AN: Well guys it's been exactly 2 months since I last updated, and honestly I thought I would get it out after break, but ever since the college letters started coming in, it hit me. Some of these people I've known since like elementary school I might not ever see again. Guess I've been spending more times with my friends, so you'll have to forgive me.
And if you don't, then obviously you need to get some friends lol. Anyways here's the next installment in Hunter-X not my proudest chapter, but the technical crap has to be done or else you'll never understand what I'm trying to get across. Read and send me your thoughts.
Dream
"Look at her! Look at that big forehead!" Jeers and taunting laughter seemed to follow six year old Sakura everywhere she went. Every night she fell asleep, crying and sobbing, wishing with all her heart that she would look a little more normal. The dirty pink haired little girl was hugging her knees to her chest and crying softly as a ring of boys surrounded her.
Pointing and laughing, the children followed the example of the ringleader, a snot nosed chestnut brown haired boy with a rather large build. He was somewhat chubby for a child his age, but his strength was greater then most children his age which allowed him to bully and push the other kids around.
Sakura happened to be a favorite victim of his, and he and his little gang of kids loved to follow her around and make fun of her.
"My god," he sneered, "with a forehead like that it's a wonder they allow you to be a ninja! The light reflecting off that head of yours would give away your position no matter how you hide!" The circle of boys burst into laughter and blocked out any chance for the crying Sakura to flee.
"Hey! Leave her alone you jerk!" A six year old Ino had seen enough and decided to step in and help the crying girl.
"And who's going to make us?" scoffed the leader. "You?" He shoved the Yamanaka sending her sprawling onto the floor. The gang of boys laughed louder as tears of pain welled up in the blonde's eyes from her skinned knee.
Bolstered by the support of his friends, the leader turned back to point at Sakura. "Why would you want to help something with a forehead like that?" The cruel laughter only grew louder. Sakura covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out the horrible mocking noise.
"I wouldn't be talking about her forehead with a nose like that." The leader blinked stupidly at the casual remark coming from the newly arrived boy. Sun kissed hair reached the boy's shoulder and navy blue eyes stared out at the gaggle of bullies with contempt. Finally realizing that he had been insulted the ringleader turned around and scowled at the newcomer.
"What's wrong with my nose?!" he demanded. His friends sensing a new victim began to encircle the lone boy who stood unmoving even as he was flanked. Faster then the eye could follow, the blonde darted forward and slammed his fist into the bully's nose. The sound of smashed cartilage assaulted the onlooker's ears as the larger boy fell to the ground howling and holding onto his nose. Even with his hands clasped tightly on his nose, blood spurted out between his fingers dying his white shirt a horrifying crimson.
"It's quiet deformed in my opinion." The blonde boy seemed utterly unaffected by the fact that someone else's blood was coating his fist.
The other boys seeing their leader fall so easily decided that now was a good time to leave. A piercing glare sent the braver thugs in trainings scampering leaving their boss crying on the floor, holding onto the deformed lump of meat that used to be his nose.
Ino had used the distraction of the fleeing boys to work her way over to Sakura who was staring in silent shock at her savior. Nobody had ever managed to stop the harassment by the other children, not even her parents.
"Come on Sakura," urged the blonde girl, "thank him." Stumbling over her words, the teary eyed Sakura tried to express her gratitude.
"Tha-ank yo…" The words caught in her throat as the blonde turned around and blue eyes met green. She was not old enough to comprehend what she saw in those eyes, but even not understanding it had frightened her into silence.
"Come on Sakura!" repeated Ino. Turning around she bowed slightly to their rescuer. "I'm really sorry about my friend, but thank-you."
Ignoring the Yamanaka heir, the blonde walked up and squatted before the frozen Sakura staring intently into her eyes.
"So alike, yet so different you and I." The blonde's pale lips had barely moved as he whispered to himself. "Both shunned by society for something we had no control over."
Unconsciously, his left hand fell to and clutched at his belly while his right poked the shocked Sakura's forehead. Standing up, the blonde boy stared down thoughtfully at the immobile girl seated before him.
"Do not make the same mistake I did girl." He began to walk away. "If you listen to people long enough, you will really become nothing more then a useless forehead girl."
End Dream
Sakura woke with a start as the odd dream from her past ended. "So alike yet so different" whispered the kunoichi to the darkness cloaking her room. 'I wonder what he meant.'
After Sasuke had entered her life, she had all but forgotten about the blonde boy, but still she had kept his departing words close at heart. The words of others rarely affected her anymore, which explains why she still hasn't given up on Sasuke yet even after being rejected so many times. Normally her dreams revolved around the brooding brunet Uchiha, but the past few nights had been plagued by dreams of her rescuer whom she didn't even have a name for, simply a face.
A soft beeping from her alarm warned her that it was already 5 a.m. and that it was time to get up if she wanted to get to her training in time. Savoring a fifteen minute shower, she arrived in the kitchen to discover both her parents already there and eating. Sitting down at her place to the left of her father, she gave a cheerful "good morning" and began eating the breakfast set down in front of her by her mother.
