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Hope y'all enjoy readin':


Chapter 6 – Training

Tsunade walked around from behind her mountain of paperwork to get a better look at whom she considered a son.

Spiky blonde locks tumbled in a mass around his head reaching down around his shoulders. A face with high cheekbones accentuated by long, black whisker marks sat on proud shoulders; deep, wise, blue eyes which shone with happiness gazed back at Tsunade. She noticed absentmindedly that Naruto seemingly finished growing. All traces of baby fat were gone from his body, and only toned muscle remained. Reaching six-feet tall, Naruto cut quite a handsome figure.

Poor guy'll have to beat the ladies off with a stick… Tsunade thought amusedly.

She pulled him into a quick but firm hug.

"Welcome back, brat," she drawled as she sat back down at her desk.

She didn't fool Naruto though, who could see the genuine happiness in her eyes.

"Well, Baa-chan, I-"

CRASH!

With a resounding boom, the door to the Hokage's office blew open. In charged more ninja than Naruto had ever seen in one room.

Shino, who was taller and in his new black trench coat looked more mysterious than ever, eyebrows raised at Naruto, who now towered over him; Naruto swore he saw him smile.

Lee, still outfitted in his crazy green spandex, immediately assumed the nice-guy pose, thumb prominently pointed up. Naruto perceived a buzzing energy about the boy, but couldn't place where it came from.

That boy is powerful, kit… mumbled a deep voice which only Naruto could hear.

Yeah, yeah…Naruto thought back.

He continued his appraisal of the new arrivals. He noted Hinata, absentmindedly staring at him. He waved; she blushed, and met his eyes, which were already moving.

Kakashi was quietly shutting the door, and when he turned around his eye was closed and a grin visible underneath his two masks.

Ino and Shikamaru stood remarkably close together, but while Ino seemed to be enjoying it, Shikamaru was gazing out the window, presumably at the clouds.

Naruto finally laid eyes on Sakura.

Wow… he thought. I've heard of girls changing over the summer, but… wow!

Hinata, Sakura, and Ino had done the natural thing in the three years Naruto had gone away: they had grown up. They had filled out considerably and were probably looking like they would for the next few decades. Naruto whistled in his mind.

He also saw Neji and Tenten, who nodded slightly. Naruto then turned his attention to the group as a whole.

He smiled widely.

"HI!" he shouted, as the others covered their ears. Tsunade hid a smile behind her hand.

"So," Naruto began, approaching Sakura. "Are you strong enough? Not gonna hold me back anymore?" He asked playfully as he jabbed her arm gently.

The jab never landed as Sakura swung her other hand around to grab Naruto's firmly. Naruto's eyes widened, then almost popped out of their sockets as he was pulled into a bone-crunching hug.

"OOF!" he exclaimed muffedly.

"I missed you, dobe," Sakura muttered. She pushed him away slightly, a light blush gracing her cheeks which Naruto dismissed. His friends had huddled together at this point, and broke apart to reveal Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Sakura, Ino, Neji, and Lee bearing an ornate wooden box. It was plated with gold, and inscribed on the top was a single word:

Uzumaki… Naruto read silently.

"We found this one day buried in the archives, Naruto," Tsunade said. "They're not sure where it came from, but it DOES have your name on it. This is your homecoming present, but don't open it here; you'll want to open it when you get settled into your new house."

Naruto picked his jaw up off the floor. "House… box… anything else I should know about?"

"Well," Neji began, "everyone in this room wants to fight you, but other than that not much!" He finished grinning.

Naruto stared at him as if he had two heads.

"Yes Naruto, it's me, Neji. A lot has changed since you were gone, but you'll hear it later. For now, tell us what you did the past few years!"

Choruses of "Yeah!", and "Hurry up!" assailed Naruto's ears. He glanced out the window, catching a certain white-haired man's eye on the rooftop next door.

The white-haired man nodded. Satisfied, Naruto turned around and said, "Well, grab a seat everyone, because this is a long story."

When they did so, he suddenly flared his chakra.

The entire office shook with the immense force of Naruto's chakra. So much power was emanating from him that everyone's hair was blown away by the force.

Naruto ceased and said, "That's the result of my three year training."

