CH 9
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
It was during the course of one of their regular D-Class missions that Naruto nearly had a heart attack. The cause of this near death experience came from the direction of one Uchiha Sasuke. The method…the boy actually asked for help with his physical training.
Naruto was stunned for a moment and then asked, "Are you serious?"
"I wouldn't be asking if I wasn't," Sasuke told him with gritted teeth. "Why do you doubt me?" Then the brunette had the grace to flush with embarrassment as the blond only quirked an eyebrow to say, 'Don't you believe me to be just the Baka Dobe?' (stupid, idiot)
Sasuke cleared his throat and then whispered, "Not since you showed us some of the things that you can do."
Naruto smirked and that caused the other boy to back away. "I'd need to see a day of your regular training routine first and you'd need to see a day of mine before we can begin anything. Are you ready for what that will mean?"
"What would it mean," Sasuke asked.
Naruto shrugged and said, "I'll have to stay over at your place for those two days, at least, so we won't be interrupted." He lowered his voice as Sakura was slowly making her way to them. "We can talk about this later."
Sasuke nodded and then moved to the next section of the garden that they were booked to weed that day. The girl's shoulders slumped and then she glared at the blond who'd done nothing to deserve it. She then asked, "Naruto what did you say that chased Sasuke-kun away?"
"I didn't say anything," Naruto told her, but she just huffed and walked to where Sasuke was to bother the boy, who'd been trying to avoid her, again, during this mission. The blond sighed and returned to his part of the job.
"Ne Naruto," Kakashi-sensei said getting his attention, still reading his smutty novel while sitting up a tree on a branch and observing his subordinates. "What do you plan to do about her?"
"What," Naruto said.
"I've read what your mission should be," Kakashi-sensei told him. "You're supposed to be helping her."
"I've read it too," Naruto told him. "Unless she fully accepts my help, I really can't help her. Besides I was given specific instructions not to do anything until certain conditions are met."
"What are you planning to do with Romeo then," Kakashi-sensei was looking at him from over the edge of his book and his eye was actually focused on the blond.
"Just what I told him," Naruto continued his weeding, while speaking to his sensei. "I want to see his training routine and I want him to see mine. We may compare notes, but then again maybe as a sensei you should do true evaluation of his skills in order to tell him how to improve certain aspects of it. I won't know what to do or recommend until I see what he's doing, what about you?"
"I am supposed to train the brat," the Jounin told him thoughtfully.
"In advanced techniques," Naruto agreed. "But right now you're not doing anything and if he's starved for something new to do, maybe I can get him up to my level of catchra control before you get us to go on our first C-Class mission."
"I think you mean, chakra control," the man snorted. "If you can't say, you can't do it. But go right ahead and teach him whatever you want. Don't make me have to correct too much of your Genin errors."
"It might help to have a few days off," Naruto hinted grandly. "We've been doing non-stop D-Class for the past three months now."
Kakashi-sensei focussed on the young blond wondering what the kid was up to, but then he looked up to the sky. He did a few mental calculations and realized that the kid was right. "All right," the man said. "You'll have three additional days off beginning tomorrow, which will include the week-end coming up. Will that do?"
"It will," Naruto said.
"But what'll you give me for my generosity," Kakashi asked, hanging upside down, still seemingly focussed on his book. He flipped off the branch at the sound of one of Minato-sensei's original bells from the 'Bell Test' that had been stolen from him by the blond upstart. The bell disappeared just as quickly as it appeared.
"After today's mission is completed and you announce to Team Seven that we have a holiday and that we are to meet you again only next Wednesday for our next mission," the blond told the man. He'd moved away from the man's pick-pocket range. "You can have one of them back."
"Don't you trust me," Kakashi-sensei told him. Itching to get that bell and wondered if the kid even knew how to protect himself against pick-pockets.
"I could tell you the end of that novel instead," Naruto told him.
"You shouldn't be able to," the man replied, not caring if the boy had read any of the perverted books or not. "Doesn't matter I've already finished it."
"Didn't make much sense did it? However, I happen to also know that the new one coming out, will clear up a few things and that it's coming to a particular bookstore this Saturday as a one day advance sale promotional thing," Naruto told his sensei, indicating the book in the man's hands. "In a very limited number of copies too."
"How do you know," Kakashi-sensei gaped. Even he hadn't heard about that and he had his ear in all stores.
"Friends in low places," Naruto told him and finished up the section he'd been working on. He looked around to find that all other parts of the overly large garden that needed weeding were done. He looked at his sensei pointedly and then looked around him exaggeratedly.
Sasuke and Sakura had both finished their sections and were making their way to the two of them. Kakashi-sensei then looked around, made a notation on the mission scroll that he'd be turning in. He looked at Naruto and then looked at the other two of Team Seven.
