Disclaimer: Naruto and all associated characters are property of Masashi Kishimoto

Jutsu: Original (Translation)

Bijū/Summon Speaking

Bijū/Summon Thoughts

Naruto mental reply

! - dattebayo

Edit 4/23/16

Chapter 49

Year 1: Taki and Fū

Naruto's Shared Mindscape


Naruto was leaning up against Kurama's paw with his stoic expression on his face as he puzzled over Fū's trepidation and fear towards him.

Kurama had already returned to his default relaxed position of lying on the ground with his paws crossed ready to support his head, but was currently outlining the plan to Chōmei and answering the Kabutomushi's questions on how the plan would work and the jutsu that would be used.

So, Naruto eliminated Kurama as the possible cause of her emotions, which only left him as the cause. There should be no reason for her to be afraid of him, if he were a threat, Chōmei would obviously rise to her defense. He hadn't taken any hostile action or had any negative thoughts about her, so if she had some sensing capability like he did those shouldn't be triggering any alarms.

Naruto shot open an eye and glanced over in Fū's direction from the corner of his eye. Fū was staring at him intensely from her place on the ground next to Chōmei and was fidgeting nervously. Naruto had to admit her gaze was unsettling to him, it was almost the same as Makoto's was, but this girl didn't even know him so it couldn't be for the same reasons that Makoto had.

Naruto just closed his eye and tried to tune out his senses while he listened to Chōmei and Kurama talk. It seemed that Chōmei had been quite surprised by Kurama's plan and had his reservations about it like Gyūki. After some reassurance from Kurama, Chōmei lent his support to the project and agreed to provide them with some Hero Water when they left the village.

"...but Chōmei all of the stored Hero Water from the past 300 years is only a liter, there is no way they won't notice some missing," Fū spoke up when she heard Chōmei promise Kurama the Hero Water.

"Don't worry about that Fū," Chōmei said reassuringly," Kurama does not require all of it, only a glass full and Shibuki will not notice that much missing if we draw a small amount every day,"

"Okay, Chōmei. If you think that we should do it, then I'll help. How long are you going to remain here in the village?" Fū asked before turning her gaze back to Naruto.

"Shishō said that we would be here for two months at most before we leave, so there is plenty of time if you need to come up with some way to cover your tracks," Naruto replied.

Fū seemed to tear up a little when she hear Naruto's response and Naruto looked at her with confusion written all over his face.

"I only just met someone like me." Fū said with a pout. "and you are just going to leave so soon? It's not fair! I wanted to be friends!" Fū wailed.

Naruto didn't know how to respond to Fū at the moment. Friends? He barely met the girl how would she even know if they were compatible enough to be friends in the first place? If they did become friends why would it matter if he would leave in two months time?

'This girl is really strange... she is obviously older than me by a few years, at least, but she acts so much younger.' Naruto thought to himself.

"Fū, don't cry. I'm sure you can prove to Naruto that you can be his friend before he leaves." Chōmei said in a placating tone.

Kurama snorted in amusement. That girl was far too childish and hyper for his kit to take seriously. He might establish a cordial relationship with the girl but in the end, the girl would likely just annoy him constantly.

Naruto sighed as Fū burst into tears and clung to Chōmei. Why did women crying bother him so damn much? Still, it wouldn't hurt to be at least polite with the girl and give her a chance. She had dealt with the same bullshit he had to in his village.

"Look, Fū. I don't make friends easily. Too many people hated me in my village, and I learned that trying to make friends with people that hated me only caused me pain and trouble so I stopped trying to make friends." Naruto said sternly, "Now the only friends that I have, are people who actively decided to be my friends on their own. That is how I know if they are real friends or not.

When Fū started to tear up more, Naruto sighed. "If you want to try and be my friend, then I won't push you away, but don't expect me to trust you or become your friend right away."

"What about someone who wants to be your friend but is too shy? If you never try to approach them, you could be missing a person who could be your friend." Fū replied with a pout.

"An individual who is too shy to be my friend isn't someone that I would want for a friend. If they can not overcome their fear of rejection then they are not really trying to be my friend because they care about me, they only want to be my friend for selfish reasons." Naruto crossed his arms before he continued, "That is why you always hear about shy people wanting to be friends with the most confident people. In reality, they just want to become more confident themselves not because they actually care for that confident person.

Fū looked like she was going to interrupt, but Naruto continued speaking before she could say anything. "While I can admit it may be possible that a shy person could become a real friend, it is also just as likely that the shy person will gain confidence then abandon their friend once they have obtained what they truly wanted. That is why I won't bother with those types of people. A person that actually cares about who you are will have no problems approaching you because they care." Naruto said with conviction.

Fū remained quiet as she thought over what Naruto had said to her. It was completely unlike what Shibuki and Chōmei had told her. In some ways, what Naruto had said was true but in other ways, Chōmei and Shibuki had been true also.

When other kids had rejected her and called her demon even though she was friendly and kind to them, it had really hurt her, but on the other hand, some people who had not been friends with her before were friendly to her now because she had tried.

She just thought that if she continued to be friendly to everyone, then everyone would eventually become friends with her. Now she wondered what he meant about real friends. Naruto said that his real friends had approached him without him even trying. She had never had anyone approach her to be friends besides Chōmei and Shibuki. Did that mean that the friends she had now were not real friends at all?

