Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Naruto. Believe it, whatever. ON TO THE FICTION!
Chapter 11 – Battle's Over But The War Isn't
Last time:
"Good." Kakashi looked back into Zabuza's eyes and his own eyes hardened. "Now then, that technique won't work on me again. So, what's it gonna be?" Kakashi asked lazily.
This Chapter:
The two jounin quickly jumped apart creating some distance. Zabuza started on some hand-seals, while Kakashi's sharingan went into action and copied them for him. Kakashi was soon going through the same hand-seals at a faster pace.
Naruto was kneeling down on a tree branch watching the fight. About ten seconds into the hand-seal sequence Naruto came to a realization. 'I know this sequence! I know this jutsu!' Naruto started going through hand-seals as well, a little faster than the two on the water. 'This should help surprise that Zabuza guy, hopefully it'll keep him occupied long enough for Kakashi-sensei to take care of him.'
Kakashi and Zabuza finally finished the hand-seals, finishing on a bird seal. Both jounin shouted the technique out and activated it at the same time. "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu!" Two masses of water in the shape of dragons raised out of the water and entwined into each other, biting and attacking each other in the process. In the middle of the chaos the two jounin met underneath the two dragons, Zabuza trying to attack with his sword Kakashi defending with a kunai.
Sasuke was staring wide eyed at the show in front of him. The water clone had been dispelled when Zabuza dropped Kakashi, much to Sasuke's relief. 'He copied each and every hand-seal perfectly! He even pulled the jutsu off exactly the same as his opponent. Such is the power of the sharingan, I must awaken mine as soon as possible!' Thought the young Uchiha.
Another couple of seconds of the stand-off and the two jounin leapt from each other again. 'How did he do that? He pulled it off at the exact same time! Maybe...' Zabuza broke his train of thought and holstered his sword to his back. He then did a light jog in a circular motion, which Kakashi copied at the exact same time. 'How is he doing this? Can he-'
"-read your mind?" Kakashi finished the thought.
'How did he do that? No matter I'll get him with-' Zabuza's train of thought was again broken but not by Kakashi. His train of thought halted when a third water dragon appeared in front of him, it was the same as the last two dragons except with one major difference, it was bigger, much bigger. Zabuza froze for a second leaving his incomplete jutsu hanging. 'When did he do that and how did he make it so big?'
Kakashi was wide eyed for a moment looking at the dragon in front of him. He quickly snapped back to the fight and used Zabuza's shock to his advantage. "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu!" The jutsu created a large torrent of water that almost completely enveloped the dragon and swept Zabuza away.
'How did he do that? I was about to use that jutsu!' Thought Zabuza as he was swept away. He finally came to a stop by being slammed into a tree. His moment of relaxation was quickly finished when the water dragon clamped it's jaws around Zabuza and pinning him to the tree, he let out a howl of pain. Zabuza then looked up to see Kakashi kneeling on a tree branch. "How? Can you... see into the future?" Zabuza asked weakly.
Kakashi looked down on Zabuza. "Yes, I see this as your last fight." Kakashi replied, bringing his kunai down ready to slit Zabuza's throat and get rid of him as a threat. At least he would have slit Zabuza's throat if two senbon hadn't suddenly embedded themselves into Zabuza's neck.
When Naruto saw the senbon, he was so shocked he dropped the water dragon jutsu. Leaving the body to fall to the ground. He appeared in the clearing in a split second staring at the body. Sakura chose that moment to also come out of hiding, pushing through some bushes, Tazuna following in her wake. Sasuke was already there from his attack earlier, he had narrowed his eyes and was openly glaring at the body.
They were all surprised though to see another nin with a mask appear in a tree a little ways away from them. "Thank you for your help. It truly was his last battle." Announced the mysterious nin.
Kakashi jumped lazily from the tree and kneeled next to Zabuza's body. He pressed his index and middle finger to Zabuza's neck, checking for a pulse. "No vital signs."
"I've been tracking Zabuza for some time now, waiting for the right moment to take him down." The mysterious nin told the group.
"From your mask, I can tell you're a hunter nin from the hidden mist village." Kakashi stated to the hunter nin, standing up and stepping away from the body.
