I do not own Naruto
The next morning, training ground 7
"You're late, Naruto. What happened?" asked one of his teammates with a perfect impression of Teuchi. Risu-sensei was clearly irritated and was staring at him, waiting for an explanation.
"I'm sorry, Risu-sensei. Yesterday my mother's genin students came by to give me her things, and after I learned who my father was I had a hard time falling asleep."
Risu raised an eyebrow, waiting for more. Naruto didn't say anything, but raised four fingers to the man. Risu nodded, all his irritation suddenly gone.
"I understand. Don't worry, I know it must have been quite the realization when you figured it out."
Naruto almost scratched his head, stopping before he could damage Teuchi's disguise.
"So, are you going to tell us who he was?" asked one of his teammates.
"Patience, little ones." interjected Risu "The reason the Hokage couldn't tell Naruto directly is because talking about certain secrets is dangerous, even if no one seems to be watching. I'm sure one day Naruto will share his secrets with you, but right now this is not a safe place and it is not a safe time. Now is the time to run like a civilian ramen chef. So, start running and give me something believable."
Faking incompetence was hard. Faking being tired was even harder. Missing the target on purpose did hurt their pride as ninjas. Not dodging an attack went against years of ingrained reflexes and the fact that, despite how little damage the hit actually did, they had to pretend it did was almost a slap in the face to all the training they had gone through. They were almost relieved when sensei called off the exercise. Almost. Because they knew that despite how humiliating it was, faking incompetence was something they could do. Faking competence, on the other hand, was impossible. So, when they saw Risu-sensei calling them over to a make-shift ramen stand they started to dredd. Maybe they could make it good enough, shifting the blame for any mistake to being tired from training. That idea was thoroughly squashed the moment they saw Ayame entering the training field with a smile, carrying a few bowls of take-out ramen from the real Teuchi and Risu-sensei asked her to take a seat and assist him in judging their performance. Sakura was a decent cook, but with her skills paled compared to a seasoned professional. Risu-sensei deemed that particular exercise a failure. Her ramen was good though.
Sasuke took the time during Sakura's test to place his arm on a sling, claiming to have broken his arm. Sensei nodded, but when he started to ask questions about which doctor had put his arm on a sling without a cask, Sasuke's story started to fall apart. Sensei had decreed it a partial success, so Naruto knew he was on the right track. Perhaps a broken arm was too much of an injury?
Swiftly, he took out his disguise kit and added a long, yet superficial cut to his left hand. When sensei insisted he be checked at the hospital, Naruto dismissed sensei's concerns, claiming it was nothing. He did fumble his ramen, blaming his mistakes on the wound. He earned praises from sensei for the fake wound, but his ramen was absolutely atrocious, to the point that his excuse did not hold up. In the end, Risu-sensei thanked Ayame for her assistance, offered her a generous tip and sent her on her way.
"Well, you three failed. Naruto, Sasuke, the two of you had the right idea, but the execution was a bit lacking. Sakura, being tired is a good excuse if your skill is slightly below the target you are impersonating. While your skill was good enough to fool me, you saw how easy it fell apart in front of a professional. To be completely honest, you had no chance of passing this exercise with Ayame-san here, which is why I bought these." He pointed at the takeout boxes "Why didn't any of you think of just swap their own ramen for one of Teuchi's?"
The three looked sheepish, with Naruto muttering "You would have noticed."
Risu raised an eyebrow. "Fat fingers?"
Naruto shrugged. "Not enough practice."
"Well, that's something we can fix relatively quickly. Take five small objects from your scrolls and wear them. Put them in your pockets, inside your shuriken holder, tie one to your weapon… Anywhere as long as you don't seal the things. From today forward you'll have to continuously practice stealing those items from each other while protecting your own items from being stolen. There will be no time limit and no time-outs, so be sure to pick items that won't be missed. Of course, you can steal those items back, all is allowed so long as you don't use threats or violence."
The trio nodded, thinking about what items to pick. Sasuke had a great idea when he decided to pick up five rocks and started carving the Uchiha fan, and was swiftly followed by Naruto carving the Uzumaki spiral and Sakura carving Konoha's symbol.