The meal was taken in silence as the affects of sleep had not fully left the family, but near the end her father spoke up. "So, Sakura you did not mention who would be training you yesterday." The older female Haruno rolled her eyes
"All you could really tell us was how Sasuke-kun was on your team" she teased causing her daughter to blush furiously. "We never even go the name of your other teammate!"
Finally regaining her composure, Sakura fought down her blush and answered her parent's questions. "Well, Hatake Kakashi is my sensei, but he's kinda weird." She made a face as she imagined her tardy sensei wandering into her kitchen. Her parents had shared a glance during their daughters distracting thoughts. Kakashi was one of the few shinobi that even the civilian population was aware of, after all the man was a former Anbu captain who held a shinobi record since age 6, younger then even most of the shinobi's from the harshest of villages. Nobody knew anything concrete, but it was quiet obvious this was not a man you wanted to cross.
"And your other teammate?" prompted her father. Sakura shuddered visibly as she recalled the destruction of the training field wrought by her blonde colleague.
"Uzumaki Naruto." The Haruno male choked while sipping his coffee and began hacking away until the liquid was rejected from his windpipe. A quick backslap from his wife cleared his throat enough for the man to croak out shakily, "The Uzumaki Naruto?!"
"Yeah." Sakura watched in confusion as her parents exchanged shocked looks. "He's the one Kakashi sensei ordered to train me." Two pairs of eyebrows shot up at the unexpected announcement.
"Sakura," began her father, "I want you to be careful around him alright honey?" The girl shuddered again as the former training field came to mind. "And you listen to what that boy teaches you, you hear? He's seen and done a lot, and what he shows you can some day mean the difference between life and death."
Sakura was surprised at her father's reaction, but did not voice the questions burning to spill out of her mouth. "Ok, but I gotta go or I'm going to be late." Standing up, she hugged bother her parents before rushing out the door.
"The Butcher of Cloud, teaching my daughter." The Haruno male shook his head in disbelief. Some things in life truly were unexpected.
"What's the big deal about this Uzumaki kid?" questioned his wife. "Name sounds kinda familiar."
The man shot his wife an incredulous look. "Honey he's the Kyuubi container." The woman gasped as she recalled all the names associated with that boy. "Most the stuff he does is classified to the point even the shinobi don't know much about it" continued her husband, "But everyone's heard of his nicknames: Hunter X, Merciless X, Undying Uzumaki, The Bastard Child of the Devil, and now Butcher of Cloud and kami knows how many other."
A deathly silence fell over the kitchen as the pair complemented the fate destiny had dealt their daughter. "Maybe she'll finally get over the Uchiha" mumbled the Haruno head.
His wife laughed and swatted his shoulder playfully. "It takes a lot more then that to sway our daughter." Her husband groaned as he realized the truth in her words.
Training Ground 13
Huffing and puffing, Sakura arrived at the designated training ground with seconds to spare. Stooping over to catch her breath, she eyed the training field looking for her teammate/trainer.
"Good you're here." Squeaking in fright, the pink haired girl spun around to find herself face to, well chin, with Naruto. He was dressed in the same outfit he had worn at the academy and the mask was still in place covering his face completely while the slashed X seemed to glare out at anyone who dared look him straight at him.
For nearly a minute, the blonde stood unmoving studying his assigned student who began to fidget uncomfortably under his scrutiny.
"Not much to look at huh?" Naruto could just imagine the wide leer plastered across the Kyuubi's face.
"Umm…sensei?"
"Don't call me sensei" interrupted Naruto. "Naruto will do seeing as we'll be working together." Normally such a statement was said with warmth and friendliness. Naruto's dead tone gave the impression he couldn't care less if she dropped dead and they never spoke to each other again. An awkward silence descended upon the pair as they returned to the one sided staring contest. A few more minutes of hard staring passed by before the blonde moved to cross his arms across his chest.
"Haruno-san, tell me, why did you choose to become a kunoichi?" Sakura was taken aback by the blunt question.
"Well I…"
"Speak truthfully Haruno-san. Whether the reason is noble or selfish, I will not judge you for we all have different reasons for taking on the profession of a killer, but in the end we all do the same thing: kill."
Blushing slightly, the pink haired girl pulled a Hinata and began poking her fingers together nervously. "Well I guess at first it was because my grandma was a shinobi," blushing furiously the girl continued, "but after I joined the academy I guess I did it to impress Sasuke-kun." Not believing what she had just admitted that out loud, Sakura turned a deeper shade of crimson expecting a lecture about the virtues of being a kunoichi for the betterment of the village and it's people and not for such a selfish reason.
But instead, Naruto simply nodded his head slowly. "So you wish to impress the Uchiha?" Now redder then a tomato Sakura nodded hesitantly feeling the warm rush of blood tingling in her cheeks. "Let me tell you a secret Sakura" the kunoichi blinked in surprise and leaned forward to listen to this so called secret. "If you wish to impress the Uchiha, you must become strong."
"And grow some tits!" The Kyuubi burst out laughing and rolled around in his cage. "God I crack myself up."
