The Backside of the Rose
Chapter 7
GoldenStrike
Sasuke tripped out of his tent, not being able to see very well. Today he wore a white undershirt, his typical shorts, and had no shoes on. His forehead protector was being washed, so he wasn't wearing it either. He'd simply had his ninja kit on his left leg, as usual.
His eyes were at the point of blurred vision now, and it was taking a toll on him. He'd just figured it'd been a common side-effect of the Sharingan, but he'd not really heard of any. When Itachi had awakened his Sharingan, nothing special happened, if you don't count the Sharingan special.
Kakashi had helped slightly, only offering him a pair of glasses until the side effects wore off. Sasuke wouldn't ever be seen wearing them. He was an Uchiha; eyewear would be the biggest form of disgrace to his family.
So he put them on eventually, which was after he'd tripped out of his tent. He glared at his teacher, who chuckled slightly at the sight of his student.
"Well Sasuke, you certainly appear a genius now, if you were trying to project that image." Kakashi commented.
Sasuke was getting tired of waiting for his teacher to finish. "Sensei, can I begin now?"
"Go ahead" Kakashi replied. He'd not actually been watching Sasuke, but he wouldn't be surprised if he'd gotten much better at this.
Sasuke removed a trio of shurikens, and then took a mental picture of the scene. He shut his eyes, and tossed the first shuriken. It hit the target, missing the bulls-eye to the right and bottom. He then tossed the second, which landed adjacent to it, on the bottom left hand corner of the bulls-eye. He took a quick step back, and fired the last one, still blindly, which hit the target dead-on.
'What a formation…I've yet to see this. There's something peculiar about this one.'
Sasuke opened his eyes, and looked at his results without emotion. "I can't beat him" he breathed aloud, clenching his left fist.
Kakashi hadn't listened to this, but thought to himself, what had been the reason for hitting the target so close to the bulls-eye all those times. He'd guessed it could be blind chance, but he thought of that as unlikely. Sasuke also hadn't channeled any charka into his eyes, so his already impaired vision wasn't being adjusted.
There was also a possibility Sasuke had had an epiphany or a sudden insight while he had been away. Nevertheless, he was finished, so he'd be ready for the next phase.
"Sasuke, the second stage begins now, since you seem ready. Your objective is to defeat me in combat."
"Sensei, we both know I can't do that, right?" Sasuke chuckled at this.
"Actually, I like the way you've improved. I'm going to be watered down significantly so you can fight me. I'm forced only to taijutsu and the kawarimi no jutsu. When I think you've done enough, we'll begin. And I also am not aloud to use my Sharingan"
"Alright" Sasuke's reply was. He readied himself with some shuriken in one hand, and a smoke bomb in the other. Kakashi readied a kunai in both hands. Sasuke waited for him to make the first move. Which never came, he'd tell you. After what seemed like 20 minutes of waiting, Sasuke tossed his smoke bomb, which had taken Kakashi by surprise. Knowing his teacher was off-guard; he tossed the shurikens into the smoke, and began to rush in after throwing them, with a kunai in his hand. His eyes fortunately flashed again, allowing him to see through the smoke to where Kakashi was. He rushed in the smoke and stabbed the older ninja in the throat with his kunai.
Suddenly, his teacher puffed into a cloud of white smoke, which only revealed a log. Sasuke grinned. He repositioned his kunai in his hand quickly, then whirled around and stabbed something else, which turned out to be Kakashi.
Actually, it was another clone. And unfortunately, Sasuke's plan had failed; he'd hoped to fake his smarts rushing into the smoke, only knowing full well Kakashi was behind him. He didn't think Kakashi would take all these steps.
Sasuke quickly scouted for his teacher, who was perched on a nearby branch.
"Sasuke, to be a real shinobi, you must see underneath the underneath." He chimed, as he hopped down. He then charged at Sasuke with his two kunai in hand. Kakashi hadn't seen Sasuke react, so he quickly threw them.
"Shit!" Sasuke muttered as he saw the kunai were equipped with explosive tags. He went through the seals, and then removed a very large shuriken.
"Shadow Shuriken Technique!" Sasuke called out, tossing two large shuriken at once.
Kakashi watched as the shurikens cut straight through his own projectiles, which then detonated before arriving at Sasuke.
The boy knew this was his chance, and he dashed at his teacher, watching the two shadows of his shuriken begin to form and race after Kakashi.
Meanwhile, Kakashi watched the two shurikens come at him, and hopped up in the air, and quickly kicked the shurikens straight into the ground. He picked them up, and tossed them at Sasuke's shadow shurikens, and the projectiles met with a large noise. They clanked against each other and went off in their own directions, and Kakashi sighed in relief.
