Naruto: Sage Advice
Chapter 3: Regime
Distant sounds of the throes of battle echo across a forgotten plane, the steely clang of kunai in a skirmish, the hard smash of meaty impacts, and cries of struggle persist across a previously untarnished expanse.
"HAAAA!" Naruto and Jiraiya push off against one another as they leap away to find a gap to strategize, Naruto wasting no time starts to run across the outside of their impromptu battlefield, in an attempt to circle and flank his opponent. Jiraiya stood solid, while his eyes stayed stuck on his adversary. Naruto 'poofs' a collection of shuriken into his hands and hurls them towards the sage.
Jiraiya hurriedly summons his own kunai and proceeds to deflect all incoming projectiles before launching his kunai straight at Naruto, and immediately following up with a series of hand seals and shouting "Kunai shadow clone jutsu!" - A single kunai launched turns into 20, all headed for Naruto.
A quick hand seal later Naruto is seen launching himself high into the air, as a clone is decimated and bursts into smoke. "Alright sensei! if that's how you wanna play it!" he shouts from midair. Naruto takes an additional shuriken blowing wind chakra to surround it before chucking it at Jiraiya and performing the necessary hand seals "Wind style: shadow clone vacuum blade shuriken!" A wall of ten shuriken amplified by razor sharp wind chakra races forward.
Jiraiya, undeterred charges head first into the lethal barrage of wind blades, diving into the shuriken he contorts and flips his body with acrobatic precision to avoid even a single scratch on his person, while simultaneously poking a finger into the ring of a single chakra laced shuriken and redirecting it towards his student as a counter, while the other 9 harmlessly sail by, devastating the treeline in their path behind the sage.
The launched shuriken rushes towards Naruto, before suddenly shifting into Jiraiya performing a body replacement with it, his palm ready to perform a strike on the momentarily surprised student. Naruto stares wide-eyed, before quickly shifting into a devious grin.
Seeing this Jiraiya hesitates, "SHIT!" Without warning a clone plants both his feet, in a flying kick, onto Jiraiya's face, launching him sideways and into the ground creating a divot, as copious amount of dirt rises in the air.
Jiraiya slowly gets up while grunting and rubbing his chin gently "Good shot kid. Now it's my turn." He stated simply, before disappearing in a burst of speed and stopping right in front of Naruto, not giving him a chance to react, Jiraiya kicks his left ankle and slaps his right cheek at the same time, causing Naruto to lose balance and spin like a fan in midair, Jiraiya plants a strong foot on the ground and quickly delivers a devastating open palm strike to his student's abdomen.
Naruto lets out a painful breath while spittle flies out of his mouth, eyes wide and stunned at the sheer brutality of the assault, before being propelled through the treeline and over a cliff. Jiraiya, following his catapulted trainee, bursts through the foliage and stops right at the edge, peeking over carefully in caution of any surprise attacks.
Naruto stands horizontally a little ways down on the cliff face, nursing his bruising stomach.
"Damn pervy sage, not pulling any punches are we?"
"Hmph, of course kid, I'm raising a shinobi."
Naruto just grinned right at him. "I guess this means we're taking it up a notch, I hope you're done warming up your old bones."
"There's only one thing that warms my bones kid."
"I guess I kinda walked into that one..." Both paused for a second before suddenly meeting on the cliff face in a lightning fast spar.
Going through every possible frog-fu stance to get the upper hand in the fight. Jiraiya thrust his fist forward, Naruto quickly dodged to the left of the fist as it grazes his jacket, using this opportunity naruto whips out his hands getting a tight hold on Jiraiya's sleeve and slamming both his feet into the old man's stomach, while simultaneously pulling him forward to deepen the impact. Jiraiya is buffeted by the strength of the blow and exhales forcefully in pain.
Not missing Naruto's lack of follow through on the hit, Jiraiya, using his free hand, latches onto Naruto's ankle and smashes his body into the side of the cliff, cratering the stone face, and flings him all the way down to the sandy beach at the bottom, causing a plume of sand to reach up.
Naruto, unperturbed, shoots straight back up, finishing off a set of hand seals before shouting "Wind style: dust cloud!" Naruto spat a violent wind from his mouth directly onto the cliff, creating a massive curtain of debris, obscuring him from view.
Three pops were heard from the dust cloud, Jiraiya anticipating a charge, decided to backpedal, but looked down to see his feet stuck. "Earth style: Swamp of the Underworld!" a dark swamp formed under the sage dragging him down and trapping him, the dust cleared away revealing two Narutos and Gamakichi standing at shoulder height.
The clone who created the earth jutsu dissipated into smoke. "You ready with that oil Kichi?" Gamakichi hopped on to his haunches and slapped his palms together "You got it partner!" the toad spewed forth a stream of toad oil as Naruto rushes and forms a single hand seal "Fire style: flame bullet!" A ball of fire spurts out from his mouth igniting the oil, forming a wave of flames racing its way towards the trapped Jiraiya. "Fire style: toad flame bullet" they shouted in unison.
