After a quick talk with his father Asuma headed out to meet his new team with a few seed packs in his pocket for Naruto's training. The faster Naruto learned how to effectively use the Wood release the better, but Naruto had his work cut out for him. Without learning either water or earth elemental transformation, isolating the Wood release wasn't going to be easy. It was already going to be difficult but add on that they hadn't been taught any chakra control yet and it was going to be a bitch. It would help Naruto with control and give him a feel for how to grow things with his chakra. Getting it out of the way now was a good idea but would take some time, the kid was either insanely lucky or a genius to be able to use the Wood clone so quickly and he was betting on the former.
Once he managed to get this down he would be able to use his clones better and learn new jutsu faster. He would need to master Earth and Water elemental transformations to be able to do some of the things Hashirama managed but it was a good start. In the end it seemed like throwing a kid who could barely swim in the deep end, but his father was sure the kid could pull it off.
If he could learn how to make wood clones by himself, in only a few hours, he would get this. "Good morning my student, what's the problem you're having?" Naruto explained how the plant would either wither or explode.
Asuma thought about it for a second. "It sounds like you have made a little progress in that it doesn't die immediately but it seems your control is off. When adding chakra, try to maintain a constant and consistent amount. If your control varies it will affect the plant."
Asuma quickly left the scene after giving his advice and Naruto got back to work, he was determined to get this shit down today because he couldn't afford any more mess-ups. Like he really couldn't afford to fail anymore, his wallet was empty, he was going to be living off the land until they completed some missions.
He grabbed another seed and placed it in the palm of his hand like he had done every time before. He slowly pushed chakra into the seed and focused on keeping a constant flow. The seed sprouted and it already felt massively different to what he had been doing before. The seed started slowly growing into a flower but he kept his focus on making the flow the same as when he started. Sweat dripped down his face and into his eyes and his hand started to cramp but he persisted.
Roots spread out on his hand and the flower grew higher and higher. Suddenly the bulb at the top expanded and bloomed into a colorful flower. He immediately stopped the flow of chakra and slumped forward out of breath. He felt like he was going to vomit a little, they weren't taught anything like this in the academy. It was like holding up weights and doing math at the same time, what seemed like minutes had only been a few seconds.
As he stared at his achievement his eyes wandered to the other seed packs lying on the ground next to him. He had finally done it but he still had a lot more to get through. He needed the practice so one by one he worked his way through the seeds and soon he had bushels of fresh flowers all around him. He fell on his back exhausted but happy.
He had seen his progress before his eyes today. What used to take minutes now only took seconds. He no longer messed up on the seeds and could confidently grow them no problem. It made him proud, it wasn't the great forests around Konoha Hashirama created but it was a start.
He took out one of the sandwiches he packed for lunch and dug in. His meals were looking a lot more bleak now that Asuma sensei had cracked down on his diet. But it could be worse, for every 3rd mission meal he could have it again. Every 3 missions Asuma would take them out for a team mean and the rotation on what to eat would change. He couldn't wait to begin missions tomorrow. Would they infiltrate an enemy nation, or would they protect a VIP from an army of rouge ninja? He couldn't wait to find out.
As he finished his meal he noticed a girl was walking towards him. She had her hair tied in two buns on her head and had more kunai and shuriken than he had ever seen. She had probably come to train in the training field but she looked oddly familiar.
The girl walked up to him and gave him a questioning look. "You're Naruto right?"
"Yea I'm Naruto, don't I know you from somewhere? You look really familiar." He knew he had seen her somewhere before but couldn't put his finger on where.
"My names Tenten, I was in your class a few years ago in the academy. Good to see you remember me a little bit I guess. Congratulations on passing this year by the way."
Naruto beamed and rubbed the back of his head in a little bit of embarrassment. "Thanks, I finally managed to get the clone jutsu down, kinda. So that's where I saw you. Tell me, what's being a ninja like? Got any tips? Who's on your team?" He rattled out questions one and the other.
Tenten grabbed his shoulders "Slow down, one." She held up a finger. "I don't want to spoil anything for you. And two your first mission is a right of passage and I don't want to ruin that by telling you something I shouldn't. I promise I can tell you everything after your first mission."
Naruto crossed his arms. "Fine. Why are you out here anyway, are you here to train?"
"I'm trying to, I use lots of throwing weapons and I'm always trying to get better but I've hit a wall." She took out a handful of kunai and tossed them at a nearby tree. They all embedded themselves at once forming the shape of a star.
Naruto's jaw dropped, he could throw a kunai but not that many at once and with that accuracy. "You're amazing, I'd hate to be that tree right now."
