Chapter 4: List of Weaknesses
Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto
As Naruto woke up again, he figure that he should make a note somewhere that told him of what Loop he was currently on
At least so he wouldn't be lost on the course of time.
Infinitely looping was scary as hell but with a way to progress it wasn't so much.
Again, Naruto went to Iruka for help who was grading stuff again. Since he had never declined Naruto who needed help instead of focusing to grading before, he repeated his request to Iruka who was once again motivated to teach him.
Taking out a leaf, he gave it to Naruto with a smile and said, "Being a better Ninja means overcoming your weaknesses right?"
Naruto smiled back and took it placing it on his forehead and stuck it there and then said, "I can do this with the back of my hands as well."
He smiled seeing the shocked expression on Iruka's face but frowned and added, "I know this much but my control still sucks. Is there anything to help with this?"
Iruka pondered for a second. The next step would logically be Tree Climbing or its more uncommon and far more accurate name Surface Clinging but that was a skill Genin would learn from their teachers not him. But then, Iruka remembered how to still increase your Chakra Control with the leaf exercise.
"Naruto, the next part of this exercise would be to make the lead float just above your head while only using Chakra. This is more difficult than simply sticking it on your head so you can work on that."
Nodding excitedly for a new challenge, Naruto swore that he would have a really good control over his Chakra eventually. But that wasn't exactly what Naruto was here for.
"Sensei" he said drawing the attention of Iruka again, "Can you tell me what other areas I'm lacking on. I mean I know I suck at Chakra Control but I feel like I'm weak in lots of other areas as well. I want to improve them as well and knowing is a start."
Iruka smiled at the words that his student-no former student said.
To overcome your weaknesses you need to know them first. Naruto was certainly growing, not by much compared to other people but still.
"Okay then" Iruka agreed, "But don't be disheartened about me talking about ALL of your weaknesses."
Naruto gulped and mentally prepared himself.
"From the most basic things after Chakra Control of course" Iruka solemnly said, "The first would be your reading and writing skills."
"Huh?" Naruto was dumbfound.
He was expecting something like poor Taijutsu or something like that instead of this. But before Naruto could argue, Iruka held his palm out stopping him while continuing.
"Reading is important since you need to read the mission scroll and learn as much as you can to complete it. Sometimes there are hidden messages in them and you can't figure any of it out if you can't read."
Naruto looked down. He knew that someday his ability to read would bite him back in the butt.
It wasn't like he couldn't read…no one taught him and he had to figure out fragments out of the language. He remembered Iruka teaching him some words but duty and teaching were in the way.
Iruka smiled sadly at Naruto knowing what was going in his head.
He was one of the very few people who ever bother to teach him properly. He swore that he would help him read if he ever asked but he had a list to go through and the quicker he did this, the less hurt Naruto would be.
"Writing on the other hand is used for writing mission reports mainly though as a Genin you won't need to since your Jonin-sensei will take care of that. Plus writing also goes into areas like Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing as well and can be used to deliver messages to comrades instead of telling them directly or God forbid by shouting out the message."
Naruto once again looked down, his inability to read well as only overshadowed by his inability to write as well.
However he saw the look on Iruka's eyes that said he would help him no matter what.
"Next up is your Taijutsu which I have to say is the worse thing I have ever seen. You have no stance which may work in some situations but your fighting style is of a brawler with nothing to back it up. If not for your stamina and endurance in fighting, you would easily lose to a recent Academy Student" Iruka said moving along.
Naruto muttered something about it not being his fault.
He wasn't taught anything about Taijutsu and the ones he did felt wrong to him. And if he dared tried to adjust it, the teacher would make them revert back to the one that felt wrong.
"Stealth is another basic skill which you lack in and before you say that you can escape ANBU know that you could have, should have been able to not get caught in the first place. First that needs to be adjusted would be your attitude, there is nothing noble about being a ninja and you should always take advantage of something. Second would be your clothes."
"Hey! Orange is awesome!" Naruto protested.
He liked orange the best for some reason, even though he knew better but damn, that colour drew him in easily and he liked wearing them.
"Nothing wrong about orange but rather the ratio it's in for your clothes…black or darker colours are what ninjas wear. Notice how most of the ninjas over Chunin wear dark green or something similar?" he asked to which Naruto nodded.
That made some sense since Genin were new ninjas and everyone above them were more experienced and better in general; not that it helped them catch him. It wasn't going to enjoy those bulky flak jackets though.
"If you can, make sure you can get some new clothes that aren't completely focused on neon orange that would make you a target" Iruka ordered.
Naruto wined at that; it wasn't going to happen even if he wished for it.
However Naruto once again looked down saying, "But none of the clothing stores would let me in…let alone buy something."
Iruka frowned hearing this.
What kind of place would deny service to a person, let alone a child? He now realised the extent of the hatred that the Kyuubi caused and how much it had affected Naruto.
He could shop for Naruto but he couldn't rely on him all the time…
Iruka perked up remembering another useful idea to use on spying missions, "In that case use the Transformation Jutsu. Usually only those Jonin and up and those who specialise in Genjutsu can tell if someone is using it."
Naruto's mouth made an O shape as he started at his teacher. Why the hell didn't he think of that before?!
Chuckling at Naruto, Iruka knew he had to move onto other parts Naruto could improve on. There was really only two other basic areas which Naruto needed to work on before having to move onto the more advance areas.
"Next up would be your Genjutsu or lack of ability to use it, dispel it or even detect it" he said, "While using Genjutsu would be near impossible for you since it requires good Chakra Control not average, you need to be able to at least detect it and dispel it else you will be caught up in the illusions of the enemy."
