Chapter 8: Manipulation
"When hunting, you should first make sure you know which roll you play - prey or predator" - Sarutobi Hiruzen
It had been a month since Itachi's birthday and Naruto had been slowly and feeding the idea of going on missions to the teen. He had no doubt Itachi was picking up on his hints, just as he knew the teen was hesitant to comply. Most likely because Itachi had started going on missions at a very young himself and as a result didn't want him in any unnecessary danger.
Naruto was usually patient when working towards a goal, even taking the time to comprehend the other point of view (mostly so he could more effectively make progress). That being said, he was getting fed up with being kept in Konoha when the ability to leave - if only for a few hours - was tantalizingly close. Plus, he wanted field experience. Something more substantial than occasionally hunting criminals in Konoha. They were easy to catch and half the time hadn't even gone to the academy so they were no challenge at all. His eagerness for experience also stemmed from the fact that his progress in improving his physical might had slowed to a crawl. While he could spend a lot of time studying (and he did enjoy it most of the time), he was getting sick of staying in the same place and doing the same thing for so long. He wanted some action.
With that in mind, he had decided to take the direct route and straight out demand that Itachi take him on a mission. Demand may have been a strong word, but it should be noted that Naruto despised stagnation, and that was exactly what he felt was happening.
So, having met with Itachi again - though it was becoming slightly rarer as the teen furthered his own career - the blonde had decided to finally outright ask after the training session was over. Today was a typical day, Shisui having not come, and the sun was shining.
He was currently locked in a rather heated staring match with the teen after asking - demanding - that he be taken on a mission. After a long silence, instead of outright denying his request, Itachi asked a simple question, "Why?"
Naruto had a number of reasons, but stagnation wasn't one he'd give Itachi. It wouldn't be believable that he had hit his current limit so quickly. He could try to pester Itachi for more techniques to expand his repertoire, however that was more unlikely an event. Itachi, despite only entering his teenage years, was a perfectionist of the highest order and refused to teach more until what he had taught had been mastered to a suitable degree. A suitable degree in Itachi's book being quite similar to his own definition. If he showed that kind of mastery after having just recently been introduced to chakra, well that would open up questions he didn't want to answer. This route was safer in the long run. Finally, he settled on an answer he knew Itachi would accept and one that just opened an opportunity for him that couldn't be passed, "I'm sick of staying in the village all the time and I want to explore more. Get some experience in the real world."
It was a reasonable and true excuse, one Itachi would interpret partly as him wanting to escape the distaste the village had for him. Itachi may want him to make some friends his age, but they both knew how unreasonable and unlikely that was.
His prediction proved correct as after a solid 30 seconds of silence, Itachi gave an affirmative grunt. Just as he was about to thank the man, Itachi spoke again, "Why are you so set on going on a mission? Most people don't do that until they're fifteen or sixteen today."
Naruto knew this of course. People could start entering their children into the shinobi academy at six years old if they so wished, but many people - especially clan kids - held off as they didn't teach lessons very fast these days and it didn't give clan kids any advantage. Some civilians used it to pawn off their kids for a while as a daycare or to try to give them a head start.
The typical age to enter was eight, and even then, the curriculum was still pretty low standard in his opinion, even when lowering his rather high standards. It was more for socializing now than anything as both the Hokage and the civilians didn't want their children to face the reality that was the ninja life style too early, though for different reasons. So now the average ninja graduated more into their teens than their early teens or earlier as it used to be.
Of course there were exceptions to that, Itachi being the prime example today, having graduated at 7 years of age. An impressive feat, especially in peacetime, even if it was just on the tail end of a war. Though from what he had heard, clan children tended to graduate at least a year earlier than the average, even today.
During war, children were always pushed to mature and become stronger faster or die, as well as the curriculum being sped up. Though that wasn't saying much considering how utterly slow it had become - an all time low due to some civilian interference.
Truly, Genin graduation strength was at an all time low. Some may argue it was a good thing and showed they were demilitarizing in the name of peace. Naruto saw it as a sign of weakness and negligence, knowing that while Genin graduating in peace were almost never as strong as those in war, he was almost certain the other villages had higher standards or at least graduated earlier with the same standards. A cynical view perhaps, but he felt it was realistic. There was still much tension between the village's and he saw this period of peace more as a temporary cease fire.
