Chapter 22: Genkai's Brutal Training
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Yu Yu Hakusho.
A/N: First of all, I'd like to say thank you to Hishman for giving the kind of review I usually want to see. First off, some of these chapters were written a while back and left dormant on my computer. That was back when my writing wasn't at it's current level. I didn't understand the concept of character development very well. When the Dark Tournament ends, I plan on editing chapters 2-6 to further explain certain parts of the plot. Sakura's involvement in the story will increase as she becomes older. It will be the same with nearly all of Konaha's genin. I plan on setting apart quite a few chapters, one detailing each characters training. On a side note, anything related to relationships will most definitely pick up when the characters advance in age. I mean, who wants to read about twelve year olds making out?
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Naruto opened his eyes and looked around him to find Koenma stamping papers and George the Blue Ogre bantering with him. He then noticed he was sleeping on a couch positioned against the wall furthest from Koenma's desk. Eventually, Naruto pulled himself off of the couch and fell onto the floor.
"Ah, it seems sleeping beauty has finally decided to wake up," Koenma comically remarked while stamping.
"Very funny, pooh bear," Naruto back sassed while still sprawled across the floor.
"You should get up, Naruto. Botan should be here to take you to Genkai's dojo in, oh, five minutes."
"I hate you, toddler," Naruto said. "You just couldn't let me have more time to sleep, could you?"
"Nope," Koenma simply replied.
Right after five minutes passed, just as Koenma said, the doors to the palace opened with Botan at the door. Naruto stumbled over to her, rubbed his eyes, and said he was ready to go. Botan nodded and led him outside. Quickly, before leaving, Naruto did a short prayer and grabbed onto Botan's oar.
"Here we go!" Botan yelled with her usual enthusiasm before taking off at full speed once again.
"Just close your eyes, Naruto, and it'll be over before you know it," Naruto told himself while flying through the air.
After a short amount of time, Botan passed through the barrier and entered the Human World. She rode through the clouds and eventually plummeted through the sky downwards, towards a mountain top. When they came closer, Naruto noticed a dojo standing alone at the top of the mountain. As they made it just over the dojo area, Botan shook the oar, causing Naruto to let go.
"Sorry Naruto, but this is where you have to get off!" Botan yelled before disappearing in the clouds above.
Naruto soared through the air and after plummeting for a few minutes, landed in a lake right behind the dojo. Right by the lake was Genkai, who was in the middle of training her pupil Yusuke until Naruto hit the lake. Right after hitting the lake, Naruto came up almost instantly, but was forced to get out of the lake as fast as possible when piranhas began biting at his body.
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One Hour Later
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Over the time of one hour, Naruto had explained all about his presence to Genkai and after thinking for a while, she decided having a second person to beat up in brutal training would be fun. Yusuke and Naruto talked between each other briefly over that small period of time and slowly began bragging between each other. After everyone was finished talking, Genkai ordered Yusuke and Naruto to report to the dojo, which they both immediately did.
"In every person, spirit energy resides, but it has to be awakened somehow. For Yusuke over here, he had to die first for his energy to come out of a very long hibernation. Speaking of you Yusuke, give me one hundred and ten laps around the dojo."
Yusuke grumbled but stood up and went outside shortly after he was commanded to. When he left, Genkai walked over to Naruto and examined him before coming to a certain conclusion.
"The only way to get you to utilize your untapped spirit energy is for you to drain yourself of all your chakra," Genkai examined distinctly, but as met with annoying whines by Naruto.
"But without chakra, I'll die," Naruto whined while also pouting at Genkai.
"Shut the hell up, kid. I've got that part planned out. Just follow me," Genkai said.
Genkai led Naruto to a closet in the farthest away corner of her dojo and opened it, revealing multiple weapons and other assorted valuables. She picked up a set of four weights and threw them at Naruto for him to catch. Naruto prepared to catch them and prepared for the worst, because he thought the weights would weight more than the dojo, but they weighed no more than that of a feather.
