Taijutsu Class

While the four was eating their lunch and getting to know each other well, Nawaki was searching for them through out the whole school. He wanted to introduce his friends to Arashi and Kushina.

"Where are they? I know they have brought their lunch so they should be inside the school. But why can't I find them anywhere? They had promised me they would eat lunch with me." said Nawaki irritably.

"Well we have already searched the whole school. They are not here. May be they had gone outside." said Choza while munching his chips. He was feeling hungry and couldn't wait to eat his lunch. "Maybe we should eat our lunch. We can meet them after school has finished."

"How about we look for them on the roof. After that we can eat lunch their." suggested Minato. Though he had doubts if they could find them or not.

"What a drag. Lets go. As soon as we finish we can go cloud watching." said Shikaku in a lazy voice.

"You are just being lazy. Whatever lets go." said Inoichi. He knew his two childhood friends better. He knew what they were feeling.

"Ok then. That is the final place we will search for them. If we can't find them their, I will introduce you in the evening." said Nawaki.

Soon the five of them followed him to the roof. As soon as they reached there, they heard laughter coming from an corner. Nawaki recognized Arashi and Kushina's voice. He started running towards them and saw both of them were talking and laughing with another two girls. He recognize both the girls. They were Uchiha Mikoto and Hyuga Kana. They were seniors of class 3. He had heard of them before. After all they were among the strongest kunoichi of their year. The two of them were also very popular. Kana for her stoic personality and Mikoto for her cheerful personality.

Seeing them with Arashi and Kushina confused him. He knew the two of them didn't know them before. When others heard his steps, they stopped their conversation.

"Nawaki, what are you doing here?" asked Kushina.

"It seems you have forgotten your promise. You had said to eat lunch together. I have been searching for you two through out the whole school." said Nawaki.

"Oh! Sorry Nawaki. We kind of forgot about it while chatting with our new friends. Now that you are here, meet Mikoto Uchiha and Kana Hyuga. They are from our class and they are very nice." said Kushina. "Are you going to introduce your friends to us or not?"

"Oh I forget. Well nice to meet you Mikoto senpai and Kana senpai. Meet my friends, the blonde hair boy is Minato Namikaze, the boy with the lazy face is Shikaku Nara, the one eating chips is Choza Akimichi and last but not the list Inoichi Yamanaka." introduced Nawaki his friends to everyone.

"Hello senpai." the four boys greeted them.

"No need to be so formal boys. You can call us big sister or big brother. Thank you for taking care of Nawaki." said Kushina with a smile.

"Come join us for lunch." said Arashi while gesturing them to sit with them.

Soon the nine of started eating their lunch. Slowly everyone opened up and joined the conversation. As their conversation continued they began to learn more about themselves.

As they got deeper into their conversation, the topic of upcoming war was brought. Everyone became silent. From a easy going discussion to serious topic made everyone to think carefully before opening their mouth.

Arashi broke the silence and said "So you managed to deduce that war is coming from just the current changes going on. You really leave up to the name Shikaku."

To his comment Shikaku replied "What can I say. The current changes are too much to not notice."

"So what is your thoughts regarding this." asked Arashi to everyone. He wanted to know everyone's opinions.

"Well its not going to happen in another three years. That much is guaranteed. So that means we have three more years to enjoy before all hell breaks loose." said Choza Akimichi.

"Yeah we shouldn't worry about that. We should all train hard and prepare for it. Even though the chances of us joining the war is low. Who knows what will happen." said Mikoto.

"I think that the chances of us joining the war is high." said Minato. Everyone was startled by his words. "Why?" asked Shikaku. Gone was his lazy attitude, a rare seriousness could be seen across his face.

"You and I both know what happened to Uzumaki village. Sorry Arashi big brother and Kushina big sister, forgive me for bringing this up. But if three villages could join once to eradicate a threat to them, they would do it again. Land of Fire is too big of a prize for them to sit back and do nothing." said Minato.

Listening to his opinion, everyone nodded in understanding. They knew every village had some problems with their respective lands. Except for Land of Fire which is full of fertile lands, every village had something to worry about.

