Menma, Karin, Guren, and Kyuubei were in a large cave-like training ground. With Menma reading over a small black book, with Guren closeby and Karin and Kyuubei standing relatively close. "So what are we doing today teach?" Menma asked as he got up and shut the book and pocketed it.

"We'll be finding out your Chakra Natures." The ex-samurai revealed as she held in her right hand three pieces of paper and began passing them out. "Send chakra into them and they'll reveal your Chakra Natures."

The kids nodded and all sent chakra into their individual paper. Guren's paper began to turn to dust. Menma's crumbled and cut itself. Karin's light ablaze and got soggy.

"How interesting," Kyuubei muttered. "You cover all of the 5 basic natures, with two of you having contradictory natures. It'll be difficult to train you two due to me having wind chakra myself, so train yourself in your natures." She recommended to them. "But for now, you'll be practicing chakra control." She motioned for them to follow her to the closest wall.

They watched as Kyuubei walked up the stone wall with chakra being poured into her feet. "Apply chakra to your feet to stick to the wall. Too much and you destroy the ground beneath them and you'll fall." She began to walk back down. "Too little and you just don't attach."

"Alright. Let's see how well we do." Menma said as he was the first to climb. He attached to it with no problem and started to walk around.

'Huh, thought this would be harder for me.' He thought to himself. He knew that his chakra reserves were extremely large, essentially rivaling kages due to the assimilating some of the Kyuubi's chakra present in Naruto's blood, But his chakra control was abysmal.

"You're doing it wrong." Kyuubei cut into his thoughts. "You're not channeling chakra into your legs. So how are you doing it?" She asked him.

The clone jumped down with a flip. "I haven't got a damn clue to be perfectly honest." He admitted. "I just kinda..do it."

While Menma had to consciously use his stingers, webbing, and talons, but his wall-crawling was just something that he was able to do.

Kyuubei clasped her chin in thought. "This will be more difficult for you. If you try and use chakra walking, you would just be wasting chakra." She explained. She knew the clone had a ridiculous amount of chakra, possibly even more than her, but he could burn through it without good control.

"Though Guren and Karin seem to have a better grasp at this than you brat." She said with amusement with her tone.

He turned to see Karin and Guren were easily able to do the exercise with ease, with Guren having slightly more difficulty than the future medic Karin.

"Do I even need to do the exercise since I can just do this without chakra?" He asked slightly irritated. As far as Menma was concerned, he could easily fight without the Tree Walking Exercise, since his spider abilities naturally covered it.

"Yes," Kyuubei said sternly. "You can't rely solely on your non-chakra based abilities. And besides, you're doing this so you can get better control over your chakra. Though," She trailed off before deciding something.

She walked over to the running Guren and Karin and gave them an order, "Keep doing that till you run out of chakra. Let yourself get your chakra back, then repeat." The two nodded to their sensei and returned to running to improve their control.

She walked back to Menma and motioned him to follow her. The went to a different part of the training ground. "Since you're unable to train with the Tree Walking Exercise, you'll be training with wind manipulation." She told him as the stopped walking.

"How the hell will learning to make a breeze increase my control?" He asked the ronin.

Kyuubei turned her head and locked eyes with him. "Wind manipulation requires the shaping of chakra in order to cut things. That'll improve your control over it." She explained as she placed her hand on the ground, forcing chakra into it.

Several circular disks made of grey stone raised from the ground, each on top of one another. She handed Menma one from the top. "Use your chakra to cut this in half. Visualize your chakra as a blade cutting it." She recommended. "I'll check in with you in an hour." She began to walk back to Karin and Guren to see their progress.

Menma looked at the stone and began to ponder. 'Hmm, She said to visualize it as a blade. How the hell do I do that?' He thought. 'I guess to make it sharp or something.' He began pressing his chakra down, attempting to make it sharp.

He looked down after roughly five minutes and saw he had sawed through the stone disk. He grabbed another and attempted to it again.

