"It's almost time to return to Konoha Naruto-sama," a small white orb stated as it floated next to the blond.
In the past couple of weeks the blond had improved more than he had over the past couple of months… mainly because he was actually being given the chance to… feel nature. For one, he was now capable of feeling the flow of furyoku within living creatures if they were less than ten feet away… while he could accurately judge the position of anything within two hundred feet of his current position, and detect the general direction of a person within a mile. His limit to how many shikigami he could control at any one time had increased from 16 to 37. His furyoku had also shot up to 73,000.
"Really? I guess I must have lost track of time…" replied a calm voice, as the blond sat on a ledge with one leg hanging off the sheer drop, looking out over a mountain range somewhere in Kaze no Kuni. He was wearing a specially tailored copy of the Patch tribe ceremonial robes that he had managed to get from an old woman in a deserted city in Hi no Kuni. There were a couple of differences though, such as the metal buckle that held it together being in the shape of a toad in honour of his father's contract with them, while the symbol of Konoha was etched into it. The coloured patch on the front was a deep crimson with the symbol of his mother's home village, Uzushiogakure no Sato, taking pride of place in the centre. However, the most important part of his attire was the bracelet that was currently wrapped around his right wrist, after all, from what his mom had said, it was a priceless family heirloom... and was going to be her new medium.
"I have to say… since you finally got a chance to undergo proper shaman training, you certainly have grown calmer," Shigaraki stated as the blond continued to gaze out over the mountain range.
"Yeah… anyway, I guess it's time to head back," the whiskered shaman stated before falling off the ledge.
He loved the feeling of weightlessness falling gave him, ever since Imari decided to throw him off a cliff one day after saying 'any decent shaman can come out of this exercise unscathed'… and he did.
He was surprisingly relaxed for someone that was falling several thousand feet… but then again, so where most shaman. That was one thing that the blond had learned, shaman had to keep a cool head if they wanted to become shaman king. And keeping a cool head was something he had managed to achieve quite quickly when he fell the first time.
Ignoring the waiting rock below, the blond simply enjoyed the feel of the wind blowing against him as he proceeded to close his eyes and enjoy the experience. Feeling the ground getting closer with each passing second, the blond started to concentrate his chakra into his hand, until just a couple of feet from the unforgiving ground, he released it all, halting his decent and allowing him to land on his feet, completely unconcerned by how close he had come to becoming a smear on the floor.
"You're regretting making do that exercise now aren't you fox?" Kushina asked the white Yamagi with a noticeable amount of hostility in her voice.
"Look Kushina-san, how many times do we have to go over this, I wouldn't have made him do that exercise if I didn't believe he could do it," the female kitsune stated.
"You still threw him off a cliff… he could've died if he hadn't figured out how to do that!" the still enraged mother almost shouted at the spirit.
"And unlike you, I have faith in Naruto-sama's skills."
"Imari… Kushina is Naruto's mother… mothers don't like to put their kids near the slightest risk, even if they believe in them," the red Tanuki intervened.
"Thank you Shigaraki," the human spirit said looking towards the spirit with the conical hat.
"I thought you were supposed to be on my side?" Imari said.
"I'm sitting on the fence with this one… although I think that exercise had to be done, I understand why Kushina is angry."
"Are you three going to stay there all day? Or are we going to head back to Konoha?" the young blond said as he walked into one of the country's world famous sandstorms… as it began to move around him.
"You know… I still can't believe he can do that," Kushina deadpanned.
"Neutralising the weather is a difficult skill, even for a skilled shaman… that's one of the reasons I was prepared to throw him off that cliff," the white kitsune claimed, causing Kushina to return her glare full force.
"I hate to break up the staring match… but Naruto's over that way," the red Tanuki informed them, causing them to stop glaring and rush off after the young blond.
XXX
Naruto had to admit… it was definitely easy to sneak into Konoha when you can sense both chakra and furyoku. Sure the detection barrier caused him to think of ways to evade it… until his mother told him the secret of not getting detected by it.
So here he was walking along the street, receiving stares of confusion… probably because of his attire, on his way to the Hokage's tower.
"Hey Ojisan," the young blond called calmly as he entered the Hokages office… before noticing the anger on the aged Kage's face.
"Would you like to explain to me why you left the village without telling me first?" the old man asked in a serious tone.
"Look Ojisan… if I had told you, you would've sent someone to 'babysit' me."
"And what exactly is the problem there?"
"(sigh) would a babysitter let me get thrown off a cliff?" the blond deadpanned.
