Chapter 1-
Naruto opened his eyes, the sting of the burn marks he received was still there, his hands were gripping a headband, he raised himself from the pillow into an upright position.
He glanced at the headband with a horizontal cut, made by his sharp nails when he used the fox power.
"I'm going to Orochimaru…"
A boy with marks all over his skin, with cold red eyes, said that to him, with an indifferent tone.
"Naruto… This… This is my only wish of a lifetime…"
A crying girl, too weak to make any change, pleaded for him for things to go back to the way things were. A group of three, an idiotic brat, a broody brat, a screaming brat, and a lazy adult… Team 7.
There was no going back.
The thirteen-year-old glanced at his chest, the wound inflicted twice, one in his right lung, one below the heart, they were already healing, in a few days, there wouldn't be a scar left.
It was always like this, his body never blemished since he was little.
But the sting of betrayal was deep, for Sasuke to attack him so easily, to attack him so viciously without hesitation. Now that the dust was settled, and the battle was over, with Sasuke leaving… Naruto had a lot of time to ponder what happened back in that valley.
Until the end… all your attacks were aimed to kill me, then why am I still alive?
For the first time Naruto doubted their bond, in the valley he was fervently defending their friendship but now he doubted if he would feel the same if he ever were to meet Sasuke again.
Sorry, Sakura… I don't think I can fulfill our promise
Naruto was only human, being ostracized in this village to the point of extreme lynching, he hid his worst emotions, but right now…
Sorry, Sakura… next time he and I meet, I will probably rip his head off...
Betrayal from his first friend, one who shared the pain of loneliness, and he abandoned the chance to overcome that loneliness so easily… Naruto had a lot of anger in his body, even though his posture was still straight, and his expression glum.
He was betrayed and angry, this bond, it wasn't friendship, it wasn't a close bond, what did he know of Sasuke? and what did the raven-haired boy know of him? It was all so stupid in the end, they connected through their loneliness, however, their petty rivalry always put a large barrier that couldn't be crossed.
It was hard going back to the goofball he was before, he acted out to make people look at him.
When he was in the team, that was the default personality to fall back to, it was inoffensive and made people laugh instead of glaring and cursing his existence, but after thirteen years he was tired of acting…
In the place of an overconfident and fun-loving Naruto was just a tired and angry teenager.
What he had in life was very little, you could count it in just one hand: his dream of becoming Hokage, a team that can't really become close, and the six people in the world who supported him, the number was six, but old man Hokage was already gone. So he now had five people in his life… Tsunade, Jiraiya, Shizune, Teuchi, Ayame, Iruka.
Losing Sasuke to Orochimaru was a hard blow, but he still had so much to live, and with a breath of determination, he leaped out of bed and started doing heavy exercises, the room had pipes going in the ceiling so it was easy to hang and do reverse sit-ups with his feet hanging on the bar.
Embarrassing to say, but Sasuke had the physical advantage in their fight, his punches and kicks were incredibly heavy and Naruto could only bridge the gap by using the fox powers and that was no real way to get stronger.
Relying on a hatred-filled fox to do the work for you was plain wrong… he used it as a crutch and a trump card to win his fights, but that needs to come to an end, he has to rely on his own strength going forward.
If training until he dropped dead would make him stronger, then he would drop dead a thousand times, he saw how hard Lee worked, it was time to take his example.
After 90 minutes, the door was opened and entered a ninja with the standard jacket and a pineapple hair.
"No rest for the wicked, huh?"
"Shikamaru!" Naruto exclaimed, full of sweat as he dropped down from the ceiling, underneath the skin the muscles were already starting to heal from the power of his lineage and the sealed fox.
He picked up the white patient kimono top and used it as a towel to wipe off the sweat.
"Man, here I am with a broken finger and fatigue, and you recover faster than I do, what a drag… anyways Naruto, is everything working?"
Naruto moved his arm and stretched his shoulder blade, making a loud crack, he did the same for his neck. "Yeah, I was tired of the bed, had to exercise some kinks off..." Naruto smiled a bit as they sat on the bed and started to talk.
"Hey, Shikamaru...I was in bed for a couple of hours, did everyone…?"
"Yeah, everyone came back, though Choji and Neji are still in intensive care, they were… injured a lot more than me."
"Still, everyone made it out ok, that's a relief, and gra— Tsunade is here, she can care for them, don't worry, they'll pull through." he wouldn't know what to do with himself if somebody had died in this insane mission... He would probably start hating Sasuke even more.
"...You're right," Shikamaru exhaled a big sigh as if a tiny bit of worry and guilt escaped his body, then he looked at Naruto, instead of the blue azure eyes shining, they were cold as ice. Instead of the grin, there was just a small smile on Naruto's face as they settled.
