Ashura

Chapter One: The First Step

Authors Note-

Okay It's done and It's 1 am and I have a Black Belt Grading in 2 Days and 10 hours so I'm not going to say to much here.

Also why does everyone seem to assume that Naruto killed Sasuke, he didn't he killed someone else.

This has not yet been BETA'd, I'll get right on that when I wake back up.

Please Enjoy.

Story Start-

Uzumaki Naruto was thought of as many different things by many different people a demon, a student, an idiot, a Genin. The list went on, truly there were as many different ways of referring to Naruto as there were people who knew him. However there was always one that upset the blond the most, that of idiot. In Naruto's own personal opinion he was many things, but he was no idiot, at least not completely. True he believed in people more than he really should considering his life thus far and he wasn't exactly book smart, but that wasn't the same thing as being an idiot. An idiot was someone who didn't learn from his mistakes and, with the exception of Sakura, Naruto most definitely did learn from his.

If the incident with Mizuki had made one thing crystal clear for him it was quite simply that Naruto had to be able to objectively look at every situation. Not look at them from the angle he wanted to, not look at them from the angle that other people wanted him to and, most of all, not to look at them from an emotional angle, though granted he was still having problems with the last one on that list.

It was however, for this exact reason that Naruto was able to look at the situation he found himself in, a member of Team 7, without rose coloured glasses on and that, at least in his own opinion, was a very good thing.

The first thing that he noticed was quite simple, they were barely a team at all.

That had been a sobering realisation, though it had also been one that was easy to see after sitting down and thinking about it for a few minutes. Sakura didn't really like him very much, if at all really, and that had been heartbreaking to admit to himself. Sasuke didn't like either of them at all as far as Naruto could see, not surprising considering the fact that Sasuke didn't really like anybody but the fact remained that both of these things led to one very simple, if very large, problem.

Team 7 was virtually incapable of working together on anything larger than a D Rank mission.

After putting that together it wasn't hard to see why Kakashi-sensei had them doing so many team work drills, because they barely rated the word 'team' at all. Considering the man's fixation on team work, and Konoha's as a whole for that matter, it wasn't exactly hard to see why he would do something like that. It also meant that he probably wouldn't give them any training in any other form of the Ninja Arts until they managed to gel together as a team and looking objectively at the situation Naruto wasn't sure that would every happen, however this left him with a rather large problem. Said problem being how he was supposed to improve as a Shinobi if his Sensei wouldn't teach him until Team 7 managed to become a real team, something that he didn't see happening in the near future.

It wasn't really a problem for Sasuke after all he was the heir to a Clan, granted he was also the last of that Clan but that really wasn't the point. The point was that Sasuke could access his Clan library without a problem gaining new Jutsu more or less when he wanted as well as advice for a myriad of subject that would most likely be very helpful.

Sakura had a similar resource in the many Shinobi that lived inside of Konoha, and while she was of Civilian decent the fact of the matter was that the Haruno's were a very well respected merchant family and could quite likely pay for tutoring or scrolls if needed. Which was a resource he didn't have access to, the Shinobi for the most part just ignored him but quite a few were rather antagonistic and as for buying a scroll to learn a technique, well his Genin Salary barely covered what he needed to pay rent, when one adding in things like groceries and rent to the equasion the chances of him having enough money for a scroll was virtually nil. Besides while it was rare some people did not sell to him, when he was younger he wondered why, now he knew, so it was completely possible that the store that held those scrolls wouldn't sell to him even if he could afford to buy them, which he couldn't.

This naturally left Naruto in quite the bind when it came to trying to improve his skills since the aforementioned options were not available to him. From what he could see Naruto narrowed his options down to a very slim two, the first was to go to Iruka and ask for more training. This however was something he would like to avoid due to his former Sensei's large amount of work already. His second option was to head up to the Hokage and ask Jiji if he would help him and while Naruto was completely certain that if asked the Hokage would help him it was something he would also like to avoid since the Hokage had an already large workload and his training would no doubt take more time from his busy schedule.

So Naruto had chosen to take option three, the self-training option. In complete honesty he didn't really expect it to change to much but if he didn't show improvement in his Shurikenjutsu, the current art he was working on, by next week then he would bite the bullet and ask either his old Sensei or the Hokage for help. Naruto really did hope that it didn't come to that but all things considered it probably would.

