Chương 14: Resolving Problems, Hayate-sensei!
The next day, Kakashi stood with Team 7 in the forest nearby Tazuna's house, wondering what to teach them. Thankfully Hayate had taken the role of Tazuna's guard, so he didn't need to worry about the man being assassinated while training with his team.
'Hmm… what to do… what to do….' Kakashi thought to himself as he looked back at the expectant eyes of his students. To be perfectly honest, he didn't really have a plan for Team 7's training but hoped they would be happy with any training.
He looked at a nearby tree before an idea came to mind. "Right, today, students, I will teach you how to climb trees." Kakashi eye smiled, receiving a look of confusion from Sasuke and Sakura, while… boredom from Naruto? 'Why isn't he… Oh yeah, water walking already.'
Deciding to give Naruto a more advanced training exercise later, Kakashi lazily strolled toward a nearby tree. He placed his foot on the trunk before continuing to walk, except this time he was walking up the vertical tree, under the shocked eyes of both Sasuke and Sakura. It didn't take long before he reached a relatively high branch, where he hung upside down from.
"This is tree walking. Essentially you need to use chakra to stick your feet to the tree. Too much chakra, and you will be blasted off. Too little chakra, and you won't stick." Kakashi explained, receiving nods from the two Genin.
"Kakashi-sensei, does the same principle apply to walking on water?" Sakura asked curiously, remembering when Naruto, Kakashi and Zabuza were running on water as if it was land.
"Well, that is a more advanced chakra control exercise, but the principles are similar. If you complete this exercise, I will show you the next step afterwards."
After finishing his demonstration, Kakashi slowly walked down the tree once more, taking care to not disturb his broken ribs. Although they were already well on their way to healing thanks to Naruto's medicine, he still couldn't perform any strenuous movement without the risk of them setting improperly.
Upon reaching the bottom, Kakashi froze after he sensed his chakra reserves were already at full capacity. Even though tree walking doesn't use too much chakra, his reserves would never fill up instantly due to the constant drain of his Sharingan.
'What did you do… Naruto?' Kakashi looked towards Naruto, who was waiting to see if the Jonin had something to teach him too. He couldn't sense the constant drain that his implanted Sharingan had on his reserves. In fact, it seemed like it wasn't taking any chakra at all.
Kakashi pulled up his forehead protector and looked at his reflection using a kunai. He could see two charcoal black eyes staring back at him, although one was a different shade from the other.
"Naruto, a word, please." Kakashi pulled down his forehead protector and led Naruto to the nearby forest away from Team 7. Sakura sent a look to the duo but assumed that Kakashi was planning on teaching Naruto a more advanced exercise since he could already do tree walking.
However, Sasuke was far more observant. He could see that Kakashi wanted to discuss something and was curious about what they were planning on talking about.
"Sakura, cover for me. I want to see what they are doing." Sasuke ordered as Sakura gave a quick nod. It was one of the few times that Sasuke asked her to do something for him, and she was more than happy to oblige.
…
Naruto and Kakashi stood in an open clearing, both staring at each other, one in confusion and the other in scrutiny. Kakashi pulled up his forehead protector once more, revealing both eyes while gauging Naruto's reaction. As expected, the boy already knew that his Sharingan was disabled.
"Naruto… care to explain about my eye?" Kakashi questioned. He knew that Naruto had done something to stop the chakra flow to his eye, but he didn't know exactly what the boy had done.
"Well, I closed the tenketsu to your eye," Naruto admitted freely as he didn't feel like he did anything wrong.
"Close the tenketsu? Naruto, I don't want to say that I don't believe you, but you need precise chakra control and in-depth knowledge of tenketsu to even think about closing them. Let alone one near such a dangerous location like the eyes." Kakashi shook his head in disbelief. He knew that his student had progressed without him knowing but didn't think he could do something that only the Hyuuga were known to do effectively.
"Well, I did. Let me prove it!" With Kakashi's slow affirmation, Naruto walked closer and closed his eyes before tapping on the side of Kakashi's head once more, releasing another burst of chakra. Sure enough, almost instantly after, Kakashi started involuntarily moulding chakra once more, and the Sharingan appeared in his left eye.
Immediately sensing the massive drain on his chakra reserves, Kakashi quickly pulled down his forehead protector, covering the eye once more.
"I apologise for doubting you, Naruto," Kakashi admitted, receiving a nod and small smile from the boy. However, Naruto's smile dropped when he continued, "However, do you know how dangerous what you just did was? What if something went wrong? In addition, why didn't you tell me the moment I woke up?"
