(The Next Day - Forest Surrounding Tazuna's House)
"Alright kids!" Kakashi said brightly from his place standing on crutches next to Asuma, "Today we'll be teaching you all a very important skill that every shinobi learns over the course of their career, early on like the rest of you are now."
Asuma had a grin on his face, "I was looking forward to teaching this..." He then gave a light glare to Menma and Naruto, "Two of you tried taking my fun away by already learning this..." He then grinned again, "But Kakashi is somehow making up for it by replacing him with three of his own genin for my demented amusement."
Kakashi gave Asuma an eye-smile, "I'm so glad I could make your day Asuma." He turned his attention back to the genin, "But you will all be learning how to climb trees."
Naruto raised his hand, "Yo Kakashi-sensei, Asuma-sensei, Menma and I can already do this ."
Sakura nodded in agreement, "Yeah, we all already know how to climb trees. How is this training Kakashi-sensei?" She asked curiously.
Shaking his head at the pink-haired girl, Menma spoke, "No, you guys can't. We can though." He said, getting a tick mark to form on Sakura's head due to how he made the rest of them sound.
"We can all climb trees Naruto-baka!" Sakura said fuming at him. "What do you think you're trying to say you idiot?" Sakura's inner personality roared inside of her psyche.
"You might get the concept Menma-." Asuma interjected, trying to save his genin from a furious fisticuff, courtesy of Sakura, "-But the way this exercise is done is to accentuate the most difficult way you can possibly generate chakra through your body. You might have worked it out for your hands, but elsewhere would be a different story."
Naruto looked between Asuma and Kakashi repeatedly before sighing and moving between them, pushing them aside to walk towards a tree. That was where all of the normal stuff ended, because Naruto started walking straight up a tree with a dull expression on his face. He then walked down and got back into the line-up with the others who were looking at him oddly. He ignored them for the moment and looked at Asuma, "I learned how to do that from my taijutsu scroll because I needed it to make my taijutsu style more effective when I grab somebody like I told you. Well I had to learn how to do it with every part of my body because I have some moves that need me to keep a hold with other parts of my body to make me harder to shake off."
"So you can do this?" Kakashi asked.
Naruto shrugged, "In my sleep." He then took note of the stares he was getting from the others, "What?"
"Since when could you do that?" Chouji asked, remembering Naruto having trouble with chakra control in the Academy. He and Shikamaru had never really talked about training when they hung out. He found it too troublesome.
"Since I was 9 maybe. Heh, at first I thought it was something cool that only I could do since I'm learning the style, but I found out it wasn't from Asuma-sensei during the last mission." Naruto responded with a grin.
Ino asked a question next looking at Menma and Naruto, "You two never did that when we were training. Not even during spars, you didn't stick to anything."
In response Menma rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Well I could get a good enough grip on my own during spars. Using chakra to stick would have been overkill. And using it with my feet for the moves I'm talking about... well those moves aren't as nice as the things you normally see me do. They aren't sparring moves. Besides, when did we ever need to walk up a tree for anything?" Just for kicks he walked over to the same tree and started walking in circles, "Yep, this sure came up again and again while we were doing that babysitting mission." He said sarcastically.
"Right." Kakashi chimed in, "Well you just saw Naruto and Menma do it. You need to channel chakra to your feet and make your way up the tree. You might want a running start when you do it though, so the momentum will help you when you start off." The two jounin threw out five kunai at their students' feet, "Use those to mark your place and try to beat it each time."
All of the genin, sans Naruto and Menma, picked up their respective weapons and took off at the tree. Sasuke made it to his first and took a few steps up the tree before the bark exploded under his feet, forcing him to backflip off and land on his feet before he fell. Chouji's attempt was seven steps up the tree before tumbling down and rolling back, ending with him sitting and looking up at the tree. Ino was feeling good about herself as she continued putting one foot in front of the other as she climbed the tree. The first branch was well in her sight and she reached out for it, but lost her concentration and wound up falling back to the ground, upset enough to kick the tree... which ended with her hurting herself and hopping on one foot cursing at the tree.
"Hey, this is easy!" Sakura said as she sat up on a high branch overlooking the others.
Naruto looked up at her and whistled, "Wow Sakura-chan? First try? It took me a few days to actually get it." 'With clones.' He added to himself mentally, actually really impressed with her, after speaking aloud, "Good job!"
Sakura held up a 'v' sign and stuck her tongue out before turning to Sasuke, "How was that Sasuke-kun?"
