The one month break

Nobody liked her.

From the moment she was born, Ishikari knew she was the eighth. The eighth of what, she didn't know.

What she knew was that the people around her, especially women around her age, never liked her.

They never told her that, of course. But she could tell from the way they treated her.

Walking past her like she wasn't there at all.

Talking about her in hushed tones.

She had tried building something with them, of course.

She had tried interacting with them, learning about what girls her age found interesting. She had read all of the romance novels, learned about the most eligible bachelors. She had studied all of this for hours.

But when the moment came… she couldn't.

Her confidence blew like a candle in the wind.

No one smiled at her, told her they found her interesting.

She ended up giving up, over time.

Watching people live their lives, laugh, smile, and love.

The longing was even stronger then.

Why couldn't she be like them?

The wish warped with time.

Soon enough, instead of punishing herself for being so weak…

She made up her mind.

If everybody seemed to believe something was wrong with her in the first place…

Well, she would give them a reason.

"This shit again?" Naruto wondered when he woke up.

His head was throbbing, and it was night. Apparently, he was in the hospital again.

His injuries had been more on the reasonable side, but nonetheless, he was to stay a few days.

Somebody had left him flowers while he was sleeping — which was for most of the day. "Ino." He thought with a smile.

There was also a book about Fūinjutsu, courtesy of his sensei… and a handwritten note, half of which was written in smooth cursive, the other in messy, inky blots. Sasuke and Toru, then.

In the note, they explained that since he had "managed to stumble his way into the last round of exams", he read with a laugh, he would have the rest of the month to prepare for it.

Both Toru and Sasuke went to train with their clan.

Well, considering he himself was facing Sasuke in the first round, it was probably better to train separately anyway.

That likely left him alone with Kakashi.

Truth be told, he liked the man and his casual way. Now knowing he could trust him to have his back for sure was a relief.

"I think it's time we started using your Kage Bunshin to speed up your training." Kakashi declared.

"Huh?" Naruto said, more in surprise than anything else.

"Oh. I guess you never realized about the Kage Bunshin trick" Kakashi continued smugly, both eyes closed. "Well, it's no wonder, if you use it more for combat… Well, originally, the jutsu was used for intell-"

Naruto laughed and held a hand up. "No, no. I know all this. I have a few clones doing some reading for me right now, actually."

"…" Kakashi folded his arms. "When were you planning on telling me..?"

"Uh."

The older man sighed. "Well, no matter. Let's get on with it." Then he realized something. "Wait, you said a few…?"

Kakashi had meant to use a single clone to focus on book-learning while the real Naruto trained with him.

"Yeah, why?"

"…How many?"

"Around five today, I think." He then added. "I can do more, though."

That… shouldn't be possible. Two would be pushing it, and the only way most people could make it work is by having the clones sit almost entirely still, for only up to a few hours a day.

The human body was not meant to accommodate for the stress of living three days into a single one.

And he was using five, everyday?

There was something here that didn't add up.

"Oh, and I had four of them running missions for me, before."

"Wait. That wasn't just you speed-running your way through them?"

"Nah, clones." Damn.

"Is this even legal?"

"No law against it."

"Yet."

"Yeah, yet. I used them to help me draw up some seals faster, too."

Kakashi understood that either something about Sarutobi Naruto was very out of the ordinary, or he was using a different technique altogether. He'd have to check with the Third.

He decided to pretend nothing was strange, here.

"What about elemental training?"

"Uh… I didn't really think it would work, honestly. Wouldn't it be doing the same thing over and over again? I thought it'd be better to have them do different things.

"Nothing's preventing you from decomposing the elemental training in several aspects, you know this, right?"

Naruto said nothing. Truth be told, he hadn't really considered this.

"And what about physical training?" If exhaustion was not really a problem…

God, the possibilities. He was jealous. Now, it was time to figure out the limits of this.

"Well… Clones can't train my body." Naruto said cautiously, already expecting his sensei to try to make him look like a punk. That was the basis of their relationship, really.

"No, they can't." He admitted. "But muscle memory is a thing."

"…Isn't this a… muscle thing?"

"Nah, it's procedural memory. Repeat it enough times, and you can do it with almost no conscious effort." He paused. "This would free you up to focus on other things in combat. Plus… even if it really were a muscle thing, the principle would still hold."

Naruto could see many ways this could be useful. Weapons training, katas, reflexes training, as well as some aspects of speed training. "I see."