'A hunter nin huh? That's what they look like. That kinda explains the fast kill but there's something strange about this.' Naruto thought.
"You are well informed. I am indeed a hunter nin, thank you again for your help." The hunter nin disappeared in a gust of wind and reappeared next to the body. "I will take care of the remains now."
Another gust of wind came along but before the nin disappeared with the body, Naruto burst forward yelling at the nin. "Wait a second your supposed to take care of the body where it falls." Halfway through his yell though the nin disappeared with Zabuza. "DAMMIT! We have to get to your house Tazuna-san! Which way and how far is it?"
Everyone looked at Naruto like he was possessed until all eyes went to Kakashi's prone form on floor, apparently having collapsed. Naruto was at his side in a second, he covered up Kakashi's left eye with the headband and turned to Sakura. "Sakura! Diagnostic jutsu, quickly!"
Sakura was there in a second already flashing through hand-seals and finally hovering her hand just above Kakashi's body, a light green glow coming from her hand. She passed her hand over Kakashi's prone body a couple of times and finally brought her hand down to her side with a quiet sigh. "He's okay Naruto-senpai. It's just exhaustion, he needs rest."
Sasuke looked on in amazement. 'Since when has she been able to do that! And what's with the senpai at the end of Naruto's name?'
Naruto sighed heavily. "I thought as much, probably used the sharingan for too long. Thanks, Sakura." Naruto did a flick of his wrist and suddenly two clones appeared from the forest. "Pick him up and prepare for a shunshin." Naruto ordered the clones pointing to Kakashi. "Now I'll ask again, which way and how far is it to your house, Tazuna-san?"
Tazuna stared for a second and then came to his senses. "Oh! About four or five miles that way." He replied, pointing to seemingly random direction through the forest.
"Okay." Naruto did another flick of his wrist and another clone came from the forest. "Saw where he was pointing?" The clone nodded. "Good. Head that way until you find his home, take look around and then dispel yourself I need to know where I'm going for a shunshin. Now, go!" The clone just disappeared at that. No smoke, he just disappeared. "Okay, it should take a couple of minutes until I get the information I need. Tazuna-san, Sakura and Sasuke-teme, put a hand on my shoulder and brace yourselves. If this is your first shunshin it might feel a little rough." Naruto started going through hand-seals.
Sasuke watched as Sakura and Tazuna obediently put a hand on each of Naruto's shoulder's. "Why should I take your orders, Dobe? You're not team leader." Sasuke stated coldly.
"It's no order Sasuke. If you want to run to his home by yourself be my guest. I'll leave some clones in the surrounding forest to watch over you. This is just a suggestion since I can get us to our destination quickly and our jounin leader is unconscious, we're pretty vulnerable. Now either put your hand on my shoulder or start running." Naruto replied.
Sasuke glared at Naruto for a second, 'hmphed' and put a hand on one of Naruto's shoulder's. "I'm not following your order, I'd just rather get there in an instant than have to run through the forest." Sasuke quickly stated.
Naruto just had a slight grin which he dropped suddenly as if in concentration. "Alright the bunshin just dispelled itself. Hang on tight!" Naruto performed a final hand-seal and disappeared in a puff of smoke with everyone else in tow. A second later and the two holding Kakashi disappeared as well.
A puff of smoke appeared in front of a house on some docks. When the smoke cleared two people staggered forward and almost fell over until Naruto stepped forward and steadied them. "Whoa! Watch it guys, I told you to brace yourselves!" Naruto told the two in a comforting voice.
Sakura put her hands on her knees and started breathing deeply. Tazuna just stayed standing, apparently already over the disorientation, probably from practice, being drunk and having to sober up. Sasuke just stood where they had landed, looking uninterested.
"Okay guys, get inside. I'm gonna set up my clones to watch the surrounding area. And Sasuke it's just a suggestion as usual, you can go train or whatever if you want. I'll be inside in a few minutes to explain why we had to get here as fast as possible." At that, Naruto dashed into the forest and his clones started for the house eager to get Kakashi to a bed so he can rest.
"Come on then, I'll get a futon out for your sensei. My daughter and grandson will be happy to hear that I got some good ninja to help." Tazuna told the remaining two. They all walked in after Tazuna.
