Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Juniper ❯ Training I ( Chapter 5 )

Agent's Spiel: Another reviewer! The numbers are low but it's still encouraging to hear from you guys.

Naruto will be using alternate means of communication:

Single quotation marks `' will be used to represent sign language; I'll probably use more than one form of sign language but I'll denote that in the sentence, it will still be within single quotes `'.

Back slashes / will denote Naruto writing what he is saying.

If anything else comes up I'll tell you when we get there. Enjoy!

 

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Training

Naruto woke up on the first day of real training with his team happy to be out of the cramped room by Sandaime's office and in a real bedroom. He was even more pleased when Iruka knocked on the door and peeked in. “I was just checking to make sure you were up,” he said with a smile. “Do you want breakfast?” he asked, gaining an eager nod from Naruto. “Go ahead and get dressed, then come downstairs.”

The moment Iruka disappeared, Naruto hopped out of bed and quickly got dressed; he adjusted his forehead protector around his neck like Iruka had shown him to cover the scars that still refused to fade. He skidded into the kitchen and blinked when he realized that he and Iruka weren't alone. `Pervert' he signed, sitting down next to Kakashi.

“Nice to see you too,” Kakashi retorted, ruffling Naruto's hair.

`Why are you here?' Naruto asked.

“I was just discussing your training regimen with Iruka,” Kakashi told him.

`What are we doing today?' Naruto asked before he began eating.

“Training,” Kakashi answered, gaining a glare from Naruto.

`No missions?' Naruto asked when he had finished eating.

“Naruto we told you three days ago that you would only be completing the minimum amount of necessary missions. You won't start them for a while yet,” Iruka told him.

Naruto scowled and stood up. “You remember where we're meeting?” Kakashi asked, gaining a nod from Naruto. “You better hurry up then if you want to get there before me,” he said, looking at Naruto nonchalantly.

Naruto's eyes widened and he glanced up at the clock before rushing out of the kitchen. When the front door slammed a moment later, Iruka turned to Kakashi with a frown. “They don't meet for another ten minutes and I know for a fact that you won't show up for at least another hour,” he accused.

Kakashi smirked and shrugged. “It'll give them the chance to talk before I arrive,” he said.

“Neither Sakura or Sasuke know enough sign language to fully hold a conversation with Naruto,” Iruka countered.

“They'll figure out something,” Kakashi said. He smirked at Iruka's answering growl.

On a bridge at the edge of town, two teenagers sat impatiently waiting for their third member and sensei. They looked up when the sound of running reached their ears and saw the orange blur that was their third teammate. “You were almost late,” Sakura stated, frowning at him.

Naruto grinned sheepishly and opened his mouth before quickly shutting it. He repeated the process several more times before he lifted his hands. Both of his teammates watched his hands for the signs that never came. They redirected their gazes to his face when his hands stilled and fell back to his sides. He scowled at them and jumped up to sit on the bridge's railing.

Sakura fidgeted after several minutes of silence. It was never quiet when Naruto was around; he had always made a lot of noise, even during class. She hadn't noticed the silence while they were working in the administration building because Iruka had been there and the tower had been lively enough. Sitting on the bridge, the silence from her two teammates was growing oppressive, but she couldn't bring herself to break it. She bit her lip lightly and turned to Sasuke before remembering Kakashi's warning about her attention to the boy.

Sakura didn't think Kakashi had meant that she couldn't talk to him, but he probably wouldn't appreciate it if he showed up and found her ignoring Naruto in favor of conversing with Sasuke. Sakura finally put her brain to work and decided that Naruto was the more likely of her two teammates to actually respond, as long as she kept the conversation on areas he could respond to. She hoped Sasuke would join in, or at least pay attention, if she could make the conversation interesting enough.

As she continued thinking about conversation topics, she suddenly remembered the Sandaime's comment about Mizuki-sensei the day before. She glanced at Naruto cautiously, wondering if he would be able to answer. It probably would have been a lot easier if Iruka would allow Naruto to write, but he claimed that Naruto would never learn if he constantly relied on that. “Naruto,” Sakura began, catching both of her teammates' attention. “Do you know what happened to Mizuki-sensei? He wasn't at the academy the day of orientation and I haven't seen him since graduation day,” she said. Technically it wasn't a lie, she hadn't seen him.

Naruto stiffened, but Sakura couldn't read his face well enough to tell whether or not he was thinking about how to explain or trying to ignore the topic. After several moments, he hesitantly signed his answer; however, Sakura only recognized `Fight'.

“He got into a fight?” she asked, trying to clarify.