It was, after all, quite difficult to get those who had fought and killed each other's comrades to work together. Even if a great threat was looming on the horizon, people were stubborn and it would certainly not erase the animosity between them. Peace, in the blonde's opinion, was an illusion, never permanent. People also held different definitions of peace, thus making it an arbitrary concept to begin with. That, however, was a debate to be had another day.
For now, Naruto answered the Uchiha's inquiry, "I know you took missions when you were still younger than me, and I know a few people still do, even if it is rare. I feel like I'm ready to go on a low ranked mission and I want to see a bit more of what the outside world is like. The world is a big place, and I won't stay in these village walls forever, I'm just getting a head start."
Itachi stared a bit more before nodding at the answer and leaving.
Unconsciously smiling a bit from the seeming approval, he left for a deeper part of the woods where he could slip away from Itachi if the teen had decided to stick around and headed to the Forest of Death.
The Sandaime Hokage was having his high from whipping the civilians into shape slowly die out as the days continued.
First he had found out that a new village had seemingly popped up out of nowhere, one hidden well enough that Kumo couldn't take them out. Normally he'd be wary, but fine with a development like this since he didn't like wiping out people merely because they may present a potential threat. He preferred a peaceful road when he could find one. Negotiate an alliance rather than commit genocide (again).
Unfortunately the new Otogakure was being problematic for a number of reasons. The first was that even Jiraiya couldn't find the village proper, something impressive considering Jiraiya was putting quite a bit of effort into it. The only info they had was that it was almost certainly in the Land of Rice. It also looked as if the village had a number of branches rather than a single, centralized location according to the way their movements went from the little information Jiraiya had gathered on them.
Another problem was that when he had sent an envoy to the Daimyo of the Land of Rice to ask to negotiate an alliance, the man had not given them a location or a way to contact the leader or even an envoy of the new village. From what he had been informed, the Daimyo even seemed fearful when talking about the leader of Otogakure, even if he had hidden it well as all politicians were accustomed to. While those who didn't regularly deal with shinobi could be easily intimidated and impressed, the kind of fear that would make even a Daimyo of a minor country shake in his boots was not someone to take lightly.
Daimyo were the rulers of the land that they controlled and maintained their power via the samurai army they commanded. While samurai generally couldn't hold their own against shinobi, their numbers made them a fearsome force. There were of a few very notable exceptions to this rule - the top guard of the Daimyo of each major country and Mifune of Iron country were the main ones. The people of the Elemental Nations also accepted samurai more than shinobi. It was one of the main reasons why there weren't more shinobi - very few who were born outside a shinobi village wished to be one. Shinobi were also generally seen as dishonorable warriors who you couldn't trust too much or they would stab you in the back, a reputation not entirely false with certain people. The few not put off by rumors were often deterred by the suspicion they'd elicit from the paranoid group.
Shinobi were typically still accepted as patrons in most establishments and public opinion was slowly getting better, but they were always treated with a level of caution the honorable samurai weren't treated with. It was one of the numerous reasons that shinobi didn't just trample on the Daimyo's land, take it for themselves, or kill off the Daimyo. It was pointless to do so if an entire country was against you afterwards, and shinobi could only fight so many samurai despite being the generally superior combatant.
It was one of the many reasons shinobi started to form villages. Many had wished for a land to call their own and no longer live the life of nomads. Besides that, the Daimyo were finally starting to gather themselves and form formidable army's rather than the rag tag groups barely considered a military that used to be more common. If their previous way of life had continued, there would no doubt be very few shinobi left. They would've eventually been hunted down and overwhelmed. Luckily, when the major villages had formed, the Daimyo still only had a fledgling army and led to a favorable agreement on their part. The village would be left to their own devices for the most part, but could be called upon in times of war to help the army the Daimyo commanded.
They were basically independent and even the Great Shinobi Wars - as the name implied - were fought mainly between the shinobi villages. The Daimyo may involve themselves occasionally, but as long as they stayed away from too many towns under their control they overlooked the chaos. Of course the Daimyo liked to stay out of the actual battlefield and instead bring the conflict to the arena of politics instead of having their lives of luxury interrupted by war.
