Hey! I'll start reviewing comments in the beginning of the story instead of pming my replies.
PartinLA: Thanks! And I'll definitely give "Ice Princess" a read! I wanted to do my take on a more Hyuga-like Hinata without all the hate towards Naruto. In my opinion I'm not doing that well but I'm trying to do it better.
AvatarUzumaki: Thank you for the review! It's mostly filler because I want to slow down the story.
AvexedAuthor: I want to do something with all of the Konoha 11 but I'm not sure how great of a job I'll do. And about the scumbag Kiba, I have nothing against Kiba but I needed to create conflict between Naruto and someone over Hinata. My first option was Toneri, because I don't have any love for his character, but I couldn't find a logic way to incorporate him into the story yet. Second was Sasuke, but he's already good here and I like Sasuke and Naruto's brother bond too much to let a crush break them apart.
Vonta01: Already did baby :)
Zaman and SyrinxSilenus: Thank you for the review and yeah I know. I'm not that good at writing yet so I just pulled something from my ass.
OrigDayday: Thanks for the review and yes I didn't see how that didn't line up but I changed it already thanks to you :)
Panjangya: Yessss! I loved that fic and I wanted to throw in some stuff from that. If anyone hasn't read it, the story is "Kakashi's Mini-Me" By: theriku260. Great read, unfortunately left unfinished but still one of my favorites.
Godschildtweety: Thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it!
Kaisha: Thanks for the review! And yesss! She doesn't know what's in store for her!
Guest: Oh god no. Trust me it's not rape but it's still pretty bad.
Panjangya: Yup. And when he does, they'll be carnage.
Zee Goddess: Thanks for the review and yes, he does have a darker side thanks to everything he was put through when he went missing for the six months. He's just portraying his more positive emotions instead because he just wants for those around and close to him to be happy.
Doney Uzumaki: Thanks :) Glad you're liking the story.
Zee Goddess: Sorry about the Kiba cliche. The chapter length in the beginning was long for me because I was starting out, but as I started writing more, the longer the chapters became because it was so much fun writing. Hopefully the chapter length is alright now.
Panjangya: Nope! Good guess though :)
Seankurt: Sorry to hear that :(
Panjangya, Prxic: :)
Just a bored Highschooler: Like the username and thanks! :)
Without further ado...
Chapter 13: Training in Elements
Kakashi stood in front of his genin in Training Grounds 7. He eyed each of his genin. The today he had planned that they'd take their training up a notch. Although the way two of his genin looked was not what he was expecting. Hinata was the normal one. She looked fine and refreshed from the previous day's training. The one's that looked bad were the two boys.
Sasuke looked paler than ever. His hair was all in disarray and parts of his clothes were singed. He looked like we were about to collapse in a matter of minutes. Then there was Naruto. Naruto looked just as tired and pale but Kakashi would guess that the reason was different. Instead of being physically tired, he appeared to be mentall tired. Perhaps from studying fuinjutsu all night long.
Kakashi shook his head and spoke. "Naruto, Sasuke. What were you two doing that made you show up to the team meeting looking this exhausted?"
"I was trying to create an original fire jutsu." Sasuke responded back in a tired voice.
Naruto turned to face Sasuke with a surprised face that had all exhaustion wiped. "Really?" Sasuke nodded. " How far did ya get?"
"Ughh. Not as far as I'd like. All I managed to do was make a smaller fireball."
"Well what's the jutsu you have in mind?" Kakashi asked.
"I want to make a fire laser pretty much. A concentrated and condensed laser of fire that can burn anything in its path."
"Hmm that does sound like it's going to take a while to create and master." Sasuke nodded and drooped his head a bit. "But that's part of why I brought you guys out here." He pulled out four small pieces of paper and handed them to each of his genin.
"What's this?" Naruto asked curiously.
"That, my little Chibi, is called Chakra Induction Paper. When it's exposed to even the slightest hint of chakra, it reacts according to the chakra's latent element. If it's fire, the paper will ignite and turn to ash. Wind, the paper will split in two. Lightning, the paper will wrinkle. Earth, the paper will turn to dirt and crumble away. Water, the paper will become wet." Kakashi sent a bit of chakra into the paper to show what he meant. The paper then proceeded to wrinkle between his two fingers. "As you can see, I have a lightning affinity. You go first Sasuke."
Sasuke nodded and channeled chakra into his piece of paper. It wrinkled before bursting into fire and turned into ash. "Wow Sasuke-chan," Sasuke scowled at the nickname. "You have two elements. That's rare for a genin."