"Fū, don't look so down, there is nothing wrong with going out and making friends at all. Sometimes you can find a real friend by searching them out. You just have to keep trying so that they know you are genuine." Chōmei said in a comforting tone.

Chōmei was a little irritated that Naruto would say such things to Fū. The hope of gaining friends was the one thing she clung to that stopped her from giving into the hatred and anger surrounding her. The problem was that people saw her as a 16-year-old girl, but mentally Fū was more like a 10-year-old. Her behavior was normal for a 10-year-old, but no one ever looked past her appearance to truly understand her.

Naruto picked up on that flare of anger and decided to elaborate, "I'm not saying any of the friends she has now are genuine or not. All I am saying is that my true friends were the ones that approached me," Naruto said quickly, "I don't know enough about you to say if your friends are real or not."

"I do know that real friends will remain faithful even if you only know them for a short time, and they leave for a long time. I know that even after four years when I return to my village my friends will still be my friends." Naruto let a small smile slip as he thought of Team 7, Shikamaru, and Choji before he let his stoic mask fall back into place, "If that is what you want with me then don't approach me because you just want to increase the number of people you can call "friend." Approach me because you actually want to be a friend who cares about me as a person. That is how I treat my friends, and that is how my true friends treat me." Naruto replied.

Kurama couldn't stop the smirk from crossing his face at Naruto putting Chōmei and Fū in their places. All this foolish nonsense of collecting friends was an idiotic dream. Anyone could claim to have thousands of friends, but how many of those thousands would suffer so you could know peace? How many of those thousands would lay their life down for yours?

While it displeased Kurama that Naruto would be willing to die for his friends, he couldn't fault the kit for his loyalty. It was part of his pure soul and was the reason he was so noble and honest, for the most part. If he had never been sealed inside of Naruto, Kurama was sure that Naruto would never have lied once in his life.

Chōmei was taken aback by what Naruto had said. He had never thought that Fū would not be genuine in making friends, but he realized now that some people could see her as merely collecting friends instead of actually trying to establish true lasting relationships with people. Perhaps his approach to solving the problem of the village hating Fū had been the wrong one.

"Perhaps I was wrong about you then, Naruto. I had though that Kurama's grouchy nature had naturally inclined you to push others away," Kurama let out a huff, but Chōmei ignored him, "but it seems you have simply adopted a more mature approach to your situation."

Naruto was about to thank Chōmei for the compliment, but the kabutomushi wasn't finished speaking yet.

"While disregarding the emotions of others can also be seen as a selfish way of protecting yourself from hatred, at least it does not give the illusion of being false with your feelings. I believe I will grant you a gift of my chakra after all." Chōmei said.

Chōmei extended his tail out towards Naruto, who gently grasped the tail and patiently waited for the chakra transfer. When Chōmei's chakra entered his body, it felt thicker than even Matatabi's, and his pathways and tenketsu stretched painfully causing him to suck in a breath before grimacing and exhaling slowly.

Naruto thanked Chōmei once he recovered before looking over at Kurama with a questioning look on his face. While he had learned that he couldn't rely on his senses all the time, he still had to admit they were highly valuable and with Fū's personality Naruto thought it was important for her to receive Kurama's gift.

Kurama knew what Naruto was thinking and was reluctant but after a short stare off Kurama huffed before speaking up.

"I will offer my chakra as a gift to Fū as well if you believe she is ready to handle the reality that humanity is corrupt and full of greed," Kurama said grudgingly.

Fū looked up at Chōmei with curious eyes. "What does he mean Chōmei? Is he going to give me a present?

Chōmei looked down at his innocent jinchūriki and thought over the repercussions of negative emotion sensing on Fū's psyche. It might help her grow up but it would shatter her innocence, or she might be incapable of dealing with it and lose her mind completely. After a few moments, he decided that it would be safer for Fū to accept the gift from Kurama so that she could avoid the people trying to harm her.

"Go ahead and touch Kurama's paw for your present Fū, but don't be afraid if it hurts, okay?" Chōmei said tenderly.

Fū frowned when Chōmei mentioned the gift hurting, but she trusted Chōmei, so she stepped forward and hesitantly placed her hand on Kurama's paw. When Kurama's chakra engulfed her, she began screaming at the pain from the rapid expansion of her tenketsu and the fiery nature of Kurama's chakra being fanned by his second affinity.

Fū, unused to that amount of pain, fell unconscious while Kurama's chakra circulated through her system and entered her chakra core.

"Hmph. It was probably better for her this way." Kurama said shortly.

Naruto grimaced, he remembered how much Matatabi's chakra burned when he first accepted her chakra. He was certain that Kurama's was worse since it was Fūton and Katon aligned.

Chōmei, you will most likely need to take control of her senses now and slowly introduce the different negative emotions to her until she is capable of understanding them and filtering them out on her own. Do you recognize all the ones you are sensing now?" Kurama said in a bored tone.

"Yes. I recognize most of them but perhaps you should explain them all to me so I can be confident that I understand them all." Chōmei said.

"Very well, what you can sense are anger, hatred, lust, greed, deception, manipulation, and fear, Kurama lectured with a yawn, "You can also sense emotions that branch from those. Feelings of jealousy are a branch of lust and greed, envy is a branch of anger and greed, lies are a branch from deception and manipulation."

"It is also better to limit the range on your senses until you get used to them and stretch them out slowly in my opinion." Naruto added, "It was not fun when I got a dose of the large area of emotions, but I was also younger at the time, and I can't say which one of us has a worse reputation in their village."

