"Maa, that wasn't so bad was it?" Kakashi asked cheerfully.
His students were too busy gasping for breath, bent over with their hands on their knees to give an answer.
Naruto was the first to get his voice back. "Y-Yeah, it was just fine, dattebayo," he said breathlessly. "All we did was do some stretches before running fifteen laps around the really large training ground, fifty push-ups, and fifty sit-ups. Piece of cake!"
Sasame glared at him slightly. "Not...all of us...have your...stamina...Naruto," she said in between pants.
Sasuke said nothing, his pride not allowing him to show that he was more tired than his male teammate.
Kakashi sighed dramatically. "I hope you guys aren't too tired," he said forlornly. "We still have group training as well as individual training, not to mention the mission Hokage-sama will give us."
Naruto straightened up immediately, despite his tiredness. "Bring it on, dattebayo!" he said. "We can take it! Right guys?" he glanced at his teammates.
Sasame and Sasuke both straightened up, ignoring their aching limbs. "Right," Sasame said after taking a few breaths.
"Hn."
Sasame glanced at him in amusement. "We really need to work on your responses."
Sasuke looked at her. "Hn."
"See, you're just proving my point."
"Okay!" Kakashi clapped his hands, ending the discussion. "Time for group training. I hope you guys are up for it."
"Of course we're up for it!" Naruto said while pointing a finger at Kakashi dramatically. "Give us all you got, Kakashi-sensei! We can handle it!"
Ten minutes later, Sasame was cursing Naruto in her mind to the deepest pits of hell. They were running again, only this time, Kakashi-sensei had given them leaves stick to their body using their chakra.
They had one sticking to their forehead, one on each elbow, and one on both knees. The point of the exercise was to keep the leaves stuck to their body while they ran laps around the training ground like earlier. They had to run five laps in total, and if one of the leaves fell off, they had to start all over.
Naruto had to start over five times because the leaves that were supposed to stick to his knees and elbows kept falling off. His frustration kept getting in the way and he loses his concentration, causing him to stop moulding his chakra.
Sasuke had to start over twice because, once he started running after a while, the leaf on his forehead started to slip off. He became frustrated and lost his concentration, and caused the other leaves to fall off as well.
Sasame had to start over three times because the leaves on her elbows would start sliding off. She'd panic and lose her concentration over the other leaves and then they'd all fall off as well.
Kakashi told them that if they can do this exercise at least halfway decent, then they would have a pretty good idea on how to divert their chakra for later uses.
"Being able to mould chakra is a big part to being a shinobi," he had said before they started. "If you're not able to mould your chakra or properly control it, then the techniques you're able to do are extremely limited. I don't expect you to have all the leaves still stuck to your body by the end of the exercise, because this is only to help give you an idea on how to control your chakra. Tomorrow, we'll be doing something different."
After an hour of running around, focusing on converting their chakra and struggling to keep the leaves from falling off their body, Kakashi finally told them to stop.
Sasame couldn't help but fall to her knees when he told them that. Not only was she physically tired, but she since hasn't used her chakra so extensively or continuously before, she had slight chakra exhaustion.
Naruto, being the chakra monster that he was, almost didn't feel the strain on his own reserves, but he was still physically tired, especially from the earlier warm-up, evident from the way he was bent over and gasping for breath.
Sasuke was used to using his chakra a lot. When his clan was still around, they had a tradition that their shinobi must be able to perform a fireball jutsu as a sort of coming-of-age rite, so he's used to practicing with his chakra. However, even he had slight chakra exhaustion to join in his physical exhaustion.
"I'm proud of all of you," Kakashi said as he stood over them, a slight glint of approval in his visible eye.
Naruto looked at him in slight confusion. "Why would you be proud of us?" he asked, his face scrunched up as he stared at Kakashi. "We all had to start over at least two times each, and we always had one or more leaves falling off of us."
"As I said earlier Naruto, I didn't expect you guys to have all the leaves still stuck to your body by the end of the exercise," Kakashi explained. "It's one thing to be able to mould your chakra, it's another thing to control it well enough to keep the leaves stuck to your body at different chakra points."
"Oh."
"Now, next on the agenda is individual training, and then we'll head to the Hokage's office to get a mission," Kakashi said.
That seemed to get rid of most of Naruto's exhaustion. "Alright!" he shouted, his back straightening and his eyes lighting up in enthusiasm. "Finally, I'll learn awesome shinobi skills, dattebayo!"
"His moods change as quickly as a flickering light," Sasame muttered to Sasuke.
