Heart of Fire Eyes of Steel 8
Yamato had just finished informing his new team, of the secondary test that would occur the next day.
They didn't seem to be phased by this, but then again, he was only going on what other Jonin sensei had told him.
Secretly, he hoped that they would pass because, so far, it seemed quite fulfilling.
Everyone else had long left, and Sasuke's patience, what was worn down to a nub when Kakashi Hatake eventually turned up.
"Yo!" he had begun "I'm to be your Jonin sensei" he paused "What's that look for?"
Sasuke growled "I certainly hope you aren't going to keep this up, to have an Anbu captain for a teacher that can't even stick to a time schedule is just ridiculous!"
Kakashi swished his hand through the air dismissively and managed a "Meh" in reply, which showed clearly how much he cared for Sasuke's 'opinions'.
"Now then, we should get to know one another, meet me on the roof ASAP, ciao!"
Kakashi popped out of existence, signalling that he knew how to use the Shadow Clone technique that Naruto had picked up from the scroll.
Sasuke stood, cursing under his breath at both his new teacher, and that his knees had clicked painfully, reliving him of his cramp from being sat for so long in one position.
Begrudgingly, Sasuke made his way up the stairs in the hall to the roof, all the while making little girly noises and gritting his teeth from the pins and needles.
As he opened the door out onto the roof, Sasuke covered his eyes to shield them from the glare of the afternoon sun, giving his eyes time to adjust.
Kakashi he noticed, was sat on the far side of the roof becoming him over.
"Okay then", the one-eyed sensei had a crease in his mask, smiling at the freshly minted Genin.
"Usually, the Jonin would give a test, to see if their selection of Genin where ready for the ninja life. But, unsurprisingly, you are now of both the proper age and rank, so I can no longer refuse to teach you"
Sasuke frowned and noticed the mirth in Kakashi's voice "You refused to teach me, why?!"
Kakashi's eye became cold as he replied in an icy tone "Because, the council is far, far too eager to create another 'Itachi', that is why boy"
Sasuke's jaw tightened in response, as did his fist.
Kakashi, like a switch, had become goofy again " But,you are now of an age so that you can make your own decisions with more clarity yes?"
Kakashi lost his happy demeanour once again 'will this guy make his mind up already!' thought Sasuke.
"So it won't happen now, will it?"
Kakashi stared at Sasuke whom quickly got the message.
"I'll never be like him!" he yelled.
Kakashi snorted "Good enough for me"
He then fixed Sasuke in his gaze again "As I was saying, contrary to what others usually do, I have to teach you regardless of what I think, so this is how this is going to happen, we are going to introduce ourselves, discuss our likes, dislikes, dreams, you know, that kind of thing. Then however, I am going to tell you a story, what you take from it will depend on your willingness to both listen and learn, okay?"
Sasuke nodded, his gaze still boring a hole in Kakashi's mask.
"Okay then, I'll start. I am Kakashi Hatake, the son of the legendary White Fang of the leaf. My likes and dislikes are pretty much none of your business, as are my dreams, but just for you I'm telling you one in the story concluding this meeting"
Kakashi gestured for Sasuke to start.
Both he and Sasuke both thought in unison 'This is going to be one strained relationship'.
"My name, is Sasuke Uchiha, I like very few things, and dislike plenty. My dream for the future is to...bring my brother Itachi to justice for the massacre of my clan mates"
Kakashi raised one eyebrow 'I wonder if he really means that, or is it just trying to save face for me, I guess time will tell'.
"And" Sasuke continued "to stop anything from happening to my friends, I will not have them endure what I have".
Kakashi raised the other eyebrow, almost temped to see if he was under a genjutsu with his Sharingan eye 'Interesting, he seems to have the will of fire in him already, perhaps that will steady his walk along his vengeance driven path'.
Kakashi unconsciously grinned.
"Well, okay then Sasuke, now, for the story. Take from this what you will, but keep in mind that this is true and it really happened. I am at no point trying to sway you from your path, but this will warn you of what might happen if you let it get the better of you, okay?"
Sasuke nodded firmly, and was then regaled in great detail about Kakashi, his old team, and his faster than light sensei.
Team Yamato where stood by training ground 14, waiting for sensei only a short while before he came through the mesh gate, along the stretch of fencing that framed many of the training grounds.