"I thank you for your input, "Chōmei said with a flutter of his wings, "As for my gift to you, I have granted you the ability to create chakra threads that can block most chakra absorption techniques. This ability will also help you with any shape manipulation jutsu that you use."

"Thank you, again. Do you think you guys will be able to find your way back to your own mindscape? I know time is much slower in here, but I am sure Shibuki and my shishō might start to get worried, given the situation." Naruto said.

"I think we should be okay now that you two have broken us out of that strange mindscape, " Chōmei replied, "I don't know how long it will take for Fū to wake up after being lost for that many days and the influx of Kurama's chakra.

Chōmei scooped up Fū with his tail, "We will return now and hopefully you can help train with Fū while you are here. I think it would be good for her to associate with another jinchūriki who is used to what she had gone through."

"Well. I am confident that I will see you guys around while I remain here. I am always willing to spar or train with someone new for more experience." Naruto said sincerely.

He was hesitant to spend a lot of time with the boisterous girl but he did make a promise to Hinata and maybe her personality would be tempered once Chōmei began introducing her to negative emotion sensing. He knew how confusing that was to him, so he was willing to help her out in that respect.

Chōmei faded out of the mindscape along with Fū and after a few lazy swishes of his tails, Kurama told Naruto to return to reality and let Jiraiya and Shibuki know that they had been successful before he left the shared mindscape as well.

Village Head Residence – Taki


Naruto opened his eyes and looked around before setting his gaze on Fū. There didn't appear to be any significant change in her condition, but she was breathing more regularly now, and when Naruto took a quick peek into his mindscape he saw Kurama had already begun to nap like usual, so Naruto took that as a sign that all was well.

Naruto felt tired considering the circumstances, but he couldn't tell how long he had been drawing on Kurama's chakra and when he had stopped. Judging from how his body felt at the moment it couldn't have been much longer than a half hour.

Naruto stood up and stretched before he deactivated his modified privacy seal and picked up the tag before putting it into smaller shoulder pocket of his bag. He would reuse the seal for their room at the inn or wherever they would stay for the duration of his time in Taki.

Naruto made his way to the door and swung it open slowly, revealing Shibuki who looked anxious and Jiraiya who was busy scrawling in his notebook with a small grin on his face. Naruto had a feeling that whatever Jiraiya was writing about would make him uncomfortable, so he merely cleared his throat to get their attention.

"I have managed to locate and remove the seal that was hidden deep inside of her mind so she will recover, but I don't know how long it will take for her to wake up. The attackers essentially forced her mind into a space created by a fūinjutsu seal, and she was wandering around lost for some time." Naruto informed them.

Jiraiya had a look of suspicion on his face as he translated the hidden message Naruto had relayed to him. Jiraiya reminded himself to teach Naruto a standardized code to write and speak in tonight so that they wouldn't have any possible confusion when communicating.

Shibuki didn't seem to relax with the news at all. He moved past Naruto into the room to check on Fū once more before turning back to Naruto.

"Should we try to wake her? Will that help her find the way back?" Shibuki asked.

"You can try if you want, but I honestly don't think it will work," Naruto said with a shake of his head, "Until she makes her way back into her own mindscape she won't wake up.

"It shouldn't take her too long to find her way back," Naruto added when he noticed Shibuki start fretting even more.

"Then we can only wait for now, but forgive me for not thanking you properly. I have just been so concerned since this event happened. Fū is such an innocent and cheerful young woman; it would be a shame if she were harmed." Shibuki said as he brushed Fū's hair out of her face with a fond look in his eye.

"Well, there might be some changes in her personality because of the effects a seal like that could have on her mind. It won't be anything dramatic, but you should not be surprised if she becomes more cautious after what she has been through." Naruto said with a glance at Jiraiya.

Shibuki frowned at the news before replying. "I suppose it can't be helped. Fū was just a genin because of her mentality. She had never gone on any serious missions besides delivering parcels to nearby villages. While she trains hard, like everyone else, she had not experienced any real combat until that day."

"Good. The mortals will not suspect us when she begins reacting to the negative emotions. Instead, they will view it as first kill syndrome." Kurama added.

"Still, I thank you for helping her," Shibuki said with a smile, "Besides allowing you to remain in the village for two months time, I will allow you access to all of our various training grounds and grant you copies of two different Suiton jutsu that are known only in Taki."

"That is quite generous of you Shibuki, Thank you very much," Jiraiya said.

"Please, it is the least we could do for helping out Fū," Shibuki said with a strained smile. It was obvious he was still worried for the green haired container. "Now, allow me to show you around the village and provide a brief lesson for your apprentice here."

"I would appreciate any lesson that you gave me Shibuki-sama," Naruto replied with a slight bow.

Shibuki smiled at Naruto's response and led them out of Fū's room. After murmuring a few commands to the Taki-nin standing guard, he led Jiraiya and Naruto out of the residence and into the village center. Naruto summoned Gamakichi as part of his promise and let the toad camp out on his shoulder while Shibuki gave them a tour of the village.

Shibuki told Naruto about the history of Taki and a few of the local legends, most of them revolving around the giant tree in the center of the lake.

Shibuki recited the tale of the giant tree being the first plant placed on the newly created world by the Kami, and that the tree produced the Hero Water to spread chakra throughout the world. Since no one was there to collect the Hero Water, the water spread throughout the lakes, rivers, and waterfalls and throughout the Elemental Nations imbuing chakra into all the plants and animals that drank from the waters of the world.

