Consider: A powerful technique, in the hands of an inept wielder, against the rudimentary abilities of gennin in the hands of a master Which would prevail?

Naruto's eyes scanned the paper intently, sitting on the dry grass of the home's expansive garden he blinked owlishly at the words from the book Tadakatsu gave him by accident.

The answer is rather obvious. You know it already. Or that is to say, you don't.

Naruto's face scrunched up, his brows knitting close together as he squinted at the page, glaring at it as though it was guilty of some foul transgression.

You don't know which one of these two opposing forces will win because you do not know the circumstances surrounding the wielders.

If I told you, the Master wielding the gennin abilities, was pinned and unable to move for some reason while the powerful fool could still move freely, the picture changes, all the same if I tell you the fool tripped at the last moment before he could cast his attack, leaving him open, again the events changes.

Naruto's tight features eased, comprehension coming now as he followed the script.

It is ultimately not the power of the technique, or even to an extent, the innate skill of the wielder. It is the circumstances surrounding them, and the ability to manipulate those circumstances and capitalize on the opportunities they provide, or better yet, to make sure that the opportunities granted are always in your favor

He nodded, as though he was actually listening to someone lecturing these words to him rather than reading them in Iruka sensei's imagined voice..

Those who are always aware of their surroundings, who can map every branch, every rock and every blade of grass in whatever place they might find the need to fight, hold the greatest chance of wielding, and shaping events to be in their favor.

You must first learn to become fully aware of your surroundings at all times to protect yourself and ensnare your enemies. This will be your first lesson.


Tadakatsu was hardly fooled.

He had to admit, the boy was showing some dedication to his, in other words 'the client's' wishes by placing his clone to continue reading through the library while he studied the book out in the family grounds-ahem-in secret.

Commendable from a certain point of view.

But the whole point in leaving that book there was so Naruto would ask him if he could be excused from reading through the rest of these books while he went off with that one to read it completely.

He would have allowed it, even gone off to offer tips. The Nidaime Tsuchikage's stratagems were unorthodox, and the training methodology expressed was unusual at times to say the least. He feared that the boy would just end up wasting his time or worse yet grow frustrated.

Not for the first time he considered dropping the veneer of unbloodied citizen, that he was not even truly working on maintaining. To show the boy that he too was a Shinobi.

But a large part of him wanted Naruto to figure it out. It was an important lesson in and of itself. Sleeper agents could lay low for years sometimes evendecades. Entire lifetimes spent on a single flip of a switch when the moment or order came in to finally end the targets life.

He felt that him simply...revealing his nature would just cheapen the severity of it. Naruto needed to be aware that these people needed to be discovered and that he needed to keep his eyes open for it. They were not going to just come out and reveal themselves. At least not until their daggers were in his throat.

The clone was reading several of the more 'useless' books in the repertoire, at least to stall him for a few days while Naruto finished but he didn't like the idea that Naruto, the real one would miss out on valuable material by leaving his clones here to read for him even after he finished with the three or so training and tactic manuals Tadakatsu had picked out for him to read through and learn not counting the other tomes he had laid out for history and geographies.

The former Taki nin sighed through his nostrils. "I'm going to get something to drink." He said, closing the book he'd been 'reading'.

The clone who was pretending not to be a clone raised his head. "Huh? Oh yeah sure old man."

"Would you like something?" He asked, more out of courtesy and for appearances sake. Clones couldn't drink.

"Nah I'm good thanks."

Tadakatsu nodded and stepped out of the library.


When Tadakatsu walked out into Katsuye's back yard, shrouded beneath the veil of an invisibility Genjutsu. He expected to see Naruto still reading, or engaging in some kind of phisical exercise the book entailed, one of the rudimentary ones that could be accomplished by one's self. Maybe if he was hopeful, he would entertain the notion to have caught Naruto meditating.

So he was understandably floored when he stepped out to see nearly a hundred clones hammering out some kind of odd...manmade bamboo forest, literally hammering in half cut down Bamboo stems with rocks, each tree nearly six feet tall, the clones were standing on eachother's shoulders to slam their makeshift hammers onto the Bamboo, digging it into the ground inch by inch.

