{Training ground #7, Konohagakure}
{05:15 AM, 25th Jan 13 Yrs ANB}
{3rd Person POV}
Sasuke was doing pushups as he waited with Naruto and Hinata for Kakashi to arrive, somehow Naruto thought it was a challenge and now the two of them had been going at it for almost 5 minutes and while Naruto didn't look winded Sasuke was beginning to feel burns in his biceps.
'How is the dobe keeping up with me' Sasuke's thoughts were taking a dark turn again when Kakashi flickered in front of the two competing genin, while Hinata was standing behind the two of them with a small blush on her face.
"Genin!" Kakashi spoke in a stern voice and both of the boys stopped their competition and immediately stood in front of him. Kakashi stared at the three of them for a moment, his eyes lingering on Naruto's bright blond hair and he had to suppress the twinge of pain that spread through his chest. Kakashi used the shadow clone jutsu and two identical Kakashi appeared in front of the three genin, each of the clones grabbed onto Naruto and Hinata respectively before they flickered away.
After that Kakashi stared at Sasuke who was looking at him with a stoic face.
'First to break them down...'
"Genin," Kakashi emphasized once again, "Uchiha Sasuke, in your introduction yesterday you talked about killing Uchiha Itachi," he could see Sasuke immediately bristled at the mere mention of Itachi's name.
'Poor emotional control, poor expression control...' Kakashi noted before he continued, "My name is Kakashi Hatake, I graduated from the academy and became a genin at 5, chunin at 6, and Jonin at 12."
'He craves power to defeat his brother, I wonder how I can break his naivety using that...'
"Uchiha Itachi graduated the academy at 6, became a chunin at 10, and an ANBU captain at the age of 13..." Kakashi hammered Sasuke with the information, "You, Uchiha Sasuke, graduated from the academy at 12 and not even at the top of your class..."
"How do you expect to kill Itachi when you couldn't even defeat a civilian-born in your academy days."
...
Sasuke stared at Kakashi in anger and humiliation, Kakashi directly voiced out all the thoughts that had been going through his head for the past week. At first, Sasuke was a little happy that he had found a rival, they could push each other, and in no time he would become stronger and force Itachi to answer for his crimes. But knowing that never had Ren been serious in his spars which he considered a vital source of growth was rage-inducing.
Now that Kakashi directly compared him with the traitor he was seething, the feeling of despair knowing the possibility that he may never be able to avenge his clan made him put aside his pride as he looked at Kakashi and begged, "Train me!"
'If you are so great that you were able to compete with HIM then train me, train me so that I can avenge my clan.' Sasuke thought.
Kakashi scoffed at him getting Sasuke's attention once again, being ignored once again stung but before he could continue Kakashi interrupted him, "You are just a spoilt brat, why should I train you, I could just give you a couple of jutsu that you could learn and then you can run away from the village to chase after Itachi and try to get your revenge."
"Itachi would kill you just like the rest of your clan and I won't have to waste my efforts on a brat who couldn't even muster up the courage to work hard to complete the only goal he ever had." Kakashi baited Sasuke once again and this time Sasuke burst.
"Work Hard? You don't think I work HARD!!" Sasuke screamed, the yell looked like it took a lot out of him, his head flopped forward, and he looked at his hands sluggishly.
"You think you work hard?" Kakashi scoffed again getting Sasuke's attention, he pulled out a resistance seal from his pouch and threw it towards Sasuke.
"Wrap it around your wrists," Kakashi instructed, Sasuke looked at the white bandage in confusion but when he went to wrap the bandages around his wrist he noticed the seals engraved in the cloth.
'What is this,' Sasuke thought as he finished wrapping the seals on his arms. Kakashi flickered in front of him and pushed chakra into the two seals activating them. Sasuke hurried to dodge but midjump his body stiffened and he wasn't able to jump far. He had to use his hands to stop himself from falling on his ass.
'What happened, what did the seals do,' Sasuke's hands went towards the seal to remove it but then he realized that his hand was moving slower. There was some form of resistance to his every movement, in wonder, he slowly stood up and threw a punch.
'Wait didn't Ren have these wrapped around his arms all the time... so was he training every day with these,' As Sasuke's thoughts went into a tangent once again Kakashi spoke once again gaining his attention.
"Ren was slower than you last year," Kakashi decided to give Sasuke a little bit of hope, for now, "... I failed him after the graduation exam, he wasn't a hard worker then, or at least he didn't know the limits of his own hard work back then."
"In one year, Ren went from being an ordinary fresh genin to someone who could now go toe to toe with a high chunin. That!" Kakashi emphasized, "is hard work. The resistance seal is set at level 2, you won't last a couple of hours before your muscles scream at you to stop."
'He failed Ren, but why?' Sasuke was overwhelmed with information right now, he put his hands down and stared at Kakashi, and spoke, "Train me Kakashi-sensei,"
'My pride isn't as important as my goals.' Sasuke thought.
"That's where you are wrong, I failed Ren last year because I thought he didn't have what it takes to be a shinobi, I feel the same way about you," Kakashi spoke testing Sasuke's confidence, "But I was wrong once so I'll give you a chance, I'm going to go on a 3 month-long training trip that the Hokage-sama is forcing me before he allows me to get back to being an ANBU captain, I'll take you brats with me-" Kakashi's other two clones came back from two different directions with a downtrodden Naruto and Hinata in tow.
"If you can impress me during these 3 months, I'll teach you 3 until you get promoted to chunin. How much you pick up on will depend on your own aptitude, you have your goals but I don't care, I have my goals and one of them is to train a half-decent team. I won't waste my time on brats who are lazy and idiots, gain my acknowledgment and I'll teach you how to achieve your goals." Kakashi stared at Sasuke and seeing his steeled eyes he sighed in relief.
'His mentality isn't as weak, he has just been left to his thoughts for too long. An isolated training trip away from the village will be a good way to start their training trip.'
"I hope you have packed because we are leaving right now, follow me!" Kakashi spoke before he dashed towards the village entrance, he felt three blobs following him and then his thoughts wandered to the next part of his plan.
'Train them till exhaustion so that they don't have time to think about useless thoughts like revenge... or Naruto... or Ramen?'
...
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{Meanwhile in training ground 8}
"Kyaaa!!!" Sakura screamed in terror, as she looked in horror as a bunch of Shino's Kikaichu traveled up her arm, Kurenai was staring at her with a heavy look on her face.
'How would this team even work if I can't even force her to accept her teammate's companions.'
She was observing her team assemble hidden in the trees and Saukra kept complaining about Kiba smelling like a dog and Shino and his creepy bloodline powers. So she instructed Shino to inject her with a paralytic agent and let her arms be covered with his Kikaichu.
'What are they even teaching kunoichi in the academy these days, I have heard rumors about these fangirls, but somehow she managed to pass the graduation exams with enough points to be put into the Elite classes.'
"Kiba, Shino, go for a taijutsu-only spar and pull back on your punches," Kurenai ordered and the annoyed boys both left to vent their frustrations. Kurenai then looked at the terrified Sakura and sighed.
'It seems I would have to delay my plan to teach her genjutsu...'
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{Meanwhile in training ground 10...}
Ino stared at Shikamaru and Asuma-sensei sitting on the training ground with a shoji board in between them while Choji munched on some chips and looked at the game that was ongoing.
A tick mark appeared on her forehead as she shouted, "What about training Asuma-sensei..."
...
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AN- That's it for an insight into the rest of the Rookie 9, from the next chapters we will focus on Ren and his training montage under Hayate Gekko.
P.S- 10 extra chapters on Pàtreon at - P.atreon.com/Version_401