He made his decision and said, "All right… I've decided that tomorrow you three get the day off including the weekend and since the Missions Office is slow after a weekend we'll only meet at the Bridge next Wednesday, at our regular time. Dismissed."
Sasuke glanced at Naruto who only waved him off with a kind of, 'I'll catch you up later,' hand sign at his side away from Sakura. It didn't matter if their sensei saw it, but this allowed the Uchiha to escape rather quickly before the girl even registered that the dark haired boy was gone.
"See you on Wednesday, Kakashi-sensei," she told the man. "Naruto," she said the blond's name in a pointed tone, to indicate her hate for him, and then walked away. 'Maybe this will be a good time to seek out Akiko and find out more about how her old team was,' she thought. 'I don't even know who her teammates were.'
"Thank you sensei," Naruto said and was about to walk away when the man stopped him.
"Wait," he called out. "The bell?"
Naruto blinked and then said, "Oh, you mean this one?"
He lifted it up, let it ring its friendly little tinkle and then quickly tossed it high into the air. The blond then ran away quickly before the man could change his mind about the days off. He needn't have worried because with the prospect of a new pervy book coming in on Saturday, the man could've forgiven the kid for making him exert a minor effort to catch the bell. The blond had even given him the name of the bookstore getting the shipment, plus the pass phrase that the boy had agreed on for the man to sell the book to Kakashi, as a favour for an unpaid mission. The store name and phrase were on a small tag attached to the precious bell.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Sasuke paced the yard in his compound wondering just what Naruto had done to bribe the man into releasing them for that many days. It was during his fourth circuit that he sensed the blond boy approaching. Well it was more that he heard the boy approaching because the guy was whistling a jaunty, catchy tune.
"Hey Sasuke," Naruto said. "So let's talk personal training."
"I thought I was going to show you," Sasuke asked.
"You will," Naruto said. "But let's talk about how far you want to go in field of being a Shinobi for the village of Konoha."
"You're beginning to sound like those loser councillors that we had to go see back at the Academy," Sasuke groused.
"What councillors?" Naruto asked confused. "I've never been to any councillor. What do they do?"
Sasuke looked at him and then wondered just how many had to see a career councillor or if that person was there to do some other evaluation. "I'm talking about a career councillor," the boy explained. "Didn't you see one?"
"Actually no," Naruto told him. "But then again, I didn't need to because there were no other job options for me."
"What do you mean," Sasuke asked.
"I'm an orphan without valid means to support myself," the blond explained. "You either; enroll at the Academy and become a Ninja or else you get taken as an apprentice by some business. I didn't want anyone to control what I could and couldn't learn, so the Shinobi path it was. Beside, right now, it's kind of a cool job."
"Not with all these stupid D-Class missions," Sasuke complained.
"We haven't meshed, as a team, like we should have," Naruto told him. "Truthfully, if Kakashi-sensei followed the formula set out for him, we'd have done about a month or so of D-Class missions and then taken some time off to train in various things that needed training. Then we'd have figured out a training routine to work around more D-Class missions in order to eventually be able to successfully accomplish C-Class missions."
Sasuke sighed and then asked, "Is it because of me or Sakura?"
"All three of you actually," Naruto said.
"Three of…us?"
"You're beginning to work with me, but not Sakura," Naruto explained. "Kakashi-sensei only orders us around and shows us a few things, like the communication devices, but only when we need to get that stupid cat. He should have given a few situational ideas of when those are used, but he didn't. Also he doesn't bother to reign in Sakura's attitude, but I don't think that anything will help there unless something big happens."
"Like what," Sasuke said.
"I don't know," Naruto said with a grin. "I'm sure something will come up."
"I hope so," Sasuke said. "I can't believe that she wants to be a serious Kunoichi when all she does is bother me."
"Well that's partly your own fault too," Naruto said. "You don't speak your mind around her or any of the other girls, so of course your wishy-washy attitude will make them think that you 'secretly like the attention'. Did you know that most of them grew their hair long because someone heard you say you like long hair?"
"But that was just to get the girl off my arm and away from me," he admitted.
"Then you should have said something like 'What do I care how your hair looks?' then they'd probably have all left you alone," Naruto said.
"But that's rude," Sasuke blurted. His mother would have killed him if he'd been rude to other people.
"What they do to you is also rude," Naruto said. "They're not reading the signals you put out, so maybe it's just better to be a little bit rude to get them to back off."
Sasuke looked away and then said, "I'll think about it."
"Good," Naruto then continued his previous conversation. "So what are you interested in studying and how far do you want to get in the field of being a Ninja of Konoha Village? In other words what are your likes, dislikes and dreams of the future?"
