Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Ruroni Kenshin, or Bleach.
Chapter 16: Training
Naruto's time in the Academy could be considered a blessing or a curse after his fight with Sasuke.
For starters, he made a lot of friends and his cheerful attitude made him approachable to the rest of the class, a total opposite to Sasuke's treatment towards his peers. However, being friendly also had its drawbacks since quite a lot girls were now trying to win his affection. Some of them even went so far as to follow him home though that was quickly remedied by a Shunshin, Shunpo, or Shinsoku. It was one of those few moments in Naruto's life that he was thankful he had three speed techniques to fall back on. He made a vow to keep his home a secret to avoid someone breaking and entering; or worst, getting raped by a desperate fan girl in the middle of the night while he was asleep.
Naruto made a lot of friends, especially among the clan heirs, during his first year in the Academy.
His first two friends were Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru which he met during lunch on the third day of class. His time spent with two was either at Ichiraku Ramen where him and Chouji would indulge in a Ramen Eating Contest (winner pays the bill much to Teuchi's happiness) or playing Shogi (which Naruto always lost but vowed to never give up) or cloud watching with Shikamaru. More often than not, the trio was often found in the nearest training ground doing nothing but relax.
Naruto had a friendly rivalry with Inuzuka Kiba and his partner, Akamaru. Unlike his somewhat laidback, dare he say it, lazy friendship with Chouji and Shikamaru, the one he had with Kiba was quite active. They would often spend time trying to get a rise out of each other (with Naruto winning all the time due to his somewhat carefree attitude) or indulge in a friendly spar to train their individual taijutsu styles in the nearest training field available.
Naruto made it a special point to stay away from Yamanaka Ino since she seemed to hate his guts. He found out from Shikamaru that Ino, and Sakura by association, hated him for beating up their 'Sasuke-kun'. Naruto cringe when Chouji informed him that Ino formed a partnership with her rival, Sakura, to make his life a living hell. Thankfully, the girls spent most of their time fighting over the boy or with each other to really pay him any mind.
Another clan heir that Naruto had a somewhat figurative friendship with was Aburame Shino. The boy was a literal brick wall when it came to conversation. The boy would nod, shake his head, or just raise an eyebrow to his many questions. The only rare time the boy spoke was with a few words if the question required more than a gesture to answer. However, Shino would transform into a talkative mess if you asked him about insects in general. He didn't go to the extent of divulging clan information but he was close.
Last, but not the least, was Hyuuga Hinata. Naruto definitely liked the shy girl but sometimes he wanted to smack her because she was too bashful sometimes; that and the fact that the girl would faint after a simply greeting or when he looked at her. He asked Kurama about that but all he got from the fox was "You'll learn when you grow older." which infuriated the blonde.
Aside from making friends, Naruto also learned quite a few things that he missed in the Academy. For once, Iruka was a glutton for punishment when it came to the history of the village. No detail was missed and the dolphin-haired teacher would drone on and on in monotone about Konoha until everyone falls asleep. At that point, Iruka would perform his patented 'Demon Head Jutsu' to wake everyone up. Naruto made it a special point to learn that move since it would be a great prank if he was ever in the mood to do one.
After the first six months of his first year in the Academy, Naruto realized that the curriculum was lacking to produce qualified shinobis in the field. From the history books, the many Jounins today, like Hatake Kakashi, most of the clan heads, and some Chuunins were exceptional in the field since they were more or less given a roughshod lesson to being a shinobi since they spent most of their time fighting a war. However, since it was peacetime, the Academy adopted a somewhat lazy approach to shinobi education. Instead of practical lessons which were a necessity in the field, more hours were spent on history lessons which would be useless in missions. Naruto was itching to throw the headmaster of the Academy out the window and taking over.
Since he couldn't directly change the Academy curriculum, Naruto made it a point to help his classmates along to prepare them in the field. He chose to do it in a roundabout way to avoid revealing his plans.