At that moment he found himself standing in the middle of training ground 29, or as he preferred to call it training ground Naruto. The reason for this was quite simple, no one used training ground 29, ever. As a matter of fact Naruto couldn't even remember the last time he saw someone on the training grounds either side of it either. Not that it was particularly surprising though, training ground 29 was at the far edges of Konoha so there wasn't much reason for anyone to make use of it when there were closer training grounds that could provide the same. The only thing that made training ground 29 unique was the water fall and the five by five meter pond beneath it other than that it wasn't all that different from training ground 7, well it didn't have the stumps but other than that Naruto hadn't been able to find any real difference between the two.

Before him was a straw dummy with a target located on it heart and head, around it were dozens of shuriken. Most were embedded in the targets chest, not the heart like he wanted but the chest generally, but a couple had been lodged quite deeply in the head making Naruto feel quite good about himself. He was improving but it was frustratingly slow, at ten meters he could hit those targets ten times out of ten but by backing up to twenty meters he was barely managing to hit them five times out of ten. Granted Shurikenjutsu wasn't his best subject back in the academy, Taijutsu taking the top spot, but it was still frustrating to know, not suspect but know, that Sasuke could make the shot, Naruto should know he'd seen the other boy do it.

Winding his right arm back Naruto inhaled, a shuriken in each hand, before exhaling as his body flowed forward pitching the shuriken with deadly force, his left arm followed almost instinctually launching yet another shuriken at the target, his arms came back again once more repeating the motion before doing it once more. His training was the endless repetition of this action draw, aim, throw, repeat, nothing existed but that action, the action that would eventually make him a better ninja.

The stars cut through the air with deadly precision embedding themselves into the target with dull thuds, all stuck but only five of the ten had hit the targets he had wanted, the heart and the head. With a dejected sigh Naruto lay back on the ground looking at the full moon above him, there was no training with Team 7 tomorrow, Sunday being one of their very few off days, so it didn't matter that it was almost midnight. The blond didn't say anything, just settling for looking at the sky, he could understand why Shikamaru did this now it was relaxing like everything was just not important anymore. His conciousness slipped away drawn into the realm of dreams, however not everything went the way he expected.

XXX

Blue eyes snapped open and Naruto picked himself up off of the ground which was covered in water for some reason or another had he rolled into the pond after he fell asleep. His eyes roamed over the area around him, pipes, cold metal and the darkness held back around him by barely working light bulbs. The blond was confident that he had never been somewhere like this before his mouth opened to ask the same question that many men had after a late night of drinking at the pub with friends.

"Where the fuck am I?" Naruto asked himself looking around, he definitely never been here before which begged the question of why he was where he was and what the hell had happened to put him there. The hallway around him was filled with water a few doors and another hallway that branched off twenty meters down, that was when he felt it a strange kind of pull, his legs worked against his will taking the Genin further down into the bowels of where ever he was. The first turn put him into a new hallway, this one looking just like the one before it, looking up as his body moved Naruto saw the way the pipes above his head had rusted and started to drip in some places, no one had been here in a long, long, time.

Panic began to rise in his throat as he continued to walk against his will, it seemed that only his head would do as he wished his body refusing to listen past his neck. The blond fought the panic down, refusing to let it show on his face even if inside it was gnawing at him inssecently trying to break free, and it would if he gave it even a single opening, that would not help him in the slightest. While Naruto may have not listened to many of Iruka's lessons the same could not be said of the lessons given to him by the Sandaime Hokage, right that second there was a lesson that stood out in Naruto's mind.

Quite simply the Sandaime had told him that no matter what the situation a Shinobi could not afford to panic as it slowed them down and diverted their concentration, something that could be dearly needed to keep them alive in the near future.

Remembering that lesson Naruto forced the feeling down further, pushing it from his mind with sheer willpower, his stubbornness was well known in Konoha, quite particularly by the ANBU that chased him after pranks. As such any ANBU member could have told you one thing with ease, if it was Naruto's stubbornness up against panic, panic would lose every single time. They would probably follow this statement up citing that they wished he wouldn't be stubborn when it came to playing pranks and making their jobs harder but that is neither here nor there at this point in time.

