Chapter 4: Of New Jutsu and Masks, Of Sand & Sound 1/2

About a week had passed since the mission to the Land of Waves, and things had died down in certain areas, but not in others:

Tatsu had been recovering from his injuries he'd received during the battle, and had received a bounty for defeating Zabuza.

Naruto was working on mastering the Crimson Wind without using the Kyuubi's chakra, which wasn't easy considering how taxing it was.

Sasuke was working on his Sharingan with Kakashi as well as improving on his use of the Purple Thunder jutsu.

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Naruto met Sasuke and Sakura by the river "Hey guys."

"Naruto." Sasuke gave stoic nod.

Sakura sighed and looked away with a scowl 'They've been so tight ever since we got back from the Land of Waves, and I feel like some kind of outsider. It's all Naruto and Tatsu's fault, it's like they're trying to steal Sasuke away from me!

Kakashi finally showed up after 3 hours "Hey guys, good morning. Sorry I'm late, afraid I got lost on the path of life." he ignored the yells "Alright, I'll leave you guys to hone your skills for today. I've got something to take care of." and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

"So what's he doing?"

Sasuke sighed "Don't you listen? He said he was gonna go teach Tatsu some new jutsu when we got back, something about the fight with Zabuza being an eye-opener to his potential or something."

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Kakashi met Tatsu at the 3rd Training Ground with a bucket of water balloons "Alright Tatsu, time to get to work on this new jutsu. Minato sensei always said that the Rasengan should be passed down to someone he thought deserved it, and I think you've already more than proven yourself. This is what you need for the first step of learning the jutsu." he promptly tossed one of the water balloons to him.

"What's this for?" asked Tatsu.

"This is the first step to this jutsu. Take this for example." he held a balloon in his hand, and it suddenly popped "With the tree climbing exercise, you learned to gather and maintain chakra. With water walking, you learned to release a steady amount. Both of these you've long since mastered. With this water balloon, you'll create a stream of chakra, rotating it. First, gather the chakra in your hand with the tree climbing technique, and then release a steady stream of it using the water walking technique, and finally use the chakra to push and churn the water inside the balloon."

"So you're saying to spin the water inside the balloon until it pops?"

"Exactly. Oh, and by the way, what way do you comb your hair?"

"To the right, why?"

"Then rotate the chakra to the right."

"...Okay." and so he did, but only got it to leak "Dammit."

"That's good for your first try, but keep in mind that the 4th Hokage took 3 years to create this jutsu."

"And my brother learned it in less than a month. But then again that works for me, I've got less than a month until the Chunin Exams are underway."

"You've definitely got Kazuma's fire in your eyes. And don't get frustrated, just keep trying until you get it. I've got something to take care of. Later." and he disappeared.

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Naruto gave Sasuke and Sakura a creepy look "Hey, you guys wanna see it don't ya? I say it's time."

"For what?" asked Sasuke.

"Come on, you know what I'm talking about." he grabbed a flashlight out of nowhere, looking even more creepy "Kakashi-sensei's true face!"

Sakura got freaked out and hit him "What's the matter with you?"

Sasuke didn't look amused "Well that's boring, count me out. We finished today's mission, I'm out of here."

"Yeah, you're totally right. Of course he's right, he's Sasuke.'

Naruto wasn't having that and grinned "What if he has lips?"

Sasuke froze.

"Like a blimp."

Sasuke was shaking.

'Just one more little push. Or maybe buck teeth."

And that was the end of the struggle.

'Hook, line and sinker.'

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Hours passed, and Tatsu was on his 4th water balloon and still only getting a leak "Dammit!"

"Hi Tatsu."

He looked to see Ino standing before him "Oh hey Ino, what's up?"

Ino gave a bright smile "I heard you were back from your C-rank mission but you never came to say hi, what's up?"

"Well I was in the hospital, I got into a really nasty fight with one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Zabuza to be exact."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and to make that worse I lost the sword Asuma gave me and got this instead." he pulled down his shirt, revealing a scar from his shoulder down to his breast.

"Wow, that must be painful. So what're you up to now?"

"Well I received the bounty for Zabuza, and now Kakashi's teaching me a new jutsu."

"Cool, what jutsu?"

"The Rasengan, it's an A-rank jutsu developed by the 4th Hokage that he taught to my brother before he died. It took him 3 years to create it and my brother a month to learn it, but I wanna get it down before the Chunin exams."

"But that's still a few weeks away."

"Yeah I know, but I have a feeling something big is going down and I wanna make sure I'm prepared for it." then he noticed a cat messing with one of the balloons "Oh great, now my training tool is a goddamn cat toy."

"What are you supposed to do to master this jutsu anyway?"