Sasuke eyes popped open from their broody, scowling expression. He took in the smirk that the blond had on his face and then snorted. "Fine," he said. "Want some tea?"
"I'd love some," Naruto said and then followed the Uchiha into a house that hadn't had a guest come visit it for the past five or six years.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Sasuke had shown him the regular training routine he usually followed. He'd been surprised that Naruto had kept up with it and it was interesting to have someone to practice moves with and then spar with after new moves had been learned.
Today was the say that the Uchiha was going to follow his blond teammate throughout the boy's physical training schedule. He was in for a rude awakening if he thought the boy was lazy or stupid.
Naruto threw a kunai into his teammate's room with a bomb tag attached. It was set to pop loudly. The kunai thunked into the wood high above the boy's bed. 'It won't do to harm the guy,' he thought and the shook his head. 'He didn't even note the danger. Sure I didn't release any killing intent, but if I was going to kill someone I wouldn't let them know about in such an obvious way either. He needs to increase his awareness of his surroundings.'
He left the room and plugged his ears. There was a loud, POP, BANG, followed by a, "What the hell?" This came from someone that sat up startled in bed.
The blond peeked into the room and said, "Morning. Get dressed for a run. Pack only water and meet me at the front door."
"What time is it?" Sasuke asked glaring out the window at the fact that there was barely pre-dawn light.
"Is your time sense not working," Naruto asked. "Because that's something that we'll have to work on too, now come on. I hate being delayed for my morning run, it ruins my day."
"Fine, fine," Sasuke said. He grumbled getting out of his warm cozy bed. He grumbled getting dressed in something to run in. He grumbled packing some water bottles. He was about to grumble at the blond at the front door, but couldn't when that person turned to look at him.
"Come on," Naruto said. "We need to do some stretching first." He led them out into the main yard and said, "Follow my lead." He did his normal routine of Yoga and Tai-Chi mix, which was followed by a set number of sit-ups, push-ups, lunges, squats and followed by more stretching this time with his weights on. He gave Sasuke some weights too, but only half the amount he carried, as he didn't want the boy to overdo it, since he'd noticed that he hadn't been using weights during his normal routine.
"Now we jog slowly to the entrance of the village," Naruto said, adjusting his weighted vest and the one on his companion had on to prevent chaffing.
"What," Sasuke said. "Why?"
"You're to follow me during my regular training routine, yes?" He asked in a pointed tone. He received a hesitant nod and so he continued. "You'll just have to wait and see what I do because it's more fun if you're surprised by it. Now we go." He began the run slowly, forcing the Uchiha to maintain the slow pace until they reached the front gates of the village.
"Just one today guys," Naruto said to the Chunin guards, making notes in their books to indicate who entered and left the village. "Could you time us please?"
"Sure thing kid," the first guard said.
"Ooo-ooo," the second one noised. "You're bringing him along." He glanced at the first guard and they were both ready to make bets on the time it would take for the last of the Uchiha clan to run once round the parameter of the village. Especially with someone who'd upped the number of times around to five on days that the blond Genin had no missions.
"Don't worry we'll make sure that it's recorded for you," the first guard said. They let the boy's through the door, much to Sasuke's surprise.
"Let's go Teme," Naruto said without any heat. This time he turned right at the doors heading east, so that by the time the return to the front gates the sun wouldn't be in their eyes.
"Dobe," Sasuke returned, but followed the other boy and allowed the blond to set the pace. 'How far is he going to go?'
Naruto increased his speed, again to half of what he normally used in order to allow his huffing teammate to stay with him. They were about three quarters of the way around the village, when the blond halted to stretch, before he jogged in place and sipped some water.
Sasuke was grateful for the pauses, but there had been only one at about every quarter waypoint. He stretched when the blond did, jogged in place and sipped the water he'd brought, as told. He then groaned as the blond picked up speed again.
'My legs feel like limp noodles because of the weights,' he thought. 'I wonder...does he do this every day?'
"Come on Teme," Naruto called out. "You're thinking too hard, if you can't keep up. This is the last quarter. When we reach the gates, jog in place while I find out about our time. Then we'll jog slowly back to your home."
"Dobe," Sasuke huffed. "Bring it on."
"You got it," Naruto said. He jogged backwards and the forwards, forcing the huffing boy to follow his lead. The new format forced a change to their stresses on their legs, but it was a relief to the dark haired boy, as his muscles were feeling the exercise.
They reached the gates and Naruto noted the money exchange between the Chunin guards that were still there because they'd chosen to remain after their shift to see the results of the run.
"How long," the blond asked. He was shown the time and then he tsked. "Three hours, eight minutes… that's pathetic, but understandable. Thanks guys."
