CH 4
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
A Genin team is formed and created in the hopes of teaching the new Ninja Academy graduates how to work as a team. Tokuma-sensei shook his head and nearly despaired as Naruto looked to have assimilated a somewhat female mindset.
He watched them giggle and generally enjoy their D-Class missions, which to him was kind of strange too. No real ninja enjoyed D-Class missions because they mainly felt like demotions to the higher classed ninja.
It was the boy that explained to the girls that higher missions had higher failure rates. Any mission completed at any level or class was a success and that D-Class missions should be deemed holidays or a reaffirmation for those with a higher ninja rank.
"Why," Risa asked.
"Think about it," Naruto said and then kept silent. This was one thing that Team Eleven had learnt from him. Anytime he said those words, he truly expected them to 'think about it'. He refused to explain anything until they came up with a few reasons of their own and sometimes it was along the same as his thoughts.
Akiko was usually the one to figure it out first, but from time to time their Jounin-sensei would pipe in with a speculated answer. Tokuma-sensei was surprised quite a few times when the answer should have something he'd already known.
"Not all missions successes," Akiko said. "Ninjas take their life into their hands when they accept a mission and sometimes it's the kind that's 'do or die'."
"Those with the skills to take such missions, even if they succeed well, some part of it might have left them feeling unsatisfied," Risa said. "Like an enemy escaping or a prisoner dying or the loss of a teammate or a friend getting hurt."
"D-Class missions in the village will could help the higher level Ninjas to remember what they're fighting for too," Naruto said, as nodded and confirmed that those were his thoughts. "It's a fact that those with the more risky missions are more prone to mental instability in the long run, if they don't take breaks."
"How on Earth did you ever think of that," Tokuma-sensei asked.
"Some book I read said, that over-worked and over-stressed people can become mentally unstable or have break-downs, if they don't find something to distract them from whatever is causing the stress in the first place," Naruto told them. "I just re-interpreted that for Ninjas, since our jobs as our ranks rise, will become that much more stressful and harder to accomplish."
"What kind of book," Tokuma-sensei asked curious about what the boy had taken to reading.
"Some kind of psychology of the mind thing," Naruto said. "I was looking for something else and found one called everyday stresses and how to relieve or ignore them."
Their sensei shook his head and then said, "We've been doing non-stop missions for the past two months. The next four weeks we will be training and improving your common Ninja skills, followed by another three weeks of intensive training in specialized skills. So don't expect mission pay for the next six weeks, you'll only receive the base Genin pay."
All three Genin groaned dramatically, but then broke down into laughter because their groans had been synchronized. "Ne sensei," Naruto said. "What specialized skills?"
"Well you've already got them," Tokuma-sensei told his team. "Risa is into bombs, Akiko into cloth manipulation and you are our close combat fighter."
"During the four weeks," Tokuma-sensei began. "The training will be composed of mainly physical training with focus on adding Jutsus or learning another form of Taijutsu to combine with what you already know. We'll also work on strategy combinations for differing situations. We'll brainstorm together and help the girls improve or work on their specializations. Fresh ideas are what are needed for some of the more advanced missions, if we want to begin accepting them."
"C-Class missions," Naruto gasped and quivered in excitement. "Oh, yes please."
"Why so excited about that," Akiko asked.
"Some C-Class missions are done outside of the village and involve travel," Naruto said, as his eyes showed them how much he wanted to visit some place new. "I've never been anywhere other than the outside training grounds and parks areas around Konoha. I haven't traveled further than perhaps 50 hundred kilometres away in some radius to the village."
"Really," Risa asked. "That's odd, why not?"
"I'm an orphan," Naruto said to her. "Who would I go visit and who would take me along just to go visit someplace new?"
"Oh," Risa replied. "Sensei do you think that Naruto could teach us some of his stretching techniques during those four weeks. He's still more flexible than either of us and we want to know why."
"I can't force him to teach you his 'secret' techniques," Tomuka-sensei said with laughter in his voice. "I'll admit to being curious about it. What do you say Naruto?"
"Hm," the blond thought and then said. "What'll I get for teaching it?"
"Students," Akiko told him with a smile.
"Bah," Naruto replied with laughter. "Who wants such troublesome students?"
"Well what would you want then," Akiko asked with a grin and a laugh.
