Kakashi watched Pakkun run off with the message to the Hokage. Naruto’s secret was sure to spread, now that he had been linked to the dragon by Zabuza. Even if they did maintain the pretense of a summoning…but those worries were thankfully above Kakashi’s paygrade. For now, he had to get Naruto from arguing with the client’s kid about heroes.
A bit later Kakashi took his genin into the forest near Tazuna’s house. “We need to start training your chakra control. None of you use chakra efficiently.” Sasuke tended to put more chakra into his jutsu, making it stronger in some cases but it was a bad trade in a long fight. Naruto tossed so much chakra around Kakashi wondered if he was already tapping the kyuubi’s chakra, but only a fraction of it was actually used in a jutsu. “We will do this with a simple exercise. Simple, but dangerous.”
Three genin looked back at him. “What exercise?” Naruto asked eagerly.
“Tree climbing.”
“Eh!?”
Kakahi sat on his branch and revealed his Sharingan. Even suffering chakra exhaustion, he needed to watch Naruto carefully. Now that he knew what was going on, he had to map out hor Naruto used chakra as best as he could, or this training could go horribly wrong. “Go!” he called.
The three genin each ran for a different tree. Sasuke reached his first. He made it up a handful of steps before his foot slipped, then his next step he overcompensated and cratered. He managed to make a scratch before jumping down.
Naruto didn’t make it nearly that far. His first step impacted the tree and sank three or four inches into the living wood. Needless to say, he tripped, overbalanced, and fell to the ground with a thud. But Kakashi was pleased; as near as he could tell the chakra Naruto was using was the same as anyone else’s. He’d need a Hyuuga to get a more detailed analysis, but his Sharingan was telling him that Naruto could use chakra and jutsu the same as anyone, whatever else his draconic and jinchuriki natures afforded him.
Kakashi suddenly realized that Sakura hadn’t jumped down. “Kakashi-sensei,” Sakura said right in his ear, her voice chiding and teasing, “you shouldn’t be using your Sharingan in your condition!”
Kakashi ducked his head, closed his eyes, and smiled. “Well well, it seems that the closest one to being Hokage is Sakura!” he called down to the boys. “And I guess the Uchiha clan isn’t so great after all!”
“Don’t say that,” Sakura whined. “Sasuke won’t like me if you say that.”
Naruto looked up. “Very impressive, Sakura!” he yelled. He glanced over at Sasuke’s mark and frowned. “I have some catching up to do,” he muttered to himself.
Kakashi looked over to Sakura. “You get to go on to phase two. Walk back down.”
“Eh?” Sakura asked. She blinked and looked back down. Suddenly the ground seemed uncomfortably far away. “Walk back down?”
“Uh,” Kakashi nodded. “Your control is impressive. Now you need to work on your stamina.”
Sakura let out an intimidated whimper.
Kakashi watched his genin make their fourth run. They were all getting frustrated, and he was sure one of them was about to
“Kakashi-sensei!” Naruto bellowed, shaking his fist indignantly. “Can’t you at least tell us how to do this better!?”
To lose their patience. Kakashi closed his eye and sighed loudly, affecting one put-upon by fate. “No.”
“NANI!?” “Ehhh?!” “Uhn?”
Kakashi walked down the tree slowly. “As much as we all use chakra the same way, even Naruto, chakra is generated by the mind and body of the individual. Teaching can only go so far. Sakura, for example, experiences her chakra intellectually. It’s what makes her a genjutsu type, and is why she was able to master the stability part of this exercise so easily. Naruto, what does your chakra feel like?”
Naruto opened his mouth to answer and paused. The answer that came to his mind was ‘it feels like chakra.’ But his chakra didn’t feel like anyone else’s chakra, so that wasn’t right.
Kakashi saved him. “Exactly. In the history of ninja, no one has been able to agree what chakra feels like. Likewise, no one has been able to teach how to build and control chakra efficiently. It is something that can only be practiced until you find the one way that works for you. Only those who find this way can truly achieve the higher levels of the ninja world. This is another step of developing your own way of the ninja.”
“YOSH!” Naruto declared, running at the tree again. “Then this is nothing! I said I’ll do this, and I will! That is my way of the ah ah ahhh~hhhh” THUD. “…ow.”
Kakashi pulled out his book. “Your way of the ahhh needs work.”
Kakashi glanced up as her turned the page. Sasuke’s mark was almost to a low branch. Naruto had climbed up to Sasuke’s first marks…which was actually a much more startling improvement than the Uchiha. It was pointless for Sakura to make marks, but she had made a number of slow walks up and down the tree already.
Each ninja had a different problem. Sasuke could provide a reliable chakra, but he lost his grip on it easily and couldn’t recover. Naruto’s chakra fluctuated wildly, but he could catch himself and keep going. Inevitably he’d miss and fall. Sakura had no problems with steady chakra, but her current reserve was close to negligible. She was about to collapse from exhaustion, the other two were running strong.
Kakashi looked back at his book. Pakkun had reached Konoha by now. They’d have backup in an hour, maybe two.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 20 May 2011 19:36)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.