Boot Camp
"OHH, MY CUTE LITTLE TORA! I WAS SO WORRIED!"
I cringed as I was forced to look at Madam Shijimi, the wife of the Land of Fire's daimyō, as she manhandled the cat that was desperately trying to escape its owner's embrace. Only internally, of course, openly showing this in front of a paying customer would obviously be an absolute no-go.
It stood to question whether bringing the feline back to this owner constituted as animal cruelty or not. Not that I cared. They say animal cruelty doesn't wield benefits, but for the kids and me, it actually did. 8,000 ryō to be exact, minus the part of the payment the village would keep. Not much considering the A-rank missions I had run for the last year had each paid up to a million, but then again, suppressing hostile shinobi or missing-nin also bore a slightly higher risk to my life than overseeing three kids catch an escaped pet.
After the woman whose voice didn't seem to know a volume other than 'deafening' finally left the Hokage's office, I went over to the secretary's desk to collect my team's earnings. While doing so, I gave a quick nod to Iruka who marked the mission as a success. Five missions down, only three more to go. Thank fuck for D-Rank missions; easy to do, quick to finish, and involved zero risk to one's life. If we managed to keep this momentum, I would have almost three entire months for the brats' training.
The Hokage was just in the process of reading a list of potential other D-rank missions when a familiar, headache-inducing voice interrupted him.
"NO! NO, NO, NO! I'm sick of these boring-ass missions! Find us a better one!"
I did my utmost best to suppress my eye's twitching. If he already insisted on making a scene, couldn't he at least do it not in front of the village's leader?! Was it really that hard to comprehend how this type of behavior reflected on his entire team, including me?!
"You Idiot!" Iruka shouted back. Great to see how maturely my brother decided to handle this situation. It wasn't like I didn't also have the urge to raise my voice against the boy, but was I the only one who remembered that we were in front of the Hokage?! "You are just a-"
I held my hand out to interrupt him before this whole situation went completely out of control.
"Naruto," I said, keeping up a calm appearance. "Do you know what the ranks of the missions mean?"
He blinked in confusion.
"Um… they show the difficulty, right?"
"Not wrong, but they also show the importance of the mission. And importance means relevance. That is especially true at lower ranks. You will be hard-pressed to find a D-rank that is more relevant than any C-rank. And that goes up until the S-rank. We wouldn't get D-rank missions if the C-ranks weren't covered."
That should be enough to diffuse the situation and allow me to save the tirade for when we were alone. Unfortunately, this was Naruto I was dealing with.
"Okay, but, why are we the ones who have to do the boring shit?"
Of course, he didn't get that he was supposed to shut up.
…actually, no, now that I thought about it, this was a good chance for me to show off. Unlike most current Jōnin, I hadn't lived during the Third Great Shinobi War. There was a chance that people thought I didn't understand the true gravitas of certain things due to a lack of experience. I could use this opportunity to prove my understanding to the Hokage. That meant that Naruto would get off lighter than he would have, but that was worth the trade.
"Boring? You should be happy that you get D-ranks."
"Huh?! Why should I be happy about all these crappy duties?! I want to do something exciting!"
I closed the distance between us.
"Are you even aware of how lucky we are to be born in this day and age? In the span of just a few decades, we went through three world wars! There was a time when the average Genin had a life expectancy of just a few days after graduating! That wasn't 'excitement', it was a meat grinder! A pointless waste of human resources! And it wasn't limited to shinobi, countless civilians died, families got torn apart, and entire cities just vanished from the map! But that doesn't happen today, do you know why? Because we are no longer at war. There are still tensions, but by and large, our country is at peace."
I then stepped so close that my face was directly in front of his.
"Do you think that should change? Do you want to go back to those times, because you believe those hundreds of thousands of lives lost or ruined are less important than your personal excitement?"
The boy swallowed heavily and looked to the ground.
"N-no."
