Dsilecamr: I dno't own Ntruao. Udsternad?
Ah… two classes down, two tests aced, two classes with A's… hooraaaaaayyyyy. That being said, two more to go :(. I'm feeling pretty prepared at the moment for both, hopefully that feeling stays. Broke 1K reviews... wooooo!
Next chapter.
WAIT STOP. I almost forgot. Don't read the chapter. If you haven't seen 5 Centimeters per Second, go watch it right now on animefreak. Its only an hour long between the three episodes. Seriously, forget my chapter and the story, go watch it! It's one of the most amazing and moving things I've ever seen. I really feel after the two days of agonizing about its meaning and watching different scenes over and over between studying and reading analyses online about the movie, I'm a better person. I really do. The movie has made me take a really good look at my life and evaluate how much more it could be, and made me realize that although I can't change the past, I can still make my future a pretty damn bright place. And I think anyone else can do the same.
Forget New Perspective! Go watch 5cm/second! NOWWWWWW!
101010
(You would think since this song is where I got the name for the story that it would have shown up by now… weird, huh?)
Who cares, divine intervention,
I wanna be praised from a new perspective.
But leaving now would be a good idea,
So catch me up I'm getting out of here.
Taking everything for granted but we still respect the time,
We move along with some new passion knowing everything is fine.
And I would wait and watch the hours fall in a hundred separate lines,
But I regain repose and wonder how I ended up inside.
New Perspective – Panic! At the Disco
101010
Her world was painted red. It was a place she never wanted to be again.
She screamed for him to stop, but he wouldn't stop. It felt like she was trapped in Tsukiyomi again, but this time Itachi wasn't killing her… he was killing everyone else.
For what felt like the trillionth time, she watched Itachi toss Sasuke's broken body to the ground before her and her older brother stepped forward, a demonic smirk on his shadowed face.
"Do you hate me enough now, dear sister?"
Aiko wrenched herself from the nightmare, tears streaming down her face. Why couldn't she wake up before? It was morning, and the sun filtered through the windowpanes and into her room, giving it a bright happy feel to it.
She didn't feel happy, and it didn't feel like she would ever be happy again.
'Itachi… why are you doing this to me?'
Silent tears ran down her cheeks as the images of the dream streamed through her mind again and again, she couldn't escape the idea that the nightmare could become reality. What if Itachi decided that Tsukiyomi hadn't been a good enough motivator? What would her brother do next? Kill Sakura or Naruto? Would he even kill Sasuke to motivate her?
'I have to get stronger…' She thought desperately, 'Or I'll never be able to stop him if he decides I need more… motivation…' What had gone wrong with Itachi? She had loved her brother dearly, as much as Sasuke, once upon a time. The pain of Itachi killing her clan had dulled over the years, but seeing him again… the Tsukiyomi… it had just ripped the wound back open and made it deeper.
"Neechan?" Sasuke's concerned voice came from the doorway, and before she could think of hiding her tears, he already had already brushed her mussed hair away to look at her face before wrapping her in a tight hug, "God… I forgot. I should have never left."
Sasuke had suffered under the technique too. Aiko had never known that it had been so terrible, "Sasuke-niisan…" She whispered painfully, "Why didn't you tell me it was this bad?"
"...I didn't want you to know." Sasuke admitted softly, "I never wanted you to know. I'm so sorry, Aiko. I couldn't stop him. I wasn't strong enough."
"N-Neither was I." Aiko replied shamefully, "Did you… have nightmares too?"
Sasuke sat on the side of her bed, "They stopped after awhile." He said quietly, "I didn't want you to worry; you had enough to think about then. It wasn't important."
"It was important…" She whispered, "I would have cared, I could have tried to help you, if I knew."
Sasuke smiled sadly, "Neechan, we were seven. It was a long time ago… let's focus on making you better, alright?"
"I'll be fine." Aiko said, trying to be reassuring, but at the moment she wasn't sure if she'd ever be fine. Even though Sasuke's presence helped, she could still see him in Itachi's grasp. Dead… broken…
If only to assure herself that he was really there, she pulled her brother into another hug, and he returned it readily. His face didn't reflect it, but inwardly his thoughts were darkened with anger at his older brother.
'I'll help you, neechan. I'll help you get through this… then I'll kill Itachi, whatever it takes.'