Shibuki said that while most people disregarded the legend as a simple story, they still had not been able to determine just how the tree produced the Hero Water. The village leaders were reluctant to run tests on the water because the tree only produced a small supply every 100 years, and that the people who have been documented to use the Hero Water all died as soon as the effects wear off.

A person that does drink the Hero Water is reported to have their stamina and chakra levels increase tenfold but after a few hours the effect wears off, and the person who used the water dies a few hours later from a combination of chakra poisoning and chakra exhaustion.

After showing them the pavilion inside of the giant tree where the Hero Water appears from, Shibuki led Naruto and Jiraiya around to other famous locations throughout the village. As they explored the village, the Taki leader told the duo more about the history of the landmarks and some other, lesser known, facts before he was called away to deal with some village business.

After bidding farewell to Shibuki, Jiraiya and Naruto decided to visit a restaurant and get some lunch before checking into an extended stay inn and unpacking some of their gear. Jiraiya then reviewed some common terms used by his contacts when referring to sensitive information and created some specific terms to discuss the Kyūbi in a more covert manner.

Next, Jiraiya gave him a cipher to use when writing messages. Unlike the fūinjutsu cipher Jiraiya first taught to Naruto, this was a lot more complex and didn't rely on an external source for the key. This way they could quickly and discreetly leave messages for each other that were relatively secure.

After establishing a schedule for training in Taki for the next two months and targets for how much Naruto would want to complete before leaving, Jiraiya left to gather some information about the attackers while leaving Naruto alone to practice working on the cipher he had given him.

Naruto and Gamakichi hung out in the room together for a few hours as Naruto practiced writing different phrases to each other before trying to crack them. While this was happening, a few clones were diligently working on his tagless barrier seal and a jutsu absorption seal.

It only took a few hours to play around with the cipher until Naruto felt confident he had it mostly memorized, so he made his way out into the village and tracked down a ramen stand for dinner. After Gamakichi had dispelled to return home, Naruto ended his first day in Taki by heading to bed early, eager to start his Suiton training bright and early.

One month later – Carp Training Ground – Taki


Naruto knelt in the center of a small pond with his hand on top of the water while he focused on converting his chakra, laced throughout the small pond, into Suiton chakra. As his regular chakra turned into Suiton chakra, he began converting it into pure water slowly.

The water level of the pond began to rise as the Suiton chakra began manifesting as it's pure element, and Naruto began to attempt the next step of his chakra control exercise. To rotate the water around him while leaving the very center, that he was standing, on completely still.

Naruto had been struggling with the level 2 Suiton control exercise for the past month even with the Kage Bunshin. His progress had been hindered mostly due to the lack of available training space, more than a failure on his part to achieve growth. Since most of the genin and chūnin level shinobi needed the still ponds of water to practice their own jutsu, Naruto did not want to impose by hogging them all with an army of clones.

He had attempted to try this exercise on larger bodies of water or pools beneath the waterfalls, but both presented challenges that were beyond his current level of Suiton control.

The large pools of water made it too difficult for Naruto to concentrate his chakra in a focused area, even when he tried to make up for the increase in water volume with an increase of clones. Since Suiton chakra naturally wanted to infuse itself with all of the water, his chakra would spread in an unorganized matter making it impossible for him to perform the exercise. Kurama had likened his attempts to dropping some ink into a bath tub. The ink will naturally extend and spread until it mixes with the entire body of water.

The moving water presented a different problem. Naruto had found some of the lesser waterfalls that dotted the area but even a much smaller pool proved difficult to control the movement. While he could use the natural flow to start moving the water in the direction he wanted as a shortcut, the problem lied in making the portion of the pond he was standing on remain still. It proved more of a challenge to try and keep the center of the pool completely still while spinning the outer portion of the pool since the constant flow of the waterfall forced him to readjust constantly.

Now, Naruto truly understood why Sasuke and Hinata would get so pissed at him when he used his Kage Bunshin to spam a chakra control exercises, and why it took most people years to master level 2 elemental manipulation.

Currently, he only had six other clones working on the training along with him in different locations. He had found ten suitable sites, but four of the clones dispelled as soon as a team appeared to make use of the training grounds.

He had caused quite the stir the first time he sent his clones out scouting for ideal training locations but after the first two weeks, the Taki-nin became familiar to seeing copies of Naruto running around.

Naruto had considered using a Henge for his clones at first, but Jiraiya warned against it, saying it could create more trouble if the Taki-nin kept seeing various strangers running around the village.

Naruto felt the water in the pond begin swirling clockwise while he tried to keep the central part of the pond from moving along with him, but despite his efforts the center started spinning along with the rest of the water forcing Naruto to stop the spin and restart the exercise all over again.

Naruto walked over to the edge and plopped down onto his back in frustration before closing his eyes. He knew he was missing something, but he couldn't figure out how to stop just one part of the water from moving entirely.

A shadow falling over him caused Naruto to pop and eye open, revealing Fū with a huge smile on her face.

'Crap' Naruto thought.

Naruto didn't hate Fū in any way, in fact, he found her unflappable cheeriness to be refreshing, sometimes. When he wanted to focus on something, however, Fū was the ultimate distraction, and he could never concentrate for long when she drilled him with her rapid questions or began singing loudly.