"Strong?" questioned the pink haired girl. Naruto nodded an affirmative as his eyebrows twitched behind his mask from the Kyuubi's comment.
"Humans have evolved beyond your baser instincts, but we have not truly left it behind. It is simply that we are no longer in touch with it. Let's take an example." The masked blonde indicated for Sakura to sit and she complied, intrigued by the blonde's words.
"A human's will to live is stronger then our own moral conscious. We all agree that women and children should be given priority in an emergency correct?"
"Yeah," agreed Sakura.
"Yet when an emergency truly emerges, why is it that so many women and children die?"
Thinking hard Sakura answered wither her only conclusion. "Well people panic I guess."
The former hunter-nin nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. This panic overrode their sense of right and wrong, and instead of women and children first, it became a survival of the fittest situation, what all animals humans included are biologically programmed to follow."
Shaking her head in confusion, Sakura raised her hand. "But what does this have to do with Sasuke-kun?"
Ignoring the raised hand the blonde continued speaking, "All humans follow a basic instinct and one of these aspects that it is applied to is finding a mate." Sakura's face burned red at the way Naruto phrased it. "Males instinctively look for a female in a set pattern. Our higher intelligence requires that we find a mate that is compatible intellectually, and appearance wise, but that is only our mind trying to fool us."
The blonde began to pace in front of Sakura who looked ready to crawl into a hole and never come back out. "Why is it that men are attracted to females with larger breasts?" Sakura squirmed slightly at the question. Realizing just how undeveloped hers were, depression began to sink in. "Larger breasts indicates that the female would be more capable of taking care of offspring, which is the goal of most males searching for a mate whether they know it or not."
That wasn't exactly what the kunoichi expected, but she kept what he said in mind. After all, it sorta made sense, in a twisted and totally wrong way. "A common misconception made up by the female intellect is the attraction of males towards a woman of the thinner variety. In truth, this is a warning sign that the female is unhealthy and incapable of bearing let alone rearing offspring."
"Wait that's not true!" burst out Sakura. It just couldn't be! That would mean that she had wasted away for nothing.
"Oh?" asked Nartuto who had stopped in front of her. "Think back to all of the women you know that have given rise to offspring. How many are the stick thin figures most women today seem to idolize so much?" Images of her mother and all her married friends flashed across her mind's eye, and none of them were really hitting the skinny category. Casting about desperately for a memory of any married woman that could refute the blonde's argument, she came up blank.
"If you truly wish to attract the Uchiha, my advice to you would be to gain some weight. Of course obesity is a warning sign of the incapability in a woman to control her eating habit, something nobody wants in a mother who has to feed her children." Seeing that he was getting no response from the shell shocked girl in front of him, he began pacing again.
"I suppose that all males will look for a pretty face, but second to that is strength. This does not necessarily indicate physical strength. A strong will is very attractive to males according to my observations, as it shows an unwillingness to give into any situation. A strong female can attract more males even if she is not physically appealing as a weaker woman. This would also explain why kunoichis are so sought after and prized in the male population." Sakura perked up slightly as she continued listening to the pacing blonde's explanation
"Kunoichi are strong and taught to have an iron will. Already they fulfill two of the four elements a male looks for instinctively. So since your goal is to make the Uchiha your mate," poor Sakura looked ready to commit seppuku right there, "then you must become stronger as a kunoichi before he will even consider courting you." Looking thoughtfully over his female student, he indicated for her to get up.
"And hopefully you'll put on a few pounds along the way." Getting up and thinking hard over what her teammate had just told her, she realized that what he said while put in a very tactless and tasteless way, held some weight in the truth of the mater.
"And being a guy, he no doubt knows this from first hand experience!" shouted Inner Sakura. Feeling extremely gloomy, Sakura realized she didn't really fit any of the criteria. She wasn't that strong even when compared to girls her own age, she was flat as an ironing board, thin as stick and her will power had never really been tested. Her confidence shot to hell, the girl decided to inquire her temporary sensei's thoughts on what attracted a female to a male.
"So what about girls?" The boy in front of her cocked his head to the side.
"What about them?" Sighing in exasperation she clarified.
"What attracts them to a guy?" The blonde shrugged in response.
"From what I know?" Sakura nodded eagerly. "One, the males must be healthy and possess desirable traits, and two the male must be capable of helping in rearing the offspring." Seeing the lost look on his student's face, Naruto clarified. "A female first looks for a male that is strong. Physical size is a good indication of a healthy male. My sister once mentioned that women find scars attractive, is this so?"
Sakura's cheeks flushed as she imagined a scar on Sasuke's body. 'So SEXY!' Inner Sakura was having a minor seizure from all the images of a naked Sasuke with scars being conjured by Sakura's mind.
"Scars indicate battle, and being scarred for male shows he has survived battle, another indication of strength. I suppose that is why so many women find the Uchiha so attractive."
A reason for why she had so many rivals? She always assumed it was his dark and aloof attitude. "Though he bears no physical scars on his body, the fact that he survived the Uchiha massacre indicates strength and a will to survive."
'I guess that makes sense.' Was that really why she liked Sasuke? It seemed so…primitive.
