14. Presence Of My Soul

AN: As promised, here's the next chapter. Just a forewarning here, I do not own Raven's emotclones. I just really like the idea.

Story Start: Preliminary Rounds End

"Dismissed."

At the end of Naruto's little speech the Genin broke apart their line and began walking towards their Jounin sensei. Most had thoughts of how they would fight their opponents in a month while a select few were relishing the fact that they were fighting who they were. Naruto meanwhile watched Hinata walk away with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Ryo for your thoughts."

Naruto looked to his right where his village leader was now standing beside him with his trusty pipe already smoking. Naruto looked back at Hinata who was currently walking to the double doors with Kurenai and Shino. Sighing, Naruto said "Old Man, is it wrong that I feel like I should be the one to train Hinata this month?"

Sarutobi rose an eyebrow as he looked at his fastest Jounin and said "Does this have anything to do with that presence she displayed during her match?"

Naruto shrugged and said "Partly. But that's only part of the reason. But for the life of me I can't figure out the other part."

Sarutobi chuckled and thought to himself 'Seems Naruto is a bit attracted with our young Hyuga heir. Whether that attraction will turn into something else is yet to be seen.' "Well I'm sure that we could arrange for that although it might be hard convincing her father to allow it. But I'm sure he'll agree when I tell him why you want to train her. After all, being able to use you're presence in battle is a very rare skill."

Naruto shot an incredulous look at his leader and said "But isn't that against the rules though? I mean that would be a conflict of interest wouldn't it?"

Sarutobi chuckled again and said "You let me worry about that. You just worry about what you're going to teach her for this month. I will let you know when I'm successful." Doing a one-eighty and switching into his leader persona, he continued as he said "I want you to find Jiraiya sometime this week and tell him I want you to sign the toad contract. I've told him to expect you. If Sand's Jinchuriki does use the One Tail's power during the finals and the Five Pronged Seal doesn't work for whatever reason you'll have a way to combat it's full possession mode."

Naruto nodded his head and disappeared. Sarutobi sighed and said "Now it's back to that dreadful paperwork." Giving another sigh the old shinobi disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

Scene Change: Waterfall 15

Naruto reappeared at Waterfall 15, a training ground that was further from the village than all of the other training grounds, including the other fourteen waterfall training grounds. They were called as such due to the waterfall in each one with 1 the closest to the village. People rarely used them which was precisely why Naruto had asked his partner to meet him here. Naruto took one glance at the waterfall at the end of the clearing where he could hear girls squealing at the bottom of the falls beneath their elevation wondering who had the stamina to actually hike that far before he turned to where his partner was currently locked in battle with ten water clones that kept forming ice mirrors every other minute to attack the original from every angle.

As Haku dodged a rather large ice spear that shot out of a mirror he saw his partner walking toward the fight and dismissed his clones causing all of them to burst into water and their jutsu to dissipate. Walking out of the large ring of puddles that action caused, Haku smiled and said "You wanted to see me Naruto?"

Naruto nodded and said "Yeah, I think it's time we worked on taking your crystal ice mirrors to the next stage."

Haku cocked his head and said "What do you mean?"

Naruto gestured at the puddles where Haku's water clones had made ice mirrors and said "You can make a dome of mirrors to surround a small number of opponents. You can also make a single pair of mirrors that are far apart to cover long distances faster. I think it's time we worked on merging those two methods so that you can take on larger groups of people in a bigger area."

Haku nodded in understanding before he switched topics and said "So how did the preliminaries go?"

Naruto shrugged and said "As well as can be expected. All three of Aunt Tsunami's team made it through. And somehow or another the Old Man has made me responsible for training Hinata for this month when she showed she could form a semi-corporal presence."

Haku's eyebrow rose as he said "Wouldn't that be a conflict of interest?"

