Harsh Training
Team seven was present at their training ground at six like Kakashi had asked. When five minutes past six Kakashi hadn't appeared, Naruto started jogging around the training ground.
"Naruto you idiot, what are you doing?" Sakura yelled.
Naruto just shot a senbon at her to shut her up. It hit and she wasn't fast enough to pull it out before the poison started working. Sakura stood again paralysed in the spot she had been. Naruto kept running. After ten laps, he started stretching. Just when he wanted to start with strength exercises Kakashi appeared in a cloud of smoke. Sakura was freed from the paralysing poison and wanted to hit Naruto.
"Sakura stop it. Sasuke, report what happened." Kakashi ordered.
"At five past six, Naruto started running around the field, Sakura shouted at him what he was doing, Naruto hit her with one of his senbons that are coated in a paralysing poison again and he continued his exercises. He just finished stretching and Sakura got over the effect of the poison when you appeared." Sasuke said.
"I see. Sakura, what reason did you have for shouting at Naruto?" Kakashi asked.
"He is just trying to make himself look better than Sasuke. And he should have waited for you to tell us what we should do." She accused Naruto.
"Naruto, what do you have to say?" Kakashi asked.
"I have sensitive hearing and warned her several times now that I won't take her screeching anymore. She is a kunoichi and should behave like that if she doesn't want to be killed on a mission. And the poison just paralyses her for some minutes. This type had duration of ten minutes. I was doing general warm-up exercises to use the time until you came efficiently. Nothing more than running and stretching. I would have continued with push-ups if you hadn't appeared." Naruto said.
"I see. Sakura, work on your attitude. There is no reason to yell at your team-mate for doing a warm-up to breach time. There are some reasons I won't be on time sometimes, so I expect you to do something useful while I take care of other things. You are considered adults since you became ninja, so behave like that. You can't expect that everything will be told to you. I don't care what you do while you wait for me, as long as it helps with your development as a ninja. But while waiting for physical training to begin, warming up is the most logical choice. Naruto, please refrain from paralysing your team-mates, you can never know what will happen. If there would have been an attack, she wouldn't have been able to defend herself and you and Sasuke would have had to cover her until your poison wore off." Kakashi said sternly.
In his head he cursed the mess the civilian council had left for him to clear up. He would really like to introduce them to his thousand years of death technique, especially Sakura's mother.
"Understood, sensei." Naruto said, accepting Kakashi's reasons even if in the village the probability of an attack was pretty slim. He thought Kakashi was capable of faking an attack just to get his point across.
"Good, now the first thing we will work on is your stamina. Our team has a focus on combat. Therefore you will have to be able to last in a fight. We will start with running fifteen laps around the training ground. I will take your time to see where you stand in your training. Today I will mainly get an impression of your physical abilities before we will work on some formations for missions. Ready, set, go." Kakashi said and the three started.
Soon it was obvious that Naruto was way better trained than the other two, even if Sasuke did a good job for a rookie. Sakura was panting after three rounds already. Naruto finished with two rounds on Sasuke. The proud Uchiha didn't like the lead Naruto had and increased his speed for the last two rounds. Then he sat down next to Naruto waiting for Sakura to finish.
"I would advise you to do some stretching while you wait." Naruto said to Sasuke.
Sasuke's first instinct was to tell Naruto off, but the blond was already doing his own exercises again. He had to admit it would be a good filling of time and from what Kakashi had told them just a bit earlier he expected them to fill spare time during training efficiently. So he started with the stretching. Finally five rounds after Sasuke had finished his laps, Sakura was done. She fell on her knees panting.
"Hm, we really need to work on your stamina Sakura. A graduate like you should be able to easily run fifteen laps for warming up. Get to stretching for five minutes, then we will do the next exercise." Kakashi said, shaking his head.
He looked at Naruto and Sasuke who were doing strength exercises.
"Good performance you two. Sasuke, Naruto; how many repetitions of your exercises are you doing at the moment?" He asked.
