Author's Notes: This, unfortunately, doesn't mean anything other than the fact that I'm alive. Training Exercises is, so far, just going to be a few – by which I mean there are only two – cutscenes of Team Seven's group training that doesn't fit into any of my other fics, or even with each other. As I mentioned, at this point there are only two, the second of which is unfinished, and there may or may not be a third exercise and a fourth and so on.

This particular piece actually came off the desktop computer I thought my dad had fried; as it turned out, he just didn't hook everything back up. So I got a bunch of really old fics off it – including a planeload of self-indulgent nonsense that will never see the light of day without a serious overhaul, if at all – and this is one of the better ones.

Title: Training Exercises

Author: Reaper Nanashi

Pairing: None Intended

Word Count: 2,280

Category: Naruto

Genre: Humor, concept crossover

Type: One-Shot (Complete)

Rating: K+ (bad words)

Date Submitted: 6/21/08

Disclaimer: Naruto stuff is Kishimoto-sensei's. The kodama are from Princess Mononoke and the method of feeding them is from Spirited Away, both of which belong to Miyazaki-sama/Studio Ghibli.

Claimer: Uh . . . Eh . . . Putting these ideas together?

Summary: There's always something to learn, especially if you can only barely master the basics. Kakashi shows his team the other residents of Fire Country.

The Reasoning Behind It: That's a wonderful question. Unfortunately, I can't remember what gave me the idea.

Round One: UFOs – Unidentified Foliar Objects

He, of course, could already feel them – knew what and where they were. His three young disciples?

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei! Are we there yet?"

Totally oblivious.

They were settling all over him much more definitely as the four ninja trekked deeper into the dense forest: on his sandaled feet, clinging to his legs and arms, on his shoulders, in the padded collar of his vest, and even on his head. It was, admittedly, a strange feeling, but one that was not difficult to get used to once one identified the cause. Kakashi grinned beneath his mask as his students finally began to realize that they were not alone.

Sasuke, to be fair, had seemed to notice some time ago, not long after he himself had become aware of them, but the Uchiha heir had only perceived them to be bugs – just large invisible ones, it appeared – and had actually been shrugging them off for half an hour. Undeterred, the spirits had returned over and over. They were good-natured and slightly mischievous little things, so it was hardly a surprise. Sakura was walking stiffly, as though she was expecting something to jump out at her. Every so often, when another spirit would approach and adhere to her, she would flinch but not speak or make any other motion. Naruto, on the other hand, was being himself and not doing anything to hide his confusion. He was constantly jumping and whirling, like he had heard someone speaking and it had caught him by surprise.

The spirits were broadcasting deep amusement at his reactions.

After several minutes of feigning total blankness, Kakashi was rewarded with Sakura's stopping short in front of him. Her hair was half on end, and she was stiff enough that she could float on water. "I can't take it any more, Kakashi-sensei!" she cried. "What's going on?!"

Sasuke and Naruto blinked at her, then shot their teacher agreeing looks.

He grinned once again. "I was wondering when one of you was going to say something. All right!" he called to the trees all around them, puzzling his students even more. "It's over! You can stop hiding!"

The spirits that were attached to him revealed themselves first, then the ones on the kids followed by the ones on the surrounding ground and in the trees. They began to tick and rattle softly in greeting, but when one could not understand them and what they meant it could get rather frightening. They were harmless, but they looked like ghosts.

"What the hell are they?!" Naruto shrilled, dancing in place.

"Kodama!" Sakura breathed, looking to Kakashi for support.

He nodded. "I thought I'd have you meet them – they can be very helpful."

She relaxed and more of the spirits moved in to climb on her. "We learned a little bit about them in class, but it was really more of a side note than a lesson," she went on. "They're very rare."

"Rarely utilized, maybe, but not rare," he corrected. "Just hard to find. They mostly live in dense forest areas far from civilization, and since most people stick to the roads they never come in contact with them. It's a shame, really, because only we Hidden Leaf ninja can contact them, but most know little or nothing about them. They're a completely unexplored resource."

"Are they dangerous?" Naruto asked warily, holding his arms out away from himself as though it would protect him.

"As long as you don't make them angry, no. They're actually easy-going and easily amused, but if you cut down a tree without permission don't come crying to me." After a long, thoughtful pause, he added cheerfully, "Assuming you're still alive, of course."