"Now, little ones, I do have a final batch of techniques that you will have to learn no matter what. These will be general all-round techniques that, while relatively easy to learn, take a long time to master. The first one you will practice is something I bet you have wanted to learn for some time."
He smirked, before performing a single hand sign and disappearing in a swirl of leaves.
Shunshin no jutsu
After a few seconds, Risu reappeared with a second swirl of leaves.
"Now, before you get too excited, I want to clarify a few things: for once, the Shunshin is not the Hiraishin. It allows for high-speed movement over medium distances, but it's not teleportation. If there's an obstacle, visible or not, between you and the destination, you will slam into it and potentially hurt yourself. That's the reason the Hokage's office always has an open window. Second, this technique, while not particularly chakra intensive, does consume far more energy than simply running, meaning it's not suitable for continuous use. You can use this in a swift getaway, but using it to escape a chase will drain you far faster than simply running. Third, the Shunshin is not a technique designed to be used in combat. Now, you CAN use it in combat, but it's not designed for it. After you perform the Shunshin there's a small window of disorientation where your chakra becomes inaccessible, making it a very dangerous gamble. This window can be shortened by training, Shisui Uchiha in particular was so proficient with this technique that his window was as short as the blink of an eye, but he's the exception. The Shunshin is a technique designed to get away fast, which is also the reason why we always leave something behind. Now, for most shinobi that something is a calling card for their allegiance: leaves for Konoha, sand from Suna and pebbles from Iwa, but while in enemy territory I'd much rather use Kibaku Fuda, since an explosion tends to be a rather useful distraction."
"But sensei, why do we leave something behind? Wouldn't it be best not to leave any trace at all?" asked Sakura.
"That's the whole reason why we leave something and one additional reason as to why this jutsu wasn't originally designed for combat. The Shunshin leaves behind a trail of chakra that can be followed even by genins with a little bit of training. Leaving something behind disrupts the trail, making it much harder to track."
He turned to Sasuke "Sasuke, I have a special exercise for you: after learning this jutsu, I want you to follow Naruto and Sakura's training and focus on tracking their chakra trail. Once you can sense the trail, try following their Shunshin and gently tap them as soon as they land. Being able to strike someone post-Shunshin is an extremely hard skill to master, but one that pretty much guarantees a killing blow."
Sasuke smirked, trembling in excitement. Guaranteed killing blow. A perfect counter to one of the most used techniques. His first ace against Itachi.
"Naruto, once you learn this technique and Sasuke starts tapping you, I want you to make a few hundred shadow clones. Sasuke, when Naruto starts using clones, stop tapping and cut the clones down with your sword instead. Just be careful not to accidentally kill the real Naruto, ok?"
The boys nodded.
"Excellent. Now, here's how to do it…"
A week later, training ground 7
As Risu had anticipated, learning the Shunshin had been rather easy. Mastering it, on the other hand, was another beast entirely. It had taken them a whole three days to force the post-Shunshin chakra block down to two seconds and Sasuke had started to tap his teammates with his sword only late in the evening of the fourth day. The following days had been almost entirely focused on perfecting the jutsu, except for when Risu left with Sakura to ask for a favor and then accompany her to Konoha's hospital for medical training while one of his shadow clones had dragged Naruto in a corner with a massive scroll containing information on all known ninja clans in the elemental nations, insisting that it was the exact kind of things a Kage ought to know. Sasuke had his own training to do, and it was hard. Way harder than what he had expected. Seeing the chakra trail with enough clarity to follow when Naruto left something behind was difficult, but he got the hang of it after just one day and after that he was able to follow roughly four out of every ten Shunshin. Landing close enough to strike and overcoming the split second of disorientation to land a hit on the clone was another thing entirely, Sasuke only succeeding in landing a blow once every twenty attempts, and none of them were killing blows. He could see improvement, but it was slow.
For days training continued in the same way: they would meet up in the morning, disguise as someone, sometimes a random civilian, sometimes a jonin, often a genin, and train while attempting to mimic that person's abilities. They had almost cried when Risu told them to disguise themselves as Maito Gai, running absurd drills while pretending not to be in pain and shouting about youthfulness. They didn't train that afternoon.
