typhoons, and Landslides
Kakashi can work with chakra enchanced strength. He is happy - estatic even - that she basically said that Sasuke could go fuck himself, and maybe, maybe it's a very liberal interpretation of her words, but at least that's happening. He also needs to see if Naruto and Sasuke have any other talents they didn't show or tell at the academy.
Kakashi looks over his cute little genin. Sakura, still standing in what would be a smoking crater if not for the seals Lady Mito, the Shodaime’s wife, put up after Madara Uchiha attempted to burn the entire village to ash during the worst temper tantrum Konoha has ever seen... Then he remembers the fact Genma is now bleeding in front of his slightly traumatized genin. Sasuke’s eyes widened in shock and fear. Naruto also looks a little afraid, but also a little besotted. Of course, out of everything he inherited from Minato it had to be his looks and taste in women.
“Hospital,” Kakashi says in a no-nonsensical tone, not unlike the tone he used on Sakura to get her to completely follow through and punch with all her might. The poor injured Genma looks at him with his senbon dangling limply from his mouth.
“Is this because of the Kumo incident?” Genma whined, remembering Kakashi’s tired oath of vengeance. Kakashi’s eye just twinkled sadistically. His lips tightened into the line of fear. Kakashi just pointed silently and Genma considered it for a moment and states, “That’s fair,” heading off a relatively large and slowly blood trail marking of the senbon master’s slow progress to his least favorite place.
“Uh Sensei,” Naruto asks, “Was the wall supposed to do that?” while Sasuke once again grapples with blood, and with new realization Sakura could’ve killed him with that angry punch.
Kakashi looks at Naruto after glancing at Sasuke, “Normally no, however, this is a good thing because can anyone tell me why?
“Is It because Sakura-chan is super strong?” Naruto rocks delicately forward on the balls of his feet and back on his heels gesturing wildly. To Genma’s blood trail and the tattered walls.
“Yes, that is one reason. Sasuke, do you have any idea?”
“Chakra control can allow her to emphasize her strength.” Sasuke knows, due to clan records and bedtime tales of old Uchiha battles how the Senju clan with good chakra control could turn battlefields into farmland, With bare effort, techniques that Tsunade Senju turned beyond lethal. On more than one occasion Sasuke had heard the Elders thank the Kami that they’d never meet Tsunade Senju on the other side in battle.
Kakashi Hatake looks fondly at him and gives him a thumbs up. “That’s right, Sasuke.”
He looks between them all. “As of right this second, Who’s the most dangerous of you? Sasuke with his prodigal nature and the fact he at least one Elemental Jutsu? Naruto and his Shadows clones? Or -”
“Sakura is.” Sasuke looks furious.
-~~-
The knowledge one of his fangirls is more dangerous than he is the worst. Sasuke may have underestimated his teammates, but who wouldn’t? Naruto only ever kept up in sparring because of Demonic levels of stamina. He knew nothing about Sakura even though she had been proclaimed the co-head of his fan club. He knew more about the rest of them than Sakura, who tittered and fought with Yamanaka Heiress, the other head of his Fan club. That was really all he knew about her... was she had pink hair.
-~~-
“Do any of you know how one can get good Chakra Control?” he asks, pleased he can use his lesson plans despite his foray into knowledge that his formerly perceived ‘useless student’ is now ahead of the curve. Yikes... but fair, Rin was ahead of them in medical jutsu and chakra control and senbon. Her gift in senbon, in the beginning, gave Kakashi a run for his money and toward the end gave Sensei a run for his.
He continues without letting the pups answer, not because he doesn’t think they know but instead because he’s excited about this new knowledge,this might be cooler than learning Seals with Kushina-nee and Minato-sensei, more exciting than finally seeing Naruto.
“Now each village has its own method; in Suna you practice with sand and attempt to manipulate it into spheres and spirals, and Kiri forges chakra blades and the longer they can hold them, the better the control. And the one that matters here is,” he pulls out three leaves, from regular Hashirama trees. “ have you guys done the Leaf-”
“Yes, Sensei” Sakura and Sasuke chirp in unison. Sakura smirks slightly.
-~~-
Naruto is in awe of Sakura’s strength. The little girl he had a huge crush on was Strong, her hits hurt… A Lot but to know she held back, even against him, on everything made him crush harder. He also feared her a little. His deep thoughts, the ones he suppressed, the mean ones, said “She's a bigger Monster than even you, Naru-chan,” the voice he had, at Mizuki’s confession, dubbed Kyuubi. The thought that Sakura is a bigger monster than him was terrifying…. No wonder he had subconsciously been drawn to her….
Monsters deserve each other… Ya’ know?
-~~-
“No Sensei.” Naruto chirps. He rubs the back of his neck, “Mizuki-sensei wouldn’t let me.” Kakashi feels rage for a second but says nothing.
“Well can either of you explain to Naruto what you are doing and how? I have to see a man about some training things.”
“The leaf exercise…” Sakura starts off immediately with no pause or breaks as Kakashi tries to steady himself and thinks about killing Sarutobi all over. He said that ‘Kakashi didn’t need to be in Naruto’s life, that everything was fine’. He lands at the Academy teacher Iruka's door.
