Chapter 18

"Then I will still do it." he stated as if he were already a master. His confidant grin never wavered as he looked at Kurenai's stunned expression. "Afterall, they said that outrunning ANBU while in birght orange was impossible but I still did it." he said cheekily.

Kurenai stared at him oddly for a few more minutes, his grin never wavering as she seemed to contemplate something, until she suddenly giggled behind her hand. Just as suddenly, she broke out into a fit of laughter, her melodius laughter washing over the clearing. Naruto's eyes closed as he listened and focused on how calming her laughter was as it also seemed infectious as he felt his mood improve.

Naruto's confidant grin formed into a bright smile as he listened to his friend's laughter ring out and lighten his mood. His smile stretched across his face before he had even realized it as he opened his eyes again to see Kurenai's chest shaking with her laughter, drawing his attention to her breasts but he quickly turned hi attention to her face, knowing that Kurenai wouldn't like him staring nor did he want her to think him a pervert. Finally, her laughter subsided as Naruto's eyes locked with her own closed ones before drifting down to her red lips.

Naruto watched her mouth open and close as she gulped breath in after her explosive laughter. He smiled challengingly at her as she looked back down at him, wiping a tear from her eye. "Oh Dear Naruto. You most certainly are the most unpredictable person I have ever met and the only one to ever make me laugh like that." she said as she favored him with a small smile.

Naruto's challenging smile turned into another foxy grin, "Alright, if you want to be a master, who am I to tell one of the only ninja in all of Konoha who sees the use of genjutsu as something worth it no?" she asked rhetorically, drawing a great big grin from Naruto. "What has Kakashi taught you though?" she asked.

Naruto's eyes suddenly went cold again as she mentioned his sensei's name, "About?" he asked almost coldly.

Kurenai's eyes widened slightly as her smile faded, "Anything." she replied in her mission tone, something that sent a shiver down Naruto's back.

"Teamwork exercises." Naruto answered. Kurenai waited a few more moments before it became clear that was all Naruto was going to say, her eyes narrowed as she spoke.

"You mean to tell me that he has only trained you in teamwork exercises since he got you from the Academy?" she asked.

Naruto nodded. "No taijutsu? Ninjutsu? No physical training? Just Teamwork?" she asked again. Again, Naruto nodded. Kurenai's hand clenched again as Naruto watched her. "Is that why you asked me to help you train when we first met?" she asked quietly. Naruto looked down but nodded again, a bit embarrassed as she figured him out. "Did you ever ask Kakashi for extra help?" she asked curiously.

"He kept telling us that our teamwork needed to be improved before he would help us anymore than teamwork exercises." Naruto said. Though Kurenai picked up on Naruto's body language as he said that, she could tell something else was bothering him, when he went to stop but she gave him a look that said to tell her everything, he continued, "He kept to that until today when we found out I was a sensor. When we were walking towards the Hokage tower to accept our mission, Sasuke asked if he could be trained in something similar to sensors." he said.

"Chakra detection." Kurenai supplied. Naruto nodded.

"Kakashi-sensei said that he was trained in it and that it was nowhere near as powerful as mine but it was still useful and that he even used it." Here, Naruto's hand clenched, "before Sasuke could even ask, Kakashi offered to train him in it." Naruto said with a bit of resentment in his voice.

Kurenai's eyes narrowed slightly. "How did he expect your team to train without him teaching during these weeks?" she asked.

"He mentioned trying the library but I can't get in there." Naruto said sadly. A silence descended as Naruto looked at the ground, contemplating what he had just revealed and Kurenai seemed to wage an internal war to anyone who watched her face. The silence stretched, seconds becoming minutes until a voice shattered the silence.

"Then it seems you are in need of a teacher Naruto." Kurenai said a little formally. Naruto looked up at her.

"Yes, but I don't know who to ask, Kakashi-sensei won't help me. Iruka-sensei is busy with the Academy, and Jiji is the Hokage, he can't always help me." Naruto said as he hung his head, "You have your own team Kurenai, I can't take their place."

Kurenai smiled softly, "No, you can't." Naruto's head dropped a bit more, "But, they are all from clans and none of them seem interested in genjutsu." His head snapped to hers, hope in his eyes, "I would enjoy teaching my art to an aspiring genjutsu user. I can handle some extra training hours after my own team's." she said to him, "That is... if you want." a slightly teasing tone making its way into her voice as she offered her services.

"YES!" he said as he jumped towards her and hugged her tightly, "Thanks Kurenai. I won't let you down!"