For a person to intimidate a Daimyo to the point of near subservience, a few conditions had to be met. The first was dubious public support that led to a weak army. A contested seat of power for the Daimyo could create this pretty easily, something the Land of Rice had with two large crime groups vying for power with a puppet Daimyo.
As a consequence of their fighting, it caused a great deal of poverty throughout the country, thus making it easy to gain support of the civilians as long as the third party could improve their living conditions. It was simple human psychology, help someone - a community especially - in need and they will feel some loyalty to that person and ignore a lot of things they did as long as life kept improving. It had been used in the past and it would be used in the future as it was, to his shame, a tactic he had used in the past to gain the support of people. One he had even resorted to trying on Naruto. He didn't like it, but the security of the village came first.
It seemed that whoever was in charge had a great deal of resourcefulness and resources to gain such support from the civilians as no one would talk about the one who started to improve living conditions. They were by no means comfortable living, but it was still leagues better than what it had been.
Jiraiya had also found that civilians occasionally disappeared, usually orphans or those who had little to no family. It may not be too noticeable, but it would definitely be the residents of Rice Country would have picked up on it. It was likely they were being turned into soldiers for Otogakure, but no one cared much if only the outcasts were taken. It was an unfortunate trait of humanity that they could ignore an incredible amount of horror as long as it didn't affect them personally. There were exceptions of course, but they were few and far between.
Even with taking more people to make into shinobi, it was quite suspicious they weren't looking for an alliance considering many smaller villages would love to have one with any of the Great Five Shinobi Villages. It would also take those training a while to come into their potential, and even their best wouldn't be too great because while those with civilian ancestry could certainly become excellent ninja, they were few.
The simple truth was that those with shinobi ancestry simply had an advantage over those who didn't, typically being genetically more attuned to becoming shinobi. It would take a few generations to churn out shinobi of a consistently decent level.
The leader of this Otogakure refusing even some negotiations of a Great Nation no less spoke of wanting secrecy above all else. Yet another clue that Orochimaru was the one behind this village. He was doing a damn good job of keeping out of Jiraiya's sight too.
That, while concerning, was not the problem he was currently dealing with. No, that honor went to the young man standing in front of him and the request of his student.
With a twitching eyebrow, he spoke to the young man, "So let me get this straight. Naruto wants to go on a mission and has been giving you hints at this for a month now - hints you have ignored - and now he outright asks you and you immediately cave to his demand?"
"He had good reasons," was the only response he got.
The Hokage's eyebrow continued to twitch as he heard the response. Itachi may have been the best shinobi of his generation, but his occasional lack of communication skills was annoying. He knew, of course, that the boy only did this when he felt it wasn't pertinent information; nevertheless, it was an bothersome habit. He could order the boy to tell him, but even then it would likely be vague.
In a way it was endearing and a nice change of pace to find that the usually isolated teen had become such good friends with Naruto that he would conceal the reasons the blonde used to convince him. It was also a reminder of how startlingly similar the two boys were, both isolated with few people who truly cared for them.
They also seemed to have grown closer in personality since their interactions, Itachi seeming to affect Naruto more as expected, but it went the other way as well. Children tended to emulate those they were closest to and Itachi was now likely the one Naruto looked up to the most, thus the changes he had seen from outgoing prankster to more subdued and hungry to learn. Part of that was likely just hidden under the mask he put up and he merely hadn't had the tools to pursue his interests, but Sarutobi liked to think that Itachi had some impact on that too.
Itachi had also become ever so slightly more open with his emotions, even creating more of a friendship with Hatake Kakashi. He had no doubt they would be good for one another - Kakashi having experience turning from cold and detached to more flippant, if not open, and (slightly) more accepting of company.
With a sigh, he decided that it would be best to just let Naruto take a mission. Perhaps it would be good for the boy to get out of the village for awhile. Itachi also tended to have good judgement despite his age, so he trusted the young man's opinion. "Very well, I'll allow you to take a mission to assist with a hunt for food in a nearby village. Is that satisfactory?"