“Hatake-san, how may I assist you?”
“Naruto doesn’t know the leaf exercise.” Kakashi states nonchalantly.
Iruka sighed “Mizuki betrayed Kohona in many ways, and one way, in particular, was sabotaging the students.” Iruka's voice is bitter in the midday light of his kitchen “Tea, Hatake-san?” Kakashi says nothing. “White or green?”
“...”
“Black”
“Anko beat you to the last of the black tea yesterday.”
“Any Jasmine?”
“All The fucking jasmine you could want.” He didn't know Umino could curse... they should hang out more. Pretty good for a Chunnin.
“If you double the strength I’ll drink.”
“Fantastic.”
“So…”
Iruka pours a worrying amount of dried leaves and flowers into a neat tea kettle older than Konhona and starts the stove. Grabs two clay cups glazed into pale sage green. They stare at each other, Iruka rubs the back of his neck.
“I don’t know why we were friends, or how I missed his betrayal, and I wonder what else I missed… Hatake-san, this is what I know regarding the sabotage of this year. If you could inform the Jounin teachers I’d be in your debt.”
Kakashi seethes. He seethes in the way only with someone with a Sharingan can. Mizuki will be very happy with Ibiki, because if he escapes Kakashi will rip the traitor limb from fucking limb. He will feed whatever leftover of that pathetic excuse of a fucking idiot-- Breathe. he thinks, breathe.
He needs to restart the Uchiha Breathing Exercises as the Sharingan related Anger Issues are getting to him again. To find none of these Genin had beyond the basic survival understanding, and that theory was the primary form of teaching. He had to start from the basics.
He returns to find Sasuke watching Naruto as he performed the leaf exercise with Sakura adding more and more leaves, as he variably adjusted and failed. Sasuke grunts every oh so often and Sakura glares at Naruto and eventually gets a whole branch… and puts it on Naruto's back and quietly threatens the poor Jinchuuriki, “Try cycling your chakra through this branch, and don’t break this one or so help me…” He gulps and tries very hard.
-~~-
Sakura looks to her sensei for guidance. She can run a business, can run a household, but when it comes to her shinobi training she’s at a loss. She’s so far at a loss she’s in the red, quite literally right now. Sakura runs not for her life, not in Konoha - never in Konoha. She runs in the hope to strengthen herself. Sasuke is three laps ahead of her. If she flat out sprints for speed she won’t have the endurance to meet Sensei’s requirement. Sakura has always been physically inadequate, to her parents, to the academy… to Ino and Sasuke especially. If she makes this then she’ll prove to her Sensei she’s worth it. Barely. Sakura pushes herself. If she’s strong one way she’ll destroy everything in the name of her family’s honor... even herself.
-~~-
“Hello~ my sweet Genin, You guys can go home or have some team bonding as I have to rewrite my entire curriculum. Okay?” His eyes smile at the preteens. Sakura sighs, put out with very little training to show for the first day. Naruto nods, wide-eyed and attempting to orbit the large branch with his chakra, occasionally setting leaves aflame - with Sasuke gently picking the burning leaves and putting them out.
“Can’t you rewrite your curriculum with us here, Sensei?” Sakura asked, her voice low and soft, afraid of rejection, because Sakura and Naruto aren’t Clan kids and thus have to fight for every right, every single lesson as they are so far behind compared to Sasuke. Compared to Nara, and Yamanaka and Akimichi. Sakura and Naruto were the most behind in the practical shinobi arts, and all three were behind in family-taught tricks to keep themselves safe. How to make soldier pills in the field, which herbs outside the Land of Fire are poisonous.
“Sure, and I will advise you guys as you train.”
“Thank you, Sensei!”
“Hey, Sensei, how can I better my Catra control?”
“Chakra, Naruto.”
“Ok Sensei Ch-ak-ra control.”
“Well,” Kakashi thinks about how to keep to the letter of the Uzumaki Decree and still help Naruto. “I knew… someone,” Someone, he thinks, more like the closest thing to a living mother he ever had, “who had similar problems in Chakra control as you and she used to make whirlpools. The first step was controlling the size, 1ft by 1ft, so that the whirlpool was tiny.” Naruto’s eyes light up with the same unholy glee Kushina got when it came to ramen, pranks, and/or seals were involved.
Dear kami, dear fucking Kami, the Uzumaki unholiness is genetic, he hadn’t believed Sarutobi, or Old man Ichiraku, and that was a mistake, even while the branch swirls and leaves fall turning to ash. Naruto always was more into the water than fire, wind than earth.
He looks to Sakura, “Can I?”
“...”
“...”
Sakura nodded quietly and Naruto jumped up, no heed to the branch Sasuke lunges and catches as fast as he can. It almost touches the ground and Sasuke says “Careful, dobe.” Naruto shrinks into himself and rubs the back of his neck.
Minato, that was a Minato Behavior, the image of Minato towering over small Kakashi layers over the image of a tiny Naruto apologetic about nearly setting a training ground on fire. Usually an Uchiha type problem - Obito set this very training ground on fire five hundred times, if not more… Uchiha and Fire~