CHAPTER THREE:
THE MIND STRENGTHENING STAGE AND KURAMA
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hey guys, am sorry for the late chapter, I already had the third chapter prepared but somehow something happened and I lost everything, including the thirty something chapters of the four novels I was writing. So now I have to start all over, but that does not mean I have given up. Well it's a shame about the novels though, but there's no use crying over spilled milk. Now this is the third chapter, I am still trying to figure out an uploading schedule, especially for my other five, so for now uploads will be a little sporadic at best and a little sparse. But don't worry I will try to fix it up as soon as possible. Without further ado, this is the third chapter.
In a but shell Naruto was almost seventy percent sure jiraiya cut and run, I mean how can you just give a few lessons for only one day and disappear stating that you will be back in a month. Well its been a week since the one month deadline was passed and there has not been a single hint of jiraiya apart from the usual gossip that seemed to be associated with his name.
But even though Naruto was really worried that jiraiya will not show up, these past few weeks has been a little hectic for him. Apart from his training schedule, the fact that he now had a dralion to take care of was extremely taxing. Sure he had the money to take care of them both, all he had to do was shift the food timetable jiraiya made for him, to more cheaper stuffs then he would be able to keep up with the bottomless pit that is Mesuraion, of course her name was extremely peculiar, calling a dralion lioness even in another language was to much of a joke, so he shortened it to Sura.
Her growth has been a little stable, but she is still pretty much a child so her diet had to be delicate, but not to much. Because in the end she was still a hybrid beast of both demon and holy heritage, so she could not be too domesticated or in the future she will be completely domesticated. So while her feeding has been delicately administered she was no stranger to blood and fresh meat. In a little under two months Hana believed that she could start training, a beast have an above average intelligence when compared to normal animals. And its even more so for beast at the middle and later stages of the genin realm, they could have intelligence almost comparable to humans, and the stronger they become the more brain power the can command. Beast at the sage and kages level have the ability to speak in human tongues, many of them are even wiser than humans themselves, but the only difference is that they are still mostly driven by their animal like instincts, which if you think about it, is not that different from humans.
Hana had also taken it upon her self to understand Sura's ancestry. Dralion's are extremely rare as Naruto came to find out, so rare that the chance of sporting on was a one in a billion ratio. That and every Dralion's met don't have a set ancestry. Some can be the offspring of a profound snow lion and a poison dragon, or of a flood dragon and the suna wind lion. There are a myriad of species, but for some reason if dragons don't mate with their own race, or at least a race similar to theirs like the demonic lizards or serpent species, that usually mate with the lion species and nothing else. For millions of years, this has been the trend between the dragon species and their mating habits, it has led people to believe that the dragon and lion species were some how in league with each other, a dragon will never attack a lion if it could help it. And the same thing could also be said for the lions. Because of this strange relationship most beast tamers always like to have at least two or three beast of both species around them. Apart from the fact that they could coexist together, they give protection for when the tamer is traveling in areas encroached by either the dragon or lion species.
Sura's ancestry was a little baffling she is the grandchild of a true dragon, or at least a species of dragon that has an extremely pure bloodline of the true dragon. True dragons have no distinction among them, there is no poisonous, or earth or any other defining characteristics among them except for the color of the skin and skalds. True dragons are not considered holy or demonic beast but a third distinction, called magical beast. For magical beast the energy they use has no connection what so ever to chakra or any other natural energy that runs through the very fabric of the elemental nations. They have the ability to make something out of nothing, command the elements with just a thought and destroy and entire kingdom in the time it takes to make a cup of instant ramen. For sura it has been determined her holy side of her genes come from her dragon ancestry. Not all dragons are holy as even they have their fair share of demonic species too, but at this point whether Sura had a holy or true magical dragon for an ancestor is unknown. As for her lion side, when Hana found out she had a look of terror on her face, she said the ancestry of Sura from her lion side was the reason why the soul bonding was so painful for naruto, even with the bond Hana speculated that if the Sura wanted naruto dead, regardless of her powerful he was, he couldn't stop it. Sura was from a species of demonic lions that was as ancient as the very dust and air of the elemental nations, a creature that even if it faced a magical dragon, that dragon will have to flee regardless of how powerful it is. Sura is defended from the mythical Suanni lion, also known as the heaven devouring lion. A creature of eight blood red eyes, silky golden fur and a height of a hundred and fifty meters, towering over the whole of Konoha and worse of all with an appetite for souls and energy. The suanni lions had the power to eat any and everything, even the heavens themselves and the boundless seas, ancient legends have depicted the suanni lions as universe devouring existences. The magical dragon was at the apex of all beast, but the suanni lion is one of the four demon generals of the underworld, personal lackeys of the Shinigami and a hundred times more powerful than magical beast.
