5 Upgrade

"Hmmm...." Naruto hummed while narrowing his eyes at the leaf on his forehead. He was channeling his chakra onto the leaf, using it as a focal point.

Naruto was super bored. "This is it?!" He asked loudly. Shikamaru yawned while he also had a leaf on his forehead.

"Yeah, this is it." Shikamaru replied to him casually. Naruto looked at Shikamaru with a pout on his face.

" Surely there's more to this." Naruto asked him. Shikamaru sighed.

" No there's not. And be quiet or sensei will kick us out of the class. " Shikamaru warned as Naruto snorted and started grumbling to himself.

There was silence around the class for a few minutes, everyone was concentrating on directing all their chakra onto the leaf.

Even Satsuki who also finds this exercise boring like most of the class do, was also focusing on it.

"Hey, here's an idea you can work on...." Shikamaru whispered. Even thought he didn't look like it, the Nara was in deep thought for a couple of minutes.

Naruto immediately directed all of his attention at him, the leaf on his forehead immediately fell onto the floor.

"Sensei said that the true purpose of the exercise is hone the individual's concentration and to keep their mind from becoming distracted. So what if.... " Shikamaru pointed at Naruto.

" You do some kind of physical exercise while doing the Leaf Concentration Practice at the same time." Shikamaru suggested. Naruto tilted his head in confusion as he picked up the fallen leaf.

" Why should I? " Naruto asked.

"You are able to easily able to mould the correct amount of chakra simply by remaining calm and focused. So doing a stressful physical exercise like pushups while doing the leaf exercise at the same time can raise your concentration levels to a higher level. " Shikamaru explained like it was the simplest thing in the world. Naruto grinned broadly, perhaps this seemingly boring exercise is useful for something after all.

"Sweet! Let's do it together!" Naruto cheered loudly. Shikamaru raised a brow at him.

"I never said I would do this with you, Naruto. It's too troublesome." Shikamaru argued with a small smirk on his face. Naruto deadpanned at him.

"C'mon Shika, you can get some exercise in and find out if this works. It's not troublesome, it's convenient." Naruto argued back. Shikamaru sighed.

" You and your Talk no Jutsu. Fine, but don't expect me to keep up with that endurance of yours." Shikamaru grumbled. Naruto smirked as he and Shikamaru got into the push-up position.

They were directing all of their chakra to the leaf stuck on their foreheads. They also had serious expressions on their faces.

Iruka who was giving advice to some of the students, stopped and turned towards the two. There was chattering amongst the students as they all stared at Shikamaru and Naruto who were doing something weird.

Even Satsuki found interest at what they were doing and looked at them with that cold gaze of hers.

"Iruka sensei! Why aren't you punishing them!" Sakura screeched while pointing at the two troublemakers.

Sakura has fair skin, green eyes, and long pink hair. She wore her hair as bangs and has a large forehead. Due to this, some of her classmates call her 'Forehead Girl'.

Sakura wears a red qipao dress — at various times either with or without short sleeves — with slits along the sides accompanied by a zipper and white circular designs. She also wears tight dark green bike shorts with a shuriken holster around her right thigh and blue sandals.

"Wait a moment, Sakura. Let's see what they're doing first." Iruka replied calmly. Sakura huffed and looked at the Naruto and Shikamaru who were adjusting their push-up positions.

"Men." She grumbled while shaking her head. Naruto and Shikamaru started doing pushups while attempting to also concentrate their chakra to the leaf on their foreheads.

" Shit. " Naruto cursed as he lost concentration by being too focused on the pushups. The leaf slowly fell onto the ground. He stopped his pushups and put the leaf back onto his forehead. He then resumed doing his pushups.

[Leaf Concentration Practice: Lvl 2

A way to teach students how to control their chakra more effectively. All Jutsu uses 1% less chakra.]

[Full control over 1% of your chakra]

"Damnit." Naruto cursed as the leaf fell down again on his 25th pushup. Shikamaru was having a much better time than him due to him having way less chakra to work on.

His poor control of his chakra was offset by his sheer reserves which was more than most jonin in Konoha. But he could feel it getting better as he kept doing the pushups.

