Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Naruto walked into the room Iruka was in, getting a feel of the hidden blade mechanism pushing his chakra into it, making the blade lash out, before retracting to its original position. It really was a quick and efficient weapon.
"Naruto? Wow, I was expecting something more professional than the orange jumpsuit, but man, what you're wearing is beyond my expectations. You look more like an elite jounin, than a rookie gennin now." He said, with wide eyes.
"You really think so, Iruka-sensei?"
"Of course. Have you got enough money to pay for these?"
"Well, the ninjato is too expensive for me, so I'll pay a monthly amount until all the cost is covered. The rest of them yes, although my money supply for dire situations will be depleted." He said, his expression twisting into a semi-sad one.
"Well, Naruto looks mighty fine, don't you think?" Said a new voice, signaling that Tenten was in the room. "About the ninjato, let me get my father Naruto, so that you two can make a deal amongst yourselves."
"DAD, come over here, there's someone I want you to meet." she yelled, making Naruto and Iruka wince.
"All right, no need to yell" said a new voice. A man came from the door behind the counter, before he stood facing Iruka and Naruto. He had brown hair, like Tenten, a medium sized beard, and a scar running from the top of his right eye, to his left cheek. That, along with his ripped muscles, gave him an overwhelming look.
"Ah, Ken-san, it's been a long time." Said Iruka, a small smile plastered on his face.
"Iruka, good to see you again." He said, nodding at him. "Now, Tenten-chan, what was it again?"
"This here is Naruto, erm…well Naruto, I never got your last name, what is it?" she said, sending a questioning glance at Naruto.
"Uzumaki." He said, grinning.
"Well, nice to meet you, Naruto Uzumaki" said Ken, shaking Naruto's hand. 'Minato's kid huh. Well he's grown up nicely.'
"Anyway, dad, Naruto here, touched one of the elite ANBU ninjato, and it bonded to him. As he doesn't have enough money on him at the moment for that and the clothes he bought, I thought maybe we can set up a monthly dose, or something like that, so he can cover the cost over time."
"Don't sweat it Naruto, whenever you come up with enough money just come and repay me, the blade wouldn't be of much use since it bonded to you anyway." He grinned. "And, just because it's your first time here, I'll cut the price in half!"
"Thanks a lot Ken-san!" exclaimed Naruto with widening eyes, bowing his head lightly as a sign of thanks to Ken.
"Anyway, Naruto is that all you wanted?" said Tenten, as she got behind the counter and started to calculate the costs of the clothes. She saw Naruto nod, so she finished up the calculations. "Well this set of clothes, three duplicate sets and the hidden blade all cost six hundred ryo. Have you got enough on cash?"
Naruto nodded, taking out Gama-chan, the wallet he had gotten for his eighth birthday, by a mysterious source. Taking out the needed money, he handed them over to Tenten. Grabbing hold of the bag that contained his duplicate sets, he waved at Tenten and Ken.
"Thanks a lot for your help Tenten -chan. I hope I see you around someday. You too Ken-san! I promise I'll come up with the money soon. Let's go, Iruka-sensei." He gestured at Iruka to follow him.
"So Naruto, how about we go to Ichiraku's, my treat!" said Iruka, looking at Naruto.
"Hell yes!"
The two made their way to the ramen stand, pushing the curtains aside as they sat on two of the stools. Ayame greeted them with a smile and a hug to Naruto, before she got behind the counter, and started to chop some vegetables.
"Ah, Naruto-kun, Iruka-san, how are you two? It's been a while since I've seen you two, since I was on vacation" she said, taking her eyes off the vegetables, and giving them a smile.
"We're fine, Ayame-chan, I just got a new wardrobe, and I made gennin yesterday!" he said, proud about his achievements.
"That's great Naruto-kun, I'm really proud of you!"
Teuchi came, and greeted them, before taking their orders and preparing their ramen. While they were eating the ramen, or in Naruto's case, devouring it, Iruka tried to strike up a conversation.
