A/N: I don't normally start with one of these, but I felt I should in this case. It's been quite a while since I updated this story, and I do apologise for that, but rest assured, this story is not dead in the water, I've just been incredibly busy with work and whatnot. Without a great deal of further ado, here's the latest chapter of Chōshinsei no Naruto!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, characters, plots, etc.
Act 1 – Chapter 1 - Foundations
Kakashi addressed the assembled trainees, giving off an aura screaming with the impression that there was literally nothing he cared less about than this right now.
"Here we will train you to eat, breath, act and, most importantly, think as shinobi do. We will hone your bodies to become your deadliest weapon" – he paused to gesture with his thumb at Gai, who was lightly vibrating with excitement – "actually, he will, but we'll get into specifics later. Introductions first."
Kakashi gazed around the room, meeting each eye in turn. As his gaze paused over each person, the would-be genin felt a chill run through them.
"However, know this. I will not tolerate disrespect to myself or your classmates. You will all become comrades-in-arms, and at one point or another, each one of you will likely owe one another your lives. You will watch each other's backs, and mine too, and I will not trust anyone to watch my back if I can't respect them. Konoha was built on the foundations of teamwork and support, and we should try not to damage such a long-standing tradition, hm?" Kakashi's one-eyed crinkled, conveying a smile, somehow, and caused the students to sweat-drop. Four teachers, and within five minutes, one of them was already clearly insane. What a start.
"Meet me outside." Kakashi declared abruptly, disappearing in a plume of smoke. Reacting with a sigh, a laugh and a "YOSH!" of excitement, the three Jōnin proceeded to follow him out of the room on foot. With varying degrees of interest, the students slowly followed their apparent teachers out of the room.
"What do you think is going on, Shikamaru?" a rather…well-fed boy with swirl markings on his cheeks asked his friend.
"By the looks of things, we've got new teachers. It's unusual for a class to have more than one sensei though. And I'm pretty sure those three," Shikamaru nodded his spiky head towards the three students walking slightly ahead of them, "have already graduated."
"Two of us have graduated", a long-haired boy in a light shirt announced, "One of us was fated to fail, and is now having his humiliation repeated."
"Neji! Stop it, we've been told we're on a team, let's act like it. You heard what that Jōnin said, we should get along." A girl with brown hair tied up in buns implored the boy. The girl turned and smiled at Shikamaru and his friend. "Hi, I'm Tenten, this is Neji and our other friend is Lee."
The girl beckoned forward a boy with a bowl haircut and a lean, rather gangly frame.
"Good morning. I am Lee, it is a pleasure to meet you." Lee introduced himself with a bow and a smile.
"Chōji," said the chubby boy, "and this is Shikamaru."
Shikamaru opened his mouth to greet Lee in return, but was interrupted by Kakashi's voice cutting through.
"Alright, now that we're all here, we can begin. In the spirit of camaraderie, I would like to start with introductions." Kakashi looked around the group, finally pointing at a girl with long blonde hair tied up in a high pony-tail. "You first, go."
The girl looked a little shell-shocked at being called on so suddenly. "Me? Alright. I'm Ino Yamanaka."
Kakashi stared blankly at Ino. "…and?" He asked.
"What? I told you my name, we're introduced."
The stare continued. "Ok, so you're just a name? No likes, hobbies, talents, dislikes…?" Kakashi tailed off.
Ino went slightly red, though whether from embarrassment or annoyance at being ridiculed by her new sensei was unclear, probably both.
"My name is Ino Yamanaka. I'm the heir to the Yamanaka clan, I'm quite good at my clan techniques, I enjoy gardening and pressing flowers and I dislike fatty foods." Ino tossed her hair back from her shoulder. "Happy now?" She snapped at Kakashi.
"Ino-pig, don't be so rude to our new sensei, it's not his fault you're stupid," a girl with bright pink hair sneered.
Ino opened her mouth to retort but was cut off by Kakashi.
"Pinky, go!" he barked.
At Kakashi's voice, the pink-haired girl almost seemed to shrink in on herself. "My name is Sakura Haruno, I'm good…" Sakura tailed off, mumbling quietly.
Ino laughed out loud, wiggly her little finger into her ear. "What was that, forehead? You want to speak up?"
Sakura shot a withering glare at Ino. "My name is Sakura Haruno, I like karaoke and reading…" she stopped when Kurenai stepped forward.
"Why don't we change something here? This is lovely and all, but it's not very useful. Let me demonstrate what I want you to say." Clearing her throat, she continued. "My name is Kurenai Yūhi; I am the village's genjutsu mistress. My ninjutsu is at roughly low Jōnin level; my taijutsu is my weak spot. Since I was younger, I've dreamed about proving that genjutsu could be as dangerous and versatile as the other ninja arts, thus raising my clan's status, as they are some of the village's foremost genjutsu users."
Kurenai stepped back and gestured to Sakura to continue. "What I want is for you to explain what traits you have, where your strengths and weaknesses are and what your aspirations as a shinobi are. This is at its core a military academy in a military village, so what we really need to know is how you fare as a potential member of this institution."
