I do not own Naruto or One Piece.

"Yohoho!" normal speech

"Father..." thought/mind speak/ books, journals, etc.

"Boo!" demon speak

Chapter 10: Preparations

It has been a week and a half of Naruto's training for the Chunin Exams after Minato announced that Naruto would be allowed to continue. The Fourth Hokage also announced that because of their actions, Ino and Uzume would be stripped of the shinobi rank and would have their chakra sealed; Uzume's would be public as she had to fight Naruto before his match with Neji. Rumors were spreading faster than wild fire about what had happened and Uzume quickly went from messiah to pariah faster than Minato's Hiraishin.

Naruto also spent that week and a half working on his jutsus and powers as he trained with his biological parents, Jiraiya, his future wives, and the Straw Hats. The straw hat wearing shinobi's training was brutal as he could have sworn that Kushina was a complete sadist along with Jiraiya. Naruto was offered to sign the toad contract but opted not to as he told his family about the contract he signed with Thousand Sunny. Naruto has been trying to perfect his fox forms as well as his Mech Form in order to get a better grip on them, even through the Shadow Clone Jutsu as he gains the memory and experience from each one dispelled. Naruto wanted to try other possibilities, but he needed to do something first…

"223…224…225," said Naruto as he searched for a specific room, "Aha! 226, just the room I was looking for." Naruto entered and saw Ino in her full body cast with some flowers around her bed. "Ino…" said Naruto as he approached the bed so that Ino can see him, "how have…you been?" Ino could see the guilt in Naruto's eyes, seeing how the blond before her was in slight turmoil.

"I've had better days when I just broke a nail," said Ino trying to cheer up Naruto, "I know it's useless, but I'm very sorry for what I've done. I guess I was just too blind by Uzume to not see how I was acting." Naruto sighed, cursing his sister for causing him to hurt someone this bad. "I know that you're sorry," said Naruto with pain in his eyes, "but I'm just too hurt to forgive you that easily, but I wanted to apologize for doing this to you. I shouldn't have used the Rumble Ball while that seal Orochimaru put on me was still there."

"It's alright," said Ino, "Neither of us knew what to expect from the other. I never knew about that power of yours; you never knew of Uzume's plan to get you to spill the secrets of your powers." Naruto gripped the side of the bed tightly and said, "But I should have done something! I could have used Haki to end the match then and there. I could have used Blossom Style. I could have-" Naruto couldn't finish as the nurse present there gave the blond a hard slap to the face.

"Thank you," said Ino, "Naruto, don't beat yourself up because of this. We both knew that the life of a ninja was dangerous as there were so many possibilities of us getting killed or permanently scarred. That is why I'm going to get through this and try to rebuild my reputation as much as I can." Naruto wasn't sure what to say before he found his voice and said, "But that means you'll be stuck in a chair for all your life, you'll be wearing diapers as a teenager, and you would never be able to stop eating!" Ino let out a long sigh knowing that Naruto was right, but she needed to do this as a reminder to not just herself, but Uzume's other followers, that all actions have consequences.

"I can have one of the Straw Hats, Chopper, heal you," said Naruto, "He's my personal doctor what with him being sealed inside of me." Ino saw Minato at the doorway and saw the look on his face. It was stern, but observant as the Hokage watched what was going on. Relenting, Ino said, "If it makes you feel any better, you can at least heal the electrical burns. Just those and nothing else, I need to go through the rest on my own." Minato lightly smiled that Naruto was going to get some comfort and watched his son allowed one of the Straw Hats to take control of him and heal Ino's electrical burns. Thank you Ino, thought Minato as he left the hospital, for helping Naruto understand and get some closure.

Uzume wasn't having a bad day…oh no…it was the worst day she had ever had; people giving her nasty glares, talking behind her back, even calling her nasty names on front of her face. She knew that she was going to lose everything to her brother and it was because she had used Ino to smash the memory tablet of the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox. "Who in their right minds would build a shrine for a demon," said Uzume as she stormed through the village, not knowing her increasing power, "That bastard might as well be a Jashinist!"