"Yeah. They will attack us together alright. That's why Lord Hokage has implemented such curriculum into the academy. It is to improve our chances of survival. Rather than jumping directly into the face of death without any preparations, he wanted to us be prepared and face our enemies with appropriate force. I meant to say that if our genin could use ninjutsu and have some experience of fighting, they can change the fate of the outcome.

Every village use genin just to fill their numbers. They care less if they survive. The real players of the war are the jonin. But if genin can defeat other genin, slowly they can increase their strength as the war continues. These genin will become chunin and some of them will become jonin. By that time other villages will have suffered damages but our village will have overall strength increased." explained Shikaku.

"Yeah this strategy is what the 3rd Hokage is doing. So when we face attacks from our enemy, to protect our land we academy students will have to fight." said Arashi.

"So in the end we are all joining the war at some point." said Kana.

"That's one of the reason I choose to join the academy. If I and Kushina wanted to we can just train in our home. But that wouldn't work. We can increase our strength but at the time of war, if you are not as strong as a S class ninja, you cannot change the outcome. So its better to stick together with friends. That way we can at least have some control of our fate." said Arashi.

Hearing his words, everyone looked at him with mixed reaction. Nobody liked it to hear they were being used by others.

"So we are just useful to you that's why you become friends with us." said Kana. She was hurt by his words. She thought he was a good guy but here he was openly saying he was just using them.

Even Kushina was startled by Arashi's words. She didn't knew he thought like that. She was confused about how to reply to his words. She really wanted to be friends with Kana and Mikoto. But Arashi's word just might have ended their friendship before it could even lasted a day.

"Look I will be blunt. After facing my clan extermination, my mindset has changed. I know I told you I just wanted to friends to just protect myself and Kushina but that is not by sacrificing my friends. You understood me in the wrong way. What I want is to become true friends. Like that their will be complete trust within us. This way I can help you guys to become strong together. But like it or not I am not doing this out of charity. In return I want something from you guys as well. This will be the only time I am going to explain this. What I have in my mind for the future is going to change the whole shinobi world. If I am successful, the whole world might want to turn against me.

My dream is not limited to just becoming a strong shinobi and get revenge for my clan. It is something that you will understand if you stay with me as a true friend. I promise you this I will never betray you if you don't betray me. As for my dream and purpose I will tell you when you have my complete trust." explained Arashi.

Though all of them were small, being trained to become shinobi had helped them to mature quickly. Kids of their age were already fighting enemies in some village. Age didn't matter for them. If you could become more powerful, even older ones would respect you.

Arashi's words made a deep impact on their mood. Nobody responded to his words. Silently all of them continued their lunch. Soon it was time for them to go to next class.

Everyone stood up and went to their own classes. Arashi, Kushina, Kana and Mikoto were walking together but nobody talked. As they reached their own classrooms, Mikoto went to her class and the others went to their own classroom. All of them were in deep thoughts. Even Kushina was thinking about Arashi's words. She had never seen Arashi like this before. They were friends as far as she could remember. To her it seemed that their was more to his words than it seemed. She decided to ask him in their home.

After 10 minutes of waiting. Soon Naori sensei came with another teacher. All the students greeted them.

"Class today we will be having a friendly taijutsu battle together with class 5. With teacher Daichi here, we will be watching your fights and make a report in your strength and weakness. This way we can further improve your taijutsu. I will have to remind you, you cannot use any ninjutsu or genjutsu during the fight. We will be accessing only taijutsu today. Now class come with us to academy training ground." said Naori sensei.

Soon everyone followed her and Daichi sensei out of the class to the training ground in the academy.

As they reached the training ground Naori sensei told them to gather around her.

"Ok I will call two names and you two will have a mock taijutsu battle. Lets start." said Naori sensei.

Soon Daichi sensei called out two students name. Both of them went ahead. Students cleared an area for them to fight.

Both the students were ready to start their fight. They made the seal of confrontation and the battle officially began.

They fought like amature. This thought was going through everyone's mind. None was impressed with their battle. It was like a street fight than ninja.