Sakura looked sceptically at Kurenai. "Ok. Well my name is Sakura Haruno. My favourite of the ninja arts is genjutsu, though I'm also quite good at ninjutsu. My taijutsu is ok, but I don't like it that much. My strength is academia; I can observe and deduce things quite quickly, and am very good at learning new information. My weakness is my physical stamina. As for aspirations…" Sakura cast a sidelong glance at a boy standing a few metres from her. "They're personal."
"No. They're not. I didn't say personal aspirations. We are not here as counsellors, we are here as your sensei's. We are going to take what you are, find out what you want to be and get you there. If being a wife and a mother is your one true goal, then this path may not be for you. In this line of work, there is a very real chance of physical impairment or even death. Those kinds of hopes… they take a back seat. Try again. What do you want to be?"
Sakura looked contemplatively at the sky. "I…I'm not sure."
Kurenai smiled warmly at Sakura. "Much better answer" she replied. She then turned to the girl standing nearest to her. "Hinata, why don't you go next?"
One by one, the shinobi in training introduced themselves to their new comrades, until they had worked their way right back around to a short boy with bright yellow hair and an orange jumpsuit which, in the eyes of effectively everyone there bar one, was fit only for kindling.
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I'm good at ninjutsu and taijutsu; I hate genjutsu and written work. My strength is my stamina and my determination; I will never give up, because those who quit can never fulfil my goal: to be Hokage!" Naruto exclaimed, bringing a fist up in front of his face to give physical credence to his claims.
The silence was deafening. The thoughts running through the minds of the trainees varied in explosiveness, but were almost all along the lines of questioning just what Naruto's problem was. They were trying to take this seriously; did he always have to be such a joke?
The senseis gazed at Naruto thoughtfully. Kakashi looked at his fellow instructors, and silently volunteered himself to speak their thoughts.
"Naruto" Kakashi said quietly. The sheer contrast between the volume of his new sensei and that of Naruto's declaration was enough to get his attention. "We're trying to establish something here, something new. It is felt the academy needs to be more challenging, and that it was not raising the next generation of ninja in a way that would ensure…well…their survival. Either you don't get that and haven't picked up on the atmosphere, or you're deadly serious. Which is it?"
Naruto's fist slipped back down to his side. "I'm serious Kakashi-sensei. I will be Hokage, and then everyone will respect and acknowledge me! I swear it!"
Naruto may have been known to be many things, but the boy never lied. His classmates knew it, and even the new arrivals could tell that this was not a person that declared things lightly.
"Ok" Asuma replied, taking the reins from Kakashi. "If you're serious about being Hokage, I've seen what being Hokage is about. It will take a lot to prove to anyone here that you've got what it takes kid. But I like your ambition."
Naruto opened his mouth to respond but was interrupted by Kakashi.
"Our first lesson is going to be simple: sparring. I want you to go up against one teacher of your choosing and fight them in a no-holds barred match. You will throw everything you have at them, you will fight to kill. After all, against Jōnin of our level, that's the only way you might survive past ten seconds" Kakashi stated simply. There was no sadism in his voice, no viciousness in his gaze, it was just pure fact. Whether or not he was aware that it made his declaration twice as intimidating, only he knew.
"I want a volunteer for th-"
"Let's go!" Naruto yelled, leaping forward to stand just in front of the senseis, an arm outstretched with a single digit pointed unwavering into Kakashi's face. "You're the first person who has ever even considered I was serious when I said I was going to become Hokage. So you're the first person I'm going to prove it to!"
Kakashi stared down at Naruto with a look of mild surprise. "You don't waste any time, do you? Ok then." Kakashi quickly formed a series of hand seals and slammed his hands to the floor.
"Doton: Doryūheki! (Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall)" Kakashi exclaimed. A rumbling followed his words, a square pedestal about ten square feet rising about three feet from the floor beneath him, taking the four senseis and Naruto into the air.
Gai, Kurenai and Asuma hopped off from the makeshift arena down to their students.
Asuma cleared his throat. "Alright, anything goes in this match. Weapons if you've got them, ninjutsu and genjutsu if you know them. You both ready?" Asuma glanced between the two, waiting for the nod from Naruto before leaping backwards.
"Hajime!"
Naruto launched himself forwards with a fist cocked back, hoping to end the fight in one blow. He leapt at Kakashi, aiming straight for his face, but just as his fist was about to make contact, his target was suddenly no longer there, causing him to shoot straight past where he was intending to land and forcing him to windmill his arms in order to stop his own momentum carrying him out of the ring and out of the fight.
Naruto turned and glared at the one-eyed Jōnin. Again, he sprinted at Kakashi, but this time, just as he prepared to leap like before, he threw a smoke bomb at the floor, enveloping the area in a thick cloud gas that was all but impossible to see through. Naruto quickly reached into his pouch and plucked out three shuriken, launching them all at once directly towards where he last remembered his sensei to be. Hearing a yell, he allowed a wide grin to creep its way onto his face.