As soon as the clones had gotten Kakashi to a bed they dispelled themselves. Sakura used another diagnostic jutsu and checked him over more thoroughly. Sasuke on the other hand just sat down in the dining area and kept quiet.
After almost ten minutes Naruto finally returned and called Sakura into the dining area. He then sat down himself, directly across from Sakura. "Alright, how's Kakashi-sensei doing?" Naruto asked Sakura as she sat down.
"He's fine. He's still resting, he'll probably wake up in a day, or less even." Sakura answered.
"Good. I've got some shadow clones in the forest surrounding the shore and some water clones in the water around the docks. If anyone who is not recognized as a friend approaches the house, they'll be attacked on sight by the water clones. Each clone can last a good few days if they don't use jutsu so I'll have to replenish them later on." Naruto took a deep breath. "As for why we needed to get here quickly. Zabuza isn't dead."
Sasuke's eyes widened, Sakura gasped and Tazuna's only sign of surprise was a confused, "Huh?"
"That hunter nin was a fake and probably working for Zabuza. Think about it, hunter nin are supposed to dispose of the body of a rouge ninja wherever he or she was killed. This is to ensure no mistakes are made and absolutely nothing is left behind. That hunter nin though, picked up Zabuza's body and took it somewhere else. The weapons he used were also abnormal for a hunter nin, do you remember what they were?" Naruto asked with a solemn look.
Sasuke and Sakura nodded. "He was using throwing needles, senbon." Sasuke stated.
"They're just needles usually used for medicinal purposes like, acupuncture, that have been modified." Sakura explained.
"That's right. Hunter nins are also trained to know the human body, inside and out. That's what I've read anyway. If that's true then it should be pretty easy for a hunter nin to use senbon and hit pressure points that will temporarily stop the heart and put a person in a death state." Naruto looked to each of his teammates faces. Both of them were staring at him intently. "It'll probably be a while before he can fight at his fullest though. A week or so to recover from the temporary death state, stopping the heart is nothing to laugh at. Those deep wounds on his right arm, chest and left hand however, may or may not slow the recovery time down. It depends if that other nin knows any healing jutsu, if he did, that means we still have the week time limit. If not, then we may have another couple of days before the wounds close up enough for him to fight. All we can do at the moment is wait for Kakashi-sensei to wake up and give us more orders." He finished.
Sakura was openly gawking at Naruto. "Naruto, how do you know all this? At the academy, you acted like you didn't know anything and you kept getting low scores on your tests."
Naruto broke into a grin. "Simple, I was holding back at the academy. I would've thought you figured that out already, Sakura. After all, I have been training you for a couple of months now."
"Yes, well, I just thought you were really good with physical training and practical things. I didn't think you were smart as well." Sakura replied meekly.
Naruto chuckled lightly. "You gotta look underneath the underneath, Sakura. A good example would be Shino, do you remember where he placed in the academy in terms of grades?"
Sakura adopted a thinking pose for a second. "Yeah, I remember, he was average. He placed somewhere in the middle of the class."
Naruto chuckled again. "Well, I can tell you right now he was better than he let on. Kiba told me every time he sparred with Shino, he would lose. In the academy though, Shino would lose about half his matches. One of the people he lost his matches to was Kiba, every time me was matched against Kiba he would lose. Now he wins all the time, which means he was better than he was letting on. Now he's out of the academy, he's showing his true skill and strength, just like me." Naruto chuckled again at the look on Sakura's face, the glare he was getting from Sasuke and the look of confusion on Tazuna's face, who was trying to follow their conversation.
"How can you be laughing? You're gonna die if you go against Gatoh and his guys." A small boy announced as he entered the dining area with his mother.
"Inari! How can you say such things to the people who kept your Ojii-san safe!?" His mother scorned.
Tazuna, completely ignoring what the child, known as Inari, said. Opened his arms in an invitation for a hug while shouting. "Inari!"
Inari ran to Tazuna and embraced him in a hug, shouting just as his grandfather had. "Ojii-san!" After a few seconds of this heart-warming reunion, they separated and Inari's mother looked to the addition at the table.
