A/N: HAPPY LATE THANKSGIVING!
Yooo, Let me start off by saying sorry! I've been out of the country and I recently got a job that requires a lot of prereqs AND I got hospitalized.
Anyways, two NEW stories that has more elements of AU yet still aligns with the plot has been posted. Please read the A/N at the end for a brief summary of the new stories posted! (Personally, I like To Rise Again Better).
I'll start updating them frequently towards the end of next month, and I do mean frequently; so you can wait for this story update by reading those! :D
Please? Lol.
If interested, do check em out and review!
This chapter focuses on training. But it eventually ends up with some time skips.
And SORRY! I lied, canon's timeline will be nearing end of the chapter after after next.
So, chapter 11 or 10, depending on how much I push into one chapter.
To the Reviewers: Let me say that Naruto will not be OP right off the bat. He will struggle, and he will lose. Win more than he loses, obviously, but this is final.
Shigure Toshiro: Thank you for commenting! Seriously appreciate you since you were day one!
Aramus13: Thanks for the review! You don't have to fear! The dog wont die… yet. I'm glad you review every chapter, I appreciate it!
Redcide47: I will be inputting both votes.
Thor94: only one eye was damaged.
Guitarmaster27: Thank you! My writing is mediocre at best though, I hope to continue growing as a writer over time! One day I hope to rewrite this story. Both votes were inputted!
RedWinter23: Thank you for checking my stories out!
Truefeeling: The romance is gonna be slower than a turtle. Sorry. I'm gonna try and make this realistic as possible meaning that he's not getting his harem within two chapters.
Zeusthordain: I completely agree with you in a normal world. However, they are in a world where pre-teens are expected to kill at the age of 12, I, personally, think that cursing is okay lol.
Sidenote: Quick question, who does everyone think is THE strongest Jounin? Answer via review please; I was messaging a friend and my friend said Kakashi whereas I say Gai.
"Speech"
'thought'
"Jutsu: in use"
'Kyuubi/Summon thought'
"Kyuubi/Summon speech"
Disclaimer: Me No Own Naruto.
Allow Me To Re-Introduce Myself
Chapter 8: Train! Train! Train!
X
It was such a strange sight to behold...
Two black tomoes constantly spinning around his pupil at random intervals; at times it would completely slow to a stop and at other times it would spin rapidly.
Saki curiously trotted over to her owner and looked at his face worryingly.
"Bark!"
In response, Naruto absentmindedly petted the Tibetan pup and continued staring at the eye that was unique only to his left socket through the water's reflection.
What was interesting, however, was that the color set that his Sharingan had. In contrast to the red and black present in regular Uchihas that possessed the doujutsu, his own was that of blue and black. He still retained his aqua-blue iris He still couldn't get over the fact that he had two black tomoes circulating on an orbital path around his pupil.
All in all, it was badass.
"It is interesting however, that you are already at stage two of the doujutsu."
Naruto looked up briefly and turned back to the water to continue marvel at his eye, "How many stages are there?"
"Usually, four to five, depending on how one looks at it. However, the last two stages are for only the most talented and dedicated shinobis who possess the Sharingan."
"I'm basically halfway there! This is awesome dattebayo!" he turned to Itachi with a follow up question, "Wait a minute, why did you use a genjutsu of Kakashi?"
"Would you have initially believed my words as easily if I was me?" Itachi questioned.
The boy struck a thinking pose for several minutes. "Probably not…"
Itachi nodded. "Now, I imagine you have more questions for me?"
"Hell yea-" he quickly coughed as he saw Itachi's raised eyebrow, "I mean, yes!" He quickly continued before the Uchiha could reprimand him, "aha! Anyways, I think I understand why you pretended to kill Saki-chan, it was to activate the doujutsu right?"
The Uchiha nodded once more.
"Um, there was this older purple-haired girl- ugh, I forgot her name, y'know who I'm talkin' about? She came in and seemed pissed at the snake-bastard."
"Do not worry about her."
"But-"
"It is out of our hands… for now."
Naruto scratched his head awkwardly. "Okay… so um… when will Kakashi-san return?"
"Soon… perhaps in an hour? You two will be situated here for a long time."
"Can I go back to Konoha soon?"
"No; the cover story that's been fed throughout certain ranks of Konoha's shinobis is that you were kidnapped by Orochimaru for his own devices. There are spies among Konoha from our organization that I am not aware of. The Sandaime will be taking this time to investigate heavily into the loyalties of our village citizens and shinobis."
"Organization? Who?! Why are you a part of them."
"The name is Akatsuki, I cannot give more information past that."
The jinchuuriki narrowed his eyes, "And why the hell not?"
"I have a time seal that does not allow me to approach certain subjects in depth. Already I am working towards a counter, but it will take a few years at the least." Itachi paused, "It is… most unfortunate."
"Wait! You said us two, as in me and Kakashi will be situated here for a long time, Won't you also be training me?"
