Chapter 2: (When Something is Precious..)
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or any other anime or games I'm takin this shit from.
Um for reviews.. I already talked with onikami no shinobi so I don't se any other real questions for review answers. Thx for all reviews they are all read and appreciated. gla yall like it.. so far so good no flamers yet..
And now on with the story.
Naruto slowly opened his eyes shaking the sleep dust from his eyes. He yawned and took his cap off letting it fall to the floor as he took a glance at the clock.
Suddenly his eyes widened. "Oh shit.. I'm going to be late!"
Naruto jumped out of bed and yanked on his black shirt before hopping on one leg to get his goggles while putting his orange pants on. He then grabbed his jacket and a cup of instant ramen. It was room temperature but.. Well there was no time to cook.
He didn't bother with the door simply jumping out the window.
This proved to be a very bad idea.
If not for a trailer with fruit being sold off of it he would have broken quite few bones. But instead he landed on a set of fresh melons. The vender turned around from another successful sale to get the desired fruit and found it was smashed and busted.
"N-NANI!"
Naruto slowly got up and shook some of the juice from his hair. "Uh.. Sorry old man gotta go!" and with that he leaped out of the fruit trailer and bounced off onto a smaller roof and began roof hopping.
The vender narrowed his eyes in disgust. "Damn.. That little demon brat.."
Naruto roof hopped until he was on one low enough to jump from. From this point he sprinted to the academy. He didn't wanna be late on his first day. He jumped over the gate entrance to the school and past the monitor station.
The receptionist ignored him. It wouldn't bother her one time if the demon never showed up at all.
Naruto blasted up the stairs then down the hall until he finally saw the opening of the room. He arrived and squinted his eyes.
It was too late.
He was late on his first day.
Slowly he opened the door as Iruka and the other teacher were writing their names on the board. Slowly he crept in as silently as a shinobi had ever been.
He slipped into a seat near the back where he might go unnoticed. As soon as he was set up and unpacked with his bag sitting ready besides his desk and a pencil lawing ready Iruka changed his tone of voice, never once turning around. "And as we've said before.. A ninja must always be dependable.. If they do not practice coming on time diligently then they will gain the reputation of an undependable ninja.."
"As I'm sure we can all thank Mr. Uzumaki here for demonstrating.. Let's give him a round of applause."
At this the class erupted in snickers and fits of laughter. Naruto sunk back into his seat. He glared at Iruka. The said instructor merely smiled. Next to him Naruto noticed was a girl. She appeared to be in her late twenties. She wore a chuunin vest as Iruka did.
On the board he noticed next to Iruka was the name Namuro Kiko. Naruto silently noted that Senbou was not there. So they transferred him huh..
Iruka stood up tall and proud. "All right now we've been through the intoductions and beginning orientation so lets get to work. Every one take out the dynamics of ninja weaponry and turn to the introductory paragraph.. You there misterrr.." the boy emotionlessly replied "Neji, Hyuuga Neji."
Iruka smiled. "Ahh yes, well Neji please start the introductory paragraph." without another remark the boy took out his book and began to drawl out in a monotone voice.
Naruto sat in the back trying to follow along but he soon found his interest waning.
Aww not this stuff again.. Honestly, this is such a waste of time! I don't wanna learn about theoretical ways a kunai can be thrown under stupid conditions that'll never happen! This is soo boring!
Naruto's eyelids began to droop. Then his head slowly started it's descent.
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Naruto found himself in his tunnel once again. He jogged to the end and walked closer to the large gate.
"Naruto, how was your first day?"
The young boy sighed. "It's soo boring I just got to class and already I can't stay awake... so I thought I'd come visit you.
The massive fox rumbled a chuckle. "What happened to I'll graduate this time for sure?"
Naruto closed his eyes and frowned. "Well I will.. But the classes are so boring.. I'm not learning anything useful.. Hey could you teach me some stuff?"
Kyuubi closed it's eyes and began to laugh. It's loud rumbling roars echoed across the seal. Naruto narrowed his eyes and frowned. "Hey.. It wasn't a joke.." finally ceasing the laughter the mighty fox lowered it's head so it was almost level with the young boy and it spoke.
