I Won't Be Left Behind! [Tutor]

[Samsara Saito]

"SHINRIN-SENSEI!" Saito called out when he got back to the apartment after hanging out with Yaboi, Shinzo, and the others. The boy must've absorbed some of the Seikon's excited, trembling energy, for while he generally bounced off the walls anyway, today he bounced off the walls literally. As in, he tried to climb the walls by running at them, attempting to set one foot on the wall and then the other in an attempt to climb it, falling down after bouncing off the wall, and then bouncing up off the floor in an attempt to do it all again. "Shinrin-sensei, will you teach me how to climb on walls? The kids here can run on the walls and I don't want to be left behind!" Finally, he bounced one time too many and hit the ground harder than he'd intended, a loud *WHAM* sound echoing through the apartment as his last attempt to walk on the wall ended with a bump on his head.

He took a moment to watch the stars spin around his head after his ungracious landing, but he'd soon gotten back up to his feet, ready to try again until Tatsuo stopped him. Eventually, Saito's pleading brought the two of them out to a lush little park up near Hokage rock, granting an amazing view of Konoha and ample space to train -- and things to train on.

"Here we are, Sensei! So what do I do first?" The lit fire of his eagerness to train showed plainly, with even that day's brief comparison of his talents to those of the other students spurring him on to improve and learn more.


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[Tatsuo]

Tatsuo had been grilling some chicken when Saito rushed into the room, he barely paid him any mind at least in a physical sense. He was listening to what he had to say of course, but he was fiercely engrossed in the cooking of his food. To waste such good chicken? It would be a shame and when he heard the loud crash he gave a quick glance to Saito, after noticing the overzealous boy was indeed not dead he went back to grilling his chicken. "After we eat." he would say as he finished up cooking the chicken. Setting it on the table in their apartment, he took a can of green beans and placed it in the center. A small pot of rice was in the corner of the table. Tatsuo ate heartily before listening to Saito explain his meeting with the Seikon boy, nodding and smiling along. Half that he was making friends, another half that this chicken was juicier than good gossip about a Kage.

Like always it never took much encouragement to get Tatsuo to train Saito, usually all he had to do was ask and Tatsuo would conduct some sort of method to help Saito learn, after all, what type of sensei would he be if he never taught. After cleaning up, Saito managed to pull him to the Hokage Rock, mostly a tourist spot but occasionally shinobi would train up here. It was easy to be inspiried with the whole village underneath you, it made you feel like part of something greater than yourself, which all shinobi, at least the loyal ones, were.

After taking in the view for a moment he turned his undivided attention to Saito and grinned as he was so encouraged to learn, had Tatsuo been like that at his age perhaps he would've already been a Hokage. "So walking on walls and all that? Well it's not too hard, it's all about chakra control, which if you ask me you're pretty da-- I mean darn good at. Alright.." he rubbed his chin in thought before bringing his hands into a quick formation of handseals. Slapping onto the ground a tree emerged from the earth, a little bit wider than Tatsuo and taller than a two story building. "Okay so.." Tatsuo walked over to the boy, grabbing him under the arms and hoisting him up, if allowed, obviously. He would rotate him sideways, that way his feet would be resting on the wood as if he was standing sideways. "I won't let go for a bit, but I want you to focus the chakra in your feet. You should feel connected to the tree, if you feel anything like that, tell me and we'll move to the next part."

 

[Samsara Saito]

As much as Saito wanted to train, eating hardly ever took less than first place priority with him, as Tatsuo well knew. The call for food halted the boy with the force of an A-rank genjutsu, stopping him from literally running into walls and compelling him to stop hurting himself, to come the table and eat. In between mouthfuls of chicken and rice, he told Tatsuo about his day with his friends -- conversation which looped its way back around to Saito wanting to climb the walls. "Shinzo literally ran across the wall for a few seconds! But Yaboi wasn't even impressed, Sensei -- and Yaboi is really strong, that's what Shinzo says! Him and Ryo -- they're super strong! They can definitely walk on the walls, and so can Shinzo for a few seconds, he's getting better! Plus he can teleport, Sensei! I want to do it too! After you teach me how to walk on the walls, can you teach me how to teleport?"

Tatsuo always seemed ready to teach, which made their relationship great because Saito always wanted to learn. Up at Hokage Rock, the older boy discussed the basics of walking on hard surfaces for a bit, before slamming his hands together and summoning a gigantic tree. He then picked Saito up -- triggering a strong impulse in the child to play around, barely suppressed as the boy still giggled -- and set him perpendicular to the tree, feet resting on its surface as though it were solid ground. "Okay so... I won't let go for a bit, but I want you to focus the chakra in your feet. You should feel connected to the tree, if you feel anything like that, tell me and we'll move to the next part."

