Kakashi's Shadow Clone led Sakura to an open area on the other side of the training ground.
Looking at the girl standing quietly before him, Kakashi thought for a moment, then asked, "What's your read on Gaara, your opponent a month from now?"
In the months since Team Seven had formed, the girl in front of him had demonstrated strong information-gathering and analysis abilities more than once.
Kakashi knew that even with just a day having passed, Sakura had likely already collected and worked through a fair amount of intelligence on Gaara.
Sakura was quiet for a moment. Then her cool, clear voice came through. "That guy is a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, isn't he?"
"What makes you say that? Walk me through your thinking."
Kakashi gave a small smile and pressed on.
"It's not really much of an analysis, Teacher Kakashi." Sakura smiled lightly and shook her head.
"When I went to visit Ino at the hospital yesterday, she told me that when she used the Mind Body Switch Jutsu, she saw something inside him. A monster covered in cursed seal markings that looked like it was made entirely of sand, shaped like a tanuki."
"Based on her description, I looked through a lot of reference material last night. Unless I'm wrong, what Ino saw was the One-Tail, Shukaku. Gaara is the One-Tail Jinchuriki of the Hidden Sand."
"You're right, Sakura."
Kakashi nodded, affirming her analysis.
In truth, during the preliminary matches, the moment he saw Gaara manipulate sand, something in the back of Kakashi's mind had already suspected it.
He just hadn't been certain. Sakura's words confirmed what he'd been thinking.
Sending a Jinchuriki to compete in another village's exam, even accounting for a military alliance, that was an enormous gamble for the Hidden Sand to take.
Kakashi's eyes narrowed slightly. He spoke with gravity. "Since you already know Gaara is a Tailed Beast Jinchuriki, I imagine you also know what that means in terms of his capabilities."
"Chakra, right, Teacher Kakashi?"
Sakura's green eyes shifted slightly as she answered quietly.
"Exactly. However much of the Tailed Beast's power Gaara has access to, even a fraction of it puts his chakra reserves in a completely different league from an ordinary ninja."
Kakashi nodded and continued. "Your chakra control is exceptional, Sakura. You can stretch one portion of chakra to produce the effect of two or three. But when it comes down to raw volume, that's always been your weak point."
"For a Water Release specialist like you, if you can't finish the fight quickly in the finals arena, you're going to find yourself on the back foot very easily."
Sakura nodded. She had been practicing Water Release jutsu for over four years. She understood its strengths and its limits better than anyone.
The strength was that in environments with abundant water, rivers, the ocean, anything flowing and plentiful, a Water Release ninja's burst potential and endurance could increase dramatically.
But the limitation followed directly from that. Aside from her teacher Maruboshi Kosuke, the Second Hokage, and Momochi Zabuza, whom she had encountered in the Hidden Waterfall Village, almost every Water Release ninja struggled to bring their technique to full power in a waterless environment.
"As for your chakra volume, there's only so much I can do on that front. I'm fairly conservative with chakra myself."
Watching the girl nod, Kakashi shrugged with a wry look.
Then he shifted his line of questioning. "What do you know about the sand Gaara controls?"
"Sand Release? I'm not sure. Maybe something related to Earth Release?"
"Sand Release is actually an incorrect term. Gaara's sand is not a nature transformation that alters the fundamental properties of chakra. Ninjutsu of that kind involves generating base elements from one's own chakra and applying them directly."
Kakashi smiled slightly as he explained. "What he's doing is closer to weapon manipulation. An ordinary ninja channels their chakra into weapons, a blade, a kunai, a shuriken. His weapon just happens to be sand."
"But calling it pure weapon manipulation isn't entirely accurate either. The connection between sand and Earth Release runs very deep. Sand is, after all, within the domain of soil and rock."
"You specialize in Water Release, Sakura, so you should know that Water Release does counter sand to a degree. When sand gets wet, it becomes heavier and far harder to control. But that's relative. It still comes down to how precise Gaara's control over his sand is, and how much chakra he has. Sand that's absorbed water is also more dense and crushing. It hits harder."
"And sand can be used alongside Earth Release. The five natures are both generative and counteractive. Earth Release counters Water Release. I think you already understand that."
Kakashi's expression grew noticeably more serious as he continued in a low voice. "A sand-user can apply chakra to compress high-density rock and earth from the ground and work it into their sand, reinforcing their defense and attack. Under equal conditions, your Water Release can counter Gaara's sand. But if he incorporates Earth Release, that dynamic reverses entirely."
"I see."
Sakura's expression had grown just as focused. She thought it over for a moment, then let a smile cross her face. "Teacher Kakashi truly is Konoha's top technician. One look and you've already broken down that much about how the sand works."
That's not quite my analysis.
A faint, rueful smile crossed Kakashi's lips beneath his mask.
The reason he knew all of this was because of his father, Konoha's White Fang.
His father, Konoha's White Fang, was the man who had killed more Hidden Sand ninja than anyone else in the entire village, or arguably the entire shinobi world.
There was no one who came close.
The White Fang's legend had been built on the bones of the Hidden Sand.
After a brief pause, Kakashi spoke again.
"The truth is, when it comes to developing your Water Release further, I don't have much more to offer. You've already found your own path there. The rest is up to your own effort. Water Release is your strength, and your strength is not something I can help you with. What I can help with is filling in where you're weak."
"A weakness? Teacher Kakashi, you mean..."
"Exactly!" Seeing the girl catch on immediately, Kakashi gave a satisfied nod.
A student who was both sharp and genuinely hardworking was the kind every teacher appreciated.
"If I recall, your chakra nature includes Earth Release alongside Water Release, doesn't it, Sakura?"
"Earth Release counters Water Release, and your opponent in the finals has a very close relationship with Earth Release. So for the next fifteen days, I'll be teaching you some foundational Earth Release knowledge and jutsu. It's time to patch up that gap."
Learning Earth Release...
The girl turned it over quietly in her mind, then nodded. She looked at him with real gratitude.
"Thank you, Teacher Kakashi."
Her original plan had been to find the right opening in the finals and immediately hit Gaara with the Rasengan, or use the Water Severing Wave to break through his Sand Shield and end the fight in one move.
But both options had their problems. With the Rasengan, her speed was comparatively lacking.
She had trained in the Fourth Hokage's Body Flicker Technique, but she was not yet fully fluent in it. Most of her focus had gone into Water Release.
Given how mobile Gaara's sand was, able to disperse and converge at will, finding a clean opening was not guaranteed.
The Water Severing Wave had the opposite problem: too long a charge time, and too unstable in the wrong environment.
In a river, it was manageable. She could fire it two or three times without much difficulty, with room for error.
But given the finals arena, her chakra could only sustain a single use.
By learning Earth Release jutsu, she could address the jutsu-type disadvantage between them, and gain a much deeper understanding of the properties and weaknesses of her opponent's techniques.
That would make it significantly easier to find an opening and the right moment to strike.
When that time came, whether she used the Rasengan or the Water Severing Wave, her chances of winning would go up considerably.
___
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