"Hello there, I'm Tsunami, Inari-kun's mother and Tazuna's daughter. I have already been introduced to your teammates and sensei when some of your... clones, as Sakura-chan called them, brought in your sensei and your teammates followed. I felt it would be better to introduce myself to the real you." Tsunami explained as she bowed to Naruto in a greeting.
"I'm Uzumaki Naruto. When my clones went away I got their memories, I already know who you are Tsunami-san. Thank you, for waiting to see my real self to introduce yourself properly though. Thank you, also for allowing us into your home." Naruto said politely as he got up, out of the chair and bowed to Tsunami. 'Wow, those etiquette lessons you gave me actually came in use Kyu-sensei!'
'Of course! I would never teach you something useless, Kit.' Kyuubi answered back.
Tsunami smiled lightly. "No thanks necessary Naruto-kun. It was the least I could do since you helped my Otou-san. I should also tell you that your sensei is awake. He woke up a little before I came down here."
Naruto quickly thanked Tsunami again for informing him. He asked Sasuke and Sakura to come with him upstairs and they quickly made their way upstairs.
The hunter nin leaned over Zabuza's body and produced a cutting tool ready to cut the senbon out and carefully remove them. He was halfway to Zabuza's neck, when his wrist was grabbed by Zabuza himself. "That's enough Haku! Why do you always have to go for neck? You're brutal you know that." Zabuza stated as he sat up and yanked the senbon out of his neck.
"If I marked your precious body you'd complain even more. Although I'm not so sure anymore since you have a small crater in your chest now. You're lucky you had enough muscle to protect your lungs. The explosion in your left hand seems to have gone all the way through, I'm surprised you can still use your hand at all. Your right arm lost mostly flesh in between your bicep and tricep, your bone is showing slightly. I can stop the bleeding but the flesh has already been cauterized slightly from the explosion, there is nothing I can do to get rid of the marks you will be left with. Overall you're lucky the blonde ninja didn't try and attack you with more of those things." Haku stated calmly.
Zabuza frowned. "I underestimated the kid. I can't wait to have another fight with him. Using a strange attack like that means one of two things, he's either really weak and uses surprise tactics a lot or he's fairly strong and is trying to hide it with the surprise tactics. Personally I'm hoping it's the second reason, I wouldn't want him dying on me too quickly." Zabuza broke into what looked like a sadistic grin under the bandages covering his mouth.
Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke were sitting around Kakashi's bed. They told him about Zabuza still being alive and Naruto gave him a report on the clones he had put around the home as sentries and guards. They also told him of what they did during the fight with Zabuza, except for the water dragon jutsu and the ball bearings Naruto used. When they finished telling him all they needed to know, Naruto asked the question that was on the three's minds. "What do you want us to do now Kakashi-sensei?"
Kakashi closed his eyes for a second, in thought. "First off, let me say, good work in fight. Naruto, you did well using your clones in conjunction with kawarimi to perform dangerous tasks. Sasuke, you performed the shadow shuriken jutsu perfectly to provide a distraction. Sakura, you did good protecting Tazuna with Naruto's clones while he and Sasuke freed me. Right now though we need rest . Tomorrow, I'm gonna give you all some training exercises that will help in the up coming fight with Zabuza. Now you're all dismissed until tomorrow." The three of them got up and started heading for the door when Kakashi spoke up again. "Except for you Naruto, I need to speak with you about something." Naruto turned back and headed for his seating spot again. Sasuke and Sakura looked back for second and just carried on out the door and closed it.
Naruto looked at the door and asked Kakashi quietly. "Do you want me to use a sound-proofing jutsu?" Kakashi just nodded in response. Naruto went through a quick sequence of hand-seals and when he finished there was a burst of chakra that enveloped the room. "Okay, I've put it up. What did you want to talk to me about Kakashi-sensei?"
"You're the one that did the over-sized water dragon jutsu, aren't you." Kakashi stated calmly.
Naruto brought his hand up and scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. "Yeah, that was me. I thought it would buy you time and when that huge water jutsu you used slammed Zabuza against a tree I saw my chance and pinned him with the dragon so you could finish him."