Their only challenge will come from the four celestial beasts, the vermilion bird of the northern sun, the black turtle of the southern earth, the azure dragon of the eastern seas, and white tiger of the western winds. All these legendary creatures each have their own descendants on the mortal plain, while the existed in other dimensions. One thin was for sure though, even if Sura had a garden lizard's bloodline with no connection to a dragon at all, she would still be a force to be reckon with in the future when she has grown and come into her heritage.
For now though she was still a cub, a cub that was currently nibbling on Naruto's ears in the early hours of the morning. With a groan naruto got up from his bed, he headed for the kitchen with sura trailing at his feet looking all innocent as if she did not just wake him at two am in the morning. According to Hana since she was still young she had no idea how to control her hunger which was most definitely brought about by her uncontrolled activation of her devouring ability. A bowl was placed in front of sura, and without any look of thanks whatsoever she dived head first into the delicacy in front of her and devoured it just like her demonic ancestor she devoured it definitely and swiftly, then she looks up at Naruto with her two different colored eyes. To any other person that would have been a really cute scene, but for Naruto all it did was send a shiver of fear tingling down his spine as he hastily filled the bowl and beat a hasty retreat out of the room. All he could hope for was that she grew up, and fast, if not he had no idea how he would survive before the two month period is over for her training to begin.
Currently we find naruto on the training field close to where he found sura, using the same routine he had been using for the past month or so, he was perched precariously on that slab of wood, which in turn was balanced on a completely smooth and round rock, and naruto who finds himself in the middle has a constantly boiling cup of tea on his head. Naturally a person in such a position will have to constantly split their attention in other to deal with the burning pain on their head, or keep themselves from falling and loosing a good number of their teeth. But for naruto he was currently doing the strangest thing. At that Moment he was reading!. And if that alone was not surprising he was completely still, his breathing took a regular rhythm, as he took big gulps of air according to the breathing technique jiraiya had asked him to practice. Initially he was supposed to practice the breathing techniques after the balancing exercise, but the constant and ardent training for the past month and few days had mad it so that Naruto was always performing the breathing technique unconsciously.
Currently he was reading a book on demonic and holy beast, apart from sura, naruto had zero to no knowledge concerning other demonic beast, and in the process of reading and improving his beast knowledge base, he had learnt to split his focus, even going as having a rudimentary control over the nerves of his body. Right now if Naruto had no wish to move, he wouldn't. Unless somebody way stronger than him intervened he was like a rock, unshakable and unmovable. As for the perpetually boiling cup of tea that was perched on his head, naruto had learnt and mastered what it was like to be totally still and disconnected from the world so no drop of liquid will be spilled. As for the pain of having a boiling cup of tea on top your head for hours on end. Naruto had learnt to actually convince himself that he was not in any pain whatsoever, that the hot tea on his head was nothing more than a cool refreshing cup of imperial sake that just came out of the fridge.
Of course Naruto had no idea he had achieved a state of mind, legendary ninjas will spend years painstakingly trying to develop. An ability to be able to in a nutshell exercise control over the various factors of your body, from something as insignificant as the waste in your stomach to the very control of your nerves and to a very high degree your emotions.
