Team training that day was pretty intense, as Kakashi decided to skip a mission and really started pushing all three of his genin to improve and even offered to take everyone to lunch afterwards to talk about their individual training regimens he wanted them to work on. This was done primarily because his shadow clones were already helping Naruto who he realized would be quickly outpacing his teammates, and needed to make sure they didn't feel left behind. Sakura just needed to be pushed and challenged until she started getting better, so as to contribute and help her team and Sasuke needed to know he was being given 'special' training to keep his ego in check after witnessing Naruto's quick ascendency.
Already, he feared what would happen if Sasuke really learned the true scope of Naruto's rapid growth, which would probably only be continuing with everything the young blond was working on and with how many clones he could dedicate to learning new skills. So, in an effort to appease the broody teen who thought himself superior to almost everyone in Konoha already, he decided to blatantly flaunt the teaching he was providing the Uchiha while telling Naruto in public to just continue working on his chakra control and taijutsu. Sakura, wasn't even upset as she saw the added attention to Sasuke as a positive for her crush, and was only able to continue her own training with Kakashi reinforcing Sasuke's need to have a strong woman at his side, even if he knew it to be false.
If it helped the two of them get better quickly, the growing gap between them and Naruto would not seem as big since Naruto was continuing to downplay his own growth like a true ninja in order to keep the group dynamic unchanged until after they could become chunin. Luckily, Sasuke hadn't really challenged Naruto to the point where the blond felt he had to truly show off most of his skills, and was content to keep upping his training weights to keep him at Sasuke's speed. He rarely showed anything truly amazing during their team training, but was definitely showing constant improvement which was already pushing Sasuke every day to get better and stay ahead of the blond in Sasuke's mind. He could see, however, that it was frustrating to Naruto, to constantly downplay his skills so as not to upset Sasuke and the delicate balance their team had, and wondered when it would blow up.
After their first team lunch, at the Barbeque Restaurant frequented by Team Asuma, Kakashi gave them all the rest of the day off from missions to reflect on the individual training regimens he gave to each of them, or to get started. He also knew that Naruto had several projects and things to work on to prepare for his upcoming meeting with the Hokage, and wanted him to have ample time to accomplish everything as he seemed a little distracted as they ate. He also reminded them that he was hoping to increase the intensity of their team training exercises, as he felt that they were ready to be pushed even harder as they had been performing well so far.
It was as they were leaving the restaurant however, that they encountered Team 10 arriving for a late lunch of their own and had to deal with their fellow rookies. Luckily, Naruto got along well with Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi and both boys were either too lazy or too nice to cause him any problems, though they did both look at him very differently when they realized he wasn't wearing much orange (only the crossed bandoliers) and was much quieter than they remembered him ever being. Not that it would have mattered much, as their final teammate, Ino Yamanaka practically shouted to the whole restaurant her love for Sasuke as she tried to hug and flirt shamelessly with the completely stoic and uninterested Uchiha that stole most of the groups' attention.
"Sasuke," she purred suggestively, which was pretty unusual for a twelve year old after being thrown off the brooding black haired shinobi, "why don't we go out together without the rest of these losers?"
"You're the loser when it comes to my Sasuke-kun," shouted back Sakura, who had been getting progressively more upset as Ino tried to make a move on 'her' man, and tried to get next to the Uchiha and put her arm around him to 'stake her claim' before she too was shrugged off. "He hardly even remembers you ...so go away and leave us alone ...we were having a team bonding moment."
"No, we weren't," came Sasuke's flat voice as he inched away from both girls, "I was leaving."
"Don't leave Sasuke-kun," came Sakura's banshee shout, "I thought we could practice together."
"Give it a rest Sakura," came the exasperated voice of Naruto finally losing what little patience he still had, as he watched his brooding teammate leave and his banshee follower trying unsuccessfully to get his attention for the thousandth time outside of actual team training. "He's made it pretty clear that he isn't interested in doing anything with anyone outside of mandatory team training and missions."
"Naruto?" came the shocked and questioning voice of Ino, as she discovered just who it was that told Sakura off, and couldn't believe both how different he looked and carried himself, but also how he wasn't either coming to Sakura's defense or failing over trying to get her to notice him instead, and had a hard time trying to reconcile the image she had of the loud mouthed blond with the person now in front of her. "What happened to you?"