101010
A somber blond ninja in strangely, a bright orange colored hoody stood in the light mist of the morning, overlooking the grave of the Sandaime Hokage.
'Old man…'
Naruto sighed tiredly as he turned away from the grave, he had been here for an hour already. Any longer and he would be late meeting Tsunade at her office, the last thing he needed was to turn into Kakashi.
Orochimaru had killed the Sandaime.
Naruto wanted to kill Orochimaru. More than he had ever wanted to kill anyone before.
Walking back through Konoha he was so distracted that he accidentally bumped shoulders with a stumbling villager who was probably nursing a hangover, if he could guess.
"Watch it, brat!" The man snarled, glaring at the infamous former prankster and bane of Konoha.
"Sorry…" Naruto muttered.
The villager snorted, "Yeah, you should be, damn de- boy." The man quickly stopped himself before he could say the word that could get him killed, glancing warily around for possible ANBU. Seeing none, he gave one last contemptuous look at Naruto before slowly continuing in the opposite direction, still clutching his aching head.
Naruto watched him go for a moment, before he turned away too and continued his slow walk through the brightening morning, 'Can't win them all.'
In all honesty, the blond haired genin wasn't sure he wanted to win them all anymore. Still, plastering a grin on his face, he took off through the slowly filling streets of Konoha. It was best not to let it show, for now.
101010
"Why are we here, anyways?" Naruto complained to the secretary, to his dismay, Tsunade hadn't replaced the Third's secretary.
"I don't know." The secretary glared at him in annoyance, "Sit down and wait, Naruto. Hokage-sama will get to you when she has time."
Naruto scowled, but sat back down between Shikamaru and Sasuke with a huff. Shikamaru had the same lazy expression on his face, but Sasuke looked uncharacteristically anxious, he should be at the hospital with his sister, not here.
"This is stupid." Naruto scoffed, "Tsunade-obaachan sure is bad at scheduling, when the old man gave a time to be at his office, that's when he saw you, you know what I mean?"
"Stop complaining, Naruto." Shikamaru scowled, "You're giving me a headache… just relax."
"He's right, dobe." Sasuke agreed, even if he didn't look happy with the wait, "It won't make us leave faster."
Naruto shrugged, he just had better things to do. His frustration with being unable to use his clones to help with Rasengan had him wracking his brain for other ways he could use the clones to get more done. One clone was at the market picking up food, as all of his had spoiled over the month. Another was at the hospital visiting with Aiko, and four more were doing various chakra control exercises. Maintaining a few clones took very little out of his reserves, he found they actually filled faster than a few clones could take from them. The rate at which they filled was exponential; it seemed to get faster every time he used Kyuubi's chakra.
The fox… Naruto hated it, but Kyuubi definitely had his uses. Jiraiya was still hinting insistently that he needed to learn how to draw upon its gifts consciously. Just a month ago, Naruto wouldn't even consider the possibility at all.
But now, he had taken a task, accepted a dream that was greater than even becoming Hokage. It was something that required power, even beyond his natural talents. Kyuubi was an untapped source of great power, but just because he was considering it didn't mean he didn't still have huge doubts whether the benefits were greater than the costs. Kyuubi was dangerous, it was a cunning fox that had millennia of knowledge and experience to draw on… in comparison, he only had thirteen years of life.
Naruto knew what Kyuubi wanted, freedom, more than anything. Naruto had the means to give him that freedom, all he had to do was concentrate inwardly hard enough, and he would appear before Kyuubi's cage. Then all it would take was one pull of the seal that locked the gates… and Kyuubi would be free.
One moment of weakness… that's all it would take. Drawing on Kyuubi's chakra could enhance how likely he would be to have that moment. If he became dependent on Kyuubi and its gifts, he would keep going back for more, ignoring gaining strength on his own for the possibility of easy power. One tail… two tails… how long before he wanted six tails of power? Nine?
It was a disturbing train of thought, and Naruto knew even thinking about using the fox and its powers was a dangerous game… but it was one he could have to play now, accepting such an impossible dream.
'I just had to promise,' He thought morosely, 'Peace… how the hell am I supposed to create a world of peace?'
The doors to the Hokage's office opened, breaking his thought. Several people stepped out, and Naruto recognized a few of the wealthier merchants who ran businesses in the city, but didn't know any by name. Shizune also poked her head out the door and gestured for them to enter.
