(Two Months Later…)
"Tajuu Kage Bushin No Jutsu!" Naruto watched as a massive cloud of smoke erupted in the clearing. When it cleared Naruto nodded as he saw three hundred clones standing around and awaiting orders.
"Alright, I want one hundred of you to begin working on our wind affinity! Since we haven't been able to find a waterfall with a good ledge to stand on, I want you to start cutting a rock using wind chakra. When you manage to split a rock down the middle, try cutting a rock into four pieces and increase the number of cuts you can make from there."
It had been one of the new wind exercises he had come up with for himself. Naruto had read that the next step after cutting a leaf was to cut a waterfall. Since there were no waterfalls that he had found that could be properly utilized for his wind training, he had decided to refine his cutting ability through other means. The first thing he had done was make shapes in the leaves that he would cut. Simple ones had first, squares, circles and the like, and then more complex shapes like animals and people.
This was the next training method Naruto had invented that he felt would be another good step in his wind elemental training. He had actually gotten the general idea from a book he had read, it was a much older book that he had found when looking for theories on connecting to one's chakra through meditation exercises. The book he had found, which was a book from Suna on some of the older methods of wind manipulation theories had claimed that a master of the wind element should be able to cut straight through a boulder using wind chakra. Not only that, but the cut would be so smooth that the entire surface on either side would be completely flat.
He had at first tried to cut a boulder, but soon realized that with the level his wind manipulation such a complex and difficult task was next to impossible. So he went onto the next best thing, cutting a rock, which he felt that while not as good, would still be a major boon in his elemental training. After all, if he could cut a rock into several pieces than it should be much easier to cut flesh and bones.
"Boss!" The clones all saluted and took off.
Naruto turned to his other two groups, "I want one group of you to split up into groups of twenty-five! One of you will continue on the more advanced form of Muay Thai, another work on Goken, the third group will work on our boujutsu, and the last will try to combine the taijutsu styles we know into a useable form."
"YOSH!" The clones all gave him the nice guy pose before they went off and began working with a Gai and Lee like fanaticism.
Turning to the last group Naruto began to give his last set of orders, "You guys have the most important task of all. I want you to continue working on our chakra control!"
His chakra control had gotten better but was still, and probably always would be an issue that he would need to constantly work on. "We've gotten up to five leaves on one hand, so start adding leaves to the other. I want at least two added by the end of this session. And rather than stand on the water's surface, I want you to walk."
"Got it Boss!"" the clone said as they raced off.
Naruto looked down at his arm, where his training seal was located. Right now it was on level three, a feat the whiskered blond had managed to accomplish around three weeks ago. Due to the massive increase in resistance that each level came with it had taken a lot more time for him to be capable of using the third level of resistance than the first two. However like with all things, time, sweat and hard work had finally enabled him to use this level with no required chakra.
And since he no longer needed chakra that meant it was time to increase the level. Gritting his teeth Naruto began channeling chakra into the seal, feeling the resistance on his body increase. He watched as the kanji on his arm shifted from the number three to the number four.
With the seal increase finished Naruto began to trudge through his workout routine, relying heavily on chakra to keep him moving as he fought against the resistance placed on his body.
After his daily workout Naruto began to make his way towards team seven's standard meeting spot.
Walking onto the bridge where his team usually met Naruto saw that his two teammates were both already there doing what they usually did. Sakura was staring at Sasuke, no doubt wondering how to get a date with the raven haired Uchiha. And Sasuke was leaning against the rail of the bridge, staring off into space, or as Naruto called it practicing his brooding poses and trying to come up with ways to kill his older brother.
"Morning Sakura, Sasuke-teme," he greeted the pair, even if they did not really get along all that well, he still felt it was appropriate to be nice to them… at least on the occasions he did not feel like messing with them.
Sasuke looked at Naruto before giving his usual reply of, "Hn," and then turning away to look off the side of the bridge.
"Naruto-baka, don't call Sasuke-kun that!" Sakura shouted at the blond. Thankfully she no longer tried to punch him, having realized that he was no longer going to put up with it. Something she had actually started to get bitter about, which really only increased her anger at the blond.
Naruto sighed as he moved to the opposite side his teammates were on. He had thought that they would have bonded at least a little bit after their A-ranked mission. However as soon as they got back to Konoha it was the same as always. Sasuke having gotten his Sharingan sometime during the battle of the bridge had started ignoring him and everyone else and was quite possibly, even more arrogant than before. It also didn't help that the few times he had not ignored the blond was merely to either glare at him or try and goad him into a fight.
Sakura of course had not changed at all since she had not really played any significant role on the battle in Nami, or the mission in general and had more or less taken a back seat to the whole thing and was not even conscious during the blonds Kyuubified rampage. Naturally because of this she had not been as affected as the others were, whether it be mentally, emotionally or physically. So she still basically ignored Naruto unless he said something bad about her 'Sasuke-kun'. The only difference now was that she no longer tried to hit him.