Foundations

Chapter 5

Menma arrived at the training grounds early in the morning, his mother rolling him out of bed earlier than he'd ever wanted to get up in his life so that he wouldn't be late. Despite that, he almost was late, arriving just as the clock chimed for time. He'd spent a lot of his evening last night reading through the scroll Kakashi had given him, though he found some of the concepts were a lot harder to wrap his head around than he was expecting.

"Good morning, Menma!" Kakashi greeted with a cheery wave, earning a grunt from the dark-haired Uzumaki. Well, that answered the question about Menma's state of mind: Kakashi could tell he was in a foul mood as always, though he seemed to be in less of one than he was the previous day. His poor attitude wasn't going to help his studies, especially not if it became a regular occurrence.

"First, before we begin, there are a few things that I want to talk to you about," Kakashi began, gesturing for Menma to take a seat. He gladly did, resting his elbow on his thigh while his chin rested on his palm. He had a look of boredom on his face, but he was listening intently to whatever his new teacher had to say. If there were something Kakashi could teach him, then he'd damn well take it. The faster he could make it to Chuunin and be given more responsibility–and perhaps no teams–the better.

"Our training is going to be two-fold. I will teach you chakra control, which we will eventually apply to elemental ninjutsu. Still, the other thing that I will teach you is how to hone your sensory abilities. I've asked your mother for some assistance on this, but I will begin your training for that."

Menma grimaced. "Ew. You talked to my mom? That's creepy." It wasn't, but he couldn't help commenting on it.

"Don't be rude," Kakashi scolded. "Your mother has the best knowledge on how to hone and fine-tune your sensory abilities because they are related to the Nine-Tails you now possess the power of," he explained.

"Yeah, well, it's not like I had a choice in the matter," Menma griped back, rolling his eyes. It was the unfortunate truth; he hadn't had a say in whether he was going to be given the Nine-Tails' power or not. It'd essentially been forced on him. "Whatever," he scoffed, crossing his arms and grumbling. Kakashi didn't miss the change in his demeanour; he wasn't one to question the passing on of the Nine-Tails' power, though. It wasn't his place to say anything about it.

"Nevertheless, it is a power you possess and a power that will serve you well to hone and refine. Now, we will begin with your training, but I think it is prudent for you to decide where you would like to start with your training." If nothing else, he could give Menma this decision. Kakashi had a feeling he knew what Menma would pick.

"Chakra control," Menma replied quickly. Like hell he wanted to work on his sensory abilities. Screw the Nine-Tails. He didn't even want the damn thing in the first place; why the hell would he want to train his sensory skills when it was related to it? If nothing else, the stupid beast could just sit there and rot for the rest of Menma's miserable life existence. Screw all the family legacy bullshit his family preached. He wanted none of it.

"Chakra control it is, then," Kakashi said with a nod, beckoning for Menma to stand up before tossing a kunai at his feet. "The first thing we are going to have you work on, then, is your ability to focus chakra to a single point on your body. To start, I want you to try climbing those tall trees over there, except there's one rule. You can't use your hands." Kakashi walked over to the tree, placing his foot on the bark and walking up the tree as if it were no different than walking on the ground. He stood sideways on the tree, earning a scoff from Menma.

"Climbing a tree?" Menma asked, rolling his eyes. "You want me to climb a damn tree? Jee, I'm beginning to wonder if you even have any kind of training plan for me that actually makes any sense," he griped, grumbling as he made his way toward the tree. How hard could this be? He focused his chakra to his feet, placing it on the bark the same way Kakashi did. His foot adhered, and he felt like this training was just going to be useless.