"Yes. Though, I will be sparse in the sessions in which I guide you and they will remain unknown and in secret from Kakashi for reasons that shall not be revealed." As Naruto was about to ask another question, Itachi held a hand up, already guessing what the boy was about to ask, "The organizations will have me partaking in missions, thus preventing me from dedicating all my time to your training."
"It sucks you can't tell me anything about the organization," Naruto grumbled before another curious thought came across his mind, "Does Kakashi know anything?"
"No, the information I have told you is only privy to you, the Hokage, the council, and I. I would also like to inform you that he, Kakashi, was led to believe that my involvement after today would be zero. I am telling you now that Kakashi is wrong, but he doesn't know; meaning that when I train you, it will be private and when you're away from him, understand?"
"So Kakashi doesn't know you're gonna be helping me from this point onwards?"
"Correct."
Naruto nodded before pursing his lips at his thoughts. The child's voice was small in his next question.
"Why d-did you tell me?"
The ever stoic-faced Uchiha's expression became distant as he stared off into the flowing downpour of the waterfall, "I don't know exactly myself but it took a considerable burden off of my shoulder."
Itachi looked at the blonde and saw that the boy was staring directly at him with a hesitant form of guilt-ridden curiosity.
"Do not be afraid to voice your curiosity."
Naruto nodded. "Last question then," the boy cleared his throat, "uh, why did you have to do the uh… erm, stuff to your clan?"
"It was my duty."
Naruto frowned, "But that isn't fair…"
Itachi stood and walked over to the boy. He held a hand to lift the boy which Naruto took. Suddenly, the Uchiha flicked the blonde's forehead. Ignoring the boy's loud cry of "itai!", Itachi started walking back to the cave entrance.
"Life isn't always fair Otouto."
Naruto waited for several moments before realizing that he was left alone.
"Wait! Wait for me!"
With excitement bubbling in his chest at being able to earn the prospect of earning the familial bond with his role model once more, he ran with an excited Saki-chan in tow.
X
Naruto re-examined his surroundings with gusto since everything became so much more well defined to him. He mentally noted to properly thank Shisui Uchiha. Though the Uchiha had no say in where his eye went, Naruto was still grateful.
"How did you find this place Nii-san?! This place is freakin' amazing-" His sentence was cut off as he slammed face-first into the back of Itachi's billowing cloak. He scrunched his face in pain and held a hand to his bruised nose. As he was about yell out in pain, Itachi whirled around.
"From here on out, you will address me as sensei, nothing else. Understood?"
"Erm, sure sensei. When do we start training?"
"Soon."
"But why?!" Naruto whined, "I wanna start now!"
"You should never question your teacher about these matter."
"But I'm ready now sensei! I really am!"
Itachi sighed, "Fine, show me how much you've progressed."
The blonde jinchuuriki grinned, "I've improved a lot since you've been gone and I'll show you right now!" With his bold statement out in the open, Naruto rushed at the Uchiha with speeds that not even a chunin should have.
He pumped chakra into his leg to increase his speed and smirked when he saw Itachi's eyes widen as he started falling.
Time paused as Naruto blinked, 'falling?'
Wait, what.
"Eh?" Ignoring the growing pain on his face, he blinked.
Suddenly his momentum was halted and his vision was stuffed by the rocky ground of the large cavern.
"This is why you must wait. Your body's hand-eye coordination has been completely degraded. Kakashi-sempai has also came across this experience after he obtained his eye."
Naruto suddenly sat up while sporting a prominent red mark on his forehead, "You mean the white-haired guy has a Sharingan implant too?!"
"Perhaps. I did not specify if his implanted eye had my clan's doujutsu much less if it contained any doujutsu at all."
"Does he?!"
"It is not my place to tell."
"Please Itach-nii- Erm, sensei!"
"No."
"Come on!"
"No."
"Awh come on, I barely know-"
Sounds of a Shunshin (Body Flicker) brought Naruto to an alert stance and saki-chan to a tensed crouch. However, after realizing who the intruder was, both Naruto and his dog relaxed, but kept a guarded look.
Kakashi eye-smiled, "Yo Minna (Everyone)!"
"Sempai." Itachi politely greeted.
Naruto eyed the man cautiously, but otherwise didn't provide any response. Saki-chan favored to maintain a low growl at the man.
The white-haired jounin ignored them and turned to the Uchiha, "Will you be leaving now Itachi?"
Itachi nodded and walked to his former ANBU captain and whispered something that Naruto couldn't even discern with his keen hearing senses. The Uchiha turned to young whiskered blonde, "Remember all that has been said." Then, in a flurry of pitch-black crows, the Uchiha disappeared.
Kakashi turned to his sensei's son with a cheerful façade.
"So Naruto, mind telling me on how you know about the SS-ranked secret of the Kyuubi?"
Naruto gulped.
"Uh, Kami told me?"
