Chapter 13: Taijutsu Training
Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto
Naruto was pissed.
Yes pissed was the right word when a comrade, a SHINOBI failed the mission because she was too much of a coward to even try to protect their client's LIFE in the mist of battle.
Yeah Naruto made a mental note to make sure that either Sakura improved or suffered for her actions.
But at the same time Naruto checked the date and it was Jan 3 which was the day after the Genin Test from Kakashi-sensei. It seemed that this was going to be the point where he would repeat until he cleared that mission or reached a certain point in it to start from there.
That gave him a month of training where he also had to work on recondition his body for his Taijutsu.
'Damn this is going to be annoying if I have to do this all the time when I come back at this point' he thought.
Even if Shadow Clones increased the process; what Naruto needed for his muscles to adapt to the movements of his Taijutsu.
His muscle memory was reset after all every time from now on but Shadow Clones could help with that to a certain extent from now on.
Making the cross sign Naruto said, "Shadow Clone" making a single clone which had half of his Chakra.
"Head to our private training place and make more clones to start training what we know. Split into four groups with one going over the Katas, one with the Lead Exercise, one with Tree Climbing and another to start copying books from the library to study and revise. Oh and make sure that you dispel a clone or two each hour so I don't get bombarded with memories all at once" he ordered.
"Got it boss" the clone said before disappearing with a leap through the window.
With that done, now Naruto could think of a few new ways to train with his clones doing most of the work ironing out some of the basics that he had a bit more. There wasn't much to do for Taijutsu skills with him learning more Taijutsu and combining them into a single style that would take a long time to do since all he had was the basics of each style he could find.
That was a good way to build a good foundation for his own style which was about Clones. He needed the style to have power when he needed, speed when he needed and lots and lots of tricks mixed in them as well.
"Looks like my prankster ways seem to help me in more ways than one as a Ninja" he snickered at the thought of trained lethal Ninjas falling for simple pranks.
He made a mental note to remember to instruct the Clones train using each other as distractions instead of just charging in or weaving all over the place making his style a bit predictable if not for the numbers.
Stabbing through a Clone which a long enough sword when the enemy was about to guard or counter attack would be one good way to do this; though he had to make sure he wasn't the one being stabbed.
"Hopefully my Clones can tell I'm the real one…" he worried aloud.
But with his Transformation Jutsu which was physical instead of an illusion made it easy for him to have any number of weapons with Clones.
If he threw a lot of them and some missed; wouldn't the enemy be surprised if those weapons popped into Clones to attack? That was another thing he wanted to work on.
"I need to focus on certain areas now. Better to specialise for now before spreading out in more areas…"
Besides that, most of the things he wanted to do currently involved Taijutsu and Ninjutsu. Genjutsu was long put on the shelves with him needing to constantly train his Chakra Control. Training Chakra Control was now a habit which his reserves STILL increasing and was moving into the Elite Jonin level.
"At this rate I'll have more Chakra than Kakashi-sensei" he muttered both liking that fact and disliking it since his Sensei wouldn't be able to teach them well enough if that was the case in Chakra Control.
Hell to mock him, with each checkpoint and even more time passing, his Physical or Yang Chakra would increase due to his training and thus his overall Chakra Potential and level would increase as well. Naruto in no doubt figured in at most a year, his Chakra levels would go to Kage level. Which meant he at least needed Jonin or higher Chakra Control to have average Chakra Control; something he hasn't achieved just yet even now.
He would need to start Water Walking sooner or later as well though Naruto wanted to combine the Leaf Exercise with Tree Climbing first to see if it could work. And if he got that far and his control still wasn't good enough…
He wasn't even going to try to think about it.
Plus there was still Kenjutsu and Fuinjutsu he wanted to dabble in as well to see where that went. Though both needed highly skilled teachers to learn from…Kakashi-sensei didn't seem to use a sword but maybe sealing…?
Naruto noted to asked his Sensei that later on.
But for now…back to Taijutsu.
"Kakashi-sensei" A Shadow Clone that Naruto made just before the teamwork exercise the original was doing with his team-mates called out to him.
