Chapter 26

"Team 7 led by Kakashi Hatake consists of Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. I vow upon the honour of my clan, the Hatake that all three of them are ready for the chunin selection exam.

_____

Naruto bid farewell to Sakura and went home while Sakura who was in a daze forgot about inviting Naruto for a meal at her place.

While lying on the bed I thought to myself that I've been slacking off a lot...this most probably is because of me getting complacent because of my ability to learn things quickly thanks to my shadow clones.

"I can't remain like this." I said to myself. I had sent thousands of clones in the forest while in the Wave country to practice chakra control and by now they have all dissipated after practicing for days and thanks to them my proficiency in controlling my chakra was at a very high level. It was now time for me to master rasengan.

I made a clone and sent it to buy balloons and rubber balls from the nearby market while I took a short nap after eating cup noodles.

The balloons and rubber balls soon arrived. I was planning to practice it myself first instead of using my clones to make sure I don't lose a fortune in buying these balloons and rubber balls.

I filled a few balloons with water and after tightening them went to the sink and started practicing the rotation aspect of the technique while sitting on the stool with my hand over the sink...mopping the floor was the last thing I wanted to do while practicing this technique.

The aim was to make my chakra rotate inside the water balloon with such speed that it would burst so I started with imagining a dot in the centre of the balloon and made it rotate clockwise in my mind as I sent chakra towards the water balloon placed in my hand.

The water balloon started churning making me feel a bit excited but I didn't let it go over my head and continued to focus and slowly and steadily the water inside the balloon started rotating at such a speed that I could hear the sound of the water rotating inside the balloon and just at the moment the friction produced between the insides of the balloon and the water bursted the balloon making all the water that was inside splash all over the room instead of the sink....sigh.

My mood soon recovered though because I was not expecting to succeed in the first try. It was time to start the next step so I took 2-3 rubber balls along with normal balloons and went out in the forest to practice it. This time I just needed to input enough amount of chakra inside the rubber ball inorder to make it burst. It should have been quite simple I thought and when I tried it, it indeed came out to be simple.

I succeeded in the first attempt aswell though while bursting one of the projectiles of the flying rubber pieces slapped me on my face making it all red.

After rubbing my face a bit with my hand I continued to the next and the last step of mastering the rasengan. I blowed air into a balloon and placed it on my palm. The aim was to combine the first two steps into one while making sure not to burst the balloon.

I tried it on the first balloon and failed...second balloon..failed again...third... again failed. Suddenly things were no more smooth going for me. I could feel improving with each attempt so I knew that it's only a matter of time...or clones for me to master this.

The balloons I brought from my house were finished up and I was too lazy to practice again so after returning home I just sent my five-six of my clones back with balloons to practice it. It would take two to three days at max to master it at this pace.

Meanwhile at a different location,

"That hurt you little bastard" Kankuro said as he raised Konohamaru by his collar up in the air.

Temari who was standing next to Kankuro was watching all this with nonchalance.

"Put me down you funny face." Konohamaru replied angrily after being held up like that by the person in black.

*Swish*

Kankuro's fist was about to reach Konohamaru's face when it was stopped by Naruto who grabbed his fist with his palm and twisted his wrist a little to loosen his strength before pushing Kankuro away.

Konohamaru was playing Ninja with Naruto's clone which soon turned into hide and seek and while searching for a place to hide quickly he collided with Kankuro resulting in the earlier clash between the two.

Naruto's clone after seeing the situation acted swiftly and stopped him from harming Konohamaru.

"He's only a child no need to use fists now do we? Or should I presume that the Genins from the Sand village want to be denied the right to participate in the Chunin exams?" The clone said to Kankuro.

Kankuro who was about to attack stopped after hearing what the attacker said but his pride prevented him from giving up as he swiftly placed the puppet wrapped in bandage on the ground from his back.

The blank face of Temari was suddenly replaced with worry as she shouted out at Kankuro "Kankuro Don't! Don't use the crow!"

Kankuro completely ignored Temari and was about to attack when he suddenly freezed. His gaze was now directed behind Naruto on a tree.

"You're a disgrace to our entire village. Have you forgotten our purpose for coming here?" Gaara said in a cold apathetic voice.

"But Gaara they started it!! This little shrimp he-" Kankuro wanted to explain but he was interrupted midway by Gaara

"Shut up or I'll kill you" Gaara said with a blood thirsty look in his eyes making Kankuro gulp his saliva.

Gaara came down from the tree and was now facing Naruto and after glaring at him for a second turned around and started walking as he said "Let's go."

Kankuro and Temari soon followed Gaara. Temari turned back to glance at Naruto again while going back. 'Now that I notice he's quite hot.'

"Alright Konohamaru they all went back now, make sure to run carefully from next time. Let's go back to your home alright?" The clone said to Konohamaru.

"O-ok" Konohamaru who was a bit shaken nodded and the clone sent him back to his house before dissipating itself inorder to inform the original about what all happened today.