"Ha Kakashi-sensei, I told you I was good! Don't blame me for getting hurt; you said come at you with everything I had!"
Following his words, a gust of wind blew over the arena, taking with it the cloud of smoke. With one shuriken spinning on Kakashi's finger, one held in Asuma's hand just in front of Kiba's face and one embedded firmly in a tree about twenty yards away, it became rapidly apparent that his epic victory was even less epic than it was a victory.
"Hey Naruto, let's try to not kill our classmates, hm?" Kakashi said tauntingly. He flicked the shuriken back towards Naruto, catching him across the cheek before the shuriken embedded itself solidly in one of the stone walls of the academy.
Naruto stumbled backwards in shock, staring disbelieving at his sensei. 'N-no way.' Naruto thought to himself. 'He saw straight through both of my attacks, even with my smoke bomb, and I didn't even see that shuriken. He could have killed me, and I wouldn't have been able to do a thing.'
Looking left and right to see if there was something, anything to hand he could use, Naruto sighed internally and decided to give an all-out assault one more go.
Yelling as he sprinted towards Kakashi, Naruto once more launched himself, this time leaping from roughly the half-way point of the arena. Before he had gone even an inch, he slammed two smoke bombs into each other in his hands, covering himself and the rest of the arena in a haze once more. The crowd watched on, the Jōnin interested in Naruto's latest plan, and the shinobi-in-training too stunned at seeing just how easily a Jōnin of Kakashi's calibre could ignore anything and everything Naruto could throw at him to even laugh as the class clown was humiliated.
There was silence from inside the arena, until Naruto was thrown clear of the arena to bounce along the ground a few feet before rolling to a stop. As the smoke cleared, it became apparent to all who were watching that Kakashi had barely moved, judging from his outstretched hand and the nose planted firmly in a certain small orange book.
"That was just a push. It wasn't even an actual hit; he just shoved Naruto clear of the arena. He's strong" Ino whispered to Sakura.
"Yeah, I can see. But how did he read that book in the smoke?" Sakura replied, looking bewildered as she stared up at Kakashi.
"Well, that was fun" Kakashi said, his eyes never leaving the page. "Now, someone tell me what Naruto did wrong."
Sakura's hand bolted into the air.
"Really? No-one has any comments about Naruto's performance?"
Sakura's hand was waving violently by this point, causing those nearby to edge away in order to avoid being hit by the flailing limb.
"Kiba, go!" Kakashi barked, pointedly ignoring the over-eager pinkette directly in front of him in favour of a powerfully built boy in a fur-lined coat with a puppy perched atop his head.
"He was too slow! If he'd been quicker, then he could've hit you." Kiba pointed out.
Kakashi hummed thoughtfully. "While that is true, being slow isn't a mistake, it's a fact. I don't want your observations about Naruto physically, I want to know what you think was wrong with what he did, or how he fought. What about you Naruto, how do you think you did?"
Naruto looked up sullenly from where he was sat on the ground. "How am I supposed to know that?! If I knew that I was doing something wrong I wouldn't have done it, would I? Besides, it's not my fault I lost, you're way too fast, I couldn't even see you move, let alone hit you!"
"A fair point, but did you know that before you charged in?" Kakashi asked. "Sasuke, what did Naruto do wrong?"
The Jōnin's question cut right across Naruto's attempt at answering. The blonde glared over at Sasuke, his desire to answer back completely overtaken by his distaste at having his failings explained by what was, in his mind, and possibly only in his mind, his greatest rival.
Sasuke sighed in defeat. What a waste of time, the dobe failed miserably as always, surely that was all anybody needed to know.
"He didn't know anything about you before he attempted a knockout blow. He could have easily assessed your speed and reflexes with his shuriken first, without giving away exactly how fast he was. He didn't think about the fight before charging in; we know you're a Jōnin, so if he'd thought about that he would have known that a frontal attack against you was suicide. He telegraphed his movements and attacks. When he used the smoke bombs the first time, he didn't move and couldn't see: he relied on guesswork to try to remember where you were stood, hence he almost killed the mutt, or his puppy-" Sasuke's bored deconstruction of Naruto's fight was interrupted by Kiba's indignant shout "-and if you'd retaliated, which would have been easy as he was stationary, he wouldn't have been able to see it coming."
Kurenai's eyebrows began rising at the beginning of Sasuke's speech; by the end they had almost disappeared into her hairline. Turning to Asuma, she muttered "That Uchiha kid has excellent eyes. He picked up on a few things that you really don't expect genin to think about, and he's not even out of the academy yet. No wonder they've been calling him a genius. Add to that, that level of observation before he's even awoken his Sharingan; once he does…"
Kurenai tailed off, not entirely sure how to finish her sentence. Once he does… what? The idea that his potential might rival Itachi's was both exciting and terrifying. Itachi was one of the most powerful shinobi Konoha had by the time of his defection. Not physically, being only thirteen, but his prowess with genjutsu, even before the enormous boost to genjutsu capabilities that the Sharingan affords its wielders, his speed, his intelligence and his determination added up to a shinobi able to single-handedly eliminate one of the most powerful clans in history. In one night. And by all accounts, he was probably not even injured whilst doing so. Konoha's tracker squads were universally held as the most effective of their kind throughout the elemental nations thanks to the canine senses and companions of the Inuzuka, the widespread semi-autonomous hives that each Aburame contained and the all-seeing eye of the Hyūga. Between the three clans, they were able to see and smell a week's worth of trails left by a mouse in a hurricane. The fact that they couldn't find a single trace of his presence there that night was truly a terrifying testament to his skills.