Kakashi looked away from the orange book at hand for a moment before wondering why Naruto sent a Clone to talk to him.
Well this was the first day as a Genin so he must have had some questions.
"Yes Naruto?" Kakashi replied trying not to be intimidating.
Those days in the ANBU did not help with his children skills or his social skills as well. Not that it made much of a difference with him being a Jonin at their age already.
"You know how my Taijutsu sucks right…?" the Clone drew it out a bit uncomfortable it seemed. Kakashi thought back at the fight he had with Naruto in the Bell Test and remembered his Taijutsu wasn't that bad though needed lots of work still.
However to this half question Kakashi nodded and the Clone continued, "So how do I get better in it. The Academy was…not good for me since…"
It was then that Kakashi understood that Naruto needed more training than the others.
With his large Chakra Reserves he would need to train Chakra Control more than the others. With his next to no control, he needed more work on breaking even the simplest Genjutsu that an enemy may use.
And his Taijutsu was a mix between brawler, Academy style and some basics Clone tactics as well. Basically Naruto had his work cut out for him.
Thus Kakashi started thinking, 'No, if he can overcome these problems then he will become powerful.
While Naruto may never use Genjutsu, his Ninjutsu is more advanced than other Genin and he isn't half bad with Taijutsu…now to increase the latter he would need…'
But Kakashi was still lazy even if he wanted to help his students plus he believed that you needed to ask for certain types of help to get it. Begging for training did nothing for the man since they needed to learn how to train.
"Hmm…I think I know the solution to your Taijutsu problem Naruto" Kakashi said as the Clone brightened up, "I know a…colleague that would be more than happy to teach you a thing or two that could help" 'With all the extra Taijutsu training' Kakashi mentally added.
It wasn't as if Kakashi intentionally wanted to pawn his student over to Gai but rather he was the lead Taijutsu master of the village and probably Elemental Countries.
If there was anyone who could help Naruto with a style and his Shadow Clones it was him.
The day after Naruto was walking to Training Ground 9 which was a fair distance away from Training Ground 7 where his team worked at.
After he woke up early again, Naruto made some clones to continue with the Chakra Control training and went to meet his new Sensei for Taijutsu though he wondered if this 'Might Gai' was here at all.
It was quite early-
"YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUTTTTTTHHHHHHH!" came a distance shout of sweet and…more sweet with hard-work.
Naruto's mouth was left gaping at the scene of a grown man with giant eyebrows in a green spandex suit with the Konoha headband strapped to his waist. He had to rub his eyes a couple of times to believe what he was seeing.
Not only was this man running, running with his hands, there was a small clone of the man with smaller eyebrows doing the same thing while shouting about 'Youth' and the such. It took them another minute before they were in front of Naruto.
"So…you are the man Kakashi-sensei talked to me about" Naruto said bluntly trying to stay neutral as possible. Must…not…make…fun…of…eyebrows…
The green man got up along with his clone and then gave him a thumbs up with a smile that disturbingly shined, "Yes my youthful student of the unyouthful Kakashi! I am Might Gai, the leading Taijutsu Master and Green Beast of Konoha and the eternal rival of Kakashi!" Another flash from his teeth appear again.
"And I am Rock Lee, the Azure Beast of Konoha!" Lee's teeth shone exactly like Gai's at that moment with their 'Good Guy' pose as Naruto now deemed it.
Furthermore Naruto was thinking of pranks to get back at Kakashi-sensei for pinning him with these guys even if it was well meant.
"So my Youthful friend, I have heard that you have trouble with Taijutsu that you require help from. Help that my eternal rival was unable to provide" Gai placed his hands on his shoulders now a bit more serious than before.
Naruto nodded, "I'm Naruto and a current student of Kakashi-sensei. My Taijutsu is barely at standard and I want to get stronger. I don't want to be a liability to my team."
All of a sudden Gai and Lee started crying at once and started to shout out things.
"OHHH WHAT A YOUTHFUL STATEMENT!" Gai shouted.
