Chapter 3: Learning to be a Ninja
Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto
Naruto approached the Academy and quickly found Iruka grading something.
Nothing important then was the first thing Naruto thought before barging into the empty classroom. However Naruto noticed some bandages which caused him lots of guilt of what happened the previous day.
"Heeey! Iruka-sensei!" Naruto shouted to which startled him.
"Naruto?" asked Iruka with a confused look, "Why are you here?"
"I need help to become a better ninja" Naruto stated bluntly.
To say Iruka was shocked was an understatement.
He had half expected for Naruto to plead for him to teach him some awesome powerful jutsu for something along those lines. Being a better ninja meant that Naruto wanted to truly improve.
Thinking for a bit, Iruka agreed to Naruto with a smile saying, "Sure, I can put aside these grading for a bit longer while I help you."
"YATTA!" Naruto shouted in happiness.
Iruka smiled at the antics that Naruto showed when excited. Thinking of the first thing that Naruto was bad of, Chakra control appeared in his head. This was a true test on whether Naruto had enough conviction to be a better Ninja.
Taking out a leaf, he gave it to Naruto with a smile and said, "Being a better Ninja means overcoming your weaknesses right?"
Naruto gave Iruka horror stuck face knowing what he was going to work on.
However Naruto had to admit that this was a major weakness that he had…perhaps he could do the Clone Jutsu with this later on. Thus Naruto nodded and Iruka felt joy and pride for Naruto.
As a teacher, Iruka had to explain the reasons first, "Naruto, Chakra Control is one of the essential tools a Ninja need to keep up with. The better Chakra Control you have, the better you'll be."
"But how does Chakra Control help me? Doesn't having more Chakra mean you're stronger?" asked Naruto.
Iruka chuckled and simply said, "Naruto, say if you have two people doing the same jutsu say…the Shadow Clone Jutsu you learnt."
Naruto nodded.
"Both have the same amount of Chakra and are using the same amount in the Jutsu. Who do you think will be better off, the one with better control or the one with less control?"
"Better since the amount of Chakra they have are the same" answered Naruto.
Iruka nodded and said, "Right, the one will better control may make 25 clones while the one with less control may make only 20 clones at once. Therefore the better control you have, the more clones you can make ultimately. Plus you need better Chakra Control to learn those awesome powerful jutsu you are asking for all the time. Too little Chakra and they won't work, too much and they can explode in your face"
He chuckled at the fright Naruto was showing.
Inside of Naruto's head, he could think of countless powerful jutsus for him to use…but he lacked the control to use any of them.
"Like hell I'm not going to learn those awesome jutsus!" Naruto snacked the leaf and stuck it on his forehead while pressing Chakra to stick it on his head. After a few seconds, the leaf fell off his forehead and Naruto cursed.
Saying goodbye to Iruka while getting some more leaves, Naruto swore that he would master the Leaf Exercise method.
As such, he spent a lot of time pouring more and more Chakra onto the leaf which did nothing but either blow it away or crush it into dust. Naruto after a few painful hours realised that this was not the method to do things.
Thus he started to decrease the amount of Chakra he was using and quickly found out that the leaf stuck better on him when he used less Chakra mysteriously.
'Hmm…even though I used more Chakra, it was more difficult to stick a leaf on my forehead but when I decreased the amount from what was normal it was easier….' Naruto thought. It wasn't like he was stupid; he simply went with his happy mask most of the time.
If that was the case, what would happen if he decreased the amount of Chakra for the Clone Jutsu.
It wasn't like he knew how much Chakra was needed to perform the jutsu and how much he was using. Naruto recalled that Iruka-sensei said something about too much Chakra making the jutsu explode on him.
'Is that the reason why I can't do the Clone Jutsu?' he wondered as he prepared as little Chakra as he could do and shouted, "Clone Jutsu" while making the hand-seals.
Poof!
A clone appeared but unlike before, it wasn't completely dead though it looked like that either way. The Clone was white in colour and looked extremely sick but was there.
It was alive and worked to a small extent.
"Yatta!" Naruto cheered seeing that one of his biggest problems could be solved.
With glee, Naruto spent the next couple of days focusing solely on his Chakra Control and it was already having some effect. Naruto could feel there wasn't the usual grinding that went with using a jutsu, any jutsu. Now that he thought about it, every time he wanted to use Chakra, he found it as if he was breaking open a flood rather than turning a tap.
No, if he had to compare it to other people than his Chakra Control was like a dam.
A rusty dam that needed to be worked on to hold back the Chakra he had. Naruto wasn't foolish about himself and other people than most think. He knows that he has more Chakra than normal. The problem was that he did not know how much.
Soon enough the day where they were sorted into teams appeared again and Naruto headed to the Academy a bit more confident than before. He knew where he was going to be placed after all so he had no need to be nervous.
He went through the previous conversation pretty much the same and sat down to the other side of the table to the Teme.
Frowning he felt as if he forgot something important.
BANG!
The sliding door as pushed aside as two of the Teme's fangirls appeared all tired and sweaty. Now that Naruto knew what was going to happen, he pushed down the feeling of wanting to get Sakura to notice him and then tried to get away from his current seat.
Too bad he was too late.
