Biju conversation
The next morning, Naruto happily dragged Kakashi to Training Ground 7 at 7:30, a full half hour before the time Kakashi had originally set. They'd already done their morning workout and had a light spar, but now Naruto wanted to work on some Chakra control exercises, and he wanted to use the river that cut through the area for it. Kakashi grumbled, but didn't complain too much, surprisingly. He'd realized a year ago that the only way he was ever going to be able to uphold his reputation was when Naruto wasn't around. Otherwise, the kid seemed to make a habit of ruining it.
Something the other Jonin found hilarious.
Kakashi was pleased to see Sasuke already there and doing some workouts, although in his opinion he could use some instruction on what would be appropriate right now, but that would come with time. Sakura was nowhere to be seen, much to his relief and annoyance. For one, he could have a reprieve from her voice. For another, he couldn't see what her morning workouts were like so he could improve on them. He'd have to ask her later.
Shaking his head, he directed his attention to Naruto, who was sitting cross-legged on the water, with stones in his hand. "Alright, remember what I told you about this?" He asked, walking out onto the water to stand beside his brother. Neither saw Sasuke staring at them in surprise. Sure, he knew that something like this was possible, but he didn't know how to do it. And now Naruto did!? The Deadlast? Even the Deadlast's puppy was walking on the water! She was shaky, but still. Finding out he was good at Fuinjutsu was one thing, that was apparently a Clan specialty, but now he knew advanced Chakra exercises, too?
"Kakashi-sensei, teach me that." He demanded. Because that was what one does when one wants something.
Kakashi looked up at him in surprise. "Are you done with your exercises?" He asked, not saying anything about the demand yet.
"No." Sasuke answered, and sulked back to finish. He knew that tone of voice, after all, it was the one his father used on him and Itachi all the time when they were younger. Well, Itachi not so much...
"Does the word 'please' come to mind?" Naruto muttered while he struggled to force his Chakra to do what he wanted it to do, which was to float the stones above his hand and move around as he pleased.
Once Sasuke finished, he went back to the water's edge, and Kakashi glanced at his watch while he walked to meet him after making sure Naruto was doing all right. He glanced around in concern. He would have expected Sakura to be here already, he'd said to be there a little early, hadn't he?
"Alright, before we can start anything with water-walking, have you done tree-walking yet?" He asked. By Sasuke's confusion, he sighed. "I guess not." He muttered. "What kind of Chakra control exercises have you done in the Academy?" He asked instead.
"Just the leaf exercise, sticking it to your forehead." Sasuke answered. Kakashi made a face and noise of disgust. And here he'd hoped that everyone else would have at least done more than that. He'd figured that must have been a lesson Naruto missed for some reason or other. Apparently it wasn't a lesson at all.
"Alright, well, the next step up from that is the tree-walking exercise. No, I will not show you water-walking yet, that is a step up from tree-walking." He eyed Sasuke's mutinous face and sighed. "The basics are important, Sasuke. They set a foundation to build off of. Without that, your jutsu won't be as effective or efficient as it could be, and your other techniques would suffer as well. Without proper control, you will run out of Chakra far before you should if you get in a fight and can't end it quickly. Conserving Chakra as much as possible is a must in everything you do." He lectured, annoyed that he even needed to have this conversation. "The more Chakra you have, the more you must work to control it." He added on. He was sure that would come up later, as well. He had a feeling that Sakura would find the tree-walking exercise as easy as breathing. But then, she had no Chakra reserves that he could tell. She was also a girl, and they generally seemed to naturally have more control over their Chakra.
Probably a good thing when he considered how quickly girls' moods could swing from one extreme to the other.
(He had a feeling that he was going to deal with jealous outbursts for a while, especially towards Naruto, who hadn't shown any talent in the Academy, but was actually at least equal to Sasuke in skill, if not above that.)
"You could also hurt yourself if you go too fast, too soon. That will set your training back." Naruto called randomly from his spot sitting on the water.
Speaking of girls... "Sakura, I thought I said to be here earlier." He growled in annoyance, checking his watch. It was 7:59.
"Sorry," she squeaked, ducking her head and eyeing Sasuke.
He frowned and took a deep breath to let it out in a sigh, only to choke on air and start coughing. What was that smell?!
"Sensei!" Sakura cried out in alarm and moved to help him, which made it worse as the smell was on her! He moved away and Naruto was beside him, holding his nose pinched shut, which he quickly did the same. "What's wrong?" She asked.
"Jeez, Sakura, what did you do, dump the whole bottle of perfume on you?" Naruto asked while he drew a quick seal on Kakashi's mask, one that would filter out the smell. Kakashi already had a similar seal sewn into the fabric to do just that, but a double layer never hurt. He pulled out a mask of his own and put it on.
"Huh? What's wrong with a little perfume?" She asked, indignant.
"Some of us have sensitive noses!" Naruto snapped, glaring.
Kakashi took a few breaths, and mentally berated himself for reacting as he had. But he had not expected to get a nose full of thick, heavy perfume. He hadn't been taken by surprise like that in a long time. "Sakura, when you come tomorrow, I expect you to be perfume-free. Understood? You are Shinobi now, start acting and dressing like it." He said before she could retaliate against Naruto. He shook his head and straightened up. "Now, Sakura, what was your morning workout routine?" He asked. She hadn't done it here, so he could only assume that she'd done her workouts somewhere else.
"Workout routine? You mean like what we did in the Academy during class?" She asked.
Kakashi stared at her for a moment. Then made the decision that he wasn't going to deal with this right now. He sighed. "We'll talk about this more later." He promised with a groan. "Right now, we need to get going. I already have some D-rank missions lined up for today, and we are expected at the first client's house in twenty minutes. After missions, we'll do some light training." He shared his plan for the day, eyeing Sakura.
He would need to have a long talk with her later on.
Sasuke grunted in annoyance at having to postpone the exercises he and Kakashi-sensei were just about to do, but didn't say anything.
The first mission Kakashi had lined up for them was helping an elderly lady with her grocery shopping. Unlike most of the elderly in the village, she didn't hand them a list and let them go on their way while she stayed at home, instead she went with them. Fortunately, she didn't seem to have much problem with Naruto. The same couldn't be said of the store keepers they had to do business with.
One look and some light killing intent from Kakashi fixed that, for the most part.
He was approached by the ANBU team patrolling the village that day about the KI coming from him, especially aimed at civilians. (They seemed to have a problem with that sort of thing.) Kakashi was completely unrepentant, but he agreed to keep it down. There was no need to make things difficult for his team with the more veteran Shinobi. Perhaps, though, he should get most of their missions outside of the village, with the farmers nearby the village or other families that lived outside the village.
As long as they stayed within a certain distance to the village walls, it was still considered an 'in village' D-rank.
In the end, he had Naruto stay with the client while they did the shopping and dealt with the store employees or owners. He ended up carrying stuff for her, and she turned out to be very good company for the socially deprived Genin.
When Kakashi noticed, he made a mental note to keep an eye out for her name on the mission request forms from now on. Maybe he could arrange for Naruto to stay in contact with her otherwise. She could be a good influence on him.
After that, they were tasked with repairing a park near the outskirts of the village. It had gone neglected for a while as it was close to where the Kyuubi first attacked, and homes had been destroyed. The whole area was finally rebuilt, and ready for habitation again. It took twelve years to rebuild it because the village honestly had other things to worry about, so it was put on the back-burner once the people who'd been displaced had been relocated. But now, the village was growing again, and so they'd needed to rebuild the area so they would have somewhere to put people. The park had survived, somehow, and was being repaired now that there were children in the area again to use it.
