The week passed quickly and Saturday arrived.
Today was Sasuke's birthday.
Naruto had bought him a Bonsai Sprout, just to give him something to do at home. He had seen that his mother had a garden and figured maybe Sasuke shared her tastes.
Hinata had bought him a Maneki neko, symbolizing of their friendship and their bond as a team.
Maito Gai had bought him... another secret recipe. Sasuke's mother will love it.
All of them dressed more neatly, as it was an important date for their friend.
They met in the field and went to Sasuke's house.
"I hope he likes our gifts, he never says what he likes. Taking care of a tree might help him to stay calm." Naruto said, sure of his choice.
"I hope so. It's a lucky amulet for our friendship." Hinata was nervous about her choice but that was the only thing she could think of.
"You need to be more sure of yourself, guys! I will give him another of my secret recipes, he needs to grow faster!" Maito Gai radiated confidence.
They continued walking to the Uchiha compound, but no one stopped them.
It was 3 p.m.
Entering the house, they could see Mikoto and Sasuke in the living room, sitting at a table waiting for them.
"Excuse me, please."
Entering the house, they could see Mikoto and Sasuke in the living room. Sitting at a table waiting for them.
Mikoto had a sweet smile adorning her face as she saw that her son was doing well at school. Sasuke seemed a bit shy, it feels weird for him to invite them for his birthday.
Mikoto got up and greeted them. "Welcome. Naruto, Hinata, thank you for coming for my son's birthday."
"It's okay, Auntie Mikoto. Sasuke is our friend."
"Mm, we are glad to be his friends, Auntie Mikoto."
Naruto and Hinata replied in kind, both feeling happy to be Sasuke's friend.
"What polite children, come in, take a seat." Mikoto said, pointing at the table.
"And welcome you too, Maito Gai. It's an honor to meet you, it seems that you have followed your father's legacy and come a long way."
Gai feels very happy hearing her mention his father. " The honor is mine, Lady Mikoto! I'm glad to be following my dad's legacy. He always wanted us all to live with the same youthful fire we had when we were young. Now I'm trying to do the same and teach these kids. They have a lot of potential."
"I'm glad you feel fulfilled by it, and thank you for taking care of my son. Take a seat; we bought cake."
As everyone was sitting at the table, Mikoto took a cake from the fridge and put it on the table. They put the gifts aside on the table.
"Say something, Sasuke. Your friends and Mr. Gai come to your birthday." Mikoto whispered to her son.
Noticing that all eyes were watching him, Sasuke spoke. "Thank you for coming to my birthday and for your gifts. I appreciate it."
They felt satisfied hearing that.
"Before you blow out the candles, let's take a photo." Mikoto's clone appeared and grabbed the camera she was carrying.
It was the first time the kids saw that and they were amazed. They continued looking back and forth between the two Mikotos.
"You will learn this later." She said with a smile and they cheered hearing that.
When they were gathered, the clone took the photo. It's a precious memory for them. She gave a copy to all of them.
They continued talking about the things they wanted to do and ate the cake.
Hours later they went home.
"You have good friends, Sasuke."Mikoto said as she petted her son's head.
"Mm, they helped me and I want to help them."
"You can do it when you grow up, let's take care of the gifts." Bending down, she gave him a hug
Mikoto noticed that the gifts the kids gave to her son were loaded with meaning.
"From tomorrow I will use the recipe Gai-san gave to you, Sasuke."
Sasuke twisted his mouth, he likes Naruto's and Hinata's gift. But he hadn't expect that Gai-sensei would give him another secret recipe.
But he was right, Mikoto loved the gift. She wanted her son to grow up strong.
Letting out a sigh of resignation, Sasuke asked his mom. "...Sigh, fine. Mom, can you teach me how to take care of the tree?"
"Sure, we can take care of it together until you know how to do it alone."
Closing the door, they went to the living room.
A peaceful day ended.
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The following Monday afternoon.
The three of them were waiting for Gai. He had told them that today he would give them their weapons.
Naruto felt a bit envious but he had too many things to practice.
They waited for a while until Gai arrived with the items.
"Hello, guys. I have your weapons. They're of your size, and you must change them as you grow up."
Putting the bag on the ground, he took a long box and gave it to Sasuke.
"Here, Sasuke. I will give you these, but you can't use them for now."
"Why? Do I need to do something first?"
"Aha! I supposed you'd want to use a pair of them, so you need to learn how to do two things at once and coordinate both hands. It's a bit hard, but you can do it!"
Try the simplest exercise: draw a circle with one hand and a square with the other. Once you can do that, use one wooden sword and later use two. That's to coordinate both of your hands. It's all about practice."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Gai-sensei."
Grabbing a small box, he gave it to Hinata.
