Naruto : Chapter 25

That afternoon team seven had to paint the walls of the new swimming hall of Konoha. And Kakashi insisted that they didn't use ladders to reach the higher parts of the walls, but used tree walking to do it. After one and a half hours the walls were painted and Sakura exhausted.

With her small reserves sticking to one place at the wall was really hard. She had hoped that they would be done with missions for today, but Kakashi had already got a follow up mission. He had taken it as it was at the same place as the first mission.

The pool needed to be tiled. So after a short break the genin started to tile the walls, starting on the bottom end of the walls.

To Sasuke's surprise Naruto was pretty skilled at doing it. It looked like he had done it before. Unknown to Sasuke and Sakura, Naruto was skilled in many crafts.

He needed to be with the civilian craftsmen refusing to do any work for him. So Naruto started on the long sides of the pool. Sasuke and Sakura got the short sides. Naruto had a well working system.

He tiled as high as he could reach without a ladder and then constructed a pulley from the ceiling to reach the higher parts of the wall without having to wait for the tile glue to dry.

With him using three clones on his side and four on the other long side, it took him three hours to finish the tiling. Sasuke, who had seen the method Naruto used to get to the higher part, had copied it and was finishing about the same time. Sakura was only halfway done with her wall.

As it was already seven and Sakura looked ready to collapse, Kakashi asked Naruto to have two of his clones finish her side. Naruto nodded and took over the upper half of the side.

When Naruto's clones were done, Kakashi informed the manager of the hall that the pool was tiled and only needed to have seams filled once the glue had dried. The manager checked the painted walls and the tiled pool and signed Kakashi's mission scrolls.

Kakashi took his genin back to the tower and had them listen to the reports he gave about the missions.

"Okay, tomorrow you won't take a mission as we did two today. Instead I arranged for a sparring session with team ten in the afternoon." Kakashi informed them.

"Your morning training will still happen as usual." He body flickered away after that.

The genin walked back to their homes. As it was late not many people were on the streets, most were at home. Naruto walked to his secret home after making sure he wasn't followed.

He went inside, made two clones, and went to the shower. His clones started making dinner. He still had the meat of two rabbits in his fridge and his clones had harvested carrots and peas today from his field.

They cooked some rice and prepared a sauce before putting everything on a plate. Naruto was just finished putting on fresh clothes when his dinner was ready. So he sat down to eat.

Once he had finished his dinner, he put the plate and glass in the sink and made hundred shadow clones. They all knew their job and got the sealing supplies to start making the seals the Hokage had ordered. Naruto cleaned the plate and the glass, went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and went to bed. His clones would stay up doing his work.

...

Just after team sevens normal morning run, Sasuke was at three laps around the village now, Sakura still had problems with her two, but Kakashi knew it would take time for the girl to make up for the training she hadn't done at the academy, Kakashi watched his students.

He was curious if Sakura would pull through or quit. Both was possible, but if he didn't want to get her killed on a mission, the girl needed to be broken out of her fangirl attitude and delusions of how she could achieve to be a ninja.

He was pretty sure her mother bore much of the fault for this. He knew Sakura's father had been one of the civilian casualties in the Kyubi attack and her mother blamed Naruto for that. She had been one of the cruellest members of the council, condemning Naruto to the treatment he had gone through as a child.

Naruto had done five laps in the time Sasuke did three. He himself had run ten laps, being serious about getting to top form as soon as possible. He felt taking over the Hokage position would go a long way to help his sensei's son and also lead Obito's last living relative in the village on the right path.

With the resistance seals he wore, his training was more intense. He had planned on asking Gai for sparring matches in a month or so, before that time his team, besides Naruto that was, wouldn't be ready.

He had them continue with their stretching and physical exercises. Once they were done with that around nine, he called them together.

"Okay, team, for today I have planned some special exercises." Kakashi said, getting the attention of his team.

He saw a calm wait and see expression on Naruto's face, a look of attention on Sasuke's with a spark of excitement in the black haired boy's eyes and a suspicious and dreading one on Sakura's face.

"We will start your practical survival training. Sasuke you asked if you would learn to hunt and fish, well, today we will be doing just that.

I will take you to a part of the woods where you will try to use the theoretical knowledge you got at the academy to catch your lunch. We will go over how to prepare the animals you get the best way and which plants go well with them." Kakashi said.

