/Later that night/
Naruto was sitting in the middle of his apartment, which he had been decorating with his seals. He found old nearly destroyed furniture for free, a few repair seals and some henge based seals made them all match and real. They were all experiments as to his two other seals but he enjoyed the nice 'refined' look of his home. Even his potted plants had seals for watering and nutrients. He was going out of his way to figure out the limit to seals but had found none so far.
He was currently looking over the designs for the Hand-seals Seal he was trying to make for his companion. When a knock on his door caused him to look up. Walking over he tapped the seal on the door which acted like a one-way mirror. Seeing that it wasn't a mob or anyone that looked like they would kill him he opened the door. "Can I help you Aburame-sama?"
The man looked down at the boy who was probably no older than his own son. " Actually yes but do you mind if I come inside?" He asked stoically.
Naruto nodded and allowed him to come in before shutting the door, and summoning a clone in the kitchen to make some tea. " Tea will be ready in a moment, but you may sit if you like since this seems less like a social visit?" he said as Shiruba came out of the bedroom hoping up on one of the chairs and laying down to watch.
Shibi nodded, the boy didn't seem nervous and his own Kikai were not reacting violently to the demon chakra in the boy. Which told him it was well contained and not an issue. "That would be agreeable." He settled himself in one of the seats that looked rather nice and was truly comfortable. "I came to visit you about the Seal that you showed the Hokage and Jiraiya-sama." This was the opening and he would see where it went from there.
Naruto settled himself on the couch, and looked to Shiruba for a moment, "He figured that out pretty quickly... But yes I did design it for your clan after watching some of them train with their teams. With the clean sweep of the Uchiha other clans need to be filling that void instead of waiting on them to come back in years." He looked to Shibi, "Most of my mistreatment has been at that clans hands, but I do not see why a single eye makes them better than the rest of us. I want to see this village strong but not reliant on just one or two clans for their needs." He didn't want to see himself reliant on just one person either, but he struggle to pass that. He had Jiji, Ero-Sannin, and Hana-chan, the list would grow over time.
Shibi listened to the boy, hearing the bitter resentment in some of his words. Yet, the truth that echoed among them was a wisdom that no child should have attained. Not that it was wrong, but the life that this boy has led was unacceptable in any society yet they forced it upon him for something he contained. Like his own clan shunned for their companions. "I see, that makes much sense and with the seal applied to my clan that would be a solid step in that direction. Which is why I have come to make an offer for the seal."
Naruto started to speak but Shibi shook his head, "Your goals are admirable and logical, but this is something I and my clan have agreed upon." He reached inside he long coat and pulled out a gourd that hung from a strap. "What you have done in allowing my clan to have this seal has earned you a place among us. Though you aren't able to fully join with our Kikai we wish for you to still have this hive."
He handed the gourd over and watched as they swarmed out to meet their host.
"Now, they will require your chakra but as too how you and they will bond is not something we have studied as the bonding is done at the age of three, yet with your 'unique' advantage you may still bond with them though the outcome is unsure." Naruto nodded his thanks. This would be another advantage in the future, as well he now had a full clan behind him. "Thank you Shibi-sama. I will cherish them as the honor that they are and that you have shown me."
He was going to try and bond them tonight, "That is all, though if or when you successfully bond with them, either internally or externally please visit our compound so that we may observe the differences." Shibi spoke, as another Naruto brought out the tea and sat the tray down before dispelling. He raised a brow at this, but said nothing. A child using the Kage Bunshin, but logically given the size of this child's reserves it wasn't much. His own companions told him that they were unusually large.
Naruto poured the tea and both discussed what this would mean for Naruto in the future, as far as sanctuaries, and training as well as a family of sorts. Not to mention the Aburame owned several shops in the village that would charge him fair prices as he was an Honorary clan member. All of this Naruto thought over as he smiled serving them both tea and speaking of a few things.
/Academy the next day/
It was the first day of classes and Naruto's mission start date. The night before had been painful,but unexpected. After Shibi had left he went through the bonding with the hive, the results were mixed and not at all expected. Half the hive didn't make it through the joining, as the Demonic chakra destroyed them, the rest were severely weakened. The other interesting thing was that their tunnels sealed over in chakra after they entered his body. Natural mini-henges leaving his body flawless in appearance as it was before the start of the process. But the most drastic difference he noted was that his kikai did nothing but rest and start to breed within him. His chakra and that of the demon feeding, healing and changing the kikai to match him left him tired and 'drained'.
