Naruto: The Outsider’s Resolve

Yoshio stretched his legs as he got up from his outside chair and pocketed the scroll he was working on. Keeping the tree-walking practice at the end of every training session worked very well for him. He got one hour of free time that he used to complete work other than training the brats, which allowed him to call it a day immediately after the training ended.

As intended, he had already completed the day's work. For the last thirty minutes, he would observe his group to gauge their progress.

He weaved the hand seals for the Body Flicker Jutsu(Shunshin no Jutsu), and a moment later, he was on the other side of the wall, in a place a distance away from his genins, so they wouldn't notice him. Even if they had guessed when the training ended, thirty minutes was enough time to observe them in hiding to see if they were actually working or just pretending in the last few moments.

It was a real problem. Yoshio knew it was because he had done it when he was a genin(though he was in a jonin-lead three-man cell). His sensei had found out about it and whooped his ass into the ground— he saw no reason why his genin should be any different.

It was already the fourth day after his tree-climbing practice announcement. Yoshio expected that most, if not everyone, would be able to gain decent proficiency by the end of the third week, enough to scale up and down the wall. Though, he expected those more efficient with their chakra and those from shinobi clans to start making significant progress by the end of the first week— after that, it would take them three to five days to complete the exercise. Generally, clanless kids with shinobi parents followed soon after and would be done by the end of the second week with a day or two of leeway. The remains would then complete theirs all over in the third week.

'Let's see how much they have improved today,' Yoshio took out a small notebook upon which he had noted everyone's maximum height from yesterday. Tree-walking improved gradually but consistently until the moment the 'sense' for it kicked in, and then it was easy to improve it to a decent level.

His group was still in the gradual progress stage.

He checked the teams one by one, and as expected, they seemed to be following the norms. Clan kids were doing well, those with shinobi parentage seemed to be competing, and civilian-born seemed to follow along nicely at their own pace.

Yoshio arrived at the last team, Team-5. His eyes first went to the group leader, pretty boy Nenro. The kid had talent, even though he was a recruit from outside Konoha— and not from one of the major cities which had 'respectable' academies, but from a small-town academy— Nenro was competing with some of the clan kids. His skill set was balanced and refined, which meant he would have many choices in the future. Yoshio liked him. He worked hard enough, knew how to communicate with others, and was well-liked— if the cards were played right, he could see a potential chunin in the making. The chunin position traditionally valued leadership more than anything else and the boy's natural charisma would do wonders for him in that regard.

After noting down the progress, Yoshio moved on to Ai, the girl from the same town as Nenro. If he was being honest, she had a lot of things she could improve upon. Ai could perform the general rookie genin skillset learned in the academy as well as anyone else, but they could be raised to another level if she polished her basics. He decided to push her more during the drills and force her to improve. Surprisingly, Ai was higher on the wall than even Nenro. Her chakra control seemed to be great— girls tended to be better at chakra control— but she was doing phenomenally. Yoshio noted the observation for his end of basic training report that he needed to formulate for the counselor. He looked forward to seeing if she would be one of the first to complete the challenge.

It was then time for the third brat from the same academy. Yoshio took pride in his responsibility as an instructor, and he had broken down many genin to be made better in his career. But Masaaki was one of those tough cookies who was either super mental strength or dense as a brick because the boy didn't break down even a little bit. Yoshio had tried to make the boy be a little more serious or at least put on a serious front, but the boy was as outwardly jovial as he was when he arrived. At the same time, he liked the people of Masaaki's type— they were simple and straightforward and turned out to be generally nice people, and he enjoyed working with nice people. Plus, the boy could hit hard— no one in his group hit as hard as Masaaki— the boy would've gone far if he was born Akimichi.

The next one gave Yoshio some headaches. Through his career, he had learned that it was the lazy yet intelligent ones that did well. If they were the right type of laziness, they would take action and choose choices that would make their time easier. And they were the types who ended up in important leadership positions. But basic training was his domain, Yoshio didn't care for laziness, be it the wrong or right type— he wanted everyone to be working themselves to the bone so that he could say they had done all they could have. But the damned brat did just enough to avoid his baton. Yoshio saw a potential he could beat out, but he was held back because the brat was being tricky.

'I will get him,' Yoshio thought. There were plans for the future that would force Taro to act with more initiative.

