Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
Chapter 2: The Devil at the Door
Naruto didn't think he had ever been so tired. He collapsed a couple feet away from his teammates who weren't in much better shape.
Every part of his body throbbed for mercy. He had long since stripped out of the top of his orange jumpsuit, tying it around his waist. His black undershirt was drenched in sweat and with the moderate breeze it did wonders to cool his overheated body.
Their slave driver was just sitting there, chewing on one of his paws as if he hadn't a care in the world. Monster. "You kids tired already?" The casualness of the question taunted all of them, well, perhaps not Sakura. Naruto looked over to see that the girl was definitely unconscious. He would be more concerned for his crush if he had the energy for it. "It isn't even nine o'clock yet. We still have more time for fun." Rage took energy. Even the bastard couldn't muster a glare.
Team 7 arrived at Training Ground 13 at the ungodly hour of six o'clock in the morning, as they had been bid the night before by their teacher. Two of them bruised and aching from the brutal final test the previous day and none of them were in a good mood. Not even Naruto.
Any illusion that he had any skill what-so-ever had been agonizingly crushed by Kakashi. The man made it glaringly clear that he was far and above all of them. They were flies, no maggots, wriggling around helplessly and their teacher was a spider with a playful streak. It was humiliating. Kakashi also showed that he wasn't going to treat them like children. Though Naruto had no doubt the man held back quite a bit, Kakashi never pulled a punch completely. The first time he caught Naruto in the stomach the blonde boy nearly vomited his internal organs. It hurt like nothing he had ever felt before.
The Academy instructors were never so rough and never allowed them to be so brutal with each other. Sure there was the occasional accident when training with kunai and shuriken for the first time that sent one or two clumsy students to the hospital, but even during spars students were monitored closely so they wouldn't seriously injure each other.
At one point during the test Naruto truly believed that they were going to fail. It seemed like an impossible task. But after coming to his feet after Kakashi's sandal firmly planted itself in his back for what felt like the thousandth time Naruto had a stroke of inspiration. When only a few rays of sunlight were left on the horizon Naruto directed Sasuke to put everything into his fire jutsu to give himself and Sakura a chance to come up with a final plan.
It worked. The trap, which was a simple explosion tag Naruto had modified with some wind oriented seals wrapped around Sakura's entire supply of unused senbon caused their sensei to falter as he dodged and both Sakura and Sasuke took the opportunity to send a barrage of kunai each at the off balance jônin. A miniscule cut on their teacher's leg was all they got for their efforts. But there was blood.
The rush of fulfillment and pride that filled his aching body felt sweeter than a bellyful of the best ramen in town. When he turned to both his teammates they had similar looks of absolute triumph on their faces. Sakura's smile, though slightly obscured by a busted lip, was gleeful. Even the bastard was smiling, not a smirk but a true smile, though it didn't reach the proportions of Sakura's or his own.
Kakashi smiled down at them too or what Naruto assumed a smile looked like on his masked face. His appearance was frustratingly unrumpled compared to their own, but he looked…proud. It was odd for Naruto. Other than Iruka-sensei he didn't think anyone had ever been proud of him. Their team leader offered his congratulations on their officially becoming genin and then advised them to go home, eat, clean up and then go straight to bed as the very next day they would begin conditioning. The three heeded the advice without further prompting.
If only they knew the hell that they were in for the next morning. Team 7 were very surprised when it was not their teacher that awaited them at the training ground but a small pug dressed in a similar fashion to the absent man.
"Yo," the pug said with a wave of his paw. After the genin had gotten over their shock at having a dog speak to them the pug continued to explain his presence. "I'm Pakkun, one of Kakashi's ninken. The Boss will be late this morning so he sent me to get you all started on your conditioning." Both Sakura and Sasuke, still sporting bruises from the previous day's trials frowned at this.
"Is he on some top secret mission?" asked Naruto excitedly. After all, last night proved that their new teacher was super strong. It would make sense that he would be used for high-ranked, important missions. Sasuke scoffed at Naruto's guess while Sakura just rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, no," Pakkun answered. "More like he is off giggling somewhere reading his dirty book which means I get the far from pleasurable activity of whipping you brats into fighting shape. Kakashi is going to owe me more than a couple belly rubs and treats for this."
Foolishly, and now Naruto looked back on this moment with regret, he laughed and remarked with disbelief how an ugly mutt was going to train them. Not much later he found out just how sharp the little bastard's teeth were. Soon after an entire pack of dogs exploded from the trees and barreled towards the genin, all baring sharp teeth that promised pain.
What followed was three terrifying hours of running, hiding, being found, and being bitten. Finally the dogs seemed to grow tired of the game, as they called it and poofed out of existence, not before telling Pakkun to make sure that their boss made good on his promise.
"I never thought that Kakashi would take on a team of pups. Could have picked a team that smelled better though… Oh wait that's my shampoo." The pug was sniffing around Sakura's unconscious head.
"You don't smell like roses either mutt!" Naruto shot back. A cry of pain followed as Pakkun decided he deserved one last bite for the comment.
"Idiot," Sasuke coughed, rolling onto his side and then up into a sitting position.
"Ohhh, what's this?" a voice from the left side of Naruto asked. The blonde's head snapped around to take in the man that had put them in this hell.