X Two Weeks Later X
"One more round Naruto!" Kakashi called out as the white-haired man stomped the ground, successfully sending sizes of various pebbles into the air.
Initially, it had been a rocky start for Naruto. He didn't listen to the man at all. He supposed it was just a slight resentment of the man somewhat trying to take him away from his first teacher in Gai-sensei a while back in Konoha.
That, however, blew over quickly enough when the boy realized that he wasn't going anywhere and he couldn't get stronger on his own. He decided that he'd maintain a professional relationship with cycloptic man to further his strength. It also helped that the man saw him as Naruto and not the Kyuubi he supposed.
After a severe and long lecture of how dangerous it was to associate with the Kyuubi without further knowledge, training, and supervision, Kakashi had finally gotten to training Naruto. However, the jounin stressed that Naruto was not the Kyuubi; that he was simply a container, that he was still a human. After those words, Naruto somewhat found himself fond of the man, like another guardian.
Naruto yelled back in affirmative, "Hai Kakashi-sensei!" He stood several hundred feet away from the sky-rocketing pebbles with his eyes closed. When the pebbles reached the apex of their flight, the blonde opened both eyes and made a sudden and impressive dash to where the first pebble would fall.
It was one of many exercises that forced Naruto to get his hand-eye coordination up. Like Itachi said, the sudden clarity and foreseeing features of the Sharingan really messed with his body coordination. He was a super clumsy; he couldn't even place one foot in front of the other without face-planting.
So, he was tasked with various training to remove his uncoordinated clumsiness.
Take this task for example, Kakashi using a variation of Doton and Futon techniques sent pebbles of varying sizes into the air. Due to their size, and something about physics and gravity that Naruto blocked out, they fell down at different rates of speed at different locations..
His objective was to catch all of them before they were to hit the ground and then return them to Kakashi. Catching small things at high speeds whilst multitasking was what hand-eye coordination training was all about. Dashing speedily to the first point, Naruto caught the pebble between his fore fingers and instantly threw it swiftly towards the jounin whom caught it effortlessly.
The blonde repeated this action as he sped from spot to spot. He sighed in relief as he threw the last pebble towards his tutor-
His eyes widened as he heard the faint whistling of a light pebble he had evidently missed and-
Tap!
A pebble hit the ground.
"Maa maa, looks like you missed one Naruto-kun." Kakashi happily eye-smiled.
Naruto straightened up and smirked.
"No I didn't Kakashi-sensei, and you know that."
Kakashi turned his head curiously, "Hmm? Whatever do you mean? Obviously, you weren't able to-"
"I saw you throw the extra pebble when I was finished with returning the original set of rocks. So technically, you cheated. And since you cheated, we're moving on to the next part of training, as per our agreement."
The jounin chuckled, "I'm surprised you caught that. it was the first time I did it during this exercise and I'm sure I did it discreetly…"
The whiskered blonde pointed toward his left eye, "The Sharingan is a pretty nice bonus to reflexes and sight." He stretched his limbs, "I think I'm all good in my coordination now."
Kakashi nodded his agreement, "I agree, I think it's time for the next step!"
Naruto rushed over in excitement. The blonde flailed his hands wildly as he spoke in an eager voice, "Yes! So what's next? Jutsus?! Fire jutsus are more cooler– oh! or lightning! Those are pretty cool too actually-"
"Chakra control!"
"Oh yeah! Chakra control would totally be badass too- wait! WHAT?! Why the hell do I have to-"
"The Sharingan," Kakashi interrupted, "Provides heightened vision and heightened chakra control. It was thought that people who possessed the Byakugan and Sharingan were automatically born with near-perfect chakra control."
"See?! Why do I need to-"
"First off, you weren't born with the Sharingan and this thought held true only because no one ever believed a jinchuuriki should be in possession of a doujutsu. It was widely accepted that giving a jinchuuriki a doujutsu was too much power for an individual. Because of this," he stared at the boy, "No information was obtained in regards to the effect of a doujutsu had on a jinchuuriki. Do you follow thus far?"
Naruto nodded slowly, "I think so, so you're saying that no container ever had a doujutsu like me so we don't know the effect of a doujutsu combined with a jinchuuriki… but I feel as if my control is a bit better, I think."
Kakashi nodded, "My theory is that you have so much chakra, that not even the famous Sharingan could give you the excellent chakra control that any other shinobi that possessed a doujutsu would have."
"Hmm… I see. So, how are we starting the exercises today?"
"Naruto-kun, I know you know the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, but do you know its secret?"
The boy frowned, "That the memory returns to the user?"
The silver-haired jounin sported a surprised look at his answer before nodding, "Yes indeed; surprised you know that actually, but there is more to it than just that. So do you know?"
Naruto shrugged, "I dunno, that's all Gai-sensei told me."