The three genin got up from the bench and followed the black haired assistant. Naruto winked at the scowling secretary, "Bye, Secretary-chan!"
"Hmph!"
They closed the double doors behind them; Tsunade was sitting at her desk, writing a report. Naruto scowled as he looked around the room, "You already screwed up the system again." He scolded the new Hokage.
Tsunade glanced up, "I'll get it eventually."
"Hopefully." Naruto snorted, but then he grinned as he took in Tsunade's appearance, "That hat looks pretty good on you, neechan."
"Flatterer." Shizune teased, "Isn't he, Tsunade-sama?"
"He has his moments." Tsunade said, amused. "But on to more important matters." The Hokage reached below her desk and tossed three identical vests at the startled genin, who caught them on instinct.
"Congratulations." Tsunade nodded to each of them, "Uchiha Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto. All three of you have been recognized as worthy of the rank of Chuunin by your peers."
The two dark haired boys were shocked, they had almost forgotten about the Chuunin exams and possible promotion after the invasion had occurred. Naruto whooped however, "One step closer to Hokage! Tsunade-obaachan you better get ready to give up that hat!"
Tsunade scowled at the name, "Naruto! Calm yourself."
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto waved her off, "Hey, does this mean I get paid more?"
The Sannin nodded, "Expect to take C and B ranks much more frequently, especially with the village coming out of the invasion… we must increase our revenue from missions dramatically, as well as appear strong to clients. Konoha cannot afford to appear weak, lest we open ourselves to another invasion."
Sasuke's heart beat faster with anticipation, harder missions… it would mean more opportunities to test his strength, gain experience, get stronger… all steps to getting closer to truly matching Itachi.
Shikamaru wasn't as happy, this was definitely going to cut into his naptime…
"Hey," Naruto asked curiously, "Does this mean I can use the Chuunin and above section in the library?"
Tsunade snorted in amusement, "Yes Naruto. That's not a question I would expect from you… I was actually under the impression that you couldn't read."
"I can so read." Naruto frowned, pouting, "That's so mean, baachan!"
"Looks like you can't wear that stupid hoody." Sasuke smirked at the blond, "Good thing too, all that orange was blinding me."
Naruto scowled, he liked this hoody! "Hey baachan, do I have to wear this vest? It's kind of bulky, and it clashes with my style!"
"Naruto!" Shizune scolded, "You must wear the vest at all times as a Chuunin! It is a mandatory part of your uniform."
'Shizune, I could kiss you.' Tsunade thought gratefully behind a impassive mask, 'Hopefully no one will tell him that wearing a Chuunin vest outside of missions isn't mandatory…'
"Aww." Naruto made a face, green just didn't go with orange at all! He would look like walking puke… this wasn't fair. "Can't you make an exception?" He asked hopefully.
"No." Tsunade denied him, "Get something else to wear, brat. Now all of you have the day off, report back here tomorrow morning for your first missions."
"What about our teams?" Shikamaru asked.
"You are technically removed from them." Tsunade replied, "But if you request it, you join them on missions, with a Chuunin present they will be allowed to take higher ranking missions, especially when your Jounin instructor is there."
"More awesome missions!" Naruto cheered, "No more D-ranks! Isn't it great, guys?"
Sasuke thought so, but Shikamaru just grumbled. The three exited the office and the tower, Sasuke put his vest on right away over his blue Uchiha shirt, it covered the fan up, to his displeasure. That was something he would have to remedy.
Shikamaru and Naruto didn't put theirs on, Shikamaru was considering never putting it on, but Naruto had other reasons other than reluctance.
"I'll meet you guys at the hospital to see Aiko-chan." Naruto waved, running off, "I have to change!"
Sasuke snorted, "Idiot."
"Troublesome." Shikamaru agreed.
"Wear your vest." Sasuke ordered, "We'll look cooler if we both walk in wearing them."
Shikamaru scowled, but put it on over his black wire mesh shirt, "There, happy?"
"Yes." Sasuke nodded, "Now make sure to look badass. Don't cramp my style."
Shikamaru gave him a weird look, "You're acting strange today, Sasuke."
Sasuke couldn't help but smile, his sister was awake and forgave him, he was a Chuunin, the seal wasn't bothering him… it was a pretty good day for him.
"You're acting kind of like Naruto." Shikamaru pointed out.