Naruto looked unsatisfied hearing Kakashi's scolding. "Do you think I never considered that? I didn't know if Gato had hired any other ninja on the same level as Zabuza and if they would come for us after you were knocked unconscious. This was the best option.
"Also, I was almost 100% sure that there would be no problems. The only issue that could occur is that the tenketsu might have not been able to be blocked because of the chakra stream that is constantly sent to your eye."
Naruto paused for a moment and inwardly admitted that he did make a mistake in not telling Kakashi. There was a chance that if another ninja attacked Kakashi the moment he awoke, he could be distracted and potentially harmed because he didn't know the Sharingan was temporarily switched off. "However, I am sorry for not telling you when you woke up. It slipped my mind."
Kakashi, hearing Naruto's speech, relaxed slightly. Although he wasn't too happy about Naruto doing something dangerous without his consent, he understood that the boy knew the risks of what he had done. There was no doubt that if he was in a similar situation, he would've done the same thing if there was no other option. It also helped that Naruto admitted his mistake in not telling him the moment he woke up.
After taking the time to understand the other's thoughts, both parties were content with what they had learnt, and the atmosphere relaxed.
Naruto looked at Kakashi's covered eye, still sensing that it was draining the man's chakra. He looked confused for a moment but decided to voice his doubts. "Kakashi-sensei, why don't you close your tenketsu in normal times?"
Hearing this, Kakashi was originally planning on changing the topic since he wasn't the type to share his past and personal problems. Even more so since they had a little spy on their hands. But whether it was due to their conversation where they both admitted their faults, or some other reason, he decided to tell the truth.
"Well, it's sort of a self-inflicted punishment." Kakashi admitted, thinking back to the days of his team.
When the Sharingan was first transferred to him, he promised to let Obito see the world through his eye. As a result, the moment he returned to Konoha, he ordered a specially made Hyuuga seal. This seal would allow the tenketsu to his eye to be closed off whenever he wanted, stopping the continuous chakra drain and letting Obito see at all times.
At the same time, he had also promised Obito that he would protect Rin. Yet he had failed as he hopelessly watched as the young girl was killed by his own attack.
Since then, Kakashi covered the Sharingan up to prevent Obito from seeing that he had failed him in protecting Rin. He also took the seal off, allowing the Sharingan to drain his chakra constantly to remind him how he failed.
Naruto waited for him to continue, but Kakashi remained silent, seemingly diving into his own memories. Knowing that he wasn't going to get much more out of the man, Naruto just stated his true thoughts. "I think that is kinda stupid."
"Excuse me?" Kakashi uttered, annoyed. Even if Naruto was his teacher's son, he wouldn't allow him to make comments on his life and choices when he knew nothing about him.
"Well, I don't know much about your past since you haven't told us much. But willingly weakening yourself as a punishment seems kinda stupid, in my opinion. Rather than focus on what happened in the past, wouldn't it be a good idea to get stronger so that something like that never happens again?"
Naruto's blunt words touched Kakashi, and Sasuke, who was secretly listening from the nearby tree, implanting a seed of self-doubt in their minds.
'Focus on the past? Am I too attached to the past?' Sasuke couldn't help but doubt himself. Every night he is plagued with nightmares of that day, with his brother's words still echoing in his mind. "Get stronger, Sasuke. If you want to kill me for revenge, don't build bonds with others, they will only weaken you and your drive."
After mulling in his thoughts for a while, Kakashi couldn't decide whether Naruto was right and he was being stupid or if it was just a naïve thought from a naïve boy. Therefore, he decided to do something that he had rarely ever done, seek someone else's opinion.
Hayate Gekko was someone he greatly respected as both a comrade and a friend, so Kakashi decided to head to the bridge. "Naruto, go back with Sasuke and give them tips on the tree walking technique. I will be back later."
Before they could respond, Kakashi poofed into a puff of smoke.
'Kakashi, you are going to irritate your injury doing that...' Naruto couldn't help but think before he looked towards the tree Sasuke was hiding in.
Knowing he was caught by both parties, Sasuke dropped down in front of Naruto, looking slightly sheepish.
"How long did you guys know I was there?"
"… From the beginning."
"I see…" Sasuke turned away, looking embarrassed that he was caught. He turned away and headed towards their training spot to dodge the topic while pondering about Naruto and Kakashi's talk.
…
Sasuke glared at his tree, frustrated. It had been 2 hours since he had started this blasted exercise, and he could barely reach a few steps up the tree before slipping.
On the other hand, Sakura had already climbed to the top. However, she was still moving up and down under Naruto's orders to increase the size of her chakra reserves.
It was frustrating because it seemed like everyone was progressing faster than him, even though he was trying his best to rush ahead.