Naruto's lips quirked upwards as he said "I asked him that exact same thing. He told me to let him worry about that. Also, he told me to find Jiraiya again so that I can sign the toad contract. I plan on doing that tomorrow. I'll probably bring both him and Hinata here so that way we have some privacy while we train."

Haku nodded before a thoughtful look passed through his eyes as he said "Just out of curiosity Naruto, what did Hinata's presence feel like?"

Naruto actually smirked this time as he said "Look like, not feel like. She manifested a transparent image of a white tiger for ten seconds."

Haku's eyes widened as she said "She has an actual physical presence? Not just something that's effects are physical around the person's body?"

Naruto nodded and said "So it seems. Although we will have to see if it can actually cause physical damage or if it's just limited to a great distraction when I show her how to draw it out and keep it up during an actual fight."

"Naruto, this could be really big. Zabuza told me that as far as he knew, presences were used only for mental intimidation. According to him, no one has ever been able to make an actual physical presence that could physically harm their opponents."

Naruto's face sprouted a fox like grin as he said "Well if we're right, then Hinata's going to revolutionize presence manipulation."

Scene Change: Hokage's Office: 8:00 am

Hinata resisted the urge to fidget as she stood beside her father wondering why they were here. The two were currently standing in front of the Hokage's desk. The person behind said desk had a smirk on his face since he knew that even though he would never show it, Hiashi was extremely annoyed at how Sarutobi had convinced him to allow this to happen. He didn't care if Hinata showed extreme amounts of potential to use her presence, the task of a Hyuga being trained to fight another Hyuga for a month should be kept inside the clan, not given to an outsider. Hiashi tried to ignore the fact that only Uzumaki and possibly the foreign Uzumaki Jounin sensei could use said presences but that just made him even more annoyed that none of the other Hyugas seemed to have what it took to use the skill.

Mrs. Reinas voice filtered through the intercom making Hinata jump slightly as she said "Sir, Jounin Uzumaki is here saying that he has an appointment with you."

Sarutobi nodded to himself as he pushed the send button on his intercom and said "Thank you, please send him in."

The secretary gave an affirmative before the door opened and Naruto walked in. As soon as the door was closed he found Hiashi in front of him. Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Can I help you lord Hiashi?"

Hiashi's eyes narrowed the slightest millimeter as he said "There is actually. I do not appreciate outsiders messing with clan business. The only reason why I have agreed to this is the fact that none of my clansmen can do what Hinata apparently can and you can teach her how to control it. But make no mistake, if I find out anything happens to her then there will be consequences. Am I understood?"

"Perfectly. Now if you'll please excuse me." Naruto said before he sidestepped the clan leader and pulled out a scroll from his Jounin vest and put it on his leader's desk as he said "Here are the files on the Land of Tea from the Daimyo you needed sir. He's expecting a message about why you wanted them so quickly."

Hiashi's teeth gritted slightly at the perceived slight against him but simply walked out of the door as Sarutobi thanked his Jounin. Hinata meanwhile allowed her confusion to show on her face as soon as her father was out of the room. Twiddling her fingers as an old habit she thought she had gotten rid of, she asked, "Um, excuse me Lord Hokage?"

Sarutobi looked up from the unsealed documents and smiled at Hinata and said "Yes Hinata?"

Hinata's fingers began fidgeting more as she said "Why am I here? Father wouldn't tell me. He simply told me that he expected nothing but success from me." Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "So he just dragged you here without telling you anything? Yeesh, talk about being tight lipped."

Sarutobi gave a half grunt half chuckle in agreement before he said "The reason why you are here Hinata is because Naruto will be training you for the month before the Chunin Exams Finals."

Instead of clearing things up, the Hokage's statement seemed to only make her confusion grow as she asked "Why would Naruto train me?"

"Because during your match you showed that you could access your soul's presence. I plan on making it so that that wasn't a once in a lifetime thing. But it's not just presence training that I'll give you. I plan on giving your speed an extreme boost and help you tweak the Gentle Fist style so that it fits you better." Naruto said.