"I grew up," came the flat reply, not wanting to get into everything that had changed in his life recently with the biggest gossip in the village, and in no mood to waste what little time he did have, "you should both try it ...and let Sasuke be."
"What?" Ino asked, shocked as if struck, while Sakura was a little more heated in her reply.
"Screw you Naruto, Sasuke and I are in love," came her banshee screech.
"Yeah ...in your dreams maybe," came the biting reply from the blond, before turning away from Sakura and seeing his sensei watching the interaction from the corner of his lone eye as he spoke with Asuma Sarutobi, Team 10's sensei and knew he needed to get away from them all before really losing his cool. "Kakashi-sensei ...can I go?"
"Yeah, see you tomorrow at the usual spot," answered the silver haired jounin, knowing he was going to have his work cut out for him if he wanted these three to become a true team, and not knowing if it would ever happen.
Before the stunned members of Team 10 could say anything in response to what they witnessed, they saw Naruto shunshin away casually, causing each of them to sputter in shock as that was not the same Naruto they had known for the last several years. Shikamaru had always been curious of the loud blond, but too lazy to actually do anything about it other than observe him, and was pretty surprised at the changes he saw. Choji had always thought Naruto funny and somewhat lonely, and had no problems with the kid, though he had few problems with anybody as long as they didn't call him fat.
"What happened to Naruto?" asked a still shocked Ino, who had always just assumed he was a love sick idiot that would chase Sakura forever, and never really gave him the time of day, not even expecting him to become a ninja or much of anything.
"He's got a lot on his plate right now," answered Kakashi quickly, before Sakura was able to launch into another loud rant of her own, as she appeared pretty pissed off at the blond and hoped it didn't set them back in their very slowly growing camaraderie. "Speaking of which, Asuma can you set some time aside in the next few days to work with Naruto ...you are the only sane Wind user in the village ...I'd owe you one if you could spare him an hour ...I'm sure that's all the time he'll need."
"Sure," answered Asuma slowly as he watched the perpetually lazy Kakashi, and knew something had happened to light a bit of a fire under the usually unflappable jounin and wondered if it had to do with his seemingly fractured team or the one member who was already performing the shunshin and learning his elemental affinity and wanted to check said blond out himself. "Have him come by Training Ground 10 any day after lunch ...we usually do our team building exercises then."
"Playing Shogi with this lazy ass every afternoon (as she motioned to Shikamaru) is hardly a team building exercise," scolded Ino, after getting her equilibrium back from the abrupt departure of Sasuke and Naruto, and easily reverted to her usual behavior of hassling the other members of Team 10.
"Well," responded Asuma back quickly, "none of you want to train physically ...so there isn't much more we can do."
"Um ...I wouldn't mind some more physical training," came a stuttering reply from Choji, "I mean, if Naruto can already perform the shunshin ...we are falling behind."
"Troublesome," came Shikamaru's expected response.
"Wonderful Choji," came the happy response of Asuma, who had been waiting for his team to be motivated enough to train, and realized that maybe comparing them to the other rookies might provide that incentive. "What do you say Kakashi, I'll consider us even if you agree to a little Team battle ...help my kids see where they are in relation to yours?"
"Are you sure?" asked Kakashi, "you may change your mind after working with Naruto."
"Oh please ...Naruto's the weakest member of your team," came Ino's dismissive response, "and Sakura is a pushover."
"What did you say Ino-pig?" growled Sakura who had seemingly been forgotten about, but was in fact still there watching the exchange between her sensei and Ino's.
"You heard me, forehead," growled back Ino, as the two locked heated gazes while Shikamaru just shook his head mumbling about troublesome blonds and even more troublesome girls.
"Eh ...it'll be good for them," replied Asuma to Kakashi, ignoring the ridiculous catfight going on between the two prepubescent girls, and figuring his team needed something to motivate them to train and this might be just the thing.
"Then let's do it tomorrow afternoon, I'll bring my team to your Training Ground 10 after lunch," answered Kakashi, causing all the surrounding genin to instantly stop to stare at their respective sensei in mixtures of shock and apprehension that a spar between team 7 and 10 was actually going to go down.
"Ha," laughed Ino haughtily, "prepare to get beat down in front of my Sasuke-kun, forehead!"