He barely had the presence of mind to step out of one clone's way as he tugged and pulled at a ninja wire, as strong as he could, making certain the wire was as taut as it could be from one bamboo stem to another before wrapping it and pulling it over to the next one.

Tadakatsu blinked, only half worried that Katsuye might be...miffed...at the sudden remodeling of his garden when he eventually got back later in the day but infinitely curious as to what in the hell Naruto was actually doing.

He waited.

It wasn't until another hour had passed that Tadakatsu had mannaged to gain some idea as to what exactly Naruto was building here.

If he was right, he actually had to give the boy some credit for creative thinking.

There were certainly simpler, more effective methods he could think of for training and achieving acute environmental awareness, as he knew the book stressed in its opening chapters, but the boy was good at improvising with what he had on hand.

Of course, if anyone was overly attached to a sizable portion of the Bamboo trees on the villages outer edge just a few hundred yards away from the manse, they might also be a bit miffed at Naruto's liberal use of what he considered to be "on hand" materials.

Finally all the clones disperesed, and Tadakatsu negotiated his way through a surprisingly carefully implemented network of ninja wire as he made his way closer to the center of this contraption.

The irony that Naruto was specifically training in environmental awareness was not lost on him.

Still, it was good to see that the boy was trying to learn. Might even be taking some very good steps in the right direction truth be told.

Naruto sat infron't of a pile of pebbles, and three sticks, right in the center of this place, five Bamboo stems around him, fairly evenly spaced, tethers of ninja wire stretched out from the five stems closer to him. Three sticks were laid out a little ways away.

Naruto looked around, then, seemingly realising he was lacking the item he was looking for, he took off one of his shirts and tied it around his head, covering his eyes completely and muffling sound too from what Tadakatsu could tell.

With a single handseal three clones came to being, the three of them picking up the sticks that had been laid out and spreading out. Tadakatsu raised an eyebrow, feeling Naruto's chakra spike a bit. He wished he could have the Sharingan, or some other doujutsu to be certain, but he was willing to guess the boy was channeling his chakra into the ninja wire around him.

Hmm.

One of the clones struck a Bamboo stem with the stick, a sharp Thwak cutting through the peaceful day and Naruto immediately grabbed a pebble, holding it ready, just as another clone hit another bamboo stem, yards away from the previous one.

Naruto threw.

And missed horrendously.

He was in the same vicinity really. But in the same way a Bull was in the same vicinity as an Ox. He aimed in the right...direction but that was about all he got out of it.

Another thwak

Another pebble.

Another miss.

Tadakatsu Hmmed. In truth, it wasn't that the boy was doing it wrong, far from it in fact.

The problem was that he was trying to run before he could walk.

He was trying to catch his clones with burst sensory input. A single sound, trying to judge distance and direction in the span of a second. No matter how loud the sound the human mind needed time to process it, unless one trained the reflex. To train the reflex the mind needed to depend less and less on constant sensory input. Naruto was on the right track with the blind fold, but right there that was enough on its own for his stage, he needed to rely on his sense of hearing now, then after that on the sense of touch, then on the sense of smell. Four of the five senses trained to peak efficiency before he had a hope of doing the exercise he was attempting right now.

Tadakatsu hmmed again, carefully extricating himself from the network of wire and half chopped down trees.

Then, he dropped the Genjutsu and walked right back in.

He was unsurprised to see Naruto's hand twitch, finding a peble and raising his limb before promptly throwing it at him.

It would have missed, off by an inch or so from his shoulder, but that was a far better than what he'd seen previously and he needed to make the point, stepping into the pebble's path, it was a somewhat sharp sting to his collarbone that brought the tiny rock to a dead halt.

He grunted, and the sound made Naruto's head rise a bit, curious before he brought his hands to raise the jacket covering his eyes.

The boy looked around, and it wasn't long before he spotted the former Taki nin rubbing the spot where the rock had hit.

"Hey old man!" Naruto yelled, half in surprise, half in unease before he looked around. Holding his hands up in a placating gesture, he smiled. "I can explain everything!"

Tadakatsu placed a stern expression over his features deciding to humor him.


A few moments later, Tadakatsu eyed the blond boy, making something of a show of looking around his constructed training area. "I see. How many of your clones did you hit so far?"