Naruto nodded and signed, `With Sensei and me.'

“When?” Sakura asked.

`Ten days ago,' Naruto answered.

“That means it was the day of graduation,” Sasuke interrupted.

“You weren't really failed because of a bias, were you,” Sakura stated.

Naruto hesitated slightly before finally shaking his head.

“Then how do they expect you to function on a team with us?” Sasuke asked.

Naruto snarled and turned towards Sasuke, but Kakashi's hand on his shoulder prevented him from lunging at the dark haired boy. “That's enough,” Kakashi stated. “Naruto has proven himself more than capable of handling the role of Genin and is the most suitable match for the two of you.”

“How so if he didn't pass the Genin Exam; if there wasn't a biased sensei holding him back then it means he doesn't have the skills,” Sasuke retorted.

Kakashi sighed and turned towards him. “Naruto failed the Genin exam because of his Bunshin no Jutsu; he has since learned another jutsu that can replace it,” he explained. “If you must know all three of you are deficient in some areas, but those will be dealt with during training. Speaking of which, we need to start.” Kakashi left the three gaping at him and motioned for them to follow as he walked off. He had wanted to give them the bell test (slightly modified of course), but he supposed he should give them a bit more time to accommodate Naruto's disability. On the off chance that they managed to figure out the real goal of the test, they wouldn't necessarily be able to communicate well enough to do anything.

Three rather put out Genin followed their sensei as he continued to lead them through the woods. Sakura frowned as she watched Kakashi nonchalantly walk with his head in his book. He didn't need to remind them repeatedly that he didn't want to be teaching them. She wasn't sure if his attitude towards them was just his personality or if it was part of increased training that Sandaime had mentioned. She supposed constantly hearing about their faults was supposed to encourage them to look into them on their own and work to improve them. Sakura vaguely wondered if Ino and the others were hearing the same things from their sensei; of course that would all depend on whether or not Ino had passed since she hadn't actually had the chance to talk to anyone since orientation.

“We're here,” Kakashi said, stopping short and turning to face them. Sakura glanced around the large clearing they were in before turning back to Kakashi. “We're going to take things lightly for today, so start by running a few laps. This type of physical training should be stuff you do on your own, but until I'm satisfied that you will I'll oversee it.”

The three glanced at each other before taking off. Kakashi fought the urge not to giggle as the team's dynamics quickly showed themselves through such a simple exercise. Sasuke quickly and easily took the lead, which wasn't surprising considering that his speed had been the best during individual testing. As he continued on with a steady pace, Naruto grew fed up with what Kakashi was sure Naruto saw as Sasuke's attitude - he'd ignore the fact that Naruto was probably right - and began picking up his own pace to match Sasuke's. As soon as the blond caught up to Sasuke, the older boy sped up his pace just slightly so that he could maintain his lead but not wear himself out too much. Naruto picked up his pace again and the two continued playing tag as they ran laps.

Sakura had of course fallen behind. She had initially tried to catch up with the two, but as they continued she was unable to keep up with them and maintain a steady pace. Kakashi wasn't sure if he was more disappointed that she wasn't keeping up with them or that she wasn't even trying to. Sakura seemed to have relegated herself rather early to just watching the other two compete. It wouldn't help team dynamics at all if the girl never tried to improve. She couldn't learn early to let them do all the hard work.

Kakashi stopped their running after only five laps of the clearing and called them back over to him. “Do some push and sit ups while I think of something else for you to do,” he ordered, pulling his book out again. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Naruto once more turned it into a competition. Competition wasn't necessarily a bad thing; after all, he competed constantly with Gai. However, their competition wasn't as equal as his and Gai's; Sasuke was only interested in constantly showing Naruto up and probably wouldn't do well if Naruto ever beat him in anything. Unless Sasuke acknowledged Naruto, the rivalry that the Hokage had been hoping would be useful would be the exact opposite.

“Alright, that's enough of that,” he finally said. Kakashi allowed the three enough time to stand up and stretch before beckoning for them to walk over towards the edge of the forest. “Normally I wouldn't start you on this so early, but I don't want to wear you out today. Watch first as I demonstrate,” he said before turning to the nearest tree and easily walking up its trunk.

While standing on the lowest branch, he looked down into the surprised faces of his students. “During individual testing, I noticed that Sasuke and Naruto both struggled with controlling their chakra; well, Sakura did too, but not as much you two,” he told them. He watched Naruto's reaction closely but confusion only briefly flickered across the boy's face; Kakashi could only hope that their talk the day of his testing had sunk in a bit. Of course while he was focusing on Naruto, he didn't miss the blush that graced Sakura's cheeks or the glare that Sasuke sent her way.