The elder of the two sighed before shaking his head, "This training method is only unique to you. Said method can cut down years of training into a mere month. Months of training turn into days and days of training turn into seconds… The secret In addition to receiving memories of clones, you can also receive chakra-based experience from them as well. This means that-"
"-I can train on chakra-based exercises with my clones and get their experience?" Naruto nearly shouted. At Kakashi's nod, Naruto jumped high into the hair with exuberance, "HOLY SHIT, I'LL BE THE GREATEST SHINOBI IN NO TIME!"
The jounin looked over at the boy appraisingly, 'I have no doubt you will be one of the strongest to ever live…' said jounin cleared his throat, "Though, Naruto, you must realize that with your level of chakra, it will be even awhile for you before you get excellent control with the new training method."
In an instant, Naruto's demeanor changed into a more sullen one. Shoulders slumped, the boy moaned pitifully into his hands, "What! That is so freaking laaaame!"
Kakashi shrugged, "Since you can only create a hundred shadow clones, it can't be helped."
"I still don't see why chakra-control is that important, I know I have a ton of chakra, I can feel it. Even more than you… I understand why I need to be careful with how I spend my chakra."
Kakashi quirked an eyebrow, "It is widely known that Tsunade of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninjas) exhibits the perfect control of chakra. If she had your reserves, she'd be able to make all of your jutsus a hundreds time more effective." At the boy's awe-widened stare, Kakashi continued, "Now, more importantly, what did you mean by saying that you could feel chakra?"
The child pursed his lips, "I dunno how to explain it, I can feel my own chakra and when I'm close enough to another person, I can feel and see their reserves too." Throughout his explanation, Naruto used wild hand gestures in a weird round-a-bout way to convey his message, as if the gestured explained everything that his words couldn't.
In response, the jounin nodded, "Interesting. Looks like you have the making of becoming a sensor-nin."
"Sensor-nin?"
"A shinobi who is capable of detecting others via chakra," Kakashi answered. Fearing that the boy might get too big of an ego, the silver-haired shinobi continued, "Though, it's not a for sure thing Naruto. You should be aware that at your stage, from your description, being a sensor is practically useless for now. Unless you can develop your skill to a proficient degree, you shouldn't rely on it."
Deflated, the blonde slumped.
"Don't worry Naruto! Since you can create a hundred clones, you'll be able to obtain proficiency in control, sensing and few other things."
Naruto looked up instantly, "If I can do more than that how long would it take?"
"Well, it would depend on how much you could make. Obviously, the more you can do, the faster everything will get done." He looked at the blonde, "However, that most definitely means you shouldn't try creating more clones than you're capable. I've read the reports and a safe amount of clones for you should be fifty clones." He expanded with his reasoning at the boy's confused face, "Though your limit is probably a hundred, based off of certain reports, fifty clones would be more efficient; quality over quantity."
"So hypothetically, if I can make half a thousand clones… how much would be efficient for training?"
"Hmm… hypothetically speaking, I would say around 300. BUT! Since you can't even hope to create half of a fraction of that amount-"
"Tajuu Kage Bunshin No Jutsu (Mass Shadow Clone Technique)!"
Massive plumes of smoke filled the volume of the large cavern. Kakashi quickly unveiled his Sharingan and both eyes widened in awe.
Roughly 300 Kage Bunshins of a certain blonde jinchuuriki were smiling smugly at him. Lifting his headband to use his Sharingan, the silver-haired jounin counted the amount of clones accurately; 277 Kage Bunshins were standing around idle, albeit in a rather proud fashion, in the cavern.
"Aha! So you do have the Sharingan!" Naruto exclaimed while pointing a finger accusingly at the silver-haired man's left eye.
Kakashi shrugged with a head tilt, "Yes, I know… I could've told you that if you simply asked..."
"There is no point in trying to deny it- wait," Naruto faltered, "What? You would have told me if I asked?!"
"Yep, why wouldn't I?" Kakashi curiously asked.
"Oh, uh, Itachi said something about not his place telling me about your eye…" Naruto admitted rather bashfully.
"Hmm…" Kakashi stared off into nothingness.
Naruto shifted uncomfortably as the awkward silence reigned on. Suddenly, Kakashi was in front of him, less than an inch from the whiskered boy's face.
Letting out a startled yelp, the blonde jumped back several feet at the sudden close proximity of the other Sharingan user.
"Oi! What's the big idea?!" Naruto shouted.
"Naruto, did Itachi say anything else?"
The questioned child held a scrunched up face in obvious thought before lying.
"Nope! All he said was that his mission was done or something and yeah… he mentioned something about you'll be taking care of everything from here on out and..." Naruto furrowed his brows, trying to think if he could add anything else to his lie to make it more plausible, with nothing coming to mind, the boy reiterated his point once more, "Yep, that's all!"
Kakashi stared hard at the boy with a neutral gaze for what seemed like an eternity. A single bead of sweat dropped down the boy's forehead and said boy gulped nervously.
Just when it seemed like all hell was about to break loose, the adult of the two spoke, causing Naruto to flinch.
"Okay."
