Naruto spent the first hour of his morning looking for his mysterious instructor.
He checked Training Ground Seven, the Academy, two nearby training fields, and even climbed onto the Hokage Monument to search from above. Kakashi had said the man would find him, but Naruto had decided that waiting patiently was stupid when he could simply find the bastard first.
He found absolutely nothing.
"Maybe he's hiding."
Naruto narrowed his eyes at a suspicious old man wearing a turtle shell backpack. He was reading that same orange book the scarecrow reads all the time, an occasional giggle bursting out along with a nosebleed.
The old man continued on his way, two young boys in orange training gi's following him
"...Probably not him."
With his investigation producing nothing except several concerned civilians, Naruto changed priorities. If his teacher wasn't going to appear yet, he had three promises to keep.
Shikamaru was first.
Naruto found him exactly where he expected.
Lying down.
Shikamaru occupied a patch of grass near one of the quieter Nara training areas, staring at the clouds as though Naruto hadn't specifically told him they were going to train.
Naruto stood over him.
"Get up."
"No."
"You agreed."
"I've reconsidered."
Naruto kicked his foot.
Five minutes later, Shikamaru was standing while Naruto watched his shadow stretch across the ground toward a wooden target. The dark tendril reached the post easily before spreading across its base.
Naruto tilted his head.
"Why's it always skinny?"
Shikamaru looked at him.
"What?"
"Your shadow."
Naruto pointed toward it. "Every time I've seen you fight, you make it longer to reach somebody. Have you ever tried making it bigger instead?"
Shikamaru frowned.
"It already expands depending on the light."
"Not what I mean."
Naruto crouched and drew a rough circle in the dirt. "Instead of doing this—"
He dragged one finger forward in a thin line.
"Why not do this?"
Naruto spread all five fingers outward.
Shikamaru stared at the marks.
Naruto continued. "If somebody keeps dodging the skinny part, stop giving them somewhere to dodge."
For several seconds, Shikamaru said nothing.
Then he looked down at his own shadow.
"...That would use more chakra."
"Probably."
"And controlling the edges would be harder."
"Probably."
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed slightly.
Naruto grinned.
"But it might work."
Shikamaru sighed.
"You're annoying."
"Because I'm right?"
"Because now I have to test it."
Naruto considered that a victory.
Ino was easier to motivate.
Mostly because she seemed personally offended by the idea that Naruto might think she'd been slacking.
The two stood behind the Yamanaka flower shop while Ino repeatedly threw kunai at a wooden target. Her accuracy wasn't bad, but Naruto quickly noticed the same problem he'd seen during the preliminaries.
Her best technique required her opponent to stop moving.
Naruto picked up one of her kunai.
"Can your Mind Transfer work if someone can't move?"
Ino stared at him.
"Obviously."
"No, I mean besides Shikamaru holding them."
Ino lowered her kunai.
"What are you getting at?"
Naruto shrugged.
"Poison."
Silence.
Ino blinked.
Naruto held up the kunai. "Your family owns a flower shop. Plants make poison, right?"
"Some do."
"So why don't you use any?"
Ino's mouth opened. "I suppose it's because when I take control of a target I can feel the same thing they're feeling."
Naruto continued before she could continue. "In the grand scheme of things, a little discomfort while using your trumpcard technique would be fine right? You don't even need enough to kill someone. Make their arm numb. Slow their legs down. Make them dizzy."
He mimicked someone stumbling around.
"Then do the brain thing."
Ino stared at him.
Naruto stopped wobbling.
"What?"
"That..."
She frowned.
"...isn't completely stupid."
Naruto looked offended.
"Why does everyone say it like that?"
Ino ignored him and took the kunai back. "Poisons aren't easy. You need dosage, preparation, storage, antidotes—"
"So learn."
Ino stopped.
Naruto shrugged.
"You've got a month. At least until Sasuke, Kiba and I mop the floor with our opponents. Don't fall behind, Sakura's already got a private instructor to stay up to par with us."
A downcast gloom covered the platinum blonde's eyes. She glanced around the plants inside the shop.
A thoughtful expression appeared. Brows knit closer together in defiance, before acquiescing and accepting.
Naruto left before she could say anymore.
His search for his mysterious instructor resumed during lunch.
Naruto checked Ichiraku. And by checked, he had a handful of bowls as a snack and continued on his way.
PING
Ramen Worshipper initiated, +10% to all skill gain for the next 24 hours!
Vowing to do some training after all his tasks were completed for the day, Naruto continued on his search through the village.
He went on to check the bathhouse district because older shinobi seemed to like hanging around there for reasons Naruto didn't particularly understand. There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as he could see. As he was leaving some big man with white hair down to his waist crossed his path.
The two males eyes met, the older man's eyes lingering a bit longer.
'Have I seen that guy before? I feel like i'm having deja vu...'
An Hour Later
Choji had already eaten when Naruto found him.
This did not stop him from eating again.
Naruto sat across from him at a barbecue restaurant while Choji listened carefully to Naruto explain what he'd noticed during the preliminaries. His expansion techniques gave him power, but once he committed to a direction, faster opponents could simply move.
Choji ate another piece of meat.
"So I need to get faster."
"Yep."
"How?"
Naruto paused.
That was a very good question.
"...I know a guy."
Rock Lee looked considerably less impressive inside a hospital bed.
Most of one side of his body was wrapped in bandages, and his injured arm and leg remained heavily secured from the damage Gaara had inflicted. Even so, his eyes brightened immediately when Naruto and Choji entered the room.
"Naruto!"
"Bushy Brows!"
Lee smiled. Within his eyes lingered a trace of sadness. He had not moved from his bed in the past 48 hours, something very unlike Lee.