His first order of business was to introduce the concept of physical training to the group. He made this possible by inviting some of the clan heirs, except for Yamanaka and Uchiha, to one of his and Kiba's spars. After a few minutes of intense physical workout through taijutsu, quite a lot of the heirs were interested in joining. Of course, Naruto decided to take the manipulative approach by pointing out their lack of stamina, strength, and weaknesses during the spars to spur them into improving.
After a week taijutsu-only spars, the heirs joined Naruto on his morning run. He wanted to introduce training weights but he decided against it since that would clue them in to what he planned to do. Sure, it was to their advantage but he decided to get to know them better before revealing what he was doing.
Naruto was happy with the result since even the lazy Shikamaru would join them in their morning run and taijutsu spars even if he did comment a lot about work. Naruto had a sneaky suspicion that the Nara already knew what he was doing but kept quiet and helped him out by joining.
It was the last day of the Academy year and Naruto was currently in a secluded training ground behind the school hanging out with his friends. He was currently observing the spar between Kiba and Chouji with the former running circles around the slow Akimichi, though the latter was maintaining a defensive form to block every strike from his feral opponent.
Naruto was studying their moves for later evaluation when Shikamaru spoke.
"Why don't you just tell them your plan?" asked the Nara in a lazy drawl.
"What do you mean, Shika?" asked Naruto with a tilt of his head though he already knew what the boy was talking about.
Shikamaru turned his head to stare at the blonde and raised an eyebrow.
"Ever since you rope all of us into a taijutsu spar, I noticed that you have a pattern. First, you interest us in taijutsu spars to improve our bodies. Then you suggested that we join you in your morning run. It doesn't take a genius to know that you're preparing us for the future. Now my question is - why don't you just come out and say it?"
Naruto grinned at his lazy friend and winked. The boy was really a genius.
"I could do that of course but I don't want to force you guys to do anything. Let's face it; if I did it your way so early then quite a lot of you wouldn't be too sure about your decision to join me and Kiba. But since you got interested in it on your own, you and the rest showed your determination to improve." answered Naruto with a shrug.
"Troublesome blonde." muttered Shikamaru. "Tomorrow's the start of the three-month break, are we still going to continue this or do you want to do it when the Academy year starts again?"
Naruto looked at his friend in surprise.
"Shika, don't tell me that you want to do this even during break? It's unbecoming of a Nara to work hard." Naruto chided jokingly.
"Shut up." said Shika with a grunt. "To be honest, I enjoy hanging out with you guys instead of watching the clouds all day. Also, I can't help but agree with you that everyone is getting stronger with our daily exercise and spars. I know that everyone is willing to join if you make it official."
"You sure about that?" Naruto asked curiously.
"I'm sure." Shikamaru said with a nod. "All you need to do is to offer it to us and we'll see where it goes."
Naruto nodded and made a sharp whistle that made Kiba wince. Chouji took advantage of his opponent's distraction to land an punch that threw the Inuzuka heir back. Naruto winced.
"Sorry about that, Kiba. I forgot that you're hearing is sharper than normal." Naruto apologize, getting a glare from the downed heir. "Why don't you guys come over here for a second? I have something to ask you guys concerning our daily program."
Everyone immediately approached Naruto and sat down in a circle before focusing their attention on him. Naruto couldn't help but smile at the somewhat involuntary action.
"Anyway, I have an offer for you guys. As Shikamaru pointed it out to me earlier, today is the last day of the Academy followed by a three-month break before the start of the next Academy year. I want to ask all of you if you want to use the break to improve yourself by joining me in training."
"Hell yeah!" shouted Kiba in excitement with Akamaru yipping in agreement.
"What does this training involve, Naruto?" Chouji asked curiously.
"Well, for one thing, we are going to be improving our bodies to prepare ourselves when we graduate. If you noticed, I'm stronger than most of you because of my daily training program. I want to extend the same to all of you if you want to get stronger with me."