"Why did it take so long," the first guard asked him because they'd had a bet on that too.
"He's weighted down," Naruto said, as he kept the slow jog and left the guards station. He slowed his pace until they were walking casually.
Luckily they made back to the Uchiha Clan Compound before the normal villagers were beginning to wake up. It wouldn't have been any fun, if they were delayed because the 'Last Uchiha' had gotten accosted by attention seeking females of their age group.
Sasuke was about to remove the weights when his teammate said, "No. You keep those on for the rest of the day, now we stretch and then have breakfast."
The day pretty consisted of exercise, stretch, practice Taijutsu, stretch, meditate on chakra and then there was climb the buildings using learned chakra control, going up one side, over the roofs and down the other. This was done using just feet and then just hands.
"Normally I'd do this in one of the abandoned warehouses in the village," Naruto told Sasuke. "I won't go through the large part of that routine because you don't know how to do this yet."
"Can you teach it to me," Sasuke asked with an eager tone. It was something new to learn and looked cool to, not that he'd admit to wanting to know something just because it looked cool.
"Yes," Naruto told him. "But first we continue doing more of my regular training routine." More consisted, throwing kunai, throwing shuriken, practicing all three base Jutsu Techniques from the Academy and then sparring in hand-to-hand only with his clones, since he'd never had a partner willing to spar with him before.
"Why use clones," Sasuke asked, winded from his efforts against the real Naruto and one of his clones. "Aren't they normally weak?"
"These ones are known as Kage Bushin," Naruto said. "They're full bodied clones that can take several hits before disappearing."
"But why spar with just clones," Sasuke asked.
"Well sometimes I spar with my old teammates," Naruto said. "Not many people want to spar with me and everyone my age; are either at the Academy or are on Genin teams doing missions. Why?"
"Your moves are somewhat repetitious," Sasuke said. "You'd need to spar with other people or else find new Taijutsu techniques."
"So who do you spar with," Naruto asked in a pointed fashion and the dark haired boy looked down with a frown. "It's not that easy is it? I suppose that if I want to train, I could request that it be a D-Class mission, but then I don't want to have to pay for a Genin team to spar with me. I can learn from the books, but I'd rather have someone learn with me and want to teach me. As a team, we should really be learning all of this together."
He slapped his whiskered cheeks, which the dark haired boy knew meant a change in subject. "Break's over, more training now."
This time it was kunai with wire and fake bomb tags, shuriken and fake bombs, then some more movement practice, stretches, Taijutsu and then several scrolls were pulled out for study. Naruto moved them indoors and into a room that had once held a lot of people who gathered for family meals. He set up, his paper, ink and the scrolls he'd studied from.
"I don't know what interests you," Naruto said. "I'm studying a few techniques in Genjutsu, Ninjutsu and trying to find some Seal techniques to add to the strength of my blades. I usually eat lunch around this time and spend most of the first part of an afternoon indoors studying to relax my body. It's almost like meditation while I do this."
"I have some family scrolls," Sasuke said. "Some of the techniques look good, but sometimes I don't understand what their purpose is." He'd seen the scrolls that the blond pull out. They were semi-advanced techniques ranging from the very base E-Levels to many in the range of C-Level and B-Level, with a couple in the A-Levels. "Do you think you could look at them and judge their levels and maybe help me figure them out?"
"If you buy me ramen three days a week for two months," Naruto told him.
"What," Sasuke sputtered.
"I'm not receiving any kind of compensation for my time to do that," Naruto told him. "Judging the approximate levels of family or Clan scrolls takes time and it has nothing to do in finding a training routine that will allow you to improve your other skills. Now does it?"
Sasuke sighed, but then said, "I'd willingly let you learn from them."
"I'll be doing that anyway as I evaluate them," Naruto told him.
"I'd let you keep the ones that would be of no use to someone like me," Sasuke countered again.
Naruto paused and then asked, "What about your future offspring? Wouldn't it be of use to them?"
"I don't think that I want children," Sasuke confessed.
Naruto shrugged. "I think that I can understand that."
In the future he hadn't been active in that way all that much and his preferences in gender seemed to have leaned towards male versus female. It still seemed that way. However there had been that one strange conversation with his old Team Eleven teammates about that very subject, children. They'd actually asked him and their sensei, which had stunned the man, to donate their sperm in the future. It was for a time when the girls' Shinobi contracts were supposed to have finished.
When asked why, they'd received the simplified explanation that the girls wanted to have a child that they could raise while they were still young enough to do so, but that would also help them to remain focused on what they planned to do aid the village to grow. There was no official mandate, but this had been something that many of the women in the village had been silently encouraged to do while they could in order to sort of replenish the village population. No child was condemned for being a bastard in the Shinobi Villages.