"You!" the blonde spluttered.
Kakashi pointed at himself and attempted to look innocent.
"You're late!" Naruto had been trying to shout, but after spending all morning screaming whenever one of the dogs sunk their teeth into his flesh it came out as more of a hoarse squeal.
"Oh sorry about that, I had to help this group of kids get their cat out of a tree."
"Liar," called a weak voice. Naruto glanced to see Sakura's one good eye open. The poor girl ran smack dab into a tree while trying to get away from that particularly vicious Akita.
"Maaa, you wound my virtue Sakura-chan," the silver haired shinobi actually managed to look wounded.
The figure lying in the grass only managed to whimper an unintelligible response, but Naruto thought it sounded something like 'asshole'.
"Well I think that is enough conditioning for today don't you?" Five eyes glared hatefully at their teacher in response. "On to taijutsu!" Naruto gulped at the near gleeful tone of Kakashi's voice.
Sakura carefully applied the cream that Kakashi gave her for her eye. Kakashi split them up after the morning conditioning exercise, or what she liked to think of as running for her life, to work with them individually on their taijutsu. Naruto was up first with the demon. The jônin instructed Sakura to give Sasuke a lesson in tree climbing in the mean time.
Her right eye was swollen nearly shut and throbbing. Kakashi-sensei took pity and gave her a cream that was supposed to reduce the swelling so she could see better. Sakura only allowed herself a moment of worry at the thought of Sasuke seeing her face half covered in the not so nice smelling, brown gunk before asking for help. She turned to him, "Did I get it all covered?"
Sasuke, who seemed wholly unaffected by her appearance merely grunted before starting off towards the trees. Sakura groaned inwardly at what her parents would say when they saw her tonight. Last night was bad enough. Her father ranted at her mother for hours when he had come home to his daughter's bruised and battered appearance.
Her dad didn't seem to care one bit about Sakura joining the Academy but he was not at all supportive of her becoming a genin. It was a year ago or so that her father's tune changed and Sakura still didn't understand why.
Her mom however was supportive and proud. Sakura clung to her mother's approval. When she returned home the night before her mother took her upstairs and helped her clean every cut and ran a hot bath for her. She listened attentively as Sakura described the different trials that their new teacher put them through.
Sakura smiled when she thought of how her mother voiced her pride in Sakura's intelligence that allowed her team to pass the first trial.
The pink haired girl watched as Sasuke attempted to climb up the tree as she did the day before without any success. Irritation brought a little heat to her cheeks. Kakashi-sensei told them that Sakura was supposed to teach Sasuke, but the black haired boy clearly didn't feel he needed any help. A spiteful voice cheered in her mind as she watched Sasuke slide down the trunk again.
Pushing back her spite Sakura approached her crush. This was the perfect opportunity to show Sasuke she was worthy of his attention.
"Umm Sasuke-kun?" she tried. Her voice came out pitifully small. Damn it.
The boy stiffened before slowly turning around to glare at her. Sakura inwardly glowered. There was no reason for him to glare at her. She was trying to help him. "You should focus your energy first and try to find the right amount."
The boy looked like he was about to turn around and ignore her advice completely.
"Look," she huffed, finally out of patience. The girl stomped up to the tree. "You have to feel out the right amount of chakra to push into your feet. Too little and your feet will just slide off, too much and they will be pushed off and you will damage the surface of the tree." She demonstrated, without checking to see if Sasuke was following along or not. "Once you know the right amount, you have to maintain this constantly or you will slip and fall." Finally, once she walked up the tree and came to sit on one of the thick branches she allowed herself to glance at Sasuke.
The boy at least wasn't glaring at her but he certainly didn't seem very grateful. Without a word he turned back to his own tree. Sakura's heart plummeted, so much for gaining his attention. She watched as he did exactly as she bid, but didn't offer any gratitude.
What was the point of being on his team if he continued to ignore her just like in the Academy, she wondered morosely.
Sakura looked upwards at the tree she was sitting in. She might as well climb some more.
Naruto groaned as he pulled himself from the dirt again. "Don't just fly at me and expect to land a punch," Kakashi reprimanded once again. "You don't use any discernible technique; your movements are sloppy and wasteful."
The blonde grit his teeth at the criticism. He wanted to scream in frustration. Naruto knew very well that his taijutsu left much to be desired. He knew his form was terrible. The academy teachers barely spared him a glance much less gave him any instruction. Everything he knew he learned from watching others, which left his style disjointed and more fit for a drunken brawl than a taijutsu showdown.
Kakashi sighed and dragged his palm down his face, "We're going to have to start all over with you." At this Naruto did cry out in frustration and with a surprising amount of energy flew at his teacher in a fury only to be caught easily. "Now, now no need to be so upset. It isn't like it's a great loss." Tossing the blond away the jônin smoothly flipped open a scroll and unsealed its contents. A wooden dummy poofed into existence beside him. "Naruto, meet your new best friend."