Naruto didn't mind, this was actually his favorite park, and he was glad it was being fixed up. He'd used it often as a kid because it was out of the way, and nobody ever came here. He could play and do whatever he wanted without risking being attacked by 'concerned parents', or stared at, sneered at, glared at, or whispered about. You know, the usual. He just had to be careful that none of the old, neglected equipment broke.
Once they got to the park, Kakashi quickly found out where the supplies were being kept for it's restoration, and they had to go get them. Kakashi wouldn't let Naruto just seal them away to make for easier carrying, so he made enough clones to help carry, that way they only had to make one trip. When Naruto asked why, Kakashi said that sometimes he would let him seal everything away, but most of the time he would make them carry everything. Sometimes it would be necessary on a mission to seal everything up, but sometimes on a mission, you were in a hurry and wouldn't be able to seal what you needed away, you just had to grab whatever you could, and go.
That, and he said it would be a good work-out to carry everything.
Sure enough, Sakura was lagging behind and complaining that her load was too heavy about halfway back to the park from picking up the supplies. Kakashi reluctantly allowed one of the clones with a lighter load to take some of hers, but he refused to let her get away with not carrying anything. If she was going to be on his team, she was going to pull her own weight. He only allowed the Clone to help because it wasn't uncommon for teammates out in the field to redistribute supplies among them if somebody was getting too tired to carry everything they had on them. Assuming, of course, that that team didn't have a Fuinjutsu Master who could seal everything up to be carried in the weapon pouch.
But, like he pointed out to Naruto, sometimes sealing things away wasn't an option or there was no time for it.
"Hmm..." Kakashi hummed while he considered the sun's position and his watch. "Let's fix the swing, then we'll break for lunch and continue afterwards. We'll all work together, no going off and working on your own while everyone else is doing something else. Naruto, we will handle the climbing, as we're the only ones who already know tree-walking." He said, and Naruto nodded before he went back to separating out what they would need for the swing from the pile. Some of the play equipment was going to have to be completely replaced, either it was rusted out in places, or rotted out. (There was one piece of equipment that looked like somebody took a fire jutsu to it.) Like the seats for the swing set, the wooden boards were rotted out while the rope was rusty and frayed in some places. The frame itself still looked good, the top bar was the only bit that would need replacing.
While Sasuke and Sakura got the bar, a clone gathered the bolts and screws while Naruto and Kakashi made the short climb to reach the bar so they could work the screws and bolts out and make sure the holes were still good to put the new ones in. This proved to be difficult, as they were rusted in place. "Sakura, can you hand me that oil?" Naruto asked, that should help... it certainly couldn't hurt, right? She huffed, but grabbed it and threw it up to him before going back to her job of making sure the swings themselves were put together and the knots tightened with a special kind of glue to make sure they didn't come undone while a kid was on them or something.
"Thank you." He said and went back to work. When the oil worked, he tossed it to Kakashi and went to retrieve the bar while Kakashi finished his side and then simply pushed the bar out of place, making sure it fell away from his students. Luckily, the support base of the set was buried deep in the ground, or he have would fallen. It didn't take long to bolt the new bar into place and attach the ropes holding the swings to it, making it time for lunch.
Sakura took one look at her lunch and wrinkled her nose at it. "Ugh, does it have to be so fattening?" She whined.
"There's nothing wrong with it. Eat. You'll need it for later." Kakashi ordered. He wasn't going to put up with this dieting crap she had going on.
"But, sensei..." She started, and glanced at Sasuke, who hadn't looked at her or interacted with her beyond what was absolutely necessary while they sorted through or held stuff up to Naruto and Kakashi while working on the swing set. She was worried about keeping her figure for Sasuke.
"But, nothing. Eat your lunch. I don't want to see or hear anything further about this ridiculous diet. You are a Kuniochi now, such things will only hinder your training, and cause damage to your body. I will be speaking with your mother about this later this evening." He informed her. That wasn't the only thing he would be speaking with her mother about, either. She knew full well what her daughter needed to be doing and eating this whole time, and it was clear she hadn't done her part to properly prepare her daughter for the life she'd chosen to lead.
Now it fell on Kakashi to prepare her and destroy any and all bad habits she picked up over the years, so that she could be a productive Shinobi, and not a short-lived, nameless Genin. He had better things he should be doing with her, like actually training her. But he wouldn't be able to train her the way he wanted to because she wasn't physically fit, nor did she have any Chakra reserves. He was going to have to build those up first, otherwise his kind of training might just kill her.
After that, the rest of the day went well. They finished fixing the rest of the play equipment in good time, and left for the next job Kakashi had lined up for them. They would return the next day to do the general landscaping and put new benches around the perimeter for the parents to sit and gossip while watching their brats run around. After the park was finished, it would be up to the Civilian Maintenance crews to keep it nice and taken care of, just like they did every other park in the village.
The next job was actually babysitting for a few hours while the parents went out and enjoyed their tenth anniversary.
Naruto was... understandably apprehensive when he was told what the job was. He didn't have good experiences with adults, except for a select few (Kakashi, old-man Hokage, Iruka-sensei, a few of Kakashi's Jonin friends, Teuchi, and Ayame at the ramen stand), especially parents. Especially when he tried to go near their kids to play.
Kakashi sighed when he caught Naruto and Aika's puppy eyes, but conceded to allow Naruto to put a Henge on while they were with the kids. He decided that it was probably too soon to hope parents could possibly see the Konoha headband, and at least be professional towards him.
This got a curious look from Sasuke, Sakura was too busy fawning over the Uchiha to really notice or care.
Sasuke waited until the parents had given their instructions and said good-bye to their children, leaving them in the care of three inexperienced Genin and one Jonin-sensei, to ask about the Henge.
Naruto made a face, but answered as well as he could for now. "I can't really explain all of it, but... I'm not really well liked in the village. And it has nothing to do with my pranks! I only started pranking like I do because of how people treat me and stuff." Naruto picked at his pant leg. "But... people with kids really don't like me. They tend to get the most violent when they see me nearby, especially if they think I'm too close to their kids." He explained what little he could. Someday, maybe he could tell his teammates about the Fox demon in his gut, but that day was a long way off. After the last few days, mostly the night before, he thought that there might be more hope for Sasuke than there was for Sakura.
Time would tell.
Luckily, the parents had already made the kids dinner, they just had to reheat it and make sure the kids ate it. They were even kind enough to provide something for the Shinobi to eat as well. Kakashi made a note to spread their names among the other Jonin-sensei for them to watch out for. Most clients hiring Genin babysitters didn't think that the Shinobi needed to eat, too. Or they didn't think that the Shinobi they'd hired might not be the best cooks, so they didn't make anything ahead of time. Or, they didn't make anything and there was nothing in the kitchen for the Shinobi to throw together, so the team had to send somebody out for groceries or take-out. Those types of clients were usually avoided if possible, and only the teams the most desperate for a job would accept their requests.
Some people honestly wondered why their requests took so long to be answered, or went unanswered. Or they wondered why the Shinobi that took it were so inept. The Shinobi in question could only shake their heads at the cluelessness of some people.
Once the kids had eaten, they played for an hour until the parents came home, thanked the Shinobi and paid Kakashi, who would hand the payment and his copy of the mission request into the Mission office, where it would be counted and distributed properly.
The Genin were then herded towards Training Ground 7, where Kakashi put them through a light physical workout. "This is the kind of workout I want to see every evening before you leave. Every day after missions and training, we will come back here. Think of this as your cool-down. Tomorrow, we will meet here at 7:00 sharp." He glared lightly at Sakura, "As apparently I need to show you what I expect to see out of your morning workouts. Tomorrow, we will finish at the park, and then come back here for training. Today was different, with three missions and no training. From now on, we will take a mission in the morning, and train in the afternoon. That may change occasionally, we will see." He informed them before dismissing them to go home.