Sasuke's good mood vanished, he scowled, "You're right. That was completely out of character… mention it to anyone and I'll kill you."
The Uchiha walked off after delivering the half serious threat, and Shikamaru shrugged and muttered, "That's more like it…"
101010
"Chuunin?' Sakura's eyes widened as Sasuke and Shikamaru walked in, "That's great, Sasuke-kun!"
Ino, Sakura, and surprisingly Naruto, surrounded Aiko's bed. The Uchiha girl smiled at her brother, and offered her congratulations, he deserved it.
"Thanks, neechan." Sasuke smiled, but then glowered at Naruto, "I thought you went home to change."
"I did?" Naruto looked confused, he concentrated for a second, and then he cheered, "Hey! I'm a Chuunin too!"
Ino groaned, "You mean you're a clone? Seriously? I never can tell…"
"Can't you tell us you're a clone?" Sakura scowled, she knew it was basically the same thing, but that didn't make it any less annoying.
"Where is the real Naruto?" Aiko asked curiously.
"Looking for something to wear." The clone responded with a wince, "Orange and green don't go together at all…"
Ino blinked, and then cheered, "Yes! Naruto can never wear orange again!"
The clone started sniffling, but he was the only one particularly saddened by this development.
Soon enough the real Naruto arrived, he had kept his black cargo pants, but his orange hoody had been traded in for one of the simple white t-shirts he had. The Chuunin vest was open, and they could see the black Konoha emblem in the center of it.
"Not an orange emblem?" Ino teased.
Naruto scowled, "It looks like puke. I don't want to look like puke."
"Congratulations, Naruto." Aiko offered from her bed, she was feeling a lot better since she had woken up and eaten real food, but the medics insisted on more bed rest.
"Thanks Aiko-chan!" Naruto grinned widely, "Don't worry, as soon as I become Jounin I can get rid of this stupid vest and get back to wearing orange in no time!"
They groaned.
Team 8 soon arrived to see Aiko, and congratulated their three friends for becoming Chuunin, although Kiba was feeling a bit surly that he hadn't been promoted as well.
"You didn't win a fight." Naruto pointed out, "How could you become Chuunin, dog breath?"
"I could beat you in a fight!" Kiba insisted.
Naruto chuckled, "How much training have you been doing?"
"A lot." Kiba replied with a scowl, "I could win."
"Wanna see?" Naruto asked, other than sparring with Sakura, he hadn't fought with anyone else in awhile. His mind was quickly recalling everything he knew about Kiba, and estimated how much improvement the boy could make in a month.
"D-Don't fight…" Hinata frowned.
"She's right." Aiko scowled, "I thought you were here to see me, Naruto."
"I am!" Naruto reassured, "Forget Kiba and his silly little fighting challenges."
"Hey!" Kiba protested.
Naruto slapped the Inuzuka on the back and whispered, "Later."
The group of genin and recently promoted Chuunin spent the time musing what missions would be like now that some of them had been promoted.
"B-rank missions!" Naruto grinned widely just thinking about it.
"Hn." Sasuke agreed, "Better opponents, more challenges."
"More trouble…" Shikamaru grumbled.
The friends chatted for awhile, mainly discussing the three new Chuunin and what their promotions would entail. The kinds of missions they could take… Naruto couldn't help but imagine how awesome it would be to take real missions instead of D-rank… but at the same time, there was going to be increased danger that he would have to defend himself from. That meant hurting others, probably killing… he had to steel his mind against it.
Naruto got up suddenly after an hour or so, "Bye guys."
"Where are you going?" Sakura asked curiously.
"Gonna go meet Ero-Sennin." Naruto gave a short wave and jumped out of Aiko's window, headed towards home. He really was going to meet with Jiraiya, but not until later.
The bunshin he had sent to the market was stocking the fridge full of food, a lot of food. Naruto had only sent him off with enough for milk, a few vegetables, and salt… well, at least at the prices he paid.
Naruto blinked suspiciously, "You didn't steal all of that, did you?"
"No." The clone replied in annoyance, "I'm not a thief, jerk. The cashier at the store sold me this stuff at regular price! I have money left over, see? It was awesome, no overcharging at all!"
The blond blinked as the bunshin thrust the leftover money in his creator's face; Naruto cautiously took the money, looking at it in disbelief.
"Regular price…?"
