A/N: I'm BACK! I've been away so long; I bet you all thought this was forgotten didn't you? Aww you guys, don't worry so much, I wouldn't leave you like that. Not when my head is full of Naruto knowledge and bizarre ideas, and there's no-one to share it with!
So without further ado (though to be fair, that was probably significantly more ado than was required), here is the newest chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, characters, plots, etc.
Act 1 – Chapter 2 – Effort
"No more, please Gai-sensei!" Sakura gasped, desperately wheezing to try to fill her lungs with much-needed air. "We've been at this for hours. No more, please."
Gai flashed his trademark smile at her in response. "Now Sakura, we all agreed we would do everything we could do become our very best. So that is what we are doing!" His remark was punctuated, as always, with his trademarked Good Gai Pose©.
Gai speech instilled the intended determination into a few of their eyes, but more than half had already come to the conclusion that tuning out of Gai's speeches was far better for both one's physical and mental well-being. A valiant attempt to continue was made, but very soon absolute fatigue set in, leaving only a few able to stand, and even fewer capable of continuing.
"Yosh!" Gai yelled, oozing excitement. "It is wonderful to see such youthful stamina from such young students.
"Gai-sensei?" Chōji queried. "I understand Sasuke's stamina, but where is Lee's and Naruto's coming from? A week ago they were the dead-lasts, but they're outlasting us every time."
At his question, every ear perked up. Chōji was not the only one to think this. In fact, he simply lost the Jan-Ken-Po tournament to decide who had to ask.
At Chōji's question, Gai's face was overtaken by a look of uncertainty. Seeing that Gai was unsure how to answer a question unknowingly loaded with an S-rank secret, Asuma stepped forwards.
"Well" Asuma began, somewhat hesitantly. "Sasuke's stamina is no mystery, he is one of the few that have consistently trained outside of class, so it stands to reason his physical conditioning is at a level beyond many others in our group. Lee's incredible progress is a result of his renewed work ethic. After Lee had his situation explained to him, and what his dream would require, his determination and effort has outstripped everyone's significantly, and his growth has followed that path. Let him be an example to all of you that if you rest on your laurels, simply relying on your status as a clan member and their training, you will rapidly be overtaken by those who, plain and simple, want it more than you do."
There were varying reactions to his words, from the starry-eyed adoration of Lee and Naruto, to the scoff from Neji. Seeing that the class were busy taking in this lesson, Asuma gave himself a mental pat on the back for directing the group's attention away from a sensitive topic. He was of course fully aware of why Naruto has such an enormous amount of physical energy – by Kami, look at the boy, even Lee and Sasuke were sweating profusely, whereas he was almost recovered! – but he was forbidden from giving his students that information.
"And me Asuma-sensei?" Naruto asked hopefully. Naruto had always had significant amounts of stamina. This workout from Gai-sensei was undoubtedly strenuous, but he knew he could do more, though he would never say so. He had learned early on that commenting on things like that was met with ridicule, disdain or disbelief, and commonly a mixture of the three. Secretly, he'd always held out that his endurance was so high because of a family trait; maybe it was something awesome given to him from his parents!
"Yours is a slightly different case Naruto" Kakashi intervened, knowing full well Asuma's and Gai's current predicament. "Your physical energy is a lot more plentiful than most people, allowing you to continue well beyond even the point where other ninja would have collapsed from exhaustion."
Naruto couldn't help the grin that broke out across his face. Whether indirect or not, intended or not, that was the first real compliment he had ever received concerning his abilities. Naruto opened his mouth to being bragging about being closer to being Hokage than ever, but, meeting Kakashi's eye, suddenly didn't feel the need to. He closed his mouth and settled for fixing Kakashi with his widest grin.
"Why would the dobe have that much physical energy?" Sasuke asked.
"That is a story for another lesson" Kakashi replied, silencing all protests with a pointed look. "Bear in mind, that any person I hear complain in the next five minutes, five minutes we have kindly allowed you to rest in might I add, will be clearly demonstrating that they have plenty of energy left, and will be given to Gai to burn off any extraneous…youthfulness."