He'd taken the three missions because he wanted to see how they worked in a mission setting so he would know what direction to go with their 'civilian/client interaction' protocols and how well they could work together. The answer so far? Not too good.
"Sakura, I will be there soon to speak with your parents." He called at the girls retreating back. He noticed that Sasuke took the opportunity while Sakura was distracted with Kakashi to slip away, looking deep in thought.
As soon as Sasuke left the training grounds, he went straight for the small lake behind the Uchiha Clan compound to sit on the dock. This was where he always went to think, and he had a lot to think about right now.
He was considering what Naruto told him the night before, about his clan. And about the village.
If what he said was true, and the Uzumaki helped the Senju and Uchiha form the Village, then why would they be written out of the history books?
He'd done some digging the night before in his family library, found some older editions of his Academy textbooks (which had the information Naruto told him, right there in black and white), and he'd come to some disturbing conclusions.
Of the three founding clans, the Uzumaki was scattered as far as anybody knew, the Uchiha was reduced to two people, and the Senju had faded into relative obscurity ever since Lady Tsunade left the Village behind after the Third War. That was... actually disturbing, how the Founding Clans had just... faded away like that... three of the strongest clans in history and the founders of the current way of Shinobi life just... gone. It was like somebody wanted them out of their way, it happened so quickly.
Of the three, only one was ever mentioned, and that was because all the girls seemed to think that if they bothered him enough, they would get to bear his children.
Ha! Like that would ever happen. (For one thing, he was twelve! The last thing he was thinking about right now was starting a family, especially when he just started his Shinobi career.) He had no interest in those weak minded simpletons. Maybe if they bothered with their training more than they did their looks, he might consider acknowledging that they existed... and that would only be as fellow Konoha Shinobi.
He knew what he saw that night. Itachi standing over the bodies of their parents, blood dripping from his blade... but he'd never gotten a very good explanation. That night, Itachi had told him that it was to test his abilities, because he wanted a challenge. But... Itachi had always told him that fighting wasn't always the answer, that it was wise to try to find a peaceful solution first. Itachi hated fighting, always had, ever since he snuck out one day and stumbled across an active and bloody battlefield when he was a first year academy student.
And now that he was thinking back and trying to remember... was Itachi- crying that night?
Just what really happened that night?
"Ah, Kakashi, can I help you with something?" Iruka blinked in surprise when the Jonin showed up in front of him in a small cloud of smoke and leaves. He'd been out running errands and debating whether or not he wanted to go visit Naruto for the night.
"The Academy doesn't even teach tree-walking?" Kakashi asked, incredulous. That was one of the first things taught during the short time he was in the Academy. Then again, that was during war-time...
"Ah... no. They haven't done that in years." Iruka admitted. Even his Academy instructor had taught them tree-walking. But that had been cut out of the curriculum before his first year of teaching.
"Why?" Kakashi demanded.
Iruka shrugged. "The Civilian Council. When they took over the Academy curriculum they centered it almost entirely around theory and book learning. I think they would have cut out physical exercises entirely if they could have. Believe me, one of our new ANBU guards asked me about this same thing when security at the school was upped, she wasn't any happier about it then we are."
"Have you mentioned this to the Hokage?" Surely this was going too far?
"Yes. He's been working on it, but he didn't want to cause too many waves while Naruto was still in the Academy. Now that he's graduated and completely out of their purview, he can really start raking them over the coals." Iruka smirked, finally letting him in on the secret that Naruto was the reason the Hokage hadn't moved before now. The civilians already wanted him dead, had for years. While Naruto was a civilian, the Hokage's power over him had been so limited, Kyubi in his gut or not. But now...
"He's finally going to start taking back control of our village?" Kakashi perked up. It was about time!
"Yes. He's also mentioned retiring again, but I think he's going to hold off on that until the council is dealt with." Iruka shrugged. Most would think it strange that an Academy Chunin knew so much about their esteemed leaders' plans, but Iruka was a bit of an enigma to most. Everybody knew that he could have easily taken a promotion to Jonin years ago, instead he went into the Academy to teach. He was a Chunin, yet the Hokage listened to his advice over that of his advisers.
The Hokage and Iruka enjoyed watching everybody scratch their heads, and weren't about to share any information.
"Alright, everyone's here now." He glanced at Sakura, who was a few minutes late, and she only looked half put together. Her hair looked half-brushed, her clothes looked rumpled and thrown on, and she hadn't had a chance to put any of the make-up on that she'd put on the day before. "Go ahead and start your morning workouts, I will make adjustments or give recommendations as needed." He instructed, and formed a Shadow-clone to keep an eye on the kids while he and Naruto started their morning spar, having already done their workouts.
He mentally sighed when he heard the Clone have to start instructing Sakura on what to do, and had to... encourage her, to actually put effort into her workout. The Clone only had to make a few suggestions with Sasuke about some exercises to do that would work different muscle groups that he thought would suit Sasuke's body type and fighting style, as well as actually get the most of the workout itself. The Clone also suggested that Sasuke actually cut back on the number of reps, he didn't want Sasuke overdoing it so early in the morning, not for a simple morning workout. They would do more of that stuff later during the actual training session.
Once everyone was done, they went back to the park, where they found that new supplies had been delivered overnight.
"So... we still need to do the landscaping, right?" Sakura asked.
"Correct." Kakashi said brightly. "Sakura and Naruto, why don't you two start cleaning up the flower beds? Sasuke and I will rebuild the benches, then come join you." He instructed, looking around. "Naruto, you can use two Clones." He added, looking at his brother. There was a lot of work, after all, and he wanted to go back to their training ground after lunch to train.
"Alright." Naruto glanced at Sakura while Sasuke merely nodded before heading to the pile of wood and metal off to the side to sort through it all, hoping that Kakashi knew how all this was supposed to go together. He briefly wondered how any of this was a job for Shinobi, but decided to wait and see. "We each take a Clone and a bed?" Naruto suggested to Sakura, who wrinkled her nose at him and flounced off to a bed. Clone 1 looked at the other Clone and the original, shrugged, and followed silently. Along the way, he gathered the gardening tools they would need, that Sakura completely ignored.
"Let's get to it, I suppose." Naruto shrugged at Clone 2, before they both gathered what they needed and started cleaning a flower bed. They were full of debris, dead plants, and weeds, which meant that it was going to take a while to do one bed, and they were in a ring around the park on three sides. On the fourth side was a chain-link fence, cleverly hidden by a hedge row, that needed pruning as well.
The hours passed peacefully, unless you include the arguments between Sakura and Clone 1 while they worked. Apparently, she expected him to do all the work while she stood back and directed, or Sasuke-watched. There was also something in there about 'a lady shouldn't be getting all dirty', Kakashi set her straight soon enough.
(By creating a mud-hole and shoving her into it.)
When they were done with the benches, Kakashi and Sasuke joined the other two in the flower beds. Once they were cleared out, the hedge was pruned while they sent clones to pick up the flowers that were supposed to be planted, since for some reason they hadn't been delivered the night before with everything else.
"Good job, team." Kakashi said, looking around. The beds were cleaned out and replanted, the hedges and bushes were pruned or trimmed, new mulch or gravel was placed down in the foot-paths, and the play area was tilled up and new sand laid down. The play equipment itself was ready for children, and the benches around the park area were set up for parents to sit and gossip while their little darlings ran and screamed, exhausting themselves so they would actually sleep at night.
All in all, it was now a place he would happily avoid going to from now on. (That many screaming children in one place? No, not happening.)
