Freedom. Chapter 4: It's The Training!
(Note: Yes, the title of this chapter is a reference to one of the songs of the original "Naruto" soundtrack. Enjoy. :D)
Disclaimer:
I do not own Braveheart or Naruto. Braveheart belongs to Mel Gibson, and Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto. No copyright infringement intended. All copyrights are reserved.
The next day...
Back at William's camp, Sakura was the first one to awaken, and left the tent only to find William training with Hamish, Stephen, Campbell, and Morrison training with the Scottish as they were preparing for the Battle Of Stirling.
Sakura walked up to William.
"Good morning, William," Sakura greeted him, which made William stop his training and looked at Sakura.
"Oh. Good morning, Sakura," William replied back. "Where's Naruto and Kakashi?"
"Oh, well, Naruto's still sleeping," Sakura said.
William scoffed in annoyance.
"Has he not forgotten what I told him yesterday about us preparing to fight the English at the Battle Of Stirling?"
"Well, let's just say Naruto can be kind of forgetful at times." Sakura stated with a weak chuckle as she anime sweatdropped.
"And Kakashi?" William inquired.
"I'm not sure where he is," Sakura lied.
"As usual. Kakashi-sensei's always late. Especially when we're about to go to war with the English," Sakura mused to herself.
"Well go look for them, and tell Naruto to wake up," William demanded.
"Right," Sakura responded with a nod as she went back to William's camp and back inside the tent only to find Naruto snoring loudly while drooling in his sleep.
"Psst. Naruto," Sakura whispered in his ear while gently shaking his left shoulder.
"Alright, I did it, Pervy-Sage. You must be really proud of me for training so hard, huh? You owe me some ramen. You really owe me," Naruto mumbled while dreaming about his training with Jiraiya.
Sakura got annoyed and shouted with anime bulging white eyes:
"HEY YOU IDIOT! WAKE UP!"
Naruto panicked and immediately woke up right away only to look at Sakura.
"Oh. Good morning, Sakura. What are you doing here?"
"Naruto! Did you not forget that we're supposed to train with William for our fight against the English at Stirling, which is just four months away?!" Sakura yelled.
"Oh, right. I forgot about that," Naruto realized.
"If William was here right now, then he'd force you to wake up and yell at you! So hurry up and get dressed!" Sakura demanded.
"Yes, ma'am," Naruto freaked out and immediately got dressed.
"Don't call me that," Sakura said, moving her head to the right side and saw William continuing his training with the Scottish.
As soon as Naruto finished getting dressed, he and Sakura left the campsite and saw William still training.
"William, we're here," Sakura voiced.
"Ah. Perfect." William noticed that Kakashi was not with Naruto and Sakura. "But, you didn't find Kakashi."
"Oh, well, it's always like this with him. Back in Konoha, whenever Sakura, Sasuke and I were getting ready to go on a mission with Kakashi-sensei, he'd show up late, and then come up with an excuse saying, "I got lost on the path of life," or something like that. On top of that, whenever he's late, you see him carrying his book around," Naruto spoke as he groaned while Sakura sighed.
Five minutes later...
"He's still not here," remarked an impatient William, still with Sakura, Naruto and the rest of the Scottish waiting for Kakashi. William was pacing the ground anxiously.
"Oh, you were looking from me?" came the voice of Kakashi as everyone saw him standing on top of a tree branch with his "Icha Icha" book in his left hand to which Naruto, Sakura and William glared at Kakashi.
"Where were you?" William growled.
"Oh. Sorry. This old lady needed help pushing her cart, but she got tired and the cart fell on the ground, so she asked me if I could help, to which I did," Kakashi said with a smile.
"LIAR LIAR! PANTS ON FIRE!" Naruto and Sakura screamed while pointing fingers at Kakashi.
William sighed and made a facepalm.
"Anyway, now that you're all here, it's time to do some training," William aforementioned.
"But, don't we have to do the bell test first?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.
"The bell test?" William questioned in confusion.
"Yeah. It's something that the four of us did back when we became Team 7 and when Sasuke was still with us," Naruto mentioned, referring to him, Sakura, Kakashi and Sasuke.
"So, let me get this straight. Because I'm the new replacement for this Sasuke guy, I have to do the bell test with you?" William quizzed.
"Well, kind of. We don't have to because we know you want to practice for the Battle Of Stirling with the English, William," Kakashi suggested.
"Okay. Besides, wouldn't the bell test kind of slow us down? I came here to train you three, not do a stupid bell test," William said in an annoyed tone.
"Hey! The bell test isn't stupid!" Naruto exclaimed.