"Some of your specialized camo-cloth," Naruto said. "Without the Fujin stitching that I showed you."
"How much of it," she asked.
"Enough to make an undersuit and a cloak," Naruto said.
"I'll expect written instructions to be able to continue training in the exercise when we're done the four weeks," Akiko said.
"Yeah," Risa agreed. "Written instructions, depending on whether it's worth it. If it's good I could add it to my future women only classes."
"What are you going to pay me," Naruto asked the Inuzuka girl.
"Bombs," she told him. "I'll give you a complete bomb set and instructions on how to make three particular ones. It'll be your choice on which ones you want the instructions for."
"Cool," Naruto said. Then he turned to his sensei and waited to see what the man would offer.
Tokuma-sensei should have known. Even being their sensei, his team had always worked on a kind of quid pro quo method, always exchanging knowledge or something of one sort or another. He wouldn't be learning for free. "Um," he paused and then said. "Ask me for one thing, a favour if you want."
"I want to buy a good Wakizashi blade and Tanto, but can't," Naruto said. "I'd also like good Bokken versions of both for practice."
"Why can't you," Tokuma-sensei asked.
"The dealers in this town will only sell Bokken weapons to Genin," Naruto huffed. "Some Genin can purchase live weapons, but for some reason they'll only sell me the Bokken weapons and the ones they'd 'let' me buy are crap. They wouldn't even last after a single hit and are worse then the Academy practice weapons."
"I see," their sensei said surprised that the weapons dealers would sell his students sub-standard weapons. "I'll see what I can do about them, depending on your instructions, little sensei."
"Can I talk to you after you dismiss us," Naruto asked his teacher.
"The mission is finished," Tokuma-sensei said. "So you're dismissed until tomorrow. Meet at our regular training ground, twenty-three, normal time, six am." The girls took off. They were partly excited about the training and wondered just what more they could specialize in.
"You have something you want to ask me," the Jounin asked.
"Yeah," Naruto said. "If I gave you the money could you buy me a heavy Wakizashi and Tanto Bokken? You do know there's a reason they won't sell me the good stuff."
"Do you know the reason," his sensei asked wondering, just like Yuuhi Kurenai had months ago, about how much the boy about his birth and the mark that sealed the demon beast within him.
"Yeah," Naruto told him. "Most of the civilians hate me and want me to die on ninja missions to get rid of me. It's why I'm always wearing orange or other bright colours." He shrugged and then explained, "I used to practice with the Academy's weapons to improve the formations, but I need something closer to the real thing to properly practice with now, especially if I want to use live blade one day. I figured that if we ever got a mission outside of Konoha and in some other city, I'd be able to buy all the live blades I'd need."
"I see," Tokuma-sensei told him. He'd never thought to ask the boy why he hadn't purchased that many live weapons and now he had the answer. He sighed and knew that he'd have to find a way to keep him supplied with some of the base necessities. "All right, what are the lengths and weights that you want? How are you currently getting your shuriken and kunai?"
"Max length Wakizashi Bokken, sixty centimetres, the weight between anything between twelve and fifteen pounds," Naruto told him. "Three quarters to full size for the Tanto Bokken, but it must weigh between sixteen and twenty pounds at least." He was about to give the man the money, but was told to hold off and wait until he could get the items. "The small blades like senbon, shuriken and kunai, are 'borrowed' from the training grounds. It's not my fault that some get stuck in out of the way places and that most ninja are too lazy to hunt for them."
"It's better to wait, just in case I can't get them anytime soon," his sensei told him. "I'll give you the bill for the bokken weapons after I'm able to pick the up for you, as for your other blades, good thinking. A ninja must be resourceful, especially when you run low on resources."
"But what would be your favour for a copy of the instruction set," Tokuma-sensei asked. "Buying the Bokkens cannot be deemed a favour if you're going to pay for them yourself."
"Taijutsu training," Naruto said. "I'd like to improve my Taijutsu techniques. Maybe help finding a good merchant outside of Konoha for the live blades?"
"Very well, we'll see about that," his sensei said. "You're dismissed until tomorrow morning too."
"Thank you sensei," Naruto said running off in the direction of one of the few places he knew he could get a quick meal at a simple price. He planned to hunt for more pocket blades some time later in the day when most of the Genin teams were no longer in the training grounds.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
"Are you kidding me?" Akiko said two weeks into their sensei's training schedule. They'd watched Naruto go through his morning stretch routine, once without weights and once with weights. "You do this every day, several times a day?"