"Not a chance Ino-pig," screeched back Sakura.
After that, the two girls continued bickering back and forth as the remaining members of Team 10 entered the restaurant for their meal, and Kakashi used a shunshin to get away quickly. It took the two girls a moment to realize they had been left, and both growled at their sensei and teammates in Ino's case for leaving them out here. With a final glare at one another, and a few more names called, the two former friends went their separate ways, both thinking of showing off to Sasuke at tomorrow's match and hoping to catch his attention by beating their rival.
Naruto was currently unaware that his day tomorrow just got busier, as he left his team behind to head right back to the Facility and check on the progress of everything he had going on. His ninjutsu clones were now all working on the two new Wind techniques Kakashi's clones had taught him; Wind Release: Gale Palm and Wind Release: Great Breakthrough. Deciding to help the training along, Naruto created his own large group of shadow clones, numbering almost 2000 now, that he quickly divided up in three groups to continue with these two new jutsu while the last group went to join the kenjutsu training group after one of the Kakashi clones set them up with a small beginning practice kata for the sword.
Meanwhile, he and BC1 were working on improving the pin-clones, increasing their overall durability and just generally trying as many things they could think of to help make them better suited for the role the Hokage wanted. After some time, they wondered about the possibility of creating the pin-clones as blood clones, or at least using the same format as they did to create the blood clones but starting off as pins so as not to require too much of Naruto's blood, fuinjutsu script, and chakra. Since they couldn't use that method without the original, as he is the only one that bleeds, they continued trying other methods too.
They eventually stumbled on the idea of fuinjutsu reinforced armor for the pin-clones, but were unsure how to go about that or add another layer of protection to the pin-clone. The other problem they were considering was that the pin-clones were completely on their own, and if they dispelled accidentally or got hit in the line of duty, then the person they were hitching a ride with was left without the communication system. That's when one of the clones offered the idea of using two clones for the pin, one to act as the pin fastening, and the other to be the shield protecting pin.
With that plan in place, the clones in Research & Development started creating different mockup ideas that would better protect the fasteners with the pin shield allowing for the second fastener clone to be alerted of the shield pin-clone being dispelled, and tried various designs and shield ideas. They ended up with a small circle pin with the Uzushio's spiral symbol as the visible part, with a backup clone acting as the under clothes fastener to keep them on. A small pulse of chakra into the pin, and a small number of commands that could be "programmed" in for the ninja to relay emergency information directly to the Hokage's new secretary, and they completed the project by the time the original Naruto was getting into bed for the night, and continued mass producing them throughout the night.
The next morning when he woke up, Naruto went to his underground training Facility to work out as the Green Beasts were still out of the village, and got the update that pin production was going well and they would have at least 500 of them completed and ready for their next meeting with the Hokage later this afternoon. After an amended underground workout in the Facility, and turning up his resistance weight seals another notch, he spammed 2000 clones to continue his beginning sword and the Hariken taijutsu training, and then left for the usual mid-morning Team meeting in Training Ground 7. Where he again had to deal with his annoying teammates, and hoped it was eventually going to get better between them all. The mono-syllablic grunt from Sasuke and the banshee scream of complaint from Sakura were both pretty consistent, and he too felt like they had regressed over the last few days back to how they saw him in the Academy and wasn't too pleased.
Luckily he didn't have to wait too long for Kakashi to arrive close to 11 am, and with him came the knowledge of the little Team Battle with Team 10 he set up for the afternoon. Because of this upcoming battle, he wanted to run them through a few team drills for analyzing team formations and playing to their strengths against a variety of different styles in preparation. Although he never explicitly said anything, his genin definitely got the idea that he wanted to win, and win convincingly.
Naruto gave it his all in team training, realizing that any time Kakashi actually taught them something it was really important to pay his full attention, and let the hundreds of other things going on in his head be deferred to his clones as he listened to his sensei. By the time they broke for lunch, all three genin of Team 7 had a pretty good idea on the basic formations that Kakashi favored and how they would deal with other teams of differing strengths and styles. When they walked into Training Ground 10 to see Team 10 in various stages of preparedness, they all got excited about the upcoming team battle, though none of them more than Sakura who had a real smug look as she met Ino's eyes, thinking of her Sasuke-kun single handedly beating the other team to prove their superiority over her biggest rival.