Expecting a rather volatile answer, Naruto cringed behind his hands before peeking out with a gaping expression, "'Okay'?! That's it?! Just 'okay'?! Just like that?! You believe me?"
Kakashi shrugged, "There's no reason I should disbelieve you... but, perhaps, if you remember something that you forgot to tell me, you will speak on it?"
Naruto nodded his head mutely.
Satisfied yet unsatisfied with the boy's answer, Kakashi mentally sighed; he was sure there were things that the boy was leaving out but there was nothing he could do that would make the young jinchuuriki tell him anything.
Well, he could torture him but that would probably be wrong.
Probably.
Kakashi saw the boy waiting expectantly for an explanation on how he obtained his eye no doubt. The jounin then pondered on how much of the truth he should let out. His eyes wandered lazily over to the face of the blonde and he was painstakingly made aware of how much the boy resembled his deceased best friend.
It was truly frightening how much of a resemblance Naruto had with Obito.
Just as Naruto was about to comment on the stare that the jounin was giving, The man began speaking.
"The Yondaime Hokage wasn't, obviously, always a Hokage. At one point, he was a jounin and for most jounins, it was common practice to take up a team of genins to train in tactics and leadership. I, along with two genins, was a part of his team."
Naruto's eyes widened. This man was a part of the legendary Yondaime's cell? He always heard about them throughout the lectures of the academy though what he heard was brief due to the fact he was always getting kicked or skipping class in favor of pulling off one of his infamous pranks.
He tried desperately on recalling any piece of information on the team of his idol, The Fourth, to no avail. Kakashi noted the effect of his words on the boy before continuing.
"My teammate was also an Uchiha. Due to some… unfortunate circumstances, I lost an eye and my teammate decided to transfer the Sharingan over to me before he passed."
Despite the obvious tragedy, Naruto couldn't help himself from being eager for more of the tale. He waited expectantly once more for several minutes before it was obvious that the jounin wasn't going to continue his story.
"That's it?!" Naruto cried out.
Kakashi eye-smiled at the child, "Yup."
Naruto fell over in disbelief before jumping back up. "BUT! BUT! THE DETAILS! WHAT ABOUT THE DETAILS?!"
"BARK! BARK BARK!"
Apparenty Saki-chan agreed.
"Classified."
"Grr… fine! Lets get training then!" Naruto said irritably.
"Hmm… perhaps you should have some clones fetch leaves from outside." Kakashi continued eye-smiling at the blonde before adding, "You're more than welcomed to join them in their scavenging."
Muttering a quick, "Stupid silver-haired haired jounins and their dumb eye-smiles," before mentally commanding all of his clones to retrieve the mentioned greenery. He himself walked outside with a huff; his curiosity was peeved by the man's unfinished tale and the continuous eye-smile the man gave him frustrated the boy to no end.
"Come on Saki-chan! Let's go get some leaves, you can have a potty break too."
After several hours of compiling a nice and mountain sized pile of leaves inside the cavern, Kakashi called out a halt.
"That's enough Naruto!" Kakashi shouted, "Now come over here so I can show you what you're doing next."
Naruto grumbled and mumbled rebellious and insulting phrases all the while walking over to the jounin.
Choosing to ignore the boy's dark mutterings, Kakashi spoke with his patented eye-smile. "This task is what you'd be learning if you were still at the academy! Now, in this exercise, you'll be taking a leaf and keep it afloat upon your forehead."
Naruto scoffed and took a leaf and placed it on his forehead using a finger to hold the greenery with a scowl on his face, "I don't see how this is gonna make my chakra better at all."
Naruto noticed that Kakashi's eye smile looked the same as it would any other second of the day… yet it somewhat contained an air of haughtiness.
"Now hold it in the air one inch from your forehead… and do it without any help."
Naruto dropped the leaf in surprise.
"AND HOW THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT?!"
Naruto finally found some emotion show itself in Kakashi's smirk. The elder Sharingan user spoke gleefully.
"Magic."
Naruto groaned at the response and shuffled off towards the pile of leaves. Grabbing one, he stared at it intently as if an intense observance would yield answers.
Kakashi also observed the boy's action amusingly before he noticed something.
"Hm… Saki-chan was it?" The puppy had not moved a single inch from her spot and nervously looked at the older man. Kakashi knew the puppy was a ninken so that meant that the canine could also train.
"You go work on this too."
Naruto smirked when he felt his puppy trudge grudgingly towards him and plopped next to him, he couldn't help but taunt his puppy a bit, "Ha Saki-chan! Looks like were in this together!"
In response, the puppy smiled viciously before sinking her teeth into the blonde.
"OW! MOTHER OF ALL FUC-"
X Three Weeks Later X
Naruto halted his Taijutsu-only spar with Kakashi.
"Ne Kakashi-sensei, I know that we won't be returning to Konoha for a long time but you think I can get a reference or an estimate as to when we'd be returning?"