After a moment, Shikamaru spied on Naruto as he made his question. "... Sasuke wouldn't…?"
"No… I tried everything, from convincing, pleading, negotiating… and finally fighting to bring him back, but I lost in the final strike."
Naruto looked down at the headband of his first friend, deep claw marks in steel.
if at that moment, Sasuke wasn't wearing it, it was a shuddering thought, the claws at that time would rip apart his friend's skull and his first friend would be dead, at that moment Naruto was aiming to kill Sasuke.
"He's gone," Naruto said with a tired voice.
Outside of the room, Sakura's hand fell from the handle of the door, her eyes scrunched, bags under her wide eyes as she realized there was no going back to team 7, why would Sasuke abandon them, why was she so weak to rely on Naruto with such a cruel promise?
There was no going back to those fun days.
"Are you here to visit Naruto?" The clatter of the Hokage's sandals alerted the pink girl of the presence of her leader, the famous lady Tsunade, the best medic this continent has ever seen.
"You're Haruno Sakura of team 7? Kakashi talks a lot about you… Anyways, News travels fast.'' The Hokage's lips formed a smile, she was a beautiful woman in Sakura's eyes to be sure, beautiful and powerful unlike her, who had to rely on the sympathy of others to survive…
'I've not changed a thing, I'm so weak.' such thoughts permeated her mind these couple of days.
Tsunade slid the door, revealing both Naruto and Shikamaru inside. Naruto seemed surprised to see his pink-haired teammate.
Her eyes widened as she looked at her friend, golden hair, blue eyes, however, his face was full of gauzes, his chest was like a mummy, Sasuke did this to him?
He did this to his teammate. Where was the boy that she loved, the Sasuke who was withdrawn but still valued his friends, where has he gone, Was he dead?
Then who was Sasuke now?
Naruto got hurt like this because of her request... because she was so weak.
"Naruto," she uttered his name in pain, worried about him.
He closed his eyes in anguish, searching for something to say. Shikamaru watched him, waiting for something to be said.
Tsunade went directly to the bed, and disrobed him, pulling apart the gauzes, revealing first degree burns all over.
"Honestly brat, just this morning these were three-degree burns from fire techniques hitting your body, you heal way too fast, a normal person would stay here being treated for burns for at least two weeks…" Her dainty medic hands glowed fervent green touching the few spots with bruises and healing the little burns scattered throughout his body.
Sakura looked at Tsunade working attentively, the desire to learn and mend Naruto was welling up inside, but she had little training in medical techniques… Naruto got hurt because of her, she wanted to be a source of strength for her friend somehow, and seeing Tsunade with her big smile and light in her eyes as she teased and argued with her blonde friend made her somewhat want to be in her position.
"Not to mention you had to heal two holes in your chest, that little Uchiha messed you up."
'Two holes? Holes, what?' Sakura's eyes filled with anguish, there was no going back, Naruto was so hurt like this, she didn't know if she had the heart to forgive Sasuke now.
"Naruto… you don't..."
"Sakura. I'm… I'm sorry."
"Dummy, what are you apologizing for now? " Sakura went and opened the window. "The one who should apologize is Sasuke, not you… he put you in that state..."
"But, I gave back as hard as I could, I hurt Sasuke so much in our fight… "
"... It doesn't matter Naruto… he chose to… to leave the village, it was his mistake, you shouldn't apologize." Sakura silently cried in front of them, for the loss of team 7, for the loss of her crush, for how badly Naruto was hurt for this.
"Sakura, I'll keep my promise… I never go back on my word, if I say I'm going to bring him back I will."
Sakura wasn't so keen on the prospect of facing her past crush, but Naruto gave her such a large grin that she couldn't help but smile back if Naruto wanted to bring his best friend back, then who was she to stop him?
"...I'll bring him back, even if it's in a body bag" he whispered, only Shikamaru and Tsunade heard him since they were in his bed.
The lazy Chunin just scratched his neck, he agreed with Naruto, Sasuke was a traitor and deserved what was coming for him.
Tsunade was petting his golden hair and sighed, she wasn't particularly close to the last Uchiha or any Uchiha even, since she was the descendant of their rival clan, most of the village didn't care for the boy either, from what she heard from the Chunin exam, people seemed to adore the last Uchiha but that wasn't the case, once he was gone from the village, he was gone from people's mind,
Out of sight out of mind as it were.
Only a few rich council members and a couple of elders had a vested interest in the now-traitor, the council members wanted to marry their daughters to get their claws in the fortune left behind by a huge clan, the elders just wanted to restore the clan and wanted to push olden laws for it…
All of his privileges, all favoritism was just superficial.
But that Uchiha boy had something genuine in team 7, to just abandon all that, he gathered no sympathies from her he was now a traitor and would be treated as such.