"Thought as much. So be glad that you live at a time where our country is safe enough that Lord Third can afford to give you D-rank missions and go catch that stupid cat again once it inevitably escapes once more!"
He shrank further, but before I could completely stare him into the ground, a deep chuckle brought my attention back to our superior.
"Wisely spoken, Tanya. However, as coincidence dictates, we actually just got in a smaller-scale C-rank mission," he explained holding up a scroll. "It's a simple escort on a secure route, so it would be fine as a first experience for rookies."
"YEEESSS!" Naruto screamed, either not aware or not caring how close to my ear he was. Ouch. But more importantly, why was The Third doing this? Why would give the brat what he wanted after he portrayed a complete inability to proper behavior? I was about to step forward and accept the mission when I finally understood it. This wasn't about Naruto, it was about me! He was testing me again! Well, I guess it wasn't too surprising. I was probably the youngest Jōnin-sensei in the village's history; I should've expected to be met with more scrutiny.
"No, Naruto, not yes," I corrected him with increasing difficulty to maintain my professional demeanor in front of the Hokage, "because we are not taking it."
"Huuuuh?! Why not?!" he screamed again. This kid was really dead-set on saturating my demand for decibels of an entire year today, wasn't he?
"With the attitude and lack of situational awareness you displayed today, it is very clear that you are not yet ready for a C-rank. Lord Third, please give the mission to one of the other rookie teams."
Naruto seemed like he wanted to say something again, but this time, I managed to shut him up with a glare.
"If you as their sensei think they aren't ready, very well," the old man shrugged. His choice of words… 'you as their sensei'; yes, he really had been testing me. Good thing I realized my mistake in time!
"I take it you wish to do another D-rank then?"
Never mind, the test wasn't over yet. Although that one was a no-brainer. He was checking whether I would just go on as if nothing happened or if I would reprimand Naruto for his behavior. Then again, people tended to trip at the finish line. Not me, though.
"I would like to excuse us for now, Lord Third. We will come and get another mission later on."
His judging gaze rested on me for a while before he closed his eyes and nodded. "You are dismissed." Ha! Did I ace that one or what?
I waited until we were outside of the Hokage Villa before addressing my team again.
"So, Naruto, you are dissatisfied with the missions we are getting?"
The blonde gulped audibly but didn't back down.
"I mean," he said much quieter than before, "have you looked at the stuff we're doing? This isn't ninja work!"
"It is work that ninja are hired to do", I retorted. "Therefore, it is by definition ninja work."
The annoyed click of a tongue was the answer. Not from Naruto, however, but from Sasuke.
"Got something to say?" I asked, shifting to the black-haired boy. Unlike Naruto, he managed to keep his posture.
"This is pointless," he grumbled.
"Oh, is it? Does the team have a consensus on that?"
Sakura was the exact opposite of Sasuke, not being able to meet my gaze at all.
"Well, uh, I mean… it is kinda boring… I guess…"
Zero sense of duty. Well, I guess it was a miscalculation on my part. I was focused on completing eight missions as fast as possible so I could then concentrate on training. What I hadn't thought of was that until I started with the training - and in consequence, beating sense into them - they would still have their annoying mindsets.
Maybe starting the training now would alleviate the problem. Unfortunately, these kids weren't just part of an army that I could run through drills. Unlike the empire's soldiers, shinobi were specialists that put much more emphasis on the individual. After the academy, they needed to adapt their training to their personal strengths and weaknesses. And while I had a good chunk of information about them, I needed more if I wanted to optimize my training to the point where I was sure they were Chūnin-material afterward. Then again, there were some basics I had to teach all of them, and this would also be a way to gauge their abilities.
"Alright. You are bored? Fine. Meet me at the main gate in half an hour!"
"I am sorry for getting loud there, Lord Third," Iruka apologized with a slight bow.
"Don't worry, Iruka. I know how close you are to Naruto, and he always had a problem with authority."
Hiruzen put the stack of papers in front of him to the side and pulled out his pipe.