Taking another corner placed the blond in front of a huge gate, the word Fuin, or Seal, emblazoned at the centre of the gate, though he was not a sensor type even he could feel the waves of malevolence coming from behind the gate. While Naruto wasn't a genius like Sasuke it didn't take him long to put two and two togther, a giant gate with the word seal and a sinister feeling Chakra behind it, he was most likely inside of his seal and behind that gate was most likely Kyubi, the Biju housed within his body.

As if summoned by that thought behind the gate something shifted, something gigantic. Easily the size of the Hokage monument or even higher, if that truly was the Kyubi then the stories of the Biju's size truly did not do the creature justice. A pair of red eyes opened behind the gate, each eye larger than his own body, irises like blood and cat like slits. If he had not been sure before then Naruto was certainly sure now, he was most definitely in his Seal and the being behind it was surely the Kyubi, the very reason he was treated so badly during his childhood.

Anger appeared beside panic but was likewise forced down, while Kyubi may have been safely restrained behind a Seal made by the Yondaime Hokage himself it would most likely not be a good idea to confront the Biju with anger or mouth off at said Biju. After all speaking angrily, or mouthing off for that matter, to a being that could apparently obliterate mountains with a casual swing of one of it's nine tails was not a smart idea no matter how you looked at it.

"So we meet at least," The words rumbled out from behind the gate, the feeling of malice increased ten fold in a single second. Naruto swallowed, all of a sudden very aware of his dry throat.

"I guess so," Naruto replied, honestly he was quite impressed that he didn't stutter. The being behind the gate just snorted, whether it was in amusement or derision Naruto couldn't tell.

"I had a desire to see my jailer and as such I brought you to this place, a whelp like you is a disappointment. Still you do seem to have some sort of potential, even if it is most likely not enough to make any real difference in this world." Kyubi stated, Naruto tried to not respond to the whelp comment he really did, but the fact of the matter was that despite the fact he listened to the Sandaime whenever he spoke Naruto truly was a boy who was ruled by his emotions. Not necessarily a bad thing but under the circumstances it certainly wasn't going to help him any.

"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Naruto demanded as his anger got the better of him. The twin red eyes narrowed behind the gigantic gates as the ancient being looked upon him.

"I called you a whelp you worthless bag of flesh because that is what you are. You are young, belligerent, unknowing of the world, a child playing at being a man, you are a whelp." The great Biju stated, eyes narrowing dangerously as he did so. "And just like so many others of your pathetic kind you chose to join a profession that causes pain and death to many, you boy have just become a smaller, and vastly less effective, version of me. Except that you chose to kill for money where as I have my own reasons for the act." Kyubi continued before snorting once more, this time it was clearly tainted by derision and scorn.

"Like so many of your kind you take Chakra the gift given to you by the Rikudo Sennin and misuse it, like so many other humans you fail the very man your kind claims to revere like a God. Pathetic, the only thing you humans have ever managed to achieve is to kill yourselves with gifts you should never have been given, like worthless vermin you scramble looking for power spitting on the God you chose to supposedly follow. Only Senjutsu is not a blatant perversion of the power that Rikudo gave to your worthless kind and even it toes the line!" Kyubi spat out, words grating behind it's massive teeth, the words themselves were filled with hate and vitriol towards humanity, a malice so powerful that Naruto almost felt like it was suffocating him.However despite the words there was one thing that Naruto couldn't help but ask about, something he had never even heard of before.

"Senjutsu?" The blond struggled to ask, barely managing it over the pure malice of the Chakra before him. The red eyes regarded him for a second as if judging his worth, the malice of the Chakra around him did not decrease but he saw the Kyubi's maw open once more, teeth that were easily larger than him on display inside of the massive foxes mouth.

"Yes Senjutsu," The Kitsune stated after a second. "A term you have not heard before whelp, it is unsurprising considering how few of your kind chose to learn it. Your kind cares more for war and destruction that being at one with the world around them after all, even those that learn Senjutsu only do so for their own selfish gains, to become more adept at combat and make their pathetic human techniques vastly more powerful instead of the true meaning behind the technique of becoming one with nature." Kyubi spat out, it's words boring into Naruto's skull.

