"Why are you following me?" Naruto stopped when he noticed Sasuke behind him.
"I want to train with you!"
Sasuke clenched his fists, his voice serious. "I want to get stronger. I don't want to always be behind you!"
"If you want to train, go ask Kakashi."
Naruto turned to look at him and said calmly, "I'm not a teacher. I don't teach students."
"I'll pay you!" Sasuke said.
Naruto might not be a teacher, but he was definitely stronger than Kakashi.
That's exactly why Sasuke would rather pay Naruto to train him than go to Kakashi.
If you're going to learn, it might as well be from the strongest one.
"..."
"It's not about money, it's just…"
"Five thousand ryo per day."
Naruto glanced at the dark night sky and added, "Five thousand for one night."
"Deal!"
Seeing how quickly Sasuke agreed, Naruto held out his hand. "Pay up first."
"..."
Sasuke pulled out his wallet and tossed it to Naruto. Naruto caught it and stuffed it right into his own pocket.
"Follow me."
"..."
Sasuke stood there stunned for a moment, then finally caught up.
Naruto led Sasuke to a tree and walked straight up its trunk.
"There are lots of ways for a ninja to get stronger, but most of them fall into two categories. One is learning powerful ninjutsu or genjutsu. The other is training your body—taijutsu."
"But getting good at taijutsu takes a long time. And as for ninjutsu… I don't really have any techniques to teach you. So the only thing I can show you is how to learn ninjutsu faster."
"You know that using jutsu is all about chakra, right?"
Sasuke nodded. "Yeah. Chakra is the energy ninjas use to perform jutsu. It's made from a mix of the body's physical energy and mental energy drawn from the cells."
"Ninjas use hand signs to release chakra and perform jutsu."
"..."
Naruto talked like he knew what he was saying, but he honestly didn't understand a word of it.
Not that it mattered. The stuff in the textbooks wasn't all that important anyway.
It's like people who can fix motorcycles—they don't always know the history or the names of every part from a textbook.
Just watching a pro do it a few times and trying it out yourself is enough.
"Ahem, exactly!"
Naruto coughed to cover up the awkward moment. "To use stronger jutsu, you need to have good control over your chakra."
Sasuke frowned.
He didn't think his chakra control was weak. After all, he could already pull off C-rank jutsu with no problem.
Naruto immediately saw what Sasuke was thinking and said, "You're probably thinking your chakra control is fine, right? That you can use any jutsu you've learned so far without trouble?"
Sasuke didn't answer. He just looked at Naruto, waiting for him to continue.
"That just means you haven't realized how much better you could be!"
Naruto said calmly, "Take your Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu, for example. Let's say the chakra it normally takes to use it is 0.01 units…"
"0.01 units?" Sasuke interrupted, confused by the unfamiliar measurement.
"It's just a basic unit. Don't worry about it."
Naruto brushed it off and went on, "So normally it takes 0.01 to use that jutsu. But if your chakra control isn't sharp, you might end up using 0.02 or even more just to pull it off!"
"Sure, using more chakra can make the jutsu stronger up to a point. But you don't always need to use 0.02 units of chakra every time you fire off a Fireball."
"If you're fighting someone weak, or just trying to distract the enemy, 0.01 is enough. But if you use 0.02 even in those cases, you're just wasting chakra for no reason."
"For a ninja, chakra is your power. Wasting chakra is the same as wasting your strength."
"Got it?"
Naruto had no idea how the original Kakashi taught them this stuff. He was just winging it based on what made sense to him.
Basically, he just wanted to make his teaching sound a little cooler. As long as the point got across, it was fine.
"So how do I get better at controlling my chakra?" Sasuke asked.
Naruto held up two fingers. "Two ways. One, focus your chakra on the bottom of your feet like I did earlier, and train by walking up a tree!"
"The other way also uses chakra on your feet, but you train while walking on water!"
"The second one's harder, so start with tree climbing."
Sasuke took Naruto's advice and began training.
He focused his chakra in his feet, ran up a tree… and fell!
Ran up again… and fell again!
Over and over.
"This isn't something you pick up instantly. If it's not working at first, try focusing chakra on your feet and sprinting straight up."
"Try dashing to the top first. Then once you get a feel for it, work on walking."
With that tip, Sasuke got up and tried again.
He sprinted up the tree, fell, tried again, fell again...
And just like that, the whole night passed. Sasuke's energy was nearly gone—he was lying on the ground, breathing hard.
Naruto looked at the sky starting to lighten, opened Sasuke's wallet and counted, "6,200 ryo total. I'm taking 5,000, the rest is yours."
He tossed the wallet back to Sasuke, then put the 5,000 ryo into his own pouch.
Sasuke lay there motionless, letting the money pouch drop onto his chest.
"Get up, it's time to head back," Naruto said, walking over and nudging him with his foot.
"You go ahead. I'll train a bit more," Sasuke replied.
"Too much is as bad as too little."
Naruto grabbed Sasuke and stuffed the pouch into his shirt. "And what if enemies show up right now? You'd be too exhausted to fight or run."
After what happened with Zabuza, Naruto was a lot more careful about his teammates' safety.
Even if the original story never had anyone sneak up and kill them during training, the Zabuza in the original was badly injured and couldn't move—this one wasn't!
Sasuke thought Naruto made sense, so he struggled to his feet.
"I'll walk back myself."
He was too proud to let Naruto carry him. If Sakura or Kakashi saw him being dragged home, they'd probably think Naruto had beaten him up.
"Yo, training all night, huh?"
Just as Naruto and Sasuke returned, Kakashi suddenly popped out. Looking at the badly injured Sasuke and Naruto, he joked:
"I'll go rest first."
Exhausted, Sasuke had no energy to respond and went straight to his room.
Seeing this, Naruto shrugged. "He paid me, I did the job."
...
!
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