Sitting against a tree, naruto heaved.
His breathing hard, he was tired. Sweat streaming down his face, from the forehead down to his eyebrows. Into his eyes and onto his whiskers, that laid upon his cheeks and even a bit of that sweat came into his mouth.
He near felt the salty taste of the sweat and made a face using his sleeve to wipe the sweat off his face.
He than took his bottle of water and washed his mouth before spitting it out on the ground next to him, before actually starting to drink that water.
He was tired, it was evident if one looked at his eyes. He was absolutely worn out.
He already wished for Pervy sage to come back and take him on a training trip. He now understood how sasuke caught up on Lee in physical stats in a month...
Kakashi was a demon.
Teaching him to maintain his clones, making him train by trying to cut leaves and take his first step in wind style...
And that was not counting Kakashi beating him up, if he did not start to adapt to that speed his white haired sensei would beat him up more.
His own endurance more than ensured that painful experience.
Even now as he got his 'rest' he was maintaining his clones while half was getting absolutely beat on and the other half was trying to cut those dawned leaves.
He started to pour water onto his face, his hair getting soaked and so did his clothes.
The hard surface of the ground beneath and the tree that he leaned on was comforting with how dizzy he was.
He already felt stronger... atleast physically, faster, more durable and he felt he could endure more. Even his Chakra pool felt bigger as his concentration along with the ability to maintain his clones was better.
And yet, he remembered sasuke in his second stage... three tomoe in each of his vibrant vermillion eyes and the what could only be described as demonic wings on his back...
Yes he matched it and sold the fight by going for the headband scratch, but he had been too relient on the nine tails Chakra...
Yes, it was his power. He was supposed to use it for himself and by extension the leaf, but would he really be able to convince sasuke that seeking power from another source was not right, if he used what one could see as an power not his own?
One could say that it was different, sasuke sought power from a monster. From orochimaru...
But who's power did he use? Another monsters power...
So how could he speak? The nine tails also laid his intention of taking his body for himself bare.
He doubted that sasuke didn't know, even more so when he told sasuke it himself.
Sasuke just didn't care at that point. Itachi was a goal that the power hungry uchiha would sacrifice everything for.
The same as Naruto who used that poison that one might call power to retrieve sasuke.
In such moments it did not matter, he presumed.
The three sannin used the summons, one could call it their own as they used their own power to summon them but was it really? If he had used gamabunta would he have beaten sasuke or would it be gamabunta?
The sound four plus that bone guy and sasuke used the curse mark.
Kakashi used an sharingan that was not his own.
Choji used those pills to gain power beyond near everything.
The more he met, the more used something that wasn't theirs really or something that is real rare that they were born with...
He doubted that their was someone truly powerful that accomplished it with only their own power and determination with no bloodline limit.
Well, other than might guy sensei...
With him being as powerful as he seemed and could probably open more gates than Lee, that said enough and all with his own strength and determination with nearly only taijutsu.
He felt that he couldn't do that... he has already learnt that his Chakra was greatly above average thanks to genetics and he held the nine tails...
Cheat codes really, not that he was gonna complain. He needed as much help as he could get and alot of hard work to get to where he needed to.
He gazed to the side, he looked at Kakashi dismembered a clone, cutting its arm off and smashing a kunai into another's head before kicking another one's knee in, making the direction that his knee faced be the opposite.
Each of those memories going into his head, one after the other as each got destroyed one after another...
And so he finally stood up, leaning against the tree with his hands he sighed before making a cross with his fingers and groaning out the words that he was getting so tired off, "multi shadow clones jutsu."
Those clones gazed at him for a second in hesitation, they did not want to do this no more.
He just started to run towards Kakashi, leading the way.
Yes, he knew that shinobi did not charge straight at their enemies, this lesson was more than drilled into him by Kakashi.
He knew that, but this was training. Why would he hide and try to find an opening when the whole point of the training was hand to hand?
His hand in a fist flew at Kakashi's head who simply shifted his head, grabbing that hand pulling it in and smashed his knee into naruto's stomach before pulling that naruto to the side and throwing a kick into the clone that was charging second.
That kick connected with the clones stomach, pushing him back into two other clones that caught him.
The next moment two other charged straight in from two sides, one threw a kunai at Kakashi that he dodged, the clone that came from the other side caught it and was about to throw it again to Kakashi.
Before he could do that tho, he got kicked into the side of his knee by the masked copy ninja, a crunch of the bone cracking was heard.
Immediately after, kakashi caught the initial clones punch, grabbed him and slung him over his shoulder into the clone that he just kicked into the knee.
Finally dispelling it and making all its memory come back to naruto, all the gut wrenching pain that his clones felt just because this sadistic sensei of his wanted him to learn to maintain his clones better.