Uzume continued walking through the market place until she saw Sakura getting groceries. Uzume decided to follow the rosette until the two of them got to Kurama's shrine and watched her light the incense. "I don't know how many times I've said this," said Sakura as she talked to the shrine, "but thank you for helping Naruto. I know you could have just let him die, but you didn't and instead gave him a family that really cares for the baka. I can't imagine what would have happened if Naruto was gone as he's my best friend…after I lost Ino to that bitch Uzume." Uzume wanted to slit the girl's throat, but refrained from doing so as an idea popped into her mind. Yes, thought Uzume as a wicked grin crept on her face, that could work.

Back at the training grounds on the Namikaze Estate, Naruto was training his Mech Form by having a sparring match with Tenten. "Shuriken Right!" said Naruto as he launched shuriken from his wrist before launching his left hand, "Net Left!" Tenten watched Naruto's hand expand into a net and tried to dodge it, only for her ankle to get caught. Naruto then swung the captured Tenten into the wall before rushing towards the fallen kunoichi. "Right," said Naruto as he cocked his right hand back in the form of a fist, "Cross!" The attack connected, only for it to hit a wooden log and for Tenten to end up behind Naruto. "You're open!" said Tenten as she unsealed a katana.

"Not so fast," said Naruto as Tenten saw that the blond dodged her attack. Naruto then took a deep breath of air and swallowed, causing his stomach to expand. The ninja cyborg's stomach continued to expand as Tenten rushed Naruto again, sword in hand. "Wind Style," said Naruto as the contained air slowly travel up to his neck, "Cannon Belch Jutsu!" The blond let out a large belch as the collected air was released from his mouth, sending a large balst towards the kunoichi before him. "Crap!" said Tenten as she had no choice but to brace for impact.

The blast of air launched Tenten into the wall of the estate. Before the kunoichi could get up, she heard the sound of an opening latch and looked up to see Naruto preparing for another attack. "That's enough," said Kushina as Naruto helped Tenten get to her feet, "that was a good spar you two." Naruto closed his open wrist and changed back to his human form and said, "Thanks for the help Tenten. I want to be ready for my match after dealing with Uzume." Tenten dusted herself off and said, "No problem, just make sure you teach Uzume a lesson for what she had done."

After Tenten left, Naruto decided to try something and began to focus chakra toward his feet. Kushina watched Naruto run and jump in the air before a loud pop was heard as Naruto somehow took another step in mid-air and repeating the process for about three more times before kneeling in fatigue. "What was that!?" said Kushina as she ran towards Naruto.

"Skywalk," said Naruto as he worked on catching his breath, "a special technique that would allow me to run on thin air. I can only go so far and so high before my chakra fails me." Minato just walked on the field and watched Kushina help their son to his feet. The ability to run on thin air, Minato thought as he remembered seeing Naruto take the last few steps through Skywalk. "How did you develop Skywalk?" asked Minato.

"I didn't develop it," said Naruto as he sat on the bench his biological mother led him to, "Sanji developed it during his two years away from the Straw Hats when he got stuck on an island of transvestites. There were some marines that the Straw Hats faced that could do this technique, but they called it Geppo. The only thing different with mine is that I'm using chakra while Sanji kicks the air." Naruto wanted to be able to fight effectively against any opponent and since there were some summons that could fly, those opponents could easily hurt him if Naruto didn't use the Observational Haki.

"Well," asked Kushina, "do you know your affinity?" Naruto got out a slip of chakra paper and focused some chakra into it, causing it to be sliced in half. "A wind affinity," said Minato proud that his son inherited his affinity, "what if you add wind to your chakra and go from there?" Naruto thought about it and knew he had to train in elemental manipulation before applying it to chakra, meaning more training.

"How about we take a break for today," said Kushina as she looked at Naruto, "You look like you're about to collapse." Naruto decided to lie down and take a nap and let his body rest while he visited the Straw Hats in his mind. Kushina watched Naruto snooze on the ground and led Minato inside the building to prepare dinner, not knowing about what Uzume has planned as the girl arrived with a sinister smile on her face.

Sorry if this chapter was short as I wanted to get to the Invasion Arc and do Naruto's fight with Uzume, Neji, and Gaara. I'm still planning on how the first fight will go, so it might be a while. Thank you for your reviews.

Ja Ne