Ⅰ
It appears Zabuza was put into a temporary death-like state. The Hidden Mist Anbu made his death believable when he threw a stack of senbon needles(千本針) at Zabuza's neck.
The senbon needle is a weapon that is used to paralyse the nervous system. Unlike shuriken and kunai, it is not known for finishing the enemy with a fatal blow.
There were records where the needles were used for medical treatment. It helps to release tension from the body. And when the tension is released, it makes your limbs feel numb.
Because of this, Kakashi-sensei just realized that the Anbu was there to rescue Zabuza by making everyone think that he had killed him on the spot.
Sharing this information with us, my uncle crossed his arms as he rubbed his chin concerningly.
"If what you said is true Kakashi, we have to be ready in order to protect Tazuna-san."
Kakashi-sensei nodded.
"B-but, you bested him in that fight, right? Surely, it won't be a problem, will it?" The bridge builder asked anxiously. He just got back from getting groceries from the market.
"That's the thing, Tazuna-san." Kakashi-sensei turned his attention to him. "Even if I was able to protect you from Zabuza, there is still a problem we need to deal with. And that's the Hidden Mist Anbu. I had a feeling that he might be stronger than me."
"Really?" I asked as I leaned in.
"I couldn't hear a single footstep when that Anbu appeared. It was as if he just moved in like a shadow." He explained.
"We were surprised when he took down Zabuza." Sakura chimed in. "It happened so fast. The Anbu told us that he had been hunting down Zabuza for months. We all thought he helped us to finish him off, but…" She looked down, her concern was written all over her face.
But, Naruto reassured her as he jumped into the conversation. "Don't you worry, Sakura-chan! We can handle it! You shouldn't forget that I broke Kakashi-sensei out of the water prison!" He grinned confidentially.
Sakura looked back at him with a raised brow. "That was because you were lucky at that time, Naruto! It doesn't mean it's going to work the next time!"
"Actually, Sakura. From what I see, he has grown a lot." Kakashi-sensei intervened. "He and Sasuke helped me to win the fight. Without it, I wouldn't be here."
He then turned to my dear friend. His one eye smiled at him. "You did a good job of coming up with that attack. Well done."
Naruto rubbed his nose sheepishly as he scratched the back of his head.
I gave him a pat on his back, smiling.
"I still can't believe you actually did that, Naruto." Ino remarked. She and the others looked at my dear friend in disbelief, after hearing how Naruto had saved Kakashi-sensei from Zabuza's water prison. It was an improvised plan that had a lot of risk. And Naruto was able to do it successfully. With the help from Sasuke, of course.
"What can I say? I am amazing, right?" He asked.
"Amazing? More like reckless to me." She crossed her arms.
"Oh, come on!" Naruto's grin faltered.
"Still, didn't think you could pull it off." Shikamaru replied. He had an approving smile on his face.
"Yeah." Chouji nodded. "Way to go, Naruto!"
Naruto's grin grew wider as he thanked them for praising him. "Thanks, guys!"
"Anyway," Kakashi-sensei got our attention, "Since Zabuza is still alive out there, we need to get ready when the time comes."
"How are we gonna do that?" Sasuke asked. He was sitting away from the group in the living room.
"By training you all, of course." Kakashi-sensei replied.
"Training?" We all asked in unison.
My uncle looked at him with his brow slightly raised. "What do you have in mind, Kakashi?"
"Oh, you know. That thing." Kakashi-sensei replied.
"That thing…?" My uncle quickly realized what Kakashi-sensei meant, and his grin became wide. "Ahhh, that thing."
Kakashi-sensei nodded.
The rest of us looked puzzled at what the two had in their mind.
But then, a voice from behind interrupted our conversation.
"It's pointless, you know." We turned back. We saw Inari standing near the stairs. "Nothing is going to change even if you get ready to fight them."
"Inari!" Tazuna-san exclaimed, his expression softened.
Inari's tough demeanor melted away as he ran towards Tazuna-san. He wrapped his arms around to give him a hug. "Welcome home, Grandpa!"
"How have you been? Are you doing well?" Tazuna-san asked, patting his grandson gently.
"I am fine, Grandpa." Inari replied.
Then, Tsunami-san came down to the living room. Her hands are resting on her hips. "Inari. That was very rude. These ninjas came all the way here to protect your Grandpa."
"It's alright, Tsunami. I was also rude to them at first." Tazuna-san chuckled, ruffling Inari's hair affectionately.
Inari then looked at us, his eyes sharp. With one glance, his focus lingered on me for a while. I felt a bit uncomfortable by the way he looked. It was as if he had just seen something strange that didn't fit well in the group.
He slowly let go of his Grandpa and turned back to his mother. "Mom. These people are going to die. They wouldn't stand a chance against Gato."