"Ok stop it you two. It seems my decision is correct. If I haven't seen this with my own eyes how will have I known the standard of your taijutsu is like this. Ok you two rest and next time practice the academy style taijutsu more. It may save your life. Stop depending on only ninjutsu. Before becoming a jonin, most battles are fought with taijutsu, kunai and shuriken or ninjato. You don't have enough chakra to use ninjutsu during fights." Naori sensei reminded everyone the importance of taijutsu.

"OK now lets continue." Daichi sensei called two more names and like that all the students had already performed. Some of them showed better results and were praised by the sensei.

Now it was time for the last two pairs. It was Arashi vs Mikoto and Kushina vs Kana.

Mikoto and Kana were the best students in the class while Arashi and Kushina were newcomers. But Naori sensei had a feeling this might be the best fights of the day. She called Kana and Kushina first.

Arashi knew he wouldn't be match for Mikoto if he didn't lower their gravity seals. He signaled Kushina to lower the seals. Kushina acknowledged and lowered her seals to level 1.

She felt light. Though they always remembered to cancel their seals when they sleep to adjust their bodies and to not hamper their growth progress, they still had improvements in their speed and chakra.

Kushina went ahead and stood in front of Kana. She could clearly feel Kana taking this fight seriously. After their talk on the roof, Kana and Mikoto had ignored the duo during the class and were thinking about the words. They clearly wanted to be friends with them but had some hesitation. From the words of Arashi they could tell he had planned something big for the future. The confidence in his voice and his eyes that was filled with determination was unshakable. But Mikoto and Kana were from big clans and they thought they could become strong on their own with the help of the clan. Kana was somewhat moved by his proposition. Being from a branch family and an orphan on top of it had already made sure she would be mediocre even if she showed talents. The cage bird seal on her forehead, made sure of that.

She had long wanted to be freed from the seal. This seal had somewhat made her a slave to the main family. She wanted to get rid of it and broke out of her family's traditions. She knew if Arashi promised her he could free her from the seal, she would go along with his plans. She had no attachment towards her family or the village.

She knew of the Uzumaki clan and their prowess in making seals. She hoped that if she joined him she could be freed from the curse seal.

When her name was called, she decided to talk with the two after the school was over.

Kushina and Kana both prepared themselves for the battle. The two of them didn't attack each other. Rather they were gauzing each others strength and weakness.

Kushina knew Hyuga clan were known for their taijutsu. Kana knew Uzumaki clan were renowned for their stamina.

Suddenly Kushina attacked Kana with a punch to her face. "So fast." This thought flashed through Kana's mind. She immediately blocked the punch with her right arm but quickly back away. She could feel pain from his right arm. She knew immediately that Kushina was both fast and strong. If she didn't fight with all her might, she might be defeated quickly.

But Kushina didn't gave her any time to counter attack. She followed her and kicked her to the stomach. Kana immediately side stepped and attacked her with a right hook. Kushina bend her back and avoided the hook but Kana used her right leg to sweep at her legs to unbalance her.

Knowing her intention, Kushina bend her back further and used her hands to balance herself and used her free legs to kick Kana away. Unable to react in the mid of sweeping action, Kana was caught off guard. She felt her kick and was thrown away for some distance. Regaining her balance, Kushina quickly attacked her while she was on the ground. Kana tried to use her clans taijutsu but Kushina didn't give her a chance. Soon Kana was bombarded with punch after punch with a great speed by Kushina. Having no choice she used her arms to protect her face and tried to get up quickly. But Kushina had used her own legs to strangle Kana's legs and continued on her punches. Soon Kana felt severe pain coming from her arms. She knew if this continued she might get her arms fractured.

Daichi sensei decided to intervene at this point. Both the teachers were clearly impressed with Kushina's speed and strength. Though she might not follow any proper taijutsu style. Her unpredictable attacks were quite powerful.

"Alright you two, stop it now." ordered Naori sensei. "You two are quite alright. Kana you have to work on your speed and strength. Juken style is useless if cannot even hit the opponent. Kushina work hard on academy style taijutsu. If you can learn a proper style it will help you. I recommend you to learn Strong Fist style taijutsu. With your strength and speed, it will help you."

"Now Arashi and Mikoto come up and show us what you have got."

