Azuko's morning began like any other; he woke up at three to complete a full lap of the village. As he walked out into the crisp dark morning he saw two other people doing their stretches.
His parents cast him a casual glance as he joined them but otherwise said nothing. After a ten minute warm up they made for the street.
"Try not to lag too far behind." His father told him in a condescending tone. Azuko's fists clenched at the disregard in his voice, like he was some sort of annoyance that wouldn't leave them alone.
"Yes Sir," He said politely before they all set off.
About halfway through the run, his parents started to peel away from him, gradually at first, but after a few minutes the distance became noticeable. By three quarters they were out of sight.
When he got home at ten to four he had a few minutes to clean himself up before his father took him out back and set up a series of target posts at intervening intervals.
He then started barking commands like "Kunai 8, shuriken 2." Indicating the weapon to be used and the target it was meant for. As the training wore on the commands became faster and he started allocating specific body parts that had to be hit.
Naturally, as the training wore on he became slower as the fatigue set in and made he began making mistakes.
"No!" His father said irritably. He had spoken quietly, but in the eerie silence of pre-dawn it sounded like a thunderclap.
Azuko's concentration broke and his throw went wide missing everything.
His father grunted in frustration and looked at his son with distain. "Pay attention boy!" He ordered harshly. "This petty display might impress the Sensei at the Academy, but it won't do here." He told the boy. "At this rate you won't even make Chunin." He practically spat at him. "If you're not going to take this seriously then you can leave." He told the boy before walking into the house.
In the silence Azuko could clearly hear the sound of the lock clicking, and he dimly retrieved his kunai and shuriken, repeating the sequence form memory, as best he could in a desperate effort to be let inside.
Azuko's clothes were damp with sweat by the time he finally tried the door. To his surprise it was open. Quickly he went upstairs and had a shower before getting dressed.
As he had expected his parents had both left already.
He looked at the clock, to see it was already seven. He sighed and gabbed his things; hopping Naruto wouldn't have an overly strenuous day for them planed today.
Taki woke up at six, got dressed before going outside for her basic practice. It was a simple routine she had developed; she would start with some simple Chakra manipulation, learning how to hold it in different areas as well as some more basic Ninja arts, after half an hour or so of that she move to weapons training, working on her aim as she threw shuriken and Kunai at different targets.
After fifteen minutes of that she did some basic workout routines for the rest of the hour.
Then, she had he breakfast, bid farewell to her parents, gathered her things and made for the bridge they met at every morning.
Akari woke up at around five that morning. She just lay there for a few minutes before she decided that she was wasting otherwise usable time and got up. As she waited for her breakfast to heat up she read over a few scrolls that she had found or had been given to her by Naruto.
After she had eaten she left her house and walked to the training grounds out past the village. As she left she noticed the boxed meal Taki had left there the night before. She sighed to herself and put it in the fridge, deciding to return it to her later.
When she got to the training grounds she set one of her scrolls down and opened it, revealing illustrations of Ninjutsu hand signs.
She focused her chakra shakily, before running through a series of hands signs.
The Jutsu didn't work like she wanted it to, so she tried it over and over again, trying different hand signs and different ways of moulding her Chakra. She came to around sunrise, realising how long she had been there she gathered her tools and made her way to the bridge to meet up with Naruto and the others.
Akari was the last to arrive for training that morning, as she walked up, she once again noticed Naruto sitting in the tree a short distance from the bridge. He was always there and she always wondered why he would wait there for an extra few minutes before coming down to begin the day.
As she drew closer to the bridge she realised she didn't exactly care why he was doing it, or that he was even doing it, he must have had his reasons, she thought. Taki waved at her, and even Azuko gave her a nod of acknowledgment as she walked up.
Akari just grunted and walked past them a few paces, sitting on the railing like she always did. The silence became almost irritating as Akari waited for Naruto to finally show up.
After twenty minutes she had had enough. She vaulted to her feet and threw a kunai directly at Naruto.
"Just get out here already!" She shouted at him.
Naruto just as surprised by the girl's outburst as anyone, had to lean back to avoid the kunai aimed for his face, toppling from the tree in the proses with a yelp and thud.
Naruto picked himself up and – somewhat guiltily – walked over to his Genin team. "Morning guys," He said with a grin.
"Sensei, why were you in the tree?" Taki asked him.
"Uuuh…" Naruto stared at her blankly for a moment, mouth open as he tried to come up with a convincing lie as to why he had been sitting in a tree for the last half hour. "…Conversing," He said, a little uncertain about it, making it sound almost like a question.
