For the last four months, Blood Squad, besides training, has been doing D-ranked missions, basically chores around the village. Everything from painting fences, tilling gardens, watching children for a noble clan, and catching Tora missions, the cat owned by the Daimyo of Fire's wife, who seems to have a penchant for escaping from its mistress, and almost always finds its way to Konoha, where various Genin try to catch the fiendish feline. The Genin did not really mind, D-ranks were decent pay for the work they had to do, and with Naruto's Senko and Kage Bunshin, a day long D-rank for most Genin would only take a few hours for Blood Squad. Which allowed them more time to train together, or do more D-ranks for the day, but the team was getting anxious to test themselves, against real enemies that were trying to kill them. They were walking toward the Hokage Mansion, and the Genin were hoping to get their first C-ranked mission. Kurenai looked at her students, Hinata and Sakura walking on either side of Naruto, chatting amiably together, and reflected back on the last four months.
Flashback-Four Months Ago
Naruto's progress in Senko Bunshin, allowed him to discover how to make them using normal, non-elemental chakra. This allowed him to make them more quickly, and in greater abundance than before, up to two-thousand clones at a pop. All with the same capabilities as the original Flash Clone technique, including the durability, but most importantly, it meant he could teach his jutsu to anybody who wished to learn it, or anybody he wished to teach.
The first person he taught it to was also the first person to ever show him love, his Aunt Yugao, who expressed interest early on for him to teach her. He had already taught her, his True Transformation technique, and Surrogate Substitution, now with Flash Clones, he felt he had sufficiently paid her back for taking him in when he was six, now he could just be her nephew. "The trick, Yugao-chan, is in this hand sign," he told her as he demonstrated, he put his thumbs against each other, and allowed his other fingers to fall naturally at the junctions of the fingers and the rest of his hands. The formation produced a natural-looking cylinder, that looked exactly like an eye-socket, "I call this, the oculus," he said, making sure she had it down before going on, he raised it to about the height of his chest, "what you do is project your chakra through the center," as he demonstrated through actions what he spoke about, "what happens is your chakra, gathers the photons you need to put together the clones, you'll notice a slight dimming in the immediate area around your projected path, then," the dimming he mentioned occurred, then just before total darkness, there was a flash of bright light, "voila, your very own twin."
Yugao was a good student, and of course, had more experience with chakra than her nephew, so she only needed the bare minimum of instruction, before she was able to pull off the jutsu like the professional she was. That did not stop her from jumping in celebration, when she made her first Flash Clone. "I did it, oh, Kami-sama, I did it," when she looked back at her perfect clone!
Naruto looked at her smiling, he felt proud that he was able to teach her something else, she has taught him everything else he knew, including what it felt like to know love. Yugao-oba-san was the closest thing he had to a mother, and though he called her Aunt, she was his mother in every way except name. His expression grew serious, and he spoke, "I recommend starting out by using half your chakra," Naruto suggested, "that way, you'll know exactly how many you can make, before chakra exhaustion sets in," Yugao nodded, and her clone dispelled in another flash of light. Naruto looked lost in thought, as he imparted his own experiences to his Aunt, about Senko bunshin no jutsu, "I can make them using other forms of EMR, so I'm covered on stealth missions, but if you need to be stealthy, I recommend making them out of line of sight of your prey, or they'll give you away. I would also, suggest learning the Kage bunshin no jutsu, as a supplement to Senko bunshin no jutsu. They could be used interchangeably and only differ in durability to the latter," Naruto noted, then with a smile, added, "I'm gonna trade teaching this to the Hokage, to learn it for myself, I think they would be totally useful for screwing up an enemy's confidence." His Aunt just laughed at his wicked side, the feeling he had for her being his mother was absolutely reciprocated in her heart, if in the future she was lucky enough to have children, in her mind she has already been a mother. Naruto may not have come from between her legs, he was still very much her boy, Yugao prayed to Kami, and her sister, every time she slept, and thanked them for giving her, a son.
After teaching his Aunt, he followed through on trading the Senko bunshin for the Kage bunshin, to the Hokage, she even allowed Naruto to learn the Bunshin Dai-bakufu, now he had two clone techniques that could explode in an enemy's face. He practiced with them so much, he not only could make them silently, but even eliminated the telltale plume of smoke, and the kicker came when both sets of clones began to make each other. Naruto in addition to his other training, started practicing formation training, with one or the other types of clones, at first, but later, he began to mix the two types of clones together, creating a real-life version of the shell game. Naruto got so good at creating clones that he could recreate even his own smells, enough that he could fool inu-nin, even the Inuzuka breeds, which had lived with that clan so much, they had adopted their human partner's reasoning abilities.
Naruto's other training proceeded apace, and he along with his teammates grew in strength, daily. Naruto created two invisibility techniques, the first one was C-ranked, he calls it, Bluff of the Blind-man. It follows the principles of Taming the Wave, by shunting all electromagnetic radiation around the user, it does not redirect into anybody's eyes, so the observer cannot see, conversely neither can the recipient, because it redirects all light away from the recipient, even that which was directed to his or her eyes. Naruto used it to practice using his other senses, and not to rely just on his eyes, this was a skill he taught his teammates. It was also where they found out that Kidoton, does cripple the effectiveness of the Byakugan, Hinata when he used it on her, was just as blind as his other three teammates.