He only knew that they wouldn't be able to leave his body for a long time as they would die off quickly and have to adapt this his chakra and body in order to survive. For now he would forget about them, until they either died completely or became able to live inside him. The chakra depletion wasn't enough to bother him and left him with still more than enough for everything else.
But now our blond ninja in training seated himself in the class room, and looked around seeing several older students and a few from the clans. Namely an Inuzuka and their dog giving him a strange look as Shiruba was laying across his shoulders. " What's that fox doing here?"
He turned to look at the Inuzuka, "He's my companion just as your dog is yours Inuzuka-san. He's registered as my nin-kitsune. " He smiled, for once glad to have the enlarged canines like the Inuzuka do as it was a trait that separated them from others as they were more animal in nature.
The boy laughed, "You keep telling yourself that, when me and Tsumaru beat the crap out of you showing what a real companion is about." Causing Naruto to shake his head, [You want me to prank him Tou-san?] Which Naruto thought wasn't a half bad idea, "later.."
Soon the two instructors walked into the room, "Quiet. I am Umino Iruka I will be your head instructor and this is Hu Mizuki. He will be acting as my assistant." the two looked over the students and and were fine until both of their eyes landed on Naruto, well Irkua's was on the fox and Mizuki's was on Naruto. Both glared, but said nothing tho which Naruto logged that away in the back of his mind for later reference. The rest of the lesson went slow. He already knew what they were teaching, and would take that time to work on the seals he was making for Shiruba. Which he thought if the Inuzuka proved to be useful like the Aburame did he might even give them the seals as well, in exchange for allowing him free vet care for Shiruba.
Many months passed like this, glares, challenges and even more boring lectures on what he already had taught himself. But it gave him plenty of time to leave his clones at home to study and then dispel to give him the information, or to train on chakra control since they were now pushing into the medic level control. The rest worked on the leaf exercise for his elements. Which he decided that once he got the seal for the Hand-seals right he would have Shiruba learn the Kage-bunshin too so they could stay home and work on their skills.
As for his class ranking so far he hung at the bottom, the taijutsu they taught him was all wrong, but he used that one, he failed every test because they had genjutsu on them. He would randomly profess to becoming the greatest Ninja ever, or spout off random topics that really didn't mean much. But they all left him pretty much alone except the Inuzuka They had a sort of friendship, that came to a rivalry when ever they sparred. Naruto of course learned their techniques but found them not use able with the kitsune companion. Though it made interesting headway into his research into that area.
But now it was summer break and he headed home, his Kikai have yet to balance themselves out inside his body. But something told him they would eventually, it was one of the reasons he had yet to visit the Aburame clan house, though the stores were frequented often, tools, clothes, food, and other essentials he bought from them. He visited Hana once a months still at the Veterinarian's to let her check over Shiruba, since he started having the kitsune where weight seals, and didn't want to strain the kit too much.
The only seal he had managed to finish was the one that allowed Shiruba to start to talk, this used chakra to created the vibrations in the vocal cords and hold their shape as words and sounds. It just took the impulse from the brain and instead of making yips and barks it would created words and other sounds. "Thanks Hana-chan", Shiruba said after he hopped back over to Naruto's shoulder. Causing the girl to jump in shock.
"Did he just talk?" To which Naruto smiled and nodded his head. " How? Our dogs don't develop that until they are much older.. and even then nothing that defined in such a short time."
Naruto smiled, "It's a seal... It converts his thoughts that he wants to say, with chakra to created to sound patterns of words." The boy smiled, "I could give them to your dogs if you want, though you would need to spend time working with them on chakra control for the volume and let them work on making the words right."
Hana thought about it, and having her trio talk would be awesome and it might help her when working with other dogs so they could translate. "Yea I'll do it besides if mom likes the idea we can maybe buy the seal from you or something." Naruto smiled and pulled out a storage scroll, releasing three slips of paper. Placing one on each dogs muzzle he pushed the chakra into the paper transferring the seal over to the dogs. Before the papers flashed to dust, the faint outline of the seal was visible before it stretched and wrapped around the head of all the dogs, as it sunk into their fur to become invisible.
"There, now depending on their chakra levels, their control and their own intelligence they should be pretty fluent and understandable in a few days." He said looking over the dogs to make sure the seal settled into place, and was happy with the placements. "But yea if your clan likes the seal, I'm sure they might even like the other one I am working on." He said with a mysterious smirk.