Sasuke was just excited for another chance to prove his growth and superiority over his peers, and simply hoped his teammates weren't too much of a hindrance on him as he continued to display his dominance over others. Naruto was the only one not too happy about the upcoming battle, as he knew Team 7's teamwork was not yet equal to this generation's famous Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Also, he genuinely liked Shikamaru and Choji and didn't really think either of them were too much of a threat to his current level and wouldn't push him too much, but tried to remember not to underestimate anybody lest he become complacent as a single mistake could be the difference between winning and losing and he didn't want to develop any bad habits that might carry over into the real world.
Asuma welcomed Kakashi and Team 7, and laid down the basic rules of the Team battle, which basically just amounted to not kill or seriously injure one another and to stay inside the barrier of the training ground. When everyone nodded or acknowledged the rules, he and Kakashi yelled to begin, and used the shunshin to move to the side and observe. Naruto instantly put some distance between him and Shikamaru, knowing the Nara genius to be lazy but incredibly smart and used his clan's shadow techniques he wanted to make sure he stayed away from. In getting some space, he also threw out a few shurikens and performed the multi-shadow clone version to multiply their numbers and caused the three members of Team 10 to instantly scatter.
Unfortunately for Team 10, Ino scattered in the opposite direction of her two teammates and was completely isolated for Sasuke's reckless but effective charge towards the opposing team from the moment they began, and was hit with a quick taijutsu combo that had her knocked out in seconds after beginning. Choji's shout came too late to alert their female member, and before the battle really even began, they were down a member. Sasuke wasted no time sending his customary fireball at Shikamaru and Choji, and Naruto helped it along with a Futon Great Breakthrough that engulfed and enlarged the fire attack three fold and had the two genin of Team 10 wide eyed and instantly on the defensive.
They had to scatter again, luckily avoiding Sasuke's shuriken that were included with the flames, but were quickly set upon by Sasuke again using his much better speed to get close while Naruto was busy making several dozens shadow clones to start engaging the genin pair. Choji just managed to increase his size and arms a bit to meet a rushing Sasuke, but wasn't near fast enough to keep up with his relentless taijutsu barrage and couldn't even get help from his best friend, as Shikamaru was too busy fighting off a never ending stream of Naruto clones that were unlike any clone he had faced previously. That they had shadows was surprising, as they weren't illusionary clones and would normally have helped the shadow user, but their speed, numbers, and evasive tactics were top notch and quickly had him on the defensive.
That his clan's famous shadow possession could stop an individual clone was easily doable, but he couldn't stop the dozens that were engaging him or the original and was quickly overwhelmed and tied up at around the same time Sasuke finally brought down the much larger Choji. The whole battle lasted maybe thirty seconds from start to finish, and Asuma could only watch wide eyed as his genin were dismantled easily and couldn't believe that Kakashi's team was already that good, or at least the two male members. Sakura didn't really do anything, by the time she got ready to engage in the fight, Ino had already been taken down, and both boys were battling their counterparts and dealing with them easily enough that she didn't even have to participate.
"Well, that was disappointing," came Asuma's dry response, which only got an eye-smile from his fellow jounin, as Team 7 woke up Choji and Ino, and released Shikamaru from his binds to join their jounin senseis.
"Take that Ino-pig," shouted Sakura to her just revived rival, as she gloated further, "my Sasuke-kun was no match for you."
"He'll never be your Sasuke-kun, forehead," shouted Ino right back, while in a decidedly grumpier mood from a minute ago after the quick and humiliating defeat at the hands of Sasuke and Naruto.
"Hehe," laughed Naruto while rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he greeted Shikamaru and Choji, ignoring the two bickering females as best he could. "Sorry, for not giving you any time ...I didn't want to have to get into a strategy battle with you Shika."
"I admit," started Shikamaru somewhat embarrassedly, "I wasn't really prepared for you guys to hit us so hard and fast."
"Yeah," agreed Choji, who had pulled out a bag of chips from somewhere on his person and started eating as he looked at Naruto with a small semi-embarrassed smile as well. "You've got a lot better since the Academy."
"Thanks," replied Naruto, grateful to be acknowledged by any of his peers, "just finally getting good training, I guess."
"What were those clones?" asked Shikamaru curiously, having remembered that Naruto failed the original Academy exam because he couldn't produce the illusionary clones, and now had real versions that were even better than anything he had seen.