"Regardless, to attain your goal of being Uchiha-san's mate, you became a kunoichi which shows that on a primal level you recognized what the kunoichi represents, a strong woman." Beckoning her to follow him, he led them over to a tall nearly 200 foot tree. "If my hunch is correct, then you should have nearly perfect chakra control, so this exercise should be mastered quickly."
Curiosity peaked; she watched Naruto put his right foot against the tree. Her jaw dropped as he followed through with his left and walked calmly up the side of the tree. Stopping at around 20 feet, he drew a kunai and sent it deep into the earth between Sakura's feet. "Gather chakra to your feet and run up the tree. Use the kunai to mark where you stop."
Dropping down, he landed gracefully next to Sakura. Seeing his student's shocked expression he sighed to himself. "Yes?"
"How did you focus your chakra without the ram seal?"
"Once you gain some experience with this exercise you should be able to utilize your chakra internally without any need for handseals." Nodding in understanding, the pink haired kunoichi picked up the blade from the ground and formed a ram seal to focus her chakra to her feet. Steeling her body she rushed the tree, sprinting up as fast as she could half praying she wouldn't fall while the other half was screaming in excitement at her gravity defying action.
'As expected, with her chakra control she was already capable of running to the top.' Unable to control her downward momentum, Sakura ended up jumping the remaining 15 feet. Wincing at the pain of having bones jammed harshly together, she stood up shakily and smiled proudly at Naruto.
"I did it!"
"Damn Stragiht!!" shouted Inner Sakura who had finally recovered.
"As I said, you would master this quickly, but even I did not expect this." Beaming proudly, Sakura deflated like a punctured balloon when she heard the rest of his words.
"Your chakra stores must be microscopic for you to have this much control." Ignoring the gloomy girl he continued speaking. "Sakura, I want you to climb up and down this tree until you run out of chakra."
Pulling out an electronic timer, he set it. "But first, I want you to make the 12 basic handseals as fast as you can.: Seeing her tense up in preparation for the hand movements, he nodded the go ahead. The bleep of the timer signaled the start. 5.73 seconds later Naruto hit the stop button while frowning behind his mask. Back at the academy an average of 2 handseals per second was pretty good, but in real life it wasn't close to good enough. Resetting the timer he tossed it to Sakura who caught the unexpected projectile purely on reflex.
"Time me." Sakura nodded a go and clicked the timer. Her jaws dropped when he stopped at 1.53 seconds later
"How…?" she stuttered. Beneath his mask Naruto's frown deepened.
"A shinobi of Kakashi-sensei's caliber should be able to complete all 12 handseals in less than 2 seconds. My skills are at the same level if not better then Kakashi-sensei's." Retrieving the timer he reset it. "You are far too slow Sakura perhaps good enough to beat a genin, but sluggish in comparison to real ninja. I want you to continue making the 12 handseals as fast as you can, without mistake that is, while climbing the tree. This will test your concentration while we measure your chakra stores."
Sitting down cross legged, Naruto shut his eyes and began to meditate. After sitting still for a few minutes he grew annoyed at the staring girl. "What are you waiting for?" he barked frightening Sakura.
Hurriedly she scampered to the base of the tree and made the ram seal. Focusing her chakra into the soles of her feet she took off up the tree nearly forgetting to make the handseals. Halfway up the tree she began making the handseals and nearly fell off the tree as she loss focus with the chakra adhering her to the bark under her feet.
'This is harder then I thought.'
45 minutes later
A panting Sakura inhaled and exhaled heavily as she landed on the ground. Falling onto her back, she savored the feel of the cool damp grass against her sweat stained back. "Oh ick.."
Naruto had remained in the sitting position under the branches with his back rigid, unmoving the entire time Sakura had sprinted up and down the tree. The first 10 minutes had been hard as the repeated handseal exercise while controlling her chakra had mixed Sakura up. Somewhere around the 15 minute mark she had finally gotten the hang of it and no longer needed to focus with the ram seal in order to focus chakra to her feet every time she was headed back up. Closing her eyes, Sakura felt a shadow cover her face, blocking out the 7:30 a.m. sunlight.
"Get up." The calm order from the blonde didn't get any movement out of the exhausted girl. "I said get up." This time, his frigid words were backed up by a burst of concentrated killing intent. The brief stab of terror stimulated Sakura's survival instincts and she was on her feet in the blink of an eye, legs trembling whether from exhaustion of fright was unknown.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Her heart rate finally dropped as the crushing feeling lifted. Facing her sensei she saw that he was shaking his head causing his long mane of golden hair to swish back and forth hypnotically.
"Have you really exhausted all your chakra?" Her bobbing head elicited another sigh from the masked blonde. "We have a lot of work to do then. Even the freshest genin should be able to keep this up for half a day." The kunoichi hung her head as she felt shame well up in her leaving a bitter taste in her mouth.
"But no matter, that's why we are training." Reaching into his supply pouch tied to his waste, the blonde rummaged about for whatever it was he was looking for. "Haruno-san, which is your dominant hand?"