"My jutsu's require stamina, speed, strength and chakra amounts like you can't conceive.. If you ever do reach a level where I can work with you then I may be willing to help you out. But until then you're going to have to learn the basics of your mortal jutsu's."
Naruto frowned and turned around. "Well then.. I guess I'll have to get back and listen to Iruka-sensei's boring lessons some more.." He sighed and walked off towards the exit.
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Naruto had already spent many weeks at the academy and he did not excel like he hoped he would. The curriculum had changed from last year. It was.. Harder. The Hokage had apparently asked for more trained genin and thus, the quizzes were all at least 50 questions, the tests were at least 100. A few lunchtime's Naruto would walk by and see the other classes eating. He never approached any of them though, regardless of them being the same age.
It was stupid to put him in school early. He secretly thought he did it to try to keep him out of trouble to get him out of the Hokage's hair. He just wasn't smart enough to be at this level this young..
One day the classes were combined due to a shortage of teachers. Some had gone on vacation and the curriculum matched up so..
The years 2, 3, and 4 were all combined in a few of their classes. Naruto as usual was sitting by himself in the back row. The girl from before suddenly popped down next to him. A few murmurs and narrowed eyes held the same sentiment.
"Ino what are you doing.."
She just shrugged. "Just chill out.. There's no other seats left anyway.. Besides sitting here outs me closer to Sasuke."
Indeed the young Uchiha that Naruto had seen before was sitting just to his left. Ino and her friend Sakura were in a death match over him when a new ninja came in. Naruto blinked in surprise.
A...substitute.. For a mixed class..
The ninja raised an eyebrow. "Interesting.. A mixed class.. Anyway, The curriculum you have for me to teach is... how shall I say... rather bland in my opinion."
He smirked. "Ok class.. Today we're going to review a very high level technique.. Even as Chuunin, Kiko and Iruka are nowhere near able to preform this advanced skill. It's a Jounin technique, though even I can only barely preform the basics of it." "But.. We're going to review the rudimentary basics of what it is as a section in itself.
This is called Kuchiyose no jutsu.. The summoning technique."
The class instantly stopped chattering and turned around to pay attention.
Finally, something cool and useful.. Naruto thought
He took out his pen and began to copy notes .
The substitute continued. "The summoning technique is basically a high level technique that brings a set animal that the user signed a contract with from a temporal space dimension."
"It calls forth mystical creatures from a different plane of existence and releases them into this world to be used for tracking or.. Fighting.."
Naruto widened his eyes. Summoning.. Could it be..
The substitute turned around and wrote a set of names on the board. 'These are the mythical animals that users are able to summon.. There are lower levels but these are the main branches."
Naruto stood up suddenly. "Hey, hey, Sensei!" The teacher turned and saw that it was Naruto. He frankly didn't care about the Kyuubi no kitsune..
He'd been on a mission when the beast had attacked.. And he hadn't lost any friends or relatives so the fact that Naruto was the beast's container didn't really matter to him.
"What is it mister.. Uzumaki.."
Naruto slammed his hand down on the desk. "This summoning thing.. How big and cool can the animals get?" the Substitue sighed. Why did I know that was coming.. Sheesh.. Kids these days are so predictable.."
Alright.. Listen up summoned creatures size and power depend upon the level of perfection you preform the technique to and the amount of chakra you use to summon them.. So in theory the only limit to the size and 'coolness' of a summoned animal is the type you have a contract with, and the amount of chakra you generate to summon it."
"Although to even summon a small animal the size of a softball requires Jounin level chakra. To summon one the size of a dog it requires elite Jounin and so on.. So it's not realistic to get very big with it.."
Naruto nodded excitedly. "But.. It's possible right!"
"Like I could summon a million foot long turtle and teach it to eat pizza and then it'd be like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turt-" "Yes, mister Uzumaki.. I suppose if you had the chakra of an entire continent's worth of ninja you could summon the ninja turtles and their little rat sensei too.. Though you don't and I'm fairly sure you won't have the chakra of an entire continent's worth of ninja so it's really a rather moot point.."
Naruto sat back down as he realized he'd made a fool of himself in front of 3 years worth of students. But.. He'd finally found something to go on. Uzumaki Naruto never backed down on his word.. And he'd made a promise.. An oath that he intended to keep if it was the last thing he ever did.. And now he just may have found a way to do it.."