The corner of Sasuke's mouth tilted upwards in a slight smirk before his impassive look settled back on his face. "It's annoying," he murmured to her.
"Maybe, but I think it could be a little endearing sometimes."
Her only answer was a snort.
"How are you going to train us individually Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, practically vibrating in excitement and anticipation.
In response to the question posed, Kakashi made a hand sign, causing two more of him to appear in puffs of smoke. "After group training, two of you will go with my clones and one of you will stay with me."
Sasame finally straightened up to grin at Kakashi. "Sounds good," she said. "So who's going with who?"
"Naruto and Sasuke will go with my clones. Sasame will stay here with me this time."
"Awesome!" Naruto cheered.
Kakashi gestured to his clones. "Alright, Naruto, Sasuke, pick a clone and follow them," he ordered.
They both went up to one of the Kakashi's and was led away from the other, until it was just Sasame and the original one left.
"So what are we working on sensei?" she asked as she looked up at him.
Kakashi gestured to the tonfas strapped at her sides. "I'm going to teach you how to use those," he said. "Now, take them out."
Sasame did as he said, taking them from their holsters and gripping the handles.
"Tonfas are very versatile weapons," Kakashi explained. "They are designed to be used in melee combat but they can be used in a variety of ways."
Sasame tilted her head, a trickle of confusion entering her eyes. "What do you mean by that?"
"Tonfas are blunt weapons. They can't slash or stab as a blade can, but if they're used the right way, they can break or shatter bones and can even deflect kunai, shuriken, and swords."
Kakashi reached out and gently took one of the tonfas from Sasame. "There are three ways to hold a tonfa; the most common way is to grip the handle with the long end being braced against the bottom your forearm," he demonstrated what he was talking about as he talked. The long end reached just the end of his elbow and the other end jutted out slightly past his fist. "Holding it this way allows you to throw punches, block attacks, and use elbow strikes."
He shifted his grip on the weapon. "Another way to hold a tonfa is the reverse grip, so that the long end is jutting out past your fist and the short end is on your forearm." He demonstrated once more.
"And finally, the last way to hold a tonfa is by grabbing the long end with the handle facing downwards," Kakashi finished, demonstrating what he said for the last time.
He gave Sasame back her tonfa. "The trick to using tonfas is to be quick but decisive. You have to be able to shift your grip on the tonfa without hesitation or much thinking. Your hits must be hard and precise and you have to make judgment calls on how to handle it. For example, if an enemy shinobi is coming at towards you, you'll have about a second to decide how to hold your tonfa to engage in a fight."
Sasame was listening to his explanation with rapt attention. 'Wow, I didn't think about most of that when Kaa-san gifted them to me,' she thought to herself.
When Sasame's mom presented her with the tonfas, she knew that she'd most likely be a close combat fighter. They're melee weapons after all. Kind of hard to use if your opponent is a couple of yards from you.
However, she wasn't aware of the variety that they can have. She was aware of some of the things Kakashi said. But the rest of it? It left her in awe.
Aloud she said, "I had no idea they were so versatile."
"Nowadays most shinobi either focus on bladed weapons or not use weapons at all, besides kunai and shuriken, and focus on ninjutsu," Kakashi explained.
Kakashi gestured to the weapons in her hands. "Now, how about I show you katas for them?"
~wWw~
Sasuke followed his sensei's clone to a secluded part of the training ground.
On the outside, he held onto his calm and sedated façade, but excitement thrummed within him.
After he woke up in the hospital following his clan's brutal execution by his brother, he devoted almost all of his time to training.
But he didn't have much to go on. The more powerful jutsus of his clan, some C-rank and above, can only be read by someone who possesses the Sharingan.
Also, even though Sasuke is quite talented in taijutsu, he feels he could be better. He didn't have anyone he felt good enough to hold a decent spar with him so he could improve himself. Back at the academy, the spars they had were unfulfilling and didn't really challenge him.
Chouji wasn't committed to the fights because, in his words, 'he didn't like to fight his friends'. The only way he would give a fight his all was if someone insulted his friends or insulted him by calling him fat.
Not even Sasuke was stupid enough to make that mistake.
Shikamaru...was lazy as hell. The guy just had no motivation whatsoever. He'd throw a few punches, and maybe a kick or two, but before Sasuke can actually get into the fight, he'd forfeit the match. Then he'd go off somewhere to take a nap.
Shino was okay. He wasn't really fit and he'd go down after five minutes against Sasuke but he was smart, indicated by how strategically he fought. Sasuke can respect that, albeit grudgingly.
Kiba was...wild. And chaotic. And overconfident. And boastful. He always made the first move and charged in headfirst without a plan. He goes down easily.