Akiko had said, "Naruto's colouring is unique, plus he's got excessive chakra reserves that you've even commented on sensei."
Risa had said, "Sensei, you're a Hyuga and probably have family obligations, while the Inuzuka Clan is in need of new blood. I just thought that perhaps you'd be willing to let me introduce it without all of the attachments that'll come from formalized unions. Um…that is, if your Clan Head will allow it."
The men of the old Team Eleven had agreed that should the girls still be interested by the time that Naruto turned sixteen, which would probably be the better time for him to donate his seed as he was still quite young at the moment. He was also slightly underdeveloped due to childhood malnutrition to, but they agreed that they would do it. It was also a more ideal time for the girls as they'd be young women of eighteen years and probably mature enough to handle raising, near fatherless, children.
They'd all signed a contract to that effect, only to be negated if any of them entered into a formalized union with another person. So far the countdown was still happening and Naruto knew that in perhaps less than four years he'd be named the biological father a child or two.
"What about you," Sasuke asked.
"Me," Naruto said. "Well that will depend on what happens between now and the day I turn sixteen."
"What," Sasuke said. "Why sixteen?"
"It's complicated, very personal, and not really something that I'm comfortable discussing with anyone right now," he told his teammate. "So lunch and we can discuss the scrolls, provided you agreed to the buying me ramen three days a week for two months and it doesn't include the times that we'll be out of Konoha on missions."
"So not two months straight because of missions," Sasuke said. He could agree to that in order to get help with the scrolls. He could already tell that the blond was studying more than just specific Sealing Techniques, but didn't want to lose what he was about to gain here. "I'm willing agree that for the following period of two months, barring any outside mission, that I will treat you to ramen two days per week, during a sixty day timeframe, which means twelve days of free ramen, not to exceed two bowls per meal for you."
Naruto grinned and knew that Sasuke was smart, but didn't he just catch the fact that the blond loved to eat more than one bowl per meal at Ichiraku. "Ah," the blond grinned and then tried to negotiate. "I was hoping for three days and four bowls?"
"Nope," Sasuke told him. "Would you rather that I only chose to go only one bowl for one day in a week for?"
"Three bowls, two times a week," Naruto again tried to negotiate for one more bowl.
"The four bowls one day a week," Sasuke said. "Any supplemental bowls belong to me. You better write that down before you forget yourself."
Naruto chuckled and then laughed. "Good bargain," he said. "Two bowls and two days a week or four bowls one day a week." He wrote up everything under the dark haired boy's watchful eyes, who nodded to that addition and then they both signed the deal. "Deal?"
"Deal," the dark haired boy told him. "Now we can eat."
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
The two boys refined the training that the dark haired, lone Uchiha would do. Further negotiation for help occurred and now the Uchiha was going to learn chakra control this same weekend.
Naruto told him in order to teach him that, they'd have to go to a special training ground and be prepared to stay there for three days and two nights' time. They met at the village gates ready to leave for what the blond called alternate survival training.
Sasuke was led along the same path that Konohamaru had once used to follow the blond Jinchuriki. He was still weighted down and still had to follow his teammate, who was similarly weighted down with nearly twice the amount of weights because he'd been training longer with them.
They reached the cliff rock face and the dark haired youth wondered where they were going to from there. That's when his jaw dropped at the question that came out of Naruto's mouth.
"Oi Sasuke," the blond called out. "Have you ever been rock climbing? Do you need a harness?"
"Dobe," the darker boy said. "What are you talking about?"
"We need to climb this cliff in order to reach our camping area," Naruto told him. "So have you ever been rock climbing and do you want to use a harness or not?"
"I've never been," Sasuke told him. "Aren't you going to walk up there using your wall walking ability?"
"That's just chakra control," Naruto told him. "I can't walk up and leave you behind. Besides climbing the hard way is fun. So…"
Sasuke sighed and asked, "How do I use a harness?"
Naruto then spent a bit of time explaining how to climb. (...i...) He'd decided not to link himself to the Uchiha because Sasuke wouldn't thank him for that kind of help. This was just another form of training and it was something that he could show and demonstrate without have to hold the guy's hand, so-to-speak, to do it. Sasuke wouldn't have appreciated begin treated like Konohamaru.
They climbed the cliff with near ease, after the Uchiha had managed to find a rhythm that suited him and that was only after he'd gotten used to the method of climbing. Jab a kunai in a crevasse, activate the anchor and climb to the length of the anchor rope. Anchor with a second kunai, release the first, and repeat.
They reached the top of the cliff and after packing the harnesses and other equipment. They ran to one of the camp areas at the top of that plateau. They set up their camp and ensured that everything was set and ready so that they could spend their time teaching or learning, as the case may be.