"Uhh… right why?" Pulling out two pieces of blank ordinary looking paper, he handed it over to the confused girl.
"Listen closely Haruno-san because I'm only explaining this once." By now the pink haired girl could finally detect a difference in her teammate/sensei's voice. She would latter dub this his sensei voice, bland as always, but if you listened closely, you'll hear a hint of boredom mixed in alongside annoyance.
"There are 5 basic elements that a ninja can manipulate with ninjutsu. Earth, Wind, Water, Fire, and Lightening. Wind is the war element, and no other element can match it in terms of wide scale destruction. Fire is mostly used for small controlled areas of destruction unlike wind which follows the spray and pray concept. Lightening based jutsu's are usually more compact and used to strike at a singly target, however the damage inflicted is usually fatal due to the concentrated power. Together, these three elements are often referred to as the offensive elements seeing as they usually revolve around destruction in some way or another." By now Sakura's brain was on overdrive working furiously to remember everything that left Naruto's unseen lips.
"Earth is the defensive element as it involves mostly defensive style techniques, and the few offensive jutsu's that use earth can most often still be used for defensive purposes as well. Finally there is the water element, the assassination element. This is the most versatile element of all, utilizing offensive and defensive techniques equally. It can hide you, trap others, or smother your enemies before they know what hit them. Because of this versatility, water cannot match the other elements in terms of defense or offense. Are you following?" Sakura's head bobbed up and down furiously as she silently cursed the fact she didn't have any paper or pens with her. Why didn't the academy teach something interesting like this?
"Now each person has a major elemental affinity. Whichever element you favor the most, you will be able to master and control that type of ninjutsu much faster then any other element. You will find that it responds more strongly towards your chakra, meaning that compared to someone without the affinity using the same amount of chakra for the same jutsu would produce a noticeably greater result for you. People also have a minor affinity, an element they can learn easily. However the power and control of the major affinity will not be present, you will simply find it easier to learn ninjutsu of this elemental type."
Pausing to see if Sakura had any questions, Naruto continued his dry monotonous lecture.
"Now each of the elements also has a weakness for another element. Fire consumes wind, wind cuts through and disperses lightening, lightening breaks and shatters earth barriers, earth absorbs water, and of course water douses fire."
"Oh I get it! It's kinda like rock paper scissors except with 5 different elements instead of 3 right?"
"Unfortunately, no." Seeing his students confused expression he elaborated. "Techniques are separated by rank from D to A and of course S class being the highest. Two elements of the same level clashing will go according to your rock paper scissor analogy where the stronger element wins. However if a C rank fire jutsu were to be pitted against a B rank wind jutsu, the outcome would either be a negation or the wind may overpower the fire depending on the amount of chakra put behind each technique by the user. If they are beyond more then one rank then the higher ranked jutsu almost always wins, but neutralization is not impossible or unheard of if the user of the weaker jutsu is skilled enough."
Understanding dawned and Sakura nodded. Feeling her wristwatch beep, she was surprised to see that it was already 8. She had been so drawn into Naruto's lecture she barely noticed 30 minutes pass where as Iruka seemed to drone on and on forever. "Ok I get it now, but what are these papers for?"
"These papers are made from a special tree sensitive towards chakra. By channeling chakra into the paper you will find your elemental affinity. If fire, the paper will take on a burnt quality, wind element is indicated by a splitting of the paper. If it disintegrates, it is earth. Crumpling specifies lightening, and finally dampness means you have a water affinity." Taking each paper in a different hand, Sakura focused her chakra and watched in delight as the one in her right hand dampened and the one in her left scrunched up.
"So how do we know which is the major and which is the minor?" asked Sakura. 'Academy was never this interesting!' In less then 2 hours she had learned about the inner workings of men, and the technical nick nack behind ninjutsu.
"Your dominant hand is your major element" grunted Naruto in reply as he took the two pieces of paper and discarded them. "Now another thing you should know is that people never have opposing elements naturally. Your minor element will never be stronger then your major element. Since you have water as your major affinity, then it would normally be impossible to have earth as a minor element, however there are some bloodlines that allow people to have conflicting affinities." Absorbing the information into her mind she nodded to indicate that she understood.
"You will find that learning your opposing elements will be extremely hard."
"Really?"
"Yes, since you have water as your major element, earth will be the hardest for you to master. Even if you do learn earth techniques, you will never be good at it. Wind will be the second hardest element for you to master seeing as lightening is your minor affinity, and fire will be your neutral element, the one that will not be easy or hard to master in comparison to the other four elements." Sakura nodded her head vigorously as she listened in rapt attention.
"It is a good thing that your two elements match."
"Match?" questioned Sakura.
"Yes, you recall how I mentioned these were the five basic elements?" Remembering the beginning of the lecture, she nodded once more. "The five basic elements can be combined to form the greater elements. Water conducts lightening, a very lethal mixture if combined properly. Once mastered, your water and lightening jutsus will be extremely dangerous, rendering people unconscious upon contact, even death."
Now intrigued by the new development, Sakura showed why she was the number one academic kunoichi. "What other greater elements are there?"