"Conversing?" Azuko asked, "With whom?" His irritation evident.
"Myself," Naruto answered sounding more confident about his bull shitting skills.
"Yourself?" Taki asked again.
"That's right," Naruto confirmed.
"About?" Akari asked.
"Stuff," Naruto said with a blank smile.
"What stuff?" She asked just as irritated as Azuko.
"Important stuff." Naruto said somewhat sarcastically.
The three Genin looked at each other and with a sigh gave up once it became clear that their Sensei wasn't going to give them anything more substantial than a non-descript, two word answer.
"So what's today's mission?" Azuko asked. Sounding even more tired than usual.
"No mission," Naruto told them. The three Genin looked at him. Since they had officially become Genin Naruto had set them to a series of D-ranked mission, usually three or four a day, and while the group didn't really see the benefit of them Naruto had noticed a marked improvement in the team's actual teamwork ability. Granted it was nothing compared to the other teams, but they weren't the other teams.
"So what are we doing?" Taki asked more than a little confused.
"We're going to be training." Naruto answered.
"Training?" The three Genin asked in unison.
"Yep." Naruto said with a grin.
"Why?" Akari asked. It wasn't that she was upset, she was just curious as to why Naruto had suddenly changed their routine.
Naruto dropped the grin and looked at them seriously. "Okay well I guess now is as good a time as any." He said.
The three Genin instinctively huddled around him to hear what he had to say.
"In two weeks were going to have our first real mission, mission." Naruto explained.
"Mission, mission?" Akari repeated confused. "Sensei do you think you could start making sense any time soon?" She pleaded. Naruto looked at her, and realising that his explanation was woefully inadequate he elaborated.
"Well I talked to Tsunade and she has agreed to give us a C-rank mission which will involve a large amount of fighting." Naruto told them.
The three Genin looked about each other incredulously as Naruto went on. "It will mostly be bandits and the like, so nothing you guys as Shinobi should find difficult." He said to reassure them.
"What's the mission?" Azuko asked.
"We're protecting a dignitary from the Land of Planes. It's a simple job, should take us two months there and back." He told them.
"When do we leave?" Akari asked.
"In two weeks." Naruto told them. "So for the next two weeks I'm going to started actually teaching you guys some new jutsu and combat abilities so that you are ready for this mission. Does that sound good to you?" He asked them.
The three Genin nodded in unison and Naruto couldn't help but smile. "All right then, let's get going shall we." He said with a grin, leading the three of them to the training grounds.
As the group reached training ground seven Naruto began. "Alright guys, your first lesson is going to be in Chakra control." He told them with a grin.
As he was expecting the group let out a collective groan of displeasure, such training was rarely met with enthusiasm when they were expecting to be taught new and powerful Ninjutsu.
"Come on Sensei," Azuko moaned. "We already did that in the academy; if we're going to be fighting don't you think we're going to need something more useful?" The boy challenged.
Naruto looked to the other two Genin and was genuinely pleased to see that they were all in agreement. A thought struck him and he looked at the closest tree. It was nice and open, without a large amount of foliage to block the trunk from view.
"Can you guys give me a kunai each," He asked them, holding out his hand. The three Genin exchanged puzzled looks but otherwise didn't move. "Now," Naruto ordered them a little more forcefully.
Hesitantly the three Genin stepped forward and each put a kunai in Naruto's outstretched hand.
He nodded his thanks and looked up at the tree, measuring somewhere about forty feet high, in one fluid motion he threw the three kunai, setting each of them in to the trunk of the tree with a heavy 'thock'.
"Alright now I want you to get them." Naruto told them. "Without using your hands." He added with a grin.
Instantly the three Genin turned to look at him. "What?" They exploded in unison.
"How the hell does this have anything to do with Chakra control?" Akari asked.
Naruto tilted his head to the side, much like Kakashi had done all those years ago. "Well I suppose I should show you what I expect you to do," He said to himself walking up to the three. He threw a kunai into an area a few feet above theirs and in a movement that had become second nature to him, he gathered the Chakra in his feet and began walking up the three.
The three Genin watched wide eyed and opened mouthed as their Sensei defied gravity and walked up the side of the tree. Once he reached the kunai he had thrown for himself he knelt down above it and looked back at his Genin team. "So to answer your question Akari, this is what this exercise has to do with Chakra control." He shouted down to them, before jumping off the tree to land behind them.