By the time Kyuubei returned to check on her student, he was roughly halfway done with the stack. "I see you've made progress." She stated the obvious.

"Yup. Kinda difficult at first. But managed to figure this out." Menma said as he finished off another one and grabbed two instead of one.

"You've gotten farther than I did when I started Wind Manipulation." She complemented the clone as he was halfway done with the two disks, but stopped when Kyuubei complemented him.

"Thank you...Sensei." He thanked genuinely, without his usual tone of sarcasm, earning a small smile from Kyuubei "And not that I'm going to bitch or anything, but don't you think it's a bit much to teach me wind manipulation?" He asked her as he began to cut the stone disks once more. "We're only nine and haven't even gone on a mission."

"Who cares," Kyuubei told him. "We need to take out our enemies quickly and take any advantage we can take."

"Makes sense." He admitted, seeing the logic in her reasoning. "We doing anything else?" He asked.

"You three could improve your coordination." She admitted. "Kabuto said you three weren't that good when you took on that team of Chunin."

"Ya, how surprising." He responded. "A group of mostly untrained nine-year-olds who barely knew one another couldn't properly coordinate. Yet we managed to take them down." He finished with the two stone disks.

"You can finish your manipulation training later," Kyuubei told him. "We're going to have some spars." He nodded while finishing off the disks he had grabbed.

They walked back to Guren and Karin, both of whom were covered in sweat and panting. "It's not that hard to do is it?" Menma asked his teammates.

"Yes Menma-Kun, not all of us have the natural ability to stick to walls," Karin told him with a tone of sarcasm in between pants.

"Ah! But it's such a useful ability." He told them. "But, we've got to get some sparing." He gained a maniacal smile. "Hope you two can keep up with me."

"I shall try my best Menma-Sama," Guren told her master with noticeably less panting than Karin. "But who are we facing? Shall we be fighting one another?"

"No," Kyuubei told them. "You'll be fighting against me." She revealed as she pulled out some pills and tossed them to Karin and Guren. "Those are Hyrogan pills. They'll replenish your chakra." She informed them as the consumed the pills.

They immediately felt their energy return to them, filling them with energy. "Why doesn't Menma-Kun have to take one?" Karin asked.

"That's because I didn't expend much of my chakra." He informed. While the Wind Manipulation did take some chakra to do, he learned to use it decently with his overly large chakra pool. "And I'm pretty sure we sure as shit cannot take you down sensei." He told Kyuubei.

"Of course you won't take me down. This is to improve your coordination with one another." She informed them as she thumbed her katana. "Now prepare to fight!" She declared as she suddenly performed an Iajutsu, causing the kids to roll out of the way.

"Any idea guys?" Menma asked the girls as the landed next to one another, a decent length away from Kyuubei.

"I could possibly trap her with my crystals, Menma-Sama," Guren informed. "But she'll see it coming. We need a distraction."

"I'll provide the distraction," Menma informed, as Guren nodded. "Karin will help me." The said redhead nodded before she saw Kyuubei was dashing towards them.

"Look out!" She screamed as Guren and Menma noticed and quickly moved out of the way, dodging a thunderous sound as her blade hit the ground, causing a shockwave due to the force behind it. Menma ran towards her with Karin close behind.

Kyuubei smiled as they tried to take her down, with Menma leading the charge and Karin backing him up. 'But where is Guren?' She thought to herself as she dodged a straight punch from Menma and slapped him with the dull edge of her blade lightly. Well lightly for a jonin level ninja. He was knocked back slightly. "Ah! A distraction. Not a bad idea brat, but you'll have to try harder than that!" She told them.

The webster growled as he was forced to change his plans. He shot out some webbing and attached it to the ground and pulled hard. The webbing pulled out a giant chunk of the earth and Menma swung it at Kyuubei.

She merely smiled at the attempt while pulling her blade out, coating it in wind charka and increasing the cutting force. She quickly swung at incoming bolder in a flurry, causing it to fall apart.