This brutal training had brought Naruto to the very peak of the bone strengthening stage, all he needed now was a little push to move into the mind strengthening stage. And that push came in form of Sura being naughty. The young dralion had in a very rare moment since she was born been very quiet as she watched Naruto silently train, but of course all good things must come to an end. Which in this case meant Sura became bored and decided it would be fun to spit a beam of white light at Naruto. At first the light dissipated before it got to Naruto, but for some reason it generated a force which could not be seen. The force smashed into Naruto throwing him into a spin as he struggled to get himself back under control. Even though the strange force was not very strong it left a feeling of extreme fear and cold on Naruto.
His whole thoughts were in complete disarray as he struggled to get himself back under control. The attack came as a surprise, but the bigger unknown fact was that this attack which Sura released was extremely weak due to her being only a baby. But it was mysterious in the sense that it was not a physical attack, but rather a mental attack.
Much like how many ninjas who had experienced a life of bloodshed and killing will develop a sort of mental and spiritual energy called killing intent, which had the express purpose of dowsing their opponents in a feeling of supreme fear and death. In most cases for weaker people when they are exposed to killing intent from a stronger person will have their heart or brain ruptured due to fear, which in turn leads to being deader than dead.
But Sura, who had not experienced any killing of any sort, and still retained a certain degree of innocence had innately developed a technique very similar to killing intent. The only difference is her own attack did not go for the mindset of a person in other to influence fear, no. It went straight for the soul. If she was a little bit stronger than she was, Naruto definitely will have lost his life. Because this was a sure kill technique for opponents both on the same level of power or below it. If care is not taking even stronger opponents if they are not affected just like Naruto, they might sustain permanent damage to their souls, putting them into a vegetative state or a coma for the rest of their lives.
It was hard to imagine what Sura was thinking when she decided to fire a bolt of soul attack on Naruto. It was established she wouldn't kill him, yet. Since he was stronger than her and they had a bond. If this was just a result of her being bored, Naruto could not help but shudder at how headache filled and frustrating the future will be if sura decided she was bored in the center of a huge crowd of people.
Still spinning Naruto frantically tried to get himself under control, and he was to be commended that even with the spinning his cup of teas had not spilled a single drop, even with the fear in his heart, twelve year old Naruto was built of sterner stuff. He had to live on his own and deal with a lot of things from when he was young on his own. He had to face poverty, loneliness and sickness all by himself. It spoke volumes of the will power the young boy had. And so in that desperate moment, of fear and dizziness. Naruto took the next step in his journey to be a ninja. He chose to master his heart and fears with a resolve that firmly strengthened the foundation of his soul and mind, making them stronger than any other child his own age. And due to the mental toll of Sura's attack, Naruto lost access to all his five senses. He could not feel, see, hear, smell, or taste anything. The whole world became a massive blanket of darkness and heat, that seemed to be just focused at the top of his skull.
Soon that wave of heat began to spread, never leaving the area of his head, but spreading to all corners and space. The heat increased to the point of being unbearable. It was a whole lot of pain from a whole lot of places. His eyes were burning, his ears ringing, his nose assaulted by the smell of burning flesh, his skin had an unbearable itch and his tongue had the foulest of taste in his mouth.
Soon it all came to a climax, as the heat he felt began to rapidly cool down to a temperature of extreme cold, but only for a moment before it all seemed to flow out from his eyes, mouth, ears, nose, and skin. Naruto opened his eyes to see that his body, or just his head that is, had excreted a sort of translucent and foul smelling membrane. If it was before, Naruto would not have minded, but right now his five senses where in a state of high sensitivity. It was as if they had improved to be ten times better, he could see clearer and farther, hear the sound of a fly's beating wings from 50 meters away, and he could smell so clearly that the scent of green and tree assaulted his nose as he took in the very essence of the forest of death, he saw Sura looking at him, and from the incredibly smug look on her face if it could be called that and not an overly sinister grin of pure malevolence and destruction. It seemed she planned this after all, they were connected. But naruto had refused to explore that connection, seeing her as only an animal he promised to take care of. A pet. But it seemed he was wrong to do so, which made him feel stupid and guilty all of a sudden. He had looked at Sura as a burden he could not be saddled with but had to put up with because he never went back on his word, and he promised to look after her no matter what. He may have saw as a burden but sura saw him as her family, the only one she had, so from their connection she was able to determine how close he was to a breakthrough, so she gave him the push he needed.