Shrugging the blonde thought a moment before speaking. "Who knows? The greater elements are created through specific ratios of chakra in each type of elements, so even opposing elements can be combined together if done correctly. Wind and water forms ice, water and earth forms mud, earth and fire forms stone, wind and fire creates greater flames hotter then any normal fire techniques of the same class." Shrugging again the blonde continued speaking. "And of course there are the elder elements."
"Elder?" inquired a curious Sakura whose head was already spinning from all the information.
"Yes, when three elements are combined together to form a new one."
"Three?!"
"It's nearly impossible to learn such techniques, and usually requires a certain bloodline or gene defect or some other outside factor affecting them. I know of only three such elder elements." Seeing the eager look on the kunoichi he sighed.
'I hate teaching'
"Heh, I wonder how you got shanghighed into this?"
'It's not like you can just leave my body and do something else either Kyuubi.'
"…"
"One would be our own first Hokage, the wood element. Earth water and wind combined together, and of course a special trait only in his bloodline allows him to bring life from nothing but chakra. For a normal person, being able to combine together earth water and wind wouldn't do him any good since he can't create wood without the shodaime's bloodline ability. I know of one who combines fire and earth to create stone and breaks it down with wind to form sand. And finally there is molten rock, a creation of one of our own shinobi. Water mixed with earth creates mud and heated into lava by fire."
"Who made lava?" Naruto stared at Sakura for a good long while as she fidgeted uncomfortable wondering if she had crossed an invisible line somewhere with her question.
"There is a reason why my sister is considered the most powerful kunoichi in Konoha." Realizing that Naruto must have been comparing herself with his sister, Sakura felt a blush of embarrassment flush her face. Oh how weak she felt when compared to a woman who had achieved skill on the level of the shodaime.
"There are perhaps other elder elements people have discovered, but I am only familiar with those three."
"Umm Naruto?" Raising her hand slightly she got that feeling that Naruto was frowning behind his mask.
"This isn't a classroom Sakura, just ask your question."
Feeling chastised, she lowered her hand. "You said that two and even three elements can be combined together even if they are naturally repulsed by each other. Is it possible to combine four, or even five?"
"You speak of the god elements. Theoretically, it is possible to entwine 4 of the basic elements, but the control and precision necessary is inhuman. Only the Bijuu were ever capable of mixing more then 3 elements together without it blowing up in their face."
"Heh damn right I did." Guess who said that?
"And as for 5 elements, legends say should all 5 ever be united then it is the beginning of the end for mankind." Having never heard such a legend, Sakura was quiet interested in what it was about.
"So what's the legend about?" Sighing internally, Naruto resigned himself to more explaining. 'I thought I was to be a genin, not an instructor.'
"When you're the Hokage's personal bitch, you really don't have a choice do you?"
'Shut up.'
"To make a long story short, the 5 elements represent Nature, which mankind has constantly strived to tame. Mother Nature is the most powerful force on the planet, for no matter how godly a shinobi may become, they are helpless in the face of Nature's wrath such as a tornado, tsunami, earthquake, etc. But each of these disasters combines only 2 to 3 elements of nature. Should all 5 unite together against mankind, there is no possible way to survive that ultimate disaster. And so the story goes that should man attain all 5 elements together they can control nature herself and so on. Personally, I believe this story was told to make ourselves feel better for not being able to combine the 5 elements together, but as with all legends there is a bit of truth. "
"Truth?" asked Sakura.
"Should all 5 elements be seen together on the same battlefield on opposing sides, that usually means that all 5 shinobi nations are at war, which would be the signal to the beginning of another great war, one to end all wars, or end humanity anyways" he answered dismissively.
Having never spoken so much before, Naruto felt a slight pain in his vocal cords as they protested at the abuse they had taken in the past two hours. "But enough discussion, we are here to train you. First we will go eat to replenish your chakra, and then we will continue your studies." Turning around, the blonde walked off the training field with Sakura trailing closely behind.
Ichiraku Ramen Stand
Normally, Sakura wouldn't be found dead eating such unhealthy, not to mention fattening food such as ramen, but today was an exception. The lecture about what attracted men, her hunger from the intense training, and an overall fear of what Naruto may do to her had Sakura on her second bowl of beef ramen. Of course, this was nothing in comparison to Naruto who had finished twice her amount and was on his fifth pork ramen. The meal had been taken in relative silence with the splashing of broth and slurping of noodles being the only background noise.
A soft clunk broke Sakura out of her thoughts as a fifth dish was added to the small pile in front of her temporary sensei. "Will you eat more?"
Sakura shook her head no. Hungry she was, but by no means was she trying to outdo Chouji in the looks department. "Check please"
Slightly surprised that Naruto would be paying for her, the kunoichi colored slightly as she realized this could indeed be considered a date. It met all the criteria of a date, a guy and a girl eating together alone, the guy paying for the bill, and Naruto had asked her (well more like ordered her) to dine with him.
'Uhh I bet even Shino could be more romantic' thought Sakura as she finished the last of her ramen. Standing up, she bowed a quick thank-you to the rather attractive waitress before hurrying after the retreating Naruto who was already halfway down the street. The silence hung uncomfortably between them the entire way to the training field.