The Sandaime caught a glimpse of an ever so slight expression of surprise overcoming the Uchiha's face before it was gone once he blinked. He smirked a little, the boy had probably expected a courier mission to start with, not a hunt. It was a somewhat odd request after all, and teams typically started with courier missions or the like once they showed competency with one another before taking a C-rank.
Regardless, Itachi gave a nod as he answered, "Yes that is satisfactory. Thank you Hokage-sama." Without another word, he was out the door.
Hiruzen let out a short chuckle after the boy left. It was good to be able to get a reaction out of the stoic boy, it showed that he still couldn't predict everything. Though if he were to be honest, he was even slightly surprised with himself for agreeing to let Naruto assist in a hunt. He supposed the few times he had used his Tōmegane no Jutsu to look in on some of the blonde's training sessions had aroused his curiosity as to how the boy would react to something like hunting.
From what he had seen and Itachi's reports, Naruto was occasionally unnaturally excited to spar. A battle lust if you will. The boy was also leagues above even the Clan heirs of his generation, and all of them had received at least some sort of training, even if it was minimal. It was phenomenal to see his rate of growth. If he wanted to, he may even be able to become a Genin at this point.
Still, his rate of growth was almost too phenomenal. He supposed it could have come from the harsh conditions he had to live through or some prior training he did on his own, but it was still nearly unbelievable. He could have given another mission to test the blonde, but he had seen a glimpse of something in the blonde's eyes when he was sparring Itachi, something that was beyond just battle lust.
It was the look of a hunter, one who would stalk their prey. Naruto may not be anywhere near Itachi's level right now, but that look… That was a look of a predator ready to fight for their fill. It was intriguing to see a look like that in one so young. He supposed that it was a possibility that Naruto had hunted for food before and thus gained that kind of look. Hiruzen wanted to see if he really could stalk an animal efficiently to scout for any potential the boy might have for tracking.
In a dark office deep underneath Konohagakure sat a man with white bandages wrapped around his head. His short black hair and ran across his nearly shut right eye. Beside his desk was a wooden walking cane. This old man sported a fair amount of wrinkles, a scar in the shape of an x on his chin, and an arm held up by a black half-robe that came up at an angle to his right shoulder to act as a harness for his arm. Under the black robe, he wore a white shirt.
Overall, he looked like a fairly nonthreatening, if battle-scarred veteran that could no longer fight.
This could not be further from the truth. This was the Yami no Shinobi, Shimūra Danzō, still one of the most dangerous shinobi in the world despite his wounds and age, much like his old teammate Sarutobi Hiruzen. However, unlike his old teammate, he was a man willing to commit any manner of atrocities to ensure the continued safety and prosperity of the leaf.
The difference in their ideologies often had them clash on matters of philosophy and action, Danzō wanting to take a more militaristic and harsh approach, while Hiruzen tended to lean more towards the diplomatic side of things. Because of this, Danzō had taken control of and maintained a group designed to work even more off the books than the ANBU, created by the Nidaime Hokage, Senju Tobirama.
Danzō had used this group to do the dirty work of the leaf that even the ANBU shied away from in the name of keeping the Leaf safe. Hiruzen knew of some of his old friend's machinations, but turned a blind eye as he did see the benefit of such an organization despite his distaste for it. It was this negligence that let the Yami no Shinobi change the organization, Root, from its original design.
Having always been a man of even more dubious morals than shinobi typically held, Danzō had turned the organization darker, or as some would argue, more shinobi-like. Since his takeover of Root - the Foundation as some called it - he had added training to rid prospective Shinobi of any emotions, becoming nearly mindless weapons for the leaf. This was something taught in the academy but in a different style, context, or, more recently, in a way that would have kids mostly disregard the rule stating that a shinobi should not let their emotions interfere with the mission.
Danzō took this to the extreme, seeing emotions as a weakness more than a potential strength, and thus had adopted a training method similar to how Kirigakure operated - he paired potential candidates with another recruit and eventually forced them to do fight to the death. A show of loyalty and proof they'd done away with their emotions. The man had also taken to finding young, talented prospects from surrounding villages or orphanages to turn into weapons of the Leaf.
Regardless of all these changes, it was clear that this old man valued Konoha above all else, thus when a threat presented itself he sought to neutralize that threat. Alternatively, if an asset presented itself, he did what he thought would make the most use of that asset.