Hana just smiled, seeing as if this was a sample of the kids sealing ability, and this worked out for his own companion it would severely help the younger children in her clan adjust to working with the Ninken. "Can they still understand and use their own language?"
He smiled, "Yea they can so it can still be a secret as I only wanted to better understand Shiruba, but the other seal will help them learn and use jutsu like we do." He smiled. Naruto was so glad that people were liking his seals. That and his plan to build up the village away from the Uchiha was also working. The only good Uchiha is Itachi or a dead one. He thought darkly wondering how his many times rescuer was doing.
"Well thank you Naruto-kun. After I work with the triplets I will show it to my mom, she's the clan head after all so it's up to her if she wants the seal for the whole clan or not." Hana knew she would take it with a grain of salt since she seemed to dislike the boy for some reason.
"Well we will see you next month, Come on Shiruba we need to go train, your control is still not that great." Naruto said after he started walking to the door.
"But Tou-san... I haven't been working as long as you..." The kitsune said as he followed Naruto out the door causing Hana to crack up laughing.
As they were walking out of the compound, both stopped catching the now familiar scent of Tsumaru and Kiraba. Looking around the corner, "I know you two are there, I can smell you ans so can Shiruba."
The two afore mentioned Inuzuka and ninken came around the corner, "Dang it Naruto... you're just as hard to sneak up on as Mom." The boy and Dog smiled.
"Well that either means you need to learn to cover your scent better or not sneak up on people from down wind." Naruto smiled at his 'friend'. Shiruba ran over to Tsumaru and they started rolling around playing with each other.
"Alright maybe, but you're the coolest person in out class. I don't see how you fail, after all you help me study all the time during lunch." Kiraba said as he was trying to wrap his mind around it and failing.
Naruto sighed, well he would test out Kiraba on if the boy could handle the truth so to speak, "Well if I told you it dealt with an S-class secret, and that people are stupid would you agree with me?"
Kiraba if he had dog ears would have perked up at that, instead he settled for nodding." Well the Hokage made a law so anyone that wasn't old enough to remember wouldn't be told. So that's why the adults kick me around." He smiled sadly as he watched the other boy for any signs of doing the same to him. "Well the Fourth Hokage didn't kill the Kyuubi... you can't kill them just contain them, or in his case seal them." He waited for the gears to fall into place.
"So he didn't kill the demon, instead he sealed it? Well then why does that have to deal with you?"
Naruto sighed again as he really wanted to share this with someone his own age, " Let me ask you a question first. If I sealed a Kunai into a scroll does that make the scroll a Kunai?" He watched for anything that might make him regret telling the boy.
Kiraba tilted his head, thinking and looking much along the lines of what does this have to do with it."No, that's just stupid..." He paused a light going off. " He sealed the demon into you?" To which Naruto nodded. "But why? Why not a scroll or a something else?"
Naruto let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding, "Well because it has so much chakra that it would break the seal, but since it was sealed into a baby, the body would hold the chakra and pull on it to keep it weakened and there." He looked up at his friend. "You hate me too now don't you?"
Kiraba was a bit shocked, "Hell no.. I mean you're not a demon running around killing everyone. Though that really explains why you smell like a fox. I always figured it was because of Shiruba, but then my whole clan smells like a dog even with out being around them." He tilted his head to the side, "But like you said you're not the fox but the scroll it's stuck in." He nodded his head with a note of finality.
Naruto could have hugged him at that point, " Thanks.. it means a lot that I have at least one friend, that knows and doesn't think any different." The Inuzuka came over and wrapped his arm around the blond giving him a noogie.
"Nah just means Tsumaru and I are going to have to work harder to beat you with you demon battery." He laughed and the ninken barked in agreement.
"Well, Shiruba and I were going to go and train to work out some moves for us to use together, like your clan does. It's just we're not straight fighters like you are so it's not easy but who knows.. I figure everything else out on my own so why should this be any different."
The Inuzuka and his dog, were looking at their friend in a twisted understanding, they knew Naruto was faster than them. Even he was more flexible and hurt like hell when he hit, but they could see he was stronger. "Well aren't Kitsune usually tricky? Like maybe genjutsu style attacks rather than head on ones?" He asked out loud in thought. " I mean if you could figure out a version of the Man Beast clone, that would be useful. " He worried his lip, " I would try and help but their clan secrets... maybe you could talk to Mom or maybe Tsume since she's the alpha for the clan she would know more ..."