And then there was Naruto. As much as Naruto seems to be clueless in a lot of things, especially when it came to bookwork, when he fights, he's surprisingly unpredictable in a weird way. He's like Kiba in that he's wild and chaotic and overconfident. But as a fight goes on, Sasuke notices that he adjusts where he strikes his opponent as he figures them out.
'It's one of the reasons he lasts so long against me,' Sasuke thought with a grumble. However, Naruto still loses to him in the end.
But now, Sasuke thinks back to what Sasame had said about their sensei, and the excitement within himself grew.
'To have someone like him, who's powerful, intelligent, and skillfully misleading; for someone like him to be the person instructing me is perfect,' Sasuke thought with a smirk. 'He isn't as incompetent as I thought he was at first glance.'
Sasuke was so lost in his thoughts that he almost missed the clone of Kakashi stopping. He too stopped, preventing himself from crashing into the man before him.
He looked up at him. "So, what are we-" he started to ask but ducked to barely avoid a punch that seemed to come out of nowhere.
Sasuke stared up at his sensei in shock. "Kakashi-sensei? What are you doing?"
"I would like to see if we can improve your taijutsu," he said, shifting into a fighting stance. "Especially your defenses." He then lashed out at him with a kick. Sasuke hardly had enough time to duck underneath it before he came under a more heavy assault. He was barely able to even throw out his own hits as he was too busy blocking or dodging punches, kicks, jabs, and basically every other type of hit.
Despite the difficulty, Sasuke was smirking ever so slightly. 'This is what I need,' he thought euphorically. 'No one has given me a fight like this yet.'
Right when he was starting to get used to the pace Kakashi had set, something happened that completely threw him off his game. He thought he caught an opening in his sensei's defense and went in for a hit.
It was then that Kakashi asked him a question. Just seven questions, yet they totally threw him off guard.
"Did you know I knew your brother?"
When he heard that, he faltered in his attack and his feet stumbled. Kakashi took that opportunity to land a hit on Sasuke's face, causing the genin to fall back onto the ground.
Sasuke hurried to his feet. "You knew my brother?" he asked in a tight voice, ignoring the slight sting on his face.
The clone of Kakashi-sensei merely ignored him as he launched another punch at his head. Sasuke ducked but he wasn't quick enough and Kakashi's fist clipped the top of his head.
Kakashi kept coming at him with more hits, and Sasuke defended against him once more, but his concentration was off. Kakashi was able to get more punches and kicks in and the few times that Sasuke tried to strike back, his attacks were sloppy.
Kakashi's clone sighed almost inaudibly.
He spoke up again. "You're brother and I were on the same ANBU team."
Again, Sasuke's focus was thrown, allowing Kakashi to land a solid kick to his chest, sending the genin back a few feet before he landed on his back once more.
Kakashi stood over Sasuke as the genin clutched at his chest. "You need to work on that Sasuke," the clone said.
Sasuke glared. "Work on what?" he said snappishly.
"Your reaction to everything regarding your brother," he said sharply, causing Sasuke to look away and glare at the ground.
"I've read your file when you were assigned to be one of my students, and I've heard what you said when we were all introducing ourselves. You want to kill your brother to avenge for your clan."
Sasuke's head snapped around to glare at Kakashi. "So what?!" he hissed. "He massacred my clan! He killed my parents! It is my duty to kill him in return! To punish him for doing something he said was to just test his skills!"
"I never said you were to give up on killing him," Kakashi said shortly. "I said you need to control your reaction to him. What do you think will happen if you come across an enemy shinobi who taunts you with knowledge on Itachi? Will you abandon a mission just to fight them? Will you attack them relentlessly until they give you the information you want if they even have it? Will you endanger your teammates just to find out what they could possibly know? Will you lose focus like what you just did in the fight against me not five minutes ago?"
The whole time he was talking, Kakashi's eye never wavered from Sasuke's face. Sasuke, however, felt his face flush in both embarrassment and anger as he pointed everything out to him, and looked away with a scowl on his face.
"At this rate, you're going to get yourself killed before you even complete your revenge," Kakashi finished speaking.
Sasuke's hands were clenched into fists, his nails digging into the flesh of his palm hard enough that he was sure would draw blood and his knuckles were white. "What do you want from me?" he asked bitterly. "I need to kill him! He needs to be punished!"
