Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Author's Notes
This is part of a triple release. Or it might be if I don't fall asleep editing the other two chapters. If you have any questions post a review and I might answer it in the ANs at the end of next chapters.
Chapter 10
His ears easily picked up the soft reverberating sound of footsteps travelling through the walls of the long hallway, outside the room he was occupying. With only this little bit of information, he could easily visualise the offending shinobi under his command making his way towards him, towards his lab. He didn't like to be disturbed when he was in here; such delicate work which he performed here needed all his uninterrupted attention. Still, he knew if anyone dared to interfere with his research when explicitly told not to, it would probably mean that something important required his attention.
"Orochimaru-sama, Guren-sama is requesting an audience." The shinobi, who he was pleased to know he had identified correctly with just using his auditory senses, spoke in a subdued voice, his physical frame still, as if afraid of incurring the wrath of a predator.
Orochimaru did nothing but smile softly and said in a velvety whisper, "Send her in." Prompting the shinobi to bow quickly and race out of the room to fulfil his new task.
He had learned to coerce and inspire obedience through fear mixed with the allure of attention and generosity, a startling realisation he had come to practice quite late in his life. At first, he had coasted through life's obstacles banking on the blindness of his peers, something he had found relatively easy, knowing how the sentimental fools he was surrounded by always tried to see the good in everyone, rationalising blindly, the errant behaviour of their loved ones. Still, he had miscalculated how far they could go before they were willing to step outside of their comfort zone. The price of this revelation was quite steep; he had thought everyone a fool, and as a result, lost much in the process. He had lost the chance to gain his rightful position as the hokage, barred from the deep well of knowledge Konoha had in its store, the money, the power, and the sheep.
Now left with his thoughts and his mind losing interest in the subject of his latest research, he scoured his memory on why Guren could be here. He had given her a very specific task; she was to secure the borders and oversee the construction of a few bases near the area. He made sure to rotate the shinobi under his command for that endeavour to prevent any single one from knowing too much information about his hideouts. The consolidation of his territory was still ongoing as he could not stretch his hands too quickly; otherwise, his plans would have to unfurl prematurely. Quite an important task he had left for Guren; therefore, he was very eagerly waiting for her arrival, knowing that she would not have left her post unless it were vital.
He waited patiently, savouring the silence before the reveal. His ears perked up slightly as he heard the sound of highly muffled footsteps, characteristic of a trained shinobi. He frowned when he realised a slight oddity. The sounds of Guren's gate was odd. Injury, he mused. That was unacceptable. Guren was one of his finest specimens, holding a rare bloodline. It would be disastrous if something untoward happened to her body.
He watched as she entered, scrutinising her, looking for an imperfection. Finding nothing overtly wrong, he chose to exercise patience.
Guren bowed reverentially, "Lord Orochimaru, I apologise for leaving my post, but I have some important news."
"Go on."
"Konoha's Kinchuriki, Naruto Uzumaki, entered your territory a couple of days ago on a mission. I confronted him," hesitatingly, she continued, "and he managed to escape, killing my squad in the process."
Orochimaru listened in fascination, "Is he capable of using the Kyuubi?"
"No, at least I don't think he can, I could not detect any foul chakra, so I'm not sure."
Orochimaru asked, "Interesting, tell me how did he manage to achieve that without the Kyuubi? The members of your squad, if I recall correctly, were genetically enhanced were they not. It took quite an effort to create them. With you on the team, it should have been quite an easy task to capture him."
"I underestimated him, we were prepared to fight a jinchuriki, but Uzumaki is very wily; throughout the fight, he was on a back foot, but he had an uncanny ability to take advantage of tricky situations," Guren said with discontent.
"Tell me about his abilities," Orochimaru ordered.
"He's proficient with swords, has a better mastery of water jutsu than me, he also holds a summoning contract, it's similar to your snakes, with slight differences the summons looked more… aquatic. Like a cross between snakes and alligators." Guren tried to explain.
"Those would be the serpents, I believe. The snakes have a bitter relation with them." Orochimaru cut in. He had to learn the history of the snakes to earn their respect when he had gained the summoning contract. He asked, "Anything else."
"He also knows quite a bit of fuinjutsu," scowling, she added, "He can also use those annoying Uzumaki chains."