"Are you serious, Genkai-sensei? These are weightless!" Naruto yelled while dangling the weights from his hands.
"Just put them on," Genkai ordered while tapping her foot.
"Fine," Naruto grumbled before sitting and putting on each weight.
Minutes later, Naruto stood with each weight on each of his limbs. He wondered what their purpose was for.
"Good, with those weights on, your chakra will slowly drain during training, thus increasing their weight and increasing the chance of you releasing your hibernating spiritual energy," Genkai explained bluntly.
"I-I have to get these things off. I can't die!" Naruto panicked and even resorted to biting his nails.
"Tough luck, boy, but those won't come off unless I do it myself."
"Great."
Genkai ordered Naruto outside and when outside, she pointed to the lake he originally fell in. Standing in a row across the lake were super thin poles that Naruto could hardly make out while cross examining the lake. Yusuke walked over, panting, and stood next to Genkai as she joined Naruto by the lake training area.
"So you've picked that training exercise for him on his first day here, old lady? Isnt that pretty harsh for him?" Yusuke asked while looking at Genkai.
"He is basically worthless right now. If he is fighting in that tournament, his potential needs to be unlocked," Genkai merely told Yusuke. "I will explain the exercise to him and while I do, report to the cliffs behind my dojo for your next exercise."
"Fine Genkai, I'll be off now."
When Yusuke walked off, Genkai approached Naruto and looked over her lake. She then turned to Naruto.
"For this exercise, you must make your way over to the other side of the lake by hopping each of those small poles. It's plain and simple."
Left by himself, Naruto forced chakra to his feet and began to hop each pole one by one until, on the fourth pole, he fell off do to being unbalanced. He landed in the freezing cold water and began swimming back to shore as fast as possible to save himself from getting eaten. After four hours time, Naruto's personal best had been twenty-four poles, two away from the end of the lake. On his intended final run, a worn out Naruto hopped each pole at an alarmingly slow rate due to the increasing weight of his training weights. Determined to finish, Naruto made it to the twenty-fourth pole again and kept his balance while keeping his eyes fixed on the next pole.
"Just two more poles. I can do this," Naruto said, determined.
With another small jump, he landed directly on the next pole, nearly snapping it. He felt the pole bend and right as it collapsed under Naruto's increased weight, Naruto dove for the final pole, managing to grab onto the top of it. There Naruto was, hanging from a snapping pole on an old lady's compound. Quickly he closed his eyes and spun himself around the pole before letting go and landing, back first, on the cold, hard ground. The devices that he strapped on himself, by orders of Genkai, were as heavy as ever and kept him weighed down.
"I see you've finally finished," Genkai spoke, breaking the short silence.
"What exactly was that exercise for?" Naruto managed to get out.
"It was an easy way for me to get you to drain yourself of your chakra, an easy way for you to do my work for me while I train my pupil."
"W-what?!" Naruto yelled, outraged at this act of laziness. "What am I going to do now?"
"You're going to stand up and face me in a fight," Genkai responded while stretching.
"You never run out of energy, old lady," Yusuke chimed in after being eerily quiet for quite a few minutes.
Naruto slowly, but surely, picked himself off of the ground and stood directly in place as Genkai charged him at an incredible speed. She began to unleash a multitude of kicks and punches to Naruto, beating him senseless, but Naruto still kept his ground.
'Kyuubi, any help here?'
"I'm sorry kit, but you must go at this on your own. I cannot help you."
Genkai continued to punch and kick Naruto at an alarming speed, still confident bating him to a near death state would unleash his spirit energy.
'I can do this. All I have to do is believe in myself. I can't die,' Naruto mentally pledged to himself. 'I WILL NOT DIE!'
Suddenly, an orange aura enveloped Naruto and his spiritual pressure grew in size, causing the weights on him to unlock themselves and fall off. He felt a change in his power and looked at Genkai right before jumping back and telling her to stop.
