Finding My Ninja Way: A Naruto Fanfic

Chapter 3: Breaking Boundaries

"Hm? Me train you?" Lord Sixth asked without looking up from his book. "Why would you need me to train you? We don't even share the same chakra nature."

I huffed in protest.
I met up with him just outside the hot springs resort, resting on a park bench nearby and wearing his full mission gear. Zenomaru was resting happily beside the bench, following the paths of many butterflies that flew low to the ground near us.

"Well, come to think of it, you trained Sasuke and Sakura along with Lord Seventh, and every single one of them became splendid ninja." I looked down at my feet. "I don't know, I just thought-"

"Trained Lord Seventh?" He questioned calmly. "Sure I helped him and the others grow into the shinobi they are now, but the years of training Lord Seventh went through is thanks to Master Jiraiya, and Sakura with Lady Tsunade. If you want to talk training, I mostly helped out Sasuke before he turned rogue."
He leaned his head sideways, resting it in the palm of his hand as he continued reading. "Besides, why would you need my help in the first place? I've heard great things about you from Kurenai. You've really mastered control over your ninjutsu skills."

I glanced up at him, intrigued.

"Kurenai-sensei said that?"

He nodded, smiling behind his mask I assumed.

"And I get that you're feeling frustrated for not being able to master the art of taijutsu, but don't mope about it for too long. Every ninja is unique in there own way, and we have to accept things for what they are."

I groaned. "Why does everyone keep telling me this? I don't want to stop here! If that were the case, I wouldn't have come to you for help."

Kakashi looked up from his book, and closed it. "I'm not saying you should stop," he said in a low voice. "But I'm advising you that if it comes to that, your ninjutsu alone is already magnificent upon expected standards of a jonin like yourself. Take it from me. I was able to pass my lightning blade technique onto Sasuke just as the Chūnin Exams were taking place, and now his Chidori has become a reliable choice of attack, but because he was still a genin at that point, being able to possess that kind of power was considered high rank level even for him."

I slouched, feeling the need to understand what he was actually trying to tell me.

"What I'm trying to say is that once you've mastered a certain part in your training, you'll be using it more often than others, and if you focus on your weak points more than polishing up your strong points, you'll become unbalanced and will certainly have to keep training in that cycle, forever trying to perfect a see-saw of ninjutsu and taijutsu that will never balance out together."

I never really thought of it that way though, and as much as it made sense, I figured he was just putting words together to sound wise since he was the previous Hokage.

"Do you get what I mean then?" He questioned, opening his book back up. I could see his eyes tracing the pages as he flipped them.

"U-Uh...No," I said quietly. "But, don't sweat it. I'm sure I get the meaning of whatever it was you just preached."

He deadpanned, his book dropping from his grasp. "Y-You can't be serious."

I sighed, leaning over to pick it up for him when suddenly a loud voice came from inside the hot springs resort.

"Beat it, you perv!" A fellow male citizen's body burst through one of the concrete walls surrounding the place, skipping amongst the earthly grounds and crashing into a vendor's meat cart nearby.

"Oh boy, she's at it again," Kakashi muttered, switching his glance tirelessly toward the commotion.

"B-But that...sounded like-"