AN; My first story and I don't mind harsh critique, as I'd like to become a better writer. I don't own Naruto, though I hope you enjoy my rendition.
5/14/15: Finally started going through to fix some stuff. Got about half the way through. I'll try to periodically go back and fix chapters. If you see anything glaringly annoying, throw out a review. I do like those.
I don't own Naruto
Day Zero
Among the giant trees grown by the first Hokage, deep in the forest outside Konoha, a fight was coming to a close. Naruto stood over the bloody and beaten body of a traitor, panting heavily. His deep red eyes, coldly stared at the man, who'd attempted to take away the first person to truly acknowledge him. Smoke slowly lifted from the clearing, as his shadows dispersed. His eyes became unfocused, reverting back to a cobalt blue, and he fell back into the arms of his sensei, already dead asleep. Iruka pulled the boy back, trembling in disbelieve at what had just occurred. He leaned back against a tree, while looking over his student, in thought.
'How could he have learned that jutsu so quickly, and made so many? I knew he had a large amount of chakra, but I didn't know it was so much." Then a look of realization broke across his face, followed by shame. 'That was why he couldn't perform the bushin properly, and the chakra control exercises. How could I have not known?' He took the goggles off of the sleeping boy and replaced it with his headband. "You deserved this more than any other student I've passed Naruto. You'll be a great ninja someday."
While sleeping Naruto dreamed of the event and fragments of the fight from many different angles came together to give an indescribable perspective of the fight. Mizuki's face in horror and his screams, as Naruto beat the man to within an inch of his life, echoed over and over. The hate that flashed through his being as he formed the hand sign for his jutsu, and the immense power that surged through him. The deep cackling voice….
Naruto woke up with a start, the barking laughter still faintly audible, eyes wide open darting around the room. The scent of the old man's tobacco filled his nose and he became aware of the hand grasping his shoulder. Brown comforting eyes found the wild eyes of Naruto and, as the awareness of his situation sunk in, he sank back into the couch.
"Kage Bushin no Jutsu. The Second considered it his greatest jutsu and greatest failure."
Naruto turned to see the Hokage sitting behind his desk tapping out his pipe. "Jiji."
"As one of my ninja's, you'll have to refer to me as Hokage Jiji from now on Naruto." Hiruzen said with a smirk.
Naruto's eyes widened again as he turned to Iruka, who nodded and pointed to his forehead. Naruto noticed the missing headband and reached up, with a shaking hand, to feel the cool metal fastened to his head. Tears threatened to spill over his eye lids and he looked down, clenching his fists.
"Finally." He whispered.
"You've just learned the Second's greatest Justu. I'd attempted to use it, but was unable to overcome the mental backlash from gaining so many memories at once. The doctor assured me that you were completely fine, and that your accelerated healing will allow you to be the first person to master the jutsu. If you hadn't noticed, you receive the memories of your shadow clones when they dispel. This will allow you to train many times faster than normal. You are the inheritor of a jutsu that will allow you to become more powerful than any of the previous Hokage."
Naruto sat speechless, mouth agape, mirroring Iruka.
The Hokage pulled out two books and handed them to Naruto across the desk.
"The first book is the book the Second gave me when I graduated the academy. Chakra control will be your biggest enemy. With your chakra reserves, I suggest you make mastering every technique in this book your first goal. As for the second, it's a journal. The limits of that jutsu have never truly been tested, and I expect you to find out what can be done and document it in that journal. Someday another Hokage will hand that over to the next person to carry on this legacy. How far can you make them, in what positions, or speed? Can they already be doing actions or jutsu? These are just the tip of the ice berg. You have seven days to train before team assignments and I expect great things from you Naruto. It's time to put away your childish persona and act like the shinobi this village needs you to be. I need you to be."
Naruto shot up to his feet, "I won't let you down Hokage jiji."
He bowed low and whispered, "I'll be the weapon I was born to be.
Day One
Mid-morning Naruto was in his apartment staring at five mirror images.
'They can do justu and think on their own. They have their own opinions on what they should try', and when five more Narutos appeared and six walked out the door, Naruto was brought out of of his thoughts. He'd been silent since their creation, half an hour ago, as the unnerving sensation of speaking with other people, that too were him, held his tongue. A sentiment that he'd shared with another one of him. Naruto closed his eyes and let his mind wander again, feeling slightly weak after splitting his chakra equally with them.