Guren took off her boot, showing her pale skin marred by a scar; it resembled a thorny vine climbing up, coiled around her leg.
Orochimaru observed the scar, quite unusual; it appeared similar to wounds caused by chakra burn. Undeniably it was created by the fabled Adamantine chains, a versatile jutsu. He wanted to desperately learn it, it was very mysterious, even Konoha didn't know who the creator was, he knew, after all, he had asked Kabuto to look into it.
He had only learned about the jutsu by coming across a partially destroyed scroll originating from Uzu. The technique appeared to be a part of something bigger. For now, it was beyond his understanding; he wasn't well versed in fuinjutsu, and the other arts related to it, he had observed his lack of skill because of creativity. Fuinjutsu to him was an unholy combination of both logic and art. The logical, scientific part of him struggled to understand the mystical side of it. Still, it was his one true desire to learn everything, all he needed was time.
"Tell me everything from the start, every single detail," Orochimaru said as he settled in on his chair intent to learn more.
Hearing his command Guren started recounting the entire encounter, in detail even though she would have loved to leave a few bits and pieces out.
As he listened, Orochimaru could not help but lament the fact that he could not take over Naruto's body, on account of him being a jinchuriki but that didn't mean he wasn't interested. To fulfil his desire to learn every jutsu, he would need to find a way to transfer bloodlines across different bodies or maybe create one that can hold every single one. The Senju DNA he had acquired from Hashirama was perfect for containing multiple bloodlines, but after observing the abnormal growth of the cells, he had shelved the idea. A body as adaptable as an Uzumaki could possibly synergise with the cells.
He needed to see the full potential of the boy, a few harsh struggles here and there would give him an accurate reading. He had asked Kabuto to send him a copy of the medical reports of the academy students throughout the years, in hopes of learning more about the young Uchiha, he wondered if he could find something more about Naruto in there.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was surprised when his door was slammed open, not because of the act itself, as it was a semi-regular occurrence. No, it was because it wasn't his grandson who had done the deed. The source of it was one Naruto Uzumaki, who had barged into his office, all the while clutching his arm. Seeing his face contorted in extreme discomfort, he quickly took a better look at his arm. Seeing the mangled hand, fingers twisted, and two major breaks along the arm, Hiruzen swiftly called in his personal medic-nin, an anbu, to tend to his injury.
After the treatment was done, with his arm now in a cast, Naruto abruptly started pacing to and fro mumbling angrily. Hiruzen was surprised by this, as it had been a while since he had seen Naruto show an unrestrained emotion in front of him.
Thinking it better to know what the problem was rather than speculate wildly, he asked, "What happened, Naruto-kun?"
Naruto stopped and took in a deep breath before pulling out a scroll from underneath his sleeve and placed it gently on the Hokage's desk; inwardly though he wanted to smash the scroll into the desk with enough force to bury it into the wood and split the table in two.
Quickly recognising it as a jutsu scroll, Hiruzen picked it up and swiftly read through its contents.
Chakra Enhanced Strength, Taijutsu- a technique that uses the refined chakra control and concentration required at the level of medical ninjutsu to enhance one's strength to monstrous levels. This is done by storing chakra into one's hands or feet and releasing it onto the target with pinpoint timing. With this strength, the user can decimate the ground or even kill opponents with a single strike….
'Well, this doesn't look right.' Even before finishing the first paragraph, he could already see that the author of the scroll had made some incorrect assumptions. The thing was, as much as the wrong information in the scroll was a problem, he was more concerned over the reason why Naruto was trying to learn this technique. As far as he was aware, Naruto hadn't acquired the level of chakra control required to be even remotely successful at executing it. At least that part, the scroll had gotten right. If he were only doing this to emulate Tsunade, Hiruzen would have to find a way to stop this. It was his duty as the Hokage to rein in such behaviour as even something so seemingly innocuous as Naruto's desire for a familial connection could turn into an obsession, as many a shinobi desires tend to do. The path of a shinobi was stressful, and he couldn't think of a single soldier in his command that was mentally, perfectly healthy in the technical sense. They all had their vices and coping mechanisms; it was his job to ensure that their eccentricity did not turn unhealthy, and in turn, hinder their capacity to perform their duty.
"You tried this method? I wasn't aware that you had achieved such fine control over your chakra." He probed.