"What I want from you is control," Kakashi said. "Your ambition is yours to do what you wish, but if actions you do for it endanger the others, that's when you cross the line. If your actions endanger your teammates, I will not hesitate to drag you in front of Hokage-sama and get you taken off the shinobi corps until you could control your anger
Sasuke looked away as his sensei's clone uttered those words. He absolutely hated being talked down to as if he was some disobedient child that needed to be put in their place. However, if he wanted to be able to continue being a shinobi and to get trained by one of the best, he'll have to play nice. For now.
He didn't say any of what he was thinking out loud. "Understood," he spoke up curtly, a scowl painted across his face.
And that's the best that Kakashi can hope for at this point. After all, he's only been his sensei officially for a day. Well, the original him anyway.
"Alright," he said. "Now, stand up. Let's actually try and polish up your taijutsu."
Sasuke, realizing that he was still on the ground, hastily scrambled to his feet and met his sensei's one-eyed gaze head-on.
"Alright."
~wWw~
Naruto had a spring in his step as he followed his sensei's clone.
'What will he teach me, dattebayo?' he thought excitedly to himself. 'Will it be a kickass ninjutsu? A super cool fighting style that only I can do? Something only future Hokages can learn?'
When Kakashi finally stopped, a good distance away from his other teammates, Naruto couldn't hold it in anymore. "So what are ya gonna teach me Kakashi-sensei?! A cool new jutsu?!"
The Kakashi-clone sighed to himself. 'He won't like this,' he thought forlornly.
"Naruto, we're going to fix how you fight."
Naruto's reaction didn't disappoint. "WHAT!?" he said, a scowl appearing almost instantly on his face. "Why do we have to fix how I fight? I fight just fine, dattebayo! Just teach me a new jutsu!"
"Naruto," Kakashi sighed. "We have to fix how you fight. I noticed yesterday when you spared against me that the way you throw your punches are sloppy, the way you kick is off, and your stances leave you open for an attack."
Naruto looked at him in confusion. "Really? But I learned all of that at the Academy."
Kakashi raised a brow in surprise (the one that was visible anyway). "Really? Who taught you the katas for those moves and stances?" he asked.
Naruto opened his mouth to answer but then paused as an 'aha!' expression crossed his face.
"Naruto?" Kakashi prompted.
"...It was that bastard Mizuki," Naruto muttered as he glared at the ground.
Kakashi sighed again. Mizuki's disdain and hatred for Naruto apparently went beyond just using him as a scapegoat for the Forbidden Scroll. He taught him stances and katas that are guaranteed to hurt him in the long run, and since he was one of the only teachers who paid him any attention, Naruto didn't see the problem with it.
"Listen Naruto," Kakashi said in a serious tone. "I'm sorry that Mizuki betrayed your trust like that, but fighting in the way he 'taught' you, can wind up with you dead. We have to fix it."
Naruto's cheeks were red in embarrassment. Naruto knew Kakashi was right since Mizuki tried to frame him a couple of days ago while also betraying Konoha, but he didn't like how someone he had trusted had turned out to hate him. He didn't know how to handle it, so he chose to ignore it.
That also means to ignore the fact that the man taught him a defective fighting style. "C'mon Kakashi-sensei, I fight fine! I make it work, dattebayo! Just teach me a cool jutsu or-or how to use a wicked-looking sword!"
"Naruto!" Kakashi snapped, and Naruto flinched back slightly. The tone his sensei used reminded him of the few times that the Hokage was mad at him. Not upset or exasperated; truly mad at him. "Being a shinobi isn't about flashy jutsus or taking an opponent down with a few jabs to their side. A shinobi must use whatever tools they have at their disposal to take their enemy down. If one of those tools happens to be a jutsu then that's fine, but that's not the only way to fight. Taijutsu is an important part of how most shinobi fight, and if you can't execute it properly, you will be taken down before you can even think about using a jutsu."
Naruto was quiet as he listened to what his sensei said. His face was red again, but this time in shame.
Kakashi-clone wasn't finished speaking. "And what about your teammates? I know that you don't exactly get along with Sasuke, but what about Sasame? What happens if she's in trouble and you can't help her because you refused to learn how to fight right?"
Naruto flinched at that. One of the things Naruto craved above everything else are friends who won't look at him in disgust. The thought of harm coming to the few friends he had causes anxiety to fill his being.
Naruto swallowed heavily. "Okay sensei," he said quietly, properly chastised. "What do I have to do?"
The Kakashi-clone smiled slightly under his mask. He hated making the kid feel like crap but he needed to make him see sense. It'll help him in the long run, by making sure he doesn't get himself killed.
"To fix your fighting style you'll have to go through new katas to get your body used to fighting differently," Kakashi explained.