"But you are no longer his teacher," he reminded him as he filled it with herbs. He then molded a bit of fire chakra, pushed it into his hand, and created a small spark between his fingers that ignited the greens. "And I must say, your sister shows remarkable patience with him while at the same time not being lenient. I had my doubts due to her age, but she seems to have been a fine choice."
Iruka couldn't help but chuckle.
"Most people only know her for her reputation. But I know she has a big heart, even if she would never admit it."
Hiruzen drew on his pipe and let his thoughts wander for a moment. Young geniuses rarely made good teachers, but Tanya seemed to be an exception even among exceptions. At least in terms of keeping the kids in check. When it came to her ability to nurture the children's skills, that was something only time would show. He was truly curious about how her team would develop.
"I wonder if she will recommend them for the next Chūnin exams."
"I doubt that," Iruka claimed, shaking his head. "She might have reached that rank at the age of five, but she knows that she's an outlier. She won't be so hasty."
Iruka sounded fairly convinced, and it was to be expected that he knew his sister. But Hiruzen couldn't help but notice how quickly Team 7 breezed through their missions, having completed as many as the other two rookie teams combined.
His thoughts were interrupted when his secretary spoke up.
"So, Lord Third, what about that carpenter's escort? Should I call for one of the other teams or just give it to the Genin corps?"
It was a good question. When the man from the Land of Waves, Tazuna, put in the request the evening before, it was originally meant to be given to team Gai. But then again, it really was a low-scale mission. The bridge builder didn't even have a cart with him, it was unlikely that bandits would even bother. It was perfect as a first C-rank.
The other two rookie teams unfortunately didn't seem as ambitious. The first was Team 8 under Kurenai Yuhi. They were currently on their third mission, running an errand to the next village, and scheduled to return later today. Their record so far was decent, but Kurenai had only been a Jōnin for two months before getting her team, and Asuma, his son, had told him she could be quite proud.
Option two was Team 10, led by Asuma. They had only completed two missions so far, and his pupils had been quite the underperformers in the academy. The three were unfortunately a far cry from the legendary Ino-Shika-Cho-Trio their parents were known as, and by all the fighting prowess his son was known for, he also had quite the lax attitude.
Really, of the three, Tanya's team was the one most eligible to get a C-rank this early. Too bad she declined, even if he could understand her reasoning. Well, it was an easy mission, so it should be fine.
It was early noon when Naruto met the rest of his team at the village's entrance. Not knowing how much time whatever they were doing next would take, he had spent the half an hour they were given to quickly slurp some instant ramen. He was curious about what Tanya-sensei had planned for them. Maybe training? She hadn't really done any training with them yet, just given them some individual exercises they should do in their free time. In his case, she told him to do the boring-ass leaf exercise from the academy for chakra control. He was so annoyed by this that he hadn't even heard what she had told the others. Hopefully whatever they'd do now was more interesting.
"Alright," she announced once they were complete, "we'll be making a short trip. I trust all of you can do sustained running?" All three nodded.
"Um, sensei?" Sakura asked with a raised hand. "Aren't we going to one of the training fields?"
"No, for what I've planned, we need to get a bit further. Now follow me!"
She went into position and sprinted away, Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke on her heels. After exiting the Hidden Leaf's periphery they turned east, following the road. They ran through forest areas and open plains, leaving the road whenever they reached a village to run around it rather than through. Occasionally, they would pass travelers and merchants, some accompanied by other shinobi while others were alone. Tanya didn't let them slow down though, so they couldn't hold any conversation other than throwing the occasional greeting.
Many hours had passed when the short sensei finally stopped. They were once again in a forest, with tall trees flanking the road on either side. There was, however, a salty breeze in the air, so the sea couldn't be more than a few kilometers away.
