Another Chapter is here!

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Jiraiya sat with his legs crossed in front of his new student, who was out like a light with his head slouching forward. In hindsight, it may have been a miscalculation to try and have Naruto sit down patiently in the middle of an empty field and meditate on his surroundings. Though he had his moments of insightfulness and maturity, boredom was something that had to be taken into account.

He was, after all, a child.

It was fine for now though. While he wanted the boy to familiarize himself with the practice for when the Toads inevitably taught him how to achieve Sage Mode, it wouldn't be anytime soon. His body was too underdeveloped for that and he had yet to hit puberty. Getting him used to it right now would simply boast better results later.

And Naruto did manage to get a work-around for the Rasengan that Jiraiya hadn't thought of. He mentioned it was thanks to Shizune's help the first time that he got the idea. By using a clone to handle the containment while he handled the rotation and the power, he bypassed the most difficult step.

He'd need to learn to do so without a clone eventually. But it was fine for now as well. They had plenty of time before Jiraiya had to take the hat. Though he was still hesitant to take on the role of the Hokage, and certainly wasn't in a rush.

He could probably buy a few years time to train Naruto. Akatsuki was still out there after all, and the Leaf would be a prime target now that it had two Jinchuuriki in its custody. There was no telling when they would surface again, but they had to be dealt with one way or another.

Those thoughts out of the way, the Toad Sage clapped his hands hard. The sound promptly snapped Naruto awake. He defaulted to a sheepish expression after realizing what happened.

"Uh… sorry about that," he said, rubbing the back of his head. "It was just too quiet."

"Something to work on in the future," Jiraiya told him. Then he pulled out a sheet of square paper, similar to that one would use when folding origami. "For now, let's try and figure out where you stand with elemental affinity. You know the cycle of overcoming, right?"

Naruto nodded. "It's like a game of Jankenpo. Wind insulates Lightning, Lightning pierces Earth, Earth dams Water, Water quenches Fire, and Fire consumes Wind. That's why Sasuke managed to get through the Sand Shield Gaara was using with lightning, rather than using a fire technique like normal or explosives."

Jiraiya nodded. "Chidori is an A-Rank technique, there's nearly no Earth techniques that can outright stop it. Hatake taught him it specifically because his own experiences during war utilized it as such. However, that only applies if the techniques are the same level. A D-Rank Water technique will be evaporated by a B-Rank Fire technique and so on. And if two techniques with the same element but different ranks clash, the weakest will be consumed and make the stronger one even more powerful."

There were also cases where you can use one technique to purposely empower another, such as feeding wind into fire to strengthen in. But when two different shinobi did so, the combined technique ran the risk of going out of control if they weren't used to it. Such actions had to properly coordinated or practiced ahead of time.

He handed over the sheet to Naruto. "Try injecting chakra into it. If you're aligned with Fire, the paper will burn to ashes. Wind will make it split in two, Lightning will make it crinkle, Earth will crumble to dust, and Water will soak it. If you lean to Yang more heavily than anything, it'll swell somewhat, and if it's Yin then it will cause a marking to appear. "

Naruto closed his eyes and channeled his chakra into it. The paper split into two halves almost immediately. Wind it was.

"Having a Wind affinity right off the bat is rare," Jiraiya said. "With it you can either unleash a squall to buffet your enemies or a blade that can cleave them to pieces. With refining, you can lace it with dust or sand to erode away everything in your path, or generate a compressed sphere of air that devastates entire landmasses. Watch my hands and I'll show you."

When Naruto got to his feet and started staring at him, Jiraiya gathered and compressed his wind chakra onto the palms of his hands. He kept the amount rather miniscule, not thick enough to appear visible or even distort the air around his hands before he clapped them together. The impact dispersed the chakra and sent a gale out that made Naruto stagger back a few step before falling on his rear, rather than send him feet-over-head a few meters away.

"That was a technique known as the Gale Palm, though I half-heartedly put effort into," he explained. "It works by compressing wind chakra and then releasing it with a simple clap, using chakra control to direct it to an extent. If I had used the external air as a medium and laced it with sharpened chakra, then it would have been akin to sending out blades to slice into your skin—a Wind Scythe technique. Likewise, if I had used my lungs and exhaled then, depending on my chakra control and reserves, it would have created a powerful gust of wind that could have blown over a house. Those are all C-Rank techniques at that, and while not high in terms of power, you don't see them coming until it's too late."

"So basically what Gaara did while transformed and what his sister did during the Preliminaries," Naruto said, getting back to his feet. "How do I start?"