"Yes whelp, Senjutsu, by taking Natural Energy into your body something that requires one to mediate and be at one with nature around them, not moving simply being, one achieves a state where they are deeply connected to nature. Through meditation and diligence humans can achieve a state that makes them closer to what the Rikudo Sennin wanted them to be like then they ever could by following those perversion you kind has created of his other teachings." Kyubi bit out the last statement as if saying the words physically hurt it to say, red eyes focused on Naruto once more. The feeling of malice increased by ten fold folding in on the boy who was now hyperventilating.

"I have no more wish to see or speak with you whelp, be gone!" The words were a command and Naruto found himself forcefully ejected from the mindscape in the same instance they were uttered. The Kyubi wrapped it's tails around it's body once more, the field had been set now it was time to see what became of it's gamble on the child.

Attempting to get the whelp to access Natural Energy was a gamble but one it was willing to take. After all Kurama wasn't a fool, it was fully capable of feeling the power inside of it's current host, Ashura was not someone Kurama had ever forgotten. The second born child of the man that Kurama considered it's creator, The Rikudo Sennin. It was easy to see that his current host was Ashura's reincarnation and like all of Ashura's reincarnations Naruto was more than likely able to use Natural Energy and Sage Mode like no others. Though Kurama would admit that none of Ashura's reincarnations had ever attempted to access Natural Energy and Sage Mode as young as the great Kitsune was manipulating Naruto into attempting.

After all the words spoken about Senjutsu had been spoken of in that exact way for a very good reason. By carefully choosing the right words Naruto now knew that Senjutsu if used would increase his ninja abilities and he had even been told how to access Natural Energy through using meditation. Kurama was no fool, it was easy to see that a child as impulsive as Naruto would try and access Natural Energy, he would be interested and, not knowing the dangers to normal humans, would attempt to take the energy into his body.

Naturally as Ashura's reincarnation he would not suffer the normal drawbacks to using Senjutsu that most did and petrify if using the wrong amount meaning it would be safe for him to at least access the energy. However the fact still remained that this was a gamble, if anyone found out that Naruto knew how to access Natural Energy they would ask how he knew and Naruto, if asked by the Sandaime Hokage, would point to Kurama as the reason he knew how to access the power. If that happened there was no doubt in Kurama's mind that the Seal would be locked even tighter than it already was, limiting it's freedom further.

Still this was worth it, over the millennia it had been alive slowly but surely Kurama had lost faith in his fathers words that one day all of the Biju would be brought together again but not as they once were and taught what power really was. Truly this was the last gamble for the ancient being the faith that it once had in those words had long since been stretched to breaking point by the humans that had perverted it's fathers wish. As far as Kurama was concerned the Biju had never betrayed humanity, humanity had betrayed both them and their father.

In the early days they had worked side by side however as time wore on they were view less as companions and friends and more as monsters as humanities fear of the unknown became more and more prevalent. Eventually the time came when they were attacked outright by humanity simply for existing and while they, at least at that point, could not be defeated by them the Biju chose to seclude themselves only moving when there was no other choice. Over the millennia they became known as monsters that destroyed cities, however whenever Kurama chose to do that it was when that city had festered with all the evils of humanity and needed to be wiped out. While the other Biju didn't have the same power to sense negative emotions Kurama firmly believed that their reasons were no doubt similar to its.

Now after all this time faith that had been on the edge of breaking point for so long had finally hit it. While the great Kitsune wasn't completely convinced that the whelp from earlier really could be the one the Rikudo Sennin spoke of really the Kitsune felt like it had nothing left to lose. The child was the reincarnation of Ashura the Rikudo's Second Born and the one that believed in Love as the true path to peace just as his father did and, unlike all of the other reincarnations, the whelp also contained a Biju that knew the kind of power he could one day wield and, even if indirectly, could help him attain it.

All things considered as far as Kurama was concerned the whelp was his last hope if he didn't pull this off then as far as Kurama was concerned his father had been wrong. The great Biju snorted eyes closing at it attempted to drift to sleep once more.

"Placing my faith in a human child less than two decades old after millennia, by Rikudo's balls this really is ridiculous."