'And so closes the history of the Uchiha clan, all of the fortunes will be transferred to the village budget since the two members left are traitors, their knowledge and scrolls will go to the public eye, their clan shall be dissolved…
What would grandfather think of the Uchiha clan now?' Tsunade asked herself, a bit somber.
"Naruto, I'm sorry you'll need to wait for a while, next time I'm coming with you" Sakura didn't want to face Sasuke again in her lifetime, but for the sake of her friend Naruto she would endure the pain.
After they left, Naruto once again pulled himself out of bed, now without the gauzes, he trained again, putting himself over the most extreme exercises he could think of in this tight space.
It was by dusk that pervy sage arrived by his window, they had an intense discussion over Sasuke and his fate, Naruto was unwilling to give up, he had to confront Sasuke again to confirm his feelings for his… friend, fortunately, by the hand of fate... Both Akatsuki and Orochimaru had to wait at least three years,
then the Akatsuki would start to hunt him and other humans with sealed beasts inside of them, and Orochimaru would use his immortality technique on the last Uchiha.
Three years to train, three years to become great.
"...When you're discharged from the hospital, be ready, the next three years will be unlike anything you ever imagine" Jiraiya said this as he jumped to the toad's head outside of the window, then the toad readied his strong legs and jumped out.
Four portraits lined up, representing the Hokage, a burden only now she knew the full weight of. 'As long as this great tree called the hidden leaf is entrusted to me, no matter what crisis may fall on the village, all of the duty and responsibility for its well being is placed on my shoulders'
"This Hokage business is tougher than it looks, to think that brat wants to take the hat this badly, well I don't envy him if he does," Tsunade said with a smile.
"It's been two weeks since that mission, Sakura is already focused on my training, time to visit the brat."
"Mr. Uzumaki, please drop the weights, you are still healing!" a medic said with sweat running down his face, that's the scene she entered the room.
Naruto was suspended on the beam by one foot, while he held two massive weights on both arms, raising himself and meeting his hips as he raised his torso up and down, she could see his muscle mass had drastically changed from two weeks prior, he was sporting a toned body, but that's not possible, even for a ninja to build such a body would take at least two years of intense physical training and dieting.
"Naruto, how are you? Think you're ready to be discharged?" she asked.
"Lady Tsunade..." the medic exclaimed as he hadn't noticed her arrival.
"Yeah, I was ready to be discharged since two weeks ago!" he flipped in the air, still holding the massive weights, and dropped to the ground with both naked feet, he carefully laid down the weights and went back to the bed.
"I see… then why aren't you discharged yet?"
"I don't know… ask this guy, he's been the one keeping me here!" Naruto pointed to the medic.
She had a pointed look at the medic. "Lady Tsunade... Mr. Uzumaki, You have been hit by two A-rank Assassination techniques in the torso! we need time to observe any changes to your body!"
She sighed and approached the boy on the bed, and put her fingers on his chest as a green light lit up on her fingers, she noticed that most of his muscles were torn apart, yet were healing so rapidly, so fast… in less than a minute later, the metabolism was finished, every muscle fiber in his body was healed.
So that's how he got this much muscle definition in such a short amount of time, his muscles did not need to rest… at all. The only thing impeding him from strength training all day was stamina, and even then, he was wolfing down 12 meals per day by the reports, and those were not light meals.
Tsunade stroked the side of his hair. "Jeez, you consume too much hospital budget brat, well it's better this way than always eating ramen, carbohydrates and salt won't make you grow any taller brat"
"R— really?" he said a bit nervously.
"Really! If you only eat ramen then perhaps you will remain the size of a kid while the rest of your class grows taller and taller, if you don't want to remain 136 centimeters forever, I suggest you eat a lot and exercise a lot while you are away, just like you are doing here brat, since Jiraiya is going with you abuse his wallet to your heart's content, you have the permission from the Hokage!" she said with a smirk.
He gave that large grin as well, and both started laughing together and closely, yes, their affection was like mother and son.
Later that day she personally discharged him, the healing from the fox more than took care of the boy's physical injuries. Naruto was happy to get out of the hospital, he never really liked the septic smell and gloomy atmosphere of a hospital.
Hot steam poured over his face as he dug in the newly made ramen from the Ichiraku shop, he was telling Iruka about how he was going on a long training trip outside the village.
"So you're going with master Jiraiya... How long do you think this trip will go?"
"Hrm, less than three years"
'Naruto, you calmed down in these past few days, what is going on inside that head of yours?' Iruka thought as he looked to the boy finishing his seventh bowl.
The golden-haired boy wasn't wearing his jacket anymore, just the orange pants and a black shirt. "Hey Naruto, where is your orange jacket?"
