Sakura Haruno

"The rasengan works by layering eighty concentric spheres of chakra and spinning them in opposing directions," Kakashi said, displaying the technique on his outstretched right palm.

Sakura's eyes widened.

"Eighty?" she asked.

"Eighty," Kakashi agreed.

"In opposing directions?" she added.

"In opposing directions," Kakashi added.

Sakura looked back at the ball of chakra (though could she really still call it a 'ball' with all the layers it had?) spinning intensely over her sensei's palm, so intensely in fact, that it was generating enough wind and sound to be noticed from probably two hundred feet away.

But that was the point of the jutsu, wasn't it? To be flashy. Memorable. Destructive.

So much so, in fact, that this one technique had turned a predominantly stealth type fighter like The Fourth Hokage, into one of the most recognizable figures on The Continent.

Which fully explained why Kakashi was teaching it to her as her trump card, considering their whole reason for agreeing to enter The Chūnin Exams is to be memorable.

"Now, there are three methods to use the rasengan," Kakashi said, continuing his lecture. "The first is the sledgehammer," so saying, Kakashi tapped his foot on the ground twice a thick wall of earth rose up five feet from the ground.

Laxly, Kakashi slaps his hand with the rasengan into the wall and a huge circle around the contact point exploded.

"As you can see," Kakashi said, turning back to her, "this way lacks finesse, though it does make up for it with shock and awe. Unfortunately, it isn't very efficient for people like us either, since it consumes the chakra used to create the rasengan."

"Meaning we can't reabsorb it," Sakura said, understanding.

"Bingo. Which is why I personally prefer method two; the shredder."

Kakashi forms another rasengan, only, after forming this one, it expands, growing until it's about as big as Kakashi's head.

"You know what eighty concentric layers of chakra spinning at ten thousand revolutions per minute is really good at?" Kakashi asked.

Sakura strongly suspected the question was rhetorical, but she answered nevertheless: "Shredding stuff?"

Kakashi smiled. "Shredding stuff," he agreed.

Turning, Kakashi moved the rasengan through the remains of the earth wall behind him, and wherever the technique touched, all that remained was fine dust.

Kakashi turned back to her, spinning rasengan still in hand. "Fast, deadly, and efficient," he said. "You like?"

Sakura nodded dumbly.

"If you do it right you can even shred some kinds of jutsu; earth and wind release mostly," Kakashi said. "However, you want to be very careful with that. Because if you do it wrong, the rasengan could unravel in your hand, and when a rasengan unravels this tends to happen."

Kakashi threw the rasengan at the far wall of the chamber, and when it struck, it detonated.

Sakura had thought the detonation from the sledgehammer method had been bad, but this one almost knocked her off her feet from a hundred metres away.

The resulting dust from the explosion cleared out suspiciously fast, and when it did, Sakura saw that the wall and floor where the rasengan had hit were cracked and gouged, though, it was steadily reverting back to its undamaged state even as she watched.

Guess she knew what all the sealwork she'd sensed in this place were for.

" That," Kakashi said, "is called the 'fuck you' method. In that you're saying 'fuck you' to everything in that general direction. It's also a pretty effective way of explaining to you why it's absolutely important that you don't mess up the rasengan. If I do say so myself."

"Duly noted," Sakura said weakly.

"Good. Now, you've got two weeks to master a technique and incorporate it into your fighting style. And you can't use clones either, so if you want to make good on your bet with the boys then you'll have to work as hard as three people.

"You up for it?"

Sakura took an arming breath, then she stood tall.

She nodded.

Kakashi smiled.

——

Sasuke Uchiha

The Jutsu Negation Technique (because I am never calling it The Nope Jutsu) is simple in theory and relatively simple in practice.

In theory, the technique is all about finding and disrupting the connecting threads of chakra in the framework of a jutsu, causing the entire thing to unravel and fall apart.

In practice, it's much the same thing, though with the added complexity of finding said connecting threads in the first place.

That extra bit of complexity barely matters to me though, seeing as with the sharingan, Kakashi simply had to tell me what to look for and it will now never again be a problem.

So, no, The Jutsu Negation Technique is quite simple, but unfortunately, simple doesn't mean easy, because it's one thing to know how to unravel the framework of a fireball jutsu, and it's entirely another to do that before said fireball slams you in the fucking face.

… Thank everything holy in two worlds that Kakashi has asked me to use my clones to learn the technique.

"You and I will be working on your physical capabilities," the jōnin says.

Thirty minutes later, as I lay on the hard ground of this fuinjutsu covered chamber panting and hurting, I almost want to ask him to let me trade places with one of my clones.

——

Naruto Uzumaki

"You know, if you learnt to tap into Its power instead, that would make for a far better trump card than any wind jutsu," Kakashi said right before they started training in earnest.

Naruto stilled.

"You know about…" he didn't finish. He couldn't.

"I've known since you were a baby," Kakashi said. "I'm one of the people who guarded you."

Naruto's eyes widened. "What? Really? Why didn't you say anything when you became my sensei?"

"Probably for the same reason you didn't tell me about your special package," Kakashi said, and to that Naruto had no rebuttal.

"Look, Naruto," Kakashi said softly, "I understand why you don't feel like tapping into Its power, but—"

"It killed my Mom," Naruto said angrily. "It killed lots of innocent people. Gramps, you, you're telling me to use Its power but I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna get strong on my own. I'm gonna get so strong that we won't need It anymore."

Kakashi stared at Naruto, the boy's own eyes stinging with unshed tears.

Kakashi sighed, then he opened his arms for a hug. "Come here," he said, and without hesitation, Naruto sank into it.

Kakashi patted his head.

"You know you're going to have to learn to use It, right?" Kakashi asked. "Sooner, rather than later."

Like he didn't know that.

But who knows, maybe if he kept pushing it forward, he would never have to.

Maybe everyone would just… forget.

Kakashi sighed again. "After the exams, then?"

Naruto said nothing.

"Naruto, I need you to promise me," Kakashi said.

Several seconds pass without comment, until finally, Naruto let out a tiny, barely coherent: "Fine."

"I know It's scary, Naruto. But It can't harm you. We won't let It."

They hadn't 'let' It harm his Mom either, but she had still been hurt. Everyone had gotten hurt.

Kakashi patted him on the head again, and for several seconds they simply stayed that way.


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