The Legend of Konoha's Shooting Star

Training Commences

"Yeah..." Kakashi said, taking note of the openly skeptical expressions on most of their faces.

'Sounds kind of fun, actually...' April thought, figuring there was probably more to it than that. Now they knew why he had brought them into the middle of the forest.

'Sounds boring...' Naruto thought disappointedly, taking what their teacher had just said at face value.

"What kind of training is that?" Sakura asked dubiously.

"Well, listen until the end," Kakashi said patiently. "This isn't normal tree climbing. You'll climb without using your hands."

"!" Sasuke said, furrowing his brow slightly.

'And there it is...' April thought with a wry smile.

'Sounds fun!!' Naruto thought, suddenly a lot more motivated to begin.

"H-How...?" Sakura asked with a frown.

"Well... watch," Kakashi said, leaning on his crutches as he formed a hand seal to help him focus while he molded his chakra. Once he had it where he wanted it, he gripped the crutches again and started hobbling towards the closest tree. He placed one foot flat on the base of its trunk.

"!!" the four genins gasped in astonishment as they watched him continue forward, swinging his crutches up with his next step as he left the ground and slowly made his way up the tree.

"He's climbing..." Naruto said as they all continued to watch Kakashi move higher and higher, stunned.

"Vertically... with just his legs..." Sakura added.

"... On crutches..." April finished with awe. Way to really stick it to gravity! She could run up walls and stuff using momentum, but this was on a whole different level of awesome! Kakashi-sensei was a boss!

"..." Sasuke said.

"You understand now?" Kakashi asked as he stopped, standing so that he looked like he was hanging upside down from a thick branch like a bat while he leaned on his crutches for support. "Gather your chakra in the bottom of your feet and make it stick to the tree trunk. This is something you can do once you can use chakra well," he instructed them with a smile.

"Cool," April said with a grin, eager to get started.

"Wait a minute!!" Sakura said. "How is learning how to climb a tree going to make us stronger!!?"

"Here's the main part. Listen closely. The purpose of this training is... First, to accumulate the right amount of molded chakra in the right location," Kakashi explained. "As I said earlier, this is the most important aspect when using a jutsu. This can be difficult even for a skilled ninja. The amount of chakra needed to climb a tree is small, but it must be exact. And it is said that the bottom of the foot is the most difficult area to gather chakra."

"So, basically... if we can learn this level of control, then we should be able to master any jutsu?" April asked.

"Well, theoretically..." Kakashi answered, glad to see she was catching on so quickly. April was probably the one who needed this training the most. She and Naruto were both beginning to tremble with excitement. "The second thing is for you to develop the stamina needed to control chakra properly," he continued. "Depending on the jutsu, controlling your chakra properly... can be very difficult. And a ninja will usually be gathering and molding his chakra during battle, while constantly moving. Those types of situations make controlling chakra even more difficult."

'I see... and this exercise requires us to keep moving while molding our chakra, or else we'll fall...' April mused. It was perfect for what they needed to learn.