Jiraiya tapped his chin in thought. The reason most shinobi aren't taught elemental techniques until Chuunin, outside of Clans, is because freshly-minted Genin are often young and lack maturity. They'll try a technique in haste and end up hurting themselves. If he improperly molded wind chakra, it would very likely cut him apart from the inside out. And unlike Nagato, Naruto didn't have the luxury of the Rinnegan.

After a moment of thought, he decided, "We'll start with being able to refine your base chakra externally. We can use leaves for now, since being able to cut them with your chakra alone will likely suffice for a minor technique. It's only when you need something really devastating that you'll have to move up to something harder to cut."

[0-0-0]

"Anko Mitarashi reporting for duty," Anko said, standing at attention the moment she entered the Hokage's office. She had received a file detailing an assignment that she was to undertake from an Anbu Officer this morning, and had now come at the appointed time.

"How are you feeling?" the Hokage asked. The moment that Orochimaru had been killed, her Cursed Mark flared up briefly while she was helping to evacuate civilians. The seal around it had been reinforced since then, but the effort had been taxing on her chakra system—like due to the fact that she'd had her Cursed Mark for over a decade now.

"There are some slight fluctuations and imbalances in my chakra from the last flare up," she admitted. "But I can manage the assignment you had in mind."

"Are you certain?" he asked. "You can speak freely against it, if you wish."

Anko's lips briefly pursed, forming a thin line. "In all honesty, I can't say that I can be entirely unbiased with overseeing her. Her ability makes her a major security risk, and she's squandered your generosity by leaving us in the dark about his agents."

Left unsaid was that she reminded Anko of how she used to be as a child. That was something of an old shame for her, having been an admirer of Orochimaru in her youth. She drank in everything he had to teach her, until he used her as an experiment for the Cursed Seal of Heaven. Then he'd abandoned her in the Land of the Sea.

Shaking off those memories, she continued. "At the same time, I can somewhat empathize with her situation. And I'm the best suited to see if she's really committed to a second chance over a period of long-term observation. I will try to remain as unbiased as I can."

The Hokage leaned back in his chair and sighed. "I know that you'll challenge her because she reminds you of the past, meaning you'll take into consideration all the hardships you faced and be fair towards her by holding her up to the same standards. If she can stand up to all of that for the sake of remaining in the village, we'll know for certain how strong her ties are and the Leaf will grow because of it."

There was no denying that the abilities Anko read on the files would make her useful, which was probably the reason Orochimaru took an interest in her in the first place. He had a habit of cherry-picking those who were talented or gifted. "I shall do my best to then."

"Very well," he said. "I also understand that your living quarters are rather small, so I have provided a larger home for you to utilize for the duration of the assignment. So long as she follows the guidelines that have been drafted to gain a full-understanding of her abilities, you may oversee her how you see fit."

"Thank you, sir."

[0-0-0]

After the training session finished, Naruto found himself in yet another secure location. It was a two-story facility located outside of the village proper. Gaara was being held here, likely in the event that the inhibitor seals failed and the One-Tailed Raccoon Dog was unleashed again.

A small part of him wondered for a brief moment if it had been meant to house him at one point as well. But he brushed that line of thinking away. The Old Man was always nice and had never treated him in the same manner that Gaara's father did—according to the files, anyway.

That isn't to say that the building was inhospitable. The structure honestly looked rather homely, if you disregarded the lack of windows. And the Anbu Officers that he could actually spot. And the fact that there were probably traps as well, given how he had been firmly warned on the way in to follow a set path and not deviate.

Naruto knocked on the door of the room that was currently in use by Gaara. He had been informed ahead of time that Naruto would be arriving, and the door was already unlocked. But it never hurt to be courteous.

"The door is unlocked," came through the other side. Naruto opened it to find Gaara was sitting down in a chair in the center of the room, at one end of a round table that was at least two arms-lengths apart. Other than another chair and light, the room was rather Spartan.

Naruto sat down on the opposite end. There was a lingering silence in the air as he tried to find an appropriate way to start the conversation. He had given the subject a great deal of thought, taking into consideration any hostilities that may be present for being a large part of why Gaara was trapped in the facility.

"Um… Hi…" It wasn't perfect, but it was all he had for an opener.

For his part, Gaara mostly sat there with his arms crossed. The borderline unblinking and placid expression he had when not on the verge of madness or enraged left him hard to read. He just stared at Naruto for a moment of prolonged silence before saying, "I find it hard to believe you also host a demon within you."

