Chapter 2: Learning to Focus

X-X-X

With his lungs feeling like hell had taken a vacation inside of them, his legs practically begging him to stop moving, and his arms desperately trying to remove themselves from his body, Naruto did one last push up before collapsing on the ground. He soon realized it was a bad idea when the fifty pound turtle shell slammed into his back as well.

"350. Impressive feat after your first month of training, although my other students got up to 400 after their first month," said Roshi in a dismissive tone.

Naruto wanted to reply, so badly it hurt his soul that he was simply too exhausted to properly form a rebuttal. After all this time of shooting at him with those weird explosive balls of chakra, making him run around a plateau with a fifty pound turtle shell on his back, then do various exercises after his 'warmup', the young Jinchuuriki wished only to retaliate against his new sensei somehow. But, his wishes were for naught as he passed out from exhaustion after about seven seconds.

'Hmm, he certainly works much harder than Krillin and Yamcha did when they were here. They stopped trying as hard during the running portion after about a week. This kid's idiocy may be what saves him in the end. Ah well, back to Icha Icha!' thought the perverted old man as he picked up his young charge and began the trek back home.

'Although, I wonder how long it'll be before he actually asks to learn how to use Shouten...ah well. He's a long ways off from that anyway.'

0o0o0

Seated cross-legged in front of his sensei of nearly a year, Naruto nearly groaned at the lecture that was soon to come. He'd already graduated the Academy, technically for all intents and purposes, and there couldn't have been any more reason for him to have to sit through another boring speech about virtue or honor or any of the other nonsense his teachers had been giving him for years.

"Today I will be adding two new wrinkles into your training, Naruto-kun. Because you seemed to master the Kage Bunshin no jutsu so quickly, I've decided that you're ready for more challenging lessons. First and foremost, we're going to fix that terrible mess of a form you call your taijutsu," lectured Roshi.

Naruto pouted and mumbled a few curses under his breath. He then said, "What does that have to do with shadow clones?"

"Well, you need a sparring partner near your own skill level to begin with in order to master the forms at a reasonable speed. And besides, you'll still be punching the wooden post to build up striking power. Now, form a clone and begin start with the first kata I had you practice last week. The clone will block, and if he gets dispersed before the last blow, you have to do 400 pushups with the turtle shell," said the old master.

Naruto groaned before making the cross like hand seal and making a clone, the only ninjutsu he'd learned this entire time, and began working his way through the taijutsu form he'd learned.

The technique that Roshi taught him involved high speed punches and kicks, with many moves akin to basically throwing part of your body in a certain direction while maintaining some sense of control over it, intending to overwhelm an opponent with blows before they could possibly react. On the defensive side, 'blocking' was really a last resort, the body control used to attack was also supposed to be used to dodge blows in tight spaces, making it a highly effective technique of fighting.

However, about two minutes into his sparring session with himself, Naruto decided he'd had enough of the shenanigans of his new sensei, bursting his shadow clone in frustration.

"THAT'S IT! I'm DONE doing all of these useless forms and stuff! Either teach me something useful or else!" exclaimed the blond ninja-in-training.

"Or else what?" responded the dirty old man.

"Or…..I'll beat you to a pulp"

"Go ahead and try," said Roshi with a strange laugh punctuating the end of it.

Naruto, having abandoned all forms of sensibility at this point, charged his sensei with gusto. His plan, however, hadn't accounted for his first punch being deflected and having a punch planted directly into his gut. The Jinchuuriki fell to his knees in pain, clutching the probably bruised area in an attempt to soothe it.

"So, are you done playing or would you like to keep going?"

"I'm just getting started!"

Naruto attacked again with a flurry of punches, all of them easily dodged by Roshi. Somewhere in his mind, Naruto noted that while his sensei was old, probably as old as the Hokage was, his reflexes were outstanding. If this was how the man is after age and the degradation of skill from post retirement, he couldn't imagine what it would be like fighting against Roshi in his prime.