“Bettering your chakra control will make your jutsu better and more efficient,” he told them. “For those of you with less chakra,” he started, glancing at Sakura, “your stamina will be increased and you'll be able to last longer in fights. You'll also be able to work to increase your chakra stores. For those of you with too much chakra, learning better chakra control will make your jutsu more efficient because you won't waste chakra on them.”

He dropped back down to the ground and took out three kunai before handing them to them. “You can use those to mark your progress,” he said. “What you need to do is focus your chakra to your feet. You need just the right amount of chakra in order to stick to the tree and not damage it.”

The three stared at him in confusion and he sighed. “Get started,” he ordered.

Sakura was the first to move. She picked up the kunai and brought herself back up into a meditative stance. She closed her eyes and focused on gathering her chakra in her feet. After she was satisfied, she ran towards the tree hoping her momentum would help her get farther up the tree. Kakashi watched in amusement as Sakura made it up several meters before gracefully rebounding off the tree and landing back on the ground. She looked up at the mark she had made and scowled.

Sasuke scoffed at her attempt and began gathering his own chakra. He also took a running start just as Sakura began her second attempt. Sakura managed to put a meter between her new and old marks before once again gracefully rebounding. Sasuke was not so fortunate; he made it almost as high as Sakura's first mark before being repelled from the tree as he channeled too much chakra to his feet. He landed smoothly, but turned to glare at the mark he had managed to carve into the tree. He chanced a glance at Sakura's progress and noted the large improvement that she had made in only two runs. Sasuke scowled at his own mark and gathered chakra once again before running at the tree.

Naruto watched his two teammates in their first attempts and frowned slightly. “You better get started Naruto,” Kakashi urged as he watched Sakura and Sasuke's continued attempts. Naruto steeled his determination and began concentrating on gathering his chakra. He charged towards the tree, but he barely made it four steps before he lost his footing and slipped off.

Kakashi fought the urge not to giggle as Naruto landed in a heap. He had managed to place a mark about two meters off the ground, but it was barely half as far as the other two had gotten with their first tries. Naruto righted himself and Kakashi had a feeling he would be blushing if the boy had been able to vocalize the curses that he could see dancing across his lips. Naruto glanced jealously at Sakura and Sasuke as they continued to progress upwards.

Sakura was sitting happily on a branch nearly five meters off the ground, waving to Kakashi. “This is easy,” she called down to him.

“Then keep going until you can't mold chakra anymore,” he told her. Naruto glanced at her, before quickly dusting himself off and focusing the chakra towards his feet again. He took off again, but every time he charged the tree he would barely add an inch to his preceding attempt before he would slip off.

After half an hour, Naruto stopped his attempts and glared at the tree in front of him. He sighed and glanced over at Sasuke only to realize that although the boy was making more progress than him his efforts were beginning to plateau. Sakura was still easily making it up the tree, but she was beginning to look a bit winded from the constant chakra usage. He heard giggling behind him and looked back to see Kakashi reading his perverted book. After a moment's hesitation, he pocketed his kunai and walked over to Kakashi. `I need help,' he signed after he had managed to gain Kakashi's attention. He thought for a moment before adding, `I can't go any farther.'

Kakashi looked up and examined the three trees, comparing Naruto's progress with Sakura and Sasuke's. Sakura had progressed by leaps and bounds compared to the other two, but she was showing far more weariness than the other two and looked like she could use a break. “Sakura needs a break; ask her for some tips,” Kakashi suggested, looking back down at Naruto.

The blond looked up at him like he was stupid before finally signing, `How?'

“Shouldn't she be able to understand that by now?” Kakashi asked. Naruto shook his head in response. “Hmm…we might have to change how they're learning things a bit,” he pondered. “Sakura come over here and take a break,” he said, catching the girl's attention. While she walked over, he turned back to Naruto and said, “Work for a bit longer and then I'll have her give you some hints.” Naruto pouted and squinted up at him for a moment before walking away and beginning his exercises again.

Sakura made her way over to Kakashi as he dismissed Naruto; it really wasn't a surprise that Naruto had already tried to give up, especially considering the progress he had, or hadn't, made. He grumbled silently to himself and went back to work barely making it to his previous record before slipping again; he barely managed to reverse his fall in time to land on his feet. She shook her head and turned back to Kakashi as he coughed lightly to catch her attention. “Since you were so successful, I want you to help Naruto and Sasuke. None of you are leaving training until all three of you have reached the top of the tree and left the kunai there,” he told her, smiling beneath his mask.