Then something happened Kakashi hadn't foreseen; Sasuke was right behind him, and he attacked his sensei just before Kakashi could detect him. Kakashi was knocked over from the blow. This time though, Sasuke saw no white smoke. Sasuke's lips curled into a soft smirk at the realization that he'd truly hit Kakashi. Sasuke's vision was beginning to decline, and his head had begun to hurt.
Kakashi quickly rose to his feet, and grinned at Sasuke, waving his hand.
"You did an excellent job, Sasuke. Well, for a genin, at least." Kakashi conceded. Following this, Kakashi burst into a large splash of water.
And before Sasuke could move, Kakashi had a kunai around his throat.
"It's not your fault; actually it's my doing that I wasn't pummeled by your kick. You couldn't have seen it…yet."
Sasuke slowly brought a hand to his aching head, and signaled for a cold compress from his teacher. Kakashi quickly aided the problem, handing one over to Sasuke.
Now something was bothering the jounin. Why was Sasuke suffering from these pains? Not that it was his time of the month, for he was a boy. This thought amused him.
'Yes, it's obviously the Sharingan. His Uchiha blood is not accepting it, yet it's not foreign. Could someone have injured his eyes somehow? This isn't something I've heard of…Maybe Sandaime-sama will know something.'
Removing the thoughts of Sasuke's pain, the silver-haired man lay him down under the tree he'd been reading in earlier. Sasuke squirmed in pain every so often, and after around 15 minutes, he'd fallen asleep, though his face was contorted from the pain.
Kakashi took the chance here to read his favorite book. Yet before he could do that, he spotted another silver-haired Konoha shinobi.
"Yakushi Kabuto of the medic squad?" The new man nodded his head. "I have something to ask; my student here is an Uchiha, and I'd like to help him, but I can't. He's suffering from pain in his head. I think it's stemmed to the awakening of his Sharingan, but I'm not sure completely. Is there something you can do?"
Kabuto examined Sasuke. Taking his blood pressure, his temperature, pulse, and breathing sequence, he told Kakashi he didn't know what could be wrong.
"I'd like to try one more thing" Kabuto said. He placed two fingers on Sasuke's forehead, and released some healing charka into his head. Sasuke's brow relaxed, and his face now looked normal.
"That's all I can do for now. You'd planned on seeing Hokage-sama, right?" Kakashi nodded. "By the way, Kakashi-san, there's something we need to discuss."
- - - - - - - - - - - -
A breeze of wind grazed Sakura's face as she relaxed. Her day was hard, just as the others days had been as well. So now here she sat, not under any tree, or shade. She didn't bother going to shade; it just made getting back up that much harder. She sipped some water from her water bottle, and slowly rose back up.
"Kakashi sensei, here I come." Sakura announced to Kakashi, and thus ending her break.
She began with cloning herself twice with the Bushin no jutsu. Now, each clone tossed a smoke bomb, and Sakura began her charge in. The pink-haired kunoichi then clicked her heels, still in stride, and her weights dropped.
Kakashi jumped from the smoke, only to see Sakura vanish from her spot, and then he felt a pain in his back. Sakura had landed a roundhouse kick on his spine, sending him back down to the ground, and causing a face-fault.
Now Kakashi hadn't expected her speed to be this high. He'd just seen her train, and she wasn't this quick. Maybe she masked her true speed?
Or maybe I was too busy reading, dammit. Kakashi sighed.
Sakura landed gracefully, and then grabbed a shuriken. She charged full-speed at her teacher, and engaged him in a high-speed taijutsu battle. She rapidly punched, blocked, and kicked her sensei as he tried to keep up and do the same. Eventually, Kakashi landed a punch to her jaw, leading to something unexpected.
Sakura transformed into a log, and then Kakashi knew what'd happened.
Meanwhile, Sakura appeared out of the remaining smoke, and punched her teacher right back in the jaw. He'd expected this, and had already moved away, leaving a log in his wake.
Each ninja took this moment to relax and catch their breath for a second. Sakura raced through her mind for ideas. She'd pretty much shown her sensei all she'd had. Kakashi meanwhile was slightly amazed at her progress. She'd turned out… much more interesting than he'd thought.
"Sakura, that was very well thought-out. It was a great effort, and you should be proud of yourself. Your speed has really shot up, along with your taijutsu." Kakashi complimented.
"I'd like to teach you a technique, but first place your weights back on." The silver-haired jounin ordered.
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"Hmm…So what are you going to teach me, sensei?" Naruto wondered aloud.
"I had 2 jutsu in mind for you." Kakashi formed some seals, and out popped a large scroll, which was tied up.