Naruto from that moment made a choice to wholeheartedly take care of and love sura. The Gods just gave him a family on a platter of gold, they gave him a little sister, who was he to refuse.
Surprisingly Naruto was still perched on the slab, even with the loss of his senses he still kept his balance, the only thing that went wrong was the cup of tea that somehow shattered on his head. Naruto took a look at sura once again, and right there standing by her side was his runaway teacher jiraiya, at first Naruto wanted to yell and scream at him for abandoning him for two months with no contact whatsoever, but the exhaustion from his soul being attacked and his breakthrough into the mind strengthening stage caught up with him. He had no control as his eyes rolled up to the back of his head and he fell unconscious standing on a slab of wood balance on an extremely round stone that occasionally wiggled, safe to say it was sort of embarrassing.
When next Naruto opened his eyes, it was not to the familiar forest scene he had imprinted on his mind before going unconscious or the familiar lecherous face of Jiraiya. No instead he found himself in a sewer of some sort, with varying pipes of different color and sizes. Even as he watched he could see a pitch black pipe that was quite larger than the others come into being. It was building itself, though its rate of growth was so slow to the point of being negligible, but instinctively Naruto could trace the growth of the pipe. Even if he had no idea what it was, he felt a part of it, and it a part of him. And that was just for the uncompleted black pipe, there were two other large pipes, and each of this pipes had dozens more of tiny little pipes connected to it. One of them gave out a light blue color while the other was just like white mist.
Suddenly a deep voice rang out in the solitude of the sewer.
" Are you going to keep staring at your source pathways forever instead of coming to see me?"
The voice had a mocking tone to it, but it gave the feeling of power, pride, death and arrogance. Of course even though Naruto was currently feeling dread at the sudden sound of a voice, one tiny part of his mind whispered to him, that this guy sounded like a pompous ass.
For a veritable long moment, Naruto stood there paralyzed with fear at the voice and the aura it released.
" I am waiting boy, hurry up. I don't have all day you know."
Slowly but surely the twelve year old began to pick his way through the sewer as he made his way to the place where he heard the voice from. After turning a particular corner he came across a peculiar sight, five feet away the sewer came to an abrupt end, instead what he saw was an endless sea of white, and right in the middle just a few feet from its starting point an enormous fox was sitting down quite like a human, on a dinner table, with a plate of noodles right in front of him, not to mention this giant fox had nine massive giant tails. In a situation like this Naruto could not be blamed for forgetting that he was supposed to be afraid in the presence of this peculiar fox, but instead he burst out laughing causing no small amount of irritation to fox. Besides he wouldn't laugh on normal circumstances but, a giant fox, on a giant table, eating an abyssal amount of food. Who wouldn't laugh at such a scene, unfortunately for naruto, this was not a fox who liked being laughed at.
" What's so funny punk?"
If no one told him before or if he was to stupid to realize it, this was not the kind of person or animal you should offend. Naruto's joyous state came to an abrupt and crashing demise as the next round of chuckling he was about to release never saw the light of day. In that regard it was back to being cowered by fear in front of the oppressive aura being released and the intimidating form of its owner.
The fox thankfully did not say anything more, as he chose to ignore Naruto and focus on the meal in front of him. It was almost as if he could not be bothered to deal with Naruto, for all intents and purposes this kid in front of him was probably an ant in front of his majesty and glory. But credit had to be given, even with the fear he felt, Naruto was not someone who will let his fear rule him, the journey to the top is wrought with dangers and people who let their fears rule them usually end up dying a lot faster than expected.
" Excuse mister fox, where the hell are we?"
The huge fox was surprised, the question was asked with such child-like curiosity and innocence it was suffocating, it was quite obvious to see that Naruto was trying to play the cute lost kid, of course his choice of words were a little coarse. But what really threw the fox for a loop was the complete lack of fear. The kid in front of him asked that question with such a conviction you would think he was just talking to a normal human person, and not the almost sixty feet big red monster of pure death and destruction.