"Well it looks like my team's own kunoichi is the first one to get this exercise." Kakashi said with amusement, "Maybe someone isn't working hard enough for me to warrant going back to the house to pick up lunch for them?" Chouji let out a horrified gasp and jumped to his feet to keep working, "And maybe the Uchiha Clan isn't all it's cracked up to be." Sasuke glared up at where Sakura was before going back to start trying again.
Sakura looked at Kakashi incredulously, 'What? Now he's going to hate me.' "You talk too much Kakashi-sensei!"
Shikamaru didn't immediately take off like the others did. Instead he sat and watched the others take a few tries. Ino took two more tries before getting it along with Sakura who took another trip up. The two girls glared and started jawing with one another once again. Chouji kept up at his work with a determined effort to show Kakashi he was trying hard enough to get lunch later, but he kept smashing the tree before getting very far. He then looked at Sasuke who seemed to have the same idea as he analyzed what was going on, 'So if I use too much chakra I'll end up being pushed off of the tree like Chouji and Sasuke, is there a certain amount I need to generate? Do I need to generate a consistent amount and keep it? Troublesome, I need to figure this out and tell Chouji.'
Naruto let out a yawn as he stood watching everyone else. He thought of joining in, but him running up and down the trees repeatedly would have just wound up pissing everyone else off, and there wasn't anything he could really get out of it anyway. He placed his hands behind his head and began pacing about in a bored manner, getting Asuma's attention, "Naruto, do you have anything you're working on that you could be doing right now?"
He looked at Asuma and blinked, surprised at being called out, before shaking his head. Asuma made a thoughtful noise, "And you say you've got this exercise down pat?" Naruto nodded with a grin and jumped at a tree before sticking to it back-first. After a few seconds he dropped onto his feet and rubbed the back of his head, seeing as how he had smashed it into the trunk when he was trying to be facetious, "Okay smartass, I get it." He said with a chuckle. He turned to Kakashi, "I'm going to take Naruto off somewhere to work on something so he doesn't waste any time here."
"Alright Asuma." Kakashi said, pulling out his orange Icha-Icha book, "I'll stay here with Menma and the others in the meantime." Kakashi began to sit and read with Menma as they discussed their favorite parts of that smut book.
The others watched Naruto walk away with Asuma in tow for a moment before getting back to work. Sasuke's eyes lingered on him the longest before turning back to his tree and continuing to train, gritting his teeth determinedly, 'I am not going to fail and be left behind!' He said to himself in an effort to get himself to step it up.
XxX
Asuma led Naruto to the dock out front of Tazuna's house and stopped at the edge of the water. Naruto simply stared at the water and then at Asuma, waiting for the man to do something, or explain something to him. Eventually Asuma dramatically placed one foot out, getting Naruto's full attention, not that the boy was saying anything, but his eyes were clearly interested in either seeing something awesome or something hilarious.
The jounin stepped off of the dock, but instead of a loud splash followed by Naruto rolling on the dock laughing as hard as he could, Asuma was standing on top of the surface of the water as if he were still on land. He took a few steps out before turning back to Naruto and making a grand gesture, "Well?"
"How?" Naruto asked squeakily.
Asuma quickly explained, "Channel the chakra to your feet as if you were walking up a tree and go for it. But the amount you have to use to stay up will change consistently, making it harder than tree-climbing. Get to it."
Naruto nodded excitedly and did as instructed before falling into the water. Asuma broke up in laughter, "Oh Kami... it would have been funnier if I had them all do it at the same time, but ah... This is why jounin choose to become sensei... the precious moments like this."
Naruto surfaced and pulled himself back onto the deck, sitting on the edge and staring at Asuma while still dripping wet, clothes drenched. Naruto opened and closed his mouth multiple times trying to think of something to say before giving up, "Well son of a bitch..." His eyes widened and he patted around in his pockets before pulling out a drenched pack of his cigarettes, "Son of a bitch!" He looked up at Asuma, "Asuma-sensei?"
"No smoking while you're training Naruto." He said walking back towards the shore. Once he reached the dock he ruffled Naruto's soaked hair, "Well, get to it. Oh, and can you send some clones to check on Ino and Shikamaru while I go with Tazuna today? I don't really want Kakashi's lazy streak to keep them from getting the finer points of their training down. Actually one clone should be good."
Naruto nodded and stood up before forming the seal for Kage Bunshin, making one appear in a puff of smoke. Naruto stood still after making the clone before it dispelled and he fell backwards, almost into the water. Asuma moved swiftly and caught him before he could fall in the water and potentially drown, "What happe-?" He asked before stopping himself as he remembered yesterday, "Wow. Those clones sure lasted a long time." He picked Naruto up and took him inside the house.
The entire scene was witnessed from a window in the house overlooking the ocean by a small boy in green overalls and a white, blue-striped bucket hat.