XXX

"Naruto watch what you're doing!" The words came from the mouth of Haruno Sakura as Naruto almost hit her with a weed he had just pulled up from the garden before them for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto responded before going back to pulling weeds. It wasn't his fault really after all his mind was still fixated on the conversation that had happened almost a week ago between him and his, tenant the blond supposed was the best word.

After some deliberation Naruto had decided to try out the whole taking Natural Energy into his body thing. It had taken some time but eventually after almost five days of sitting still in training ground 29, only leaving for missions and to sleep, he had finally felt something yesterday. It was like light that was just outside of his sight, just outside of his reach. The blond was sure this was the Natural Energy that his tenant had spoken of, while he had been scared during their conversation, if one could call it that, Naruto had been paying attention and while Kyubi may not have noticed it itself the great Biju had let things slip.

For one it had, in a very roundabout way, told him that Senjutsu could enhance his skills as a ninja by enhancing his Taijutsu, Genjutsu and Ninjutsu. Well while Kyubi didn't say that outright it did at least hint at the fact stating directly that Senjutsu empowered human techniques.

More importantly however the Biju had let slip how to gain access to Natural Energy, by deep meditation and trying to become one with nature. Granted it had taken five days before he even managed to feel something but he was getting closer and that was the main thing.

Naruto was certain that if he managed to learn this then maybe he wouldn't need to see Iruka or Jiji about learning new techniques or how to train, honestly the Kyubi had been dumb enough to give him the break he had been looking for it was wonderful!

Not that he was stupid however, Naruto had taken a trip down to the library to check out what Kyubi had told him concerning Natural Energy and Senjutsu as things turned out the beast had not been lying or leading him on. The books he head read were very clear, Natural Energy existed, Senjutsu existed and those that were capable of using Natural Energy in tandem with their Chakra received a massive boost to all of their abilities and received the title of Sage. Once he had found that out Naruto had jumped straight into trying to draw Natural Energy into his body, if it wasn't for the fact that the Kyubi had almost destroyed his home years before and was indirectly responsible for his less than stellar childhood Naruto would feel the need to thank the Biju for it's contribution towards his chances of becoming Hokage. As things stood however Naruto simply pulled up another weed distractedly, trying to focus on the feeling he had the day before when he felt Natural Energy for the first time.

Watching his team from a distance was Hatake Kakashi, it had not escaped the Jonin's notice that Naruto was acting distracted but for now he had chosen not to ask or look into it after all it had only been for today and the kid may have had something on his mind. Honestly Kakashi had seen a very similar look on the face of his Sensei Namikaze Minato when the man was stuck with making a new Fuinjutsu technique or attempting a new form of training. All things considered it was most probably that Naruto was training himself outside of team hours and attempting to think of a new way to improve, or he already found a new type of training and was now thinking on how to refine it.

It was for that exact reason that Kakashi chose to leave the subject alone, he refused to teach Team 7 a Kami be damned thing until they managed to learn at least the basic values of working as a team. While that may be harsh the fact of the matter was that they needed to be able to do that if they wanted to survive on a mission where it could well be only their team mates standing between them and certain death, trust and the ability to work as a team was paramount for a good ninja as far as he was concerned. After all if he had believed in teamwork back then as much as he did now it was entirely possible that Obito would still be alive, that Rin would still be alive.

Kakashi slammed a lid on that train of thought he spent enough time at the memorial stone each morning thinking about what could be, he was not going to start now as well that would most likely just make him depressed. The silver haired Jonin looked at his blond student, he didn't want to teach his team anything until they worked out how to actually work as a team but then again unlike Sakura and Sasuke, Naruto didn't have a lot of the resources the other two did.

Sighing slightly Kakashi made a choice, while he would not teach Naruto anything new next Monday, two days from now, he would take the blond aside and help him improve his Shurikenjutsu. After all while his students may not know it he did stop in every now and then without their knowledge and check on how their training was going and when he'd looked into Naruto's a week ago the kid had been working on his Shurikenjutsu.