The other shadows made plans to leave and do various things while he laid back in thought. 'Soon I'll have a team, a Jonin sensei that may or may not hate me, and a chance to take on the Second's legacy as my own. I should move, but my clones are out doing stuff, so it okay to rest up and let it all sink in, right? Be the shinobi he, needs me to be. Jiji.'
Eventually, the door closed following the almost rhythmic shuffle of feet out of his apartment. The clone from earlier still there silently staring at him.
He slowly pulled himself up to a sitting position ending the movement with sigh, and turned to his clone.
"Hey, whatcha thinking about?"
The shadow clone's eyes lingered on his own a moment before shifting up a bit. It then reached out and touched his head, vanishing into chakra hot on his brow. He could feel a portion of his chakra return, while the world stalled between beats.
Shadow
He was, again, sitting among his mirrors looking at himself from another place in the room, the last moments faded and all but gone. He was a shadow clone and then he thought, 'once I'm gone my life would return to the original and at that moment he'll live that life. Would he be in control? I'm in control now.' His muscles flexed at his command, the undercurrent of chakra that comprised his body was palpable, like breathing. He focused on his chakra, forming the ram seal in his lap. His eyes wandered over to the original. He felt his chakra and a faint connection to the original. He focused through the banter of the other shadows becoming more aware the connection. The sounds of other shadows marching out on their own journey's muted into the background while his focus slid across the silky formless softness that extended from himself to the original.
'At some moment I will return. Time is like a luxury that I can exchange for chakra. Shadows like echoes in time.' The shutting of the door, dangerously tugging him back to the room only to be thrust, fully, back into the moment when his eyes became locked with the one who's time line he'd diverged from.
The other him slowly rose into a sitting pose and sighed.
"Hey, whatcha thinking about?"
He thought on that, while sluggishly tearing his eyes away from the curious gaze of himself, up to his forehead, 'would there be best?' While reaching up to touch the other boy's head, and willing his chakra as to return to himself through touch, the strange connection had gotten exponentially stronger as his hand got closer, like a static charge increasing in magnitude until arcing into the original.
Original
His perception flipped, giving him an odd sense of vertigo.
A few hours later…
A pot had found itself on the stove, filled with boiling water. Naruto, eagerly dropping his choice noodles into the hot bath, had decided to enjoy some food of the gods. He sat, staring out the window, looking around for himself. 'Would I even look my-self?' Images and thoughts from his shadow replaying in his mind, as he sat.
Then Naruto's thoughts accompanied the routine – like – dance of Ramen, that ended in a mouthful of a savory, nectar - like satisfaction, the likes he could rarely speak of. Well, outside of Ramen's sweet embrace. He thought on the concept of having more time, 'So, while I sit here, I'm also out there in chakra bodies doing things as well. So each time I spit myself, I get another life. Or at least some amount of time depending on how much chakra I use. I wish I was better at math, so I could calculate…uhhh how much time I get.' His face held a look of concentration while he thought about his new jutsu and time. Suddenly his eyes where forced shut and the wealth of sounds, he'd suddenly became aware of, slowed to a low rumble rising in intensity until silence gripped him.
Shadow
In front of the other shadows and his original, which seemed drained from the technique, a shadow sat, one leg bobbing. The other leg supporting an elbow, holding up the face scowling at the clucking of shadows, trying to be the 'boss'. Suddenly, he shot up, "I'm going off to perfect our Jutsu."
A cross of his fingers and five more shadows appeared in step with him, determined looks on their faces. He pulled open the door and walked into the hallway, "Training grounds, now."
The looks he and his fellow shadows immediately received, strolling in formation down the street, only filled him with more purpose than ever. He would succeed and become the next Hokage.
"Dattebayo!" He screamed, thrusting a fist into the air. The shadows shouting, "Yosh!", as they walked on to the academy training grounds.
"Let's divide as much as we can and then do that leaf chakra control exercise with the last of our chakra!"