He didn't want to exhaust his genin too much before the sparring matches with Asuma's team, but he didn't intend to make it easy for them. If they got a good lunch would solely depend on their success in hunting and fishing. It was an important lesson for a shinobi to learn after all.

...

Kakashi led his team into a part of the forest six miles away from Konoha. Of course the ninja way by taking to the tree tops. He was content to see that his students were keeping up in formation. As he didn't go a very high speed to not lose Sakura, the boys were assimilating their speed. This formation was a standard one.

He took point, Sasuke followed behind him, then Sakura and the end Naruto covered. It was normal for teams. If they were an experienced unit, the position Sakura had normally was the one of the team's medic or generally weakest member.

Two strong members front to deflect attacks and the second strongest covering the back against sneak attacks from behind. In teams with Hyuga in them, they normally took the rear position as their byakugan enabled them to perfectly cover the team's backs.

After ten minutes the team reached their destination. Naruto knew this part of the forest. He had hunted here before.

"Okay, I will give you a few hints to where you can find some prey. There is a river a bit to the south west. So that would be the place where you can catch fish. Deer, rabbits, squirrels and birds can be found everywhere hidden in here.

I first want to test your individual skills in this area. That means for once, you won't work as a team. After all on missions this kind of task is normally divided between the members of the team.

So you all get an hour to catch at least one animal or fish. If you don't manage that, think about ideas what to do about food for lunch, because you only get to eat what you find and catch here. I have taken the liberty to steal your lunchboxes.

You will get them back after the sparring session with team ten. So if you don't want to be hungry, I suggest you find food. I will observe you from the shadows, so don't expect to see me at all. Happy hunting." Kakashi said and disappeared.

Naruto copied his movement and left the other two standing there. Sasuke got the idea that he only had one hour to catch something.

After asking Kakashi if they would learn how to use the theoretical skills and seeing the way his sensei trained his team he had made sure to read up on the techniques again. Now he was glad he had done so. He took off to the south west. Catching fish would probably be the easiest way to get food.

There were some ways to catch fish that didn't take much time. After three minutes Sasuke reached the river. Thankfully it wasn't that big, so building a dam to intercept the fishes would work well enough.

He looked for suited wood or stones and came to realize he would have to cut it from the trees mostly. Well, he was a ninja, so getting some branches down wouldn't be a problem.

He quickly walked up a good looking tree and cut four big braches. They wouldn't be enough to stop the water, but manage to keep the fishes in one position long enough for him to strike.

Five minutes later his quickly made dam was ready. Now he just had to wait. Thankfully Kakashi sensei had been right and many fishes were coming his way.

He stood in the water, keeping still until they were in reach and grabbed them, throwing them onto the shore. He made sure to throw them far enough so that they wouldn't be able to struggle back into the river.

When he had six fishes, he walked out of the water and quickly killed the still moving fishes with hits to their necks. He tied them together with a bit of ninja wire and then went looking for some plants he knew would be edible.

He wanted to impress his sensei with his success. He was pretty sure Naruto would also do well in this test, but he didn't intend to fall back too much behind his team-mate. Over the past week he had come to completely rethink his image of Naruto Uzumaki.

The boy was nothing like he had given himself at the academy and he wondered just why he had thought it necessary to play the idiot. Naruto wouldn't tell, so he had to find out on his own.

But at least his fears to be held back by a weak team had been destroyed after seeing the kind of training Kakashi put them through. Not even the fangirl would be able to stay weak with how Kakashi put them through the grinder. Thank Kami for the old Uchiha bruises and muscle-soreness remedies.

He had looked through his clan's scrolls which he had and one had been about them. So the second evening after starting on team seven Sasuke had been busy mixing components fort the salves. They were the only things keeping him functional.

He came upon a hazel bush and it was season for the nuts. He put some shuriken from his pouch on his right leg into the pouch on his back to have space for the nuts. Nuts were good for energy and full of unsaturated fats. After collecting a good number of them, he looked for other plants.

Just nuts and fish wouldn't be enough for a meal fitting Kakashi's standards for a good diet after all. He came upon some berry bushes and had to improvise a transport container. Next time he would be ready for something like this.

Probably realizing that he needed more variety in his equipment was also part of the exercise. It would be typical for Kakashi. Let his team make mistakes to avoid them in the future. He needed to look up better storage options. Just two pouches wouldn't do at all.

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