On all other days, they started the afternoon with a D-rank mission, then Sakura was off to the hospital, Naruto in the corner studying the clans and Sasuke perfecting his Shunshin stab. He felt like that move should have a name, after spending so much time practicing it, but if it had a name, sensei didn't know it.
"Good morning little ones. Naruto, I see the tailor has finally finished with Ashina-san's hitai-ate. Good for you."
Naruto smiled, proudly tapping the Uzu spiral on his left shoulder.
"Today is a special day. I have decided to start you out on Nature manipulation. Now, I know you want to start working on your element immediately, but that's not what we're going to do. We are going to train on all Nature manipulations and yes, I include myself in this because I have never trained in Lightning, Wind or Water manipulation. Training this way will help us get the most out of our elemental jutsus, increasing their potency, reducing chakra cost and allowing us more control over the jutsu itself. Now, Sasuke here has already trained his Fire manipulation, so I'm sure he remembers the exercise. Care to demonstrate?"
Risu tossed Sasuke a wrinkled up ball made of an old newspaper. Sasuke grabbed it, channeling his chakra and making it burst into flames.
"Glad you still remembered it. Since you already know this part, do you want to go back to your anti-Shunshin stabby stab thing?"
Sasuke frowned at the name his sensei had picked, but nodded. He looked at Naruto, who immediately created 500 clones that followed Sasuke in the middle of the training ground.
"Now, as you two might have guessed, the first step of training Fire manipulation is setting things on fire. We start from something flammable, like a newspaper, then move to wood and progress all the way until we can use fire chakra to increase the temperature of a non-flammable object, with the last exercise being using your chakra to boil water. Now, grab your paper and focus on your chakra. Feel its warmth and draw it out. Imagine it like a flame, radiating its heat. Try to mimic the feel of your hands reaching for a bonfire during the winter and slowly try to raise its heat, from a warm embrace to a roaring inferno."
By the end of the day, he saw smoke emerging from Naruto's paper and a tiny ember from Sakura.
Two week later, training ground 7
Their week of fire training had progressed smoothly, with both Naruto and Sakura having progressed nicely. It took Naruto about 10 minutes to light up his paper, which was somewhat expected of a wind user, while Sasuka had progressed to set on fire small sticks. Sasuke had improved with his technique to the point he was able to follow and hit Naruto after his Shunshin every two attempts. He was only able to land minor blows, but the technique had finally progressed to the point it could be used in combat.
The second week they had moved to Earth chakra, with moving sand and mud. Unsurprisingly, Sakura was progressing the most, being able to move around small rocks, while both boys were stuck with the much simpler exercise of moving sand.
"This week we have something special. Since I have absolutely no clue how to train Lightning manipulation, I have asked a lightning user to assist us in our training. Thing is… That man is notoriously late, so I have something in mind while we wait for him to show up. Before any of that, tho… would you mind showing the result of your pickpocket training?" Naruto smiled, emptying his pockets. While he had lost two Uzu stones, he had gotten a Leaf one and three Uchiha ones.
"When did you get them?" frowned the Uchiha.
Naruto smirked "When you used Shunshin too close to a clone. The first days you were really out of it and it was easy. Can't use that trick anymore."
Sasuke smiled. Another proof of his progress. He emptied his own pocket, showing his two remaining Uchiha stones and a Leaf one. Sakura had the remaining Leaf stones and two of Naruto's Uzu ones. Naruto looked at her, questioning.
"You get really distracted while eating. Could have gotten more if you didn't shove your food down your throat as fast as you do."
Risu laughed. "Well, I see you three are making progress. How about I join the competition?" He showed his students five stones carrying the Hyuuga symbol. "For the sake of fairness, I will not pick your pockets, only try to keep your hands off of my stones. Once everyone is skilled enough to take one of mine, I'll be joining in for real, so you three better prepare."
The three nodded.
"Well, since we have to wait for Kakashi-san… How about another jutsu? It's quite a powerful one."
He grabbed a shuriken, throwing it towards a tree while flashing through hand signs.
Shuriken Kage Bunshin no jutsu
As the shuriken flew towards the tree, it split into two, then four, then eight and before they knew it the tree was littered with a wave of metal composed of hundreds of shurikens.