"I-I would be h-happy to join, Naruto-kun." said Hinata with a little bit of stutter. Naruto smiled at her since the girl was really making an effort to get rid of her shy nature. It was a small improvement, but it was an improvement nonetheless.
"So, what does this 'training' involve, Naruto-san?" asked Shino. This caused everyone to look at him incredulously. "What?"
"Shino. That was practically the first sentence you ever uttered ever since we started hanging out together." Naruto said with a grin. Shino merely raised an eyebrow. He pushed up his sunglasses with a finger and replied.
"It was only logical to inquire as to what your training entails so we would be prepared to face it." Shino said in monotone.
"Alright. Here's going to be our training schedule. We will be meeting every day except for the weekends since its rest day. For the morning, we would be waking up at 5am for our morning run. I will add something to that later to make it more interesting and worthwhile. After our run, we return home for breakfast before meeting again here in this training ground at 7am. We will do some exercises to build up our core strength. At 9am, I will be teaching you guys some chakra control exercises to allow you to utilize chakra better. We go home for lunch then come back at 1pm. We will then start with a 2-hour taijutsu spar. I'll draw up a list on who will be paired together so everyone would get a chance to fight different individuals and styles. We will take a break then brush up on our individual strong points, like practicing clan techniques and the likes. How does that sound?"
Everyone was giving him incredulous looks prompting the blonde to explain further.
"Let me put it this way, this is the training I went through which is the reason why I'm strong now and I'm never going to stop. I want you guys to do the same to put you in my level." said Naruto though inwardly, he correct that it would take years for them to reach his level but they didn't need to know that. "I guess the best way to explain it to you is to show you."
Naruto stood up and beckoned for everyone to follow him further into the training ground. When they reached their destination, Naruto stood in front of them.
"First, I want to improve your core strength to be able to achieve something like this." said Naruto before walking over to a tree and punched the trunk. His fist went through the rough bark with ease. Everyone was looking at him as if he was crazy. "That is why I want you to do physical training with me; I want you to be able to achieve that using your own physical strength. However, if you apply chakra control to the mix…"
Naruto channeled chakra to his hands causing it to glow a bit. He punched the bark again. But instead of his fist going through the tree, the trunk simply exploded upon impact causing the tree to fall down with a loud crash.
"Holy shit!" Kiba, Chouji, Shikamaru, and even Shino, yelled in surprise. Hinata was quiet but her eyes were as wide as saucers.
"As you can see, if you build up your core strength, your power improves. If you add chakra to the mix then the damage you deal would be enormous. To achieve these two, you will have to undergo a physical training program, as well as chakra control so you can do what I did." Naruto explained with a smile.
"What kind of chakra control exercises are we talking about? I mean, we already did Leaf Sticking back at the Academy and it is a requirement to pass the second year." asked Kiba. Naruto nodded.
"Well, the Leaf Sticking exercise is a preparatory chakra control exercise to give you a chance to be acquainted with your chakra, allowing you to call on it when needed. However, if you really want to control the flow of chakra in your body then you need to do the more advanced levels. The first one is Tree Walking."
Channeling chakra to his feet, he walked over to the tree and walked up the trunk causing the clan heirs to look at him in disbelief.
"By channeling specific amounts of chakra to your feet, you can stick to any surface. Next is Water Walking."
Naruto jumped off from the tree and landed on top of the water.
"This is the Water Walking exercises, applying your control after mastering Tree Walking, you will be sending your chakra down to the water to keep yourself above the surface."
Naruto jumped back to the shore and walked over to his friends who were staring at him with disbelief, excitement, and a bit of awe thrown into the mix.
"My aim is for you to master the two chakra control exercises by the end of the third month and get your core strength up to do more damage in your taijutsu. So what do you think?" asked Naruto with a grin. He knew they were in but he needed to get them to say it.
"I'm definitely in." Kiba exclaimed with a fist to the air followed by an excited bark from Akamaru.
