By Friday, Hagoromo took Naruto to the training ground beside the Forest of Death as soon as school let out.
"Naruto, you've mastered Water Walking too, right?"
Hagoromo stood on the outskirts of the training ground, where a small stream flowed.
"That's right! Watch this, teacher!"
Naruto, who had been training with Hagoromo all this time, naturally knew what his teacher meant.
He quickly concentrated Chakra in both feet and stepped straight onto the surface of the stream.
Once he had steadied himself, he rubbed his nose and said, "Teacher, I did pretty well, didn't I?"
Hagoromo smiled at the sight and held the index and middle fingers of his right hand together, concentrating Chakra in them.
Then he slapped his palm against the water.
The next second, the previously calm surface of the stream began to churn like boiling water.
Naruto flailed on the water's surface before falling straight into the stream.
"Teacher, that's cheating!"
Drenched from head to toe, Naruto accused Hagoromo of this unethical behavior with a dejected look.
"Naruto, nature is mysterious."
"If you can only stand on calm water, you're nowhere near meeting the requirements."
"Right now, this is just a little stream. If you were out at sea and the surface churned like that..."
"You might lose your life."
Hagoromo spread his hands. When it came to Naruto, he already had his own way of teaching.
Reasoning with him was useless. He had to use analogies, the kind Naruto could relate to.
Sure enough, when Naruto heard Hagoromo's words, his thoughts wandered to what would happen if things really went as his teacher had described.
He would die a horrible death.
His little face turned purple.
"All right, come on out and take off your jacket. I'll teach you a Ninjutsu first."
After the stick, naturally, came the carrot.
Naruto had already learned Tree Climbing and Water Walking. Although he hadn't met the requirements, Hagoromo still felt it was necessary to teach him some Ninjutsu first.
"Really?!"
Sure enough, Naruto's eyes lit up at those words, and he hurried ashore.
After building a campfire and setting his clothes by it to dry, Naruto hurried over and looked at Hagoromo expectantly.
"This is a C-rank Ninjutsu. Watch carefully."
With that, Hagoromo immediately began forming Hand Seals.
Tiger–Rabbit–Dog–Ram–Dragon
Once he finished the Hand Seals, Hagoromo spat a wind blade toward a large tree on the other side of the stream. The next second, the wind blade sliced into its target.
"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!"
As Naruto watched in amazement, the wind blade Hagoromo had unleashed cut through the tree.
Rumble~
As the severed trunk and branches slid down, clouds of dust rose on the opposite bank and lingered for a long time.
"Teacher, that's so cool!"
Naruto thought the power of this Ninjutsu was just too cool.
"Did you remember the seals I just made?"
Hagoromo merely smiled at Naruto's reaction. After all, he had been the same way when he first learned it.
He had gotten used to it over time.
He turned to ask Naruto whether he had remembered the seals he had just made.
"Yeah, teacher, I remembered them all!"
Naruto quickly nodded when he heard the question.
"Good. Then I'll explain the technique for casting this Ninjutsu."
Hagoromo nodded and began slowly forming the Hand Seals, explaining the technique behind Wind Cutter as he went.
"The difficult part of Wind Cutter is actually compressing Chakra into the shape of a wind blade when we cast it."
"And the size of the wind blade is determined by how much Chakra we release."
With that, Hagoromo used Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique again.
But compared to the power of the technique just now, the wind blade was much smaller this time.
Its power was naturally greatly reduced as well.
"Naruto, you can also use some of those little shape transformation tricks I've been telling you about whenever we had time these past few days."
Having said that, Hagoromo looked at Naruto.
Naruto nodded and stepped forward, ready to give it a try.
Recalling the Hand Seals Hagoromo had just made in front of him, Naruto slowly formed them one by one.
Feeling the Chakra surge within him, Naruto immediately opened his mouth and blew it out.
Several ripples of wind blew from Naruto's mouth, stirring the surface of the stream.
Gah...
Naruto, who had looked so confident, was dumbfounded when he saw that this was all his Ninjutsu had achieved.
Hagoromo, however, began clapping and saying it was good.
Hagoromo wasn't lying. When he first practiced this Ninjutsu a few years ago, he hadn't even been able to produce the ripples of wind Naruto had.
"Naruto, you made almost no mistakes with the Hand Seals. You were just too cautious when drawing on your Chakra."
"And when controlling the shape and structure of your Chakra, you need to imagine it as wind blades."
"To put it simply, give the Chakra's shape a physical form."
With that, Hagoromo had Naruto continue.
No amount of talking was as good as putting it into practice.
Sure enough, under Naruto's careful control, he really did form a wind blade on his second attempt.
But it dissipated into the air halfway there.
"Keep it up. You succeeded in giving it physical form, but you didn't use enough Chakra."
"The wind blade was too big, so it could only hold together when you released it. That won't do."
Hagoromo continued guiding him from the side, and Naruto, unwilling to fall behind, began practicing again.
"Wind Release: Wind Cutter Technique!"
The next second, Naruto unleashed several wind blades again. They swept straight across the stream and struck the trees.
They left several marks where they had scraped the bark off a large tree.
"Good. Once you increase the power, you can consider this technique mastered."
"I'll demonstrate it again. Watch carefully."
With that, Hagoromo raised his hands again and slowed down his Hand Seals so Naruto could see more clearly how he cast it.
Naruto didn't let himself get distracted. He watched closely as Hagoromo used it.
After Hagoromo demonstrated it several times, Naruto formed the Hand Seals again. The next second, several enormous wind blades shot from his mouth.
Rumble—
A sound nearly as loud as when Hagoromo had first used it rang out, and Naruto immediately jumped up and said:
"Teacher! I did it!"
"Naruto, you're amazing!"
The two voices rang out at the same time. Hagoromo looked knowingly toward the bushes to the side and said:
"You two little guys finally decided to show yourselves?"
Hagoromo had noticed the Chakra in the bushes when they first arrived at the training ground.
When he realized it was Shikamaru and Choji, he hadn't called them out.
If they wanted to watch, they could watch. Perhaps the two families had already reached a decision.
It wasn't a bad opportunity to let Shikamaru see how he taught, either.
Shikamaru came out with Choji, looking embarrassed. When he first arrived, he had only intended to take a look.
Who knew he would become so absorbed in watching? And Choji had spoken up when Naruto succeeded.
Seeing the knowing look on Hagoromo's face, Shikamaru naturally realized that his teacher had noticed them long ago.
Shikamaru came up to Hagoromo and was just about to speak.
"Shikamaru, Choji! Why are you two here?!"
Naruto was dumbfounded too, pointing at Shikamaru and Choji as he spoke.