"Fifty of each, Kakashi sensei." Sasuke answered, glad he had taken Naruto's advice. Perhaps the blond really knew what he did.
"Hundred of each, Kakashi sensei." Naruto said.
"Good. That's a good level for your current levels. Sasuke, we will work over the next months to get you to the same level Naruto is right now. For a fresh graduate you are doing really well. Don't try to overdo it too fast just to catch up with Naruto. He has trained harder and more than you in the past, that is all there is to it. If you keep up your work like you do at the moment, you will get there soon enough." Kakashi said.
Sasuke didn't understand it. How could Naruto have trained more than him? He trained three hours each day after the academy. How would Naruto be able to top that? But Kakashi seemed to see his potential, so he must have done something right, just what had Naruto done better than him? And how did he hide it?
"I trained from six every morning to nine in the evening. I sent a shadow clone to the theoretical lessons in the academy to take my place after I learned that jutsu. That's the time advantage I had on you." Naruto said seeing Sasuke's look.
"What?" Sasuke asked.
"You wondered how I managed to train more than you. That's the answer." Naruto said and changed his exercise.
Sasuke really wondered about his team-mate. He didn't hide his dislike for both him and Sakura, but he still gave him useful information. He didn't understand.
Kakashi watched the exchange. He was glad that Naruto at least talked to Sasuke professionally. He had no illusions that the boys could ever become friends. It would need a miracle to achieve that. But a healthy working attitude would be enough for him. Perhaps Naruto knew that too. They were worse than him and Obito had been. And they had more emotional scars from the past than him and Obito had had. And Sakura was nothing like Rin, who had moderated between them.
Sakura was finished with her stretching exercises. Kakashi knew she wouldn't keep up if he didn't give her a short break, so he decided he would hold a short quiz about optimising their training.
"Good, now that you are all warmed up, we will have a few things cleared before we start with the next part. Who can tell me what is the most important thing for a ninja to do besides training right to get strong?" He asked.
Sakura raised her hand.
"We aren't at the academy. You don't need to raise your hand anymore, Sakura." Kakashi informed her.
"Oh, okay, Kakashi sensei. The most important thing is learning about theory. Politics, geography, strategy and the like." She answered.
"That's good to know but not the most important thing." Kakashi said.
Sakura was shocked, that had always been the most important thing at the academy. The academics.
"A balanced diet." Sasuke answered.
"Correct, why?" Kakashi asked.
"Our bodies need certain nutrients to give us the energy for training and to build up muscles. With too little food or the wrong kind of food we are hindering our development. We need carbohydrates, fats and proteins, vitamins and water to have our bodies work properly." Naruto continued.
"Exactly. So what would be the worst thing for a ninja to do?" He asked.
"Dieting." Sasuke answered.
"But how would one keep their figure if they don't diet?" Sakura protested. She was on a diet after all to impress Sasuke with her figure.
The male members of the team looked at her as if she was stupid.
"Ninjas don't need to diet because we work out all the time. We burn so much energy over the day that we need to eat a lot more than civilians. Where a normal working civilian would do well to keep his figure with about two thousand calories a ninja needs at least three thousand five hundred with my understanding of normal training. You don't have to fear becoming fat with our training, I can guarantee that." Kakashi said. "Additionally you hurt yourself if you diet at your age."
Sakura needed some time to process that.
"Kakashi sensei, are we going to learn how to hunt and fish? The academy mentioned that on longer missions ninjas should know how to properly get at least proteins. But we were never taught how to hunt or fish." Sasuke asked.
"Yes, that will be part of our training, Sasuke. You will also learn about all the edible plants in Fire Country and the neighbour countries." Kakashi answered.
"Okay, enough of a break. Next I will test your speed. You will go over to the other side of the field and then sprint back to the posts here." Kakashi ordered and made a shadow clone to accompany them to give the start signals.
Once they were in the other side, Kakashi let Sakura run first. She raced to the other side a bit faster than a trained civilian. Then Sasuke started, way faster than Sakura. Last was Naruto.