So, when Naruto wanted to focus on something, in particular, he would leave early in the morning and find a secluded training field to practice. Jiraiya, being the caring shishō that he is, would immediately send Fū out to where ever he had hidden away.

Naruto had complained about it the first few times, but Jiraiya waived his complaints off and called it distraction training. He couldn't dispute the fact that he needed to practice tuning out distractions when it came to battle, but most people would typically learn in a quiet environment before dealing with distractions once they have mastered the ability.

"Naruto are you done training? I was looking all over for you, but I only found your copies! Are you still trying to spin the water? Can you turn the water faster now? Is it fun to spin the water fast?" Fū asked rapidly.

"I'm not done quite yet Fū. I am still trying to complete this chakra exercise, but I just can't seem to stop the center from spinning once I get started." Naruto replied before closing his eye and waiting for the next series of questions.

Naruto and Kurama had been quite surprised at how fast Fū had adapted to negative emotion sensing. Chōmei was still mostly in control, but Fū was able to recognize the different emotions Chōmei allowed for her to sense right away.

It seemed that she just didn't care how they felt at all. She would still approach someone who she could sense hatred from and would try to befriend them anyways. She would be down for a little while after being rejected, but would perk right up once distracted with something else or if someone else came along for her to try and befriend.

Fū hummed in thought for a moment before she spoke. "When I spin too much in one direction I usually get dizzy unless I spin in the other direction first. Do you think it works the same for water?

Naruto thought over Fū's question for a moment trying to find a way to respond when suddenly he snapped both of his eyes open and grinned. It suddenly all made sense to him now.

"You know Fū. I think it might just work the same for water. Thank you. You just gave me an idea." Naruto replied before he jumped up and made his way back out to the water. Naruto relayed the new information to his active clones before he started.

Fū merely frowned. She had been hoping to spend more time with Naruto instead of watching him spin water. It was so boring to sit there and spin water. Didn't he want to do something that was more fun? Naruto was a lot of fun to play with when he did agree to play with her, but it was always hard to convince him.

When she could convince the boring blond to play ninja tag or hide and seek, he didn't seem so boring anymore. He always used plenty of clones to hide with, and it was always fun trying to find which rock, stick, bird, or cat he used to disguise himself.

At first, she had been so much better at tag then he was, but she still had fun avoiding his attempts to make her it. Lately, she had actually had to chase him for a while before she could tag him as it, and while he was still slower than she was, he was able to keep up with her more and had would always come up with clever traps to slow her down so he could tag her.

'I should have known that I can't keep water still, water has to flow continuously, or it stagnates or evaporates. The same is true for Suiton chakra. That means I have to spin the center in the opposite direction at a much slower rate.' Naruto thought to himself before he began imbuing the water in the pond with his chakra.

He made a lot more progress in succeeding this time, but he still had trouble maintaining the rotations of the entire pond at a consistent speed. Once the rotation began to build momentum he would start losing control, but he got the gist of it now, he just needed time to master the exercise.

Naruto stopped his chakra flow and looked up at Fū as she pouted at the edge of the pond. Naruto sighed to himself before he made his way over towards her. She did help him figure it out, so the least he could do is "play" with her for the rest of the day.

Naruto had only agreed to play games with her that could assist with his training in some form. It also helped Fū develop her skills, so it was a win-win situation in his book. She seemed to enjoy it as well, so he didn't feel as guilty for essentially manipulating her to only play games he deemed useful.

Naruto had wanted to train with her seriously, but it was impossible to do. She would get so excited about spending time with him as a friend or playing that he could never get a word in edgewise. So the first suggestion Naruto made was to play ninja tag, only to be surprised at just how fast Fū really was.

Fū had been able to manifest partial transformations already, and with Chōmei's wings, her speed was as fast as Rock Lee without some of his weights. Needless to say, once Fū found Naruto he would lose quite quickly.

So, Naruto started to play Ninja tag with Fū for a few hours every day. He would hone his senses while walking on his patrol route, trying to catch sight of her hiding spot and avoiding any traps she had set. Once he discovered Fū, he would have to evade and dodge her attacks to try and avoid being tagged.

When she finally did catch him, it was his turn to play the ninja and practice setting up hidden traps and hiding away. Naruto was not nearly fast enough to catch Fū, so he had to rely on ambush tactics if he hoped to tag her.

While Naruto would never admit it to anyone, he would start getting into the game and enjoying himself. It reminded him of the days when he would play with Shikamaru, Choji, and some of the village kids who didn't know or care about Naruto.

Naruto had not played like this for almost three years. Most shinobi students in the Academy would stop playing entirely after their third year and focus mainly on training in order to graduate. After graduation, there was no time for a genin to play because they needed to train and complete missions to prepare them for the future.

Fū perked up when Naruto approached her and leaped up onto her feet before dancing excitedly.

"Are we going to play more Ninja tag now Naruto? Please? I can't wait to try some of my new traps on you! You'll never catch me this time!" Fū said gleefully.

"If you want to Fū, then I'll play, but you can choose a different game this time if you want," Naruto said with a soft smile on his face.

Fū's eyes sparkled with excitement when she heard Naruto say she could pick any game. She had wanted to play lots of different games, but Naruto only seemed interested in Ninja tag, and she loved ninja tag, so she was satisfied. Now she could introduce him to some other games and maybe he would like to play them even more.

