Arc: A Hawk's Nest... (5)
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"To your right." Naruto said as his clone threw a punch towards Jun. "Gahhh!" Jun was pushed back. "Okay. It seems like I found out every single weakness that you 3 have." Naruto told them.
Hmm... it seems like they all have abnormally large chakra reserves. They all need to work on their chakra control. We'll be having to continue that tree-walking exercise in a bit. Naruto thought.
Jun didn't have a stance that he could use. This could cause quite a bump the road. But Naruto will make sure to find a solution to the problem. He doesn't have any other jutsu in his arsenal other than the 3 basic academy ones.
Runa lacked power and elegance in her movements and punches; similar to Jun, but he didn't lack the power — and his movements are much more suited to be more aggressive. She has a taijutsu stance, which was the academy one. Quite inadequate. She also didn't have any jutsus to her arsenal.
Reisha is the best all-rounder out of the 3. She has fast and powerful punches and quite smooth movement. She uses a taijutsu stance that was passed throughout her family. She knows two water jutsus because her family has a natural affinity to it. But she also lacks a lot of things. Her strategic ability lacks beside her power. She is indeed smart, but it seems she is not using her intellect in battle and just wants to fight head-on with brute strength.
He can make this work. "But it'll be fine. I'll continue to observe you for a few more minutes." Jun just moaned out displeased with the idea of fighting his clones for much longer.
"But... the pain!" Jun panted. Naruto raised an eyebrow towards him.
"Pain will always be constant in this world. You want to get stronger? Pain shall assist you throughout it." Naruto told him as Jun got kneed in the stomach. "We have 1 and a half more hours until this training is over." They all nodded at this and continued fighting his clones.
"Reisha. Turn your body 90 degrees to the left or right to dodge the attack." Reisha nodded. Before, Naruto noticed that she was getting slightly grazed. Now, Naruto could see that she was honing her skills to a much higher level.
Naruto looked towards Runa.
"Runa. When a person ducks down, there will always be a possibility of them trying to sweep you afterwards. Notice every possible stand point and don't overlook it." Runa listened to what Naruto was saying.
"Got it, sensei." She threw a kick towards his clone, which he dodged. His clone was about to sweep, but she managed to jumped in time before she could get swept by his feet.
"Good. Keep it up." Naruto looked towards Jun. He could see that Jun was losing concentration as seconds went by.
"Jun. As you fight people — don't lose concentration at any point in the fight. It can cost you a limb. Also put more force in your punches. I can see you hesitating when hitting my clone. Don't be afraid of dispersing him. He won't get dispersed so easily." Jun huffed and puffed.
"Yeah, yeah. Got it sensei!" He panted as he focused on the battle.
"Good" Naruto saw Jun follow his instructions. Jun was getting hit less due to his sudden focus in concentration. After a few more minutes of observing, Naruto decided to stop them.
"Alright! Stop for a moment." They all stopped.
"Ok. So we'll now be moving on to the next session which may or may not take the rest of the remaining time we have left for today." Naruto could hear them pant at a quick pace.
"Once you 3 regain your breaths, we'll move on to a chakra exercise that is crucial to any ninja." They nodded as swear poured down their faces. As the minutes went by, their fast breathing slowed down.
"Everyone. Follow me." Naruto told them. They did as they told and followed him towards 3 trees. "What I need you 3 to do is to climb these 3 trees without your hands." Naruto told them.
"But how is that going to be possible?" Asked Runa as she observed the tree in front of her.
"By adding chakra to your feet, you'll be able to climb a tree." Naruto said as he channeled chakra to his feet. He demonstrated and walked on the surface of tree right next to him.
"Woahhhh! Let me try." Jun said with excitement. He went up to his tree and applied chakra towards his feet. He jumped on the tree, but slipped down. Jun heard his other 2 teammates giggle at him.
"Hey! Stop giggling at my loss." Naruto just sighed. "Look" They all turned their attention towards Naruto. He went to his own tree and started explaining.
"As you can see, Jun slipped off of his tree." Jun suddenly got a red-tinted face full of embarrassment. "This happened because he channeled very little chakra to his feet. But also beware. If you channel too much chakra to your feet, it'll do this." Naruto brought one feet towards the bottom of the tree.
He kicked the tree with very minimum effort and his feet got blown past tree. "This will happen. This exercise is taught to every ninja in every village because this will he used very frequently." Naruto said as he walked away.
"Now. Try it. And here's a kunai each for you 3 to measure your progress." Said Naruto as he threw the kunai at their feet. "The faster you learn this, the faster we can move on to the next exercise." Naruto told them.
They all nodded at what he said and looked towards the tree in determination. And before they knew it — the hour and a half was over. The sun was about to set in an hour or two.
"Good job on your first day." Naruto told them.
"Liar. We did horrible!" Jun said as he panted from the tiredness. Naruto just raised an eyebrow at him. "I don't know what you mean by you all doing horrible." Naruto yawned.
"If you were with any other sensei other than me — you all would still be doing D-Rank missions up until now. They probably wouldn't teach the tree climbing exercise until a few weeks later." Naruto stretched.
"Yeah, yeah. You narcissist." Naruto chuckled at this.
