Chương 25: Chapter 23 - Training

The next morning, actually, before that, the forest was still damp with dew, yet Minato and I were already there, going through stretching routines and light warm-ups before we would have our usual routine of going at each other. To my surprise, Sayuri had also come with us and now sat on a nearby rock, yawning a little, with a bag at her side that, when I asked, was there for safety reasons. Whatever that meant.

As for Kushina, she arrived not that long later, and when I say arrived, she stomped into the clearing like she was mad at everything.

"You really wake up this early for fun, dattebane?" she grumbled, arms folded, breath fogging slightly in the cool air... I knew better than to say something funny... but I also knew that holding it back went against my nature.

"Good morning to you, too," I smiled at her, "Are you angry because we didn't dupe you or because we are more fit than you?"

"Smartass." She snorted, "Well, I said I'd think about it," she muttered, looking away, "Be glad I had come at all."

"I am glad," Minato said, bowing his head slightly, making me exchange a look with Sayuri as he didn't even realize the slight slip of the tongue he managed to put out there.

"Let's start with warm-ups." I spoke up before he could freeze, "Then we will move on to the drills."

"What about you?" Kushina asked, throwing a look towards Sayuri.

"I'm just here because of you." She shrugged, tapping the bag beside him, "I brought some medicinal stuff. Safety and all..."

"Hmph!" She snorted, thinking Sayuri was looking down on her, apparently firing up Kushina's fighting spirit with that alone. Oh boy... Stepping forward to be the conductor of this early training, I ran Kushina through the details, explaining that we aim to be better than we were yesterday, so whenever we train, we don't hold back at all. Still, at first, I wanted to let her get familiar with everything, so I approached it with simple warm-up drills.

They contained running laps around the clearing, push-ups, and squats, and although Kushina grumbled, she kept up without lagging behind. Her stamina was excellent, better than most of our class, probably thanks to Uzumaki's vitality, which was on full display. Then came technique drills.

I wanted to see how much she knew compared to us, so Minato and I demonstrated basic chakra-control exercises we'd long since mastered: a leaf on the forehead, then multiple leaves; balancing on branches with as little chakra output as possible; and finally, water-surface walking. Good thing I made her go through this first, because Kushina visibly struggled. Not in the physical sense, she had the reserves, but her chakra control was… turbulent.

It surged, ebbed, and spiked randomly, so the leaf stuck, then shot off. When her feet would be made to cling to the tree, the next moment, for some reason, she would overcompensate and dig in too much, then panic, release it, and just... fall off.

"This is stupid," she grumbled after her fourth slip.

"My chakra doesn't like doing small stuff, dattebane."

"Your chakras are just wild," Minato said, already sounding like a teacher.

"Like you." I joked, dodging a punch from her, keeping up my grin.

"I will show you, dattebane!" She snorted, slapping Minato's helping hand away and going at it again, only to land almost on her head as she fell off, but Minato was there to catch her.

"Nice..." I muttered, grinning at Sayuri, who just shot a thumbs-up at me. After that somewhat embarrassing showcase, she finally calmed down a little and began listening to Minato, while I just stood there, watching them patiently. One thing was sure... While Naruto will inherit his father's look, his personality is all from Kushina. It just... almost identical.

"Okay, let's pause it now and move on to something else," Minato spoke up, noticing that Kushina was about to blow her top if she was made to climb up another tree...

"Finally," She snorted, looking at me, crossing her arms, "What's next, smartmouth?"

"..." I was about to say something, but I just rolled my eyes, making Sayuri chuckle on the side.

"You know what?" I smirked, "We will train your brain a little. It seems it needs it."

"Huh?" She asked like a bandit, already pulling up her sleeves, a vein popping on her neck.

"Genjutsu." I looked into her eyes, "It is the most dangerous one to be hit by, especially on an active battlefield."

"..." Finally, her body deflated, and she immediately saw the connection, slightly nodding.

"I am not that proficient with it, but enough to fool people at the genin level, I think. So we will start with simple, basic illusions." Actually, we were building on what Mika-sensei had taught us, but in our own way. With my Sharingan, I quickly learned that identifying genjutsu was just one advantage; in fact, casting it became even easier. Because I can see chakra, albeit differently than a Byakugan would, I can see its flow, its so-called color, identify its type, and the like.

And because genjutsu works in a way that disrupts and alters that flow, I could directly access it and put someone under a genjutsu; I just needed to make a connection. Be it by looking into their eyes, making a noise, raising a finger... the usual. It simply made sense, no wonder Itachi was, or will be, so proficient with it.

"Close your eyes," I told Kushina.