"Sensei, does this mean we wouldn't be able to use any of the other elements?" Hinata questioned.
"Not necessarily. It just means that you'll have an easier time learning and performing those types of nature jutsus. They'll also be more powerful. Anyways your turn princess."
Hinata frowned a bit at the nickname but channeled chakra to the paper. Her paper became wet and a bit wrinkled. "Hmm so I have a water affinity."
"And a weak lightning affinity too. Look at it more closely. It has a bit of wrinkles." Hinata inspected it closer and saw that it did indeed have wrinkles. "Last but not least, Chibi."
Naruto nodded and sent chakra to the paper and it instantly sliced into several pieces. "Wow Chibi, it appears you have a very strong wind affinity. One of the rarest ones affinities out there."
"Oh yeah, I'm the best." Naruto cockily replied.
"Sorry Chibi but I won't be able to properly teach you any stronger wind jutsus later. You'll have to ask the only other person that has wind affinity in this village. Asuma Sarutobi."
"Huh? There's only one more user here? And he's related to the Old Man?"
"Yes. He's also Team 10's sensei. But you're going to have to wait to ask him for any jutsu's because they recently left on a C-rank mission."
"Hopefully it won't be as bad as ours was." Hinata replied.
"Well, we didn't really do anything besides party a bit and watch the old man work on the bridge." Sasuke replied.
"Yeah I ended up doing most of the work. Even making the bridge." Naruto chimed in.
"And who's fault was that?" Kakashi said as he bonked Naruto on his head, which caused Naruto to grumble some curses under his breath. Kakashi went to pluck three leaves from a tree and handed them to his genin. "Alright everyone. You're going to channel chakra into the leaves and get your respective outcomes. Naruto, you want to cleanly split the leaf in half. Hinata, you can either make it completely damp, or crinkle it into a ball. Sasuke, you can either burn it to ash or crinkle it into a ball." Sasuke and Hinata nodded and started to try and accomplish their task.
"Uhh sensei?" Naruto called out.
"Yes Chibi?"
"Can I use Shadow Clones?"
"Oh so you figured out the Shadow Clone trick?"
"Yeah, I just read the information."
"Very well. Make as much as you can then. Just be careful with the memory overload."
"Hai." Sasuke and Hinata turned to each other, all confused as to the conversation they overheard. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto called out before clouds of smoke enveloped the training field.
"T-There's over tw-two thousand clones." Hinata said in a whisper.
"Shit." Hinata turned to face Sasuke who was white as a ghost. "Hopefully I never truly piss him off enough to summon this many clones." Hinata could only nod.
"Alright guys! You know what to do!" Naruto shouted to the clones.
"Hai!" They all chorused.
"Hey Naruto, after an hour, dispel the clones so you'll get the memories back and create more clones after."
"You got it sensei!"
After an hour of Kakashi's genin trying to channel their chosen elemental chakra into the leaves, Kakashi calls for them to take a break and relax. Kakashi turned to face Naruto and told him to dispel all his clones so he'll get the memories. After that, he walked to a bag that he brought with him earlier that day and pulled out four bento boxes. He handed one to each genin and sat down to eat the last one.
"So how's everyone's progress?"
"I'm getting there sensei." Hinata responded first. "I've managed to get the leaf damp, but only barely."
"I managed to barely burn the edges of the leaf." Sasuke grumbled. Everyone turned to face Naruto and waited for his reply. However instead of replying, Naruto went to pick a leaf and show them his progress. His leaf managed to cut in half a third of the way.
"Damn. Not as far as I thought."
"Well you guys are still making great progress. Ok let's finish up lunch, then we'll split up for solo training so you can improve on fixing your weaknesses."
"Hai Sensei." The genin responded.
The rest of the meal was eaten in a comfortable silence and at a relaxed pace. After lunch was over, Kakashi made two shadow clones and split the genin up. The real Kakashi took Naruto into a secluded part of the forest for his training.
"Alright. Show me your progress with the Rasengan."
Naruto nodded and created a shadow clone to help him create a Rasengan. "I managed to create it, but I have to use a shadow clone for now. It's too hard for me to contain the power otherwise."