"This is not good." Jiraiya tried to counter before the flames swallowed him completely. The fire blazed and danced as it erupted, however the flames quickly began to implode.
"Fire sealing method" the inferno was rapidly sucked into a sealing scroll held by Jiraiya who casually tucked it away, Naruto and Gamakichi stared at him with absolute shock.
"HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Jiraiya just chuckled at his student before slowly making his way over to him "You used your summons kid, I don't see why I can't use mine" And there stood Jiraiya, his appearance more toad like, with Fukusaku and Shima attached to his shoulders. Sage mode.
The old green frog just sighed "I can't believe you called us out here for a spar", Shima equally irritated smacked the sage on the head "How dare you use sage mode against your own pupil!"
"Calm down you two. Think of this as a teaching moment for those two upstarts over there, getting overconfident will get you killed out in the field kids! Always expect excessive force!" Jiraiya laughed out. Naruto had no time to react as he was suddenly launched with a powerful punch back down to the beach, rapidly sailing, bouncing, skipping over the sandy expanse like a rag doll before coming to a slow stop on his feet and hands at the wavebreak, while Gamakichi was unceremoniously sent back to in the same instance.
Naruto slowly stood up, the water gently lapped at his ankles as he breathed out laboriously, he held out his right hand and formed a perfect Rasengan instantly, turning his gaze over to the sage who had done the same, in a single leap, he charged towards to his student. "RASENGAN!" both shouted together as their jutsu met with a clash.
Each looking to overpower the other added more chakra to the technique "OODAMA RASENGAN!" both blue orbs expanded in size creating a shockwave of sand and water due to the sheer thunderous impact of the clash. Jiraiya smirked at his protege "I've got one more level to my attack kid, one more level that you haven't reached yet with the rasengan. Give up."
Naruto smiled right back at him, both still fighting for superiority, Naruto grunting in extreme effort, sweat poured freely, as his feet dug deeper into the sand as he was being pushed back. "True. But I've got something you don't as well." Suddenly a high pitched screeching started to emanate from the jutsu battle, slowly small white wings of wind chakra began to form on Naruto's Rasengan.
Jiraiya and the two toads were left wide-eyed, realizing the severity of the situation, tongues lashed out in a panicked frenzy to distance themselves from the jutsu as quickly as possible, smacking him on his chest and right shoulder, sending naruto careening over the sea and crashing into it. Causing the wind enhanced Rasengan to destabilize and create a massive explosion of water.
The eruption began to die down as a shower surrounded the area, raining seawater over the battlefield. Naruto crawled out of the ocean, using the surface of the water as a platform to stand on, clothes tattered and destroyed leaving only his black mesh undershirt and and orange trousers, water dripping off of his green pendant courtesy of Tsunade.
Reaching shore Naruto walked up to Jiraiya's side before parking himself on the sand. "I guess that does it for the spar then sensei."
Staring out towards the explosion with a somber smile Jiraiya shakily voiced out "You're trying to kill me aren't you Naruto? This is revenge for not meeting you when you were younger isn't it? You still hold a grudge don't you?" Jiraiya babbled out with vacant eyes as Naruto started laughing at his godfather's disbelief.
ooo A Little While After ooo
Naruto and Jiraiya are seen riding atop a toad summons as it swam across the ocean. Meandering through outcrops of jagged rocks protruding above the surface, before safely reaching the shore of the island. Both men hopped off the toad and onto the sandy beach. "Thanks Ken" Jiraiya waved before the massive magenta summon dispelled with a nod.
"Alright Naruto it's pretty late, let's set up right around here" Naruto stretched momentarily before biting his thumb and placing his palm on the ground. "Summoning!" the black sealing script spread out from Naruto's hands, and with a gentle poof a small blue toad appeared. "Yo, it's time for the toad shop technique, just a small house is fine." Naruto stated, the toad saluted before morphing into a small blue and beige house.
Jiraiya and Naruto walked inside to find a small room with two beds, Jiraiya immediately chucked his getta off and scrolls were dropped on the floor before launching himself on to the soft mattress, letting out a pained and drawn out moan and finally shutting his eyes to encourage sleep to take him.
Naruto stared, slightly bewildered "Woah, you sure are getting old pervy sage" said as he made his way to his own bed and lay down with his hands behind his head. Jiraiya just let out a few muffled curses at his student before continuing his slumber.
Naruto slowly opened one eye and quickly glanced at his teacher, convinced that he was completely asleep. He quietly reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out a small scroll, opening it to reveal a small sealing script, pushing a little chakra into it, a small poof sounded. Quickly grabbing the contents and turning over on his side to hide it, he peeked once again at Jiraiya to ensure that he remained asleep. Relieved that he was, Naruto picked up the unsealed item to reveal a certain orange book. Icha Icha Paradise. Turning to the page with the folded corner, Naruto stuck his nose to the book as he began to read, a red tinge rapidly spreading across his face.