"Back to the training grounds, we'll eat our lunch when we get there. I hope you packed one, because I'm not providing it today." He said cheerfully, already walking. Well, he supposed that if they didn't bring one, Naruto could give them something to eat out of one of his many storage seals.
Of course, Sakura didn't have a lunch, because she was still on her diet and apparently she'd eaten breakfast. What her version of breakfast was, he wasn't sure he wanted to know. "Didn't your mother listen to a word I said last night?" He grumbled while Naruto gave her food. "Eat it!" He growled when she went to protest.
"What are we working on today?" Sasuke asked, hoping that they were going to start the exercises his new sensei had promised him yesterday. They sounded really basic, but Kakashi had said he wasn't teaching anything else until they were mastered. He briefly wondered just what Kakashi would consider 'mastered'.
"Today, we're going to learn how to climb trees." Kakashi eye-smiled when he made his announcement.
"Huh?" Sakura asked, confused. "But, sensei, we already know how to climb trees." She said, Kakashi was only vaguely insulted by the patronizingly condescending tone of her voice.
"Ah, but do you know how to do it without using your hands?" He asked, equally patronizingly condescending.
"That's not possi-" She trailed off and her eyes widened in disbelief when Kakashi turned and started casually walking up the side of the tree, hands in his pockets.
"I think you'll find, Sakura, that there's not a whole lot that's 'impossible' with Chakra and a little ingenuity." Naruto smirked at her.
"Right." Kakashi jumped out the tree without a care, using Chakra to cushion his fall, throwing Kunai at Sasuke and Sakura's feet. "Use these to mark your progress. For now, I suggest starting at a run to build momentum. As you become more proficient, then the need for that will decrease. The trick is to pull enough Chakra to your feet, without overloading it. Too much Chakra, and you'll be blown off. Not enough, and you'll slip off." He instructed. "Naruto, go continue your exercises." He waved Naruto off, and the boy happily took off for the nearest water source.
"Alright, get to work." Kakashi said, turning to his team and gesturing towards the trees around them. Naruto would be fine on the water, he wouldn't even be surprised if he went to check on him later to see a Clone standing watch in case Naruto fell in and needed a hand or something.
"Good work, Sakura." Kakashi praised the girl sitting on top of the tree branch. She beamed and preened at the praise. "Now, I want you to walk up and down the tree. Don't stop, just keep walking." He instructed. Her Chakra reserves were too pitiful for him to teach her water-walking, and he didn't want to let her move on until Sasuke could, anyway.
Naruto, being on such advanced Chakra control exercises, didn't exactly count toward this method of team-building...
After watching them for a few more minutes, he went to check on Naruto who was currently sitting cross-legged while floating leaves and Kunai hung in the air above his hand. The different objects were so different in size, shape, and mass that he had to really concentrate to use just the right amount of Chakra for each object, especially since each object required different amounts of Chakra to keep them afloat. That made this sort of exercise perfect for him. Aika was helping him out by catching the Kunai he dropped, before they sank into the water (the leaves floated.)
It was good training for her, too.
"Sensei!" Sakura called before he could leave. He looked back to find her on the ground again, foot resting on the tree trunk, ready to start walking up it again. "Why isn't Naruto doing this, too?" She sneered. Ah, he'd wondered when she would question that, he was surprised she hadn't already said anything.
"Because Naruto already knows the tree-walking exercise, and is working on something more advanced." He eye-smiled, and turned to leave before she could open her mouth again.
"What?!" Her screech followed him, making him cringe. When he stepped out onto the water, he could see Naruto warily lowering his hands from where they'd been moved to cover his ears, dropping all the Kunai and leaves. Aika was being picked up out of water beside him from where she'd fallen in when Sakura startled her and she lost her 'footing'.
"How was it going?" He asked, he couldn't just see for himself anymore, because her screeches had distracted the younger boy.
"Fine. I could keep the Kunai up for a few seconds before they started falling, the leaves were being difficult, though. I accidentally shredded a few." Naruto looked up guiltily.
Kakashi hummed. They tested Naruto's elemental affinities a few months ago, mostly out of curiosity to see which of his parents' affinities he'd inherited, and it turned out to be wind, with a weaker one for water. Kakashi didn't want to start him on mastering it, though, until he got further along on being able to control his Chakra itself.
"Alright, start again." He instructed, after Naruto's Clone resurfaced again, clambered up onto the water's surface, and handed over the Kunai. Aika yipped, and he took the time to rub his hand over her head (before Kakashi dried her off by running fire chakra through his hands and petting her) before he started the exercise again. After a few minutes of watching, he nodded in satisfaction and gave Naruto some encouragement and advice before heading back to his other two students.
"Sakura! Did I ever tell you that you could stop?" He barked, annoyed to find the fangirl sitting under her tree, staring at Sasuke admiringly (creepily). She jumped and turned around with a squeak.
"Um, I was just resting for a few minutes before starting again!" She said, trying to act young and innocent.
He looked her up and down, taking note of her barely shaking limbs, slightly labored breathing, and lack of sweat on her body. "You don't seem to be tired out enough to warrant taking a break. Get back to it, and don't let me catch you slacking off again." He ordered with a glare. She squeaked again, and scrambled back up her tree. He made a Clone to stand at the base of her tree and make sure she didn't try to slack again, while he went to focus on how Sasuke was doing.
He nodded with approval at the steady rate the boy seemed to be improving, but was also a little disappointed that the boy wasn't doing better. "Take a moment, relax. Feel your Chakra flow, now try again." He instructed when he saw the frustration all over the boys face.
Sasuke took a moment to do as he was told, and then got back to it. He felt a difference almost immediately, especially when he found himself getting higher than he had before that.
"Sensei, why isn't Sasuke doing the advanced exercises, surely he would be better at it than Naruto?" The girl demanded. He paused and stared at her incredulously.
"The three of you will do the exercises that you are capable of, no matter what you think. You are not the Sensei of this team." He instructed her with a glare. She shrank back and started walking up and down her tree, moving as if he might come after her.
He glared at Sasuke, daring him to say anything in agreement with the fangirl.
The boy wisely said nothing. The Sensei's words the day before about building a good foundation were running through his head.
It had been a few weeks since the first day, and Kakashi decided the three of them had worked hard enough to deserve a little reward, so he approached the Hokage and selected a C-rank.
Sakura was still having the fangirl/damsel-in-distress beat- er, trained out of her, but she was training harder now, if only to get him off her back. On the training field and during missions, she was a semi-serious Kunoichi that at least did her work (he was pretty sure that a lot of her small turn-around was mostly Tenten's influence, though). Off the training field... not much really changed that he could tell, except that she now ate properly and didn't bother with make-up or perfume as much (she didn't have the time or energy). Lowering her volume was still a work in progress though, and it didn't look like her attitude towards Naruto would ever change, but... she was starting to make progress, sort of. It would take a lot more time, though, before she stopped fawning after Sasuke.
(He was honestly surprised at the amount of progress she'd already made. Again, he attributed it to Tenten and his unrelenting training exercises).
Sasuke's attitude had already shown an improvement as well, both after whatever he and Naruto talked about that night Naruto set up his apartment with security seals, and Kakashi forcing the young semi-avenger into going to see Inoichi regularly, and then spent training practically beating what the mind-walker was telling him further into his head. It was a surprisingly effective tactic.
"Alright, gather around!" He called to his students at precisely eight o'clock. They had been scattered around the clearing, doing morning exercises of some sort. Naruto had already done his physical exercises with him earlier that morning, and was focusing almost exclusively on Chakra control exercises, while Sasuke was currently working a training regimen that combined his usual morning workout, the workout Kakashi put them through for the first week until he deemed them trustworthy enough to come up with something on their own that still provided a workout, and tree-walking.
