"Shisui taught me the Body Flicker Jutsu, but I'm still not very skilled at it. I also need to get more familiar with the Sharingan," Sasuke said, touching his eyes.
A smile crept across his face as he thought, 'When I tell Itachi about this, he'll be proud of me.'
Sakura remained silent, unsure of what she should be practising. All she knew was that she'd get to train alongside Sasuke, and that was enough for her.
Naruto, however, wasn't surprised by her reaction. At 12 years old, Sakura lacked a sense of urgency.
Unlike those from prominent clans, her family didn't push her to become stronger.
Sakura's biggest dream was to someday change her last name to Uchiha rather than focusing on becoming a stronger ninja.
Naruto knew that even if he left her alone, Sakura would eventually realize what she needed to do, especially when the Chunin Exams came around, and she started feeling like a burden to the team.
But he wasn't about to let that happen. After all, she was his teammate and could be strong enough to protect herself, not a burden.
"If you don't have a specific goal, let's start with chakra control. Have you practised tree climbing and water walking?" Naruto asked.
Sakura, ever the diligent student, questioned, "What does climbing trees have to do with chakra control? And what's water walking?"
"Alright then, I'll teach you how to climb trees. Once you've got that down, Sasuke can teach you how to walk on water," Naruto replied.
"Yeah!" Sakura was energized and determined to impress Sasuke.
Sasuke had no objections. He and Naruto had learned tree climbing and water walking before they graduated, so teaching it to their teammate wasn't a problem.
"The tree climbing I'm talking about isn't the usual kind. You have to gather chakra on the soles of your feet to stick to the tree," Naruto explained.
As he spoke, he casually walked up the tree trunk and hung upside down from a branch as a demonstration, shocking Sakura.
Sakura quickly began trying it herself. Within thirty seconds, she was walking up a ten-meter-high tree as if it were flat ground. She smiled, "This is easier than I thought!"
Sasuke was taken aback. The teammate he had always considered a burden had such strong chakra control.
It had taken him days to learn what she mastered in moments, maybe because she didn't have large chakra reserves.
"Impressive!" Naruto gave her a thumbs up. "As expected of you, Sakura-chan."
"I'll leave the water walking to you, Sasuke!" Naruto waved as he walked away.
"Oh," Sasuke replied nonchalantly. He wasn't one to go back on his word.
Sakura felt touched. Naruto was truly a great teammate for helping her become strong.
Naruto paid no attention to the interaction between the two and moved to the side to practice the Rasengan. Naturally, he used shadow clones for training.
He decided to summon two clones, as doing more at once might be overwhelming.
Naruto pulled out a scroll and unrolled it, revealing a "ball" surrounded by intricate seals. He formed a hand sign and slapped the scroll.
A dozen water-filled balloons appeared, prepared in advance for training.
Naruto picked up a water balloon and gave it a light squeeze, then signalled to his clones. "Got it?"
"Got it!" the clones replied in unison.
The clones were excited. Practising the Rasengan was way more fun than sparring with Kakashi.
Each clone grabbed a water balloon and began focusing on making the water inside rotate.
The initial rotation was smooth; the water began to drive the balloon's shape, flattening it.
But how do you get the chakra to revolve in numerous directions at the same time? That was the true challenge.
The original manga suggested using the other hand to help, but Naruto wasn't interested in shortcuts.
He wanted to master the Rasengan single-handedly, especially since he planned to use it as a quick-strike technique.
Later on, he would learn how to combine it with shadow clones for bigger moves.
Naruto envisioned himself outmanoeuvring an enemy, pretending to be a frail, long-range fighter, only to surprise them with a Rasengan to the face.
But mastering the technique was tough. After an hour of training, Naruto released the two clones.
As their memories flowed back to him, Naruto felt a slight headache—along with an influx of jumbled thoughts. "Couldn't my clones be more reliable?" he muttered, rubbing his temples.
They had been thinking about random stuff: one wanted to flush the toilet, another was daydreaming about playing with a kitten's ball of yarn, and a third was stuck on the planets. 'How does that relate to the Rasengan?'
Though to be fair, the planetary model wasn't entirely unrelated. Naruto imagined the solar system as he worked with the water balloon.
When he pictured Halley's Comet and other planetary orbits, the balloon started to bulge in multiple places. "That's the feeling!" he thought.
Naruto released two more clones to continue training. Following the idea he just had, he imagined adding more comets...
After about half an hour, one of the clones suddenly jumped up, shouting, "I did it!"
The other clone scowled, then grabbed a kunai and stabbed him. "You know too much!" he declared coldly.
Naruto's eyelids twitched. He said nothing.
As the clone's memories and experiences returned to him, Naruto found that he and the remaining clone managed to burst their water balloons one after another.
But just as he was about to celebrate, his clones gleefully slammed into a tree, yelling, "Motherf*cker! I will kill you!"
When Sasuke finished teaching Sakura water walking and returned, he witnessed Naruto's clone getting destroyed.
Sakura looked at Naruto, who was still rubbing his temples, and quietly asked Sasuke, "What's wrong with him?"
"He's… happy?" Sasuke replied uncertainly.
Sakura blinked, confused. *Happy?*
Sasuke found it odd as well. Knowing Naruto, his clone had indeed shown signs of joy. But why kill it while it was happy?
'This guy's mind is getting weirder by the day,' Sasuke thought, shaking his head. He watched as Naruto picked up another balloon and continued training.
Seeing that Naruto didn't seem suicidal, Sasuke went off to practice the Body Flicker Technique in an open area.
Sakura stayed behind, observing Naruto for a while. Finding nothing particularly strange, she happily reviewed her training progress before heading off to join Sasuke—probably to stick close to him.
Naruto focused on the balloon in his hand, trying out his earlier method. It was a tough challenge.
If the first stage of water balloon training was to practice rotation and maintenance, then the second stage with a rubber ball was about chakra control.
By the afternoon, his hand's chakra pathways were sore, with only a bit of energy left.
The three friends said goodbye to each other and went home.
****
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