Original
The memories where quick and yet he'd felt like he'd spent days training with the leaf exercise. He'd lost count of number of memories he received, a field full of shadows focused on the task at hand. Conversations between other shadows gaining new meaning once he'd lived through each side of the conversation. At times receiving the same advice he'd given his last life, and, again, the world swooned about him. Expecting to snap into another time and experience it all over again, he was greeted by the feeling and the dull thud of his face smashing against the cool tiles of his kitchen floor.
He pulled himself to his knees, hunched over and panting deliberately to regain his breath. His eyes found the clock to stare at the time it indicated and felt slightly sick. 'it's been days, or weeks, and only…'
Sleep.
An hour later he awoke, still on the floor. He lifted his head away from the tiles, sighing, before reaching out to an errant paper towel that had accompanied him to the floor. He focused his chakra and the paper stuck firmly to his hand. He wiped the drool from his mouth while looking up to the wall.
"Hmmm."
Naruto headed over to his couch and was then engrossed in the old and thumbed through book on chakra control. The words written into the sides of the book bringing concepts together at times and then confusing the matter further.
"Focusing chakra to different locations on the body can enhance those parts. Learning how those parts are effected and how much chakra to channel, is important in sharpening one's senses and reaction times. This can mean the difference between a living and a dead shinobi."
He turned the page to look at places to write down the effects of channeling his chakra to different areas, "I should do that some time."
Turning the page again brought him to a page summarizing the techniques discussed.
"Chakra strings, learning to connect my chakra to stuff. That sounds useful. Like that connection between my shadows and me."
"Surface attachment, walking and channeling chakra to use them as surfaces."
"That sounds goo-."
Shadow
The Shadows were gathered around each other. A shadow suddenly shot up, "I'm going off to perfect our Jutsu." Five clones fell in line with the first shadow and left out the door. Another shadow snuck out behind them, averting his eyes. Naruto narrowed his eyes, 'that one will be up to no good.' One shadow reached out and snagged the book on chakra control, jiji had given him, a slip of paper falling out of the book. The shadow picked it up the paper, and scrunched up his face for a moment. Then he sighed, "I'll be at the library." And dropped the book.
"I wonder what it said" Naruto said, looking around to see the original, laying back with his eyes closed and the other one focused intently on the original.
"Creepy" he said to himself. He rose up and jogged out, shutting the door behind himself. He could see the Formation of shadows that strode down the street and thought to avoid the glare that seemed to magnify with each additional Naruto a villager would lay eyes on.
The green haired, slightly taller, ninja that left at a brisk pace from the front door of his apartment still bore, although less defined, the whisker marks of Uzumaki Naruto. He deftly weaved through the midday rush down – town to cross the village. The smells and sights of food, some offered freely, as small bite sized treats lifted his spirits.
'Not really hungry, do I eat?'
He snagged a BBQ ribblet from a cute Akamiki girl, mid-stride, off the large platter she held out in offering to by – passers. "Come back and eat soon ninja – san!"
, hung in the wind as he popped the treat in his mouth and chewed. 'Good, but lacks the normal feeling of satisfaction from eating something' he thought. Turning a sharp corner, in his blind shot, appeared a clean, crisp, white title, "Icha Icha Paradise" over his favorite shade of orange, a book, where a man's face should be. Naruto closed his eyes, before impact with the book's owner. He felt, only the man's hands grab his shoulders a leg across his stomach and they slowed down very quickly. The pressure from the contact released and Naruto opened his eyes to see, what the book was hiding. The Konoha headband slanted over one eye. The other half – lidded eye gazing questioningly at him. Below, nothing besides a cloth ninja mask and above, silver hair jetted from the man's head at an angle towards the sky. An orange book, then, fell from the sky, the ninja snatching the book out of the air, returning it to a position low enough for his single eye to gaze at Naruto.
'Hatake Kakashi no Sharingan, so cool!'
Naruto bowed to the lazy – eyed – man, "Ah, sorry sempai."
"Mah, where are you headed to in such a hurry, and why aren't you channeling chakra to your feet while you run?" came from behind the orange book.
Naruto paused a moment, 'channeling chakra to my feet?', "I was thinking about the BBQ I'd gotten from an akimiki girl in the market, and I'm actually going to train channeling chakra to my feet right now. Maybe you can give me some advice on how to best to do that?" Naruto said with a bow.