"WHAT!"
"That was one of the training exercises I did out there, trust me when I say this, travelling as nothing more than a shaman and his ghosts has made me a LOT stronger," the blond explained.
"And what if you had failed that exercise?!"
"You know, you're beginning to sound like mom."
"And the problem with that is what?"
"I get enough trouble off one, I don't need another."
"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN?!" a certain red blob shouted indignantly.
"You were thrown off a cliff…" Sarutobi stated blankly.
"Yes… and now I jump off them to relax."
"Despite how much it annoys us," Imari claimed.
"You mean you and Kushina… it doesn't annoy me," Shigaraki corrected, earning a vicious glare off the kitsune, "I'll shut up now."
"Did I just hear you right? Did you just say that you jump off cliffs to relax?" the Hokage asked, hoping he heard wrong.
"Yep… you wouldn't believe just how amazing the feeling of weightlessness is when you aren't concerned about the landing," the blond stated with a serene smile gracing his lips.
"What other exercises were you put through?"
"Traversing Tokagero's river," the blond stated quickly.
"Tokagero's river?" the old Kage questioned.
"I don't know what it's actually called, but a spirit called Tokagero has been preserving it for over a thousand years… something about a friend wanting it to remain there forever," Naruto said calmly.
"How was traversing this river an exercise?"
"Tokagero is a royal pain in the ass,","NARUTO!","and keeps making flash floods to mess with travellers," Naruto explained, earning a shout from his mother halfway through it.
"So this 'Tokagero' spirit is malicious," Hiruzen muttered to himself.
"Nope… he just said, I quote 'Ryu had to deal with this shit, so I'm making sure everyone that tries to come near this river has to go through the same thing,' so to put it simply, Tokagero is very nostalgic," the blond corrected, earning a small sweatdrop from the village leader.
"(sigh) fine then… just please tell me the next time you intend on leaving the village," the old man finally said in defeat.
"As long as you don't send anyone to spy on me then fine… and just so you know, I'm now a sensor type, so you're ninja won't be able to hide from me," the young shaman claimed with a smile, "see ya later," and with a small wave, the blond left out the front door, leaving the old man to his little orange book, while a trio of bunshin took care of the paperwork.
XXX
Walking towards his apartment, the blond wasn't surprised when he saw the door broken down and the walls covered in graffiti.
"I guess it was a good thing I took the Cho-Senjiryakketsu with me huh," he said quietly as he walked through the torn apartment.
"I think we need to get you to a level where you can control Zenki and Kouki… then you can leave them here to protect your property when you leave the village," Imari stated as she looked around the room.
"I guess… but then again, Fūinjutsu could prove just as effective as a pair of Shikigami," the blond said as he started to sort through the rubble.
"If you use Hyōi Gattai with me I can set up a few security seals for you," Kushina said as she surveyed the damage and began calculating the cost of repairs, taking into account the increase simply for being Naruto.
"Yeah… I guess we should get that out of the way shouldn't we?" Naruto admitted, before taking control of about thirty leaves to clear away the rubbish littering his apartment.
XXX
With the help of the shikigami, it didn't take long to repair the apartment, and then secure it with Fūinjutsu.
So here he was, sitting in his favourite place to get something to eat, Ichiraku' Ramen.
"What's wrong Naruto? You aren't eating like you normally do," the middle aged owner asked as the blond savoured the delicious noodles.
"Nothing… I just learned to savour food on my trip," the blond said with a small smile.
"Well I hope it hasn't affected your appetite… we make more money off you than everyone else combined," the owner said, eliciting a smile from the carefree child.
"Don't worry, I just take longer to eat it… I'm still a bottomless pit for ramen… anyway, how's Ayame neechan?"
"She seems to be alright… if you don't count her constantly disappearing a problem," the chef claimed, drawing the blonds' attention.
"Do you have any idea what she might be doing?" Naruto asked curiously.
"I'm not sure… but I think she might have gotten herself a boyfriend," Teuchi said quietly.
"Is that a problem?"
"No… it's just the fact that she's keeping this guy a secret from me… it makes me worry about what type of person she's seeing," the father said as he let loose a long sigh.
"I see… oh well, nothing we can do about it," the young shaman said before continuing to eat his meal.
XXX
"Well that cost less than I expected," Naruto claimed as he walked out of a local clothing store with several bags of 'casual clothes'.
"I think the owner thought you were planning on going on mission with those on when you're older," Kushina said as she tried to get around the impracticality of her sons new wardrobe.
