Disclaimer: Still don't own Naruto, waiting on that phone call Kishimoto
"Come one! Pop you stupid balloon!"
Was what Naruto was screeching out. For hours on end he was rotating the water in the balloon, but with no luck in causing it to burst. It flowed around the balloon in a smooth circular motion; causing Naruto to be bewildered as he rotated the water but the not without slightest bit of stretch from the elastic. For hours on ending he was spinning and rotating the water like whirlpool pout at sea, yet the balloon would not stretch or expand, in the slightest way. His clothes were getting worn and ragged with a few holes in them for good measure, and even though he was trying everything he can think of: he just can't make he balloon expand let alone pop.
The sun was beginning to set on the town, leaving a radiant orange in its wake; shining upon the buildings and the people. It was getting close to the end of the day for many of the people in the town, but for Naruto it was just getting started as he refused to give up. He was exhausted from trying to make the balloon pop and could collapse any minute and his right hand was aching so much but he had to do this for himself and for Lord 4th.
'I can't give up, I have to make Lord 4th proud of me, in the afterlife.' He thought exhaustedly.
Eventually Naruto decided to stop for a minute to think about his predicament aloud.
"Okay, I'm rotating the water in the balloon, but it's as if it's working against itself, and I'm not sure why it does that. To make the balloon pop, I have to make a bunch of holes in the balloon to let the water out but that will make the water focused into a specific spot and not rotating." He said panting "Okay I need some more water before anything else." He said as grabbed his empty bottle; and proceeded to make a shadow clone to go to the town.
The clone was walking through the woodland area up stream. Walking against the incline of the hill when a wild animal came out a bush, being disturbed in his sleep "Ahh crap a badger!" as the clone got his face clawed off my the wild animal.
'Poof' as the clone went.
"Ah! The hell, why do I get these memories, when the clones disperse?" Naruto exclaimed scratching his head as he walked to get his water bottle. He thought 'Do I retain the memories of the clones? Best go and wake the pervert up' as he walked over to the sleeping pervert.
He proceeded to wake up the white haired man from his slumber by shaking his shoulder 'hey old pervert wake up; I have to ask you something.' As the Toad Sage proceeded to slowly open his eyes. Naruto continued to rattle and shake the man in his eternal slumber.
"Huh…. Huh what is? What do you want?" he muttered in his sleepy voice.
Naruto was irritated by his laziness and so decided to smack him right on his head, still very mad for spending all of his money
"Ow! W-what was t-that for?"
"What's up with the memories of clones returning to me?"
"W-what do you mean." As he eyes widen
"I said: Why do the clones return their memories to me." He said staring into the Sanin's eyes.
As they opened they saw a pair of deep cerulean eyes beaming into him looking annoyed.
"What do you mean?" the aged man asked
"I mean if the clone did something that I wasn't there for, all of its memories return to me."
"Wait a minute brat, you now tell me you found you just realised that." He said wide eyed and proceeding to stand up.
"I mean uh yeah. I'm just use them for combat, and only recently did I start using them for errands."
Jiriaya began to stand up and stretch his arms, rub his eyes , gave out a yawn and then clasped his hands together, before saying "Well then you're not using the Jutsu to its fullest potential. Lord 2nd originally made the Justu for recon as they can gather intel without risk to the user."
"Really! Tobirama Senju made this Jutsu!" the orange clad Genin beamed
"Of course squirt, you should know the Jutsu's origins." Jiriya said chuckling
"Whatever. So when a clone is dispersed the memories return to the original." Naruto stated. Then an idea flashed into his mind "Hey can I use this Justu for training as any memories of the clones will return to me."
Jiraiya with a grin said "So, you have you figured out the basically the ultimate training method eh. Well good for you, because you can drastically cut down the time needed to train; and this training method would be exclusive to you."
"Why's that?" the Blonde asked
"Well high chakra reserves are needed to make a high number of shadow clones as the chakra needs to be distributed equally between each clone. The Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu is actually a Forrbidden Jutsu as the original is left with so little chakra that they die of 'chakra exhaustion' without actually using it all up."
"So how can I do it without any risk?"
"Even as a kid your chakra reserves are HUGE. You make a jounin's chakra reserves look like a tear drop and I would say you have about 1 and half or twice as much as me. Hell when get to your twenties or thirties you would have 10, 20 possibly 30 times what I have and that's without the fox."
"That's fucking huge!!! No wonder why chakra control is so bad, but why are my reserves so big."
