Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!
Sagami attained a Ten-Tails.
She is will be training for 5 more days.
She is alone.
"I see... so this is how she plans to attack. It seems she was unable to gain the support of any other Otsutsuki then." Naruto muttered to himself as he glanced over his spy's note seriously. Naruto had very few loyal allies left to him now, since all had either died due to death, or he just couldn't contact them.
He had a single person he could trust to give him honest information left, and a person he could trust to be able to maintain that constant flow of information about the Otsutsuki.
When an Otsutsuki came too close to this universe, his informant sent him a message informing him to keep an eye on and be aware. That was when he would always check with Six Paths Sage Mode every few days to make sure that the Universe didn't have any Otsutsuki in it at any given time, and to go and kill them if they appeared.
"Master."
"Yes Koneko?" Naruto asked Koneko as he stopped muttering, and he looked away from the written message in the palm of his hand. He was helping her go through the stances of the Frog Kata, in order to help show her a disciplines practice for Sage arts. Instead of just throwing her energy around wastefully like she would have been doing, similar to what her sister and mother would often do, Naruto wanted to show Koneko a different path that she could take.
"Buchou is here." Koneko's fist landed in Naruto's hand as he stopped her from practicing her forms anymore.
Rias Gremory had appeared.
"Yes, she is... she wishes to watch your training I take it?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow, unsure why she was bothering with it now.
"Buchou, everything is-"
"Very well then, Koneko's physical training is done for the day anyway. Today's training is something that I don't see a problem with others watching." Naruto interrupted Koneko before she could object to Rias watching her training. "Though, to be honest, even if she watched your training before it isn't like she would have been able to learn it." Naruto informed Koneko that he never really had much of a problem with an audience anyway now that the hardest parts of her training to accept her chakra were over.
"Thank you." Rias stated as Naruto sat down on the grass.
Koneko was now a lot more visibly self-conscious about training now that she would have an audience for it.
"You want to make sure your loved one is okay and her training is going well, I won't disrespect somebody who is showing such a sincere love. Now Koneko, please sit across from me." Naruto stated as he got comfortable. This training would be less of something that she would do to exhaust herself physically, and it would be far more mental in nature. "This will be a highly emotional training today, so please get comfortable." Naruto told her.
Koneko was nervous, but she did so as she glanced at Rias, before she took a deep breath and she nodded her head to her master.
'... Something has been going on, and Koneko has been far happier once this man came into her life. Out of everyone, her teacher has been the most severe with her.' Rias thought, since she wasn't ignorant to the serious beatings and abuse her Rook went through. The ways she wouldn't be allowed to eat or sleep for days as she had been beaten to a bloody pulp in the name of mastering the techniques of a master.
Koneko stayed strong, so she had allowed her to make the choice if this was the path she wanted to take with her training.
"What will this training be?" Koneko asked Naruto respectfully.
"I'm going to tell you something, and I want you to tell me if what I'm saying has ever applied to your life before." Naruto explained to her rather simply.
"What will this training accomplish?" Rias asked Naruto.
He didn't even glance at her.
"This is perhaps the most important part of Koneko's training of all, something that you have neglected to give her, and not just you... but you as well Koneko. The path to becoming stronger isn't just a physical journey, because you've yet to defeat the greatest enemy to your own growth... by the end of this training, I want you to tell me the opponent you failed to defeat." Naruto explained to her, and Koneko tilted her head towards Rias in confusion.
"Neglect!?" Rias was actually offended by that statement.
"Buchou, let me do this... please don't interrupt again."
"... Okay Koneko..." Rias relented, though not without a small glare at Naruto.
"I'm ready." Koneko told Naruto with a bow of her head.
"While you're alive, you need a reason for your existence. Being unable to find one is the same as being dead. You've experienced this before, you understand... explain out loud." Naruto told Koneko as he looked down her with unflinching eyes.
Koneko flinched back as if she had been physically struck, and she felt an immense pang of hurt in her heart at his words when they rang true.
She took a deep breath.
"When my sister killed her Master, and she abandoned me. I had nobody in my life to love me, I was useless to those around me, and I was to be executed for the crimes of my sister, out of fear I would go down her path. I had nothing, I was nothing, and everyone hated me... so I threw away my emotions and just gave up on life... I had no reason to live, so I was okay with being killed." Koneko explained to Naruto as the wounds of her past, the scars on her heart, inflicted damage onto her emotions all over again.
Rias flinched physically when she heard Koneko say that.
"It-"
"Rias, please don't interrupt..." Koneko stopped her from even comforting her right now, she wasn't allowed to be comforted. Looking at Naruto, she could tell that this was a trial for her, that she needed to figure out.
