Chapter 4

Naruto spent the night in a cave behind a waterfall a few miles outside the village. He didn't sleep at first. Instead, he went over and over in his mind all that had happened in the space of a few hours.

The 'loss' of Sakura (no 'chan' anymore, dammit!) hurt him surprisingly little. As he'd told his friend earlier, that whole situation made him more angry than anything else. Besides, it was pretty much eclipsed by the revelations Sasuke had made.

Sasuke. Now that he was alone, with no outside influences to distract him, Naruto thought about just what it was that had pissed him off this evening. It wasn't Sakura or anything to do with her, he decided. It was Sasuke. Sasuke, who was his right hand, his rock, his best fucking friend. Sasuke's attention was no longer solely on him.

Naruto curled his lip in disgust as he sat cross-legged in the cave, staring out at the water-shrouded opening. Was he that selfish? He'd never associated the word with himself before. Yes, he admitted. When it came to Sasuke, he was selfish. He was used to Sasuke only associating with him. This interloper, this…competitor for Sasuke's affections, made Naruto want to smash something. He was almost sick with the feeling.

Okay. Well, this will just have to be dealt with, he thought. After all, he, Naruto, was a far cry from the loud, wild kid he used to be but he still socialized with people. Who was he to deny Sasuke the same thing? That wasn't fair at all. Naruto wanted Sasuke to be happy. Somewhere in his mind he knew that despite how Sasuke was around him, he was far from happy. And if this girl, whoever she may be, helped put some of Sasuke's demons to rest, then he would support Sasuke all the way.

That decided, Naruto felt like a great burden had been lifted from his shoulders. A headache he hadn't even realized he had ebbed away. Jealousy and rage were not familiar emotions to him, not the way he'd experienced them tonight. They left him feeling strange and off-balance. He turned his mind to other things that had taken place that night.

It came to him suddenly that he had disbanded his team. He had completely forgotten about his words earlier. Naruto inhaled sharply. Tsunade was going to kill him. The thought instilled in him an immediate urge to soil himself. Still…it wasn't entirely a spur of the moment decision. He'd been toying with the idea off and on for some time now, trying to work up the courage to ask The Fifth for permission. Naruto shrugged mentally. No use second-guessing himself now. It was done. He was going to do what he was going to do, regardless of what the old lady had to say.

The next hour he spent cataloging his abilities and prowess as a ninja. He came up with the following:

Genjutsu:Poor. This was his weakest area. At casting Genjutsu he sucked, plain and simple. He was fair at detecting it and pretty good at dispelling it.

Taijutsu: Not bad. After his failure with the first Chuunin exam, he'd decided to train twice a week with Gai-sensei, Neji and Lee. He learned a lot. He could still only open three gates, but he had that whole emitting chakra from his hands finally mastered. He'd also begun wearing weights, as Lee did. He hadn't taken them off since.

Ninjutsu: Pretty damn good, if he said so himself. His mom hadn't been pleased with his failure of the first Chuunin exam. Immediately after the Third's funeral she'd decided to give him a test. The test lasted ten days. She spent the entire time disguising herself as various ninja, both foreign and of Konoha, and ambushing him at all times of the day and night. Sometimes she wasn't even a ninja. The time she'd disguised herself as an old man and nearly crushed his windpipe with her cane still brought tears of shame to his eyes.

Naruto relived is mother's conclusion on the tenth and final day.

"Unbelievable. You are wild, undisciplined and completely lacking in any subtlety whatsoever!" Here she had clouted him on the head with a fist like steel. Naruto grimly held onto his consciousness by the skin of his teeth; if he passed out now his mother would kill him for sure.

"You call yourself a Ninja?! If Minato could see his son now," Kushina seethed, "he'd disown you on the spot!" She paused to try and calm herself.

My god, that she and her husband could spawn such a son! She immediately regretted this thought. Her son was brilliant. And like all brilliant people they rarely got along doing things the conventional way. They found new ways to do things, forged new paths. She had only to think back on how her boy had single-handedly defeated that Gaara. In his released state, no less! She'd thought she would die of pride. Yes. Such a son she and Minato had spawned. She watched him trembling with exhaustion, a knot already forming where she'd hit him. Something had to be done with him.

Ideally, his father would be best to teach him, she lamented. But Minato was long dead and it was she her son most resembled in his behavior and approach to things. And she was probably the only one who could get proper results from him. There was almost limitless potential in him, she knew. She understood him. He both worshiped and feared her. She could use those tools to speed his progress along.