"Well, it was straining pretty badly on my arms and chest last time I wore, even this shirt and pants are straining against my body, it's very uncomfortable, I guess I need to buy new clothes."
"Well, you are thirteen, soon enough you'll grow taller than me."
"You think so? I was the smallest of my class… Grandma Tsunade said that I need to eat less ramen and eat more whole foods during the day. So I started eating more veggies and eating a lot of meat, especially chicken."
"Hm, she might be right." Iruka supported his head with his hand as he watched Naruto finish...
"Hey! Even if she's Hokage I won't forgive her for driving away my favorite customer." old man Teuchi ranted from the back, making Naruto, Iruka, and Ayame laugh at his statement
Jiraiya entered the booth and said to the blonde boy. "Let's get going Naruto."
"Right, I'm off Iruka, old man Teuchi, Ayame-chan."
Naruto gave his goodbyes to the closest people he had for a family in the village, the father-daughter duo gave him a warm farewell and Iruka just smiled at him.
'Naruto... I know you'll do your best… become strong, stronger than anyone.'
As they arrived at the gate, Naruto turned to see his idol, the stone face of the fourth Hokage, he reached out with his more muscular arm and tightened a fist towards the face carved in stone.
"Watch me. I'll become the most powerful ninja in the world, stronger than you, in fact, I'll not give anyone the right to contest that title!"
"That's some ballsy words… If you'll be able to live to those words I don't know, but I promise you this, you'll not have time to be lazing around for the next three years, you'll either be eating, sleeping, training, learning and always doing something"
"I wouldn't settle for less… Jiraiya-sensei."
"Finally learning some manners brat? Let's go!"
They arrived in a festive town, summer is the season for festivals around Fire country, this small town had casinos, a red light district and a couple of inns, almost as big as Otafuku Gai.
It was the brink of the morning so Naruto saw many people opening shops. Jiraiya made a few rounds around the shops, inviting Naruto to listen to their conversations.
Jiraiya told Naruto to learn from everything he saw Jiraiya do, for one hour that's exactly what Naruto did, a far cry to the loudmouth, Naruto stayed cleverly hidden, so well, in fact, an ANBU might have trouble detecting him.
He observed Jiraiya with open eyes, not just looking, not just hearing, observing every movement, listening to every inflection, seeing every expression to the minute changes in their facial expressions, he observed and learned, searing in his brain how Jiraiya extracted and manipulated people for information.
After that hour Naruto had a whole new dimension of knowledge for himself and respect for Jiraiya, the toad summoner was an impressive ninja in Naruto's opinion.
"You are impressive Naruto, you were able to absorb all that, I only reached your levels of observational skills by the time I was thirty. I don't know if I should call you crazy or insane, but you are thirsty, thirsty for knowledge and to improve yourself that is." Jiraiya petted his golden hair.
"When you said to watch, I didn't want any details of what you were doing to go to waste. I just..."
"You've matured so much in so little time, you are a remarkable child."
Leaving the town for a bit they arrived at a clearing filled with trees all around them, and a steep rocky hill on the side.
"When I was thinking on how to train you, my first thought was to have you control the fox's chakra, but time and time again you told me you don't want to rely on its powers, I agree with you, however, the enemies we're talking about are all S-rank..."
"But, the fox..."
"Yes, I know, then let's make a compromise, if you are unable to become an S-rank ninja by one year and six months, then we'll start learning the fox chakra… and if at any point you want to start learning about it, and understanding the fox spirit inside you, we can start at any time you want as well."
"I see, okay then, I'll become stronger than any of those S-rank criminals, hell I'll become stronger than that guy Itachi!"
"We'll see. Naruto, what do you know of your favorite technique, the shadow clones?"
"Well, I use them to fight and overwhelm my opponents with them, they hit as hard as I do, and they can also use Rasengan, it's easy to replace myself with them to confuse my opponent and they are great to spring traps and other things."
"That's right, it's a very combat-convenient tool, but only for you, I have the greatest chakra reserves in the village at the present moment, and I can barely make 45 clones at once, how many you can make?"
"I never tested the limits of them… but it's close to two thousand clones."
"That is monstrous, but as I said, most people who learn the shadow clones don't use in combat-oriented ways, there is another function of the shadow clones, they can store memory and transfer them once they dispel."
"Transferring memories?" Naruto asked confused.
"I guess it's best I teach you with an example, here make a shadow clone."
Naruto obeyed his master and summoned a clone with the hand sign, Jiraiya did the same and the clones left the area, a few minutes later, Naruto widened his eyes and blushed.
"Oi! I don't need to know Tsunade's boob size!" shouted the blond ninja.
Jiraiya grinned and started his perverted spiel once again, but then Naruto realized that it wasn't him that got the information, it was his clone, he received his clone memories.
