Disclaimer:

I do not own Naruto, Mortal Kombat, Sub-Zero, Scorpion, Tremor, Lin Kuei, Shirai Ryu, or any of the other familiar things that you might see in this story.

Mortal Kombat: Revival of the Lin Kuei

Chapter Four - Tree Climbing and Water Walking

The Sandaime Hokage was a man who did a great service for his country, the country of fire. As he silently prayed for another early retirement, hoping beyond all other things that Tsunade or Jiraiya would return to Konoha with the desire to stay until the next Hokage was called for. Inwardly he smiled, knowing instinctively that Naruto would be a candidate when the time came for the nomination of Rokudaime. But, nevertheless, he was glad that the same young blonde sat in front of him right now. He was glad that he had an excuse to ignore the real job of the Hokage, the massive stacks of tree remains that sat in front of him. The Old Hokage knew that if Naruto knew that paperwork was almost the only thing that the Sandaime saw, he'd run kicking and screaming.

"Well, Naruto... I must say that I am very impressed that it only took you eight days to master the taijutsu styles of the Lin Kuei."

"I couldn't master the entire style. A few of the dragon style techniques require the use of the Lin Kuei's kenjutsu and more importantly the 'Kori Blade'. How can I master a style of taijutsu that requires the usage of the clan's original sword?"

"Yes, your mother had the same problem... Both swords, the Lin Kuei's Kori Blade and the Shirai Ryu's Mugai Ryu, both were stolen from the clan when your grandparents were killed." The Old Hokage sighed into his hand as he rubbed his temples. "The Seven Swordsman of the mist were the original suspects, but with the entire clan dead, there was nothing she could do. Study the diagrams of the swords so that if you ever see the swords you can take them back, okay?"

"Hai, One day I will bring the swords back under the ownership of the Lin Kuei's and the Shirai Ryu's reforged clan, which will be named Kazama."

"Once you master your parent's entire library, except for the Kenjutsu of course, you will be able to defend your parent's clan names. I must say that you have quite a legacy to live up to..."

"You said that you would be able to teach me something that can help me to continue?"

"Yes," here's the scroll, I want you to learn how to climb trees the ninja way."

"Are you serious? Oji-san! if I want to master the techniques quicker, shouldn't I do something more important? Why should I waste my time learning how to climb trees?" Naruto had nearly jumped out of his seat.

"Tree Climbing is used as a chakra control technique, used to enhance your control and enlarge your reserves. Without it a technique like the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu could kill someone with chunin chakra reserve levels." You currently have high jounin ranked chakra reserves, but if you want them to grow, or if you want to be able to create more clones, or do higher consumption techniques, this skill is necessary. I happen to know that your father's entire jutsu library requires a chakra reserve of a jounin, and the control of a high chunin, at the very minimum. You very low genin chakra control, assuming that you have any. Now... do you wish for me to have someone help you learn better control? Or do you think that you can learn from a scroll?"

"A scroll is fine..."

"Okay then, here you go." He handed Naruto two scrolls, "After you can complete both of the exercises, you can start to master the Lin Kuei's bloodline jutsu. and once you can do three perfect techniques of each you can start the Shirai Ryu scrolls. And when you can master all of your mother's jutsu, I'll enroll you into the academy..." At Naruto's sour expression, he continued, "You can't become a ninja without it, think of it this way, you go to the academy and complete the genin exams and you can graduate early, instead of staying the entire six years..."Naruto sighed, but smiled.

"Thanks, Old Man, what can it hurt?" As Naruto made his way to the closed door to the Hokage's office, Sarutobi stopped him.

"Naruto, if it's any consolation, I want you to know that I did beg Arashi to either not use you as a cage for Kyuubi or to use me as the soul to be sacrificed to the Shinigami. I know that you haven't actually taken the time to sit down and think about your parents, but I know that be it in one second or one year, there will be something that you cannot get past on your own, and I would like you to promise me that when that happens, that you will talk to somebody... I don't want you to let everyone to know how you're feeling, I just want you to feel like you can always have someone to talk to, even if it won't be me." The Old Hokage looked his age when Naruto turned his direction. "Please, promise me..."