Each and every mouth snapped shut, all colour draining from their collective faces. He didn't raise his voice like Iruka-sensei, but Kakashi-sensei's quiet sadism was a lot scarier.
After two weeks of this torture, each and every one of the students were showing marked improvements in their physical abilities. Kurenai, Kakashi and Asuma observed a training session Gai was leading, drilling them in increasingly strenuous manoeuvres. This was a completely usual occurrence, if it wasn't for the presence of the Third Hokage stood next to Asuma, contentedly observing the students as Gai put them through their paces.
"They've come a long way already" Hiruzen commented. "There were very few of them that could have lived through this exercise before you've all began teaching them."
He nodded happily as he saw them navigate a particularly tough obstacle. "Yes, they're coming along nicely." He turned to the senseis. "I agree with the observations you noted in your fortnightly report. I trust your judgement to take them in the correct directions, just keep me updated regarding their progress."
The three shinobi responded with a chorused "Hai!" as their leader used a seal-less Shunshin to disappear. Smiling as they watched their students collapse at the end of the course, it was easy to see the changes in them. Changes which, they noted with some pride, they caused and nurtured.
Kiba had lost a lot of the puppy fat present on his face, leaving an angular face which, framed by his canine-like canines and animalistic face-markings, looked quite intimidating, even more so when he smiled.
Shino looked, well, the same to be honest. His body may have been leaner, he may have put on muscle, but underneath that coat, it was impossible to tell.
Hinata had at first ignored the pleading of Kurenai to replace her ever present hooded jacket with something more fitting, but after another fainting spell, Kurenai stole her jacket and sealed it into a scroll, promising that later that year, she would be able to retrieve it herself. As much as it hurt to have one of her favourite students so upset with her, there was more than just vanity to Kurenai's thinking. A jacket that thick was cumbersome and limiting, removed any threat of intimidation or seduction from Hinata's bearing and was so very warm, that when thoroughly exhausting activity was required, it was draining Hinata of her stamina a great deal quicker than normal. Kurenai could only hope that by exposing her to the elements and the boys growing admiration of her lithe figure, her confidence in herself and her body, including her body image, would be improved.
Ino was the direct opposite of Hinata. Taking Kurenai's advice to heart, and seemingly taking Kurenai herself as a role model, Ino had forgone her diet in favour of attempting to burn off anything she ate. The thinking behind it being that if she is going to eat the food, she'll need to make sure it doesn't show! Thankfully, her warped thinking actually worked perfectly for her, as it meant that she ate regularly and worked harder for the more she ate. Of course, the more she exercised, the more nutrients her body required, meaning the more she felt the need to eat. It really was a happy little circle that left her healthy, though tired, and more proud of the way her body looked than ever. And she was more than happy to show it off, judging from the toned midriff displayed under her crop top and the exposed legs covered only by a skirt and some bandages.
Chōji was the same size as before, though that was to be expected. At first, the changing images of his comrades around him lead to Chōji being considered to be the one making the least progress, until he connected a right hook with Kiba's hasty block and sent him flying out of the ring. A brief explanation about Chōji's clan's abilities and their relation to their calorie intake, combined with that somewhat terrifying display of strength ensured any thoughts of bullying the 'pleasingly plump' boy were quickly squashed.
Shikamaru had, despite desperately avoiding as much active participation as possible, found himself getting stronger and faster. It was an excellent demonstration that no matter the intellect, Gai's sheer determination could get through and the man really did nag like a fiend! Every day he would drag, often literally, Shikamaru around the field until Shikamaru would start running under his own power, simply to save the skin of his backside.
Sakura had considered Kurenai as a role model, but, upon realising the potential of her crush, she realised that she would need to aim bigger, as only the absolute best could be the partner of the last loyal Uchiha. She quickly came to the conclusion that the great Tsunade Senju was her target to surpass: this realisation came with an enormous amount of disheartenment, after asking her senseis about Tsunade, and finding her comparisons between herself and the legend to be incredibly lacking. By all accounts, the woman was incredibly fast, incredibly intelligent, had incredible control of her body and chakra and was one of the strongest shinobi in history, despite kunoichi traditionally being physically weaker than shinobi. Tsunade was a roaring bonfire of ability compared to Sakura's candle, and that simply would not do. She had subsequently launched herself into training with a vigour that pleasantly surprised all those around her, especially her teachers. To be fair, the happiness she gained from seeing that look on her teachers' faces, that look of astonishment mixed with respect, was nothing compared to the unbridled glee that a simple nod of acknowledgement from Sasuke resulted in.
