I do not own Naruto or any related character.
The plan had been laid out and a destination was set, but the work of getting there was still in the seedling stage. It had been two days since the group decided to resurrect the village hidden in the storm, and the purpose drove activity in the underground sanctuary. Training was progressing for all involved and they had a small test mission scheduled to leave in twelve days.
Day 1
"Obaa-chan! I only had to replace my Rasengan once today!" the knuckle-head ninja bounced as he informed his grandmother of his latest feat.
"Excellent Naruto-chan." the grandmother praised. "How is your medical training coming?"
"Um, its OK I guess. Hinata is really good at it but its kinda slow for me." the boy answered trying not to make eye contact.
"Are you trying to say its boring Naruto?" Tsunade did not look pleased.
"Kinda." admitted Naruto sheepishly. "It's just that Shizune-nee-chan sounds like the teachers at the academy. All blah blah no bang boom."
"I see." the Sannin mused on this for a moment. "I see that we need to take a different tack with you Naruto I will oversee your medical training from here on out, but you need to show me effort worthy of the greatest ninja in history."
Naruto couldn't help but smile. The feeling of someone wanting to make a difference in his life was almost more than he could handle. "I will be your best student ever. Believe it!" his determination was plain as he assured his grandmother.
Day 2
"Hinata, you are naturally gifted in medicine." smiled Shizune The lesson today had gone very quickly without the distraction of the young blond. "We can start on more advanced jutsu and text tomorrow. Tell me Hinata, have you ever thought of becoming a medic before?"
"Well...yes...a little. When my mother died I wanted to help but didn't know what to do. The medic-nin were so amazing and they tried so hard. I have never seen my father give that much acknowledgment to anyone outside of the main house of Hyuuga"
Shizune was silent for a while. The girl had said volumes, showing a part of herself that few had ever seen. "Hinata-chan, that is a great reason to pursue medicine. I will do everything in my power to make sure you can be your very best. Thank you for trusting in me to help you with this."
Hinata continued her study without a word. The idea that a teacher would thank her made her smile and feel like she was glowing. The idea that Naruto would protect her, and more than that give his word to protect her, gave her goosebumps. She felt better about herself and her life than she ever had.
Day 3
Naruto awoke on the cot just inside Hinata's door. He had slept here since the first night. He remembered the fox from her backpack and the teasing comment from Shizune He wasn't sure what he was feeling for Hinata, but he knew a big part of it was trust. He thought of her defending him against Sakura's barbs. The thought of her leaving her home in the middle of the night to run away with him. He thought of all the times he had seen her in the academy, in the street, in the exams and how she always had something nice to say, or some encouragement. He knew she would not hurt him and he was fairly certain she would not reject him if she knew his secret.
"Hinata-chan? Hinata-chan are you awake?" he asked with a gentle voice.
"Hai Naruto-kun." she replied turning to face him.
"I have some thing important to tell you. I don't want you to be afraid of me, but I don't want to keep secrets from you either. If I tell you this will you promise to stay and listen to the whole thing?" he tested the waters.
"Of course Naruto-kun." she wondered how she could ever fear Naruto She was nervous around him a lot, though less and less it seemed, but she could never really fear him.
"I have the Kyuubi-no-Kitsune sealed inside my body. When my dad fought it he knew he could not kill it so he sealed it away in me to keep it from destroying the village." Naruto waited for her reaction.
"So you saved us all? Arigato Naruto-kun, you're a hero." her answer left Naruto dumbstruck.
"So you aren't afraid of me? You don't hate me now?" Naruto couldn't hold the shock from his face.
"No, never." she gave a small smile as she lifted the plush fox from under the covers and squeezed it to her chest.
Day 4
"Great job." praised Tsunade "Now we need to get you on to the next challenge. I want you to hold two Rasengan all day. Now that you have a feel for one I want you to concentrate on the difference of holding two. This will help you get an idea for putting out a specific amount of chakra."
"Two it is." Naruto grinned. He made the necessary clones and got to work.
"OK an send a clone to my office we will continue with medical jutsu." she reminded as she left to her quarters.
Day 5
"I can't take it any more!" screamed Anko, throwing herself face down on Shizune's futon.
"What happened" Shizune inquired worriedly.
"That kid is a monster." Anko spat. "I was out there teaching him taijutsu and he just will not quit. He figured out how to use his clones to split a big problem into a bunch of little ones, so I was running around showing thirty fox-faced blonds different Hebi-Kata. He works them over for a while and asks questions in thirty voices all at the same time. By the time I sort out all his problems he dispels the clones grins like the son of the devil and the whole thing starts over. He learned enough in four hours to push me to my limit. The kid can't be stopped, he wants to learn my jutsu, get better at them than me, and then eat my soul. He's the devil hiding behind that grin, and if I hear 'believe it!' one more time I'll scream."