Of course, Sasuke wouldn't lower himself to asking for help. His father had taught him that he had no need for another's help and that he should do everything alone. It had worked throughout the academy, so why not now?
Unbeknownst to Sasuke, Naruto looked confused at why the boy was struggling so much. Sasuke was already able to mould chakra into a C-rank elemental technique; his chakra control should be much better than what he displayed.
As he watched Sasuke run toward the tree once more, an idea came to mind. 'Running? Could it be…'
"Sasuke, stop there." Naruto said as Sasuke failed his attempt once more.
Sasuke curiously looked towards Naruto, the boy who had changed so much since the academy.
"You should already have the control to do this, don't run before you can walk. This isn't some sort of competition." Naruto chided.
Hearing this, Sasuke was a little dismissive. If he didn't rush in his training, his progress would slow down. However, after thinking about it, his attempts had led him nowhere, so listening to Naruto's advice wouldn't hurt.
Sasuke took deep breaths, calming himself as he focused on his chakra and slowly pushed his foot against the tree. One step. Two steps. Three steps. It didn't take long before he surpassed his previous record as he slowly made his way to the top of the tree.
It wasn't a comfortable or easy experience by any means, as he had to continuously focus on sending the right amount of chakra to his feet. But he did it. He managed to climb the tree.
How come he could do it this time but not any other time? 'Was it really as Naruto had said, that I was rushing too much?' Sasuke inwardly thought to himself.
Meanwhile, Naruto breathed a hidden sigh of relief. He wasn't a teacher, so he was a little nervous that he was wrong when pointing out Sasuke's mistake. Thankfully it all worked out.
"Congratulations, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura cheered, smiling in happiness. Sasuke noticed that her hair was matted with sweat as she was forced to move up and down the tree under Naruto's supervision. The Uchiha couldn't help but smile in return while absentmindedly noticing that his hair was just as matted as hers.
At the same time, another seed was planted in Sasuke's mind. Was it really okay for him to take things slower and ask others for help? Just one bit of advice from someone else had managed to help him not waste the hours he would have spent training alone.
"Good job. Now you can do the same thing Sakura is doing until Kakashi-sensei gets back." Naruto complimented, dropping his leaf that had partially crumbled to dirt.
"Kakashi won't be returning for today, so he has handed over your training to me." A voice came from afar. The trio turned around to see Hayate walking toward them.
"What happened to Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked curiously. Naruto and Sasuke already had an inkling of an idea as to why Kakashi didn't turn up. 'Did I annoy him?' Naruto thought to himself in dismay. He didn't want to intentionally hurt Kakashi's feelings but wanted to help the man.
"Well, Kakashi has a few things to mull over. Don't worry about that, though. The man is far tougher than you can ever imagine." Hayate placated the trio, who now looked noticeably less worried.
"I have already been told that you two will be working on tree walking to improve your chakra control. I assume you do know the benefits of this exercise?" Hayate questioned Sasuke and Sakura.
"Better chakra control leads to less chakra wastage using any of the ninja arts, and some ninja arts like Medical Ninjutsu or Genjutsu require a high level of chakra control to begin?" Sakura rattled off everything she knew from the top of her head, showing why she was at the top of theory in her class.
"Correct. Chakra control is used in all categories of ninja arts. While you may not see any immediate benefits to learning it now, all good ninja have high levels of chakra control." Hayate nodded his head, happy to see that Team 7 were quick learners.
"You could probably already guess that your training for the day would be to continue learning tree walking. While it won't be an immediate improvement to your combat powers, it will help when Kakashi teaches you other things during the mission." Hayate told Sasuke and Sakura, who nodded their heads, starting to move up and down the tree once more.
Nodding his head in satisfaction in seeing Sakura and Sasuke work hard, Hayate pulled Naruto over to the side. "I am not too familiar with your skillset, so it will be troublesome to train you since I pretty much only excel in Kenjutsu. That is usually a topic learnt when you are Chunin, or unless you are Higarashi's little girl."
Kenjutsu? Naruto was happy to finally find someone who was a Kenjutsu expert that could teach him. Before he had left Konoha, he had found someone with the title 'The Crescent Moon Swordman' but hadn't had enough time to investigate them.
"Hayate-sensei, could you please teach me the basics of Kenjutsu?" Naruto politely asked, happy to finally be under the guidance of a Kenjutsu user so he can learn the basic stances without developing any bad habits.
"Kenjutsu, huh? I don't want to sound like I am looking down on you, but it will take more than a few weeks to get familiar with the sword." Hayate warned Naruto, who, for some reason, looked even happier.