In the middle of his barrage, Naruto could almost hear his sensei chiding him with every missed blow. 'Too much force on the punch', 'Punch in anticipation, not reaction', 'Your footwork is absolutely dreadful', and similar phrases repeated themselves in his brain before he finally remembered something about blocking, taking a painful punch into the stomach before falling to his knees.

"As you can see...you aren't quite ready for even a spar against an old man, let alone a real battle. Shall we resume your training, or are you still stuck on beating me into wood paste?" asked Roshi in the most sardonic way possible.

The 10 year old blond wanted to keep fighting. He wanted so desperately to land a decisive blow on the old man just to teach him a lesson for once. But his logical side finally kicked in and he realized that if he'd took Roshi's criticisms more seriously, he would have fared much better than he had. As he was, he couldn't even hit the vacuum of air Roshi would leave when he dodged, and his other skills could use quite a bit of work as well.

"No...I...I'll go back to sparring, Roshi-sensei," said Naruto in a low tone, creating another clone and going through the taijutsu forms much more carefully and focused than before.

Roshi smiled a bit at the progress his student made, noting that the boy was much better at physical fighting when he put effort into fighting correctly as opposed to haphazardly throwing the hardest punches he can in an improvised fashion.

'I was a bit unsure at first...but now I believe more than ever. Today is the day. And maybe one day, he'll learn the technique that makes me so deadly even after all these years...'

0o0o0

Covered in dirt and sweat, in addition to being exhausted from all the previous forms of training, Naruto was happy to be sitting down for once today after the failed assault on his sensei and his commitment to diligence right afterward. He prepared himself mentally, however, as he knew Roshi wasn't going to just let him off for the rest of the day.

"Well, since you've worked so hard for the past few hours on your fighting skills, I think a little reward is in order. Instead of 'secondary conditioning', from now on, I'll be training you in Chakra Shouten."(Chakra Focus)

"What's that?" asked the blond shinobi.

"It is the technique I used on your first day here, as well as whenever I want to test your dodging reflexes and agility, and you learning it is the real reason why you're here, as opposed to just having a specialized taijutsu teacher in Konoha," responded the old man in a more sage-like tone.

Naruto sighed in relief, as the past few times any 'special' training involved either venturing out into the nearby town's hot springs to wait while Roshi peeped on women bathing, or training 'stealth' by surprising any common criminal on the run with his Oiroke no jutsu, and leaving before authorities could pick up on it.

"Well, that's a relief. Now, how do I do this….whatever you call it move of yours?"

"Well, first, you compress a small amount of chakra into your hand, hold it for a few seconds, and then let it explode all at once," said Roshi.

Naruto instantly began to gather as much chakra as he could into his palms. Using the training from tree and water walking, he compressed it at a single point in his palms while maintaining a steady flow of energy.

Then, he simply let go, for lack of a better term, and the wildly chaotic chakra mass exploded violently in Naruto's hand. A loud scream and string of curses was elicited from the blonde as he flew backwards several inches from his own attack backfiring.

"Good, even though you put too much into it, you got the first part down easy, kid!" said Roshi with faked excitement.

"The first part? But it looked nothing like yours from before! And no way I could try to throw that, I could barely keep it in my hands as long as that!"

"That portion of the technique is the easy part, because what you did is all it is! The first step to creating what we call a Kikou,(Energy Blast) which are the exploding energy spheres I throw at you is making the actual explosion part! Now, you need to learn to control it," responded the old bearded man.

"And how can I do that? It's impossible!"

"Not exactly. Now, for the next part of your training, I want you to gather your chakra in a 'shell' of sorts. Make a completely round sphere filled with nothing but air, like this," said Roshi before he instantly created a perfect sphere of chakra in his hands.

Naruto attempted to copy his sensei outright, but his first attempt ended in his sphere collapsing from too little chakra being gathered. His second attempt was foiled when he poured too much chakra into the technique, rendering him incapable of molding the energy correctly.

