“Hm, maybe so.”
He keeps his tone light and his real assessment quiet. No need to discourage the boy with a badly-timed dose of truth. That’s the opposite of what he needs right now. If he ever does want to reach jounin level he’ll have to learn to take the rigorous training without complaint.
Lucky for them both, Naruto is remarkably easy to motivate once one understands a few key concepts. Namely leverage and name-dropping.
“Tell you what. If you can prove you’ve grasped how to control your wind nature, I’ll consider it.” Retrieving a kunai from its pouch, he aims it for a tree on the edge of the clearing where it thrums as it’s embedded in the wood. “Cut that tree down using only nature transformation, and dinner’s on me.”
And the magic word, to seal the deal–
“You’ve got to catch up to Sasuke, after all. He had this down years ago.”
“Hey, hey!”
Kakashi’s got him at dinner, but when he gets to Sasuke, Naruto is filled with the same fire in his belly that tells him he’s going to be hokage. Brows furrow, and he gives his teacher his signature grin.
“I’ll definitely beat Sasuke! If I can’t do at least this much, how can I be expected to get him back!?”
There’s a long moment where he actually isn’t sure how he’s going to be able to cut a fifty-year-old tree in half, but the determination is enough to overpower the doubt. He’s going to own this.
Right?
He begins to charge up, lets himself feel the wind in his chakra, like blades. There’s a rumble in his chest and it escapes, voiced as he runs toward the marked tree. It’s not too far, right?
His palm slams into the bark and his cry is cut off as he realizes what’s happened.
There’s a slice a few inches deep, but it definitely doesn’t run all the way through.
“Ah, man!”