"Should I use my real speed, Kakashi sensei?" He asked.
"Yes. They need to know that you aren't a pushover. But leave your resistance seals activated. I don't want to make Sasuke more jealous than necessary."
"How did you know that I wear resistance seals? I didn't even tell old man Hokage about them." Naruto asked.
"You forget that your father was my sensei. He had all of us use them." Kakashi said. "Go." He ordered and Naruto ran. He was nearly double as fast as Sasuke.
Sakura fumed. How did the dead last dare to show up her Sasuke like that?
"You cheated, Naruto." She accused him.
"There is no cheating with ninjas, Sakura. Cheating as you call it is part of our jobs, get used to it. And Naruto didn't even strengthen his muscles with chakra or he would have been even faster." Kakashi admonished her. "Don't accuse your team-mates for something that is normal in the ninja world."
Sasuke seemed to ring with himself. How could he get the same strength as Naruto? He was an elite, he should be stronger than Naruto. Was it really only the additional training Naruto had done?
"Okay, I guess you are wondering how Naruto can be this fast." Kakashi addressed Sasuke and Sakura.
Both nodded.
"He has trained using resistance seals. Don't confuse them with gravity or weight seals, they work differently. A resistance seal does like its name say increase the resistance a body is confronted with. On the first level it feels like you are wading through water. With each additional level it gets harder. Using these seals helps you building up speed and strength. I will place those seals on both of you tomorrow morning before we start our training. They will stay activated the whole day, even when you sleep for two weeks. Then we will train with them deactivated to get you used to the effects. But that's for a later time." Kakashi explained.
Sasuke nodded. So he would catch up over time. It seemed Kakashi really intended to make him stronger. This training was much better and harder than the one the academy had them do. Sakura was scared. How would she manage to stay a proper lady with the training her sensei planned to have them do? And why was Naruto already that much ahead?
"Okay, next part is coordination. Naruto I would like your assistance." Kakashi took out a scroll from his pocket and opened it. He unsealed about a hundred poles. "Have your shadow clones place them in three lines with a distance of a metre between the poles. The lines are to be ten metres next to each other." Kakashi ordered.
Naruto nodded and made twenty shadow clones that took the poles and placed them in lines.
"I want you to run slalom through the poles three times over to the other side and back. I will take your times. Ready, set, go." He said and the three ran again.
Kakashi had them do fifty push-ups, sit-ups, pull-ups, jumping jacks and lifting weights each next. Then he let them walk on their hands through the slalom course. He wrote down all their times. Finally he declared it enough, much to the relief of Sakura.
"Okay, this is what we will be doing every day for warm up. As running around the training ground isn't that interesting I want you all to meet at the gate at six each morning to run two laps around the village. That's only for the beginning though, we will increase the laps once you get better stamina. After that we will start with stretching and strength exercises. Sakura, you will do thirty of all the exercises we did today. Sasuke, you will do fifty, Naruto eighty. That should take you about the same time. If one of you still has time until Naruto is finished, add a few repeats. After that I will tell you the exercise for the day." Kakashi said.
Sakura looked ill, Naruto and Sasuke happy. That would be good training.
"Okay, I told you we would work on formations after our workout. We will go through different situations, I will tell you the standard formations and then you will practice them." Kakashi instructed them.
It was lunchtime and Sakura lay on the ground groaning. This was not what she had expected from training. Kakashi handed out lunch to them and gave them bottles with water in which vitamins had been added. Naruto and Sasuke started eating and drank their water without comment. Sakura finally managed to push herself up. She didn't care about her diet at the moment. She was hungry and needed to eat something. She looked at the lunchbox and saw that there were some rice balls, some grilled fish, some green beans and tomatoes.