"I'm going to nudge your perception."

"Don't you need to look into my eyes for that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't want to put you under a genjutsu just yet," I shrugged, "I am trying to make you aware of the signs of what it feels like when a genjutsu is starting... Your job is to try to feel where it hits first. I don't think you can fight it, so just try to notice it."

"Mhmm..." She squinted at me, "If you mess with me, I'll—""Yes, yes, flatten me, dattebane, I know," I replied, waving my hand, and of course, her cheeks turned pink at once. Still, she was cooperative, and after she closed her eyes, I slowly and deliberately formed the hand seals, letting my chakra extend as a fine, gentle thread rather than a full net while my Sharingan came online, raising the contrast of the world.

The next moment, I brushed it against her senses, trying not to overwhelm her, holding back and just using enough to nudge her, making her smell smoke, as if there was a fire somewhere in the forest, to make her brain think it was the truth. The moment she smelled it, Kushina's brow furrowed, trying to locate it. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"There's… something," she murmured, sniffing, "It's weird. Like… like a tickle behind my nose."

"Good," I said, honestly impressed.

"Where else?" I asked, adding more to the genjutsu, including the far-off sounds of fire burning.

"My ears," she added.

"The sound's wrong. It doesn't match what I'm... thinking..."

"Oh?" I raised a brow as it seemed like her sensitivity was immediate and precise. She felt where it was wrong... That was step one, and she nailed it on the first attempt. Minato is good, but even so, it took him a bit longer to manage it.

"Now try to push it out," Minato said, kneeling beside us and keeping an eye on her.

"Gather your chakra and… exhale with your mind, like when you dispel a jutsu. Genjutsu is not easy to break, but it can be done, as long as you can overpower the caster." And she did... The illusion snapped like a twig when I blinked my eyes, smiling, even though it was not a proper genjutsu yet.

"That… was fast," I admitted.

"Hah!" she grinned, smugness returning in full force, making her face lit up, "See? I can do stuff too, dattebane!"

"You might be good at this," I nodded slowly.

"Genjutsu, I mean."

"As far as I know, Uzumaki sealing arts use a lot of focus," Minato added thoughtfully, making Kushina nod her head even more proudly, "Maybe it overlaps. You have to maintain awareness of complex patterns while channeling chakra."

"Sealing is… special to my clan," she said, crossing her arms, "My old teachers said we were the best at it. Of course I am good!"

"Well," I let my smile turn just as smug as her face, "It wasn't a full-on genjutsu." I told her, activating my Sharingan again, "Do you want to try and fight back against a proper one?"

"Fine," she said, scoffing at me, not even avoiding my eyes, "But no stealing family secrets from my head, dattebane!"

"Relax, I can't read minds." I grinned, pointing at Sayuri, "I'm from a different clan."

"Hey!" She yelled at me, "Don't drag me into this! Idiot!" I just chuckled, keeping my eye on Kushina, while I used an actual genjutsu I came up with, trapping her in a vision that was looping our conversations, over and over again................ Kushina came back to herself with a sharp inhale, as if someone had splashed cold water across her face, which was close to the truth, as it was Sayuri who disturbed the chakra flow in her, breaking her out of my genjutsu.

The moment she did so, Kushina's eyes began blinking furiously, and for a moment, everything looked… wrong. The forest felt unfamiliar, unreal, like she had woken up in a memory that wasn't hers while her fingers twitched on instinct, half-forming a seal before she even knew what she was doing.

"Hey," Sayuri's soft voice nudged her, and Kushina jerked her head to the side, nearly headbutting Sayuri.

"Whoa, slow down!" Sayuri laughed, pulling back before the impact.

"Welcome back."

"Back…?" Kushina blinked her eyes rapidly, rubbing them. Her heartbeat was still racing, the image of me repeating a sentence stuck like an echo in her mind.

"Wait. Was that... was I...?"

"Under a genjutsu?" Sayuri asked, tilting her head with a smile, "Yep. You were in there for about… mm, twenty minutes. Roughly."

"What?!" Kushina's body shivered, "I didn't even notice..."

"Yeah, actual genjutsu is frightening," Sayuri agreed with a nod.

"That stupid, smug, Sharingan-brained... ugh," she muttered, glaring at nothing in particular, "Fine. FINE. He... He got me. Whatever..."

"That's actually very mature of you," Sayuri smiled at her, sounding genuinely proud.

"Stop saying things like that, dattebane," Kushina sputtered, blushing, " I-I'm not! Wait—! I am!"

"Of course." Listening to her, Sayuri's smile grew twice its size, and she patted her hand.