Belatedly, standing up straighter, while waiting a reply, hopeful eyes and smile were plastered across the green haired teen's face.
Two fingers came up and tapped Naruto in the leaf symbol of his head band.
Naruto's head went back a bit with the tap, the man's one eye narrowing slightly after he made contact.
The book was gone and the straightening of his head band revealed a black and red, patterned eye.
"Well, you channel chakra to your feet and pay attention to how tightly it binds your feet to the surfaces they're touching. Then run up walls or trees and mark your progress." Kakashi said absentmindedly as he gazed at Naruto slowly circling around him.
Naruto, now on the other side, with wary eyes thought, 'I wonder if I he can see through my henge. At least he gave me something to do.'
"Uh, ok shinobi – san, later." Naruto said back pedaling quickly, before turning back into his jog.
Naruto jogged for a couple for minutes, then started looking around and slowing down. "Where the heck did I go?"
"Fire release: fire ball jutsu"
A roaring followed the young boy's shout. Naruto whipped round to see the fire ball sail across a small pond. Naruto squinted against the heat, barley making out the Uchiha crest on the back of the young ninja's blue shirt. Naruto quickly made four shadows and hid with them out of sight, save for one which began clapping.
"Wow, Uchiha – san, to have mastered such a strong jutsu already, is no small feat."
Sasuke, standing on the shore of the small pond, surrounded by wisps of stream whipped to life by the fire ball, turned his head around to see the older green haired ninja.
"What are you doing on Uchiha clan grounds?" Sasuke said wearily, eyeing the Konoha head band and the whisker marks on his face.
A sheepish look passed over Naruto's face, "Well I'm honestly not sure how I ended up here. I was hoping to watch some older ninja train to see if I could learn something or get some training tips and somehow ended up here. I bet you could show me something Uchiha – san, if you would be so kind." Finishing with a small bow, Naruto stood quietly, watching Sasuke's expression roll around between a sneer and a smirk.
Settling on a smirk Sasuke said," I guess we could spar, see how you do against an Uchiha."
Naruto bowed again and recanted, "Well I'm supposed to be taking it easy after an injury I suffered but we could go through the motions with taps. If you don't mind."
Sasuke nodded after a pause, and settled into the taijutsu stance of the intercept style. Naruto awkwardly got into a stance, and a badly hidden look of horror settled on the Uchiha's face. They closed in and Sasuke started slapping through Naruto's defenses and batting away the sloppy swings. The difference between their skills in hand – to – hand was even more blaring than it was in the academy, as they slowly went through the motions. Then by foot work alone Naruto was sent to his butt by Sasuke.
"Whoa." Naruto whispered softly. His eyes blankly stared out into the distance.
Sasuke's face took on a grimace, and glanced away.
Naruto finally turned to look up and see the side of Sasuke's face.
"Uchiha – san, may we do that one more time?" Naruto said softly while rising to his feet.
Sasuke turned to see his slight bow before darting into his guard and tapping at him again.
Naruto could genuinely see how much he was going to have to train in his taijutsu. Naruto's eyes shifted to just over Sasuke's shoulder, and then smiled at his fellow genin, "kage bushin no jutsu."
Four shadows burst from clouds and each of them bowed.
"What's this?" Sasuke relaxed his stance and took a step back.
Naruto crossed his arms and said, "I need more of me to make it even."
Sasuke smiled faintly and began trading taps with the shadows. The spar started ramping up as Sasuke was forced to move more and more quickly to stay ahead of the four clones, whom started tapping with more force. Before long clones where being popped and bursting back into existence all around Sasuke. Sweat was pouring down the side of the Uchiha's face and he'd long since abandoned the notion that he'd end up hitting the original. The clones had at first gotten in each other's way at first, though as the fight progressed they started coordinating their attacks and it became an all – out brawl.
Soon the sun was setting and the last clone fighting Sasuke burst around his fist. Panting heavily he looked over at the green haired boy smiling at him from across the field.
"Thanks for the spar Uchiha – san." Naruto gave a small bow and then disappeared in another puff of smoke.