"I'm supposed to use my chakra to rotate the water inside the balloon until it pops, but only turning it right or left only gets it to stretch or leak, popping isn't even close."

"Maybe that's the problem. You're only trying one thing at a time, maybe you should do two at once."

Tatsu looked and saw the cat spinning the water balloon around until it popped "Yeah, that could work. Thanks Ino, I always get my best inspiration when I'm around you."

Ino blushed "Well… bye!" and she ran off, chastising herself for being so cowardly as to not take the chance.

Tatsu suddenly appeared in front of Ino "Actually Ino, I need a favor from you and the other two."

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"Well, this is out of the ordinary." Kakashi noted "The 3 of you treating me to lunch? I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed on me." then he got snowed on.

They grinned and held up a sign "He fell for it!"

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Ending the fantasy within a fantasy within a fantasy…

"Know what I mean?" asked Kakashi.

They flinched.

Kakashi looked at the ramen, then at the genin "The 3 of you treating me to lunch? I wouldn't be surprised if it snowed on me… today-" he covered, but nothing happened "Or something-" the ramen exploded in his face.

They grinned and helped up a sign "He fell for it!"

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Ending the fantasy within a fantasy…

"Is that the idea?" Kakashi questioned.

They flinched.

"The 3 of you treating me to lunch? You're not going to drop a big pile of snow on me are you? Or maybe-" he covered, but nothing happened "No, I'm just being silly." he looked ahead, then got punched by a big extendable boxing glove into a nearby fence.

They all grinned and held up the sign "He fell for it!"

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Ending the fantasy…

"Well?" Kakashi interrogated.

They flinched.

"Come on, you guys are up to something right?"

They were outright sweating.

"Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-Wha-What are you crazy?" Naruto stammered.

Sakura tried to cover up "Kakashi-sensei please we're just celebrating the success of the Land of Waves mission so please, why don't you just go ahead and eat?"

Kakashi relaxed slightly "Well alright then, I suppose I should just dig in."

They stared intently.

Kakashi slowly began to pull his mask down "Boy, this looks good."

That was when Ino, Choji and Shikamaru showed up and blocked the view "Hey Sasuke, what a coincidence!"

"Get out of the way Ino-pig!"

"Aw man I can't see squat!"

Kakashi pulled his mask back up "All done, that was tasty!"

"So fast!"

"Something wrong?"

Considering Sakura and Ino were grabbing each other by the hair, and Naruto and Sasuke were about to choke Choji to death "Of course not, what makes you say that?"

Then Naruto noticed something "What the-?"

Teuchi and Ayame were staring at Kakashi, and Ayame had hearts in her eyes.

"Okay, now I'm curious." was the general idea they got.

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Kakashi showed up at the training ground, 6 hours into the training "Alright, how're you making out?"

Tatsu popped the water balloon, then turned to face him and grinned "You tell me."

"You mastered it already huh? You mind demonstrating."

"Watch carefully, keep your eyes on the balloon." he began generating chakra with the tree-climbing exercise in the hand with the balloon.

'Interesting.'

"Now for the next part." he summoned the water-walking technique in the other hand, he began rotating the water in different directions, effectively popping it.

'So that's it. By steadying it with his right hand and applying chakra with his right, he got it to pop. It's an unusual idea, but hey, what about him is normal? Not like it's a bad thing. That's pretty impressive, getting it down on the first day. You've successfully completed the first step. He's used up a lot of chakra to get this down though, I wonder if his chakra network can handle the strain, and it only gets harder from here. Alright then, looks like you're ready to move on to the next step."

"Yeah! Enough with all this kid crap, what's next on the list-"

"This." Kakashi held out a rubber ball.

"You're for real right now?"

"Let's see if you can pop this one." that's just what Kakashi did with his own rubber ball "There isn't any water in it, so it's a lot harder to pop."

Tatsu tried the method he used to pop the water balloon, but found little success 'Dammit, this is harder than it looks.'

"The first element is rotation, the second is force. But this object is solid, there's no water in it so it's far more difficult to exert your chakra rotation on it."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"I'll leave it to you to figure it out."

'I'll have to come up with something new for this one.'

"And in the meantime, I better get back to messing with my genin."

"They're trying to get off your mask, aren't they?"

"Yeah, and they almost succeeded the first time. Thanks for sending in Ino's team."

"Sure, I figured that if anyone would get to see your face it should be me."'

"Your brother and Itachi didn't, what makes you think you could? I mean, he mastered every step of this jutsu in a single month. Oh well, later." and he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Tatsu looked down at the rubber ball 'Yeah that's right, my brother mastered this jutsu in the span of one month. Well at least it's good to know that I have a deadline. No matter what, I'll surpass him. That much is a guarantee.'

