here is the next chapter.
i dont own naruto.
"That's a good question Sakura, you see when you learn a jutsu you must go through all of the handsigns to be able to mold your chakra correctly, but when you master a jutsu you can do it with as little as one handsign, sometimes a jutsu that is mastered requires no handsigns. It also uses much less chakra. You see, even though I know over a thousand jutsu, I don't use but maybe ten percent probably less, because all of the others use to much chakra to be of practical use." Kakashi said lazily.
"Oh ok, thanks Kakashi sensei." she replied.
"Sure no problem. Well that's all for today, meet here tomorrow we'll do a mission or two, then come back here to work on perfecting the jutsu you learned."
He received a 'hai' from all of them as they left.
When Sasuke got home he headed straight for his training grounds, despite being tired from the training Kakashi had put them through. As Sasuke started his physical exercise, "I have to get stronger." a punch to the log. "I cant be weak." a kick to the log. "I need more power." Sasuke thought as he pounded away at the post relentlessly.
Naruto dropped down behind Sasuke and noticed he must be in deep thought as he didn't notice him, "I didn't realize he trained this much, even while in deep though, he's going through all the kata's perfectly." Naruto thought to himself. "So what are you thinking about?" Naruto asked.
Sasuke whirled around, he had been so lost in thought he hadn't noticed someone was there. "I ask again, what's on your mind?" he asked again.
"Hmph, why do you care?" Sasuke said as turned back around and resumed his training.
"Because you're my teammate, and friend." Naruto said.
Sasuke froze at that, no one had ever called him 'friend', sure people had been nice to him, but he figured it was just to suck up to him. But never had anyone actually considered him a friend. As sasuke's mind raced at what Naruto had said, Naruto was worried he might have said something wrong, until."
"You really consider us friends?" Sasuke asked, almost hopefully. Naruto frowned, out of all the reactions he could of got, this wasn't what he was expecting. "Why is it so hard for him to believe?" naruto thought to himself.
"Well yea, what else would I consider you?" Naruto asked
"Teammate, rival, the last Uchiha, just like everybody else." Sasuke replied lowly.
"Is that all you think people see you as, the last Uchiha?" Naruto asked. Sasuke's silence was all the answer he needed. "Look Sasuke, to some people you are just the last Uchiha, but to me, and others your Sasuke. Quiet, trainaholic, emo Sasuke." Naruto replied with a grin at the last part.
Sasuke couldn't help but smile, if only a little. He still wasn't sure Naruto was right though. "How can you prove it?" Sasuke asked questioningly.
"Ok, how about all of the rookie nine, minus Ino of course, they don't see you as the last Uchiha, they see you as Sasuke. And they don't treat you any different then anyone else. To them your just another person."
Sasuke thought about it, and realized he was right, never had anyone of the rookie nine, minus Ino, and Sakura during the academy, treated him any different then anyone else. "Thanks, I needed that….dobe." Sasuke said with a smirk.
"My pleasure." Naruto said with a smile. It wasn't what he had been hoping for, but it worked all the same.
"So do you need any help with your training?" he asked. "Why would I need your help?"
"Because maybe if you get powerful enough here, you wont go live with a creepy guy that has a fetish for snakes, to get more powerful." Naruto said jokingly. Sasuke shuddered at even the thought, "You could pay me enough to do that." Sasuke said with a smile. Naruto only hoped he was right. "So, you never answered my question. Do you want some help, or maybe just to train together?"
Sasuke was about to refuse, but then decided having someone there with him would be a nice change. "Sure dobe, maybe I'll even teach you a thing or two." he replied with a smirk. Naruto smiled and they both started training.
When Sakura got home she almost just laid down and went to sleep, but then she thought about what Naruto and sasuke were probably doing right now, "Training." so she pushed herself off the couch and went into her backyard to begin training.
Sakura continued through her workout, she was starting to make progress, had it been a month ago, she wouldn't of been able to do all that she was doing now even if she wasn't tired. But she new it wasn't enough, Naruto and Sasuke had increased just as much, if not more in strength then she had. But the definitely didn't mean she was going to quit, it just meant she had to train that much harder.
It is now four months to the chuunin exams.
Over the past two weeks team seven had been on a few C-rank missions close to the village, but mostly they had been training in the new jutsu Kakashi had given them. They had also mastered the tree walking exercise, and started on the water walking.
Kakashi was genuinely surprised with his team, they had progressed so far in such a short time. he didn't know why, but even team interactions were smoother. He even caught the three of them hanging out after practice, which never happened when the team was formed. He especially noticed that Sasuke and Naruto were getting along better. Sure they still had their rivalry going, but it pushed them to be better.
Sakura seemed to be effected by it to, she had probably improved the most. And although Kakashi new it was easier for Sakura to improve, as she was basically at zero on her skills. But it was still impressive.
As of right now Kakashi was standing in front of his team, his book strangely absent. "Well I have to say I'm impressed, you have all shown great improvement. And have all mastered the jutsu I gave you, even to the point of not needing handseals. So for today we are going to see those techniques." Kakashi stated.
"You will be sparing, but since there is three of you, I have brought in a member from another team that agreed to be your sparing partner." Kakashi said. As if on cue another figure landed beside Kakashi. He was wearing a tan short sleeve jacket, with several pockets, along with brown shorts, and a kunai pouch on his right thigh.
