Kakashi looked over Asuma. Team Ten's jonin was lying on a rock slab with a cushion of moss. He was bandaged on his shoulder, ribs, hip, one knee, and his left arm was in a sling. “You look good.”
Asuma chuckled with a wince. “They sent you?”
“And my team.”
Asuma frowned. “That seems...”
“Suicidal,” Kakashi agreed. “New developments.”
“Can you talk about them?”
“Don't understand them yet.”
“That bad, huh?”
“Naruto.”
“Shit,” Asuma offered.
“Pretty much.”
“I'm glad they sent you, Kakashi.”
Kakashi's visible eyebrow twitched. “Even though it's a bad sign?”
Asuma grinned widely and extended a hand. “Sure. Now I'll have something to read while you get our genin ready for battle.”
Kakashi shook his head and passed a book with an orange cover to his injured friend. “I'm sorry I don't have any pictures of Kurenai to go with it.”
Asuma's blush was only a 7 on a scale from Anko to Hinata.
Kakashi closed his eye. “On to business. The client?”
“Deeper in the cave. He can't afford this, you know.”
“Nothing gained by getting him killed now,” Kakashi said.
“True. So what's the plan?”
“We're hidden and the cave is easily defended. My team can't keep you safe back to Konoha, so we're stuck here until you're good to travel. After that, the client is on his own.”
“Tree climbing?” Naruto asked.
“Uh,” Kakashi nodded. “Team ten already has their training, and as long as we're stuck here, you are going to train.”
“But...tree climbing?”
“Un,” Sasuke agreed.
Sakura looked around, looking like she wanted to say something...but she couldn't agree with Naruto and look cool and aloof like Sasuke.
Kakashi made a handsign and focused his chakra. “Many chunin have trouble with this technique,” he said. Putting his hands behind his back, he calmly walked up a tree. “You must focus your chakra at the bottom of your feet, one of the hardest places to focus chakra. Worse, you must maintain a steady flow of chakra. Not enough, you slip and fall. Too much, instead of bonding to the tree you kick off and fall. Now, all of you pick a tree and grab a kunai. Mark as high as you can get. Ready?”
Sasuke snorted. “Che.” Nonetheless, he picked up a kunai and chose a tree. Treewalking wasn't going to destroy that man, but this was clearly a way to become more mobile. That was a kind of strength.
Sakura threw a fist into the air. “Yeah!” She knew all about chakra focus! She'd show how cool she could be!
Naruto threw a fist down and a short blade of ice formed from it, like a crude kunai held in the classic reverse-grip. “Not a problem, dattebayo!”
Kakashi paused for a moment at the ice-blade. Naruto could use the practice with his jutsu, yes, but that kind of casual display was unnerving. “Begin.”
Sasuke ran to his tree and made three steps before his foot cratered into the bark. He yelled angrily and stabbed the tree with his knife in the heartbeat he had before his unsteady chakra pushed him away. He kicked off in a flip and landed in a light crouch, looking at the mark with dissatisfaction. Well, it was fairly high, he decided. Higher than he could jump without chakra in his legs. Naruto wouldn't make it half that high, he was sure. Wait, why wasn't Naruto yelling something stupid?
Kakashi frowned slightly. Sakura, as predicted, was sitting calmly on a low branch.
And Naruto was maybe half a foot below her, on his own tree. The Hokage's voice flashed through Kakashi's memory. “A Dragon Slayer's body is filled, even saturated, with elemental chakra.” He eyed the frozen footprints on the side of the tree.
“How did you do that!?” Sasuke raged.
“It was easy!” Naruto called back. “Dattebayo!”
“The Dragon Slayer jutsu needs so much chakra because it saturates the body,” Kakashi explained. “Naruto can release ice chakra from his feet as easily as anywhere else.”
“In other words, I'm just that awesome,” Naruto crowed.
“Of course, he's probably the worst here at any other kind of chakra,” Kakashi continued.
“Righ-what?” Naruto yelped.
“Look at your footprints,” Kakashi said. “If you don't use unnatured chakra, you'll leave traces. You used pure ice chakra to climb the tree. You need to keep practicing, but now work on keeping your chakra neutral.”
“What about me?” Sakura asked.
“Your chakra control is better than needed for this exercise,” Kakashi admitted. “But your taijutsu and kunai skills are far below Sasuke's. Even Naruto is better than you.”
“HEY!” Naruto and Sakura objected.
“So, Sasuke will train on his chakra control. Naruto will train on nature control. And Sakura will train on kunai control.”
“I don't think I've heard it called that before,” Naruto said.
“I was on a roll. You have your orders.”
“Feh,” Sasuke grumbled. This tree didn't seem too friendly anymore. He headed deeper into the forest.
Haku stared in fascination. As Zabuza predicted, reinforcements. But a team of genin, that was surprising. And young genin at that. They could launch an attack as soon as Zabuza repaired his sword.
And yet, for the first time since he was a child, Haku felt the warmth of family. He did not know the young blonde boy, he did not know the jutsu called Dragon Slayer, but he knew the Hyouten. Who was this Naruto? A cousin? A nephew?
A brother?
The black-haired failure was coming closer. Haku lept silently from his tree. It was time to retreat.
For now.
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(Posted Sun, 11 Dec 2011 07:48)
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