Kurenai shook her head to attempt to clear her thoughts. She had been a huge fan of Itachi when they were both younger. He was younger than her, sure, but he was so confident and powerful. He'd helped her when she'd struggled mastering the most basic of multi-layer genjutsu. Genjutsu was one of the most difficult and obscure of the ninja arts, and as such, it was rarely favoured by burgeoning shinobi attempting to make a name for themselves. This meant that there were very few shinobi that progressed further in the art than to be considered passable, and those that eventually did reach the level that Kurenai herself was rapidly approaching, being able to use the coveted multi-layer genjutsu, were constantly inundated with mission requests requiring their particular skillset. When Kurenai had asked the Hokage for advice on whom to contact and he'd sent her to a shinobi ten years her junior, she had assumed that the Hokage was simply too busy to really deal with her and had palmed her off onto frankly anyone else. She really should have realised that there are very few things that the 'God of Shinobi' does without very good reason.
Kurenai met with Itachi and within ten minutes of speaking to him, she could tell he as different. That was when Kurenai made a foolish mistake, one many people made but nobody repeated. Kurenai underestimated Itachi, and challenged him to a spar. She was not shy in admitting she'd been approaching breaking point with her genjutsu; her ninjutsu had always been strong, and genjutsu was just so obscure… She was so close to giving up her dream. Until that moment.
Flashback!
"Are you sure this is necessary?" Itachi asked. "I really have no interest in fighting with you, the Hokage asked me to help you."
Kurenai leapt back into the shade of some trees, drawing several kunai as she did so. "Well I learn best by doing. So prepare yourself!"
Kurenai launched her kunai in a tight grouping, forcing Itachi to leap high into the air, exactly as Kurenai planned.
"You're mine" she spat, hurling three shuriken straight at Itachi, knowing he had nowhere to run. All three shuriken struck true, embedding themselves into Itachi's torso, his face never moving from his impassive stare. After a second, his body was replaced in a puff of smoke by a log, with Itachi nowhere to be seen.
Kurenai scanned the surrounding area, keeping herself alert to a potential ambush.
"I would really rather not do this" came a voice from behind Kurenai's head. Leaping forwards, the red-eyed chunin twisted in mid-air to launch a single kunai towards the source of the voice, coming to land with one hand in her pouch and the other on the ground facing back towards the way she came. The kunai sailed rapidly before sinking deep into the bark inches from Itachi's face.
"You missed" Itachi stated simply. "This fight will never begin if you don't take me seriously."
"I am!" Kurenai yelled, placing her hands into the ram sign in front of her. Itachi cocked an eyebrow in response, until he felt a small pulse of chakra from the kunai next to him.
The kunai exploded with a great deal of force, taking half of the tree it was sunk into with it. Kurenai exhaled in relief. She was worried that he would notice the exploding tag attached to the kunai, but by wrapping it around the end of the blade, she sunk the tag into the tree as well. It meant that the explosion was slightly softened by the tree, but she'd used a larger than usual tag to compensate.
Kurenai waited with baited breath for the smoke to clear. As it faded, she could see the shreds of the tree lying scattered across the ground, along with a large, scorched and cracked log.
"Another substitution!" she muttered, again on guard, but now having maneuverer herself out of having her back to cover and now being completely exposed.
Kurenai waited, watching for what felt like an age. Desperately looking around to find any trace, and sign of movement. Taking a deep breath, she extended her senses outwards, searching the area around her for even the slightest speck of chakra. She was by no means the best of sensors, but it was an invaluable skill she was taught before leaving the academy, and one that had saved her life many times.
The budding genjutsu mistress swung a high roundhouse kick, spinning completely on the spot to deliver a stunning blow to the arrogant bastard who was stood right behind her. She smirked inwardly; people always forgot that you could sense if you worked hard at it, no one ever expected to fight a sensor, so people get lazy when they hide. But hiding behind someone? That was so far beyond cocky it was unreal. This would feel good.
It didn't. Her foot went sailing through Itachi's chest, leaving her off balance and surprised. Panicking, she span with her movement and used the added momentum to leap back towards the tree line. In one bound she landed on a thick branch and stared back the way she came. As she watched, the Itachi she had kicked faded away and revealed another Itachi stood a few feet behind him.
"Bunshin!" she growled. This was absurd. She was a promising Konoha kunoichi, pipped for being the first genjutsu centred Jōnin in years, and she was being toyed with by this child!
Reaching into her pouch, she counted only one shuriken and one kunai left. Just enough for one last move. Taijutsu was her weakest art, and she certainly wasn't going to go up against an Uchiha in ninjutsu, regardless of his age, so that just left her specialty.