Naruto was fishing, while Sasuke tried to 'climb a tree'. "Mah," the blond said. "You're putting too much chakra into it."
The result, the dark haired boy didn't put enough on the next run, so he slipped and fell. The blond snickered, but the difference between too much and too little showed the dark haired boy a way to narrow it down to the just enough he needed. He decided to alternate between the two and found that he could almost sense what would be the right amount.
"Yatta," he said softly, as he was finally able to go up the length of the tree to grab the shuriken that had been tossed up there by his short blond teacher. He watched as the other boy finally moved from his spot and carried six fish on a string.
"Well," Naruto said looking up. "You do need to get down now, right. Take five minutes to recharge and then come down." The dark haired boy scowled, but nodded.
Five minutes later there was a thump, followed by 'itaii' (ouch) and a 'kuso' (damn-it or shit). The blond didn't bother to go help the other boy, who eventually limped back to the camp sight rubbing his backside.
"Anything broken," Naruto asked.
"No," Sasuke sat down gingerly to avoid the forming bruise and a caught a small jar in his hand. "What's this?"
"Rub it in the bruised area," Naruto told him. "It will help prevent muscle strain overnight, however I'd wait until you finish eating your supper because it smells." He handed him one of the cooked fish on a stick. "In the morning we'll do parts of our regular routine and then test you on climbing a few of the trees."
"Is there anything else to learn," Sasuke asked.
"Loads," Naruto said. "Trees are just the first and probably most annoying set to do. However with trees it's the best to use them to learn on because if you fall, you can always catch a branch with your hands, if you're not tired. The landing may not be quite as soft as all that, but it's better to learn on something you're most likely to be climbing anyway. Chakra control for doing the building scampering that we normally see the Shinobi doing, is only a matter of a bit of chakra added to boost their jump and a bit more to stick to the roof they're jumping onto."
"Too little and they would slip and fall off the roof," Sasuke said contemplatively. "Too much and they'd go through the roof." He looked up at the sky. It was full of stars on this night. Usually he was too angry to look, but something made him look tonight. He played with them in his mind like he used to do with his older brother when he was little.
'How many formations can you see,' Itachi had asked him.
"Seventeen," he said out loud.
'You haven't learned any new ones, yet,' Itachi in his mind laughed at him and then said. 'Mah, little brother, you need to add a new one every week in order to be able to read them properly.'
The little boy that Sasuke was at the time had only answered, 'I like those ones because they're the ones that Aniki (big brother) taught me.'
Naruto had blinked at the softly spoken word 'seventeen' and chose not to interrupt the other boy's thoughts. It looked like he was seeing something from his past that didn't hurt him to remember.
'Sometimes you just need to do that once in a while in life,' he thought and looked up too. 'They're up there somewhere watching. I hope I don't disappoint any of you.'
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Saturday had Kakashi-sensei outside the bookshop looking in, hoping that his student hadn't lied about promotional Icha Icha book. His eye widened and then glittered when he saw it. 'I guess we all earned a holiday,' he thought as he stepped into the store.
The man behind the counter had been keeping an eye out for the blond's Jounin-sensei. 'The kid was pretty descriptive too,' the man thought. 'There's no mistaking who that man is.'
"I'm here for one of those," Kakashi said, with an eager gleam for the book in his eye.
"Those are all reserved," the man behind the counter told him.
"The Fox sent me," Kakashi said with a grin behind his mask. 'That was some pass phrase that the kid chose.'
"Hm," the owner said. He pulled out a black bag that contained the book. "Here," the man said. "One thousand and twenty five Ryo, non-negotiable."
"That's a bit much for this kind of book," Kakashi said surprised.
"That was the price negotiated by that brat," the owner of the store said. "Everyone else is paying two thousand five hundred twenty-three Ryo for it, so be grateful."
"I am, I am," Kakashi told the man and then paid him the amount negotiated for him by his supposedly clueless Genin. As soon as he had the book safely tuck away, he asked. "May I ask how the boy knew about it?"
"We did an exchange of service," the man said. "He watches the store unpaid and I visit the Red District for a few hours. Since he's a Genin he knew how to take care of those that pocket my books without paying. I usually pay the kid in books, but he'd found the letter from the publisher that I stupidly left out and that as they say is that."
"When was this?" Kakashi wondered how long the kid had been planning to use that bribe because it was obvious that the time was running out.
"About two months ago," the man told him. "Kid's good with the store. I don't get troublemakers that often. Don't get much business when he's guarding the front either, but that's okay by me too."
Kakashi nodded and the left the store with a 'Thanks' for the brain numbing goo of adult adventure porn. He'd gotten home, opened it and thought, 'Oooo, this one looks like it'll be even better than the last one.'