The blond nodded at the mention of genjutsu. It was really an area that he hadn't found a need to learn himself, but maybe working with Shiruba it might work, and it would be interesting. It looked like it was time to start studying them and see what they could do in tandem and maybe have the kitsune do on his own. The clone they do would work too, and he could see the implications behind that as well, it would take some training to get it down. "Yea maybe.. Thanks Kiraba." He flashed a fox like grin. "Come on Shiruba we have all summer to train, and make sure these two don't beat us."
Kiraba smirked, "Oh yea? Well Tsumaru and I will just work twice as hard, " He shook his fist at the retreating people. "Come by and spar us sometime this summer!"
/Two months into the summer break/
Naruto was sitting in his now overtly lavish apartment. He enjoyed sealing too much and had definitely used quite a few for just the purpose of décor. Yet that isn't what he was doing right this moment. No, rather he was bent over a large seal on a scroll checking it for mistakes. Having worked how the individual Hand-seals into a seal form which he found already existed, irked him a little. Though that part out of the way he was working on a way to activate the different 'Seals' in multiple and random orders so that they would manipulate Chakra to form jutsu.
There being only twelve seals was helpful, so not that many were needed. However looking over jutsu that were far beyond his level of skill showed that repeats of seals would be needed. The idea of a limiter seal like the ones used in flash tags had crossed his mind. "ugh.. It won't work this way..." He rolled the scroll up and put it in the shelf of 'Not a Clue' which held several attempts of many different seals he was working on.
Standing up he stretched, his back cracking before he looked around the room. He flared his chakra to signal his clones to disperse. After a letter to the Hokage, about how small his apartment was and if he could just buy the building or give him a better apartment. Well the Hokage bought the building, and sent the rent to Naruto. Which he used his clones and studied up on construction and some house architecture. After that he took over the top floor and turned it into a penthouse/ lab.
He still checked on his kikai but they had yet to last longer than the hatching of the next generation though they were adapting to his unique chakra better. He figured at this rate another year before they would even do more than feed and breed. But there was really nothing he could do right now for them than hope. Which is why his attention turned to the memories from his clones.
He was up to the second level of Elemental manipulation, which he smirked at. Something he could do this summer, as he pulled the scrolls Jiraiya had given him, looking back through the list of jutsu. The wind blade and Hidden Mist techniques were the two he was working on. He could keep up the mist for almost an hour now, but the wind blade kept moving it. He was determined to find away around that.
So he created the air blade, feeling the way his chakra moved in it. When it dawned on him that the air was pushing outward from the blade. He focused on having the wind cycle inward, of course this made it much denser and had a slight whistling sound he barely heard. Which to him meant no one would hear it. Dismissing the blade he summoned the mist in his lab, and then reformed the blade. The effect was noticeable as the blade sucked in the vapors pushing them out the end of the blade.
With a sigh he dismissed both, "Shiruba.. come here" He waited on the kitsune to come into the room, which the silver fox soon appeared in a streak of speed. "Good, now We are going to work out how to teach you jutsu with out seals since I can't get that seal to work."
"Well I figured out how you do that Clone thing.. you stopped using seals for it." The kitsune said with a smirk in his voice. "From what you made me read (pout) all the hand-seals do is help control your chakra into a patter to create the jutsu." He jumped up on the table. "So really I just need to be able to learn the patterns for the jutsu, I mean the Kage-bunshin doesn't even use a real handseal."
Naruto listened to Shiruba as he explained it from a different view point. It was true he was using the shadow clones without hand-seals which meant he had mastered the technique..."Mastered ...control... manipulation... patterns..."He started smiling as his eyes brightened with the ideas. "Shiruba I love you!"
The fox preened under the praise, from his Tou-san. As he sat there, "See I am soo much better than those ninken. Kage bunshin no jutsu" He focused for a moment before a cloud of smoke appeared revealing another silver fox, though Shiruba seemed pretty tired. "Hah!" Naruto spun around hearing the jutsu being called out and feeling the chakra.
He saw the smoke fade revealing another fox, and smiled. " How did you figure that out?"
"Well I have seen you do it every day for almost a year Tou-san. Besides I can sense Chakra so I just mimicked the feelings. It takes longer than learning from the seals like you do but If I can remember the feeling of them I can copy them." He swished his tail happily.
Naruto thought on that for a while. "Alright how much Chakra do you feel you have left?"
"Well I think I could make one more but I would pass out." He said sincerely.