"Basically what you need to do is gather your Chakra in your feet and use it to more or less anchor yourself to the tree as you walk." He told them, "However it isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to keep up a constant steady flow of Chakra to your feet, too much and you'll just push yourself off the tree. Not enough and you'll just fall off, so line up." He told them.
"Wait, how is this supposed to be training?" Taki asked standing at the back of the line.
Naruto gave her a smile. "Well it's supposed to be one more step in having better control over your bodies' Chakras and being able to use your Chakra to maximum effect while using as little as possible. As a Shinobi I can't tell you how many times, not only tree climbing, but a general control over my Chakras has saved my life." He answered. "And keep in mind that this ability doesn't just work on trees, you can walk on walls and cliff faces, anything really."
Akari let out a laugh. "Next you'll be telling me you can walk on water."
"Yea." Naruto said, completely deadpan.
Three sets of eyes locked on him and he looked back. "What?" He asked.
"You can walk on water?" She asked him.
Naruto nodded. "Yea I can, it's the next step in this kind of training." Naruto explained. "This one requires a constant steady stream to cling to the surface of whatever you're climbing. Walking on water uses the same technique except you have to constantly adapt and change the amount of Chakra you're using to maintain contact with the water's surface. But that's training for another day, so up the tree." He ordered.
Azuko was the first one, he ran at the tree jumping as high as he could, before trying to run the rest of the way. Try being the key word. His first step didn't have enough Chakra and he began sliding down the tree. He hit the ground and Naruto told him to get to the back of the line as Akari walked to the tree.
Naruto watched the girl with interest as she placed her foot on the tree, focusing her Chakra. She took her first step and was immediately thrust back as the amount of Chakra used became too much. She flipped back elegantly and walked to the back of the line allowing Taki to try.
Naruto had to smile as she walked up. The half an hour of Chakra control practice she did every morning paid off as she started walking up the tree. She got about ten feet before she lost control and fell back down.
The group tried it again and again with similar results until lunch time. Azuko began to get the hang of it, but could barely make it eight feet without getting the amount of Chakra needed wrong.
Taki was getting to the half way mark by now, though she didn't have the reserves that the others did and it was showing in her expression.
And then there was Akari, she technically hadn't made much progress she had just been adding welts into the base of the tree, though Naruto reasoned that she had her own method she was practicing with.
He felt another presence coming up behind them and turned to see Sakura walking up to the group.
"Sakura-Chan," He called happily as he saw her. Sakura smiled and returned his wave as she walked closer to the group.
"So what are you going here?" Naruto asked her as she joined them.
"Oh, I was on my day off and I decided to see how you were going." She said
"What didn't want to spend the day with Sasuke?" He asked jokingly.
She raised an eyebrow at him but answered anyway. "Well that was the plan," She admitted. "But as the head of the ANBU he doesn't really have time for a casual lunch date. Besides, we haven't really spoken since we met up at Ichiraku's two weeks ago, and even then we didn't talk much."
Naruto nodded, "True enough." He felt eyes on him and turned around to seen his Genin team standing behind him, looking on with interest. He smiled and beckoned them over. "Guy's I'd like you to meet a friend of mine." He said gesturing to Sakura. "This is Sakura; she was on my team beck when I was a Genin." He told them. "Sakura this is Azuko, Taki and Akari." He told her indicating to each of the Genin as he spoke.
Sakura smiled at them, "Nice to meet you," She said bowing slightly.
The three Genin bowed and returned her greeting.
"So what's for lunch?" Naruto asked her.
Sakura gave him an exasperated smile before she set a scroll down and summoned up a picnic for the five of them.
"So what have you been learning today?" Sakura asked as they began to eat.
"I've got them climbing trees." Naruto told her. Sakura nodded and smiled as the memories of when they themselves were learning that technique came back to her mind.
"And how's it going?" She asked, addressing the question to the three Genin.
"Getting there," Azuko said between mouthfuls.
Sakura nodded, "Well it's a good skill to have, Chakra control is a very important skill to a Shinobi."
"I don't see why," Akari said dismissively.
Sakura was about to say something when Naruto spoke up. "Sakura, if you would be so kind as to demonstrate the kind of techniques, one can accomplish with perfect Chakra control I would very much appreciate it."
Sakura looked at him and nodded her understanding, walking to a rather thick tree some sixty feet from the group.
"Watch closely now," Naruto told them and the three Genin turned to watch as Sakura raised her fist ready to strike.
"She's going to punch a tree?" Akari asked bewildered.
"Just watch," Naruto told her.