"I'm in!" said Chouji excitedly before his face turned fearful. "You're not going to put me in a diet, are you?"
"No, Chouji." Naruto said with a laugh. "In fact, all of you should be eating your fill if you want to survive my training program. You need all the energy you can get. That is why I ask you guys to go home for breakfast and lunch so you can eat as much as you want. For you Chouji, all your fat would be turning to muscles after this we start our next Academy year."
Chouji sighed in relief causing every to laugh at him making the chubby boy blush.
"You mentioned earlier that you're going to add something extra to our physical training. What is it?" asked Shikamaru.
"I'm going to be introducing you to chakra weights." said Naruto while pulling back the sleeve of his coat to show them a silver band on his wrist. "I am wearing four of these, two on my hands and two others on my ankles."
"How much are you carrying right now?" Shino asked curiously.
"Let me see. Each band is currently at 250 pounds, so I guess I'm carrying 1000 pounds on top of my body weight." Naruto said with a grin.
"And you're still alive?" Kiba asked incredulously. "Dude, you're crazy.
"Yes, Kiba, I'm still alive and no, I'm not crazy." Naruto answered him with a goofy grin on his face. "Besides, the training weights would serve two purposes. One, you will be improving your physical strength. Also, if you find it too heavy, you're going to channel chakra to your body to make it easier for you to carry them. So two, you're increasing your chakra reserves to prepare you for jutsus later on. This will solve one of the potential problems that all Academy graduates would face – the lack of chakra. So in the end, you get the chakra needed for your Jounin sensei's training."
"W-where are we going to buy these chakra weights, N-Naruto-kun?" asked Hinata, eyeing the metallic band on the boy's wrist.
"Go to Higurashi's Weapon Shop. It's practically the best shinobi store in this side of the Elemental Nation. Tell him that Naruto sent you so you're going to get a discount." Naruto informed them. "So any questions?"
Everyone shook their heads in negative before calling it a day. Tomorrow's going to be hell.
Most of the shinobi clan heads of Konohagakure no Sato were confused.
It started two months ago when their kids broke away from their normal routine to disappear from their respective homes for the day and return before dinner dragging their feet to bed. Not only that, they noticed that their respective heirs were sporting a few changes, both physically and emotionally, though none of them could deny that it was a positive change instead of the other way around.
The first to notice was Hyuuga Hiashi who, after two months, noticed that her daughter changed from a shy girl to a powerhouse. It was during one of his training spars with his daughter that the change in Hinata was revealed. Before, Hinata wouldn't give it her all to spar with her sister, Hanabi, due to her shy nature and would always lose the match. It all changed when Hinata immediately charged at her sister and started using an improved version of the Juuken that allowed her to weave and dodge her sister's attacks and retaliated with such brutality that Hanabi was down in under a minute.
The second to notice was Nara Shikaku when his son was starting to become un-Nara-ish if there was such a term. Not only was his son waking up early, Shikamaru seemed to have changed from a lazy kid to an active boy. Not only that, his son started browsing through their clan library and even started asking him some questions regarding their techniques. It was bizarre.
Akimichi Chouza also noticed the big difference in his son, as well. Two months after Chouji started leaving home early in the morning and coming back tired late in the afternoon, he noticed that his son was starting to develop some muscles. Sure, his son was still big as the rest of the Akimichis but instead of fat, his son had muscles. MUSCLES!
Of course, Aburame Shibi, didn't say anything in regards to his son's recent change. He just raised an eyebrow and kept his mouth shut. Nothing new there.
Last, but certainly not the least, was Tsume who was quite vocal in her bragging that her son was becoming a fine heir. Not only was Kiba dominating the other Inuzuka kids in clan techniques, but the boy had a feral power to him that even brought down his uncle…his CHUUNIN uncle. He wasn't even a Genin for Kami's sake.