Tenten hid the small bush creeping up her cheeks. "Thanks, but I've barely had any real practice against a moving target that wasn't a dummy. My team just got back from a mission and I need to work on my throwing so I'm not a burden." With Neji the genius and Lee the tajutsu genius she felt she was the weak link of the team.
Naruto heard her say burden and he could relate. Ino did a very good job so far of reminding him he barely passed the academy and he would've killed for people to train with all those years. "You know, I could help you train, no problem."
Tenten raised her eyebrows. "You do know these are real ninja weapons right? They aren't blunted down and I would really rather not killing a new genin before his first mission." She appreciated his offer, but it was a bad idea.
"No, it's no problem I can just make a bunch of clones. How many do you need?"
OK now she knew he was screwing with her, no one bar the Hokage could make more than a few clones at one time. She was going to call his bluff. "Give me as many as you can make."
Naruto went ahead and got up from the ground and snapped his hands into the snake seal. He hadn't attempted to make a large amount of clones since that day so this would be decent practice at least. Activating the jutsu once again it still felt weird, as the number of clones grew his training partner's eye grew wide.
Just what in the hell was she seeing, this kid was on another level just like Lee. As she gazed out on the sea of clones in front of her she didn't know what to think let alone say. "You're the new Wood releases user!" She exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me!"
"You never asked. So how are we going to do this? Do you want them to come at you one at a time or just try and dodge?"
"You mean to tell me you made this many clones just so I could train throwing weapons on them?" She asked dumbfounded.
Naruto was getting a little confused. "How else? I wasn't gonna let you throw everything you had on you just at me." He wrapped his knuckles against one of his identical clones making a knocking on wood sound.
"Ow" The Naruto clone replied.
"Sorry buddy, but these guys can take a beating so have at it." A few grumbled were heard in the crowd at his sacrifice of them. The real Naruto made sure to step back behind some cover in case her skills were rusty, no need to get hit for no reason.
Tenten finally knocked herself out of her stupor and looked at her bag and then back to the crowd. She was going to have fun.
Before they could react several clones fell to the ground looking like a pincushion. The group attempted to dodge but her aim was impeccable. Some fell to overwhelming force and others fell to pinpoint accurate shots to their limbs. The body count slowly rose and it only got worse. Scrolls flew out of her bags and hundreds no, thousands of kunai and shuriken were expelled at them.
Undeterred, the remnants of the clones rushed Tenten hoping to put her on the backfoot and slow down their slaughter. In response Tenten was able to practice the move she was developing to put even her teammates under stress and jumped high in the air and two large scrolls unfurling as the spun. Through a large puff of summoning smoke it began to rain death. In every direction the throwing weapons were launched not focusing on accuracy anymore but sheer numbers.
Naruto, who was watching from relative safety at that point, had his hair slightly cut as he peeked from his cover and a few managed to get close. He decided to bunker down until she was done and nursed a small headache from where it felt like the kunai might've grazed him.
Soon enough the sound of silence came again, it became eerily quiet so he yelled out just in case. "You done out there?" Not getting a response he peeked out of cover again and saw Tenten walking at him quickly with a scroll in her hand. 'oh crap, she thought he was a clone, he was in trouble.'
Before he could speak she engulfed him in a tight hug. "Thank you thank you thank you. That was the best training I've ever gotten. I've been wanting to test out that move for weeks now but it was too dangerous to ask my teammates." She realized she was hugging a boy she had only talked to this one time and quickly let go of the embrace. They both had blush creeping up their faces realizing what happened.
"Yea, uh no problem." Naruto stammered out. Looking around he saw what could only be described as a war zone. Kunai and shuriken littered almost every single spot on the ground and the trees around them were covered on their exposed side. His headache forgotten he quickly changed the subject. "Do you want some help picking everything up?"
She turned away from him to hide her face. "That sounds great. Let's get started." She grabbed her scrolls and began laying them out.
Naruto walked a bit away and went ahead and created a few clones to handle the cleanup to their dismay. While they worked Naruto thought about what had just happened. He hadn't been hugged in a long time and it felt really good. But he barely knew the girl and even though he knew he couldn't ask her for a hug again, he would rather curl up into a ball than ask that. So, the rest of the cleanup was handled in silence and thanks to the clones was over quickly.
Tenten finally finished sealing all her weapons and realized she was going to be late. "Naruto, I can't thank you enough for today. I've never been able to train like that before and I really appreciate it. I owe you one big time."
"You're welcome Tenten, it's no problem. I think we were both able to train a good bit so we're even."