Kurenai drew and launched her shuriken in one smooth motion, sending the shuriken arcing down towards Itachi. The shuriken seemed to inch closer and closer to Itachi before…nothing. It faded straight through him as though he wasn't even there. As she watched, it became apparent he wasn't there.
"Trying the same thing won't work on me. It didn't work once. Why would you think it would work twice?" Itachi's voice came from behind her once again.
"Why would you think I'd try the same thing twice?" Kurenai answered, turning around slowly. As she turned, she revealed that her face was entirely smooth, devoid of any features, like an unmoulded clay statue. As she stepped slowly towards Itachi, her skin began to become rougher and darker, slowly turning to wood before Itachi's eyes. As she got within a few metres of Itachi, she came to a stop and crumbled suddenly into falling wood and scattering petals.
"Now you're mine" Kurenai whispered.
Itachi suddenly found himself bound tightly in vines and branches, completely immobilised. He tilted his back to look up into the eyes of Kurenai as her top half emerged from the tree above him, leaving her lower half merged with the trunk.
"Completely trapped. No way to escape my jutsu, you can't even bring your hands together to dispel it." The last kunai she had was resting against Itachi's throat. "Any last words?"
"Just one" Itachi replied. "Take another look".
Kurenai hesitated for a second, her brow wrinkling in confusion. "Take another look? What's that supposed to…"
In the space of a blink, Kurenai found herself facing Itachi in the middle of the field in which they had first met, holding a kunai to her own throat. Gasping, she wrenched her arm away from herself and stumbled backwards away from Itachi. Quickly spinning around to check her surroundings, she was shocked to find that the tree that she had partially destroyed was fully repaired and the ground surrounding them showed no signs of any battle. Clasping her hands together to better focus her chakra, Kurenai summoned as much as she could at once and then pulsed it out of her body, shouting "Kai!".
Around her, the world wavered and then steadied itself once more. Repeating her actions, this time with even more force, she attempted to repel the genjutsu. This time there was a sound of tinkling glass and her eyes widened as the sky began to shatter and fall all around them, revealing as it did another world behind them. This new scene had Kurenai stood upon the branch she was facing Itachi on, this time she herself was bound between two trunks either side, with vines winding up her body from the branch below. A pair of Itachi's reached out from either trunk, hovering forebodingly above her.
"Completely trapped. No way to escape my jutsu, you can't even bring your hands together to dispel it" Kurenai began struggling wildly, attempting to free herself without having to resort to last-ditch methods. "Any last words?"
Itachi's words echoed around her, the two copies speaking eerily in sync with one another. Grimacing, Kurenai bit down hard enough on her bottom lip to draw blood to force herself out of the illusion. In an instant, everything changed.
Looking around, she found herself back in the field facing Itachi once more. She was breathing heavily, sweat running down her face from the exertions of trying to fight off the illusions. In contrast, Itachi was entirely unruffled.
"We... never even began did we?" Kurenai whispered, as much to herself as to Itachi.
"You came here for a genjutsu lesson, or rather a spar. Consider that to be a lesson in itself. You knew very little about me, but assumed my age meant that I was weaker. Considering that the Hokage sent you here to learn genjutsu from me, the fact that you barely considered the possibility that I was a genjutsu specialist demonstrates that there is still much for you to learn." Itachi declared. "Your first instinct should have been to-"
"You layered three genjutsu, one over another." Kurenai interjected. "Not only that, you didn't just create a single genjutsu with many layers, you actually stacked multiple genjutsu one over another so that there was no escape without repeatedly dispelling them, which is something nobody would think to do. I've only ever heard rumours of the second Hokage doing this! How?"
"That is what the Hokage wished for me to teach you" Itachi replied simply. "Are you willing to learn?"
Flashback end
Focussing back onto the class, she heard Kakashi finish up cooling off Sasuke's and Naruto's tempers. Judging from their body language, Naruto had resented being lectured by Sasuke and had tolerated the humiliation for a while, before eventually exploding in anger, to which Sasuke had responded with a distinct lack of interest.
Asuma stepped forward and addressed the assembled trainees. "Alright, judging from that show, you guys need some serious work. First thing we need to work on is your physical conditioning. A few of you don't look particularly health for civilians, let alone shinobi." His gaze passed over Naruto, before settling on Ino and Sakura. "Dieting will leave you with figures like Ino and Sakura: pretty and very thin, but one solid punch and your defences will crumble. You are soldiers now, or you will be, and a soldier who is not fed is one that is a liability. You will not have the stamina, you will not have the strength, you will not be thinking properly because you will be hungry. So quit the diets, ok?"
Sakura looked like she was about the protest before she was completely drowned out by Ino's indignant yell.
"Hey, don't think that I'm weak just because I'm not fat like some people here!"
Shikamaru took a step to the side, leaving a good foot between himself and Chōji, just in case.
"Fat?! Just who are you speaking to?!" Chōji bellowed, his cheeks ballooning in anger.