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Things on another end were getting stupid and fired up.

"That's it, nothing's gonna stop me from seeing that face!" Naruto growled.

"Yeah but how, you got any ideas?" asked Sakura.

"Don't you worry." he did the creepy face "We'll see it one way or another!"

Sakura promptly whacked him "I'm asking you how you stupid little troll!"

"Well alright smart-bitch, how do you propose we do it?"

"Well, uh-"

"Let's just stalk him around while he does his thing." Sasuke pointed out "He'll take off his mask eventually."

"Oh Sasuke I swear you're so smart!"

"Shut up useless fangirl."

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Later, they were watching Kakashi drooling over porn.

"What the hell is he doing?" Naruto wondered.

"That's just disappointing on a whole other level." Sasuke muttered.

Then Kakashi looked back, and they ducked.

"He's onto us!"

"Naruto you idiot, you blew our cover!" Sakura hissed.

"Shut up Sakura, that's your fault and you know it!"

Kakashi was actually looking at the poster they were hiding behind "My favorite book is going to be a movie? I'd better order tickets in advance!" and he ran off.

"He's on the move again, let's go before we lose him!" Sasuke and the others rounded a corner, but Kakashi had disappeared "Dammit, where'd he go?"

Then Kakashi appeared behind them "Hey. What're you 3 doing? Did you guys need something?"

"...No, not really." their petrified faces slowly turned to face him.

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Here comes plan #3.

"How'd we figure out we were tailing him?" asked Naruto.

"Maybe there were just too many of us." Sakura suggested.

"Oh please, if you know how to hide it doesn't matter how many you are." then he did the creepy face "Don't tell me you've forgotten all of your jutsu Sakura!"

"You're the one who forgets!" she promptly whacked him.

Sasuke sighed "Let's just shadow him, but we'll do it solo this time."

"Yeah I think so too, we should totally ditch Naruto."

"If we're ditching anybody, it's you."

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Naruto was tracking Kakashi first, only for him to disappear about 30 seconds in while he was reading his book "Dammit!"

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Sakura was watching Kakashi standing at the Memorial Stone in the rain "What is Kakashi-sensei doing? He hasn't even moved in ages." then she froze "Don't tell me-!" she ran out and quickly discovered that instead of the real Kakashi, she'd been stalking a dummy made of straw.

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Sasuke wouldn't even tell how he got thrown off and just gave a crappy excuse "I got tired of shadowing him."

So yeah, they all failed.

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Nightfall came.

Tatsu was on the ground panting heavily, his hand pulsating 'Just like he said, this is a bitch-load harder than the water balloon. My arms and hands aren't killing me, I'm not sure how much more they can take.'

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Morning came, and the sun was rising over the skies of Konoha.

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Tatsu spent another day on it, before he felt nothing but pain in his hands 'Dammit, it won't pop no matter how hard I try. I'm just wasting time, burning through my chakra for absolutely no good reason. And this pain, the more I try to increase the flow, the more it hurts. But I have to give it all I've got or it won't pop, but what if all I've got isn't enough?' then he suddenly realized something 'That's it! If I can work through the pain to generate more chakra and push it right to the limit of what I can endure…' he put both hands on the rubber ball and began generating as much chakra as he could 'Come on… come on… still not enough�� COME ON!' he got the rubber ball to let out a small leak.

"Well well, looks like someone made some progress."

Tatsu looked back to see Kakashi "Yeah, but I only made it spring a leak instead of pop like you did."

"That doesn't matter. You've come far and all on your own." Kakashi put a hand on his head and ruffled his hair "Your brother would be proud of you."

"Thanks."

"Also, you remember when I said about your brother mastering the Rasengan in a week?"

"Yeah?"

"I only said that to give you more motivation, it actually took him 10 days. Anyway, let's try a little experiment. Give me your left hand." he drew something on Tatsu's left hand.

"What am I looking at?"

Kakashi removed his glove and drew the same mark on his right hand "Take a look."

"The same mark. I don't get it, how's this supposed to help?"

"You got yelled at in the academy for not focusing didn't you?"

"They teach you generic stuff to be an average shinobi, I came to you guys because I wanted to become the best."

"Your brother was the same way." Kakashi held out a folded piece of paper "Look at this." then he drew the mark on the paper "Now look again."

Tatsu blinked "What am I looking at?"

"It won't help much if I explain too much right away, but the first time you looked at this paper your eyes just focused on the whole thing right?"

"Probably."