When they finally arrived, Naruto sat down and Sakura followed his example. The blonde ex-hunter-nin pulled out a set of scrolls from his supply pouch and tossed them over to a surprised Sakura who caught them awkwardly, nearly dropping them on the ground. Examining the identical looking scrolls, she saw that they were labeled differently, one with a 1 and the other with a 2.
"The first scroll is a detailed picture of the human nervous system that you may be familiar with from the academy, however these scrolls are actually the training manual for hunter-nins. All hunter-nin candidates are required to memorize these two scrolls by heart just to take the hunter-nin examination to qualify them for a hunter-nin license. The scrolls will teach you how to temporarily disable your opponent allowing for quick victory. If done properly, some of these techniques will permanently cripple or even kill your adversary, so don't go practicing on someone." Standing up, Naruto straightened out his slightly ruffled clothing.
"The first scroll shows you the weak points to the body, and the second will show you how to take advantage of them, and why the body reacts the way it does." Staring sternly down at her through the mask, Naruto continued. "What I am showing you is given to aspiring hunter-nins, however most medics are also aware of such information. That is one of the options available to a kunoichi with your level of control. It would take years of training to get your chakra up to the level of a ninjutsu master, and I highly doubt you have the dedication nor the pain tolerance necessary to become a taijutsu master. If we were in Suna, you would make an excellent puppeteer, but since we are in Konoha, you are limited to the options of genjutsu, medical or perhaps weapon specialization. For now I will train you in all three areas as best as I can, but I don't specialize in any of these areas so I will allow you to choose what path you wish to follow once I have taught you all I can. As for ninjutsu and taijutsu, bother are my forte, and so I will get you up to speed in those two skills in which you are weakest."
Checking the time, he continued speaking coldly. "I will give you one hour to rest after your meal during which I want you to read those two scrolls I gave you." A quick pop and Naruto vanished in a puff of smoke before Sakura could even say anything. Realizing that she didn't have anything better to do, the girl sad down under the base of the tree she had trained on and began reading.
Exactly 1 hour later
So concentrated over the scrolls given to her, Sakura didn't even notice Naruto walk into the training field. 'At least she is willing to improve.'
A deep menacing chuckle reverberated in Naruto's mindscape. "So now the real training begins."
'Yes, it is time to see if she really has what it takes to become a kunoichi.'
"This ought to be entertaining. If she doesn't break down and cry, you can call me sugar-daddy" barked the Kyuubi.
"Haruno-san." Startled by her temporary sensei's voice, she checked her watch and saw that it was already 10:15 a.m., exactly one hour since she started.
"Awww man and it was just getting interesting!" huffed Inner Sakura unhappily. And indeed it was, as she had been halfway through reading about a nerve in the lover spine that if stimulated with chakra properly would cause the target to lose control of his bowels…for days.
Standing up, Sakura stretched and rolled up the two scrolls before hading them towards Naruto who shook his head. "Those scrolls are yours now; I know all of it by heart. They would be more useful in your possession." Smiling happily Sakura stored away the scrolls in her supply pouch. Those would make interesting reading material before bed.
Realizing with a start that those scrolls were perhaps the first gifts she had received from a boy her age, Sakura sighed unhappily. She had hoped Sasuke would be the one to give her a gift seeing as they were on the same team. "Haruno-san, we will meet Kakashi-sensei and Uchiha-san by the river at noon, but until then we will be doing some physical exercise. Stretch."
Following the blonde's example, the girl began mimicking Naruto's stretching motions. A good three minutes later loosened their muscles up to a point where they wouldn't hurt themselves doing any strenuous exercises. "You are aware how chakra is created?" asked Naruto.
"Pretty much; stamina is converted into the physical aspect of chakra or the life energy, and that is combined with the spiritual aspect which comes from our state of mentality and together they form chakra" recited Sakura.
"Is that all?" questioned Naruto. Confused by Naruto's question the girl shrugged.
"Well that's what the academy taught us." Sighing audibly, the blonde once again resigned himself to more explaining.
"All right listen up; the explanation you gave me is the most basic way to explain chakra. You are correct in saying that stamina is the life source of chakra. The life source also happens to be the physical aspect of chakra. Every time you use a jutsu, it is the life energy that backs up the technique. Let's say you use a fire jutsu; then the flames themselves are fueled by your stamina, or life energy."
"But then what's the point of spiritual energy?" asked a perplexed Sakura.
"Spiritual energy is the control aspect of chakra. It controls and shapes the life energy being expelled form your body. Let's take that fire jutsu as an example once more. Your body dumps a raw amount of physical energy into your lungs, as you spew it out through your windpipe why does it not burn you?"
Thinking for a few moments, Sakura pondered the question. 'Yeah, I mean I've seen Sasuke-kun do it, why doesn't it burn his esophagus?'
"The life energy in your lungs is just that, life energy. It has yet to be converted into the fire element. As you breathe out, the chakra is forced from your lungs and out of your mouth. Your spiritual energy then converts the raw life force into flames as it exits your mouth. Have you seen the Uchiha do it?" Seeing her nod Naruto continued.