The second technique, which he called, Unseen, followed the principles of Breaking the Spectrum. Naruto compressed the waves of EMR that struck him, but allowed the photons to retain their energy, since cells need the energy from the photons to conduct their operations, but as they rebounded from his body, he force the waves to stretch almost flat, beyond even a radio wave's wavelength. This allowed Naruto to be invisible, truly invisible, he stood next to Hinata and her father for an hour, without revealing himself, and Itachi Uchiha could not see him either, he could have stolen anything, even jutsu ideas if he wanted to, but he kept himself to a strict Code of Ethics when using his Kekkei Tota. He did not peep on women in the hot springs, nor use his alternative visual spectrum to see through their clothes. He asked Hinata about her clan's rules of privacy, since all of them had a dojutsu that could aid them in seeing through solid objects. Naruto even spoke to the Elder Uchiha, about when they use the Sharingan while in the clan compound or sparring with each other. The Elders had been briefed on Naruto's Light Release, after he became a Genin.
The first month of Blood Squad's training was spent on a mixture of chakra control, physical exercises, that paled in anything they ever worked on at the Academy, and team activities. Chakra control was essential for any ninja, from Academy students to the Hokage, to even Sandaime Sarutobi-sama, every ninja practiced some form of chakra control. The version of chakra control they learned at the Academy, regardless of whatever variation was devised from it, is considered, the most basic exercise in the regimen. The more control one had over one's chakra, the more powerful and varied the capabilities of the ninja, whether it was for ninjutsu, genjutsu, or even taijutsu, a ninja's power came, not from the amount of chakra one had, but from controlling that chakra.
The next day after the Genin Skills Exam, Kurenai introduced them to vertical walking. They returned to the cliff from the day before, and she demonstrated, "I've seen Yugao do that, but she would not teach it to me," Naruto groused.
"Of course not," Kurenai grinned from beside Naruto, she was using a Flash Clone, which Naruto had taught to her, Anko, and Hana-chan, Sakura and Hinata did not yet have the chakra reserves for either of Naruto's clone techniques. "You know as well as I do that it's illegal for anyone to teach these techniques to Academy students, only Genin are allowed to learn them, per military law."
Naruto still grumbled, "I know, but it's not fair," he sulked.
There was a smack to the back of the head for Naruto, from Kurenai, "did you want some cheese with your whine, Naruto," she growled, getting in his face? "You're an adult now, and adults don't bitch and whine about fair or unfair, they suck it up and get on with completing the exercise! Now, stop moping around like an Uchiha and get going with the exercise," Kurenai ordered, "and no clones while training with your team, I won't let you rub it in their faces that you have an advantage they don't, understood, Genin Uzumaki?"
Naruto thoroughly reamed, popped to attention, and bowed, "Hai, Yūhi-sensei," he bellowed, before bowing again, "my apologies, Yūhi-sensei, for wasting our time with this behavior, please forgive me?"
"Get on with it, Genin Uzumaki," Kurenai barked!
"Hai, Yūhi-sensei," Naruto barked back, then turning he hurried up to the cliff, and put his foot on it and began practicing the exercise! Kurenai watched him go, her gaze flicking occasionally up and down his body, and she felt a trickle run down her face from her nose, which she quickly wiped away. It would not do for the one she just chewed-out to look back and see her with a nosebleed.
They spent the first month of their fellowship, practicing vertical walking, and Naruto never complained again, he also took to heart what his sensei had about having an advantage his teammates did not have. As a method to keep himself humble, he followed Kurenai's order, even after that day, during chakra control training, it was Naruto the original that trained his chakra. He practiced daily and even when not with his team, the true-Naruto practiced walking up and down the side of the Uzumaki Main house walls. The chores he did around the house, that required vertical walking helped him train it as well, like washing the exterior windows, or touching up the paint where the wood was showing, were all him.
The Flash and Shadow Clones practiced his ninjutsu, the forms of his taijutsu, kenjutsu, and the calligraphy for his fuinjutsu. The Flash Clones practiced sparring, empty-handed, or weapon to weapon, while he was not trying to become a weapons master like Sakura, he may come across opponents wielding these weapons, and the best way to learn to fight against them was to learn to fight with them. His weapon of choice was the sword he wore on his back, to which he had added a seal from within the Uzumaki archive to his sword and ninja tool pouch. The seal allowed the kunai and shuriken in the pouch, along with his sword to be replicated perfectly when Naruto made either type of clone. He practiced with his sword every day, against his Aunt when she was home, or against Senko Bunshin, morphed into varying body types, from the really large and powerful, to small and quick. Which is also how he trained his empty-handed, and kunai-taijutsu techniques, after team training of course. Kage bunshin trained his ninjutsu, and calligraphy.
Since neither bunshin type could aid him in training his physical body, he waited to train that way until he was with his team, which through encouragement helped all three of the Genin become closer. Such was Naruto's skill with fuinjutsu, that he crafted five sets of gravity, resistance, and pressure seals, and gifted them to all four of his teammates and Kiba, with both of their sensei's permission of course. These seals, when they had chakra added to them, applied just the right amount of g-forces, resistances, and atmospheric pressures per square inch of their body, to make one extremely uncomfortable, but not be detrimental to one's health. They were self-adjusting, so as soon as one's body became adjusted to the current level, it went up, which not only aided in maximizing their physical training, it helped them in chakra control, because one had to send a precise amount to one's feet to stay on the cliff. When the level of the seals went up, the Genin had to adjust the level of chakra to their feet to compensate. Naruto gave Kurenai-sensei a set, to encourage her not to stagnate but to keep the fire and hunger in her eyes, and to keep training her body to maintain a balance between her Yin and Yang chakra, making her already potent genjutsu, even more powerful.