"Anyway.. The Substitute continued. "The summoning technique is preformed by using both seals and a contract with the animal of your choosing... this is what separates it from normal jutsus that simply require seals and chakra."
Naruto listened very carefully and wrote down as much as he could. He was given a set of animals that it was possible to summon, he would have a quiz on them tomorrow. He studied extensively and was ready to get an A the next day. However.. Elsewhere that night.
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"YOU TAUGHT THEM ABOUT WHAT!"
The Jounin sighed. "The stuff you had for me was ridiculous... it'd never have grabbed their attention.." Iruka was shaking with rage. They are academy students.. They arent even genin!" he growled out. "Do you knwo what will happen if any of them try to do a jutsu like that.." the Jounin shook his head. "Relax.. I didn't teach them any seals or anything.. Just what it was and the list of animals that are summonable. " Iruka rubbed his temples. "You're off.. Thank you for filling in but I got it from here."
The Jounin just shrugged. "Whatever.. Good luck keepin their attention with your lame situational tactics.."
Iruka sighed. "Yeah, thanks Hizo.."
The black haired man simply smirked. As we walked off.
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Naruto actually arrived at the academy on time that morning. But when he got there he found Iruka. The mixed classes had returned to normal. "I understand you all learned about a very advanced jutsu yesterday.."
"Well I didn't sanction the mentioning of a jutsu like that so we'll be returning to the original lesson plan." A chorus of Aww's were heard at this but Iruka ignored them. But Naruto wasn't about to let it go. "Oiy, wait.. What's so bad about learning stuff that actually matters..I mean that's what makes a strong ninja right?"
Iruka sighed. But Naruto cut him off. "I want to learn as many cool jutsu's as possible.." Iruka closed his eyes and closed his lesson plan bok. "Class.. Do you know what makes the ninja of the hidden leaf unique?"
"Most villages think that to learn new jutsu's or to master certain styles makes strength.. But what we realize here is that to become truly strong.. You must fight to protect something that is precious to you with all your heart."
Iruka opened his eyes. "Because.. When something is precious.. Truly precious, and you would fight to defend it with all of your being.. Then you can gain the strength you need to defend them." "Like the Yondaime did for all of us.."
He smiled. "But I'm sure you all understand this.." "Kumo is there someone you hold precious to you?" The young boy smiled. "Yeah.. My parents.." Another girl raised her arms "my brother!" more and more raised their hands. My mom, my cousin, my best friend shali, my doggie"
Iruka smiled closing his eyes. "You see, if you care for this person with all of your being.. Then you can become strong enough that when the time comes when they need protection.. You'll be able to use that strength to save them..." "And that.. is how Kohona ninjas become strong."
Kiko nodded. "Well said Iruka."
Naruto bolted up. "I-I have someone that I consider precious..." Iruka looked at the young boy. "Really.. And you'd do anything for this person?" Naruto nodded. "It's uh.." he stopped a few seconds. "It's.. the guy who serves me noodles at the Ichiraku Ramen Noodles shop!"
Iruka raised an eyebrow. Then he shook his head a vein bulging as Naruto burst out laughing along with his classmates.
Iruka grit his teeth. "Naruto this is serious.. This is the truth behind our very existence as Leaf ninja.. Even the Hokage gains his strength from the desire to protects us all.. All of the villagers.. That's what makes him a great leader.. The selfless sacrifice to protect those most precious to you when they include everyone in the village.. like.. like the Yondaime.."
Naruto looked down slumping back into his seat. "Never forget that children.. The true path to strength lies in the bonds we make with the people we hold most dear.."
Naruto meditated on those words turning them over and over in his head. He ignored the lesson and that suited Iruka fine.. After all he'd had enough of the blonde's mouth today.
As the students filed out Naruto sprinted back home. He couldn't wait to go into his seal.
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"..And that's what we talked about today." Kyuubi tilted it's head to the side. "Precious... and you have someone like that.."