Unfortunately for a number of people in Konoha, he saw many as threats who had even a tiny chance of desertion. Uzumaki Naruto was one such target of observation, and one of, if not, the most watched one. With his heritage as well as being the Jinchuuriki of the Kyuubi, he could be the greatest asset Konoha would see this generation. Unfortunately, as with all Jinchuuriki, there was always a threat of desertion due to how they were treated.
It was for this reason that Danzō consistently pushed to make the boy loyal to Konoha and give him ties here. At the very least, he wanted the boy trained as the weapon he was meant to be, but many civilians disliked the idea of giving the boy the means to lash out, so it was difficult to look for a situation where he could have the boy trained, either by one of his men or Sarutobi's. By this point he was starting to get a little desperate to allow any one of Sarutobi's soldiers to train him - he knew his old teammate would never allow the boy to join the Foundation.
This was why he pushed for the boy to be secretly trained, keeping the civilians ignorant and happy while simultaneously continuing to back him and preparing a weapon. Sarutobi had rebuffed his every attempt, saying that the boy deserved to have a childhood like all others in the village, a naive view at best. The boy was too different already.
Danzō still inwardly scoffed at the notion that any Jinchuuriki could have a normal childhood. All Jinchuuriki were destined for hardship the moment they became one - there was no normal for them. But then Hiruzen had always been an optimistic one as he got older, especially in regards to the village.
Regardless of the reason, Hiruzen had refused training for the boy for too long, so when those four Uchiha had been caught torturing the boy, he had been as close to ecstatic as his limited range of emotions allowed. Now Hiruzen really had motivation to train the boy. There were a number of people he thought the Sandaime would assign to teach the boy, people that were, in his opinion, far too soft and blind in the teachings of teamwork can overcome any obstacle. While he admitted teamwork was a valuable asset, it could not overcome a great deal of things. He'd have been dissatisfied with the choice, but it was better than nothing.
Fortunately, Sarutobi had surprised him by picking none of those people. He picked a boy, a talented one, but a boy nonetheless. Uchiha Itachi had been picked and he hadn't even been on the list of potential sensei's he had guessed at.
The choice to let an Uchiha train a boy who had just been attacked, and was consistently discriminated against, by Uchiha was an odd one. He suspected some sort of involvement with the Uchiha heir and the rescue of the boy, but he could find nothing concrete. Regardless of the reason, Danzō found himself pleased with the choice of sensei for the Jinchuuriki.
Despite his suspicion of the Uchiha, he could not deny that Itachi had a nearly unquestionable loyalty to Konoha. Not only that, but even as young as he was, the teen was fairly hardened and a realist first and an idealist second.
Overall it was a decent day for him when those four Uchiha decided to take out their frustration on the container. The only downside to that day had been the Uchiha gaining some public support that they had lost in the aftermath of the Kyuubi attack due to the potential of the Sharingan to control the beast as proved by Uchiha Madara.
He saw the Uchiha much like he saw Naruto, an asset, but a threat. Recently with the Hokage taking the boy's side, as well as some discrimination against them from the Kyuubi attack, he had heard whispers of replacing a senile Hokage. As of now, they were only few and far between, but it had the potential to spread into something bigger. While Danzō was no fan of Sarutobi, he admitted that his old teammate was a competent leader, if not as harsh as he was in his youth.
He also saw the only one with the possibility of doing a better job of being Hokage than Sarutobi as himself. Senju Tsunade of the Sannin was no good with her alcoholic and gambling problems, not to mention her lingering depression with the death of her lover and brother years ago. Someone like that was not fit to be Hokage.
One of the only other real contenders who had the strength befitting a Hokage was Jiraiya of the Sannin. While he admitted the man could be serious and had the potential to be an excellent leader if he could focus, this choice had many downsides as well. For one, the man acted very immature most of the time, with a reputation in Konoha for peeping on women to gain 'inspiration' to write his smutty book series, Icha Icha. It may have partly been an act; however, it was an act detrimental to political dealings. Danzo understood it was mostly a way for the white-haired man to cope, but it was still an enormous waste of time.