Kakashi snorted with amusement; he had given the boy a dictionary, despite Naruto's protest of him being 'good enough', so that the boy didn't sound like such a simpleton with his words all the time. Ever since, the boy had been slowly, but surely, incorporating bigger and slightly more complex words into his everyday conversation.
"Hm… I suppose in three years perhaps?"
Naruto spoke in an aghast tone, "What?!" the blonde nearly shouted his next words, "But what about graduation?! The exam is in two years!"
"Actually," Kakashi began correcting, "Due to the massacre, the exam has moved up an additional year so instead of this year's academy genins being the standard age of twelve, they'll be thirteen. Makes sense?"
Naruto sat back down with a thoughtful expression, "So that means I have a little under three years to train? Awesome…"
The elder Sharingan user nodded, "It will be a most fruitful time for your training to bear results; especially since you have the Kage Bunshin method to aide you…" Kakashi looked at the hundreds of clones around them practicing various chakra-control exercises that were more sophisticated than what Naruto was currently doing. The puppy's chakra reserves were sizable for its size but it was exponentially smaller than Naruto's.
This notion however, displeased and pleased Naruto at the same time. It wasn't jealousy per se, it was just that he was happy that his dog was making progress whereas he himself couldn't progress at the rate that his partner was excelling at. There was no envy in his feelings, just a sense of self-disappointment that even with his clones, his chakra control wasn't as good as Saki-chan's.
"Naruto, I know what you're thinking,
Determination lit up in Naruto's eyes as the boy resumed the spar with renewed vigor, causing Kakashi to flinch at the sudden ferocity. It seemed as if the boy's determination renewed all the shadow clones with a new gusto. Yells and encouraging grunts were heard throughout the cavern as the clones resumed their exercises.
Taijutsu was normally something Naruto did on his own but luckily for him, Kakashi conveniently knew Goken (Iron Fist), though the man didn't consider himself a master, he was still quite proficient in the style Gai created.
At first, Naruto had mixed feelings when Kakashi approached him and suggested a spar instead of the boy just practicing the intermediate katas of Goken. Imagine the great surprise and anger that sported on the blonde's face when the elder man took up the same stance as him.
At first, Naruto dropped his hands and stared at the man owlishly.
"What are you doing?"
"Sparring." Kakashi innocently replied.
"I know that," Naruto growled. "What are you doing in that stance?"
"Oh, this? It's a Taijutsu style I know pretty well… now enough talking, and attack!"
That was exactly how the conversation had started when they first sparred. Of course, it ended in a loss at Naruto's end. His loss partially stemmed from the fact that Naruto attacked in rage; seeing his original sensei's style that was special to him and Naruto drove the blonde into blind anger. This factor cause Naruto rush and lose his cool.
This, ultimately led to his first defeat at his new sensei.
Well, that and the fact that Kakashi was way more experienced in fighting than Naruto was.
Panting at the beat down he received moments ago, he asked from ground hew as lying on, "Tell me," Pant. "Did you," Pant. "Steal the style with your doujutsu?"
Kakashi squatted in front of the boy with that same old eye-smile, "And if I did steal it? What are you going to do- Whoa!" Kakashi jumped out the way just as Naruto sent a kick sailing towards his face.
The boy jumped with a new set of energy and a snarl on his face, "Sharingan be damned, you had no right stealing Gai-sensei's technique! I know for a fact that Gai-sensei worked hard for his skills."
Kakashi admired the boy's ethics behind his words with mental approval. However he didn't have much time to admire the boy's moral conduct because he felt a presence behind him.
'His shadow clones!'
Naruto smirked; did the jounin really think that he wouldn't use every advantage he had to defeat the older man? He currently had hundreds of clones surrounding him that was practicing chakra control.
Why not utilize them?
It seemed, however, that even hundreds of persons who were in the intermediate stage of Goken had no chance against a seasoned vet like Kakashi. What bothered Naruto was the fact that the man was clearing his clones with strictly Taijutsu. In particular, with the Goken stance and that stance only.
When they finally were down to the original, Naruto gritted his teeth in obvious annoyance, it was almost as if Kage Bunshins were useless against the higher-tiered ninjas.
The technique was literally useless in direct combat. He briefly thought that he would have to formulate some methods that would help him utilize the kinjutsu to be of any efficiency when he had some time.
As his shadow clones were getting decimated, Naruto ran at full speed with intentions of headbutting the jounin. It was probably a dumb idea but he was hoping his speed and the directness of the attack coupled with his remaining clones distracting him would catch the man off guard.
Unfortunately, not even his impressive speed for an academy student could catch the man off guard. Kakashi must've kept an eye on him the whole time he fought his clones because the man sidestepped the projectile that was Naruto.
Kakashi called out in a scathingly bored voice, "Good idea of using your head, but perhaps you could not take to that phrase literally ne? Perhaps throwing kunais or shurikens might've been the better option-
"I don't have any kunais or shuriken!" Naruto glowered.