The blonde simply glared at his teacher. "Now," Kakashi began, pulling a larger scroll from nowhere. "This is a different style of taijutsu than you learned in the academy. It's focus is on more powerful strikes that ninjutsu can easily be incorporated into. But it requires more endurance since you are much more likely to be hit than an evasive style." All the rage drained out of the genin as he listened to his teacher's explanation. "I will help you through the basic stances and strikes, but after it's up to you to learn from this scroll." He tossed the scroll to Naruto, who almost toppled over from its unexpected weight. The blonde clutched the scroll as a small bud of hope grew in him. Did this mean that Kakashi wasn't going to ignore him? He brushed the thought away as quickly as it had come. The jônin might be trying to sucker him in before turning cold like so many in the past did.
Naruto quickly fell into place behind his teacher as he showed him the basic form. Even if this attention from his teacher was fleeting he would soak up everything he could before Kakashi turned all his focus on the bastard as every teacher Naruto had before did.
Kakashi worked with Naruto for nearly an hour and a half. The blonde was about to burst from just how slow it was going. He knew he needed to pay attention and when his mind wandered the jônin always seemed to know and gave him a painful rap for it. Kakashi finally called it quits when Naruto could completely run through all of the basic strikes, moving haltingly from one stance to another.
"Right send over Sakura and learn tree walking from Sasuke." Without so much as a good job Kakashi sent him off. Grumbling at the thought of Sasuke teaching him anything, Naruto was glad he paid attention to Sakura's rambling the day before when she figured out how to tree walk.
He had a pretty good idea of what he needed to do but the execution was going to be the problem. If his taijutsu was bad his chakra control was abysmal. The blonde at least now knew why his control was so bad. He had an overwhelming amount of chakra therefore it was difficult to control. It made so much sense.
From what he read, the shadow clone technique took nearly three times the amount of chakra of a normal clone as they were solid. Also after the clone was created the creator's chakra would be distributed between the clones. Naruto estimated that he made about a hundred clones the night he fought Mizuki. He also just learned the technique and was tired from experimenting with it.
This led him to the conclusion that his chakra reserves must be massive and he was awesome. Freaking awesome.
Unfortunately, massive reserves also meant his control was absolute shit. He learned from watching Sakura that this technique was all about control. The blonde stopped a ways away from the tree that Sakura was in.
"Oi Sakura-chan! Kakashi-sensei is ready for you." The girl trotted down the trunk of her tree a ways before dropping to the ground. Naruto nearly flinched when he caught sight of her face. There was brown goop caked on one side of her face and it was cracked and flaking off. Not in the least bit attractive. Sakura nodded to him as she passed causing more of the brown stuff to peal off, revealing the now multi-coloured skin beneath. At least the swelling around her eye went down.
Sasuke dropped from his tree as well, glaring at the girl as she walked towards their teacher. Naruto wondered if he should tell Sasuke what Kakashi asked him to do. Seeing the sneer on the black haired boy's face Naruto decided to keep it to himself. He doubted the bastard would have helped him anyhow.
If he ended up having that much trouble he would just ask Sakura later.
Sasuke was unsurprisingly angry. He was last to get private instruction from Kakashi and spent nearly two and a half hours doing nothing but tree climbing. He was embarrassingly tired from it too. He watched out of the corner of his eye as both Naruto and Sakura were brought back to basics in their one on one instruction. The Uchiha snorted inwardly at this, both their taijutsu was appalling. Naruto's was hideously sloppy though the idiot somehow made it effective at times. Sakura's form was near perfect, but she was slow and so weak any hit she managed to land barely made an impact.
From the looks of it the jônin was teaching both Naruto and Sakura different forms.
Kakashi better not make him go back to the beginning like that. He didn't need it. He graduated at the top of his class and even beaten some of the previous year's genin in taijutsu when they had combined sparring classes. Sasuke proudly used the Uchiha family style though he was more than competent in the basic academy form as well.
He watched as Sakura was finally dismissed by their teacher and quickly pretended to be focusing at his task at hand.
"Sasuke-kun," Sakura called breathily, not yet having recovered from her training, "Kakashi-sensei is ready for you." Without a word to his teammate Sasuke dropped down to the ground and made his way over to his teacher.
"Ahh Sasuke-kun!" The black-haired boy flinched at the jovial voice of their teacher. "Now I know you use the Uchiha taijutsu style correct?"
Sasuke nodded warily mouth set in a hard line. He wasn't going to change.
"Good, good, and I know you use it fairly well." Sasuke grimaced at the comment. Fairly well?! "But you are lacking somewhat in the speed department and as you do not have the sharingan yet I think some modifications are in order."
The boy's right eye began to twitch slightly from his anger. "Now, as you no doubt know being an Uchiha, the style that your family favors limits movement and power so as to keep eye contact with their opponent, but again as you haven't awakened your eyes there really isn't any need for this." That was it, Sasuke was going to kill his teacher. "So for today I think we will work on dodging!" Before the genin could fully register the malicious look on his teacher's mostly covered face, projectiles were flying at him.
Not able to dodge all of them Sasuke winced as a shuriken cut a line across his left cheek. "Oh dear, you better be faster than that or else your face won't be quite so cute anymore." The black haired boy didn't have time to fill with dread as more objects were thrown at him.
What the hell did this have to do with taijutsu? Sasuke ducked and weaved and dodged, but he was never quite able to evade all of pointy projectiles and soon he was covered in tiny scratches. This continued for more than half an hour. Sasuke barely noticed when the barrage stopped coming. He was panting and his clothes were soaked in sweat. He met his teacher's eyes, well eye.
