Ace

Death of the Fool

"Guys, a little motivation would be great."

Naruto turned his head to the man as he laid in the grass. "Sensei, we're not even competing. There hasn't been a mission. We're bored!"

"Come on, Naruto. That's not the spirit!"

"Goldie there's got a point, Asuma-sensei. Kind of hard to push when there's nothing we're really pushing for." Ino said yawning.

"How about the fact we are totally free with no pressure? It's not often we get this much free time to improve. Trust me, you'll wish we had this kind of time more often. It's only every five or so years that we get this."

"And yet we've done nothing different to actually do so." Shikamaru said as he rolled over to his side.

Asuma sighed. "Look guys. You need a strong foundation to build upon. The biggest factor you have to overcome is the lack of stamina. Ino needs more strength as well in her body. Shikamaru could too but you're still slow so we need you quicker. Learning something new doesn't matter without addressing these."

"And me? Why haven't I gotten to learn anything new?" Naruto said sitting up as things seemed like they were going to get a little more interesting.

"Because despite not being given anything new, you've been manipulating techniques to suit you and haven't mastered them. It would be a waste of time if you don't get those down."

"Sensei, I'm sure that what I've been doing, there's techniques out there that do it better and probably more efficient."

"Kid you'd be surprised. Let's talk about your substitution. There are techniques that I've seen that kind of do what you do. Yours costs the least the amount of chakra. While more difficult for you to pull off, you are technically the most efficient in what would usually be a space-time technique. You've read enough to know that such techniques are really difficult and chakra expenditure is generally too much to be worthwhile."

Sighing, Naruto stood up then had an idea. "Then teach me about other ways to manipulate my chakra. Surely there's more to it than just walking up stuff or on water. You said being hit by Kakashi sucks more than anyone else. Why is that?"

Asuma hummed. Stroking his beard, he nodded. "Alright, this is something I can have all three of you work on." That got the other two to turn to him. "First, I'll have Shikamaru and Ino master water walking. Then they'll join you in understanding how to exploit something you've all done unconsciously to this point and make it something consciously done."

"That being?" Ino said wishing the man would get on with it instead of this long prolonged thing he was doing.

"Every action we do, most especially in fights, we use little amounts of chakra through our actions. I will teach you guys to bring out more of it on command so that you can further amplify your own base strength. In this method, it is an additive boost vs some techniques out there that are multiplicative. This would be step one to all those."

"Hmmm, and just so I know you're not shafting us. Demonstrate."

"I'm not some kind con-man, Naruto."

"That's exactly what someone looking to con would say."

"Fine. Consider it like this. If I hop without doing anything." He showed himself hop a foot up. "Vs now when I channel my chakra to augment." He hopped the exact same way and went two feet up.

Naruto hummed as he cocked his head. "Say you were to utilize even more chakra, would results be even greater?"

"Yes and no. There is potential to do so, however you shouldn't think about trying anytime soon. I'm serious, Naruto! This isn't like the body flicker where you can ignore my warning. You could literally kill yourself or lose limbs this way. One person in the world mastered this technique and her chakra control is second to none. If she were here to help teach you, it would be different. She isn't though and no one else has replicated it. There's been attempts, and they've either ended up a splattered mess, or lost their arms and legs."