XxX
(Hours Later)
"Ow..." Naruto whined, sitting up on a couch in the living room, "Why does the backlash suck so much?" He asked himself only to notice a small boy standing in front of him, looking at him rather angrily, "Hello?"
"You're going to die here you know?" He said matter-of-factly.
Naruto just stared at the kid in shock before speaking, "Um I don't think so. I just got hit with too much information at once and it kind of scrambled my brains for a bit. If I can get an aspirin I should be fine. It's no big deal."
The boy's glare on the young shinobi grew more intense, "No you idiot, Gato. Gato's going to kill you guys. You and all of those other people that came here." He said as if it were a fact, as if it had already happened.
Naruto just looked at the kid with a twitching eye before noticing himself covered in a blanket in his boxers, 'Damn, not cool.' He stood up, keeping himself covered, "Um, okay whatever. I'm going to go ask your mom if she has anything for my head so I can train." He walked into the kitchen, seeing Tsunami sitting at the table just looking out the window, "Um excuse me ma'am, do you have any aspirin? And could you tell me where my clothes are?"
She looked at Naruto and smiled warmly, "Of course dear, and I'm sorry about Inari. He was like that to the others too. I just don't know what to do." She said, quickly moving to a cabinet and retrieving two pills that she handed to Naruto, "Here you go. Your clothes are outside drying. They should be done by now, let me get you a glass of water."
Naruto accepted the pills with a grateful smile of his own. Man, no adult was ever this cool to him in Konoha, "That's okay, I don't need the water." He said before quickly downing the pills and heading outside where he saw his stuff hanging up, his sandals on the ground underneath them. He reached for his clothes before looking back at the ocean, "Meh, I might as well stay like this... I'll just end up messing my clothes up again." He immediately hopped over to the wharf and attempted the same process as the first time before dropping into the water again.
Tsunami heard the splash and came outside to see Naruto pulling himself out of the ocean, "Are you okay?" She asked.
Naruto spat out a mouthful of seawater and gave her a thumbs up, "Yep. I'm good. Just training to walk on water." He said to her before making another attempt, actually staying up for quite a while this time before-, "Gah!" He shouted before going under once more, this time getting out with a growl.
"Are you sure this is possible?" Tsunami asked, not knowing much about what is was that ninja did regularly and how they went about doing them.
Naruto nodded, "Oh yeah, don't worry. I'll definitely get it soon. I've got to get stronger to make sure your father's safe after all don't I?" He gave her a wide grin that she couldn't help but return. Naruto would up steadying himself and taking step after step out onto the water. He finally turned around and found that he had made it well over fifty feet from the dock, "You see! I told you I could do it!" He shouted back to her now that his head was no longer ringing from his dispelled clones.
Tsunami looked at him in amusement and clapped for his achievement, "Good job Naruto-kun!" She said before noticing some strange black mark on his torso, "Naruto-kun, what's that mark on your stomach?" She asked.
Naruto blinked and looked down at his stomach noticing that his seal was showing, but he wasn't experienced with his water-walking yet and fell in the water. He swam back to shore and sprawled out on the deck before looking at Tsunami, panting somewhat, "What was that you were saying?" He asked.
Tsunami was about to repeat what she asked when she looked at Naruto's belly and saw nothing there any longer, "Oh nevermind. I'm sorry about that." She said apologetically. She messed up his training for something she didn't even see.
"Oh it's alright." Naruto said, sitting back up and pushing the water out of his ear, "I've got it and that's all that matters. All I have to do now is get used to fighting on the water like I can on walls, and there's only one way to do that right now." He stood up and made forty Kage Bunshin before they all went out onto the water, ignoring how shocked Tsunami was at seeing all of those blondes appear out of thin air.
Naruto was still shaky, but he was out there, and there was only one way to solve that problem about his steadiness on the water. Naruto stared at his grinning clones who were all stretching and trying to punk him with their confident faces, "So come on all of you, let's do this!" That shout was the last precursor before Naruto and his clones commenced brawling atop the seawater.
Tsunami watched as Naruto set himself in his low Nebaiken stance while three clones came at him. The first of the three quickly grabbed onto Naruto, using their superior numbers to disorient him for the time being. It grabbed Naruto's right arm and worked it behind his back, trying to garner a joint-lock and quickly disable him somehow. Naruto switched his dominant leg and spun around, freeing his arm and delivering a back elbow strike to his clone's face, dispelling it in a puff of smoke.