"Learned anything yet?"
The question met with a glare.
"No? Well let's continue!" Sasuke inwardly flinched at the delight in those words. What was he exactly supposed to be learning? He winced as a shuriken cut across his back and sucked in his breath as a kunai he failed to see coming passed by his chest as he twisted when he felt it near him.
Sasuke blinked. Felt it? More implements were thrown at him faster than the eye could see, but Sasuke could feel their approach and his body moved minutely to avoid them. He knew from the past thirty minutes that if he moved too much or left the ground too often Kakashi would throw something unavoidable to catch him.
Interesting. He didn't even need to see Kakashi throw anymore to know where kunai or shuriken would be. Senbon however were much more difficult to predict and sense coming. He bit back a cry as an especially long one sunk into his calf.
Grudgingly Sasuke realized he was learning.
Kakashi sighed as he sank into his favourite booth at the quiet little out of the way restaurant he frequented for lunch. He ordered his usual melon soda as he looked over the menu that never changed. His cute little students weren't so cute after their two days of exposure to his teaching methods. He let them go for lunch telling them they would continue taijutsu practice when they returned from the break.
Naruto sported a nasty lump on his head, Sakura looked exceptionally dreadful and Sasuke was ragged, bloody and bruised after his lesson in dodging. Their moods were dark as well. Kakashi had the fleeting idea to give them words of encouragement at the end of the day, but thought better of it. It wasn't really his style. He would simply remind his students that there was no progress without sacrifice, that sacrifice being pain.
And there was progress, though he doubted his genin could see it yet. Naruto showed that he was a very quick learner when given even a smidgen of attention. The boy soaked up the new style and showed a surprising amount of awareness of his own body. After being corrected several times on his positioning the boy everyone thought was an idiot corrected himself when he slipped out of place.
Sakura though bruised and bloody refused to break down after a nasty hit from him. She also showed a surprising amount of grace when introduced to the new style he had chosen for her. The style was evasive, focusing on dancing around the opponent, utilizing flexibility and speed to land precise strikes. It was ideal for a kunoichi that was on the more petite side, and could easily be combined with simple and effective genjutsu that he planned on teaching the girl.
Sasuke was of course competent when it came to tajutsu. He had no doubt been trained since early childhood in the style and had access to some of his family's scrolls. He also, from what Kakashi saw had Academy teacher's falling over themselves for the opportunity to help the last Uchiha. That arrogance was going to get him killed, which was why Kakashi took every opportunity to remind him he had yet to achieve his family's trademark. The reliance on the eyes was a flaw that Kakashi saw in every Uchiha he ever fought, and the jônin refused to allow it to be a flaw in Sasuke. He was going to beat it out of the genin if he had to. The boy seemed to have gotten it towards the end of their time together, moving smoothly without always trying to return to face Kakashi after he dodged.
After today's heavy individual instruction Kakashi planned a more team centred approach for the following day, after his munchkins finished conditioning and taijutsu practice of course. He would also begin training them in the evenings in the more mind based aspects of shinobi life like information gathering, tracking, and deception skills. He would slowly add more and more hours of instruction to their schedule in order to build up their stamina. He requested a month's leave from the mission office in order to get his genin up to the skill level he believed genin should graduate with. After a month of this he might just allow them to play with some ninjutsu, if his other plans fell though.
Brats better be grateful, he was giving up a lot of his personal time for them. Personal time he could have been using to bring himself back to his ANBU level. It was what was doing while his ninken played with his kids.
After placing his meal order, a nice hamburg curry, Kakashi brought out his favourite orange book. Teaching was really difficult, he deserved some Icha Icha time.
"Well, well if it isn't the famous Copy Cat Kakashi," a deep voice drawled from behind him. Kakashi grimaced at the nickname behind his mask and book. He didn't really want company. Looking up he saw it was three other jônin who had been up for the unfair torture of taking on a genin team. "Asuma, Genma, and I don't think we have been introduced," he said nodding at Yûhi Kurenai. The lazy jônin knew exactly who she was but didn't feel the need to reveal that.
Asuma laughed as he plopped down across from Kakashi and scooted to the side to make room for Kurenai. Well, today just wasn't his day was it, Kakashi thought to himself. Genma pulled up a chair to the booth after Kakashi made no move to allow the senbon chewing shinobi to sit next to him.
"Yûhi Kurenai, meet Hatake Kakashi, elite jônin and all around lazy bastard. You would have been introduced to her if you attended the genin assignment meetings. Where the hell were you anyway? I know you weren't on a mission," Asuma questioned as he lit up a cigarette.
"I was here and there," Kakashi answered curtly, wondering when he could make his escape. He didn't hate Asuma and actually got along surprisingly well with Genma, they worked together for a couple years in ANBU, but he had come here for peace and quiet.
"Well wherever you were I heard you passed your team," Asuma continued.
"Like they were going to allow the Uchiha brat to fail no matter what Kakashi said," Genma scoffed. "You still drinking that liquid candy?"
Kakashi shrugged at Genma's jibe at his choice of beverage. "I find it refreshing."