Menma was on his knees and took a deep breath as he saw the boulder be slashed apart. "Fuck!" He swore under his breath as he forced himself to his feet to roll under a strike from his sensei. 'What the hell is Guren doing?!' He thought to himself. He saw Karin was behind Kyuubei, preparing a makeshift sneak attack with a kunai. She gave a warcry as she charged with the blade, intent on taking down her sensei. She smiled slightly as the blade nearly hit Kyuubei, but soon became disheartened as she was replaced with a log and felt herself be hit in the back of the head, causing her to be unconscious.

Menma saw as his teammate slipe into unconsciousness, a bruise forming where their sensei had hit her. Kyuubei quickly grabbed Karin and laid her down slowly. She stood back up and made her way to Menma. As she made her way to him, she felt stuck in place. She looked down and saw her legs being anchored to the ground by pink crystals. "Not good enough, Guren!" She announced as she grasped her sword and cut the crystals.

Menma quickly moved out of the way of Kyuubei's sword and quickly retreated, eventually getting to the side of Guren. "What is the plan, Menma-Sama?" She asked as Menma panted.

"Uhmmm...Summon an unstable crystal wall in front of Kyuubei-sensei." He quickly planned before dashing towards his teacher.

Guren did as he asked and created a crystal wall a few feet in front of Kyuubei, who was wondering what they were planning.

"Ah!" Menma shouted out as he kicked the wall. With it being specifically unstable, it shattered, sending shards in the direction of Kyuubei. Said sensei's eye widened briefly before grasping her blade and slashing quickly and precisely, deflecting the dozens of shards coming towards her.

Menma groaned as he laid on his side, tired from the constant effort. While he had an abundance of chakra, he was burning through it quick and highly doubted Kyuubei was particularly trying. "Good attempt guys, but you look worse for ware. Do you give up?" Kyuubei offered.

Menma growled as he hated giving in, but knew he was outmatched. "Alright, we give." He said as he turned himself on his back, staring into the subterranean celling. He laid like that for a few moments until Kyuubei came into view and offered a hand. He narrowed his eyes as he forced himself up, too stubborn to allow himself help.

He forced himself on his legs to see his sensei gave him a small smile. "While I wasn't going full out, I was trying. So good job." She complimented.

Kyuubei was genuinely impressed by her team's first fight together. While they couldn't full coordinate properly, they at least gave it a good attempt and pushed her to use wind coating on her sword. Though Karin was somewhat useless when it came to the fight, being more suited for a medic. 'Maybe I could get Kabuto to teach her some techniques.' She thought to herself.

"So how was the performance?" Menma asked snarkily, with Guren walking closer to him.

"I'm somewhat disappointed by your coordination." She admitted, earning a frown from Menma and Guren. "Though considering this was your first spar, I won't hold it against you. And I was impressed by Menma's planning skills." He smirked at that. "And Guren's usage of Shoton." Guren smiled at that. "But Karin was...less than impressive." She said.

"She sucked is what you're trying to say," Guren said bluntly. "She wasn't useful in the fight and was knocked out." She continued as Menma began to the redhead's unconscious form.

Kyuubei sighed as she realized Guren's words rang true. Karin wasn't able to properly sync with Menma and Guren like they were able to. "I know I wasn't useful." Karin's voice called out, being shouldered by Menma.

"But I refuse to be useless to this team." She said with determination flaming in her eyes. "I'm willing to learn sensei."

"Good to know that you won't be stagnant," Kyuubei admitted. "I'll see if Kabuto would be willing to assist in your training." Her face soon became stern. "Though all of you lack a proper style when it came to taijutsu."

"So is that what we'll be doing for the rest of the training session?" Guren asked her sensei.

"No." She told them. "Menma and Karin are too fatigued to continue with physical practice and Karin herself is possibly concussed." She knew she was being slightly soft on them, but she knew that they were children. If they were injured or push too far, they couldn't properly grow in a physical and psychological sense.