Mind made up Kakashi mentally reviewed some of the training methods for that particular branch of the ninja arts, he was going to need two scrolls to write it down on but by Monday he should be able to have two exercises for Naruto to work on in his own time. He would like to do more but doing this was already bending his personal rule of not teaching his team until they learned the true value of teamwork to it's limits so for now it would have to do. But when he really did start teaching them Kakashi vowed that he would do as much for Naruto as he possibly could, some may see it as favouritism but so be it. Jiraiya may have been his Godfather but Kakashi had been chosen by Kushina-nee to be Naruto's official Onii-san and while he may have only been able to watch him from the shadows as ANBU for years now he could make a real difference, even if he couldn't reveal their connection.

"Okay that should be enough for today," Kakashi called out to the releaf of his Genin team, well the visible relief of Sakura at least, he could tell Sasuke was also relieved but didn't show it and Naruto was still to distracted to care.

"Good job!" The silver haired Jonin added with an eye smile before making a handseal. "Alright I'll have the mission payment to you guys on Monday so you have a nice rest of the day and Sunday off I'll see you all bright and early at nine am sharp!" Kakashi said happily before disappearing using the Shunshin, time to get started on those scrolls.

Naruto didn't pay attention to either Sasuke or Sakura as he quickly ran towards training ground 29, today he might be able to pull off drawing Natural Energy into his body. Arriving didn't take long, they were outside the village walls as it was and training ground 29, while near the edge of Konoha controlled territory, was actually quite close to his current location. Naruto could feel his heart beating inside of his chest, it was hammering that wasn't a good thing he needed to be calm and composed to reach a state of meditation after all.

Deep breaths, in, out, one after the other an attempt to help calm his heart down. Naruto sat, his legs crossed, hands held lightly over either leg. It was the position for meditation that he had found in a book, granted he hadn't read past that point but all he needed was the basics. Blue eyes closed as the blond focused on what was within.

Naruto's breathing slowed further as his heart slowed down, inhale, exhale, control the flow of breathing that was step one. His body settled further as the blond allowed the sound of the waterfall nearby filter into his thoughts the sound of the crashing water his only companion inside of his own mind.

Another breath, inhale, exhale, the blond could feel his blood rushing through his veins, not because his heart was beating quickly but rather because of the hyper aware state he was entering. The sound of the waterfall echoed inside his thoughts, the next step was harder, emptying ones mind. He focused on the sound of the waterfall, the mission he had done today, Sakura, Sasuke, Kakashi, The Hokage, Ichiraku's, Konoha, Iruka, everything was fed to the sound of the crashing water as Naruto dove deeper into his own mind while expanding his senses.

It was there, he could feel it, like light just beyond the corners of his vision, it felt warm like sunlight, he was sure that this was Natural Energy.

Inhale, exhale, Naruto focused his mind towards the energy that felt like sunlight, the crashing of the waterfall ever present inside of his own mind. At first it slipped through his fingers, like he was trying to grasp a greased kunai, but getting impatient wasn't going to help matters in the slightest, especially not for something like this that required his absolute concentration.

Inhale, exhale, once more Naruto reached out towards the feeling of sunlight, once more it slipped through his fingers. The blond stopped once more focusing on the sound of the crashing waterfall, was he doing something wrong? Kyubi's slip of the tongue hadn't given him the specifics of this after all and the book he'd read concerning Senjutsu just told him the abilities of the art not how to perform it. Mentioning that some Animal Summoning Clans would teach their Summoners how to do so but those Sage's refused to share the secret with others.

Considering that information it was entirely possible that he was doing something wrong. The sound of the crashing water echoed inside of his head. Perhaps this was a two way street? Did he have to open himself up rather than try and force the Natural Energy in?

Inhale, exhale, once more the blond reached out for the warm energy like sunlight as he opened the metaphorical door between his body and the world, becoming one with nature. This time there was no problem, the warm energy like sunlight was firmly in his hands permeating his body with its light, though Naruto was careful to limit the amount he wasn't sure if there was a limit that he could take in after all.

While he couldn't see it as he drew in the power Naruto's visage changed, the area around his eyes gaining red markings around them while his whisker marks thickened slightly showing the transformation of a Sage. Cutting the flow off after a second the blond stood, he felt more energised than ever! Like he could lift anything, be faster than anyone, defeat any ninja out there!