"So do you believe that your team should have failed then?" Kurenai asked. The wrinkle in her forehead showed she was concerned that undeserving or unprepared genin would be passed based on politics.
"Not my problem," Kakashi answered with a sigh. The kunoichi looked nearly affronted at his response.
"I sure don't envy you that team," Genma said as he stretched. "My lot were completely incompetent. What the hell do they teach in that academy?"
"I don't think the last Uchiha would be a bad student. Head of his class wasn't he? Who else is on the team?" Asuma asked taking another drag from his cigarette.
"Kid might have been head of his class, but he is a dick. I had to substitute while on injury leave. Absolute little shit," Genma offered, swiping Kakashi's melon soda and taking a sip despite the man's protest. "I was on the selection committee this year too. Poor Kakashi got the blonde menace and a whiny fan girl."
"I highly doubt he is that bad, from what I read of his profile he is quite talented," Kurenai rebutted giving Genma a slightly scathing glance. "What is Uzumaki Naruto like?" The question was phrased innocently enough, but Kakashi noticed the woman's exotically coloured eyes narrowed as she said his student's name.
"He is loud."
"Come on Kakashi we all know that," Asuma chided. The chain smoker heard quite a few stories from the chûnin teachers on mission rotation.
Kakashi shrugged he didn't really feel like sharing his impressions with the other jônin. Team 7 wasn't their business.
Asuma stubbed out his spent cigarette, "You seem to be going easy on them though."
The surprise Kakashi felt did not show on his face. "What gave you that impression?"
"I saw Uzumaki on the way here. Apart from a little ripped clothing the boy seemed perfectly fine. Even my laziest student Shikamaru is walking a little funny from my test and I got the Yamanaka dirty. Girl wouldn't stop complaining about it."
The silver haired shinobi kept his face neutral as he shrugged. So Naruto's healing rate was indeed accelerated like his mother's. He expected this but the confirmation was nice.
Asuma continued, "You gave your team the bell test didn't you? Who was tied to the stump?" The bell test was well known among most jônin. It was an unwritten rule though that you had to have been given it as a genin in order to use it yourself.
It was a difficult choice for Kakashi to forgo the tradition. But the Copy Nin did not see the point in giving them the exam when he already knew they would either fail or pass by the skin of their teeth. Instead Kakashi chose three tasks that would showcase the usefulness of one team member's skill and teamwork in general.
The tree climbing was an intelligence and chakra exercise that Sakura would pass with flying colours. The retrieval mission utilized Naruto's surprising tactical prowess. The final fight brought them together as a team and proved without a doubt that Sasuke's current practical skill was stronger than his teammates. They performed exactly how Kakashi expected them to with the only surprise being Naruto's creative use of an explosive tag at the end of the fight.
He asked Naruto to show him the type of tag he used. The jônin knew the basic explosive tag that genin were allowed to purchase should not have blasted the senbon at that speed. He was a little shocked to see that Naruto modified the seals.
When asked about where he learned to modify them, Naruto reluctantly answered that an old retired shinobi who lived in his building used to sit on his balcony and write tags. The older man was patient enough to teach Naruto the basics of seals. Naruto had of course studied sealing not to become a better shinobi but to improve his pranking skills.
The old shinobi passed away last year and instructed his only living relation to give Naruto his sealing kit upon his death. Kakashi pretended not to see the tears Naruto refused to let fall when he admitted this.
Kakashi would have to test Naruto in the near future on his knowledge of fûinjutsu. Sealing was temperamental and in a worst case scenario an unstable seal array might have deadly consequences for its creator and his or her allies.
"Well, Kakashi?" Asuma questioned looking at him quizzically. The Copy Nin realized he must have been lost in his thoughts for some time.
"I'm sorry what was the question?" he asked with the added bonus of an eye crinkle.
Naruto groaned as he looked at the amount of bookwork he had to do that night. It was now three weeks and some odd days since he became part of Team 7. The reading assignments Kakashi-sensei began giving them at the beginning of the week were becoming ridiculous.
After the first week of purely physical training from 6:00 am to 5:00 pm Naruto had finally gotten up the courage to ask their team leader why they hadn't received a mission yet, not even a D-rank. He knew that the other teams were doing them as he saw them occasionally around town. Their teacher's answer was that they hadn't earned the privilege yet, but since Naruto was still energetic enough to think he could do missions on top of the physical training Kakashi would happily extend their training to the evening.
Kakashi added more instruction on different shinobi skills that they were taught the basics of in the Academy. Naruto and his teammates spent 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm on these assorted skills till they were finally dismissed. Their only day of reprieve was Sunday. They were expected to be at the training grounds but it was free practice without structure.
In the third week of training Kakashi started to assign reading to them as well. The reading material was varied and ranged from the history, politics and culture of other countries to more obscure genres' of jutsu and weaponry.
All the school like work was draining on Naruto. He didn't understand why it was important to know why Earth country had a rice trade agreement with Water but not with Wind. Honestly he didn't get why they did either, Wind would probably pay an arm and a leg for the rice given a majority of the land in Wind country lacked the proper amount of nutrients for most forms of agriculture. Smacking his own forehead at the fact he even knew that Naruto let his head drop onto the table in front of him.