This helped them increase the Yang chakra as well, the type of chakra governing the physical body. Chakra had to be balanced, and there needed to be as much Yin chakra growth as there was Yang. Yin governed the mental and emotional energy of a person, so to compensate for the physical exertions, for Yin, Kurenai introduced them to meditation, and Hinata contributed to this training by teaching them all, Zen meditation. Also, every Friday and Saturday, to give their bodies a chance to recuperate, Blood Squad spent their days in the library, at first, Naruto remained steadfastly in the physical sciences, where he also directed Hinata and Sakura, to get them started on learning about their elemental bloodlines. That was not the focus of Kurenai's intent for bringing her team to the library.
The Yin half of chakra was a mixture of both mental and emotional energy, and both had to be cultivated in order for Yin to grow. She explained it to them with a metaphor, where chakra was represented by a tree with branches and leaves. Yang was the trunk that was strong and brought nutrients with it from the ground, and Yin was the branches and leaves, the branches worked with the trunk to hold up the leaves, so they could collect the sunlight of wisdom and experience, and knowledge itself was the water added so the tree could remain alive, hence the library trips. This was essential, for anybody who wanted to learn to use genjutsu, of which, at least two of her students had expressed interest, but Kurenai wanted all of her students to be at least familiar with the illusionist art, even if it was just learning to break them. So, she steered them, gradually away from the physical sciences, to the social subjects of learning. Specifically, psychology, philosophy, cognitive studies, including literature, history, and the humanities.
Naruto kept his word to his teammates, about getting them started learning to tap into their lightning chakra. The first exercise Naruto taught them, was of course the one taught to him by Kakashi, before he left for the capitol to help guard the Daimyo. Basically, lighting a light bulb with just his chakra. He guided the kunoichi, through raiton chakra manipulation training but left them to their own devices, to create their own jutsu. Their team sensei also helped the ladies, by training Sakura and Hinata in their water and fire manipulation, respectively, by the end of that first month they had the first leg of their chakra manipulation exercises down. Training them, helped him remember the basics of elemental chakra manipulation as well, so on the days he helped them train their raiton chakra, when he got home, he trained his other elemental affinities. This helped him remain in touch with his own basics, the kunoichi were quite surprised when he suggested the practice of crocheting to get their dexterity up for casting ninjutsu. Kurenai said it will aid them in genjutsu casting, too. As for their kekkei genkai, once they all had the basics of their primary nature transformations, they understood the basics of their secondary transformations, too.
All of them, attended the human anatomy classes for medical ninja, but Hinata and Naruto attended only to make certain techniques they were working on, more deadly, since they targeted certain organ systems. Since all three Genin used lightning chakra, they became interested in the nervous system, a judicious use of raiton-chakra could sere certain nerve-endings shut, causing various effects to an enemy. Hinata's Raiton and Shindōton were almost made for her Jūhou, she was not very interested in long-range ninjutsu, the whole reason she wanted to learn sensory-genjutsu, was so she could disorient her opponents, get close to them, and destroy them. Hinata made great headway with her vibration release, discovering a vibration sense that according to her, gave her a perfect all-around sensory data stream, even better than the Byakugan, though she refused to elaborate. It was a Hyūga clan secret.
Hinata developed her Vibe Sense, it takes the vibrations produced by all matter and energy, down to the molecular level and sends it to her brain, which interprets the information through four of her five senses, hearing, touch, taste, even her sense of smell. Her Byakugan has evolved her brain to only accept data from her dojutsu, but her brain it seems, works to harmonize with all of its parts, and the range she can extend it is in the same field of vision as her clan's dojutsu. Which at four months and two weeks later, has a range of up to three miles in all directions, for both of her kekkei genkai. The hard part was not getting her to listen to her knew sensory technique, the hard part was getting her to trust it. Luckily, for her sleep and sanity, deactivating it was easy and they were able to teach her to control it within the first week of discovery, and by the end of that month it had become as instinctual for her as it is for Naruto's EM Field. Hinata, however, had been taught from a very early age, to give more regard to what her eyes tell her than what she gets from her other senses. Her Vibe Sense threw all of that out of the window, because now she had to learn to accept data coming from all of her other senses, which was difficult, because you do not throw out years of operant conditioning overnight.
Naruto's discovery of Bluff of the Blindman, helped Hinata overcome this conditioning, the rest of the team helped too. Naruto cast Blind Man's Bluff, over Hinata, so even if she resorted subconsciously to using the Byakugan, it would do her no good. Once she learned that, she began listening to what her other senses were telling her, she found her equilibrium fairly easy. The Vibe Sense gave her perfect proprioception, the brain's perception of the body, and its position and movement through spacetime. Once Hinata was acclimated to using her senses while standing still, the team went on a hike through the forest, it was not the most treacherous path they could have taken, but it would definitely require you to pay attention. It was rough going for a little while, Blood Squad learned that Hinata had a penchant for swearing, especially when she bumped into things. It was Naruto, who admonished her to stop fighting her senses, "just accept their stimulus as truth, Hinata-chan," Naruto rebuked her, though gently, "let your mind do the work of understanding. That is what you told us to do when we started zazen meditation with you, is it not," Naruto reminded her?
Hinata gave him a dirty look, though she could not see him, she knew exactly where he was, "that's easy for you to say, Naruto-kun," she glared, "you can still see where you're going, your damn jutsu has rendered my family's dojutsu obsolete!"