Shizune just smiled. He's going to change us all. He's going to change everything. She thought.
Day 6
"And this one?" Tsunade pointed to the arm of a skeleton hung in the training area.
"Come on granny give me a hard one. Thats the humerus." the boy rolled his eyes.
"OK, so show me the possible fractures on this bone." the Sannin drilled her student.
Naruto picked out the bone from the display. He made six clones and each took to bashing, twisting, and damaging the bones in a unique way.
"There we go granny. Straight, hairline, spiral, compound, and one at each joint." the boy smiled.
"Good now how do you repair and treat each one?" the drilling continued well into the afternoon.
Day 7
"How is Hinata coming along?" Tsunade inquired after her apprentice.
"She's driven and a hard worker. She has natural talent and her chakra control is excellent. I think she is going to be one of the best medic-nin either of us has ever seen." Shizune puffed her chest in pride as she gave her report.
"That's excellent. I think I can start teaching both of them the strength technique in a couple of days. For now I'd like you to begin showing Hinata how to do seals for medical purposes." the Sannin ordered.
"No problem. And how's Naruto doing with his training?" Shizune asked.
"He's a handful. I figured out that if you let him see the cause of an injury first he'll pay more attention when you show him how to fix it. He'll be a fine medic some day, but for now he's a boy and he loves explosions." Tsunade rolled her eyes at the last part.
Shizune smiled, thankful she wasn't on Naruto duty at the moment.
Day 8
"Naruto you are a very fast learner." praised the Sannin "For your chakra control I'm going to give you this scroll. It's not really a training manual, more like a story. I want you to read it and using the exercises you already have as a base, then I want you to create your own way of building chakra control."
Naruto looked over the scroll with an excited gleam in his eye. The story was about a monk who devoted his life to training and would perform amazing feats with very simple tools. He used bags of rice to increase his strength, and brass rings to help with the control of his staff. Naruto was not a typical student. Classroom learning was very difficult for him, but the boy was creative. This assignment pleased him to no end, especially considering the fact that it had no end. Tsunade had to look away as she left. She could swear the boy had the devil's own grin.
Day 9
"Teamwork." Anko began. "You have heard the word and you know what it means, but do you know how to do it?"
"sure." Naruto responded. "you get in a team and everybody works. Simple."
"Um, no." Anko corrected. "You get in a team and you learn about your teammates. You figure out what each one can do and what they can't do. You find the gaps in your skills and tell your team about them, and they do the same. Then you figure out how the skills of the group can be used to counter the gaps in the individual. Get it?"
"I have a weakness." Hinata began. "or more correctly the Byakugan has a weakness. Its a blind spot right here." the girl explained reaching a hand over her shoulder to the third thoracic vertebrae.
"So Naruto what can we do as a group to stop this from being a liability?" Anko found this a perfect starter problem for their team strategy.
The boy pondered on this for moment, made the hand sign, and a clone appeared in a puff of smoke. Both boys smiled and one circled behind Hinata, wrapping his arms around her shoulders. "we cover her back." the boy answered. Hinata blushed even as she settled into the hug. The hardened jounin rolled her eyes at the sickeningly cute display.
Day 10
Three kunoichi walked through the training area in shock. They were stepping through a forest of Naruto clones training in a furious zealotry. They mostly watched with gapping mouths and pinched brows, but would break their mystified stares to lean over and comment to each other.
The boys each performed a different exercise. One held the Rasengan and increased its size to double. He watched it waver and once stable again would shrink it back to its original shape. One held his hand up and forced the glowing orb to raise a few centimeters from his hand and then slowly settle back. One formed the chakra ball and pushed it to his finger tips. Once there he shrunk the ball so it would fit between his stretched fingers. He created another and did the same until one was resting in each of the spaces of between his fingers. Each exercise was repeated and repeated without rest or breaking of concentration.
The women were amazed. The boy had created forty or more chakra control exercises and was simultaneously perfecting them all. The boy dispersed the clones and flashed the devil's grin at his teachers. "Obaa-chan, check this out." Naruto clapped his hands and upon pulling them apart filled the increasing space with the familiar spinning chakra ball. He lifted the orb, now almost a meter across over his head. He was sweating and grimaced at the concentration and effort involved, but upon releasing the jutsu with another clap of his hands he smiled at his observers. "What do you think?"
"He's a monster" Anko whispered.
"Exceptional control" noted Shizune
"That's my boy!" Tsunade rushed over to hug the panting boy of whom she was so proud.
Naruto settled into the hug. It was the best feeling of his life.