" well kid, since you are so adamant about disturbing my meal why don't you take a seat. I will be explaining a lot of things so I have a few rules. One don't ask questions while am talking or I will rip off your head. Two pay attention to all that I am saying or I will rip of your head, three if you call me mister fox again I will rip of your head capice?"
All the answer Naruto could give was the rapid nodding of his head. Because basically if he did anything wrong, this strange entity will rip his head off. And whether the devil likes it or not, he quite preferred to have his head where it is thank you very much. So he had no choice but to do something he had never done before in his life when facing another person or eh…talking animal, and that was sitting still.
" First of all this place is your mindscape, it holds your memories and it is the only gate to the void. Secondly your mindscape is located in your sea of consciousness, which is in turn located in your soul. Your sea of consciousness is what generates the mental power and fortitude you use for training and also it powers your mindscape, infusing mental energy to give a very retentive memory and mind base, which will turn help you understand the natural laws of ninjutsu, and all other martial circles. And by understanding this laws you generate energy for your sea of consciousness as you increase in your cultivation level. So basically both the mindscape and sea of consciousness reply on each other."
Naruto was speechless, he had no idea this was how his body worked. Though he did not understand some terms like sea of consciousness and its location, this was still something that had to do with his cultivation and increase of his strength. So if he was not listening before, right now he had his whole concentration on the giant beast in front of him, who had somehow taking the air of an ancient sage giving a lecture.
" Three the pipes you saw on your way here is how the mindscape portrays your energy channels. You have three main energy channels with a fourth under construction. You have a chakra channel, a chi channel which is the energy developed by your life force, you also have your bloodline channel, which is running with both the positive and negative energy of the elemental nations spirit energy. Achieving the yin-yang balance bloodline of the uzumaki family. As for the fourth energy channel you have it mainly because of my fault. This channel is double layered for some reason, but I attribute it to the fact you have a soul bond with a beast of some kind, the top layer runs with the power of the void, of nothingness and everything. It is the power that made everything and the power that can destroy it. My chakra is a void Nature attributed chakra, so when I escaped my prison through a tear in the void, and came into your body, which I might add was used as the gateway to the void when your damnable parents decided to seal me, but more on that later."
When Naruto heard, the word your parents he almost broke the golden rule of not asking questions or interrupting. But whether the fox liked it or not he had started a fire that would not be easily put out. All in all it was surprising how well Naruto was taking all this. He suddenly appeared in a strange place and encountered a giant fox, who for some reason knew about his parents. Regardless of the whole training to be a ninja most kids his age will already be panicking and calling for their mommies, while the small majority that did not panic will think the big fox was just spouting a huge amount of bullshit. But Naruto was the one in a million person who always liked to give people the benefit of the doubt. It was touching really, but it was totally and utterly stupid. Someone had to beat some sense into Naruto, because in this world which they lived in, an attitude like that was a sure fire way to get yourself killed.