"Relax Chōji, I was speaking about Sakura" Ino said softly, calming the larger boy down.
"Ha! This coming from the only girl named 'pig' in the class. Tell me Ino, did your parents name you before or after they saw you eating?" Sakura jeered.
Sparks flew between their eyes as the two girls butted heads, all the time shouting insults at each other.
Kiba too had a problem with Asuma's judgement, but for a different reason. "Sensei" he began, "It's not fair that we're being criticised because of Naruto. He's the worst in the class!"
Sakura and Ino at this point had calmed down to listen to Kiba, and found themselves agreeing quite loudly. Panning their gaze around the classmates, it became apparent to the assembled senseis that that was the general consensus of the class, and judging from the reaction from Naruto, or rather, the lack thereof; it was not an unusual complaint.
"Well Kiba, let's put it this way." Kurenai answered. "If Naruto is struggling, and so falls behind, he will just fall further and further behind as we cover more advanced topics. So we have to judge you all by his standards because admittedly, he is the furthest behind, so we have to bring him closer to your level before we can effectively develop your skills."
This explanation seemed to strike a chord with a few members of the class, but only angered Sakura more.
"If he's so far behind, why is he even here? It's obvious you've taken the top students from our class out for this special tuition. The only one who wasn't doing well in class here is Naruto, so he really shouldn't be here anyway. If he can't grasp the basics, he definitely won't be able to cope when it gets more advanced" she reasoned.
"You were all hand-selected by the Hokage to be here, as were your comrades from the class above, and even us senseis. Sandaime-sama saw fit to group us all together, I'm sure he had his reasons" Kakashi stated, ending the discussion there.
Kakashi made it sound as though the senseis were not privy to the inner workings of the Hokage's mind, and didn't know why anyone had been picked specifically. However, that was not entirely true. Or at all in fact. He had either seen the files or knew of each student in the group, and he knew the exact reason that each of them were there. Most of them were their clan links, some were their abilities, Lee was by special request and a little bit of bargaining, and one student in particular, Kakashi needed no background on to know exactly why the Hokage has selected him. He'd spent several years tailing the youth in question, protecting him from threats both seen and unseen, and he knew better than most the importance of Naruto's growth.
"Kakashi, shall we move on to actually teaching?" Asuma asked, "We've gotten a little more familiar with them and frankly, I'd prefer to start from scratch with them. We don't know what they've learned well, what they've forgotten or what they've not learned in the first place. I say we take it from the top."
And so it began. For the first few days, life was mostly routine for the trainees. Frankly, it was just like the academy before, just with a smaller class, and it was boring. Of course, with Gai as a sensei, life could only remain boring for so long.
"YOSH" Gai bellowed suddenly, completely drowning out Kakashi's explanations of chakra natures. "Kakashi, this should be explained by a demonstration! Students, follow me to the field!"
Gai bounced out of the room, hollering as he ran through the corridors with his trademarked exuberance. The class stared at Kakashi, as though waiting for a translation for the eccentric Jōnin's behaviour.
"Ok class, I think this lesson is really better explained through a demonstration. Follow me outside to the field." Kakashi drawled, before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
Asuma and Kurenai sighed as the class turned to them. "Each one of those guys is weird: put them together and they're just plain confusing." Asuma whispered to Kurenai, before turning his attention back to the students. "Ok, outside class."
After seeing the interactions between Kakashi and Gai, the class had some mixed reactions about their senseis. Lee and Naruto were amused by the two of them, but they seemed to be in the minority.
"They're both insane!" Sakura whispered in hushed tones to Ino. "First one of them goes crazy and runs off, then the other one just agrees and vanishes. This is so weird."
Ino nodded in agreement. "Still, better than Iruka-sensei's ramblings. At least these guys are willing to show us something."
Ino may have given the impression she was solely focussed on books and her looks, but one of her lesser known passions was ninjutsu, the flashier the better. She was not a particularly strong ninjutsu user herself, not including her clan's techniques, but she always loved seeing a good technique performed.
When she was little, she'd gotten lost after walking away from the park following an argument with her mother. She'd walked around and around the village, trying to find her way back to the park to play with her friends, but had gotten herself hopelessly lost. She came across as small group of trees and, remembering that the park she'd came from had a boundary of trees around it, proceeded to run gleefully through them until she came to an empty, open field. Looking around in surprise, she snapped her head to the side when she heard a howling noise and saw a huge fireball bearing down upon her. Just as she began to scream, a huge dragon made of water ploughed into the fireball from the side, completely engulfing it and carrying on until it exploded against the ground a safe distance away from her.
"I'm so sorry, are you ok?" A young man with short black hair and red eyes was suddenly crouched in front of her at her eye level. She gasped and stumbled backwards in surprise, making him chuckle. "Sorry again, I didn't mean to scare you, I was just worried."
"You're scaring her more Shisui" came a voice from the side of them. Looking aside, she saw another young man with the same eyes. "Yamanaka-san, may we help you home?" The man addressed her, surprising her by already knowing of her identity.