"YES GAI-SENSEI! I SEE THE FLAMES OF YOUTH FROM YOUNG NARUTO-KUN!" Lee continued.
"YES LEE! IF WE CANNOT TRAIN NARUTO-KUN TO BE STRONG THEN I WILL RUN 100 LAPS AROUND KONOHA WITH MY HANDS!"
"AND IF I CANNOT DO THAT I WILL DO KICK THE POST 1000 TIMES!"
"AND IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT THAN I WILL DO 10000 PUSH-UPS!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
Naruto stared at this horrifying scene as the duo hugged tightly and swore he saw the illusion of a sunset and waves splashing behind them. Naruto blinked twice and decided along-side his own Sensei's antics with those Orange books that all Jonin are crazy to some extent and accepted it.
After another 10 minutes of Naruto watching the two hug and shout out challenges, they came back to helping Naruto with Gai asking, "Please show me your Taijutsu skills against Lee here. You may use Ninjutsu as well if you wish."
"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee saluted.
"And Lee."
"Yes Gai-sensei?" Lee asked.
"Make sure to go slow first to let out youthful friend show his determination" Gai lectured as Naruto took this as a hint to get ready.
Lee was in a strange stance that placed one of his arms stretched out with the other behind his back and his knees bent a bit.
Lee smiled as Naruto charged in with a flying kick leap to the head which he promptly dodged and counter attacked hitting Naruto's side.
Going with the momentum he rolled and made a Cross sign calling, "Shadow Clone Jutsu" creating 5 Clones around him which charged at Lee while he got back up.
"What is this?"
Surprised in his eyes didn't stop him from hitting he Clones quickly and dispelling them immediately.
Naruto had to use the Shadow Clone Jutsu another time creating 2 more Clones with one staying back making more Shadow Clones while the other charged in with him.
"So you can make Solid Clones. What a youthful ability" Lee commented taking out the clone next to Naruto as the two of them did a bit of a Taijutsu battle with Naruto losing badly before his backup clones came.
"Haa!"
A dozen clones rushed at Lee with the same flying kick leap else charged close at him before attacking with elbows and knees. But Lee was too fast to hit and he shouted, "Lead Whirlwind!" before spinning and hitting all of the Clones at once.
But Naruto wasn't done yet. Making another set of Clones, Naruto repeated the same tactics with Lee using that same spinning move again but this time some of the Clones threw each other at Lee stopping the attack prematurely.
Before long it became a battle of attribute as Naruto kept on sending Clones with himself at Lee while Lee used his superior speed and power to take them down before Naruto repeated adding something new in as the battle continued.
Before they knew it, half an hour passed with Lee getting faster and faster without much tire while the opposite happened to Naruto even with his insane stamina. Most of it went to creating Clones to fight with though.
"Enough!" Gai shouted stopping Lee before he punched Naruto in the face, "I have seen enough though this was indeed a Youthful battle. Come! We shall discuss how you did and how to improve your Flames of Youth!"
"Yes Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted as Naruto nodded noting that his hearing would sooner or later get worse being around them too much. He pitied their team. However Naruto noted that Lee was strong and Gai was probably even stronger in Taijutsu.
Kakashi seemed to have the right choice bringing him here. He even got to spar against someone simply superior in Taijutsu instead of the Teme who would smirk every time he won. That was a plus in his books.
"Now my youthful friend, I have to say that your determination in the spar was quite youthful and that I envy my eternal rival for one who seemed to have to work very hard" Gai started, "My eternal Rival was right in sending you to me, the style you require is something very rare."
"Gai-sensei, do you mean those Youthful Clones of Naruto-kun?" Lee asked shooting up his arm in the process.
Gai nodded and answered Lee, "Yes my Youthful student. Shadow Clones are notorious for taking a large amount of Chakra even for Jonin to use. Hokage-sama who is our ever youthful leader hesitates to use this jutsu as well. For Naruto-kun to use so many means he had a very youthful amount of Chakra."