"Shadow Clones," answered Naruto somewhat sheepishly, not wanting to get into how exactly he learned a village kinjutsu or why he was able to produce so many of them but still wanted to acknowledge their greatness, "they are really awesome, dattebayo."
"Shadow Clones?" asked Shikamaru, trying to go through his memories remembering where he heard that term before, and wondered why they weren't more well known in general, or known to him as a shadow user of the Nara Clan.
"It's a kinjutsu, "replied Asuma, who had been listening into the younger boys' conversation and knew from the look on Shikamaru's face that he would keep digging for more information and better to head it off from the start. "The amount of chakra they take to make just one would kill every one of you except Naruto ...even I can only make two before chakra exhaustion starts to set in."
"But he made like two dozen of them," came the stuttered response from Shikamaru as he looked at naruto in a new light contemplating everything he had learned and gathered from his years observing and watching his fellow classmate, "how do you have that much chakra?"
"Uzumaki," answered Naruto while pointing to the spiral symbol he had patched to the shoulder of his outfit, before either of their sensei's could come up with an acceptable answer that didn't spill the s-class secret of his status as a jinkurichi.
"Your part of a Clan?" came the curious question from Choji, as his best friend was trying to think and work the answer out in his head.
"Yeah, the Uzumaki's were a Clan from Uzushiogakure that doesn't exist anymore," answered Naruto proudly and with a bit of sadness at the reminder that he was all that remained of them despite the legacy they left him which he hoped to revive.
"Uzushiogakure?" asked Shikamaru, to which Asuma thankfully interrupted with the promise to tell them more about the former Whirlpool Village at a later time as he and Kakashi were wondering if the genin wanted one on one matches, as the Team Battle didn't really work out too well.
Ino and Sakura both instantly agreed, all the while still in each other's faces yelling their love for Sasuke and doing a lot of name calling. We all agreed then to let them go first, and their fight quickly devolved into a pathetic catfight using very little of any moves or strategy, involving more hair pulling and scratching than anything ninja related. It ended after about two minutes of ridiculousness when both girls seemed to wear themselves out and practically collapsed together, knocking each other out in the process.
"That was disturbing," came Kakashi's obvious statement, as both he and Asuma shook their heads in exasperation and disgust at the display.
"Can we just leave them there, knocked out?" asked Naruto, glad for the quiet at least.
"No," replied Asuma resignedly, "they need to see the other fights to hopefully get a serious wake-up call."
"Fine," breathed out Naruto, who then got a small smile and made a quick sign before spawning two clones, one of which quickly transformed into a bucket that the other brought to the nearby stream to fill with water and made his way to the two girls in order to wake them up in a more appropriate manner.
Their spluttering and angry yells were painful on everyone's ears, but the amusement they all got from watching the scene easily balanced it out for all of them, and the jounin senseis pointed looks at both girls instantly cowed them to be quiet and observe the rest of the matches. Naruto asked to fight Choji, as he and Shikamaru had already tangled a bit in the Team Battle and he wanted to work on his newly emerging Hariken taijutsu style, and went next. He gave Choji a nod and told him he was planning to stick to taijutsu, as he was working on a new style and didn't just want to overwhelm the other boy with numbers.
Due to the resistance seals he still had on, his speed was just about at Sasuke's level, and a bit faster than Choji, who countered that speed with more power and mass. The fight lasted a good ten minutes as Naruto was still learning the new Hariken taijutsu style, and was fighting single handedly without clones to get a better feel of using the style. Despite all of that, it was quickly apparent that Naruto was controlling the fight, as the only thing holding him back from completely dominating the larger boy was his inexperience and unfamiliarity with the new Hariken style and the heavy amount of resistance seals his body was operating under.
When he finally had Choji so exhausted and worn down that he could no longer block properly, they called the fight as Naruto wasn't going to go for a knockout move just to prove he could, and shook hands with the larger genin and thanked him for the match and workout. Choji could hardly catch his breath enough at that point to reply, but nodding along and smiled at Naruto once it was all over showing he had no hard feelings about it. Then they got to watch as Sasuke and Shikamaru faced off, with Sasuke doing a fair bit of taunting and dismissed Shikamaru as much of a threat if even Naruto could take him down during the Team Battle.