"You handled it really well." Kushina just groaned, partly flustered, partly annoyed… but also, feeling she was making a friend, so she didn't complain. In the end, she just opened one eye, glancing sideways at Sayuri.

"Um… where are the boys? Did they ditch us?" she muttered, half-expecting Minato or me to jump out from behind a tree cackling like a gremlin.

"Nope," Sayuri simply lifted a finger and pointed toward the far edge of the clearing.

"There." When Kushina followed the line of her hand... She couldn't help but freeze, because we were fighting. I think she thought we would be playing or sparring... Nope. When it was training time, we were actually fighting. Her eyes widened, mouth falling slightly open as she watched us collide, arm against leg. Minato was already a blur, almost vanishing between his steps as he flickered behind me, throwing a sweeping kick that made me feel how sharply it was pushing the air out of the way.

Without looking, I twisted at the last second, my Sharingan spinning, using his trajectory so I could slip under the attack and counter it... But the moment I dodged, Minato was already there again... So I dodged and... He was there again. And I dodged... And Dodged... Haaaah... Damn it! He was closing gaps like he was teleporting, each movement faster than the last. Bastard!

"W-what…?" Kushina whispered, "Is this… normal?"

"Eh," Sayuri folded her hands on her lap.

"For them? Yes. But this is why I am not even trying to keep up with these two maniacs." As she was saying that, I retaliated with a sharp upward palm strike that forced Minato to finally block with both arms. But I wasn't done, because the moment I hit his guard, I swept my leg in a tight arc, nearly catching Minato's knee... Gotcha! By then, while I forced him to look at my legs, I had already finished my seals and snapped my fingers into the final seal.

What Kushina saw was the fire forming before she even processed the hand sign, and a full-sized fireball erupted from my mouth, roaring, going at Minato at point-blank range. Of course, he didn't retreat, forming his own signs as he went through it.

"He...! He's going to get burnt!" Kushina jumped to her feet, but Sayuri held up a calm hand, holding her back.

"Just watch. He's used to it." As the fire washed over him, Minato sharpened his chakra, summoning slicing wind that blew my fire out like a candle. He covered his body with it to divert the flames, then surged forward with renewed acceleration, practically vibrating with speed. Tsk! I thought I had him there... Of course, the next moment he appeared on my left, but I was already reacting to his presence.

"H-he predicted that—?!" Kushina's stomach dropped while I counter-kicked Minato's shoulder charge, forcing him off balance.... Only for Minato to pivot on a toe and whip around my blind spot, hands already flashing through signs. Overexerting my muscles, I managed to disappear in time as his wind-blades, leaving his mouth, sliced a trench through the ground where I had been standing a moment before.

By the time they dispersed, I somersaulted backwards, sliding along the ground, my Sharingan spinning as I read Minato's next three moves before he even started, and we clashed in the center once more, fists smashing against forearms, feet striking tree trunks hard enough to crack and send splinters flying everywhere.

"This… this isn't normal," Kushina whispered.

"This is... This is beyond training! They're trying to kill each other!"

"Kinda," Sayuri simply exhaled, somewhat proud and resigned at once.

"They train like this every chance they get," she explained to her.

"They hold nothing back, not really. I mean, they won't kill each other… obviously…" Her voice tried to remain confident, but deep down, she wasn't sure.

"But they get close to it."

"…those two are monsters, dattebane…" she muttered under her breath, her pride somewhat wounded, but her amazement kept shining through it anyway.

"They're friends," Sayuri chuckled at that, "Best friends. They push each other… and they trust each other to survive whatever they throw against the other." Looking at the fight, Kushina watched as Minato sprinted straight at me once again. At the same time, I leapt high, flipping in the air, only for Minato to angle upward and almost touch my ankle, before my Sharingan shimmered and my body disappeared...

"No!" Kushina gasped, stepping forward... and her shout was the distraction I needed. Thanks, Kushina! Just a heartbeat later, I appeared behind Minato, my palm grasping his shoulder, grinning smugly. Once again... my victory! Oh boy... I'm on a roll!

"That was a genjutsu." Sayuri shrugged, smiling as she watched me, even blushing a little, "He does that when he gets tired." Feeling himself duped for allowing his mind to be distracted so easily, Minato swore under his breath, with breathless laughter following it, shaking his head.

"Haaah... okay, okay... You got me."

"Well," I whispered to Minato as we both were trying to catch our breath, "Best to get used to distractions, my friend. Because if I need Kushina to keep winning over you, believe me... I will not be shy about it!"

"Heh," He shrugged, rubbing the back of his head, "Don't worry... Next time, I will make you eat those words!"