Start Chapter Three
I thought that I had gotten over her. Well maybe I was wrong, but at least I'm not the only one in that boat. Kakashi can't move on past the loss of his team either. It's sad that even after all these years we haven't found closure. Oh well, we just need to invest in our future. Naruto Uzumaki you will do great things, mark my words.
Naruto looks at the clock on the wall feeling slightly nervous as he answers one of the last questions on his final exam. With only several minutes left he starts working faster, but trying to keep his answers quality at the same time. Finishing the last question he hears the teacher say time is up. The blonde sighs in relief feeling the weight of the world come off his shoulders. His instructor comes up and collects his copy of the exam and Naruto sits back, "The scores of these exams will be posted tomorrow. I hope you all have a great break and make sure to come back ready for next term." Everyone cheers and leaves for the door, but Naruto waits for a second. I did it he says quietly and leaves the room, "Hey Naruto." The blonde stops in the doorway, "Great job, I'm expecting you to keep up the good work." Smiling, Naruto runs out excitedly and finds Iruka standing in the courtyard waiting.
"Gather your things; we're going to start your training tomorrow. Meet me at training field seven at 5 in the morning sharp." The Jounin says before leaving in a swirl of leaves. Naruto heads home to prepare for the start of his new journey.
That Night in Naruto's Apartment
The young blonde is finishing his meal of steak and salad when a knock at the door pulls his attention away. Looking out of the kitchen window Naruto sees the Hokage standing outside of his door, "What's the Old Man doing here?" Shrugging it off the boy opens the door for the elderly leader, "Old Man Hokage, what brings you here tonight?"
Smiling the Sarutobi looks at boy, "I want to talk to you about your training with Iruka." Naruto lets him in, "I see you've learned to make thing besides ramen." Laughing it off the blonde offers the Hokage some, "No thank you, but I appreciate the offer." The two sit down in Naruto's living room, "First I'd like to say I'm very proud of you for working so hard." A little pride wells up in the boy, "But that doesn't mean I'm satisfied, I want to see you thrive and do your very best." Pausing and looking out the window to the Hokage Mountain, "I know you want to become Hokage one day, and with the turnaround I've been seeing I think you might be able to." The boy sits silently, "You need to work very hard with Iruka and never give up, no matter how difficult or boring it gets."
"I promise I won't let you down." Naruto says in a serious voice, "I'm going to surpass every Hokage one day. I don't care how hard the road may be, nothing will stop me."
The Next Day at Training Field Seven
Naruto waits patiently for his instructor to arrive. A puff of smoke appears before him and Iruka pops out, "Well let's get right to it." The Jounin pulls out a backpack with basic survival items including a sleeping bag, two heavy-duty rain ponchos, several meal bars, a canteen, and a few other items, "You see all of this?" He pulls out a scroll with seals on it, "It can all fit in one of these." Making a hand seal he taps the scroll and the things disappear into it, "Amazing right?" Naruto nods dumbly, "Now you try getting it out." Making the same hand seal the blonde applies a small amount of chakra and nothing happens, "That's because this only responds to my chakra. See the marking with my finger print on it?" Naruto notices it and says oh, "Now make one with this blank sealing scroll that will be your backpack for this training session." Putting chakra into the scroll the blonde sees a marking of his fingerprint appear on it, "We can start with your survival training." Naruto seals up the items provided by Iruka, "We're going to go camping for the next two weeks."
Naruto suppresses a groan, "Will there at least be some kind of combat?"
Iruka shakes his head before continuing, "No, but I'll show you some cool tricks, so you never need more than one change of clothes. Never need to bring fresh water with you or hang up your clothes to dry." Pausing momentarily, "I'll also show you how to keep warm even on cold nights if you don't pack proper clothing." Naruto feels like this will be really boring, but remembers this will all be part of his training, so he follows Iruka as he starts to hike into the woods.