Naruto didn't get charged regular price, it just didn't happen. First the owners at the sushi place and now this? Plus the strange absence of glares… he still drew a lot of uncertain stares, but only a few people were glaring at him as he walked down the street now. Were they changing their opinions about him? Was it possible? Or was it just too much to hope?
He wanted it to be true, but the village had either ignored or despised his presence for so long… it was hard to believe that anything he did could be enough to change their minds. The blond shrugged it off for now; right now he would just be happy that he had a full fridge of food for once.
"Alright." Naruto said finally, "I'm heading to the library, go say hi to Ayame and Teuchi-san for me."
"Can I get a bowl of ramen?" The clone asked hopefully.
Naruto rolled his eyes, "You can't even digest it, idiot!" He scolded, "You know it just gets broken down by the chakra."
"It still tastes good." The clone whined, "Please?"
"…Fine." Naruto muttered, "One bowl only!" He handed his clone enough money for a single bowl, "And make sure you're nice to them."
"Of course." The clone scowled, "Why wouldn't I be?"
It took off towards the stand, and Naruto headed for the library, entering the silent building and taking in the smell of books. He hadn't been coming here as much, as he had basically exhausted any ideas on what he could learn through his bunshin from the limited academy and genin sections. The head librarian spotted him entering; he smirked inwardly and walked over to personally greet her.
"Oh," Akane sniffed, "Its you."
"You know you've missed me, Akane-chan." Naruto grinned at her, keeping his voice down. Akane would love any excuse to toss him out on his ass, he just had to make sure he didn't give it to her.
She sniffed again, glancing at his vest, "I suppose you want access to the Chuunin and Jounin's area?"
"How did you know?" Naruto chuckled.
"A guess." Akane glowered at him, waving at the double doors next to the desk, "It's through there, and remember Naruto… just one thing wrong with those books…"
"Yeah, yeah." Naruto rolled his eyes, eagerly entering through the double doors to the previously forbidden area. He glanced around; it was relatively small compared to the spacious main library. But there were several bookshelves full of books and scrolls, along with several tables and desks for the ninja to sit at.
Several of the ninja who were already there glanced up at him, but Naruto didn't know any of them personally, and they went back to their own private studies.
The blond walked over to a random bookshelf, peering at the books there. Much like the rest of the library, they were organized by section. He was currently looking at the Chakra Theory section. Most of the books were way too advanced based on their extremely long titles with words he wouldn't dare try to pronounce aloud. He did pick up Intermediate Chakra Theory and Understanding Your Element, however.
The other sections yielded a bit more than that. Although he hadn't performed waterfall climbing yet, he picked up Advanced Chakra Control Exercises.
There was a history section here too, but unlike the history books that only gave basics on the other villages in the regular library, these books were detailed and most likely retrieved from the countries they spoke about. Naruto ignored these for now, but he could see himself picking up more than a few of those later. His clones hated to read stuff that they thought was boring, but they would just have to deal with it, Naruto needed to know about the other Shinobi nations, understand them and what drove them, if he ever wanted a chance to unite them.
Naruto bypassed the section on seals and sealing for now, partially because he didn't see how they were useful at the moment, also he didn't want any ninja to see the Kyuubi brat looking at sealing… considering what was sealed inside him, it didn't seem like a good idea.
There weren't any books on actual jutsu even here, but there were multiple scrolls detailing techniques and how to use them. Unfortunately, Naruto was still useless when it came to anything but wind jutsu, so he only picked up a few of those, reluctantly ignoring the rest. Several of the wind techniques he saw he already knew about, including Fuuton: Daitoppa, Fuuton: Renkuudan, and Kaze Gyorai no Jutsu. There were no S-rank techniques, and very few A-ranked ones, Fuuton: Renkuudan was one of the only A-ranked wind techniques he found. Most of them were useful C and B ranked techniques, useful in and outside of battle. They didn't seem to take a lot of chakra, which Naruto wasn't really happy about, what was the use of huge reserves if he couldn't use them? There also was very little on non-elemental techniques, Kage Bunshin wasn't here, nor many others that he had seen performed before.
Despite its disappointments, Naruto could definitely see a lot of use for this place in the future.
Tuning out the librarian's last warning as he checked out the books and scrolls, Naruto exited the library. He formed a couple clones and handed off the items he had just gotten.