Roshi laughed a bit internally, as Naruto's struggling face was absolutely hilarious, but he could see that the boy had great potential, and would probably figure it out soon.

"Well, I'm going back to the house now, gotta finish my reading, hehehehe. You stay out here as long as you like, and we'll resume your training regimen when you finally get the hang of that," said the Turtle Hermit as he walked away from his young charge, who still was trying desperately to get the hang of his new technique.

0o0o0

After nearly a day and a half, Naruto finally got the hang of making the 'shell' on demand, as his first success had taken almost fifteen seconds to properly produce and that would do him no good in any sort of fight. So he practiced and practiced, only taking breaks for short naps and to grab food, until he could make one nearly instantly. As it was, his sphere wasn't as flawless as Roshi's was, but the man knew this technique for a very long time. If he wasn't that proficient, he'd be a failure to his own cause.

So, after his now afternoon laps around the plateau and relatively short taijutsu spar with a clone, Naruto was once again seated in front of his master, ready to learn the next step in his training.

"Now that you've mastered the shell, merely put the two steps together and launch it. It's quite simple, just form the shell, then start the first step and…"

Roshi's lecture was cut off when a bright blue orb hit him directly in the face, exploding on contact. Then another, and another. Naruto, now standing, smirked as he held another orb in his hand waiting to execute another blast, only to see his sensei completely unharmed, save for his sunglasses.

"Nice shot, kid."

Naruto immediately regretted his decision as he was bombarded with Kikou after Kikou, each one more deadly than the last as the now partially destroyed landscape told him. The blonde genin managed to dodge most of them, only to find his sensei in his face with his right hand over his left. Chakra began to gather into the old man's hands, and three layers of the explosive stage of a Kikou formed, and loosely compressed before firing itself in a wide range, knocking Naruto back several meters.

"What..was that?" asked Naruto as he picked himself off the floor.

"It's the next step, you didn't think you could master this in two days now did you?" asked the old hermit while somehow finding another pair of sunglasses to put on his face. "Now, lets see you try to form those a bit faster."

"No way! How do you expect me to do that?" answered Naruto with a pout.

Both of Roshi's hands shone brightly before two Kikous formed almost as fast as the smirk on his face had.

"It's either you match my Renzoku Kikou Dan, or you'll need to dodge it, Naruto."

It was the only warning he would receive before the old master rapidly sent a barrage of explosive chakra bombs at his genin apprentice. Naruto quickly retaliated with Kikou of his own, only to be overwhelmed by the raw amount of blasts his sensei was firing from his hands. Jumping to the side, the young Jinchuuriki noticed that his ordeal was far from over, as more explosive balls of chakra followed him.

'How can he fire so many?' thought Naruto as he continued his escape.

'C'mon kid, let's see what you're made of,' thought Muten Roshi as he continued his barrage against his outmatched student.

To his credit, Naruto's speed and reaction time had increased greatly over his year of training, but it wasn't enough to get away from Roshi's unrelenting assault. Caught between a rock and a few hundred balls of explosive chakra, the blonde genin steeled himself in the face of near certain death.

'There's no other way, I have to match these blasts,' thought Naruto as he focused chakra to his hands and formed the tell-tale shells of chakra. 'But how does he make so many? There has to be a trick to it...'

Then, Naruto's memory brought him the images of what he'd seen only moments before. The use of multiple layers to increase the power of the blast had been the key to the technique the entire time!

"Form the shell, use it as a base," started Naruto as the attack was nearly upon him, "form the Kikou inside of those, and then fire at will! Renzoku Kikou Dan!"

In a fit of rage, Naruto launched chakra blast after chakra blast, each one targeting the blasts homing in on him, and nearly matched the unrelenting blasts that sought to injure him.

Nearly.

After the grand explosion and smoke resulting from it passed over, Roshi peered at the crater he'd created in the wastelands to see his young charge lying in the center. Bloody, and burned in most places, but most certainly alive if the telltale rise and fall of his chest had anything to say about it.

