"Which brings me to the next part."
Naruto lifted his head from the grass. Kakashi had remained standing in front of them, but the lazy posture he'd carried throughout the debrief was gone. Iruka seemed to recognize what was coming and quietly stepped away from the group.
Kakashi looked between his three students. "Team training is finished for now. For the rest of the month, your training will be individual."
Naruto sat up.
"Individual?"
"You've reached the point where training all three of you the same way would be inefficient," Kakashi explained. "You have different strengths, different weaknesses, and in Naruto and Sasuke's cases, completely different opponents waiting for you in the finals."
Sakura glanced toward the boys. Sasuke had Gaara, whose sand defense had survived everything Lee threw at it until the Gates came out. Naruto had Neji and the Gentle Fist waiting for him.
"So who's training who?" Naruto asked.
Kakashi pointed toward Sasuke.
"I'm taking Sasuke."
Naruto froze.
Sakura looked at him.
Iruka winced.
Three seconds passed.
"WHAT?!"
Birds fled the surrounding trees.
Naruto shot to his feet and pointed accusingly at Kakashi. "Of course you're taking Sasuke! Why wouldn't you take Sasuke?! You both have Sharingans! You both think you're too cool for everyone else! You both have stupid hair!"
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched.
"My hair isn't like his."
"THAT'S what you got from that?!"
Kakashi waited patiently for Naruto's outrage to burn itself down. It took considerably longer than expected.
"Sasuke's opponent is Gaara," Kakashi eventually said. "Lee demonstrated that Gaara's automatic defense can be overcome with sufficient speed, but Sasuke doesn't currently possess Lee's physical conditioning."
Sasuke's expression hardened.
"I can get faster."
"That's the idea."
Naruto crossed his arms.
"Fine. Whatever. Who do I get?"
Kakashi's eye curved.
"Someone else."
Naruto waited.
Kakashi said nothing.
"...Who?"
"Your instructor."
"I KNOW THAT!"
Kakashi pulled out his book.
Naruto's eye twitched.
"They'll find you sometime within the next week."
Naruto stared at him.
"That's it?"
"That's it."
"You don't even know when they're coming?!"
"Oh, I know."
Naruto pointed at him.
"Then tell me!"
"No."
Naruto made a noise that wasn't entirely human.
Kakashi ignored it and looked toward Sakura. "Your situation is different. You don't have a finals opponent, so we don't need to build your training around defeating one specific person."
Sakura nodded slowly.
"Then you're training me?"
"No."
Her eyebrow twitched.
Naruto immediately looked happier now that someone else was suffering.
Kakashi continued before Sakura could object. "Your chakra control is the best on Team Seven, and academically you're ahead of both of them."
"Hey!" Naruto protested.
"Significantly."
"HEY!"
Sasuke smirked.
Kakashi ignored them. "What you're missing is practical combat experience. You hesitate when you're pressured, your offensive options are limited, and you're still fighting too much like an academy graduate."
Sakura's irritation faded.
The words stung, mostly because she knew they were true.
During the Forest of Death, she'd been forced to confront that weakness. When Sasuke and Naruto had been unconscious, there hadn't been anyone else to hide behind, and she'd discovered exactly how little her perfect academy scores mattered when someone was actually trying to kill her.
Kakashi had apparently noticed too.
"So who am I training with?"
A woman's voice answered from behind her.
"Me."
Sakura spun.
Naruto's eyes widened.
Sasuke's hand moved instinctively toward his kunai pouch.
A woman stood on a tree branch above them, tan coat hanging loosely around her waist and a mesh bodysuit as well as some sizeable...assets, visible beneath it. Her purple hair stuck out wildly behind her forehead protector, and the grin on her face made Naruto immediately suspicious.
Then he recognized her.
"Sexy proctor lady!"
Anko Mitarashi's grin grew wider.
Sakura slowly turned toward Naruto.
Sasuke closed his eyes.
Kakashi's book rose slightly higher.
Anko dropped from the branch.
Her body wrapped around the smaller blonde, his head nuzzled between her...assets.
"Oi Sakura-chan, sure you dont wanna switch sensei for the month...I can think of two big reasons why she should be mine instead of yours."
Anko laughed as she released the youth, "I like him."
"Please don't encourage him," Sakura muttered.
Kakashi gestured toward Anko. "Sakura, this is Anko Mitarashi. Special Jonin and one of the proctors you encountered during the second stage."
"I remember."
It would've been difficult not to.
Sakura remembered Anko throwing a kunai at Naruto's face during the exam briefing and licking blood from his cheek afterward. She also remembered the woman's reaction when she'd learned Orochimaru was inside the Forest of Death.
That memory made Sakura's expression turn more serious.
"Why her?"
Anko answered before Kakashi could.
"Because Hatake thinks you're too nice."
Sakura blinked.
"I'm not too nice."
Sakura frowned.
Kakashi sighed. "What Anko means is that your fundamentals are solid. Your chakra control is excellent, your accuracy is good, and you think before you act."
Anko's grin sharpened.
"But thinking doesn't mean much if you freeze when somebody puts a knife against your throat."
Sakura went still.
Anko stepped closer.
"That forest showed you what real shinobi fights look like. They're dirty. They're fast. People use traps, poison, deception, ambushes, hostages, whatever works."
Naruto had stopped joking.
Sakura met Anko's eyes.
"So you're going to teach me that?"
"I'm going to teach you how not to panic when someone else does."
Anko's grin returned.
"And then I'll teach you how to do it back."
Sakura swallowed.
For some reason, she suddenly missed Kakashi.