“What happened to not wanting us to wear ourselves out?” she asked.

He smiled down at her and chuckled. “I changed my mind. Rest up a bit and give them some pointers; then get back to work. You'll probably reach the top first anyways, but you can't leave until they have as well,” Kakashi stated.

Sakura grumbled and walked back over. “Hold on a second Sasuke, Naruto,” she said, stopping the two from charging at the trees.

“What do you want?” Sasuke asked impatiently.

`Are you going to help us?' Naruto asked.

Sakura only caught one of the hand signs, but she nodded anyways. “Kakashi-sensei says we can't leave until all three of us make it to the top of the tree,” she informed them.

Naruto's eyes widened and he turned to glare at Kakashi several meters away. He once again made a sign that Kakashi was sure Iruka hadn't taught the boy, not that he was paying attention anyways.

“Forget about him for now. The important thing is completing the exercises,” Sakura said, forcing him to turn around and look at him. She pointed up at the three trees they had been climbing for the past half hour. “Each of these trees is about fifteen meters tall. I've been stopping at about ten meters because there's a convenient branch, but I can probably make the top in about ten minutes if I rest before I try again,” she told them.

She directed Naruto to his tree. “You've made it up about six meters. That means that you aren't concentrating hard enough. There aren't any indentations on the tree like there are on Sasuke's; that means you're losing your footing because you aren't using enough chakra and Sasuke's using too much so the tree cracks under his feet and repels him off,” she explained to Naruto.

Kakashi listened in as Sakura gave Naruto pointers on concentration. Sasuke was watching and listening intently, but he had a feeling that if either Naruto or Sakura turned around to look at him Sasuke would pretend to be ignoring them. He was also proud that Sakura had managed to hide criticism and pointers for Sasuke in her speech to Naruto; it was a smart move since he wasn't likely to listen to her if she had offered help directly to him. Hopefully Sasuke would be smart enough to shove his pride a bit deeper and take what she was saying seriously.

Over the next two hours, Kakashi saw a significant improvement in both Naruto and Sasuke's performance. Both had made it past ten meters so he was hoping they would be finished by nightfall. If they hadn't, hopefully Iruka would bring something to eat because he was starving and Kakashi was sure the three Genin were as well. Sakura was sitting under her tree resting and watching Naruto and Sasuke. Just like she had said, after resting for about ten minutes she had made it up to the top of the tree and lodged her kunai into the trunk before dropping onto the branch five meters below and then onto the ground.

Sakura's stomach began protesting around four in the afternoon and she glared at her teammates as they continued to fall short of their goal. An hour later, Naruto and Sasuke were severely winded and scratched up from their falls. Both were dusted with dirt from the number of times that they had landed roughly on the ground and kicked up dust. They were hungry, sweaty, and exhausted from working for so long. Naruto glared over at Sasuke and then at the trees. They had managed to stay nearly even ever since Sakura had offered them pointers earlier that afternoon. They each only had about a meter to go, but they had been stuck at the same spot for nearly half an hour and the deep grooves in the tree showed just how many times they had nicked the same area.

“Hurry up,” Sakura whined as her stomach growled loudly. She had been practicing on and off ever since she had left her kunai at the top of the tree, but she hadn't been able to make it up more than two meters in the past half hour so she had given up and remained seated at the foot of the tree. Naruto and Sasuke looked like crap and she knew they were trying their hardest, but she was damn hungry and felt they should be trying even harder. She gaped as Sasuke took off and barely managed to make it to his previous height before his footing slipped and he dropped back down. He knelt panting and glaring at the tree as he tried to catch his breath enough for another run.

The pink haired Genin rolled her head to the side so that she could glance at Kakashi out of the corner of her eye. He was still reading his stupid book even though it looked like he hadn't turned a page the entire afternoon. Unless he had managed to sneak off to lunch at some point than there was no way that he had eaten all day either. Maybe his mission experience had prepared him for spending longer amounts of time without food, but just because he could last longer without food didn't mean he wasn't hungry after not eating all day.

Kakashi giggled as he felt Sakura glaring at him lazily. He glanced down at his watch; they were supposed to have headed back forty-five minutes before. Hopefully Iruka would get worried enough that he would come looking for Naruto; if he did that he could probably be swindled into bringing them dinner so that Naruto and Sasuke could take a break and regain enough strength to finish. The sound of stomping caught his attention, and he looked up to see Naruto taking his frustration out on the ground. He glanced up at the tree and wasn't surprised to see that both Naruto and Sasuke were losing height as they continued. By now they were so tired and hungry that they couldn't keep enough concentration on what they were doing.

