Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.
Team 7 walked through their training area around noon. The difference this time as opposed to the other was the Gennins were all wearing bathrobes and carrying matching towels and a change of clothes. The reason for this was Kakashi had told them their next training exercise would get them wet and they should dress properly. When they arrived they met 'Hana,' wearing a light gray pair of pants and dark blue long sleeved shirt made out of heavier material used for work clothes. This surprised the Gennin as she would usually wait until after training to meet up with them.
"Ah Hana, I'm glad you showed up on time," Kakashi said pleasantly, earning him a glare from all three Gennin. They had to wait for two hours in nothing but bathrobes with their swimsuits underneath. Those two hours rather embarrassing time for the three. "I asked Hana here to help with this next stage of training. I'm not too good at training in the basics. I'm more used to training Anbu recruits, and before you ask none of you are ready for that kind of training." The Gennin looked disgruntled at hearing that but did not say anything. "Anyway Hana here has shown she can teach you the basics better than me, like when she showed you that wall sliding."
"What is our next training exercise Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked.
"You will be learning to walk on water," Haku answered for Kakashi. "This is the second technique in learning to control and form your chakra. To properly walk on water you must learn to adjust the amount of chakra you use in an instant and maintain the proper shape so you do not fall in."
"Why do we need to learn to shape our chakra?" Sasuke asked. "Learning to adjust our chakra on the fly will help in controlling our jutsu but what will shaping our chakra do."
"Immediately nothing," Kakashi answered. "But later it will help you create your own jutsu. Learning to shape your chakra is an iatrical part of making a jutsu. But for now lets get started shall we?" Kakashi and Haku slowly walked out to the center of the small stream they were near then turned back to the Gennin. "Alright each of you try and reach us."
The Gennin looked at 'Hana' and Kakashi then looked at each other. Their faces turned slightly red as they once again realized they were in nothing but bathrobes and swimsuits. After a few seconds of silence and inaction Naruto, being the boldest of the group, shucked off his orange bathrobe revealing his forest green swim trunks. Unnoticed to him Sakura's blush increased at seeing Naruto's rather well formed body. Surprisingly Haku also developed a blush. Next was Sasuke, he took off his blue robe revealing his white trunks and lightly tanned skin. Sakura's blush now went from dark pink to cherry red. And finally Sakura took off her white robe revealing a black one-piece swimsuit underneath. Naruto and surprising Sasuke stared at her for more than a few seconds before turning away with their own blazing blushes
Kakashi happily smiled at his Gennin's reactions to each other. He found it highly amusing to see them squirm in embarrassment and made a mental note to tease them a bit latter. After his amusement left he looked them over with an analytical eye, judging their bodies and which type of physical training would best be suited for them.
Sakura's body was a bit on the delicate side for a dedicated kunoichi, she should have more of an athletic female body rather than a model kind. Kakashi suspected this was because of the typical diets most girls her age put themselves through. Still Kakashi noticed he body was developing the proper muscle tone and he knew her eating habits were changing, after all only a proper diet would keep a ninja in top shape. For her training Kakashi would have her train like a dancer. This would keep her limber, but also give her the strength and stamina she needed. Plus if he could talk to some of his old Anbu comrades he may be able to show her some dance-based taijutsu a little later.
Sasuke's body was wirier rather than muscular, not surprising considering his clan's taijutsu relied on reflexes and counterattacking. Kakashi figured some sprinting drills and some hard stretching exercises would further his physical development. For taijutsu Kakashi would encourage him to continue his family's style as well as teach him some of the aspects of his own. Kakashi's was more based on speed so it would be a good supplement to the Uchiha's flexibility.
Naruto's body was surprisingly in near perfect proportion, if a bit on the short side. His musculature was a near perfect balance of speed, strength, and stamina with only slight traces of fat and that was more attributed to his young age. Considering Naruto's eating habit of nothing but ramen this was surprising it meant Naruto trained his body more than Kakashi gave him credit for. To keep up this balance Kakashi would have to make sure Naruto kept an equal amount of weight training, stretching and running. For taijutsu he figured Naruto should learn something similar to Asuma's, both had the same general build, and if Naruto could learn to calm down from the chain smoker then so much the better.
Kakashi ended his analysis to watch his Team's first attempt at water walking, mostly to enjoy the show as 'Hana' would be the one to offer suggestions. The first to take a step onto the slow moving, deep and rather cold stream was Sasuke. Like with the tree climbing back in Wave he put too much chakra into his foot and tripped into the water. Naruto laughed his ass off at that and took his own step, only to fall right through as he did not put enough chakra into his feet. Sakura walked up to the edge of the water confident that her near perfect control would keep her a float. This attitude ended when she took her second step and fell into the stream just like the boys.