"Seems I was right, and you really had mastered it in but a couple days," said Muten Roshi as he walked over and lifted his student on his shoulders. "I guess I underestimated you, kid. Good job."

OoOoO

"...and the third member of my team, Videl, has requested a leave of absence due to emotional trauma," said Kakashi, finishing his report.

Hiruzen sighed a bit, mostly in relief, as he processed what one of his top jounin had just told him. Tazuna's request for a simple security detail should have been scrutinized more, but instead slipped through the cracks and nearly cost him his life as well as those of the shinobi guarding him. Luckily for all parties involved, the Demon of the Mist had suspected treachery and had his apprentice "kill" the old man to draw out Gato and slaughter the corrupt CEO. The thought of leaving two dangerous nukenin out there troubled the sage-like Hokage, but this unexpected development solved one of his bigger problems.

"Her request will be granted upon one condition: her replacement for the next six months will be Uzumaki Naruto."

Kakashi raised one of his eyebrows quizzically. "It was my understanding that Naruto was undergoing the Apprenticeship Program. Why stick him on a genin team?"

"While Naruto-kun has been training in relative solitude for the past three years, I think it would benefit him to place him on a team for a short period of time before his apprenticeship is over. He has to learn teamwork somehow," responded the Sandaime.

Kakashi tapped his chin in thought for a few moments. "Well, no use arguing over that. When does he start?"

"Today. As a matter of fact, I believe he's in the village right now, let's see what he's up to."

Both men stared into the scrying crystal ball, going over the village until they spotted a familiar golden haired genin…

OoOoO

It had occurred at some point between his master bringing him to the village and said master's unexpected departure that Konohagakure no Sato hadn't really changed much in three years. Same apprehensive stares, same stores, same Hokage monument, everything was a perfect snapshot of what it was before he left.

Well, minus the mayhem he'd caused himself.

Yawning a bit, Naruto noted that he hadn't changed much on his own front. The orange jumpsuit was a bit too much of his personality to give up at this point, but he did keep it unzipped to show that his black shirt was replaced with another that had the kanji for 'turtle' in a circle on it. He'd been heavily against it, his attachment to the previous design as deep and unexplainable as his love for all things orange and ramen, but Roshi had insisted that the world would know that Naruto was a student of the Kame-sennin.

His unfocused walk eventually brought him to his intended destination, training ground seven, a full thirty minutes before he needed to be there. While he'd hoped to maybe rekindle the fires of his pranking habits, his new 'sensei' was supposed to issue him his hitai-ite. Even though he'd known he was a genin for the past three years, nothing felt right without the signature piece of of equipment.

While thinking of whether or not he'd wear it on his forehead, as most ninja did, or find some odd place for his symbol of allegiance, he noticed that someone else had joined him in the small training ground. Using his hands to block out the intense midday sun, he could make out pink hair on the figure approaching.

"Sakura-chan! Long time no see!"

Startling a bit at the call of her name, she noticed the person she was about to tell to get lost before her team meeting was none other than the long graduated Uzumaki Naruto. If his voice hadn't brought back her memory, the unsightly orange clothing he wore and his telltale blonde mop on his head would have a few seconds later.

Sakura, like all of her classmates and even their sensei Mizuki, had suspected that it was all a ploy to get the troublemaker out of the academy. Maybe even a cover for an expulsion due to Naruto somehow belonging to a clan as famous as the nearly extinct Uzumaki. No theories had any credence, however, due to the Apprenticeship Program being confirmed as legit from multiple sources afterward and one of the genin-hopefuls somehow catching a glimpse of the official document from the Hokage on the matter.

How he'd seen it, no one ever knew really.

Even though the mystery was, for all sakes, debunked, rumors spread like wildfire that even that was a cover for getting Naruto out of the ninja program forever. After all, few cared for the boy's future in the first place, if at all. In any case, for Sakura, it had been a good riddance.