"Look. Now's not the time to argue, Naruto. Besides, William's right. He said that we have to practice using our swords and shields. Like he told us before, we have to do some intense training, so be prepared," Kakashi told Naruto.
"Thank you, Kakashi," William agreed.
"Don't mention it," Kakashi smiled at William.
"Now then. Shall we begin?" William stated.
Later that day...
"As part of this training exercise, the three of you will be fighting Hamish, Stephen and Campbell," William voiced.
"But, why do we have to fight them? I thought we were fighting with you, William," Naruto said in confusion.
"You are, but I'll be coaching you. Kakashi, you fight Campbell. Naruto, you fight Hamish. Sakura, you fight Stephen," William remarked.
Stephen gave Sakura a smile, and whispered quietly:
"William and Sakura."
Sakura glared at Stephen because she knew that he was teasing her about her and William. Stephen began to whistle nervously.
"First thing's first. I'm going to teach you how to use a sword," William spoke. "You swing like this." William began to swing his sword.
"Oh. So it's kind of like swinging a kunai," Naruto understood.
"Right." William implied. "Anyway, go on. Try it."
Naruto, Sakura and Kakashi began swinging their swords.
"There you go. Next, I'm going to teach you how to use a shield. To prevent yourself from getting hurt, use your shields while Campbell, Hamish and Stephen practice some attacks on you," William ordered as Hamish, Campbell and Stephen began attacking Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura to which they guarded their attacks with their shields.
"Excellent. Now, I'm going to teach you how to block your attacks. Watch," William said as he told Hamish to fight him. Hamish was about to hit William with his sword, but he moved his head to the side and eventually blocked his attack. William looked back at Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura. "Now you try it."
Kakashi, Naruto, and Sakura did the same thing to Campbell, Hamish and Stephen.
"Good. You can also swordfight while riding on horseback," William voiced as he got on his horse and began swinging his sword.
"Whoa! Awesome!" Naruto cried.
"Your turn," William called as he got off of his horse to which Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura repeated the technique that William taught them.
Afterwards, Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura began fighting Campbell, Hamish and Stephen with the techniques that William taught them on how to use their swords and shields.
Eventually, Team Kakashi knocked Campbell, Hamish and Stephen to the ground, leaving them all worn out from the training.
"Perfect. Now, I'm going to give you a challenge," William added with a smirk.
"A challenge? Count me in!" Naruto exclaimed with the thumbs up and winked with his left eye.
William smirked at them and looked at his army of Scots.
"You're going to take down all the Scots," William declared.
"What?! William! Are you crazy?!" Hamish screamed.
"Look, Hamish. Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura aren't going to kill them," William looked at Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura. "I just want to see how strong you are. They won't die, though, so you don't have to worry about their injuries. Just pretend that they're the English."
Naruto blinked in confusion.
"But, you guys are Scottish. That doesn't make any sense," Naruto said.
"I know we're not the English, but this is what war is going to be like, so get used to it. Look, Naruto. Pretend you're in my shoes, and you want to get revenge on someone who killed your family and loved ones. In fact, pretend that the person that you want to kill is like Longshanks, but not technically him," William stated.
Although Naruto never met Longshanks, he imagined him to be like Orochimaru, one of the legendary Sannin who made Sasuke go to him for power to kill his older brother Itachi for massacring their family, the Uchiha Clan.
Naruto remembered Sakura telling him about the incident that happened between Orochimaru and Sasuke at the Forest Of Death four years ago.
While Naruto was knocked out by Orochimaru who used the Five Pronged Seal on him, Orochimaru and Sasuke fought to which Sasuke was given the Curse Mark by Orochimaru.
Naruto remembered the words that Sakura heard Orochimaru say to her and Sasuke before he (Orochimaru) disappeared:
"Very soon, Sasuke will seek me out, and desire my power."
Naruto clenched his fists in anger as he remembered his fight with Orochimaru when he (Naruto), Tsunade, Shizune and Jiraiya fought Orochimaru and Kabuto before Tsunade was appointed as the Fifth Hokage.
Flashbacks of Naruto's fight with Sasuke at The Valley Of The End ran through Naruto's mind. He remembered the words he told Sasuke about him not wanting Orochimaru to take Sasuke away from them after everything they've been through as Team 7:
"I'm not going to let the likes of Orochimaru get a hold of you! And if you won't listen to reason, then I'll break every single bone in your body!"
Eventually, William snapped Naruto out of his thoughts about Sasuke and Orochimaru.
"Naruto?"
"Yes?" Naruto responded.
"Are you okay?" William worried to which Naruto smiled at him.
"Oh. I'm sorry, William. I was spacing out a little. Of course I'm okay."