Arashi and Mikoto came up and faced each other face to face. Arashi decided to use his full strength and end the match quickly. He wanted to show Mikoto that she was currently too weak compared to him. This might dampen her mood but if she didn't give up and come to him for training, it would help his plans.

"Both ready." Two of them nodded. They made the seal of confrontation. "Start"

As soon as the words left Daichi sensei's mouth, Arashi sped up towards Mikoto and punched her to the stomach. Mikoto had no idea what happened. One moment Arashi was in front of her and the next moment she felt a sharp pain from her stomach. Her world went black and she became unconscious.

Everyone of the students and both the teachers had their mouth opened wide enough for someone's head to enter. Students couldn't properly see what happened but Naori and Daichi could. They were very surprised by Arashi's speed. He could defeat chunin in terms of speed only. Also his strength was on a different level. One punch was all it took to knock down Mikoto.

This didn't meant that she was weak. Mikoto was very strong. In her age group only a handful of people could defeat her. But compared to her, Arashi was on a different level. His strength could easily knock out weak chunin. Both felt that Arashi could perhaps defeat a chunin if he used ninjutsu. With his Uzumaki clan inheritage, his chakra levels would surpass any chunin.

Only Kushina was not surprised by his strength. She knew only Tsunade could handle him. After the seals were drawn over their body, the most significant improvement could be seen from Arashi's. If not for monstrous strength, even Tsunade would have some difficulty facing him in another year. And Tsunade had strength of a chunin.

Looking at the unconscious figure of Mikoto, she felt pity for her. She shook her her head and went up picked her figure from the ground. By this time Kana had come up and both girls took Mikoto to the hospital. Daichi sensei also followed them.

Arashi was somewhat guilty for what he had done. Though he wanted her for his plans, he didn't want to hurt her. Soon everyone broke from their trance and started discussing the events. Some of the girls now had stars in their eyes.

"Quite down everyone. Now you should all remember what happened here. This battle has shown us that even if you have enough chakra to perform ninjutsu, it will not help you if you are taken out before you can even perform hand seals. If Arashi had a kunai, her life would have ended. So remember this lesson in your mind and don't look down upon taijutsu. A truly powerful shinobi is capable in every field. You don't know when it will help you." explained Naori sensei. She was glad this fight was a mock battle and was surprised at Arashi's strength. She decided to report this matter to the principal and hokage. If Arashi continued to grow strong, he might be helpful in the future war.

"Now class you are to train here till the end of school period. If you need any advice ask me. I heard you have learned about chakra control from Akira sensei today. Now practice those exercise or taijutsu stances as you like. I will be watching everyone. So don't be lazy."

Soon all the students started their own training. Some went up and started tree climbing exercise while some practiced their taijutsu. Soon Kushina, Mikoto and Kana joined them. Mikoto had a complicated look on her face. She was looking at the direction of Arashi who was meditating while upside down from a tree with many leaves sticking to his body.

Soon they all started their own training. The trio decided to practice taijutsu with each other.

When Mikoto woke up in the hospital, Kana and Kushina had told her about the event. She was upset that she lost to Arashi even before she could start. Kushina then told her about their special training without mentioning their seals. After listening to her explanation Mikoto and Kana decided to at least join Arashi for training and would decide whether to take his offer after some thinking.

Like this evening approached and everyone started to pack up for home. Kana and Mikoto followed Arashi and Kushina to the Senju clan compound for further discussion. Mikoto was somewhat nervous. She knew about the relation between Uchiha and Senju. But her father was Kagami Uchiha. He was the student of 2nd Hokage Tobirama Senju. He was not like the other Uchiha. After the establishment of the village and first shinobi war, the bad blood between the two clans had lessened considerably. Her father was out on a mission and she had lost her mother in the first shinobi war. She knew this incident had awakened his father's Mangekyo Sharingan which made him a well known shinobi among others.

Kana was currently feeling happy. Just after the school ended, Arashi had told him he could help her to break the cursed seal if he could study it. Though she didn't have any hope but a tiny chance was their he might break it. This had brought a smile to her usually stoic face. She decided to follow him and worry about the future later.

Arashi was thinking what he should tell them so that they could join him and Kushina was happy that they became friends again. Soon they reached their home.