Mokuton no Naruto

Chapter 2: Meeting Yamato

 After getting ready for a day of training with Cat, Naruto hears a knock on his door. Naruto answers the door to find a man with short brown hair and black, almond-shaped eyes. The Uzumaki asks, "Who are you?"

The man answers, "You met me yesterday, Hokage-sama called me Cat, but my name is Yamato."

Yamato wears a variation of the standard attire of a Konoha-nin, with a flak jacket. The differences between his attire and that of the standard one is that his does not have the Uzumaki Swirl on the shoulders of the sleeves, and the neck of his navy-blue shirt is form fitting and goes up to his chin. He also still retains two hip pouches strapped to his lower back instead of just one. In addition to that, he has a happuri-style hitai-ate that frames his face, similar to that of Tobirama Senju.

Yamato then says, "Follow me to the training ground that we are going to use."

After quite a walk they enter a training ground. Yamato says, "This is the personal training grounds of Hokage. This is the training grounds where you will learn everything I know about Mokuton (Wood Release), the Kekkei Genkai of the Shodai Hokage, Hashirama Senju, me, and you."

Naruto asks, "So Yamato-sensei, what are we going to do today?"

Yamato answers, "Today I'm going to get you started on Taijutsu, and hand seals."

Naruto then asks, "What are hand seals, Yamato-sensei?"

Yamato again answers, "Hand seals are used to perform many Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and other secret arts other than Taijutsu. They are designed to aid people in properly summoning and moulding chakra necessary to perform a technique. There are different sequences of hand seals for every technique, requiring memorisation. There are twelve standard hand seals. The standard twelve hand seals are Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram, and Hare. Their are more hand seals, but I don't want you to get confused, because they are jutsu specific hand seals. Now do the same exact hand seals, and memorize them."

Naruto, then doing the hand seals says, "Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram, and Hare."

Yamato says, "That was okay for your first try, but I'd like you to repeat making those hand seals until lunch. Then we'll have a lunch break, and after the lunch break we will start on Taijutsu. Which is the art of hand to hand combat."

So, after five hours of practicing the hand seals, Yamato says, " Naruto! You can quit now. It's time for lunch, but first show me your progress."

Naruto, then doing the hand seals says, "Monkey, Dragon, Rat, Bird, Snake, Ox, Dog, Horse, Tiger, Boar, Ram, and Hare."

Yamato says, "Your getting better. Keep practicing you hand seals, and you'll be able to perform them better, and faster. Now let's go to lunch."

Naruto then asks, "So, what's for lunch? Is it ramen?"

Yamato answers, "Sadly it's not ramen, Naruto."

Naruto replies, "But no one will let me in their shops, or restaurant."

Yamato says, "They will if they want to keep their shops. Now, if you want to grow taller, follow me."

So after a short walk, Yamato comes to a stop in front of a restaurant called Yakiniku Q. The restaurant is large with wide windows, multiple green-seated booths, though some tables allow customers to sit down on the floor with green cushions as their seats, and menus plastered on the walls. Due to their Gyū-Kaku-style, each table has a charcoal brazier built in the centre and is equipped with tongs for cooking, since the Gyū-Kaku form of dining is one in which the customers cook their own food after ordering it.

Naruto asks, "What do they serve here?"

Yamato answers, "Barbecued meat, but salted beef tongue with Welsh onion is a very popular dish here. Now like I said follow me, so we can eat, and get back to your training as soon as possible."

So the two enter, and a server asks, "How can I help you two, today?"

Yamato answers, "I'd like two plates. One for me, and the other for him."

The server replies, "Follow me, so that I can get you seated, and get your food out to you."

After getting seated, the food comes, and Naruto goes to take a bite, but Yamato stops him. Yamato says, "Naruto, that meet is raw. We have to cook the food ourselves."

Naruto is confused. He asks, "That sounds stupid to me, Yamato-sensei. Why do I have to cook the food I..." Naruto then for the first time ever has seen Yamato's "fear face". Naruto then continues, "I mean you have paid for?"

Yamato answers, "It's just the style of restaurant, Naruto. In a yakiniku restaurant, diners order prepared raw ingredients (individually or as a set) which are brought to the table. The ingredients are cooked by the diners on a grill built into the table, several pieces at a time. The ingredients are then dipped in sauces known as tare before being eaten. The most common sauce is made of soy sauce mixed with sake, mirin, sugar, garlic, fruit juice and sesame."

So after getting taught about this type of restaurant, they ate. Naruto liked the food, but it still wasn't as good as Ichiraku's Ramen. Nothing could be as good as the food of the gods, after all. They returned to the training ground, after they ate, so Yamato could start Naruto on the Taijutsu.

Yamato says, "Taijutsu is a basic form of techniques and refers to any techniques involving the martial arts or the optimisation of natural human abilities. Taijutsu is executed by directly accessing the user's physical and mental energies, relying on the stamina and strength gained through training. It typically does not require chakra, though chakra may be used to enhance its techniques. Taijutsu generally requires no hand seals to perform, occasionally making use of certain stances or poses, and are far quicker to use than ninjutsu or genjutsu. Taijutsu is, simply put, hand-to-hand combat. I'll be teaching you the basics. I want you to master the basics first, and then you can branch out your Taijutsu, and learn more styles, or even create one. If that is what you want."

Naruto asks, "So how am I going to learn Taijutsu?"

Yamato answers, "By fighting me, of course!"

Naruto just gulps, and gets into a fighting stance. Yamato looks at the stance, and analyzes it. It wasn't great, but he himself wasn't great at Taijutsu at age, nor was a master of Taijutsu. He then gets into his own stance, and says, "As we fight, I'll be getting a sense for how you like to fight. So that I can teach you the best as I can. Hajime!"

Naruto then rushes head first at Yamato, and attempts a sloppy haymaker. Which Yamato very easily dodges. The blonde then attempts an even more sloppy roundhouse kick, and follows it up with a knee. Yamato dodged the kick, and catches the knee. He then pushes Naruto away from him, and into the ground.

This time, Naruto rolls towards Yamato, and jumps, attempting a headbutt. That Yamato dodges. The Uzumaki somewhat flips attempting to do another sloppy kick, which Yamato catches. Yamato then throws the blonde away from him once again. When Naruto is close to Yamato he over extends on a punch.

Yamato then says, "You over extended your arm with that punch. This mistake could be deadly in a real fight."

Naruto responds by attempting to do a sloppy spinning back hand, that Yamato catches. Yamato then says, "That is enough, Naruto. I think I have a feel on the way you fight right now. So, let's get started on those stances, shall we?"

Naruto yells, "Hai Yamato-sensei!"