"It doesn't really matter why, we can always go back to Nekobaa if you need new 'work clothes', besides, I think they suit him," Imari said uncharacteristically casually.
The blonds' new wardrobe consisted of several brightly coloured button up shirts in a range of yellow to red, several white vests, knee length white shorts, several pairs of blue jeans and a few pairs of loose fitting sandals. Of course he was still wearing his 'Patch robes' at the time.
"So… are you going to do anything about Ayame?" the youngest of the spirits asked.
"…"
"…"
"Hey? Aren't you going to answer me?"
"Of course he isn't Kushina, we're in the middle of the street with who knows how many people around… do you really think he'll risk speaking with us when there are that many people around?" Shigaraki asked.
"Heheh… I kinda forgot about that," the red blob admitted, before she stopped talking and the group proceeded back to the blonds' apartment.
XXX
Naruto had to admit, following someone when you're a sensor is really quite easy. Being capable of following them from a good distance away was useful, especially when dealing with a civilian.
"You know, I'm glad you decided to spy on Ayame after all, it actually makes things interesting," Kushina claimed as she watched her son follow the ramen girl.
"I would rather be training right now… but Ayame is like a sister to me… I don't want her getting herself mixed in with the wrong crowd," the young blond said calmly as he continued to follow the young girls furyoku signature.
The shaman was surprised when she left the village for one of the woods within the walls… and even more so when she simply stopped in a small clearing with no other people for miles.
Approaching the clearing quietly, Naruto attempted to get close enough to see why she hadn't moved… and boy was he surprised when he got there.
In the clearing was a small pond surrounded by large leaves that seemed to thrive in the moist soil.
"Well, well, well… I didn't expect Fuki to still grow in this area," the Tanuki said.
"Huh? Fuki?" the blond asked completely lost by his companions sentence.
"Fuki are those leaves surrounding the pond... they tend to grow in moist climates, hence the reason why we didn't expect to see any in this region," Imari explained.
"However, the most important part for you to know is this, wherever Fuki grows, Koropokkuru appear," the red Yamagi claimed.
"Koropokkuru?"
"Nature spirits that live under fuki leaves," the white kitsune explained.
"So why is it important to know that they're here?" Kushina asked.
"Tell me… how many ninja's can create ice?" Shigaraki asked, causing both Naruto and Kushina to look at him in shock.
"So you mean to tell me that shaman can create ice?" Kushina questioned the red kitsune.
"With the correct spirit, a shaman can do just about anything," Imari claimed as she stared into the Fuki fields.
Following the kitsune's gaze, Naruto caught sight of the person he had followed there in the first place… his sister figure, Ayame, currently sitting with a peaceful expression on her face as she watched the Fuki sway in the breeze, while the surface of the water rippled and reflected the light of the setting sun.
"Hey Neechan, nice spot ya got here," the blond said as he walked up to her.
"Huh? Naruto? What are you doing here?" the young brunette asked as her gaze shifted targets.
"Teuchi-ojisan told me that you kept disappearing… he thinks you've got a boyfriend he wouldn't approve of," the young shaman told her as he sat down next to her and let his gaze fix on the clearing.
"Really? That doesn't explain why you're here."
"What? Isn't a little brother allowed to worry about his big sister?"
"So you followed me," the older girl said with a dangerous edge to her voice.
"Yeah… if you don't tell us what you're doing then is really that surprising that I decided to find out myself?"
"And invade my privacy!"
"Only when I'm concerned… you could of easily told Ojisan where you've been disappearing to and he wouldn't of worried about you, if he wasn't worried about you then I wouldn't have followed you."
"…"
"…"
"I'm going home," Ayame said as she stood up and began to slowly leave the clearing, before stalling just long enough to say "sorry," before she was gone.
"…"
"…"
"Hey, are there any Koropokkuru's here?" the blond asked when he was certain his 'sister' couldn't hear him.
Almost immediately Fuki leaves began to stir as six inch tall people began to poke their heads out from under the leaves and look at him with a questioning gaze.
"Hi… I'm Naruto, pleased ta meet'cha," he said happily.
XXX
Today was the day… after five years of classes, Naruto's year was finally about to graduate. The young blond had grown significantly since then, now possessing a furyoku level of 159,000 he was easily capable of creating O.S's without spending much furyoku… combined with his ability to control shikigami now extending into nearly a thousand, he was certainly a force to be reckoned with.
He had managed to dominate Zenki and Kouki a few years ago and they had proven to be very good… deterrents when he O.S'd them against a drunken mob on one of his birthdays.
