Team Training

There was a sigh before the sound of sandals hitting the floor could be heard in her apartment. "How many bottles did you even drink last night?"

Naruko looked up from where she was lying on the couch blinking at Kakashi looking over her. "37. Why are you even in my apartment?"

"Because you left your door open." He strolled around the couch and plopped on it, uncaring for her legs that he sat on. "You wanna say why the first thing I smelt when coming back to Konoha was depression?"

'How do you even smell emotions? You know what, never mind.' Naruko shrugged. "You be ordered to read every single war report from every single Great Shinobi War within a few months, and somehow not be fucked up."

Kakashi groaned. "The Sandaime being the Sandaime then."

Naruko shrugged neither agreeing nor disagreeing, "It happens. You shouldn't be saying that the ANBU might get a bit bristly."

He'd snort, "Maah, don't care about that so much Naruko! My opinions of him are well-known hasn't affected my career ever. Not at all, nope."

A blonde eyebrow was raised. "That sounds like a conversation, one I don't have time for, as I was meant to have met my team," she looked at her clock, "Oh, twenty minutes ago."

A tsk escaped from his mouth, "Naughty naughty Naruko. You can't be late for things. You're a big girl now." She simply blinked staring at him. "Mhm? Why do I feel like you're calling me a hypocrite? I've never been late for anything." The staring intensified. "I wonder what you have on your TV, shouldn't you be going?" He clicked the TV on.

She stared for a little bit more before shrugging. "Whatever. Don't eat my ramen." She slipped her feet out from underneath him and stood him. 'What an a-' she coughed and jumped out of her window, not finishing that thought.

-Sakura- 

'She's late again... a Sensei shouldn't be late! But it does give me time with Sasuke-kun. Maybe Naruko-sensei is doing it on purpose! Too let romance bloom! If only Sai wasn't here...' 

She let out a dreamy sigh as she stared at Sasuke. His pose, his demeanor, that look in his eyes... 'Oh, he's so perfect! Maybe I should say something?' 

"Hey Sasuke-kun do you-"

-Naruko-

"Hey Sasuke-kun do you-"

"Awkward conversation starter interruption no Jutsu!" Naruko appeared in the middle of the training ground. "Now that I'm here, and if any of you say I'm late you'll be running fifty laps around Konoha."

"You're la--" Sakura stopped herself at the very end, while Sasuke remained sitting with judging eyes, and Sai simply stood up.

"So! Team we're starting with group exercises first! But to start off - everyone warm up and stretch because when I was doing something all of you decided that the most effective use of your time was to sit around!" She clapped her hands. "Well? Get on with it, I'm not going to lead you through stretches - you should know by now what stretches work best for your body."

Sai and Sasuke got immediately to it, whereas Sakura awkwardly flutzed around for a bit, before getting into stretches that she occasionally paused at. 'Are you kidding me? How badly did she slack in the physical department? Was she only passing because of her chakra control?' 

Walking on over to Sakura she'd stop her. "Stop, stop. Just, follow what I'm doing, okay?" Naruko would slowly begin to go through stretches. "This is what you'll be doing every day from now on so memorize it. You wake up? You do these. You come to the training ground? You do these. You're about to go to bed? You do these." 'Sheesh. A shinobi should be able to move in every way physically possible, and oftentimes physically impossible. Based on her introduction yesterday, one would think she would be focusing almost exclusively on stretches. But I guess in the end, she's still just an infatuated kid, saying stuff she doesn't really understand or mean, at least not yet.' 

Stopping herself from sighing at the physical reminder that people her age were just kids, Naruko led Sakura through her full range of new warmups, before standing up and stepping back. "Alright, team! In the first exercise, we throw a ball at each other. Anytime it's dropped, the thrower and catch-up do twenty pushups."

Naruko pulled out a ball from her bag. "We manage to not drop it 200 times in a row? We go on to the next exercise. If we're still doing this after an hour and a half? We go on to the next exercise. Any questions?"

Sai stayed silent, Sasuke scowled at the exercise, and Sakura blinked confused. "Sensei? Isn't this a bit easy?"

Naruko chuckled tossing the ball up and down into the air. "Sure, except for the fact that the ball randomly changes weight, and occasionally darkness will descend onto the training ground, and of course, the wind will be changing the entire time."

As she said that the clones she had originally spread around the training ground revealed themselves. "Now, one." She underhand threw the battle to Sasuke who caught it. He promptly threw it to Sai.

"Two." Sadly, as he threw it in a typical throw, just as it released the ball changed weight, and he found himself spiking it into the dirt. 'Pfft. Almost like I threw it the way I did on purpose!' 

"Welp! Looks like Sai and Sasuke have to drop and give us twenty, you count for them Sakura, y'know?" Naruko chuckled as horror slowly dawned on her team.

"Don't worry team! I'm sure you'll be able to complete this exercise - in a month or two. Maybe." 

By the time an hour and a half had elapsed, Sasuke was beginning to look tired, and Sakura looked absolutely exhausted. Sai looked like Sai and seemed to be perfectly fine bar some sweating. 'Maybe I should crank up my weights! Those pushups felt like doing feathers. But my leg weights are already on max. So I guess I'll just have to deal with increasing my arm weights. Mhm... maybe I should weight my ramen with seals so it trains my insides?!?' 

Snapping out of her thoughts Naruko would shout out, "Alright team! 5-minute break, that means drinking water and slowly moving around - NOT acting like a dying starfish gasping for air while not moving on the ground."