Standing Naruto took aim at the training dummy before him, unlike the one he threw shuriken at this one was a little more heavy duty meant to take the punishment of one practising Taijutsu on it in earnest. So far Naruto hadn't managed to do more than dent it so far no matter what he'd thrown, the blond was sure a Jonin like Kakashi-Sensei wouldn't have a problem ripping the thing to pieces even if Taijutsu wasn't their forte but he simply wasn't at that level just yet.

Inhale, exhale, time to see just how much this empowered feeling was real and how much was delusion. He charged fist leading, the blow impacted the training dummy far faster and harder than any Naruto had been able to throw before it, the snapping of wood was clearly heard as the top of the dummy was ripped free of the bottom by his strike and sent flying with a spray of splinters flying to land in the pond not five meters from him.

Well...Fuck.

"Holy shit," The words slipped out of Naruto's mouth without him meaning them to, but what had just happened had completely blown him away. The blond haired boy walked towards the pond to get the top half of his training dummy back before noticing the changes to his body, that was surprising but not very. After all the book had mentioned that the Sage's usually took on some kind of aspect from their respective Animal Clan when entering Sage Mode but since he hadn't learnt it from an Animal Clan perhaps these were markings that naturally appeared in his body when he accessed Sage Mode, the blond shrugged it off. That was the most likely answer after all and it wasn't like there was a way of testing that theory either.

First thing was first, he needed to put his training dummy back together, once that was done he could focus on the next thing. Figuring out exactly how much his Sage Mode increased his powers.

XXX

Inside of Naruto's mind the great beast known as Kyubi stirred. Twin red eyes opened and looked around contemplatively. Well it certainly hadn't expected that the whelp would manage to gain access to Natural Energy so quickly but then again considering how all of Ashura's reincarnations were always skilled in that area perhaps it was wrong to be surprised.

Focusing it's power Kurama looked at the power increase the boy had gained before sighing, it should have known something like this would happen. While the child had indeed accessed Sage Mode it was an incredibly base line version, doing nothing more than increasing his physical strength, speed, endurance and durability. Even then it wasn't doing to a huge extent, in fact if it wasn't for the fact that the whelp had the Sages Body, his powerful life force and connection to nature, the pitiful amount of Natural Energy he had taken in wouldn't have done a thing.

The greatest of the Biju let out a sigh, well it supposed that mastering a technique as complex and powerful as Sage Mode off the bat was a little to much to ask. After all it's container was the reincarnation of Ashura not Indara, and what humourless prick that one was. Yes little Ashura that always had to fight and train for every scrap of power that he possessed, considering that it was even less unsurprising that the whelp had not managed a complete Sage Mode on his first attempt. Still all things would come with time, given enough time and some more information on the technique the whelp could most likely complete it inside of two years, one year if he was lucky and really worked at it. All things considered that wasn't a bad time table after all it wasn't like the whelp was in any immediate danger still the question now was how to play the situation to it's advantage. Unlike before the end game wasn't to escape from the Seal it was to fulfil father's prophecy, to give it one last chance for fulfilment before Kurama gave up on it forever. Which meant it needed to play it's cards carefully lest the advantages it had already gain be lost.

Not much was really in the Biju's favour after all, all that had really been accomplished by it's previous actions was Naruto accessing Sage Mode, even if it was in a bastardised form. However this meant that, even if only subconsciously, the whelp would be more receptive to it's words, now the real question was how to deliver them and in what form for maximum impact.

Form meant nothing to a Biju after all.

Kurama like it's siblings was neither male nor female simply being a mass of Chakra, over the millennia it had taken both Male and Female form as a human in order to travel freely but truly Kumama had no leaning towards either sex as it were.

However with such a freely malleable form it could appear before the whelp in a number of different shapes. It's current form was out of the question, while it would make it easy to recognise Kurama needed to give the whelp another link to it in order to foster better relations, even if only subconsciously. This meant appearing as a human, more to give the impression that Naruto was seeing something almost no other human had and in a way he was, no other human had ever seen it transform before after all. But if the loss of that rather small secret was all it took for it to wield a measure of control over it's hosts actions then Kurama was more than willing to lose that particular secret. After all should it ever manage to get free for whatever, all that would be required was to create a different human form that Naruto had not seen before and it would be almost impossible for it to be tracked down.