Kurenai just ruffled his hair a bit before a light pink dusted her cheeks from where his head was buried, deciding that he didn't mean anything perverted by his actions, she felt the need to tease him a bit, "You know," she started making his head tilt upwards so he was looking up at her through the valley of her breasts, "I usually put anyone who touches me like this in a genjutsu for perverts." she chuckled as Naruto suddenly jumped back and blushed as he looked down at the ground.

"Sorry Kurenai. I got excited again." he said.

Kurenai opened her mouth, a witty retort about the double meaning of his words on the tip of her tongue, when she realized what she was about to do and shook her head at herself. "It's fine Naruto, just please do not make it a habit." she said. Naruto nodded. "Now, I need to know all of your abilities so I can help you train. Could you please tell me what else you might know besides Surface and Leaf clinging?" she asked.

Naruto looked bright for a few seconds upon hearing the question until he suddenly hung his head and mumbled something Kurenai couldn't hear. Slightly taken aback at his response, she spoke up, "What was that Naruto?" she asked.

Naruto shook his head and looked back up at her, a hint of a smile on his face as he said, "Well, I can do Kawarimi and Henge pretty well but Bunshin still escapes me, I guess you know why." he said as she nodded, "The only other thing I know besides the control technique is most of the shinobi rules and Kage Bunshin." he finished with a pained smile on his face. He knew that was painfully little but it was all he managed to accumulate during his years of trying to train himself. He knew his taijutsu was horrible. He watched as Kurenai's face seemed to blank out and become thoughtful before she spoke in an almost detached tone.

"I am sorry to be asking this again Naruto, but Kakashi never taught you any taijutsu?" she asked. Naruto shook his head and Kurenai sighed as she shook her head, "I think we might need to go see Hokage-sama about this, what Kakashi is doing is not appropriate for training genin." Naruto cocked his head to the side in a curious expression as Kurenai looked down at him.

"Why is that Kurenai?" he asked.

"Because with all of your D-rank missions, you should soon be heading out on C-rank missions with your team makeup. If he has not taught you anything yet, there is a high possibility of..." she trailed off as she didn't want to explain it to a new genin.

"Death." Naruto stated, his eyes icy blue as he remembered one of the shinobi rules, "Never hesitate, for your enemies will not." he recited. He may be dense, but he quickly picked up the more morose parts of the job he had chosen. Though he was hesitant to take another's life, he had chosen his path and nothing would sway him.

Kurenai looked down at Naruto with appraising eyes before nodding and continuing, "dying, so I must inform the Hokage that your team will not be ready as soon as they should be. It is a duty any sempai has towards their kouhai." she added.

Naruto nodded. A comfortable silence fell as the two were wrapped in their own thoughts for a few minutes before Naruto spoke, "When do we start Kurenai...-sensei?" he asked.

Kurenai's wine red eyes fell on his own bright blues and she grinned slightly, "Unfortunately, I can't really train you until your control comes up to an appropriate level so we will have to concentrate on that, but it is important to train your body to be able to move away from your opponent as well as be capable of dodging projectiles while casting your Genjutsu." at Naruto's confused face, she elaborated, "Genjutsu is a mid-long range fighting style Naruto. You can not be right next to your opponent when trying to cast Genjutsu or a wide variety of things could happen to disrupt your jutsu and allow your opponent the upperhand."

Naruto nodded as he filed the information away. Kurenai watched until he looked back up at her and waited expectantly. She had done research on every genin just in case she was assigned any of them. She had found that Naruto would need a slower pace of lecturing but the practical would be where he excelled. So, she took pauses as she began to explain to him the basics of his field.

"First, go climb the tree while I am talking, this will help your observation skills along with your control skills." she explained. Naruto nodded and walked to a tree, he placed his foot upon the trunk and began walking up and down the tree as Kurenai sat on the ground and spoke, "The main advantage of Genjutsu is that one almost never realizes when they are in a Genjutsu until it is too late. If you manage to make your Genjutsu subtle enough, then you can even assassinate your opponent without them ever knowing you were there." a hint of pride colored her voice as she spoke of her field of expertise, "It is an art that relies heavily upon subtlety, finesse, and intelligence. As rare as it happens, when genjutsu masters are facing off against each other on the battlefield, it is usually the more intelligent person who wins." Kurenai said as Naruto reached the top of the tree and headed back down.

"There are very few genjutsu users within Konoha." Kurenai said.

"Who are famous for using Genjutsu?" Naruto interrupted a bit excitedly almost making himself slip. Kurenai frowned then smiled softly at his exuberance and replied.