While they had learned sustained running in the academy, and Naruto also had quite some experience when it came to running away, this was the first time he had run for that long. Glancing to Sasuke, he could see that he stood upright like this had been nothing, but he could see that his face was slightly red, and while he didn't breathe audibly, Naruto could see that his chest was heaving quite notably.
Jerk, why do you have to act like you are not out of breath, I can see that you are!
Still, he refused to let himself be one-upped by his teammate and also did his best to also not have his exhaustion shown. Fixated on Sasuke, he didn't notice that Sakura didn't care for their contest and stood bent over with her hands on their knees, panting heavily.
Sakura had no idea how the two boys could still stand upright. Well, from Sasuke it was to be expected, but apparently, Naruto's endurance was nothing to scoff at either. She couldn't help but feel a little left behind.
"So, you are too bored to do your job? Then you don't need to worry because, in the near future, your heads won't have any space for boredom. First things first, how many of you can walk on water?"
"…"
"Walk on water?!" Naruto shouted next to her, and Sakura wasn't any less surprised than him. She knew that fully trained shinobi could perform incredible physical feats, but was walking on water really something that was possible?
"I'll take that as a 'no'. What about this?"
She left the road, walked over to one of the nearby trees, and put one foot against the trunk. Then the other. But instead of falling to the ground, she simply walked straight up, as if she was still standing on horizontal ground. With the casualness of an everyday stroll, she kept going higher. When she reached a branch, she decided to now defy gravity completely and stood upside-down on the bark.
"Judging by your faces, I guess I don't even need to ask if you can do that."
She dropped down, spun in the air, and landed in front of them. Groaning, she pinched the bridge of her nose.
"Fine, guess we're starting at zero then."
"We weren't taught this at the academy!" Sakura tried to defend herself from the accusing tone, choosing a bit more neutral words compared to the ones her inner self was shouting. Which earned her another death glare from Tanya.
We're almost the same age and I am taller, how is she so scary?!
"So? I could do this before I even attended the academy. Which, in my case, means at the age of four! It is an absolutely basic skill for any shinobi, not just for its utility, but it'll also improve your combat movement. The academy gives you guidance, but if you are serious about it, you go beyond that. I mean, look at Naruto's shadow clones or Sasuke's fire techniques! They didn't learn those at the academy."
Sakura gulped heavily. Was she really so inadequate? Could the other teams do that already? Probably, of those who passed the final test, she was the only one who didn't come from a clan after all.
"Although", Tanya shifted her attention to the boys, "the fact that you guys can do that but not tree climbing is its own kind of baffling. Anyway, the concept is simple. All you need to do is to channel chakra into your soles. The trick is to get the amount right."
She pointed at a group of particularly tall trees without many branches.
"Once you reach the crown of those, we'll go to the next exercise. For starts, running will make it a bit easier for you, but it won't help you much if you can't control your chakra properly."
She turned to Naruto.
"But since you surely did the exercise I gave you, this shouldn't be a problem, hm? Now start! The day still has a few hours, don't waste them!"
And so they did. Naruto wasn't able to use enough chakra and fell down. Sasuke used too much and got catapulted off the tree. Sakura managed to do it first try.
"I… I did it?" She almost couldn't believe it herself.
"You did," Tanya affirmed over the curses of the two boys. "If nothing else, your chakra control is noteworthy. Good job."
The sudden compliment from the usually stern girl brought an unexpected warmth to her chest. She then followed her sensei to another group of trees, a few steps away from the boy.
"Now, usually, there are two steps following this. The first is to walk rather than run. But that's more an exercise in core strength rather than chakra control. The other is walking on water. But that is the same principle, the only difference is that your control needs to be even more precise. Since you already have very good control over your chakra, I doubt that you need my guidance for either of those. You're doing the chakra coil exercise I showed you to increase your reserves?"
"Every day," Sakura nodded. "I can never do it longer than an hour though."
"That's to be expected. Even if you train, you will never have chakra reserves like Naruto. Sucks, I know, but life is unfair. Important is to get yours over the pathetic level they are now. Just add water walking to your daily training and you should have it down soon. What you will do instead while we are here is this."