Naruto gave the clone a curious look. "How long will that take?" he asked, an undertone of annoyance in his voice.
"Normally? It'll take a long time, even up to a month for some," Kakashi answered, eliciting a groan from Naruto. "However, you're going to be different."
"Really?" Naruto perked up. "How?"
"You know the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)," Kakashi stated. At Naruto's nod, he continued speaking. "You used it to fight Mizuki and you used it to fight me. Did you ever notice anything after you used it?"
Naruto frowned as he thought about what his sensei asked him. Contrary to popular belief, he wasn't really stupid. He just learned more by doing because things involving theory seem too complicated for him.
Naruto thought back to the times he used the shadow clone jutsu, both against Mizuki and Kakashi.
"Well," Naruto said thoughtfully, "I remember fighting Mizuki in ways that I'm pretty sure I didn't do. I mean, I remember doing it but I'm pretty sure I didn't do it. I mean...ugh!" Naruto gripped his hair in frustration. "I don't know how to explain it -ttebayo!"
Kakashi chuckled slightly. "It's okay Naruto, I understand what you mean."
Naruto looked at him. "You do?"
He nodded. "The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu) isn't like other clone jutsus," he explained. "When the clone dispels, its memories are transferred back to the original."
"So," Naruto said slowly, "those images that popped into my head were my clones' memories?" When Kakashi nodded again, he asked another question. "But, how does this help with fixing my fighting style?"
"Since you learn what your clone learns we can cut your learning time down."
Excitement had begun to thrum through Naruto as he began to understand what his sensei was saying. "So if my clones learn things and I get their memories after they dispel, then that means I learn what they learn right? And...since I learn what they know then that means I don't have to spend as much time learning something right?"
"That's right."
Naruto fist-pumped the air in excitement. "Yatta!" he yelled. "Whenever I have to learn something all I have to do is make a hundred clones and-"
Kakashi held a hand up. "Hold on a second Naruto," he said abruptly. His tone wiped Naruto's grin off his face as he stared warily at the older man. "You can't make that many copies all at once."
"What?" Naruto said in confusion. "Why not? I made a lot of clones when I fought that bastard Mizuki."
"And did you feel weird after you dispelled them?" Kakashi prompted. "Dizziness? Headaches? Nausea?"
Naruto blushed again and looked towards the ground. "I had a small headache," he muttered after a moment.
In truth, his headache was nearly excruciating. After Iruka-sensei had given Naruto his hitai-ate for him to wear, he went straight home and ended up bent over his toilet, the contents of his stomach pouring from his mouth. And then that's when the dizziness had set in. The reason he was late to team assignments was that he wasn't able to get to sleep until early morning. But he didn't realize that it came from him spamming a lot of clones.
Kakashi nodded. "You can't strain your mind like that," he said. "Not yet anyway. Getting an overload of memories like that will only damage your mind in the long run. For now, just make five clones."
Naruto frowned unhappily but did as he said, making the hand sign that was practically instinct to him now. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"
Seven popped up instead of the intended five. Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as he looked at them. "Uh, my bad," he said. He dispelled the extra two clones before he and his clones turned to look at Kakashi-clone.
Kakashi nodded in approval. "Alright, get into a fighting stance. I'll get you started on some correct katas."
Naruto nodded and assumed a stance he gets into whenever he's about to fight, unable to keep a grin from forming on his face.
'Here we go!' he thought to himself enthusiastically. 'Time for some real ninja training, dattebayo!'
~wWw~
Sometime later, the real Kakashi led his students towards the Hokage's office for their first mission. When his clones had come back with Naruto and Sasuke and dispelled to give him their memories, he was surprised to see their progress. Along with Sasame, those two were doing really well already.
Before he could think on it more, Naruto's voice ripped him from his thoughts.
"I wonder what we'll do for our first mission!" he was saying excitedly to his two teammates. Well, he was mostly talking to Sasame. Sasuke made it out as if he couldn't care about what was being said, but the glint in his eyes showed he was actually paying attention.
"I'm not sure," Sasame said thoughtfully. "Whenever I ask Kaa-san about D-rank missions she always just looks at me, smiles, then says 'you'll see'."
Kakashi mentally grinned at that. 'Thank you Nami-san', he thought gleefully. 'I'll be able to see her genuine reaction to D-rank missions.'
Moments later, they entered the building and made their way towards the Hokage's office, with all four of them having varying degrees of excitement thrumming through them.
"Hello Hokage-sama," Kakashi said respectfully as he entered the room, ushering his students inside as he held the door open.
Sarutobi looked up. "Ah, hello Kakashi," he said warmly. "Team seven here for their first D-rank mission then?"