Naruto just grinned, which Hinata could feel, and it made her turn her back to him with a huff, crossing her arms over her body with a stomp of her foot. "Trust me, I've had to practice something similar to this when I trained my electromagnetic force-field, and Radio Sense," he informed his teammate and friend, "we're easing you into this, compared to what the Sandaime and my own Aunt did to me. They were throwing dull kunai and shuriken at me, by this time in my training," he added. "Besides, you're doing it, Hinata," she turned to look at him to understand what he meant, "when you started yelling at me, you were looking in my direction, not in the direction my voice was coming from, but right at me. I suspect you could've thrown a kunai or shuriken at me and probably hit me, if I didn't move," Naruto stated, as he circled around her, and she followed his path precisely, "you're doing it even now as I speak to you. It seems when you stop thinking and just let things happen, your Vibes work perfectly, it's when you try to take over that you mess-up, am I right?"
Hinata sighed, "Very well, I'll enter zazen and stop taking over," she did her best and finally learned to trust her Vibes, she completed the hike a couple more times along the way, using different trails and routes. She even practiced vertical walking while blind, and once she did that, she was ready to practice more dynamic movements besides walking. They had Hinata practice her Jūhou katas, all of them, until she was doing them the way they had seen her do them, when unencumbered. Once they were sure Hinata was doing her katas as flawlessly as she always demonstrated, they decided to test something else. Sarutobi carefully threw a kunai through a section that was close to her, but not directly at the Genin kunoichi. Even while in the midst of her kata, they saw Hinata follow the path of the flying kunai with her head.
Then, Kurenai threw a shuriken in such a way, that it curved close to Hinata, but stayed just out of her reach. Hinata, still followed its flight path, but continued to perform her kata, this was when Sakura threw a dull kunai directly at the Hyūga's exposed back. Hinata flowed out of the way but brought her palm around, and without looking in that direction, caught the kunai by the handle, making it look like the move was all a part of her current sequence of movements. This was when Naruto jumped silently, with a kunai of his own at the ready. He thrust the blade rapidly toward the kunoichi, while Hinata used the blade she had caught as a makeshift defense, deflecting, and dodging the blonde's attacks with professional flare. It was during one deflection, that Naruto put his thumb, forefinger, and middle finger together, saying, "Terashimasu," and flicked his fingers open. There was a kaleidoscope of colored light, and the world appeared in Hinata's eyes once more.
Hinata did not lose a step, in her spar with her crush, her trust in her new senses was at such an instinctive level by now, that it barely even slowed her down when Naruto canceled his Kidoton-jutsu. She must have understood subconsciously that she was now seeing the blonde, because, "Byakugan," she said, she began firing attacks at him even faster. Hinata was at a disadvantage, because she only had a dull kunai as a weapon, Naruto was not so encumbered, and there was a reason he was the actual Rookie-of-the-Year for her class, but they never got a chance to face each other in taijutsu at the Academy. Naruto's taijutsu style, the Uzumaki-style known as Hapkiyosu, was not very big on direct striking, but about neutralizing the force of an attack or redirecting it. It was meant to be used to kill larger foes, or those in armor, which emphasized joint manipulation, throwing, and counter-throwing, it was perfectly suited to be used with a bladed weapon in one, and, or both hands. Jūhou, was mostly palm-strikes, meant to target specific organs, the movements were soft and fluid, to absorb the impacts of strikes, or not be there when the strike arrived, but it's strength was to be used empty-handed. Both styles favored flexibility and leverage, over main strength, and only the Jūhou's palm-strikes and maneuverability, required any form of speed.
Hinata knew, she needed to get some distance from Naruto, this is not how I want to get close to him, her only chance was to not allow him to control the flow of the battle. Hinata began to maneuver around Naruto at a quicker rate, redirecting his thrusts and parrying his very, precisely controlled slashes, his technique is flawless, she salivated for him, until she saw and felt him relax. That meant he had discovered her pattern, which was what she had been waiting for, because she put a deliberate halt to her current movements, which made him rush ahead of her, before he could reverse course, she rushed in behind him and slammed a chakra-and-adrenaline-fueled palm into Naruto's right flank, which was not enough to take him out. Naruto, knowing he was about to be struck relaxed the muscles in his abdomen, dissipating the force enough to keep him in the fight, but not enough to prevent himself from being pushed away from his opponent.
Naruto saw it, Hinata threw that unsharpened kunai directly at him, it bewildered him at first, she knew it would be useless against him, even if he allowed it to hit him, it would not have done any permanent damage. Before it left her hand, he thought, he saw the blade become distorted and heard a little crack of what sounded like thunder, then it was speeding toward him and it was not moving through the air too fast for him to sidestep the knife. Hinata suddenly charged toward Naruto, she moved too fast for him to do anything, so he set himself for the impact, but instead of her whole body colliding with his, she literally ran up Naruto's front. She pushed off using a kick to his head from both legs, that attack did knock him over and he was even seeing stars.