"Ugh..... What a drag...." Shikamaru grumbled as he slumped onto the ground on his 50th pushup. The large crowd of Naruto's classmates gathering around the two start cheering Naruto on as he kept doing his pushups without showing signs of exhaustion.

Somehow, Naruto doesn't feel sore at all from all of the extreme physical exercises he did with Guy yesterday. He felt that he got a little bit stronger from that bit of physical exertion.

Originally, doing 100 pushups seemed impossible to him. But now, Naruto felt that it was within his reach, he just needed to be consistent.

"Holy crap, Naruto's already at 80 pushups already!" Choji shouted in shock. Sakura was in disbelief. Was Naruto, the dead last always this physically strong?

Satsuki wasn't surprised. He declared that they were rivals after all. Rivals are supposed to one up each other. Though inside she felt a little jealous that he had already overtaken the amount of pushups she could do by two times.

"N-naruto-k-kun....." A girl whispered while bunches up in the crowd of students watching Naruto's amazing show of strength.

She is Hinata Hyuga. She was formerly the heiress of the Hyuga clan but she lost the position upon being deemed unsuited for the responsibilities of leading the clan.

Hinata is a slender girl of fair-complexion who, as a Hyūga, her most distinguishing trait is the Byakugan, giving her featureless lavender eyes.

She has dark blue hair that she keeps in a hime-cut. Her hair is cut just above her forehead akin to a bowl-cut with chin-length strands framing her face.

Hinata usually wears a cream-coloured hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem. She also wears navy blue pants.

And lastly, she has a massive crush on Naruto. But Naruto being Naruto, was too dense to even notice it. But it was also Hinata's fault a little. Her self-confidence is zero to none and it made her even more bashful because she gained so little faith in herself and opinions.

She is kind, always thinking of others more than for herself, caring for their feelings and well-being. She doesn't like being confrontational for any reason.

This led to her being meek or timid to others, as her overwhelming kindness can render her unable to respond or act for fear of offending somebody.

"G-go N-naruto-k-kun... Y-you c-can do it..." Hinata whispered shyly when she saw Naruto struggling a lot when he reached his 85th pushup.

Hinata widened her eyes in shock as Naruto suddenly grinned broadly. "Thanks Hinata." Naruto replied, making her blush vividly and faint on the spot. He regained his concentration on letting the leaf stick to his forehead. He then gained a second wind and started speeding up his pushups.

The cheering got louder. Sakura widened her eyes and her jaw dropped to the ground as Naruto zoomed past 100 pushups and was now on the way to completing 120 of them.

"Ngggh..." Naruto grunted as he tried to complete another pushup, but his body finally ran out of juice and he slumped onto the ground exhausted as hell.

" H-how much w-was it sensei?" Sakura stuttered out her question. Iruka was looking at Naruto with an impressed expression, he snapped out of it and opened his mouth to answer Sakura's question.

"125 pushups, and the leaf only fell down twice." Iruka revealed. Naruto smirked to himself as he looked at the floating screen in front of him.

[Leaf Concentration Practice: Lvl 5

A way to teach students how to control their chakra more effectively. Jutsu uses 2.5% less chakra.]

[Full control over 1.5% of your chakra]

Most of the crowd clapped their hands and cheered loudly at Naruto. Satsuki gritted her teeth and walked away from the crowd.

'You got lucky today, Naruto. I won't lose to the likes of you. I will stand on top. I will avenge my clan and kill you, Itachi.' Satsuki vowed to herself. For her part, Sasuke thought little of Naruto and was usually annoyed by the blonde's outbursts, but would, at times, secretly smile at how hard Naruto worked because of her.

Ironically, for all the attention she received, Naruto was the only person among her peers who understood Satsuki due to the painful experiences she had.

"Damn, you really went the extra mile there Naruto." Shikamaru mumbled as he pulled Naruto up. Naruto laughed.

"Yeah, it was fun, wasn't it?" Naruto asked Shikamaru who shrugged.

"A little bit I guess, but it was still a drag though."

"Yeah, whatever you say Shika."

To be continued...