Kakashi nodded and lifted his hiate. He examined the Rasengan closely with his sharingan to analyze the jutsu better. "Hmmm. Learn how to do it without a clone soon. Otherwise you won't be able to use it in certain circumstances. Plus the process of creating a shadow clone and then creating a rasengan will take time that you might not have and in the heat of battle, a second is the difference between life and death." Naruto nodded with seriousness and determination. "Have clones work on perfecting it while we do something else."
Naruto nodded and created twenty clones to work on that issue. "What are we going to work on meanwhile sensei?"
"Are you interested in Fuinjutsu?" Kakashi asked with an eye smile.
"Oh I already started to learn about that sensei. I'm still at the beginner level though. I want to master everything in that level before I move onto the next."
"Good thinking chibi. That mindset is what separates masters from novices. Ok so what kind of seals can you make as of now?"
"Only basic storage seals for now. I wanted to learn chakra suppression seals and prisoner seals the most because those are the most useful, but I learned the hard way that I shouldn't rush stuff in fuinjutsu." He replied as he idly rubbed chest from remembering the pain he went through when he tried creating a chakra suppression seal before he finished the beginner level. It ended up blowing up in his face. Literally.
"Yes yes, the art of fuinjutsu is not to be taken lightly. Your parents can attest to that from all their failed experiments in creating new seals. Word of advice, when testing out new and unfamiliar seals, use shadow clones."
"Gotcha."
"Ok well create 5 shadow clones and put them to work on getting through the beginner level so you can move onto the intermediate level where you'll learn how to make those suppression seals and exploding seals."
"What about the prisoner seals?" He asked after creating the clones.
"If I recall correctly, those are in the advanced level due to having to seal actual living human beings."
"Why is it so difficult though?"
"Because chibi, you have to take into account the body's composition. We're not as simple as say a log. We have organs, liquids like our blood and water, gases like the oxygen in our lungs, and solids like our bones, and so on."
"Ohhh. I didn't take those into account."
"I didn't think so. Alright with the clones studying, we'll work on fixing up your weaknesses. Specifically, your weakness against genjutsu." Naruto groaned but nodded. "Alright create five more clones to help speed up the progress."
Naruto grinned and created five more clones. 'God I love how broken shadow clones are.'
Hinata was taken to her own part of the forest away from her teammates. Kakashi looked at the heiress before eye smiling and asking her a question.
"Hinata. What would you say your weakness is?"
Hinata pondered it for a couple of seconds before responding. "Well, I would have to say fighting in long range battles. Due to the gentle fist, I have to be in proximity to my target so it can take effect."
"Correct. So, what do you think will fix that issue?"
"A couple of long range jutsus?"
"Not necessarily. Why use jutsus that can alert the enemy of your position and most of the time, they won't even land on the target so you;re just wasting chakra. The more chakra we waste, the less time we can last in battle."
"So how can I fix the distance issue?" She said with a frown.
"Well many ways my cute little genin. You can use ranged weapons like kunai, but they're not as good as what I have prepared for you." He pulled out a storage scroll from his weapon pouch and unsealed the contents within it.
"A bow?"
"Yup. With this, your range issue won't be a problem anymore and with your Byakugan, you'll basically be able to take down anyone."
"But won't kunai's work better?"
Kakashi shook his head. "With bow's you'll be able to hit targets from as far as you can see since the bow has a further range than a kunai, and you'll save chakra for later or other stuff. Such as medical ninjutsu if you're ever interested in it."
Hinata took a minute to ponder on the possibilities of becoming a possible medical ninja. She would be in the position to help her teammates more and with the bow, she'll be able to take out enemies from a distance to further protect her teammates if necessary. "Very well sensei. Please teach me how to use a bow, and I would like to learn medical ninjutsu as well."
"Glad to hear that. Unfortunately I'm not a medical ninja so I won't be able to help you all that well in that department, however I did bring a book about it with me. Create a shadow clone to read through the book while we start working on mastering the bow."
Hinata deadpanned at Kakashi. "Sensei. I don't know the Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Kakashi merely sweatdropped at his own mistake. "Oh right… well why don't I teach you? You have enough for one."
"Only one?" Hinata asked, a bit ashamed of her own chakra reserves. 'Guess I'll have to do more chakra control exercises to build up my reserves.'
"There's nothing wrong with only managing one shadow clone, Hinata. I can only manage twenty, but that's my maximum. Even then, I'd be too tired to actually fight anyone. Naruto can make so much because he has a crazy amount of chakra to the point where it's not even funny. His reserves were forced to grow abnormally quickly due to Kyuubi and even then, he'd still have a lot of chakra without him due to his Uzumaki lineage."