"You used them so quickly in a fight that you probably haven't paid attention, but they can be sources of information, you can send your shadow clone to gather information, they are perfect spies for really short infiltrations since most of them can get easily dispelled by accident"
Jiraiya then explained that they have been provided with a unique situation, shadow clones were heavy on chakra usage but it was no problem for Naruto, he could constantly put out more shadow clones, and since the shadow clones transmitted every single detail of its memory they made perfect tools for learning and practicing.
If Naruto was able to learn a thing in a year, then two Narutos could learn it in six months, three hundred and sixty-five Narutos could learn it in a day.
"Ten thousand hours. It is said that it takes ten thousand hours to completely master a skill, that's fifty-nine weeks of you doing that specific something, it is a lot of time, but with your two-thousand shadow clones, you can master a skill in five hours."
"But, what about memory backlash, won't my brain just fry with so much information?" Naruto was excited by the prospect but asked if the memory backlash or overload could kill him if he tried to train with more than two-thousand shadow clones at a time.
"No, memory backlash is not real, it doesn't exist. However, if a clone gets tired, the feeling of tiredness will return to you, you won't be physically exhausted but your mind will think so, and that's dangerous."
Jiraiya denied the possibility, memory backlash was not real, a person cannot die of too many memories, however clones transferring their memories of fatigue was real, so they need to be careful in that regard.
The other weak point to this training was that strictly physical training was not possible with clones, so exercises to build strength, speed and endurance would have to be performed by the real Naruto.
With that in mind, Jiraiya started on the very basic, Knife and Shuriken throwing, Naruto summoned 1500 clones, each having replicas of his equipment, so no matter how many kunai or shuriken were tossed by the clones, it wouldn't matter since the originals were still in Naruto's bag, plus those clones of weapons were physical, therefore even if they were clones they would still pierce and cut and kill someone if hit.
This was another huge advantage of this versatile technique, he would never run out of tools as long as he replicated them through the shadow clone technique.
The 1500 clones started on throwing their weapons to the farthest tree, each time one clone made a breakthrough it would dispel and immediately be summoned again by the adjacent clone while transmitting that breakthrough throughout the other clones.
It was madness, something that Jiraiya was surprised to see close, even though he was the one who suggested this type of training.
The real Naruto and Jiraiya departed to another clearing, this one was large, with a shallow river, the area was more or less clear of trees.
"Summon 500 clones here, I'll summon three of my own, and I'll instruct them how to properly use Taijutsu, by the end of two years, I want you to put both Lee and Gai to shame in this area," Jiraiya said.
Naruto nodded and summoned more than 500 clones and with the guidance of the three Jiraiya clones, they started to battle the toad sage's clones.
The final part for today was the original Jiraiya guiding the original Naruto through extremely intensive physical and speed training, the toad sage first opened a set with brushes and with black ink made a few symbols on Naruto's naked top.
The tattoo was a special resistance seal that would grow heavier exponentially in set intervals, Jiraiya was informed about Naruto's muscles healing freakishly fast from Tsunade if that was true and Naruto's muscles didn't need resting then this was the perfect training tool.
Resistance seals were made to feel harder to move your body, like the sensation that you were walking underwater, it would break the muscles even faster than just adding weights since the force was so evenly distributed no muscles would be left underdeveloped.
Naruto, like Sasuke, were Genin, but in terms of physical prowess both were far above Chunin, in terms of chakra, Naruto rivaled and even surpassed Kages, now it was time to improve upon the natural advantages he had.
As dusk arrived, Naruto was on his naked back, with sweat dripping from everywhere, he panted hard, his breathing loud, his bright blue eyes looked at the sky,
He could hit every target without missing. He didn't believe it, in less than 10 hours he could accurately hit any target with his kunai or shuriken, no matter the distance.
"Hey, Jiraiya-sensei, isn't this cheating, I mean using shadow clones to improve myself so fast, isn't this supposed to be against the rules?"
"There are no rules to life, Naruto, cheating or not, being fair or not, those are just words, or do you think those born in clans are cheating those who weren't?
Are you going to say the Sharingan Kakashi and your friend uses is cheating as well?
If I remember they can reproduce all matter of Ninjutsu if they see it once, they have a terrific advantage in Taijutsu and Genjutsu thanks to those eyes, if shadow clones can be considered unfair then where does that leave the Sharingan?"
"B— But..."
"Listen Naruto, everyone has advantages and disadvantages in the world, however what I dislike is people wasting their potential, and you have the potential to be greater than I've ever imagined.
You shouldn't waste your potential because you consider this method of training a shortcut or a cheat. After all, it isn't, you are working very hard for your strength and don't let anybody else say otherwise."
"Y— you're right."