"And why is that?!" Kakashi taunted, "Perhaps if you were serious about being a ninja like I told you before-"
"ARRRGH!" Naruto charged, foregoing any form of tactics he was beginning to think about.
Kakashi sighed and prepped a hand to knock the boy into next week.
And knocked the boy into next week it did.
Naruto recalled when Kakashi suddenly upped his speed and landed a vicious right hook to his temple.
When he awoke, Kakashi had explained and convinced, with great difficulty, to Naruto that Gai had actually taught him the Goken when they were both younger as a thank you for always supporting the Taijutsu specialist when no one else did.
So here Naruto was, getting lessons and tips on the Goken, though it was by proxy from Kakashi-sensei instead of Gai-sensei, it worked just fine for him.
Naruto dodged a low sweeping kick by jumping back but as soon as he landed, he was suddenly tossed skywards as Kakashi sent an uppercut into his gut. Spit mixed with light blood were coughed out as the jounin jumped back and waited patiently for a few moments before speaking.
"Come on Naruto, The real enemy wont wait for you."
The jinchuuriki wiped the trailing blood that was leaking from his mouth. Spitting the mixture of saliva and blood off to the side, the blonde straightened up and growled.
"Come on then!"
X One Week Later X
Kakashi returned to the cavern with several hares, mushrooms, and berries in hand. The clones were in the exact same position Kakashi had left them in. Currently, the mass of blondes in an orange jumpsuit were all still in the lotus position with a leaf on each of their forehead.
Eyeing the attire critically, Kakashi turned to the real Naruto who was currently coated in a sheen of sweat.
"Did I ever tell you need a new wardrobe?" Kakashi eye-smiled.
Naruto grunted in response in favor of keeping track of the amount of sit ups he had already done. As he completed his five-hundredth sit up, he sprawled flat backwards with a pained gasp. He groaned at the strain his abdomen was feeling.
Deciding to respond now to his sensei's rhetorical question.
"Yes, yes you did. In fact, this is probably your umpteenth time mentioning I need to re-vamp my style."
"And why don't you change?"
Naruto barked a mental order to a couple of clones to come help him up. The closest clones came and hooked their arms underneath the original's armpits begrudgingly as he responded to Kakashi.
"Oh, I don't know, maybe because we're in the middle of god knows where. Perhaps I should buy my clothes from the vendor over in that empty corner? Oh wait, there's no one here- Ow! Dammit! Gently!" Naruto scolded as the clones roughly hoisted him up.
Kakashi smirked, "Alright, pushups next!"
Naruto let out another pained groan as he went into position.
X One Week Later X
Naruto looked at the silver-haired jounin in awe and befuddlement. Naruto and Kakashi stood at a standstill as Naruto continued staring dumbfounded at his shinobi tutor.
The blonde finally spoke.
"How?"
Kakashi eye-smiled, "Figure it out."
"I don't understand!" Naruto crossed his arms. The jinchuuriki leaned forward and focused his Sharingan on the base of Kakashi's feet.
Currently, the elder shinobi was standing on water.
Standing.
Naruto understood that ninjas were capable of some amazing feats so he shouldn't have been amazed by the fact that Kakashi could stand on water but… It did.
The child tilted his head in curiosity at the ever-slight fluctuation of the thin layer of chakra that encompassed the base of Kakashi's feet. With his enhanced vision, he was able to see that the chakra was constantly shaping itself to match the rippling water underneath.
The amount of chakra-control to constantly stay upon the water baffled him. How was Kakashi able to control his somewhat large reserves to that precision?
Naruto shook his head; he himself had about four times the reserves the jounin had so this would be more difficult than it would have for anyone else. Walking on water is a skill that Naruto wanted; at first, it was simply because it looked so cool. But, as he gave more thought on the skill, he realized that he could pull off a lot of things in terms of practicality in a fight.
This all started roughly an hour ago. Naruto said he wanted to move on from chakra-controlling exercises due to the fact that he could now keep the leaves afloat on his head without much trouble.
Naruto yelled in victory when Kakashi agreed with him and said they would begin after a Taijutsu spar. It started off like any other spar they did but then the masked bastard jumped back unto where he was standing on the water.
Deciding that staring at his teacher in awe wouldn't get him anywhere, Naruto slowly edged to the border of the land that met the water. He took a calming breath and focused the chakra on his feet.
Taking one deep breath, Naruto hobbled unto the water unsteadily. Naruto slowly grinned when he stayed afloat with nothing but his feet.
"Kakashi-sensei! Look! I can-"
SPLASH!
Naruto's head slowly came up with a scowl on his face.
Kakashi whistled as he walked back onto shore.
"Maybe next time you can get it."
X Two Weeks Later X
Sounds of chirping birds surrounded a deer grazing the grass peacefully. A slight wind raked through the meadow the deer was in gently. The deer raised his head in an alarmed fashion. Body tensed, the deer peered around its surrounds carefully for several long minutes before relaxing. The deer slowly lowered his head when-
SLICK!