"Naruto why didn't you correct Sasuke and Sakura? The way they reported the fight, they made it sound like I was the one who made the dragon. It also sounds like they didn't see your little fireworks show, or the chakra blade." Kakashi asked.
Naruto got a serious look on his face. "I didn't tell them because it was something they didn't really need to know. Sakura knows I'm strong, just not how strong. I'm pretty sure Sasuke's in denial about the fact I'm better than him, so he wouldn't believe me anyway."
"I see." Kakashi said, while staring up at the ceiling. "If you were in another battle right now and it required you to use that water dragon jutsu or whatever else you may now that you haven't shown us. Would you hesitate to use them if anyone of us were in a life or death situation?"
"OF COURSE I'D USE THE JUTSU!" Naruto yelled back immediately. "If anyone of your lives were in danger, I would give up my life to ensure your safety. I just don't think they need to know how strong I am, yet."
Kakashi did an eye-smile at Naruto's outburst. "I'm glad to hear you say that Naruto. Seeing as you wouldn't think twice about using your full power in the proper circumstances, I'll keep your secret."
"Thanks Kakashi-sensei. Did you want to talk to me about anything else?" Naruto asked with relieved look on his face.
"Actually, I wanted to ask about how you got me out of the water prison." Kakashi replied.
"That was another aspect of the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai. It allowed me to make the chakra blade." Naruto answered.
"So what's the main aspect of the Uzumaki Kekkei Genkai?" Kakashi asked with a small frown.
"I had a feeling you would ask me this. The Kekkei Genkai makes my chakra slightly denser and it forms a small layer just above my skin which allows me to block hits if I make it spin and condense it further. Although when we get back to Konoha, don't tell Ojii-san, please." Naruto asked in a pleading voice.
Kakashi's eye went wide. "You haven't told Hokage-sama about your Kekkei Genkai!?"
"Yes, yes, I've told him I have a Kekkei Genkai, I just haven't told him what it does yet. He hasn't asked me about it so I think he wants me to come forward and tell him. Please don't tell him about Kyuubi being my sensei either." Naruto asked again as he had another pleading look in his eyes.
Kakashi's eye widened further if that was possible. "YOU DIDN'T TELL HIM THAT EITHER!?" Kakashi shouted. "Why did you tell me these things and not the Hokage?"
"I thought I should tell you so you wouldn't waste your time training me in things I already knew. Ojii-san doesn't need to know about Kyuubi yet either, but I will tell him when we get back. I've been trying to put this off, I hated lying to Ojii-san and I'm afraid of how he'll take it. I just wanted to be treated the same as any other genin." Naruto replied with a guilty look on his face.
Kakashi saw the look on Naruto's face and decided he was being sincere and not to take things further. "Okay, Naruto. I'll let you tell the Hokage but I'm surprised you don't trust Hokage-sama enough. He wouldn't have forced you to become genin earlier. I'm sure he would have allowed you to carry on the same as all the other genin did if you asked him. I guess it doesn't matter now though, what's done is done. You can inform Hokage-sama when we get back."
"Arigatou, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto said while bowing deeply.
"No problem, Naruto. I just want to know a few more things and then you can go rest. From all the clones you made and the jutsu you used, I'm guessing your pretty tired." Kakashi stated.
"Yeah, I feel pretty exhausted, I think I'm down to less than quarter of my reserves from the feel of things. My chakra is already replenishing itself though. It would replenish faster if I slept." Naruto explained.
"Okay, I'll make this as short as possible, about how many jutsu do you know?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto got a slight glint in his eye and grin on his face hearing the question. "I know over fifty jutsu. I know at least one of each element style. I say it like that because the only raiton (Lightning style) I currently know is the lightning version of the water dragon jutsu, actually the elemental dragon jutsus are some of my favourites." Naruto explained quickly, the grin never leaving his face.
"Elemental dragon jutsus?" Kakashi asked apprehensively. 'I knew there were different versions but could Naruto possibly know all of them? Even with all the jutsus I copied I only managed to get two of them.'