"Now, to the final and most brutal part of your daily training regiment."
His chakra was back but he was brutally exhausted, with the seals weighing him down, yet he raised himself to meet the final challenge of the day.
With his pool of chakra, he was ordered to summon the maximum number of clones that he could in a huge clearing which was 3000.
"This part of the regiment is to give you experience in survival, and experience in real battles, if all goes right, this part of the training will skyrocket your power to the limit, this will make you strong so fast it won't be a joke, if you survive that is..."
Naruto learned early that Jiraiya wasn't soft in the training, he knew how to push the blond child's body to the limits since Naruto had advantages for being an Uzumaki and a host to the fox spirit making normal training ineffective.
"This will be the hardest part of your training for the next two years, you against all your clones, in a fight to the death, every day after training and exhausting your body, that's your last training for the daily regiment."
Naruto looked at all of his clones, as they slowly surrounded him, still hesitant to follow through Jiraiya's command, it wasn't a battle royale, no. It was him against a massive army of opponents of identical skill, he had to hit them once to dispel, however each one of them had identical power to him, identical tools, and it would be easy for him to die by 3000 clones of him.
He used them to overwhelm opponents far more powerful than him, but now they were going to overwhelm him, who had a similar level of power. No matter what happens, this was going to end in his death, wasn't it?
Jiraiya was uncaring as Naruto was slowly surrounded, with clones arranging their weapons, clones preparing traps and other devious plans to have the original killed, this was a fight to the death.
"Start," he said and vanished from the clearing as roars from the clones as they charged Naruto, as they made multitudes of Rasengan with the help of other clones.
The only mindset the original had as his doom approach was to survive, by all means necessary.
The moon signaled it was 10:00 PM, Jiraiya approached a large stone hill, full of craters all around the ground, a flurry of kunai and other weapons piercing the ground, it was almost a war site, and in the middle was Naruto, the original, deathly still, his torso was full of blood.
The boy had done it, against an army of opponents with similar strength, every time one poofed out of existence, the original as well as every clone learned from that clone's mistake, becoming incrementally stronger and more experienced, as well as more hard to kill.
So it would always end up with Naruto fighting against his equals, it would never become easier, he had to improve himself faster than his clones improved themselves to kill him, and once they dispelled, he learned of their improvements as well, becoming a frenzied cycle of self-improvements to find ways to survive and to kill.
A dance of pure madness.
Jiraiya showed his presence to the boy and was immediately attacked by the boy, since he had been running by instinct all this time to survive, for the next ten minutes Jiraiya was overwhelmed by how far the boy has come from just this session, the boy right now would give seasoned Jonin hell to pay and he was still a genin, his newly gained experience drove Jiraiya into traps, had perfect moments to strike with Rasengan and his weaponry usage was accurate.
In just a day, this boy became so strong, something Jiraiya thought he would take at least six months before his inspiration to incorporate shadow clones. This boy was remarkable indeed.
Jiraiya knocked him out quickly and slung the boy's body over his shoulder. The boy had stopped more than four times to eat just this afternoon, however, something told Jiraiya that the boy would be hungry for some more food.
By the time Naruto had woken up, Jiraiya was still carrying him towards the village, the sweat that clung to his body was cold now and he was tired. After a mighty dinner at a pub, Naruto was now recovered enough to walk.
After a soak in the bathhouse, both were walking on the streets together.
"Hey, Jiraiya-sensei, are we going to spend our night in the inn, or camping outside?"
"Idiot! Now that Tsunade isn't here, and we aren't on a mission, why should we spend the night on a bland inn or camping outside?!"
"If not on an inn, or outside, then where? Do you have houses here?"
"It's a house in certain terms, but certainly not mine."
As they walked, Naruto saw more casinos, and signs, the district became more lively, women were walking around with raunchy yukatas and all manner of men being entranced by them, and the women were young too, there were girls his age mingled in too.
"It's time for you to learn one of the three vices of a ninja, women, for the next two years you and I will be spending our nights on whorehouses, brothels, of course in different rooms, I suspect you'll be well acquainted with the female body once this training trip finishes" he laughed perversely as he guided Naruto to the red-light district.
Naruto sweatdropped and internally screamed in embarrassment.
"As I said, this training trip will be nothing like you seen before!" Jiraiya belly-laughed.
"My name is Kiyomi, I will be in your care tonight, Naruto-sama" A black-haired beauty who was older than him announced as they sat on the bed, she had white yukata who was very loose, showing her big breasts up until midway, a hint of pink was revealed on her cleavage, she had a killer mature body with a wide ass that kept straining her yukata and long legs were tantalizing.
"And I am Setsuna, I will also be in your care tonight!~" An energetic girl of his age spoke she had short brown hair decent sized breasts covered by her flame-like yukata, and a very peachy butt
"My name is Luna, p— please take care of me!" a girl younger than him with straight blonde hair flat chest but amazing thighs.
