Sage's Resurrection

Chapter 16

"This training will be even more difficult than the month you spent in the Forest of Death," Kakashi had said.

Naruto never would've expected this from the synopsis that Kakashi had given them at the beginning of the month.

Every night he'd come home and collapse in exhaustion.

He suspected that it had been a fortnight since his bedroom was last entered.

Not like it stopped Kakashi from ringing that obnoxiously large gong that had taken up residence in the centre of the living room every dawn.

And then the training began.

Kakashi's first thought had been to get Guy and do cross-team training. To build up their bodies in preparation, he'd said. Okay, that was reasonable.

But the training was gruelling. There was not a single day where one of Naruto, Sasuke, or Sayuri wasn't whispering death threats to Guy while Neji and Tenten gave a "Look-What-We-Have-To-Deal-With" look.

Lee and Guy were too busy running on the walls, on their fingers to notice.

At this point, Kakashi remembered that ninjutsu would be a pretty large part of the spectacle, and thus threw them headfirst into high-level elemental manipulation. Kakashi proved that while Guy was a Taijutsu fanatic, he himself was the man's "Eternal Rival" by investing all his skills into the opposite avenue: Ninjutsu.

Very often, Sasuke would shock Naruto or Sayuri when he attempted to form a current around himself (why the armour was so volatile and prone to sending out arcs of electricity, Naruto had no clue). Or how Naruto was getting splashed with unreasonably hot water (gee, thanks, sensei!) whenever he messed up turning back the waterfall.

He'd even weaponised their desire to see his face against them! When he gave the assignment to infiltrate the Hokage's quarters in the S-class section to take his file, they refused until he: a) pulled rank, and then b) said his real face was on it.

And just like that, they were all scrambling to get blueprints and plan the theft- Naruto would later say that it was 'authorised breaking-and-entering', much to the Old Man's amusement.

And then it was rigged. Needless to say, but the chewing out they received from the old man was almost worse than Kakashi's smug grin. Almost.

And those two months were filled to the brim and then some with missions to get them ready.

All C-ranked or others, which were mostly bandit clearing and some espionage.

Now was the final test: a combat simulation with Kakashi, three versus one.

Kakashi-sensei now stood before the three of them. "Show me what you've learned," he said.

Sasuke's arrowtip burst with arcs of fire and lightning. He unsealed his bow.

Sayuri's eyes spun with tomoe.

She appeared in front of Kakashi, blade pulled back. He leaned back and flipped away. Sayuri and Naruto ran through identical hand seals.

Tiger- Ox- Dog- Hare- Snake.

Tiger- Ox- Dog- Hare- Snake.

Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!

A hurricane-esque gale whipped up from nothing, uprooting trees and tearing away the soil. Kakashi twisted mid-air and landed on his feet.

Sasuke formed his own seals at the same time.

Snake- Ram- Monkey- Boar- Horse- Tiger.

Sasuke spat out a decently-sized fireball at Kakashi.

The tempest fanned the flames, causing them to erupt.