"Why so much," Risa asked. She paused to look at her watch and commented, "Ne, Akiko, that didn't take long complete."
"Sensei," Naruto called out to their Jounin instructor, who'd been asked to set up a wire trap in the most complicated configuration he knew. The blond handed the girls each a pair of goggles and told them, "Flip the lenses to red on the right and blue on the left. Let your eyes adjust and look over at sensei."
The girls' eyes adjusted and then they gasped. There was ninja wire in a seemingly impossible, invisible mesh net in front of them. They saw their sensei, with his Byakugan activated, on the other side of the net. He was prepared to collapse it when a line of the wire if it was triggered, like a spider's web.
The girls saw their team-mate shed his regular orange jumpsuit, ninja sandals and noted that he was wearing a full bodysuit, including feet. He pulled a hood over to cover his hair, put on a pair of ninja goggles too. They noticed that he had gloves and toed socks on too, which acted like gloves for his feet. Then they watched as he did a few stretches to warm up his muscles for the unconventional moves that he was about to make.
His first step was low and then a sweep of his leg had the girls gasping. He was close to the wires, but never touched them. His moves were slow, graceful and most times he was stretched to a most extended position, which he held on with only the tips of his fingers and toes. The gloves were anti-slip and so were the toed socks. He passed many of the wires without skimming any. He was so close that the girls and his sensei couldn't help their gasped or stopped breath reactions while they watched him move through the twisted web.
Close to the end, his back arched and twisted to the left. A high jump kick, twisting over to the right had him avoid the large knot of low wire near the end, but the jump was also calculated to avoid a swinging top wire. A high dive roll cleared the last bit of the net that had nearly been impossible to navigate.
Tomuka-sensei's jawed dropped when he realized he was facing his student that had never once touched a single wire. "I guess that works," he said, stunned at the level of body discipline that the boy had. "Girls what do you think?"
"It's 'cause he's small," Risa said. "No adult would be able to go through all of that."
"She's right," Akiko agreed. "We might, if we had his form and flexibility, but…didn't that nin-wire mesh take a long time to set up. I don't see any Ninja setting that up when on missions in the field."
"You're right," Tokuma-sensei told them. He released the chakra anchors on the kunais that held up the wire. "Most only set up a few base configurations and only the ones that have worked for them in the past. If you gather the wire you can keep it."
Naruto immediately pulled at two of the kunais, while the girls raced to do the same from the other side of the mess. Even if the wire was used once, it could still be used a couple more times before it had to be re-forged into new wire or for melted down for another purpose. He took one of the kunai, planted it in the ground and spun it like a top. He used chakra to keep it spinning and did the same with the other that pulled. With luck, he'd end up with two lengths of wire for practice.
He beat the girls to more of the kunai and repeated his process. The girls were surprised and then followed his lead. It was a good idea. He gained five rolls wire, while the girls each gained three.
Akiko looked at the body suit and had an idea of what he wanted the material for. "If I give enough camo-cloth for a body suit it won't grow with you," she said. "You'd be stuck making another one."
He freed his hair and propped his goggles onto his forehead like he'd used to wear at the Academy. His ninja band was around his neck and that had been his only identifier. "You're right," he said. "I guess you can't make it out of stretch material either."
"There's a way to do it," she told him. "But the technique is not perfected yet. Still needs a few application tests first. Then there's field testing and washing tests to do too."
"I'll test them for you," Naruto said. "I could do it as long as I have other clothing on hand should they rip at the wrong time. How about a new jumpsuit, then only not orange?"
Risa giggled and could totally picture a bum rip happen during a mission. "Maybe you should start by creating under clothing Akiko?"
Tokuma-sensei let out a chuckle and Naruto said, "Hah. Been there and done that. You go matte grey or matte black. Just forget about tidy whities for a mission. It's better to stick with some kind of body suit under regular clothing too."
"Depends on the mission," Risa giggled. "Kunoichi might have to use fancy lace, you know."
"Ugh," Naruto said. "Not even for my Sexy Jutsu."
This had every one laughing because of the time that the girls turned into studs. They knew how to look and act like male eye candy for woman. They'd converged on his female form and forced him to put on lacy underwear, including thong type panties.