The rest of the day Naruto followed along after Fū on all sorts of meaningless, but enjoyable escapades. They raced each other through the branches of the great tree for about an hour before Fū grew bored of winning and decided she wanted to explore some of the lesser-known caves for hidden treasure.

Besides a few rusty ninja tools and oddly shaped river rocks, their search was mostly fruitless, but Naruto had to admit that he had found it interesting to delve through the caves and see the different types of rocks and minerals formations that had formed.

After their adventures in spelunking, she led Naruto to the outer edge of the village and showed him how to build rafts out of branches. It was a process very similar to basket weaving from what Naruto observed, and while the skill was quaint and unnecessary when one could use chakra to keep themselves afloat, it didn't hurt him to try his hand at it. People still used bamboo weave for furniture and other novelty items to this day.

Next came the challenge to remain balanced on logs floating in a slow moving river without chakra. Since this had a more practical application in honing one's balance and reaction time, Naruto took this challenge a bit more seriously. It had proven to be far more challenging than he imagined and when the logs began to pick up speed as they neared one of the numerous falls around the village, it had been exhilarating to try and make their way back to shore between the different logs before they were carried over.

Once they had rested and had lunch at one of the few restaurants that served Fū without discrimination, she dragged Naruto back to the great tree and introduced him to a Taki style rope swing. The thick knotted rope hung from a huge branch that had to be at least 80 feet in the air. Needless to say, it took Naruto quite some time and a healthy dose of teasing and encouragement from Fū for Naruto to muster the courage to make the jump, but in the end, the rush alone was worth it. The jinchFūriki pair spent the next few hours trading off turns on the swing until they decided to see which one of them could be flung into the deep end of the lake the furthest.

Fū ended the day by teaching Naruto how to skip river rocks across the lake and how to catch fireflies in a jar after sunset. Naruto found the scene to be serene and enchanting as the tranquil lake reflected the night sky and the flickering lights of the beetles sparkled around him. It felt like he had been immersed in a sea of stars.

Kurama had woken up during one of these games earlier in the day and was curious about his actions. Once Naruto explained what he was doing, Kurama had simply huffed in contempt before returning to his nap and telling Naruto to wake him if he decided to do something remarkable.

When Naruto returned to the inn that night, he was surprised to find himself quite exhausted. Apparently goofing off could be quite exerting after all. Usually, he would be annoyed with the fact that he had lost a day of training, but as he ate his dinner and discussed the day with Jiraiya, he couldn't consider the day to be wasteful.

He couldn't remember the last time he had simply spent the day doing nonsensical things while being completely relaxed, and he couldn't deny that it was hard for him to remove the small smile on his face when he thought about everything he had experienced today.

Naruto decided that he wouldn't mind doing things like this in the future and that, in the end, it wouldn't set him back too much if he took a few days like this for himself, once in awhile.

Jiraiya couldn't help the smile on his face as he watched Naruto settle down for the night and for the first time looking like a young teen instead of a young shinobi. It was sad how fast shinobi children had to grow up in this world, and Jiraiya couldn't help but wonder if that was part of the cause of there being so much violence in the world.

Jiraiya had seen most of the world, even having taken a few trips to the other continent for short periods of time, and the children in villages that had no shinobi were still in school worrying about dating and toys at the same age that shinobi children were graduating into espionage and assassination.

It had been quite the eye opener to Jiraiya to see some nations still have their kids studying in school until the age of majority, where shinobi children would be already approaching Jōnin level in experience in that same amount of time.

Jiraiya had been happy to see some of Fū's cheeriness starting to bulldoze its way through Naruto's stoic walls, but he had never seen Naruto unwind completely like he did today. It had been interesting and amusing to watch Fū drag Naruto all over the village, playing like any other child.

Jiraiya's smile faltered when he remembered that his godson not only had the burden of the Kyūbi and being a jinchūriki on his shoulders, but he was also a chūnin who would likely be neck deep in Fourth Shinobi war. What little innocence Naruto had would be long gone before most people in the world considered him an adult.

Jiraiya was, at least, grateful to let Naruto experience being carefree, no matter how brief, and hoped that Naruto would learn to unwind and enjoy himself more often.

Mid Morning - Two months later – Entrance to Takigakure


Naruto patted the sobbing Fū on the back as he gave her a final hug before departing for the rest of his training trip. Shibuki, Fū and a handful of Taki genin were there to see Naruto and Jiraiya off. Naruto had been comforting Fū with encouraging words, but Fū was proving to be inconsolable.

Naruto had taken a day off every week to simply play with Fū and eventually more of Fū's true friends began to join in on their relaxation days. As the group started to grow closer, Jiraiya had extended their time in Taki for an extra month but even though he would like Naruto to stay longer, his contacts in Tanigakure (Village Hidden in Valleys) were expecting him to arrive soon. They needed to head to Kawa no Kuni (Land of Rivers) soon.

Naruto had made good progress even with taking a day off each week. He had mastered the level 2 Suiton manipulation exercise, mastered Mizu Tatsumaki (Tornado of water) and Suiton: Suishōha (Water Shockwave), and had started to make progress on the Nidaime's first Suiton chakra exercise. During his mindscape training, he managed to complete his work on applying all his current combat focused seals even faster and more efficiently than before. He was also able to create a barrier with a single tag instead of needing multiple tags and completed the jutsu absorption seal which was capable of absorbing up to C rank jutsu right now. Naruto still needed to adjust and tweak the containment and spatial lines to increase the absorption power which shouldn't take too long.