Naruto nodded but said, "But in exchange I have an impossible time using Jutsus requiring low amounts of Chakra. I couldn't even pass the Genin exams from the Academy the normal way since I couldn't and still can't use the Clone Jutsu. It broke me several times in the pass when I couldn't become a Ninja due to that Jutsu being the sole reason I couldn't pass."
At his words both Gai and Lee started to cry and sob at the determination that Naruto had to have to become a Ninja despite his inability. Both of them cried because Naruto's situation was similar enough to Lee's own.
"YOSH! My fellow comrade in Youth! We are similar even if I am incapable of using any Chakra!" Lee cried.
'Incapable of using Chakra?!' Naruto mentally shouted, 'Ninjas subconsciously channel their bodies with Chakra to strengthen it. Not being able to use Chakra means Lee was essentially a civilian with LOTS and LOTS of training. No…that kind of speed and power is something that a civilian is capable of having no matter how long they train.'
However Naruto really didn't know much about what kind of thing would allow Lee be a Ninja but not allows him to use Chakra for Jutsus so he didn't speak more on the matter.
Learning a bit of a topic was one thing but it was another to know what you were talking about while explaining and Lee's condition was in the medical Ninjutsu section which he didn't touch.
"Yes my youthful student Lee" Gai nodded, "Due to having that amount of Chakra to use Shadow Clones, I believe young Naruto-kun will not likely be using any Genjutsu as well or Iryojutsu (Medical Ninjutsu) due to the Chakra Control requirements. However we must talk about Naruto-kun youthful efforts in Taijutsu!"
"YOSH! Naruto-kun displayed many youthful tactics with his clones but they lack the pressure to overwhelm my youthful self!" Lee exclaimed.
"Then we must correct this. More numbers means more attacks, more attacks means more interference with other clones. Yes, it is indeed hard to find a proper style for you Naruto-kun!" Gai exclaimed, "Though I recognise the Hidden Tiger Fist and Flying Shallow Style when you fought."
"Yeah, I learnt them a while back trying to find a good enough way to find a good enough style for Shadow Clones or just use parts of them to make a new Taijutsu style for it" Naruto answered truthfully though it may have been the wrong thing to say.
"WHAT A YOUTHFUL THING TO DO NARUTO-KUN!" Gai shouted while crying, "FOR YOU TO CONSIDER MAKING A TAIJUTSU STYLE IS THE ULTIMATE TASK FOR ONE WHO KNOWS THE FLAMES OF YOUTH!"
Lee also started crying for some reason as well, "YES WE WILL HELP YOU NARUTO-KUN! WE WILL MAKE YOU THE BEST SHADOW CLONE TAIJUTSU MASTER IN KONOHA-NO THE WORLD!"
"YES AND IF WE CANNOT DO THAT THEN I WILL DO 1000 JUMP ROPES!"
"AND IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT THAN I WILL CLIMB THE HOKAGE FACES!"
"YOSH! AND IF YOU CANNOT DO THAT THAN I WILL CLIMB THE HOKAGE FACES WITH ONE HAND!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
"GAI-SENSEI!"
"LEE!"
The duo hugged each other again and Naruto wondered if there was going to be a lot of this…if not for the fact that he had seen the darker side of the world; he would have found this completely disgusting on too many levels. Almost.
Their show of their bond was admirable to Naruto at least and he didn't want to do anything to disrespect that.
A week had passed with Lee and Gai helping with his Taijutsu and things have been very good for Naruto for several.
Other than the fact that Gai was the leading Taijutsu expert; he was also the most informed person about Taijutsu in general even more so than Hokage-jiji himself!
Due to this, Gai was able to split Naruto's Taijutsu into four section which he needs to train to switch between in a moment's time. These sections are Taijutsu that focus on offence, defence, swarming and control.
"Four sections but there are a tone of parts in each of them…plus it'll be even larger and complicated if I ever add in Kenjutsu as well" Naruto noted.
The parts from the Hidden Tiger Fist and Flying Shallow Style were both Taijutsu styles that focused on offense and Gai added a couple other moves though he didn't name the styles with this.