"You said physical practice." Menma pointed out. "What else are we doing?"

"You particularly are going to be trying out Fuinjutsu." She revealed. "Since you are an Uzumaki, you'll have a natural disposition towards it."

"I can't," Menma told her, earning a confused look from Kyuubei. "You know about this collar?" He flicked the metal band around his neck, causing her to nod. "This thing is a leash for Orochimaru to pull. So if he tells me to jump, I say fuck you and then jump."

"Hmm..." She hummed while thinking. "I guess we'll focus on something different. Like sensing perhaps."

"So Karin's going to be learning from Kabuto on healing and becoming a combat medic and I'm going to be learning to be a sensor?" He surmised, earning a nod from the daughter of Mifune. "So what's Guren going to be doing?" Said girl looked to Kyuubei in anticipation.

"I know how to mold chakra into Doton even if I'm not naturally aligned, so I'll try to help her form her crystals in more ways." She told them. "You'll be joining us if you progress with wind manipulation." She thumbed her blade as she continued. "And I'll be teaching you three personally taijutsu and kenjutsu." Kyuubei was an ex-samurai and wanted to teach the way of the sword to her team.

"All right." Menma agreed with a grin. "This is going to be fun!" He adjusted the shoulder Karin was on, though was surprised when she separated herself from his shoulder, standing on shaky legs.

"Though we'll continue training at a later time," Kyuubei said. "As of right now, we'll be taking time off."

"Hmm, alright, but I'm still going to practice my wind manipulation." Menma voiced as he walked over to the half-completed stack of rock disks. "I want to see if I can finish them off within the hour." He told them as he began to take the disks by threes.

"Very well Menma." Kyuubei agreed. "Just don't overextend yourself." She was waved off as he was focused on cutting the disks. "Guren. Take Karin back to our sleeping quarters so she can rest."

The blue-haired girl reluctantly did as she was told, taking Karin off her shaky legs.

They walked down the hallway when Karin spoke up, "Guren-san?" She turned her head to see the redhead. "Why do you...dislike me?" She asked.

"I do not dislike you," Guren told her, earning a surprised look. "I merely wish for Menma-Sama to have the best teammates. And you do not suffice. I belittle you so you realize that you are heavily flawed and weak and so you can improve and create new skills." She explained as they entered their living quarters and they got closer to their shared room.

"Oh," Karin said surprised as Guren opened the door, showing their room. It was similar to Menma's with the only noticeable change being two beds instead of one, one of which was soon occupied by Karin. "Do you mind if you grab a book from the shelf?" She requested.

"Do you want me to read you a bedtime story?" Guren asked mockingly, only to receive a shaking of the head from her roommate.

"No. The book is about human anatomy." She explained. "I wasn't kidding about not being the weak chain of the team." She reminded Guren, who was browsing through the bookcase to look for the medical book.

She quickly found it and handed it to Karin and smirked while saying, "If you're genuine about improving, you'll earn my respect." She quickly left the room, leaving a Karin who was engrossed in her book.

"Ah!" Guren yelled out as she attempted to slash at Kyuubei with a blue crystal blade coming from her forearm, making use of her Shoton: Jade Crystal Blade. The sensei of Team 7 ducked under the blade of crystal but was surprised when Karin was close behind wind a chakra scalpel visible, gunning for her tendons of her sword arm.

But Kyuubei wasn't their sensei for a reason as she quickly moved back. Though Menma was quick to catch up to her, talons scraping her arm, cutting deeper than before due to wind coating them, increasing cutting edge a great deal.

"Give up sensei!" He said with slight sadism in his tone as he kept slashing at her with his talons. Kyuubei narrowed her eyes as she quickly unsheathed her sword and began matching his blows with her own.

"Got her!" Guren said as she attempted to slash at Kyuubei, but failed when she replaced herself with a log.

The students of the ex-samurai soon regrouped, back to back. "Where is she, Karin?" Menma asked as his eyes darted around, trying to find where their sensei was.

