Coming from the Shadows: One on One
Naruto found himself at the Uchiha compound the next morning, his mind keyed to a single question he felt he needed to ask Itachi.
Nodding to the two guards, he said, "Uchiha-san, I believe Itachi-sensei is expecting me."
With a grunt, the guard granted access to the young genin. "You'll find him in his family's dojo, it's a couple doors down from the Military Police Headquarters."
"Thank you, Uchiha-san." Naruto said as he walked through the gates, taking in the scenery of the Uchiha compound. A stark contrast to the rest of Konoha.
Entering the dojo, Naruto found Itachi sitting in seiza waiting for him.
"Welcome, Naruto." Itachi said, "Let us begin." And with those words he stood up and revealed a scroll hidden within his sleeves.
"For you, Naruto, I believe the Kurage style would fit you best. In tune with your seemingly endless stamina, this style is built upon lessening the damage you receive and countering their attacks."
"Kurage?" Naruto asked, incredulous. "You want me to use a style named after jellyfish?"
With a small smile, Itachi nodded. "Yes. I believe it was named as such due to the intrinsic properties some brands of jellyfish possess, primarily, pseudo-immortality." Standing up, he said, "Attack me. I'll show you the basics of the style I've learned thus far."
Smirking, Naruto was only eager to follow that command. He quickly settled into his mish-mash of a style he picked up from watching others fight. Striking out at Itachi, he felt Itachi push his arm out of the way so his attack missed, before grabbing that arm and pulling him towards him. Off-balance, he could only watch as Itachi forced him down to the ground with his still free hand, his captured arm bent at an uncomfortable angle.
As Itachi released him, Naruto couldn't help but glare at his sensei, not amused at the smirk on his face. "I only know the mere basics of this style, as I got it to teach to you, Naruto. I didn't use the Sharingan to study it, as I wanted to give you a fair sense of what's doable with a short amount of practice." Itachi said, handing him the scroll he previously revealed.
Faster than you could say "Sharingan" the scroll was out of his hands, and being quickly studied upon by Naruto.
"I'll walk you through the basic forms, Naruto. I do have that down. As you might have noticed from the illustrations provided. One must be like water when using that style. Do not predict your opponents actions, only react. For an imprecise prediction is far more deadly than a delayed reaction." Itachi said, garnering Naruto's full attention. "Predicting an opponents action could, if they're skilled enough, have them change they're attack so as to land a far more deadly attack on you."
"Right." Naruto said, blanching at the images in his mind.
"The Kurage style has many forms, and each form is for a different situation. Defending against a strong opponent, defending against a fast opponent, defending against multiple opponents, and many more. Primarily, I'm going to have you focus on defending against multiple opponents for now. As that is more likely to be required in upcoming missions, Naruto. As for the motions, there isn't a true form to it, there are several actions one could take. I'll give you an example." Itachi said, standing up and making a kage bunshin.
His clone threw a straight punch at Itachi, much like Naruto did earlier. Softly, so as to not dispel the clone, Itachi grabbed his clones wrist and angled it. "I could break a wrist," he continued on to pull his clone at him and went through the motions to slam his clone's head against his knee, "break a nose, perhaps even kill them with a strong enough blow," he added on. "I could throw them, break their arm, deflect it and land a punch, capture their arm and doing a sweeping kick to capture them in a different method than I did for you."
Dispelling his clone, he turned back to Naruto. "There are likely many more possibilities, your only limits are your strength, speed, reaction time, and imagination. If you can't think of another possibility, then for you, it doesn't exist. If you don't have the strength to use a method, then for you it doesn't exist. So on, and so forth." Itachi said. "This would be a time when your unpredictability would be a boon for you. In a true fight, not just a spar, as long as my Sharingan wasn't active, you could probably land a few blows on me, despite the difference in our skills."
"Okay." Naruto said, going over it in his mind. "In that case...would it be a good idea for me to create a kage bunshin to learn that while you perhaps work on my speed and strength."
Itachi deliberated over that question for a moment. "How many clones do you have currently active, I know you mentioned yesterday that you tend to have clones training at home more or less twenty-four seven."
"Two." Naruto said, "But I'll dispel one if you agree to this. I can only handle three clones at a time, and I like to have the freedom to use one at a moments notice in case of emergency."