"So, Naruto, I understand that you've been training this morning, since you ripped your pants falling off a tree." He said, snickering at the mention of Naruto's misfortune. Naruto narrowed his eyes at that. "How far have you come with the tree climbing exercise? You must be almost done by now right?"
"Well, Iruka-sensei, I made it to the top of a really tall tree, with relative ease, after training with three hundred clones. After that, I noticed that there are more possibilities for training on the tree climbing exercise. So I started training on climbing with my hands, but without the support on my legs. Then I slowly started to lessen the areas in contact with the tree, until I was climbing with my finger tips. It's the hardest thing I ever trained in, but I can already feel that my chakra control is at least triple what it was. I'm going to complete climbing with my fingertips today, and maybe complete water walking with my feet."
Naruto noticed that Iruka was looking at him with a slack jawed expression.
"What is it Iruka-sensei, did I do something wrong?"
"Climbing with your fingertips is unheard of, if not impossible. It is amazing that you even managed to climb a few inches that way. You really are amazing, Naruto!"
"I'm just that awesome, Iruka-sensei." He said, grinning.
"Just don't become an arrogant prick, Naruto, and you'll go far!"
"Fine Iruka sensei, anyway, I'm off, I have to train some more!" he said, before getting off his stool and dashing out and towards the woods he was training in before.
Iruka was left to pay for the nine bowls Naruto consumed, as well as his. He silently wept at the blow his wallet had taken.
Just before he went out, he found his path blocked by a tall man in a red kabuki outfit. He immediately recognized the man as Jiraiya of the Sannin.
"Ah, Jiraiya-sama, you're back. It's been a long time since you were sighted in the village!" he said with wide eyes.
"Yes, I'm back, but only for a little while. Seems like our little Jinchuuriki is shaping up to be real good.
"Naruto is not just a Jinchuuriki. There's more to him than meets the eye!" he said with a determined look.
Jiraiya just smiled as he walked away, towards the Hokage's office. 'Oh, I should know better than anyone, boy. I should get going; I need to inform Sarutobi about them.'
Naruto had reached the area he had trained in before. It was four in the afternoon at the moment, so he had about six hours to train before he went to bed, to wake up at sunrise the next day.
Deciding to get to work, he gathered the chakra needed to summon about six hundred clones. The result, because of his constantly increasing chakra control, was around eight hundred clones. Naruto figured that once he chakra control reached a level which he couldn't surpass, it wouldn't be so hard to control the number of clones he could create.
"Okay you guys, since we're almost done with the finger climbing, I want four hundred of you to come with me, we're going to search for a river, or a lake, where we can train in water walking."
He started to walk, while taking out the scroll Iruka gave to him. It had a note of a location big enough to hold a lot of his clones, as well as it being relatively secluded. It was, luckily very close by, and within five minutes, he had reached the place.
It was a very large clearing with a large lake in the middle. The lake was big enough so that 300 of his clones could stand in the midst of it while having a comfortable space between them. He thought about what he could do with the last hundred clones. Opening his scroll, he found the first exercise for water manipulation. It consisted of putting your hands on the surface of the water and trying to create a small whirlpool under your hand. After that was done, you had to raise the level of the water under your hand, while still keeping the water spinning. These were the two steps to gain considerable control over the water element.
"All right, I want three hundred of you guys, in the midst of the lake, while the rest sit around the lake, practicing the water manipulation exercise. One of you come here, and read the two exercise from the scroll." He said, motioning for a clone to come and read the exercise. Once the clone finished reading, he told him to dispel himself so that the rest of the clones knew what to do in the exercise. At first he had only a few of the clones do the exercise. They had to watch fifty clones sink themselves in the water, for about half an hour before they started to get it. Then Naruto had them dispel themselves, so the clones knew how to float in the middle of the lake. Slowly, the clones filled the lake, all of them trying to maintain the water walking exercise. Many of them sunk, but got back on the surface by focusing chakra on their hands, kind of like when they practiced tree walking with their hands, only implementing what was needed for the water walking with feet.