"You can use your weapon right now, Hinata. I think you've already learned the basics of how not to harm your fists. With these, you can guide your chakra in a more violent way to strike. Just continue moving your chakra as fast as you can, and in one or two years, I will teach you another way to use it. But you need a strong body to avoid hurting yourself."
Hinata opened it; the box contained a small pair of brass knuckles.
"Thanks, Gai-sensei. With your... secret recipe, I think it will be easy." She felt nausea about that drink, but since she had started drinking it, the hunger that plagued her every day had disappeared and she started to improve faster.
"Hahaha! Of course! That's the recipe my father created, and I made some upgrades to it!" Gai puffed out his chest with pride.
"Now it's your turn, Naruto. I will teach you how to fortify your body with chakra and move with it. It isn't enough to just have strength; you need to use it correctly."
"Great! What do I need to do?" Naruto was waiting for it.
"Sasuke, Hinata, come here. This will help you too"
As the kids watched him, he began his explanation.
"All the training you've been doing with me these past months is to prepare your body. Our chakra can help us, but if we use it incorrectly, it can harm us more than anything else. That's a lesson I learned in my years as a Taijutsu master—at school they teach you chakra has hundreds of nodes throughout our bodies. That's true, but it doesn't tell the whole story."
They didn't understand the second part.
"It's normal to be confused, but I want to tell you something. What if we had only one node of chakra? And that node would be our body?-- That's how I treat my body, I use micro-control constantly. Since there is only one node, I can control all of it at the same time.
"Gai-sensei, wouldn't that be incredibly difficult?"
"Aha, it took me years to do it. I've been training in it since I was five years old. My father had the idea, and I made it a reality. But don't worry—I'm not asking you to do the same. It's still good for you to begin training in chakra control."
Gai turned to Naruto.
"You are the one who needs that most, Naruto. The amount of chakra you have increases every day, but you can't control it. No one in the village has as much chakra as you, and with it increasing ell the time--it will be a hard task to do it."
"Mm I've already noticed it, Gai-sensei. I've been trying to control it inside me, but it's hard" Naruto said with an anguished expression.
"It's because you were training with the wrong method. I will teach you the school's method first, and my own method later."
He took some leaves from the tree and gave them to the kids."
"You need to use this."
"A leaf?"
"Aha, you must control your chakra, using a small amount to change its proprieties--making it more viscous to maintain the leaf in your forehead without using a finger. You only need to concentrate On that spot. It's easy. Once you can do it, you could try on other parts of your body or switch to different materials."
Remember to use only a small amount. Try it."
They took a leaf and put it in their foreheads. Sasuke had a great talent, but it's the first time he had done something like that. After thirty seconds, the leaf fell and he was sweating.
Hinata had it easier--her clan taught her to concentrate in practice; she held it for more than a minute. But having to use only a small amount made it harder. When the leaf fell, she had sweat on her forehead.
Naruto was watching them and now he wanted to try it.
Once he tried to use his chakra outside, it was like opening a leak. The chakra continued radiating from all directions, but slowly converged.
Why do I feel like an ant...? Surely it's horrible to see that amount of chakra flowing without any control.
That happened in less than ten seconds. It wasn't the first time he tried to control his chakra, the only problem was separating the tangle a bit to use it.
The leaf was trembling at first. After twenty seconds it was almost done and forty seconds later the leaf was completely quiet. Naruto maintained that state without showing any fatigue.
Five minutes later he opened his eyes and the leaf fell. Not because he had lost control, it was only because he didn't want to do it anymore.
"Gai-sensei, you're right. That was easy, I thought it would be hard but I only need a bit of concentration." Naruto said with a relaxed expression. It had been much harder when he first started meditating years ago.
"It's easy for him" Sasuke said, his face was dark with annoyance. Hinata kept her head down in shame. She thought she'd done well—but there was always someone better.
"Don't be depressed, kids. Naruto had been practicing for more than 2 years, this is something easy for him. The hard part for him is to control all of it at the same time.
That didn't make us feel better, Gai-sesei. It's like it would be easier for us because we have less chakra... They both looked at each other with a bitter expression.
Even Maito Gai felt ashamed saying that and he tried to divert the conversation.
"You can continue doing it. Once you can maintain it like Naruto for a few minutes, I'll teach you the next part."
Leaving the kids on their training, he took Naruto with him.
"Naruto, since you can control it that well, I have another exercise for you. You must cover your whole body with a thin layer of chakra, it will take time and you can begun with your limbs. Once you master that, I will teach you other things. Try to consume as little as possible, okay?" Gai explained the things, he thought that it would be easy for him.
"Mm, I will try!"
With that, the kids started their training.
'Leaf control is only about concentration, they will make it after a few weeks.' Gai was taking the training of the kids as seriously as possible.