"I don't know. And it explains why you can't do the normal Clone Jutsu, even to save your life." 'It's because of your Uzumaki heritage, and it helps that Kushina had large chakra reserves but can't say that to you just yet.' "Now remember don't release too many at one time, as the large flow of information to your brain can kill you. I'd stick to 1 for the time being." The white haired man said seriously.
Naruto gasped. Gulping in response said "Alright" as he proceeded to make a shadow clone and grabbed a water balloon.
"Alright, I'm spinning the water in the ball, but it's as if the chakra is working against itself." causing the Sage to widen his eyes.
'He's starting to figure it out.'
"Pervy Sage Can you explain why that is happening."
"Well, you are supposed to do this by yourself. But I guess I could give a little hint to help you out." As he looked at his hair "hmmmmm"
Naruto narrowing his eyes asked "Why are you looking at my hair."
"Just checking something." As he figures out what he was looking for "Now I want you to rotate the water to the left and you to the right." As he pointed towards the Doppelganger.
"Okay" the said in unison as they began to rotate the water. Quickly after, the clone realised something "Hey there's a different feeling in this ball, as if the water is rotating more easily."
"Really. Let me try." As the original switched direction "Yeah it does feel easier. Pervy Sage why's that."
He smiled and said "It's because of your chakra rotation type. By looking at how your hair grows, I can see what your chakra ration type is. If hair gores to the right you're a right rotation type and to the left you're a left rotation type. If you spin chakra in the opposite way to way you're inclined to, then your chakra is working against itself."
"OH that makes sense! Thanks Pervy Sage!" as both clones begin to spin the water to the right.
"And one more tip of advice." As he brought out a marker pen from his pocket
"What are doing with that?" he asked
"Just watch." As Jirayia proceeded to mark the palms of both Naruto's with a black swirl.
Naruto raised an eye-brow at that action. To him it was so weird and confusing. As he began to stare with a confused face at the dot.
"Why'd you do that Pervy Sage?"
"To help you out. Focus your chakra onto that point of your hand. The more focused and centred your chakra is, the more you can rotate the water in the balloon." He responded as he brought out a piece of paper. "Think of it like a piece of paper. If you focus all of your might, into a singular point, then it's much easier to tear." He tore the piece of paper.
"Yeah! That makes sense." As the 2 Naruto's begin to spin the water once again; with knowledge of spinning it to the right and to focus their chakra on 1 singular point. After 1 solid minute of rotation, the balloon wasn't its normal self. It wasn't its normal smooth rounded off shape. It became lumpy and had hill like features.
"Hey do you fell this!" Naruto shouted to his doppelganger
"Yeah! The balloon is stretching. The water is making the balloon wider." The Clone exclaimed with joiy
"Now we're spinning it in the right way, but this rotation needs to cause the balloon to burst, so we need to make it even lumpier." Naruto explained to himself and the clone
"Yah know kid the sun is about to set you should some rest. Over training will detract your skills."
"Alright, if you say so Pervy Sage." As he dispersed the clone and they left the uphill area and went to an Inn for the night. As he entered the moderately sized building, putting on his pyjamas all of a sudden he dropped them.
"Wait what?" he said aloud, as he again tried to put his top only for him to drop the shirt. "What's going on?" he asked himself. As for a minute straight he couldn't, and eventually through trial and error he was able to eventually put it on; but the problem did not subside. The blonde Genin was struggling to put on his pants, brush his teeth and getting a glass of water. All of the time, he was dropping whatever he was trying to grab, and eventually he asked Jiriaya for advice.
"Hey Pervy Sage, my right hand is getting all wonky, I keep dropping everything I grab."
Jirayia remembering what happened to him when he tried to perform the Rasengan said "Ah yes, one of the side-effects of learning the Rasengan is that you lose some of your fine motor control; but don't worry it comes back."
"My fine-what?"
"The ability to produce smaller, more precise movements." He explained
"Okay I get it." As Naruto headed towards a window facing the night sky.
"Kid where are you going?"
"Oh, to help me get sleep quicker I stare at the night sky for a bit."
"Alright but not for too long." Jiriaya asked with Naruto nodding in response, and went to a secluded nearby window.
Deep Cerulean eyes stared out into the inky black, gazing high up into the space, staring into the midnight sky, with a sleeping cap on his head and tired eyes. He looked up to the sky, as if he was asking the speckled stars across the sky for an answer, an answer for what he wanted more than anything; more than anything else in the entire universe.
Who were his parents?
Oh how he longed to see his parents, what he would give to see them alive and well; even if it meant being Hokage, just to see them by his side. He slightly sniffed as a silent tear fell down his cheek as he tenderly said:
"Mum, dad. Whoever you were I hope you're alright, in the afterlife. Goodnight."
