12 Chapter 12: Preparations
As they entered Yakiniku Q, Genma made himself comfortable at a table at the side of the store and ordered, which was copied by his students.
"You're official Genin now. Congratulations. But that also comes with a lot of explaining on my side." Genma sighed. "First of all your daily routine. We will meet up the same time as today every week day. Then we will do a morning training for around half an hour. After that, we will train your individual strength, as well as your team work. As for what we learn,-" Genma grinned. "that's completely up to you. We will start your routine the day after tomorrow. But that doesn't mean you are allowed to slack off tomorrow. I order each of you to decide on what to learn. You may visit the public library, your clan's or ask a senior for help. On the following day I will gather your ideas and give you some advice on how I'd change them. That doesn't mean you have to change them, but I would at least consider what I say. Ah, here's the meat."
A cute employee filled the grill-like thing in the middle of our table with meat. "Thank you." Nero told the waitress, while Ieri just said "Finally! I'm so hungry, I could drop dead!"
"You didn't told us about our afternoon, sensei." Yatora commented.
"Oh, that's when we are going to perform missions. You are obligated to perform 2 D-Rank missions every week. That's your way of earning money from now on, so I won't say no, if someone wants to complete more. But there's a rule. Only one mission at a time. Understood?"
He said that to all three of them, but looked mostly at Yatora, as Genma knew about his unfortunate circumstances from the profiles.
"Missions?!" Ieri excitedly says. "Like infiltrating other villages or beating up some vicious villains?"
"Hey, hey slow down there, Ieri. And you too, don't get your hopes up." He looked at Nero, who also looked excited to actually go on real missions now. "Your first missions will be D-Ranks, as I said. The only city you are going in is Konoha to find a missing cat and the only enemies you are slaying, are the weeds in the garden of the rich."
He looked at his downed students and Yatora who wasn't surprised at all by the fact, that D-Missions weren't about saving the entire world.
Next Genma looked at the sizzling meat on the table, his mouth watering. "Let us eat now, It's the best to eat after a draining training."
"Totally!" Ieri said, as Ieri snatched the first piece of meat, Genma was already moving his chopsticks towards.
On the next day, Yatora went to the library again, but this time entering the C-Rank section wasn't a dream anymore. He saw Ieri in the E-Rank section, looking for some basic stuff, but he didn't saw Nero at all.
'He's in a clan. Maybe they have there own secret Jutsus and stuff to learn. I saw that concept a lot in fanfictions.' Yatora thought to himself, as he searched for every scroll in the C-Rank section, that made us of either Water, Lightning or no Nature transformation and decided on what to learn.
"That should be sufficient enough." It was one hell of a job, to look through all of the possible Jutsus, he was at least able to learn without training another elemental affinity. The C-Rank section was at least tripple the size of the D-Rank and E-Rank section combined. But to be fair, the E-Rank Section was not more than one shelf, which means it's almost negligible in the comparison.
As he left, it was already past noon and he saw Ieri in the D-Section now together with Nero, who must have entered the library during the time, Yatora was studying all of those scrolls to see, which one would be a fitting addition to his arsenal. 'I can't just be learning every Jutsu I'm allowed to, like I used to in the academy, since I have some obligations now.'
Standing in front of the library, Yatora remembered the words used by Genma. 'You may visit the public library, your clan's or ask a senior for help'.
"Asking a senior for help, huh?" Yatora muttered, as he made his way to Sushizaki's. Maybe Tomioka had some advice to give him.
Entering the shop of the blacksmith, Tomioka was currently taking a lot of Ryu from a young kunoichi. They said goodbye and she walked away with loads of scrolls in which, she put the ninja tools she just bought.
"Hey, Tomioka" I casually said, as I came closer to the counter.
"Oh, Yatora. Didn't expect you to be here." Tomioka said with a feint smile.
"What happened? I don't see a smile on your face very often."
"You saw the girl just leaving? She's a regular and always spends loads of money in here for various ninja tools. I don't even know, why she would need all of those."
"Well, I feel like I now have a glimpse of an Idea."
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah, my squad's sensei specializes in the use of weapons too and he was very proficient with the ones he used. I don't think I've even seen a tenth of his arsenal."
"Your sensei? Oh right, somehow forgot about it. Who's he?"
"Genma Shiranui."
"Oh, the little boy from back then."
"You know him?"
"He was a participating in the chunin exams, where my last Genin team participated in too. He was quite promising back then and also caught the attention of the soon-to-be fourth Hokage, which lead to him being selected as one of lord fourth's bodyguards. Not that Minato would've needed them anyways."