"I'm glad your poor old sensei can still teach you a trick or two."

"…Yeah. Thanks."

"Thanks who..?"

"Thanks, sensei." He managed between clenched teeth.

"That's better."

"So… Wind as a second affinity?" Kakashi asked, later.

"Yeah. Don't know much about it, though."

Kakashi thought. "Hmm… Sasuke is going to be a tough opponent and Wind definitely won't help against him. It's your choice, of course, but I think you might be better off just focusing on Lightning Style."

"Sure thing."

It was pretty rare for a genin to have two affinities, but he wasn't about to let the little shit know.

During the day, he had a few clones doing more theory work, each of them created with the lowest amount of chakra he could spare.

A few more were practicing Bōjutsu under the sporadic guidance of Hiruzen.

Well, it was mostly the old man telling him his footwork was sloppy, and how much better he had been when he had been a child himself, yada, yada.

The tips were actually helpful, though.

Karin was walking through the village on a warm autumn night. Somehow, she had managed to get herself in the last round of exams, when both of her teammates hadn't.

They were a bit resentful, even though they said nothing about it directly. Wouldn't want her to feel she had something over them.

The fact they were now stuck in Konoha for a full month, just so the teammate they only saw as a healing bank could compete added insult to the injury.

Her sensei trained her some, but she was starting to have the feeling that he was not doing a very good job at it.

Maybe it was because he saw no use in training what was basically a walking medicine bag, maybe it was because he was just plainly bad at it. Sure, he was a strong Jōnin, — wouldn't want her powers to be lost to the village entirely if she were to die — but a good sensei he wasn't.

She had had so much trouble convincing the village leader to let her enter the academy. All for what… this?

Kusa had pretty limited resources on shinobi training, outside of direct training. In this aspect, Konoha was much better.

The only problem was that as a shinobi from Kusa — on decent terms with Konoha, but not a trusted ally like Suna or Kumo, progressively —, she could only access very few of them.

She sighed. And now she was getting hungry on top of it.

Karin picked a food stall at random.

People were chatting loudly in it, some of them inebriated already. They seemed to be having fun.

There were some civilian teenagers as well, gesturing loudly, talking about their coming holiday.

Well, there was no hiding it. She was lonely.

She came closer to the counter to order.

Ramen, Sakura Rolls, Udon…

She wasn't sure what to eat.

Somebody was talking. Karin continued reading, almost drooling.

Wait, were they talking to her?

"The sushi's good. We ordered too much, actually, so if you want, come sit with us, we can share".

That was the Sarutobi boy who had gotten absolutely destroyed by the insect girl.

He had also encouraged her, when no one would.

She said nothing, too surprised to react.

Sarutobi shrugged. "Take a seat. It's cheaper if you eat at the counter itself, so…"

"Cheapskate. Didn't you do like a ton of missions before the exams? What are you doing with the money, even?" The pretty blonde girl asked, snorting.

"I was planning on buying your house and building a bar on top of it, actually." He answered with a straight face, not breaking eye contact with Karin. He did have very nice eyes.

"Pfft." The girl, likely a Yamanaka, snorted.

There was another girl, with very long pink hair held in a low ponytail. She looked casual enough, but nobody could miss the long scar that bisected her left eye. Or the way her left arm ended after her biceps.

The girl threw her a friendly-enough look, so she just nodded in greeting.

Sarutobi patted the chair next to him. She felt a bit shy still, but took a seat.

"Hello." She said, a bit nervously.

"Hi."

"I'm Karin, I'm from Kusa. Pleased to meet you." She introduced herself, not forgetting her manners.

"Sarutobi Naruto. That's Yamanaka Ino, and Haruno Sakura." He returned.

Ino stared at Naruto. "Aren't you such a big sociable guy, now, huh."

"What do you mean?" He asked innocently.

"…Never mind."

"Is it about making introductions for you?"

Ino ignored him and turned to Karin.

"You had… quite a show in the preliminaries." She said with a small smile.

Oh. That.

Karin blushed. She kinda had… lost control back then.

"Ah. Uh. Sorry if it was unseemly."

"Not at all." Ino laughed easily. "The guy seemed to be a real asshole."

"Still…"

"It's a shinobi fight. You did perfectly fine." Ino reassured.

"Losing control is always a bit…"

"Don't tell me you regret it." Ino sighed. The girl seemed a bit reserved, maybe she'd have to tease some reaction out of her.