But what he did not realise, there was a white haired man, eavesdropping on his statement to stars; as a tear fell from his eyes.
"I'm sorry Naruto that I can't say who your parents are. But I can say that if they were here right now, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki would be proud of their son." As the two went to bed.
Naruto woke up to the morning light as he fluttered his eyes. He rose from his deep slumber, yawned in his hand and went straight to the bathroom. As he proceeded to brush his teeth, the same problem occurred but to a lesser degree.
"At least it's wearing of." He said to himself
As he exited his shower with a towel around his waist and on his shoulders, he saw a black cat playing with 1 of his water balloons. He was about to take it away from, until he saw the balloon getting lumpy and uneven unlike its usual smooth and round appearance.
'Why is it doing that?' He thought. Then he saw the shadowy outline of the water in the ball. It wasn't rotating in its normal fashion; it was sloshing around in the balloon, like raging storm out at sea. Then a thought a struck him like a tonne of bricks.
"Hey wait a minute, what if I…." as he quickly ran to his room to grab a water balloon. He proceeded to spin it wildly in multiple directions, left right up down and centre; he was spinning, splitting and slicing the water in the balloon in every way possible. It wasn't its usual spherical shape. It was lumpy and pointy in multiple parts.
"Yes! Spinning the water in multiple directions causes the rubber to expand and stretch." As he continued to expand and stretch, but Naruto couldn't make it pop. He tried for 10 minutes but the balloon would not burst, no matter what he tried.
"Dammit so close!" he screeched out. "Maybe I need to spin the water even more. But I'm doing the best I can do with 1 hand." He continued to struggle and strive for a few minutes then a thought came to him. "Hey I'm only using 1 hand; maybe if I use 2, I can spin the water even more." He said to himself. So he held the balloon with 1 hand and began spinning the water with the other.
The balloon stretched and stretched, even greater than it ever had before. It was reaching its elastic limit, but it's refusing to give in, trying to hold on for dear life not popping unless Naruto was putting everything he had in popping the balloon, and eventually…
POP!!!
The balloon finally bursts. The water rapidly escaping the rubber case leaving bits of rubber lying around the wooden floor Naruto was standing on, with the water splashing all across the floor.
"HELL YEAH!" Naruto screeched out cheering for joy as finally made the balloon pop. 'Did you see than Lord Minato, I'm following in your footsteps.'
Naruto was overjoyed when he finally made the balloon popped, he had just finished the 1st step of the Rasengan, he had done something in 1 day that would of taken weeks through hard work and training; proving Neji wrong about him and his beliefs: the false beliefs about not picking your own future. He was determined to get this Jutsu down before the exams, no matter what it took him. Eventually Naruto calmed down and recollected his thoughts.
"Alright I got the 1st part down, gotta ask Pervy Sage for the next part." As he walked over to Jiriya's room.
He found a snoring sleeping man, sleep talking about finding the perfect women at a public bathhouse.
Naruto shook the sleeping man as he asked "Hey Pervy Sage wake up, I know how to do the 1st step." He shook and rattled the sleeping man but did not bat an eye. "Hey old pervert wake up!" he said loudly. But still no answer; then an idea popped inn to his mind, and a devilish smile arose from it. He quickly ran back to his room and grabbed another water balloon, and began to quickly spin the water in the balloon, over Jiraiya's head.
POP!!!
As the water escaped the balloon and splashed over the Sage's head. Causing to rise from his slumber very quickly.
"Pha, pha pho." The Pervert was coughing out. "What the hell happened?" he said bewildered, and still continuing to cough.
"Look Pervy Sage I did it."
"Did what?" he raised an eyebrow in response.
I completed the 1st step of the Rasengan, look." As once again made the balloon pop.
Jiraiya warmly smiled in response "Well I'll be damned kid, you're making a lot of good progress. Alright time for the second step. Get ready, were going back to our trading area. But I got to ask how did you figure it out"
Naruto proceeded to run out the room, to quickly find the cat that played with his balloon. He grabbed it, reminding himself it wasn't Tora so he gently hugged. He ran back to Jirayia, holding the cat by his arms.
"This little guy helped me out. He was rolling around the balloon with his paws, when I was about to grab the balloon I saw the water sloshing around like a storm. That gave me the idea to spin the water in multiple directions so that's what I did." He gleamed with joy "I think I'm starting to like cats now." He said with a smile
"What do you mean by that?" The Sage asked
"One of the worst D-Rank missions we have to do is that we have to chase Tora the cat aroud, for her owner. And he always have to mawl of my face like there's no tomorrow." Naruto blowing a mental fuse remembering all of those times the cute innocent cat viciously attacked him like if he was his scratching post.