Naruto-kun, is a very good ninja, Hinata thought as she rebounded off Naruto's face, she backflipped through the air letting her arms spread out to balance her, while she flew through the air, if he has any drawback, it's that he's too good for his age, he's so good that he sometimes gets cocky, and taken with his own cleverness. As Hinata arced through the air, the ground moving beneath her, he's not arrogant or anything, doesn't view anybody as beneath him, but sometimes he thinks he's Kami's gift and nobody his age can beat him. That's the sort of thinking that could lead to his demise, and I refuse to allow that to happen if I can prevent it, I may not have trusted my Shindō no kankaku (Vibe Sense) until now, but I have been practicing other applications to use with my Shindōton. I've been incorporating them in with my Jūhou-style, I've learned to vibrate my body at unheard of speeds, not the speed of light or anything, that might actually cause a black hole for all I know, that much accumulated mass in one place; if that didn't do it, the first time I tried to move, adding kinetic force to my already near infinite mass, definitely would? No, I'll probably never try for, let alone achieve vibration at light speed, but I've definitely reached supersonic speeds, Mach 3 at least, with better chakra control I could probably reach Mach 6. I can vibrate all or parts of my body at Mach 3, which adds plenty of mass, I think today, I'll do it to my whole body, really drive it home for my bae, that we're clever too.
Hinata landed a few feet back from her position, "Vibe Freak Three," (Shindō Hindō San) she declared, and her entire body began vibrating at three times the speed of sound! Hinata was barely visible, and the second her vibrating body broke the sound barrier, there was a sonic boom, which could be heard all over the village, and broke several windows in the village. "Eight Trigrams: Twin Palms," came her now distorted voice, as she lunged, driving both palms forward! They came into contact with something invisible, the force shocked it out of its Unseen technique, and there was an approximation of pain on the Naruto look a like's handsome face, before the force of Hinata's attack, destroyed his Senko Bunshin, in a rainbow shower of waves and particles. By this time, the real Naruto was sitting up, as the Kyūbi finished healing him, he was looking at her with astonishment written all over his face. Hinata just grinned, "You may be invisible, Naruto-kun," she answered his questioning face, "but we still have our other senses, as someone who trained his senses with the Inuzuka, you should be ashamed, for not taking better precautions with the other markers of your passage. You still move the air around you, when you travel, don't you know?"
There was a humorous laughter coming from her right, they looked and there standing with a shocked Kurenai-sensei, Sakura-san, was the Third Hokage who was clapping his hands. He walked over to stand next to the Hyūga heiress, "you are quite correct, my dear," he agreed with her, and looked at his surrogate grandson, "he may have been unseen, but he is still there, he is just hiding behind a curtain."
Naruto stood up and marched toward the heiress, when he got there he promptly bowed, "Thank you, Hinata-chan, I fear that I had become cocky," then he gave her a self-deprecating smile, before adding, "thank you for taking the time to pop my oversized head."
"Yes," Hiruzen agreed, "and I believe congratulations are in order," Hinata, though she was overjoyed and embarrassed about the praise, looked confused, "you are the first person, besides Naruto-kun to ever destroy a Senko Bunshin, and the first time was by accident, over a month ago."
Naruto shuddered, as he put his arm around his teammate, after getting her permission of course, "man, that last attack was something else, it's a good thing Flash Clones don't bleed. Imagine the mess it would make if you used it on an animal."
Hinata laughed, "I don't have to imagine, I know, one of the first times I tried that attack, was against a side of beef in one of the Hyūga meat packing plants. I wanted to see what kind of damage I could do," the two boys, grandson and grandfather looked at her rapt with fascination, as she continued, "it destroyed the already dead animal, there wasn't anything left of the thing when I was done. You're also right in the mess it made, I had to clean for hours, and of course pay the owner for the lost time and money the product would have gained for him."
Kurenai and Sakura had started over with the Sandaime, when something else caught their eyes. They made their way over to a tree, sticking out of that tree was a handle, the hilt of a kunai. It was the kunai, Hinata had thrown to distract Naruto from her real attack, "How did she do this," Sakura wondered, "this kunai was as dull as a spoon, we did that to make sure we did not hurt Hinata, if she wasn't as sure of her Vibe Sense as we believed."
Kurenai thought for a moment, and realization dawned on her face, "Remember when the kunai became distorted, right before she threw it?" Sakura nodded, and Kurenai continued, "I noticed the same distortion around Hinata's body, just before she destroyed the Flash Clone, from the alteration of her voice I know she was vibrating at supersonic speeds. Well, if she can do that with her body, which is more fragile than metal, why wouldn't she be able to do it with the metal of the kunai," she reasoned?
Sakura walked around to the back of the tree, and gasped, "Kurenai-sensei, you have got to come see this," she exclaimed. Kurenai hurried around to her student and added her own gasp, while taking a startled step back with an arm over her heart in shock. Because, while the front of the tree remained largely intact, the back, where all the unspent energy was released had been demolished. The tree was one of the older trees of the forest, which means it was one of the thicker examples of it species in this part of the forest. The entire back half of the tree had been blown away, there were splinters the size of her pinkie, sticking into several trees at least twenty yards behind it, and not just into the bark, there were some of them actually protruding through the entire wood of the tree. "If Hinata can do this with a blunt kunai, what the Hell could she do with a properly sharpened one, or a properly sharpened shuriken," Sakura wondered out loud?
"That's nothing," her sensei told her, "with her Byakugan, along with her Vibration techniques, and a senbon in her hand, with any of her chakra natures she'll become a walking force of nature. It'll be perfect for her sensory genjutsu training," Kurenai mused, "as her sensei, it's my duty to open her eyes to these things. Let's go, we have five more months before the Chunin Exams, but I won't recommend our team until we've begun C-ranked missions," Kurenai stated as she walked to her two students, the Sandaime had already departed, "and we have a lot of work to do before I'll believe you're ready."