This eventually led to a meeting between the shinobi clan heads regarding the change in their respective heirs. After an hour of debates and theories, they decided to head over to the Hokage and ask him if he could shed some light to the mysteries that was their respective heirs' improvements in the shinobi arts.
Here they were, in the Hokage Office, telling the aged leader everything they noticed of their sons and daughter. Inoichi was there since he wanted to get in on the gossip though he was quite curious as to why Ino wasn't showing any signs of improvement.
After a few minutes of contemplation, the Hokage coughed to get their attention.
"Let me get this straight, your sons and daughter are showing great improvement in the shinobi arts, as well as their proficiency in clan techniques. So what's the problem?" Sarutobi asked curiously. Honestly, he was dumbfounded as to why the clan heads were bringing this matter to him. If their heirs were improving, should that be celebrated instead of debated?
"There is no problem, Hokage-sama, but we are just confused as to HOW it happened." stated Hiashi in his usual monotone drawl though the aged leader could detect a hint of annoyance in the man's voice regarding the change in his daughter.
"Alright, I'll concede to that. However, why bring this to my attention. After all, this should be under your clans' jurisdiction." Sarutobi replied though he already had an idea as to what sparked the heirs to change.
"We know, Hokage-sama." said Chouza with a bit of annoyance in his voice. It was rare for the somewhat laid back Akimichi to lose his temper unless it concerned food and lots of it. "We just want to know how or who made these changes possible. It is a welcome change, don't get me wrong. Seeing Chouji become a powerful student, student mind you, warms my heart. However, you couldn't blame us for being curious as to what they are doing."
"It also stands to reason that since all of our heirs are getting stronger, we can safely say that they are doing this together." Shikaku added his two cents.
"Not only that, we can't even find them." Tsume said with a growl.
Now this made the Hokage raise an eyebrow. For an Inuzuka to lose track of their prey? Now that was new.
"I see. I can always mobilize ANBU to find them but I think that would be a waste of resources considering that there's no emergency. Since all of you are just curious as to what is going on, I guess that we can try to find out." The Hokage mused before pulling out a crystal ball from his drawer and setting it on the table. "Let's see if we can find them shall we?"
It's been two months since they started training and Naruto couldn't help but marvel at the results.
The first month was lackluster since his friends were still getting used to the weights they were wearing. Sure, they were 10 pounds each, totaling to 40 pounds added to their basic weight, but it was new for them so they had to go slow to avoid damaging their bodies.
The results of their chakra control exercise varied.
Shino, Hinata and Shikamaru perfected the Tree Walking exercise after a few tries, while the rest had to really practice with it before they could make it up their individual tree.
Hinata was a no-brainer since the Juuken required perfect chakra control.
Shikamaru's calm nature allowed him to somewhat perform the exercise since channeling chakra requires the person to be in total control of their emotions and to be totally calm in order to properly use their chakra. Naruto jokingly commented that Shika's laziness had some use after all, earning him a glare from the Nara.
The next to master the exercise was Shino since he had relatively low chakra to perfect the exercise. Naruto was quite baffled at that since Shino was a male and males tend to have more chakra than their female counterparts. Shino explained to him that Aburames never had large chakra reserves to begin with since their Kikaichus feed on their chakra putting them at a relatively low level, thus allowing the bug user to master the exercise with ease.
To compensate, Naruto had to tell Shino to keep doing the exercise until the time ends to further increase his stamina, which would result in his reserves growing as well, much to the delight of the boy's bugs living inside his body. He instructed Hinata and Shikamaru to do the same though the latter glared at him for giving him more work. Despite the comments and glares, the Nara heir still performed the exercise.
Chouji and Kiba required more help since these two had their own respective problems concerning the Tree Walking exercise.
Chouji's weight gave him some problems in walking up the tree with gravity being against him. Not only that, Chouji had large chakra reserves which equaled to poor control. Naruto had to take pity on him to take it slow by lying down on the ground at the base of the tree and try sticking his foot by channeling different amounts of chakra. The blonde advised him to switch between his feet to simulate walking until such time he could go up on his own.