With a new training added to their schedule, the kids were much busier.
Three weeks later at school, Iruka had something to tell the kids.
"Hello, guys. Today I will teach you something different, since using hand seals are essentially a movement of chakra, you need to know how to control it. That's why from now on, you will perform the "Leaf Concentration Practice". For generations, the village has used this method to train shinobi."
Why do they give a name only for that? Naruto, Sasuke and Hinata exchanged speechless glances.
"Take a leaf from the cage I have aside me and put it in your forehead. Channel all your chakra and prevent it from falling. You have the rest of the year to do it."
All chakra? Naruto was curious. As he put the leaf in his forehead and channeled chakra, a terrible amount appeared from nowhere in the room. Everyone felt terrified, it was the same as the first time they learned chakra.
That ominous presence that drowned everything. When the kids were thinking about what happened, the presence disappeared and the calm returned.
They continued looking at the owner of the chakra who had his eyes closed. He didn't care about them.
It's stronger than before, what is this guy doing? What a pain... Shikamaru thinks that it's truly sad to be Naruto's classmate.
Iruka's palms were sweating. Since that time Naruto asked him about that, they never said a word to the other.
Naruto was in his world, and before he noticed, the leaf had crumbled to dust.
'I guess this didn't work for me' Naruto though with a twisted mouth. Then, he used a small amount as always.
A few minutes passed and Naruto grew bored, but he had to keep practicing. Mmm what if I tried to meditate too?
He couldn't do it, but he continued to try it.
Sasuke and Hinata were watching him, then they tried to place the leaf on themselves.
When they canalize all their chakra, it was easier to do than with a small amount, the control can be more lax and the result was the same.
Nevermind, I will better do it the way Gai-sensei taught us
Iruka noticed the thing they were doing but he didn't say anything. The previous scene with Naruto continued in his mind.
Where did these kids learn that?
Soon, the rest of the kids started their own training. Most of them couldn't keep the leaf for more than a few seconds.
Time continued to pass.
A week later, Sasuke and Hinata held the leaf for over three minutes. They found that the smaller the chakra amount, the harder it was to maintain. With their initial large amount they succeeded easily—but as they refined their control, they had to reduce the chakra, which shortened their time.
Naruto was having a hard time trying to do two unrelated tasks, but that was improving slowly.
Sasuke kept trying to do two task at the same time; it was harder for him because his mind was crowded; but he was getting used to it---in a few weeks he could do it.
Hinata began to use a punching bag and was gaining strength faster. And Maito Gai, seeing their effort, gave to each one another secret recipe they could make at home.
They noticed it: Gai-sensei has no sense of taste.
Every recipe he had tastes like shit.
What bothered them is that recipes were too useful. It helps a lot with the tiredness they were feeling after the training was easier to carry.
But they made a promise: to Improve the flavor. They didn't want to end up like Gai-sensei, unable to taste anything else.
With that determination, they didn't lose time and started to discuss in the school how to improve the flavor. But nothing works, it was like the recipe had a curse on it that only with that taste would be useful.
They tried to ask Sasuke's mom but she answered them with a smile that it tastes good. They never asked her again.
While they continued their experiment, time passed and October arrived.
By October, Sasuke and Hinata had nearly mastered the leaf training. They could follow Iruka's method, but preferred the harder way. Even with the smaller chakra amount, they held the leaf for four minutes—approaching Naruto's five-minute mark from two months earlier.
Best of all, Sasuke could multitask easily. Now he can begin to train his coordination with the swords.
Hinata's body was stronger, and she can hit even harder with her brass knuckles. She hadn't yet tried to combine the fighter styles.
The fact that both of them maintain their eyes open as much as they can, it really exhausts them, but they can feel the improvement of it. It's a little, but since their eyes can be better, they won't reject that.
Naruto could now control his chakra to create a thin layer on his limbs. It was harder for him because he needed to control the amount inside it to not explode. If he loses concentration, it would tangle again.
They didn't know what Maito Gai was doing in these months, since he told them the training method, he only appeared two or three times a week to ask for their progress.
Today all of them were reunited.
When they wanted to go home, Naruto stopped them.
"Hey, guys. Want to come to my birthday? It's next week, Friday."
"Mm we will be there, Naruto-kun."
"Fine, I will take my mother with me."
"Of course, Naruto! I wanted to give you a gift as your master!"
"Okay, it's at the same time. Come at 3 p.m., please."
Naruto's nine birthday is approaching.
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Just gave the kids some things to train.
Naruto had a hard time controlling it with Kurma bothering him all the time.
I like the gifts I choose to them. Years ago a friend gave me a plant, and another gave me a stuffed lamb. I appreciate the gesture.
Mikoto's and Sasuke's relationship is getting better.
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Have a nice day.
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