Suddenly learning that his one good skill was even more super awesome than he thought, Naruto was beaming as he bowed to the woman who actually took some time to teach him something. "Thanks Tanaka-san, uh, when do I need to have these scrolls back?"
Waving the boy away, she was already turning back to her work with a smile on her face, "Those are D rank scrolls, keep them as long as you need, but usually we'd like them back within a month. But if you do lose or damage them it isn't such a big deal." At least the boy was polite she noted as he waved and ran out the door.
Naruto was only focused on one thing at the moment though and that was that he had the chance to do something finally. He would be training properly now! Oh he was going to be busy this week for sure!
-b-
Kakashi was a lot of things he knew, a pervert, lazy, constantly lost. But he generally always had an idea of what he was getting himself into. That said today, as he strolled into practice at his usual 3 hours late, he was met with an odd sight. Sasuke was fuming which normally wouldn't be that odd but it wasn't directed at him which was. Sakura was fawning over Sasuke which wasn't new so that he could ignore. But multiple copies of Naruto running up and down trees while hopefully the real one was doing push ups with a rock on his back was not something he expected to see. Seeing though that everyone was here, Kakashi clapped his hands with an eye smile, "Alright everyone, let's get to our mission for the day."
"Kakashi sensei, you're late!" Sakura was as always, predictable.
Clones popping and shrugging off the rock, a sweating Naruto jogged up to the group, "About time sensei, what're we doing today?"
Motioning for the kids to follow him, Kakashi pulled out his favorite book, "The usual, another d-rank mission, followed by team drills. Then you're off on your own." The three genin following along behind him, Sasuke in the middle with Sakura and Naruto on either side of him, they made their way to the tower. Sasuke had his hands deep in his pockets while Sakura continued to pester him over some gossip overheard by Ino and the village busy bodies. Naruto had his arms crossed behind his head while he walked, for once not inclined to bother the pinkette. He had trained all night at their training ground before passing out, then waking up and starting up again before anyone else had shown up. At first he had started with clone theory, sure that somewhere in the scroll he might find the secret as to why he couldn't do a basic clone. But after reading through it all the answer wasn't any better than he already had a feeling for. It all came down to control, control that he didn't have. Sure he could pump chakra for days but even he knew that he used way to much. So instead that had moved him to chakra control exercises. He ignored the simple ones that explained holding leaves to parts of his bodies and instead moved on to harder ones. That was what he worked on all night and this morning, the tree climbing. Using chakra to stick to solid surfaces sounded super useful, both for ninja stuff and for pranks. So he trained and trained, dispelling clones after so long to learn what they knew and creating new ones to continue the process. The first thing he learned was that dispelling to many clones all at once was a quick way to guarantee a big headache for himself. So for now he limited himself to groups of 20 or less. Maybe as he got better he'd be able to do more at once? The ideas were already churning in his head.
Already at the mission collection desk and retrieving their mission for the day, Kakashi was doing his best to ignore the distracted and muttering Uzumaki. While he was happy at least one of his students was taking initiative, being truly distracted wasn't a good thing. He'd have to clue the kid in on how to keep at least partial attention to his surroundings. "Thank you Hokage-sama, is there anything else?"
"Yes actually. Naruto-kun, could you stay for a moment?" The elderly ninja was decked out in his white and red hokage robes today, hat firmly planted on his head. To either side of him chunin assistants were helping sort and distribute missions along with him.
Feeling Kakashi nudge him and break his train of thought, Naruto came out of his daze to see that they were already at the tower, "Uh what, what's that?"
Chuckling and shaking his head, "Stay behind Naruto, I need a word with you."
Watching the boy nod, Kakashi steered Sasuke and Sakura away. "We'll be just outside Naruto. We're after Tora again today." Without another word the masked ninja moved to guide his students out the door.
Turning his now full attention to the elder Hokage, Naruto put his hands in his pockets and grinned, "What's up old man. Ready to recognize my greatness?"
Sighing at Naruto's antics, Sarutobi shook his head, "No Naruto, though I did get some news yesterday. You showed off your clone technique at the library yes?" While not exactly against the rules the employees there were very nervous with any jutsu used within their halls.