Naruto sat in the center of the training area behind his home.

He was currently bend over the first scroll that the Old Hokage had given him.

'So let's review... Chakra is the combination of mental and physical energies that a shinobi uses... they are used in various ninjutsu and genjustu... In order to be effective and efficient when manipulating chakra for jutsus a shinobi must know how to balance the two energies to have control of their chakra... mastery of said manipulation is made through various exercises... the most common are tree climbing and water walking... so that's what I'm doing... to climb a tree, focus energy to the soles of the user's feet... keep a steady stream of chakra... chakra will be used as an adhesive... when user is able to manipulate chakra through second nature mastery has been achieved... so if I do this, tree climbing, and the other scroll's water walking technique I should be able to master my mom's jutsu that much quicker!'

Finding a tree a bit away from the center of the training area, Naruto began to concentrate chakra into his feet, and slowly walked towards the base of the tree. Placing his foot on the center of the trunk he leaned slightly on to it not only shifting physical weight, but unknowingly shifting his physical concentration.

His entire leg shot itself off of the base of the tree, and if it wasn't for anatomical limitations, said limb would have imbedded itself into his head, permanently. Naruto recovered from the cerebral trauma minutes later, rubbing his black eye, and sporting a busted lip.

"Damn, I hope that I wasn't out to long... maybe I do need a little help...!...That's what I forgot! Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Technique of Shadow Clones)! Everybody, charge!"

3 hours, 21 hours, 34 minutes, 25 seconds, and 13 milliseconds later found 999 blonde bats up in the 66 trees that surrounded the oldest clan's training area exactly 3 miles 2 blocks and 50 feet outside of Konohagakure's main city plaza. There were two blonde shinobi on the ground nearest to said trees and they were looking around at all the bats.

"I never knew that I could hold a henge for that damn long. It's been a full day since I started this new stage in the tree climbing training, and you'd think that after 24 hours of being henged upside down that a clone with only a small fraction of my chakra, would dispel already, or at least fall..."

"I know aren't we cool?" The nearest clone said, as one by one the henged bats began to fall out of their perches in the tree and bring a rain of black bats, green leaves and grey smoke.

Calmly Naruto began to climb the tree, as casually as he would walk down the street. Smirking to himself he began to fall as one of the straggling clones smashed into his face. Turning in midair, he landed almost gracefully on the floor below, clones dispelling weren't the only things making smoke.

"Now... where is there enough water to walk on?" Naruto asked himself, before he began heading in the direction of Konoha's hot springs.

As Naruto sat down on the slightly damp dirt next to one of the smaller springs outside of the main hot spring area, he cracked open the last scroll.

"Okay, Scroll number: two... 'Water walking is a good way to exercise the control needed for most genjutsu, and is also a good way to increase you reserves. Water Walking is used as way to teach shinobi how to maintain a steady ad controlled amount of chakra. This concentration, while is useful for genjutsu, as previously stated, can also be used in preparing for the chakra drain that various ninjutsu that also require a steady stream of chakra, primarily all jutsu that are released orally. Other techniques, like the Yondaime's Ransengan, also need the control of an endless stream of chakra to maintain said technique.'"

Naruto paused a moment before continuing, "So, even if this doesn't help me much with my mom's techniques it's a need for my dad's techniques... Okay then, how do I do it? 'To walk on water, concentrate chakra to the bottom of your feet and concentrate on releasing said chakra in a steady stream altering the output when necessary... until the user has finished mastering this technique."

"This doesn't seem too hard... Naruto finished, as an afterthought.

Standing he concentrated his chakra and began to walk towards the hot spring in front of him. He felt the heat of the water, a soft tingle on the soles of his feet, as he saw the steady ripple that was created by his chakra output. He could have almost fallen in the water at the thought of the water being as cool to the touch as it seemed to be. There was so much visible steam rising from the water below. It boggled his mind.