"Yeah, you know the five elemental dragon jutsus." Naruto brought up a hand and started counting them off. "Suiton: Suiryudan no Jutsu (Water Dragon Bullet Jutsu), Futon: Furyu Hadan no Jutsu (Wind Dragon Piercing Bullet Jutsu), Katon: Karyu Endan no Jutsu (Fire Dragon Flame Bullet Jutsu), Raiton: Rairyudan no Jutsu (Lightning Dragon Bullet Jutsu) and Doton: Iwaryu no Jutsu (Rock Dragon Jutsu). They were a little difficult to control at first but they have to be some of the coolest jutsus I know, I mean what's cooler than dragons, except foxes of course. The only down side to the jutsus are the number of hand-seals you have to do to perform the jutsu. I can usually perform them in two seconds but that's a whole two seconds where my enemy can attack me." Naruto finished, panting slightly since he had yet to take a breath since he started the explanation.
Kakashi was staring at Naruto now. "That's... interesting. What about the rest of your jutsus?"
"They're mostly defensive jutsu like that earth wall Sakura used on the way here." Naruto said with a shrug.
"Good to hear. That's all I needed to hear Naruto. You can go now." Kakashi said nodding to him.
Naruto nodded to Kakashi and dispelled the sound-proofing jutsu. Once out of the room he was met with Tsunami who had been on her way to check on Kakashi. "Don't worry, he's fine Tsunami-san, he's probably asleep already knowing him. Um, Tsunami-san?" Naruto asked rubbing the back of his neck in an embarrassed manner.
"Yes, Naruto-kun?" Tsunami asked looking down on at Naruto.
"You wouldn't happen to have a room with a futon I can sleep in do you? I'm a little tired from everything that I've done today." Naruto asked sheepishly.
Tsunami smiled lightly and gave out a small chuckle. "Yes, Naruto-kun. I have a room next to your sensei's for you and Sasuke, while Sakura can sleep in my room. Come, I'll show you where the futons are." She gestured for him to follow her and quickly showed him to the room and the closet where the futons were kept. He thanked her as she left him in the room. He quickly pulled out a futon, took off his weapons pouches , kunai holsters, his jacket and steel mesh shirt and slipped under the covers. Before he let himself drift off into sleep, he created one last kage bunshin to inform Sasuke and Sakura that he would be asleep until the next morning, he then drew a kunai from one of the holsters that lay near him and placed it under his pillow, gripping the handle tightly with his right hand. Finally, he drifted off into sleep, a dreamless night ahead of him... or so he hoped.
He was in an alley again. It was dark and smelled of garbage as an alley usually did. They'd closed him out of the orphanage again and he'd been looking for food and somewhere to stay out of trouble. As usual though, trouble knew where he was and found him.
There were only three of them this time, only two were actually drunk. He could tell from the smell on their breaths, not that they actually came that close to his face. He just had a good nose, always did. One held him in place while the other two would punched and kicked him. They would alternate from there taking turns to hold him in place while the other two beat him. He tried to hold back any sign of pain, not wanting to give them the pleasure. Although he did give out slight grunts every now and then when they would hit him in the stomach.
Eventually they grew bored of using their fists and started using some empty sake bottles. After the twelfth one struck his head he finally fell down and closed his eyes, glad he was finally free of the pain.His eyes opened expecting to see the alley he had just been in. He was pleasantly surprised though, to see he was in a comfortable and warm bed, not out in the cold.
'One of those nightmares again. Why do I keep having them? I've gotten past that part of my life, I'm safe now. Most of the villagers may still hate me but they wouldn't do such things to me anymore.' Naruto thought with a grim look. He then saw that the sun was just coming over the horizon.
Naruto had been having said nightmares since the first time he was attacked. The nightmares were always a memory of any number of attacks that had happened to him in his early life. Therefore his first nightmare was about the first attack, he had woken up screaming that night. Now though, he sleeps through them. Once or twice he had woken in a cold sweat from some particularly nasty memories. According to Kyuubi, he even frowned and grunted in his sleep sometimes, as if reliving the event. All in all he had learned to ignore the nightmares though.
