'Ah ah! Sensei's awake!' Naruto grinned happily.
Sakura walked over to Kakashi sensei and knelt down next to the futon he was in. 'Sharingan is amazing, but it puts a lot of strain on the body.' she said, 'I'm not sure whether that's good or bad.'
'I'm sorry,' sensei said softly.
'But you defeated such a strong ninja.' said Tazuna gladly. 'We should be okay for a while.'
'But who was that boy with the mask?' Sakura thought out loud.
'Wait, that was a boy?' I asked her, an eyebrow raised. Apparently, everyone knew it was a boy by the looks they were all giving me. 'Sorry,' I muttered, feeling my face heat up.
'He had the mask of a pursuing ninja from a special squad from the Hidden Village of Mist's ANBU ...' Kakashi sensei trailed off, looking lost in thought. I exchanged curious looks with Naruto.
'What's wrong, sensei?' Naruto asked.
'Huh? Oh, what I was talking about before,' sensei said, snapping out of his own thoughts. 'Pursuing ninjas are suppose to eliminate the corpse on the spot.'
'So?' Sakura asked, looking lost.
'What did that boy do to Zabuza's body?' Kakashi sensei asked us.
I felt the blood drain from my face from the sudden realization. I could feel myself shaking from fear. Zabuza's not dead, perhaps? No... His pulse had stopped, right?
'Makoto?' Sensei turned to me.
'Zabubza might still be alive?' I squeaked out.
'Mm. Zabuza is still alive.'
'WHAT?!' Tazuna, Sakura and Naruto yelled, flabbergasted.
'What does that mean?' Naruto asked urgently.
'But you confirmed that he was dead!' Sakura protested, not believing what she'd been told.
'I did confirm it,' Kakashi sensei replied. 'But he was most likely in a near-death state. The weapon that the pursuing ninja used has a low fatality rate unless it hits a critical spot. It's mostly used in acupuncture healing and such. The goal of that boy was not to kill Zabuza, but to help him.'
'Maybe you're thinking too much,' Tazuna said, looking unsure.
'No, once a ninja feels that there's something weird, he must prepare for it before it's too late.' Kakashi sensei told him.
'But sensei, how are you going to prepare for this before it's too late?' I asked. 'You can't move for a while ...'
Kakashi sensei chuckled before saying 'I'm going to make all of you go through training.'
'Wait, even if we train, it's not going to be very helpful.' Sakura argued. 'Since the enemy is a ninja that even you had trouble with.'
'Sakura, who saved me when I had a difficult time?' Sensei said, looking at us sternly. 'You three are growing at a rapid rate. Especially you, Naruto.'
'Huh?' Naruto said, surprised. I couldn't help but smile, feeling happy for him.
'You've grown the most.' Kakashi sensei smiled.
'You know your stuff, Kakashi sensei.' Naruto said proudly. 'Now things are getting interesting!'
'No, it's not.' A voice from behind us said.
We turned back to see a young boy standing at the doorway.
'Who are you?' Naruto demanded, pointing a finger at him.
'Oh, Inari! Where were you?' Tazuna said.
The little boy ran towards him and tackled him in a hug. 'I'm home, grandpa.'
'Inari, say hello to them.' his mother said sternly, hands on her hips. 'These are ninjas that escorted grandpa.'
'It's okay, right, Inari?' Tazuna smiled, patting Inari on the head.
Inari regarded us with cold eyes before turning to his mother. 'Mom, they're going to die. There's no way a person can win by going against Gatoh.'
I rested my cheek on my palm. 'Gee, aren't you a bright little fellow?' I muttered to myself.
'What did you say, you brat?!' Naruto raged. 'Listen up. I'm a superhero that's going to become a great ninja known as the Hokage. I don't know who this Gatoh or Chocolate is -' I snorted in amusement. Chocolate? Really, Naruto? ' -but he's no enemy of mine.'
Inari scoffed. 'A hero? How stupid. There's no such thing as a hero.'
Naruto choked. 'Wha - why you!'
He started to walk towards Inari but I grabbed him by the arms.
'Naruto, don't!' I said, tightening my grip on him.
'If you don't want to die, go home.' Inari told us coldly before walking out of the room, leaving us all dumbfounded.
*
'We will now begin the training,' Kakashi sensei said, leaning on to his crutches for support as we reached a forest.
'Roger!'
'But before that, let me once again talk about Chakra,' sensei continued.
'At a time like this?' Sasuke said boredly.
'I already know about that,' Naruto said cheerfully. 'Chatra, right?'
I blinked at him before bursting out into laughter. 'Cha-chatra?'
'What's so funny?' Naruto looked at me questionably.
Kakashi sensei sighed exasperatedly. 'It's Chakra,' he the motioned Sakura to explain. 'Okay, Sakura.'
'Listen, Naruto. I'm going to explain this in a simple manner to save time.' Sakura said, trying to sound all professional like, causing me to roll my eyes and smirk. 'Chakra is energy that that a ninja needs to utilize a technique. That energy comes from the body energy that is collected from every cell in the body and from the spirit energy that comes from training and experience.'
'Correct,' Sensei said, resting his hand under his chin. 'Iruka sensei was blessed with a nice student, I see.'
I raised my eyebrows at him and gave him an 'are you kidding me?' look. 'So what are we? Horrible students?' I said, folding my arms.
Sensei laughed sheepishly before putting a hand on my head. 'Don't be like that, Makoto. Nobody likes a grumpy girl,'
'So apparently everybody likes grumpy boys?' I said, looking over to Sasuke who in turn, glared at me.
Kakashi sensei sighed and walked in between Sasuke and me before saying, 'You're going to learn how to control Chakra with your body. You must go through vigorous training where you put your life on the line.'
I raised an eyebrow. 'What exactly are we going to do?'