He wasn't the only one who grew frustrated with the reading assignments either. Sasuke had at first refused to do them, saying they weren't worth expending his energy on. He received an extremely painful rebuke from Kakashi. Naruto was just happy that he wasn't the first one to complain about the assignments.
"Are you really that much of an idiot that you don't understand the importance of knowing your enemy?" Kakashi asked him after driving the last Uchiha face first into the ground. "Do you think you can just keep your head in the sand on missions and expect to be successful?"
Sakura looked like she was about to protest Kakashi's treatment of their third teammate but Naruto sent her a look that clearly said she was asking for rough treatment herself.
"Did you know that three of Konoha's chûnin were executed last month after getting caught operating in Iwa territory. Konoha cannot seek retribution because of the treaty Fire country has with Earth. Do you want to be responsible for the deaths of your teammates simply because you couldn't crack open a scroll and know where you can and cannot go before a mission? It is not strength that completes missions successfully, it is information."
Kakashi put them through hell the rest of the day in order to drive home the importance of gaining knowledge of the world. Even Sakura was a little bitter towards Sasuke at the end of the day for being the cause of such harsh training.
Naruto glanced at Sakura worriedly. The pink haired girl became less and less vocal as the days passed. She was having a hard time keeping up with the physical training and her appearance showed it. There were bags under her eyes from lack of sleep and her face showed that she was losing weight. She started to braid her pink hair to keep it out of the way during training and by the end of the day it would be in complete and utter disarray. Her clothes were rumpled before training even started and her fighting dress was now permanently stained and ripped in several places.
Not that Naruto's clothes fared any better but he wasn't really bothered by it, neither was Sasuke. Sakura however, would pick at her ruined clothes absently during meal times with a frown on her face.
Though their sensei's methods were ridiculous and sometimes cruel, Naruto could see the improvement in not only himself but also in his teammates. In their three-way taijutsu fights Naruto could now hold his own against Sasuke and with Sakura's help take him down. Chakra control was still difficult, but with the help of Sakura he could now tree climb and was beginning water walking.
Sakura was still the weakest in taijutsu, but was improving enough to land hits to particularly painful regions of the body. Her flawless chakra control allowed her to water walk on her third attempt. She spent the rest of the time coaching Sasuke and himself in the art. Sakura also enjoyed reading in a way Naruto thought was crazy. She actually went to the shinobi library after practice to complete Kakashi's reading assignments and read up on other subjects she was interested in.
Naruto asked to join her after the third day of nearly being up till two in the morning. With Sakura explaining the bits he didn't understand he could finish before midnight. Sasuke actually joined them after the fifth day.
Sasuke was still an asshole in Naruto's opinion but in their second week after Kakashi had introduced their three-way fights he came to both Naruto and Sakura. In usual asshole fashion he told them they were pathetic. Before Naruto started to curse him and Sakura burst into tears he began to critique and correct things that they did wrong during the fight.
Before Naruto would have raged that he didn't need help from the stuck up bastard, but now things were different. Kakashi beat in the logic that refusing a helping hand was stupid no matter how rudely that hand was offered. Even the bastard seemed to finally get this since he joined Sakura's study sessions.
Naruto proved to be the best on the team at the evening training and willingly shared everything he knew about tracking, thievery, body language and lying. Lying especially was an art both this teammates were surprised he was adept at. The blonde also showed them the basics of some of his more complicated traps.
He wouldn't say they were getting along. They didn't spend any time together outside of training or studying, but they really didn't have any time outside of that. They were almost silent at second breakfast that they ate after conditioning and before taijutsu practice. Lunch was a similar affair. They didn't have the energy to fight with each other at least.
Naruto groaned as he collapsed onto his futon that night. In less than five hours he was going to have to do it all over again.
Sasuke woke up at five in the morning. He folded up his futon and put it in the closet. He dressed quickly, not bothering to run so much as a comb through his hair before turning on his rice cooker and beginning to prepare his meals for the day.
His muscles complained the entire time. Naruto got in a good hit on Sasuke's side the day before and breathing was a little difficult at the moment. Sasuke wasn't sure if he should be outraged the dead-last landed the hit, after all Sasuke taught him that move.
It was a bit confusing. On one hand he believed that if Kakashi focused all his energy on him he could be far and ahead of what he was now. However, the black haired genin could not ignore that he was making more progress in his training with his team than he had by himself during the last year at the Academy. It was just that it seemed his teammates were progressing so much more rapidly than himself. They were still below him, but in just shy of a month Naruto could go toe to toe with him in taijutsu. Sakura, whose physical abilities were once deplorable, could nearly keep up with Naruto and himself when they ran.
Sasuke knew he was faster, and stronger than he was before, but somehow his teammates were right there nipping at his heels.
A very small part of him was proud. After all, he was helping them. He was partially responsible for their progress. The rest of it belonged to their demon of a teacher. The man was insane. He also knew how to get results. Sasuke had to grudgingly admit, only to himself, that he respected the silver haired shinobi.
The jônin somehow made Sakura stop stalking him and Naruto less of an idiot. The two were almost bearable, almost.