"What's the point of this?" Sasuke asked finally, annoyed. "I have better things to do than play with tree spirits."

Kakashi chuckled as the tiny creatures expanded indignantly at the boy and radiated disapproval. Sasuke recoiled slightly despite that it would do little good, apparently sensing the change in attitude. "Kodama can be extremely useful. As tree spirits, they're always in contact with the heart of the world. They can give you directions to anywhere you may want to go, report things that they've seen or heard, and confuse or even kill an enemy for you."

The spirits bobbled in agreement.

"Let's make camp for the night. It'll help everyone get used to each other."

With the volunteering hearts of the little spirits bringing him supplies without him even asking, Kakashi showed his team how to build a sort of fire pit that would not concern or threaten the trees or their children spirits. "Thank you," he told them happily. "Now could any of you point us in the direction of material we could burn for the night?" They smiled widely and vanished, returning with lots of dead branches – some carried by more than one spirit – and dry leaves for kindling. "You haven't had anyone visit recently, have you?"

They shook their heads and danced around the small clearing. Kakashi saw that even Sasuke, though he was trying desperately not to, was becoming infected by the spirits' near-perpetual merriment.

"Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked quietly.

"Hm?"

"How can we talk to them?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I can see that they understand us, but how do we understand them?"

"We can't," he answered gleefully. "Kodama speak the language of the earth, which is an ancient language that we humans have long since forgotten how to speak or even comprehend. However, they can understand us because all of our languages, as different as they may sound to us, are nothing more than dialects of the earth language. Kodama, through this knowledge, speak to us with a few vague images, strong feelings, and magnetics."

"Magnetics?"

"Like a compass," he elaborated. "Like chakra points, there's also a point in the human body that reacts to magnetic north. It's not obvious – most people, even the ones who would pride themselves on their sense of direction, don't know it's there – until these little guys start to play with it for some giggles. They don't mean any harm, but it's the reason why even the best navigators can get completely lost in a dense forest."

Sakura was enthralled with the new information. "So we can't understand their language at all?"

"Not a word," was the confirmation. Kakashi noticed that Naruto apparently wanted to say something, but was uncharacteristically concerned about the reactions of his teammates, it seemed. "Sakura, Sasuke, you two set up camp. Naruto, come with me." The blond obeyed, jogging off into the trees after him with the smiling spirits draped merrily all over both of them. "Something you wanted to say, Naruto?"

The orange-clad boy frowned, then said quietly, "I can understand them."

"That so? Hm. Odd, but not surprising."

". . . It's not?"

"No." Kakashi stopped walking and Naruto followed his example. "Kyuubi may be a demon, but he's still a creature of the earth and as such its language is his language. In most cases, when the earth itself speaks it's very quiet and inaudible to any human no matter how hard one may be listening. However, Kyuubi both knows the language of the earth and has extremely good ears. Thus not only can you hear it, but you can understand it."

Naruto nodded, seeming a bit more reassured.

"You might want to look into this more, Naruto. Kodama exist wherever you find trees, they're just easier to find in untouched forest like this. It's possible that you could make better use of their talents than even I could. Being able to speak to them like that allows you to give and recieve more detail. They could even be your specialty. And since under most circumstances you wouldn't even have to summon them you wouldn't be expending a lot of chakra, either."

Naruto nodded again, back to his old confidence and determination, and the spirits clinging to him began to bobble excitedly as they headed back to the camp and the other two members of Team Seven. "Active, aren't they?"

"Strong emotion excites them. It's like giving them sugar or caffeine. If you really need their help, try to project emotion when you speak to them. It'll get them to react faster and with more intensity."

Back at the campsite, Sakura was playing some sort of game with the spirits while Sasuke was trying to figure out why they refused to let him start a fire. In a burst of annoyance he yanked his arms away from their rounded, fingerless hands and received for his trouble a broad wave of return annoyance right before he was physically assaulted by twenty of them. They climbed up his body to his head and pulled on his hair, ears, eyelids, nose, and lips until he was distracted enough for a few more to snatch the flint away from him and run with it.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke exploded as the rest of the spirits abandoned him and calmed down. "Bring that back!"

One drew his attention and put its 'hands' together. Since it had no fingers he could not understand what its motions meant until it lifted one of those hands to its mouth and seemed to be blowing something in at the fire pit. Sasuke stared – was it doing what he thought it was doing? – as it repeated the motion.

