I don't own Naruto.
Sorry for the late update. I got lost on the road of life. Once again, thanks for all your support! Wow, this chapter is much longer than normal. I guess it is partly because of the bonus I added at the end of the chapter. You can skip over it if you want. You won't really miss anything in the story if you do. If you encounter anything wrong with the chapter, keep reading and let me know about it with a review afterwards. Here is chapter three.
A Time for Learning
"Hey! Just who are you, anyway?" Naruto asked loudly while pointing at the stranger.
"I'm your new sensei." the man replied with a grin, "and who are all of you?"
"What exactly makes you think we need a jounin instructor?" Sasuke asked confidently. They had been doing fairly well on their own so far. He then turned to see Sakura clinging to his arm, her eyes giving the stranger the same glare he was. That didn't last long… he thought, thinking of the peace he had been enjoying earlier. He jerked his arm away, and was about to continue his questioning when the loud-mouth interrupted.
"Yeah, that's right, we were doing just fine without a sensei! We even learned some strong jutsu all by ourselves!" The two that had been awake yesterday sweat-dropped. That idiot hadn't made even the slightest bit of progress on whatever jutsu it was he had picked.
The man was too busy thinking to listen right now. He had been watching the group since they left the village, and that Uchiha wasn't going to accept him anytime soon. He needed a way to turn the others to his side; they wouldn't be nearly as hard to convince.
"How about I treat you all to ramen whenever we stop at a town." he suggested as if offering a valuable treasure. This was met with a 'So what?' look from Sasuke, an 'Is that supposed to change our minds?' look from Sakura, and cheers of approval from Naruto. Hinata continued to sit quietly as she had done since the man arrived, but smiled at Naruto-kun's response to the offer. Once Naruto quieted down a bit, he put on his 'I completely understand the situation' look, with his eyes squinted closed and a thoughtful nod of his head.
"I say we keep him. He seems trustworthy and could probably teach us some cool ju-"
"He's not a dog, Naruto!" Sakura interrupted, bringing her fist down to meet the back of his head. Hinata let out a slight gasp, and Sasuke turned away as if he didn't know them. The man tried his best to not to burst into laughter, but it was no use; the scene before him was just too much to handle.
The four young shinobi turned in unison to stare at the strange man, who was now doubled over laughing as if he hadn't done so in years. It took several minutes, but he finally regained his composure and returned to the current debate.
"How about we vote." he suggested, the others all still staring. "There are five of us, so we will just vote on whether I will join you or not. All in favor?" He waited, seeing the blonde boy's hand raise almost immediately. Soon afterwards, just as he had expected, the pale-eyed girl's hand slowly rose as well.
The man stopped looking around, knowing those two would be his only supporters, then put his finger to his chin, as if he were attempting to make a difficult decision. The young shinobi watched expectantly, except for Sasuke, who just hung his head in annoyance. This guy was nearly as bad as Naruto, though admittedly not nearly as dumb. After a minute's wait, the man finally raised his own hand in the air. With a silent point to each raised hand to count the vote, he put down his hand and looked at the dark-haired boy and the girl beside him.
"All opposed?" Sasuke didn't bother raising his hand. He had been outsmarted. That guy must have had this planned from the start. All he could do now was accept defeat, or charge at the stranger with a kunai. He decided on the first, due to the fact that he knew nothing about this guy. Other than the man's recent joking behavior, he appeared to be too strong an adversary to take on.
"Well then, it looks like I'll be your jounin instructor. It doesn't look like all of you are in the best mood right now, so you can relax for an hour, then you will all introduce yourselves."
"My name is Naruto, and I'm gonna be the Hokage one day! I like ramen, and I don't like the three minute wait for instant ramen to cook." He crossed his arms, showing he was done with what could hardly be considered a proper introduction. Well, it was at least better than Sakura's, which didn't contain a single complete sentence; she just kept looking over at Sasuke!
"I won't be introducing myself to someone like you." Sasuke said cold-heartedly. An hour may not have been enough. thought their new sensei. Maybe next time I'll give him two…
The shy girl just sat for a moment, and began her introduction once everyone was finished with their own thoughts and had their attention trained on her. "I-I am Hyuuga Hinata. I-I…My goal i-is to become s-stronger." Even after an hour of thinking, that was it. She still couldn't think of something to take the place of what she so badly wanted to say, but couldn't. Nothing else could measure up to those few words that never escaped her lips.
"Well, now that I know who all of you are, I think it's time for me to introduce myself. You can call me Gansaku Shimei. I was once a shinobi of Konoha, but now, like yourselves, I am neither registered as an active Konoha shinobi or a missing-nin."
"So you're a retired shinobi?" questioned Sakura, sounding just as confused as the others looked.
"Something like that." he answered, meaning he didn't want to go into further detail. Luckily, that was good enough for them, and the questions ended before they actually began.