"Take them home." Naruto ordered, "You, start reading Understanding Your Element," He turned to the other two and informed them to read the other two books he had picked up, "And no fighting or talking," He added sternly, the last thing he needed was his clones fighting with each other and popping prematurely.
"Boss!" They nodded to him and moved off as a single unit towards his apartment. Naruto blinked as he felt a clone pop, but it was just the one he had sent to Ichiraku's, apparently the ramen was good. Naruto's own stomach grumbled, he scowled, stupid clone.
He couldn't stop to eat, however. Naruto headed to his private training area, although he did send off another clone to go back home and pick up some of the onigiri he had purchased, he figured he might as well start eating the food before it spoiled. His clone had been a bit too overzealous in its purchases, despite the food being fresh; his refrigerator was most certainly not. Most likely he had a week at best to eat the food that would spoil quickest.
Really Naruto couldn't even think about replacing it right now, he hadn't gone on any missions yet, plus his bills were due in a week, even if he hadn't been living in it, his apartment's rent needed to be paid.
Wincing at the thought of bills, Naruto entered what he had fondly dubbed as his private training area. It had remained unchanged, a small glade that was bordered by a stream on one side, and a half circle of forest on the other. Naruto picked up one of the kunai he had left on the ground there from a previous training session, quite awhile ago. The blond balanced it in his hand with a smile, when he left this; he had been a genin… now he was a Chuunin.
It was a good kunai, Naruto flicked his wrist and sent it into a nearby tree, and it split the wood easily, burying itself in the bark. He remembered when he couldn't even hit a tree once with his famed 'Uzumaki Barrage,' although that had been more about his kunai, not him.
It made him think about Aiko, who had given him the kunai set in the first place. For a moment he was guilty about ditching his friends to do other stuff, even though he basically hadn't seen them in an entire month, except for Sakura. Aiko had just woken up, yet he was already off again, onto the next thing. But Aiko wasn't something that he could just check off a list. She was his friend, really his first friend.
Deciding, he swore that he would be there for her when she left the hospital. No doubt she would need someone to help ease her back into routine training and missions, surely between himself, Sasuke, and Sakura, not to mention their other friends; they could help her with no trouble.
Naruto really wished he could do more for her, but he already felt behind because he still hadn't mastered Rasengan… the most he could manage was keeping it steady for about twelve seconds, Jiraiya insisted he needed to be able to do it continuously without actively thinking about it. It had been getting easier, it had taken him weeks to even hold it for five seconds; it only took a few days to get from five seconds to eight, now to twelve. He was getting closer, Naruto was sure of that.
The clone returned with onigiri that had been stuffed with octopus, his favorite. Naruto munched down the balls of rice quickly, not wanting to waste another second of training time. After he finished the quick lunch, he washed his hands in the stream, now it was time to begin.
Pulling out his balloons, he set up a clone to work on filling, and practiced the last stage of the technique, determined to get it completely right.
Pop... Pop... Pop... Pop… Pop…
His training continued for over an hour, steadily draining even his large chakra stores. Yet by the end of an hour, he still had over half of his reserves, despite maintaining the clone here along with the ones reading at his apartment.
"Weren't you going to meet Jiraiya?" The clone handing him air filled balloons asked him.
"I'm not going to help him perv at the hot springs." Naruto scowled, he gathered his chakra and formed the half seal, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu."
A single clone appeared, it said, "I think you like this technique too much."
Naruto ignored him, "Go to the hot springs and find Ero-Sennin. Bring him back here."
"He won't like it." The clone warned, but shrugged and went off to do its duty without any more protests.
Naruto continued his Rasengan training, he had managed fourteen seconds, it was getting easier and easier to control the spinning ball of chakra, he found it helped if he poured as much shape chakra out as possible in the beginning, and maintained the ball with only the minimal amount of chakra from his body, less dealing with fluctuations from the Kyuubi that way.
He had managed fifteen seconds by the time a surly looking Jiraiya arrived, the clone he sent leading the perverted hermit to his private training area.
"I hope you're happy, brat." Jiraiya whined, "Your clone interrupted some very valuable research."
Naruto scowled right back, "You know, if I have to be serious and stuff during training, why can't you do the same?"
"Respect your elders." Jiraiya snapped back, "Next time Tsunade is in a meeting, you don't interrupt because you feel like it."