Kakashi was actually kind of impressed with what he was coming up with on his own.
Sakura, well... her exercises were coming along. She still refused to deviate and adapt, and was instead doing a textbook perfect copy of the exercises he'd shown them the first week. She would learn.
Although, in the interest of team-building, neither of them were moving onto water-walking until she built her reserves up enough to do the tree-walking exercise he came up with for an hour straight without running out of Chakra. So... Sasuke's impatience should prove to be enough motivation for her if nothing else. (Which was something else he was going to have to work on).
"Alright, you've all been doing fairly well for the last few weeks, so I've decided a trip out of the village wouldn't be too difficult." He announced, and smiled when Naruto celebrated with his usual exuberance, Sasuke smiled slightly, and Sakura appeared nervous, but one glance in Sasuke's direction ensured she didn't protest or say anything.
"Now, we have been tasked with running supplies out to the outpost on the border between Land of Fire, and Land of Lightning. For future reference, this team will never be taking missions that take us anywhere near the Hidden Stone Village in the Land of Earth... mostly because they hate me for my past association with Lord Fourth." Not to mention that one look at Naruto, and they would know exactly who his father was... the resemblance was kind of obvious. Just because Konoha decided to be willfully blind, didn't mean other places would be.
"Lord Fourth?" Sakura asked, confused and a little awed.
Kakashi blinked at her. "Yes... he took me in when my father died. Then, when I graduated from the Academy I was apprenticed to him for a few years until we were given a team." He revealed. If anything, her awe increased, and he cleared his throat. "We will be gone at least overnight, so meet at the main gate in one hour, for now go home and pack." He instructed, and watched in satisfaction as they left to do as they were told.
Only Naruto stayed behind. He shrugged when he caught Kakashi's gaze. "I already have everything I need for an overnight in my storage seals." He said simply, and Kakashi sighed. It pained him that Naruto felt the need to constantly be ready to leave the village at any moment, but he also knew that if the Council had any say in it, he would never have even lived past his first week of life, let alone been allowed to stay in the Village. "I think I'm going to go sit on the Monument before we go." He said, and Kakashi nodded his agreement with the plan, while he himself went to check on the supplies they were going to be carrying.
An hour later, they were all gathered by the front gate, and Kakashi led them to where the supplies were, he may have checked on them, but that didn't mean he was going to do all the work in getting them ready to actually transport. No, they would need to know where the supplies were housed for pick-up, anyway.
"These all need to be sealed away." He explained. "All this can go in these, but the medical supplies here need to go in this special scroll." He handed out the relevant scrolls, showed them (Sasuke and Sakura) how to use them, and sealed the medical supplies away himself.
A 'shift' at the outposts was six months, supply (and information) runs were every two months (barring emergency). When the 'shift change' happened, the relief was responsible for carrying their own supplies for the first two months, and then they would have to ration out as needed until the next supply run. As such, they weren't the only ones here picking up supplies. Mostly they were all older Genin teams, but Kakashi spotted the occasional lone Chunin or Jonin. They were probably just taking the supply run for a quick change in scenery, either that or they weren't cleared by Inoichi for anything more strenuous or exciting, but they needed to get out anyway.
He was getting some odd looks, though, that he was happily ignoring. After all, one didn't usually take their fresh Genin out of the Village until at least two months after graduation. Graduation was only three weeks ago.
"Kakashi! Wasn't expecting to see you going on a supply run! And so soon?" Genma called, walking up to him just as he finished sealing away the medical supplies. He chewed on his ever-present senbon a little bit before simply rolling it around. Bandages were peeking out of his uniform, and he looked exhausted, but otherwise happy enough.
Kakashi shrugged. "They've been doing well so far, so I decided to reward them with a trip outside the village." He said simply.
"Ah, well, I suppose I can understand that, but you know most sensei take their kids out for dinner or something as a reward." Genma said after a moment. Kakashi gave him a deadpanned look, and he shrugged. "Good point." Kakashi was not most people after all. Never had been, probably never would be.
"Genma!" Naruto rushed over and stopped beside Kakashi to greet the other Jonin. He'd already finished sealing his share of the supplies away, and helped Sasuke and Sakura with theirs, they were currently standing awkwardly off to the side, Sasuke pointedly ignoring her except to occasionally brush her hand off his arm or inch away.
"Hey, kiddo. How've you been doin'?" Genma's mouth quirked up into a grin and his hand reached out, ruffling Naruto's spiky head. Genma was one of the few that Kakashi trusted to watch over Naruto whenever he was gone on a mission for more than a few days. The other Jonin often shared responsibility for overseeing Naruto's training with Gai during those times, and protected Naruto from the Council and drunks. Many people seemed to decide that Kakashi being gone meant that it was open hunting season on Naruto, which often tempted Kakashi to just burn the village to the ground sometimes.
"Hey!" Naruto squawked, batting the hand away and holding his hands over his head protectively. "And I'm good, my Chakra control has been getting better, too!" Naruto was happy about that, although his control still sucked, it wasn't as bad as it was before Kakashi-nii started teaching him right.
"That's good to hear. And this must be Aika?" He asked with a chuckle, smiling at the little pup who was currently sitting on Naruto's foot.
"Hm-hm." Naruto agreed happily. "Hey, how did your mission go?" He asked eagerly.
"Oh... it went." Genma grimaced. "Everyone made it back alive, so that was something." He'd been escorting a merchant caravan to their next destination, through some rough bandit territories. Luckily, he did manage to get them all out alive and with the cargo intact, although two of the merchants' group were rushed to the hospital as soon as they arrived. Luckily for him, the caravan leader didn't hold that against him, apparently two rushed to the hospital was a much better outcome than most Shinobi escorts managed to achieve when they took this route. He wasn't sure he wanted to know how many they'd lost over the years to those particular bandits.
The caravan would go another route, but that one was honestly the quickest, and therefore 'safest' route through the area.
He'd asked why nobody had been sent out to deal with the bandits, but nobody in the caravan could tell him. He suspected money was exchanging hands somewhere, maybe some bribery of local officials or blackmail, or maybe the bandits did occasional work for local officials. One never knew.
If they'd been paying attention, they would have noticed the horrified expression cross Sakura's face at his casual reference to almost dying.
"That's the most important part." Kakashi murmured, knowing it must have been rough. He glanced at his Genin, waiting patiently for them to finish their conversation. "We should go, have a delivery to make. Poker when we get back?" He suggested, already moving towards his Genin.
"Yeah, want me to let Gai, Asuma, and the rest of the team know?" Genma asked. Just because he was fully retired from ANBU didn't mean he didn't stay in touch with the others.
"Sure, I'll send Pakkun around once we're back." Kakashi agreed before gathering up his cute little students and herding them towards the gate, where he signed them out and led the way into the trees, the fastest way to travel anywhere.
He kept the pace slow, because Sasuke and Sakura weren't used to this method of travel yet, and their stamina wasn't quite up to par yet. They were so much better than they were three weeks ago, though. Sasuke would have been fine, but Sakura would have been whining and lagging not even twenty minutes in. Now, she made it at least an hour with the slower pace before she started to lag behind. She didn't whine, though. She'd learned quickly (and painfully) that whining would only make him push her harder, not let up like she hoped for when she made her displeasure known. Naruto, of course, could go all week at full speed probably if he was really feeling like it.
Kakashi made them run for an hour and a half before he signaled for them all to drop out of the trees. "Get something to eat, drink, and rest. You have thirty minutes." He said, and went to investigate the immediate area. If he was impatient with their current speed, he didn't let on to his three students.