"Of course," he answered as his team stood at attention.
"Very well," the Hokage said while ruffling through some papers. "Let's see what missions are available."
Sasuke was staring forward, an almost bored look on his face, but he was anxiously awaiting to hear what his first mission was going to be like.
Sasame was trying to contain her enthusiasm but she couldn't keep the grin off her face, her pulsing quickening in excitement.
Naruto wasn't even bothering to hide how excited he was, bouncing on the balls of his feet and his smile so big his eyes were shut.
Kakashi was grinning behind his mask. 'Oh you poor, innocent, naive little genin,' he thought with relish. The hidden ANBU in the room couldn't help the grin that appeared over their faces as they remembered their first time receiving a D-rank mission.
"Right here we are," the Hokage said as he drew a couple of papers. "Naomi-san needs her garden weeded, the Inuzuka clan need people to walk some of their dogs, and Tanaka-san needs his fence painted. Which one would your team be taking Kakashi?"
Kakashi took a discreet look at his team's reaction and laughed under his breath at their facial expressions. Sasuke actually had an expression of disbelief on his face instead of his regular aloof look. Sasame looked like a fish with the way her mouth was opening and closing as if she was trying to say something. Naruto just looked like someone asked him the world's hardest math problem.
"We'll take the weeding job Hokage-sama," Kakashi said, the grin he has hidden by his mask plain in his tone of voice.
The Hokage coughed to hide a laugh that bubbled up at Kakashi's amusement at the situation. "Alright," he said. "I'll mark that job down as taken by Team Seven."
"Thank you," Kakashi said as he turned to walk out the room. "C'mon you guys," he called over his shoulder at his team. "We have a mission to complete."
He walked out of the room and made his way down the hallway. "And in five...four...three...two...one," he counted down as he walked away.
"SENSEI!"
Kakashi laughed outright. "Now I know why Minato-sensei was always smiling when he took me and the others for D-rank mission," he muttered under his breath, a grin still on his concealed face. "It's fun."
~wWw~
The sun was setting over the village of Konoha. Shinobi were still out and about but there weren't that many of them. Well, there weren't many that were seen. Most civilians were either at home or out in restaurants or bars or clubs.
Mostly though, the inhabitants of the village were settling down for the night.
In a house in the nicer part of the village, a young girl was making dinner for herself, since her mother was still out on a mission. Today was her first day of training with her team and doing her first mission.
Sasame couldn't help but scoff to herself. "If you could even call that a mission," she muttered quietly. She now understood why her mother always seemed amused when she had asked about D-rank missions. Granted, all shinobi learn about missions while still at the academy, but they never specify exactly what the missions will be.
Pushing away her half-eaten food, she thought back to her training with Kakashi-sensei. He taught her new katas that will help her fight with her tonfas. And since she's going to fight with weapons more than her bare hands, these katas were more demanding than the ones she were used to. Her arms ached in ways they haven't before at the unfamiliar stretches and movements.
She thought back to how she had to swing her arms to deliver blows, how she had to move her arms certain ways to block, and how she had to position herself certain ways to deliver her attacks properly. It was very demanding and tiresome to master, but she would keep at it nonetheless.
'I have to keep working on them,' she thought fiercely. 'To become a better shinobi and to make Tou-san proud of me, I need to work on my katas to become better at wielding my tonfas.'
No longer hungry, Sasame got up and made her way towards her backyard, determination thrumming through her. 'Practice doesn't end because I'm not with my sensei and teammates. I need to keep up my training.'
A ways away in the not-so-nice area of the village, near the red light district, in fact, was her blond teammate Naruto. He was holed up in his apartment, for once not eating any of his ramen cups. He knows how to cook, he has to since he lived alone since he was five, he just prefers ramen most of the time. Right now, he's munching on a rice ball, lost in thought.
Earlier when he and his teammates heard what were supposed to be D-rank missions, his mind sort of screeched to a halt and blanked for a second before anger overtook him and his teammates. Even Sasuke showed some emotion on his face. While weeding Naomi-san's garden as their 'mission', although Naruto prefers to call it a chore, he and the others had muttered all sorts of choice words about their sensei for making them do it, about Iruka-sensei for not warning them about D-ranks, and even the Hokage, who Naruto was pretty sure was smiling in amusement when they came back to report a finished chore - oops, wrong word; a finished mission.