"Whatever." Naruto dismissed, "Did you just want to meet so you could lecture me?"
"Amongst other things." Jiraiya smirked, "I think its time we begin our little spars again."
"Uh…" Naruto tried to think quickly, "I haven't finished Raseng-"
Jiraiya interrupted, "Split your day like this from now on. No arguments. A third of your training should be spent on non-chakra exercises and conditioning your body, a third for Rasengan, and a third for whatever I'll have you doing. Have you gotten bracer weights yet?"
Naruto shook his head weakly, already imagining the beating he was going to suffer very soon.
"Get them after we finish." Jiraiya cracked his knuckles evilly, "I'm going to enjoy this…"
Naruto gulped.
101010
Tenten flicked through a catalog of weapons as she manned the counter of the weapons shop. It was her side job, which she used to help pay for her expenses that a genin's wages just didn't cover… it was her own fault for insisting that she could handle the responsibility of her own apartment, despite being an orphan with no family. Luckily the owner was a good guy, and set her schedule so she didn't have to work in the mornings when she had missions or training.
She was more than a little surprised when an extremely disheveled Uzumaki Naruto walked in through the door, grumbling something about crazy perverts and insane training ideas.
"Naruto?" Tenten said uncertainly from the counter, "Uh… hi." The blond was wearing a Chuunin's flak jacket, and she could see that the shirt underneath had been torn to near shreds, his pants were in a bit better condition, but not by much.
"Hi, Tenten right?" Naruto asked, remembering the name of Lee's female teammate, he was pretty sure that was it.
"Yeah." Tenten stared at him, "So you're a Chuunin now…? What happened to your clothes?"
"I know!" Naruto sniffed mournfully, "No more orange! Isn't it terrible?"
That wasn't what Tenten had been thinking, but she didn't correct the strange new Chuunin, "So… what do you want, Naruto-san?"
Naruto scrunched his face, "I think I need these bracer weight thingies, but I'm not really sure what they are."
"Bracers?" Tenten repeated thoughtfully, "We have those. I didn't know you used weights though."
The blond grimaced, "I don't, but my teacher says I have to."
Tenten shrugged and headed down one of the small aisles that housed the weighted training equipment. Naruto followed her, and stopped alongside of her next to a rack of different colored ring shaped objects that looked like they could fit around his wrists or ankles pretty comfortably.
"Ero-Sennin said ten on each arm and fifteen on each leg." Naruto told her helpfully. Tenten blinked, but decided against asking who 'Ero-Sennin' was, she wasn't sure she really wanted to know. The bun haired girl pulled the appropriate bracers from the rack and handed them to Naruto, who palmed them thoughtfully.
"They don't seem that heavy." Naruto said, frowning.
"They're seal weights." Tenten explained, "You put them on and make the correct seal, then they'll automatically absorb and use your own chakra to increase their weight to the correct amount. You can't keep them active all the time or you'll die from chakra exhaustion."
"Alright I guess." Naruto shrugged, "How much?"
Tenten told him and Naruto scowled, "That's way too much."
"They aren't really cheap." Tenten agreed apologetically, "Sorry."
Naruto sighed, "Don't worry about it, I'll bug Ero-Sennin to give me money for them, he's the one who wants me to get the dumb things."
Against her better judgment, she had to ask, "Who is Ero-Sennin?"
"My perverted teacher." Naruto replied, as if that explained everything, "I'm gonna go now, thanks for the help, Tenten-chan."
The blond exited the small weapons shop without another word, leaving a confused Tenten behind. Unaware of the perplexed girl he had just left behind, Naruto went back home to change into clothes that weren't shredded. He should have never worn his shirt or pants, but once they started, Jiraiya refused to stop for anything. He had barely managed to slip out of his new flak jacket before the Sannin delivered the first punch straight to his face.
Luckily the Sannin had decided that taking away Kyuubi's healing factor would only hurt him now, so the fox's gifts remained open to him, so by the time Jiraiya had left basically all of his cuts and bruises had faded away, it helped that even if he was tough on him, Jiraiya was still relatively nice to his very thankful body. Naruto still hated the sparring, no matter what he did, Jiraiya was always untouchable… it couldn't be helped, Naruto knew he could only keep training and hope that he could catch up to the Sannin…
…And beat his ass.