The water wasn't as solid as it could have been, but he decided that maybe that was how it was supposed to be, and let the leg support his weight. Lifting his other leg, he continued to stream chakra out of his feet and placed his other foot on the surface of the water hoping that the process would continue to work until it would become second nature.

It didn't work at all.

Falling into the hot water, Naruto grasped for whatever handholds that he could on the sides of the hot spring. Finding one after a full minute of flailing around his arms and legs, he used hat hand to hoist himself out onto the dry ground. Taking the time to compose himself, Naruto stripped down to just his pants. Forming his chakra with the ram seal, he yelled, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"

Sending a different clone to each of the steaming hot hot springs, he began to manipulate his chakra once more. Stepping forward, Naruto concentrated on the chakra that coated the bottom of his feet, before plunging to the bottom of the spring once more.

Hours later, after another two sets of clones had to be made, Naruto began to experience change. He began to notice growth in his ability to walk on water. He could easily stand or walk around as if the water's surface was the dirt next to it with the smallest amount of concentration possible. It wasn't the same feel of second nature that tree climbing had become, to him, but he estimated that it would only be within an hour more of training that he would finish mastering the technique of water walking.

Sitting next to the spring, Naruto made to pull his sandals off. As he ran his hand across the bottom of the shoe, he noticed that it was cold… too cold. It was so cold that he believed that a light frost coated the bottom of the shoe.

It was then that he realized that his cryomancer bloodline might be revealing itself, and that it was so powerful that his chakra was drastically affecting the water that it came into contact with.

He only hoped that this manipulation was controllable and that if it wasn't, that he'd be able to at least come in contact with water before it decided to freeze over... water was good for the body, right?

He wanted to at least know how powerful his bloodline could be. Concentrating his chakra into his finger with the intent to freeze, he dipped it into the hot spring. He watched in fascination as a mist seemed to stretch outward from his finger like an internal ripple effect. As the mist began to spread along the water he removed his finger and watched as the entire spring turned to glassy ice. Leaning in close to the mirror-like surface, he noticed that his breath was visible to the naked eye as it clashed with the below freezing temperatures that radiated off the ice.

At that moment he promised himself that he would look into the details of his mother's family's history the moment that he mastered the rest of the Lin Kuei Jutsu. And he was slightly curious and nervous to understand if any physical changes might occur due to his exposure to below freezing chakra temperatures. Needless to say his goal in life was not to become a 'Human Popsicle'.

He never noticed that his eyes had become an entire shade of blue lighter than before, making them become imitations of the color of the mirror-like ice spring in front of him.

Author's notes:

everybody, i just fixed my cataloging for my stories on my computer, and i finally unsurfaced a lot of stuff i couldn't find for a lot of my stories, so much that i found four more stories. one harry potter, one final fantasy, one matrix, and one star wars.

This is just a shout out to my reviewers...

Chrisdz - i'm going to make them longer as I go, but i don't want to slam so much into the same chapter, nor do i want to feel like i can change it over and over again, before i give you guys a chapter, submiting when i can what i can makes me feel like i owe you better chapters, if i make them longer, it'll be lke my other stories, never to be finished in near future. but one thing was jiraiya even at the bridge meeting? and gomen about the japanese thing, i kinda lost the translations, they are basically translated versions of the entire mortal kombat deception technique list. below is what i recovered...

- Spear Hand Strike: yari te dageki

- Forward Elbow Strike: zenpou hiji dageki

- Lower Knee Strike: rohiza dageki

- Sword Hand Strike: katana te dageki

for the translations of the Shotokan Kata, look on wikipedia.

Jbalman - what??? what you typed is more confusing to me than however confused you are... and how come you don't review?

Darthdrew1704 - thank you, but I wish you participated in the polls.

