5 How much tear can these eyes hold

*Clang Clang*

Inside the vast forest of Konoha, two shadows moved in highspeed occasionally brushing past each other as their sword collided.

*Thud*

A body fell through the trees and fell to the ground scaring the nearby rabbit into the bush.

"Ah, Sister Neko you just cheated. You said you won't use body flicker technique." Naruto now dressed in black shirt and pants cried out rubbing his back.

It had been a year since he started to train in Kenjutsu with Yugao Uzuki. She was ordered not to make physical contact but at the end of the day, it was she who reported to the Hokage so they had yet to find out she was training Naruto in secret.

She had told Naruto as well and he also gladly kept their encounter a secret. Yugao was an Anbu agent and also a sensor type ninja so she would quickly discover any other ninja sent to spy on them and quickly drop whatever they were doing.

While she agreed to train Naruto, she refused to train him in any type of ninjutsu other than wall walking and water walking. She had him train mainly on kenjutsu and if he asked to train in any type of ninjutsu she would always say he was not ready.

But focusing on one thing had its perks as well as Naruto's Kenjutsu had grown significantly and was now able to spar with Uzuki and she had to use petty tricks once in a while to defeat Naruto like she just did now.

Besides kenjutsu and basic chakra control, Naruto didn't stop in physical training as well and he was still using Saitama's training module with slightly high numbers. 1000 pushups, 1000 squats, 1000 situps were on Naruto's daily routine and as for distance, he had no way to measure it so he just ran around in the forest trees doing various parkour tricks until he got tired.

While the 1000 pushups and such looked impossible for a 7-year-old kid, it was Naruto world where Kakashi at the age of 6 had become Chunin and a Jounin at 10 so in a way he was way behind the so-called talented individuals.

But it couldn't be helped as Kakashi and Itachi were oddities that were trained by their parents from a small age. It was the same for other kids from Ninja families as they were trained by their families from a small age.

Naruto wouldn't have reached this stage if Neko hadn't shown up and trained him. Naruto never said it but he was very grateful towards Yugao Uzuki. He had influential Ninja relatives like Kakashi and Jiraiya and there were never there. He doubted they had even come to his face yet.

Even in the series Kakashi completely ignored Naruto besides teaching him few cheap tricks and as for Jiraiya, the only thing he trained him was Rasengan and how to dispel genjutsu which of course didn't work most of the time as the ones casting them were Itachi, Sasuke or the one chick from some filler who was super good in genjutsu.

"You should be a grateful brat, I'm using them means you are only getting better. Now let's go and sit down I have a surprise for you. Come let's go." Uzuki said with a smile and led him towards a clearing in the forest and did a few hand signs to make a bundle of stuff appear in her hand.

"Oh, I love surprises. Are you finally training me in Ninjutsu Sister." Naruto said with delight as he followed her. He kept a child-like persona to keep Neko from worrying too much as she had watched him for a year but he had grown familiar with acting like a child and he didn't mind.

Yugao didn't reply and spread a mat in the ground and there was a variety of dishes laid there. But Naruto smile vanished as he saw what laid in the middle. It was a birthday cake with his name written on it.

"Well, happy birthday Naruto. I hope you'll grow up to become a strong shinobi" Yugao Uzuki said removing her mask and her face had a bright smile.

Suddenly tears formed in his eyes as they flowed down his cheeks. Naruto had forgotten how birthday cake looked like. Even in his previous world, he had stopped celebrating his birthday after the death of his parent and Naruto of this world celebrated it alone as well.

"I thought you said a man don't cry. What's up with that tears? Come and cut the cake I'm hungry" Neko said with a smile. She had seen him blow out a cake alone on his 6th birthday and he didn't even finish it as he went to bed early that day.

She had just started her mission that time so didn't care much at that time but it was different now. She now looked at Naruto as her own brother and maybe closer than that. She was an orphan as well and was taken into Anbu from a small age. Her number of friends was small and they were always in missions.

She had started to develop a feeling for Hayate who was her Kenjutsu instructor but the feeling stopped growing as she started to train Naruto. For now, Naruto was her only family and her student as well.

Naruto quickly thanked her while wiping his tears and they enjoyed a lovely lunchtime. It was his most memorable birthday including the one celebrated on Earth.

"So, since there is cake, I suppose there is a gift as well." Naruto rubbed his hand as he looked at Yugao with expectation.

"There is. Here you go. The big scroll is for shadow shuriken jutsu and the smaller is for shadow clone jutsu. I hope you can master them before I come back. And burn them both after you memorize them. They are not important jutsu but still I'm not supposed to give them you. It could land me in some problem" Yugao gave two scrolls to Naruto and a piece of paper that showed the list of hand signs. (Shadow clone jutsu is not the same one as multiple shadow clone jutsu. He can make around 5 clones with the normal shadow clone jutsu. List of hand-signs are not for the jutsu but to learn the signs itself. Like learning the alphabet before you learn to make a word out of it)

"Are you leaving somewhere?" Naruto got alert as Neko said he needed to master them before she came back.

"Yes, I decided to leave Anbu and apply as a Jounin Instructor. I might get to be your teacher when you become Genin. I need to finish a couple of missions before they let me leave the Anbu. Don't worry they are not life-threatening missions. I'll be done in a couple of months." Yugao said as she ruffled Naruto's hair.

"Will they send new Anbu to look after me then. How can I practice with them watching?" Naruto asked as well.

While he got two jutsu from Yugao he wouldn't be able to practice them with other Anbu spying on him. He could but it would reveal his relationship with Yugao and she might get punished for it.

"Don't worry, there was a large incident last night. All the Anbu are on the field. They don't have men to spy on you" Yugao said as she put her mask back on.

"Incident. Why is there noise in the village then?" Naruto asked again.

"The Hokage said he will release the new in few days. You'll hear about in due time." Yugao said as she vanished from Naruto's sight.

"It must be the Uchiha Massacre Incident," Naruto said as he started memorizing the hand signs shaking his head.

Whatever happened outside was none of his business and even if it was he was too weak to do anything about it.

All he could do was train his ass off for the future.