Naruto looked surprised, "You mean the scroll is right?"
"At least the requirement for chakra control is. So again, have you reached that level of control?"
"Yeah." Tapping the rhombus-shaped mark on his forehead with his working hand, Naruto continued, "I modified the Yin-seal so that it takes in the Kyuubi's leaking chakra. After it goes through the eight trigram's seal a couple of times of course. All of it is done in its dormant state. On the other hand, when activated, it separates my own chakra network, sealing all of it in my core along with the Kyuubi's influence, and providing an alternate path, thus giving me artificially generated chakra control."
Now, Hiruzen wasn't called the professor for nothing; he had extensive knowledge of nearly all shinobi arts. Therefore it was unsurprising that unlike others who would have been confused, it only took him a moment to unpack the concise statement he was given. He understood more than what was said, and the underlying implications were alarming, to say the least. What Naruto was claiming to have accomplished was absurd, not to mention dangerous. Frankly, for a brief moment, he thought he was going senile. In his state of bafflement, he even considered the possibility that his hearing had deteriorated so much that his mind was conjuring absurd notions to fill in the blanks.
"Naruto-kun, if I understand correctly, your new technique is linked to the eight trigrams seal. I don't believe that you're foolish enough to mess with it, so it would be better if you could ease some of my concerns." Hiruzen said sedately.
He was far more concerned about the seal deteriorating than anything else at the moment. However, he didn't wish for Naruto to know that. So, he chose to gently probe into the matter while making it look like he was only concerned about Naruto messing with the seal without permission. It was a little trick he had learned from his teacher to poach answers from an advantageous position.
"But I didn't. I didn't even touch the seal, I just used the Kyuubi's chakra, and I already informed you about it beforehand." Naruto answered.
"But, you did say that you are using it somehow," Hiruzen said.
"Well yeah, but it's a built-in function of the seal." Naruto wasn't sure what the confusion was.
"Tell me more about the technique then, from the beginning, so that I can understand." Hiruzen had no choice but to press the issue.
"Okay." Naruto took a moment to gather his thoughts, "I did it because of how the eight trigrams seal was applied. Normally the seal is applied so that a set of four seals perfectly overlap another set of four. But the one applied to me is skewed." He said bitterly. Taking a long breath as if to release some of his mounting emotions, he continued, "I don't know why the seal was designed as it was. At first, I thought the Fourth made a mistake, which I could understand. After all, applying such a complex seal while fighting the Kyuubi would be hard for anyone, but after some thought, it seems to be deliberate." Again his voice and mannerisms were tinged with discontent.
"Why do you think so?" Hiruzen had no idea that Naruto felt this way. Sure he had anticipated that Naruto might feel resentful for being a jinchuriki, which was understandable. However, from the looks of it, it appeared as if he was angrier towards what he perceived to be his faulty seal than being the jailer of the Kyuubi. Which, if true, was somewhat telling.
"At first glance, it looks like a mistake, but I don't know how the Fourth did it… his modifications to the eight trigrams seal, allow me to assimilate the leaking chakra into my system by severely limiting Kyuubi's influence. If it didn't somehow limit the Kyuubi's influence, just by the accumulation of the leaking chakra, I would be in a perpetual state of aggression. Now, if I use a tiny amount of its chakra, there are close to no side effects, but that amount is so little that it might just be useless in a battle. Other than increasing my chakra pool, this modification is useless. Even then, it is more of a hindrance, as the small amount of chakra adds up over time and forces my body to adapt. The unnatural increase causes me to keep chasing more chakra control."
"How large have your reserves grown?" Hiruzen asked.
"Far more than I need at the moment."
Hiruzen looked thoughtful. He could understand the dilemma, the human body was limited to using about twenty percent of its natural chakra pool for physical enhancements. As for using ninjutsu and genjutsu, considering Naruto's lineage, he couldn't think of very many techniques that could even put a dent in his reserves. He had no answer to that right now, as this problem might just be unique to Naruto. "And is this why you used the Yin seal?"