"As you can see, this jutsu allows a ninja to multiply his ranged attacks. It's a technique derived from the Kage Bunshin, but it's both easier to perform as well as costing only a fraction of the chakra. The sheer number of projectiles makes dodging nearly impossible, which is usually the first instinct when someone throws a shuriken towards you. The best part about this jutsu is that it works on any projectile, from senbons to kunais to pebbles to even something as big as a ballista bolt. I have heard rumors that some clan has managed to create a version that can multiply long-range jutsus, but if such a technique exists, it's a very well kept secret. As it is, the jutsu cannot copy any form of chakra, so while any explosive tag you attach to a kunai will be copied, they will not explode. Now, this is a rather advanced technique and I don't want you guys to be low on chakra before your Lightning manipulation training, so take it slow. Here are the hand signs, go and practice."
Being already proficient with the regular Kage Bunshin, it took Naruto only a couple hours to master the technique, his celebration cut short by Risu-sensei dragging him back to the dredded clan scroll while Sakura and Sasuke kept practicing.
One hour later, a jonin wearing a mask and a tilted hitai-ate covering his eye approached the training ground, gravity-defying white hairs fluttering in the wind.
"Sorry everyone, a black cat crossed the road and I had to take the long way around."
The genins stared at the man, not finding the right words to comment.
"I see your excuses are as bad as ever, Kakashi-san."
He turned to his team.
"Little ones, this is Hatake Kakashi, best known in the bingo book as Kakashi the copy-ninja or Sharingan no Kakashi. Ex ANBU captain, student of the fourth Hokage and a prodigy that graduated the academy at age 5 and became jonin at 12. He's also an avid porn reader that is constantly 3 hours late to everything and the man who would have been your sensei had I not been there. Which all things considered worked out well for you since the Hokage has been trying to assign him a genin team for years and mister Hatake here keeps giving the teams impossible tests just so he can send them back to the Academy."
"Maa, maa. Please don't reveal all my secrets, Risu-san." Said Kakashi. Despite his mask covering nearly all of his face, they could tell the man was smiling.
"Why do they call you Sharingan no Kakashi?" Asked Sasuke, immediately on edge.
"Sasuke, don't be rude toward our guest. I'm sure everything you may want to know about the man is in your clan's archives." pointed out Risu.
Sasuke nodded, still on edge. Risu-sensei was right, of course. If the man had a Sharingan, he would be somewhere in the clan archives, even if he was not a clan member. The Uchiha kept very detailed information about all Sharingan users.
"Say, Kakashi-sensei… I've been told you knew my dad." asked Naruto "If it's not too much to ask, might I ask you to tell me about him later?"
Kakashi glanced at Naruto, taking a few seconds to ponder what to do. In the end, he settled for an answer.
"I'll think about it. I don't think I need to explain why it would be a dangerous thing to do."
While it was true that he owed Minato-sensei a lot, and nothing would make him happier than share those memories with Naruto, he shared Sandaime's paranoia regarding Naruto's secret. What if he let slip a bit too much and the wrong person caught on? What if it was someone from Iwa? No, the danger was simply too great. He could wait a bit more until he was sure Naruto could properly defend himself against an assassination attempt.
"I understand. Sorry for asking."
"No need to be sorry. I would actually enjoy sharing some stories, but…"
The sentence was left hanging. Before things could get even more awkward, Sakura broke the silence.
"So, Kakashi-san… Are you going to teach us Lightning manipulation?"
Kakashi nodded, smiling cheerfully. "That's what I'm here for. Now, grab a lightbulb and let's get to business"
Notes
And here we are doing elemental training. I always liked the concept and was very bummed out about the fact we only got to see the steps for wind manipulation training, so I had to make something up for the other elements. It will be expanded a bit further in the next chapter, but team 7 is 1000% NOT going to master elemental manipulation after a week of training, they'll just get the basics down.
There is some contension among the fanbase wether you need an affinity to use an element or not, but in my interpretation you don't. Affinity simply makes learning it easier, hence why the team advances faster in their training for their element and slower for the element that defeats their affinity.
Before you ask, Risu has Earth affinity, but will progress faster in his training than team 7 because he's a jonin
Now, stay tuned for wind training, I bet it will surprise you (or maybe it won't, but I'm curious to see if any of you has ideas)