On top of a building over – looking the field a shadow opened his eyes to see Sasuke bow and walk away dragging his feet, sudden;t looking more tired than he'd shown in their spar. "Guess you're not so bad Uchiha." Then he was gone as well.
Original
The endless spar faded into dreams of the very same spar from an angle not seen by any of the Shadows. A reenactment of the event that could be moved around to change the perception. 'Is this an effect of the seeing the same event from so many angles? A deeper understanding of what happened?' This thoughts, a thin vail of wakefulness before he was in his apartment again, shadows sitting around in a circle.
Shadow
He was speaking, but so were some the others. One shadow stood up and made five clones, spouting off about wow he was going to master their Jutsu. Naruto stood up and reached for the Book that jiji had given him. It felt well – worn in his hands, as he snatched it from the table. A piece of paper fell from the book and he reached down to grab it. It read;
"Naruto, I'm glad you've decided to take your studies seriously as a ninja. This book is but one of a treasure trove of information available at the library. With your new jutsu I'm sure you'll be able to send a group of shadows to read up on all the information you need to succeed as a ninja. I'm proud of you."
-Jiji
PS. Remember a true shinobi can be any number of people, and you can be that in any number of places. Don't send a group of Narutos to scare the librarian.
His face involuntary scrunched up as he digested the information. "I'll be at the library." He said absentmindedly to one of the other shadows as he dropped the book back to the table. 'Any number of faces huh?' he thought as he walked out of the apartment. He went around the corner into an ally along – side his apartment building. He sat down to ponder for a minute before crossing his fingers and creating ten more shadows. They each took on a henge and walked out in different directions. Naruto headed straight to the library.
"Shinobi tactics, basic anatomy, chakra theory, and sealing for idiots were the recommendations on the back of the card, so you guys each get a book on one of those and read them. And I'll take a look at what jutsus they had available."
E and D- rank Justus (at the filing cabinet for genin scrolls.)
"Rope escape, I do get caught sometimes."
"Chakra transfer. Maybe I could transfer chakra together to make super awesome jutsu!"
"Shhhhh!" came from seemingly nowhere.
Naruto looked around to find himself alone and shrugged his shoulders.
'Body flicker, channeling chakra to my body to move at high speeds. Now that is awesome.'
Naruto went and grabbed the scrolls for those justu to check them out and sat down at a table. Soon ten other people came and sat down, each with three books and one with four, the fourth being, "sealing for idiots".
"This was the only one they had." A girl with long blonde hair said.
Naruto nodded, "Each of you thumb through the books you found and let me read this justu. I think I have an idea." Each of the Shadows nodded and began to look at their books.
'Chakra types, elemental affinities, changing chakra to fit others, establishing a connection, chakra transfer.'
'Let's start with establishing a connection.'
Naruto's finger glided down the scroll to "establish connection". '
'Imagine a string of chakra extending from you to a person. The focus your chakra from your core, along that imaginary string until you feel a back flux of chakra. This is when you'll asses the "feeling" of the chakra and begin to match that feeling in the chakra in your string, outside your body. Once this is done you can attempt to pull the other person's chakra into yourself or push your chakra into them.'
Naruto stared at the colorful drawing of chakra extending from someone's core to another person.
He looked up at one of the shadows and tried to image a string connecting him to the shadow, and then closed his eyes. He suddenly became aware of a connection between them, although extremely faint, like a whisper. He focused chakra into it and felt his chakra fill up and strengthen the connection. He then felt for the connection between his other shadows and felt the same whisper from them as well. He focused on the strings and they were brought to life as well. The shadows all stopped what they were doing, some turning immediately and others taking a moment to feel it. Naruto pulled the chakra from the shadows, dispersing them, and much of the energy that he was originally given was still there.
'I guess walking around and reading doesn't require that much chakra.'
Then his eyes lit up with realization, 'As a shadow, I don't suffer from the memory overload effects because I'm made of chakra. I'll have to read that scroll on chakra constructs and summons too. Reading Justus and about being a badass ninja isn't so bad.'
He glanced at the table and looked over the books he'd thumbed through picking up the ones he'd wanted and stacked ten of them up.
Naruto put the jutsu scrolls along with the new scroll on chakra constructs and summons on top of the stack and carried the tower of books to the front desk.