Later that Day
After hiking several miles the two stop by a river, "Do you ever drink directly from a water source?" Naruto shakes his head, "Good, first you need to sanitize the water." Pulling out a large pot the Jounin fills it with water and then begins gather some wood, "Well you could help me." Naruto scrambles over there before grabbing some fallen sticks and branches, "Alright now that we've done that I'm going to show you a basic fire jutsu that anyone can learn. It's called Fire-Style: Spark and it's just what it sounds like you're making sparks." Nodding Naruto goes over the hand seals with Iruka for a couple of minutes, "Now this is the tricky part, you need to imagine pulling fire out of your chest and force it out of your mouth into little sparks. Let's do it over the water first, so we don't start a forest fire."
Naruto nods and heads over to the river making the hand seals and summoning his chakra the blonde takes a deep breath in and blows out. Absolutely nothing comes out and he feels a little frustrated, "Take your time and imagine sparks coming out of your mouth." Trying again the boy blows out and coughs feeling his throat burning; "Well the good news is you summoned some fire, now you just need to bring it out, so you don't burn yourself." Iruka pulls out a novel and sits down waiting for the blonde. Naruto sighs before trying again this time a little smoke comes out of his mouth. Saying something about progress the boy continues on with his practice. Eventually a sparks flies out of his mouth and Naruto cheers, "Almost there, just a little more practice and I'm sure you'll do it." Iruka says reassuringly. Naruto focuses completely on his chakra before making the hand seals and pulls in his breath before releasing a hail of sparks much larger than Iruka made. The Jounin looks up at the moment the blonde releases and is amazed, "What the?"
Naruto cheers in absolute joy, "Did you see that? That was awesome!" Iruka feels lost wondering how the blonde pulled off such a large spray and asks to see it once again. Repeating the process Naruto draws in a little more chakra causing tiny fireballs to come out, "Uh is that supposed to happen?" Iruka shakes his head dumbly, "Is something wrong Iruka?"
The brown-haired Jounin says, "No, not at all, we just need to work on your chakra control before I show you any more jutsu like that." Iruka's lost for words unpacking all of his stuff seeing the sun going down, "It's getting late let's camp here for the night." Naruto nods and unpacks his sleeping bag, "Naruto I want you to not use that jutsu, until we've practiced it enough. If you wind up adding too much chakra you're going to hurt yourself." Really Iruka is concerned for others, "Promise?" Naruto nods quietly, "Now I'm going to take first watch for the first four hours. You get some shut eye for now." The blonde crawls into his sleeping bag to catch what little rest he can before his watch.
The Next Morning
Iruka and Naruto are hiking along one of the trails and hear a crackling noise. The Jounin holds up a fist pretending it's an enemy. Looking around the blonde grabs a kunai just in case. Several deer pop out of the bushes and run away, "Good job reacting there, even though you knew it wasn't an enemy you were prepared." They continue on their journey and eventually Iruka stops, "What's off right now?" Naruto looks around and sees a puddle that seemingly appeared before pointing it out, "Good you noticed the illusion I set up, many water-using ninja may use that as a trap. Be especially wary of puddles if it hasn't rained for weeks or there isn't an obvious water source nearby."
Naruto takes notes of that, "Okay, what else should I look out for like that?" Iruka goes onto explain about suspect piles of rocks, "So if rocks are too perfect, I should be wary?"
The Jounin elaborates, "Yes, but don't be paranoid every time you see a decent looking pile of rocks. It'll just feel off if it's actually an enemy ninja." Naruto nods before the two continue on their way until they hit a small stream, "Okay I'm going to teach you how to wash and dry your clothes." Iruka pulls out his spare change of clothes, "Now this might be a little harder to do than the fire jutsu." Going over the basics of the water jutsu and demonstrating it the Jounin perches on tree branch and continues his novel. Naruto makes the hand seals and slowly a large ball of water rises out of the stream and he keeps his concentration. He flings it over to some hanging clothes that become drenched as a result, "How was that?" Iruka looks up surprised at the blonde's success on the first try before asking to see it again. Naruto does the same thing and Iruka shrugs it off attributing it to an elemental-affinity. Demonstrating the air technique Naruto does the same thing to his clothes, but winds up tearing them to shreds, "Um Iruka, I think I need some more clothes." The Jounin looks up and see nothing hanging on the line and a bunch of shredded cloth on the ground.
"Naruto once again, don't use these techniques until we practice chakra control." The two stand silently, "Anyways let's make camp for the night." The two set up camp and get ready to get some rest before the next day…
End Chapter Three