Team 7 (2)

After the completion of our mission, we found ourselves back at training ground seven. Naruto, Sakura and I stood in a row facing Kakashi sensei who stood in front of us with his usual laid back style as he read his Icha Icha Paradise.

Feeling our eyes upon him, he closed the book in his hands and stuffed it into his pouch. "You guys want daily training?"

"Yes sir." We chorused.

"Why not once a week?"

"Daily, sir." Sakura answered. "We need daily training to learn a lot from you."

"Haven't you guys heard? Experience is the best teacher." Kakashi gave his close eyed smile.

The three of us stood there, staring at him.

"Fine." He conceded. "We'll do the daily training."

"Yes!" Naruto pumped a fist. "What are we going to learn? A cool fuinjutsu seal? An ultimate taijutsu move?"

"Don't get ahead of yourselves." He chuckled. "Yuji!"

"Sir!" I straightened.

"What kind of ninja is the most dangerous?"

I took a moment to think about it. "A S-class ninja."

"No."

What? We the three genins glanced at each other in confusion. The most dangerous ninja isn't a S-class ninja? What's Kakashi been smoking?

"The most dangerous ninja is an old ninja. Do you know why?"

We shook our heads in surprise.

"Every old ninja has a greater repertoire of jutsus than everyone else. Why? Acclimatization."

Oh. We rocked back in surprise. The answer looked obvious in hindsight. Acclimatization is the process when your body learns the necessary chakra flow needed for a particular jutsu the more you use it. This means that ninjas can remove parts of their tattooed seals and use their body's experience to fill in the gaps.

This creates more space for more fuinjutsu seals on their bodies, which means old ninjas who take advantage of the Acclimatization, eventually become generalists because they have space for more jutsus.

"A lot of ninjas don't focus on Acclimatization until they're older. They focus on increasing their firepower first. Unfortunately, they don't realise that it's much easier to Acclimatize when you have a smaller number of fuinjutsu seals tattooed on your body."

"From today, you three will be training to Acclimatize the existing seals on your body. Until you can cut the seal's total surface area on your skin by half, I won't teach you anything new."

"Is this a new trick to not do any teaching?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"No. I'll be in charge of this training. I'll push you to your limits and break them, so come at me with the intent to kill." Kakashi stuck his hands in his pockets radiating an intense aura.

We glanced at each other with a wide grin and attacked.

Kakashi took a few steps back as we charged forward. Despite his nonchalant posture, his eyes scanned each movement, calculating and precise.

Naruto led the charge, his chakra flaring as he prepared the adamantine chains. He summoned three shadow clones in rapid succession, each clone mirroring his movements in a choreographed dance.

As they rushed Kakashi, golden chains erupted from their palms, surging towards him like something out of a horror movie. Some stabbed into the ground while others rushed at him.

With swift, fluid movements, Kakashi dodged each chain, moving with such minimal movement it was as if he was gliding. The chains clanged against each other, missing their target and instead creating a metallic web that momentarily blocked our view.

Sakura was next. With a one-handed seal, she faded away from view and the ground seemed to twist and fold under Kakashi's feet, trying to throw him off balance. Yet, he remained unfazed, his eyes darting around, trying to sense Sakura.

With a sudden burst of speed, he closed the distance, ducking just as Sakura's fist appeared, descending where he had been a moment earlier, the force of her strike shattering the illusion and cracking the ground.

As Naruto and Sakura engaged Kakashi, I stood back, maintaining a cautious distance as I watched closely. Silently, I executed the clone technique. In an instant, several clones dispersed in various directions.

My clones joined the fray, trying to get into great positions without touching anything. The one great weakness of the normal clone technique, they could be dispersed with just a passing touch. With Naruto's clones bouncing around, it was hard to avoid touching anyone.

One of my clones lunged forward attacking with Naruto just as I swapped places with another clone behind Kakashi, attempting a sneak attack. Kakashi, however, sensed the shift in chakra and spun slightly, ducking Naruto's fist and delivering a gentle tap to my hand forcing me to drop my kunai.

Using the opportunity, Sakura delivered a devastating punch with a cry of fury. Kakashi burst violently into mud, splattering the three of us. My clones burst out of existence.

Kakashi slowly rose out of the ground, his hands still casually tucked in his pockets. "Not bad," he commented dryly. "But focus on harnessing the chakra more efficiently. You don't need to overcharge your tattoos. Focus on giving it the least amount of chakra it needs to work perfectly. The less you waste, the more you have to use."

Naruto, not one to be deterred by a challenge, grinned and nodded. "Got it, sensei! Let's go again!"

Sakura wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, her eyes determined. With a deep breath, she raised her fists. "Let's do this."

I observing both his teammates with a small smile. I liked this versions of Naruto and Sakura better. With a deep breath, I closed my eyes briefly, focusing on the intricate fuinjutsu tattoos lining my torso. Each self-contained symbol represented a different technique.

"Remember," Kakashi called out, pulling his book out once again, "the key to becoming powerful isn't just about learning new jutsu. It's about mastering and refining what you already know until it becomes a part of you. That's how you truly grow."

"Hai sensei!" We chorused and attacked as one. A grin was on everyone's face as we continued our training. Kakashi might be a lazy teacher, he might not be teaching us anything new, but we know that we'll be learning a lot either way.

A/N: This chapter has two purposes. First, to drop some lore on the new fuinjutsu based power system. Second, to establish team seven's daily routine as we would mostly be skipping their day to day life in the first six months.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter. See you tomorrow.