Saito smothered another giggle and relaxed his body, trusting in Tatsuo to hold him while he concentrated his chakra to his feet. In balancing on buckets or trying to jump from tree to tree in the Monastery, he had learned to apply his chakra down there in short bursts... but the trick to establishing a steady, continuing stream of connecting chakra between his feet and a surface had never been something attempted until now. Concentrating, he felt nothing at first... and Tatsuo had to hold him there for a while. He made a handsign with a single hand to increase concentration, a habit of his, and sharpened his focus. I'm supposed to feel connected to the tree... what does that feel like? he thought to himself, just before his effort started to bear fruit; he began to feel the weight of the tree beneath his feet become a part of his own weight, as though the particular surface had become anchoring to him instead of repelling. Like he stood on solid ground. NEAT!

"I can feel it, Sensei!" Saito would say after a while of concentrating, getting used to the feeling; and indeed, it did feel as though his body weight had begun to lessen in Tatsuo's arms. Just a touch, but noticeable nonetheless.


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[Tatsuo]

Tatsuo slowly released his grip on Saito to see if he truly was connected to the tree like he said. Staying vigilant to see if the boy slipped, he moved his hands back until Saito was left on the tree all by himself. Tatsuo smirked trusting in his student, he had always been a quick learner and he hoped this would prove to be no different. Tatsuo couldn't blame him for his eagerness to learn this technique either. It was one of the most useful techniques for mobility in a Shinobi's arsenal, and to be fair, it looked cool too.

Tatsuo waited to see if Saito could stay on the tree, crossing his arms and offering a few pieces of advice. "Let's see if you can just stand still first of all, we'll get to running after that. It really isn't all that hard, it's just something you've got to practice." he said watching Saito carefully for any sign of falling to scoop him up before he hit the ground.

 

[Samsara Saito]

Saito kept focusing his chakra at his feet, eyes closed and habitual handsign of concentration formed. He truly felt linked to the tree... his chakra seemed to adapt to the different dimensional requirements of his current position, and even his body stayed straight up and down -- or, well, left to right -- as he stood on the tree. The child seemed a natural at this... until he realized all of a sudden that Tatsuo wasn't holding him anymore, and hadn't been holding him for a little while. That realization broke his concentration and he dropped, his startled shout cut midway through as his sensei caught him before he hit the ground. Held by Tatsuo, Saito grinned up at the Leaf ninja. "Had it there for a little bit!" he mini-cheered. "I'm ready to go again!"

Tatsuo had to catch the boy several times before Saito really began to master that part of the exercise. There was a bit of a trick to it... not too much chakra, or he knew that his foot would dent and damage the tree, and he'd just bounce off; too little and he wouldn't stick. The delicate balancing act between chakra and patience slowly fell within the 9-year old's understanding, and perseverance always pays off eventually. After some time the boy could stand on the tree with no assistance from his sensei for a long time. "Heyyy I think I've... woah!" he shouted as he almost fell but found and seized upon that perfect balance in the nick of time. Stuck fast to the tree now, Saito calms down before smiling at Tatsuo. "I think I've got it, sensei!"


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[Tatsuo]

Tatsuo grinned as Saito finally seemed to get a grip of things. He would motion him down, then rubbing his chin he took a kunai from his pack and tossed it up to the top of the large tree. "Alright, now to see if you've really got this down." he said with a firm nod. "You've gotta get to the top and take the kunai. If you can do that.. well then I think we're pretty much done with this exercise. It'll probably take longer than you think though."

Moving back to give Saito some room, Tatsuo sat in the grass and as usual began to collect the Natural Energy in which he usually did. Even though he was meditating and collecting Natural Energy, he also kept a careful eye on Saito. Watching for his movements and making sure he wasn't going to hurt himself. At any time if Tatsuo felt like he was going to fall and injure himself, sprouts of wood would come from the ground and lessen the blow from the ground. "I'm going to want you to do this one on your own, I think this is something you'll just have to figure out yourself, i've already shown you the basics now you've got to adapt and overcome. If anyone can do it, it's you kid, so get to work." he said with a grin as he went back to collecting natural energy.