As she said the last word, Tanya slammed her fist into the nearest tree. With a deafening crack!, the wood practically exploded and splinters flew in all directions. Sakura shrieked in surprise and pressed her eyes shut. When she opened them again, the tree had a massive hole.
"The principle is the same as when you climbed. But here, not only do you have to control your chakra properly, but you also have to use enough to create a repulsive force rather than suction. Not only will that increase the force of your punch substantially, but it will also create a cushion so you don't injure yourself. Since your chakra reserves are so low, releasing a lot at once will be difficult. Your control alone won't help you here, so that'll probably take a while."
She pointed at the hole.
"Don't even try to achieve this though, that won't happen anytime soon. Just do some form of noteworthy damage without damaging yourself."
'Naruto and Sasuke will have a much easier time with this one' was something she didn't say, but Sakura could almost hear her say it anyway. She really needed to step up.
But that didn't happen on that day. All she had been able to do was shave off tiny bits of bark, and considering how often she had hit the tree that would've probably happened anyway. It was about 8 pm when Tanya called the exercise off.
"Alright, that's enough for today. Eat something and then go to sleep, we'll resume training at 5 am!"
"But we didn't bring any sleeping bags!" Sakura lamented.
"You won't always be able to bring enough luggage on a mission to bring a sleeping bag."
"And what about food?" Naruto chimed in.
"What about it? You're in a forest. You want food, go get some."
Sasuke squinted at her comment.
"The reason sole we're doing this so far away from the village is so that we can't return, right?"
"Ten points for the brooder! Now get going, I'll see you in the morning!"
With that, she disappeared. Unsure what to do, Sakura followed Naruto to gather firewood while Sasuke went for a quick hunt. She was surprised by how much the blonde knew about what types of wood were best for a bonfire, and even more when Sasuke returned with a small deer he had managed to kill. While he skinned and gutted it, Naruto emptied their weapon pouches and stuffed them with leaves to make improvised pillows. When she asked how the two knew so much, Naruto boasted that he had camped outside the village quite often when he was younger. Sasuke just shrugged it off.
The deer was probably young, so the meat was surprisingly tender. Still, without salt or herbs, it didn't taste great. And for Sakura, the taste was even worse, spoiled by the knowledge that she didn't contribute anything to it.
Falling asleep on the leaf-covered forest floor was difficult, but she managed. Early in the next morning, the alarm went off and signaled the start of another round of training. But as Sakura slowly opened her eyes, she noticed that her jaw felt sore and she couldn't move. Snapping awake, she realized someone had gagged her and tied her to a tree. And that someone had been very thorough because she literally couldn't move a muscle. Terrified, she looked around. First, she found Naruto. He wasn't just tied up like her, but literally chained and stretched between two tree trunks. The faint hope that at least Sasuke got away was snuffed out as she saw his head sticking out of the ground, the rest of his body buried. Both were gagged, just like her. Five minutes of panic and muffled shouts followed before the sound of a familiar voice brought them some calm.
"So, you slept out in the open, in what is potentially enemy territory, and none of you got the idea to put up a night guard? Don't complain if you get captured then!"
Sakura let out a sigh of relief. As much as she could through the gag. So this was just Tanya-sensei teaching them why night guards were important.
…although, their restraints were very thorough.
"Don't look at me. You can't always hope for reinforcement. You got caught, you get yourself out. This won't be deducted from your training time, by the way, so hurry up!"
And the panic was back.
Two hours did the three of them spent like this. In the end, it was Sasuke who managed to get himself out and free the others. Surprisingly, neither he nor Naruto commented on that. Neither did Tanya, who simply nodded and then continued their exercises.