"How far away is this outpost, anyway?" Sasuke asked when their sensei came back, panting lightly, and with his legs burning. He should have asked earlier, but it completely slipped his mind.
Kakashi sighed. "You should have asked earlier, or found a map to look it up yourself." He scolded lightly. "The outpost is roughly six hours away depending on how fast you travel. At the rate we are going, it's going to be closer to eight to ten hours, especially if we have to make many more rest stops." He informed them, and Sakura visibly wilted.
"Eight hours?" She asked. "Minimum?"
"If we don't have to stop a lot to rest, which we will." Kakashi confirmed. No point in killing them from exhaustion on their first trip out of the Village. The paperwork wouldn't be worth it. "I want to be there tonight, so we can't go too slow, but I also don't want you collapsing." Which wouldn't help anybody. Especially not him since he would be the one in trouble for pushing them too far, too soon. Again, the paperwork would really not be worth it.
Naruto snorted at her disbelief. "You think this is bad, just wait until the first survival trip he decides to take us on." He advised.
"What's wrong with my survival trips?" Kakashi asked, faking hurt.
"Nothing. They're just hard. I love it, though." He really did love the challenge they presented, and Kakashi changed it up every time, so he doubted that they would ever get boring or predictable.
"Really?" Kakashi raised his eyebrow (not that anybody could see that). "Well, then. Maybe I'm not doing it right." He mused. After all, if it was being enjoyed, then it clearly wasn't difficult enough.
"Huh? Oh, no, you do them just right." Naruto cut in quickly, not wanting them to be made any more difficult than they already were. Those survival trips were hard enough as it was already.
Kakashi just smirked and got up. "Times up, we need to get moving again." He said and jumped into the trees, followed closely by Naruto while the others scrambled to gather their trash and catch up. He sighed and made some more reflex drills a priority for when they got back. It should not take them so long to break 'camp', not that they really set up camp to begin with... At any rate, they needed to be able to grab everything and move on within seconds, if not less. They couldn't afford to scramble around, especially not if they were under attack and had to get out of there yesterday.
The rest of the trip was rather boring. On one of the rest stops, Kakashi spotted some deer nearby and felt it the perfect opportunity to teach his cute Genin how to hunt when you were in a hurry.
"When your running from something, say you infiltrated a building and your presence was noted. You need to get out of there in a hurry, maybe you left supplies behind, but you need to eat something. Those are the times when you find whatever you can, kill it or gather it, and then store it away to properly clean once you're safe." He explained, and nodded to Naruto to get into position. Naruto, of course, already knew all this due to a combination of Kakashi's survival exercises, and experience from living on his own for so long and dealing with the Villagers by himself. "Now, a lot of the time when hunting for food, you don't want the small ones. The small ones won't have much meat on them. However, in this case, you have to take whatever you can get. And the kill has to be as clean as possible, you can't leave a lot of blood behind for trackers to find and know that you were there." He advised.
They watched as Naruto took out a senbon. "That is why Naruto is using a senbon. We will work more with those later on." He promised. "The senbon is small, and thin enough that it can kill quite easily, if aimed correctly, but also leave behind very little mess. This is where stealth comes into the picture. You don't want to charge in and startle your prey, that will alert others and make going for the kill more difficult if the herd is panicked and thrashing around. You find a target that looks acceptable, and you strike." He said as Naruto did exactly what he was describing. After the doe fell, the rest of the herd scattered, confused by what just happened. Naruto just walked right up to his kill and sealed it away to clean up later. The deer scattered at his presence, but by the time they fled, he was already in the trees with his team.
"After you have made the kill, it's best to seal it away so it doesn't weigh you down. And, after the kill is made, you don't have to worry about panicking the herd so much, hopefully by the time you seal everything up and get back into the trees, the herd scattering will destroy any evidence of you being there, and whoever is tracking doesn't even realize that whatever it was to scare them, was anything other than another animal." Kakashi said in satisfaction, nodding at Naruto, pleased with how he did. "We'll clean it tonight at the outpost, it's big enough to share with the team stationed there, I'm sure they'll appreciate it. For now, it's time to keep moving. We still have three more hours to travel." He said, and set off again with the three Genin following behind obediently.
The rest of the trip went by uneventfully, and Kakashi was honestly a bit bored by it, but he didn't say anything, just relieved to not have any problems on a routine assignment, especially not while his Genin team was there, with him.
"Halt! Who's there?" He heard yelled through the trees roughly five minutes away from the outpost.
"Jonin Kakashi Hatake, Genin Naruto Uzumaki, Genin Sakura Haruno, and Genin Sasuke Uchiha. Here to deliver supplies." Kakashi called through the trees and flared his Chakra for the other Shinobi to identify.
A Jonin appeared out of the trees, studying them warily. Apparently, though, he recognized Kakashi's Chakra signature, because he didn't question if they were telling the truth about their identities. "It's good to see a familiar face." He greeted, and motioned for them to follow.
"I bet it is." Kakashi returned, having done his fair share of border patrol and out-post assignments. Nothing exciting ever happened during them, which was a good thing, of course, but still boring. "Anything we can help with until we leave tomorrow?" He asked.
"... Maybe there is."
"Oh?"
"We spotted Killer B and his Genin team across the border this morning. They aren't doing anything, it looks like their just on a training trip, but then again..."
"They're pretty close to the border for a training trip." Kakashi finished, frowning.
He nodded. "I'm still a new Jonin, and the others are all Chunin. I wouldn't stand a chance if for some reason we had to fight him. You've fought him before, though, haven't you?" This was his first assignment as a Jonin, which wasn't strange. Border patrol units were usually experienced Genin teams with their Sensei, or teams of Chunin with a new Jonin team leader.
"You want me to check his intentions, and try to run him off if needed?" He asked, somewhat amused. He was somewhat pleased that he wasn't as arrogant as most new Jonin often were.
"Yup. Here we are, kids. Hope that this is the only time you have to come here." He joked lightly, and Kakashi snorted.
They would have a border assignment at some point. In fact, they should find themselves lucky if Kakashi didn't decide to sign them up for a border assignment as often as he could.
Sakura wrinkled her nose in disgust. This was the outpost? It was nothing more than a tent and a shack built in a tree.
She'd been hoping for a shower! And what was she going to use for a bathroom tonight? Or any kind of privacy from Naruto and Sensei?
"I know it doesn't look like much, but it's important for the defense of both the Land of Fire and Konoha." Their guide told them, and led them into the tent, where he opened a trapdoor in the ground. "Of course, the rest of it is all underground." He motioned them under before he followed while Kakashi stayed above, leaning over the open door to watch.
"Raimaru!" He called. A Nara Chunin appeared after a moment in a Shunshin. "Show these three around while I show Hatake where the Cloud team are camped out." He ordered.
"Troublesome." Raimaru sighed, but motioned for the Genin to follow. Kakashi tossed Naruto the scroll with the medical supplies, along with the supply manifest. "So, what team is Shikamaru on?" He asked, eyeing the Genin and noticing that they were the same age as his younger cousin. He knew enough about Kakashi Hatake's reputation to not bother asking why they were already taking C-ranks, despite being so fresh out of the Academy.
"Huh?" Sakura asked, confused by the random question.
"He's on Team 10 with Asuma Sarutobi, Choji Akimichi, and Ino Yamanaka." Naruto answered. "He's a Nara, Shikamaru's probably his cousin. He's just curious." He muttered to Sakura, who scowled at him. Sasuke grunted in agreement.
*Sigh* "Figures that they would keep those three together." Raimaru drawled. "Here's the supply room." He said, and led the three in. Naruto immediately pulled out the scrolls he carried, followed by his teammates, and Raimaru dug for a moment before finding their copy of the requisition order to check that everything they asked for was sent.