Thsunami - you actually have ideas, so your awesome! I like you're Sakura ideas, even if I want to be able to just kill her... damn you... I'm glad that you agree with my clan idea where bloodline clans don't merge. I don't like the fact that you want a multiple pairing for Naruto, I don't really like harems, they're a bit harder to write... just know that while Naruto does need to repopulate his clan...not even the scorpion and sub-zero in mortal kombat bothered to have more than one wife... and armageddon ends with scorpion searching for his only son. A single son born to the last of the shirai ryu... only one wife... and I don't think that he remarried. I believe that naruto would even become the ultimate bad ass, bad to the bone, or whatever you call it to the ladies. If he actually knew how to act early on. But in this story he will learn to act, and he learns about being a ninja, and while he will become a 'B A', excuse me and my harsh letters (this is a remark from dane cook, if you don't know it you're not cool), he will not pick up everybody, villagers would hate him regardless.

Ten wings - thank you for being so vocal, I agree...

Jbalman - thank you for abiding by my no harem policy. What do you mean by you for who kills Orochimaru? I'll just assume Naruto... I also agree that sarutobi should not have been as easily beaten, but you have to remember that Orochimaru is in a body that is in its prime. And sarutobi is old, hence why he retired for the yondaime in the first place. I want to give Naruto three sensei's for three different time periods... I've got it mapped out in my head...

my computer trashed the rest (that's what happens when you switch from mac to pc and back (the school has macs, i have a pc)), i'll try to parenthesize the rest of the techniques that I introduce.

Now for the polls...

Naruto Pairing?

Haku(fem) IIIIIIIIIIIIII

Hanabi IIIIIIIIII

Hinata IIIIIIIIIII

Ino IIIIII

Kin I

Sakura IIII

Tayuya IIIIIIII

Temari IIIIIIIIIIII

Tenten IIIII

Who gets to kill orochimaru?

Naruto IIIIII

Jiraiya I

Tsuande

Sasuke I

Naruto/Jiraiya III

Naruto/Jiraiya/Tsunade I

Naruto/Sasuke IIII

Naruto/Sakura/Tsunade I

And when?

Chunin Exams II

Tsunade Retrieval IIII

Sasuke Retrieval I

3 year time-skip I

Sasori and Kabuto Bridge Meeting III

sasuke retrieval after timeskip I

Original timeline II

should I change the Wave Arc mission?

Original timeline II

team Naruto as backup IIIIIIII

different mission I

Meet Haku and Zabuza?

Yes IIIIII

No I

What should teams be???

Naruto/Sasuke/Sakura II

Naruto/Sasuke/Hinata II

Naruto by himself IIIIII

(and I mean actually by himself, chunnin exams and all, no story that I've read has done this...)

Naruto/Shino/Sakura II

Naruto/Hinata/Shino I

Naruto/OC(Orochi clan)/Sakura I

Anything else you can think of...

And who's his teacher?

Kakashi II

Kurenai II

Jiraiya IIII

Anko IIIIIII

Asuma I

Ebisu

and this somehow made its way into becoming a poll...

Who wants to die?

Hiashi IIII

Sakura IIII

does anybody actually want them to live?

for the feint of heart, do not read the following poll...

who will be apart of his fan club?

haku(male) I

(maybe i'll make haku into a pair of twins?)

hinata I

sakura I

temari I

JUST because a poll is listed does not mean i will use the result!!!

I want Naruto to be seen at the academy for at least one year, sorry to those who want him to be there...

(idea sneak peek... i want him to graduate after one year, become anbu or something like that at the end efter he passes the exams, making it slightly legit. also, i want to have him come back to his rookie nine classmates after one of them dies, meaning that i want to kill off whoever ends up taking his spot on the teams.)

I do not want to do a time skip from when he finishes mastering his family techniques, or from when he graduates the academy until the time that he meets up with the rookie nine, please give me mission ideas, and other things, the more basic or broad an idea the more that i can manipulate it into a masterpiece! so give me what you have, if i use your idea you can be the head bandit or name the bandit.