Naruto nodded to her.
"It's not the face that makes someone a monster, it's the choices they made with their lives." Naruto told Koneko, and she had to put a little thought into it.
Koneko looked at Rias.
"I didn't trust Rias, I hated her a lot actually. She was a Devil, and my life was only spared so I could be given to her as a gift. I was made into her slave, but I was alive. I refused to open up to her, I refused to even tell her my true name... but that didn't matter to her. Even when I ignored her, she only ever treated me with love and kindness, and gave me a new name... she might have been a Devil, but she was my savior, and my hero." Koneko admitted her feelings about her past, and about her past feelings towards Rias. While it might not ever have been a secret between them how she had felt or how she had been, it had always been unspoken between them about the time she had no will to live.
"So, even though Rias wears the face of a devil, the monsters who hurt you, her actions allowed you to look past that." Naruto approved of Koneko's honest words. Naruto looked towards Rias, and he gave her a grateful smile.
Rias was starting to understand this training when she saw Koneko's skin was a little more pale, and how she seemed to be deep in thought. She was so much more nervous than she was at the start of the training.
This training was a true form of hell.
This training would break a normal person.
"Now, lets review those two statements. After what your sister has done, how she caused your life immeasurable pain and suffering... how do you feel about her? Also, what are your most true, innermost feelings about Rias?" Naruto asked Koneko, and the girl looked at Rias for a moment, and Rias could see the conflict in her eyes.
...
"I hate my sister more than anyone in this world. I hate her so much it hurts, and I'm afraid of her... I'm terrified I could have become life her. She's my greatest fear, even more than Senjutsu was. Yet, even with all that... despite how much I truly hate her, there isn't anyone else in this world I love more than my sister." Koneko's voice was wavering painfully as she got choked up on her own words. Stating all of that out loud was more than just emotionally painful, it was like having a knife thrust into her gut as she was forced to explain her own feelings.
It was so painful.
Not just painful, she could see a sorrow and happiness in her Master's eyes as well.
Everything he was asking her wasn't just some question to bring out her worst experienced and memories, or to test what kind of life she had lived. He was also telling her his own worst experienced and memories as well, but he wasn't like her at the same time. The same things that she so selfishly pushed away and ignored, he embraced and suffered through them to the point he could recall his worst memories with fondness.
She was not alone in her pain.
Her Master had experienced her pain before, and he had overcome that very pain to the point that he had become the man he was today.
"... I love Rias from the bottom of my heart, if Kuroka is the person I love the most... then Rias is the person I had the strongest love for. Even if I love Kuroka more, the bond I share with Rias is something I would die to protect. Rias saved me from my loneliness, I would happily die for her and her happiness, because she gave me reason to live... to me, her life is my most valuable possession." Koneko couldn't look Rias in the face when she spoke. Her cheeks were bright red from the sheer embarassment of being asked to state her innermost feelings out loud, while the person in question was there.
"... Koneko..." Rias had tears in her eyes upon hearing that confession.
Naruto smiled.
"When you give up, your dreams and everything else, they're gone." Naruto told Koneko, and he could see the painful tears were coming from her eyes, and dripping onto the grass.
He still pushed her though.
"I do nothing but give up... I respected my sister, and wanted to be like her. When I thought she was a monster, I gave up and even lost my dreams. When I was in that hell of loneliness and had nothing, I didn't even had the comfort of having a..." Koneko stopped when it became too painful for her to speak.
It hurt too much.
'This... this training... just what is the point of forcing Koneko to suffer so much?' Rias bit her lip until she bled to prevent herself from stopping the training that was currently going on.
"Speak."
"I didn't have hopes or dreams, it isn't just that I didn't want people to know my name... even I forgot it at that point. I lost everything." Koneko forced herself to speak as Naruto commanded of her.
"I see, what saved you?"
"Love... love saved me from myself. I was surrounded by people who cared about me, and it gave me a dream again. As long as I protect them, I never ever have to experience that hell again. My dream is to protect them... and it's where my biggest fear for my Senjutsu came from. Because I loved them, I was afraid of hurting them." Koneko looked hopefully down at her own fists.
She had conquered Senjutsu.
She wasn't afraid anymore, and she had mastered her chakra to a level she hadn't thought she would ever master. She had nothing to fear of the forbidden arts, and the path to growing stronger had never been more clear to her.
Koneko felt a light touch on her forehead.
She was standing up, but she wasn't standing in the forest anymore.