Naruto got out of bed silently since he saw that Sasuke was in another bed a little ways from him, almost on the other side of the room. He just shook his head at the Uchiha as he pulled his clothes on and reattached all his various pouches and holsters. He looked at the special scroll pouches he had, only one being used. 'Hmm. Guess I should find some use for the other four. Maybe I should get some of those body storage scrolls Kakashi-sensei had.' Naruto thought as he attached the pouches to the loose belt he wore.
When Naruto finally felt ready, after a quick visit to the bathroom, he headed out for some morning exercises. He felt great, a full night's worth of sleep had fully replenished his chakra reserves. He first raised the weight seal level since he felt too light and started on a light jog. Afterwards he went through the usual physical exercises. Once he had finished those he jogged back to the house to cool down. When he got through the front door he found that everyone else had woken up and come to the table for breakfast, except Kakashi who was probably still asleep, in his absence.
"Ohayou gozaimasu!" Naruto greeted everyone at the table and Tsunami who had stuck her head out of the kitchen.
Tsunami instantly smiled and replied back. "Ohayou Naruto-kun! You don't have to be so formal, our home is your home."
Naruto looked back at her with his grin as he, in his energetic way, said. "Arigatou, Tsunami-san! What's for breakfast? It smells good!"
Tsunami just went back to the kitchen yelling back. "Just take a seat, Naruto-kun. It's almost done."
Naruto complied by taking the empty seat directly across from Sasuke, who narrowed his eyes at the blonde. "You should be able to tell what it is easily, Dobe. Ninja's are supposed to have a good sense of smell."
Naruto leaned forward and whispered a reply. "I know what she's making Teme. I could smell it on my way back, if anything it made me jog a little too fast to get back here." He broke out into a grin from the glare he was getting from Sasuke. He turned to Sakura who had been quiet all through the little discussion. "Ohayou Sakura. Did you get a good night's sleep?"
"Hai, Naruto-kun. I'm ready for any training Kakashi-sensei has coming for us." Sakura replied with a smile.
Naruto grinned back at her and looked over to the other two at the table, Inari and Tazuna were both looking down at the table. Tazuna obviously had a hangover, while Inari just seemed depressed. He decided not to press matters further with the two.
After a few minutes, Tsunami came from the kitchen with a bowl of himono for everyone. Naruto eagerly accepted his bowl and shouted "Itadakimasu!" and, unlike his usual method of eating which would be to wolf the food down, ate at a normal pace. This brought a stare from Sakura and Sasuke, who were used to seeing him inhale his food. After a couple of seconds of staring they too, dug in.
When everyone was almost done, Kakashi finally made an appearance. He was advancing down the stairs slowly, taking them one at a time and using crutches for support. He greeted everyone with a lazy, "Yo." and sat down. As soon as he showed up, Tsunami was in the kitchen and after a couple of minutes was back at the table with another bowl for Kakashi. He accepted it with an eye smile and a lazy "Arigatou."
Team 7 were in a clearing, in the woods, some distance from the house. Kakashi had taken them out as soon as they had finished their breakfast. "Alright, training starts today. First off, I want to go over chakra. It's a ninja's basic source of power. Understanding chakra is essential." Kakashi explained to the three.
"We know that." Sasuke stated flatly.
"Are you so sure, Sasuke?" Kakashi asked in a bored voice.
"Well, we did go over chakra in the academy Kakashi-sensei. We know chakra is used to perform jutsu, we know it's a balance of physical and spiritual energies. Then there's the hand-seals, used to focus and unleash the chakra. For you to bring this up though, there must be something else to it, huh, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, looking up from his thinking pose.
"That's right Naruto. I guess you did learn something from Iruka-sensei, after all." Kakashi replied. 'And Kyuubi.' Kakashi added in his mind.
"What's the big deal, we're already using chakra energy in our jutsu." Sasuke stated flatly, again.
"No! You haven't mastered this power. You've barely even scratched the surface of it. Listen, each jutsu requires different types of chakra, in different proportions. You have to select and combine them in the right way. Up to now you've just guessed at those proportions, hoping they come out right. Even if you produce a lot of chakra, unless you can balance and control it, it's all worthless. The jutsu won't work at all, or it won't work right. You use so much energy this way, then your out of chakra and you can't fight at all. You become just a target."
"So what's the training your gonna give us to help with this? I mean that is what the training is gonna be about isn't it?" Naruto asked with a grin.