Kiba's brash and excitable nature made it hard for him to control his chakra. Sure, he had large reserves, not as large as Chouji's, but it should be simple for him since Inuzuka's were a clan who relied on their instincts. To counter this problem, Naruto had to help Kiba learn meditation, take time to relax for ten minutes before doing the Tree Walking exercise to help him focus. It took two weeks but it worked in the end.
Of course, Kiba had to work extra hard since his partner, Akamaru, mastered the exercise easily.
While Kiba was floundering along with the Tree Walking exercise, the rest of the group decided to keep doing the same since they wanted to wait for Kiba. Naruto couldn't help but beam at all of them in pride since they developed a form of camaraderie that would greatly help them in the future.
All of them graduated from Tree Walking after the first month before moving on to Water Walking. Thanks to their extended Tree Walking exercise, they mastered the next step with relatively ease, requiring only two weeks to get it down pat. However, Naruto didn't stop there.
In order to fully master Water Walking, he told the group to spar on top of the water throughout the duration of the schedule for two reasons. One, to build up the necessary control to maintain the exercise while under duress; and two, build up their chakra reserves.
When the group heard that, it was safe to say that ALL of their taijutsu spars were held on the water, further enhancing their development, physically and chakra-wise.
After mastering both exercises, Naruto's friends couldn't deny the fact that their chakra reserves and control shot through the roof. In most cases, their chakra levels ranged from low-Chuunin to High-Chuunin with Kiba and Chouji being the powerhouse in the group; well, except for Naruto, of course.
Their physical exercise program went well. They grumbled at first since the weights dragged them down but they persevered until they got used to it.
Of course, their happiness was short-lived since Naruto commanded them to up the weights by 10 pounds after the first month. The blonde got a lot of glares from his friends though they stopped doing so when he pointed out that he was wearing 1000 pounds compared to their measly 50. To prove his point, he asked Chouji, being the physically strongest in the group, to life him up.
Suffice to say, the Akimichi couldn't even lift Naruto a few inches off the ground. They stopped grumbling after that.
Their spars also went up a notch after the first month when they got used to their weights. It was safe to say that their taijutsu match got more destructive thanks to their improved physical strength. While the heirs already had their own styles to work with, Naruto had to work with Hinata personally since the boy found out form the girl that she found Juuken to be physically incompatible with her style.
Hinata explained that the Juuken style was rigid. Her flexible body wouldn't adhere to the style no matter how hard she practiced. Since that was the case, Naruto had to help Hinata modify the style a bit. After experimenting with a few moves and perfecting them, it was safe to say that the girl became the epitome of slippery. She could dodge most attacks with ease and counterattack with finesse and accuracy left her opponent groaning in pain, with Kiba attesting to that.
Also, Naruto had to help Hinata master some of her clan's techniques to fit with her build. After the first month, Hinata was able to perform Kaiten (Rotation/Heavenly Spin) though the girl mentioned that she needed to increase the speed of her spin in order to get it right. Her next project was the Eight Trigam Sixty-Four Palms, an advanced Juuken technique that required perfect chakra control and accurate strikes to close 64 of the major tenketsus in the human body, disabling their ability to use chakra until the tenketsus opens up again.
Naruto had to improvise since none of them wanted to be practiced on. He had to acquire a practice dummy from Higurashi's and had Hinata mark the 64 tenketsus for the technique. She steadily improved after that.
It was 3pm that Naruto called everyone to where he was standing to start learning jutsus. Of course, everyone was excited to learn what Naruto had to teach them. With their two months of training, it became an unspoken rule that the blonde was their leader. Naruto didn't know it but the group looked up to him as the 'boss'.