Hinata blinked before her face scrunched up as she tried to think of when she could have possibly used her presence. As she remembered yesterday's preliminaries, specifically her fight, she remembers hearing a roar beside her that she had ignored since she had been so angry at Sai for ruining her favorite coat. Hinata's eyes opened to see a smirking Naruto who said "Do you remember now?"

"I-I think so." Hinata said stuttering since she wasn't sure what that roar was.

Naruto nodded and walked towards the door as he said "Well then, lets go. There's one more person we need to find before we can head to Waterfall 15 to begin training."

Scene Change: Village Hot Springs

Hinata had followed Naruto through the streets of the village until they had reached the hot springs. Hinata wondered why they were here but kept her questions to herself as her superior walked right past the entrances to the different sides of the springs and instead began walking along the fence that surrounded the female side. Hinata followed although she began wondering if Naruto was actually a peeping tom. Before those thoughts could take hold in her head though, she heard Naruto say "There he is."

Before she could ask where who was she heard perverted giggling coming from a group of nearby bushes. As the two stopped about five feet from the bushes, Naruto raised a finger to his lips in the universal sign for be quiet before he reached into his kunai pouch and withdrew a weird kunai. The kunai was weird in the fact that the blade had the halves of another kunai blade wielded on each of it's sides making the blade look like a giant Phillip's head screwdriver.

Before Hinata could study the blade for more than a moment, Naruto took out a piece of paper and a pen and quickly jotted something down before he attached it to the ring of the strange kunai and then briefly joined the slipstream. A millisecond later, Hinata heard Naruto's voice say "Thousand Years of Death: Kunai Version." A loud yell of pain followed as a fifty year old male with long white hair was sent flying out of the bushes holding his rear end before he went over the wall and landed in the water with a splash.

Hinata stared at Naruto who walked out of the bushes as another scream, this one far more girly sounded from the other side of the fence along with the sound of a lot of angry females punishing a pervert. Naruto gave a chuckle at the look on Hinata's face and said "Don't worry, he'll be fine. Now let's go, he'll know where to find us." The next thing Hinata knew, she was in a clearing with a river flowing past that ended in a waterfall. Shaking her head as her brain tried to comprehend the sudden change of scenery, her attention was quickly brought to in front of her again as she heard a familiar voice say "Hello Hinata-san. How are you this morning?"

Hinata's eyes snapped over to see Haku walking towards her and Naruto. She smiled and said "Hello Haku-san." Hinata's eyes were then drawn to Haku's shoulder when a flash of light shone. Seeing the flash as well, Naruto looked and saw a sword made completely out of ice on her shoulder glistening in the sun that had just come out of the clouds. The sword was bent two thirds along the blade with what looked like a weighted tip at the end.

Naruto smirked at his partner as he said "I thought we were supposed to be working on your Crystal Ice Mirror jutsu Haku, so why do you have a sword? Better yet, why do you have a kilij?"

Haku smiled and said "My clone was working on manifesting my ice in different ways and made this." Before Naruto could comment further on that, he felt a whirlwind of leaves appear behind him before it died down revealing a pissed Toad Sage who was currently glaring at Naruto's back.

"Care to explain to me why you shoved a four sided kunai into my ass?" Jiraiya growled out as killing intent began filling the air making Hinata gulp.

"I believe I had told you the last time I caught you peeking on women in the bath houses that the next time I did I would use Uncle Kakashi's jutsu on you with my own little twist to it. You knew due to the current situation with the foreign Jinchuriki in the village that I would eventually be ordered to come find you so that you can teach me to summon. Therefore you should have waited until you were out of town to do your so called 'research.'" Naruto said as he turned around with a deadpan look on his face.

Jiraiya growled as he considered showing Naruto why he should respect his superiors but sighed and slumped his shoulders as he knew that he would never be able to land a blow on the blond. So instead, he chose to turn around and stomp to the river so that he could sulk. Naruto watched him walk away for a moment before he turned back to Haku and Hinata who were staring at him.

