The next day, Kakashi applied the weight seals to his team before looking for Guy and finding him alongside his team in Training Ground Three.
"Umm, someone is coming, Sensei."
Tenten pointed at the approaching Kakashi.
Turning, Guy's face lit up as he smiled, teeth gleaming.
"Well, if it isn't my eternal rival. How are you doing, Kakashi?"
Kakashi smirked; only Guy could draw out his name that much.
"I'm good, Guy. My team is a bit busy preparing for the upcoming exams."
Guy nodded, a bit of competitiveness slipping in as he spoke up.
"Are you sure it's not too soon for your genin? I held mine back to train for a year. Let's say that I'm confident that my genin will be the stars of the exam."
Guy said with a challenging smirk, turning to see Kakashi ignoring him and shaking hands with his team.
Kakashi looked over his shoulder at Guy with a bored look.
"Hmm? Did you say something?"
Guy looked as if he was struck by lightning, crying out in agony before his eyes lit with a competitive fire.
"You've still got it, my rival. That cool and hip attitude of yours is just as strong as ever."
"Maa, and you're still.... Youthful."
Kakashi replied, trying to find a nice way to put into words the enigma that is Guy.
"What do you say about switching students for a bit, Guy? Let's say every other day?"
Guy blinked, not expecting the sudden request.
"I'm sure your team would appreciate some change to their training. I could even help Tenten out. Lee and Neji are taijutsu specialists, but Tenten doesn't have to be limited to that. She could learn fuinjutsu from me. Or how to use weapons."
Tenten's eyes lit up, hoping Guy would accept.
Guy looked to his team.
Neji: I don't care
Lee: I'll do whatever you say, Sensei!
Tenten: Please, Sensei.
Tenten begged, hands clasped together, having never been as passionate about taijutsu as her teammates.
"Or, I could let Tenten train with my team. You'd only have to worry about Lee, as I'm sure Neji does all his training with his byakugan and gentle fist."
Neji seemed to like this idea the best, not wanting to waste his time training with someone he didn't know. Lee was still willing to do whatever his Sensei wanted, and Tenten welcomed the chance to get away from Lee and Guy, and to get some training in other ninja arts.
Guy looked to Tenten and agreed, watching as his genin walked up to Kakashi with a spring in her step.
"Ready whenever you are, Kakashi Sensei."
Kakashi smiled with his eye, gesturing for her to follow him.
"I'll introduce you to my team, and then we can get started on your Training. Which do you want to learn first: Fuinjutsu or Kenjutsu? I have two of my students currently working on both. If you choose Kenjutsu, you'll have a sparring partner. If you choose Fuinjutsu, you'll have someone to help you when you have questions."
Tenten thought it over. While kenjutsu interested her, she could train with a scroll from the library, having common kenjutsu forms and the like. But fuinjutsu, on the other hand, is less common and hard to find a teacher who can teach it to a proficient level.
"Fuinjutsu."
"Good choice. The village always needs more fuinjutsu practitioners. They're rare and more sought after than medic nin. You must have some experience in it, right?"
Kakashi asked, recalling the scrolls she used in the original to summon all her ninja tools.
"Yes, I'm at the beginner level. I can make storage and paralysis seals. Explosive seals are next, but I'm worried I'll blow myself up."
Kakashi chuckled.
"Your training partner can make shadow clones just as easily as people breathe. You'll be able to experiment and learn without worry."
Kakashi assured.
After five more minutes of leisurely walking, they made it to Training Ground Seven.
Kakashi interrupted their training, introduced them, and allowed them to continue, with Tenten going with Naruto to study fuinjutsu. Sasuke resumes a kenjutsu spar with his shadow clone, and Sakura continues to learn how to set traps properly, as well as a low-level earth jutsu from another of Kakashi's clones.
As the genin worked, Kakashi continued his Armament training, relentlessly striking trees and stone to force the hardening technique. He was getting closer, evidenced by the fleeting black coating that appeared on his fists before dissipating. While three clones supervised the genin, a fourth clone sat nearby, meticulously studying an advanced fuinjutsu book, the intermediate book having been read through and passed to Naruto.
*Boom, Crack*
Pulling back his fist, Kakashi watched the large life-sized rock split down the middle and fall to the ground into two pieces.
'Almost.'
Kakashi thought as he eyed the large hill in front of him, wondering if the 'Garp' way of punching mountains and hills would be better than large rocks and trees.
'Wouldn't hurt to try.'
He contemplated the feeling slipping through his grasp, then walked up the hill and slammed his fists into it over and over. With each punch, the feeling that he was having trouble grasping came closer and closer to being grasped.
Pausing just before his fist slammed into the hill, Kakashi went over the memories of the clone training Sakura. Sakura, having completed all her trap training and grasping the Earth style: Earth Wall, due to her chakra control.
Kakashi briefly considered what to teach her before creating a clone to send to Sakura to teach her one more technique and spar with her.
'Back to it then.'
*Boom!*
Kakashi slammed his fist into the hill for what had to be two hundred times before he was able to grasp the feeling and achieve Armament Hardening, looking at his metallic black coating from his fist down his forearm and ending at his elbow.
Grabbing a kunai with his left hand, Kakashi thrust the kunai at his fist, watching as it sparked, a dull vibration traveling down both forearms, the tip of the kunai bent to the left slightly, and the haki-clad fist left without any damage.
'Next is Imbument. Shouldn't be too difficult, seeing as I have grasped the Coating stage.'
Kakashi would spend two minutes trying to grasp Imbuement on his kunai. Once he did, the familiarity with imbuing his weapons with chakra and lightning helped him coat them; the weapons now gleamed even more than before and were far more durable and deadly.
With a casual flick of his wrist, Kakashi sent the kunai flying. It sheared through twelve consecutive trees as if they were mist, traveling in a perfectly straight line before losing momentum and burying itself to the hilt in the earth.
Kakashi whistled at the destruction caused. With a light flick, he managed to do more damage than most would with wind or lightning chakra flow through a kunai.
'Hmm, I wonder what kind of damage it would do if I added lightning flow on top of seriously throwing it.'
Kakashi briefly thought about trying it before thinking better of it, not wanting to create a path of destruction that would draw too many eyes.
Chapter End -