 

[Samsara Saito]

Saito looked way up at the place in the tree where Tatsuo stuck the kunai, and visibly gaped. He'd climbed hundreds of trees in his short life, but this one looked really tall. Not only that, but he couldn't even use his hands! Saito looked back at Tatsuo, uncharacteristically daunted... but the older boy didn't move from his seated position. "I'm going to want you to do this one on your own, I think this is something you'll just have to figure out yourself, i've already shown you the basics now you've got to adapt and overcome. If anyone can do it, it's you kid, so get to work."

No more help from sensei either... he thought as he looked back at the tree. Had Yaboi, Shinzo, and Ryo actually done this training? Crazy!

The young cloudie put his first foot on the tree. Surprisingly, the chakra control came much more easily, and he was able to put his second foot on and reorient himself sideways. Now looking straight up at the kunai, it seemed very far away. He took some steps... and suddenly his self-consciousness melted away as the sheer fun of the training exercise caught hold. He doubted Tatsuo would let him fall far enough to seriously hurt himself -- he watched Saito carefully and never let him come to real harm. Besides... running sideways! Running upward! THIS sort of thing is why he wanted to be a shinobi.

Stuck to the tree, Saito tried running up. He made it some steps before the spike in physical energy disrupted his mental energy and he popped off, falling a bit before Tatsuo's jutsu caught him in spontaneously grown branches and leaves. I love sensei's jutsu! Saito thought as the wood technique let him down gently. Charging up again, and again, and again, he makes steady progress up the tree, eventually drawing a kunai and marking his last highest position as he drops. At some point in there he even gained control of his fall, flipping in the air a couple of times before landing on his feet without the aid of Tatsuo's jutsu.

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[Tatsuo]

Tatsuo watched the boy try and try, but never truly hitting the mark. Whether the other students trained like this he wasn't sure, but he wanted to make sure Saito's training was more difficult than that of other students. He wanted Saito to be great and because of that there were things he needed to learn on his own. Tatsuo was quick to make sure he didn't take any great falls or hurt himself but in the end he wanted to ensure that Saito was learning. The boy was making steady progress without any guidance from Tatsuo which he felt good about. It didn't seem like he needed advice, as much as just doing it over and over.

While it lacked finesse, sometimes brute forcing training was the best way to go about it. Working hard and never giving up could have outstanding results, something that Tatsuo learned himself in his many years of training as a shinobi. Even if he was only seventeen he found that working hard was usually the best way to find any results. Not one born with natural talent, especially a lot less than this current generation he had to work harder to keep up. When he was Saito's age he was probably capable of half the things he was. He wasn't jealous but it did make him question whether they would always train hard considering just how quick they learned things. Yaboi had already mastered the Rasengan and Ryo was shooting out fireballs that made him question if he had anything to learn from Tatsuo, but as long as these requested aid from Tatsuo it would be his duty to help teach them. No matter how far along they came.

 

[Samsara Saito]

Saito never gave up, even as the sun crept across the sky. It took him several hours to even make it to the halfway point, and it became clear that he would not master the skill in one day. Or even two days. But during training on the third day of relentless practice -- with much of said practice unseen by Tatsuo, as the boy would do his best to race up the big tree in their backyard when Tatsuo wasn't around or at night while Tatsuo slept -- Saito ran straight up the tall tree on his first shot and snatched the kunai from the top. Cheering at the top of the tree, he proceeds to run full speed at the ground back down, doing an extra cartwheel and flipping before landing back on the tree, standing lower than Tatsuo but with his back to the ground so that his big grin shines brightly up at the Leaf ninja.

"How about that, Shinrin-sensei?" Saito enthuses to the Chunin. "Just wait until I show Shinzo and Yaboi and Ryo and the others! I'm gonna act like I've been able to do it the whole time, so don't tell 'em you just trained me okay? It'll be so cool!" he cheers/pleads, as excited over his new mastery of wall running as he was serious about keeping it all quiet. He looks around for any possible witnesses to his endeavors, running all around the circumference of the tree searching for anyone paying attention to them. After his circular, squirrel-like scramble, he jumps off the tree and lands on the ground in front of Tatsuo.

"So what's next, Shinrin-sensei?" the young cloudie asks, presenting Tatsuo with the kunai knife that he threw to the top of that tree with a big smile on his face. The boy looks ready!


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[Tatsuo]

Tatsuo grinned and nodded his head, "You got it kid, I won't tell a soul. You learned it all by yourself anyways." he said jokingly, as he rubbed his chin. "What's next? Well we've been training quite a lot, how 'bout we go get something to eat?" he said his stomach grumbling as he looked down the mountain face to the commercial district of Konoha. "I think the restaurants are about to open up for dinner." he said as he motioned the kid down. "Let's go get some grub!"