However, Naruto was thinking back to what happened earlier, when Kakashi was training him in new katas. His arms and legs were stretched in news ways that were unfamiliar, but he can already see that this new style is way better than the trash Mizuki taught to him. He's even able to defend his body better. The fact that Mizuki taught the faulty style to him just so he can die on a mission later really hit him hard. He's used to people disliking him, banning him from stores, overpricing everything he bought except for his orange jumpsuit, selling him the lowest quality of food available, and on the rare occasion a drunken encounter with a civilian that resulted in a slap or two...but someone who wanted to kill him? And not only that but a shinobi like him?
It was mostly civilians who didn't hide how much they disliked him. The only shinobi whom he has seen show a dislike for him were the ones who were chasing him after he had done a prank on someone, and even then they were mostly irritated at having to chase down a kid. Mizuki was the first person to be upfront about his intentions to him. Every time he thought back to the look in Mizuki's eyes as he was about to throw his Fuma Shuriken at him made him shudder in disgust and slight fear.
However, instead of scaring him into submission, what Mizuki did made Naruto even more determined to become Hokage, to prove to everyone that he isn't the demon they thought he was, and to protect the few people who treat him like a person they care about.
When Kakashi-sensei had finished teaching him the basic stances and he and his clones started going through the katas, he couldn't help but ask him, "How come you don't hate me?"
Kakashi had looked at him, an unreadable look in his eye that Naruto couldn't figure out, before he said, "You're just a kid, not some demon. Some people need something or someone to blame for the death of their loved ones that the Kyuubi had caused, but to take it out on you is stupid and, quite frankly, disgusting. You didn't ask for any of this; why should I hate you for something you had no control over?" He then changed the subject to what they were doing but what he said had struck something in Naruto.
He doesn't trust easily, and when he's spurned he cuts the person off with ferociousness, but when someone believes in him, like Iruka-sensei and Hokage-jiji and the Ichiraku's and even Sasame, he strives to prove to them that their belief wasn't a mistake. So when Kakashi-sensei taught him new katas and stances without an ounce of anger and with genuine intentions, Naruto promised himself to try his best to show him and everyone else that he was worth it.
Almost across the village in a clan compound training ground was Sasame and Naruto's male teammate, who was throwing kunai and shuriken at some targets to keep his mind calm.
To say he was mad at what the so-called mission turned out to be was an understatement. He doesn't want to waste his time in what he sees as chores that the people who asked for the mission could've done themselves. For once, he agreed with the words that his idiotic teammate had spewing from his mouth as they weeded a stupid garden. Unfortunately, when Sasuke asked Naruto to make some of his clones so that they could finish quicker, Kakashi had interjected quite cheerfully to say that he wasn't allowed. The glares he aimed at his sensei's head afterward were so fierce that, in Sasame's words, 'I'm surprised that flames didn't encircle his head.'
After Sasuke threw all of his kunai and shuriken, he went up to the targets to remove them, his mind traveling to what his sensei had said earlier that day.
His sensei knew his brother. Something that he hadn't even considered but made sense when you thought about it. They were both geniuses who graduated the academy early, it's not all that impossible that they crossed paths before. That they were on the same ANBU team is surprising but not overly so. However, the realization that his brother might have had other people in his life other than the clan as friends made him think that it wasn't just him that his brother hurt with his betrayal. But he was the most angered.
After he retrieved his projectiles and jogged back over to throw them again, he again thought to what occurred when he was training with Kakashi, only this time he was thinking back to a question he had asked him.
"Why do I need to improve my taijutsu?" Sasuke had asked. "I thought it was fine."
Kakashi looked over at him and replied with, "I had an Uchiha on my team when I was your age. You fight like how he did when starting out before our sensei started teaching us. The style you're using is just a starting point; you have to build on it."
What he took from that conversation was that his sensei knew another member from his clan. Sasuke doesn't talk to anyone about his family because, for one, not many people knew anyone from his clan that well, and for two, most people in the village look at him in pity, even now.
He threw a shuriken harder than intended as he thought about it. One of the things he absolutely HATES is other people's pity. He hates it when people look at him like some kind of tragic hero, or even worse, they look at him the way his father did; expectant. Because he's an Uchiha and because his brother was a prodigy, he's supposed to be the same way. And while he does think that he's an excellent shinobi, he hates it when people only nod their head with an 'as expected' attitude. He wanted them to acknowledge his achievements because he worked hard, not because of his clan status or who his sibling was.
His teammates and his sensei are some of the few who treat him normally - even Naruto. While he always challenged him at the Academy and was almost always in his personal space, Naruto always treated him like a regular rival, something he was grateful for.
He and Sasame were never close at the academy, but the few times that they've crossed paths she never looked at him differently and she treated him similarly to the way she treated her friends Shikamaru and Chouji.