Another problem was that, while he kept helping Konoha, the Gama Sennin was also drowned in depression, even if he did a better job of hiding and dealing with it than Tsunade. The man still refused to come back to Konoha out of depression for the loss of his student's life, even to check on the Jinchuriki, who he strongly suspected of being the man's Godson. The last time he had come was shortly after the Kyuubi's rampage. Compounding the suspicion of Naruto being Jiraiya's Godson, or at the very least holding at least some care, was the boy receiving some toad themed gift for his birthday. It was not difficult to guess who would do that.
Now he only had messenger toads in contact with Konoha. And despite having to grudgingly admit it, he knew that Jiraiya was one of, if not, the best information specialist and spy on the continent. It would be detrimental to Konoha to lose such a good resource because he knew that even his network couldn't hold up against that man.
With those two out and nobody quite ready or wanting to be Hokage left, that only left him. Now the only decision he had left to make was who to side with if this discontent rose any further. Whichever side he picked would need to have the conflict end quickly, otherwise it would open up Konoha for attack in the middle of a civil war.
If he chose to side with the Uchiha, he may be able to convince them to make him Hokage, but it was a long shot. The Uchiha, and anyone with some knowledge of history knew not to trust him lightly. They would probably want an Uchiha led village.
Not only did he not want that, but it would be near impossible to kill Sarutobi and round up shinobi supporters to support the changing of seats. He had no doubt the Uchiha could convince the civilians by offering them their weapons head or something similar, but they would not be the deciding factor in a matter like this. To many shinobi, Sarutobi was like a grandfather. He was someone they could trust and his teachings were instilled in them. It would be near impossible to get enough to switch loyalties and maintain the manpower required to stand up to the other nations.
Hiruzen, despite not being terribly active due to managing the village, was still one of the strongest shinobi in the world. They couldn't afford to lose him in the near future.
If he chose to side with Sarutobi, he could more easily manipulate the outcome in his favor and gain things he wouldn't should he side with the Uchiha. Not to mention it would likely be over much more quickly if he sided with Hiruzen.
With this in mind, he resolved to keep a more careful eye on the Uchiha. Perhaps even let an anonymous tip lead to more public suspicion of them.
Naruto was quite pleased the following day when he found a note on his kitchen table stating that arrangements would be made to make sure his presence outside the village would not be noticed. It was as good a confirmation he could get that he would soon be going on a mission.
Knowing that Itachi wouldn't be seeing him today, he made some breakfast and then made his way to Training Ground 44. As he moved through the branches of the utterly massive trees of the Forest of Death, he couldn't help but muse to himself on how helpful the bunker he had found was - he only wished he could understand most of the things in it. Some were in a short hand he couldn't read and others were just too advanced for him to properly understand. It could get rather frustrating at times when running into books so far beyond his knowledge; however, it was also exciting because it showed just how much more he had to learn. Aside from the library, it gave him an armory to work with and the ability to practice with a number of different weapons. He wasn't proficient with any of them yet - he tended to get sidetracked with theories, reading, or experimenting (with poisons or otherwise). There was also the fact that he had no one to teach him which, while normal for him, was still slower than having a teacher.
Luckily, there were some scrolls of katas that at least showed some basic movements to a style for every weapon there. Some went into more detail than others, but it was a start all the same.
He also realized how it was somewhat childish to want to be proficient with all the weapons in the armory. While it was good to have experience with more than one weapon, it was only those who were weapon specialists that dreamed of trying so many. Fortunately, he had an advantage by way of Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to learn faster, and while each weapon was different, there were similarities between many of them. In particular, there were many different types of swords.
Finally reaching his destination, Naruto dropped down the trapdoor as the Fuinjutsu powered lighting came on.
It was always so peaceful here. No one to interrupt him and he had some targets just outside if he ever wanted to test something or take out his frustrations. He had to choose his targets wisely and not in this section of course. This part of the forest was still too dangerous for him if he went picking fights.
Grabbing two handfuls of leaves and very small pebbles he had prepared in a basket, he made his way to the library as he set about getting the leaves and rocks to float just above his skin. While the leaf floating exercise was taught to even academy students to control their chakra output and increase reserves, many dismissed it after learning tree walking. While not very useful with only a couple at a time, Naruto saw no reason that you couldn't increase its difficulty by adding more things to do.