"I have been practising with a sword for a little over a month now but didn't dare learn any stances on my own." Naruto explained before rummaging through his ninja pack and pulling out a sealing scroll under the eyes of Hayate. With a pulse of chakra, a small wooden training sword appeared in Naruto's hand.
Hayate looked at the training sword, and he could only say that he was very impressed. As a Kenjutsu expert himself, he could see that the sword had been taken care of, but despite this, it was pretty worn down, showing how much training Naruto had done with it.
"How about you show me what you can do then." Hayate ordered before looking confused as Naruto walked over to the nearest tree, kicking the trunk, causing several leaves to fall down.
The leaves seemed to tumble in all directions in a chaotic manner as they fell toward the ground. In addition, the slightest breeze resulted in their trajectories becoming more random.
Naruto gripped the sword tightly, analysing the trajectories of the leaves to the best of his abilities before his hand blurred forward, stabbing at the leaves.
Hayate noticed that on contact with the sword, some leaves avoided the blow, and others were directly disintegrated on touch. At the same time, a few had actually been skewered onto the sword without any significant damage.
'Impressive. While it seems easy at first glance, and practically anyone could do it with a standard metal sword which was built to cut through the air easily, the wind generated from the blunt sword would cause the leaf to be pushed away, provided the sword isn't fast enough. Although the exercise is a little rough around the edges, it is undoubtedly a training method that improves accuracy and speed.' Hayate thought to himself.
After the last leaf touched the ground, Naruto looked at Hayate expectantly, hoping that he had done well enough for the man to consider teaching him. He had managed to come up with this exercise after he felt that he had mastered the first stage, balancing weight on the sword's tip.
"You have a strong foundation, Naruto." Hayate complimented, causing the boy to blush in embarrassment of his efforts being acknowledged. "Very well, I will teach you the basics of Kenjutsu."
'Yes!' Naruto inwardly cheered to himself, more than happy to learn how to swing his sword standardly.
"Before we begin, I have to explain to you what the basic sword style is and why I am teaching it. As you know, the basics are the foundation of everything. In fact, every style in the world can be traced back to the basics, whether it is Kenjutsu or Taijutsu.
"Everyone starts from the basics. Therefore they are well established and refined from the 100s of techniques that Kenjutsu initially started out from, to 8 moves and 8 angles.
"The 8 moves consist of Parry, Riposte, Slash, Stab, Lunge, Sweep, Block, and Sword Drawing.
"The 8 angles consist of straight up, straight down, diagonally down from the left, diagonally down from the right, diagonally up from the right, diagonally up from the left, and left and right horizontally.
"While other sword techniques and angles exist, they are all pretty much variations of the 8 basic moves. Understand?" After finishing explaining, Hayate checked if Naruto had kept up with him.
"Yeah, I get it. So theoretically, every advanced sword style is based on the basics?"
"Correct. The basics are considered to be an all-rounded swordsmanship, with equal offensive and defensive uses. However, some people have created more offensive styles by adding more attacking techniques. Others developed more defensive styles by incorporating defensive techniques, focusing on striking at an opening."
Hayate was happy Naruto was asking questions, teachers like students who asked questions the most because it didn't feel like they were talking to a wall.
For the next few hours, Hayate spent the time teaching Naruto the 8 basic sword styles and directions. To his surprise, Naruto was like a sponge, quickly remembering the moves. Although his execution was a little stiff and jerky as he was unfamiliar with the movements, he didn't move like he only had a few hours of training.
'This kid has got some real talent. Even Yuugao-chan didn't manage to learn this quickly' Hayate inwardly complemented Naruto for the umpteenth time today.
On the other hand, Sasuke and Sakura had also made some decent progress in tree walking. Sasuke could now move at jogging speeds without making any mistakes, while Sakura could last longer and longer with every attempt.
"Right, let's take a break. Training should always be accompanied by an ample amount of rest. Training too much every day can cause your progress to stagnate." Hayate commanded, causing everyone to stop.
Hearing this, Sakura was undoubtedly relieved. She didn't have much energy left; all she wanted to do was shower, eat, and sleep. On the other hand, Naruto and Sasuke were a little unsatisfied but obeyed nonetheless.
Author's notes: Whaddup, it's been a while! Sorry about the delay in updating; exam season sucked. It's been a while since I have touched this fanfic (although I read reviews and PMs every day), so my train of thought was broken. Hopefully, it isn't displayed in this chapter too much.
Anyways, the next chapter is on the way. Hopefully, you guys enjoyed reading this one!
Leave a review, PM if you have any questions. I have also added an F&Q and updates to any releases on my profile.
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