Haku was amused at the Gennin's attempts. One thing all shinobi had in common was they all got wet when they first tried the water walking exercise. Pushing down her laughter she walked up to the Gennin who were pouting (Sakura), frowning (Sasuke), or sulking (Naruto). Kneeling down so that she was eye level to them she explained what they did wrong, "Sasuke you put too much chakra into your feet and blew the water away thus making you trip. Naruto you put too little chakra into your feet and thus you passed right through the surface. And Sakura you forgot to adjust your chakra to the changing movement of the water and thus the surface move out from under you." Then Gennin nodded and moved to the shore to try again.
This time Sakura went first with the boys watching her. She took a couple of steps then wobbled a little, found her balance again and took another step, only to fall through the water once more. They waited for Sakura to resurface to hear 'Hana's' explanation why Sakura failed this time. When Sakura surfaced and 'Hana' did not say anything they knew she was waiting for them. She smiled at them letting them know she was going to get entertainment out of all three Gennin. With a resigned sigh both started to walk on the stream. Sasuke made it three steps before he fell in once again and Naruto only made it two.
When all three got the bank of the stream they waited for 'Hana's' instruction. Instead of explaining what went wrong this time she asked a question, "What do you think went wrong this time?"
For a moment the Gennin looked thoughtful, trying to figure out where they went wrong. It was Sasuke who got the answer first, "We forgot to shape our chakra."
"Correct Sasuke-san," Haku said pleasantly. "Now the question is, what is the proper shape needed to keep you afloat?"
"A boat's hull," Sakura answered. "The shape of a boat's hull is the most efficient shape for the displacement of the water to keep us afloat."
"What does the shape of a boat's hull look like?" Naruto asked.
"Like this Naruto," Kakashi said making a rough shape of a boat in the dirt on the bank.
"Oh," Naruto said. He put his hands into a hand seal and then stepped out onto the water. After making a few adjustments to his chakra he took another step, then another and finally a fourth, on the fifth step he fell through.
"Well looks like Naruto's got the concept down," Kakashi said happily. "All he needs now is to practice." He turned to Sasuke and Sakura, "Well you two what are you waiting for?" The two blinked for a moment then went to the water's edge and walked out. Sasuke make it six steps before he fell through and Sakura made it ten steps. "Looks like you've got the concept down now. I've got some errands to run, you guys keep practicing, if you want to take a break go ahead I'll be back in a few hours. And remember just because you're training doesn't mean you have to over do it. Take a chance to relax every once and a while." With that bit of advice Kakashi strolled off with his book in front of his face, he had to talk to some people about his students learning their taijutsu.
An hour later Team 7 was taking Kakashi's advice, they were relaxing by the bank. All three had made significant progress and were able to walk to the opposite side of the stream and halfway back. It was an unspoken goal that until they could walk back and forth across the stream at least once without tripping or falling they had not mastered water walking. For now though they were taking a break and eating a late lunch that 'Hana' provided. 'Hana' had declined to join them sighting she had to return to work.
"I wonder when Hana-chan's probation will be up?" Naruto asked out of the blue.
"Hard to say," Sakura replied. "I mean it's really up to Hokage-sama but I really don't think it'll be much longer. Hana is really nice."
"Well I hope its' not too much longer," Naruto said. "It'd be great to go on a mission with her."
"I doubt we would go on mission with Hana," Sakura said. "She's at least a Chunin and we wouldn't go on missions with Chunin until we become ones ourselves."
"Then how do we become Chunin?" Naruto asked.
"By passing the Chunin Exam, Dobe (Dead Last)," Sasuke answered. "If you had paid attention in class you would know that."
"Screw you, Teme!" Naruto shouted then was smacked on his head by Sakura.
"Don't call Sasuke that Naruto!" Sakura scolded.
Rubbing his head Naruto asked, "Well if we need to take the Chunin Exam, when is it?" Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other for a moment wondering if the other knew. Since neither answered Naruto concluded, "So neither of you know, huh." Sakura shook her head no and Sasuke just looked away.
"Maybe we should ask Kakashi-sensei tomorrow," Sakura suggested. Her teammates had no problem with that. "Well I think we should get back to training." Naruto and Sasuke nodded and the three continued their training.
As his students were training Kakashi was wondering around the Hokage Tower. The two people he was looking for would show up here eventually. He was here to talk to Sarutobi Asuma and his old Anbu subordinate Uzuki Yugao about helping with his team. Until recently Kakashi had not taken to training his team very hard, an over sight he could admit to himself. After Wave where a lot of mistakes were made that should not have been Kakashi decided to train his team seriously. When he did this he noticed the glaring weaknesses of two of his subordinates, Sakura and Naruto. Sakura had a great mind, when it was not focused on Sasuke. However was weak physically and she needed to change that. Yugao could help with that, her dance like fighting style would suit Sakura near perfectly. Naruto for all his rough edges and lack of coordination was in great physical shape and a rather devious mind. All he needed was the proper guidance and he truly would be great. Part of that guidance would be to teach him to fight correctly and Asuma's straightforward hard and grappling style taijutsu would be great for Naruto. Kakashi was already working on unleashing Naruto's unconventional yet devious mind when it came to battlefield tactics.
After an hour of wondering Kakashi found one of his targets, Yugao. "Yo, Uzuki you got a minute?"