After five minutes and her team looked a bit better she nodded. "Alright. Next up is something physically less demanding, and something we'll be doing while eating an early lunch. I'm going to have my Shadow Clones set up various battle situations, and you as a team are going to lead one side of them. Every time you fail, that'll be one lap around the training ground at the end of the exercise. Are we clear?"

"Are we going to get the lunches now Sensei?" 

'Aah Sakura! You're so lucky you have the wonderful me as your Sensei!' "In the future I expect you to bring your lunches, but today I've already prepared them for you. I expect you to eat it all." She stared specifically at Sakura at the last bit. "Any other questions?"

"Naruko-sama, what do you mean by 'failing' in this situation?"

Nodding at the question from Sai she'd explain, "Failing in this situation as it's a TEAM exercise, means any of the Shadow Clones dying on a base level. It'll change based on the setup. Sometimes you're delivering a scroll, other times you'll be guarding a prisoner, other times you'll be escorting someone, and then occasionally you'll be trying to kill a specific Shadow Clone on the other side. Any other questions?"

There was none, so she handed out the lunches. "Alright, the first one is...."

In the end, they had to run seven laps. They only ran through eight simulations. 'Huh. They managed to complete one. Good on them. When they can get through four they can start doing the simulations themselves instead of my Shadow Clones being on both sides.' "Alrighty team! We'll be doing personal training next. Sakura you're with that Shadow Clone, Sasuke you're with that one, and Sai you're with that one! None of you are getting the main me, because that would be blatant favoritism."

-Sakura Clone-

Sitting down on the ground Naruko would pat the ground in front of her. "Thank you sensei!" Sakura with an exhausted slump sat down.

"Do you know what you need to work on Sakura?" There was a gentle touch to her voice for once, and Sakura looked at the ground before nodding.

"Yes, Sensei. I get exhausted so much easier than them..." 

Naruko reached out and patted Sakura on the head. "Don't worry about that. Just work on self-improvement. Now I'm gonna lay out a few things, so follow along okay?" Sakura nodded but didn't say anything. "The first things first. I want you to eat properly. I don't know what you were eating before, but you need a bit more calories and a bit more protein. Do you know what I mean by that?"

Sakura looked confused for a second before saying. "More meat?"

Naruko corrected her, "Meat would work. But so would eggs or pistachios. In the case of calories maybe some milk in your case." 'Weird teaching people about how to eat, when I can literally ignore all of this and just shovel Ramen into my gullet 24/7 if I wanted to.' "Can you do that Sakura?"

"Yes, Sensei!"

Naruko smiled, "Alrighty, then next up is the hair. My hair is long. Why? Because if I wanted to I could blow up a mountain. I can use henge without seals to adjust my hair length if needed mid-battle. I don't have to care about things like people grabbing my hair. It's a non-factor for me. Worst case scenario they rip it out and I ignore it. But for you? You can't do that."

Sakura looked a bit pale. "Sensei are you saying?"

Naruko nodded, before letting out a sigh. "I understand. I do. But what's more important, your hair, or a bandit grabbing your hair before slitting your throat or pinning you down?"

Sakura paled while looking sick. "I... I understand Sensei. I'll figure it out." She still looked hesitant, but it was a start.

"Alright, how about I get you started on your new training regimen? After all, while it's my duty as a Sensei to teach you - I can't teach you every day. Now that you're a Genin, a lot of your training will be based on your own dedication, and not someone forcing you to do something."

-Sasuke Clone-

"Your physical abilities are far beyond what's expected of Genin, and honestly for most Chunin. Your Ninjutsu repertoire, Chakra Control, Chakra Amount, and usage of your Sharingan is superb." Sasuke looked proud at the compliments. 'I can see that pride brewing inside of you.' "Yet, somehow - through all of that. Your control over yourself is as fucking horrific as a toddler throwing a tantrum. You've still not managed to complete the very first step of the training I tried to teach you, and it's been years. So, we'll be going about this a different way. Every single time you fail to control yourself, I'll be sealing your chakra for thirty minutes. Every single time you control yourself, instead I'll help you refine your Jutsu, teach you more about Chakra Control, help you with your Taijutsu, or the like. Maybe I'll even teach you a Jutsu. After all - that Kirin you learned from the Scroll of Seals? That Jutsu was invented by me."

Sasuke went through a wide range of emotions. Pride, rage/fear, and then interest. "You made that Jutsu?"

Naruko had a wide grin on her face, "Yup! All me. So what do you say, you ready to finally master yourself? After all, you'll never be a master at breaking Genjutsu and thus - seeing through the Illusions of the world if you can't master yourself." 'Aah. There we go, emotional baiting. Got him hook, line, and sinker.' 

"How do we start Sensei?" The gleam in his eyes would be unsettling for other people. For her? She saw scarier things every time she blinked. Honestly, he looked like a cute little kitten to her!

"Well, we start with..."

-Sai Clone-

"You'll continue with the training I've already given you, but since you're now officially my student, I'll be making some weights for you. Any questions?"

Sai nodded, "Should I be focusing on water or earth?"

Naruko hummed before nodding to herself. "Focus on water still. You're close to mastering the 2nd Stage. Then you can focus fully on earth. When your training is done you'll meet all the requirements for Jonin and more, y'know!"

Sai very slightly smiled. "Yes, Sensei. Now I was wondering about..."