Now other than super close combat and mid-range combat of the Hidden Tiger Fist and Flying Shallow Style, Naruto with the help of his clones were trained partly in the Goken (Strong Fist) to destroy defence and a couple other moves that evaded the defence of the enemy.
While Naruto's offensive Taijutsu was quite rough in style, his defensive style was much smoother taking from passive Taijutsu that counters the flow of attacks. Naruto had a hard time with this and needed a lot more training to have a proper defence. Even more so if he wanted to switch between the two.
"Though if I can use the same style of defence in offence properly as well…" Naruto sighed.
Then there were the Swarming and Trapping type Taijutsus that the three of them were experimenting on creating for himself.
Swarming referred to the mass number of Shadow Clones that Naruto could send in. Most; nay almost all Taijutsu were designed for a lone person to fight with not a mass number with few exceptions.
Naruto was different in this regard with his Shadow Clones.
Due to this, Gai managed to give some tips on how to synchronise with his Clones better but doing so limited some moves he could do individually in exchange.
Naruto once asked the man on why he didn't teach Naruto something more advance but for that, he needed more foundations on his Taijutsu style and moreover, more experience in using it.
Control Taijutsu however was much easier and didn't refer to a specific type of Taijutsu surprisingly. This style of Taijutsu with his Clones consisted of something similar to when he used his Clones to move Kakashi-sensei into a trap back in the Bell Test.
Basically you control the actions of the enemy allowing them to move in a certain way, attack in a certain way and defend in a certain way.
This was by far the most complicated Taijutsu Naruto had to practise but his pranking nature helped him a bit. Now all he had to continue to train and mend together properly while adding and removing moves.
That was admittedly smarter than just adding random moves in that seemed cool.
Many of the defensive moves from the Academy Style he had been using were replaced by something called Tai Chi which involved using the flow of energy from the enemy as well.
Basically Naruto was pushing the attacks aside rather than block to take advantage of the gap in that moment. He found it similar enough to the Hyuuga's Gentle Fist but focused much more and apparently better in defence.
However Naruto still had trouble from moving from attacking and moving to using Tai Chi to defend since the two styles were different in nature.
"Wish Gai-sensei would allow me to learn some of the more advance moves…though I get I need to master the basics first" Naruto sighed as he approached the bridge again after training with Gai and Lee in the mornings, "Plus I need to adjust the style to work with and without Clones and how I want to use them…so much work."
Although Naruto was complaining, in fact he was grinning.
'Finally. Finally I have something that will allow me to get stronger even if my body will be reset back to before every time the reset happens' he thought happily. After the training with Gai and Lee which also rapidly increased his body's own strength; Naruto had more than often used Shadow Clones in place of his own team and trained with his Clones instead.
Although they weren't as strong as Lee anytime soon; it allowed him to iron out some parts that left too many openings, or add in openings for traps with certain moves. By the end of the third week, Naruto could say that his Taijutsu was at the average Genin level now individually.
The training with Gai and Lee allowed him to cover so many gaps in his Taijutsu originally and made it easier for him to last longer in the spars against Sasuke.
And with Clones, Sasuke would lose and Kakashi was by sure would have a lot harder time against him and his clones.
"But there's always a restriction" Naruto muttered as he thought of the reason why Sasuke kept on beating him and Lee as well but more on the latter. Speed and power. It was simple and it was what kept a Genin from taking out a Jonin in a straight out fight.
Skill did not matter much when the difference in strength and speed were too different.
Naruto sighed wondering if there was a way to increase his strength and speed faster. It would definitely help against those missing-nin later on with the C-rank mission turned back and probably anything later on since increasing his body's strength would allow him a more variety of tactics.
"Hmm? A way to increase your speed and power more quickly?" Kakashi repeated what his student of three weeks had been making a good deal of progress for a rookie Genin in the area of Taijutsu. With his Shadow Clones, that would be the most ideal area to train in other than Ninjutsu.