"Okay guys, now that we're done with the spars, oh, good job closing all of Kiba's tenketsus, Hinata." Naruto praised the girl causing said girl to blush. "Anyway, instead of individual practice on your respective clan techniques, I want to start teaching you guys some jutsus that you will find useful after graduating the Academy. But before that, did you all master the Academy Three that I told you about?"
Everyone nodded. Naruto told them that he 'read' from the library that the Academy graduation test would require the examinee to perfectly execute three basic techniques, namely the Henge no Jutsu, Kawarimi no Jutsu, and Bunshin no Jutsu. This was supposed to be taught in their fourth year but Naruto decided to teach them so they would have plenty of time to work on other techniques. They spent an extra half-an-hour to individually perform the techniques in front of Naruto to gauge their proficiency. Suffice to say, everyone passed with flying colors.
"Great work everyone, especially Chouji and Kiba. With your large chakra reserves, it would have been impossible to do the Bunshin no Jutsu effectively. But thanks to your work in mastering and continuing with the chakra control exercises, both of you was able to pull it off without a hitch." Naruto complimented them making the two do a high-five which made the blonde laugh. "Anyway, now, I'm going to teach you the Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique)."
"Whoah! Isn't that a Chuunin level technique?" Kiba asked incredulously, unable to comprehend why the blonde would teach them a Chuunin-level technique since they were still Academy students. It was Shikamaru that answered the boy.
"Troublesome. Even if it is a Chuunin level technique, we trained like hell for two months and all of us have the chakra of a low-Chuunin to Mid-Chuunin with control exceeding that. This technique is simple with the level we're at." Shikamaru answered lazily.
"Shika's right, Kiba." Naruto said to the Inuzuka heir. "Despite what you may think, all of you grew in the two months we started training. We can safely say that we are above Academy standards but we're not going to stop there."
"Damn right, we're not." said Kiba with a grin; everyone nodded their agreement to the Inuzuka's statement.
"Anyway, the Shunshin no Jutsu is a Chuunin-level D-Rank supplementary technique that would allow a person to use high-speed movement to move from one place to another. This technique requires three major components. One, you need chakra to perform the technique. Two, you need the control to make sure that your chakra is properly regulated to your entire body; and three, you need to properly visualize where you want to go in order to properly do the technique."
"Why the second component?" asked Hinata curiously. With their two months of training and camaraderie, the once shy Hyuuga princess had stopped stuttering and could hold a conversation with Naruto without fainting, though she still blushes from time to time.
"Shunshin no Jutsu requires a person to channel chakra to the entire body to temporarily vitalize it to initiate high-speed movement. Without it, you're not going to be able to achieve maximum speed." answered Naruto. He inwardly thanked Kakashi for explaining this technique to him in detail. "Hinata, please activate your Byakugan and observe the flow of my chakra."
Hinata nodded and the veins leading to her eyes bulged, a sign of the doujutsu's activation. Naruto nodded and did a Ram sign before disappearing in a puff of smoke, reappearing behind the group.
"I'm here guys." Naruto called out causing everyone to turn and stare at him with wide eyes. "So, Hinata, can you describe to the group what happened to my chakra?"
"You distributed your chakra to all the muscles in your body." Hinata answered.
"Correct. Your chakra will temporarily vitalize your muscles to allow high-speed movement." said Naruto with a nod. "Do it correctly and you have Shunshin no Jutsu down pat.
"Why do we need to visualize? I mean, it's like teleportation right?" asked Chouji, confused.
"Yes and no. It only looks like teleportation since you're going to be moving at super speed to get to your destination. However, you still need to visualize where you're going since you will be moving extremely fast even for a shinobi-trained eye to follow. If you don't concentrate then it's possible to hit buildings and get yourself splattered."
Everyone grimaced at the prospect causing Naruto to grin at them.
"Anyway, the only hand seal needed is the Ram seal. To do this technique, all you need to do is do the Ram seal, let the chakra vitalize your body, visualize the location, and activate the jutsu. Use our training ground to practice. I'll correct you if necessary."