He had also proven to be highly skilled at dowsing, which was only made easier with Morphine's help. Necromancy definitely wasn't his forte… he wasn't bad at it but he just wasn't as good at it as he was with everything else… he could still easily reanimate an entire graveyard but the combination of his lack of desire to do so and his lack of practice meant that he couldn't really do anymore.
However, Naruto's true strength lay in his… supplementary abilities. Fumon Tonkou, a technique whereby the user reads the flow of their enemies furyoku in order to predict their opponents next move, which combined with the fact that he was the only person that knew how to manipulate his furyoku, meant that he was NEVER caught off guard by a move… just the strength and speed of it. He had also managed to succeed in learning a technique known as furyoku nullification… which Imari claimed was practically useless in the world of shinobi… until he managed to adapt the technique into chakra nullification… making ranged jutsu almost useless against him.
As far as class went, Naruto was officially the rookie of the year, with taijutsu skills (combined with Fumon Tonkou) that let him defeat Iruka in taijutsu practice, a perfect henge and the ability to produce two perfect bunshin (not that anyone knew they were actually Imari and Shigaraki). Of course this status was barely held due to Uchiha Sasuke being capable of producing more perfect bunshin than him, but Naruto had proven himself vastly superior than the last of the royal Uchiha's when it came down to taijutsu, allowing him to keep the title.
Naruto wasn't the only one to improve either… thanks to Imari and Shigaraki's teachings and her own willingness, Kushina had managed to ascend to seirei class a couple of weeks ago resulting in her reiyoku level increasing to 1,100 and allowing the two to work on a more advanced O.S than before thanks to her no longer possessing a subconscious visualisation of herself. Of course, they were still working on the O.S but it was already significantly stronger than their previous one.
"Alright class, first it is the written portion of the exam… you have half an hour to answer all the questions, your time starts now," Iruka said, the tests already laying in front of the students. Naruto was just like always wearing an orange, short sleeved shirt with the chest open while one of his white vests hide his torso (he didn't want anyone to see 'that abominable seal') and his legs were covered in blue denim. He was currently sitting next to Sasuke, who was in turn sitting next to a window. It was more out of pity than anything else, because the dark haired boy had suffered enough having to watch his family get slaughtered by his older brother… he didn't need to suffer constant attacks by fangirls… that and it also reduced the chances of one of his own fangirls sitting next to him… yes that's right, Naruto had a fanclub as well, it may not have been as large as Sasuke's, but it still existed.
Turning over the single sheet of paper, Naruto immediately channelled a small amount of chakra into the paper to disrupt the fine layer of chakra covering it, revealing a much simpler test, which shouldn't have taken ten minutes to answer… the only reason he didn't call it out was simple, EVERY test was covered in a subtle genjutsu, meaning that it was a test to see if they could detect it.
After finishing his test, the young blond proceeded to lean back in his chair and fall asleep.
"Alright class, time's up, Mizuki will collect your papers and mark them while we go outside to test your taijutsu and accuracy," Iruka said as his assistant proceeded to collect the papers while the class went outside.
The tests were both very simple, fight Iruka and hit some moving targets… both of which Naruto aced… after all, clay disks are nowhere near as unpredictable as leaf shikigami when it came down to movement.
When both tests were finished, the class was called back in for the final portion of the exam, ninjutsu, which, just like everything else, Naruto aced.
"Alright class, you have an hour for lunch, when you get back you will either be given a hitae-ate and become an official ninja of Konohagakure, or you will stay for an extra year," Iruka claimed before the class left to get something to eat.
XXX
There was no doubt about it, Naruto passed with the highest marks in the class, securing his title of rookie of the year.
Of course, his mother had made sure to point out that he wasn't a genin YET because there was one more test to be administered and that was by the Jōnin sensei's.
So the blond proceeded to prepare himself for whatever challenge he would face in the second test.
XXX
"Here is the list of those who passed Hokage-sama," Iruka stated respectfully as he handed a folder over to the aged leader, who immediately began reading the profiles.
"I see… out of everyone here, I'm almost certain that only nine of them will pass their sensei's tests… the problem arises on how to arrange them… I can't place Naruto and Sasuke on the same team due to them both being at the top of the class…" the Hokage muttered to himself before a small grin appeared on his face and he placed the nine profiles in three separate folders, before handing them all back to the Chūnin instructor, "arrange the rest however you want Iruka."
"Hai Hokage-sama," and with that, the teacher was gone.