As Sakura brought her fist down there was a loud smash as bits of bark went this way and that, half a second later a dozen deep fissured split the tree and another second later the tree was falling to pieces.
The three Genin looked on in a state of horror as with a single punch Sakura destroyed the tree before her.
She walked back to the group and sat down, the three Genin looking at her with some awe as she picked up her bowl.
"Now that," Naruto said, getting his teams attention. "Is the kind of stuff you can do with perfect Chakra control." Naruto explained.
"Can you do that Sensei?" Azuko asked.
Naruto hesitated for a moment before speaking, tempted to lie to them, however he realised that Sakura would 'correct' him, if he decided to lie, so he went with the truth.
"No I can't," He told them. "Absolutely perfect Chakra control is a skill only very few Shinobi can master, it requires an in-depth knowledge of the Chakra network and the location of all the Chakra points in the body." He told them.
Seeing the questions in their eyes Naruto gestured for Sakura to take over, knowing that this was her field of expertise.
"The Chakra Network is kind of like a second vascular system for our bodies." She explained. "It is how we can mould Chakra to places like our hands and feet. It's a complex system interwoven intricately into our body's vital organs. Along the network there are nodes called Chakra points, these points allow us to use our Chakra to from Ninjutsu as well as the tree climbing ability." She explained. "Having perfect Chakra control allows a Ninja to use every single nod in the network to exude Chakra." She explained.
"However having perfect Chakra control isn't exactly mandatory for a Shinobi, however as you become Chunin and Jonin Ninja, you find that the level of skill and techniques you need to reach those levels requires finer Chakra control." Naruto added.
The three Genin nodded and after a relaxing lunch break Sakura said her good buys to the team and left them to the training.
Two days later they were still at it. Azuko was about three quarters of the way there while Akari still hadn't cleared two feet. She was still doing the same thing she had done on the first day, and when Naruto had asked her about it, she had just shrugged and said she had a plan.
As expected Taki had gotten it by the second day and so Naruto had her walking cliff faces to add to her training. The occasional loose rock and the different types of stone made it only a little harder, but as he had expected she had cleared it with ease. As she came back to the group Azuko landed on the ground.
The kunai marking he had made roughly three feet from the Kunai he was supposed to reach.
"You better hurry up," He told Akari as he walked back. "At this rate we'll be back from the mission by the time you've got this."
To her credit Akari didn't rise to the obvious bate that Azuko offered her, instead she just smiled at him. Both He and Naruto looked at the girl quizzically as she displayed something as un-characteristic as a smile. She looked back at the tree and gathered the Chakra in her feet.
Then she ran at the tree. Naruto watched with interest as she approached the task completely differently. As she got to the tree the other three watched with surprise as Akari vaulted up the tree with incredible speed.
Naruto couldn't help but smile as he realised what she had been doing the last two days. She came up to the kunai and in her own excitement put too much force under her feet.
Her fingers curled around the hilt of the kunai a little too late and she fell back to the ground empty handed.
"Beginners luck," Azuko said, refusing to admit that she was doing just as well as he was.
Akari glared at him. "Prove it then," She challenged. "You and me, right now, first to get the kunai wins."
Azuko's gritted his teeth, "Fine then," He said, accepting her challenge.
Without another word between them the two sprinted to the tree, they were half way up when Taki came beside Naruto looking up at her team mates with a smile
"They're doing well." She said.
Naruto nodded. "Yea, they're getting there." He said.
The two came to the ground breathing heavily their kunai in hand. Naruto started clapping. "Well done guys." He said walking forward a little. "You were both fantastic."
"Who won?" The two Genin burst out, causing them to glare at each other. Naruto gave them a shaky smile.
"Well sorry to say but it really was a tie." He said. The two Genin groaned in protest. Naruto only smiled, he looked at the sky and realised it was late afternoon. "Right well let's call it a day guys." He said. "You've done well so far, come back here tomorrow and well start on some taijutsu training."
The three Genin looked at him with excitement at the prospect of more combat based training. "Anyway, the day's yours." He said walking off.
"Where are you going Sensei?" Taki asked as he set off.
Naruto looked at her and smiled. "Oh, there are some people I need to talk to. Later." He said waving as he walked off.
Greeting's Minions.
So yea another chapter about stuff. Only one more of those boring Character Development Chapters before the fun stuff begins. As always I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you liked or didn't like anything, I'm always open to CONSTRUCTIVE criticism.
Until next time I wish you all the best
Yours truly.
Nicolai Grey.