us — the ones whose skill allowed for it — have therefore resorted to using reflective surfaces to cast their genjutsu, greatly increasing the likelihood of being successful — especially against wary opponents."

"Because they focus on the wrong thing; your head or your eyes, when a polished kunai at the right angle is just as dangerous," I voiced my suspicion.

With a nod, Mikoto confirmed my thoughts. "A sword, with its long polished surface, can be considered a peculiarly formed mirror. The very expectation that a sword — being a weapon first and foremost — has to be moved in order to attack and defend. A multitude of different stances and ways to utilize its existence would serve perfectly to muddle the real purpose of why it is wielded even from the most experienced of shinobi."

"Don't forget that you can also use it to extend your field of view," Akiko added, "by holding the sword in the air with the reflective side facing your eyes. It should be possible to increase it from the hundred and eighty degrees two-eyed non-Hyūga possess to at least two-hundred seventy degrees, if not more. Your head — by creating a dead angle behind it — preventing you from reaching the full three hundred sixty degrees. This would make it far harder for someone to sneak up on you or attack you unaware from behind."

"To be honest, I never understood how any one of you can live — let alone be bold enough to seek danger — without being able to see what happens all around you." Her voice grew more condescending as she went along "You are half-blind at the best of times compared to me."

"So sorry that our mere existence offends you, your highness," I mocked, and for consistency's sake, even offered her a curtsey "with your permission, I would take my leave. We wouldn't want you to have to breathe the same air as us commoners."

The glare she shot me in response was worth it. To fill the silence that followed, I couldn't resist saying, "Cat got your tongue, your highness?" Unfortunately, it failed to get a rise out of her, beyond her glare intensifying. Too bad, but I would gladly take what I could get.

The smirk at getting a good verbal attack in died on my lips as I noticed Naruto-onii-chan's exasperation — no, disappointment. The elation I felt just a moment ago was replaced with shame. It got worse when there was no reprimand. He, again, just ignored what we said and took up the conversation before our little derailment as though nothing had happened.

"With that out of the way, hopefully each of you has gotten an idea of why I chose those weapons for you and what exactly it is I set out to accomplish by giving them to you. That is by no means everything we will focus on, but first things first in order for you to get out the most of our training together. We will alternate between physical and chakra exercises. So whenever you are tiring doing one thing, we will switch it up with something else to allow your bodies some recovery time while also not wasting it just sitting around."

I suppressed a groan. Two different sides warring inside of me. One welcoming his harsh taskmaster attitude, because it would mean getting strong. The other mourning all the small interactions I pictured I would share with Naruto-onii-chan during our training by realizing there wouldn't be time for them. This also meant it would get much harder to make him fall for me. Calling myself to order, I resolved to just try harder at home.

"We are gonna start with two general chakra control exercises, tree-walking followed by water-walking before we get to the more interesting elemental training. Those two exercises will not only help you with your chakra control, but will also allow you a few new tactical options by giving you access to previously hard-to-reach places. Meanwhile, we are gonna make use of those weights I gave you by having you move your bodies in any way imaginable until you are painfully aware of every single muscle in them."

Clasping his hands together, he walked backward until he nearly made contact with the tree. Putting out his right leg for his soles to touch the bark and thus anchoring himself, so that when he followed it up with his left leg, his body position changed. He went from standing upright to being parallel to the ground, all the while sticking to the tree with his feet. A few more steps and he was three meters up, arms crossed, looking down at us.

"What are you waiting for? Get to work."

Authors Note: Since I'm not really fond of training arcs, this will pretty much be the extent of what you will see in regards to Naruto's team. I think it is enough to give you an idea of where this is going. Even beyond the obvious — since I dropped some hints. I hope it wasn't too much of an info dump, and it was at least a little bit entertaining.

Some of you might be wondering why Naruto handed out the sword to Mikoto and different versions of the gauntlets to Kushina despite her being unable to use them for now, in a similar vein that Akiko is unable to use the bow? So why the different treatment?

First of all, his doing this was intentional. It is rooted in the strong adherence to tradition the Hyūga clan is known for. After all, his attempt at getting Akiko to walk a new path could be considered him spitting on their clan's history. Therefore in order to gauge their reaction while at the same time protecting the bow from somebody trying to destroy or taking it away, he acted on the side of caution when it came to her.