"Morning team, are you ready for your test?"
The three nodded, although one lazier than the others.
"Alright then" spoke Yamato, and reached into his pouch to pull out a spool of thin rope and blindfolds.
Naruto just gave him a deadpan look 'It looks like he's come prepared for a kidnapping!'
"This is to be an exercise that will give me a couple of pointers on how best to instruct you, as well as your personalities and drives".
Yamato held up the rope.
"It will be a kind of, combination of old children's games, mixed with some good old orienteering. You will have to work as a team to complete this task, if you work independently, you will fail and you all get sent back to the academy".
That threw the Genin for a loop.
"W-What?" managed Hinata.
Yamato grinned "If you cannot show simple teamwork and navigation skills, then you do not deserve to be a ninja".
He hefted the rope up once again.
"Each of you will be impeded in some way at the beginning, a handicap if you will, sound good?"
The trio nodded, and Yamato began to tie them all together.
Yamato had set the three a task; get to a marked point deep in the forest before noon.
Hinata had been blindfolded and forbade from using her bloodline, Naruto's legs had been bound together so that his movement was difficult, and Shikamaru had the same done to his hands to prevent him from using jutsu's.
'Not that it would make any difference if they were free' thought the shadow user 'it's too dark in here anyway, there aren't any shadows'.
It took a while, but Naruto eventually settled on an idea.
'He didn't say anything about us staying tied up!'
He nudged the two others, and they stopped hobbling along to look at their blonde friend.
"W-What is it Naruto?" inquired Hinata.
He thought hard for a minute before reaching into his pouch to get a small scroll of paper, which he began scribbling on with a pen that slid out from inside it.
'Yamato restricted you specifically from using your bloodline right?'
Hinata nodded.
'But, he didn't say anything about the rope did he?'
She shook her head, his idea making itself known.
"Hm, troublesome, I guess we had better call his bluff then", admitted Shikamaru.
Naruto wiggled around so that his arms moved the rope by his weapon pouch, which was, because the three where lashed together, made it difficult to reach.
He took a deep breath and concentrated on his weapon pouch, before pushing with the now familiar feeling he used to interact with metal.
He caught a kunai in his pouch and pulled it out carefully, so as not to cut his team mates, before using it to split the ropes around his chest.
Naruto winced, it was clear he still needed to get used to using it.
Every time he did, he was reminded of the first time he'd used it, which lead to thoughts of Mizuki.
Getting angry wasn't going to fix their current situation.
He calmed himself again and freed them quickly.
Shikamaru rubbed his wrists and nodded his thanks, as did Hinata.
"Hinata" started Shikamaru, his tone commanding "Don't use your bloodline, as Naruto said that would get us disqualified. We are stepping over one rule, however lose it was, the rule pertaining to you he stated explicitly. This is giving us enough of an advantage; we had better not shoot the gift horse eh'?"
He noticed the other in his team where looking at him squarely.
"Uh...is something wrong?" he looked between them, Naruto gave a firm shake of his head but noticed he was standing straighter than usual.
He looked back to Hinata for an explanation, to see now that she was smiling.
"W-Well Shikamaru, I-I think that when it comes down to it, you are the best choice for team leader out of all of us. You have a kind of...commanding presence about you when you get s-stuck in".
"Um" Shikamaru could almost feel the heat climbing to his face "Thanks?"
Hinata chuckled and once again, the trio took off into the forest in search of their target.
They were looking for the best part of two hours for the illusive waypoint, when it finally came into view.
Just as Yamato had said to them, it was obvious.
In the middle of the clearing they had came to, stood a large wooden post around two meters in height, about thirty centimetres thick, and all down the sides it was adorned with peculiar faces.
As they approached, Yamato emerged from the tree line behind it with a smile on his face.
"Good job you three" he congratulated "Or at least, that is what I would say, if that part of the test wasn't there to weed out the imbeciles".
Naruto frowned, while the others remained neutral.
"Your final trial" Yamato continued "Is to get this" he held up a ribbon made of wood, it was painted an ebony colour. "off of my person".
It was Shikamaru this time that pulled a sour face "What is it with you and kids games?"
Yamato just gave him a trademark glare.