Sakura-chan was not only surviving, the distance between her mother and father, she was thriving without being under their thumb. While she still acted like a lady in most situations, she had been under the influence of Anko Mitarashi, who had succeeded in relaxing the strict upbringing the rosette took from the Harunos. Conversely, Sakura succeeded in doing the one thing to Anko, that nobody had ever done before, make her mind her manners. While still a rough, earthy, uncouth character, which anybody who has spent a good deal of time with her knows, is just a defense, coping mechanism to try keeping people at a distance, after what her sensei did to her, which she does not even remember. It has not worked, because despite her nature, Anko Mitarashi has developed a whole platoon of precious people, that will stick by her and defend her until death takes them from her. The opposite is also true with Anko in how she regards her precious ones. None have become quite as dear to the Snake Mistress of Konoha, as the pink-haired kunoichi, she took under her wing at the age of ten. They have moved in together, and it seems more like they are long lost sisters, than roommates.
The dynamics of the living situation are private, and not fodder for discussion here, but Anko, in addition to training her own team, which since they all come from clans, largely consists of shoring up their taijutsu-styles, learning chakra affinities: Kiba is Fire, Sasuke is Lightning, and Shino is Earth, and getting them started with Genin-level chakra-control. She mostly had them practicing teamwork exercises and physical fitness training, during team meetings, they spent less time training together than the other teams and had a professional relationship, at most. Alternatively, they spent more time on D-rank missions, than training, and by mutual consent, had Sasuke as their lead, Kiba was a natural follower though not a bootlicker, and Shino did not really care who led. Sasuke was pretty good at it, he seemed to be a natural leader, and all in all they were a pretty strong team.
But, Anko spent most of her and Sakura's free-time, training Sakura in taijutsu, and introducing her to different weapons: mostly staff and sword techniques, but also in the use of spears, double sword techniques, which paired well with her Storm Art training, but more on that later, Mother & Son Cho-ken (butterfly sword) techniques, three-section staff training, Horse Bench training, which was about finding and using everyday objects as weapons, and Twin Rod training, which also paired well with Arashi no jutsu.
Anko introduced Sakura to a different style of martial discipline, which perfectly utilized the sensual, flexibility of Hebi-Style, but added loads of power to her strikes and tons of versatility, it's called, Chuen-style. The Essence of the style is five attacks in an instant, three heights and eight directions, long and short range attacks, flexible foot and legwork, and all simultaneously accomplished in a single second. Sakura acquired first-class, powerful kicks, but was in no way restricted to kicking alone, the footwork is elusive and flexible, with powerful, short-range fists. Training in Chuen concentrated on building a tremendous amount of stamina, as well as development of power and flexibility in the legs. Sakura would learn one posture at a time, until all three heights and eight directions were mastered; only then, would the next posture be taught. Weight training, iron rings, and stone locks were used, in addition to Naruto's G.R.A seals, for the development of strength, stamina, and speed. Sakura practiced all of her techniques on Senko Bunshin, and trees, which was a terrific, training aid to building power into her punches and kicks, because she passed through a stage in her training, she had to develop a considerable amount of power before progressing further.
Sakura started out, learning basic hand patterns and stances, which developed whipping power and spiraling motions, then she learned kicks, developing the seven sides of the foot. After that, she learned balance, rooting, and how to develop power from the waist, she learned to harmonize hands and feet, and developed flexible stepping methods, and handwork, learning what she called, Kitsui te hōhō, which made her hands and feet by themselves deadly weapons, without using chakra. Sakura also learned Kurenai's family taijutsu-style, Aikijujutsu, whose movements were so similar to Uzumaki style taijutsu, as to make him and Yugao, both wonder if there might be a familial link, between the Yūhi and the Uzumaki clans.
Sakura spent a couple of days per week at the hospital, learning how to be a medical ninja, Hinata and Naruto accompanied her for certain classes but not others, the hospital was Sakura territory, and they both understood that. She saw her best friend, Ino there, which was the only time they had to spend together, with their busy schedules. Ino was the only person, Sakura told about her actions in the Academy, and her attitude toward Naruto. Ino knew about Anko, and their training together, the Yamanaka helped Sakura with her deception of her parents by fomenting a pseudo-rivalry for Sasuke's affections, of which, only Ino's feelings for him were genuine. Well, as genuine as they can be for a preteen girl, which in Ino's case, lasted until her third day on her team, and no she did not switch her affections to Shisui, he was in her opinion an old man, her attentions were now, firmly affixed upon another boy. Kiba was also training to be a medical ninja, he always enjoyed working with all animals, not just dogs, he hoped to learn enough to work with his sister, Hana, at her veterinary clinic.
On the same week, the first month went into the second, Naruto and Sakura were walking on their way to meet Anko and Yugao. They had been training together working on their kekkei genkai, Naruto his three, and Sakura's one. Naruto, to maintain his kekkei tota's status as an S-ranked secret, could only practice his Kidoton at home. Naruto was developing something he could use with his magnet release; it was going to be used with senbon, he was not sure what to even call it yet, but he would have it ready for the upcoming chunin exams. He was also developing a special, throwable container, that could be used with his explosive chakra, they might be closer to completion, in three more months. Naruto's plasma chakra was the most useful, and the most developed of his kekkei genkai, and what was truly exciting for both members of Team Blood, was both of their bloodlines, were mirror twins of each other.
