The day came to an end, and as the sun was setting the boys were placing the last rail on the section of fence they had been working on that day. There was another day's worth of work left on the job but, they could take a break for the night. They needed a break for the night, as going two nights in a row with little to no sleep was generally considered to be inadvisable unless it was absolutely necessary. After a light dinner, the boys were informed that they would be sparring while Tetsuo evaluated Sakura's skills.
Naruto's Taijutsu style could be described in one word: Interesting.
Naruto's fighting style was still somewhat reminiscent of the wild and informal mess that had been there when he'd graduated the Academy but, after two years of working with Tetsuo and his teammates, a large number of the kinks had been worked out of it. He didn't waste anywhere near as much energy as he used to when he fought, which meant that he could last even longer in a battle situation or even just a spar like the one he was currently engaging in with Sasuke. His blows were far more accurate than they used to be, and his situational awareness was greatly improved when compared to two years ago, or even the year before. There was more strategy than frustration in it when he rushed at his opponent now, and he knew when to hold back and stay out of their attack range as well.
In battle, with weapons, Ninjutsu, Shadow Clones, and traps at his disposal, Naruto would be a very dangerous and very deadly opponent. In a formal spar however, where he had none of those, and wasn't allowed to try and kill his opponent, he would lose out to someone who had decided to dedicate their time to focusing more on Taijutsu, such as Lee, Suzume, or even Sasuke who had spent most of the time he wasn't eating, sleeping, or studying in his clan's private training fields. In an all-out battle, he would likely beat Sasuke as he currently was, but this wasn't a battle.
Sasuke was both shocked and angry when he managed to throw Naruto out of the makeshift ring, believing that the other boy had been holding back against him. In a way, Naruto had been but, according to the rules set down for formalized sparring, he hadn't. There had been several points where he could have potentially killed Sasuke if he'd been holding a weapon but, as that hadn't been the objective of their fight, he hadn't taken advantage of the opportunities presented. Sasuke, who was stressed a great deal by this trip amongst other things, and angered by the apparent fact that Naruto had been "holding back", decided to take his anger out on Naruto. Rather than being his usual arrogant, quietly dismissive self, the dark haired boy was yelling at Naruto for holding back against him.
"Even though I'll do better in a real fight, I'm not holding back. I'm a Trap Specialist you idiot!" Naruto replied loudly, less than a foot away from the other boy. "If you want a near-inescapable death trap, I'm your man. If you want to capture an enemy ninja without killing him, I'm also your man. Fancy fighting styles that go beyond 'See Opponent and attempt to beat the crap out of Opponent' or 'Attempt to kill Opponent before he or she kills me' however, not so much. Suzume was the team's Taijutsu specialist, and I guess you fit that role now."
Kakashi, who had been watching the spar, had briefly considered intervening but, decided to wait until one of the boys attacked the other before doing so. The two of them needed to get it out of their systems eventually if they were going to work together, and yelling was far better than letting the stress build up until you snapped. He'd been a bit worried about the Uchiha boy because he'd been so much like him at that age but, he could relax a bit now because he could see that there was someone there to start yanking him out of his shell like Obito had done for him when he and Rin joined his and Minato-sensei's team when they were nine. Hopefully, it wouldn't take a death to hammer the shell to bits when it came to the Uchiha. That had been beyond traumatic for him, and he was still dealing with the aftereffects more than a decade down the line.
In a formal sparring situation that was straight out of the Academy training ring or even a Competitive Ninjutsu match, Sasuke was good, damn good, probably even good enough to win the cup for Konoha in the Junior Division if he hadn't been an active ninja. In a real battle situation however, well...Sasuke would be pretty good for his age, top shelf Genin to low Chunin for sure but, that was about it. The thing was, there were holes in the boy's defenses that looked to be easily exploitable by anyone who was mid-Chunin level or above, or even a very lucky Genin with good aim. He could tell that Naruto had spotted them as well, as he'd seen a rather familiar expression cross the boy's face nearly every time there was an opening, an expression he'd seen on Minato-sensei's face every time he or his teammates had left themselves open during training.
Just because Sasuke was good at Taijutsu and held good scores in Ninjutsu and weapons handling didn't mean the boy was ready to become a Chunin yet. There were several things that needed to be tweaked and worked on in order to prepare the Uchiha boy for the future, and as quickly as possible, since it would be good for Konoha's public relations if the boy climbed the ranks reasonably quickly and made Jounin within the next few years. As a Jounin, Sasuke would be expected to lead missions which, at the moment, was something that could be a problem. Aside from the potential mental instability that Academy Instructor Umino Iruka and Shimura had remarked on, the Uchiha had a number of other personality problems that needed to be dealt with before the boy was anywhere near that level as well.
That wasn't to say that there weren't any ninja who were unpleasant to be around with personalities that would grate on your last nerve in Konoha's forces but, even they knew how to bend and work with the unit and take good advice when it is offered. If they didn't, three things generally happened: 1. Their careers stalled before they could attain a rank higher than Chunin and they were sidelined to a desk somewhere. 2. They washed out of the Ninja forces altogether. 3. They died. Had it not been a time of war where the number of kills in battle had become more important than many other things, it was quite possible that he himself wouldn't have gotten his promotion to Jounin when he did.