"You have an hour, ready?"
The three Genin looked at each other, before quickly assembling together.
Naruto stood with his fists at the ready in a pseudo-boxer stance.
Hinata in her Jyuuken stance, and Shikamaru was standing uncharacteristically straight with his hands out of his pockets.
Yamato pulled the smile from earlier back onto his face.
"Well okay then" a hint of amusement could be easily be heard in his voice "Come at me then!"
And so they did.
Naruto ran in first, followed by Hinata, who stood on the other side of Yamato, Shikamaru brought up the rear and flanked their new teacher, kneeling down and keeping his hands in position for a ninjutsu.
"Okay guys, we've got this, it will be a piece of cake, we know he can use wood related ninjutsu and of course he is a jonin, so he has a good aptitude in other areas of combat such as taijutsu. Attack all at once, force an opening and I can end this".
Hinata and Naruto nodded their affirmative.
Yamato mentally laughed 'The Nara is just like his father, a born leader. He started off by motivating his team mates, then set the rules of engagement, so as to work in a team formation and cover their strengths, all the while reducing their glaring weaknesses'.
Naruto and Hinata simultaneously dashed in and began to assault Yamato with fierce blows, which he effortlessly dodged, parried and blocked.
"You will have to try harder than that kiddies!" shouted the jonin, clearly trying to enrage his new genin, which was successful to a startling effect.
Naruto who, up until Yamato's jibes had been grinning, now he wore a much more serious face.
Yamato noted that now, his blows carried more weight, and where more precise, blocking without trying was becoming more of a chore now.
'Well then' he thought 'this is more like it. but let's see just how much damage the little blighter can do!'.
Yamato intentionally dropped his guard, and he noticed that the boy instantly picked up on it.
The blonde quickly slapped aside his arms and gave him a swift uppercut to the chest, that drove the wind from his lungs.
"Dear Kami!" wheezed Yamato as he leapt back.
'Shadow Clone Jutsu!' Naruto copied himself several times, two jumping straight forwards towards Yamato, one peeling off and positioning itself behind him on his hands and knees in his blind spot.
Yamato felt both a tug at his belt and heard a tell of victory from the shadow user as Hinata slammed an open palm against her teachers chest, knocking him backwards over the prone Naruto clone waiting on the floor.
Yamato fell down onto his back with a grin back on his face "Not bad you guys, not bad".
Hinata sighed lightly, her previously laboured breathing was under control again
"W-we can play kids games too s-sensei".
Yamato grinned and sat up to see Shikamaru holding the wooden ribbon and inspecting it.
"All right, you guys pass in my book" stated Yamato, which he regretted right away, as he had to pry a blonde boy off of himself.
"Gather around you three, and pass me the ribbon Shikamaru".
The Nara did as instructed.
"As you know, I am a wood user, what you didn't know is that I crafted this ribbon for you all".
Three pairs of eyebrows raised, and Yamato began fiddling with his creation.
Sure enough, he pulled at the ribbons surface on either side, and with a click it separated into three pieces.
He passed them out to his team.
"You see, you are my first team, and I hope that we all get along well, and learn much from each other. Because of this, I divided the ribbon into sections to depict what you 'are' to this team".
He looked towards Shikamaru "I've observed you're leadership skills, your piece depicts the roots of the great tree that will be this team, you mind and level headedness will hold everything together, even in the direst of times".
Yamato looked to Naruto "Your strength and stalwart silence holds behind it a kind heart and burns with a desire to help others, it is from you, the trunk that the rest of the team will draw strength, just as you protect them, they will do so in turn without breaking stride.
At last, Yamato's gaze settled on Hinata. "Hinata, the girl with the gentle soul. You are both the branches and the leaves, often are you overlooked, swaying in the breeze, and yet you are never swayed from your path, snapping back into place after a storm. Your unique way of looking at things will be what comforts your team mates, and as your true self comes out, you are the first to drink in the sun's rays and share your warmth".
Yamato stopped and let the trio absorb what he told them.
"I sure hope we have fun together" he grinned "I'm already excited".
Authors Note
Hi guys, sorry for the ridiculous hiatus. I have about 7 chapters written, I just need to type them out, uploads will be quite frequent, I hope to have the rest out very soon.