Chap 3, Improvement.
Naruto never believed that this could happen to him, his life did a full turnaround ever since his godfather came back. He has someone who cares for him, well he was positive he will stay but the darkest part of him still doubted that this change is permanent. He is training like crazy with Jiraiya, at the end of the week he signed the summon contract with the toads, at first the jutsu was not his forte but after a bit terrifying experience he got it down. After every training session Naruto has to summon a toad and bond with it, most of the time it's Gamakichi, son of the boss toad Gamabunta.
The little toad showed Naruto how it feels to have a real friend, they are doing pranks together, play cards together, Naruto is having his lifetime experience with his first real friend who is not only insulting him every time he has the chance. Well at first they started with argument because Naruto didn't prepare any snack for the young toad but that was only a short lived argument.
The calligraphy part never interested Naruto, he was a fighter not a writer until Jiraiya got angry with him.
"You are a descendant of the Uzumaki clan kid, the best seal masters ever lived. Three major shinobi village had to band together to destroy a single clan, that's how terrifying the Uzumaki clan was. Also it would benefit you on the long run, you have one of the most complex seal on your stomach holding in the strongest tailed beast out of the nine." Jiraiya finished his angry rant and he saw that Naruto got a determined expression, ever since he knew who his parents were he wanted to surpass them any ways possible, if he has to learn calligraphy and fuinjutsu to do that, he will just do that.
"Summon twenty clones kid, each one of you will study how to write the kanjis without mistake." Jiraiya ordered and his young student did just that. Meanwhile the original was taken elsewhere.
"While your clones study calligraphy I will review your progress each day, I must say kid you are impressive, we are only training for a week and you show great progress, you are faster, have better reflexes and you almost fixed every hole in your taijutsu stance." Jiraiya looked at his godson as he was praising him and saw happiness in his eyes. Naruto was very glad that his godfather acknowledged his hard work and saying that he improved.
"Your aim improved overall ever since we started and your chakra reserve started to grow rapidly. Your ninjutsu needs work but we will get onto that, next week I will get some chakra paper to find out your affinity and we can begin training with it for more advanced chakra control exercises." Jiraiya finished his praise, the kid was a golden egg, how no one paid attention to him made him surprised and mad at the same time. In his own time Minato was called a one time genius, Naruto was very much like him, he improved on an advanced rate in his studies, both his parents would be proud of him. He will make him better than Minato, that's not a promise, rather it's a fact. In time Naruto will have to use the Kyuubi's chakra too but his body was obviously not ready for it, neither his mind. First he has to repair the damage done to him, both physically and mentally. The kid had very bad social skills, this way he won't have a girlfriend if he is left on his own.
During the second week of their training, a lot of worker came to the village, at the gates they only stated that they got a message from Jiraiya about a renovation job. First the shinobi's questioned those because not a lot of them were even aware that the sannin was in the village but the Sandaime gave them permission to do their job.
Jiraiya rented a hotel room where he and Naruto will stay while the kid's apartment gets basically rebuilt from scratch. He went and bought the roof part of the building since no one wanted to be neighbors with Naruto than he will get a huge apartment of his own. At least he will have a permanent home when he comes home from his long missions and he will live with Naruto.
When he tested Naruto's chakra nature it wasn't much of a surprise that he was wind element, Minato and Kushina both possessed the wind nature as secondary element.
"And what does that mean sensei? I have wind element so I'm like that girl from suna?" Naruto asked because he never knew much about chakra natures, he thought only jutsu's had nature not your chakra.
"Yes and no, wind is the strongest offensive nature but none of the nature's are supreme, for example wind is best against lightning while weakest against fire." Jiraiya explained to the young shinobi. While they were talking they were approached by Keiko from the clothing store slash armory.
"Hello Jiraiya-sama, Naruto I've come to notify you that my grandfather finished with the first gear you asked for Jiraiya-sama." the young girl bowed at them as greeting then she turned around and went back toward the village. Naruto and Jiraiya quickly followed her. Both of them were interested, Naruto since he had no idea what was the project, Jiraiya obviously wanted to see Naruto's reaction.
"Naruto, Jiraiya, follow me to the back." Higurashi stated and they followed him.
In the back of the store was a workshop and forge which was used solely by the old man. Naruto was fascinated by the various ninja tools hanging around, some were not even close to be finished. When they reached a covered mannequin their interest reached the peak. Higurashi revealed what was under the cover in a swift movement and both Naruto's and Jiraiya's jaw hanged. The outfit looked awesome but the simple sentence made Naruto's head spin.
"Naruto please try it on, this was created just for you." Higurashi smiled and Naruto was frozen in place, slowly he reached toward the outfit then went to try it on.
After he came back he was donned in his new gear, the orange purple neck was his favorite piece of the set, he loved orange, no one knew why, he just loved the color.
"Sensei it is awesome, thank you very much." he grinned at Jiraiya who gave a thumps up. Higurashi smiled widely seeing Naruto spinning around in front of a mirror and checking himself over again and again.
"But how will I carry my weapons?" Naruto asked and Jiraiya had a thoughtful pose, he was thinking about it before when he started to teach him sealing.
"Since I think it is time consuming to use weapons from a pouch I'll teach you an easy fuinjutsu technique since you are very much improved during our trainings and with the help of the shadow clones." Jiraiya said and Naruto got interested in an instant. He liked fuinjutsu after a long lecture of it's usage, he even got ideas of his own but he has to be at least adept to even try and develop something on his own.
"What kind of technique?" Naruto asked, Jiraiya scratched his chin in response.