Because Shimura hadn't wanted his new students to turn into a Desk Chunin and a Cannon Fodder Genin, he had come to him begging him for help, offering the training of Naruto whom he'd noticed he was fond of as a bribe. Right now, as he watched the Uchiha scream at Naruto and Naruto yell back just as loudly, he wondered if that bribe had been worth it. Really, he could have simply snuck in the occasional lesson back at the village like he'd been doing for the last two years, and not been forced to go through the stress of dealing with the other two.
If he hadn't gone through with this however, he wouldn't have been allowed into the background of the team's official photo, and he wouldn't have gotten the neat formal pictures of himself and Naruto that they'd picked up from the developers as they were on their way out of town. While the official photo for Shimura's team had been taken at Team 5's favorite training field, his and Naruto's pictures had been taken at the one that had been most frequently used by his old team way back when, a training field he'd been told had been frequently used by the Sandaime and his students before them, and the Nidaime and his students before that. Of course dozens of other teams had used it as well, but theirs had been the three most notable.
Looking at those photos that he'd picked up on his way out of the village, he could pretend to be something other than an interloper.
Tetsuo watched Kakashi and his students sleep while he was on watch, remaining alert for any potential outside threats. He had taken the middle of the night watch shift so Sasuke and Naruto could both get several hours of unbroken sleep, since the two of them really needed it. They'd both been somewhat cranky and irritable for most of the day, and had ended the day with a spectacular argument which had gained the audience of a couple of the farm hands who could hear the yelling from all the way over in the barn. The student who worried him the most however was Sakura.
While the Haruno girl was undoubtedly brilliant, she had so many problems in other areas that he didn't even know where to begin. The girl wasn't just lacking in muscle mass, she was also below what was considered a healthy weight for her age and height, and was bordering on anorexic. Her Taijutsu was barely passable at best. Sure, it was textbook perfect but, there was little power behind the girl's blows, and nothing in the way of adaptation and innovation. The girl was accurate at throwing shuriken and kunai but, the time it took her to line up her throws which should almost be second nature by now was abysmally long, and in a real battle, she'd quite likely be killed before she could toss her first weapon.
All in all, the girl was practically an ideal Academy student but, she wasn't an ideal ninja. If the team were to encounter an actual battle situation with Sakura the way she was now, everyone would most likely be risking their lives in order to keep the girl alive. Much like the team a late friend of his had done for a now long-dead kunoichi. By the time their trip was over, that wouldn't be the case. He would make sure of it, even if it killed him to do so.
He almost regretted not allowing the girl to go home and get her pack but, since this was turning out to be a lesson in teamwork, he was content to let things remain as they were for now. The girl would most definitely be needing supplies when they headed into Wind, considering the fact that one could die of heatstroke during the day and hypothermia at night if one wasn't careful, but he could deal with that when the time came since the girl was fine for now. Naruto had loaned the girl his spare blanket and a spare outfit, and Sasuke had loaned her a kunai and a couple shuriken from his weapons pouch so she wouldn't be completely defenseless while they traveled.
As for the girl's food situation, which was a situation they were all in to a degree since there was only so much food you could pack even with storage scrolls, the Academy was supposed to teach students how to hunt small game and how to clean and prepare it as well. When it came to things other than protein, the fact that it was Autumn, and a great deal of the edible plants were dying as Winter closed in wasn't too much of a problem in Fire Country. The Shodai Hokage had been rather fond of apples, especially a variety that ripened in late Autumn, and as a result there were a shitload of apple trees growing wild across Fire Country. That, and there was going to be food provided during a couple of the missions that he'd lined up for the team so, it wasn't like the girl would starve. She'd just have to put more effort into getting food than she obviously had at any time in her life before. She'd probably even come to appreciate food more, and even drop that ridiculous diet that was currently ruining her body and her career as a result.
He was somewhat aware of the girl's other need. How could he not be when he was married and had been so for a few years? While Kakashi had bribed the cameraman who had taken the team's official photo to take a couple pictures of him and Naruto, he had gone and bought what Kunoichi used out in the field for that certain issue. Since it was washable and reusable, it wouldn't leave a trail of discarded products behind the team like the civilian method would have done. He wasn't just going to hand it to the child though, he was going to let her panic a bit and let the lesson on exactly why you should be properly packed for a mission sink in even further. He had little doubt that the bag the girl had likely prepared before her mother had dragged her to the team's rendezvous point had been rather frivolously packed, and that it was better that she left it behind. She wouldn't be learning all the wonderful lessons she'd now be learning over the next two months if she hadn't, and would likely be all the weaker because of it.
Tomorrow morning, he would be starting his new students on the tree-climbing exercise because they could spare a couple hours and still get the section of fence they were mending done by the end of the day. The morning after that, he would begin working on using Chakra to improve speed during travel, if the two who he thought would need the lesson didn't already know how, while they made their way to the Valley of the End to clean lichen off of the statues and check to see if they needed any further maintenance. That task would reinforce the tree climbing lesson, and give him a good opportunity to introduce the water-walking one as well.
Edited 10-5-12