Another clone came through the smoke screen caused by his defeated brother and leapt at Naruto, attempting to wrap him up and leave him a sitting duck for the other clones to come in and pummel him. Naruto moved to the side and let his clone miss, instead having it jump through the surface of the water. the impact disrupted his footing and he dropped an ankle into the water, leaving him wide open for one of his other clones to land a hard punch to his face.
Naruto grit his teeth at taking the punch cleanly and shot a headbutt to the body of the offending clone, not hard enough to dispel it, but hard enough to disrupt its strategy, giving him time to regain his footing and hit a cross-arm chop to his clone's throat, dispelling it. He didn't see the other clone that he had forced under the water, but he did see the others he made, standing off to the side, none of them moving in to replace the ones he had beaten.
Naruto released a pulse of his sonar jutsu, sensing something close below him and jumped just high enough to avoid a pair of hands reaching up to grab him from below. Naruto stomped hard on the water, driving his feet through the surface and delivering a harsh stomp to the face of his sneaky clone, finishing him off. He sighed to himself before he looked up and saw five clones of the mass he made walking out to fight him this time.
XxX
(Hours Later)
The exhausted members of Team 7 and remnants of Team 10 came out of the forest on their way back to the house along with Kakashi only to see an, at the time for them, surreal sight. Naruto in a fight... with himself. With five of himself. Now that didn't surprise Team 10 at all, they knew he could do that. Team 7 on the other hand had no clue.
"Why is Naruto doing that with the Bunshin no Jutsu (Clone Jutsu)?" Sakura asked rhetorically, not really expecting a legitimate answer.
"Those aren't regular Bunshin." Menma said looking up from his book.
"Yeah, they're Kage Bunshin. Clones like the ones that Zabuza used, only they're full-on copies of the original that can use jutsu, bleed, and all kinds of other things. He's sparring with them." Kakashi said.
"Nevermind that! He does that all the time!" Ino said, fully used to Naruto's signature jutsu by now, "Look at where he's doing it! He can stand on the surface of the water?"
"Huh." Menma said, sounding mildly disinterested, "Asuma-sensei must have shown him this exercise after they left. He picked it up very quickly I have to say; to be able to engage in a battle on the water after just a few hours. Well, that's still beyond most of you at the moment. Tree-walking comes first and then you can possibly think about trying this exercise." He finished as he made his way towards Naruto.
The others watched as Naruto finished off the last of his clones. Naruto had the clone facedown in the water, pulling its arms back and holding its head down with his heel on its head while it struggled against him. The original grit his teeth and did not let up despite his clone thrashing to free itself. Finally the clone popped and Naruto slumped weakly on the water, panting heavily and rubbing his throat, "Okay... I'm never doing that to any of my clones ever again. Drowning isn't cool at all." He slowly walked his way back to shore and fell out face first on the dock as the others walked up to him from the edge of the forest, "Hey guys."
Ino kneeled down by him, "Are you alright? You sound half-dead."
Naruto let out a weak unintelligible groan before speaking, "My clones we used to get here popped... I blacked out. Then I came out here and did this for the rest of the day again, and again, and again. *laughs* I wonder what I'm going to do tomorrow? So how did all of you guys do?"
Menma starred blankly at his brother, "Ino-pig and Sakura have it down perfectly. Sas-gay and Chouji are getting it, but Shikamaru. I don't know if he has it or not. He only did it a few times and then went to sit down."
Naruto moved his head to look at Shikamaru who stared right back with that bored look in his face, "Of course he did. Can someone help me stand up?"
Ino and Menma both slung one of his arms over their shoulders and picked him up per his request. Ino grunted as she picked Naruto up, "Why are you just in your boxers?" She asked, somewhat dismayed at having to touch him like that.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "Because I had to fall into the water like one hundred times today and my clothes would have wound up soaked Ino. But when you learn it you can wear all the clothes you want to. Tell me how that works out." He said jokingly, getting Ino to dig a sharp knuckle into his ribs.
"Smartass." She said before changing her tone, "Hey, could you teach me how to do that tomorrow?"
Naruto answered with one question of his own, "Can you stand on a wall or a tree while barely even thinking about it?" She didn't really know how to answer so he did for her, "I'll ask Asuma-sensei tomorrow. I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing tomorrow anyway."
Menma spoke up, "So where do you want us to put you Naruto?" He asked.
Naruto grinned at his older brother, "Oh just put me over by the clothesline. I need to get dressed anyway. Thanks."
They placed Naruto by his clothes and went inside the house while he put his stuff back on. After a moment, Naruto noticed Sasuke standing nearby looking at him intently, "What's wrong Sasuke-teme?" He asked. He hadn't even said more than a few sentences to the guy since he and his team had arrived.