Naruto's eyebrow rose as he said "What?"

Haku's right eye gained a twitch as he said "You shoved a kunai up a Sannin's rear end?"

Naruto shrugged and said "In all fairness, I did warn him." Ignoring the fact that now both of Haku's eyes were twitching, the blond quickly made two shadow clones and said "Alright guys, I want the two of you to work with Haku and Hinata for a while. Whichever one of you gets Hinata needs to put resistance seals on her and walk her through the theory of presence manipulation. The other one should help Haku in getting a larger radius with his ice mirrors." The two clones gave salutes and the one closest to Hinata tapped her shoulder and made a follow me gesture while he walked away while the other clone jerked his head in the opposite direction and started walking that way with Haku.

Naruto watched them go for a moment before he turned and walked over to his sulking godfather. As he reached him, he said "So are you ready to teach me how to summon?"

Jiraiya looked over his shoulder and glared at the blond as he said "And why would I do that after what you pulled? I can still feel where that kunai was shoved up my ass. Give me one reason why I shouldn't just leave right now."

Naruto rose an eyebrow and said "Maybe because it was all a Genjutsu?"

Jiraiya opened his mouth before what the blond said sunk in and his eyes narrowed before they widened and he disrupted his chakra. As soon as he did, the pain in his rear end suddenly left and Naruto smirked as he said "It's surprising what a combination of Genjutsu and a simply good kick in the pants can do."

Jiraiya's eyes narrowed again as he muttered something about how old he must be getting for a Genjutsu like that to slip by him. Then an evil gleam appeared in his eyes as he said "Alright kid, you want to know about summoning? Will I'll teach you everything you'll ever want to know about the subject, and then some."

With Hinata

Naruto's clone led Hinata to the edge of the woods that surrounded the clearing and sat down in the shade under one of the trees while gesturing for Hinata to sit in front of him. Once Hinata was sitting in front of him, the clone began allowing some of his presence loose making Hinata feel like she was in an ocean with a strong breeze blowing around her.

"What you are currently feeling is the presence that most if not all Uzumakis have. Due to the fact that we all have Wind and Water as our strongest elemental nature alignments our presences tends to lean towards things related to the ocean and storms, usually combinations of the two. A person who has mastered the skill of presence manipulation can control how much the people around them feel and even make the presence's effects around the creator physical to further intimidate their opponents. You saw an example of this when boss and Kuroda fought during that bandit raid mission of yours." When Hinata nodded showing that she understood so far, Naruto's clone continued.

"Your presence seems to be different than what we've encountered before. When you unlocked it for those ten seconds, instead of us having a feeling of a tiger of some sort looking at us we actually saw a transparent image of a white tiger. This leads Haku and boss to believe that you may be able to physically manifest your presence in a way that it would affect everyone around you and not just you yourself. If this is true, you could potentially use your presence to help you in a fight physically as well as mentally."

Hinata blinked and asked "But how do I use my presence? Yesterday at my fight I didn't even know I had did it."

CNaruto smirked as he began making hand signs. Ending on ram, he took his right hand and gently poked Hinata's forehead with his pointer and middle fingers as he said "Will for starters your mind and soul need to have a nice long chat."

Hinata's Mind Scape

Hinata opened her eyes to find herself in what looked like a meditation rock garden that was in the middle of a circular lake. Looking around she saw a red oriental bridge behind her which led to a forest. Looking back forward showed a small strip of land separating the lake from an ocean that surrounded the lake on three sides. A sudden growling noise caused her to spin around and look back towards the forest as a glowing figure walked out on four legs. The figure seemed to look right at her before it turned around and walked back into the forest. Feeling like the figure wanted her to follow it, Hinata walked quickly over the bridge and into the forest where the figure had indeed waited for her.