Naruto watched as his clones started getting the hang of the exercise, some floating for more than five minutes before they sunk. He ordered some clones to dispel themselves, as he found that giving small boosts of chakra control to the other clones made them increase their skill exponentially. He concentrated on what the clones working with water manipulation where doing. Absolutely nothing. Not one of the clones had managed to even put a small wave in the water, let alone create a whirlpool. He joined them, hoping to be able to at least move the water by nightfall.
Two hours later Naruto had made no progress on the water manipulation exercise. He and his clones were still trying to move the water, even if just a ripple. The clones working on water walking had been standing on water for the last thirty minutes. Naruto figured that they had been working on it long enough that if they dispelled he would be able to walk on water like if it was a second nature to him. So he stopped what he was doing and yelled some orders to his clones.
"All right you guys, since you're already pretty much finished with the water walking, I want you to try and do what we did with the tree walking exercise. Try to stand on the water with your hands; this might even improve my balance, even if a little!" once he was finished yelling the orders he turned to look at the water in front of him.
At that moment, one of the clones dispelled, because it was low on chakra. The force from the clone dispelling was strong enough that it created a small wave. A couple of the clones that didn't notice what was going on, got carried off from the flow of the water.
Naruto watched the scene in deep thought, before he had a flash of genius.
'Flow' he thought. 'I need my chakra to flow with the water, controlling it, but not making it lose the flow. It's all about the flow.' He conveyed his idea to the other clones working on water manipulation. The clones nodded, and then concentrated on creating the whirlpool. Only this time they infused the water with their chakra, making it one with the flow, instead of trying to force down amounts of chakra and trying to make it spin. The effects were minimal for some clones while for others non-existent. Some clones had managed to cause a small ripple on the water's surface. Even that was a sign of progress. Naruto turned to his work with a determined look. He started repeating what the clones were doing.
Another three hours later, it was already dark and Naruto was having trouble even summoning his chakra. He was exhausted, more than he had ever been. He slowly got up from where he had been sitting, before he ordered the clones practicing on water manipulation to dispel themselves. Since they were much less than the amount he dispelled the last few times, he only winced a little at the pain in his head, before he slowly knelt and tried the water manipulation exercise one last time. He concentrated his chakra in the water under his hand, moving the water as an extension of his body, while still letting it flow like it did normally. The water started spinning, slowly. Naruto saw this, and concentrated harder, forcing the water to go faster. The water did, indeed, go faster but slowly Naruto lost control of it.
'Well, it's much better than my previous tries, and I'm happy for that.' He turned to the clones that were maintaining a hand stand on the water's surface for the last ten minutes. It seemed that maintaining a hand stand on water was actually harder than standing on it, and ten minutes was his clone's limit. He dispelled them, in groups of fifty, to lessen the effect on his head. He could already feel the results in his head, as he found that he could understand his own chakra flow better than ever.
He slowly walked back to the clearing where the clones were practicing finger walking. He saw nothing in the clearing, not even a trace of his clones, which put him in thought. At that moment a yell was heard.
"Hey Boss! We made it!" he heard one of his clones yell. He looked up and saw all of his clones on the branches near the top of the tree. He grinned, but figured that it was natural for them to get it this quick, since their chakra control had also increased from some of the clones he had dispelled when he started working on the water walking exercise. He was about to order them to dispel in groups, when all of his clones simultaneously dropped to the ground. Naruto widened his eyes, before closing them as pain was the only thing he knew. The clones knew that this would hurt him and did it on purpose to give him a headache.
'Damn bastards. I can't complain though, I made them that way.'
He sat holding his head for some time before he cleared his thoughts. He figured that there was no need to test finger walking, as all his clones had made it to the top. So he started walking back home.