He piled them carefully on to the desk and looked around for someone to check him out. From around the corner a brown haired girl came, pausing in mid-stride, eyes squinting at the stack of books on the counter and the blond haired boy looking around.
"Do you need some help?" She said walking closer to the boy. Her eyes wondered over his face, idling on the whisker marks.
The memory of the night, when the Fox attacked. Her celebration party for becoming a chunin was only months prior. The ominous hanging presence, the feeling that she would be burned away with everything in its path. She saw it, on the horizon. The tails, blurry lines kicking up trees and the earth like sand. The roar, vibrating to her core, driving deeper the terror and feeling up helplessness, of death's grasp reaching out to pull her soul from this world.
"Yes, I'd like to check out these books."
Her eyes snapped back into focus on the boy and she paused staring into his eyes before looking over to the tower of books.
"How are you even going to carry these all the way home, much less read all of them before their due?" The librarian said with a raised eyebrow, her hands coming to rest on her hips.
Naruto smiled widely at her, before leaning in conspiratorially, the boy's eyes darting around, "It's a secret. I'll be back soon though."
The librarian smiled faintly and thought, 'So the stories of the demon child were greatly exaggerated.'
Naruto checked out the books and waddled slowly out of the library. He continued around the corner before putting down the books, splitting into eight, henging into different people and taking the books, to head in different directions.
Naruto, who remained in his own form, on his way, pondered, "How can I read the books as quick as possible?"
Naruto went off a path into a large forest in the village. He arrived in a short grass meadow towards the middle of the forest. He sat down with his eyes closed and looked for the connection to his shadows. He sat for 20 mins before he was able to sense the connection to his clones, one by one the connection became stronger. As they reached him, he pulled the chakra back to himself, slowly, while the clone let go of his form. The memories of the journey to reach him coming to him as the chakra flooded his body. The smoke that puffed into existence when the clones form finally gave way became less and less with each shadow's arrival. The last clone's chakra visibly hung like a cloud funneled to Naruto.
He opened his eyes to stare at the stack of books and smiled. Ten clones came into existence, each grabbing a book and flipping to the table of contents. Clones burst into existence and page numbers were given.
Each clone reading a chapter and passing it back to the original in order when done. 2 hours later Naruto was done reading all of the books.
"I'm pretty tired of reading." Naruto said after the last of the chakra form the clone reading seal's for idiots.
"Calligraphy was required to make seals and that's awesome."
Naruto sprung to his feet and took off into the forest while a shadow came into existence and began picking up the books. He headed off towards the market. The first glares from the villagers prompted him to change his appearance to a non-specific genin with brown hair and brown eyes.
A few minutes later he found a store, "Art of the Brush."
A chime for some soft Bamboo accompanied the opening of the thick wooden door. Lines lit up on the grains of wood and he felt the chakra surrounding him drain away into it. His wide eyes shot to the door.
"Welcome, and don't worry too much about your henge. I don't sell to people under disguise, though, maybe I'll let you reapply it if you'd like."
Naruto's mouth hung slightly agape before pulling back into a slight grimace.
He swiveled around to see an old man, with a slight hunch gripping a cane in the middle of the shop, sitting atop a wood bench. Thin white hair was held in a long pony tail down his back. His equally long mustache draped down the side of his mouth and his squinted eyes, only showed dark sharp points. His tan leathery skin was mostly hidden by the long silk white robe.
"Let me guess. You'd like to copy down some storage seals." came the wizened scratchy voice.
"Umm, well. I'd like to first learn calligraphy, so I can eventually write my own seals."
"That will take years of practice and lots of patience." He old man said, eyeing the boy carefully.
"Well, I've got time."
Naruto's eyes finally found the sign, first lesson free with a starters calligraphy set and he paused.
"And you have a great special going on."
"If you've gotten the money I'll go over the basics with you, takes about two hours, or two one hour sessions." Said the old man.
"Alright, I'll be back with money."
The old man's eye brows raised a bit, "You came without money?"
"Just thought about it now." Naruto said sheepishly before turning and jetting out of the door.