Sasuke had taken to the new training regime with aplomb. He threw himself into every exercise and challenge with incredible vigour, and the results were rapidly becoming apparent. His lean build had become even leaner, but the exposed muscle and skin that his casual t-shirt and shorts combo showed clearly displayed the results of his hard work. After a conversation with Kakashi, who subsequently held a frank discussion with both Sasuke and the Sandaime Hokage, he had been appeased that they are doing what they can to make him more powerful, and that he will become more powerful by allowing those stronger than him to help then he will by going it alone. Of course, he held every intention of destroying Itachi when he met him, and he would do it alone. He would grudgingly accept what assistance he could get to get to that level, but once that level was attained, he would avenge his clan with his own strength.
Neji had quickly established himself as the strongest of the trainees. Having had a lot of training from his clan, combined with his own prodigal talent and an additional year, he was already at a solid genin level. In any taijutsu spars, he was undefeated. All in all, he was only held back by his arrogance (which his constant victories over his peers did not help) and his refusal to learn any but the bare minimum ninjutsu required to pass the academy. Being aware of his reliance on his family's taijutsu and dōjutsu above all, he applied himself to the physical regimen with laudable drive in order to improve his abilities as quickly as possible, and his growth in taijutsu was only rivalled by one of his comrades.
That comrade was Rock Lee. Lee had mimicked Gai in every way possible, from his insane work ethic to his more than questionable choices of attire. He sported a tight green jumpsuit, much like his idol, and had been seen practicing his Good Gai Pose© in the bathroom mirrors. Arriving at the academy at the beginning of class, the remainder of the group would be greeted by the sight of Lee training in the field, either attacking the training posts with single-minded determination, or occasionally even sparring with Gai to find holes in his taijutsu, which were admittedly plentiful at the moment. Leaving after school, the sight was the same. Whereas the rest of the would-be genin would leave to return home, Lee would remain in the training fields working until closer to sunset, at which point he would retire for the night. His taijutsu was quickly becoming quite deadly, being able to crack the training posts with his strongest punches and being able to move quickly enough to cross Kakashi's stone sparring ring in a single bound.
Tenten was the best weapons user in the group. From the beginning, she was clearly the best shot with kunai, shuriken or any other thrown weapon, and was one of the best with every melee weapon that the class had to offer. Her fūinjutsu had stalled, which she had at first complained about, but was quickly placated with the knowledge that there would be specific fūinjutsu lessons later in the year.
Naruto's questionable work ethic had been replaced with an inner fury that no-one could quite place. For some reason, the boy had been overcome with a determination to become the very best. He spent every evening after school training with Lee in the fields, often staying after Lee had left, though if asked he would simply reply he was 'catching up the time he slept away whilst bushy-brows was training'. His taijutsu had improved by leaps and bounds, becoming less and less of that a brawler and more of a distinct, flowing style. Whilst he didn't have the benefit of an actual style, his movements had become far more precise and powerful, the hours of hard graft allowing him to keep up with Lee in terms of taijutsu, despite having elected not to learn any of the taijutsu styles offered by their senseis.
All in all, the senseis were more than happy with their progress. In fact, their young charges probably deserved a break from Gai…
"Alright, that's enough for today" Kakashi announced to the gathered trainees. At once, their bodies stilled and their breath caught in their throats. They were leaving early?
The first screams broke through as Naruto cowered, covering his head as if expecting the sky to descend upon them.
"Very funny" Kakashi deadpanned. "I'm not that bad."
"Yes you are sensei" Sakura replied. "You're an absolute slave-driver to be honest."
Kakashi recoiled in offense. "Maa, I'm not even the one training you, the majority of the time it's Gai. Blame him!"