"Alright, let's get this stuff put away, then I'll show you where you'll be sleeping tonight." He said with a sigh.
"Oh, we caught a deer on the way here for dinner." Naruto remembered, and pulled the storage scroll in question out of his pocket.
"Thanks." Raimaru actually grinned slightly before he took the offering and put it in his pocket to be handed off to one of his teammates. He was pretty sure it was Daisuke's turn to cook tonight.
"That's all of it, I think." Sasuke muttered, putting the last container on the shelf while Naruto checked it off. Raimaru actually looked happy about it.
"They actually sent everything we needed this time!" He said, actually surprised. "We haven't been able to get some of our supplies for a while, the Hokage sent a message about a supply shortage or something. Troublesome, if you ask me." He sighed and shoved the list away in his pocket. "Alright, let me show you where you can put your stuff, and we'll head topside to clean this deer."
BOOM!
"... What was that?" Naruto asked, straining his ears. Unfortunately, being underground did a good job of muffling any noise from up above them. Aika whined and yipped, she didn't hear anything either. He could, however, sense the sudden Chakra spike from Kakashi. "It feels like Kakashi is fighting." He deadpanned.
The Nara sighed. "I don't think the Cloud team took being questioned well... Troublesome." He muttered, and ran for the ladder. "You don't know how to use it yet, do you?" He threw back at Naruto who shook his head, making him curse. "Follow me, do exactly as I say, and stay down." He instructed, before he started to climb the ladder, hoping that B didn't go into his Jinchuuriki mode. He wasn't surprised to find that the rest of his team was already out there, working on containing the Cloud Genin while the three Jonin fought.
"All I wanted was to know what you were doing so close to the border." Kakashi grumbled while dodging an attack from B. His eyes widened and he threw himself to the side when two more swords appeared in front of him, barely missing him. B just narrowed his eyes and didn't say anything.
Raimaru growled softly, muttered something that sounded suspiciously like troublesome, and quickly ordered the Genin to stay there and observe, and to not interfere before he went to join his team. Whatever else he'd heard about B, the man was certainly a good sensei, his Genin were strong.
Sasuke tried to run into the fray, but Naruto growled and pulled him back, making a shadow clone to help him hold the Uchiha back. B caught the movement out of the corner of his eye, and stopped, staring at Naruto, who shifted defensively.
Kakashi looked between them, and then stepped between them carefully, watching B while the Chunin and Genin kept fighting.
"Stand down!" B barked, still watching Naruto over Kakashi's shoulder. "Is that who I think it is?" He asked his partner.
"Yes... he holds Nine." Gyuki said, sounding shocked. But then, the last time he heard about his (arguably) stronger brother, he'd been 'killed' after rampaging through the Hidden Leaf twelve years ago. Humans, what a bunch of idiots.
"This kid looks like Minato and Kushina." B said slowly, studying his features. "Yo! Blondie!" He finally called out loud, noting Kakashi's tensing. Ah, so the famous Copy-nin finally took a Genin team, did he? Either that or he didn't like an enemy nin talking to his (maybe?) sensei's son. He was sure he was the only one outside of Konoha who knew about Minato and Kushina's relationship. There had clearly been something between them when the Yellow Flash rescued the Habanero from being kidnapped by Cloud.
"Yeah?" Naruto asked after a moment, glancing at Kakashi.
"You hold Nine. I hold Eight." He revealed, and was pleased when the boy didn't look at all surprised, even though his teammates were clearly confused. The rest of the Konoha nin tensed and looked ready to continue the fight. "You good with a sword? Your mother, she was a master. Be a shame if that legacy died with her." He decided to refrain from rapping here, wanting to have a real conversation.
"I... just started learning. You knew my mother?" Naruto asked, surprised. He ignored Sasuke's considering look. He'd been getting a lot of those ever since Naruto told him about the Uzumaki clan.
"She was a worthy opponent, the few times I had the pleasure of crossing blades. You get good with a blade, come find me. You want a partnership with Nine, Eight and I have a few tricks to teach." He hated how the other villages treated their Jinchuuriki, and how the Jinchuuriki often viewed their Biju. Any chance to change that with somebody, he and Gyuki would take it, even for somebody from another village.
"Why would you offer training?" Kakashi asked suspiciously. If B could tell who Naruto's mother was from his looks, then he obviously knew who Naruto's father was.
"Us brother's got to stick together!" He laughed, slapping where his seal was on his stomach, watching the Blonde Uzumaki-Namikaze touch his own. "Besides, it's peace-time, right?" He signaled his team to leave, to much complaining from them, as they were confused about why they were just leaving. They'd only understood half the conversation, just enough to know that the blonde kid held the Nine-tails, and their sensei held his mother in high regard.
As soon as they were gone, Sakura tried to hit Naruto, but he sidestepped smoothly, still looking in the direction the Cloud team had disappeared to. "What was all that about?" She demanded.
"Don't worry about it, Sakura." He said, Aika yipped in agreement beside him.
"Sakura! Leave it. That information is an S-ranked secret, you don't have permission to know." Kakashi rolled his eyes, and sighed. That was strange, though. He groaned just thinking of what the Hokage might have to say about this. And B never did tell him what they were doing so close to the border, either. "Let's get back to the outpost, I still need to teach you kids how to skin that deer, ne?" He eye-smiled at them, and herded them back, glancing back behind him as they went.
Hiruzen stared at Kakashi before cleaning out his ears and asking him to repeat that. "That's... what I thought you said. B definitely recognized Naruto's parentage?" He asked, just to be sure.
"He didn't name anybody, but he acknowledged Naruto's mother as a master swordswoman, and said it would be a shame for her legacy to die with her. He also recognized Naruto as the holder of the Nine-tails, he probably sensed it. He is the Eight-tailed Jinchuuriki after all." Kakashi said again.
"If he recognized Naruto's mother, then he certainly recognized Naruto's father." Hiruzen muttered. Why hadn't he actually said anything, though? He just implied he knew. And none of it answered why he had his Genin team so close to the border, or why he attacked when questioned in a perfectly legitimate and acceptable manner.
Kakashi snorted a laugh. "Kid has his father's coloring and cunning, but his mother's face and sunny personality." He said fondly, remembering his sensei/father-figure and his wife fondly.
"Indeed. If it weren't for the villager's willful blind ignorance..." He trailed off, shaking his head. It was only the villagers unwillingness to see it that kept his parentage secret, and therefore kept him safe from assassination attempts from outside the village. Now that Killer B had seen him and worked out who he was... "And you said B offered him training?" He couldn't get over that part.
"He said 'us brothers got to stick together'." Kakashi quoted. "You know how the Biju are seen, and how Jinchuuriki are treated, Kumo is the only one that treat's there's decently, as if they're actually human." He shrugged, not able to truly guess B's motives beyond a sense of loyalty to his fellow Jinchuuriki.
Hiruzen sighed. "What does Naruto think about all this?" He finally asked.
"Hmm... I haven't really asked him yet, but he seemed intrigued by the offer for training him in controlling the Biju's Chakra, and in forming a proper partnership with the Nine-tails." The only real reason Kakashi hadn't started teaching how to use that Chakra, was because he didn't know how to do it safely. He didn't want Naruto to be consumed by it, or hurt. He didn't want anybody else getting hurt, either. But he knew that Naruto had spoken with the Biju several times, although he didn't quite know the outcome of those conversations.
Naruto just grumbled about unhelpful foxes with bad attitudes.
So he was going to guess the conversations didn't end well.