"Get out of the way Naruto-baka!" Sakura shrieked hurting his ears a bit again.
He felt punches and kicks as both Ino and her pushed him aside for the Teme. A hollow feeling came from Naruto that he could not place.
Why did they push him aside when he was going to move either way?
Another minute of struggle between the two resulted in Sakura 'winning' again, sitting next to Sasuke and Naruto getting back his seat this time.
Having the same thoughts as before, Naruto thought of why Sasuke had everything given to him, even the girls as they throw themselves at him! (Forgetting Hinata again). It wasn't fair! As Naruto was about to move to try to intimidate the Teme, he remembered what happened before.
The kiss, he shuddered.
And the beating Sakura-chan gave him for 'stealing' the Teme's first kiss.
That was enough to damper his spirits a bit as next to him, Sakura completely ignored him in favour of cooing the Teme while he completely ignored her as well. Looking around the classroom, he could feel the stares of hate going to Sakura-chan and wondered how the hell did she not feel all of that.
Even as a child, Naruto could always feel the stares of hate on him so he quickly blocked it out but he always knew they were there.
He simply ignored them now.
Sakura-chan however seemed…ignorant of them. With a sigh, Naruto took out a leaf and place it on the back of his hand. He moved onto from simply sticking the leaf on his forehead which was one of the harder places to gather Chakra to.
Next was his hands and then finally his feet if what Iruka as right.
The feet would be the hardest place to gather Chakra with since they were the furthest from his main Chakra Coils. Again from Iruka when he went back for tips and hints to help him more.
Now he had to wait for team selection to finish…and this time without the hindrance of spoiled milk found out what Sakura thought of him using the Teme's form of course.
To say he was hurt was an understatement; he almost completely lost his feelings for her there.
Almost.
He was crushing on her for years now and that can't completely disappear immediately without extra cause. For some reason he found Sasuke staring at him which was unnerving for the next three hours where they waited for Kakashi.
Naruto placed the same trap as before and Kakashi fell for it again which once again questioned the ability of the Jonin.
They went through introducing themselves again and once again were told of this test. And thus ended another day.
Naruto was having a hard time on the test.
Even though he told both Sakura and grudgingly Sasuke about the true purpose of the test, they completely ignored him! Thus he had to face Kakashi again.
Oh Naruto knew this was the wrong approach but he wanted to see what he could have done differently, he wasn't going to get hit with that Thousand Years of Pain ass-poke again. Substitution was a god sent for that.
"You know that you usually hide instead of facing me head on right? Are you wrong in the head or something?" asked Kakashi lazily. If Naruto knew anything of his sensei even if it was a very short time, it was that he was lazy.
"The only thing wrong is your hair!" Naruto screamed attacking him. Once again, Naruto fell for being provoked but did things a bit more differently this time.
Instead of charging in, he threw weapons at Kakash before charging him. Kakashi either casually dodged or blocked the weapons thrown at him with a single hand and blocked when Naruto kicked to his head. A brief series of combos later, Kakashi was behind Naruto again about to Ass-poke him again.
His hands were in the Ram sigh and he thought he heard someone scream a warning to him.
"Hidden Leaf Secret Technique: Thousand Years of Pain!"
Poof!
Instead of Naruto's ass he hit (thankfully), Kakashi's fingers hit a log instead just in time for Naruto appeared behind Kakashi with the same hand sign shouting, "Hidden Leaf Secret Technique: Thousand Years of Pain!"
Poof!
In a mirror situation, Naruto's fingers hit the log as well and they hurt like hell when they did! What the hell did Kakashi do to not be harmed when he hit the log. Naruto thought one of his fingers was broken as a result.
"Too naïve Naruto" said Kakashi pulling out the same orange book again.
Huh, last time Naruto thought he pulled it out during the first taijutsu part between them. Either way it didn't matter to Naruto as he made a cross sign (despite a finger broken) and shouted, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The battle pretty much went as last time, Naruto being beaten up; though this time he didn't fall for the oblivious trap and instead used a Shadow Clone to test it out.
Kakashi still took the bell from under him but praised him for using a decoy first.
But Kakashi still tied him up on the log and failed them in the seemed to be no differences there at least. Everything went to black as Naruto felt himself go to the next loop.
Another 3 loops passed by with Naruto still focusing on Chakra Control since that was the only thing Iruka advised him to.
According to him, his Chakra Control was mid-range for an Academy Student now which both excited and depressed him.
A full month of training on Chakra Control solely and this was all he got?
'No, it was a full month that was made up of 4 weeks individually each time. If my Chakra Control sucks doesn't it mean I can just repeat this until my control is better?' he thought. Plus focusing only on Chakra Control was a waste.
There was only so much he could do with a leaf in trying to control his Chakra.
He would have to ask Iruka what areas he was also lacking in and help him if he could.
Checkpoint 2: Loop 5 End (Total Loops: 8)
A/N:
This is where Naruto starts to exploit the Time Loop to get stronger. Really, you have an extremely unbalanced character whose lacking in so many areas. What do you do?
You train him up to make him balanced while at the same time improving his strengths. The main parts of the story till the Wave Arc will be about Naruto becoming an all-rounder.