Pointedly ignoring Gai's indignant yelling, Shikamaru piped up. "Well sensei, you're the one that tells Gai when to start and when to stop, and you're the one that extended the school day by three hours. Gai is simply a minion, we know better than to blame someone for following orders."
Kakashi also decided to ignore Gai's yelled protests (if it works, don't fix it). "Hmm, I guess you're right.". The genin held their breath hopefully as an almost remorseful look made its way onto what little of Kakashi's face was visible. Finally, he would release them from this training regime and put Gai back into the box of sin and crazy that he got him out of.
"Oh well."
A chorus of moans and face-vaults met his blatantly unsympathetic outlook.
Asuma stepped in, a small smile on his face. "Alright you lot, enough joking around. We're sending you home early so that you can rest because tomorrow we're going to start working with chakra" – he patiently paused to wait for the cheers and whoops to die down – "so we need you at your peak first thing tomorrow morning. The first thing we're doing is an individual test, and you want to represent yourself well in front of your peers, don't you?"
He panned his gaze around the faces looking up at him from where they were sprawled. "Off you go". At his words, the genin clambered to their feet and quickly left the training field, looking forward to the first early day they'd had since their new training program had begun.
When the senseis arrived at the classroom, they were surprised to see each and every member of their class present and expectantly staring at the door. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that they were indeed half an hour early as planned. This was an eager class.
"Ok, first things first, can anyone tell me what chakra actually is?" Kurenai queried the class.
"Chakra is the blend of physical and spiritual energies that a shinobi makes use of to perform techniques" Sakura recited, sounding for all the world like a girl who'd swallowed a textbook.
Kurenai sighed at the expected response. With that girl in the class, any questions you asked were mostly pointless unless they were specifically directed at someone else. It was great she was so keen, and it's always encouraging to see someone with such a great deal of book-smarts, but it made gauging the other students' progress difficult.
"Shikamaru!" Asuma barked, calling up to the pineapple-haired boy who was currently staring out of the window in clear disinterest. "Name me six elemental forms chakra can come in"
"Wind, water, earth, lightning, fire and... wood" Shikamaru replied lazily, not even looking away from the window.
Eyebrows raised around the class. Every so often, Shikamaru displayed glimpses of intelligence and insight that went far beyond his performances in class. With Naruto's taijutsu improving at the rate it was, and with Lee's already being actually quite impressive, Shikamaru had filled the now vacant dead-last slot of the class.
Of course, this had accompanied the occasional smatterings of ill will towards the boy. The students were so used to having one of their weaker peers as a crutch to make them feel better about their strengths; it was almost instinctive to aim at the weakest in the class. However, anyone who had attempted it had quickly been shouted down by a combination of Naruto, Lee and Kakashi himself. Whilst Naruto and Lee had been on the receiving end of such treatment and thus sought to protect a comrade from the experience, Kakashi's reasoning was simple. He was deadly serious when he said this group would be a cohesive unit, and if he had to crush a few egos in the process, well, that was just a bonus.
By encouraging those weaker in the class to demonstrate abilities outside of what had been seen from them previously, it was quickly becoming difficult to isolate which of the trainees was the weakest, as they each had their own strengths. It was of course still clear which few were the strongest, but the weakest had been edged into the middle of the pack with the rest, leaving no dead-weight at the bottom.
Kurenai cleared her throat to attract the class' attention back to her.
"What we're going to be testing now is capacity and control. These are the two aspects of chakra that we talk about when referring to a shinobi's abilities. These things are exactly as they sound: a shinobi's chakra capacity is the amount in their body, and their chakra control is the ability to use that chakra efficiently and precisely.
"Traditionally, shinobi have higher capacities whilst kunoichi have higher control, though there are of course exceptions to this rule. Kushina Uzumaki for example, was known to have an enormous amount of chakra, comparable to the Hokage himself."
In fact, Kushina Uzumaki had chakra levels well beyond those of the Third Hokage, even in his prime, but it was better for the class to have less information concerning that topic than more.
"Wait, Uzumaki?!" Naruto slammed his hand on the top of his desk as he rocketed up from his chair. "What do you mean Uzumaki? Was she a relative of mine?"