When he reached his home, he didn't even bother getting out of his clothes and into pajamas. Instead, he took off his hidden blade and the hoodie, and fell on the bed, falling asleep almost instantly.
Naruto was walking down the street, a frown on his face. He had had a rude awakening when his alarm clock rang while he was in the best part of his dream, receiving the Hokage hat. He was just about to put it on when the alarm clock rang and disturbed his dream.
It was already midday; he had left about three hundred clones at the lake, working on water manipulation. Some were doing water walking while they were practicing water manipulation, which increased his water control as well as his chakra control at the same time.
At the moment he was heading towards the Hokage's office, he needed some help finding out how to train with his ninjato.
Sarutobi had had a rough couple of days, what with all the council meetings about Mizuki's betrayal. Due to the sadistic bastard's actions, his paperwork had tripled, and he was already cursing him to the lowest pits of hell just for that.
He heard his secretary yelling, and then a bump that meant that someone had hit the floor. This put him on the edge, before he sensed familiar chakra and relaxed.
He felt someone hit the door and had to duck to avoid the door hitting his face. The door went flying out of his window, and landed in the middle of the street, barely missing some of the villagers walking in the street. The two ANBU guards, Cat and Ferret, were instantly on the invader, their swords drawn, nearly piercing his neck, when Sarutobi thought it was time to intervene.
"Stand down, Neko (Cat), Inu (Dog)!" he said with a commanding voice.
They both looked at the assailant, noticing him to be Naruto, before nodding at the Hokage and saluting him. Inu disappeared, but Neko remained for some reason, looking at Naruto through her mask before she went to stand at the corner of the room. Sarutobi was incredibly surprised by her actions but he didn't say anything, wondering how that would play out. Then he noticed the Elite ANBU ninjato strapped on Naruto's side, and understood why Neko had remained. Naruto having one of those, meant that this was something more than a simple cry for attention by Naruto.
"You really need to replace that damn bitch you call a secretary, ojii-san. She wouldn't let me in, because she said I would leave stains on the floor." He said angrily.
"Well, thanks for the mention Naruto; I'll have her taken care of. First of all, what did you do to my door?"
" Well, that was truly an accident. I must've sent out a burst of chakra when I kicked it to come in."
"Fine, I'll just ignore that, but I can't have you breaking my office like that. Nice equipment by the way. Now what did you need?"
"Well, you see I bought this ninjato, and I have absolutely no idea how to train with it, and get stronger. I thought about going to the library to see if there are any scrolls with techniques, but the library always refused to serve me, so I came here to see if you've got anything that can help me."
"Well, Naruto, I have said this to you before, that I can't give you any help, since that would be considered favoritism."
He was interrupted by Neko, when she put her hand up, requesting permission to interfere.
"Have you got something you would like to say, Neko?"
"Yes sir. I see promise in this boy, and I would like to request that I guide him in the way of the sword."
Sarutobi seemed to be thinking. He actually considered this to be a great idea. He could get Naruto to open up, maybe gain a new friend out of this, while also making him stronger. The council had always favored the Uchiha, requesting that he got special training, which he sometimes got; he knew that, but he didn't have enough evidence. And it wasn't wrong to actually offer special training to a student, especially if no one found out about it. He knew he could trust Inu, the only other person in this room, to keep his mouth sealed, and maybe this would turn out great for everyone.
"All right, you have permission to teach Naruto. You also have permission to remove your mask." He said, smiling as he felt the satisfaction radiating from Neko. She really seemed to want this, and he couldn't guess why.
Neko brought her hand up to her mask, before grabbing it, and pushing chakra into it to cut the special chakra bonds that held it in place. She slowly took it off, exposing her face to Naruto. She had a beautiful face, framed by her silky purple hair, her brown eyes adding to her beauty.
"My name is Yuugao Uzuki" she said with a smile, looking towards Naruto. "Shall we get started?"