"Well, there is me." she said as Naruto nodded his head, "To be honest, I am the only Jounin from Konoha that utilizes Genjutsu as a primary form of attack. Many ANBU and Jounin use it with another branch to increase the effectiveness of their attacks but only myself utilizes this particular branch as my main attack method." she admitted.

Naruto was a bit shocked that there would only be one genjutsu user within Konoha but then he remembered something that the book had said about genjutsu, "What about the Uchiha?" he asked. As he was facing away from her, he missed the look of annoyance flitter across her face.

"Many of them were quite proficient in it but none of them used it like I do." Kurenai fell silent, contemplating telling Naruto this next piece of information as he started to walk back down towards her again, "The only Uchiha that used genjutsu as a master would... was Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's older brother." Kurenai said as she looked up at Naruto, who was halfway down the tree.

Naruto's concentration failed a moment as his mind blanked at that bit of information, Sasuke's brother had been hailed as one of the best ninja to come out of Konoha rivaling even the Yondaime himself in terms of potential. Naruto had read about the famous ninja from Konoha in the history books and he had marked Itachi as someone he would never want to fight. The sight of his picture alone had sent shivers down Naruto's spine. Oddly enough, no clear picture of the Yondaime had been present within the book, only an outline of him as he faced the rampaging Kyuubi.

Kurenai stood ready to catch Naruto should he fall from the slightly shocking information, but she was surprised when he seemed to blank out for a few moments and simply remained rooted to the tree as he stood there. When his eyes became refocused and he continued his exercise as if he hadn't missed a beat, Kurenai was impressed. He was already well on his way of mastering this control.

Restarting her lecture, "Because of this, I am going to drill you in different aspects of different areas at random times during our training to see how fast your mind can adapt to situations and how promptly you react. The better your reaction the better you will be when facing another Genjutsu user and, by extension, the rest of the shinobi world." Kurenai explained, "A Genjutsu user's worst enemy is another Genjutsu user as they will most likely be the most capable in dispelling your illusions and harming you. Many Shinobi are apt in detecting and dispelling Genjutsu but a Genjutsu master such as myself can usually place a Genjutsu without someone noticing unless they themselves are adept at Genjutsu."

Naruto nodded and Kurenai stopped to let him absorb the information again. She watched him go up and down the tree again before starting again, "Now, the second most dangerous type of shinobi to a Genjutsu user is usually a taijutsu expert as they are close combat specialists and are the perfect counter to you being able to cast your illusion on your opponent. There are many different ways of stopping them from getting close to you. I use a distraction method, my clothes combined with my looks and a minor genjutsu I can cast without handsigns or a time delay helps me to do this." Naruto looked at her with some adoration in his eyes as he thought of being able to do that, Kurenai's cheeks dusted a light pink again as Naruto whispered.

"Amazing." Kurenai's light pink turned into a cherry red but Naruto had turned back to his training. She coughed and got her blush under control, wondering what was wrong with her, as she continued.

"You, however, do not have that luxury." she stated causing Naruto's face to turn into grim determination, "The easiest way to make you capable of escaping taijutsu masters would be to increase your speed." she said, drawing a raised eyebrow from Naruto as he descended the tree again, this time looking at her as he walked, "Your body is a clean slate right now with not much definition because of the neglect your previous teachers have given you. I am glad you told me about the food you have been eating." Naruto's eyes hardened slightly but he still looked at Kurenai, Kurenai grimaced but continued, "This is actually a blessing as instead of you becoming a strength type, we can make you into a running type which focuses on speed and would allow you to train your body to the point where you could escape just about anyone." she explained which caused Naruto to scrunch his face up in thought.

"So... I would be like Sasuke?" he asked.

Kurenai shook her head, "No, Sasuke's taijutsu relies on him being fast yes, but it also requires him to hit hard in order to deal damage when he dodges strikes. As a bonus, his sharingan eyes allow him to map opponent's movements which cuts down on how fast he has to be to dodge their strikes. I am going to train you into being a, for lack of a better term, speed demon. You will be so fast that you will be able to dodge people's attacks even without the sharingan, only those who train as hard as yourself will ever hope to be able to keep up with you." she explained as he looked up at her with wide eyes. "Sasuke's style requires him to focus on speed while allowing for a decent amount of power to be worked into his training. Your training on the other hand, will be specifically speed with very little strength. It will increase your speed farther than Sasuke can hope to achieve without following the same training.""Really?" he asked with slight amazement in his voice. Kurenai nodded. An errant thought came across Naruto's mind, "Umm, Kurenai-sensei, how do you know how to train like this if you don't use it?" He asked curiously.