"What are your goals, Naruto?" asked Hiko. "What do you want to do with your life?"
It was the morning after Mizuki fell asleep in Naruto's arms, and he and Naruto were eating an early breakfast while the girls were asleep. Naruto began to answer before he thought, then considered. He'd never really thought about it. In his entire life, his only goal had been leaving the village. After meeting Hinata, his goal only changed to take her with him. He'd never really thought about what he'd do after he left. This led him to thinking, what did he want to do? He had no desire to ever return to Konoha, or to even join another village. He'd had enough of villages. As he pondered the question, his thoughts turned to Mizuki and her treatment by those rock ninja. He realized that this was probably true for every demon container - the hatred and mistreatment. At this, his thoughts turned to remembrance of his own childhood, and the abuse heaped on him by the villagers, and the terrible loneliness he felt until he met Hinata.
He reached his decision. "I want to rescue other people like me from the loneliness and hatred heaped on them because of something they had no control over," said Naruto, wiping a tear from his eye.
"Hmm, so you want to help other Jinchuuriki, then, vessel of the Kyuubi."
At Hiko's words, Naruto gasped in shock, then jumped up. "How do you know that?" he growled.
"Calm down, Naruto. I'll explain. I myself contain a demon, the Suzaku, the Seven Tailed Phoenix. One of the abilities I've received is the power to sense other containers." Seeing Naruto calm down, he continued. "Now, Naruto, your goal to help your fellow containers has some big complications involved, mainly because there is an organization called the Akatsuki, that seeks to find the Jinchuriki and extract their demons from them. Alas, most of the seals used to seal demons are shoddy at best. So when the demon power awakens, it slowly kills the container. Fortunately for you, your seal works perfectly."
"How do you know so much about my seal?" asked Naruto.
"Because, if your seal was failing, you could never have controlled enough demonic chakra to do that technique of yours," said Hiko. "Naruto, if you truly wish to help your fellow containers, you will need to grow a lot stronger."
"Why?" asked Naruto.
"Because the Akatsuki is a group of S-class Shinobi, all of them stronger than Kage Level and they will be hunting you."
"Stronger than Kage Level?" asked Naruto. "Does that mean they're stronger than Sarutobi-Sensei?'
"In his prime, no. Sarutobi was once one of the strongest ninjas of all time, surpassed only by the Fourth Hokage. He could have easily taken on one or even two Akatsuki members and won, but now he doesn't stand a chance. He's too old; his power has diminished. I doubt he could handle even the weakest Akatsuki member now," said Hiko.
"So how will I get strong enough to defeat them?" asked Naruto, his eyes determined.
"That's where I can help you," said Hiko. "I propose that you and your friends train here with me."
Naruto eyed him for a moment before smiling. "When do we start?"
Hiko smirked. "Now," he said, heading outside. "Shall we begin?" asked Hiko.
Naruto settled into his stance and attacked. "Kage bunshin no jutsu!" he yelled, making a dozen clones and sending them to attack the gray haired man. Hiko didn't even flinch, as he easily punched the incoming clones with one hand, never moving from his starting position. "Damn,' Naruto thought, "he's really strong." Gathering more chakra, he made fifty more shadow clones and infused them with chakra to make them more durable. Sending this to attack, he leapt into a tree. "Okay," he thought, "I need a plan. This guy's just as strong as Sensei, so a frontal assault wouldn't work. So, I need a trap. Hmm, I got it." With an evil smile, Naruto headed deeper into the forest.
Hiko smiled, as he engaged another group of shadow clones. "Impressive," he thought, "to be able to make chakra-enhanced shadow clones at his age." Seeing he was surrounded, he grinned, and gathered chakra in two fingers. "Chakra muchi kirikirimai!" (chakra whip whirl), twirling around as a thin whip of chakra twirled with him, cutting all of the surrounding clones in half. "This is getting interesting," he thought, following Naruto's trail through the forest.
Naruto smirked as he saw Hiko enter the forest. "Shuriken kage bunshin no jutsu!" he said, throwing a shuriken that mutiplied into fifty before hitting Hiko, who turned into a log. "Damn, kawarimi,"he thought. He then dodged, as Hiko attacked him from behind. Forming more clones, he intensified his attacks, as he tried to hit Hiko's pressure points.. Hiko dodged every strike, and punched Naruto in the stomach, smiling when he heard the tell tale poof of a shadow clone. Seeing he was surrounded again, he began gathering chakra for another kirikiriamai jutsu.
Naruto smirked, and activated his jutsu 'bunshin bakuha'(shadow clone explosion). Hiko blanched, as the surrounding clones exploded. Seeing his chance, Naruto began forming seals "Kaze no yaiba!" (wind blade). He smirked, as the blade of wind sliced Hiko in half, then grimaced as Hiko poofed, and he felt a blade at his throat.
"Impressive, Naruto," said Hiko. "You were able to defeat my shadow clone."
"That was a shadow clone?"
"Yes, an enhanced shadow clone, similar to the one you were using, only mine was made using demonic chakra, so it was stronger than yours. Although, I must say, I'm impressed that someone your age was able to make an enhanced shadow clone, as well as being able to make the exploding shadow clone jutsu, as it is an A-rank jutsu that even most Jounins have trouble using, An impressive feat, even for one such as you." Lowering his blade, Hiko led the way back to the house.
"Naruto, wake up Hinata and Mizuki, and meet me in the library," said Hiko. Naruto nodded, and left. When he returned with the girls, Hiko handed each of them a slip of paper. "Focus some chakra into these," he ordered. Nodding, they obeyed. Naruto's split in two, and the piece crumpled, then got wet. Hinata's threw off sparks, and Mizuki's crumpled. "Well, that's interesting," said Hiko. "Hinata, you have a lighting affinity, and Mizuki has an earth affinity. Naruto has a wind, earth, and water affinity."