Day 11
Anko walked out into the hall. She rubbed her eyes and began a trudge to the bathroom. As she passed Shizune's room she noticed a light on. Ever the curious ninja she listened in as the medic-nin mumble about new poisons and how to make them spread further. Anko rolled her eyes. Its four in the morning. What kind of freak is studying at four in the morning? She continued down the hall passing the former Hokage's quarters. Through a small crack in the door Anko could see the older woman pouring over texts and taking notes. Maybe its a medic thing. She mused as she trudged on. Passing Hinata's room she could hear obvious snoring. She smiled to herself. At least someone is getting proper sleep. Her amusement was interrupted when a noise from the training area drew her wandering feet in that direction. She observed the young heiress disrobed walking on the ceiling and going through her clan fighting style. OK points for training naked, but still what kind of outfit did I get myself into? I thought this was team Hokage, not team Gai. She shook her head and went to get a drink. She passed back by Hinata's room and slid the door open a few inches. The blond boy, complete with night cap and pajama's was snoring away in his cot. She smiled and continued on. Her room was the one closest to the entrance, and as she retreated to her room she noticed the hatch to the outside was open. She went to correct the error and found a surprise on the other side of the open entrance. Clones as far as she could see littered the forest. Each blond boy was busy in his chosen study. The ones closest the entrance were reading and taking notes from various texts. Further out a dozen or so where arguing in a fierce sign language. Others battled each other, while some held the Rasengan in various exercises the jounin recognized from before. That's it. They are all freaks. I'm going to need to train harder to keep up. Anko thought. She considered her options. OK train hard starting tomorrow night. Just watching all this makes me tired. She finally retired and fell asleep immediately, after making a long list of things she could practice the next morning.
Day 12
"I trust everyone got a good night's rest." Tsunade called breakfast to order. "We are setting out at noon today and should arrive at nightfall tomorrow."
"Are you both packed?" Shizune asked the younger shinobi.
"Yep" the exuberant blond responded. Hinata just nodded.
"And you brought camping gear and ninja tools, not just Ramen right?" Shizune doubted the boys preparedness.
"Yeah. I've been studying the scrolls pervy sage sent me and I made a bunch of storage scrolls. I also found one that lets me hop from one place to another with this seal on a kunai. So I can just leave one here in case I forget anything." the boy smiled in satisfaction. He was quite proud of himself for his forethought.
The three older kunoichi grabbed the edge of the table, and were at the edges of their seats in an instant. Naruto began to get nervous at the expectant looks in their eyes. Each woman's face held a unique combination of shock, disbelief and excitement.
"What? Did I do something wrong?" the boy asked apprehensively.
"Naruto tell me everything about this technique. Where did yo find it? How did you learn it? Everything." Tsunade demanded.
"Um it was in one of pervy sages scrolls. The instructions were really long and kinda boring but I just did what they said and poof! Wait here I'll go get it and show you." Naruto ran off to get the scroll in question.
He presented it to the assembled kunoichi. They studied it for a long time before commenting.
"Naruto these instructions are gibberish. How did you read them?" Shizune asked, seriously doubting him.
"Um I just kinda did. Like I said it was kinda boring but once I figured out what was going to happen I read the whole thing." Naruto explained.
"Naruto can you read it for us, out loud?" Anko pushed the scroll across the table to the boy.
The now chunnin began slowly and as he grew more confident read through the text. The party at the table noticed that he only read every fourth or fifth word. The random pattern of words seemed to flow into real sentences and instructions.
"Naruto you just broke the fourth's secret code." Tsunade explained. "He coded his most famous technique so no one else could steal it and you figured it out without even trying. It seems A.D.D. has its uses."
"Hey I don't have A.D.D. I can pay attention to anything I want." Naruto protested.
"And it turns out the things you want to pay attention to are S-rank secrets and SS-ranked techniques. Good job Naruto" Tsunade beamed at the boy. "So how many times can you do this technique?"
"Well I only have one of these kunai," he took out a three pointed kunai from the pouch on his belt. "so I can only do it once. I tried copying the seal but it took forever and I got bored so I trained with the Rasengan and my chakra control, then did the dishes, made some Ramen, did the shadow walking jutsu, and listened to some butterflies flap their wings a couple miles from the base."
Tsunade rolled her eyes. Pay attention indeed. "OK we get it Naruto You need to copy that seal to be able to do it more times though. Your father defeated entire armies with that technique. It is more powerful than you can imagine, and you should learn that seal inside and out."
"Got it." the boy confirmed in elation. "I'll have them work on it while we do the mission."
"Who is them?" Anko queried.
Naruto winked and flashed a smile as he produced hundreds of clones without a hand sign.
"Right. Them."
Thanks for reading. turns out i'm just like everyone else and i just want approval. the response so far has been great so thanks. more soon.