Many considered increasing the number of leaves an ultimately irrelevant effort when compared to other exercises. Naruto disagreed. By continuing the exercise in unorthodox ways and unusual locations on the body, typically underused parts of the chakra system were used. It was something that helped with channeling larger amounts of chakra - a detail that went largely ignored as brute force practice accomplished something similar over a longer period of time.
Naruto did a number of things to increase the difficulty of the exercise. For one, he used many objects and forced himself to not just expel chakra over a large area to hold them up. Instead, to consider the exercise a success he forced the area of expulsion to be as small as possible - about half the size of the object at largest. Another layer of difficulty was added by using heavier objects, sitting upside down on the ceiling, or walking around a room - walls and ceiling included. He was also experimenting with trying to make the objects orbit him. So far he had very little success on that front.
In addition to these added layers of difficulty, the blonde tried to multitask while doing so. Reading, mixing some less harmful chemicals, and the more monotonous exercises were all things he had combined the simple exercise with. It showed in the library as well, because as soon as he walked in, he could see the table and chair he had attached to the ceiling with stands to keep the books from succumbing to gravity attached to the table.
He immediately got to work on the book he had left off on. It was a book on how chakra in different doses and potency affected wildlife and agriculture. It was quite interesting to read the results of the experiments and he felt it was something he wanted to try personally at some point.
Chakra mutations were mutations that occurred due to a plant or animal - usually an animal - being around unusually chakra-saturated land. They gained odd abilities and generally became overall stronger after prolonged exposure. They were fairly commonplace in ninja villages with so many chakra practitioners, but they typically didn't grow to be terribly dangerous, mostly because they were usually cleared out once a month or so. They never had time to become a real problem. A Genin team could handle these chakra mutations and were often some of the harder missions Genin took.
The Forest of Death was obviously an exception to this rule. Konoha generally let those within the forest be, letting them become far more dangerous than they typically would be. As far as he could tell, they did this as a way to have a home grown survival training course and potentially to tame some dangerous beasts. Maybe as a last resort they'd let the most dangerous ones run wild in case of a successful invasion. That was just his speculation though.
This book detailed what sort of differences appeared when different types, for lack of a better word, were exposed to different animals and plants. From what he had read, saturating an area with different Elemental natured chakra would, predictably, give mutations a higher chance of of becoming more attuned with that element. They were almost never proficient with the use of said element, but it was still typically higher than most Genin could accomplish. In addition to this, they became physically stronger and larger.
Another experiment consisted of running regular chakra into the air around test subjects after filtering out the minute traces of element all people had in their chakra. When applied, the subjects had widely varying results. Some recorded a subject turning monstrous in appearance - whether that was extra limbs, a deformed mouth with sharp teeth sticking out, or exceedingly irregular production of saliva. It was the stuff parents told their kids would come to eat them if they weren't good.
On the other hand, there were subjects that developed an elemental affinity. Those that did were almost always recorded as being superior in skill and connection to the element than those of their counterparts introduced to as pure to that element as the researchers could get the chakra to be. An interesting phenomenon to be sure and one that hinted at their being a very real necessity of balancing regular and elemental chakra.
Then there were the ones who developed unique abilities - ones that couldn't be classified as traditionally elemental. Details on these were sparse, but one case showed the ability to summon or materialize feathers. A very unique ability and one that seemingly defied the laws of physics even when applied to chakra. It was theorized that the ones who developed these unique abilities were been latent in their blood, almost like an inactive bloodline, but it was, unfortunately, never researched further.
Even more unfortunate was the loss of the subject that actually developed intelligence! It had even learned to communicate in human tongue - even if it was limited. It was incredible and nothing like the mere mimicry parrots could accomplish. It had unfortunately died shortly after the gained intelligence though the researcher who had written the book noted that the circumstances surrounding the death were odd. By all accounts it had been in good health, the researcher had said.
There were only two parallels to this kind of intelligence Naruto could think of. The first and most obvious were the more intelligent summon animals; however, those were abnormal entities themselves and not a good comparison to regular creatures. The other, more realistic, ones were the rare Inuzuka's ninken. They are highly intelligent and though incredibly rare, some had developed the ability to speak - the Inuzuka matriarch's companion being a prime example.