Naruto looked up at the massive fox with determination shining in his cerulean orbs. "Yeah I definitely do.. And I will become stronger than you.. So that when the time comes.. I'll be able to protect you from anything, even another seal like that bastard used on me.. Because.. You.." Naruto finally broke down.
Crystal tears flowed down his cheeks in streaming rivers.
"Because you.. Are my friend.. My only friend.."
Kyuubi's eyes went wide.. Slowly a small smile tugged at it's lips revealing the gleaming white teeth. The gigantic pointed ears drooped down as it's head dropped staring at the floor of it's cage. "I.. Have never held anything truly precious before..."
It raised it with a sincere look in it's eyes. "But..you have become.. Very.. important to me.. Naruto.."
"I will protect you.. My.. Friend.."
Naruto didn't get up off the floor of his living room (which was more or less every other room as well.) He fell asleep inside the seal. Naruto had found a way to surpass the gates from the outside and to enter the cage. He cuddled up against the soft fur of the mighty fox as it softly laid it's tails across him in a blanket of warmth. Naruto smiled and said "Y'no you have really soft fur.. I like it." then he drifted off to sleep.
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The academy went by quickly. And sadly with Naruto passing only a few of the courses.
He was much more focused on learning all he could about summoning from anyone he could find. The technique was cool and it interested him in it's type of combat. He even talked to a boy named Inuzuka Kiba.
This boy had a dog that he could preform jutsu with. Naruto learned about shinobi animal interaction from him and his sister Hana.
He went to library after library. He personally went to see the Hokage about information on summoning.
The Sadaime didn't think much of it when Naruto mentioned summoning a million foot long Ardvark with tentacles mutating out his eyes.
And if kept him out of trouble...
Though he still played pranks every now and then. He happily allowed Naruto to use copies of the basic Jounin level scrolls to study, knowing full well that Naruto couldn't understand a single word.
But.. Sandaime did not take into account one thing.
Naruto's determination. though.. strangely enough he'd never mentioned his summoning research to Kyuubi.. not even once.
Usually Naruto would skip is academy classes to do pranks or try to get attention. But now.. It was all spent on learning all he could about summoning and sealing. And so the year passed on with Naruto making average scores with the exception of the midterm.
Since he had spent nearly all of his time and energy on learning summoning and the classes were even harder than last year..
He barely passed. At the rate he was going he'd just barely make Genin by the time graduation came around again. But now was a terrible day for him.
It was the day of the Kyuubi's sealing and not one person had ever wished him a happy birthday..
As a matter of fact they were meaner to him than usual because the day also coincided with the sealing of the 9 tailed fox.
He was a painful reminder of the small failure of the defeat.. The last peice to be destroyed to fully resolve the matter and yet they were forbidden to do so..
But even more so the cost that the even partial victory had cost.. The life of one of the greatest and most beloved hero's Kohona had ever known.
The Yondaime Hokage.
However before Naruto woke up he found himself drug into the recesses of his seal. "Huh.." he said in confusion. There, standing in front of him was the mighty kitsune smirking. "If I'm not mistaken today is your birthday right Naruto?"
The young blonde looked down at the floor. "Unfortunately yes.."
Kyuubi smirked. "Well, I have a present for you... err.. Kind of."
Naruto blinked in surprise. "No one had ever gotten him anything for his birthday.. But what could a demon fox behind a cage possibly give him...
Kyuubi smiled wider. "You see these humans celebrate this day while I partially loathe it, but at the same time.. I celebrate it as well.. For without it I would never have met you.."
Naruto chuckled and looked at the ground embarrassed.
"However, I spend these days of commemoration, reviewing the batle we had and I think I've found something actually useful in it.. Now you see as a 9 tailed demon fox my knowledge and cunning is unrivaled, but my memory is also unrivaled and my perception and understanding of chakra is.."
Naruto interrupted. "Hmmm.. Lemme guess, unrivaled"
Kyuubi chuckled. "Exactly.. After reviewing our battle thoroughly I have found that there were several jutsu's that the Yondaime of this village preformed several times.. One of these was a speed technique that I analyzed and broke down to where I understand it."
"Now, this technique is too advanced for you at your current state.. But the other.. It was a ball of swirling chakra that had great destructive power.. It was quite possible the most devastating attack I have ever seen a human wield.. And best of all it does not require hand seals to preform, allowing you to practice everywhere you go including here.. And you can begin learning to use it even now."