The next hour was spent practicing the jutsu and their hidden training ground was filled with smoke and shouts of "Shunshin no Jutsu".
Naruto laughed out loud when Kiba's concentration wavered causing him to smack headfirst into a tree followed closely by Chouji. This started the "Great Shunshin Tag" where everyone was chasing someone using only Shunshin. It was a great exercise which helped them focus on their target and practice the activation of the jutsu. Of course, Naruto was the only one not caught by the pursuers.
After two hours, Hinata mastered the technique to the point that she no longer needed to do the Ram seal to initiate Shunshin. This caused the group to grumble a bit though Naruto told them that it was normal for Hinata to get it easily since she had great focus and chakra control out of the group. The rest could do the technique with ease though not as good as him or the Hyuuga princess.
All of them decided to call it a day so they left the clearing using their newly-learned technique, leaving behind six puffs of smoke as testament to their presence.
The group in the Hokage's office was flabbergasted as they saw their sons and daughter execute a Chuunin level technique with ease with only two hours of practice. Not only that, the various exercises the group underwent were clearly masterful and their spars on the water surface left most of their jaws dropping on the floor. Sarutobi was clearly amused by their reaction and mentally applauded his surrogate grandson in training the future of Konoha.
"Holy shit. I know they are good but I didn't know that they were THAT good!" Tsuma exclaimed in disbelief when she saw Kiba and Hinata spar on top of the water flawlessly though she had to wince when her son was hit by the infamous Juuken technique.
"I didn't know my Hinata already mastered the Eight Trigram Sixty-Four Palms. Amazing!" Hiashi said in amazement. Before, his daughter didn't show any skill and talent to mastering the Juuken and deeming her as a lost cause. However, his views of her changed when she practically drove Hanabi into the ground. Seeing her daughter in action via the Hokage's crystal ball made him see her in a new light.
"I'm more amazed with Shikamaru. Who knew that a lazy boy like him could fight like a beast, eh Shibi?" Shikaku said with pride since they watched his son spar with the Aburame boy and beating him by a small margin.
"Of course, my son almost defeated yours but it was a good match considering that your Taijutsu style is defensive in nature." Shibi commented.
"I wonder why Ino and the Uchiha aren't part of their group. From the looks of it, Naruto trained the shinobi clan heirs but why not those two." Ino asked, confused. He was saddened that her daughter didn't join the training program. If she had then she would be quite a powerful kunoichi in the future.
"I don't know about Ino but I know that Naruto-kun wouldn't want to train Sasuke due to the boy's attitude." Sarutobi informed them which made the clan heads nod in agreement. They knew that the civilian council pampered the Uchiha to the point that he became arrogant, even towards his superiors.
"I can't believe that Naruto is teaching our kids. And from the looks of it, he would be a great sensei since our children improved to such a level in just two months." said Shikaku in amazement.
"Next question is, how in the world did he become so strong?" asked Tsume with a curious tilt of her head. Everyone looked at the Hokage who coughed immediately telling everyone that he knew something they didn't.
"I'm sorry but that is Naruto-kun's secret. Let's just say that the boy is more than what he seems and leave it at that." The aged leader answered with an apologetic smile on his face. Even if they were clan heads, he would never betray his surrogate grandson's trust.
"Who cares!" exclaimed Tsume with a grin. "I don't care where the Naruto boy learned his skills but he is doing great in teaching our children to become strong in the future. Heck, I wouldn't even stop them from continuing this even after they graduate. Mark my words, our children would be the strongest yet!"
Everyone agreed with a nod, which ended the matter right there and then. A few more minutes of discussion, the shinobi clan heads decided to play the ignorant card and pretend they didn't know what they're children were doing though quite a lot of them were contemplating in teaching their respective heirs the more powerful techniques in their clan's arsenal. They are definitely ready for it.
End of Chapter 16
Date Uploaded: July 13, 2012
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