A few minutes later he was at his apartment, 'wonder if the original is still here', he thought as he opened the door. There on the floor was the original drooling onto the floor. Oh, well, that makes things interesting. He paused in thought before focusing on the boy. Soon he felt the connection, 'much stronger than with the other shadows. He won't mind if I took a little bit for myself.'
He pulled at the chakra and it came quickly at first and he was forced to pinch it off. He then reached into the secret stash that held his money and took twice the necessary amount. 'If the guy is willing to teach, then I should take the opportunity to use the rest of my day learning."
He was soon out of his apartment and shortly after in the store again having his Henge ripped away. He stared at the seals again, "cool."
"Ah, back and with money I hope." The elderly man said, sitting just as Naruto had left him.
Naruto smiled widely and gave the man the amount for a lesson and starter's kit. Then paused and put a few more coins down on the bench, next to the white haired man, "And that, is for keeping what goes on here to yourself." Naruto's hand slowly revealed the half the money again on the bench, while starting at the man.
"HA, well it seems you have a little more sense than I'd first thought. You don't run a shop in a shinobi village without knowing how to keep your mouth shut." The old man slowly rose to walk over to the counter and grabbed a box that had not been there before. He pulled out a smaller box filled with sand and set it on the floor along with a long stick. He then went over to the bench and moved it to the back of the store. He reached into a large box along the back wall, and pulled out a large scroll. He hung the two wooden dolls in the center of the scroll to two hanging chains from the ceiling and the bottom doll to a contraption on the floor. The old man reached over and cranked the handle on the side of the contraption and the scroll began to roll to expose new paper. Then turning around, he pointed to the center of the room.
"Bring your sand box to the front and sit with it in front of you. You will then follow my strokes."
Naruto grabbed the box and the stick and stood farthest from the old man towards the front of the store. He put foot on the box and the stick in his pocket before crossing his fingers and closing his eyes to focus. Chakra started to become visible around the room before 50 shadows appeared in five rows of ten in front of the old man.
The old man eyed them for a moment as they all opened their eyes, got on their knees and pulled their sticks from their pockets.
The white haired man glanced at Naruto who only crossed his arms and nodded before closing his eyes.
A thin smile spread slightly across the old man's face, and the lessons began.
[two hours later]
Naruto bowed deeply to the man before purchasing some extra sealing paper and ink after the lesson was over.
"I'd warn you about the disastrous things that can happen when you incorrectly pen seals, but I guess you don't have to worry about that. Just go somewhere away from people, and don't tell anyone you learned calligraphy from me until I see you." And he paused in thought. "At least 100 more times, if I understand your special technique."
The man asked for a demonstration of the kanji that he'd gone over with the boy and was amazed to see progress leaps and bounds beyond what he'd expected. He shook his head slightly before looking back up to the blonde boy's face.
"Don't worry old, man. I'll keep coming back until I'm a master of the brush!" He fist pumped into the air with enthusiasm, and the old man just tapped his cane lightly on the ground. "Bye – bye now Naruto." He said flatly.
Naruto made it back to his apartment to find the original on the floor with the book on chakra control he'd left at home. He put the original in bed and looked over the book again before placing it down. He touched Naruto's head and disappeared.
Original
Dreams were a jumble of memories that he couldn't quite understand. The splitting head ache brought him out of his sleep, still sweating and sitting in wet sheets, he wiped his brow and peered out the window. It was dark and a sudden feeling of foreboding came over him as he realized that his fifth shadow had never returned. A shiver went down his back and he flopped back onto the bed.
"Shit, I didn't like the look of his face and what was that in his hand?" Naruto closed his eyes putting together the fragments of memory until his eyes shot open. "The mask! Oh shit!"
He went to jump out of bed but stopped. Silence reigned for a moment before he closed his eyes and focused on finding the link between him and his clone. He lay there motionless for close to 20 minutes before he felt it. Weak and fluttering in and out of his perception until he was able to draw a little bit of chakra into the line.
'Should just pull the chakra back? He doesn't feel like he's doing much.'
And suddenly he felt a wave of something coming along the line.
Shadow
Sitting cross legged Naruto sat amongst the other shadows and spoke, "We should try to find out more about the second hokage. Maybe jiji can tell us where- "And he was cut off mid-sentence by a shadow jumping to his feet, and making five clones. "I'm off to perfect…."