Shikamaru actually ended up giving Sasuke a pretty good fight, as he kept some distance from the faster Uchiha and tried to get him to exhaust himself performing his fireballs and using his shadow to launch small retaliatory attacks when he tried to shorten the distance between them. He couldn't however hold up for long and after a solid ten minutes of dodging and trying to lead Sasuke around the training ground and entrap him, Shikamaru had to give up as he was too winded to continue. All three members of Team 10 were pretty disappointed in their subpar showing against another Rookie team of genin, but only Choji was still in positive spirits, as while his battle really showed him his weakness against speed, he wasn't taunted or made fun of by his opponent unlike the other two.
Naruto tried to give Shikamaru an encouraging smile, and a few encouraging words out of Sasuke's range causing the Nara Heir to at least acknowledge the former Dead Last and thank him for not making it personal or embarrassing for any of them. The three members of Team 10 then left the training grounds after being dismissed by Asuma for the rest of the day to recover and heal, while Kakashi dismissed Sakura and told Sasuke to return back to their training ground for some more one-on-one training time with him. Sasuke was so busy smirking at Naruto for getting private training from their sensei, that he missed Kakashi's nod to Asuma and Naruto telling them to hang around when he left.
"So," started Asuma once Kakashi and Sasuke left for their own training grounds, "Kakashi tells me he tested your elemental affinity and that you are a wind user?"
"Yes sir," replied Naruto in some curiosity, wondering where the older jounin was going with this, and why he was told to stick around after their Team and individual battles were done.
"Me too," smirked Asuma good naturedly, "Kakashi and I made a deal if he helped me motivate my team to start training, then I would help you with your Wind element.
"Really?" asked a wide eyed Naruto, now very excited, "can you show me some cool Wind ninjutsu?"
"Slow down," laughed Asuma with an easy smile, "have you been working on the leaf splitting exercise?"
"Dattebayo," responded an enthusiastic blond genin, who reached down to pick up a leaf and instantly split it in half without much thought at all. "I've also been training the Futon: Wind Gale and the Futon: Great Breakthrough after Kakashi showed me those two."
"Really?" questioned Asuma, who then motioned towards the open clearing of training ground 10, "let's see them."
To say that Asuma was impressed with Naruto's two wind techniques was a bit of an understatement, especially after learning that the young blond only just was taught them the day before. It wasn't until he was getting ready to teach Naruto the Futon: Wind Bullet and the Futon: Cyclone that he realized how the young genin was learning and training these techniques as he watched Naruto make almost 2000 clones of himself to continue practicing the two new moves he was just shown. Within fifteen minutes there were Naruto clones all over the training ground slowly practicing and getting more and more efficient in both techniques, something that would have taken most genin weeks to work through.
He had a pretty good idea now why Naruto was so quickly learning and advancing beyond his peers, when he could bring that level of numbers to his training, and continue to put out that insane amount of chakra, it was no wonder really. He understood now why Kakashi said he would only really need about an hour of instruction to get started, and was almost disappointed that he wasn't his own student, but was nevertheless happy to pass on anything he could to the next generation. He therefore spent the second half of the hour showing Naruto how to use his wind element to augment, sharpen, and lengthen any cuts whether through trench knives like he used, or a sword as Naruto mentioned having started to learn.
By the end of the hour, he was convinced that Naruto was going to be the next legendary ninja of the Leaf as he watched his thousands of clones train relentlessly past the point of learning a technique, and really trying to master them as well. He also thanked the young blond for his performance in the team and individual battles today, for his positive and encouraging attitude to his team and not simply bulldozing over them as he apparently could have. Naruto for his part was very grateful for any training, and even more so to be acknowledged so favorably by another ninja and not treated like a monster.
He was beyond excited about the prospect of Wind being so very valuable of an element for a sword user, and knew it would play a big role in his continued development in the challenging discipline. When he left Asuma after several grateful thanks for all his help and teaching, he high-tailed it over to Ichiraku's for some food of the gods before he continued his training. After eating his fill he stopped by the Facility to spawn another 2000 clones and split them up into the various large groups practicing his new Futon techniques, Hariken taijutsu, and beginning sword katas before picking up the now completed 700 clone pins and his Blood Clone #5 henged into a relatively pretty but normal looking secretary to visit the Hokage.