"Oh. Good. You seemed like you were angry about something. When I said that you should think about someone evil that you remember other than Longshanks, I didn't mean for you to get that angry," William voiced.
"It's alright. I'm fine. Really," Naruto reassured William.
However, Kakashi and Sakura knew that Naruto was thinking about all the hard times they went through when Sasuke left the village, and when they fought Orochimaru in order to try and get Sasuke back.
"O... K...," William replied, who was secretly still not buying Naruto's statement. "Now then... where were we?"
"We were about to practice fighting with the Scottish pretending that they were the English when they're really not," Sakura remembered.
"Oh yes. Now then, shall we train?" William quizzed with a smirk.
"Oh yeah! Bring it on, dattebayo!" Naruto cried as he, Kakashi and Sakura started fighting the Scottish as part of their training session.
One fight later...
Once Team Kakashi were done fighting the Scottish, all of them were knocked out, and Team Kakashi was panting in exhaustion.
"Hmm. I'm impressed. You managed to hurt them without breaking a sweat. I'm proud of you," William acknowledged with a smile.
Naruto fell to the ground in exhaustion.
"Is it over yet?" he complained.
"Aye, but don't forget we're still going to be training like this for the next three months. After all, I did say that I wouldn't go easy on you, right?" William inquired to which Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura all groaned. "Oh come on. Don't give me that. Look. As I said before, Tsunade did say that you have to help me fight the English, right?"
"We know, William. But at least give us a chance to recover while our chakra is being restored," Naruto moaned.
"Chakra? What's that?" William wondered.
"Chakra is like energy for us back in Konoha when it comes to us being ninjas," Kakashi explained.
"Oh," William said. "Alright. Take a break. But don't think that your training is over yet. We still have a lot of work to do before we battle the English at Stirling."
Naruto gulped.
"Oh Kami, kill me now. This is going to be tougher than I thought. So much for a long mission," Naruto complained to himself.
And so, for the next four months, Team Kakashi, William and the rest of the Scottish began to prepare for the Battle At Stirling.
Then, on September 11, everybody was getting ready to go to Stirling to prepare for their fight with the English.
Hamish walked up to Naruto, Kakashi and Sakura (who were in the field) and called out their names.
"Naruto. Kakashi. Sakura."
"Oh. Hey, Hamish. What's up?" Naruto questioned.
"William wants to see you," Hamish replied.
"What does he want?" Sakura wondered.
"Just come," Hamish spoke.
Naruto and Sakura looked at each other, shrugged their shoulders and the trio followed Hamish to find William.
When they finally got to where William was, Hamish told them:
"Stop. Wait right here."
Hamish went to go get William who was in his tent and held his hand as they went outside to meet the others.
"Okay. Before I bring William outside, I want you to close your eyes," Hamish said.
"Why?" Sakura quizzed.
"Just do it," Hamish answered as Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura closed their eyes. Hamish motioned a hand for William to walk closer to them, to which he did.
"Okay. Open your eyes," Hamish voiced to which Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura opened their eyes, looked at William, and couldn't believe what they saw.
William had blue Woad paint on his face. Part of the paint was on the right side of his face while the other part was on his left side, and part of his face was not covered with the paint.
As soon as Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura looked at William, they were in awe at his appearance.
"William? Is that you?" a shocked Naruto popped the question.
William chuckled.
"What? You don't recognize me? I just joined Team Kakashi four months ago, and then, just as we're starting to get to know each other, now you act as if you don't remember me. Come on. I've trained you for four months."
"Of course we know who you are, William. It's just that... you look...," Sakura was about to say until William finished her sentence with a smile.
"Different?"
"Yeah...," Naruto said as he exclaimed:
"William Wallace, you look awesome, dattebayo!"
"Thank you, Naruto," William complimented as he looked back at his army of Scots and told them:
"Now then... ARE YOU READY FOR A WAR?!"
The Scots (along with Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura) cheered.
During our four month training with William, we trained like crazy.
He was ordering us around as if he was a sergeant.
Well, he was the leader of the Scots, so I guessed that's the reason why he was bossing us around like that.
As soon as we got right to training, I thought it was never going to end...
That is, until the day (September 11) of the Battle Of Stirling came where we'd fight against the English for freedom.
(Note: And that concludes Chapter 4. Hope you all enjoyed it! :D Oh, and yes, part of William's last line of the chapter is a reference to the movie. The next chapter will be the Battle Of Stirling. I'm getting excited already because it's going to be an epic and fun chapter. Please read and review! :D P.S. When I was writing out the training scenes with Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi, William and the rest of the Scots, let's just say that I was inspired by "The Legend Of Zelda" series, which is my favorite video game of all time. :D)