Tree Walking

Kakashi walked up the tree and turned to look at his cute little Genin. Ego building was one of the few compensations of teachers; no matter what you did they found it impressive. Indeed, Sakura had an awed look on her face and a childish delight in her eyes. Sasuke was clearly impressed even though he tried hard not to show it.

Naruto was calling bullshit.

"Hey, hey, Kakashi-sensei, how do you do that? I once glued my hand and tried to climb a cliff but I was still falling down! How do you stay parallel to the ground?"

Sakura unkindly thought that the momentary glimpse of surprise in Kakashi's... eye was because of Naruto knowing and using the word 'parallel'. That was before Kakashi crashed into the ground face first. He then glared at Naruto before turning to Sasuke.

"You know Sasuke, your brother had this down before his sixth birthday." he said in a very casual tone. Sasuke stiffened and walked to the tree, his eyes burning with determination. Kakashi turned to Sakura.

"I know you'll get it down very fast Sakura. You have had very good control since the Academy. What you lack is reserves. So after you climb to the first branch start walking up and down that tree. Take breaks to restore your chakra but push yourself. After all, you don't want to look weak." Kakashi's eyes flickered towards Sasuke and Sakura gained a look of determination combined with a light blush.

"As for you!" Kakashi again glared at Naruto. "Come with me."


They walked to another clearing before Kakashi stopped and looked at his student. He stilled looked pissed but also resigned. As if he knew he had to do something hard but was determined to do it.

"OK, Naruto, you just caused me a lot of trouble but it wasn't really your fault. Yes, you were right. Climbing up trees should be impossible. Ninja who do Tree Walking are not actually sticking their feet at the tree you see. That's pure self delusion."

Kakashi paused while Naruto was looking incredulous.

"What the hell, sensei? How does that even work? You mean ninja walk up walls by lying to themselves?"

"Yes."

"B-but..."

"Hear me out Naruto. Things fall because of something called 'attractive forces'. Now these attractive forces exist in everything that has Earth Chakra and since everything has a little of each Chakra nature everything has weight and everything falls."

"So ninja control these attractive forces then?"

"Oh, no. Ninja can't control attractive forces, we can only use a loophole to redefine down. Basically, as long as you use Chakra in the specific pattern called Tree Walking AND can suspend your sense of disbelief you can walk even on the ceiling. And since ninja can do all sorts of nominally impossible things it works. See? The key is to fool yourself. Now, start climbing!"

And Kakashi eye-smiled at his student and left.


"Argh! It doesn't make sense!"

Naruto, for the first time in his life was frustrated because he was having too much success. Instead of walking up trees Naruto could fall up. The moment he used the Tree Walking pattern on his feet he fell straight up. The moment he stopped he fell straight down. It was the sideways that eluded him.

"Damn it, I need to get this! I need to stop thinking of falling to the sky!"

Yes, Naruto had a unique problem. It was not something that could be solved with determination or trial and error. He had to think his way through. Like what Iruka-sensei was talking about that time, going slow and looking at the problem from all angles and stuff. Wait, going slow! That's it!

Naruto did not even bother getting up. He channeled Chakra in the now familiar Tree Walking pattern and grabbed the nearest branch on his way to the clouds. Now secured, he reduced the Chakra and let the branch go. He caught the next branch but he was noticeably slower.

"That's it! More Chakra equals more speed! Now for steering!"

Naruto didn't know it but he was using much more Chakra than he should until it formed a sphere around him. He was weightless, pulled in all directions equally. But because he kept thinking of falling to the sky the excess Chakra was concentrated upwards and pulled him up. It was his fear that caused him problems.

Naruto was never one to let his fear hold him back. So he reduced the excess Chakra and thus the pull. He was still using far too much Chakra for Tree Walking but more than the minimum for the Flying Hamster Ball (what he would name the technique after people finally figured out what he was doing).

"Yes! I did it! I can fall towards the tree!" Naruto said with his face planted on the bark. "Now to control it!"


And thus Naruto learned to fall. Before the week was out he would manage to fall without going feet-first and even learned to use the technique and quickly cut it to enhance his flying kicks. With his increased speed Naruto was able to defeat Haku and then used his Uzumaki Foot On Face Attack on Zabuza long before Kakashi would have nailed him with his Raikiri. He then proceeded to grab a sturdy branch and fall towards Gato's mercenaries, throwing them in the river.

Kakashi, Sakura and Sasuke stood open-mouthed and watched Naruto do aerial acrobatics with a screaming Gato before throwing him at Inari's feet. As Naruto landed gently the people of Wave cheered him like a mythical hero. It was the best day of his life.

Thus started the legend of Uzumaki Naruto the Cloudwalker of Konoha.

A/N: OK, attractive forces come from the explanation of Banshoo Tenin, the opposite of Shinra Tensei. I'm kinda assuming they are related to Earth since that's what almost every civilization believed before the Enlightenment. In particular it's behind the ideas of Chinese Alchemy and relevant eastern worldviews on which Naruto's system was based. I may write what I figure about Naruto's basic 'science' at some point because it is not touched upon in the manga but is downright necessary for writing fiction.

I'm kinda taking liberties with Tree Walking here because I've seen both 'overpowered Tree Walking to deal damage' and 'stick to your enemies' done in stories. I wanted something new.