"Then you'll recall that he puts his hand in front of his mouth?" There was another nod, this time with a bit of understanding showing in her face. "His hand whether he knew it or not was filled with spiritual energy as was his mouth. The spirit energy in his mouth converts the raw life force into flames, and the energy in his hand controlled the shape and size of the fire."
"Is this true for all jutsus?" asked an intrigued Sakura.
"More or less" answered the blonde. "An earth jutsu has our body channeling our life energy into the earth around us. The charged earth particles can then be manipulated by our spiritual energy, usually released from the feet or hands. This is similar in both water and wind techniques. We charge the air or water with our stamina converted life force, and then control the charged particles with our spiritual energy. Fire is unique in that we are simply harnessing the flames directly from our chakra, something usually not found in the environment or our bodies. Lightening jutsus are harnessed from bioelectricity. Our body mimics the electrical signals in our body and amplifies it to power its destructiveness. Fire however doesn't exist in our body so it takes a lot of pure life energy to produce flames since we're not simply charging or converting already existing elements."
"Geez! Iruka-sensei made it sound so much easier" whined Sakura. The masked genin shrugged.
"Now most normal humans have a ratio of 1:5 in terms of spiritual to life energy. Every time we draw upon our chakra, we exert that ratio of spiritual vs. life energy. Most jutsu's are designed with this ratio in mind which is why normal shinobi don't have problems learning it; however, for someone like me, who was born with an abnormal ratio of chakra, learning techniques for me was nearly impossible until I balanced back out my ratio of spirit vs. life force. You Haruno-san, most likely have close to a 1:1 ratio, but this isn't usually a problem since too much control won't hinder most jutsu's. However, with your low amount of stamina, you will find learning most ninjutsus to be quiet the task."
Sakura frowned as her mind processed Naruto's explanation. "You said you managed to balance out your chakra, how do I do that?"
The blonde stared down quietly at the girl, as if considering if she was ready for the truth. "I'll be honest with you Haruno-san. The only way to gain life energy is through hard manual labor, and lots of it. You will sweat and bleed for every ounce of life energy you gain." Seeing the girl pale, he shook his head. "If you begin training with me, here and now, you will either become the best you can be, or you will die trying."
His crystal blue eyes seemed to stare down into Sakura's very soul, judging her. "If you follow me, I'll show you your limits, and we will break those limits to reach your maximum potential. If you choose not to, then go to the Hokage's office and hand in your headband." With that said, the blonde took off towards the village gates at a steady pace leaving behind a Sakura deep in turmoil.
5 minutes later
Naruto jogged steadily taking in the passing scenery of the bustling village. "You think she'll come?"
'Who can say?' A flash of pink from is peripheral vision caught his attention. A few seconds later, Sakura slowed down from her sprint to match Naruto's jogging pace.
'Perhaps there is hope for her still.' Not acknowledging the girl besides him, Naruto continued to lead her at the same steady pace he had started out at. After another 10 minutes at the same pace, he slowed down to a halt and his pink haired shadow followed suit. "Since this is your first trial, we will start off easy, 25 pushups then 50 sit-ups and squats." Not bothering to see if the girl would follow his orders, the blonde genin began his own set of 100 pushups followed by 200 sit-ups and squats.
Feeling a bit awkward not to mention exposed, Sakura dropped down and began to do the set of exercise as Naruto had ordered. Unsurprisingly, Naruto finished first. After Sakura finished her final squat with a groan, the blonde once more took off at a steady pace, this time with a tired Sakura lagging behind slightly.
Blossom's Bridge
By the time 11:30 rolled around, Sakura was beyond exhausted. At the 1 hour mark, her arms felt like weighted lead, her legs nothing more then a source of agony, her abdomen needled with pain, and with each breath she took, her screaming lungs forced her to regret her choice of trying to live. After the 1 hour mark, she had felt surprisingly good.
The pain had begun to fade and a sudden rush of energy left her light-headed with happiness. Having never pushed her body so hard, Sakura had never felt the drug like effects of endorphin, the bodies natural pain killer, and was currently high as a cocaine addict in Colombia.
In fact, she was so far our of it, her mind didn't even register the fact that they had arrived at their team meeting point and her crush was currently right in front of her. She simply stopped because Naruto had, and instantly dropped onto the ground to do her set of exercises.
It was after she finished and she saw that Naruto wasn't moving did she finally take in her surroundings and come face to face with a bemused Sasuke and an impressed Kakashi. 'Naruto certainly deserves my respect if he can get a girl like that to work that hard on the first day of training' thought Kakashi.
"Well team, today is the big day, where we go on our first mission together! So lets get to it!" Seeing Sakura collapsed on the floor and unresponsive, Kakashi did a quick 360.
"After a short break of course." Honestly he should get that eye-smile of his patented.
AN: Well there's the first training day. Not a lot of action, but it's basically an outline of how shit works in my version of Naruto. Feel free to pick my brain if you're confused by anything.