Small sniggers were heard, Jiraiya's ears picked up on the noise, causing his face to contort in annoyance at the disturbance, he opened an eye to figure out the source of the commotion. Looking towards his charge he noticed his literary works with Naruto eyes practically glued to the pages. Letting out a small, quiet chuckle he turned his head and drifted back to sleep, content with the idea of his published works already influencing the next generation.
The next morning found Naruto resting on the beach as he gazed out over the sunrise, beautiful rays of red, orange, and yellow adorning the sky, as the sun arose from beneath the horizon. Soft crunches of sand sounded behind him, where in response he tilted his head back and saw an upside down Jiraiya looking at him. "Morning Pervy-sage" Naruto said as he shifted his gaze back towards the sunrise. Unfazed by his usual mode of address, Jiraiya lightly thumped the top of the blonde's head before taking a seat by his side.
"So kid, you know where we are and why we're here?" Jiraiya posed a query. Naruto squinted and tilted his head in concentration without looking away from his preferred view. "Hmmm… well, we've been training for what? 2 and a half years total? I actually thought we'd be heading back home now. But since this dinky little island isn't anywhere near Konoha, or anywhere else for that matter, I'm guessing we're gonna be doing that training." He said finishing off his thoughts.
Jiraiya just nodded along during the explanation "You're half right there. We've pretty much exhausted the training I'd prepared for you. You've got fire and earth release down, and your wind release is pretty much mastered at this point." 'That wind style Rasengan is no joke' he thought to himself. "On top of that, your taijutsu has been taken as far as we can without having you learn Senjutsu to complete the Frog-fu. And we've done a decent amount of work with seals too, the rest is for you to select and apply seals to supplement whatever fighting style you're gonna use, and to utilize seals however you see fit in general as well. "
"So all we've really got left is to train with the Kyuubi's chakra." Naruto tagged on, and Jiraiya confirmed. "I get all that, but then why am I only half right?" Naruto lay back on the beach, and clasped his hands behind his head. "The part you didn't mention was the significance of this 'dinky little island' as you called it". Naruto looked genuinely perplexed as his squint deepened in concentration. Finally relenting after a few long moments, he gave up his focus, turned towards his guardian, and gave a simple shrug.
"Naruto, ever since you found out about the whole godfather thing, I had to pretty much spill the beans on your whole lineage. You know that Minato spent his entire life in or around the village, and you also know that you got your name from Kushina - your clan name. So, if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm actually going to have to beat you, thoroughly." Jiraiya lectured with eyes closed. Hearing the slow shuffling of fabric, and the crunching of the sand he opened his eyes and followed Naruto's path.
Naruto simply stood up and surveyed all in front of him, this was his final tie to anything that resembled a blood bond. He stayed put in that single position, gaze transfixed, hesitating to even blink as he scrupulously studied every minute detail of the island. "Is there anything left?".
"Hm?" Jiraiya perked up at his previously paralyzed student, "If you mean is there anything left worth a damn, then no. The scavengers picked apart everything the battles themselves hadn't completely destroyed." He stood up and gently dusted any sand off himself. "The reason I brought you here specifically, was so that I could show you what is left of the Uzumaki heritage." Naruto frowned at that "So I'm supposed to see a whole lot of nothing?"
"Oh! On the contrary!" Jiraiya strode confidently forward with a knowing smile. "Your clan has left you much more than you could even imagine. While it is true that there is no secret cache of super uzumaki technique scrolls, or any legendary weapons or treasures piled higher than mountains..." The sage almost raced down a seemingly practiced route as he delivered his monologue, Naruto keeping pace as he followed behind his teacher, getting increasingly disheartened at the promise of a barren inheritance. "But what they have left for you is something extraordinary." He said while suddenly stopping in front of a small set of decrepit brown wooden doors. Naruto peered from behind him and looked at the desolat entrance before giving a careful glance up to his teacher's face.
"You skeptical?" Jiraiya questioned the younger shinobi. "You senile?" Naruto retorted. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing here you old pervert? It's a set of doors. Not even nice ones." Naruto huffed. "Ah yes. But what's behind the doors?" Jiraiya probed. "Unless it's the brain you've lost, I don't think it really matters." Naruto countered. Jiraiya jumped back, affronted at the nearly venomous replies.
"I'll have you know, that this is the sole place anywhere near the Fire country, and more importantly anywhere you'd be allowed to go, that will allow you to train your bijuu powers without alerting every shinobi and their mom about what you're up to!" Jiraiya ranted at his student. "Oh, okay then, let's get to it." Naruto said simply while walking past the sage and into the room, "I don't see why you have to be all dramatic and get all huffy about this." He voiced while continuing on. "Wha- This little-" Jiraiya tried to voice his indignation as he trailed behind his less than enthused godson.