'Now, how's the weird kid doing today?' Yoshio's eyes went to the final member of the team.

Yoshio didn't care what method anyone used as long as they got the job done, so he ignored Takuma's unorthodox approach and even looked upon it with interest. But it had been two days since Takuma had done anything but take strolls in the field. Yoshio wasn't a fool and saw what Takuma was trying to do from the blown-up spots littered around where Takuma practiced. However, Takuma had not shown any real progress, which was worrying.

Every day in basic training was precious. There was a lot to learn, but not enough time to beat it in. The genin already had five years of training; the state couldn't hold them in training anymore. The more time Takuma spent showing nothing on the wall, the less time he would've to catch up with everyone else.

'I should talk to him today... or should I give him one more day,' Yoshio was thinking when he saw Takuma walk towards the wall. Was Takuma going to try climbing the wall?

Takuma walked to the wall and touched it for a few seconds before moving a few steps away from it.

He's going to run, Yoshio could tell.

And that Takuma did. He ran to the wall and placed one foot on the wall, then the second. He leaned forward as he pushed his feet against the wall, and the first step quickly followed, then second, third, and fourth— before he suddenly pivoted his entire body to face sideways and came to a skidding stop.

But Takuma didn't fall. He stood perfectly perpendicular to the wall with his feet firmly planted on the vertical surface.

Yoshio moved closer. None of his other genin had been able to stop themselves on the wall. They would hurriedly climb until they could no longer.... No, he was wrong. Takuma had been able to stay on the wall, only it was with his hands.

The other twenty-four pairs of genin eyes were now also staring at Takuma. Yoshi could sense their thoughts right now. The weird kid had been able to do something none of them could yet do.

'Well done,' Yoshio thought. Takuma had shown progress, substantial progress, and that was enough. Yoshio was about to mark Takuma's progress when he twisted his feet face upward along with his entire body.

It couldn't have been more clear what he wanted to do, but before Yoshio could even look up from his little notebook to complete the thought, Takuma had taken off.

He ran. One step at a time, Takuma ran up the wall with cheers following up from the ground. The entire wall was empty, sans the one person who continued to scale the wall without hands.

One meter... two... three... five... ten...!

Takuma had already crossed three-quarters of the distance when his feet skidded. The grip from the chakra disappeared in an instant, and Takuma lost balance.

'So close,' Yoshio narrowed his eyes. For a moment, he thought Takuma would make it all the way to the top in one run, but it seemed that he was wishing for too much. However, this was enough, more than enough. Takuma's performance would set a fire under his and even other groups and make them play catchup.

With lost grip, the fall started, and Takuma began to plummet. But out of nowhere, Takuma slapped his gloved hands on the wall as he slid down. The next moment, the sole below the toes of his shinobi boots were skidding against the wall.

It was like someone decreased the playback speed on Takuma as his fall slowed down until he was mid-way through the wall with the tip of his fingers and the toes of his feet tethering him to the surface. Takuma shifted his feet until the soles of his feet were wholly pressed against the surface. He then slowly released his hand from the surface and straightened him, for a moment, he flailed around, eliciting gasps from the audience, but Takuma steadied himself and was again standing on the wall.

He shifted his head to glance down at the ground for a moment before looking back up. One step... second... third... fourth... fifth... Soon Takuma was already past his highest point, and then beyond.

On the top of the wall, two hands with frayed gloves grabbed the edge before Takuma pulled himself up and sat down on the top with his shoulders gently heaving. He looked down at all the people who were looking up at him. For a moment, he stared at them. Then he stood up, his eyes still on them. He raised one hand and began beating his chest as he let out the loudest yell that reached the bottom without getting any quieter.

With his notebook and pen in still hands, Yoshio looked atop the wall with surprise in his eyes. The climb was in no way perfect. Takuma had slipped once, and even with the miraculous recovery, it was still considered a broken run. Not to mention, coming down from the wall with tree-walking was the harder part.

Clap. Clap. Clap. But Yoshio had to give it to the boy. In four days, the kid had scaled up the wall. Faster than even the one-week - ten-day estimate he had set for clan kids. It went against his image, but he clapped. The kid deserved it.

Taking his lead, the entire group began to clap for the solitary person standing above them as they looked up at him.

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