His bento packed and first breakfast eaten, Sasuke slipped out of the single bedroom house on the outskirts of the Uchiha clan complex and made for training ground 13. He wasn't surprised to see Sakura already there. The girl took to meditating in the mornings after reading up on it last week.
Sasuke moved over to the shed, which Sakura already unlocked and took out some leg weights. Strapping them on he made for the usual running path. After the first week of training Kakashi asked them if they could be responsible for their own conditioning. The three genin jumped at the chance to not be chased around Konoha by the ninken. Their sensei warned them if he thought they were slacking there would be hell to pay.
Sakura was the first to slack. Kakashi gave them a warning in that relaxed lazy voice that they came to realize meant danger. Naruto and Sasuke made sure Sakura didn't slack the next day or the next. By the third week she could be trusted to set her own pace.
Ignoring his protesting muscles Sasuke broke into a run. The others would soon follow. Sasuke pushed himself faster. He was stronger, but it wasn't near enough. He improved greatly in a few short weeks, but it wasn't enough and he was exhausted. All of it still wasn't enough.
He had graduated the Academy at the age of nine.
He had made ANBU at thirteen.
It wasn't enough.
But how could it not be enough? He was literally training around the clock. Even more than he was when he was on his own. Kakashi was running them all into the ground. If he wasn't training, he was eating or sleeping. What more could he do?
What if he wasn't enough?
The traitorous thought grew in his mind like a weed. Sasuke wanted to blame the others for holding him back but were they really? There was no guarantee that he would be progressing any faster without his two teammates.
He had been the best in the Academy this year but his scores were not out of the range of most of the top scoring students from years previous. A Hyûga actually scored higher last year.
He had seen the records and none of the top students from recent years were even close to his level.
Sasuke managed to graduate at twelve, the average age for children born to shinobi families.
Nothing special.
Nothing genius.
Nothing even close.
He wasn't enough.
The thought disrupted his footing and Sasuke nearly slammed into a tree, veering off to the left at the last second he crashed into some shrubbery instead. His breath came harshly. He was covered in sweat and aching.
God he was tired.
He was tired of waking up to the same four walls every morning.
He was tired of being angry.
He was tired of feeling empty.
He was tired of the silence.
He was just fucking tired.
For a few moments Sasuke lay in the shrub and breathed.
On the edges of his senses he picked up someone coming. The black haired genin knew he should get up. It was no doubt Naruto. Idiot was only quiet when he wanted to prank someone.
Why get up? What was there to get up for? He wasn't enough. He wasn't even angry at the thought.
There wasn't even enough in him to be ashamed anymore.
"Sasuke?" Naruto had arrived. Sasuke didn't move, didn't acknowledge the blonde's presence. Maybe, if he willed it, he could become so still even his heart would stop beating.
"I am not getting the shit kicked out of me for you." Dark eyes opened and connected with blue. "Seriously, get the fuck up." A pink head bobbed through the morning light. The fan girl had arrived too. She stopped behind Naruto looking at him as if she were actually concerned.
Without another word she and Naruto both stepped forward. Naruto, the dead-last, the loud mouthed idiot who never seemed to have a care in the world was holding out a hand to him.
Sakura stood alongside Naruto with a small smile on her face. "Come on, I found something interesting in the library last night. If we push hard we can finish the route and have time to eat and talk about it before Kakashi-sensei arrives. You both will want to know about this."
Sasuke stared at his teammates. In the first week he thought they were dead weight. In the second week he exasperatedly began helping them. If he was going to get stronger they would need to get stronger too. In the third week he grudgingly began to have a small amount of respect for them. Now, in the fourth week of training with them he knew that he wasn't going to be rid of them anytime soon.
Sasuke reached out and grasped Naruto's hand firmly.
He wasn't enough.
Not yet.
A lone figure watched the genin from above. He smirked at the sight before him, his single eye crinkling in genuine pleasure. His plan was working.
Two down. One to go.
Sakura chewed and swallowed the last bit of her mom's onigiri. Naruto was already finished with his snack and patiently waiting for Sakura to finish eating as well. Well, patient for Naruto, which meant fidgeting and sending her looks that clearly said hurry up.
The only girl of Team 7 merely chewed slower in response. Glancing at their other teammate Sakura bit her lip. Sasuke's behaviour that morning was odder than usual. Sakura even thought his face was wet when Naruto pulled him out of the bushes.
Not that she blamed him. They were working like machines nearly nonstop since they had been put on the team. Even for Sasuke, who trained regularly outside of the Academy it would have been like going from a steady jog to a dead sprint with the expectation that speed was maintained for the same amount of time.
Sakura faltered in the second week and still struggled daily with her motivation and focus. She frowned in contemplation thinking back on the question Kakashi-sensei asked her.
"Why are you here?" The genin flinched at her teacher's question. She performed poorly today. It was the first day they worked on conditioning by themselves. Kakashi was obviously disappointed at her lack of commitment, but she was exhausted!
They barely had any time to rest and Sakura's body ached all over. So, she decided to go slow on her run that morning and only do about half of the exercises she'd been told to do during her taijutsu lessons.
It seemed that their teacher was all knowing because he called her out during taijutsu practice. Kakashi instigated a three on one battle where he once again put them to shame. Despite doing much better than their first three on one fight with the jônin he still tore them apart.