They approached him and all he could do was internally scream.
His first night on the training he lost his virginity to three ladies. As the morrow arrived, the three ladies were comatosed by the pleasure given by the massive tool hidden in Naruto's pants, never in their whole life had they been more satisfied by sex than fucking a member of the Uzumaki clan, famous for their virility and vitality.
"These past two weeks have been all about the basics of being a ninja, now it's time to focus on your big-hitting techniques!"
"Cool, I can't wait to learn a bunch of new Jutsu, with my shadow clones I can put Kakashi's arsenal to shame!" Naruto exclaimed.
"It seems you have a lot of misconceptions about combat still, what does learning hundreds of Jutsu do to you?"
"Huh?"
"People think that having a giant arsenal of Jutsu is going to make them stronger, that's not a great mentality to have, even Kakashi, or Sarutobi-sensei, who both had thousands of Jutsu under their belt don't use all of them, even those two default their attacks to three or four Jutsu at a time and if pushed they might use ten different Jutsu in a fight, and here is the catch, they use the same selection of Jutsu no matter what!" Jiraiya exclaimed.
Jiraiya continued with passion for the subject. "Kakashi, the copy ninja who mastered a thousand Jutsu, that was only in the name, when real combat begins, people default to what they are comfortable with.
Remember those Akatsuki who targeted you? Kisame is a master at Kenjutsu and a few big-hitting water techniques that take advantage of his enormous chakra, Itachi defaults to Shurikenjutsu, Genjutsu and fire techniques who are low cost but potent and deadly using the right situation…
Orochimaru defaults to his snake summons, clones, and his poisonous swords, even with his Jutsu obsession…. You won't become stronger by learning a multitude of techniques." Jiraiya finished the lecture on the topic.
"Then what do I do? I only have, what? the two Jutsus I learned from the academy, transformation, and substitution, then, later on, I learned the shadow clones and the Rasengan as well as the summoning Jutsu, can I become strong just from this?"
"Yes you can, listen, people during battle use only what they are familiar with, be it their sword, be it their earth Jutsu, what you need is a small, but incredibly powerful and versatile arsenal, and the Rasengan, as well as the shadow clones, are more versatile and powerful than any old Jutsu produced by a long hand sign."
"I see, then what are we going to do?"
"The Rasengan!" in an instant a ball of chakra was formed in Jiraiya's hand and he smashed it on a tree, obliterating it. "The Rasengan is a self-sustaining, A-rank destructive Jutsu, a ball of chakra that grinds its targets, it is also the ultimate chakra manipulation and control training!"
"Your Rasengan training is still incomplete, and there are plenty of faults with your Rasengan.
For the next few months, I want you to master it, and find a way to improve it, make it more versatile, make it more powerful, this additional task is your own.
I'm not going to help you in any way, think of it as your extra assignment on top of the usual regiment, though that will soon be changing."
Jiraiya left the area with 500 or so clones of Naruto to train in other areas of expertise, Naruto took a sitting position on the ground to think hard, he had to complete the Rasengan training, take out any mistakes, and improve it.
What was he doing wrong was obvious, he needed another shadow clone to make the Rasengan, that extra step was slow in combat situations.
With his mind made up, he summoned 4500 clones and the small army started trying to make the Rasengan possible without relying on two Narutos.
The original Naruto started doing his physical training while watching the multitude of shadow clones.
By thirty minutes he and his shadow clones were able to make the Rasengan by themselves, just that he still needed both hands, and Jiraiya was able to do it with only one. However, that was not enough.
"I need to create the Rasengan with only one hand, the ultimate chakra control exercise, huh?
My chakra control was so shoddy, but ever since I learned this and water walking, I've been lasting longer in fights, I've been able to produce more clones every day, now it's time to complete it."
Naruto got up and ordered the clones to find a way to make it with only one hand.
He pressed on the seal tattoo on his chest and increased the resistance seal by a large margin manually, it was so brutal that it forced him on his knees, however, nothing would be achieved if he didn't push himself.
Three days passed, Jiraiya stood in the clearing after lunch in the afternoon, he glared at Naruto.
"Now, show me how your Rasengan is coming along, child." Jiraiya put himself on a fighting stance, Naruto took a step back, Jiraiya's fighting spirit affected him, and it made him fear his mentor, Jiraiya's harsh eyes didn't make anything better.
'What brought this on? Why is he so aggressive?' a roll of sweat dropped from his face, as Jiraya charged and sucker-punched Naruto faster than anything he ever saw, it was just basic survival instincts that made Naruto avoid the attack by making a last-minute clone and substituting himself with it, the experience of those nightly death matches between his clones made him have the survival instinct of a seasoned jonin.