Kushina fingered the pill bottle in her pocket. She would have to see Tsunade, the new Hokage, about doubling or even triplin, her dosage for what lay ahead of her.

The next Chuunin Exam was six months away. Kushina used every second of that time training her son. Naruto thought of himself as being put through rigorous, non-stop torture.

The first thing his mom drilled him on was stealth. Little by little, she weeded his impulse to act first, plan later out of him. He learned to conceal his presence entirely, to hide and evade her for days without any food but what he could scavenge. Her ambushes continued and woe to him if he were caught.

Once Kushina deemed her son properly elusive, she taught him basic techniques with his ninja equipment. Things he'd failed to learn at the academy. She devised a series of obstacle courses and games designed to utilize his knowledge of stealth and weaponry in order to achieve a goal or prize. There was never any one sure path to the goal. He had to think and plan ahead several steps, set up fail safes to his plans. In this way, she honed his ability to analyze a problem and select the best solution to it. These actions came to him with some difficulty, but he mastered them as he mastered everything she'd thrown at him so far. Sometimes his mother was able to enlist the aid of Shikamaru. That boy had declared Naruto a worthy adversary in the strategy department.

All this took place in addition to whatever missions Naruto had with his team. Frequently, his mom appeared during these mission to complicate or hinder it in any way she could, forcing Naruto to put what she'd taught him to the test.

Finally, his mother announced his foundation was complete. Now they could begin the hard stuff. Naruto welcomed this news. His mom was just the sort of teacher he'd always wanted. She was tough on him, deliberately hurting him and pushing him. She didn't coddle him and she showed him things in such a way that he quickly caught on.

At this point Naruto discovered, quite by accident, that he had an affinity for water-based techniques. His mother was beside herself. A water chakra type herself, she lost no time in sharing her treasure of jutsus. Naruto learned quickly. He didn't think so many jutsus existed in the world, let alone in one person. His mom seemed to have an endless supply of them. Some were jutsus she'd only heard about, but insisted he could master with his enormous chakra reserve or by enlisting the aid of the Kyuubi.

Not long after, he discovered his wind chakra type. His mother knew quite a few jutsus for this as well, but sought out Asuma- sensei to give him extra help. Naruto absorbed his teachings like a sponge. He was to the point now where he had only to see a move once or hear it explained and he was able to master it in a few hours or, at most, a day. Ero-sennin had dropped by Konoha during this time and seen how far Naruto had progressed. He lent a hand by teaching him the Rasengan. By the end of the six months, Naruto was hard at work making jutsus that combined wind and water.

As the Chuunin exam loomed nearer, Kushina called her son to her at the end of a long day. They had been to the coast, where Naruto had shown her his latest technique. He had unleashed a hurricane of such force that the coast line had been dramatically altered.

She watched her son approach where she sat under a weeping willow tree. He'd changed during the last six months. His face was more serious. There was a watchful air to him, a feeling of restrained power and strength. His body had filled out, become taller and more muscular. His face was starting to lose its baby fat and there were fine hairs on his upper lip. His voice had changed.

He sat beside her, eager to hear what she had planned for tomorrow.

"You're ready," she said. "You're a formidable shinobi, one I am confident will make Chuunin next week. Go. Have fun. Your training is over. You've earned a break."

Naruto grinned exuberantly. "Really? I'm ready? Did I do well, Mom?"

"No, you didn't," she paused for a moment, looking at his crestfallen expression. "You did magnificently."

His head came up and he threw himself at her, hugging her tightly. She let herself be held by him, masking the pain it caused her. Then he was up and off to go find some fun.

The months of training had taken their toll on Uzumaki Kushina. But she had done right by her son.


Back in the cave Naruto smiled in memory. He made a final inventory of his skills.

Endurance: excellent.

Stamina: excellent.

Chakra reserve: outstanding.

Speed: excellent. He had Gai-sensei to thank for that. His mom had been supportive of him seeking help from outside sources.

Strength: excellent. He wasn't quite to Sakura's level yet, but he was close. His lessons with her would cease now, he realized.

Chakra control: almost perfect. His mom had drilled that into him along with everything else.

His analysis complete, Naruto stood up. Out of habit, he took a moment to try sensing anyone in the vicinity of where he planned on sleeping. There was no one. He stretched, yawned and made his way to the back of the cave, where he promptly fell into a dreamless sleep.