"He was the bodyguard of the fourth Hokage." 'Now, that's something new.' Yatora said and thought.
"Yeah, but why did you come here? There has to be a reason, right?" Tomioka changed from 'oh, good old times' to serious mode.
"There is. Genma-sensei said, that we should select the things we want to learn over the next weeks and that we either should look in the library, what I did, or ask a senior for advice, what I'm doing now."
"Oh, so that's the reason. Well, I already told you that I have nothing to teach you about Kenjutsu anymore. You have to figure the rest out without my help. Maybe you'll even create your own Kenjutsu style and teach me instead."
Before Yatora had time to feel sad, that Tomioka really won't teach him anymore, his former sensei continued. "But I can however tell you what you should learn in terms of Ninjutsu. Especially if your sensei is Genma, he's very carefree, so he'll surely ..."
Yatora went to bed with a very good feeling. After all, he was able to work out a good list with techniques, he wants to learn. 'I hope Genma will allow me the thing Tomioka spoke about.'
On the next day Team 9 gathered on the trainings ground, just as Genma wanted them to. He was already waiting for the two.
"Morning." Nero said meagerly, as he wasn't much of a morning person.
Totally on the opposite was Ieri, who was as cheerful as ever. "Good morning, sensei! I can't wait to show you everything I want you to teach me!"
It was obviously meant teasingly, but it also helped Nero to be a little more awake, as he couldn't hold back a little chuckle.
"Morning, Genma-sensei." Yatora said, as he approached the gathering as the last person.
"Morning, team 9. Even though, I said, we'll start with training in the morning, we will postpone, that until tomorrow. Today will be solely focused around, what you want to learn. We also won't do any mission today, but instead train till the evening."
Genma looked at his team, estimating every member, deciding, who should go first.
"Nero, I want you to tell me, what Techniques you want to learn first." 'I should start with Nero and then ask Ieri. It could very well be the case, that she just copied everything Nero wanted to learn. And I really don't need two guys with the exact same skillset on the team.'
Nero started to talk and revealed, that he decided on the following Jutsus:
Fire Release: Torch finger (E)
Fire Release: Flamefire (D)
[A/N: Which Idiot came up with that name? Oh, wait]
Fire Release: Fire pillar (D)
Fire Release: Bomb's waiter (C)
Fire Release: Bomb extraction (C)
Wind Release: Wind shuriken (E)
Wind Release: Projectile Control (E)
Wind Release: Windmill (D)
Wind Release: Breakthrough (D)
Wind Release: Mighty Breeze (C)
Wind Release: Stormy Rage (C)
Body-Flicker Jutsu (D)
"I also would like to learn to perform Jutsu with less handsigns, like Yatora did yesterday. That would make things much easier. Oh, and my dad said, he's also going to show me our Clan's White-Fang-Kenjutsu, so you don't have to worry, that we might not have enough close combatants."
"I quite like your list, but there some things missing. First of all, you should also learn the wind clones, as they are quite easy to learn, very chakra efficient and not only mere illusions, but manifested in the real world. Furthermore, I can show you how to perform Jutsus, but it's not an easy task and I don't think you'll be able to do that for quite a while. Next you, Ieri, what did you decide on?"
Ieri wasn't sure how to start her sentence. "Well, I'm, I want, I mean, it could come in handy-" She looked at Genma, whose look said something similar to 'come to the point already'. Somehow, that encouraged her to start talk again. "So first of all I want to learn, the E-Rank Jutsus Torch Finger and Lighter. Then, I also want to learn the D-Ranks Fire Pillar and Flame Tail. Then, I would like to learn one C-Rank at least, namely Rain of Fire."
"That's a good list for you, but I don't see the need of being that nervous before?" Genma stated confused.
"Well, because I'm not finished. Yesterday, I saw Nero using Wind and Fire and even Yatora is able to perform two nature releases."
'Even Yatora. What's that supposed to mean?' Yatora thought.
"I just thought, I should also learn a second element." Ieri finished her explanation.
"That was a good idea, what element are you thinking of?" Genma asked friendly, but thought. 'I'm gonna go ballistic, if she picked wind like Nero. Although the two elements go good together, there's no need to copy everything he does. And you don't need to control every element, that benefits your main one. That's what teammates are for, after all.'
"Well, I looked at what our team has and what it doesn't and I decided to go with earth release. It has very good defensive options and is very versatile over all."