"Above us!" Karin informed as she sensed Kyuubei above them. They looked up to see her slashing down with her blade. Guren quickly responded, forming a crystal dome to protect them. The blade struck with a shockwave, causing cracks to form along the dome, but it prevailed.

Menma quickly acted upon the recovering jonin with a kick to the damaged dome, causing the top to shatter and the shards to make their way to Kyuubei.

She was still recovering from the shockwave strike when the shards began to come down. She managed to deflect most of them, though five of them managed to find themselves in her chest, causing her to cough up a small amount of blood.

She wasn't able to get a break as Menma soon followed the shards, giving her an ax kick to the ground. She was in a small crater when Menma came to the edge with his right stinger poised. "Alright, I give." She admitted defeat with a small sigh.

It had been roughly a month since their first spar and Kyuubei was amazed by the progress her team had made. Karin started to learn under Kabuto, obtaining knowledge about Iryojutsu, precise charka control, better then the kenjutsu focused sensei, and general healing.

Menma was able to properly focus his chakra, getting a decent grasp on chakra control for his chakra level. She wasn't sure how far he had gotten with sensing as he was being cagey about it for some reason.

Guren's training wasn't as extensive as the Uzumakis', primarily learning how to form her Shoton into different shapes and crystalizing moisture within the air.

All three of them were taught her personal style of taijutsu, relying on speed and overwhelming the enemy.

"Come on sensei," Menma said while he slid down the rim of the crater and offered a hand, showing that he had become close to her. He grunted as he helped the heavier woman up. "That isn't going to come out easily." Menma commented, pointing to the shards stuck in her chest.

Kyuubei looked down and began pulling one out, grunting slightly as it was removed. "Hold on." He said as he stretched tendrils out, activating his Curse Seal. The tendrils split off into four and attached to the remaining shards. They tugged simultaneously and removed the shards, letting them fall to the ground.

The wounds began leaking blood when Karin came to her side, with her hand glowing green. Kyuubei let the redhead touch her and the wounds soon sealed themselves.

"Good job you three." Kyuubei praised, earning a smile from Karin, and smirks from Menma and Guren.

"Why thank you m'lady." Menma sarcastically commented with a bow. "What's next for us?" He asked, causing Karin and Guren to look at her in anticipation.

"Since you three can hold your own against me, we'll be taking on some missions." She informed. "They'll be mostly bounties to cover Orochimaru founding Otokagure."

Menma shrugged at the reveal. "Fine with me. At least we'll be getting some fresh air...and blood." He commented casually. "When do we start?"

"We'll start next week. But for now, we relax and celebrate." She told them. The three kids nodded. "Let's inform Orochimaru first."

Menma groaned while Karin and Guren nodded. "Fine. Let's go see the pedophile." He relented as they began to leave the training ground.

They eventually ended up in Orochimaru's throne room, with said Sannin seated upon his throne. "Ah, Kyuubei-san! How does training go?" He asked.

"Team 7 is performing well." She informed with a bow. "I deem them ready for missions."

"Kukukuku! Excellent!" The snake summoner exclaimed. "You may take any missions you wish, but as you know, a percentage will be taken to fund Otokagure." He stated seriously, earning a nod from Kyuubei, though Menma rolled his eyes while Guren and Karin remained neutral.

"So where's dear old Kabuto-kun?" Menma asked. "He to sore to get out of bed?" He earned a smirk from Guren and a small giggle from Karin.

"For your information," Orochimaru told him with an edge present in his tone. "Kabuto has been sent to a different base. I recommend that you don't push your luck with me, Menma-kun." He motioned to the collar the clone had. "I hold your leash."

"Eh, whatever." He said while putting. "So can we leave? I need to take a shower."

"Very well. You are dismissed." Orochimaru informed. With that, the team returned to their living quarters, with the Sannin thinking, 'You are lucky you are a useful tool Menma-Kun. Otherwise, you wouldn't be standing.'