Koneko was surrounded by a universe of stars, a beautiful universe with golden clouds. Yet, despite standing in the middle of a universe of stars, she was also standing on top of a ocean that reflected the universe above it.
Standing in front of her was a hideous monster.
A monster version of herself that was even more cat-like in nature, more wicked in appearance, and more wild in stature. She stared down a version of herself that represented absolutely everything that she feared she could become. It was her, but it was more beast-like and had a seductive body similar to her own sister.
Standing behind her though was Naruto.
She felt his warm hand on her shoulder.
"You need me! You need your fear, so you never become like me! Don't do this anymore, STOP accepting your past! These wounds on your heart are too important to forget, or forgive! Everyone who hurt you HAS to be hurt!"
Her voice was seductive and beautiful, and her words sounded nice to her ears, but Koneko nodded her head in a confusing way for anyone who was unaware.
"... Thank you."
"No!"
"Thank you for protecting me all these years, your the darkness that has lived inside of me. All my fears and hatred, everything that has ever hurt me... I've been pushing all of that on your shoulders... all this time, haven't I?" Koneko asked herself as she walked out of Naruto's hand, and left his side to approach herself.
Naruto's training.
Naruto forced her to relive her entire life, so that he could force the deepest darkness in her heart to take form in her mind. Then Naruto pulled both her and her darkness into his own soul, so that she could come face to face with the source of all of her most negative parts.
Her Master had experienced everything that she had and more.
She was no alone in her suffering anymore, and talking about everything that had happened to her allowed her to think about all the good things in her life that she had now. Every bad thing that happened was the direct cause of all the good things in her life.
"Hurt them!"
"I won't... because I shouldn't put others through the same things I went through. I don't want to be consumed by revenge and hatred... I want to be strong like my Master, and beautiful like Rias... and amazing like Kuroka." Koneko walked towards herself even closer. Her darker form was overtaken by dark chakra that rushed towards her.
Koneko's chakra was light though, and it shined through the darkness as Naruto just proudly watched her.
"Master isn't strong, he's a weak human who can't ever really understand us! Rias is just an ugly devil, like all the rest... KUROKA IS A MONSTER!"
"Master is strong because he's a human, and Rias is beautiful because she's Rias... and Kuroka, even after everything... isn't she amazing too?" Koneko smiled brightly at herself. "... So thank you for shouldering everything. If it weren't for you more than anyone, I wouldn't be who I am today."
"No! Don't accept the past, I don't want to disappear and leave you to deal with that darkness anymore! You're not strong enough to handle it! You NEED ME!"
Her darkness struggled as her body started to turn light, and shrink down with her more beast-like body parts transforming to be more humanoid.
"You're right, I'm not strong enough to do it alone. I'm not alone though, and you don't have to handle it alone either. So... please become one with me..." Koneko reached out, and she gently touched her darkness on the cheek.
Purity.
Like a shining light, her darkness was purified as Koneko accepted everything that she was. Instead of a monsterous form, her darkness took on the exact same form as Koneko herself. She had her cat ears out, and her tail as well. She wore a white kimono, and the blacks of her eyes started to turn white as she looked up at Koneko.
"... Thank you Koneko..."
"Thank you..." Koneko repeated the words back to her darkness, and she lightly touched her forehead to hers and looked straight into her eyes. "... Shirone." Koneko called the name that represented her darkness with everything it stood for.
Her darkness started to quickly vanish as she closed her eyes.
When Koneko opened her eyes, she was back in the forest.
Rias was looking at her with wide eyes when she saw all the sadness and sorrow in Koneko's gaze was gone, and she seemed to have reached a mental maturity that she had never seen in the girl's eyes before.
"Thank you Shirone... now we're together... I'm complete." Koneko touched her hands to her heart, and she looked at Naruto taking his finger off of her forehead. Naruto grinned at her without saying a single word.
No words were needed for her to understand.
"What... what just happened?" Rias had no clue what to make of this insane training.
"... I just faced the darkness in my heart, using all the lessons I learned from Master. Kindness, love, forgiveness, and understanding... by admitting to my own weakness and the worst parts of who I am... I was able to accept my darkness, and purify it from within myself. I've become a more complete me... I'm not just Shirone or Koneko Toujou anymore." Koneko looked down at her hands, and she gripped them both into fists.
Rias didn't understand anything of what just happened.
'Her smile... Koneko... it's like all her self-doubt is gone. She's truly overcome her past, and she's finally ready to truly move forward...' Rias looked at Naruto, with her eyes losing their distrust of him. 'In such a short time, he has bonded with Koneko and set her on a bright path that nobody else could help her find.' Rias rubbed her neck in thought as she glanced between Naruto and Koneko, who were just exchanging glances.