Then he noticed Choji.
Naruto pulled a chair closer. "We need speed."
Choji nodded.
Lee blinked.
Naruto pointed toward Choji. "He hits hard, but he's slow. You're stupid fast."
Lee's eyebrow twitched.
"Thank you?"
"How does he get faster?"
Lee's expression changed immediately.
A fire seemed to ignite behind his eyes.
"TRAINING!"
Choji stopped chewing.
Naruto sighed.
"More specific."
Lee raised one finger. "Speed does not begin with running faster. It begins with learning to move without wasting movement."
Choji listened more carefully.
Lee explained that his training with Guy emphasized acceleration, foot placement, balance, and repeatedly changing direction without losing momentum. Raw leg strength mattered, but being strong didn't help if every turn required stopping first. On his explanation, he went to get out of bed, using a crutch to assist his efforts.
The two boys pushed him back into bed, not wanting to draw the attention of the cute nurses in the hallway monitoring their visit. Rock Lee was still in a semi critical state after all.
Naruto looked toward Choji.
"That's your problem."
Choji frowned.
"You've seen me run twice."
"Both times you turned like a wagon."
Lee nodded enthusiastically.
"A POWERFUL WAGON!"
Choji stared at both of them.
"...Thanks."
Lee showed Choji several exercises he could perform without needing specialized techniques. Short sprints, rapid directional changes, low stances, and explosive starts would do more for him initially than simply running long distances.
Choji nodded slowly.
"I can do that."
Naruto grinned. "You know the tree walking exercise too right? Try using chakra to stick to the ground for extra traction, when in your normal and expanded modes! What's scarier, a boulder that rolls in a straight line or a rolling boulder that can change directions on a dime?
Lee suddenly tried sitting straighter.
"And when I recover, I SHALL PERSONALLY ASSIST YOU!"
A nurse appeared in the doorway.
"No."
Lee froze.
"But—"
"No."
His shoulders dropped.
Naruto leaned toward Choji.
"We all know Lee is strong, these Nurses are monsters in their own right."
"I heard that."
By late afternoon, Naruto had accomplished three things.
Shikamaru was experimenting with spreading his shadow across spaces with larger area. Ino was asking her father and mother about their current supply of poisonous plants within the shop, and Choji had left the hospital with a simple speed routine from one of the fastest genin in Konoha.
Naruto hadn't really taught any of them anything.
He'd mostly asked questions.
That felt strange.
A few months ago, Naruto would've assumed helping someone train meant showing them a technique or beating them until they got better. Apparently sometimes all you needed to do was look at what somebody already did and ask why they didn't do it differently.
PING
National Crisis Quest Updated! Training the Rookie 9
Hidden sub objective discovered!
It's not guaranteed that training will alter the results of your vision, but it's a start. Train with all of the rookie 9 before the start of the Chuunin exams!
Progress: 5/8
Rewards to be calculated after the future pans out.
Naruto shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Huh." He'd already progressed very far on this particular sub-objective, with him checking off Sasuke and Sakura on the first day with their hostage training.
'I wonder why it popped up now though? Oh well, i'll have to worry about the systems quirks later, for now. I need to find this guy.'
Mystery bastard.
Naruto spent another hour checking training grounds, practicing some bukijutsu to maximize his ramen worshipper perk.
Instead of standing still and throwing at stationary targets, he stayed in constant motion, sprinting between trees and bouncing from trunk to trunk while kunai and shuriken flashed from his hands.
Within the training ground sat 12 posts, some with fresh targets, others with countless holes littering their forms. He reached into his pouch and readied his weapons. His first shuriken sailed wide of the target.
Naruto threw a kunai after it.
CLANG!
The kunai struck the edge of the spinning shuriken, knocking it sharply sideways. The redirected blade curved around the tree blocking its original path and buried itself in the target hidden behind it.
Naruto landed on another trunk and immediately pushed off.
"Again."
Two shuriken left his hand from different angles while he sprinted across the side of a tree. A kunai followed half a second later, striking one shuriken in midair and sending it downward while the other clipped the first blade and changed direction again.
THUNK! THUNK!
Both struck separate targets.
Naruto grinned and increased his speed. Soon the training ground filled with the ringing of metal striking metal as he experimented with increasingly stupid-looking angles—throwing high to hit low, intentionally missing targets, and using one weapon to redirect another around trees and obstacles.
Shadow Shuriken Jutsu was supposed to hide one projectile behind another.
Naruto was starting to wonder if he could have hidden blades alter each others trajectories for a better end result.
If he could control where shadow shuriken/kunai collided, then every weapon he threw could become another moving surface to bounce the next weapon from. The faster he moved, the harder it became to predict where the real attack was coming from.
PING
+1 Intelligence
The system notification only furthered his training. One final kunai left Naruto's hand while he was nearly facing away from the target.
CLANG!
It bounced off a shuriken already in flight beneath another. The hidden shuriken changed direction, clipped a second blade, and shot between two trees.
THUNK!
Dead center.
Naruto stared at it for a moment before a grin spread across his face.
"Okay."
He reached for another handful of weapons.
"That's cool."
Shadow Shuriken Jutsu LVL 3 (24/30) -> LVL 4 (3/40)
While Naruto might've been progressing by himself he still had a slight nagging anxiety over not finding his teacher yet.
Leaving the training grounds, Naruto eventually ended up standing on a rooftop overlooking Konoha.
Naruto crossed his arms.
"You're supposed to find me!"
Several civilians below looked upward.
Naruto ignored them.
Somewhere in the village—or maybe not even inside it yet—was apparently a shinobi Kakashi thought could help him with his seal.
Naruto grinned.
"Fine."
Tomorrow he'd look harder.