As she got closer, the glow died down slightly as if the figure didn't want to blind her and Hinata saw that the figure was a white tiger with a tinge of green in its fur. The tiger waited until Hinata was practically right next to it before it stretched and began walking through the forest with its tail flicking occasionally. They weren't walking for more than a minute before they came upon a sunken hole in the ground with a shallow slope leading down into its dark recesses.

The tiger walked down and slipped into the darkness without pause. Hinata however paused for a moment before she hurried after it. Once she was at the bottom of the slope, she saw that the inside of the cave actually had two silver orbs of light keeping the ten foot long cave well lit. Hinata's head cocked to the side in confusion since even though there was an exit slope at the end there wasn't any sign of a second opening back above ground. Her confusion was made even worse when they exited the small cave and came out in a octagon shaped shrine of some kind. But what really caught her attention was the shelf like beds that were along the walls, or rather, the tigers that were all laying down on the beds.

As Hinata stared at each tiger, she noticed that each one had a different colored tint to it. There was yellow, orange, red, grey, pink, lavender, and bronze. The green tiger made the final color as it walked over to its shelf and hopped up onto it. But before Hinata could wonder what each color meant, a tiger's roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the room sounded from the roof and all of the room's occupant's looked up to the ceiling where a shelf was hanging suspended over them all by eight chains.

A pure white tiger leaped off the shelf and landed in front of Hinata who stumbled back as the tiger rose to its full height and seemed to grin at her. Then everything Hinata ever knew about animals was thrown completely out of whack as the tiger opened its mouth and said "Welcome Hinata, we've been expecting you."

With Haku

Haku followed Naruto's clone until they were near the waterfall. Once there, the clone plopped down and gestured for Haku to join him. Once the other boy was on the ground, Cnaruto said "Alright, Boss has been thinking on how to make this work and he thinks he's come up with something. He believes that for this to work you need to redesign the shape that your mirrors make. A dome is good for taking out small numbers, but Boss wants you to be able to take out numbers that are closer to around at least a hundred and in a much larger range as well. To do this, he believes that a wheel on its side is a better option. Observe."

Cnaruto gestured to the nearby river and manipulated some of the water to come at him in a stream before he flicked his hand in a circle and the steam rushed at him faster before it turned in on itself turning into a circle between the two boys. The clone then made a series of flicking motions and the wheel broke into segments which quickly changed shape in order to represent Haku's mirrors while small flecks of water moved to the middle to represent enemies. Finally, the clone gave a spinning motion with its hand and the water began revolving as the blond began speaking again.

"For obvious reasons you should only use this when you have a relatively open space. The circumference should be big enough encompass the enemies with at least ten feet separating the enemies on the edge from the mirrors themselves. The mirrors themselves will have to be tweaked a bit as well." The blond manipulated the water causing it to regroup and form a single miniature mirror that was facing him before he began tweaking its appearance. Once he was done the clone blasted it with a burst of wind freezing the mirror and set it in a slow rotation to show Haku. The mirror looked like a lens for a light house, with a curved back that showed the ice user's reflection multiple times in it's face that was bent inward to have a slight u shape if looking at from above.

The blonde allowed his creator's partner to study the mirror for a moment before he said "This is what boss believes the new mirror should look close to. He believes that the inwardly dented panels will allow you better angles and might even allow you to triple your attack payload since you actually merge with your ice when you use them."

Haku could only stare at his reflections as his partner's clone continued telling him about the ideas that he had come up with to help him.

Scene Change: Hinata's Mind Scape

"Y-you've been expecting me?" Hinata asked.

Most of the tigers grinned as the pure white tiger said "Of course. It was a given that Uzumaki would send you here to meet us since the ability to manifest a person's presence is so rare. Although we are quite unusual in the fact that your presence could actually be said to contain multiple aspects, or multiple personalities if you will."

"Multiple personalities? But I thought that a presence defined your soul. Does that mean I have MPD?" Hinata asked.