"Okay, while you eat, I want to give you some instructions for your meals. For breakfast, eat enough to last you five hours, but make sure it is balanced. For the drink take milk, cereals are good, some dark bread, cheese, sausage, eggs, and fruits. I will provide you with lunch to make sure you get enough nutrients for the first week, after that you should have an idea what to pack in your lunchboxes and how much. For dinner, meat and fish are always good, some noodles, rice, vegetables. You can also have sweet desserts, it won't matter if you eat sweets as I said, you will work the calories off no problem.
"Go to bed early enough, because you will have to get up at five to get ready for training and eat breakfast without haste. Bring some snacks for short breaks with you. I recommend fruit or vegetables, some sandwiches or rice balls. They are meant to give you back some energy without being heavy." Kakashi lectured.
He would do this correctly. And from tomorrow on he would join his team in their exercises. If he needed to get back to his old strength and increase it, he would have to use the time. He expected to be back to full strength in three months. Then he could work on getting better.
Once his genin had eaten, he gave them half an hour off to relax. They could do whatever they wanted. He knew Sasuke and Sakura needed the recovery time. Naruto would probably be able to go on. Sakura seemed relieved about the break, Sasuke accepted it well enough and Naruto lay down to take a nap.
Kakashi led his team to a group of trees that had nearly the same height.
"Okay, as I told you, one of the first exercises a genin has to learn is climbing vertical surfaces. Here in Konoha we do this by tree-climbing. This exercise has a double benefit. For those with bigger chakra reserves like Naruto and Sasuke it mainly helps them learn how to better control their chakra next to the ability to climb all surfaces without problem. The better you control your chakra, the less chakra you waste using your jutsu, which means you can go longer in a fight and use more jutsu. For somebody with small reserves like Sakura this is also an endurance exercise. By repeatedly doing this exercise until you master it, you build up your reserves, which will also lead to you being able to keep going longer." Kakashi explained and then walked up the tree without using his hands.
"As you see, I am sending my chakra to my feet. Finding the right amount of chakra is important; if you use too little chakra, you don't stick, if you use too much you will be repelled." He took out three kunai and threw then at his genin.
"You will mark your progress with these kunai. Naruto, make four clones and place them around the tree you are working on." Kakashi instructed.
Naruto wondered what Kakashi had thought up, but made the clones. Kakashi walked down the tree again.
"For the beginning it would be easiest if you took a running start. Now, Naruto, your clones have the job to try and keep you from reaching the top. I know that you already know this exercise, so we will make it harder for you by having your clones trying to hit you with some of your senbons." Kakashi said.
Naruto nodded. He had already done the exercise with his clones throwing rubber balls and stones. Senbons would help him be even more motivated. And it wasn't like he wouldn't heal fast if he was hit.
Sasuke was the first to take a running start. He got up some steps, then he was blown back. Sakura reached a branch high up in her first try.
"This is easy, Kakashi sensei." She announced.
"Well done, Sakura, but I said that it will be an endurance exercise for you. You will run to the top of your tree and down for as long as you can. Once you can't keep it up anymore, take five minutes break and then start again." Kakashi told her.
Sakura gulped. She never had had to train this hard before. But she wanted to impress Sasuke and this exercise could be one she could do well. So she started running to the top, then back down. She had to pause on the ground shortly. This was harder than it first seemed. Then she had to run up and down again.
Sasuke had some problems too. He was blown away at a certain height all the time. He was getting more and more frustrated. Especially as in the tree next to him Naruto was showing great skills in the exercise already and was dodging the senbons his clones threw at him while still keeping the tree-walking up.
"Sasuke, you have to concentrate and keep your calm. Your chakra is influenced by your emotions. So if you are getting angry, it will be harder to practice control." Kakashi said.
Sasuke after he had been blown off again, tried to follow his sensei's instructions. He took some deep breaths to calm down. He concentrated his chakra to his feet. Then he ran at the tree again. He passed his former mark by seven feet before he was blown away again. He grinned, okay, that was the trick. He had to gain control over his emotions and his chakra. He looked over to Sakura, who was sweating and breathing hard, hunched over. She really had little stamina.
TO BE CONTINUED...