For now, he changed into a simple black t-shirt with new cargo pants, and mentally thanked Ino for forcing him to buy clothes, even if there was a disturbing lack of orange. The clones were still reading diligently, Naruto formed another and set him to work on trying to repair his shirt and pants from the damage his pervert teacher had done. Just because they were a little torn, Naruto couldn't even consider the possibility of throwing them away. So maybe he would be making a little more money, so what? It didn't mean he should be wasteful with what he already had.
After eating some cup ramen, he sent a clone out to see what his friends were doing while he headed for the waterfall that Jiraiya had taken them to learn meditation. He had a different purpose in mind however. He had put off waterfall climbing for long enough; it made sense to get it out of the way before his clone finished the new book of control exercises he had gotten from the library.
It was as difficult as he expected it to be, combining water walking against a powerful current with tree climbing, it was like trying to fight gravity while water walking against the tide of a churning river. Luckily if they were careful enough to land safely when they fell, his bunshin could perform the task with him. Six bunshin, two three hour blocks with an hour rest between. By the time he finished it was getting dark and he was tired. His friends had scattered for the day, and the clone ended up visiting with Aiko in the hospital, Aiko didn't know the difference and the clone didn't tell her.
Naruto grimaced, the last thing he wanted to do was live through his clones, at least not with his friends. They were basically him, but it obviously made his friends uncomfortable that he wasn't actually there. In all honesty it was pretty weird for him too. But if he left the bunshin alone, they couldn't make more clones. Sure they could perform the technique, but to transfer chakra from a clone to another clone tugged on Naruto's own reserves heavily, it just didn't work out well at all.
But what could he do? Ignore training? That wasn't possible either, not for him, not if he wanted to accomplish his goals.
The tired blond got home and checked on his bunshin that had been reading all day. All three were making good progress, even if they complained vehemently against reading for the rest of the night. Naruto ordered them to do it anyways, the faster they finished, the less strain he would have on his reserves. He noticed they didn't fill as fast during his break between training at the waterfall.
With only the sound of turning pages to keep him company that night, Naruto fell asleep.
Tomorrow was another day.
101010
Oh dear. Weights.
I don't like the overused idea of Naruto getting weights and basically 'leveling up' his speed by wearing them all the time. In this fic Naruto will use weights just like a normal person would by going to the gym and using the machines and free weights. During his non chakra workouts, he'll activate them. Otherwise they're off and will go unmentioned. Don't expect a weekly update of Naruto's new 'weight up,' I get annoyed at those… as you can tell, I'm annoyed by a lot of things, lol.
What else? Hmm, Naruto is a Chuunin, as are Sasuke and Shikamaru. That being said, know that their duties will be vastly different, and not by choice. Tsunade and the Council see Naruto as an asset and to put it bluntly, a deterrent against war. Naruto is the equivalent of a nuclear warhead. Konoha gets invaded, he can be sent on a suicide mission straight to the invading country and rip off the seal. Bye bye invading country. Well, the other countries think that would happen, they don't know Naruto or his dislike of killing even his enemies. Nuclear deterrents are simply deterrents, so Naruto will never actually have to rip off the seal…
Right…?
Hmm.
Anyways, library. I think that's how the ninja library should be, and at maximum could be. Putting a lot of powerful techniques and secret techniques of the Leaf village in a library would be stupid. Why is obvious, look at Mizuki. That's why there are only a couple higher level jutsu in the library, everything else is pretty standard C ranks with some B ranks as well. The Scroll of Seals has all the really good stuff, everything else is passed from master to apprentice (or Jounin sensei, w/e.)
Willing suspension of disbelief must be flexed on Kage Bunshin being able to 'digest' with chakra. Could chakra have enzymic properties that allows it to function? Is it possible that Kage Bunshin makes a 'stomach' out of chakra? Very good questions…
Idk. Idc.
We're moving into territory where everyone is doing their own things, either for the war or stabilizing Konoha after the invasion, and Naruto can split and manage his time pretty well. Naruto and Aiko are going to be spending a lot more time together, and I'm pretty happy about that.
Next chapter…? Idk :(, maybe not before my last final ends next Tuesday… maybe earlier, who knows.
If you read the chapter without watching 5 Centimeters per Second… I'm flattered, now go watch it and see a real genius writer in action! Animefreak, google it if you haven't been there already. GOOOOOOOOO!