Naruto didn't deny it. He specifically had clearance to tell him because it could be used as a point in this instance to create some sort of link between them. But Gaara shouldn't have known that on his own. "How'd you guess?"

"While I allowed the demon within me to act freely, the burden it places on me is lifted. I become able to see the world as it does through me, hear its inner thoughts, and feel how it does. It recognized the chakra that you used as that of its own kind."

Naruto filed that bit of information away for later and said, "I had the Nine-Tailed Fox sealed inside of me the day I was born. Just like you."

"That is what I do not understand," he said. "If we were the same, I would not be here right now. You would not have reached out and caught me as I fell in an attempt to save me."

"I fought to stop you from hurting anyone else," Naruto said. "But that was it. There was no need to let you die once you couldn't fight back. Letting you fall to your death in that case would have been the same as killing you. That should never be done on a whim, out of hatred, or fear."

"You are too soft," Gaara said firmly, as if a fact. "If our positions were swapped, I would have done so immediately. Leaving those who oppose you alive will only leave you open to being killed later on."

Naruto frowned. That was such a dark way of looking at things. "Is that why you tried to kill Lee when he couldn't fight back? Because you were afraid he'd come after you again?"

"The stronger the opponent, the greater the threat they may be to me," Gaara said. "He was strong enough to break through my defenses. Leaving him alive, even crippled, would allow him to seek vengeance one day. Only by eliminating everyone else will there be no one that can threaten my existence."

"Isn't that a lonely way to live?" Naruto asked. "I mean, if you kill everyone else because you feel threatened, then who else will be left to stand by you?"

"No one has stood by me since I was a child," he said. "Everyone feared me because of what I was. They ran and left me alone. And then the one person who showed me kindness betrayed me and tried to take my life. If we truly are similar, then you should have experienced something similar, correct?"

"… Yeah, actually," Naruto said, after taking a moment to just process that. "The day I was born, the Nine-Tailed Fox went on a rampage and killed a lot of people before they put it into me. I grew up without knowing why everyone hated me until a few months ago, when one of my teachers told me while trying to kill me."

"Then why do you not live for only yourself, as I have?"

"Because someone saved me," Naruto said. "Iruka-sensei's parents were killed by the Nine-Tailed Fox, but he still came to like me enough that he was willing to take a hit that would have seriously injured me. If that hadn't happened, I think that I would have ended up giving up on people too."

Had Iruka not been there, Mizuki would have seriously injured him to take the scroll. The Fox wouldn't let him die so easily, Naruto knew that now. But the betrayal after he put his trust in that man would have very likely been the final time he trusted in someone else. He would have given into his anger and let the Fox's influence take hold, becoming no different than Gaara.

"One person made all the difference," Naruto continued. "If he hadn't been there, I would have probably decided to live like you chose to. But because Iruka-sensei was there, I decided to keep trying to get others to accept me like he does. The people who cheered me on during my match, my teammates, Karin, Teuchi and Ayame—they're proof that I succeeded in the end."

For the first time since their discussion began, Gaara averted his eyes from Naruto. The only inkling into what was going through his mind was the soft words that followed. "…You were fortunate."

"Yeah, I was," Naruto admitted. "It makes me happy, but I'm afraid that one day I'll lose those people who I managed to connect with. That thought scares me more than anything, and it makes my heart ache just thinking about it."

Gaara's eyes turned towards him yet again. Only this time there was a faint recognition within them, an understanding of what it truly meant to feel that sort of pain. "And yet you still insist on caring for them, despite the pain that will follow when you lose them?"

"I'd rather have those people who can accept me in my life rather than not at all, and I can extend the time I have with them by becoming strong enough to protect them," Naruto said. "What about you, Gaara? Were you happy living for only yourself?"

The Jinchuuriki of the Sand said nothing to that. Just the same, Naruto didn't press him on it. It wouldn't help things.

"I know the pain you've been through as a Jinchuuriki, being hated and ignored for reasons beyond your control. But I also know that people can change for the better. That's why, despite the fact that you tried to take my friends from me and tried to kill me, I want to try and make things better for you by being the person that makes a difference in your life."

The corners of Gaara's lips pulled back slightly, stretching into a small frown. "And how do you plan on doing that?"

"I'm going to be your friend," Naruto said, extending his arm across the table. "I do have certain restrictions on what I can do with you because of everything that's happened. But we can just hangout and talk, or try new foods or games, or stuff like that."

Gaara stared at his hand for a pregnant pause. Then he extended his own and gingerly placed into Naruto's. Just like that, the two Jinchuuriki shook hands…