Male or Female was the question now both had their ups and downs as a possible form.

Male was obvious, as another 'man' Naruto would hopefully feel a sense of kinship for it on some level allowing him to wield a certain degree of influence over his host and as it gave more information hopefully that kinship would turn into a sort of respect so it's influence would increase further.

The downsides were equally as obvious the first and foremost being that if it antecedently acted in a manner that reminded the whelp of bad interactions with his own side of the human species he could put him further on guard and actually reduce the amount of influence that Kurama already wielded over its host. Due to the main perpetrators of the stores that refused to sell to the whelp as a child, as well as throwing him out bodily a few separate occasions, being male this was actually quite a large risk still nothing ventured nothing gained.

Female also had an instant obvious upside, the whelp was an orphan and craved a mother figure. Granted the chances of him actually accepting Kurama as that figure consciously were slim but subconsciously was a completely different matter. This subconsciously action would allow it to expand it's influence so long as it offered up good advice and at least always seemed to have Naruto's best interests at heart.

The other upside of the Female form would not become apparent until he hit puberty. If Kurama took a sexually attractive form when the whelp became a hormone addled teenager it would not be a difficult task to increase it's influence exponentially if it played it's cards right. It was amazing what a human caught in the troughs of puberty would do, especially a male, to see a little bit of leg or a pair of breasts.

However this form also came with an immediate downside, first and foremost if Kurama overstepped its bounds for even a single instant it could forget about being able to wield influence over Naruto as a mother figure. Granted the plan could be salvaged in the whelps teen years but that would leave it a problem now besides if it went badly enough it could actually damage the whelps mental state and with humans being how they were Kurama had no idea of the amount of damage that could do.

Still once chosen and Naruto met the form could not be changed, if the whelp ever realised it could take multiple forms of different humans then that small supposed bridge of trust that would have been constructed would fall to pieces and everything would be set back to square one. That was something Kurama would like to avoid if at all possible, Kami knew that it's job would be far harder the second time around should something go wrong.

The great Biju snorted before turning it's attention back to the whelps Chakra, hmm it seemed that bastardised Sage Mode lasted around five minutes. Still against most enemies, and a complete Sage Mode, that should be enough. Kurama brought up a single paw and stoked it's chin contemplatively, a habit it had picked up from its father. There would be time to improve the whelps ability in maintaining Sage Mode at a later date, it did after all know a few tricks that Ashura used to use after all that could be quite the help to the whelp that was it's host.

Speaking of the whelp perhaps a gift was in order all things considered. But the question was what to give, he certainly wasn't getting Kurama's ability to Sense Negative Emotions there were some things that you just didn't give out without asking for a price after all. He wouldn't accept any training, not yet at least, more was the pity really. Being sealed inside two Fuinjutsu Masters gave Kurama a wide breadth of knowledge of the art, honestly speaking the Biju didn't know much about Genjutsu or Ninjutsu even in human form it's own abilities far outclassed that of ordinary humans anyway so there was never a point in learning their techniques.

Hmm, well that left Taijutsu the question was how. Kurama did have knowledge of Ashura's personal style but the question was how to get the boy to know it. He certainly wouldn't accept training which left Kurama with precious little in the way of options. Well it's Chakra was being siphoned off by the seal in minute amounts if it placed the memories in that Chakra it would most likely subconsciously imprint on the whelp. Granted he wouldn't actually get any better unless he actually started to work on his Taijutsu but his body would instinctually know how to attack and defend in certain situations which was more than that half assed academy Taijutsu style that he had at the moment had going for it.

After a second of deliberation Kurama added the imprint of memories to the out going Chakra, hopefully when he stated practising his Taijutsu rather than his Shurikenjutsu the whelp would be able to call on the half remembered techniques from his subconscious to improve. Kurama gave a shrug of its giant shoulders, either way until Naruto slept that night and it could draw him into the seal the Biju had done all it could for now.

Laying down Kurama turned it's attention back to the other matter at hand.

Male or Female?

Ashura Chapter 1 End.

Note-

There is now a pole up for Kurama's Gender, or at least assumed Gender, no this does not mean I am guaranteeing a Kyubi paring this means I am considering it and may decide to do or I may not.