The deer fell dead as a kunai ripped cleanly through its temple and thudded dully into the grass.
Hidden amongst the leaves was a crouching blonde camouflaged so well not a single entity the vicinity could sense him. Said blonde let out a breath that blew his bangs up skywards ever so slightly as he stood up to walk over to the now dead animal.
He knelt by the head of the deer and closed its eyes as he offered a blessing and thanks to the animal. Once he had learned the water-walking exercise to an extent where he could run across the body of water that surrounded his training cavern, Kakashi had tasked him with hunting for their food.
Initially it had been tough to hunt and kill the animals but Kakashi drilled into him that it needed to be done. There was a balance in the world and every living organism were a part of it. This was his third time hunting for their food alone and he still didn't like the feeling of murdering an innocent animal.
He looked towards the direction the cavern he had been spending his time in and looked the opposite way towards whatever else destination. Initially, he played with the idea of running back to Konoha.
But… what for?
To be honest, he liked being away from the villagers. Perhaps he could convince Kakashi by the end of the trip. The only thing he truly had in the village was Ichiraku Ramen and the Jiji.
He pushed those thoughts aside and retrieved the kunai that he had thrown earlier and began skinning the animal for the parts necessary and nothing more. He had instilled a code of not taking in anything in excess when it came to hunting.
He expanded his senses and felt his nearby clones collecting various mushrooms, vegetables, and berries. He felt another form, which he identified as his furred partner, coming closer to his location.
Saki trotted happily into the clearing a very much dead hare in her mouth. She trotted over to where Naruto was skinning the animal and dropped the mountain hare at his feet. The canine trotted around the deer while observing every detail before coming to a stop. Saki faced Naruto and gave him an approving nod that Naruto took as 'Good catch, human.'
His dog apparently didn't feel as guilty as Naruto when it came to hunting.
Naruto shook his head with a small smile and summoned another Kage Bunshin and set that clone to skin the hare.
X Several Weeks Later X
"THREE WEEKS?!" Naruto shouted with indignant anger.
Kakashi sighed, "That's at the latest Naruto. I may come back in a couple weeks. Who knows, maybe this summons will only take a day…"
"Fat chance," Naruto muttered. They had received a scroll via toad, which by the way was completely weird, that Kakashi wouldn't let Naruto read. But the gist of the message was that Kakashi was to return to Konoha for an emergency.
Naruto didn't mind being alone for a bit but the main thing that gnawing at him was the chance that Kakashi wouldn't return at all. One thing Naruto needed was guidance in his life and that a constant in his life.
Jiji, Iruka-sensei, Gai-sensei, Itachi, Kakashi-sensei; one of them was always there for him. Kakashi, sensing the worry of the child spoke in a soft and confident voice.
"Don't worry Naruto, I will return, and that's a promise and that's because…" Kakashi trailed off.
"Those who break the rules are scum. But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum." Naruto spoke lowly.
Kakashi simply ruffled the mop of blonde hair before his hands were slapped away childishly.
"See ya later Naruto!" Kakashi cheerfully waved as he left. The silver-haired jounin paused and dug an item out of his pocket, "Before I forget, here's your and Saki-chan's training regimen for the next three weeks." He tossed a scroll to the cursing boy and Shunshin'd out the cavern.
X One Day Later X
Naruto dodged his puppy's lunge with a sidestep and grabbed the canine's hind leg and launched the dog back in the direction it came from towards the wall with a whirlwind-body throw.
Saki, however, landed on all fours neatly. Partially cause her reaction and instincts were excellent and partially because Naruto didn't use his full power. Saki had started a sprint when Naruto held his hand up. Both the sparring participant's bodies tensed. Naruto held a hand sign up and Saki immediately ran to his side and prepared for whatever her master called her for.
As the source of what caused Naruto and Saki to stop sparring came closer, both shinobi and ninken relaxed.
Naruto rested his hands on his shaky knees from the pressure he felt of dealing with a possible imminent danger. The whiskered boy blew out with relief.
"I was wondering when you were gonna come…" He looked up into the raven-haired person's eyes.
"Itachi."
X
A/N: My two new stories! Check em out?
To Rise Again:At the age of six, an extreme prodigy arose to display himself to those in the Elemental Nations. One smarter than a Nara, one faster than the famous Maito, one who's jutsu repertoire matched that of Kakashi of the Sharingan. By the age of ten, he turned his headband in. GeniusNaruto! CoolNaruto! OPNaruto! Pairing Undecided.
The Genocide's Testimony: The Kyuubi No Kitsune was given to the Land Of Whirlpools instead of Konoha. Follow Naruto, a child of Uzushiogakure whom is aspiring to be a shinobi of his mother's caliber. However, one fateful night spins Naruto's life out of control. MokutonNaruto! SmartNaruto! NarutoXHarem
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