(A/N) Option two won! Onward we go. Better get the actual team's opinion of their new sensei first.
Gai was...loud. Anyone could tell that of course, but loud took on a new meaning for Neji when he was acquainted with just how horrible this was going to be by the screaming of 'YOUTH' at top volume in his ear at four in the morning.
All three of them were pretty much dead by lunch, barely managing to get home in time to eat some leftovers and pass out, Gai having helpfully given them the afternoon off.
"So, that bad?" Sasuke remarked, upon the younger nine getting back and seeing them passed out at the dinner table.
Tenten just groaned and cracked her back loudly. "I'm going to be dead tomorrow."
"I'll trade with you if you sit in on classes for me," Sakura offered.
"Me too, me too!" Naruto cheered, bouncing a bit.
Neji was plenty happy to take that offer. Who was he to begrudge them some extra practice. They of course couldn't make this a routine thing, but maybe it could happen every once in a while.
Naruto was perfectly fine waking up at three thirty in the morning to get ready to train, although Sakura and Kiba, who were replacing Tenten and Neji respectively, were slightly less happy to get up. He did a henge, checked it in the mirror, did his chores, ate, and was ready just in time! It was a bit weird seeing Tenten and Neji but knowing it was Sakura and Kiba, but it was fine! He was totally ready!
Gai didn't seem to notice anything off, so they got off scot free and were apparently pretty good at imitating their siblings. Or good enough to fool a jounin anyway. Naruto was pretty proud of himself for that one.
Although the training was brutal. Even Naruto, who usually had stamina to spare for days, was pretty much dead on his feet by the end. He could only imagine how it was for Sakura, although she'd had a slightly lighter sentence. They went home and probably copied their siblings from yesterday and passed the frick out after eating.
Sakura was in fact dead on her feet, even after eating and sleeping for several hours. She definitely was going to do that again sometime.
"We should record what the workout is, and make sure everyone does it daily," Sakura suggested when she managed to get the energy to speak. "Like not all in the morning like whoever is going as you guys are doing, but like half before school and half after so we can be sure to all keep up if we continue doing this."
"A good idea," Tenten agreed immediately. "It'll help all of you guys later anyway, so it's a good idea."
"I'll go again tomorrow," Sakura decided, knowing she'd really regret it. "So I can memorize the exercises."
"You sure?" Tenten asked, looking doubtful. "I am really sore right now, even after today, are you sure you're going to want to do that?"
"I'm already sore," Sakura groaned in response. "I'll down some painkillers to get me through it."
"Just be careful," Ino added. "If it's too much tell the jounin you need to stop or you're going to tear something."
"I'll be extra thorough in warming up," Sakura reassured her. "Don't worry, I know my own limits. I'll be careful."
"We'll go for ourselves tomorrow," Lee signed, looking determined.
"Yeah," Neji sighed, looking more like he'd rather not, but was doing it anyway. "We'll go tomorrow. You all can take turns later."
Lee was very impressed by Sakura's resolve, even when she was wincing at every step when she woke up, even after she downed a large amount of painkillers and was still in a fair amount of pain.
They did the extra stretches with her when they arrived early, and Gai was over joyed to see them already there and stretching.
"So youthful!" Gai praised, tears streaming down his face. "I shall begin stretching immediately to honor it!"
Lee thought their teacher was awesome and very inspirational, even if he was pretty sure Neji thought Gai was a crackpot and Tenten was too dead inside to care anymore. Perhaps that last sentence was more concerning then he thought of it, but whatever.
Their teacher also had a wonderful sense of fashion. Lee quietly wondered where he might obtain one of those green things, it looked very comfortable. Maybe he'd ask when his brain wasn't in quiet mode.
"If you're in quiet mode me and Neji can translate," Sakura murmured under her breath when she and Lee almost knocked heads in one stretch.
Lee just nodded gratefully, so very happy to have such great friends on his side.
Hinata felt kind of sorry for everyone who'd been to the training sessions, just what Sakura wrote down looked horrific. They did half of it that night together anyway, Tenten leading them through some of it since she was currently the only walking person actually on the team.
Hinata felt almost ready to die after half of it, she could only imagine how they felt actually doing all of it at once.
She put her prestige at the academy to good use and quietly got access to a book about medicinal herbs and polutices that helped with soreness and muscle fatigue. She started finding what ingredients she could out in the wild, quietly putting in a request to Tenten and Shikamaru to start growing that what she couldn't find just walking around Konoha. They got it, and factored it in.
This way she could contribute and be helpful. And ease their suffering even if only a bit.
About a week after Tenten, Neji and Lee started their training, their D-ranks started after training in the afternoon.
Due to the whole thing with everyone doing the workouts they could all swap out with Tenten, Neji, and Lee if they were in too much pain to want to go to practice. It happened more often with Tenten, who routinely also did extra training on the side with her weapons, running through the kata for all of them at least once a day.
Shikamaru was pretty sure Gai hadn't figured it out yet. It didn't seem like he had. On the plus side, the D-ranks were more interesting than class, and it meant they had another source of income to use. It wasn't very steady, but it was another income, so they dealt with it. It did make some things easier, giving them some extra cash each month to store away for bigger things they needed, and their backup funds.