"Flint and steel will throw sparks," Kakashi explained casually. "Though they're usually harmless, the spirits don't like it. Comparatively, fire jutsu are more under control and can be directed more easily."

"It's a waste of chakra."

"That's not their problem. If you don't want to find something unpleasant in your sleeping bag in the morning – and take my word for it, they can get deviously creative – you'll make an exception."

Sasuke sighed heavily at that, glaring at the spirits when they mimed him and then giggled silently. He formed the proper seals, noticing how the spirits watched with rapt attention, then blew a short stream of fire onto the leaves and sticks in the fire pit. "What, you've never seen fire before?"

Kakashi sat by the new fire and began to dig aimlessly through his pack. "As you can see they don't have fingers, so anything that someone does with his or her hands is fascinating to them. Ah."

He straightened up, bringing out a small container with him. He shook it and it clattered a bit; in seconds he had the attention of the entire clearing. A few seconds more and he was surrounded on three sides by a sea of spirits, all of them staring up at him. Just to tease them, because he knew that both he and they knew what he had with him, he made a long, slow show of removing the lid from the container and peering at the contents.

"Hm . . ."

The tree spirits began hopping up and down fretfully, rounded arms in the air, 'shouting' indignantly at him to stop being so cruel.

He laughed. "All right, all right. Calm down. Hands up – I want to be fair." The little translucent white arms extended high and he pinched some of the contents of the container, sprinkling it back and forth over the group. "You can only have one for now. I'll leave the bowl out so you can come back later, but I don't want to see any fighting or I'll take it all back."

Sakura blinked at the colorful stars the spirits held and carried into the trees. "Cake confetti?"

"Processed sugar. It's just as bad for them as it is for us, but in their lives they don't get half as much as we do and their only source is us, so it's a good treat to use to repay them for any services they may render since they have no use for money. And believe me, you better pay them or hope they don't find you. They're not human, but they aren't stupid either."

"I've noticed that," Sakura agreed. "They learn quickly."

"That's curiosity for you. All right, you three, to bed. We'll be here for the next week learning how to get along with and speak to these spirits, so you better get some rest. Don't worry about keeping watch – they'll protect us."

The three genin obediently went to bed. Kakashi stayed up for a while to read and further acquaint himself with all the sights, sounds, and smells of that particular part of the forest. He also gave quiet greetings to the younger, more shy spirits that had not come out of the trees before but were too tempted by the cake confetti to stay hidden. A few of them were bold enough to sit by him and eat or wander over to his students and look them over.

As the night wore on and Kakashi finally settled himself, the spirits came out again to join them. Their arrangement was strange. They settled on he and Sakura, yes, but most collected on Naruto and Sasuke, probably because of the former's unique circumstances and merely to annoy the hell out of the latter.

The upcoming week would be interesting indeed.

Round One training has been completed . . .

Answers To Questions You Didn't Even Know You Wanted To Ask:

In rereading this I find that my level of skill at that time is showing clearly in it, as displayed by the minor plotholes sprinkled throughout. However, since it's unlikely I will ever have the time to go back and rewrite or embellish this piece, I deemed it presentable enough and went ahead and posted it.

———

Round One: UFOs – Unidentified Foliar Objects

If seeing the kodama did not make you think of outer space aliens, then you obviously do not watch the same television documentaries my mother does. If you do but still did not think of outer space aliens, then your imagination is obviously not as easily influenced as mine.

———

"It's a shame, really, because only we Hidden Leaf ninja can contact them, but most know little or nothing about them."

Tonight's homework: Make up a reason for the two ideas in this sentence to be factual statements on Kakashi's part.

———

"They're actually easy-going and easily amused, but if you cut down a tree without permission don't come crying to me."

In Princess Mononoke, the kodama seem to be very innocent, childlike, completely non-violent, and tended to die when their parent tree was killed. Assume that the kodama in Fire Country are ninja or samurai kodama.

———

The little translucent white arms extended high and he pinched some of the contents of the container, sprinkling it back and forth over the group.

In Spirited Away, the feeding of the coal soot balls was without a doubt the best scene in the entire movie.

———

Round Two of Training Exercises will be titled: "Hide and Seek".

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Reviews always loved muchly, thank you.

–RN (LS)