"That's right, I'm gonna have you train so hard that controlling chakra becomes second nature. To achieve the goal you must be ready to put your life on the line." Kakashi replied with a slight frown over his uncovered eye.
Hearing this, Naruto grinned,Sasuke just carried on staring not giving anything away, while Sakura had a slight worried look on her face. "So, what do we have to do?" Sakura finally asked.
"Simple, climb a tree." Kakashi replied with an eye smile.
"Climb a tree!" Sasuke exclaimed, showing slight shock.
"Oh, I see you're going to have us climb the tree using our chakra. Naruto-kun had me do this the first day we got together for training." Sakura figured out.
Sasuke rounded on the two of them. "You mean, you and the Dobe, have already done this?"
Naruto turned to Sasuke. "Yeah, Sakura needed to increase her chakra reserves and doing this exercise over and over again is a good way of draining chakra. I mean, she already had really good chakra control, she just needed to get more chakra."
"How did you know about this exercise? I've never heard of it before." Sasuke asked the blonde ninja.
"Well, I read about it in a scroll. After graduation I asked Iruka-sensei for help on controlling my chakra and he gave the scroll to me. Took me about a day to get halfway up the tree but I got it eventually. I still use the exercise every now and then, just to keep my chakra control in check." Naruto explained with a shrug.
Sasuke looked like he was seething with hate at how Naruto had learned this before he had. He then turned that hate toward his sensei. "Why didn't you teach this to me?"
Kakashi just stared at Sasuke with a bored expression. "Because, I wanted to focus on taijutsu with you. All those advanced techniques and stances you learned were sloppy. I wanted to correct them for you before moving on to chakra and jutsus. I thought Naruto would do the same and go over hand to hand combat before going straight to the jutsus and chakra control."
"Hey! I go over taijutsu with Sakura. We spar at every training session and I correct any faults she has in her stance. It's just her strengths lie in chakra control, so I wanted to focus more on that." Naruto explained, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Alright, but I want to see proof of your training before I let you go on to your own training or send you on errands." Kakashi told Naruto and Sakura.
They both nodded, turned to a tree and used the chakra gathering hand-seal, a small cloud of dust raising from their feet. They both walked to the tree and walked up it, after a while Sakura started walking faster to reach a branch and sit down before loosing too much chakra, it took a lot more chakra to walk up than it did to run up a tree. Naruto however kept going and finally came to a stop while hanging upside down on a branch near where Sakura was now sitting. "This good enough for you, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto shouted down to the jounin.
Kakashi nodded and shouted back. "Okay, you can skip this training but I still want you to do some sort of training."
Naruto stopped the chakra flow to his feet and dropped off the branch. He ricocheted off a couple of tree's before finally landing on his feet. "Alright!" He turned back to look at Sakura. "Hey Sakura! I got a suggestion on what kind of training you should do if you want to do it."
Sakura looked down at Naruto and jumped off the branch she was sitting on and, using chakra, gripped the tree and slid down at a manageable speed. She landed with a light 'thud'. "Well, what is it Naruto-senpai?"
'There's that senpai again what's with that?' Thought Sasuke looking between the two.
"Show me your weights, I'm going to increase them and then I want you to do the tree climbing exercise with Sasuke, it should help your chakra reserves and stamina. If you want to do it that is." Naruto explained.
Sakura looked over to Sasuke, who just looked back. She turned back to Naruto. "Hai, it sounds like a good way to train." She held out her wrists. Naruto took out a few metal plates from somewhere in his jacket and inserted them into the holders around her wrists. He then took out several more and kneeled down next to the holders around her ankles to insert the plates.
"There, that's as many as I'd like to add for now. Is it okay Sakura?" Naruto asked with a small grin.
Sakura raised her fists to her face and then did a few practice kicks. "Hai. It's good, not too heavy."
"Good, now get on with it." Naruto said while tossing a kunai to her feet. Kakashi did the same for Sasuke.
AUTHOR NOTE
Sorry for the long chapter, I'm getting into writing this fanfic now and I'm finding it pretty hard to stop typing. Even while I'm editing this chapter I've already started on the next chapter.