Kakashi, book in hand, strolled over to the team with a big smile on his masked face. While it was true he found the situation thoroughly amusing himself, unfortunately he had his own job to do. His responsibilities as team leader and instructor to these youngsters meant he had to be the mature one here, and that meant cutting their fun short before they went into overtime. "Come on guys; no teammate left behind, remember?"
Upon snapping Sasuke and Sakura out of their fits of merriment, the two then moved forward and helped pull the crates away, allowing Naruto room to climb over and out of his would-be prison.
That last mission was probably the most entertaining of the lot, with everyone except Naruto getting their good eight chuckles out of it. In the end the team was pulled aside by their instructor, congratulated for a day's worth of work well done, and after handing in the last of their reports, were then dismissed with pay in hand. Like before, they were instructed to meet up at the same time tomorrow on the training field for another day of the same thing.
Though the group started out expecting to do more in terms of assignment quality, like perhaps jobs of the heroic kind that required them to step outside of the village and outside of their comfort zones, the group eventually came to terms with the idea that they would probably be doing a few more of these tedious chores before they were eventually allowed to move into something more challenging.
They were content with it at first, until the process of performing tedious jobs, otherwise known as D-Rank missions day after day, started to become irritable…
OOO
A week later…
A series of loud thumps rang out throughout training ground three as a certain two Genin were going through the usual spiel of intense training. Wielding a pair of wooden blockers on either arm, Naruto held a firm stance as he moved quickly around the clearing in circles while taking hit after hit from an aggressively pursuing Tayuya, giving her a moving target to engage.
Contrary to what others may be thinking, this was a tough exercise for both parties. While it was true the jinchuriki was setting the pace for his partner by holding the wooden pads, he was also using the opportunity to work on his rhythm, timing, and feel for the distance between himself and his opponent. This went double for Tayuya, who not only had to keep pace with him and throw out the combinations he was calling her to throw; she was also being run into the ground and having her timing, as well as her reflexes, tested to their fullest. The training was damn near exhausting, even though this was a common practice for both, because it wasn't that easy to get used to. Whenever they got stronger, they always upped the pace that much more, making every session harder than the last.
Sweating bullets, Tayuya drove home a series of straights mixed in with hooks and elbows, before spinning on the spot and firing off a back kick that Naruto took. A loud crack rang out before the jinchuriki dashed around in a circle. Holding the pads up, he watched the girl follow and attempt to cut him off, allowing her to wallop the wooden blockers with more consecutive blows seconds later.
"Left, left, right, hook, kick," Naruto shouted, taking the following hits and jumping back, holding both arms across his face when the girl then flew at him with a sailing kick. The power of the blow racked him, but despite the amount of force put behind it the blonde still managed to smile back at his training partner and circle around, watching the girl dash across and cut him off. "Good, Tayuya-chan! Keep it up!" He then blocked a roundhouse kick and a wild flurry of hooks before maneuvering around her, using a standard fighting form to continue the session.
Tayuya huffed and rushed forward. "My legs are heavy," she thought, feeling the strain finally getting to her. They'd been at this for an hour already and she was getting pretty tired. "Come on body! Don't fucking quit on me!" She spun in with another kick; landing it as a side-on blow and watching her opponent skip away in retreat.
It was an impressive performance, one that wasn't going on unacknowledged. Sitting on the sidelines, not only were Sasuke and Sakura present on the field, but Tayuya's teammates had also tagged along to join in on the carousing. While the kunoichi from squad seven and Kaede were watching quietly with great interest, Shiho was using her time reading from a book she'd picked out from the library and Sasuke was occupying himself doing some target practice. The latter would every so often stop to observe Naruto and Tayuya's progress, but would then quickly return to his exercises and continue on harder than before.
Sakura flinched as she watched the two Genin in front of her work, "Wow. I never knew Naruto trained so hard." And here, for the longest time, she'd been under the impression that all the boy ever did was wander around and slack off, like he appeared to do in the academy whenever every single teacher found it impossible to get the boy to focus on anything worthwhile.
Apparently, appearances were deceiving, as she found out not too long ago. Naruto was pretty hardcore when he set his mind to the task.
She allowed a smile to grace her lips. "They're both incredible," Sakura exclaimed.
"It's in their nature," Kaede replied for the girl with a sagely look, one which the kunoichi beside him took immediate notice of. "As I understand it, Naruto-san and Tayuya-san are extremely hard workers who get their strength from constant strenuous activity and skill maintenance. While my teammate does possess a great talent in many areas, including ninjutsu, she refuses to allow that talent to go to waste by slacking off. She is hard working through and through, and puts her heart and soul into everything she pursues."
"You have to be pretty damn disciplined to work that hard then," Sakura pointed while looking back at the pair fighting out over the grass. "I don't think I'll ever be able to keep it together like those two. I'm kind of jealous."
Catching wind of this, Naruto and Tayuya suddenly stopped in their tracks and looked across at the kunoichi, surprising her.
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