There were other experiments, but there were only two others that were of significant interest to him. They were the use of Holy and Demonic natured chakra. Both types were exceedingly rare to find in any human as few were 'holy' enough or willing to make a deal with a demon. Naruto was personally skeptical of the requirement that you be 'holy' to wield the element as it didn't have much in the way of proof or specifications on what made one holy. It was further compacted by the fact that there were records of people tarnishing the name of 'holy' weapons by wielding them for terrible purposes.
Personally, the blonde found it odd that you could 'tarnish' a weapon by doing bad deeds. Weapons, no matter their origin, were made to be instruments of death. Weapons were not meant to do 'good' unless you considered the protection of someone else. Weapons were made to kill, maim, or imprison - there was nothing holy about them. Perhaps he just misunderstood why they were called such a thing besides there alignment to being 'holy', often compared to light, while demonic was compared to darkness.
Regardless of that, he found that the results of those experiments had been fascinating. The research group hadn't been able to find people willing to give demonic or holy chakra, so instead they had found creatures that used them.
Demonic was rather easy as there were minor demons popping up occasionally around the continent and they only needed to put out a bounty to capture one alive. These creatures were quite deformed and took on all manner of shapes and sizes, ranging from gigantic to tiny. Despite the large deviation of sizes, they were in no way indicative of the strength of the demon. Though there were exceptions, as there were with everything, a group of Chunin could usually handle one with no fatalities.
Demons were not a popular subject to research due to the high risk capturing and studying one entailed. That wasn't even considering how it made the Daimyo uncomfortable and their history of sending teams of samurai to execute any researchers who decided to study the creatures. Naruto thought it foolish the Daimyo didn't try to understand them and resolved to do some research into the creatures, Demonic, and Holy chakra when he had the resources.
The holy energy was even more difficult for the team to find as they were far more scarce than demons. From what he'd read, this group had convinced a few people to demonstrate their holy chakra and subtly collected it. They had also found one or two holy creatures of some kind, though it didn't specify what they were or where the creatures had been found.
Regardless of the means by which they got it, it was the results that interested him. In both experiments, the subjects gained at least some semblance of sentience, displaying intelligence beyond what was normal. Normally mutations only affected the mind by way of an increase in instincts - for battle or survival. For them to gain some sentience showed a fundamental difference between holy and demonic chakra - and other types of chakra too for that matter.
In addition to increase sentience, the test subjects displayed signs of becoming some sort of subspecies of known holy or demonic creatures, exhibiting unique traits found among them, only to a lesser degree. Demonic test subjects always had an increase in aggression and seemed to crave flesh even if the one affected was originally a herbivore. They also exhibited small signs of cruel behavior such as playing with prey before consuming it.
Holy affected test subjects gained more intelligence while their instincts stayed about the same. Carnivores, interestingly seemed almost regretful when taking their meal, some even trying to sustain themselves on herbs while letting the designated food live. Those who did give an end to their prey's lives were always quick about it, ending the life as efficiently as possible. It was a bizarre behavior to fight inborn instincts of survival to merely let other animals live. It usually took extensive and harsh training to be able to get any animal to ignore their instincts to that degree.
Such effects interested Naruto immensely and he wanted to find out what properties made holy and demonic chakra so unique. Not only would subjects react far differently compared to everything else, but when compared, there were similar results that, to him at least, indicated dark and light were two sides of the same coin.
The effects of those chakra were almost a lesser version of the Summoning Clans that a rare few ninja had, such as the Gama Clan and their contractor, Jiraiya of the Sannin. If he could somehow stabilize and increase it, he could potentially create an entire summoning clan with a number of different species instead of just one. That, however was far outside his capabilities at the moment for a number of reasons. There were so many resources he'd need for that, that he couldn't see it coming true even in the next decade or more.
It was still an interesting concept and gave him a lot to think about, but for now he would focus on research and training.
Ryo - currency used in this world. 10 equal about one dollar
Hope you all enjoyed. And I have to say I really enjoyed writing that last part. That kind of thing - exploring the limits of whats possible and creating them is so fun. Tell me if you liked it and what you think about the last part - whether it seems reasonable, if it's interesting and would like to see more of that kinda thing, etc.
