Till Death Do Us Part

-Chapter 9-

With a soft groan, Shin slowly regained consciousness. As he blearily opened his eyes, a throbbing ache pounded through his head.

"Are you okay?" Sasuke's voice asked from beside him, tinged with concern.

Shin turned to face the other boy, wincing slightly. "Yeah...I think I'm feeling better now," he replied hoarsely.

Sasuke gave a short nod. "Kakashi-sensei said we're going to start training soon. But he excused you from participating so you can rest and recover."

Shin immediately shook his head, then stopped as the motion made his temples pound. "No, I'm fine," he insisted. "I want to train too."

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "You don't have to push yourself, you know."

"I'm not," Shin said firmly. "I just want to improve my skills."

Though still looking unconvinced, Sasuke understood not wanting to fall behind. He stood up and extended a hand to Shin. "Well, let's go then," he said with a small smile.

Returning the smile gratefully, Shin accepted Sasuke's outstretched hand and let him pull him carefully to his feet.

----

Kakashi leaned wearily on a pair of crutches, casting his gaze over Squad 7 as they gathered in a quiet forest clearing. "Right, let's begin our training," he declared briskly.

"We'll start with a review of chakra - the fundamental life energy and source of power for ninja. Thoroughly understanding chakra and how to utilize it is key."

Sasuke made a sound of mild annoyance. "We already know all about chakra and how it works."

"Oh yeah, I totally got this!" Naruto piped up eagerly. "Chattra or...something, that old stuff we learned before!"

Kakashi eyed him flatly. "It's pronounced cha-kra."

Naruto laughed awkwardly, rubbing his neck in embarrassment. 

With a small sigh, Kakashi turned expectantly to the sole female member of their squad. "Go on and explain the basics so Naruto here can understand, Sakura."

"Sure thing, sensei!" Sakura confidently launched into a textbook definition of chakra, what it was composed of, and how shinobi applied it in ninjutsu techniques as Naruto listened with a deep look of concentration.

Kakashi's eye crinkled proudly. "Right on all points, Sakura. Iruka-sensei truly had some talented students."

Beside him, Naruto gave a loud, dismissive snort as he dug a finger in his ear. "What's with the fancy schmancy lecture? We just need to learn the jutsus, believe it!"

"The loser has a point for once," Sasuke remarked, ignoring Naruto's affronted "Hey!" of protest. "We already access and wield chakra as part of our ninja techniques."

But Kakashi shook his head. "No...you've barely scratched the surface of utilizing chakra properly. You're far from true mastery."

"Whaddya mean?!" Naruto immediately demanded hotly.

"Calm down and listen for a moment," Shin admonished. Turning back to their teacher, he asked curiously, "You make it sound like there's a trick to it. So how exactly do you draw on the physical and spiritual energies properly to form chakra?"

"An excellent question." Kakashi launched into a detailed explanation about accessing one's spiritual energy, combining it in perfect balance with physical energy, and the importance of not overextending one's chakra reserves in battle.

"Use up all your chakra, and you'll be completely vulnerable with no way left to fight or defend yourself. Just a helpless target."

Naruto scratched his head. "Okay, but how exactly are we supposed to improve our whatchamacallit reserves or whatever?"