"You're already as strong as a Jonin, however the way you are now, you're still far away from being an A-rank, not to mention S-rank, child" Jiraiya went behind him, activating his trap of shuriken, only for the sage to just avoid it all.
Naruto summoned three clones to meet Jiraiya's first blow for blow, but even with four powering through, Jiraiya's right still blew them apart, making the original take a hit, blowing Naruto several meters back, rolling on the grass painfully.
Jiraiya walked slowly towards Naruto as dozens of clones warmed him, while Naruto charged his Rasengan on one hand only, without help from another clone, and without needing both arms.
Jiraiya scoffed, and in an instant, all clones were defeated as he closed the distance between him and the blond, Naruto widened his eyes and thrust the Rasengan towards his teacher's face, but was met with an equal instant Rasengan from his teacher.
Naruto widened his eyes further as he pumped more chakra into his Rasengan, but Jiraiya didn't even flinch as the clash was resolved when Naruto's arm was pushed back and he was sent rolling, gashing the grass until he hit the stone hill and was pushed back further into the rock as blood seeped from his arm and mouth.
Naruto looked at his teacher, he was still in the same position from the Rasengan clash, with the ball of chakra in his hands still flowing pristinely.
"Three days of clone usage and that's what you got to show for it, just add more chakra to the Rasengan? And you think that's improving it? Don't make me laugh, you still haven't even completed the simple Rasengan,"
"B-But I did it, I can make a Rasengan in one hand now!"
"Do you think that's all it takes to be a master at it? You're not even halfway into it yet, look at my Rasengan, and look at what you can do, there isn't a difference in the chakra used, then why did my Rasengan win when you pumped more chakra into yours later on?
There is a final fourth stage for completing the A-rank destructive technique that I haven't talked about yet, not even Kakashi who copies everything could master the fourth step, his Rasengan is as pathetic as yours."
"T-Then what is it, the fourth step? The first was forming the vortex, the second was about power, the third was putting a film of chakra around it so it won't burst, then what's the fourth step?"
"As I said, you have to discover that for yourself, it would be meaningless to try to tell you, you are the most unpredictable ninja of the leaf, are you not? Then live for your namesake and think outside the box…
It took the fourth Hokage 3 years to make the Rasengan, and the fourth step was what gave him the hardest time for a reason! Well, I can give you a hint, a small one… "
Jiraiya pointed the still pristine Rasengan in his hand. "The Rasengan is a self-sustaining Jutsu."
It took two weeks for Naruto and the other clones to make a breakthrough, they recalled every moment that Jiraiya said anything about the Rasengan, and they have been training relentlessly on the technique.
The only glaring difference he could first notice was how Jiraiya instantaneously summoned his Rasengan mid-charge, the blond ninja couldn't do that, he needed a few moments to charge it, and he had to be stuck in place to do it.
Jiraiya filled his hand with the Rasengan immediately without delay, faster than he could blink, in mid-rush, no he raised his hand to meet Naruto's Rasengan, an empty hand, and it formed immediately to counter it.
With that in mind, he went to train his speed of casting, by the fourth day he could summon his Rasengan without any delay, in any position, in any hand, he only had to have an outstretched palm to do it.
To prove that he could do it, he put a hand on the tree trunk and the Rasengan formed inside of the tree, imploding the bark, making the upper part of the tree fall to the ground, and his Rasengan immediately vanished after that attack because of the resistance of the tree.
Something finally clicked, the fourth stage… a self-sustaining destructive ball that grinds anything and everything, even chakra.
"That reminds me, his Rasengan never vanished… it never vanished even when it hit my Rasengan who had the same amount of chakra..."
This was the breakthrough, somehow, Jiraiya's Rasengan stayed pristine, even when meeting an equal force, while his just blew away after a few moments.
Self-sustenance, if the third step was learning about control with the small amount of film enveloping it, then what would happen one that small film met a target? It would dissolve and the Rasengan would hit the target with explosive grinding power, but the film wouldn't return to the Rasengan, and it would be spent, with no control over the torrential grinding force of the Rasengan it would just disappear after the first impact with something.
This was a major difference, Jiraiya's Rasengan wouldn't disappear no matter how many targets he hit, yet Naruto's would.
Then the fourth stage was removing that film and controlling the torrential nature of the Jutsu all by his own will, stabilizing it and sustaining it without the small film of chakra. That's why it was the hardest part, almost impossible even for geniuses like the fourth, that's why it took so long for the man to create the Jutsu.
A Rasengan who won't disappear, this was the next step to finally master the Rasengan, and then... He had a time limit, to then find new ways to improve it, but with shadow clones he knew it could be done, he just had to believe in himself and never relent.