'Well, that's a pleasant surprise.' Genma thought, being happy, that he doesn't have to lose his sanity with explaining, that she doesn't have to copy everything Nero has.
'Well, honestly I didn't look at our team at all. I just found out yesterday, during sensei's beating, that I really don't like to get hurt and earth release seems like the perfect option to avoid a situation like yesterday. Seriously, which sensei beats their student up like that!? Is that even legal!?'
Yatora and astonishingly even Nero looked surprised at her resolve. She did tell neither of them.
"So, which Jutsus are you interested in?" Genma asked curious.
"I want to learn the E-Ranks Clay-Former, Mole and Children's architecture, as well as the D-Ranks Small Clay-Doll, Earth wall, Earth Shield, Break and Small Chasm. I also want to learn the C-Ranks Huge Stone wall, Earth bunker, Earth Clone and Clay Vomit." She said in a speed, that Genma couldn't even intercept.
"That's quite a lot, don't you think?" Genma said skeptically.
"Well, I think I need them all, but I'm willing to make sacrifices." She said and added in her mind 'But don't you dare think, I'll discard any of my defense Jutsus!'
"Ok, so first of all, you must remember, that that's quite a lot to learn and it might even take you weeks to learn all of those. And now for your selection I'd consider to postpone learning Huge Stone Wall and Clay Vomit. I would advise you to not even start learning, Break and Small Chasm, as they are pretty useless once you become stronger. I don't see a reason, why you'd need that many defensive options, but all you selected can be used in a different way, so it might be helpful to learn them all.
You could start with Clay Forming and Children's architecture to learn, as they will help you getting more comfortable with Earth Release. Then you should learn Earth Wall and Shield, after that Earth clone. Then you'll learn the rest. And I look if I can get a scroll of Clay Clone for you, it's a different version of Earth Clone, just B-Rank, but it isn't much more difficult to learn. Understood?"
Ieri nodded with a smile, happy, that sensei approved her defensive Jutsus. And to top that off, she'll even learn a B-Rank before Nero will.
"Now to you, Yatora. What did you decide on?"
'I hope that kid didn't plan to learn even more than the others. He seems to be the type, that rarely stops training, so it wouldn't surprise me, but I think people in their youth should enjoy their life.'
"I don't want to learn that much, sensei. The only Jutsus I want learn is Multiplication, Hiding in Mist, Water Prison, as well as Water-, Lightning- and Shadow Clone."
"Hmmh, Water Clone is a good choice, but I'm not sure about the other clones. Shadow Clone is a complicated B-Rank and Lightning Jutsu is an A-Rank. I don't think you should learn them yet, wait for your promotion to Shunin. You can look at Shadow clones yourself then and I'm willing to organize you a Lightning Clone Scroll then, as a means to celebrate your passing. I don't think you'll even be able to create a single Lightning Clone without collapsing, even though your chakra reserves seem to be extraordinary for your age. The other Jutsus are completely fine."
Yatora smirked slightly, but not because he just got the first information about how big his chakra pool is. He smirked because everything went exactly as Tomioka said. He advised Yatora to ask for an A- and B-Rank, in order to get compensated with another Jutsu when Genma declines his request.
"Uhm, Genma-sensei, can I then learn the Summoning Jutsu?" I asked with the sweetest child face, I was able to produce with my lack of emotions.
Even though the Summoning Jutsu was a C-Rank Jutsu, it wasn't in the library, so Yatora didn't have the means to learn it on his own.
"The summoning Jutsu, huh? Well it should be possible, I think, and it also would be a nice addition to our team's arsenal. I look, what I can do."
The Summoning Jutsu, a technique that lets you summon a creature you made a contract with. And there's the Reverse-Summoning Jutsu, which transports you into the world of the creatures you made a contract with.
But what if you don't make have a contract with an animal?
Easy. It transports you into the realm of the creatures most suited for you.
'I'm curious, what kind of animal fits me. Maybe sea serpents, as they are my Chakra creature? No, that's seems too obvious.' Yatora thought, as he looked at his team.
[A/N: I'm curious and since there are many people reading my fanfic, that know much more about Naruto than me, I might as well ask you? Are people with a secret clan Jutsu like the Naras or Akimichis unable to learn any elemental Release or why don't they ever use something like that? I mean I'd understand for the Nara. It sure is a drag to train his elemental affinities, but why didn't Ino or Choji use something? I mean a rolling meatball with the cutting power of Wind would be crazy, right?]