The rest of the class looked at Naruto with a myriad of reactions. For some, it was rather irrelevant if the woman was related to Naruto or not, the woman was clearly long dead, given the way Kurenai spoke about her. Others looked at Naruto with something akin to pity, it being painfully obvious how desperate he was for any information considering his family. For people like Tenten and Lee, that pain was all too close to their heart too.
"I'm not sure I'm afraid Naruto" Kurenai lied smoothly. "At one point, it was a very common name in Konoha and elsewhere in the elemental nations, but that's a point for another lesson."
Naruto nodded absentmindedly, his mind already whirring with the possibilities. If this Kushina really was a relative of his, maybe there were people that knew her. Maybe those people knew someone who could give him information on her, or her acquaintances, or her friends, or her team, her sensei, anything. Maybe through her, he could find something about his family.
He was jolted out of his introspection by an eraser to the forehead. Rubbing the red indentation it left, he fixed Kakashi with his best glare, but wisely chose not to interrupt Kurenai mid-flow.
"Sakura, why don't you start us off?" Kurenai asked kindly.
As much as it pained him to say, Naruto was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he needed to start being a tad more attentive. He couldn't afford to miss anything here in class; he needed to get better as quickly as possible!
Sakura proceeded to the front of the class and stood facing the other students. The senseis had spread themselves around the front of the room, each taking a different angle of the girl in front of them. Gathering her hands into the ram sign in front of her, she began furiously channelling her chakra and bringing as much of it to the surface as possible. Within seconds, she was running short of breath, but she maintained the effort until she saw a smiling nod from Kurenai and a thumbs up from Gai. Allowing her hands to drop tiredly to her side, she smiled and walked back to her desk.
Asuma spoke to the class. "The purpose of this exercise is to judge your control and your capacity. Sakura channelled her chakra incredibly quickly, demonstrating a great deal of control, but judging from what we could sense, her chakra levels are very low. That will be what we need to work on with you Sakura."
Sakura gritted her teeth, but nodded her head. Nobody was expecting her to be perfect at this stage, better to be refined than a brute. She nodded her head more energetically. That's true, better control means she was more refined. More lady-like, perfect for Sasuke-kun. A smile broke out across her face. She could work with this.
One by one, the students proceeded up to the front of the class and demonstrated their chakra to the others. Some, like Shino, had excellent control but low reserves, putting him in the same focus group as Sakura. Unsurprisingly, Chōji's reserves were decently sizeable, but his control was lacking.
Sasuke's demonstration ticked one more box in the prodigy list. Needing only marginally more time than Sakura had required, Sasuke's reserves were sufficiently enough that a faint blue haze enveloped him when he called on his chakra, and he was able to hold it for almost a minute before exhaustion forced him to stop.
After Sasuke, last in fact, came Naruto. The orange-clad boy bounded to the front of the room and clasped his hands into the ram sign as instructed.
"Ready when you are sensei's" he announced, mentally preparing himself to channel his chakra.
At Kakashi's nod, he began dredging his chakra up from his core. As always, it felt sluggish and heavy; moving more like oil than the water it had always been described as. Whereas chakra was normally described as a flowing river inside one's body, it always felt to Naruto more like an ocean. His chakra didn't circulate around his body, ebbing and flowing with his breath and his movements. It was just...there.
After about five seconds, the class began to mutter. This was already over twice as long as the next slowest person. Even Lee, with what pitiful chakra he had, had already channelled his chakra and stopped channelling by now.
Ten seconds. Nothing. Fifteen. Nothing. Twenty seconds. Something. A lot of something.
The sensei's eyes widened as they felt a surge, their finely honed instincts, sharpened through years of combat and experience, screaming at them to move.
Before the class' astonished eyes, a blue aura exploded around Naruto, surging and coiling, writhing like living fire around his body. It was even causing Ino's hair to sway slightly, as though in a light breeze.
Naruto continued to hold the ram sign as he pulled more and more chakra from inside of him. Frankly, through the blue haze, he could barely see his sensei's, let alone be able to see one of them nod. After seeing his peers continue to draw on their chakra until they were near exhausting, Naruto assumed this was the point of the exercise, and began drawing it out with renewed vigour.
