Stream of past

Clones in the Water

After that chaotic introduction, Anko left Ibiki and Sakura all alone since it was a Monday. The scarred man started walking without a word leaving Sakura to do nothing but follow. 

"Uhh...where are we going?" asked Sakura.

"To the lake, the reason we picked training ground 66 is because it has flat land with slim trees, which are good for agility training and because it has a lake. I don't think I need to tell you how esentiale water is to our training." answered Ibiki.

"Hmm...So what's the plan?"

"You'll show me what water jutsus you know and we'll go from there."

Well that's gonna be quite disappointing...Back when she was with Tsunade she concentrated more on physical strength and her healing abilities. And ever since she came here, she's been more busy preparing for Orochimaru and chucking fire scroll after fire scroll at Sasuke for him to learn. She really stayed bad at the whole jutsu department huh...

She was interrupted out of her musings as by the arrival at the lake. In front of them was a large crystal clear lake surrounded on one side by rock formations full of moss and more of the slim trees on the other side. The ground was dry under her feet up until the waterfront where it was a muddy and slippery.

"Alright let's begin."

Sakura nodded and made her way to the lake, once she was far enough she performed the only 2 techniques she knew. First the Water Release: Mouth Shot, Tiger, Rat, Tiger, Snake and she spit out a single senbon-shaped droplet of water at high speed that burst violently upon impact. Ibiki, who was standing just behind her, nodded and she took it as her cue to start the next jutsu. Water Release: Water Bullet Technique, Tiger, Ox, Tiger, Rat and she expelled a large quantity of water in the form of a powerful torrent.

"And uh...that's kinda it...." said Sakura slightly embarrassed.

"Hn, that's fine. From my understanding you're more hand to hand combat oriented." said Ibiki before grining. "Although, don't think that just because of that I'll go easy on you."

"I would have been insulted if you did."

Ibiki snorted. "I like you kid."

"Now, how about we go over techniques you need to learn?"

...

The 2 ninja began breaking the Uchiha fighting style into pieces, from his strengths and weaknesses, to his habits and movements. Then they settled on what jutsus would be best to combat it, why and how. In the end they settled on 4 jutsus with the fourth being there as backup. Water Release: Water Dragon Shot, Water Release: Water Dragon Whip, Water Release: Water Chain and Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique, the last being there only if she was desperate since it was a very hard technique to perform and if she didn't have enough water it could result in failure. No pressure. These four combined with the two that Sakura already knew should be enough to win against the Uchiha.

After establishing the techniques and a plan on how to murder an Uchiha, the actual learning process began. The technique she started with was the Water Release: Water Dragon Shot. She would use the lake water to create three water dragons that would attack several opponents at once in different directions. While it was true that she only had 1 opponent, it was to be used to spread water along the arena in preparations for future jutsus. After all, she will only be able to take so many scrolls with water.

The jutsu itself wasn't very complicated and quite easy to learn. The hard part was pinpointing moving targets. Ibiki created 3 water clones to be used as sacrifices for training and so far she hadn't managed to pop a single one. The dragons just didn't know how to take turns and if the clone would suddenly go left, her attack would just keep going forward. It was beyond frustrating. Ibiki also said that this jutsu was the easiest and a base for the others so it wasn't like she could move on to the next.

However, Sakura had a plan. After finishing her training for the day with Ibiki, Sakura walked through the busy streets of Konoha until she reached a rundown apartment complex. She went inside and knocked on a door on the 4th floor. After a few minutes the door swung open and revealed a short blonde in an orange jumpsuit.

The blonde smiled excitedly when he saw who it was. "Sakura-chan! What brings you here?!"

"Hello to you too, Naruto. And actually I have a favor to ask of you." said Sakura.

"A favor?"

"Yes, I need help training this new jutsu that requires aim. So I was thinking you could help me. I'll even treat you to Ichiraku after."

"Alright! Now how could I refuse that? Let's go!" said the blonde as he ran outside excitedly. The pinkette rolled her eyes fondly before also following the blonde. They walked together all the way to training ground 3, where Sakura asked Naruto to make as many Shadow Clones as he can. Then, Sakura would perform the Water Dragon Shot and try to hit Naruto and his clones with it, since someone refused to stay on the bench. Which, fair. He didn't come here to watch his clones train. But Sakura refused to take responsibility any future colds the blonde might get due to getting soaked. Also fair. 

This training helped the pinkette greatly and as such by Friday she was able to finally hit Ibiki's water clones and finally move to the next jutsu. She grinned proudly as Ibiki explained the next jutsu Water Release: Water Dragon Whip.