"That would be invaluable. If only I knew his motives in offering, and if they truly are as benign as he seems to claim." He would be thrilled with the offer, if only he knew if there were any other motives behind the offer. He wasn't going to send Naruto to train with a powerful Jonin from another village, an enemy village at that, without knowing the exact motives behind the offer. As a Hokage, that would be plain stupid. As a grandfather... the possibility of it being a trick and Naruto getting hurt because of it was just intolerable.
"Hmm..." The aging Hokage hummed, leaning back in his chair. "I will wait for a letter from A, he's bound to send one." He rolled his eyes. In a world of espionage and shadows, A's sometimes bold, up-front approach could be as refreshing as it was annoying. "Especially if B made an offer of training a fellow Jinchuuriki, he will want to have arrangements and agreements in place for if the time comes that it can happen." He muttered. If he let Naruto go off to train with B, there would be some concessions made, maybe some trading and deals brokered. They would also have to agree on a location before he let Naruto go anywhere.
That was, of course, assuming B would even tell his older brother he even made the offer.
"Naruto! Stop trying to be cool!" Sakura screeched, causing Naruto to wince, glad that Kakashi had reminded him to use his earplugs from Iruka. That didn't mean it wasn't loud, though.
"What are you talking about?" He asked, looking up from his book and reaching down to pet Aika.
"You're always trying to be cooler then Sasuke, stop it, you're just embarrassing yourself." She berated, making Kakashi and Sasuke look up from what they were doing.
Naruto had been absorbed in a tactics book, leaning against a tree with one foot resting flat on the tree trunk instead of the ground. Aika was standing on the tree itself, practicing her tree-walking and building her reserves. He looked at her blankly. "I wasn't aware I was trying to be anything." He said blithely. "And what do you care, shouldn't you be doing something?" He asked, annoyed. He'd just reached an interesting chapter, too.
He hated it when he was interrupted while he was reading! Especially if it was something that actually held his interest.
"Sakura, get back to work!" Kakashi called, annoyed. He'd thought he was making progress with her, but ever since that C-rank where another villages Jonin singled out Naruto, she'd been after him with a vengeance. It was as if she'd taken that other Jonin's recognition of Naruto and ignorance of Sasuke as a personal insult, and she was taking it out on Naruto.
"But Sensei!" She started to protest.
"Get. Back. To. Work." Kakashi said again, slowly and clearly. Just in case she missed it the first time.
She shot Naruto a dirty look, as if her getting yelled at was his fault, but went back to her exercises. Kakashi had said he refused to advance any of them any further until they all had tree- and water-walking mastered.
Sasuke had since mastered tree, and was working on water, but she couldn't generate enough Chakra to stay on the water. Kakashi said her control was more then adequate, she just didn't have enough Chakra, period. She could stand on the surface, but no matter how much Chakra she tried to pump into it, she would slowly sink.
(Which was odd, since even Lee with his malformed Chakra coils, was able to use enough Chakra to water-walk.)
Naruto, who had long since mastered both, was multitasking by using his Chakra to float his book above his hands, and to turn the pages. Kakashi had said this would be a perfect application of his wind-nature, which they had tested the night he graduated, as Kakashi had promised they would. For now they were muddling through until they could convince Asuma to help him with it. So far he'd shredded at least ten books. Thankfully they weren't old, valuable, or Clan related, so they were easily replaced.
(Asuma had nothing against Naruto, per se... he just wasn't sure he wanted to know what the blond prankster could do with control over wind.)
Anyway, while Sasuke worked on his water-walking, Naruto worked on more control, and Sakura was doing exercises designed to increase her reserves so that she could actually do something with them beyond the Academy jutsu that required such a miniscule amount of Chakra, no matter how useful two of those techniques were.
Kakashi looked at his Genin and sighed. He'd hoped to have them further along then this by now, but it seemed that he'd taken three massive steps back with Sakura, which was holding all of them back. He knew Sasuke was getting annoyed with all the control exercises, as much as he was thrilled to be learning how to walk on water and such, he'd been hoping for something more powerful. Naruto was seemingly content with what he was working on, but he knew Naruto was starting to get antsy for something else to work on. But he'd already said that nobody was moving on from here until they could all tree- and water-walk. Which left them waiting for Sakura to build up her reserves so she could water-walk.
Checking the time, his eyebrows raised in surprise. "Naruto, you and Aika have training in five minutes." He informed his brother quietly. Naruto glanced at the time, cursed, scooped up Aika, and took off racing through the trees.
"Sensei?" Sasuke asked in confusion, pausing in his Katas from the middle of the lake. Why were they leaving to go to training? Weren't they already in the middle of training?
"Naruto and Aika have training with the Inuzuka clan once a week." Kakashi told him with a shrug. "Tsume is very... well, lets just say Naruto was only late once." Which was completely his fault, not Naruto's, but Tsume had still not been happy.
"Why does he go to the Inuzuka? Couldn't you help with her training?" Sasuke was confused. They'd already met Kakashi's ninken pack, so he knew Kakashi could handle Aika's nin- training.
"Aika is an Inuzuka hound, they don't trust me to train her right." Kakashi shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. Ever since the time Bull peed in Tsume's rose bushes, she had not trusted him with any kind of dog training, and the entire clan would look at his dogs critically, as if trying to find something wrong with them that could justify them taking them away for additional training. That, and he knew that Aika being an Inuzuka hound was a point of pride for them, even if she wasn't bonded to a member of the clan, she still represented them as one of their nin-bred dogs. Any failure on her part reflected on their entire breeding and training program.
That, and Inuzuka hounds were trained more in the use of Chakra then his dogs were. He wasn't sure just how far the Inuzuka were going to go in Naruto and Aika's training, although he doubted that it would go as far as clan techniques, but he knew that it would quickly reach a point past his ability to train her properly.
"What did Naruto do to get an Inuzuka hound?" Sasuke muttered to himself, continuing his Katas before Kakashi could yell at him to get back to work. Kakashi had forced him to learn a new style, one that didn't rely on the Sharingan to be properly effective. He was still working it out, but he could already admit to himself that it worked much better for him. He would continue to work on his families style, though, in preparation for when he finally unlocked his Sharingan.
"His senses are sharp, as sharp as, if not sharper, then an Inuzuka's." Kakashi heard his question, and answered, anyway. Sasuke nodded, having already noticed this about his teammate. "Because of this, the Hokage called in a favor and asked that the Inuzuka teach him how to properly use his senses without being overwhelmed. He took to those lessons so well that they offered him a partner from one of their litters." He remembered the bad nights when Naruto was so overwhelmed with the noise outside his apartment that he couldn't sleep, and instead sat huddled against the wall with his hands over his ears to try and block it out.
It wasn't long before noise-canceling seals were placed around his bed just so the boy could sleep.
It wasn't long after the Hokage found out about it that he called Tsume to his office and made arrangements.
"Where did Naruto go?! Did he just leave us here? Come on!" Sakura suddenly screeched, incensed.
"Naruto had to be somewhere, not that it is any of your business." Kakashi said coldly, twitching at her loud voice. "And what have I said about your volume?" He demanded, looming over the girl.
She squeaked as she almost fell over trying to shrink away from him. "To keep it down." She whispered.
"Don't forget again." He warned, wondering if he shouldn't hunt down Iruka for one of his earplugs. They weren't available at the Armory yet, unfortunately. Although the Inuzuka had already been provided with a pair for each member for when needed.
"Now, keep going with your exercises." He instructed, and briefly wondered how they'd missed Naruto leaving for his training with Tsume before, but dismissed it as something else to work with them on. They needed to be aware of what was going on around them, after all. This wasn't the first team training session Naruto had to leave early, after all.
Hiruzen looked at the missive that had just arrived for him and sighed.
So, B had told the Raikage after all...