Oddly, he found that the more he was drawing out, the easier it was to move. In fact, as he found himself channelling more and more chakra, it became easier to channel even greater amounts. He could feel the energy roaring through his veins, making his heart race as the adrenaline kicked in.
Of course, it was not the only thing roaring. Outside of Naruto's little chakra-induced meditation, it was far less calm. With the amounts of chakra Naruto was now channelling, the sensei's had long since stopped bothering trying to measure it and were simply waiting for him to exhaust himself.
Kakashi had to hold back a snort as he observed Naruto's form bubbling with excess chakra. Combine the metaphorical chakra monster that was Kushina Uzumaki, with the literal chakra monster that was the Kyuubi no Kitsune and you got more chakra than most likely any shinobi in history. Combine in the prodigious talent of the Yondaime Hokage, and you got a shinobi with the potential to make the world quake beneath him.
Finally, Naruto's channelling stopped, leaving him panting and gasping for air, sweat covering his body in a sheen of effort. Looking up at the class and his senseis, he was surprised to see looks of shock on all of their faces, including the normally unflappable Asuma and Kurenai. In fact, the only people that didn't look completely surprised were Kakashi, but then who knew what he was thinking behind that mask, and Sasuke, who looked positively murderous.
"Well, that was surprising." For once, Gai spoke softly, this as much as anything drawing the class out of their shock. "That amount of chakra? I've never even heard of a shinobi with that level at your age."
Naruto fixed Gai with a tired grin, tiredly panting out "Heh, told you I was awesome."
Kakashi hmm'd, somehow humming loudly enough to be heard across the class. "Your capacity is definitely beyond that which we'd expect from anyone at your age, but your control is absolutely shocking. In a situation where it would be required, you would be dead before you could effectively channel your chakra."
This sobering statement brought Naruto crashing back to...Earth (?) as he marched back up to his desk.
Between Naruto's exhaustion, the excitement of what they'd just done and the enigma that was Naruto, the class was plenty busy enough to justify missing the subtle glances that the senseis sent each other.
Subtle mentions of his mother, check. Demonstrated chakra capacity, check. Mentioned physical abilities, including recovery time, check. Made sure Shikamaru was paying sufficient attention to pique his curiosity, check.
They'd played their hand. The rest was no longer up to them.
Well, that was fun. I tried to include a tad more humour in the writing, though I'm not sure it came through. I think I'm just more of a serious writer than a joker, despite being sure that my true calling is a professional sit-down comedian... Hey, who brought a tumbleweed?!
In this chapter I've began to deviate ever so slightly from the standard fanfics you read on this site, as well as from canon. I've always been confused about the inconsistencies in Naruto's chakra capacity. He's an Uzumaki Jinchuriki, so he should have chakra rolling off him in veritable waves, and yet Kakashi states in Shippuden that Naruto only has four times the amount of chakra that he does, though he has 100 times as much if he wasn't restraining the Kyuubi. I can understand that, one of the largest chakra sources in history is jammed in behind his navel, makes sense that his body would have to divert a great deal of power to holding that back. But we've seen him make thousands of clones, those clones often performing jutsu of their own, despite the creators state of near-complete exhaustion. Kakashi when he was quite tired in the Wave arc, could make maybe ten. It's just never added up to me. They comment on Kakashi's lack of stamina, then Naruto's ungodly amount, then the comparison between the two is underwhelming at best. So I broke out, and I made his chakra overwhelming instead. As a matter of fact, he's got a lot more than I showed, but he just can't use it at the moment. Bad control strikes again!
I struggled to find a more...flowing way of describing the changes to each character, so in the end I thought adding the Hokage to the mix could forgive the observations being close to a report status. There is also a great deal more development aimed at certain characters, which is both accidental and intended. I have my favourite characters, we all do, but there are also characters that would have been effected a great deal more by a physical regimen. Kiba and Shino, probably not so much. Lee and Naruto, enormously.
Anyway, enough of my ramblings. Leave a review, let me know what you liked, disliked, hated or loved, and we'll see if we can't get more (or less) of it in there for you!
Toodle-pip.