A few tears slipped down Sakura's cheeks. "Sakura?" The firm but gentle tone pulled Sakura's pink head up. She didn't think her scary teacher was capable of sounding like that. "Why are you here?" he repeated.
It was a fair question. Why was she here? What was she doing? She wasn't kunoichi. She was just a girl from a civilian family who followed her friend to the Academy.
"I should quit shouldn't I?" she asked bleakly.
Kakashi raised his only visible eyebrow. "Should you?" he responded.
His tone made Sakura wilt. "I'm not good at this," Sakura cried, gesturing wildly.
"Aren't you?"
"Sensei!"
The man stared down at his student and crouched to be at eye level. "Do you know why I was angry at you today?"
"Because I didn't work hard."
"Do you know why that made me angry?" Sakura frowned at her teacher. She didn't, other than him missing some perverse pleasure he most likely got from watching them suffer. "I was angry because you have potential and by not working hard you wasted your time and Sasuke's and Naruto's as well." Sakura blinked. He thought she had potential? Before she could ask Kakashi continued, "I want you to go home and think about why you want to become a kunoichi Sakura. If you don't come here tomorrow with an answer I accept, you're off the team."
"But sensei! You just said I had potential!" Tears rushed to the surface as Sakura realized she truly failed.
Coming to stand at his full height Kakashi nodded in agreement. "Yes, but what good is potential if you aren't willing to work to fulfill it. Why should I spend time training you when Sasuke and Naruto work harder?"
Anger rose in her cheeks, but Sakura bit her tongue knowing he was right. She walked home slowly that night. What was she going to tell her parents? Well, her father was going to be happy no doubt. He had wanted Sakura to quit being a genin the moment she put on her hitai-ate. Her mother would be so disappointed though.
Why did she want to be shinobi? At first it was a way to spend more time with Ino. The two were inseparable after Ino stood up to the kids bullying Sakura.
Then one day it changed. All the girls in their class became obsessed with Uchiha Sasuke. Sakura thought he was cute and cool, but she never thought of him past that, but Sakura was swept up in the fervour and before she knew it she was in rivalry with Ino for his affection.
Affection that was completely unattainable from her current perspective. Sasuke only cared about one thing and one thing only, becoming strong. Without Ino around to egg her on, there seemed little point in chasing after the boy. It wasn't fun anymore.
So where did that leave her?
Naruto wanted to become Hokage, or so he kept saying when they were eating. Sasuke was obsessed with becoming stronger, for a reason Sakura didn't know.
They both had goals.
She had nothing but a broken friendship ruined by a silly game over a stupid boy. A game she didn't even realize she was playing till now.
Sakura arrived home and could hear her parents fighting before she even walked into the house. By passing the door Sakura jumped and climbed to her bedroom window and silently entered her room.
Collapsing to the floor the tears spilled down her face as her parents raged at each other downstairs.
At one time her father was proud that she got into the Academy, a feat that not many civilian children could boast, but now all he wanted her to do was quit.
At one time her mother was proud of her intelligence, but how smart was she if she squandered her only true friendship for a boy who barely glanced at her even when they were on the same team?
And despite everything she still wanted. She wanted to be a part of Team 7.
Sakura joined the Academy for Ino.
Sakura liked Sasuke because everyone seemed to.
Sakura did well to please her parents.
Gritting her teeth Sakura glared at her reflection in the mirror. She wanted this. For the first time Sakura wanted something for Sakura.
She tried not to dissect why she was thinking in third person.
Running, sweating, bleeding beside her teammates was the first time she ever felt like she had purpose, that she wasn't just going along with what other people wanted or following someone else's shadow.
Sakura felt like she finally figured out what she was meant to do. Finally she found out who she was meant to be.
She didn't notice that her parents had stopped fighting.
Tomorrow she would answer Kakashi-sensei's question.
"Oi Sakura-chan! You're finished so what is your big news?"
"Alright, alright here." She pulled a little black book from her hip pouch. Both boys blinked at the thing before Sasuke's face lit with recognition.
"What is it?" Naruto asked picking up the small black book.
"Idiot, it's a Bingo Book." Ignoring Naruto's glare at his choice of words, Sasuke looked at Sakura, "Why is it interesting?"
The pink haired girl grinned. "It's not just any Bingo Book, it belonged to a shinobi from Iwa." She took back the book she snuck out of the library, which was no doubt misplaced as a Bingo Book was not supposed to be left in a section open to genin. "Which means, this book has Konoha shinobi in it." Flipping to the page of interest she held it out so both boys could see.
"That's – " Naruto's exclamation died when he felt the palpable anger pulse from Sasuke.
"Why does he have the sharingan?"
AN: I want thank you to those of you that reviewed my first chapter. I know it is easy to ignore stories that only have one chapter, but I do intend to update this story regularly.
I'm really enjoying continuing to write this so I hope someone out there is entertained by it.
For those of you that are sticklers on the details, I am aware Genma is actually a Special Jonin and therefore would not be assigned a genin team. This story is a tad AU so I will be changing some things from canon. Like my Naruto has some exposure to seals as I mentioned in the first chapter. No he is not going to become a fuinjutsu master, but it will be a tool in his tool box.
Let me know what you think. Till next time.