Book One The Black Lion Old Version

golden deer trust

It had been two days since Kakashi had collapsed due to his overuse of the Sharingan; they would not be back in Garreg Mach by the end of the month. They still had a mission to accomplish. Gaara, the red-haired man from the other day, was scouting in order to find the bandit hideout. He wouldn't be available because of this, but he would join them after the mission was over. So that was good, even if it didn't make Claude feel any better.

Claude walked around town, looking at the despair. Was building a bridge really going to fix everything? He wanted to help them, but what could he do? Eliminating Goto wouldn't solve the problem; there were other external factors. Sure, it would fix the problem in the short term, but in the long term much more would have to change.

Then there was that mysterious ninja with a strange mask. He couldn't help but come to the conclusion that they would face that mercenary again. He was definitely stronger than anyone in the Golden Deer, except Kakashi. He was outside, practicing with his bow, trying to keep his mind off what had happened two days ago under different circumstances. He would appreciate the scenery, but things were different. Their mission was to eliminate Goto, who had hired bandit gangs to terrorize the Land of Waves. The bandit leader could not be located at the moment. At a time like this, he wished Hinata was in their class. Her Byakugan would have been useful in this situation.

There isn't one sensory type like his class and that would be a problem when it came to locating the bandits. Kakashi is bedridden and has forbidden anyone to continue on with the mission until he's well enough to participate, and he has assigned all of the Golden Deer to train. His teammates were practicing with him. Shikamaru used a strange technique called Shadow possession; he used it on a shadow clone that Naruto created in order to help with their training. Lorenz attacked the shadow clone without being noticed. It was frustrating for Claude to admit every time they tried they failed because they constantly made noise.

"Damn it professor, we're not ninjas," Claude complained, frustrated with his team's lack of progress. His professor spoke in a scolding manner.

"One day you will thank me for teaching you these skills; they could save your life. One day it doesn't matter what part of the world you live in, stealth is an important skill to have. What's also important is being able to communicate with your comrades non-verbally; you are failing at this, Claude." Then he looked at Lorenz who had a smug look on his face, only for Kakashi to stare him down.

"You are even worse; you're so loud that a corpse can hear you, Claude. You have stealth but not communication; you have neither." This caused everyone to laugh, much to his annoyance.

"Since you're not good at stealth you're going to train strictly on stealth and you Claude are going to train how to communicate with your comrades non-verbally.

"How is he supposed to do that he's not bad at nonverbal communication but, He's asking him to use tactics that are completely unfamiliar to him.

"It was never trained in Konoha such training is second nature to us"Kakashi explained as if he's explaining it to a child. Ino use her jitsu to enter someone else's mind once as a prank on their first week in the Golden Deer.

"Why not just teach us chakra control?" asked Leonie, which was a good question Naruto and Dorothea wondered the same thing.

"For you two, Naruto will teach you." This shocked Naruto.

"But why me?" He asked nervously.

"Because Dorothea would be far more receptive to your style than mine, and besides, Dorothea's chakra reserves or magic reserves, if that's what you want to call them are higher than anyone in this class, except for Naruto, which is why I am going to teach him myself, along with Claude, who has the third-highest." This surprised Claude; he has the ability to use chakra.