The tree walking and water walking exercise had both taken two days, at least for Naruto who had used his shadow clones, Sakura had gotten both exercises almost instantly.
Now they were there for basic training for the Black Ops, they also found out that they had been signed up for Remedial, extra and basic training by the order of the Hokage. The difference between basic training and Remedial training was what they were about, remedial training focused on helping get your skills up to the level, they only lasted a week to get you onto the right path, they should be done if you are lacking in any skills, while Basic training went over what Anbu should be taught, extra training just helped teach you other skills, that people may be interested in.
For basic training which started at Midnight, the first fours hours, there were lessons on assassination and infiltration, how it works and what the Anbu Black Ops expects from them, after that, for another two hours, there was taijutsu sparring, after that for another two hours, there were Kenjutsu training, going on the absolute basics of the art and for the final two hours, they would go onto Anbu policies, codes and target guarding.
For Remedial training, they had been signed up for Taijutsu training, chakra training and anger management training, they couldn't find themselves getting angry at a target. For Extra training, Naruto had been signed up for the basics on seals, grammar, seduction and etiquette lessons, Sakura had been signed up for basics on Genjutsu, seduction and Medical Ninjutsu.
Over all their training should finish by 2:00 pm or 14:00, and that didn't include the training they would most likely have to do after this exercise. Sakura and Naruto sat next to each other in the first lesson. As a bird masked Anbu walked in, he was dressed in the black cloak of the Anbu with the hood up, he stared at all of them.
"Good morning, I will be teaching you, assassination and infiltration, before we begin, let's start with a basic exercise, I have to assassinate a target, how would I go about this?" asked the Anbu Black Ops to the recruits. Sakura thought about this seriously, thinking through, her training but none of that ever prepared her for this. Sakura looked around, noting that the others were thinking. She then looked shocked at Naruto who had raised his hand.
"Yes?" asked the instructor.
"Sempai, I would watch the target, getting used to where they go and what they do, then wait for the proper moment, make sure, nothing could give me or tell anyone it was me, basically making sure he was alone, then … assassinate them, leaving no evidence," said Naruto, he didn't enjoy the concept of killing in the slightest, nor the idea that he would be the one to do it. The others looked at Naruto for multiple seconds, confusion filled the air.
"You are correct but I am curious, Uzumaki how did you figure it out?" asked the Anbu, to which Naruto got nervous, everyone else got shocked and confused
"That's how I do my pranks, I just linked them to my pranks," said Naruto, with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Your pranks, interesting, I have seen some of them, and the method, you use is correct, this is how we usually do many assassinations and most infiltration but there are other circumstances, in which assassination like this wouldn't be useful, you might have to hurry, or might not have to time to find patterns," explained the instructor. Naruto for the first time was actually focusing and listening to the training.
'Was Naruto always like this?' thought Sakura confused.
After 3 hours of infiltration and assassination, they went out into the field and were taught efficient killing strikes on dummies, how to kill without alerting anyone, where to aim and such, Naruto once again proved himself capable and Sakura wasn't far behind. After this came, the taijutsu portion where they began to spar with each other, Sakura was put with a blond male with blue eyes, while Naruto was put a black haired red eyed male.
They got their ass handed as Sakura was physically weak and relied solely on the academy taijutsu while Naruto fought like the brawler, Naruto did get a few good hits in but was ultimately defeated, this repeated for the hour, building Sakura's endurance and reserves.
'Was being a ninja always this hard?' thought Sakura as she went through more physical exercise than she would do in the Academy.
"Haruno, why are you so tired?" asked the instructor, with a sigh, no-one was as tired as the girl.
"I was told kunoichi should remain pure, that we don't do much fighting, we're support," said Sakura embarrassed.
"Who told you this?" asked the instructor.
"Mizuki-sensei," said Sakura, to which the instructor understood immediately.
"Haruno, understand that Mizuki was a traitor and most likely told you this to weaken you, kunoichi can act as support but kunoichi are also killers, you might have to seduce a client for the mission or worse, so get rid of that idea of purity, kunoichi are rarely pure, another thing you should understand as a kunoichi of this village, you must always be strong enough to fight as no-one else will save you if you get into trouble by yourself as no-one will be around, you don't want to know what happens to captured Kuniochi, is that understood?" asked the instructor, receiving a nod as he broke Sakura's expectations on the career,
'Mizuki was a traitor? that explains why he wasn't here, but if the instructor's right, I'll have to get rid of my diet' thought Sakura.
'We'll start training after this and if I see Mizuki, I'll-' said Inner-Sakura, as she did punching motions.
'But what about Sasuke-kun?' thought Sakura, wondering on her crush.
'What about him? Is he worth dying for, we believing he'll save us?' asked Inner-Sakura.
'No,' thought Sakura, with a sigh. After that Kenjutsu for two hours, and finally Anbu policies and codes. Their remedial training was different, first, Sakura and Naruto had to choose taijutsu styles which would suit them and Sakura had to be explained the importance of good physical exercise, the Anbu instructor helping them with the first few katas, after this mistakes were corrected with a stick.
Chakra training involved learning once again about Chakra, chakra manipulation and chakra affinities. Naruto had an extremely rare wind affinity while Sakura had a rare earth and water affinity. They were both ordered to complete chakra manipulation training, as it was necessary and the Anbu instructor also suggested they learn fire manipulation as fire jutsu were very common in Konoha.
After this Naruto learnt the basics of sealing, picking up everything he could, while Sakura learnt she had an affinity towards these two exercises, deciding to practice them later. Over all, both Naruto and Sakura had a lot of work to do, both had to practice their taijutsu and chakra control, Sakura had to improve her chakra capacity, endurance and physical.
After a week, Naruto had completed his wind manipulation training by doing the leaf cutting exercise and waterfall stopping exercise, after this Naruto did the tree burning exercise where instead of cutting the leaves, you use fire manipulation to burn the leaves. Naruto was of course practicing taijutsu using shadow clones at the same time.
Sakura had been focusing on her physical and improving her chakra capacity, meaning she had yet to learn how to master elemental manipulation.
It was only after almost a month did Sakura complete elemental manipulation as Sakura focused on getting her reserves and endurance up, learning the new taijutsu style.
By the end of the month both were chunin level in taijutsu.
On other news, Naruto had taken extremely well to seals, he was considered a sealing prodigy by the instructor yet somehow remained an idiot in other writing areas, Sakura had learnt a genjutsu, a d-rank one known genjutsu: hell viewing jutsu. this genjutsu was the one Kakashi used on her, in the genin exams.
AN: As one reader mentioned, they aren't here based on their skills but their potential, the Commander made the correct prediction that both would benefit from this form of harsh training and he was right, Sakura and Naruto have improved in leaps and bounds, Sakura and Naruto have both gotten serious, Sakura has gotten off her diet and began to train seriously.
For now, their skills have gotten better, the basics have improved but there is still much for them to do, as shown in the next chapter.
Also note that you might not see any updates as I am going on holiday, this means that no chapters for a month.