Naruto climbed to his feet and dusted himself off. "Can I train with her instead?"
"No," Kakashi and Sakura said simultaneously.
Anko shrugged. "I'd take him."
"No," Kakashi repeated.
"Why not?!"
"Because your instructor has already been arranged."
Naruto's attention snapped back toward him.
"Who is it?"
Kakashi turned a page.
"Still not telling you."
Naruto considered attacking him.
The morning's exercise provided very convincing evidence that this would accomplish nothing.
He reconsidered.
Sasuke finally spoke. "When do we start?"
"Now."
Kakashi closed his book and looked toward Sasuke. "Meet me at Training Ground Three in one hour. Bring your full equipment."
Sasuke nodded.
Anko hooked an arm around Sakura's shoulders.
"We're starting now too."
Sakura stiffened.
"Right now?"
"Yep."
"I haven't eaten lunch."
"I've got food."
Sakura relaxed slightly.
Anko's smile became unsettling.
"Assuming you find it."
Sakura stopped relaxing.
Naruto laughed.
"Good luck, Sakura!"
She glared at him while Anko began dragging her away.
"Naruto!"
"What?"
"If I survive this, I'm hitting you!"
Naruto cupped his hands around his mouth.
"THAT'S THE SPIRIT!"
Anko's laughter could be heard long after the two disappeared into the trees.
That left Naruto.
He looked at Kakashi.
Kakashi looked at him.
Naruto pointed toward himself.
"So what am I supposed to do?"
"Train."
"With who?"
"Yourself."
Naruto's eye twitched.
"For a week?!"
"I said your instructor would arrive within the week."
"That could mean tomorrow!"
"Correct."
"Or seven days!"
"Also correct."
Naruto stared at him with growing horror.
Kakashi's visible eye curved.
"Think of it as a surprise."
"I hate surprises."
"You love surprises."
"I hate your surprises!"
Kakashi shoved his hands into his pockets and started walking away. Sasuke followed several steps behind him, leaving Naruto standing alone in the middle of Training Ground Seven.
"WAIT!"
Kakashi glanced back.
Naruto hesitated.
His hand moved toward his stomach.
Yesterday he'd figured out what the Four Elements Seal was doing. He understood why his chakra control had become unstable, but he had absolutely no idea how to safely remove it.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Something in Naruto's voice made Kakashi stop.
Naruto lifted the bottom of his shirt slightly.
"I need you to look at something. Alone please."
Sasuke glanced back, eyebrow raised. After a beat he continued on his path to get ready for his training session.
Naruto pushed chakra toward his stomach.
The Shiki Fūin appeared.
Then the Four Elements Seal spread across it.
Kakashi's entire demeanor changed.
His book disappeared.
In an instant he was standing directly in front of Naruto, visible eye fixed on the overlapping formulas.
"Where did you get that?"
"The Forest."
Kakashi's eye narrowed.
"Orochimaru."
Naruto nodded.
"He put it on me when we fought."
Kakashi stared at him.
"You fought Orochimaru?"
"Mostly got punched by Orochimaru."
"Naruto."
"Yeah. Fought him."
Naruto pointed toward the markings. "I figured out what it's doing, though."
Kakashi's gaze shifted toward him.
"The seal underneath is resisting it. The eight-point spiral keeps rerouting my chakra whenever this one interferes, and then this one interferes with the new route too."
He tapped carefully beside the markings.
"So my chakra keeps getting redirected."
Kakashi said nothing.
Naruto continued. "That's why my control sucks now. The two seals are basically fighting each other."
For several seconds, Kakashi simply studied his student.
Naruto suddenly felt self-conscious.
"What?"
"Nothing."
"You're doing the eye thing."
"The eye thing?"
"The surprised eye thing."
Kakashi ignored that.
"Can you remove it?"
Naruto immediately shook his head.
"Nope."
That answer seemed to relieve Kakashi.
Naruto noticed.
"You thought I tried, didn't you?"
"I've known you for several months."
"That's insulting."
"It's experience."
Naruto lowered his shirt.
"I found some points that might be important, but they're overlapping with my seal. I figured randomly breaking seals connected to the giant fox inside me was probably stupid."
Kakashi stared at him.
Naruto crossed his arms.
"I can make good decisions."
"Occasionally."
"Asshole."
"Can you remove it?"
Kakashi shook his head.
"Not safely."
Naruto groaned.
"Seriously?"
"Fūinjutsu isn't my specialty. I know enough to recognize that interfering with this without understanding the underlying seal would be reckless."
Naruto sighed.
Then Kakashi's eye curved slightly.
"Fortunately, that's another reason your instructor is a good fit."
Naruto froze.
Slowly, his head lifted.
"He knows sealing?"
Kakashi started walking away.
Naruto followed.
"How much sealing?"
No answer.
Naruto followed faster.
"Kakashi-sensei."
Nothing.
"Scarecrow-baka."
Kakashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves.
Naruto stopped.
His face twisted.
"I HATE WHEN HE DOES THAT!"
Within a minute, Naruto was alone.
Sasuke had Kakashi.
Sakura had Anko.
Naruto apparently had a mysterious instructor who knew Fūinjutsu and could arrive anytime between today and a week from now.
Naruto shoved his hands behind his head.
"Fine."
He had plenty to do anyway.
Shikamaru.
Ino.
Choji.
His own training.
And now that he understood exactly what Orochimaru's seal was doing, he could at least work around the problem until somebody capable of removing it showed up.
Naruto grinned.
A week wasn't that long.
Probably.