"I'm not going to accept no as an answer Naruto, I owe you a favor. Just as long as it isn't ridiculous I'll pay up."
Naruto could see she wasn't going to budge. "Fine, you owe me and my team a meal, how about that?"
She smiled. "Deal, I've got to go meet my team but thanks again for today. Maybe we can do it again sometime." She started to walk away but turned around walking backwards. "Good luck on your first mission." She yelled out. And then she was gone.
Naruto had to laugh a bit, that was his first interaction with a girl that didn't either look disgusted at him or hit him. He gathered the remnants of his training and had armfuls of brightly shining flowers. What the hell was he going to do with all these. Maybe Ino would buy them back and he could save a little money. It was worth a shot; Naruto gathered the flowers off the ground and realized how many he had. He could barely see where he was going and his arms were completely full as he made his way back into Konoha.
Scene break
Naruto walked into Yamanaka flowers with his armful of flowers, only Ino wasn't at the counter today. There was an older woman behind the counter. "Hello, welcome to Yamanaka flowers, how can I help you?" She looked at the young man with all the flowers. Usually, people walked out of a flower shop with flowers, not in.
"Hello ma'am, is Ino here?"
"That depends on who you might be." It looked like her daughter had a would-be suiter with how many flowers he had brought for her daughter. He was only destined for heartbreak she was afraid. Ino had only 1 boy on her mind these days. Though she had to be honest, that many flowers were a good start.
"I'm Naruto, Ino's new teammate.".
"Ahhh so you're one of the boys my Ino talked about. She mentioned she was on the team with the newest Senju. It's good to meet you Naruto. So what are you doing with all those flowers?" It was good to meet her daughter's teammate before she was alone with him for weeks at a time. It was also a treat to meet the carrier of the Wood Style her husband had been talking about.
"These are a result of my training this morning and I don't really have a use for them. I was coming to see if you or Ino could use or sell them."
"I couldn't take them for nothing Naruto, here let me pay you for them." She didn't want to rip off such a nice kid. They were beautiful, bloomed flowers that were months out of season for this time of year, as such, they were in high demand. She was amazed that he could grow them, even professionals like her that did this for a living could struggle with some flowers.
Naruto not knowing this felt like he was ripping her off. He had gotten these for free so it didn't feel right taking so much money for them. A light bulb went off, maybe he could get more seeds so he could train more. Money was good and he was low right now, but without ramen in the budget, his daily costs just today were down a lot. "Could I just get some more seeds, I used them all this morning training."
She stumbled, either this kid was an idiot, she didn't think this was the case, or he was a giving person. She knew he wouldn't take money for this, so she gave in. "Here dear, take as many as you want." Handing him a whole tray of seed packets. As Naruto thanked her and began to stuff his pockets with them, he heard a familiar voice.
"What are you doing here Naruto? I hope you're not gonna make another mess." Ino had walked in. Her day off was filled with stocking shelves so needless to say, she wasn't in a very good mood. Especially after the incident the other day she didn't want him back in the store.
Ino's mom smirked "Naruto was here to deliver these flowers to you, it seems like you have a new crush dear." She silently laughed, she would stop it if her daughter took it to far, but it was her job to embarrass her.
Ino looked at the flowers which she knew cost a fortune right now and then back at Naruto, her eyes full of rage. "NARUTO!" She started to move towards him ready to knock him out.
Naruto looked at her and then to Ino full of panic, oh god I'm gonna die, he thought as Ino got closer. He would later swear he saw a bowl of ramen with wings coming for him in that moment.
"Just kidding" she laughed "He's just here to drop them off Ino dear. Don't worry, they aren't for you." Ino calmed down still staring Naruto down just in case. "He apparently grew them this morning and thought that we would have some use for them."
"That's impossible, you can't grow these at this time of year. They won't bloom." Ino stated, she didn't grow up around flowers for no reason.
"Apparently it's a part of his new training he's doing right Naruto?" He nodded still taking deep breaths.
Ino realized "Is this what you were trying to do last time you were here?" It seemed he didn't have the exploding problem anymore thank god.
Her mom smirked "Last time huh? Tell me more Ino-dear." Ino realized she was caught, now her mom was going to pester her all day for the story.
As mom and daughter interacted Naruto made his escape, he had gotten what he came here for, no need to be interrogated like Ino was. He ran out the door parting with "See you tomorrow Ino."
And with that he was gone, leaving Ino high and dry. 'I'm going to kill him, I swear I'm going to kill him' she thought. 12 more hours and then he's dead counting down the time until she saw him again.