"Yeah, I already have reserves so large that I have trouble exhausting myself even if I want to, so a backup battery of sorts is of no use to me. On the other hand, the Yin-seal connects all the tenketsu of the body and requires an inhumane amount of concentration and control to charge up. Any normal user would have to feed the seal constantly, even when doing menial everyday tasks. Imagine talking, eating, walking, and going through your normal life, all the while continuously moving your chakra in a precise way and storing it into the seal. I don't know how anyone can manage to do that." Naruto sighed in wonder. "Anyway, I found out a way to bypass all of that. I already have the Kyuubi's chakra being forced into my system, and despite the initial filtration of the seal, it is still different from my chakra, at least for a while. Naturally, it takes a lot of time to mix with my own. So I just decided to feed that chakra to the Yin seal before it could become mine. But, since the Yin-seal was never meant to contain the highly corrosive chakra of the Kyuubi, and even if it was capable of that, if I decided to use such a large amount of it, I might lose control and go berserk. So, to prevent that, I decided to clean it a bit more by letting it go through the eight trigram's seal a couple of times."
"If what you say is correct, then how did you connect the chakra points without possessing extensive knowledge of your body?" Hiruzen couldn't think of a way to do that without knowing the ins and outs of human anatomy. Even with an anatomical chart, it would be nigh impossible to locate all the tenketsu as every single person is different; even tiny variations such as height and weight would cause slight changes in the location of the points. Unless Naruto had devised a way to look at his own chakra network, which outside of using a powerful dojutsu like the byakugan, he could not think of a way of doing. Even the sharingan, a powerful dojutsu in its own right, is unable to locate the minuscule chakra points.
"Trial and error." Smirking slightly, Naruto continued, "I approximately knew where the points are, so I just decided to heal through the damage I might cause when trying to locate them."
'Damn Uzumaki and their healing.' Hiruzen thought wryly. He had always known the recklessness the Uzumaki seemed to have and was aware that their physique bordered on abnormal. There were very few clans who possessed such resilience, namely the Senju and Kaguya. Even then, it would be hard for them to fully heal through such damage. Uzumaki healing was slightly different from other conventional ones as theirs worked over a more extended period of time; it might not be the fastest in the short term, but given enough time, they would indeed heal through most of it.
"And you are sure your chakra control is near perfect with the seal activated?"
"I don't necessarily know what perfect control feels like, but I think I have achieved it. When the seal is activated, my pathway is changed, with the Yin-seal becoming the new core. All of it becomes artificial, so there is a very tiny margin of error." He was very confident in his assertion. His seal might be highly modified and new, but he knew he was right, "I still feel that the scroll is wrong."
Nodding, Hiruzen supplied, "Tsunade never really catalogued her technique, so I don't know where this scroll came from. Although from what I can tell, if you performed the technique according to the scroll, you might produce a devastating force, but the backlash would harm you. As to how Tsunade counteracts it- I believe it's partially because she is naturally very strong, as even without using chakra, she is far stronger than an adult Akimichi."
"So, I can only give up on the technique?"
Hiruzen thought for a moment, "You should ask Gai he might be able to help you with both of your problems."
At that, Naruto looked confused. "Both problems?"
"With the backlash and with having excess chakra."
"He can?" Naruto looked surprised, he knew Gai was strong and was a master of taijutsu, but he couldn't think of how Gai could help him here.
"I'm not sure, but there should be no harm in asking him. He is a practitioner of the eight-gates. His knowledge is much more extensive than mine."
"Hokage-sama, don't you know how to perform every technique in Konoha?" Naruto asked.
"Heard it from Iruka-kun, have you." Hiruzen chuckled slightly.
Naruto could only nod at that. Indeed, it had been the new sensei in the last year of his schooling, who had told them that the Third Hokage was known as 'The Professor'. The title was given to him because he was a master of every known technique in Konoha, including the secret clan techniques. Naruto had been sceptical of that as there were simply too many techniques, and some of them required very high-level supplementary knowledge.
"Iruka-kun, bless him, tends to exaggerate for effect sometimes. I merely have basic knowledge of every technique, and in most cases, the masters of these arts would be more adept at telling you the details." The Hokage supplied amusedly. Patting the scroll lightly, he continued, "As for this scroll, I will make sure it is removed from the archive. Sadly, I don't have a lot of time to review every technique that gets put in there, and I don't know anyone else knowledgeable enough to sift through them correctly." Kakashi might be able to he mused, but he was simply too skilled to be designated a desk job.
Naruto could only nod at that. He had an inkling of how taxing the Hokage's job was, so it would be naive to expect him to go through several thousands of techniques that get put in the archives.
