"Sounds like you got your hands full," she mentions sympathetically.
"Better than Kakashi's, but yeah, they're a pain," he responds. "Still, I like 'em well enough to train 'em good. Plus, they saved me from having to go to the Daimyo's palace. Can't exactly take the brats with me, can I?"
Kurenai didn't want to ask but she couldn't not know, "is that why she's coming here?" Every little bit of information aids her constantly active mind in forecasting what the likely future might be.
"Otou-sama made it clear to the Daimyo that training shinobi for the good of the country supersedes something that may or may not happen, so he extended an invitation for her to come here." Kurenai just nods before he asks, "how's your team? You haven't been Jōnin for more than three months and now your training genin. Nervous?"
She can tell he's teasing and smiles as she tells him, "I haven't had them long, obviously. It's only been a week, but I'm reasonably optimistic. Shino-kun is diligent. Kiba-kun is impulsive; type A personality with a lot of energy. Hinata-chan is very shy but very caring. I'm working with her the most. I think she can be an amazing kunoichi if I can just find the right incentive to get her moving."
"I'm sure you'll figure something out," he responds. "You've always cared like that," he states meaningfully and Kurenai can't help but wonder if he means in general, like any sensei or as a possible mother someday in the future they would both be happy with.
NARUTO
'We want to learn Rasengan in two months,' Naru-nii explains to his past-self-student. 'It took the fourth three years to master this technique. Divide three years by the two months I'm giving you to learn this and you'll need no less than twenty clones while you train.'
'I'm learning a technique made by the fourth Hokage?!' Naruto gasps with twinkling amazement. 'Finally! Not that I don't appreciate you teaching me, but I was starting to get sick of all the control exercises. I like being able to fight on top of water, but nothing beats ninjutsu, ya know?'
'You'd be surprised,' Naru-nii hints as he sometimes does about things he never has the time to fully explain. 'Beyond the border there's a pretty big world out there with a lot of weird ninja who can do some crazy stuff that beat ninjutsu.'
'I guess,' Naruto answers, accepting his future-selfs assertion.
'Anyway, this is an A-Rank technique. It's an offensive, short range jutsu. You ready?'
"Hell yeah!" Naruto yells in his mind as much as the outside world.
'Alright, are you deep in the forest? Near a water supply? Far enough away so no one stumbles in on your training?'
'Yeah,' Naruto responds, recalling the strength training to get to a secluded area. 'Three hours deep, and a stream nearby, just like you said.'
'And you brought a bag of balloons and rubber balls?' Naru-nii asks.
"In my bag," Naruto answers patting his travel backpack filled with the items requested, a lot of ramen, and some camping gear.
'Good. To start, make five clones and have them use half the bag to make water balloons.'
Naruto does as instructed, and Naru-nii spends the remainder of his time explaining the first step of learning Rasengan: Rotation. Even with all the tips Naru-nii gave him, it's a lot harder than he expected but giving up has never been his style. Along with his clones, Naruto spends the rest of the day trying to churn the water's rotation in different directions using nothing but his chakra. He didn't notice it was nightfall until he fell flat on his back, exhausted to sickness from the hours of chakra use. Deciding he didn't have it in him to trek the three hours back to his apartment, he prepares several cups of instant ramen as he slowly dispels one clone at a time, ending his day knocking out in his sleeping bag.
To warm up, Naruto spends the morning training his body with strength training and close quarter taijutsu against his clones. After lunch, he again focuses on the first stage of Rasengan. Hours later, he hadn't been able to pop the water balloon, but instead of spending another day in the forest, he figured he could practice in his apartment, plus he didn't have the discipline to stretch out his ten remaining cups of ramen for more than a day.
Dirty, smelly, grimy, hungry, covered in twigs and petals of flora, Naruto drags his feet out of the forest. Finally closing in on the village, Naruto doesn't notice the purple and white Starling bird dive down with great speed toward his head, pulling up at the last second to scare the blond into jumping back and tumbling to the dirt floor.
"What th-" He calls but the bird swipes at him again. Naruto runs away covering his head with his arms the entire time but the purple and white bird doesn't relent, chasing after him. The frustration makes him swipe and miss as he yells, "leave me alone, bird-chan!"
It seems to have it out for him until he finally manages a lucky hit and knocks it to the ground. He felt relief for the briefest of moments until he realizes the pretty bird isn't moving, then crippling remorse floods his entire aching system. Though panicked, he gently picks the injured bird up and rushes to the village.
INO
"Uwah!" Ino gasps, clutching her head as she sits up in her bed. "That baka!" she yells, tensing her entire body down to her curled toes, waiting for the throbbing ache in her head and the spinning sensation in her realigning body to subside. The worst of it passes after twenty minutes, but it's only the worst, and Ino fully expects to sport a headache throughout the rest of her day. Allowing herself to fall back into her pillow, heavily panting—as if she just sprinted for an hour straight—she recalls the last few moments before being forcibly ejected from her jutsu.
Not long after her father taught her their family's Shintenshin no Jutsu(Mind Transfer Jutsu) Ino would use it as often as she could. Though it counted as training, her main point of attraction was transferring her consciousness into the minds of animals, mostly pretty birds so she could thrill at the majesty of flying high in the sky with the entire world below her. It made her feel small compared to the size of the land, yet empowering for having the sight to take in in the first place.
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