"Say what?!" Naruto got up from his seat. "Listen, kid. I am Naruto Uzumaki. And mark my words, I will be the future Hokage! A hero everyone looks up to! So, you better believe it!"
"A hero?" Inari narrowed his eyes. "There is no such thing as a hero. You're just an idiot who doesn't know the danger here."
"I-Idiot?!"
"Yeah! A big idiot! You're all gonna get killed by Gato! It's only a matter of time before it's too late."
"Why you…!" Naruto gritted his teeth.
"And you" Inari pointed at me. "Why are you here? What could an Ijin possibly do against Gato?"
"Ijin?" Sakura turned to me.
It also caught Sasuke's attention when Inari mentioned it. Suddenly, I was at the center of everyone's attention.
"I have heard stories of what the Ijin did to other places. They brought nothing but trouble. They are just as bad as Gato. You should leave before you do something. I do not want to see an Ijin walking around in the house and cause problems " With those biting words, Inari turned and stormed up the stairs.
His harsh accusations lingered in the air, leaving us in silence. Except for Naruto, his expression went hard. His hands clenched into fists and he soon chased after, wanting to teach him a lesson.
"Wait, Naruto! Don't!" I soon followed him, trying to stop.
Ⅱ
I soon followed Naruto up the stairs. Before he reached out to open Inari's room, I caught his hand to stop it.
"Stop it, Naruto." I firmly said.
"But Darrenー"
"No, buts." I cut him off. "He is just a kid. You shouldn't lose your cool when someone says something you don't like."
"That wasn't something, Darren!" He let go of my grip. "He just accused you."
"Yeah, so?" I crossed my arms. "It's not the first time I've heard things like that. Remember?"
"I know that! But…" He looked down, crossing his arms. "I don't like how he… discriminated against you without knowing what you had done for me. You were there when it happened. I can't thank you enough when you saved me from those men. No one should talk like that about my best friend. No one."
I gently patted his shoulder, softly smiling at him. "I appreciate you trying to stand up for me. But you need to understand. This isn't how you do it."
Naruto groaned as he looked away.
But then, we heard a muffled sobbing noise coming from the room.
"Is he…?" Naruto turned his head to the door.
We leaned closer, pressing our ears gently against the wood to listen. Through the door, we could hear Inari crying out for his father.
"Dad… Why… Why did you have to…" His sobbing was uncontrollable.
We slowly let go of the door and exchanged glances.
Naruto looked bitter as he looked down at the floor.
I patted him on the shoulder once more, encouraging him to leave Inari alone.
Slowly nodded, we went back down to the living room.
Ⅲ
In the woods, not too far from Tazuna-san's house, Team 7 and Team 10 were gathered around for training.
"Alright, let's start today's training," Kakashi-sensei announced. "Now, does everyone know what the main power source of a shinobi is?"
Naruto raised his hand. "I know! I know! We learned it back at the academy. It is umm… we use it in our daily life and…"
"And…?" Kakashi-sensei let him continue.
"It is called… cattara!" Naruto smiled confidently.
We were dumbfounded by his reply. I could hear Ino and Shikamaru snickering quietly to themselves.
"It's chakra, Naruto." Kakashi–sensei corrected. "Do you know what chakra is?"
"Oh well umm…"
Kakashi-sensei sighed. "Sakura."
"Okay, Naruto. I'll explain it simply so pay attention." she then began to explain the nature of it.
"Chakara is the elemental life energy a shinobi uses in jutsu. There are two forms of it. One is the physical energy, which works together in our body. The other is the spiritual energy, the primal source of power that is intensified through training and experience. With these two combined, it must be drawn out in performing a justu. The hand sign we all learned back at the academy helps us to concentrate and release chakra effectively."
Her explanation was clear and thorough, as expected from Sakura. I looked over at Naruto and nudged his shoulder. "So, you understand now?"
He turned to me. "Of course I do! I just… well forgot how it works that's all!"
"Like forgetting the name of it?" Shikamaru chimed in with his brow raised.
Naruto groaned under his breath. His cheeks were flushing in a fait red as he looked away. He was embarrassed by his earlier mistake.
"Right on all points. Iruka did have some excellent students." Kakashi-sensei praised.
"Thank you, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura replied, her chest puffed up with pride.
Seeing how smug she looked, Ino sighed and crossed her arms. "Oh, please Sakura. Just because you manage to explain what it was, doesn't mean that you are better than me."
Sakura narrowed her eyes, ready to fight back. But my uncle cleared his throat, stopping the argument before it could happen.
"With all the explanation aside, we are already using chakra in our jutsu, Kakashi. I do not think we need to learn how it works." Sasuke said.
He had a point. Iruka-sensei had taught us how to control our chakra energy in a justu, so it seemed a bit unnecessary to go all over again.
However, Kakashi-sensei shook his head and denied Sasuke's reply. "No. You have not mastered this power and you've just barely scratched the surface of it."