"Uhhh." At that Naruto looked nervous. "Well..." He scratched the back of his head. "None. But I haven't been doing it long before you showed up."

Tadakatsu smirked. "You hit me rather well. Why such difficulty with them?" He gestured to the clones. I'd been moving, they hadn't. Isn't it easier to hit a still target?"

"Well yeah but I could hear you old man. My clones hit the sticks and then move all sneaky like. Its harder to figure out where they are, even when I try to put my Chakra into the wire.

"Ahh." Tadakatsu nodded, and fought to hide down a smile as Naruto got a thoughtful look on his face.

"Hmmm...Hey. Ya think I should have my clones move around?"

"Hmm? For what purpose?" He had to admit, while the boy seemed largely oblivious on the larger scale of things, for certain things that he wanted he was proving surprisingly adept at picking them apart.

"Well...Its hard to hit them now, but maybe if I get used to hitting them just by listening I'll be able to get better? Makes sense right?"

Tadakatsu nodded. "Hmm..."


Inside the manse, the clone sighed, aggravated, realizing that he was still stuck on the same line for ten minutes now, the words starting to blend together.

It was talking about fruit and some kage or other. Not any of the Hokage's

He rubbed his eyes irritated. "They don't pay me enough for this." It grumbled.

And with a puff of smoke, it dispelled.


He was getting better...

Slowly...very...very...slowly.

But he was getting better.

He could effectively hit his targets one out of every ten throws give or take, with the clones running closer and farther away from him, dragging their sticks to smack against the bamboo as they passed it by and Naruto throwing the rocks.

To be perfectly fair though while he was training his sense of hearing, more than his sense of awareness, this was also probably doing a lot of good to his weapon accuracy. The rocks may not have the same weight or aerodynamic capabilities as a kunai knife, but the boy would quickly adjust and compensate for that when he picked up the knives again.

It was not the best or the most expeditious training it would get him results, and some easy wordplay down the road would allow him to suggest ideas to the boy in a way that would let the Uzumaki believe that he ultimately came up with them.

Overall, he could say he was fairly pleased with this development truth be told.

At least, he felt so until each of the boy's clones suddenly dispelled and he fell flat on his back.

Confusion grew to alarm, and alarm to concern as he realized the boy was not exactly moving.

He rushed forward, blurring across the field and the stakes of bamboo as he fell to his knees besides this all too important child.

"Naruto!" He shouted, shaking him lightly as he removed the blindfold.

To his immense relief, the youth blinked, his face scrunching up with pain as one hand moved to his forehead.

"Old man?"

"What happened?" He asked, helping the boy reach a sitting position, making sure there was no blood or wounds of any kind.

Naruto blinked, his face scrunching up again. "Did you kno the Shodaime Raikage based his first jutsu on his favorite fruit?"

The expression on Tadakatsu's face, many of his old enemies would have found priceless.


When Katsuye returned, having left work and picked up his two wonderful daughters from their respective schools, the last thing he expected to find was that he had more guests.

But he did find such.

All of them blond.

True that they were primarily confined to the library at the moment, but even so their voices carried through the entire mansion as they poured over his extensive collection of books.

He looked to his friend Tadakatsu for an answer, as to why there were so many clones here, and the former Taki ninja's smile was a familiar one.

Whatever Tadakatsu had discovered in Katsuye's absence, he liked it.

A lot.


Jiraiya didn't like this, he didn't like it one bit.

In truth, the only thing he did like was the fact that he was allowed to pick the meeting spot.

A nice, rural little farming village just shy of the borders of bird country. Not a lot of ninja traffic, hardly anyone really knew about it, it had a modest rice trade, and that was about it.

He had his escape routes and backups laid out. Obvious traps, not so obvious traps and some he'd gotten really creative with incase this whole thing went south.

A part of him was actually hoping it would if he were honest with himself. Actually hoping, not just banking on it.

He stood by the open road just outside the villages edge, some of the rice farmers offering wary looks or hesitant, handwave greetings as they passed by, which he returned, before placing his arms back across his chest and tapping his foot, waiting impatiently.

Finally, he sees the snake making his way closer.