Further down, on another street, near the regular housing district, a pink-haired girl knocked on the door to her older cousin's house. 'It's been a while since I've been here,' Sakura thought. 'I don't even remember why we started fighting in the first place.'
When she'd heard of the forced medical 'retirement' of her cousin, she didn't know what to feel. She hadn't been curious, she'd never found out what the accident was. She usually didn't bother with much of anything else, as her cousin was one less rival to Sasuke's affection, in her mind. That was her strange perception because she believed that every other girl in the boy's vicinity were after him. Her thoughts even included some of the older girls, when in truth most of the older girls just didn't care about a broody little boy, even if he looked cute when he pouted.
Sakura bit her lip and knocked on the door.
Akiko used her crutches to get the door because just didn't feel like dealing with her prosthetic foot today. The doctors did advise that she not overdo using it for the time being. "Yes," she said opening the door. "Sakura, what are you doing here?"
Sakura noted the crutches and frowned. She looked down and gasped, "What happened?"
"Is that why you're here," Akiko huffed. "Didn't your parents already tell you?"
"They said that there was an accident, but not what happened," the pink-haired girl stated. She paused and the looked up from the shock she'd had in seeing that her cousin was actually missing a foot. "I came because I wanted to ask you how it was for you to work on a Genin team and I can't believe I never asked, but I also want to know who your teammates were and how long it took for the three of you to work as a team."
"Really," Akiko asked and earned a nod. She grinned because this was going to be so fun to talk about. Not only that, but her Uchiha obsessed cousin was about to be surprised when she mentioned the name of one of her old team members. "Come in, I'll make us some tea."
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Naruto added his normal weights and continued his morning routine. He watched as the dark haired boy, walked slowly on the water. He'd practiced another chakra control technique when tree climbing had been deemed accomplished. He'd reached a point where he'd used his chakra to jump and stick to the tree limbs and then walk down the trunk of the tree.
Sasuke grumbled when he'd first started to walk on the water with his Ninja sandals. He'd done this a few times, until his merciless blond teacher told him to remove his shoes. It was different and he'd been dunked a few times until surfaced and sputtered out loud, "WHY?"
The other boy had only told him that water absorbs chakra.
"What the hell does that mean," Sasuke had shouted when Naruto was about to jog away for a run along another, harder path that included going up and over the waterfall. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Think about it," Naruto told him. "I'm not going to give you all the solutions, you know. Work on it and if you still can't do anything by the time I get back I'll tell you then."
He didn't have to say a thing when he'd come back to camp. His teammate was walking on the water barefoot. It might have been a slow way to progress, rather than the immediate trial by fire situation in the Land of Waves, but it was the better method too.
'Now when I tell him to think about something, I hope that he will,' he thought. 'It hadn't even taken that long for Akiko and Risa to do that.'
He grinned as he watched Sasuke developed an interesting game of skating and wave hopping. He'd pretty much done the same thing, but he wasn't about to tell the other boy that. Instead he removed his own shoes to join him and then said, "Let's spar, Taijutsu only."
Sasuke paled slightly, but then nodded. He'd just figured out how to walk without falling into the water in the last ten minutes. Now he'd been asked to fight while having to stay up on the water and then he looked at his opponent. 'Son of a…he's still got his weights on,' he thought. 'What the hell is he thinking?'
Naruto wasn't. He was used to sparring on the water with his clones and weights however it's been a while. He grinned and told the other youth. "It's been a while since I sparred this way," he'd said. "So just take it easy on me."
"No way," Sasuke said and attacked.
The blond laughed, but just said, "Bring it."
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Sakura had spent her remaining time off and away from Team Seven to think about what her cousin had told her. She'd gone there hoping to gain some insight on how to be a proper Genin team.
"Inuzuka Risa and Uzumaki Naruto were my teammates," Akiko told her with pride. Pride!
Sakura felt no pride with her teammates and worse one of her teammates was one of the ones that her cousin was proud to have worked with. She felt weak, slow and like she was a burden to her team.
"We meshed pretty much the first day that we were told we had to capture our sensei," her cousin told her. "We listened to the ideas that everyone had and in the end the only reason we passed the second hidden Genin test was because we never gave up. We kept attacking and eventually out of that some of our attacks almost became coordinated. It was a great feeling to know we'd passed."
Sakura had had no great feeling when she'd passed the second test. Sure she was pumped at the pass, but there had been no real feeling of accomplishment there. It was like the pass was given because of her other two teammates' efforts and that she was just along for the ride.
"We worked hard on D-Class missions for a few months before we began some intensive training to figure where we strong and where we weak. We analyzed our team dynamics and tried to gain strengths as a team and as individuals." Akiko had said. "We worked together to improve everything, from situational reviews and practice, to new Jutsus, Taijutsu training, weapons training and we even found that we had outside skills that we could use when working as ninjas."