"I'm going to teach you the summoning jutsu for tracking dogs. It's a minor summoning pact, but you also need to write your name in blood here." He instructed.
"Aw…I don't like blood…But alright, here goes." Naruto complied.
The golden-haired teen bit his lip, and brought up his index finger to catch the blood. He then wrote down Naruto Uzumaki on a free space on the scroll. Kakashi then rolled up the scroll, and poofed it away. The one-eyed man then showed the boy the seals necessary for the jutsu.
Naruto slowly went through the seals until they were stuck in his mind. He was ready for a real summon now.
"Alright, I'm going to try this now." Naruto said. He focused his charka, and imagined the tracking dogs that Kakashi'd showed him a picture of.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Naruto called. The result was a puff of smoke, and two dogs he recognized from the picture, along with a few puppies. He guessed he's only partially done this jutsu correctly.
"Not bad, but not really good either, right?" Naruto asked. Kakashi nodded, and told him to focus his charka more, and then gather more of it.
"Okay, that's all? I'll try again." The boy spoke. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Naruto called again.
This time, around 7 dogs, all of which he'd seen in the picture, appeared before him, with headbands of Konoha. There was only one puppy.
"Now that's much better." Kakashi complimented. "The puppy you've still got is alright, the final tracking dog is very difficult to summon for someone of your age. In time, I'd imagine he will come around and poof in with the other tracking dogs. So really, don't get too upset about it." Kakashi said.
"By the way, around what percentage of charka did you use?"
"Hmm…I'd say 6 total." Naruto replied.
Kakashi blinked.
What a weird little kid.
He nodded, not showing his thoughts. "Naruto, we're going to spar, so get ready for me."
"Yeah, bring it." Naruto raced through his seals. "Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" he called.
Suddenly 9 new Narutos appeared, and each of them charged at Kakashi, with one Naruto staying back.
The Narutos attacked with random taijutsu. Some kicked, some punched, and one slapped, or tried to slap Kakashi. He quickly disposed of all of them, and then disappeared and reappeared behind the Naruto that stayed back.
"A good idea to stay safe, just not a good idea against a jounin." Kakashi complimented.
He sliced the last Narutos head off with a kunai, but it disappeared too. Kakashi'd totally expected this. But maybe not this.
Two hands grabbed and locked Kakashi's feet from underneath him. Then, Naruto appeared in front of him, and summoned some more clones. The Naruto team then attacked the immobile Kakashi, beating him thouroghly. Kakashi quickly lifted his headband, and revealed a red eye that Naruto hadn't known. Kakashi then obliterated the clones with taijutsu, and yanked the Naruto beneath him out of the ground, finally stabbing this one.
Naruto stood back, eyes open quite wide.
"What the hell is that?!" His voice was beginning to rise.
"I don't know. You can call it a defensive mechanism." The man smirked. "Tell me boy, where did you learn that Jutsu?"
"…That's none of your business. A ninja must keep his secrets." Naruto told him.
"Do you know about what lives inside of you, Naruto?" Kakashi asked him.
"Yes…I do. Though I'd like to change the subject." Naruto told him in a warring tone.
"No, I didn't mean it like that." Kakashi replied.
"Yeah, well, I did mean what I said like that." Naruto closed up.
Then Naruto formed his hands into a Tori sign. He began to glow in a light blue, and his voice rose into a bit of a growl.
Suddenly, he disappeared, and reappeared behind Kakashi, and combined that with a back fist, which was parried by Kakashi. Naruto then began an onslaught of attacks on his teacher, sending punches all over, Kakashi parrying every one. Still, Kakashi was moving fast, though he could keep this up for a long time.
Naruto then shot his foot up straight through Kakashi's guard. The foot landed snugly under the older ninja's chin, and sent him back a bit.
'Hell was that? He's using charka to energize himself, giving an increase of speed and power, but that kick was definitely not something he'd made up. Kakashi thought to himself.
Hehe…Thanks Rock Naruto thought to himself.
Naruto then began to ooze out more charka, and dashed right into Kakashi, again meeting him with ferocity, and sending kicks and punches at his teacher.
Kakashi replied with a quite powerful punch to Naruto's face, blasting him back 10 feet. Naruto lay there, grasping his face, screaming.
"Shit!" Naruto cursed, pain clouding his word-filter.
"Still, impressive. Quite interesting, young one." Kakashi marked.
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That concludes this chapter. That also ends the training saga, so yay.
Notes- Please do not think team 7 is over powered. It's such a common and unappealing mistake writers make, and I'm trying to avoid it. So please bear with me.
Anyway, future chapters will increase in length, only getting longer.
Next time – Team 7's first real mission