Dog Days of Summer

The rain continued to drench the ground all around Sanzen as she walked towards the training grounds. She wore her fireproof cloak which luckily came with water resistance. It kept her dry as the water simply rolled off; a specially made item. Beneath she wore her fireproof gear as well along with the Chunin flack jacket and the chunin pants. Since she didn't want to get a cold she wore socks and black boots that kept her feet dry as well. Twilight was approaching as the sun proceeded to dive down behind the walls guarding Konoha and its numerous buildings within. Sanzen however was ready to train and this time she was going to focus more on what she rarely used in battle so that it may benefit her later.

Approaching the training grounds she examined the area, her eyes appearing rather intense, before she let out a calming sigh and bit her thumb. A droplet of blood appeared before she made seals and slammed her hands on the ground. Six puffs of smoke suddenly appeared before her as the sound of light whimpers were heard and even a sneeze. As this smoke cleared it became apparent about what she had summoned, which was the only thing she could summon, her nin-kin. She had just recently used these dogs in battle with Shihouin and although she had summoned Takao before that was the first time they truly had much action. In fact, this was one of the first few times she had really summoned one of her larger dogs, Madoka, since she had the scroll.

"Well well, you each are looking rather nice today."

The six of them simply sat there before one of her smaller dogs, Seiji, stepped forth. In all honesty, she was surprised that her whippet Naoki, was larger, but that was just their breeds.

"What are we going to do today Sanzen?" he asked, his tail wagging slightly. he was always the more hyperactive one of the bunch. It was just the nature of a Jack Russel.

"Well, today each of us are going to train. When I first received the scroll, I must apologize for not bringing you into battle that much but now, with a little training, I feel that we can all make a fairly decent team. Of course we will need to work together though to do that and learn a few jutsu. By chance do you each enjoy learning the earth element?"

Most of them nodded, however Ichiro, the one who thought he was to cool for anything, simply stood there. She needed to buy him shades one day, it would fit his nature perfectly.

"Good because you are each going to learn how to go underground and perform other jutsu involving it. But first, let us go through the basics again. I am sure you were each taught these basics a long time ago, since you are ninja dogs, but why not right? Now each of you spread out."

With a simple nod, they each soon obeyed and took their positions in a half circle around her.

Basics:

As the six of them took their positions Sanzen closed her eyes and fell back into her teaching mode again. She had taught Shihouin plenty of things now and even taught the random ninja girl, Nasamea?, a few things even though she tricked Sanzen and fled. A dirty trick it was but a good one at that. It was something Shihouin had done too that she needed to think of. Anyway, once the dogs were in their positions Sanzen glacned over each of them before she crossed her arms and nodded.

"Good, out of the basics, we will first go over the simple clone technique. Remember? It's a clone without substance. I can teach each of you the shadow clone technique at a later date but for now we have other plans. Ready?"

She glanced over each of them again before she nodded to say go. Each dog continued to sit and didn't seem to move as a copy of each suddenly appeared before them. Sanzen's eyes flowed from one side to each as she examined their copies from a distance before she nodded again. They knew a few her commands well enough that she didn't need to always say things out loud. Takao always reminded each of them anyway. Lucky her to have a group of well disciplined Nin-kin too. If only her own spirits were a lot like this.

As their copies faded, due to her nod, Sanzen then moved on to the next jutsu on the list.

"Next is where things of course used to get a little complicated but this is something that can easily help you and I in battle whether it be turning into me or turning into one dog despite the fact there are six of you. I am sure you know by now which jutsu I am referring to so go ahead and pick one of us to transform into."

After she said this a cloud of smoke appeared around them as they transformed into different people or each other. Three of them transformed into Sanzen, one turned into Takao, another turned into the tea shop owner, and the last turned into Shihouin. This caused Sanzen to tilt her a head to the side a bit before she chuckled, "all right, very good. You may turn back."

They each did so.

"Ooooook, now the good old kawarimi or substitution technique. One that is truly helpful when stuck in a sticky situation. Seiji, you needed this the other day when Shihouin attacked remember?"

Seiji, the Jack Russel, lowered his head a bit and nodded. He felt rather useless since then but he helped more than he thought.

"Okay, each of you, kawarimi but then come back to this spot afterwards for the next exercise."

A few nodded, others didn't, but suddenly six different sized logs appeared in their positions and fell to the ground. Sanzen nodded as she glanced around and waited. Soon enough six dogs slowly came back to their positions, two of which had kawa'd into the canopy and leaped down with grace.

"Well done yet again. Now this next one may be tricky due to the fact you each aren't natural climbers. You don't possess claws or thumbs that allow you to do so. However, you each still have chakra. So next, I want you each to pick a tree nearby that's a decent height and climb it. I am pretty sure you each can figure out what to do to climb it. It will come in handy if we ever need to climb a vertical wall or if you all ever need to get into a tree you cant jump into."

After she said this each dog took their position in front of tree just as directed. This was when Sanzen began to walk around. She walked from tree to tree to see how each of them were doing and to see if they found an appropriate tree to climb. Seiji managed to be the first one up. After a few tries he zoomed right up and sat like no big deal. The next to go was Naoki then Takao, then Ichiro. Madoka and Nobuo were having some difficulty due to their size so it took them a couple tries to get a good enough speed to run up and get a branch to support them but they still had trouble doing so. The other sat patiently and waited for these two until finally they made it and Sanzen clapped for each of them.

"Well done, and good effort Nobou and Madoka. Took a few more tries but you made it just like the others. Well done, now each of you can come down. I want you to try a few more times just in case before we move on to the next jutsu."

Returning to where she stood in the beginning, she watched as the smaller dogs zoomed right up their trees and sat. Naoki and Takao moved up slower but made it up after two tries. Hoping to get those two down to one, they did it a few more times until they made it up just as fast as the smaller breeds did. Next came the two large breeds Madoka and Nobou. They, once again, had to do it a fe times until they were able to get up the trees but much like the medium breeds they wished to keep doing it until they made it up in one as well. Nobou, the German Shepard, was the first to catch on as he easily made it up after practicing more. Madoka though was the one Sanzen had not used the most and although she trained in the land where they were summoned from, she was most adjusted to not training in rainy weather. Her fur was soaked like the others but since she had more of it it weighed her down even more too. She already weighed quite a bit since she was a larger breed too but it was all muscle too.

After a few more times, Madoka was finally able to efficiently get up the tree with ease despite the fact she was slightly panting. It was mostly the weather that made this difficult but now they each were more efficient when it came to fighting just by possessing each of these techniques. Now, they were done. She wished to teach them more but apparently she could not and thus, she thanked them for their time and de-summoned them. At least they learned something right?