Sasuke's coal black eyes seemed to bore into Naruto. It was really starting to mess with him. "I want to spar with you." He said, "When I finish the tree-climbing exercise."
Naruto blinked once before answering, "Sure I guess. But why would you want to spar with me?" It wasn't that he didn't want to, because he did. He wanted to fight Sasuke since his time in the Academy, but when Sasuke started beating him again and again in spars and he showed less and less interest in fighting Naruto he thought Sasuke didn't exactly return that sentiment. So why would he want to fig-?
Naruto smirked to himself as he realized why. Sasuke thought Naruto was as strong as he was, or at least stronger than anyone else on either of the teams there. Now he had a chance to actually prove it to others and himself. Sasuke was widely perceived as the very best genin of this year coming out of the Academy. If Naruto could beat him it would be the best possible litmus test for him as far as how he was developing as a shinobi.
"Finish the tree-climbing training. And then we'll talk about it." Naruto said to Sasuke, looking forward to actually going head-to-head with the boy that was on the exact opposite end of the spectrum in the Academy that he was.
Sasuke returned Naruto's smirk with one of his own, "Whatever you say dobe." He said confidently.
Naruto shook his head and stood up, picking up his sandals instead of putting them on as he would have to take them right back off once he got inside anyway, "You won't be able to call me that after I actually beat you teme. I'll show you who the real rookie of the year is."
The two gave each other challenging looks until Sakura's voice called out to them, "Sasuke-kun! Tsunami-san says that food is ready! Get Naruto and come inside!"
Naruto gestured towards the door, getting an amused scoff out of Sasuke who walked back towards the house.
XxX
Dinner was largely uneventful. Asuma sat away from the table and Kakashi took his food on the couch while the genin and the family of Tazuna took all of the seats at the table. Everyone only got one good helping though, because Chouji was seemingly famished from his training today, and took it upon himself to hoard seconds, thirds, fourths, and etc.
Naruto finished his food and gave thanks to Tsunami before turning to Asuma, "So sensei. I can walk on water now. I can even fight on water now too, so what do I do tomorrow?"
Asuma looked over at Naruto and smiled at him, "Those Kage Bunshin of yours are ridiculous, you know that?" He said under his breath, but Naruto caught it as he nodded keenly in agreement, "Alright...I guess I'll show you a little something tomorrow before I go with Tazuna to work on." Naruto had a look of excitement on his face.
Sakura looked at Kakashi, "What about me Kakashi-sensei? Or Ino-pig? We finished tree-climbing."
Asuma rubbed his beard and looked at Kakashi, "Menma can give them the water-walking exercise and they can work on that. They should get that just as quickly as they got tree-climbing." Kakashi nodded in agreement, getting smiles out of both girls, "I'd better get the lion's share of the pay when we get back Kakashi, I'm doing your work for you."
Kakashi shrugged, "If I felt that I would be of any use if Zabuza or anyone else showed up again I would go with you Asuma. Thanks though. Don't worry, I've been keeping a good eye on your students for you." He said in his characteristically dull , yet chipper voice.
"You didn't watch me all day Kakashi-sensei." Naruto slipped in, poking a hole in the man's statement.
"Actually Naruto-." Kakashi interjected, giving what everyone swore was a smile had that mask not been covering his face to the boy, "I got back before Asuma did, and I saw you training at the end so I technically did watch you while Asuma was gone."
Naruto gave him a dry look, ignoring the snickers from everyone around him, "I don't think I like you too much right now Kakashi-sensei."
Kakashi's smile never dropped, "Oh don't say that. I'll grow on you soon, trust me."
By now everyone had finished and the girls were helping Tsunami with the dishes when Sakura took notice of a picture with a missing section, "Hey Tsunami-san, what happened to this picture? It looks like a corner is missing like it was ripped out."
The civilian family all bristled at the seemingly innocent question from the pink-haired female genin before Tazuna finally spoke, "That part of the picture used to contain the image of a man this country called a hero."
At hearing that, Inari stood abruptly and ran out of the kitchen and upstairs, "Inari!" Tsunami called after him before turning to Tazuna, "Father you know you can't talk about him around Inari!" She then followed after Inari upstairs.
Kakashi looked over at Tazuna, who had his head down, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that there's a story there." Tazuna nodded, "Well would you mind letting us in on it?"
Tazuna took off his glasses and wiped any smudges he might have on them off, "Seeing as how part of it has to do with the entire reason you're all here I don't see why not." He took a deep breath before continuing, "This is the story of a man that inspired our entire nation. A true hero of Nami no Kuni." Everyone else in the room sat in rapt attention as the old bridge builder began his story.