Naruto nodded, he knew from some experience when a drunk ninja once trapped him in an illusion of a beating and he thought it was real…not that it was really different. But Naruto found that causing that much pain with something not real…frightening.
"Finally there is your Ninjutsu skills" Iruka said to which he noticed that Naruto flinched expecting the worse, "Its actually not as bad as you think. While you are incapable of using the Clone Jutsu due to your control, you are more able to use Chakra draining Jutsu that require less control."
Naruto smiled at the praise no matter how little it was.
"However what you have in power you lack in control" Iruka continued, "There are many minor jutsus that will be essential later on and you can't use them unless you not only have control over your Chakra but also your jutsu as well. It takes far too long for you to use a Jutsu as well Naruto and that goes in gathering Chakra, moulding it with hand-seals and executing the jutsu. You need to work on all of that on every jutsu you learn."
Naruto gulped.
It seemed like a lot of things in order to use a jutsu properly. Remembering the amount of time it takes him to use a simple Transformation jutsu however; Naruto had to agree with Iruka on this. He needed to train in those areas.
His hand-seal speeds were below average and but he never use a jutsu with more than 3 hand-seals required. He managed to cut down on the required amount of hand-seals for both Transformation and Substitution since he used them so often in pranks.
Looking at the time, Iruka realised how long he was speaking and motioned at Naruto saying, "Want to eat some Ramen, I'll explain the rest of the things you need to improve on at Ichiraku."
"YAY!" Naruto cheered.
Due to the fact that he had been training a lot, his time at the Ramen stand dramatically decreased without him knowing which in hindsight meant he was eating more instant Ramen than anything else.
At Ichiraku Ramen, Naruto was happily eating his 5th bowl of Miso Ramen and at the same time depleting any funds that Iruka had saved up.
It was at that point where Iruka desperately needed for Naruto to stop eating else he would have nothing else to eat for a week.
"Naruto" he said getting the attention of the blonde boy, "Since we have both eaten up…" ignoring the fact that Naruto was actually only half full, "We should go on with our conversation from earlier."
Naruto nodded to what Iruka said and listened.
"Though I explained some of the more basic skills you should have, there are other aspects of a ninja that you should cover as well. These areas are usually what makes a ninja a Chunin rather than Genin after a while."
Iruka saw Naruto nodding as he explained, "Two of the most important things here are knowledge and strategy. Knowledge of course can be used in many ways to determine what to do in a situation while strategy is more often used while fighting such as preparing a jutsu to protect yourself from enemy attacks while moving and so on. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"Umm…." Honestly Naruto wasn't getting why this was important.
He didn't have much knowledge but was good enough and strategy was something used when you weren't strong enough to fight head on.
Seeing his face and most likely reading his mind, Iruka sighed and said, "Naruto, we are ninja. We need to use every single advantage we can grab onto. It's better to stab someone in the back rather than charge him head on alerting him. This is the kind of world we live him" he smiled sadly at the young boy.
While he wanted for Naruto to live in bliss for a bit more it was better for him to know a bit of the reality in the world…though he had suspected that Naruto already knew.
Iruka continued in his explanations saying, "Next would be Trapping and Wiring which also go together. Most ninjas don't both with this area but it can be useful at time since you can suddenly take down enemies without them knowing before its too late. Think of Trapping as pranking the enemy with lethal force. Wiring is the same but is more of an added way for traps."
"Iruka-sensei, why don't people use traps more often? I mean I can paint the Hokage Faces in board daylight easily enough. It seems easy enough" asked Naruto which caused Iruka to sweat drop.
Only Naruto was capable of doing such a feat.
Naruto on the other hand was thinking of the pranks he did over the years.
While all of them were harmless to those he pranked he did target some people. Mainly those who wronged him in some ways or attacked him which were the main reason he started to prank people other than the attention. After pranking those people, he noticed that they would be less likely to act against him which was a good indication to continue pranking…
'Hmm…should I include pranking-no trapping into my ninja skill set?' he wondered.
He was known as unpredictable and if he managed to prank Kakashi during that test…
Naruto snickered at the thought which confused Iruka greatly.
"Okay…anyway there are two more areas that aren't exactly weaknesses but rather skills you should learn sooner or later" said Iruka as Naruto listened in extra carefully.
"One of them is the camping skills which refer to the 5 E rank elemental jutsus that you can use to set up camp. The requirements of these jutsus are so low you don't need an elemental affinity for them. The second would be Chakra sensing. While you most likely won't be on the same level as a Sensor ninja unless you're on as well, sensing Chakra in general will warn you of any jutsu being moulded and allows you a split second advantage over a person who does not."
Naruto agreed with that statement, he knew from several pranks that he barely got away or barely got caught due to a split second difference. With that all done, Naruto was in his thought sorting things out.
Out of the things he should focus on; Chakra Control like Iruka said came first and could be constantly trained so he figured he should move onto the next most needed thing he needed as a person not a ninja.
"Say…Iruka-sensei, can you teach me how to read and write later?" he asked shyly.
Iruka beamed at Naruto and answered, "Of course."
Checkpoint 2: Loop 6 End (Total Loops: 9)
A/N:
This chapter is a bit unique in that it is pretty much nothing more as a basis of where Naruto has to grow in the areas where he is...lacking.
Also, anyone else find it funny that Naruto can outrun Chunin, Jonin and ANBU (Even if they're not allowed to kill or harm him)while Iruka can easily find him? The same guy who has several clan heirs/children of the clan head and the last of 2 Clans in Konoha that later make up the 'Rookie 9' in his class?
I mean, you wouldn't place the protection of children, your military's future in the hands of people who are weak especially if they will be part of important people in the future.