“Calm down,” Sasuke ordered, shocking the other two members of Team 7. “The more aggravated you get, the more difficult it's going to be for you to climb and the longer we'll have to stay here.”

Naruto gaped at the other boy for a moment before straightening up. Before turning back to the tree, he nodded once at Sasuke and grinned apologetically at Sakura. Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment before charging at the tree almost in tandem with Sasuke. Kakashi lowered his book slightly, hoping this would be their last run. Sure enough, they managed slam their kunai into the tree trunks right before they lost their footing for the final time.

Kakashi slipped his book back into its pocket and disappeared. He reappeared a moment later to catch the two boys as the plummeted towards the ground. Kakashi landed a moment later and Sakura walked over towards him.

“Can they come to dinner now?” Iruka asked, walking towards them. Naruto's eyes lit up as Kakashi set him down and he looked up expectantly.

“Yeah, training is done for today,” Kakashi is answered.

“Good,” Iruka responded, turning to the three Genin. “Sakura, the Hokage wanted me to tell you that your father will be home tomorrow morning; his team was slightly delayed by their clients. If you and Sasuke would like, you're welcome to join us for dinner,” he offered.

“Okay,” Sakura answered eager to get anything - even ramen. Sasuke nodded after an encouraging glare from Kakashi.

“How generous of you, Iruka-sensei,” Kakashi commented as they walked back towards the village.

“What do you mean? You're the one paying for your students,” Iruka retorted with a straight face. Kakashi was left gaping as three giggling Genin followed Iruka. He vowed to make their next day of training even more hellish as they sat through dinner occasionally smirking at him.

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The next morning Kakashi was so excited that he forgot to arrive late. He frowned as he walked up when he realized that at the rate he was going he would never get to annoy his Genin with the excuses he had spent the past week preparing just for them. He supposed he'd have the chance to do so the next week if all went according to plan; of course a lot of that depended on whether or not anyone could keep their mouths shut around Iruka.

Kakashi lazily waved for Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura to follow him as he walked away from the bridge. They entered the training ground and Kakashi glanced around cautiously to make sure that Iruka wasn't there to yell at him yet. Kotetsu and Izumo weren't exactly great at keeping their schemes quiet and he was fairly certain they were working with Iruka the entire morning in the mission office. When he was satisfied, Kakashi turned back to the Genin and told them, “Today I want to start by checking your inventory. It's very important that you start playing to your strengths, but you also need to be prepared for everything. As a team, you can divide what you need between the three of you, but I have a feeling that since you're just out of the academy all you've got is the basics and maybe one or two custom pieces. So, show me what you've got.”

The three Genin unhooked their kunai and shuriken pouches and emptied their contents onto the ground for him to see. He was actually surprised to see all three pull a few more shuriken or kunai out of other places. Kakashi looked down at the supplies in front of him and fought the urge to snicker as he ordered them to run laps while he went over their caches. An hour later, he decided they had done enough and called them back over. He handed each of them a water bottle and told them have a seat.

Sakura and Sasuke gulped the water down thirstily and Kakashi fought the urge not to cackle. Naruto uncapped his own bottle and took a large drink before moving the bottle and gagging. He glared at Kakashi and tried to find the right signs to yell at him for the foul tasting water.

Kakashi smirked wondering how Naruto had managed to taste drug he had slipped into the water bottles. “Rule number 1 of shinobi - one Naruto should have already learned: Never trust someone just because they are your superior,” Kakashi said, as Sakura and Sasuke sank to the ground. He helped Naruto follow a moment later with a quick chop to the back the neck. The last thing Naruto heard was Kakashi chuckling.

Agent's Spiel:

If anyone thinks they mastered tree climbing too quickly let me explain a bit. The trees they were told to master were about fifteen meters, which is about equal to fifty feet; the ones they were climbing in Wave country were a lot higher - or at least seemed like it to me. Both are also getting more pointers and encouragement. In Wave, Naruto was closer to unleashing the Kyuubi's chakra (which I don't think was entirely the result of a single incident) and Sasuke's Sharingan was starting to develop. I think both of those things were messing with their chakra a bit which made it more difficult for them to manage, and at the same time learning it helped them manage better when the Sharingan and Kyuubi came out in full. I hope that explains it bit.

The title Juniper is a reference to the plant juniper as in the evergreen trees and shrubs. In flower language juniper means protection, which will be a running theme throughout the story.