Attempting to hide her contempt, Sakura responded, "Naruto, I know you haven't been here for a while, but this is a private training ground for my team. I have to ask you to leave."

"But I can't leave! Stupid Ero-Kame told me I have to be here to meet my new team and get my hitai-ite!"

"New team? Wait, no way they got a replacement so soon…"

Naruto almost responded to Sakura's silent inquiry with another question, but he felt the presence of yet another person in his vicinity and his expression hardened uncharacteristically. After a moment, a grin graced his visage, but his expression didn't lighten.

"So, Sasuke-teme is on your team too, Sakura-chan?"

Sakura's eyes widened a bit before looking behind her and seeing her crush standing with his hands in his pockets and his eyes locked on Naruto. Before she could make a comment, the Uchiha scion walked by her to stand directly in front of his former rival.

"What are you doing here, Naruto? Heard you got expelled three years ago, haven't seen you since."

"I actually got to graduate a bit earlier. Special case, got put under a special teacher to help my ninjutsu a bunch. In case you were really wondering."

Naruto's smirk never vanished, while Sasuke's eyes narrowed a bit when his attempt to anger the blonde fell a bit flat. The idiot was still confident, but it seemed like it was founded on actual ability and not claims that he would be great one day from before.

"Special, huh? Figures they'd put you with someone to handle defective ninja."

Naruto closed his eyes and his smirk widened a bit at Sasuke's remarks. "If I'm 'defective', I'd hate to see what type of second-rate ninja like you the Academy's been letting graduate these past three years."

Unaware he was being goaded, or maybe just uncaring of the fact, Sasuke struck out at his rival with the swiftest kick he could muster. Normally, he wouldn't waste effort on weaklings but he wasn't sure if Naruto had truly improved over his three year absence. You could never be too sure in those situations.

Much to his surprise, and chagrin, his kick was caught by the blonde genin. Not only that, he couldn't manage to break his leg free of Naruto's one handed hold in the position he was in.

"Now, now, you shouldn't attack an opponent before he's ready, Sasuke-teme. It's in bad taste."

"The only thing you'll be tasting, is the ground when I'm finished with you!" responded Sasuke as he adjusted his body to strike Naruto with his other leg.

Only to be caught mid-kick once more.

The last Uchiha curled himself into a ball and managed enough strength to break out of Naruto's hold. He then flipped himself upright, and stared down his opponent while activating his Sharingan in the process.

"Seems like you've got some nice moves. With the Sharingan, I'll see right through them now."

Naruto shrugged and yawned at Sasuke's declaration. "So your eyes turned red or whatever. Does that make you somehow stronger or faster?"

Angered at the taunt of his bloodline, Sasuke charged Naruto at full speed. He was a bit faster due to the adrenaline now pumping through his bloodstream, which allowed him to catch Naruto completely off guard with a strong punch to the jaw.

At least, he thought before Naruto dodged just before impact while leaving an afterimage of chakra behind.

'What? How did he...'

Naruto smirked as he watched Sasuke try and regain his balance. "You were able to follow my dodge after my Zanzōken (Afterimage Technique). Those eyes of yours are pretty good. Let's see what else they're capable of…"

"Actually, I think we've done enough sparring for one day, don't you Naruto?"

All three genin turned their heads to see Kakashi standing a few feet behind them. The famed jounin bookmarked the page of his book and placed it in his jacket, while tossing a hitai-ite in his other hand at the blonde.

"Sasuke, Sakura, as you both are probably familiar, this is Uzumaki Naruto. While our other friend Videl is dealing with her emotional trauma, Naruto will take her place as the third member of Team 7."

Unfortunately for Kakashi, the tension between the genin didn't dissipate as he'd hoped. Naruto had relaxed somewhat, but the other two were still wary of the blonde's presence.

'Well, this should be interesting...'

X-X-X

A/N: Does not seem like so many years since first update. But, thanks to a few sparks of inspiration, and my beta Renohan, I decided to tackle this again. Hope you all enjoyed it, and please review.