The yellow tinted tiger snorted drawing Hinata's full attention to it who now that she looked closer noticed markings that looked like spectacles around the tiger's eyes. Standing up from its bed and stretching, the tiger hopped off its shelf and walked over to stand beside its white companion and said "I can assure you that there is only one personality in this mind Hinata. Your presence however," Here the tiger gestured to the pure white tiger before it continued speaking "is made from a combination of all of us, the bigger picture if you will." This time the yellow tiger's tail was the thing moving as it pointed to all of the other tigers. "We are all aspects of you. For instance, I represent the aspect of the knowledge you hold."

"And I'm your fighting spirit! I'm the one you call on to kick some serious butt!" The green tinted tiger said in a chipper voice that surprised Hinata with how nonchalant it was when it had seemed so fierce when it had growled at her earlier.

"I'm your rudeness. You know, all that negative stuff you want to say at people but don't and instead get even with them in even better ways?" The orange tiger asked with a smirk causing Hinata to look at it strangely.

"I'm the rage that you've kept buried for so long and what help's give you so much strength in your punches when you get really ticked at something." The red tiger growled as it opened its eyes briefly before it went back to its nap seemingly uncaring about anything else going on in the room.

"I'm your timid side. You probably hate me now." The grey tiger said as it shrunk in on itself. The green tiger looked directly across at it and said "Hey lighten up!" This unfortunately only made the tiger shrink more on itself.

The pink tiger suddenly hopped off its bed and rushed over to Hinata to rub against her as it said "Hi, I'm your Happy side." Hinata giggled as the tiger's fur tickled her causing the fur to glow brightly for a moment before the tiger drew back and rushed back to its bed.

The lavender tiger sighed and said "I'm actually a representation of your Hyuga heritage, or more specifically your Byakugan. As such, when your presence draws on us, it gets its eyesight from me."

"It's also that little bit of arrogance that we all know is buried somewhere inside of you." the orange tiger said with a sneer causing the lavender tiger to snarl.

The bronze tiger chuckled before it said "Guess I'm last. I'm many things, but mostly I'm your jealousy, greed, those kinds of things. But while most people see me as a deadly sin or two, I see myself as a guide to find something to strive for."

Hinata cocked her head at that since she had never thought of it that way. She was brought out of her thoughts by the aspect of her knowledge clearing its throat. Once the yellow tiger had her attention, it said "Now Hinata, in order for you to use your presence affectively, you must first learn to draw it out."

Scene Change: With Hinata And Naruto's Clone

Naruto's clone looked up from the resistance seal he was making as he noticed his student's breathing patterns changed. Seeing her eyes open and looking around, he smiled and said "So did you meet your presence's form?"

Hinata nodded and said "Yes. But in a way it's forms not form."

The blond rose an eyebrow and said "Come again."

Hinata turned her head to look at him and said "My presence has the image of that of a white tiger. But that is made out of pieces of eight others, each a different aspect of myself."

Cnaruto's other eyebrow joined his twin as he said "Well that's different. Boss' presence was just one big massive storm on the ocean. And when I say massive storm, I mean Biggest Damn Hurricane You Could Imagine kind. He could barely make out the words that the thing said over the winds it created. So what did all of these aspects tell you?"

Hinata filed that interesting information away before she began telling the clone about her experience.

Scene Change: With The Original Naruto

Naruto had forgotten how evil his godfather could be when he was getting his revenge. The man had been talking about the summoning jutsu for three hours straight and had promised that he hadn't even TOUCHED the tip of the iceberg. Looks like he won't actually be summoning anything until tomorrow.

Time Skip: The Next Day 8:00 Waterfall 15

It was a peaceful morning at Waterfall 15. Birds were singing and chirping at each other in the nearby trees while the water in the river continued on its path before roaring down the waterfall into the lake below. That peace was suddenly disturbed as six humans suddenly appeared causing the birds to fall silent as they tried to figure out where they came from and if they were a threat. As Naruto and his clones slipped out of the slipstream and let go of their passengers, said passengers shook their heads to orient themselves to their new surroundings.