They'd made him and their sensei act and be girls while they played with the men forms. It was a good thing that they did that a few times because that's how they discovered the way to alter Naruto's appearance to not be recognizably himself and then same for their sensei and his Hyuga eyes.
"It was a lesson well learned," the man told them. "At least all of you were credited for creating an effective undercover Jutsu. It's unfortunate that it takes quite a bit of chakra unless you dress the part before you change."
"True," Naruto said. "But, when you watch a play or skit on stage, there has to be some quick change tricks that they use. There must be something of that we could copy. You know like something that's red becoming dark brown or black or the reverse."
Akiko thought about it and then asked, "Do you have extra pen and paper on you?"
"Always," Naruto said and he pulled out a few course sheets to make notes on. He handed her a thick lead pencil instead of pen and ink. "Less mess in the field," he explained to them in answer to their questioning looks.
Akiko immediately began to make notes on colours and then said, "List the colours that are adjacent to one another. Maybe it would be better to not make a full camo-cloth, but a series of change clothes."
"I have a colour wheel at home," Naruto said. "But if you line up the primary colours of blue, yellow and red in a triangle. Follow it by their combined colours of green, orange and purple above that and you should understand the base range for most colours."
"Yes," she mumbled. "It's just a matter of making them duller or brighter. Learning the opposites or even colours that complement one another, how did you ever learn this?"
"Took a watercolour class at the Academy with Kurenai-sensei," Naruto confessed. "Even got a recommendation on my file because of it."
"Interesting," Tokuma-sensei said. "Once you're finished writing Akiko, Naruto will begin by instructing us on the base moves that you do."
"Yes, sensei," the blond said. "Risa, lets clear a flat area, while Akiko finishes her notes."
"Sensei," Risa said as she swept the area, removing twigs and branches from the vicinity. "Do you think we could learn to pass through the ninja wire, like Naruto did?"
"You could," Tokuma said. "This could be additional training that we'll do in order to increase your list of skills, but it's one of those that requires periodical practice in order to remain flexible. We'll work on mock situational missions, specific to infiltration and trap detection."
She nodded and said, "Since we're young, we should do it now in order to have the skills for the missions that'd need us to work like that."
"Good idea," Tokuma-sensei said. "We're also going to work on chakra control before we take any more missions."
"About time," Naruto said. "If we don't learn chakra control, we won't be able to learn our elemental affinity or work with it."
"Quite right," Tokuma-sensei said. "Akiko, you'll have to finish making notes later. Little Sensei," he said to Naruto, indicating that the blond was to begin the lessons.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
"Sensei," Risa asked, as they had gathered at a food place, eating a treat paid for by their Sensei for the successful completion of their first C-Class mission, after their intensive six week training period. "Could you please tell us about the Chunin exams and what to expect?"
Akiko looked up from the small cardboard square of Dango. "Yes," she chirped up. "What was your exam like?"
Tokuma hesitated and then told them, "I didn't take a Chunin exam. I received an in-field promotion about fifteen years ago."
"War, huh," Naruto stated. "Best sink or swim promotional tool of the ninja ranks. I'm guessing this was to increase the number of people they could send out to the front lines, right?"
"That's right," Tokuma confirmed.
"But you must have attended at least one of the non-war exams," Risa said. "Could you tell us about them, please?"
"I may have," the Hyuga sensei said. "Why do you ask?"
"We're working towards that goal," Akiko said. "It'd be nice to have some idea of what's expected of us before we even get nominated."
Tokuma looked at the three eager faces, sighed and then told them, "The Chunin exams are usually broken down into three categories or sections. The first two must be passed as a team or cell. The last part is usually a display of abilities or skills in a competitive forum, which is done on an individual basis."
"What do the first two sections contain," Risa asked.
"Usually the first is a written exam," Tokuma told them. "The contents are always different, as is how to complete it. The second is usually a survival type of test, which includes extensive teamwork in a hostile, often foreign environment. It's also a physical competition against other teams, kind of a winner take all, sort of thing."
"That's going to be the tough one," Akiko said.
"You'll have to decide whether you wish to participate," Tokuma agreed. "But before that you need to at least do a few more C-Class missions, which I firmly believe that the three of you are ready for. So tomorrow we'll meet at the Missions Office to negotiate for a couple of those."
"Yeah," all three Genin cheered.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
TBC…