The only real differences between the two, were purely cosmetic, the spectra of light they emitted were different. Plasma release jutsu always ran the gamut between red and green, Storm release jutsu were always running between green and violet spectra. Other than that, they were perfect twins of each other, Sakura was phenomenal at finding variations in the jutsu Naruto already created. Naruto showed her how to make a plasma blade, she took the idea a step further, and created storm-whips, with differing variations of whips, from cat-o-nine-tails to bullwhip configurations.
He showed her, his most devastating plasma technique, which he called a Ruby-Eyed God, where he spun the plasma into a very compact, angry scarlet sphere, they were out at Training Ground 100, the farthest point away from Konoha one could get before becoming a missing-nin. There was a mountain down range of the couple, there were several cylindrical holes drilled through it, you could see sunlight coming through from those holes. Naruto twisted around and thrust his palms toward the crag, a beam of energy shot away from the shinobi's hand and headed straight for the rock. When it struck, something Naruto was not expecting happened, the top portion of the mountain, just went away, vaporized, converted from matter to energy in an instant. That was expected, what was not expected was the amount of the mountain that was destroyed, he had expected a neat little hole, not Kami's wrath. He moved back through his memories, and compared it to previous episodes, which is where he found the difference, in the past the beam would shrink in circumference the closer it came to the mountain, and the further it went from him. It retained its intensity, but reduced in size, the only damage the mountain received was a small hole. Naruto chuckled in derision, and said, "This is the difference between the Academy chakra control exercise, and what we're learning now."
Naruto, with the help of Sakura, learned to dial it back so it was now anti-personnel, not anti-mountain, and she developed her own version, which was violet, that she called, Angel's Judgement. It was Sakura, who came up with plasma constructs, she got the idea from her medical training, where a ninja if they are out of kunai and shuriken, needs to perform emergency surgery, so they formed the cutting tools from pure chakra. Plasma or Arashi constructs worked the same way, just made from plasma, and Storm Art filaments, as Sakura took to calling them, "Kunai and Shuriken are a finite resource, Naruto-kun," she explained to him, "there may come a time when we run out of them, but still need them, we can use our jutsu to make them from our chakra. Chakra as long as we remain alive is replenished, every second of everyday of our lives," she explained this as she twirled a Storm Art made kunai in her hands, it seemed to act like the metal one in her other hand. Then she threw the metal one at a tree, followed by the glowing one, on impact the filament created kunai struck the tree just as the metal kunai did.
"That's way cool, Sakura-chan," Naruto marveled, "if either of us ever recreated the Yondaime's Hiraishin, there's no telling where we could come from."
The other jutsu Sakura created, but Naruto decided not to emulate was the Arashi Bunshin no jutsu, it had all of the same capabilities as the Kage and Senko Bunshins, but it was not as durable as Flash Clones. They could take a lot of punishment, but they were easier to destroy than Naruto's invention. Naruto did not want to learn it, because he felt he had all the clones he needed, "This is your invention, Sakura-chan," Naruto said as he looked in her eyes, flicking a lock of hair to the side, "you should be recognized for using it, and nobody else, this actually helps both of us, Sakura-chan."
"What do you mean, Naruto-kun," the rosette asked?
"This means I can teach you, either the Kage Bunshin technique, or my Senko Bunshin," Naruto answered, "Tsunade-sama made me promise, not to teach them to you or Hinata-chan, because of the chakra requirements. But your Storm Clones, use as much chakra as the Shadow Clones and my Flash Clones," Naruto informed her, "you've made fifty so far, and you're not even winded. If you can do that, it means you're ready for either type of clone," Naruto concluded, he smirked at her and asked, "so which one do you want to learn, Sakura-chan, I won't teach you both, its payment for letting me use plasma constructs?"
Sakura smiled a beautiful smile, "you have to ask, Flash me, baby?" The way she said it, made Naruto blush, her smile changed into a leer, and her voice turned seductive, "get your mind out of the gutter, one thing at a time, dear. Teach me, then screw me," he blushed even heavier, and she just giggled, she had definitely lived with Anko Mitarashi for far too long.
They were standing outside of a novelty weapon's shop, something had caught their eyes as they walked by, several items to be exact, full body, chainmail armor, but woven together in a scale-like pattern, with claws protruding from the gloves. They went inside and talked to the clerk, "they're called dragon-mail, when worn, they conform to the relative sizes of the wearer, and offer the same protection as samurai armor, without compromising the flexibility needed for your shinobi duties. They offer kunoichi a fair amount of modesty, without losing any feminine allure," he raised his hands to hurriedly add, "I am not one of those people who believes kunoichi are whores, my mother was one, and I know how tenacious she and her kunoichi peers were in a fight, but you cannot deny the power of a female body. They have been used to distract many a guard," he qualified, and even Sakura could not deny his proposition in this regard, so he went on with his explanation of the product, "in addition to enhancing one's taijutsu, the claws are mutable with just a small expenditure of chakra, allowing the dexterity necessary to wield weapons, or make hand signs. Whether you want spikes protruding from the knuckles, or other parts of the armor, it is as easy as using the henge no jutsu, and incidentally, no ninjutsu or genjutsu is compromised while wearing it."
Naruto was looking thoughtful when he asked, "how much?"
The clerk smiled at the opportunity to make a sale, and said, "we're actually having a clearance sale this week, the owners are selling the place, so everything is half-off, that means I can sell it to you, for a hundred ryo apiece."
Naruto smiled, with all the D-ranks he has had lately, and not having to pay rent or anything, he was flush with cash, "In that case, five sets," he said while looking at his teammate, "one for each of my teammates, and my Auntie."