"Do it." Itachi said, creating a clone himself. "First thing we're going to test is your reaction time, Naruto. I hope you brought bandages." He said, taking out a kunai. "No need to run, Naruto. You won't be hurt - not too badly, that is."
"You are clinically insane, sensei. Absolutely bonkers. A real lunatic. Crazy. You're a madman." Naruto said, covered in dirt and scratches, but nothing too serious.
"Yes, well. I had to figure out how quickly you could react in a life-threatening environment. To have no serious wounds is impressive. I do have one thing to ask before we can continue your training." Itachi said. "What sort of balance do you want between strength and speed? The human body is limited in its ability in muscle structure. While you can use chakra to supplement your speed and strength, nothing stops other shinobi from doing the same, and in that scenario, it just depends on who has the advantage over the other. If you focus entirely on speed, you might be able to easily land blows, but they might not have any strength behind them. And if you focus entirely on strength, you might not have the speed to land those blows."
Biting his lip, Naruto asked, "Given what you knew about my parents, and thus a rough estimation of what my size will be like when I'm done growing, what balance would you suggest sensei?"
"Well, I guess I'd recommend focusing more on speed than strength. Ability to land an attack is a bit more important than damage caused, because even if they minimize the damage they receive, you'll be slowly wearing them down anyways."
"Well, I trust you to know what's best," Naruto said.
"Now there is one last thing to decide before we can continue." Itachi said. "There are three methods available to work on speed without requiring a dedicated training schedule for it. One way is to wear weights. There are some dangers to this if you continue with it, as the weight can cause injury and lessen your agility. Two, use gravity seals. This has similar dangers but not identical to the weights. Whereas weights could lead to damaging your connective tissues, gravity seals can damage your bones, leading to fractures. The last method would be resistance seals. There are a few types you can use, and I believe it's the least dangerous method. Wind resistance, which puts pressure on your body and makes it so that you're always moving against the wind. It's fairly safe until you start to face winds of high intensity. Another type of resistance seal is if you'd be submerged under water. This seal would be used in a way that the supposed water pressure would increase, it has similar dangers as both the weight training and gravity seals."
Naruto just stared at Itachi and asked a simple question. "Why not use them all? Weights that fall just short of causing damage to my...connective tissues, I think you called them. And similar such methods for the other tools." Naruto paused. "Don't forget I'm an Uzumaki, too. I likely have some limited ability to heal myself, so this training style is perhaps less dangerous to me than it would be for others."
Itachi nodded in acknowledgement. "True. We should start you with weights. Those are less available and take the longest to get used to." He said, making another clone. "My clone will get you a set of chakra weights."
Naruto opened his mouth to argue. "No you will not be paying for them, and yes you will accept them. This falls under my duty as your sensei." Itachi said, stopping the argument before it came.
Naruto just grumbled under his breath about "stupid logic."
"Now then, you're to start doing push-ups until your arms start to burn, Naruto." Itachi said, meeting Naruto's eyes with a stern gaze. "Until they start to burn. Not collapse. Burn." He repeated, wanting to make sure his message got across.
Naruto just rolled his eyes and got to work.
Several hours later, Naruto was resting on his back, looking up at the sky as the stars started to present themselves. "Hey, sensei?" he asked tiredly.
"Yes, Naruto?"
"You said you knew my parents..." Naruto started, pausing.
Itachi nodded, wondering where this was going.
"While I'll probably want to ask you some stories about them. For now, I only want to know one thing. What were they like?"
Itachi nodded knowingly. "Ah. Well, your mother was very fierce and stubborn with a fiery temper. She was called the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero. She wasn't extremely well-known in the way your father was, but she was a powerful kunoichi in her own right. She had this verbal tic that she hated, and would be thankful to find out you don't have. I didn't know her quite as well as your father, though. He was a very charismatic individual and always kept his cool. He was very respectful, always calling others with a proper honorific." He paused here. "I'm not quite sure if you possess this trait or not." He added amused.
Silence descended upon the pair as Itachi was finished.
"Thank you, sensei." Naruto said softly. Getting up he said, "I guess I should head home now. Again, thank you."
"One last thing. Don't sleep with weights on, that can cause all sorts of health issues."
"Alright, sensei. See you tomorrow."