Seeing the he had simply worried her more by showing her that they already knew of her, he quickly assured her that most ninja in the village from Chunin onwards would be able to identify her on sight due to her status as a clan heir from one of the Konoha's main clans.
Ino was broken from her reverie when Sakura snapped her fingers in front of her face. "Everyone's heading outside Ino, Kurenai-sensei and Asuma-sensei are waiting for us." Sakura said, gesturing towards the quickly emptying classroom and the two expectant looking senseis in turn.
Once everyone was outside and settled, Kakashi resumed his explanation of chakra natures.
"There are five elements that make up the chakra natures that are found around the world. These elements are fire, water, wind, earth and lightning. These elements have an order, almost a flowing hierarchy if you will, each having strengths and weaknesses in relation to the others."
Kakashi looked around the class and realised he might need to simplify it somewhat. Pausing for a moment, he considered the best way to explain it. Nodding to himself, he scratched a diagram in the dirt between himself and the class.
"The elements work in a circle, with five nodes." Kakashi paused, thinking of the best way to explain it. "Fire beats wind, water beats fire, earth beats water, lightning beats earth and wind beats lightning. The elements come full circle, with some beating others and being beaten in turn." Kakashi paused again, realising that there were more than a few that were not really following.
"It's kind of like Jan Ken Po" Shikamaru said. "Each element has one it beats, just like rock beats scissors but is beaten by paper, even though paper beats rock. The element that defeats wind is fire, but going in order, from fire, wind defeats lightning, which defeats earth, which defeats water, which defeats fire, so wind is higher along that line than fire. Each element has one that it defeats, one that it is beaten by, and the other two have no direct reaction to it. Is that about right?" Shikamaru directed the last question to Kakashi.
Kakashi smiled beneath his mask. "That's an excellent way of explaining it, but I think you need to see it to understand it. Asuma?"
Kakashi and Asuma walked a little way away into the practice field to get some space before turning to one another.
"Asuma and I were selected because of our ninjutsu abilities, among other reasons. I myself know over a thousand jutsus covering all five elements, and Asuma is a thoroughly competent fire user and the best wind style user in the village. Watch closely, we will demonstrate how each element reacts to its stronger and weaker element."
Kakashi summoned a shadow clone and had it stand off to Asuma's side. Flipping through hand seals, Asuma called out "Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!"(Fire style: Great Fireball Technique) and spat out a huge fireball which made its way, howling and tearing up the landscape beneath it, directly towards Kakashi.
"I know that technique!" Ino gasped, "That's the one I saw Shisui use when I was little".
At this declaration, Sasuke's head snapped round to stare at Ino, albeit briefly, before turning back to the show of the technique his clan was so famous for.
"Suiton: Suijinheki!" (Water style: Water Formation Wall) A wall of water erupted from the ground beneath Kakashi and blocked the fireball, causing them both to explode in a cloud of steam. "Suiton: Suiryūdan no Jutsu!" (Water style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique) A dragon made of water launched itself, open-mouthed and roaring, towards Asuma who stood stock still, seemingly frozen in surprise. Just before the dragon impacted with Asuma, Kakashi's clone called out "Doton: Doryūheki!"(Earth Release: Earth-Style Wall), causing a large wall to rise out of the ground with Kakashi's signature dog faces lining the top of the wall. The dragon smashed into the wall head on, but against the unyielding stone, the dragon dispersed, leaving only a few cracks behind. "Doton: Doryūdan" (Earth Release: Earth Dragon Bullet). The exterior layer of the wall crumbled away to reveal a dragon's head underneath it, which launched large boulders at frightening speeds at Kakashi.
Kakashi performed a series of hand seals at blistering pace before calling out "Chidori!" (One Thousand Birds) and sprinting forwards, dodging and weaving in between the projectiles, occasionally slicing through one, the whole time closing in on Asuma and his clone. With one last bound, he launched himself forwards and punched his lightning-covered fist through the stone dragon head with ease, causing it to crumble.
As he began to move forward again, he was met head on by a cry of "Fūton: Daitoppa!" (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough) and a gust of wind that hurtled towards him, flinging him backwards and off of his feet. Flipping over in mid-air, he quickly rushed through some hand seals and called out "Katon: Karyūdan!" (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet). A stream of flames erupted from his mouth and, combining with the wind that was rushing in front and beneath him, created a howling wall of flame descending from the sky towards Asuma and his clone.
Kakashi quickly cancelled his jutsu, causing the firestorm to rapidly lose power, though it retained plenty to completely obliterate the place where Asuma and his clone were stood.
The class stood horrified as they watched the flames engulf one of their new sensei.
"Good grief Kakashi, a bit much maybe?" Kurenai said in exasperation.
"Well, wind does make fire a lot stronger; they'll definitely remember that now at least. It may even save their life if they come up against a fire user." Asuma commented offhandedly.
As one the class snapped around to see Asuma calmly talking to Kurenai, neither a scratch nor singed hair to be seen.
"Asuma-sensei, how did you do that?!" Naruto yelled, "We saw you get hit by those flames!"