Kakashi pondered at the blonde boy and saw the same eyes that his teacher had when he wanted to do something and would not allow anything to get in the way. While the boy had his mother's face and attitude for the most part he inherited his father's hair and eyes. Especially the eyes Kakashi noted.
'This boy would become quite a lady killer later on' he mused before telling his student, "Yes there is a method to do so and it's the same method which Gai and his clon-student use as well. During my time while I was younger, I used this method to increase my body's ability as well" he explained.
"A way to make me stronger? Tell me" Sasuke appeared after finishing a pitiful spar with Sakura which was completely one sided if not for the fact that Sakura refused to attack or that she was that weak that Sasuke didn't need more than a few seconds to take her out cleanly.
Sasuke scoff at the girl. She wanted in his pants like too many and some too old ethically as well in the village and as such did not bother to train and instead become weak and stay that way. If he ever killed Itachi and were to rebuild his Clan it would be with someone strong and wasn't a 'yes' man like too many.
The Raven haired avenger looked at his blonde team-mate and noticed that he was growing stronger and it was apparent especially in Taijutsu and now that same blonde was asking how to get stronger quicker. Naturally he wanted in as well.
"Mare mare, I was about to tell you all as well…" Kakashi looked at Sakura and corrected himself, "Well everyone who wanted to at least."
Both Naruto and Sasuke stood there silent waiting for their teacher to continue. Sasuke was thinking of how closer he would become to kill Itachi and how Naruto would soon be a worthy rival to compare himself to.
Naruto on the other hand knew what Kakashi was talking about. Gai and Lee's weights were special compared to normal weights.
They had seals on them which made them much heavier than normal and could be adjusted for the user. Such a thing was rare though since seals were rare in general and hard to learn.
"What I am talking about are these special weights that allows you to adjust the weight" Kakashi explained, "Though I found there was a much easier and more effective way compared to Gai's which are Resistance Seals."
"Resistance Seals?" Naruto asked not knowing what they were. He would really want to start on Fuinjutsu now…at least to learn how to recreate them.
"Yes, these seals create a resistance on the body like you're walking through water though it can easily become much thicker if you wish.
The advantages are naturally that the whole body gets worn out more easily but gets stronger faster as well especially in speed."
Naruto perked up at that.
"However to apply them you need a Seal Expert like myself to do so else it may fail and the seal with either not work at all or crush you into tiny bits" Kakashi eye-smiled at them ignoring their fears.
Yep Naruto swore he would look into Fuinjutsu in the next loop as soon as possible.
His Taijutsu was almost up to scratch for now and he just needed the experience with sparring stronger and faster foes like Lee.
A week passed and Naruto did not make up a storm to get the C-rank mission and the Loop reset back at the beginning of the month.
Checkpoint 3: Loop 2 End (Total Loops: 54)
A/N:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Introducing Gai and Lee! The two easiest characters to write in Naruto Fanfiction, EVER!
Seriously, all you need to do with the duo is something about Taijutsu, Training and YOUTH! Their literal characterisation is based off those three things completely to the extremes where other characters tries to avoid them out of principle.
Also, who else would possibly train Naruto who has the ability to split into hundreds? No Taijutsu style exists specifically for someone like that though I admit that later on I'm changing how Naruto fights based off recommendations from his teachers.
Gai here went for the swarm training along with some other basics that Naruto needed.
Offence: Rapid fire attacks from close to mid range.
Defence: Tai Chi and redirecting attacks passively
Swarming: Lots and Lots of Clones for a quick attack to overwhelm the enemy.
Control: Using said Lots and Lots of Clones to manipulate enemy into traps else gain openings.
These will be the core of the fighting style Naruto has which will only evolve later on.
Kakashi on the other hand will want to teach Naruto different on this regard.
Same as Jiraiya if he also teaches Naruto.
Then there's the Resistance Seal that I placed into the plot. Honestly, they're a little plot points that gives reasons for Naruto's body strength to increase faster than it should later on in the series.
I rather not make up some method to rapid train one's muscles in a short moment or even copy one method that I know from 'Chunin Exams Days'.