"Like what," Sakura had asked.
"My sewing skills, for one," Akiko told her. "Because I knew how to sew, it helped me to understanding nin-wire manipulation better than the other two. Risa's an Inuzuka, so she already had skills, but her sense of smell was an asset that we honed with her because she didn't have a nin-dog with her. Naruto was our close combat fighter, but he's also the best at navigating wire traps and tights spaces when needed. He was also the best camp cook of our group."
"I never knew that about Naruto," Sakura had said. "I just know that he was the last of the class because his grades were not that great and it was like he never tried."
"I was there on the day he graduated with my class," Akiko told her. "He had to perform all three Jutsus, where the rest of us had to only do one. His last test was to Kawarimi and hide for five minutes in order to pass."
"How did he pass then because hiding for any length of time, would have been hard," Sakura had asked.
"It was harder because we had a Hyuga in the class," Akiko told her and then laughed. "The sneak turned into Neji's hair tie, which was always behind him and that was a blind-spot area that he'd never thought he'd had until Naruto hid in it. Naruto passed the last test and the pointed out the weakness to basically everyone in the room."
Sakura didn't think she'd have been able to think about that solution and she'd had Hyuga Hinata in her class. In the end the last advice she'd gotten from her cousin was, "If you don't want to be weak, don't be. If you want to be stronger, practice. Did you want to be a Kunoichi before you supposedly fell in love with Sasuke or did you just want to become a Kunoichi because of Sasuke? How is he supposed to have replaced your original goal? There's also one thing you should always remember about boys too and it's that they're stupid and not really interested in girls as anything other than maybe friends to hang out with. It's only until they get past the age of fourteen or fifteen that things may change to be the way you want them too and you'll only know that, when they stop looking at your face when they talk to you."
"Oh," Sakura had deflated. She took a deep breath and then asked, "Can you help me out and point out the things I need to work on in order to catch up to Naruto?"
"Just Naruto," Akiko had asked pointedly.
"He's the one that's not the best student," she'd answered and received a forehead flick that caused a lot of pain.
"Don't you ever, dare to underestimate him because he's strong, kind, interesting, funny and a whole host of many things and when he grows up and gains a bit of height, I know he's going to be a heartbreaker," Akiko had told her in anger. "You want to change, well then you'd better think about how you are and how you're acting. Think and use that big brain of yours. Figure it out first before coming to me for any more advice. Now get out."
Sakura had stared at her angry cousin and then said, "Thank you for telling this."
"One last thing," Akiko said before her younger cousin left. "I lost my foot during the Chunin exam I was taking in Suna. I took a wrong turn and fell into a trap that cut it clean away. Naruto saved both our lives when we were injured, by giving us emergency first aid and then he carried me for hours before we could get to the exit, don't you ever underestimate him or his skills!"
Sakura was now in her room going over everything that Akiko had told her. She ran through everything she knew and realized that some of the Shinobi skills she'd been developing had dropped when she'd started her infatuation with the last Uchiha. She looked at her kunai set and wondered, 'When was the last time that I tossed or sharpened them?'
She sat up, went to her desk to look at one of the Academy's old school schedules and winced. She pulled out a piece of paper and began to make a list of skills with a few columns next to them. In the first column she rated the skills she thought she had from one to ten. Then she went to a practice ground to run through her list and found that what she thought she was skilled at, she wasn't. She marked her paper honestly and then made notes in the last column of how to improve.
Finally she made up a training schedule and an eating schedule. 'In order to get stronger I can't be fainting because I haven't eaten,' she thought. 'This calls for a trip to the library and maybe to the hospital to consult a dietician.'
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
Wednesday after their long holiday, Team Seven gathered on the bridge to wait for the ever-tardy sensei. Naruto had a book of old war tactics on the ground in front of him with a small battered travel Shogi board, while Sasuke had a travel GO board in front of him. They were discussing a particular tactic, when Sakura added a couple of interesting points, which could push the campagne into the favour of the opponent.
Kakashi-sensei showed up, but no one seemed to be making a fuss. He wondered how he'd get them riled up now, if they didn't comment on his tardiness. He'd been hoping to be able to get to use the whole host of excuses saved up over the years to torment his Genin with. Instead he watched as they put away their game boards and waited for him to tell them about their D-Class mission for the day.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
TBC…
(...i...) Rock climbing or Mountain climbing - The method explained in this tale is not completely accurate and should in no way be taken as fact. As mentioned before, "Wikipedia" is a wonderful source of inspiration for little additions to my stories. However if you're seriously interested in learning to climb rocks or mountain, check out your local community for services and lessons.