"We could have gotten here on our own power kid." Jiraiya said as Naruto's clones all dispelled.

Naruto shrugged as he began walking ahead of the group and said "Yeah, but I wanted to get started as soon as possible. Speaking of which though, are you sure it's a good idea for me to try and summon the biggest toad I can the first time through? I mean considering you know what I do have massive reserves."

Jiraiya nodded even though Naruto couldn't see it with his head facing the other way as he said "Absolutely. The sooner you summon the boss summon, the sooner you can get its approval. And believe me, you want that as soon as possible. It's always good to know that you have the support of the guy upstairs. So get out there and put every ounce of chakra you have into it."

Naruto stopped walking to turn and look at Jiraiya incredulously as he said "Every ounce? I know I don't know how much it takes yet, but EVERY OUNCE? Do you have any idea just how much chakra that actually is?"

Jiraiya just made a shooing motion and Naruto sighed before he began walking away again. When he was halfway between the river and the others, Naruto stopped, turned around, and took a deep breath. Then he dug as deep into his chakra stores as he ever dared and stoked the raging fire that was his body's second circulatory system causing a roaring blue bon fire of dense chakra to appear around him that was easily fifteen feet high.

Back with the others, Jiraiya's eyes bugged out as he shouted out "Wait, not that much!" But it was too little, too late as Naruto had already bit his thumb and blazed through the necessary hand signs before slamming his hand down on the ground. A massive plume of smoke appeared covering the entire training area in a smoke fog bank that reached up to the sky higher than any of the surrounding trees and causing everybody to cough. And then a booming voice called out.

"Jiraiya! What is going on? Why have you summoned all of us?"

From the thick smoke cloud that was still dissipating, Naruto's panting voice was heard as he said in a loud but calm voice "While my godfather is currently at the edge of this clearing, he was not the one to summon you. That would have been me. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, I believe you should have been alerted to my status as your new potential summoner yesterday when I signed the toad contract."

As Naruto's voice rang throughout the clearing, the smoke cloud had finally dissipated revealing a truly impressive sight. In front of Jiraiya, Haku, and Hinata were three massive toads that rivaled the Hokage Tower in size who were all facing a center point. On each toad's head and back were about ten to fifteen other toads varying in size from the size of a grown human to the size of a horse. Naruto was currently standing on the head of the toad that was directly opposite of them with what looked like two slightly larger than normal toads on his shoulders.

Jiraiya's jaw dropped at how many toads Naruto had summoned including all three of the Big 3 and the two elders if his eyesight wasn't failing him. Hinata and Haku meanwhile couldn't get over how big some of the toads were. Jiraiya's jaw hang down for exactly 2.5 seconds before he realized the potential situation his godson was in and he snapped it shut as he rushed into the clearing shouting "Hey Gamabunta!"

All of the toads, who had glanced at the blond at the boss summon's head, turned to looked at their white haired summoner who rushed into the circle of the summoned toads. He was quickly joined by Naruto who briefly joined the slipstream to appear by his side with the two smallest toads still on his shoulders drawing mutterings from the toads. Thud sounds began filling the air as the smaller toads began hopping off their bigger companions to get closer to the two summoner while the bigger toads shuffled in a little closer.

Looking up at the toad Naruto had been standing on, Jiraiya said "I'm sorry for the inconvenience Gamabunta. I wanted Naruto to summon you today but I didn't realize he had so much chakra."

By his side, Naruto lifted his shoulders a little and said "Well what did you expect? You know I constantly pulse out my chakra to negate the tunnel vision effects of the slipstream. Did you think that wouldn't effect my reserves."

"Touché." Jiraiya acknowledged before Gamabunta butted into the conversation.

"As interesting as it is to see you two squabble, we must still test young Naruto for the right to summon us."