Naruto blinked in confusion. "So you're telling me you are actually going to teach me a jutsu you saw the Yondaime use!"
Kyuubi smirked. "Yes.. At the current level you are at I want you to have a trump card.. This si the perfect technique for you because you can practice everywhere and anywhere.. With the right kind of work you can have the technique mastered to even his level in 3 years.. And if you use my chakra..."
Naruto smiled. A powerful jutsu from the one hailed as the greatest ninja in history.. This would be sweet. "Ok Kyuubi-sensei I'm ready..."
the Kyuubi sighed. "Hmm.. Yes well. I'm not sure how to exactly go about doing this.. I have a mind well over 5 times the analytical power of the Sharingan.. But even though I can produce the jutsu.. I'm not sure how to go about teaching you the methods.. They probably require a teaching method that I do not know.."
Naruto nodded.
Kyyubi narrowed it's eyes. "All right, for now I want you to practice making a ball of chakra on your palms at the very center.. Just focus on that. Practice wherever you are and at all times until it becomes second nature to you."
Naruto nodded in affirmation. "All right thank you Kyuubi-sensei I won't let you down.. And thanks for the Birthday gift.. I will master this jutsu better than the Yondaime ever did.. And then I will use it to protect you with these two hands."
With that he ran out of the seal smiling like an idiot.
Naruto spent the entire morning practicing over and over the ball of chakra. He found it was very difficult because getting chakra to form into a ball was goign against it's normal nature of unpredictable flaming. He had only succeeded in 2 balls in 4 and a half hours of training.
He was dead tired.
It took a lot of mental control and focus to do this jutsu.. And he was hungry. He knew it was dangerous to venture out into the open on the commemoration day.. But.. He had no food at home. So hoping to grab a quick bite at the Ichiraku Ramen shop he bolted out the door trying to be as stealthy as possible.
Unfortunately fate was not with him.
Ichiraku closed the sign read. "Shit.." muttered Naruto.. Now what was he gonna do. He turned to head home when suddenly he ducked downa nd to the right. As 3 kunai whizzed by him. A shuriken caught him in the back.
"Ahhh!" he cried out in pain. He turned and saw as a set of Chuunin dropped down and stared at the child before them. "Well.. Well.. What have we here.. It's the demon child. You have a lot of nerve showing your face here on this day.."
"The day you killed our Hokage!" One of the Chuunin kumped up and kicked Naruto square in the chest sending him into a wall. A set of kunai shot into him pinning him agaisnt the wall.
His screams alerted a few but when they saw who it was they simply turned to ignore it or smirked and sat back to watch the show.
Suddenly a blur of black appeared and a silver haired man perched on a roof. Kakashi was brought by the scream and when he saw that a group of Chuunin were beating on a little kid it enraged him.
He was about to jump down and give them a beating they wouldn't soon forget when he caught sight of the boy.
His eyes narrowed. "The demon brat... hmph... serves him right..it's not my place to interfere with something like this." he muttered and jumped off the roof disappearing in a blur of motion as Naruto continued to be helplessly beat.
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Naruto stumbled into the seal and loked around frantically for his friend. Kyuubi suddenly appeared at the front of the cage and once it grasped the situation it's eyes widened before narrowing and growing cold.
Very cold.
"Naruto.. Listen to me and do exactly as I tell you and do it now form the seals I'm going to project into your mind.. And hurry.. There's not much time!"
The young boy nodded and did as hew as told. Suddenly Kyuubi's cage was ablaze with fiery red chakra and it began to leak out all over Naruto's body.
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The Chuuin were relentlessly beating the bloodied body after it had gone unconscious and just as one was coming in for the kill he went to run his kunai through the boys face.
Suddenly the boys eyes opened. But they were not the blue eyes of the normal boy.. They were the fury filled eyes of the demon fox.
The blood red eyes of a very pissed off bijju. The kunai knife was brought down and a red aura exploded out of the boy as swirling tendrils of it shot out and dug into the ground cracking it.
The kunai was caught securely in Naruto's sharp canine jaws. Suddenly he bit down shattering the metal kunai and sending shards of it everywhere.