D-ranks were about what Shikamaru had expected, boring and repetitive work, but at least it paid. Plus, it was slightly more interesting than class, so they ended up setting up something of a rotation.
Most of them were at the top of the class, excluding Naruto, who was far more occupied with such things as designing a garden for when they could afford one, planning how to incorporate the plants Hinata wanted into their current set up, and what plants they currently had would be producing.
By sheer luck Naruto had been on the team in disguise as Lee the first time there was a weeding mission, and had been able to do the garden well enough that they'd been requested again later, and Sakura, who'd been on the team the first time was on that one and had taught Kiba and Torune, who were with her, how Naruto had taught her. With the regular rotating schedule of the lady requesting them specifically, everyone was a pro at weeding gardens in no time.
That had the somewhat unfortunate effect of now they were the most sought-after team for weeding missions.
Shikamaru yawned as he pulled up another weed by its roots. It'd make sure the weed wouldn't come back. Or would at least take a while to reroot there. Plus churning up the soil a bit so the water and air could reach the other roots better, the weeding was thorough and probably part of why they were so revered for weeding missions. It was still troublesome though.
They were going to go on a C-rank. Pretty much the first time the 12 of them hadn't slept in close proximity since Sasuke joined them. He hadn't even considered it would be a thing that would have to happen, not knowing whether they were safe or not before sleeping, not being able to check if he got a nightmare.
He had four panic attacks in three days, including one in class and one while impersonating Neji in a mission. Ino, who'd been Tenten that day, luckily noticed before Gai did and quickly excused both of them to let Sasuke calm down.
He told the crows the night before the three were supposed to leave, after another nightmare left him awake far past the bedtime.
"We will allow the weapons user to sign," the head of the flock decided, bobbing his head. "She will be a good summoner. You will be able to pass messages using us. You can check on them and know we will look out for their team."
Sasuke could kiss them. He wouldn't because that would be weird, but he was so glad there was a solution to it.
Tenten woke up right on time the day they were to leave, finding Sasuke sitting at the foot of her bed with the scroll unrolled in front of him. The scroll of the crow summoning contract.
"They agreed to let you sign," Sasuke said, his voice abnormally small. "So we can communicate quickly and easily."
A good idea actually, perhaps Tenten should start looking into obtaining other contracts for others in their group to use so they could pass messages like that. She made a mental note of it and let it be.
"Thank you," Tenten said, bowing as much as sitting on her bed would allow. "I'm honored."
"So are they," Sasuke agreed, yawning. "They're of the opinion that you could be a greater weapons user then both Itachi and Shisui if you tried."
Being told that the crows, who'd been the two's summons, thought she could surpass both of them in her favorite field, and she knew that wasn't an insignificant honor.
She signed the scroll there on her bed in the early morning. She summoned her first crow that night when they stopped to make camp to send a message to Sasuke.
Ino certainly hadn't missed the dark clouds that had been plaguing Sasuke for the four days they knew there was a C-rank coming for the only genin in the apartment. It was pretty hard to miss them, since they were large and dark, almost swamping his head. Not as bad as that silver ANBU, but pretty bad.
It was clear the morning they left, so Ino figured it had been resolved. She did keep an eye on him though, just in case.
When the clouds started creeping in, in the way that usually had Sasuke going and checking on everyone in their group, he summoned a crow instead and wrote a note for it.
"Where's the crow going?" Ino asked, watching the glowing surprise explode around Sasuke's head. "Sorry for startling you, but where's it going?"
"To Tenten," Sasuke admitted quietly, slight tints of bashfulness tinting the area around his head. "I asked the crows and they agreed to let her sign the contract so we can keep in contact with them while they're gone."
"A good idea," Ino agreed, smiling and watching the clouds recede slightly with the addition of happy fireballs around Sasuke's head. "It's good we can keep in contact."
The crow poofed back in and the clouds cleared completely. Ino just smiled. The situation was well handled. No need to worry anymore.
Kiba was of the opinion that Gai was great, and so were all of his training things, since it meant he could totally just pass the frick out immediately at night without worrying about dreaming. The fact that he was up in the top percentage of the class was just a very nice bonus.
Keruberosu liked Gai too, although he hadn't like officially met him cause he couldn't actually join Kiba when he impersonated someone cause he had to stay with whoever was impersonating Kiba so the teachers didn't get suspicious.
While the repeated year he was doing was annoying and boring, Torune was grateful for the break that was the exercises actually helping them get stronger, as opposed to school which really wasn't doing all that much if anything. He couldn't swap out with them that often since his bugs were rather...distinctive and the few times he did swap out with someone, they only narrowly avoided being found out. Oh well, he'd just have to make up the time he couldn't be doing that with the training they were all doing outside of school.
Choji liked Gai a fair amount, although he was a bit loud for Choji's tastes, but he was helping them get stronger, and with their own graduation just a little bit away, he was glad for it. The training had been ramped up many many times now, each ramping up leaving everyone thoroughly sore and exhausted.
He was glad for it though, the better they were when they went out the higher the chance was they'd survive should a mission go south.
(A/N) These training montage chapters are going to end up like SS aren't they. Stupid long because I couldn't fit everything into three pages. Oh well, I'm sure you don't mind. The kits graduate next time, any opinions on who's pov I do?