"Since he managed to summon me and Ma, I believe I will do the testing Bunta-boy." The toad on Naruto's right shoulder, a male if the beard on his chin was anything to go by said. The massive toad looked down at the toad that was like a fly in comparison and nodded his head causing Naruto to cock his head and glance at his godfather in confusion.

Seeing the blonde's confusion, Jiraiya said "Ma and Pa are the toad elders, and are actually in some ways better in a fight than a boss summons. Kind of like a Kage level shinobi when compared to a Sannin."

Naruto gave an "Ah." before the toad on his left shoulder hopped off and Pa said "It's obvious you have Minato-boy's speed. Do you think you can take us somewhere where we won't be disturbed for a while?"

Naruto nodded and in the next instant the two were gone as he once again joined the slipstream. In his place were two other blondes who quickly walked out of the circle towards Hinata and Haku to work on the tasks given to them by their creator. While that was happening, Ma turned to Jiraiya and hopped onto his shoulder as she said "So Jiraiya-boy, tell me about this Naruto person."

Scene Change: Valley of the End (Time in the slipstream: roughly thirty minutes)

Naruto reappeared on the head of the statue of his village's first leader. Pa hopped off his shoulder and looked around as he said "This place will do." Looking over his shoulder he said "Follow me." The elderly toad then proceeded to hop over to the edge of the statue and then off of it earning a raised eyebrow from Naruto who walked over and saw the toad freefall before he dove into the water barely making a ripple near the waterfall. A moment later, a webbed hand breached the surface of the water and pushed the rest of the body up as the toad began water walking heading to the center of the river.

Shrugging his shoulders, Naruto walked a few steps back and then took a running start before he leapt off the statue and freefell halfway down. Once he fell past the statue's waist he began spinning his body forming wind to spin around him in a sphere remininscint of one of his father's jutsu. The sphere of wind drastically decreased Naruto's falling speed until when it began touching the water he was barely moving. Naruto dropped the wind shell and dropped the last few feet into a crouch before he straightened and walked over to the old toad who was standing about thirty feet away.

Said old toad shook his head and said "You young people. Always so flashy."

Naruto shrugged and said "You said to follow, I followed. I just didn't feel like meeting the water at high speed, belly flop or other wise."

A sort of chuckling, snort, and croak combination made it's way out of Pa's throat before he got into a Taijutsu stance and said "Now then, in order for you to be allowed to summon us, you must pass my test. That test is to last in an all out fight with me for one hour. You may begin whenever you're ready."

Naruto cocked an eyebrow and said "All out? Are you sure you want to do that? I mean my dad was a summoner for you guys before he died so you know the kind of advantage our bloodline gives us."

Pa gave a wry grin as he said "Oh I'm quite sure Naruto-boy. Now come on, give me your best shot."

"Okay, if you say so." Naruto said in the slow slightly dragged out tone of voice you use when someone is telling you to do something to them that you think that other person will regret. Naruto disappeared for a moment before Pa suddenly jumped up and spun in the air before landing a back heel kick with his right food sending Naruto flying who had tried to hit Pa from behind. Naruto skidded across the water throwing up waves as he looked at Pa with wide eyes. Pa simply smirked at him and gave the universal come motion with his right hand causing Naruto to smirk as well.

Reaching into his kunai pouch with both hands, Naruto said "Ok, now you made me curious. And that's never a good thing."

Pa's smirk turned evil as he said "Your father said the exact same thing once. I still left him black and blue. Think you can do better Naruto-boy?"

"No, but I'm willing to try!" Naruto said as he brought his hands out with a kunai in each hand spinning before he gripped them in a reverse grip with the blades screeching from the wind chakra they were coated in. Naruto joined the slipstream again as he rushed his small opponent determined to make him sweat a little.

Author's Notes: I know some of you may be a little disappointed with the length of this. Truth is I planned to go the whole month but decided that here was a good place to stop.