"Well to be simply put it's a combination of two rather easy fuinjutsu technique, the first is called Fūnyū no Jutsu which is simply storing object or jutsus in a scroll and the second is Kaifū no Jutsu which is releasing the object sealed inside the scroll, now what I want to teach you is called Kuchiyose: Raikō Kenka." Jiraiya said and Naruto's face showed that he was paying one hundred percent attention what he was saying so he continued on.
"It's a summoning technique but it's not bound to a summoning contract and despite it's name it is not a space-time technique. It is just a ninja tool which allows you to summon various weaponry quickly during a fight, shortening your time of preparing the tool, getting in stance and actually using the weapon. The markings of the technique can easily be drawn to nearly anywhere, I think the best would be a wristband." The sage finished his explanation and Naruto had a thoughtful look on his face.
"If this is such a great tool and technique why do I see ninja tool pouch on nearly every shinobi I have ever met?" Naruto asked and Jiraiya had to blink at least twice.
"Well this is a great question, my bet would be that not many ninjas are interested in fuinjutsu, it's a delicate art which requires certain skills and patience. It is not flashy and if you are not a master only a novice it has nearly zero applications on the battle field if you didn't prepare way before the battle." Jiraiya said and Naruto nodded, it sounds right, even he was not interested in fuinjutsu but after his sensei explained that the seal on his stomach was the highest level of fuinjutsu he got interested, even more so when Jiraiya noted that the fourth's hiraishin employed fuinjutsu along with space-time ninjutsu.
"One more thing before you two go, Naruto attach the wakizashi to your belt and the katana to your back, it's easier to use them that way trust me." Higurashi smiled before he left the two of them to their own devices, he has to create more of those outfits anyways and time is money.
"Alright kid, let's go eat something I'm hungry." with that they left the shop and went to Ichiraku since Naruto cannot function without ramen for long.
Meanwhile Team 10 had their own little down time, occasionally they were sitting in Yakiniku Q but this time they were eating at Ichiraku Ramen. Choji loved ramen as he loved all kinds of food. When Jiraiya entered with a blonde guy in a rather weird looking gear they were dumbfounded when they realized it was Naruto, blonde hair, blue eyes, whisker marks, yep that's Naruto.
"Yo Naruto, what's with the new outfit?" Shikamaru greeted and asked Naruto at the same time, Chouji turned to him while he was slurping his ramen, Ino was more intrigued in the menu what to choose that is tasty and won't mess up her diet at the same time.
"Hey Shikamaru, sensei here thought that it's time for me to change from the jumpsuit to something more ninja like." Naruto stated as he sat in the booth next to Shikamaru, Jiraiya sat on his other side and grinned as he saw that the other guys checked out his godson's new outfit, some admiring will do the kid good.
"Looks awesome in my opinion, what's with the swords? Do you train this much for the match against Neji?" Shikamaru acted total out of character, he was normally uncaring but Naruto was always a misery to him, he saw him time to time outside of the academy and he never really understood why he was treated that way. He asked his father about it but he dodged the questions with a simple question of his own
"Let me ask you this instead Shikamaru, what do you think of Naruto?" Shikaku asked his son during their family breakfast.
"Well, he is a loudmouth idiot but he is not a bad guy, kinda annoying but funny at the same time." Shikamaru summarized his thoughts on it, he never really thought about the matter too much, Naruto was an enigma, he shouted on the top of his lungs everyday that he will be Hokage but otherwise no one knew him really. Most of the kids avoided him.
"I see, then see him as you wish Shikamaru, Naruto had a rough childhood, always consider this." with that Shikaku shut the conversation down and they ate in silence.
Ever since that day he considered Naruto to be his friend, not best friend like Chouji, but he knew that he can count on Naruto always.
"It was a gift from a shop owner like a week ago, he said early birthday present. I just wear them to get used to them, had no time to train with them yet, but I will be one of the finest swordsman you ever saw. Believe it!" Naruto answered the question with his usual confidence and grin, the funny thing that he always liked to hang out with Shikamaru and Chouji, they were always nice to him. During the academy when Shikamaru was sick once he defended Chouji against bullies, ever since that day the plump boy always offered him food he had with him and Shikamaru never complained about his company.
"You never aim less than best are you Naruto?" Chouji asked as he finished his ramen. He ordered his next as Naruto ordered his. Jiraiya stayed silent the whole time, it didn't mattered to him that they never recognized him, he liked the fact that at least Naruto had some decent company and conversation with his peers.
"Why aren't you training for the exam Shika? I thought you wanted to be chuunin like the rest of us." Naruto asked, the company was great but he thought that Shikamaru at least trained for his fight, the Suna kunoichi looked tough.
"It's troublesome, I never wanted to advance so early, Ino here wanted to be chuunin to gain Sasuke's grace nothing else, I don't think I am ready for it yet but I can't back out now, mainly because my mother would never let me live it down as long as I live." Shikamaru whined, he was lazy, he was not motivated, he didn't care for his rank.
"Well look at it this way, if you are stronger you can protect your friends in a more efficient way, you can't run away forever Shikamaru." Naruto said and after that they ate in silence.
A/N: Yo guys, I love that so many of you like my story, first of all sorry if the story sometimes gets too fast paced, I'm trying to write it better each time. If Naruto's improvement seems to be fast paced sorry for that but he is training with the shadow clones and Jiraiya was an amazing teacher for him in canon, even if it didn't seem to be the case most of the time. So enjoy and please review, it helps so I find the motivation to write and update faster :)