"Now that that's over," Shimei explained, "it appears that we won't have any missions, unless there is some sort of a disturbance in a town we are staying at. Therefore, I will be training the four of you during our time together, and if you meet my standards, I will take you to the chunnin exams when they roll around. However, at first you will be doing no hands-on training, but instead you will be learning, much like you did at the academy." Here a few groans came from the group. "But unlike at the academy, I will be teaching you advanced stuff about hand signs and so on and so forth." During the last sentence he had expertly transitioned his tone from very formal to uncaring, twirling his wrist in the air with the last couple of words.
"Now start packing up camp. We'll be traveling as I teach you, occasionally stopping at towns on the way to where ever I decide we're going." The would-be genin hadn't really paid much attention to the man as he said this, but by the time he finished the sentenced they noticed he was now sitting on the log with them, eating one of the last two fish.
"This is boring!" Naruto exclaimed as they entered Water Country. "Why do we have to learn what each hand sign does if you're not letting us practice any jutsu?"
During the walk to Water Country all they had done was listen to Shimei lecture them on the specifics of how each hand sign molds their chakra, and which had signs were often included in certain types of jutsu. He given them the slightest chance to speak, even teaching them while they rested.
"Calm down, Naruto. Let's review yesterday's lesson, and then we'll proceed to a new subject rather than individual hand signs. Yesterday I taught you all the specifics of the Tiger seal, if I'm not mistaken. Do any of you remember it's purpose?"
"I know," Sakura chimed in as just as she usually did, "It allows the user to focus large amounts of chakra, in many cases it is used to convert that chakra into other forms of energy, such as heat or electricity."
"Correct as usual. You know, you may want to occasionally want to give the others a chance to answer." Sakura blushed slightly at what she took as a compliment, Naruto nodding in agreement with their sensei. Truthfully, he hadn't known a single answer so far, but he couldn't let everyone else know that.
"Today's lesson will be a bit more complicated. I will be explaining how hand signs are combined into series' to form jutsus. Usually, they are not combined directly, but lined up in small series', which are used in succession to achieve the desired result in the form of ninjutsu. For instance, the series used to call up en enormous amount of water is: Ox, Monkey, Rabbit, Rat, Boar, Bird, Ox, Horse. It can be found at the beginning of some of the more advanced water jutsus such as Water Dragon Missile Jutsu and Giant Water Vortex Jutsu. The differing results of those jutsus occur due to the additional series' of hand signs they contain. The rest of Giant Water Vortex Jutsu is 'Dog, Tiger, Dog, Tiger, Serpent, Tiger, Ox, Monkey, Rabbit', while the Water Dragon Missile Jutsu has many more series' added to it."
"Ano, Shimei-sensei? H-How is this used in a r-real battle?" The pale-eyed girl asked as they continued walking.
"Well, it is mostly how new jutsu get created. A person has to first decide on a desired effect, and learn which series' of hand signs will create it. Next, they need to repeatedly practice using the hand signs to mold their chakra for the jutsu, or it nothing will happen. This means that just using a bunch of hand signs, even if they are the correct ones, will not necessarily cause a jutsu to happen, Naruto." he answered, giving Naruto a quick warning glare. "You have to know what the hand signs will do and adjust your chakra properly, usually practicing for a long while before it will work well enough to be used for real. I myself created several jutsu using this knowledge."
This caught Naruto's attention. Any jutsu he wanted, he could make! Now if only he could remember what the hand signs did…What was Tiger again? Something about water?
"And as for your question, Hinata," the man continued, interrupting Naruto's thoughts of destructive power, "The only one I've know to use this knowledge in battle is a past student of mine. He has, how should I say, very good eyesight, and can determine what a jutsu will do before it is even executed. That, combined with an ability of his, allows him to perfectly replicate the enemy's jutsu and has earned him quite a reputation."
"Ah, here we are." Shimei said as they reached the end of the forest. A small town stood before them, the ocean within view. Not too far away, an unfinished bridge could be seen, stretching out across the sea to meet what could barely be made out to be an island on the horizon. "I'll go get us some rooms. You all can explore the town for a while. I assume you'll enjoy it after listening to me talk the whole trip. Oh, and by the way, don't get into any trouble. I have more lessons to teach you and we can't be wasting time."
"Hey, but you said…" Naruto stopped in mid-sentence, as the jounin was already gone. Naruto grumbled something about a promise, then jogged to catch up with the others, who had began to walk away without him. As he caught up he found Sasuke walking along calmly. Sakura was trailing a step behind him and about a foot to his left, trying to start a conversation. Hinata, he realized, wasn't with them. Turning, he saw her slowing from a jog to a walk beside him. She had apparently waited behind with him, until he took off after Sasuke and Sakura, leaving her to catch up. He mentally slapped himself for being inconsiderate.
"Oh, sorry Hinata. I didn't realize you hadn't gone ahead with the others."
The shy girl looked at the ground, turning her head slightly away from him. "Daijoubu desu, Naruto-kun." she said, somewhat apologetically.
Hearing her say it like that, he waved his in front of him defensively. "N-no, Hinata, I didn't mean it like that. It's not your fault; I just wasn't paying attention, that's all." He could have sworn she smiled when he said it, but her head was still down. If she's smiling, why's she still hiding her face? Oh well, better not to ask about these things. He rubbed his head, remembering the time he had asked Sakura why she was so obsessed with Sasuke. He knew Hinata wouldn't hit him, but that didn't mean she would enjoy being asked about it.