Fū had become more adept at sensing and identifying negative emotions. She was now able to maintain control on her own for short distances. Her cheeriness still proved to be unflappable, but she was able to act more reserved around people who thought negatively of her which seemed to help reduce their animosity towards her.

Fū had also managed to successfully give two tubes of Hero Water, instead of the one that they had planned, without drawing any attention. Naruto had sealed that away in a safe place. The extra tube of Hero Water would ensure that Naruto could make an extra well of specialized ink needed for the seal he would have to create for the plan. Gyūki's ink would not be compatible with the seal he needed to create, and regular run of the mill wouldn't do.

Now he would need to gather some very specific herbs, flowers, and pearls to use in the creation of the ink. Fortunately, most of the ingredients for the ink were also necessary for creating the specific incense he would need to make to calm and subdue the ones that would be trapped inside the barrier and guarding the seal against outside influences.

Naruto managed to calm Fū down enough with the promise of sending her messages as often as he could so she would stop clinging to him and openly sobbing. Fū just sniffled sadly while Naruto said his farewells to the rest of their play group. Naruto and Jiraiya thanked Shibuki for his hospitality before they turned away from the large waterfalls surrounding the village and began making their way to their next destination.

Jiraiya backtracked a little towards Konoha so that they could both use the tree paths to Kawa no Kuni to increase their travel time. After moving at speed through the tree tops for the rest of the day and into the early evening, Jiraiya came to a halt in a suitable clearing to set up camp and moved to gather some firewood and start their campfire.

Naruto was tasked to see if he could track down any game for dinner and was able to find a small boar as well as some wild onions, which was more than suitable for both of them. Jiraiya cleaned the haunches and onions before spearing them with a spit to cook immediately. Then he unsealed a special metal folding rack and set it up over the fire. Naruto and Jiraiya cut up the rest of the boar into small steaks or strips and set them over the fire to smoke along with the haunches.

As dinner was cooking, Jiraiya decided to broach the subject of Kyūbi's Yin chakra to Naruto to test the waters. While Minato had been adamant about Jiraiya giving him all of the Kyūbi's chakra right away, Jiraiya was still hesitant to give the demon more power if it had been already influencing his godson to some degree.

"Naruto I have some very strange and possibly disturbing news to tell you, so please just hear me out before you respond okay?" Jiraiya said.

"Of course, shishō. What seems to be the problem?" Naruto asked curiously.

"During the invasion, Orochimaru used a kinjutsu that sacrifices people or corpses to temporarily resurrect someone from the dead. These constructs have the soul of the resurrected person but are subject to the control of the individual who resurrected them with the use of control tags." Jiraiya said with a grimace.

Naruto simply nodded, he briefly remembered seeing that jutsu on the Scroll of Sealing that Mizuki had tried to frame him with. He also suspected that Jiraiya would bring up Kurama's other chakra now.

"Now, I don't have all the details, but he was able to resurrect your father to face me in battle." Jiraiya studied Naruto, expecting some sort of response but Naruto just patiently waited for him to finish.

"As you probably know, your father sealed the Yin half of the Kyūbi into himself before he was taken into the belly of the Shinigami to be devoured instead of reaching the pure land. Somehow he was able to resist Orochimaru's commands, and he made some comments to me that I want to talk to you about." Jiraiya said in a serious tone.

Naruto and Kurama both didn't like the sound of Jiraiya's voice when he said that. Was it possible his father had been able to see all their plans from the Shinigami stomach?

Kurama's thoughts were racing on the probability that such a thing was possible. He knew that the bastard Yondaime had some presence and could watch their interactions to some extent, but he wasn't certain of how much the man had heard, or if he had been capable of viewing the events in the shared mindscape he created in Nami no Kuni when the plan was revealed. Kurama was quickly trying to formulate a valid response to the Toad Sage if their plans had been revealed. It was too soon for any part of the plan to be revealed to others. Naruto was not strong enough to survive on his own with a village hunting him and now that he was bound to the Toads, they would always be able to track or recall him anyways.

Naruto managed to keep the nervousness he felt off his face completely due to the practice he had in maintaining his stoic facade.

"What kind of comments, shishō?" Naruto asked quietly.

"Naruto. Tell me, what do you think about humanity in general?" Jiraiya asked before adding, "I want you to be completely honest with me. I promise you that you can speak freely with me without any worries because I want you to be able to trust me. Trust that I won't reveal things to the Sandaime or Tsunade if you don't want me to." Jiraiya said sincerely.

Naruto pondered Jiraiya's question for a few moments as he thought about how he actually felt, and if he could trust Jiraiya with his innermost thoughts. He already knew what Kurama's response would be. He wanted to be honest with Jiraiya but at the same time, he didn't want to violate Kurama's trust in him.

"It is best to keep our thoughts separate when regarding such things. I know you do not agree with me entirely on humanity, but we have spent much time combining our very thoughts. Now you are having difficulty separating your own views from mine. If you honestly feel you must open up to the fool, then do so. Kurama said encouragingly. "I think you are strong enough to deal with such things without confiding in him," Kurama added sincerely, "As long as you do not reveal the plan to him, I will not consider it a violation of our trust. Be wary, though, the fool is quite capable of picking up the subtleties in a person's speech," Kurama added as a final warning.