"As Neji here is the guest I will let him pick his opponent." Kakashi said. The pulled out his book and began reading it.
"I'll fight you, the one with the blond hair. You look pretty weak." Neji said with a smirk.
Sasuke and Sakura both chuckled. Naruto just pouted indignantly.
"So I guess that means Sasuke and Sakura are fighting." Kakashi said, still reading his book. "Naruto, Neji why don't you guys go first?"
"Sure." Naruto said as he walked away from the group. Neji just nodded and followed Naruto.
When they turned to face each other Kakashi said "Begin." and went back to reading his book.
Neji got into the juuken fighting stance, and Naruto got into a seemingly sloppy stance. "It is your destiny to lose. As soon as I chose you as my partner." Neji said.
"And how would you know that?" Naruto replied.
"Simple, everyone's fate is predetermined, and yours is to lose to me?"
Naruto just decided to ignore him, and charged. When he charged Neji activated his byakugan.
When Naruto got within striking distance, he lashed out with a kick, which Neji easily ducked under. The a knee, which almost caught Neji in the chin, but he managed to roll to the side.
Naruto recovered then resumed his fighting stance, as did Neji.. This time it was Neji that charged. He tried to hit Naruto in the chest with a juuken strike, but Naruto dodged to the side. Neji then spun into a kick, which Naruto barely ducked under.
Neji seeing his chance, kept spinning and brought his knee into Naruto's face. Sending him flying. Neji then resumed his fighting stance with a smirk, "I told you it was your fate to lose."
Naruto just ignored him and resumed his own fighting stance. "Now that I have an idea of how strong he is, I can start fighting." Naruto thought to himself.
Neji charged again, aiming a juuken strike for Naruto's shoulders, but Naruto rolled back and to the side, dodging it. Neji then tried for another, which was also dodged. Neji continued his assault, but none of his strikes hit.
They both jumped back a little ways, "So what was that about fate?" Naruto asked with a smirk.
Neji returned the smirk, then got into a different position. "Your in range." Neji said then jumped at Naruto. "I didn't know he knew this attack this early, its still six months till the chuunin exams." Naruto thought as he moved to evade Neji's strikes.
"Two palm!" Neji struck twice, noth of which were dodged, "Four palm!" he struck again, but they were all dodged. "Eight palm!" Neji struck again, but this time with more ferocity, but they were still dodged. "Sixteen palm." Neji struck out again, and was happy to see that one of his strikes hit Naruto, although not in a chakra point. "Thirty two palm!" Neji struck, and managed to close off one of the tenketsu. "Sixty four palm!" Neji roared and struck out again, this time closing off six of Naruto's tenketsu.
Neji jumped away from a swaying Naruto. "As I said, it was your destiny to…" Neji started, but didn't finish as Naruto looked up at him with a smirk, then vanished in a puff of smoke." Neji looked around for Naruto but couldn't find him, or for that matter figure out what Naruto had done to disappear, there was nothing in his place to indicate a replacement jutsu.
Neji searched the area with his byakugan, but didn't find Naruto.
Naruto was hiding fifty meters away from Neji, knowing he was out of Neji's range. Naruto had just got the memories from his shadow clone and smirked. Naruto knew that technique took a lot out of Neji. Deciding to resume the fight, Naruto did handsign and 5 shadow clones popped into existence. Already know what they were supposed to do, they set off.
When they got into position, Naruto and his clones started making their way towards Neji, from six different directions.
Neji caught movement, but not just one, there was six Naruto's, at first he assumed bushin. "All I have to do is look for a chakra signature. T-they all have one, h-how can that be?" Neji asked himself.
It only took a little while for five Naruto's to surround Neji in a circle, about three meters away from Neji, out of his immediate striking range. There was also a sixth Naruto circling them.
The sixth Naruto started talking, "I assume your wondering about the jutsu I'm using?" he said as he continued to circle Neji, who was turning with him so as to have the best chance of defending should he attack.
"Well it is called the shadow clone jutsu, it creates solid copies of the original, also equally dividing the persons chakra between the clones. As you probably figured out this could be dangerous should someone with small reserves attempt this jutsu, it would kill them, from chakra exhaustion. So this jutsu is usually only use by jounin level ninja's." Naruto said, then continued.
"Your probably wondering why I can use it? Well it's because…." Naruto didn't finish as one of his clones shot towards Neji from his blind spot, by the time Neji noticed it, he was to close, the clone delivered a chop to the back of his neck knocking him out.
Naruto dispelled his clones then walked over and picked Neji up, and carried him over to where his team was and laid him down. "Good job Naruto, misdirection. One of the ninja's best friends." Kakashi said. Although he was thinking, "I wonder how he knew where the byakugan's blind spot was, that is a closely guarded secret. Or maybe he just got lucky." Kakashi thought, but found the second answer very unlikely. But he decided to just push his thoughts to the side and focus on the spar between Sasuke and Sakura.
well i hope you liked it. i know its a little on the short side, but oh well.
boyrich, i also thought the crow clone was a genjutsu, but i looked it up and its a ninjutsu.
thanks to all my reviewers. review and tell me what you think.