Naruto Repurposed

Chapter 4

Team Training & Tests

Team training that day was pretty intense, as Kakashi decided to skip a mission and really started pushing all three of his genin to improve and even offered to take everyone to lunch afterwards to talk about their individual training regimens he wanted them to work on. This was done primarily because his shadow clones were already helping Naruto who he realized would be quickly outpacing his teammates, and needed to make sure they didn't feel left behind. Sakura just needed to be pushed and challenged until she started getting better, so as to contribute and help her team and Sasuke needed to know he was being given 'special' training to keep his ego in check after witnessing Naruto's quick ascendency.

Already, he feared what would happen if Sasuke really learned the true scope of Naruto's rapid growth, which would probably only be continuing with everything the young blond was working on and with how many clones he could dedicate to learning new skills. So, in an effort to appease the broody teen who thought himself superior to almost everyone in Konoha already, he decided to blatantly flaunt the teaching he was providing the Uchiha while telling Naruto in public to just continue working on his chakra control and taijutsu. Sakura, wasn't even upset as she saw the added attention to Sasuke as a positive for her crush, and was only able to continue her own training with Kakashi reinforcing Sasuke's need to have a strong woman at his side, even if he knew it to be false.

If it helped the two of them get better quickly, the growing gap between them and Naruto would not seem as big since Naruto was continuing to downplay his own growth like a true ninja in order to keep the group dynamic unchanged until after they could become chunin. Luckily, Sasuke hadn't really challenged Naruto to the point where the blond felt he had to truly show off most of his skills, and was content to keep upping his training weights to keep him at Sasuke's speed. He rarely showed anything truly amazing during their team training, but was definitely showing constant improvement which was already pushing Sasuke every day to get better and stay ahead of the blond in Sasuke's mind. He could see, however, that it was frustrating to Naruto, to constantly downplay his skills so as not to upset Sasuke and the delicate balance their team had, and wondered when it would blow up.

After their first team lunch, at the Barbeque Restaurant frequented by Team Asuma, Kakashi gave them all the rest of the day off from missions to reflect on the individual training regimens he gave to each of them, or to get started. He also knew that Naruto had several projects and things to work on to prepare for his upcoming meeting with the Hokage, and wanted him to have ample time to accomplish everything as he seemed a little distracted as they ate. He also reminded them that he was hoping to increase the intensity of their team training exercises, as he felt that they were ready to be pushed even harder as they had been performing well so far.

It was as they were leaving the restaurant however, that they encountered Team 10 arriving for a late lunch of their own and had to deal with their fellow rookies. Luckily, Naruto got along well with Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi and both boys were either too lazy or too nice to cause him any problems, though they did both look at him very differently when they realized he wasn't wearing much orange (only the crossed bandoliers) and was much quieter than they remembered him ever being. Not that it would have mattered much, as their final teammate, Ino Yamanaka practically shouted to the whole restaurant her love for Sasuke as she tried to hug and flirt shamelessly with the completely stoic and uninterested Uchiha that stole most of the groups' attention.

"Sasuke," she purred suggestively, which was pretty unusual for a twelve year old after being thrown off the brooding black haired shinobi, "why don't we go out together without the rest of these losers?"