Sakura had been interested in the armor as well, but now that she was living on her own, she had to watch every dime, she did have rent to pay after all, and such extravagant things, like exotic weapons and armor, were an expense she could not justify. Then she heard what Naruto-kun said, "what, Naruto-kun, I don't need your charity," she snapped!
"I'm not giving it to you out of charity," Naruto answered, "you're my family, friends and teammates, and my affections for all three of you ladies is growing. You've all more or less confessed you're feelings for me, but I can't choose either of you because that wouldn't be fair to Kurenai-sensei. I'm not going to date any of you, until Kurenai-san, is no longer our sensei, due to the zero tolerance fraternization law, between sensei and student, she can't be as open with her affections for me as the rest of you. So, this is my way of evening the playing field, and answering all your feelings for me without, endangering her career, and because I'm getting myself a set, as well as, Yugao-oba-chan, shows that I regard your lives to be at least equal to my own, and hers."
Sakura's eyes had gone wide at the level of Naruto's thought process, he is so thoughtful, he's pretty much just told me that he feels the same for us as we do for him, but he's doing it in a way to protect us, and conceivably give all of us a fair chance to win his heart.
Flashback End-Now
Naruto presented all of us, the dragon-mail on the same day, and told us the same thing he told Sakura, when we asked him why he was doing it. I didn't think I could love him anymore than I already did, but the thoughtfulness of the armor, his consideration for our feelings and making sure we all had a fair chance to court him, not to mention protect my career, proved how wrong I was. When I look down at my armor, I can't help but feel as if he is holding me in his arms, it makes me feel safe wearing his armor. I then look down to my thigh to the twin hanbo, that is a symbol from my kunoichi students, to my shinobi student, and to me, that we are under a truce in regard to pursuing a romantic relationship. Until I am able to make a fair campaign to win Naruto's heart, when we are no longer bound by a teacher-student relationship.
The Hokage's Office
There was a knock on the door, "Come," the door opened, and Blood Squad filed in to the Hokage's office! There was a Tsunade sitting behind her desk, which was empty of the dreaded paperwork, except of course for mission reports, and incomplete missions. There was, off to the side, another Hokage desk with another Tsunade, which was cluttered with all of the paperwork, the real Slug Princess, did not want to do. Tsunade raised her head and smiled, "Ah, Team Blood, are you here for another D-rank," she said waving her hand in front of a stack of scrolls, "as you can see, we're overflowing with them."
Kurenai was wearing her dragon-mail armour, under her blouse, with only the right sleeve visible, a very broad material, which resembles bandages with a pattern on it, similar to those of rose thorns. Her arms and legs were also completely covered by Naruto's dragon-mail armor, and she wears the Konoha forehead protector, and regular shinobi sandals. She wore make-up consisting of red lipstick and purple eye shadow. Naruto and Hinata had their balaclavas down, and Sakura had unwrapped her shemagh, their own dragon armor covering all exposed skin, from the neck down.
One amenity to the armor is with just a little chakra, the wearer could add a few cosmetic changes, such as altering the color and adding a specific design, or an emblem to it. For instance, Kurenai made the armor over her chest and down her left-leg, the same shade of red as her right-sleeve, while extending the design and color of the rest of her clothing, to her left-arm and right-leg. Sakura's armor was a solid, red hue, which was slightly lighter in color, than her sensei, Hinata had chosen a plum-colored hue, and Naruto had decided on an alternating, scale pattern, that continued the blue camouflage pattern on his shirt. Only one of them, had decided to use any kind of spiking, Hinata kept the backs of her hands and fingers, down to the first knuckle covered in small spikes, which she mostly uses to conduct her raiton-chakra. Though Naruto had placed special storage seals on the palms of their armor, that allowed them to call forth their ninja tools, in either hand, ready to use at a moment's notice, thus none of them wore ninja tool pouches.
They were all dressed in the Genin uniforms, they had chosen before becoming a team, though to reflect a united front, all of them including Kurenai, were wearing crimson forehead protectors, in the same spots they chose to at the Academy. In another act of unity, but for a different, more personal reason, strapped to their left, outer thighs, all of Blood Squad, including their sensei, had outfitted a pair of hanbo. They were the kunoichis' answer gifts to Naruto's armor, they all chipped in and bought them from the same weapons store as the armor. Using chakra, the wielder could transform the hanbo, into various bludgeons, from nunchaku, to bo-staffs of various lengths, even a pair of kama with the blades growing from the haft. On Sakura and Naruto's right hips, in a leather-belt and holster was a strange 'L' shaped contraption, called a Blaster. They were made of chakra-metal according to Naruto, who had the device commissioned from a weaponsmith, and aided them, in aiming their respective bloodlines with pinpoint accuracy. Sakura wore a shoulder harness and on the upper-section of her chest, outboard of her breasts, one pointing down, and one pointing up were her sai.
Kurenai looked at her students, and noted their bearing, waiting for her to speak for them, they are disciplined, they might just be ready, she thought, "Hokage-sama, it is my humble belief the Blood Squad, is ready to accept their first C-ranked mission," Kurenai declared. She was doing her best to conceal her pride in her kids, as she has come to see them, for truly, she feels like a proud mother about to let go of her babies.
Tsunade finished her private assessment, and agreed with a nod, "If you believe it, then so do I," she buzzed her intercom, "Natsume, please send in Tazuna-san."