"Hatake?" Yugao tone sounded surprised. "Yeah I just got off duty. What do you want?"
"Don't know if you heard but I passed a team this year," Kakashi said. "A couple of my students are in need of a little extra training."
"So why come to me?" Yugao asked.
"Well one of them, Haruno Sakura would be good for your fighting style," Kakashi answered. "Similar body frame as you had at her age, pretty limber and quick but needs to build some stamina and get a real fighting style."
"So you think she would be good using my Shi-Suteppu Ryu (Four Dance Step Style)?" Yugao nodded. "No offense Hatake but she's your student why don't you teach her how to fight?"
"I've learned I'm not good at teaching the basics so I need some help on that," Kakashi admitted. "And besides you owe me for covering for you, so you could spend that weekend with Gekko a year ago."
"Fine I'll teach the girl the basics of my style," Yugao grudgingly agreed. "But after this we're even."
"Fine, fine," Kakashi said happily. "Just let me know when you're available and I'll set it up."
"I've got a mission with my squad this week," Yugao said. "I'll be back next week and have a couple of days off. We can start then."
"Thanks Uzuki," Kakashi said walking off to find his second target.
Kakashi found Asuma coming out of the Hokage's Office. From the look on Asuma's face the meeting between father and son was a bit strained this time. Though if the slight smirk on his face was any indication the meeting was about Konohamaru rather than a professional issue.
"Hey Kakashi what are doing here?" Asuma asked his fellow Jounin.
"Looking for you actually," Kakashi answered. "Got a favor I need from you."
"Oh and what would this be?" Asuma asked. "If it's about me putting a down payment on the latest in your book series for you while on a mission you can forget about it. The last time I did that Kurenai wouldn't talk to me for a week."
"No this has nothing to do with that," Kakashi replied. "The favor is regarding one of my students, Uzumaki Naruto."
"Yeah what about him?" Asuma asked as smirk formed on his face. He had just finished an argument with his father about Asuma allowing Konohamaru to use the Orioke no jutsu (sexy no jutsu). Asuma thought it was hilarious that his father kept getting caught by that jutsu and allowed his nephew to continue to use it. His father saw other wise as it 'took away the dignaty of his possition.' In fact the only reason Asuma would tell Konohamaru to stop would be if Kurenai told him too. 'I'm so whipped.'
"Naruto needs some help with his taijutsu," Kakashi answered. "His body frame is perfect for you're style. Almost perfect balance between speed, strength and stamina."
"Well technically I don't have a style," Asuma said as he took out a cigaret and lit it up. "I just threw together some techniques and some grapples. Anyway I really don't have time to teach one of your students as I've got my own."
Kakashi knew Asuma was just baiting him. The Jounin had one of if not the laziest people in the village, Nara Shikamaru. The Gennin would only put enough effort into a task to get it done and that was if he did the task to begin with. Akimichi Chouji often followed his friends lead and Yamanaka Ino was still in 'little girl' mind set and spent most of her time doing what cilvilian girls would. This left Asuma plently of free time. But as Kakashi was the one who asked he was at the disadvantage, "What do you want?" Kakashi said flatly. He did not want to drag this out more than he had too.
Asuma smiled like a cat that just cornered a mouse. "The next time the Jounins have a guys night out, you're the one that has too ask Anko out," Asuma said.
Kakashi visibly swallowed at that. It became a semi tradition that all single male Jounin had to ask Mituashi Anko out at least once much to the entertainment of the others. The entertainment came from how Anko responded; either she said no with a kick to the testicles or she said yes with wrapping the poor man up in ninja wire and draggin him off. Kakashi was one of the ones that had gotten as 'yes.' That week still gave him 'wet nightmares.' "What else?" Kakashi asked not wanting a repeat of that week.
Asuma laughed at Kakahsi's nervous twitching. He knew the Copy Ninja would say no to that and nothing short of another Kyuubi Attack would make Kakashi ask Anko out again. Asuma just wanted to see the normally blaze Jounin squirm a little. "How about this, you pay for my team's next lunch meeting," Asuma suggested. His wallet could use a break from Chouji.
"You want me to pay for a meal where an Akimichi is attending?" Kakashi asked flatly. Asuma nodded his smile still in place. Kakashi thought about the offer for a few seconds compairing it the first offer. The choice was not hard, "Deal, anything is better than dealing with 'Mr. Shocky.'" Asuma looked at Kakashi in bilwilderment, "One of Anko's toys, trust my you don't want to know." Asuma quickly nodded at that, he really did not want to know. "Alright just tell me when you want to meet Naruto and I'll let him know."
"Have him meet me tomorrow at 8:00 A.M." Asuma said.
"That's when my team meets," Kakashi objected.
"I know and that will give me a good two hours to train him before you can have him," Asuma said with a smirk. "Don't forget Kakashi I've know you for a long time and I know you're at least two hours late for everything."
Kakashi just shrugged as there was no way to argue that, "Fine I'll let him know tonight that he's meeting with you tomorrow."