The Chuunin went wide eyed. But before they could scream or call for help Naruto was on them. Kyuubi had partial control of Naruto and even with his 10 year old body it was able to completely demolish the Chuunin.
Not wanting Naruto to have to explain 4 dead bodies the Kyuubi sliced cleanly dribbling only a little blood to mix with Naruto's own large amount on the ground. By now all his wounds had healed up.
After killing them Naruto formed 4 seals and created a fox fire jutsu that incinerated the corpses.
The ashes scattered into the wind. Then he drooped his head and when Naruto opened his eyes again he found that he'd completely healed and that the Chuunin were nowhere to be seen. Inside he heard a distant voice say.. "I think it would be wise to get home as soon as possible.." Naruto agreed wholeheartedly with the sentiment and bounded off.
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"Kakashi... I'm curious.. Have you seen Naruto at all today?" Kakashi looked at the Sandaime.. Why do you ask Hokage-sama?" Sandaime sighed. "Today is a very difficult day for him.. I was.. Worried he might get into some trouble so I was curious if you've seen him today.."
Kakashi was a lot of tings.. And a liar was one of them.. But this was the Sandaime Hokage.. He couldn- no, wouldn't lie to the Sandaime Hokage.
"Yes, I saw the boy being beaten by a group of Chuunn in an alleyway earlier today. Sandaime looked worried. "Did you stop them?"
Kakashi remained passive. "No."
Sandaime widened his eyes. "What! Whay not!"
Kakashi looked him dead in the eyes.. "That demon killed some of my closest friends, including my Sensei.. And you honestly expect me to protect that... thing."
Sandaime sighed. "Kakashi.. There is something about Naruto that you should know.. When the Yondaime was searching for a vessel to hold the Kyuubi in he knew he could not burden another family with it.. He just wasn't the type of man to do that."
"So.. He did it to the only one he felt he could.. He did it to Naruto.. His son."
Kakashi paled. "W-what! that boy is.." Suddenly his mind clicked as both his eyes widened.. the sharingan being hidden from view behind the cloth of his headband.
The blonde hair.. The blue eyes.. That look of determination.. How could he have missed it..
"But.. Then that means.." Sandaime nodded. "Yes, The Yondaime had a child with a woman he did not marry.. She left him with the child who he refused to give up, regardless of the consequences on his office..."
"And then the Kyuubi attacked and he had no choice but to sacrifice him anyway.. His last wish was for Naruto to be remembered and looked upon as a hero in this village.. However his wish has not been fulfilled.. Not even by his student it seems.."
Kakashi blinked in surprised horror. And then regret washed over him. More than blaming himself for the death of Obito, more than the kills he'd made as an ANBU captain..
Because.. If the child of his Sensei was dead.. He would know forever that he had once had the chance to save him.. And for once.. It really would be his fault.
"I apologize Hokage-sama.. I will.. Go check on the boy immediately."
With that he was gone.
Sandaime sighed. Kayaku.. I have tried but it seems your final wish is simply too much to make a reality.."
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Meanwhile Naruto sat in his cold little apartment unconscious on the floor as inside the seal he worked fervently on making another ball of chakra. Sweat poured down his forehead as he remembered the words of his teacher Iruka.
"When something is precious.. You fight to protect it with all of your strength.. That is when you can become truly strong.."
"When something is precious.." Naruto mumbled. he looked at the Kyuubi sitting there watching him.
He didn't care how big or not human it might be or how "evil" it was
Naruto had a very precious person.
And it's name was...
Note: ok that's it for chapter 2.
5..4...3..2..1.. HAPY NEW YEAR!
Happy 2006 to all yall, as I said I have like 10 chapters already outlined and all. And yeah.. I know I know.. Considerable time skip to go from impudent mortal to Naruto my friend but.. Hey if they spend every second together they bound to develop a friendship.. Also.. At the age of 10 he is learning Rasengan.. And he will get super powered from another source too.. But we'll save that for later..
Well anyway more to come soon. Dbfs is also on the way ill kinda alternate between stories so.. Yeah anyways next chapter will be pretty cool as it will have Naruto's second graduation exam and the results this time around are...
Pace.