"So Naruto is the only one who can effectively use the shadow clones to the maximum extent?"
"Yes. But the more training you do, the more your chakra will grow and with that the more clones you'll be able to make to help your training fasten." Hinata nodded with a resolved look in her eyes. "Good. Now the only hand sign is this." He put his fingers in a cross hand sign and created one shadow clone, and then dispelled it. "Be sure to only create one. If you create two or more, you're either going to die or to the hospital for severe chakra exhaustion."
"Hinata gulped and nodded. 'Ok. Just one clone.' She took a deep breath and called out the jutsu's name. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Hinata heard a poof and slowly opened her eyes to see a replica of herself standing next to her. She was about to smile when suddenly she felt exhausted. Kakashi saw her start to sway, so he pulled out two food pills from his pouch and handed them to the two. They ate it and nodded in thanks to her sensei when they felt their reserves replenish.
"Alright. Clone Hinata, take this book and start reading it. I'll tell you when to dispel if you don't run out of chakra beforehand. Real Hinata, here you go." He said as he held out his hands. Hinata nodded and grabbed the bow from Kakashi's held out hands. "Alright, let's start your training."
Sasuke was taken to his own part of the forest for his training with a clone of Kakashi. He was wondering what Kakashi was going to teach him that couldn't be taught with everyone but then he remembered what he said earlier. 'We'll split up for solo training so you can improve on fixing your weaknesses.' Now the question was what were his weaknesses?
"Thinking about your weaknesses?" Kakashi asked in an amused tone, causing Sasuke to scowl at being read so easily. "Well there goes one. You're really easy to anger even after Naruto helped you out."
"What are my other weaknesses?"
"For now, close range. Since you haven't awakened your sharingan, your taijutsu style leaves too many openings which are meant to be filled in by the sharingan by reading and predicting your enemies movements. To fix that problem, you're taking up kenjutsu."
"I'm getting a sword?" Sasuke asked, shocked that he would be learning the art of swordsmanship. "Why a sword?"
"Well you're getting a chokuto later on. And you're learning kenjutsu so that you can be on the front lines and have more chance of wounding your opponents then just throwing kunai or wasting chakra by throwing around jutsus."
"Alright but why can't I use kunai?"
"With a chokuto you'll have a longer range than you would with a kunai. Plus if you manage to master your nature chakra, you'll be able to channel it into your chokuto and with the longer reach, the deadlier it'll be."
"Alright. Please teach me."
Kakashi grinned under his mask and nodded. "Good. We'll start by learning the katas first. After you've memorised them, to the point where it'll be muscle memory. We can start to have kenjutsu spars." Sasuke nodded in understanding. Kakashi was about to continue when he received the memories of the clone that the Kakashi clone made with Hinata. He smirked and looked at Sasuke in an analyzing gaze.
"What is it sensei?"
"Hmm, based on what I feel from your chakra levels. I'd say you can make one or two shadow clones. You have more than Hinata, but I'm not sure if you have enough for two shadow clones."
Sasuke's eyes widened a bit before smirking. "Does this mean me and Hinata will learn the Shadow Clone Jutsu?"
Kakashi nodded and tossed Sasuke a food pill. "When you make a clone, feel how much chakra you have left. If you feel like you're about to pass out, eat the soldier pill. Oh and here." Kakashi gave Sasuke a wooden sword. "When you make a shadow clone, it clones whatever the user is wielding and wearing."
Sasuke nodded and put his hands in the cross hand seal that he saw Naruto use so many times. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He heard a puff of smoke before he felt a little dizzy. He quickly popped the chakra into his mouth and felt his reserves replenish. He turned and saw one clone that looked exactly like him. He was about to let a smirk cross his lips but caught something out of the corner of his eyes. He turned to see a clone of Sasuke as white and bad as Naruto's attempts of making the regular clone jutsu.
Kakashi couldn't help but chuckle at the display before the sickly white clone disappeared in a puff of smoke and Sasuke felt some of his chakra return to him. "Guess you're not ready for three clones but you're close. If you do more chakra control exercises, your chakra pool will grow." Sasuke nodded and looked at Kakashi. Kakashi fished in his pouch until he found the scroll containing the katas Sasuke would learn. "Alright remember, continue doing these stances until it's muscle memory."
"Hai!" The two Sasukes yelled.
Team 7 continued to train until noon came around. They stopped their training and gathered in the center of the training field again to recap what they learned and practiced.