'Climb a tree,' he answered simply.
I blinked, thinking I heard wrongly. 'I - I'm sorry, what?'
'Climb a tree,' he repeated. 'But it's not ordinary tree climbing - you're going to climb without using your hands.'
'How do we do that,' Sakura said, skeptically.
'Just watch.'
Sensei did a quick hand sign before gingerly walking towards a tree with help from his crutches. He put a foot on the tree, catching us all by surprise as he continued walking up, defying gravity.
He then proceeded to walk along with branch, hanging upside down. 'This is how.' He demonstrated. 'Gather your Chakra to the bottom of your feet and make it attach to the tree trunk. Something like this is possible if you use Chakra.'
'Wait, how can we become strong from doing this?' Sakura asked.
'Now we get to the main point,' said Kakashi sensei. 'The main purpose of this training is to accumulate the right amount of molded Chakra in the right location. This is difficult even for a well-trained ninja. The amount of Chakra used for this tree climbing exercise is quite subtle and the most difficult place to control Chakra is said to be behind the feet. In other words, if you are able to master this, you can learn any kind of technique - in theory, that is.'
'Well, it's not like anything is going to happen even if I give this lecture,' he concluded. 'I need all of you to learn this with your bodies.'
He tossed a a kunai at us each, as they stabbed right into the ground in front of us.
'Use that knife to mark where you are able to climb up to with your current ability.' Kakashi sensei told us. 'Then, try to make new mark above that mark, got it?'
We grabbed the kunais that were tossed at us and started to focus on our chakra. Then, we ran towards individual trees.
Naruto fell after two steps, Sasuke went mid-way, while I managed slightly above Sasuke's. Wait, what? I actually managed to beat Sasuke? Haha no way! Am I improv -
'This is easier than I thought!'
What.
My eyes darted towards Sakura who was right at the very top of the branches.
Again, what.
'Sakura chan!' Naruto said awestruck.
She giggled happily.
'Oh? It looks like the one who is best at controlling Chakra is Sakura, the girl.' Kakashi sensei said, sound rather impressed.
My eye twitched when I finally realized what he said, or rather implied. 'Oi sensei!' I yelled angrily, stomping my foot. 'Sakura's not the only girl Y'know?!'
Naruto sniggered beside me and I glared at him, making him go quiet. Kakashi sensei blinked at me before he laughed guiltily. 'Sorry, Makoto. I forgot ...'
'You f-forgot - UGH!' I groaned, getting annoyed by the fact that MY GENDER WAS FORGOTTEN.
'Hehe,' Sakura teased, sticking her tongue out at us.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. No way am I going to let that fangirl beat me!
I took a couple of steps back before breaking into a run towards a tree. Focus, focus .... Not too much chakra, or I'll end up getting repelled like Sasuke, not too little or I'll end up like Naruto.
Focus ... Two steps up ... Focus .... Ten steps up ... Focus ... Twenty steps ... Focus ...
I MADE IT! I mentally cheered as I sat on the highest branch of the tree, smirking to Kakashi sensei. 'HAH!' I yelled triumphantly at him.
He looked at me strangely before he smiled awkwardly. 'Alright, well done, Makoto. It does seem that girls are better at chakra control ... Makoto, you're an exception.
I nearly fell off the tree. 'Stop calling me a boy!' I said angrily. 'And Naruto, I see you laugh more time an I'll throw my shoe at you!'
Naruto hung his head while Kakashi sensei chuckled. 'Haha, sorry Makoto.'
I rolled my eyes without annoyance and rested my back against the tree when I felt someone's eyes on me. I turned to my left and saw Sakura glaring at me. No, not only at me - her eyes were constantly moving from me then to Sasuke, her glare softening each time she looked at Sasuke. Why was she glaring at me and Sasuke? I looked over to Sasuke and met his eyes, nearly making me feel like sinking into the tree just to avoid his gaze.
He was glaring at me with so much anger, and yet, his eyes sparked with what seemed like ... Envy? Why? Oh wait, light bulb. He's angry because I managed to climb the tree faster than he did. Then why is he only glaring at me? Yeesh, he must really hate me. Thinking about the last part actually made me feel a little hurt. I shook my feelings away and turned away from Sasuke to meet Sakura's glare. I blinked at her before sticking my tongue out at her, my face emotionless.
Her face turned red and she now looked ready to commit murder. Why the hell was she so angry at me then? Seriously, you'd think I killed her cat or something.
I climbed down the tree and stood next to Naruto. Sakura came down next, standing in between Sasuke and Naruto, glaring daggers at me. I grimaced. What's wrong with her?
Then we tried climbing the tree again, for several times, leaving me and Sakura both worn out after reaching the top of the tree multiple times while Naruto and Sasuke still hadn't. Sakura and I both collapsed next to each other.
'Gosh, how much stamina do those two boys have?' I panted.
'Naruto hasn't improved at all though,' Sakura smirked. 'He's probably going to give up and start complaining.'
I scowled. 'Naruto isn't like that.'
'Damn it!' Naruto cursed, falling once again.
'See?' Sakura sneered. 'He's already -'
'Naruto!' I called out, feeling angry from Sakura's remarks.
'Huh?' He turned towards me. I smiled and slowly got up, slightly limping towards him, feeling my whole body ache.
'You need any tips?' I whispered into his ear.
He grinned and nodded, throwing an arm around my neck. 'Yes! Thank you Makoto, I can always count on you!'
'Naruto, I'm sweating, you're sweating - no touchy.' I told him, removing his arm from my shoulder.
'Hehe ...' He scratched the back of his head and gave me a sheepish grin. 'Sorry,'
Then, I told him the tips quietly, not wanting Sasuke to hear in case I had to tell him personally too - Sakura would have another reason to wring my neck.