Naruto : Chapter 29
And if the girls didn't improve their fighting abilities, the occasional rogue ninja that led bandits could be a massive problem for them if they were ever separated from their teams or had bad luck in a fight.
It had happened often enough in the past. And the things bandits did to girls were sometimes worse than death.
...
Kakashi and Asuma returned and gave their students comments on their fights and where they needed to improve. To the horror of team ten, Asuma announced that in three weeks they would also get resistance seals to train their physical strength.
"Why then and not now?" Choji asked.
"Because I first want you to have learned to properly work as a team and get you up to speed in the basics. If you know the moves, you can then retrain your skill easier when you get the seals." Asuma said.
"But why did Kakashi sensei then have us train with them from the second day?" Sakura asked. Asuma's way to do things was making much more sense to her.
"Because I have a different way to train my genin team and we have a different focus.
I think you all need to build up strength, well Naruto not so much as he has trained like that before becoming a genin, but you and Sasuke had more than enough room for improvement in the strength area.
And if you are used to the increased difficulty of training, missions will be easier for you." Kakashi said.
'That and I need to break you and Sasuke out of your bad habits.' He mentally added.
Sakura just thought her sensei was a sadist. Her fangirl and damsel in distress mentality still was resisting being broken.
"So next week you are going up against Kurenai's team?" Asuma asked Kakashi.
"Yes, after that we have a break from the sparring matches. I will just have them take missions then. Until the end of the month I intend to have them done around twenty D-ranks. After that, if all went well, they should be ready for C-ranks."
Kakashi replied, having Naruto and Sasuke perked up at the prospect of doing C-ranks after only a month being genin.
"Ambitious, aren't you, Kakashi?" Asuma asked.
"Perhaps a bit, but you know that C-ranks only involve bandits and the like if any. Mostly they are pretty boring and only are C-ranked because they have the genin outside the village 8for a certain time frame." Kakashi reminded him.
Asuma nodded. It was true, most C-ranks were messenger jobs, escorting merchants, delivery jobs that needed to be done by faster methods than a civilian could manage, some low profile guard duty, things like that. And with Kakashi being there, normally there would be no risk for his team.
Kakashi turned to his genin. "We are returning to our training ground and will do advanced tree climbing for the next hours." He informed them.
They nodded and stood up from the ground.
"What is advanced tree climbing, Asuma sensei?" Ino asked, not having heard of climbing on trees being a ninja training exercise.
"I only know normal tree climbing. It's an exercise to learn to control your chakra better to fight more effectively. You'll also learn that soon. I guess Kakashi has thought up his own version to make it more difficult." Asuma answered.
Sakura shuddered. Her sensei's ideas of training exercises bordered on insane in her eyes.
"Ah, there are so many beautiful ways to make the exercise more difficult. I have them climb trees while sticking a leaf to each hand for example. But today we will practice the version where you have to ignore disturbances from outside." Kakashi told his students eye smiling.
"Which means Naruto's clones get to pepper us with rubber balls again." Sasuke translated sighing, determined to get the better of Naruto's clones this time.
"Be glad that Kakashi sensei keeps it at rubber balls, we could also do the same with senbons." Naruto said grinning evilly.
"You are crazy, you know that, Naruto?" Sasuke asked.
"Only a little bit, nothing to be worried about. All ninjas have to be a little crazy to survive in this job." The blond played it down.
'The whole team is crazy.' Thought the genin of team ten.
"Well, we are on our way then, until next time, Asuma. And that makes two victories for me and one for you." Kakashi told Asuma while leaving.
"The only thing that counts is the end result. The bet is for the whole time until the next chunin exams." Asuma countered.
"And I am sure I will win." The silver haired jonin replied.
When team seven had left, Shikamaru turned to his sensei.
"What kind of bet is that?" He asked.
"Oh, just whose team will win the most fights with another team. The ones in the bet are Kurenai, Kakashi and I. The winner gets the pot of fifteen thousand ryo." Asuma said. "So I intend to win.
"And how would that work? If you didn't notice, Naruto is clearly beyond genin level, I would guess from his speed and how hard he hit he is high chunin level and if Kakashi sensei is really training team seven like that I don't see either us or team eight winning against Naruto or Sasuke." Shikamaru demanded to know.
"Ah, but there you are mistaken. Only the first fights will matter in that way. We will also have team matches and there it matters that all members of a team solve the given task together.
And face it; Kakashi has two strong individual fighters in Naruto and Sasuke but no teamwork. And Sakura isn't their level. If she constantly loses her fights it will also cost Kakashi points. This is completely open for now." Asuma assured them.
"Does that mean you will also make us do some crazy training?" Ino asked.
"I will up your training, that's for sure, but I don't like overwhelming fresh genin from the start. The first month is to get used to ninja life, after that things will get harder." He informed them.
...
Meanwhile on training ground eight.
Kurenai was copying Kakashi's idea of keeping her team busy. She knew Hinata was ridiculed by her clan for her shyness and her problems with learning gentle fist. If only she had more of an idea about the style, but taijutsu and especially secret clan techniques were not her forte. She was a genjutsu specialist.
Shino needed to get more contact with others and learn how to open up more. His team-mates needed to be able to have an idea how he worked.
Kiba needed to get over his brashness, which was somewhat typical for his clan. All three were talented and she didn't doubt they would be ready for the chunin exams in six months.
"Okay, team, I have something to tell you." She said.
Hinata, Shino and Kiba sat down around her.
"As you perhaps know, three of the nine teams of your year have passed the genin tests of their jonin senseis, you, team ten under Asuma Sarutobi and team seven under Kakashi Hatake.
Now Asuma, Kakashi and I decided that to improve all our students' fighting skills and other abilities that are important for ninjas, we will have you compete with the other teams. This month will be one-on-one fights against the members of the other teams.
After that we will have other tasks which will be decided later. Next week we have a match against team seven, the week after that we will face team ten. Today teams seven and ten have their match." She told them.
Shino took the information stoically. Kiba was excited at the prospect to show his strength and Hinata hoped she wouldn't embarrass her team.
"During all of this, we jonin senseis have a bet going on. The jonin whose team collects most points over the period of six months will win fifteen thousand ryo.
We all placed five thousand in the pot. If you manage to win the pot for me, I will invite you to a great celebratory dinner. I want to prove to Kakashi and Asuma that a team specialized in tracking can be as strong as any other team." She said.
"Count on us, Kurenai sensei, we will make sure you win your bet." Kiba loudly exclaimed.
"Don't be too sure of our abilities. We are good, but it will depend on the tasks we will get how well we can do. Why you ask? Team seven has the two top genin of our class in it." Shino said.
"Sakura wasn't top of the class." Kiba protested.
"Not Sakura, Naruto. If you didn't notice, he faked his idiocy and his bad grades. Naruto is the most dangerous opponent of all the new genin." Shino stated.
"No way, he was the dead last. I will give you that his show with shutting up Sakura and Ino with senbons and poisons was cool, but you don't really think he was a good fighter." Kiba protested.
"N-No, Kiba. Naruto is s-strong. H-He has more chakra t-than even K-Kurenai sensei." Hinata said.
Kiba looked at her disbelievingly.
"You can't be serious, Hinata." He said.
Hinata nodded.
"Damn, how can he have more chakra than a jonin?" Kiba asked indigenised.
"Naruto is a special case." Kurenai only said.
Shino nodded. He had asked his father after graduating why Naruto had so much chakra, but he was told it was classified information. Something was odd about his old classmate and he would find out what it was.
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