"Genkai-sensei, have I unlocked my spirit energy?" Naruto asked while the orange aura continued to bounce off of his body.
"I believe so. You even unlocked the weights. Now all you have to do is manipulate it in whatever way you can," Genkai further told Naruto.
"Yeah, like a weapon. I can do a spirit gun and my friend can do a spirit sword. It's something like that," Yusuke let Naruto know why lying on the ground.
"Um, I'm not sure what mine is. Let me think…"
"Kit, I've examined your spirit wave length. It is nearly the same as that Urameshi kid's, but my energy alters it slightly."
"Here goes nothing then. Demon Gun!" Naruto screamed while emitting a moderately sized ball of orange spirit energy from his right index finger.
"Hey! That kid copied me!" Yusuke managed to shout while watching Naruto.
"You're an idiot Yusuke. This is very rare but possible. Both of your wavelengths are nearly the same, thus allowing the both of you the ability to manipulate your spirit energy in the form of a gun. It is as simple as that."
Yusuke and Naruto bickered between each other like children for a few minutes until Genkai ordered them to quit, which they did.
"You both have one more task. So, don't get your hopes up for bed time anytime soon."
"What?! You've got to be kidding me, Grandma, it's dark out. We deserve some kind of rest!" Yusuke screamed in great annoyance.
"Yeah, I agree!" Naruto too yelled.
"I'm going to ignore your complaints and just get on with it. You two have the rest of the night, and a few of the hours in the morning, to complete my obstacle course that I've set up," Genkai said, eyes closed and arms crossed. "The course is set up in three different locations. The first of the locations in my obstacle course is the Dark Mountain, which is right behind the cliffs behind my dojo. If you make it out of there, you'll find yourself in my forest full of demons. If you two manage to get through there, you'll find my temple. In there are two rings that are guarded by traps. Bring those to me by eleven fifty-nine tomorrow morning. That is all," Genkai informed Naruto and Yusuke.
"That was a mouthful," Yusuke spat. "You ready Naruto?"
"Yeah, sure," Naruto shortly responded.
After taking in Genkai's information, Yusuke and Naruto both took off towards the cliffs, leaving Genkai at the lake. Eventually, the dynamic duo of loudmouths reached the cliffs
"You can't be serious. Cliffs?" Naruto pouted.
"Heh, I have an idea Naruto. Are you able to fire anymore demon spirit bullets?" Yusuke asked.
"You've got nine total shots a day, one for each of my tails. Basically, you can use your Demon Gun eight more times today, but don't be reckless. There could be side effects."
"Um, yeah Yusuke, I think I do. Why do you ask?"
"Naruto, we're going to blow past the cliffs! You in?" Yusuke turned to Naruto while pointing at the cliffs.
Grinning, Naruto complied and pointed his right index finger right at the cliffs while Yusuke did the same.
"Spirit Gun!"
"Demon Gun!"
Yusuke's bigger ball of spirit energy fused with Naruto's ball of demon and spirit energy to create an even larger ball of mixed energy which blew through the cliffs, creating a passageway for them to walk through. They both laughed for a minute and ran through the passage to the mountain. When they reached the mountain, Naruto looked at it, trying to find any kind of stairwell or maybe even an elevator.
"Looks like we'll have to climb it, blowing it up doesn't seem like a possibility. You ready to climb, Naruto?"
"As ready as ever Yusuke," Naruto grinned while replying.
"Then let's go!" Yusuke commanded while he and Naruto began to run, preparing to jump.
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George the Blue Ogre: Hello everyone. I'm George and Esthar47 has hired me to be the new narrator for this story. Enough about me, let's get on with next chapters preview.
Preview: With only a short amount of time to do so, can Yusuke and the newest arrival Naruto get to Genkai's Temple and secure the rings? Or will they fail? Find out on the next chapter of The Venture of Four!
End of Chapter 22