Even with a cloak and a large straw hat obscuring his face Orochimaru still seemed ridiculously out of place in the light of day.

His displeased grimace as he looked around brought a petty little smile to Jiraiya's lips.

"You couldn't have chosen anywhere else?" The snake hissed.

"Sure. How bout Konoha's Anbu HQ?"

The snake rolled his eyes. "Imbecile. Lets just wait, the others should be arriving shortly."

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, the muscles beneath his clothing bulging. "Others?"

Orochimaru waved him off with an annoyed growl. "Oh come off it. If I was going to attack you with back up I would hardly have told you they'd be coming."

Grudgingly, Jiraiya allowed himself to wait.

Though he hardly relaxed.

Jiraiya was practically counting the seconds before Orochimaru swiveled his head to the opposite end of the road. "There they are."

Jiraiya turned to look over his shoulder and damn near choked as he did a quick double-take.

He only realised he was staring like a slack-jawed idiot when Orochimaru's scathing voice cut through the air. "Close your mouth fool."

Then their guests were standing infront of them, the four of them standing in a loose circle.

Kisame was the first to speak, smiling to show off his large, shark like teeth. "Didn't know we'd be having frog legs for dinner."

"This explains the unusual meeting point." Itachi said, blinking as he shifted his black eyes from Orochimaru to Jiraiya. "Since when has he been in on this?"

"Since you let the boy slip your grasp." Orochimaru hissed. "I tried to take steps to see him found...but it seems that was for nothing."

Jiraiya for his part, watched the bizzare exchange. All of his information said that Orochimaru loathed or feared Itachi, the two Nuke nin couldn't be within the same stretch of a hundred miles, let alone standing a hands breath apart.

But they were indeed, talking like nothing. And discussing a very specific jinchuuriki in non hostile terms.

He pulsed the chakra through his system, checking for genjutsu or other falsitudes, seeing nothing.

This did not seem like a show that was being put on for his benefit either.

Which made this look more true than anything else.

He was starting to get aheadache.

"Aww come on now, I wouldn't say for nothing." Kisame chuckled. "We have someone new to talk shop with at our tea parties. You two tend to get old quick."

"Shut up Kisame."

The Monster of Kiri shrugged, smirking before he turned his eyes onto Orochimaru. "So wha'd the lady say?"

'Lady?' The toad sannin wondered.

Orochimaru's eyes narrowed. "She wants us to back off."

"Ohhh." Kisame hissed through his teeth. "That definitely had to sting something bad when you heard it yellow eyes."

"Back off?" Itachi asked with a raised eyebrow. "Just let him wander off unprotected?"

"Another cell has him now."

Either this was the most well choreographed lie in human history or it really was genuine. Jiraiya wasn't sure which he would find more hilarious if he were an outsider.

"Damn." Kisame's clicked his tongue. "So what do we do now?"

"We continue with our previous operations as best we can. Until we get word on where Naruto is we can't do much more."

"Then what? Play nice with whatever cell has him?"

"Better to ask for forgiveness than permission." Orochimaru hissed. "We get him back when we find him."

The shark man grinned. "Nice."

Jiraiya was acutely aware of Itachi's gaze before he turned back to Orochimaru. "And Jiraiya?"

The snake turned his head to face him, reptilian eyes glaring at his once upon a time teammate. "I'll bring him up to speed." He adressed the Uchiha without looking away from the white haired nin. "You two just continue as usual, and keep your ears to the ground for any word on Naruto. We need to keep him safe, even more so now that Akatsuki is wondering where he is.

The two S class Nuke nin nodded before they turned and began leaving the same way they came.

Jiraiya watched the entire exchange, his gaze turning to Orochimaru as the man turned to leave as well.

"Come on fool." The pale man hissed. "There is a lot you need to be made aware of."

Jiraiya knew he was going to regret this.

He turned and fell in step beside the snake with the venomous bite.


Whelp Here ya go. Hope the chap is to your liking.

This one was really more or less to set up the foundation for Naruto's training for the time being, the next chap will be a bit more divergent and show him adapting into a house role since he'll be staying in the manse for a few months.

At any rate, I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope to have another chapter for you soon.