"I'll meet you 3 here tomorrow morning. Gotta do something until I go home." Naruto walked away further.
"Later! Sensei!" He heard them yelled behind him.
"Later" Held out his hand before disappearing in a swirl of leaves. Jun was amazed by the technique once again. "I hope he teaches us that jutsu." Jun said sparkles.
"He'll definitely teach us that. But we have to do this task first." Reisha said as he too walked away from the training ground. They all soon left one after the other.
~~~
"Tell me. Where is the the ROOT ANBU HQ?" Naruto had sensed someone following him the whole afternoon. And here he was now. With the ROOT ANBU tide up and him standing over him.
The man didn't answer.
"No answer? Let us see who you truly are behind your mask full of uncertainty." Naruto said as he tore off the mask threw it on the ground. A smirk graced Naruto's lips.
"You seem to be in your mid-20's. Would be quite unfortunate if you were to die here." Naruto said with a menacing smile. While he was obviously not going to kill him. He could still see the fear in the man's face.
He did quite a good job hiding the said fear, but Naruto knows fear very well. After all, the village both hated him and feared him at the same time. Naruto gained a puzzled look.
"What's that? Stick your tongue out. Or i'll have to force you to with my eyes." The man complied and stuck his tongue out. Naruto saw 3 solid black lines and 2 pairs of broken lines to the front and back.
"I see. It seems like that bastard is paranoid. Both no worry. I can get that right off." Naruto said as he did his work. After a couple of minutes of complex seal work, Naruto finally managed to erase the seal on the man's tongue.
"There. Now you can tell me the secrets of the ROOT that bind the tree to the ground." The man gulped. But he stayed true to his word and didn't comply to his demand.
Naruto just sighed at the man's refusal. Naruto's eyes suddenly morphed into a 3-tomoe sharingan. "Tell me. Where is the ROOT HQ?" Naruto asked.
The man suddenly became dazed. He had no control over his actions.
"Our HQ is a mile behind the Hokage Monument. It is also the direction of the ANBU Black Ops HQ — which is right behind the Hokage Monument. You will know what the HQ looks like once you get there." Naruto nodded at this.
"Your cooperation is valued." Naruto disappeared in the sunset.
~~~
The sun was almost fully down. Naruto appeared in the living room. He saw Sasuki eating.
"Sasuki" He called out. Naruto was getting ready. "Why are you in such a hurry?" Sasuki asked as she ate her food. Naruto stopped for a split second.
"There's a traitor in Konoha." Once Naruto finished the sentence, he could have swear he heard a choking sound from Sasuki. "There's a traitor?!" Sasuki had her eyes widened.
"Yes" Naruto replied to her question.
"Do you know who the person is?" Naruto nodded. "Yes. The man is named: Shimura Danzo." Naruto responded. She raised an eyebrow. "You mean... that Danzo?" Naruto nodded.
"I'll be needing your help. Danzo has Uchiha Shisui's eye. You know him right?" Asked Naruto. Sasuki just nodded like it was such an obvious answer. "Yes. I know him. He was my brother's friend." Sasuki told him.
"Great. Shisui had a Mangekyou Sharingan ability that allowed him to pretty much mind control a person. Well, to some degree at least." Naruto said as he got reappeared in the living room with his necessities.
"And why did you need my help?" Sasuki asked.
"You created a contract with your blade." Naruto said. He swore again that he heard another choking sound coming from the one-and-only Sasuki.
"You know? How?" She asked in disbelief. It was supposed to be a surprise once his birthday came. Which was in like 2 days or so. "Yes. The way you were acting just made it so obvious." Naruto said.
Sasuki's ego deflated.
"I actually only have half of the contract." Sasuki told him. Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked as he stood in front of her.
"It means I am only immune to genjutsu. I can't use the blade's special powers. You get what I mean?" Naruto nodded. "It doesn't matter. Since you are immune to genjutsu — it means you are immune to the Kotoamatsukami." Sasuki raised an eyebrow.
"The Kotoamatsu- what now?" Naruto slightly chuckled.
"Yeah. I had the same reaction when I heard first heard of it. Get ready." Naruto told her. Sasuki nodded and she quickly finished her last few bites of her food.
Sasuki rushed towards her room and picked up her stuff.
"What's the rush?" The blade asked as she noticed Sasuki's hurrying attitude. "Naruto and me are going to catch a traitor." Sasuki answered truthfully.
"Right now?" The blade asked Sasuki. She nodded. "Yes. We need to do it as soon as possible." Sasuki ran in the living room. She saw Naruto standing by the door waiting.
"You ready?" Naruto asked. Sasuki nodded as she walked towards him. He nodded right back towards Sasuki.
"Alright. Let's get going then." Naruto said as he opened the door. They entered the dark shadows that illuminated throughout Konoha.
The two were now out to kill Danzo.
~~~
The chapter is now done. It took me a few hours to finish. I wrote and finished this after posting the last chapter. Next chapter is the final chapter to the arc.
You might be wondering why Sasuki just agreed on killing Danzo — well, personal grudges and just personal feelings and biases towards Naruto.
Expect the next chapter on Wednesday.
Until next time.