"Alright. So Naruto is learning fuinjutsu and how to break out of genjutsus at the moment. Hinata is learning how to use a bow and is also studying medical ninjutsu. And Sasuke is learning to wield a chokuto but for now we're practicing with a wooden sword. Also Hinata and Sasuke learned how to make a shadow clone."
"What? You guys learned my specialty?" He asked the two.
"Mhmm." Was Sasuke's response while he was sporting a grin.
"Yes, but I can only make one for now." Hinata replied, making Sasuke's grin drop and nodded in agreement with Hinata.
"So you guys only need more chakra? That's not too bad."
"Yes. Alright it's mission time so we should go to the Hokage's tower to pick up our mission." The genin nodded and made their way towards the tower to see the Hokage, or 'Old Man' as Naruto would say. On their way there, they saw a chunin running through the halls and towards the mission assignment room where the Hokage would be right now.
"Umm, is anyone else feeling a bit uneasy?" Naruto asked in a worried tone.
"I have to say I'm feeling a bit uneasy too." Hinata replied to the blonde while Sasuke merely nodded.
"Come on, let's hurry and get there." Kakashi said. The group then picked up the pace a bit so as to still be respectful in the Hokage Tower. When they got to the mission assignment room, the door slid open and the chunin that was running through the hall ran out. The team watched as the chunin walked away towards where he came from before entering the room to receive a mission.
As soon as they walked in, the Hokage saw them and spoke. "Ahh Team 7. I'm glad you stopped by. We have an assignment for you four."
"Why my team sir?"
"Team 7 is to provide assistance to Team 10 on a C-rank mission that turned B-rank. Team 10 were assigned a patrol mission on the border between Grass and Konoha. They encountered Iwa Shinobi trespassing and engaged them in battle. They managed to make the Iwa Shinobi retreat temporarily, however they suspect that they'll come back with more reinforcements. So we're sending your team as their reinforcements."
"Hokage-sama if I may, that decision doesn't sound wise. Wouldn't it be wiser to send a more experienced shinobi against those Iwa ones? I mean don't get me wrong, my genin are impressive. However I'm not comfortable sending them against more experienced shinobi, especially if they are Iwa shinobi with chibi here on my team." Kakashi pointed at Naruto.
"They should be fine, Kakashi. I have faith in your team and Asuma reported that all the Iwa shinobi were at most chunin level. Team 10 were simply overwhelmed with the number of the shinobi present."
"And Naruto will help with that issue, no matter how many reinforcements are sent." Kakashi finished the Hokage's train of thought. After letting out a sigh Kakashi nodded his head. "Very well, we'll take the mission. Team, go pack up for a month. It shouldn't take that long, but it wouldn't hurt to be prepared. Meet me at the gate in ten minutes."
"Hai sensei." The genin chorused and left the mission assignment office to go pack.
"We can't keep coddling Naruto, Kakashi. He will eventually take more dangerous missions in which his life will be on the line."
Kakashi sighed and looked at the Hokage with a tired expression. "I know that Hokage-sama. I just wanted to protect him a little longer. After what happened in Wave… it could've very well been the last time I saw him alive."
"We can only hope that he'll be more cautious when engaging with the enemy shinobi. That's all we really can do. If we manage to keep him locked in the village then we'll be doing more harm than good. He needs the experience so he can build off of that to have a better chance of surviving the encounter that comes after that."
"I understand. I better go pack for the mission too. Pardon me Hokage-sama, but I'll be leaving now." After Kakashi finished, he used the body flicker jutsu to arrive at his house to pack for the mission.
Ten minutes later, all of Team 7 were standing at the entrance gate of Konoha. Hinata had her bow and quiver sealed in her pack with a storage scroll that Naruto had given her. Sasuke was given a real chokuto by Kakashi and had it currently sealed in a storage seal that Naruto had given him as well. Naruto sealed his pack into a storage scroll so he wouldn't have to be carrying the bag around the whole time.
"Alright Team 7. Our goal is to assist Team 10 in preventing Iwa shinobi from passing the border and potentially spying on our village. Sasuke, Hinata. I'm sorry but you'll most likely have your first kills on this mission." The two genin nodded their heads in understanding. "Good. Let's go."
And that's chapter 13! Hope you guys liked it and please review! It let's me know what I need to fix.
I went back and fixed my error that Flameraven pointed out. Thank you for pointing that out to me and I'm sorry for that mistake