This got our attention.
"Barely scratched?" Chouji asked.
"Yes." My uncle replied. He was standing next to Kakashi-sensei. "Like what Sakura said, you have to draw on physical and spiritual energies and combine them within yourself. But the question is, how do you do it? Each jutsu requires different types of chakra in different portions. Up to now, you all just guessed the proportions of the jutsu and hoped it would work. Take the cloning justu, for an example."
My uncle then summoned two clones of himself. The clones were standing on either side of him. "Most of you were able to create two clones at most. But, did you know you could also create…"
He summoned a new batch of clones again. But this time, he made ten of them surrounding him. "This many?"
Our eyes widen in awe to see him created effortlessly in just a few quick seconds.
Although the sheer number of shadow clones my dear friend Naruto had created was far more impressive, I hadn't seen him recreating the same massive amount since that day. Whenever I asked him how many shadow clones he could create now, his limit seemed to be six or seven, depending on the condition that is.
"Without good control and balance, it will all be worthless even if you produce a lot of chakra. The jutsu won't work at all and in the end, you waste so much energy that way. When that happens, you are just a target. A defenseless walking target." After my uncle's demonstration, Kakashi-sensei jumped in to conclude.
"So… how do we change it?" Naruto asked as he scratched the back of his head.
"To change it, you all need to be prepared that you all are willing to risk your life to go through this training."
"Exactly." My uncle chimed in after he made his clones disappear. "You must take this training seriously or else."
The air started to tense a bit as we started to wonder what kind of rigorous training we were going to do.
"What is the training, uncle?" I asked.
"Well, the training you all are going to do is…" he paused, adding a bit of dramatic effect. But he soon quickly finished his sentence with this. "Tree-climbing."
"Tree-climbing?" We all tilted our heads.
"Yes… But on one condition." Kakashi-sensei said. "You have to climb it with no hands."
This further puzzled us.
"No hands…?" Shikamaru said.
"How are we going climb a tree with no hands?" Ino asked.
"We'll show you. Asuma." Kakashi-sensei said.
Taking the cue, my uncle formed a ram hand seal to concentrate his chakra on his feet. Then, a few seconds later, he slowly walked to a nearby tree. Placing his right foot onto the tree trunk, he slowly let go of his left foot and began to walk up along the tree trunk.
We gasped to see the sight of it. My uncle kept going higher and higher until he walked to the highest tree branch.
"Well, you get the idea," Kakashi-sensei said, getting our attention to him. "Focus the chakra toward the soles of your feet and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply chakra."
"But, wait a minute," Sakura intervened. "How does it help to fight against Zabuza and the Anbu, Kakashi-sensei? It is a pretty nice trick but I can't see how it helps us to improve our chakra control."
"Because, this is the only way to fight them, Sakura." My uncle said, turning our attention back to him. "And that is the goal of this training. I want you all to learn how to draw a precise amount of chakra to a precise point in your body. This is difficult, even for Chunin. This type of climbing requires a subtle mix of physical and spiritual energy. The bottom of the feet is said to be the most difficult point to focus chakra. If you could master it, you would be able to master any kind of jutsu."
"Theoretically, that is." Kakashi-sensei added, "The second point is to learn to maintain your chakra levels. When a shinobi focuses on a battle, it's even harder to control and maintain his chakra levels. It is a deadly mistake. To avoid this, maintaining chakra must become second nature, effortless."
"We could talk about it in more detail but I don't think talking would help to advance your skills. It is better to try out through experiencing this training." My uncle then jumped back down to the ground.
"Now, I want you all to use your Kunai and mark the tree at the highest point you can climb without using your hands. Then, try to get past that mark the next time and the next."
"However," Kakashi-sensei jumped in again. "You'll need to run at the tree so your momentum can take you as high as possible. Until you get used to it."
"All clear?" My uncles asked.
We all nodded and drew our Kunai from our item porch.
"This will be a piece of cake," Naruto said. "Just you watch Kakashi-sensei! I will finish this training in no time! Believe it! Remember what you said, I am the one who's grown the most!"
"And you are definitely the one who talks the most." Kakashi-sensei replied, with his head shaking to the side.
Me and my teammates quietly chuckled at the exchange.
"What's so funny?!"
"Well, it never tires to see that some things never change," Shikamaru replied with a smirk.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you're still as loud as ever, Naruto. And also, hot-headed." Ino teased with a grin.
Naruto didn't like the sound of it as he grumbled in annoyance. "You'll regret it when you all make fun of me! I will get to the top of the tree!"
"We will see about that, buddy." I patted his back.
"Alright, enough chatter." Kakashi-sensei cut in. "Get to your position and focus."
We all began to concentrate on drawing our chakra to our feet. After a few ten seconds of doing it, we dashed towards the tree and began our tree-climbing exercise.