Sasuke stopped and turned around, causing the other three shinobi to stop abruptly. "I've been thinking, that guy's starting to be a real bother. If I'm ever to get stronger, I need train everyday. I don't have time for his endless lectures on hand signs."
"Yeah, Sasuke's right!" Sakura agreed expectedly, "All that guy does is talk about how hand signs are used, but he won't even let us use them! What's the point in teaching us if he's just going to stop us from using jutsu anyway! It doesn't make sense, I tell you. We should just leave him here and continue on our own like in the beginning."
Naruto was about to open his mouth to protest, when Sasuke cut him off. "I'll make sure you get some ramen before we leave, dobe." Now Naruto was mad. First Shimei-sensei, and now Sasuke too! Damn it! Was he really so predictable that everyone could tell what he was thinking! Eh, I guess it doesn't matter; ramen is ramen, even if it does come from Sasuke.
"We've got to go now," Sasuke continued, "before he gets back. You'll just have to get some instant ramen from a store or something. Anyway, I'm not waiting." Naruto quickly ran into a nearby store and bought as much instant ramen as he could fit in his pockets, returning to in the group in mere minutes with a triumphant 'I win the challenge!' look. It wasn't long after that before they were out of the village.
Shimei finished checking in to a quaint hotel in the center of town. Walking outside, he jumped up to the roof of the building. He scanned the town, looking for his team, but to no avail. Damn it! he thought to himself, They ditched me! And just when I was going to take them back for the chunnin exam. I wonder if this inn gives refunds…
Bonus: The Battle of Mist and Shadow
A lazy genin stood on the bridge, which was now shrouded in mist. What a troublesome situation. He didn't cast a shadow in this dense mist, and he wasn't exactly sure which direction the others were in, other than the single clue of a loud yell from a particularly annoying girl.
He tossed a kunai toward the towering ninja before him, which was easily avoided as the rouge ninja jumped back a foot. "It finally worked." The genin said with a smirk. "I've got you in my shadow imitation."
"What are you talking about, you little brat! You don't have a shadow here! I can still move, see!" the mist-nin known as Zabuza raised his huge sword with ease, proving he was still free, but not for long. As his sword reached head height, he felt something seemingly shapeless hit him, and his mind went blank.
"Got him?" Shikamaru asked bored, already knowing the answer.
"Yep." The mist-nin's from replied back, "but next time could you throw the kunai harder? I could barely hear where it hit."
"Whatever." By now the mist had faded, and another, mask-wearing, mist-nin came into view, dodging a giant green boulder, his senbon being easily deflected. "Haku! Get over here!" the possessed mist-nin called out, hoping she was right about hearing him called that earlier. To her relief, the enemy responded, and was at her side almost immediately. "Bring me that employer of ours, I should like to have a word with him."
"Hai, Zabuza-san." the boy obeyed without question, seemingly disappearing as he dashed off into the trees. Everyone was surprised to see him return only minutes later, with a bound captive that was almost short enough to be a child.
"You are under arrest for attempted assassination of an important figure." said a deep voice to the bundle the mist-nin had dropped to the ground. The voice was from none other than Konoha's Sarutobi Asuma, who had until now stayed hidden watching what he could see of the fight through the mist, which wasn't much. He hadn't been avoiding fighting, he just wanted to let his team do this on their own.
Shikamaru formed a hand sign, and soon had Zabuza in the grasp of his shadow. He formed another hand sign afterwards, one he wasn't too familiar with. "Release!" said the possessed Zabuza, forming the same hand sign as Shikamaru.
"Zabuza Momochi, The demon of the mist." said Asuma in an almost mocking tone. Zabuza responded with a low growl. "You're employer will most likely receive the death penalty once evidence surfaces of all the crimes he has committed against Wave Country. This means you aren't under his employment anymore, do you wish to continue the fight."
"No" he answered gruffly, Haku standing at his side. When he started struggling to get free, Asuma gave the signal that it was okay to let him go. "Haku, were going on a trip." he said suddenly, without a bit of elaboration on the subject. He then sped off into the forest, Haku at his heels. "Mission accomplished!" Ino said happily, having joined the group after returning to her own body. "Barbeque! Barbeque!" Chouji shouted through a mouth full a chips. Asuma shook his head in thought. A lazy bum, a loudmouth, and a glutton…I guess my team could be worse. "Okay, I'll take you all for barbeque to celebrate." he said smiling. He turned to the man they were assigned to protect. "Tazuna-san, is there a good all-you-can-eat barbeque restaurant in your village?"
End of chapter 3
Well, how was it? Please leave a review about what you think. Also I have some quick notes. The name Gansaku Shimei literally translates to either 'fake name' or 'fake identity'. If you read the bonus, it allowed for some much needed action, even if it wasn't much. Hopefully our group will run into some trouble soon. Wait, did I say 'hopefully'? That wasn't too nice of me. That's all for now, remember to please leave a review!