The training was even worse than the day before, mainly because it didn't just last a few hours, but the entire day. They were only allowed two times five minutes of break, which they each spent to quickly wolf down some of the bland jerky Sasuke had made from the leftover meant last evening. The rest of the day was pure hell, and just like Tanya had announced, the two hours lost in the morning were added in the evening. With the last of her strength, Sakura let herself fall down on her improvised bed, unable to move anymore. Every muscle in her body ached, her knuckles were bleeding, she was drenched in sweat, and so exhausted that she couldn't fathom how she was still awake.
After a while during training, her arms had become so heavy she could barely lift them anymore. Her sensei didn't care, so she had switched to kicks instead. Not that it had done much good. Both Naruto and Sasuke had been able to slowly, but steadily increase the distance they could scale before falling down. She? No progress at all. Releasing the chakra at the right moment was easy, but she somehow wasn't able to release enough at once.
"You think she will attack us again?" Naruto wondered, but Sasuke shook his head.
"I doubt it. This morning was meant to be a lesson, but when she sees that we have a night guard she'll leave us alone. I hope. We only have six hours until the alarm goes off, so four hours of sleep and two hours of watch of each…"
He took a glance at Sakura.
"… no, three hours for Naruto and me. You take the full six."
"What? No!" she protested weakly. As happy as she was over the fact that Sasuke cared for her, she couldn't just dump this on them.
"Why not? You clearly need to sleep the most."
"But I'm already making no progress during training! I can't way you down on top of that!"
"...what are you talking about? You already breezed through the climbing part!" Oh, great, they had reached the point where Naruto and Sasuke agreed on something.
"But what I'm doing now will be much easier for you!" she insisted.
"Maybe," Sasuke spoke again. "But for now, you are ahead of us, and even a blind guy could see that your training is tougher than ours."
She wanted to protest again, but as she raised her head, the last of her strength left her and she dozed off.
Sasuke's prediction proved right and Tanya left them alone this time. But if Sakura had thought the previous day had been hell, she clearly hadn't known what awaited her. Not only was she still sore from the day before, but around noon, her concentration was suddenly interrupted by a shuriken getting stuck in the tree in front of her. Behind her, she could hear another one hitting wood, followed by Naruto cursing.
"What the hell?!"
"Why are we switching to dodge training now, Tanya-sensei?" she could hear Sasuke ask.
"We aren't switching anything. You keep going, and you will dodge while you do it! Always be prepared for an ambush!"
That day, the sore muscles got joined by countless small cuts, but at least Tanya gave them band-aids rather than forcing them to improvise again.
In the early evening, they got visited by Team 8, accompanied by an old man they didn't know. They had gotten the escort mission Tanya had rejected and were apparently on their way to the Land of Waves. Their sensei, Kurenai held a quick chat with Tanya, and Kiba gloated a bit in front of Naruto that they were the first rookie team to get a C-rank. Naruto tried to retort, but one glare from Tanya quickly shut him up.
This time, they had eight hours of sleep to share rather than six, but the boys once more insisted that she took all of them. Sakura felt even worse about that than the day before but was again too exhausted to refute them.
The next day finally bore results. During the late morning hours, both Naruto and Sasuke managed to scale their respective trees to the top, and shortly after, as Sakura's fist connected with the tree, a two feet long, vertical crack split open in front of her eyes. With an affirming nod, Tanya rallied the three around her. But before she could explain the next steps, a loud buzzing noise interrupted her. A large, black cloud of insects closed in on them and sat down on one of the trees, their formation forming a single word.
'Help'
"Bugs?" Naruto asked, confused. Tanya crossed her arms and frowned.
"They probably belong to the Aburame-kid. Hope you three could recover a bit because you're about to get your excitement!"
A/N: You can't tell me Tanya doing a Naruto run wouldn't look absolutely adorable.
On a different note, 'The Pixie of the Hidden Leaf' is now also on AO3. Won't change anything for you readers on fanfic, but who knows, maybe one day my silly story will get big enough that I'll get fanart. Or maybe I'll commission something. If so, I'll post it there.