"What? No!" Karin huffed, before she could think. "I didn't say that. I just wish I could have sneaked a couple more punches in, 'yaknow." She said, palming her fist.

The Sarutobi's eyes widened a bit when he heard her.

Ah shit. Here she went again. She felt herself blush up to her roots.

The three Konoha ninjas — or likely former ninja, in the Haruno girl's case — paused. For a second, Karin thought she had said something she shouldn't have.

Then they started laughing.

"I think we'll get along just fine." Ino snorted.

"Mah. This sure is weird, preparing one of your precious students to face the other."

"…"

"I wonder how much I should say, and still remain fair to both Sasuke and you." He sighed. "And what happens if any of you manage to win your matches and end up facing poor Toru…? Questions, questions. Any thoughts?"

No answer.

"What about your little Yamanaka friend? Could you fight her at full capacity? I heard you were close. And the tiny red-head I sometimes see you with?"

"…"

"You're not very talkative today, are you, Naruto?"

Naruto exploded. "You're standing on my back!"

Kakashi kept on increasing the weights he used, and when Naruto conveniently "forgot" about them, he had decided to improvise.

"Ah yes. True. You can stay silent."

"I mean it, Kakashi's a real dick, sometimes. And don't get me started on the old man, he's the worst! Can you believe he actually had me believe he had some sort of Dōjutsu called the "Wise Monkey Eye" when I was a kid?" Naruto grumbled.

Karin stifled a laugh, next to him.

"You actually believed it?" She asked softly.

"I was five! FIVE!" He shouted. "How could I know better?"

"I should have known he was making it up…" He put his finger on his forehead, and pretended to focus. He took on his best old man voice. " This eye is a powerful one… It allows me to make children who don't make their bed… disappear in the Shadow Monkey Realm. Forever."

She let out a big belly laugh before catching herself, blushing.

"I kinda wish I had that." She said, wistfully.

Ah. True. She was an orphan, too.

"Well, no worries, I'll bring you to meet the old man, then." He said, with more cheer than he felt at the reminder she was alone. "He can probably teach you a trick or two."

She tried not to allow herself to feel hopeful. "You think so?"

"Definitely. Just ignore his… eccentricities."

Naruto met Fū by accident on the day the team from Taki was leaving.

For once, she was not smiling anymore.

He felt some sort of vindictive glee at that.

It didn't make up for what she had done to Shino, not even close.

She threw a murderous look at him, and he knew that if they met outside of the village, all bets were likely off.

He shot her a placid smile in return, and left before he could see her reaction.

The month was over pretty fast.

He trained with Kakashi during the day, left some clones to practice with weapons, two more to do the reading.

Biwako took a liking to Karin, telling the old man she reminded her of Kushina — whoever that was. The old man did well on his promise, and gave her some helpful instruction.

Nothing too specific, of course, Kusa was still a tentative ally. A few rare books went a long way, though.

Naruto met with his friends whenever they all had free time, which became rarer and rarer as the month went.

He saw Karin more often, overall, and he enjoyed the redhead's company. Something about her felt very familiar, in a way.

Citizens from Suna and Kumo arrived in the days before the finals.

Naruto watched them come, with a few of his friends.

There was only one participant from Kusa, and nobody came to Karin.

A large group of Kumo ninjas arrived. Most of them had dark skin, and imposing physiques.

At their helm was a man that was even larger, with slicked back pale blond hair. That was A, the fourth Raikage. He looked like the surly type.

Suna's delegation came, puppets in tow, and part of their faces obscured by veils.

The Kazekage was a man who looked like an older version of Gaara, and just as friendly.

Both of the Kage made the Fifth Hokage look approachable, which was saying something.

The three of them met at the gate, and they exchanged greetings that were more or less genuine.

There was some tension in the air, especially between the Kazekage and the Raikage.

He'd have to ask the old man about that, at some point.

The day after, the exams started in the morning.

The matches went like this:

Yasui, from Kumo, would fight the winner of the next match below.

Hyūga Neji vs. Takai, from Kumo

Kankurō of the Desert vs. Karin, from Kusa

Tenten, from Konoha vs. Yamanaka Ino

Tsuyoi, from Kumo, would fight the winner of the next match below.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Sarutobi Naruto

Akimichi Chōji vs. Rock Lee

Uchiha Toru vs. Gaara of the Desert