And so he began…

"As you might already know, Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin took me away from Konoha for a training trip which was to last three years. Along the way he outlined his plans. At the end of three years, my chakra control would match Tsunade-sama's, my strength and speed would be greater than I could ever imagine, and my stamina would be unmatched by anyone."

"Naturally, I was excited at first, but soon that feeling evaporated. You don't acquire those skills in three years by taking it slow. Ero-sensei ground me into the dirt with control techniques, new ninjutsu, and taijutsu practice everyday. This was in addition to the history tutoring I was given along with severe psychological and emotional training."

"Frankly, it sucked. I was trapped between a rock and a hard place: I refused to give up, but I also realized that I would soon die of chakra exhaustion if I didn't do something fast. I asked why we weren't building my stamina, but he always deflected my questions."

"Then, it happened."

Naruto lifted up his shirt, causing the girls to blush at his well-toned abs. He gathered his chakra, amazing them all again at the sheer, controlled power he exhibited.

Sakura noticed it first. Hesitantly, she asked, "Naruto, where's your seal?"

He grinned. "There's no need for it anymore," he said smugly. "They say you shouldn't mess with demons, but I was pretty desperate at the time."

"I asked myself, 'Who had more chakra than any being known to man? Who's chakra is so powerful that it affects the outside world without even needing to be formed? Who's living inside my stomach?'"

"The Kyuubi," Sakura whispered. "Naruto, Kyuubi didn't get loose, did he?"

Naruto laughed. "No, but he tried! Closest I ever came to dying too, lemme tell ya!"

They gasped. Neji activated his Byagukan and looked closely at Naruto's chakra system. It seemed perfectly normal, nothing at all like what he witnesses during the Chuunin Exam.

"Naruto, what happened to your red chakra?" He asked, deactivating his kekkai genkai. "I can't detect any trace of it in your chakra system."

Naruto grinned. "You'll have to check again, Neji, because I think you're quite mistaken."

Puzzled, Neji reactivated his Byakugan, and immediately scrunched his eyes shut.

Hinata, wondering what could possibly be causing Neji to cringe, also activated the Byakugan.

Before she was forced to close her eyes from the sheer intsensity of Naruto's chakra, she noticed its great abundance and its unnatural red color; almost demonic in nature.

"Hinata, what have I done to my chakra?" Naruto asked patiently, knowing she had figured out his secret.

She frowned. "It seems that you've converted it into this red chakra. I'm not saying you're a demon, Naruto, but that chakra is definitely demonic."

Naruto sighed. "Well Hinata, your correct on every account, including the demon part."

Shikamaru frowned. "Naruto, you absor-"

"Shhh!" Naruto interrupted. "You'll ruin the story!" He complained childishly, causing Sakura to giggle.

Oh Naruto, she thought, you've changed so much and yet not at all; the best way to change.

"I basically confronted the Kyuubi in my own mindscape. It was like a big cavern-type room with a giant cage that had a little piece of paper with a seal on it. Ero-sensei had actually just finished telling me how the seal that the Yondaime created was completely unknown; not even old man Sandaime knew exactly what it did. So I tried to find out. I said, 'Fox, I want you to try and escape. I'll bet you can't!'"

He laughed. "The ancient demon, for all his wisdom, couldn't deny the challenge for freedom. He immediately began slamming against the cage with all his might. But as soon as he did, I tried to gather some of his chakra."

Tsunade's eyes widened. "Naruto…"

Naruto turned around and grinned. "It's okay baa-chan, I told you Kyuubi's not loose or anything."

He refocused. "Basically, as Kyuubi was ripping the cage a new one he completely missed the fact that I was somehow draining chakra from him; it literally seeped out from the cage and into me. This was like after a year of training, so I had grown a little and my own chakra apparently equaled the fox's. Ero—sensei said something about the seal helping Kyuubi merge with me, yadda yadda yadda…"

Shikamaru was amazed that even someone like Naruto couldn't appreciate the wisdom of a Legendary Sannin.

"Anyways," Naruto continued, "unlike other times when after I accessed the Kyuubi's chakra it would go away, this time it didn't! It stayed inside my own chakra system; it was a really weird feeling, as if I overdosed on soldier pills or something! Anyways, the Kyuubi is getting smaller and smaller, and in this cavern, I'm getting more and more charged on chakra. Thanks to Jiraiya's tortuous control training, I had no problem assimilating the chakra and keeping it there. Eventually the Kyuubi just walked through the bars of the cage and looked up at me with the most evil glare he could muster."