"Hell yes!" said Naruto with a grin.
"Naruto, before you go, catch!" said Sarutobi, throwing a small envelope to Naruto.
"What's this ojii-san?"
"Payment. When you intercepted Mizuki, it counted as an A rank mission, due to the importance of the scroll, and it was added to your mission count, and you have been given payment for your services to the village."
"Hai! Arigato, Hokage-ojii!" he said, before turning to Yuugao. "Ready to go!"
Yuugao motioned him to follow her. Naruto turned to look at the Hokage, winking at him, before he followed Yuugao out of the room.
'I hope this turns out good. If word gets out that I assigned someone to help Naruto, they'll be out for my head.'
Naruto followed Yuugao to a huge training ground, near the walls of Konoha, behind the Hokage monument.
"Oi, Yuugao-san, what is this place?" he said, looking around trying to absorb everything around him."
"This here is a secret training ground, only jounin and up know of its existence, but there are no rules to forbid chuunin or gennin from training here. Okay, let's do a classic introduction talk, to get to know each other. I'll go first. My name is Yuugao Uzuki; I like training, swords and my precious people. I despise people who put women down, perverts, and anyone that disrespects swords in any way. My dream would be to reach the heights of Tsunade and the Sannin in renown. My skills include fire jutsu, wind jutsu, and kenjutsu. Now, follow the same pattern."
"My name is Naruto Uzumaki; I like training and the people that recognized my existence. I dislike arrogant fools, and people that judge me. My dream is to become Hokage, that way I can finally get the respect I deserve. My skills include Kage Bunshin, Henge, and Kawarimi." He said the last part with a blush, noticing how empty his skill list was.
"My, it looks like I stumbled on the perfect student"
"How the hell am I the perfect student?"
"You know absolutely nothing, except from a Kinjutsu, and two of the three basic jutsu." She smiled as Naruto pouted "That means that we can hone you in all areas, and I will be easy to start from scratch on Kenjutsu, and a taijutsu style."
"Are you going to teach me any jutsu as well?"
"Well, what are your affinities? Oh wait, don't tell me, just give me the sword and I'll see for myself."
Naruto unsheathed his sword, before giving it to her. Yuugao looked at the blade, before her eyes slowly widened to the size of saucers.
"I can't believe this. You not only have wind, lightning and water, but you also have the storm. Do you even realize what that is?"
"To be honest, I didn't know what that kanji meant. What do you mean by storm."
'I knew his time in the academy was filled with people that wanted to stunt his growth, but not learning how to read, this is ridiculous.' She thought with a frown. "Storm is an element combination I thought only existed in legends. It is said to be a combination of water, wind, and lightning, but up until now, there haven't been any recorded true storm users. " Naruto looked at her carefully, interested in what she was telling him.
"Yuugao-sensei, you said you knew wind jutsu. Can you teach me how to manipulate wind?"
"Kid, I can only teach you one thing at a time, and Kenjutsu is my priority."
"Do you know the Kage Bunshin?"
"Yes, why do you ask"
"Create a clone."
Yuugao followed what he said, creating the two clones, before wiping a bead of sweat, showing just how much of her chakra that had taken.
Naruto then proceeded to do the same hand sign, only this time, a thousand clones appeared. The result surprised him, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he reached numbers of that height. He turned to look at Yuugao, who had a shocked expression on her face, before grinning.
"Shall we get started on Kenjutsu, Yuugao-sensei? Your clone can teach my clones how to manipulate wind right?"
"Fine kid, you win, come with me."
'Oh, I'm so looking forward to see this kid in the Chuunin exams. By then I'll make him a jounin in all but rank.' She thought.
This was going to be a blast.
I would have preferred to end Naruto's training here, but I seem to favor character development, in this chapter.
Next Chapter: End of training, finally ^^
Reviews Appreciated
~6Vor6kas6