Asuma smiled knowingly. "Clones are very helpful things."
Kurenai called for the class's attention, ceasing their excited mutterings. "Now that you've seen what the elements can do, I want to know what observations any of you made. Shino, how about you start us off?"
A tall boy in a trench coat that obscured the majority of his body and half of his face gazed impassively at her from behind his dark sunglasses. "Very well. Kakashi-sensei was well versed in several elements, whereas Asuma-sensei required assistance. That was the reason for the clone, because Kakashi-sensei was aware that Asuma-sensei would not have the type advantage in a contest with water-style ninjutsu. Only two of the elements were used defensively, whereas the other three were either reliant on the user to make the jutsu useful, or could only defend by attacking back and overwhelming the opponent's attack. My observation? Not all elements are suited to defence, whilst others are far more useful for attacking than those that have defensive aspects."
"Excellent Shino!" Kurenai replied. "It is true that some elements are better at offence than others, that ability often comes at a price. When considering one element, wind for example, there is no defensive jutsu: each wind-style jutsu that could feasibly be used for defence is actually just a re-purposed attack."
Kakashi stepped forward at this point, all eyes turning to him as he began to speak. "Now, the idea was that we test your chakra natures and from there we would start teaching you the basics of some elemental jutsu." He smirked inwardly as the students began murmuring excitedly once again. "But, I'm not convinced you're at that level just yet."
"Hey, that's garbage!" Kiba yelled. "We've spent years here learning so that we could get stronger. Those jutsus were awesome, you can't not teach us them now!"
"Relax Kiba, you'll get there, but we're going to start with the basics." Asuma said, attempting to appease the irritated Inuzuka. "For the moment, we're going to do some physical conditioning, get your bodies up to par so that you can grow properly."
Kurenai walked over to Sakura and Ino and tapped them on their shoulders. Whilst Asuma was talking through the physical routine with Kiba and the rest of the class, Kurenai led the two girls to a tree not to far away and stood underneath its shade.
"You need to stop dieting" she began, holding a hand up to ward off any objections. "If you don't stop, you're going to fail this class. You wont be able to fight properly, so taijutsu will effectively be useless to you, you wont be able to concentrate because you'll be hungry, so genjutsu will not work for you and you will have insufficient chakra levels to adequately perform any ninjutsu. So I say again, stop dieting, or I will personally remove you from the class." Without another word, Kurenai walked back to the group, leaving the two girls in stunned silence.
"Sakura, Ino! Come over here, we are going to begin with some physical training before moving on to light sparring. We need to assess each of you to know what to focus on." Gai called over to the shell-shocked girls.
Sakura and Ino looked back over to the group, seeing many of them already working on running around the field, or performing press-ups and sit-ups near their senseis. For the first time in a long time, the two girls were in agreement about something. This was going to suck.
A/N: I've seen a few other writers follow up their chapters with a one-sided discussion concerning the recent chapters, and I thought I'd try my hand. Speaking of hands, I'm slightly confused about Kaguya's. Is her son (the Black Zetsu) now a sleeve-monster? I find it bizarre as hell that a being as powerful as Black Zetsu clearly is to be able to orchestrate so much for his mother, and take down several very powerful ninja, including Madara Uchiha (!) is content to live in a sleeve. Makes no sense to me.
I have to confess, I was pumped as hell when Kakashi got his power-up, though the idea that Obito can warp from the weird limbo dimension he was in to randomly give Kakashi his Mangekyō Sharingan (Limbo? The name of Madara's copies! I just got that!) seemed a little strange. Surely Obito could just come back himself repeatedly? Does that not mean Obito is actually completely immortal? And it's a shame Sakumo wasn't still there by that camp-fire, they could've used the firepower. But I do feel like Sakura's presence at the moment is somewhat bizarre. Kakashi has the Susanoo, teleportation eyes and his inherent badassery, allowing him to set-up their final attack and protect them from Kaguya's counter. Sasuke has the ocular prowess of both the Uchiha clan and the sage of the sixth paths, plus his natural talent, allowing him to perform his half of the seal. Naruto has the power of all nine bijū plus the body of the sage of the sixth paths, allowing him to perform his half of the seal. Sakura punched her in the head as she tried to jump. It's just a little out of place, you know?
I keep trying to predict what's going to happen in the conclusion of the story: whether their fates will mimic those of the Sannin before them, though they have each surpassed their respective senseis in various ways, or whether things will finally work out. People are obsessed with the pairings of Naruto, whether they be an enormous NaruHina fan, or have an almost visceral reaction to the very idea. I can see it working either way, but I'm not 100% sure it will work any way. I can't remember one single proper romance plot in the Naruto world, one that actually had a background, we saw the interactions during and potentially it had an end, so why is everyone so sure it will have one now? I'm half of the idea that it is just going to end suddenly, with a big bang and no epilogue, and half of the idea that it's never going to end, though that may just be wishful thinking.
At any rate, if you think I'm right, if you think I'm wrong, if you think I'm a genius, or you think I'm a genius, leave a review, I'd love to know.
Toodle-pip.