" the second layer runs with the energy developed by the bond between you and your beast. It will vary from time to time considering the origins of beast are somewhat unclear. While they can use chakra they also have abilities that rely on a strange type of energy that has not been successfully identified. Next thing for you to know is my name, I am called Kurama, and I am a celestial immortal demonic beast. Basically I am above the power level of a lot of people on the elemental nations. Above the kages realm is the sage realm, and above the sage realm is dawn immortal realm, then that is followed by the celestial immortal realm, and after that the true immortal realm. Which is the pinnacle of strength. Every million years only one person might be lucky enough to reach that realm. And since the sage of six paths ascended to the heavens, there has not been another true immortal on this plane of existence. The sage realm is the peak of any mortal cultivator's strength, but if a sage successfully enters the dawn immortal realm, then that person is guaranteed to live forever and be a God. I am also the guardian beast of the Uzumaki clan stationed on this world. And yes there are other uzumaki clan branches on other worlds and the higher planes. In time you will come to learn all this things. Am sure your stupid pervert of a teacher who if I might mention is also your God father will tell you. Next you are a direct descendant of the original uzumaki clan stationed on its origin plane or world in the four higher planes. It is from the celestial world of the west. The only way for you to return or go to that plane of existence is only if you can train to the dawn immortal stage and ascend. Of course that could take the next five hundred years, as an uzumaki that amount of time will not be a problem for you. Your parents are kushina uzumaki and Minato namikaze and as far as I know they are both as dead as a door nail. On the eve of your birth your parents came to Konoha, your father was born here an orphan but he still had emotional ties to these place. His stupid emotional attachment prompted them to decide that you should be born here, as a way to also help you make a connection to your fathers home, since they were both preparing to ascend with you to the celestial world of the west, where the original clan was waiting and the mantle of next clan head was waiting for your mother and in time you. I chose to accompany them so as to keep them safe. But somehow our position and intentions in Konoha was leaked by someone from the clan. Enemies came, powerful enemies. They were all elites from the mysterious akatsuki organization, three of them were there, a masked uchiha called Tobi, and the two undying ninjas hidan and kakuzu. Somehow this Tobi was able to control me, making me loose control of myself and begin a rampage. At the time I was camouflaged as a tiny little fox right at the center of the village. So it was inevitable that as I changed back into my original form, a lot of people died. Your father was a master of space-time seals and was also know as the fastest ninja alive, he was able to get me out of Konoha, then we found out they had come for your mother. And reason was because she was a gate. When someone houses one of the nine celestial demonic beast, that were born from the primordial God tree, they will gain the ability to use and manipulate the void, or even more terrifying they will become the gate that releases the millions of evil demons imprisoned in the void. If such a thing should happen, then the destruction of the elemental nation is confirmed, this guys were truly strong since they were immortals just like your parents, your parents were fighting a battle on two fronts, one against me and the other against the akatsuki. Not to mention your mother just gave birth so she was incredibly weak. Your parents decided to seal me away, but in the state of mind I was, I could not be kept in a person, so the best option was imprison me in the void. For that a gate was required but your mother could not be the one, since she was already weak and injured the transfer will kill her, and make me stuck in the void for all eternity. So they chose you their innocent son, it was a hard thing to do but they had no other choice. There can only be one gate every generation, so if I was sealed in a new person while your mother was still alive, she will loose her ability to be a gate, shifting the akatsuki attention to the new candidate. In this situation that candidate is you, you would be in danger yes, but lives were at stake and this was the sacrifice they had to make, and besides they believed that you will be strong enough to fight the akatsuki in the future. And so I was sealed, and after that I don't ow what happened, but after reviewing a few of your memories, I can see your parents died and the members of the clan did not come to find you, causing you to live a poor life, and it seems even your new teacher, who is not just your Godfather but also your fathers master did not come looking for you. Your life has been hard, but I can only promise that it will be better from now on. I have gave you a lot to think about, so I will send you out, not to mention you need to confront that teacher of yours and demand some answer let him tell you why he abandoned you. When you have done that I will bring you back here. Goodbye Naruto."
Before naruto could open his mouth to protest, a black wind came and took him out of his mindscape. Kurama who looked on as the image of Naruto dissipated shook his head in pity, and then he moved his gaze past the endless plains of white to a pair of pillars that had the depiction of a roaring nine tailed fox, sitting at the base of a giant tree, which had the face of a man. This was the nine tails void gate that resided in Naruto's mind. At this moment it vibrated a bit, letting out a stream of void energy that will strengthen and build a pathway for void energy in Naruto's body. Kurama sighed and spoke out loud
" There's a storm coming father, I hope I can get this descendant of yours ready in time. Or else I fear everything you hold dear will end."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I know this chapter came a little late, so am sorry but this is the best I could do. I have decided to focus on this story for now, but I am only going to be able to post once a month or twice, or sometimes in the case of extreme inspiration as high as five. But until that happens my regular schedule will be once a month. Also guys I need those reviews, I need to know what am doing right or wrong. And of course I would like to increase my already inflated ego with words of encouragement. But regardless guys please review and tell me what you think. In the words of the scorpion king LIVE FREE AND DIE WELL.