Kurama knew that causing conflict between the two now would only cause problems for both of them down the line. Kurama was confident that Naruto would trust him over all the others, but he couldn't begrudge the kit's inner desires for a family without creating a rift between them. He had to remind himself that Naruto still had the spirit of a human, even if every other aspect of Naruto was entirely different from a human.

"Well, shishō, I can't say much about my experiences with humanity in general. People in the village just hated me because of what other people said. I also can't dispute just how much negativity I can feel in people on a regular basis," Naruto said with a frown, "I know my senses tend to skew my perspective of everyone, but I do think the Kyūbi is right about most people being inherently corrupt. I can't ever relax my senses completely within the village, or I would be overcome by the amount of negativity that exists in Konoha." Naruto said honestly.

"I know there are still some people who are not such greedy bastards out there, but when I can feel these types of emotions, it doesn't tend to give me a lot of faith in people. Then there was the fact that Makoto was able to hide such feelings from me. That made me believe that things are actually worse." Naruto said with a sigh. "I mean, if she had managed to find a way to conceal or twist those emotions so that I couldn't pick them up that can only mean that other people have managed to do the same."

Jiraiya managed to maintain his interested expression but in a small way, Minato's fears were confirmed to him. Without the Kyūbi even speaking to Naruto, his emotion sensing was something that Naruto used to separate himself from humanity. While most people would only be put off by someone's actions or words, Naruto could be put off a person because they were angry or annoyed at something, even if they were actually a good person.

Negative emotions were also generally stronger than positive emotions, so they also weighed more heavily on his mind. While love itself was intense, a lot of the emotion of love was tied in with lust which most people view as a negative emotion. Peace was a subtle feeling when compared to anger or hatred. Happiness was only strong when tied directly to someone or something, which could be easily misconstrued as greed or possessiveness.

"While I may not have the ability to sense emotions like you do, I have become quite good at reading emotions from the way people behave. It is something that I will also share with you, so it will reduce the chance that someone might fool you, but I think I can catch your drift," Jiraiya said with a sigh, "I happen to agree with you to some extent. There is just too much hatred in this world and that hatred is the cause of everyone's suffering especially because hate is so much stronger than every other emotion besides love." Jiraiya said sincerely.

"I believe that hatred leads to all the other things like greed and envy. Hatred is so consuming for a person that it tends to leave you bitter and unhappy. People consumed by hatred will seek out ways to try cure that darkness in their hearts by tending to lash out at others. These actions, in turn, lead to more violence and hatred because more people begin to act the same way and the hatred spreads." Jiraiya said.

"Now, I'll be the first to admit that I am an unabashed pervert. But, in a small way, I think that if everyone was more free with their love, then people would have less hatred in their hearts and could come to understand each other better." Jiraiya looked up at the sky as he gathered his thoughts. "Everyone tends to categorize or focus their love to a degree that they act like love can only be for specific things or people. If everyone gave their love to other people freely then I think hatred couldn't take root and spread in the way that it does."

Jiraiya looked back towards Naruto before clarifying, "Not to say that love requires everyone to give into lust or womanize as most people believe. Honestly, I think everyone should focus more on the beauty around them and enjoy what they love so that they don't succumb to the hate in this world. My personal focus just happens to be the beauty of the female form and all the pleasures of being with a woman," Jiraiya said with a lecherous grin, "I won't complain if every woman wants to show me their love in a more physical way."

Naruto couldn't stop himself from shaking his head and chuckling slightly at Jiraiya's comment.

"Only you could make a profound conversation turn perverted shishō. I understand what you are saying, though. There was a time where I had hope that there were more people like me in the world. I don't mean as a jinchūriki either," Naruto clarified, "I mean as a person who would rather turn away from the hate. I would like nothing more than to be able to reach out with my senses and feel nothing in a manner of speaking."

"I think we all would like that kid. You just need to keep in mind that lesson you learned from that Makoto girl. Don't let your senses cloud your logic and realize that just because you can sense negative emotions from someone, doesn't automatically mean they are a bad person. Sometimes you lie to protect someone who is innocent, at times anger and hatred are justified. When you let those things govern you, that is when it becomes a problem." Jiraiya said calmly.

"Before I resealed your father, to return him to his rest, he sealed away the Yin half of the Kyūbi's chakra into a storage seal that I have with me." Jiraiya said as he studied Naruto's reaction, "Tomorrow we will push on towards an isolated place that I would like to show you before I let you absorb the other half of the Kyūbi's chakra."

Naruto had been rotating the pork haunches over the fire to make sure they cooked evenly before he paused and looked towards Jiraiya.

"We might have to take it slow and let your chakra system balance itself out before you can absorb it completely," Jiraiya warned.

"I know the Kyūbi is looking forward to it. I am just uncertain about what will happen when I do absorb the rest of that chakra, or if I need to do something particular to make sure that I am absorbing it properly." Naruto replied.

"Don't worry about it. I will explain it to you once we begin the process, and you can take as much time as you need so that we can be certain there will be no problems for you." Jiraiya replied.

The rest of the evening Jiraiya explained the subtle facial and body movements that gave away emotions that a person was feeling, with a lot more emphasis on women and positive emotions in particular that made Naruto blush with the thought as Jiraiya had begun to get quite descriptive about the signs of arousal in a woman.

After eating their pork haunches and wild onions, they checked on the extra pieces that were smoking over the fire and sealed some away for tomorrow. Jiraiya then decided he would take first watch and catch up on some writing while Naruto prepared himself for bed.