Naruto smiled, knowing how much chakra this took even if he could use less, he didn't he put just as much as everyone else would have too. "Well until you can make three I want you to make one everyday and leave with one of my clones who will go through all the seals with you until you can mimic them yourself. While the real you is working on Chakra Building.. SO more weights and Tree and water walking exercises until you pass out." He smirked. "When you can do three clones I'll give you all the genjutsu scrolls I can. Since I will focus on Ninjutsu, you can focus on genjutsu. Then we have our taijutsu together. I do Fuiinjutsu, so.. maybe you can talk Hana-nee-chan into teaching you some medical jutsu."
The fox was smiling, even through his inability to do so you could tell, "So that means I can start doing the Raiton training now too then right Tou-san?" Naruto nodded, which wasn't a problem seeing how the jutsu he had for Raiton were stunning attacks, and quick strikes which would work perfectly for his companion.
/A week before the Academy Started back/
Naruto was sitting in Hana's office as she checked Shiruba over, her three ninken talking to each other and them. Everything was going according to usual until an older woman came in, which caused Naruto and Shiruba to tense up from her scent. She was the Alpha, they couldn't explain it but that is just the smell she gave off. "Hana, what are you doing?"
Hana jerked up and looked at her, "Tsume-sama, I was just giving Shiruba a check up for Naruto."
The woman looked from Hana to the fox and then to Naruto, she sniffed the scent of fox was heavy in the room between the fox and the boy himself. She could have sworn she heard more voices than just two people. "Who else was here? I heard them talking when I was passing buy."
The young Inuzuka looked to Naruto who just nodded a little bit, since the ninken could speak just like they could now. They had picked up how to do it rather quickly, which must be because they grew up listening to it, along with the joining they went through seemed to increase their intelligence. "Well that would be the ninken and Shiruba." She scratched the back of her head, in a gesture she picked up from the blond. "You see Naruto made a seal that let Shiruba talk, and I let him put it on my ninken."
Shiruba senseing the slightly hostile and disbelieving air, "Yea Tou-san let me talk like he does, and did the same for Hana-chan's ninkens.. Isn't that right?" He spoke causing Tsume's brows reach her hair line.
The three dogs, decided to speak up and save their friends. "Yea, Naruto put the seals on us, ""Which was really weird but cool at the same time, "" So we could talk and it let us understand better too." They started talking and each would pick up where the last one left off. It was kind of creepy but they were triplets.
Tsume looked at the dogs as the spoke, back to Hana, Shiruba, and then to Naruto. "Let me see the seal." She ordered to which Naruto pulled out the scroll and popped one out of the storage seal and handed it to her.
"See it connects the thoughts they want to voice, to their chakra and vocal cords. So it produces the words. Like we do." He started to speak slowly but got more confident as he went. "It took them almost three months to get this good. Though they can still speak through their usual ways, I just wanted to do something nice for Hana since she helps me with keeping Shiruba healthy."
Tsume may be crude and very much an animal when it came down to it, but she knew quite a bit about sealing. Not enough to be considered a master but enough to do it for the simple seals. She looked over the seal and noticed it shared similar ties to a few mind control seals, but it tied it to the body from it's own mind. "What's the chakra have to do with it though? Our ninken learn to speak on their own if they choose."
Naruto unabashed," Well it's to help heal any damage to the cords, and using the chakra helps build control and reserves for your ninken. It's how Shiruba has started to learn some jutsu on his own." He said proudly.
To which Tsume looked between the boy and the fox. She wanted to be angry that he was here, but he was only a pup. One that seemed to take after her clan with working with a canine. Everything she thought of to make her hate him, faded now that she was talking to him. It all fell on the fox he had sealed inside, not him. She cursed herself for falling into the mindset along with the rest of the village. "Well, you give my clan the seal, and you can have free treatments for him here. I'll even see if we have any jutsu that might work for you that we don't use because styles have changed. But NO telling anyone about this seal, or that our clan is sharing jutsu. Got it pup?"
Naruto held his smile inside, as he tilted his head to the side in a submissive gesture that she picked up on. "Yes Tsume-sama. This seal will make your clan stronger, and the village since the Uchiha have fallen." The glint in his eye at that didn't get passed her either. True she wasn't going to shed more tears than needed at that loss, but to give her clan an edge up and to help the village she wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.
"Fine, next time you come for a check-in I will have anything I think will be worth while I'll have here.."
Naruto nodded in understanding as she turned to look at Hana, before she walked out the door. Everyone there sighed as a relief flooded them. He unsealed a large stack of the seals and handed them to Hana, "Just remind her that the seal should be used after bonding with the ninken. To be safe."