And then he was back in his mind drowning out the voices of the other shadows with his thoughts as he snuck to the bedroom. 'I don't know why I bother. No one ever pays attention to me unless it's to put me down. I'm outta here."
He grabbing the fox mask from his wall and exited as quickly as possible.
Once out of the door he climbed up to the roof along the gutter and sat with the mask over his face. He stared over the village, absentmindedly noting the disdainful looks the other shadows received.
He saw a shinobi running across the roof tops and jumping from roof to roof with a tired sort of expression hidden behind the mask. He looked over to the Hokage's tower and sighed. 'He'll probably tell me it's closed and locked up.'
An ANBU came jumping by and Naruto shot up, "ANBU – san!" The Wolf masked ninja stopped and stood lazily letting the holes of his mask line up with the small boy.
Naruto paused for a moment and then bowed, "Anbu – san, I'm sorry for bothering you, but can you please tell me how you are able to jump across the roof?"
The masked man stared at him before turning to leave, "I channel chakra to my legs." And he was gone.
Naurto blinked at his disappearance, and looked around. He could see a figure that looked like him in the distance heading towards the Hokage's tower.
Naruto stood silently for a moment and made six clones. He and five of the shadows sat down and the one standing made 30 shadows. They lined up along one side of the roof adjacent to where the original shadow and the others sat. The first shadow farthest from the others started running towards the end of the roof and leaped towards the other building, his foot breaking the roof tiles and shooting up into the air. He soared 50 meters into the air and when he started to come down cancelled himself in a puff of smoke.
The original shadow stood up, "Find the Senju clan home."
The 30 shadows ran off in different directions jumping to other roofs. Some falling short and others launching into the air and crashing down on the streets, sides of buildings and roof tops.
Naruto pointed at two of the other shadows. "You two should probably go too."
They too stood up, made 30 clones and took off in different directions with mostly the same results. He looked at another scowling and said, "Mask off, go talk to Jiji and see if he's willing to give us a journal or access to the compound."
The Shadow nodded before the mask faded away and he turned to make a run at the roof.
Naruto's voice rose to catch him, "I suggest you take the stairs."
A few minutes later he was in the Hokage's tower walking by the secretary, who looked at him with a smile. "Good morning Uzumaki – san, The Hokage is alone at the moment, but he has a meeting in ten minutes, I suggest you keep it short."
"Alright nee – san" Naruto replied with a smile and a wave.
He was about to throw open the door and stopped for a moment, then knocked.
"Come in came muffled through the door." Naruto pushed open the door to the sweet, musty scent of tobacco.
"Ah, good morning Naruto. I didn't think I'd see you so soon. What can I do for you my boy?"
"Jiji, I was wondering if the second had a journal I could look through?"
The Hokage leaned back a little in thought before speaking, "I'm not sure if I could do that. The only ones that I would have access to are the hokage records that are kept for the new Hokage to look through and anything else is looked in the Senju Clan home. I'm sorry Naruto."
Naruto paused for a moment, 'I probably shouldn't ask him where it is in case we get caught.'
"Ok Jiji, thanks anyways." A weak smile and he was gone in a puff of smoke.
The original shadow's eyes, while closed, twitched a bit while sorting through all of the memories he'd gotten over the past hour. He looked over to the last two shadows sitting next to him playing a card game. "Come." They each made 30 clones and followed Naruto as he jumped from roof top to roof top. As he traveled the memories of his shadows meeting their end trying to keep up with him made it difficult to focus. Finally he arrived at the clan home and after a long wait only 12 shadows made it.
He gazed out at the large wooden walls, much higher than any building in the area. He grimaced, 'Doesn't look like this will be easy.'
62 attempts later, the shadow was alone sitting on the edge of the wall to the Senju clan. His last attempt had involved the shadows standing on top of each other to form a human ladder. He held on to the ledge and the shadows climbed up, to all be captured and drained of chakra by the trees inside the compound, once they jumped down from the wall. It was late night by now and the last of his chakra was dwindling away. He stared at the trees swaying slightly in the breeze and suddenly felt his chakra stop decreasing and slightly increase a bit.
'The original. Time's up I guess.' He closed his eyes and let go of his form.