And Kakashi, his one-eyes sensei. Other than Iruka-sensei, he's the only sensei that looked at him as another student, and doesn't put him on a pedestal. The other senseis at the Academy all treated him like a hero and praised him, the 'Last Loyal Uchiha', on his progress. And while a small part of him was glad that they acknowledged his status as an Uchiha, a larger part of him is always disappointed that they don't acknowledge his feats just because he did them himself.
Kakashi-sensei, however, just treats him like he does Sasame and Naruto, and Sasuke can't help but be slightly relieved.
'Maybe...maybe I can trust him, if only a little bit,' he thought cautiously as he continued to throw kunai and shuriken.
And finally, a ways away from the Uchiha Compound stood the one and only Hatake Kakashi in front of the Memorial Stone.
He sighed. "So, today was the first day I trained my team," he said as he stared at a particular name on the stone. "I think I did okay, I mean, I guess it could've been worse. Sasame has nice chakra reserves, not as big as Naruto's or Sasuke's, but not as small as an average kunoichi's when they first become genin. I'm teaching her how to wield her tonfas and she catches on pretty quickly. Sasuke has anger issues, kind of like how I was in the beginning, but maybe a bit worse. But he's really talented and has a great work ethic. And Naruto...he has the most potential. He's a little rough around the edges and his chakra control isn't as good as what I'd like, but he picks things up quickly and is battle smart from what I've seen."
Kakashi ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. "I don't know how you did it sensei," he said in a tired tone. "Those three are kind of like how we were when we were your students. You know at first, I was just going to beat teamwork into them, so they didn't end up like how we did but...something the Sandaime said stuck with me."
"And Kakashi? Do train them as well as you can. I haven't seen this much potential since my students, and they grew up to become the Sannin."
"What he said, reminded me of something you said to me, sensei," Kakashi admitted. "A few days before the mission that killed Obito."
~Flashback~
Kakashi stood off to the side, his arms crossed and a look of annoyance in his eyes, the scowl on his face hidden by his mask. Obito had tried to impress Rin with something but just ended up making a fool of himself, so now she was scolding him while he wore a sheepish smile on his face.
"It's amazing isn't it?" A voice said behind him, causing him to jump slightly before turning around. His sensei was staring at Obito and Rin with a small smile on his face.
"What's amazing?" Kakashi asked blandly.
"You three," his sensei answered as he turned to look at him.
"What's so amazing about us?"
"The way you guys act outside of missions but still manage to come together to finish them," he said with a chuckle. "You three have a lot of potential. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if you guys became the next generation Sannin."
Kakashi couldn't stop the snort that escaped his mouth. "Us? The next generation Sannin?" he asked in disbelief.
"Really? You don't see it?"
"Obito is a dead-last idiot and Rin spends more time worrying about boys than about training," Kakashi said bluntly.
His sensei chuckled again. "Now Kakashi-kun, just because they aren't as crazy about training as you are, doesn't mean they slack off," he admonished slightly. "And Obito-kun being dead-last doesn't mean anything. In fact, Jiraiya-sensei was dead-last in his class too."
"What?" Kakashi said in shock. "Jiraiya-sama was dead-last?"
His sensei nodded in amusement. "Uh-huh. But he became a member of the Sannin as well as my sensei; I turned out alright, didn't I?"
Kakashi didn't answer.
The man grinned slightly as he turned to look back at his other two students, knowing that his slightly socially awkward student was thinking over what he said.
"You really think that we can be like the Sannin sensei?" Kakashi eventually asked, doubt coloring his tone.
Namikaze Minato smiled. "I don't just think it; I believe in it."
~End Flashback~
Kakashi reached out to brush his fingertips against his sensei's name. "You thought we could become like Jiraiya-sama's team, but we were doomed. Obito and Rin both died within a year of each other, then you died too, and now it's just me. We never got the chance to come into our potential as a team like you thought we could. I don't want my students to end up like that; cut down before they could realize what they can do. I'll do everything I can to train and help them."
Kakashi let his hand drop. "I don't know exactly how to go about it," he said, "but I'll try some of the things you did with us, and maybe some things I've learned from ANBU, too. I won't let you down sensei."
His glance fell on two other names. "I hope I can redeem myself this way," he whispered.
His eyes took in his darkening surroundings and a sigh left his lips as he realized that he needed to leave.
"I need to go," he said as he stared at the stone. "But I'll be back later, you guys won't be forgotten. Ja ne."
He shunshined away from there, the remaining light of the sun glinting off of the Memorial Stone.