Sightless Silver

Chapter XIII

Chapter 13: Training + Bridge Fights

Rizuka's P.o.V

"Good morning Otou-san." I greet my father when he wakes up. "'Morning." He answers. Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, greets him as well, and the others show up to talk with him. "What have you guys been going on about?" Tazuna interrupts us. "It's probable that Zabuza is alive." Otou-san concludes. Naruto and Sakura freak out, so Otou-san explains why he thinks this. "Aren't you reading way too much into this?" Tazuna asks him.

"No... If something seems fishy, it's better to make preparations before it's too late. That's also an iron clad rule of the Shinobi." Otou-san says. "Have you gathered anything Rizuka?" He asks me. "Well I can't confirm if he's alive or not as of now, but I can confirm that the Tracker ninja was around since the beginning of the fight, no, even before it started. They didn't get closer until around halfway however." I point out what I know. "Eh? How do you know that?" Sakura asks me.

"I'm very talented when it comes to chakra, except for the fact that I don't have much of it yet. I've been told I would be good at tracking because I can sense where chakra is... most times." I tell her in a brief way, as to not reveal too much information. "C-cool." Naruto's eyes shimmer. "I thought something was off when you and Sensei constantly talked in private, so that was it." Sasuke mumbles.

"Now back to the main issue, I'll assign you all training." Otou-san says. "Huh? Wait a minute! Even with training we're not gonna be that strong! Even you had a lot of trouble with our opponent, and you have the Sharingan!" Sakura starts to worry. "Sakura, you forget. Who was it that saved me during my difficult battle? You've all quickly grown, and Naruto!" Otou-san leans forward with a smile while Naruto looks confused.

"You've grown the most!" He says. I can tell Naruto fills up with pride. "So you noticed, Kakashi-sensei! Now it's getting interesting!" Naruto grins. "It's not interesting at all." A new, younger voice says. We all turn to look at the person who said the words. It's a young boy, probably around five or so. I watch him run into Tazuna's arms. "Mom, these guys will die. There's no way they can go against Gato and win." He says without hesitation.

Naruto starts arguing with the boy. The kid leaves soon after their small argument, so small that it might not even be aloud to be called an argument.

~T.S to their training~

I stand by Sasuke and listen Sakura explain chakra to Naruto. Otou-san then takes over on explaining when both Naruto and Sasuke agree that they can learn it easily. "You'll be putting your life on the line for this training." He says. "What will we do?" Sakura asks him. "Hm? Tree-climbing." He answers. "Tree-climbing?!" We repeat in disbelief.

"That's right! But it's not just simple tree-climbing! You will climb without using your feet." He tells us. 'So our feet? I'm guessing we focus chakra around our feet to do that..?' I watch my father demonstrate what we're gonna do. "Wait a minute! How does something like that make you strong?" Sakura asks. "That's the main point of this, the aim of this training is to accumulate the required amount of combined chakra to the required spot. This is surprisingly difficult even for an expert Ninja. The amount of chakra used for tree-climbing is very subtle. And the bottoms of our feet are the most difficult place to gather Chakra. Anyways, in other words, if you master that control it will be possible to master any Jutstu. In theory, that is!" He pauses for a second while I'm already testing the waters on just how good I am at it.

"The second aim is to maintain that combined Chakra. Ninjas combine the most Chakra during battles. Under such situations, control and maintenance of chakra becomes most difficult. So, nothing's really gonna happen with me saying this and that... you'll need to learn it with your bodies." He pulls out some kunai and throws them in front of us. "Use that kunai to mark the spot to which you can climb under your own strength now. Next, make an effort to put a mark further from it. You aren't good enough to walk up from the start, so run and use your momentum to get used to it... You got it?!" He says.