Naruto extended his fist towards Koneko.
Koneko bumped her fist to his, and her eyes sparkled in understanding as she seemed to view something amazing.
"... Chakra is an energy that lets us more than fight. With out chakra, you can connect your spirit to mine, and mine to yours... for those with chakra, it's a pathway to understanding each other without words... that is Ninshu... With Ninshu you have the ability to understand, and the power to protect what needs to be protected... Koneko... you have succeeded." Naruto told Koneko with a wide smile.
"... I've succeeded?"
"You are my first student to ever have the strength to accept your darkness. You have touched your chakra to mine, and now understand the importance of Ninshu. I've taught many students who wished to grow stronger with chakra, but you are the first to ever succeed in mastering the true purpose of this training." Naruto explained to her as he unzipped his jacket, and he reached into it and he pulled grabbed onto something.
"... I'll be getting the Uzumaki spiral?"
Naruto pulled out a blue cloth with a metal plate on it, a leaf symbol with a spiral in the middle of it carved into the front of it.
"Koneko Toujou, Shirone, you are the first student of mine to accept their darkness and reach the true understanding of who they are. You've learned the value of Ninshu, and I'm giving you this headband to tell you that you passed your training." Naruto gave her, her headband with a proud smile.
Her mother failed.
Her sister was still learning.
Koneko had succeeded.
"But... I never learned the Rasengan..." Koneko looked at the headband with her eyes filled with shock.
Yes, Naruto had told her about that test.
"Accepting your own weakness and pushing beyond it, and controlling yourself... those are the keys to mastering the third step of the Rasengan. Yokai's chakra is so greatly tied to their hearts, that a heart that is full of it's own darkness will never master the Rasengan." Naruto explained to Koneko with a wide and prouder smile.
The Rasengan was impossible for a Yokai who had not mastered the darkness of their heart and attained masterful chakra control. The perfect control of their own heart was needed for them to master the Rasengan, but the reverse was also true.
The Rasengan was a test for force them to fail over and over again endlessly.
By constantly failing, a student would eventually come face to face with the darkness in their own hearts as they realized how impossible it was to complete. Only a yokai with a complete heart, having purified it's own darkness and become stable could ever hope to achieve the Rasengan.
For Koneko, who had such a vast darkness inside of herself, the Rasengan itself wasn't needed in order for her to manifest her own darkness and face it.
"So... you're not longer my Master then?" Koneko asked with saddened eyes.
Naruto gave her a fox-like grin.
"I was far more harsh with you than I was with any student before you, so while I don't think you want to continue training with me... I am still looking for an apprentice who has mastered Ninshu. Of course, if you want to continue training under me as my apprentice is something I leave up to you." Naruto offered her, since from here on out it was completely her choice if she continued her training.
Koneko looked at him with her eyes glittering with hope, before she looked at Rias, and Rias glanced at Naruto with an understanding in her eyes.
Rias suddenly understood just why she had never been able to clear away Koneko's darkness before, no matter how much she tried.
"As long as it doesn't interfere with her school... and her family, I don't see why she can't follow her dreams." Rias spoke with a small blush, unsure of how she could give her approval without sounding like she was deciding Koneko's future for her.
This was Koneko's choice.
-Fujimai-
A hard working failure, who had zero natural talent and spent most of her life training and getting to where she was, only to fail to learn the Rasengan.
She passed her skills down to Kuroka.
-Kuroka-
A easy going genius, with natural talent to spare who was highly arrogant to a fault, but when push came to shove was filled with love, and learned the value of failure and hard work. While she had yet to give up on her training, as of now she was still a failure as well.
She passed her darkness down to Koneko.
-Koneko.
A failure of a genius, who was stubborn and hard working to a fault, lacked any arrogance, and saw only the weakness in herself and the strength in others.
She gained no skill from her mother that was given to her sister, and both her mother and sister left a deep darkness inside of her that neither Fujimai or Kuroka ever had to deal with.
She had yet to even begin the Rasengan, but with her strong heart, she had mastered the true secret behind why his students needed to fail at the Rasengan.
Koneko had not mastered the Rasengan.
Koneko had mastered Koneko.
"Then from today onwards, I am your apprentice! Please take care of me!" Koneko stood up and bowed to Naruto.
Koneko Toujou.
Daughter of a failure, and sister of a genius, had surpassed both her mother and sister in the one thing that neither of them had been able to accomplish while during their training.
She had become Naruto Uzumaki's apprentice.
Chapter End!
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