Jirayia began laughing a fair bit before saying "Oh yeah, I forgot Sarutobi Sensei would always give brand new Genin the task to chase him down."
"Wait! The old man has done this before?"
Jirayia responded to his bewildered Genin "Yes, in fact I was the 1st set of genin to catch him" he said remembering all the times Tora attacked him.
"Wow! Maybe the old man really has it in for the Genin of Konoha. Oh well."
"Maybe he does. Alright kid get ready, we're leaving soon for the 2nd step." Jirayia responded
Naruto was overjoyed when he heard him saying that but a thought came to his mind "Hey um aren't you disappointed that I have to use 2 hands to make the balloon pop?"
Jiraiya shrugged in response "Eh, it's a weird way of doing things, but weird means different, and different doesn't mean bad."
"Okay." He responded, but soon after an idea appeared in his mind "Hey can I have a shadow clone work on popping the balloon one handed whilst I work on the second step?"
"Hey brat that was pretty smart. Sure you can, but only 1 Shadow clone."
"Okay." As the prepared themselves to leave the hotel and to the training area.
As they left the hotel Naruto's eye caught a clothing store as he asked "Hey um did you spend all of my money, cause I might need it."
"Why'd you need it, don't tell me you're going to spend it on ramen. Too much of that stuff is really bad for you yah know."
"No not that." As he pinched his jacket "I need might to buy some new clothes. These are really rugged and damaged." As Jiraiya witnessed the damaged jacket.
"Alright kid. I'll buy you some new clothes." As they entered into the store.
Naruto's eyes widened when he entered the store. Hundreds of clothing items, lined neatly across shelves and hangers, ready to be bought and sold. His eyes beamed of all the many clothing items, and their respective colours and styles. From red to blue to green and of course Naruto's favourite: Orange. He rushed off to see all the clothes from pants to jackets.
One of the employees greeted the 2. With a smile he said "Hi there, welcome to the store. Would you like to take a look around."
"Yes we would be takin a look." Jiraiya responded, as Naruto blitzed from shelf to shelf and from hanger to hanger
"Woah. Slow down kid, we've got time."
"Sorry Pervy Sage. I mean there are so many options here; I don't know where to start!"
"It sounds like it's your 1st time entering a clothes store."
His smile slowly changed to a face of melancholy, as he quietly reminisced on those bad times he had as a child.
"Yeah. I would often be kicked out of stores, because of the you know what, so I would enter with the transformation Jutsu. Also these prices are a lot cheaper here."
"What do you mean?" the sage raised an eyebrow
"These prices are really low yah know, around a couple thousand Ryou. Back in Konoha, I would be charged triple for half the quality." He said remembering how little money he had (I think 10 Ryou is 1 japanese yen so a 1000 ryou would be around 6 pounds when I wrote this.)
Jirayia eyes hardened and fists tightened as he cursed the people of Konoha for treating his Godson no differently to dirt. "I'm so sorry kid. Tell you what, to make up for it, you have a budget of 30000 Ryou." He said hoping to cheer him up.
Naruto's sad face turned to gleaming one as he asked with a smile on his face "Really. You really mean that." He asked joyfully.
"Of course. I'm a man of my word." He smiled in response.
Naruto immediately jumped onto Jirayia and gave him a giant bear hug in response, holding him tightly showing how much this truly meant to him; someone buying a present for him.
"Thank you so much Pervy Sage!" Naruto exclaimed refusing to let go.
Jirayia hugged back in response, warmly smiling "Sure kid. Just don't go overboard." As they broke the hug and Naruto rushed towards the clothes.
His hyper-active mind went crazy trying on all the clothing items he could try, most of them were of course orange. Going from clothes hanger and from shelf to shelf his 12 year old mind was ecstatic of finally for the 1st time in his he was allowed to shop free, without the risk of being kicked out or being over charged for sub-par product's.
Eventually Naruto settled on a black Chinese style shirt with an orange zipper with orange shinobi pants and a black headband cloth to replace his originally damaged blue one and he wrapped his right arm with white tape to reduce the fine motor control loss he would receive from Rasengan training. (What he wore during the last). He liked this outfit so much that with the rest of his budget he bought multiple copies of the same outfit, and placed them all in summoning scrolls given by Jirayia.
"Alright kid you ready to leave?"
"Yeah. Couldn't be happier." He said joyfully as they left the store.