"How do I have three affinities?" asked Naruto.
"Because of the Kyuubi. The kyuubi's elements were earth and water, so as it's container, you inherit some of it's abilities. This is common with containers," said Hiko.
"Then why doesn't Mizuki have two affinities?" asked Hinata. "She's a container."
"True, but only Kyuubi had more than one element, and Mizuki's natural affinity is earth.
"So, does this mean I can only use doton style jutsu?"asked Mizuki.
"Of course not. Having an affinity only means you have the ability to master an element; so, Naruto could still learn katon jutsu; he just couldn't master the element. So, he wouldn't be able to use the jutsu's that require particular control. Some jutsu's, however, like mokuton jutsu, require an affinity to even use the jutsus," said Hiko. "Now, this library contains every jutsu I've collected over the many years I've lived. You will study here every day. Now, to the armory."
Naruto gasped as he saw the sheer number of weapons in the room. From whips to broadswords, this room had them all. "Where did you get all these weapons?" asked Naruto.
"I forged them myself," answered the man, "and I know how to use every one, so you kids choose." Hinata nodded, and after some searching, came back with a large scythe. Mizuki chose a pair of katanas, and Naruto chose a huge zanbatou. Their choices made, they returned to Hiko. "Good, now put these on," he said. "These are weights, and they will help you get faster." The trio nodded, and put on the weights, nearly staggering when they tried to stand up. "Good, now run five hundred laps around the lake," said Hiko, who was smirking at their glare.
And that is how they continued. Every day they got up and ran five hundred laps around the lake. Then, they studied in the library, where they learned jutsu's and the histories of famous Shinobi in the Bingo book, Naruto teaching Mizuki the shadow clone jutsu so they could quickly gain more knowledge.
(One year later)
After a few hours in the library, they went to weapon practice with Hiko, who made three shadow clones to train each of them individually. Naruto groaned, as he was forced to do one thousand swings with his zanbatou every day before going into sword form practice. Hinata and Mizuki had similar horror stories. After one month, Hiko doubled their weights, and Naruto began learning from the scroll Sarutobi had given him. He spent the next month learning the sealing techniques of his father, whom he found out was the Fourth. At first, he had been horrified, but with Hinata's and Mizuki's help, he had grown used to it. Hiko began teaching Mizuki how to summon her demons chakra, and after a month, Naruto was able to fix her seal with techniques learned from his father's scroll. Naruto began to work on increasing his fox fires power, and by the end of the year, had created the more powerful fox blast technique. Hinata began learning more potent medical techniques, and was able to double her byakugan's range.
After the first year, they were able to begin sparring with their weapons, honing the basic techniques they had been taught. Six months later, Hiko decided it was time for real opponents. "It is time you had a real sparring partners, so I have decided to get you guys additional Sensei's," said Hiko.
"Cool, where are they?" asked Naruto.
"They're dead," said Hiko.
"If they're dead, how can they help us?" asked Naruto.
"I'll tell you," said Hiko. "Have you ever heard of the Edo Tensei technique? It's a forbidden technique that re-animates the dead. It is a powerful and evil technique. Normally, I would forbid you from ever thinking about using it. This technique normally requires using human sacrifices to power it. However, because of my demon's power of rebirth, I can use this technique without sacrifices. Once re-animated, the people that are revived cannot be destroyed with normal means. There are only three ways to stop the technique; first, for the summoner to cancel the jutsu; second, the shiki fuujin technique; and lastly, a powerful jutsu that completely destroys the body of the summoned person." "Now, kuchiyose Edo Tensei (reanimation) technique," he said, summoning three caskets. The first contained a man with blonde hair and blue eyes. Naruto's eyes widened, "F-Father?" After the initial introductions, the Yondaime agreed to train his son, sparring with him with his own zanbatou and beginning to teach him the Rasengan. Mizuki and Hinata had their own dead senseis, and for the next six months, the trio trained harder than ever.
After their second year of training, Hiko took samples of their blood and forged them their own personalized weapons each containg special abilties. Hiko began limiting their visits from their dead senseis to once a month, and began sending them to attack rouge ninja and bandits in the area, earning all three their first kill. Hiko began teaching Naruto all he knew about the Akatsuki and it's members, while Hinata and Mizuki began perfecting some of their original techniques, and Hinata finally mastered long range jyuuken strikes by sending pulses of chakra with every strike. Their jutsu training intensified as they began mastering some of the jutsu they knew. Mizuki gained a summoning contract with the wolves. Hiko told them of the only other Jinchuurki he knew of, one residing in grass village, the other in suna.
Hiko began getting sicker and sicker, and not even Hinata's strongest healing techniques could heal him. She diagnosed him with only six months left. He smiled, and bade them not to cry, saying "I am glad to have lived to teach such fine Shinobi as yourselves. I can die with hope for the future." With the knowledge of his imminent death, he intensified their training, tripling their weights and increasing their sparring times. Their monthly training with their sensei's turned to daily and Naruto was able to master the Rasengan technique and finally managed to master his Taijutsu style. Hinata mastered all the medical jutsu Hiko had to teach and perfected her jyuuken, while Mizuki mastered using her katanas ..
Finally, on the last day of the sixth month, Hiko died. The three twelve year-old Shinobi cried over their Sensei of three years, and buried him near the lake. The three smiled, then their eyes hardened. It was time to begin.