Naruto laughed. "The only problem was that he was the cutest little nine-tailed fox I ever saw!"

Everyone tried to imagine a cute little Kyuubi.

Everyone did a little throw-up in their mouths.

Naruto caught their grimaces and hurried on. "In a nutshell, I got all of Kyuubi's chakra permanently, and he no longer has any sort of body. He exists only as a consciousness; sometimes he speaks to me! I think he's warmed up to my cheerful personality!"

Snort Whatever, brat!

Naruto went on unperturbed. "However, when I tried to summon the chakra, I realized I couldn't get it red! Only normal human chakra was stored in my body, or so I thought. Here's a question: how do ninja use elemental jutsu?"

Sakura chimed in, "The ninja changes the form, or shape, and the nature of the chakra, just like energy can be converted from electricity to sound in a walkie-talkie."

Naruto nodded. "At first, when Jiraiya taught me techniques I could use water and wind; now, I can only use wind techniques, but I have an element that no one will ever have!"

Realization struck Neji. "You can form your chakra into demonic chakra!"

Naruto nodded exuberantly. "What's more, it is no longer detrimental to use it! It doesn't hurt me, and it wears me out half as slowly as regular chakra! I think that was another intent of Yondaime's seal: that using my demon's chakra eventually wouldn't hurt me."

He smiled widely. "All of the techniques known in this room don't equal the amount I know now! Most of them are based on using pure chakra, like Neji's, Hinata's, and Lee's, but I do have a ton of wind techniques!"

He looked at Lee directly. "I want to fight you, Fuzzy-brows. My taijutsu is incredible now, modesty aside, but I want to see what real taijutsu combat is all about!"

Shino finally spoke. "Naruto, as strong as you are, I honestly don't think you stand a snowball's chance in hell against Lee. Not a single ninja in this village aside from Hokage-sama and Kakashi-sama can defeat him. Lee has finally achieved his goal and defeated Neji, though the battle lasted several hours."

Naruto's smile widened, then even more when Neji said, "Perhaps you should fight me or Hinata-nee-chan first. I'm always game for a rematch, but Hinata just beat me in a duel; maybe you'd like to try a fight with her?"

Then he leered. "Or are you afraid of hitting girls like Shika-kun?" he jibed.

Naruto only grinned. "Neji, you have no idea how many kunoichi tried to fight me over the past few years." He looked at Hinata, as if to say, "Well?"

Hinata was staring at the ground, but when she looked up her eyes were shining and her hands were trembling with anticipation.

"If you can beat me, Naruto-kun, you can fight Lee-san. Do you agree Lee, Naruto?"

Lee smiled. "I will gladly face Naruto in the fires of youth if he defeats you, Hinata-san, though after witnessing your battle today I wonder if I will get the chance!"

Naruto's eyes widened again, but he quickly smiled once more.

"I accept your challenge, Hinata-chan. See you at the training grounds!"

He quickly formed the dragon seal, and poofed away.

Hinata paled, then looked at her friends.

"Does anyone here know how to teleport yet besides Kakashi-sama?"

Everyone shook their heads while Kakashi chuckled.

"Hinata, what have you gotten yourself into?" He said jovially. Hinata just started for the door determinedly.

"I don't care," she said. "I'm going to show Naruto that I am truly strong!"

She glanced back at her friends, who hurriedly followed her out the door, followed by Tsunade.

This is gonna be gooooood…. She thought.

After all, it is the Hokage's job to personally know all of her ninja, and Hinata was no exception. Tsunade knew that Hinata would pull no punches in this fight; she wanted to prove to Naruto that she was worthy of his attention.

Tsunade checked to make sure everyone had left her office then locked the door. With a slight grin she whipped her hands into the ram seal and vanished in a poof of smoke.


Some minutes later Hinata found herself squared off against the object of her admiration, the blonde shinobi grinning slightly.

"Ready, Hinata-chan?"

She nodded.

"Good." He closed his eyes, and when he reopened them they were bright red. "Then let us fight."

He disappeared.


Woo-hoo! My first real fight scene is coming up next chapter! I hope I do a good job!

R&R, my friends. R,R, and enjoy.