"And what about the second time? Most likely the point in the middle? Any time the person's eyes glance on a full piece of paper, they don't focus where to look. The eyes just wander the page. But if you put even a dot on it, the mind is drawn there. You're then concentrating on a single point, and with that focus comes spiritual stability, letting you tap into unimaginable power. When you finally broke open the whole in the rubber ball, I'm sure you must've been trying desperately to gather up the chakra you needed in the palm of your hand."

"Right."

"When you concentrate, you draw out power. But without some sort of target, concentration can be difficult, hence that mark. Now listen, from now on, when you're storing up power in your left hand make sure you're concentrating only on that mark."

"Concentrate, huh? Alright, I guess I can handle that."

"Well then I'll leave you to it. Later." and he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Tatsu to continue with his training.

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3 hours later…

Tatsu was trying on his 7th rubber ball 'Come on, concentrate.' he got only a leak "Oh come on!" he got another ball 'I thought I knew what concentration was, but this is insane! I guess I'll just have to concentrate even harder. Concentrate… concentrate…' he looked at the symbol on his palm 'Concentrate… concentrate on one point only… Ow! Dammit, it hurts so much that I can't even build up chakra!'

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Kakashi was watching him from afar, book not even out for once 'I think he's almost reached his limit.'

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Tatsu laid on his back, panting heavily "I just need… a little breather…" he saw leaves blowing away in the wind as one landed on his face 'Oh yeah… now that I think about it, Iruka kept barking about how me, Naruto, Kiba, Choji and Shikamaru didn't have any concentration… they were just lazy, I was always training with Hayate-sensei or Asuma or someone, and always sent a Shadow Clone to the academy. Iruka made us stay after class to work on concentration. He said to focus all of my concentration on the leaf on my forehead, I'd learn to build up my chakra. By focusing on the single leaf, nothing can distract me. He who hones his concentration is truly a great ninja. Back then, pissing off Iruka was so much fun. Now that I think about it, this is the same thing. Maybe I should've paid more attention to what he was saying. Well, I guess there's no use in crying over spilled milk.' he took out a marker and turned the symbol on his palm into the leaf symbol 'Alright, here we go. I'm doing this no matter what.' he got back up and got another rubber ball 'Concentrate… concentrate… concentrate…' the rubber ball began pulsating, he mark of the leaf burning its image into his mind, chakra swirling around the mental image of it "This is it!" he began pouring chakra into it, and with one final burst of power, he finally popped the rubber ball, the force sending him tumbling back.

Kakashi looked at the destruction caused by the burst, then at Tatsu's burnt hand 'He's really something else, that chakra was so dense it burned his palm. One surprise after another.'

Tatsu shot Kakashi a weak grin "What do you know, it finally popped."

"Well done, it looks like you mastered the second step."

"Come on then, let me hear the third one…" then he passed out.

"That'll have to wait until you've recovered." Kakashi carried Tatsu on his back and took him back to his apartment.

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Later, Tatsu woke up and sat up in his bed "Oh man… my head's pounding like a goddamn bongo."

"Not surprising, you did push yourself really hard."

Tatsu looked and saw Kakashi sitting by his bed "Oh hey, how long have I been out?"

"A couple hours give or take, you're a real fighter."

"That's how I've always been." Tatsu slowly got out of bed and winced.

"Easy, you're still recovering."

"No, I've gotta get this down before the Chunin Exams. You said there were 3 steps, I've only learned 2."

"Relax, you can work on the 3rd on while you're recovering. It's considerably less straining on the body than the other two. Come on, let's head out to the training grounds if you're that eager."

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Kakashi blew up 2 balloons and handed one to Tatsu "The first step you learned was rotation, the second one was power. The third and final step to master is this." he held up his balloon in his hand.

Tatsu stared intently, but eventually lost his patience "Well? I'm waiting?"

"It looks like I'm holding an ordinary balloon doesn't it?"

"What do you mean it looks like? That's all you're doing."

"Let me try again, only without the balloon in my hand. Let's see what was really happening inside the balloon." he formed a spiralling ball of chakra.

'Holy shit, the chakra is spiralling at unbelievable speeds but it's still perfectly round and getting faster. It's almost like-'

"Like a small typhoon."

"So then, what you're doing right now is what was happening in the balloon?"

"I would demonstrate but I absolutely SUCK with my left hand. What do you think?"

'Awesome! He's got all that chakra spinning around and the balloon wasn't even moving. There's more power than when the rubber ball popped and way more spin to it.'

"Now for the third step, you've gotta draw out what you've learned so far and then maintain it. In other words, keeping the power and rotation at their maximum, visualize a thin membrane just inside the balloon, then of compressing the chakra inside it."

"So this stage is about keeping up the power and rotation I learned only this time without letting them pop open a delicate balloon."