"Before I dismiss you, Naruto-kun, could you activate your Yin-seal."
Naruto didn't see any reason not to, although even if he wished otherwise, it wasn't as if he could refuse the Hokage's request. While showing him his seal, he made sure to impress upon the Hokage that he had indeed reached an impressive level of control by bringing up chakra to each of his fingers individually. He even went a bit farther by conjuring a single droplet of water on the tip of all five.
Hiruzen had always believed in the potential Naruto held within him. Thinking over the matter, he quickly made up his mind. Pulling up a blank scroll from his desk, he silently began writing. Naruto could only watch in confusion, and if he didn't know better, he would have thought the Hokage forgot about him. Thankfully he didn't have to wait too long.
Passing the scroll to Naruto, Hiruzen said, "Here. This scroll contains a very powerful jutsu. I'm giving this to you as you might be able to use it with your seal, and it might open up new avenues for you. After you learn the technique, I only ask that you destroy the scroll, and you won't teach this to anyone else without the reigning Hokage's permission. It is one of Konoha's secret jutsu, requires a hefty amount of chakra and control."
Naruto looked at the scroll in surprise. He had to stop his hand from shaking. After forcefully calming down, he was about to ask more about the technique, but the Hokage interrupted him before he could, "It might take some time for you to learn it, so don't expect quick results. Alright, you are dismissed."
"I will try my best, Hokage-sama." Bowing slightly, Naruto walked out of the room,
After dismissing Naruto, Hiruzen fell into deep thought. The meeting he just had with the young chunin had been very enlightening. There were many concerning aspects to the whole encounter. Aside from the most apparent being the seal, it was the fact that Naruto appeared far more distrustful than he had imagined. He came to him, the hokage, for treatment and opted out of going to the hospital; it clearly showed that he was on some level, not trusting of the village and its citizens.
That was a very bleak thought. If you couldn't trust your homeland for help, would you be willing to put down your life on the line to defend it?
The other more concerning part was his recklessness. Shinobi as a whole were expected to be both somewhat reckless and cautious when the situation demands it; otherwise, they would be ineffective. But Naruto seemed to lack that caution. Aside from tampering with the Kyuubi's chakra, it was his latest stunt of messing with his tenketsu that was worrying. This time he might have been lucky that his body was strong enough to heal back, but next time, he might not be so successful. It was now he realised that the unfortunate isolation Naruto suffered through was already proving to be a problem.
There was no one in Naruto's life who would be able to dissuade him from committing such dangerous experiments. He knew for a fact that if Kushina were alive, she would punt Naruto from one end of the village to the other just for the thought of doing this. If only Naruto trusted him more, he could have provided him with a medic who could have helped him.
Picking up his brush, he quickly penned a letter and called an Anbu to send this message to Jiraya using a messenger hawk. He believed they could no longer delay this matter. After some thought, he called his secretary to send for one of the most intelligent men in Konoha for some much-needed insight, one Shikaku Nara.
Naruto resisted the urge to open the scroll right in front of the Hokage's office. Since he was in the Hokage tower, he thought it better to first determine if Gai was in Konoha or out on a mission with his genin team. The process was usually quite troublesome since he was a chunin, and there was no way the mission department would give him the relevant information about a senior shinobi's schedule for personal reasons. Normally he would have to go through the official channels. However, since he required the information on the Hokage's suggestion, he just had to ask the Hokage's secretary to expedite the process. Thankfully, not too long after, he left the building with the knowledge of Gai's whereabouts in his head.
Making his way towards one of Konoha's many training grounds, he quickly arrived at this destination. The aforementioned training ground was occupied by Gai and three others who he assumed to be Gai's genin team. At a cursory glance, he found them to be intriguing or at least found one of them to be far more interesting than the others. It wasn't the Hyuuga or the girl practising her shuriken-jutsu; it was the third one, leaping around a training post, a whirlwind of flurrying punches and flying kicks, the boy, like his two teammates appeared to be about his own age. The odd thing was his appearance. From his clothing to his hairstyle, all of it was strangely similar to Gai's.
Thinking the situation to be too bizarre, Naruto chose to focus on his current objective, he made a beeline towards Gai. Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see that the members of Gai's team by now had stopped their individual practices and were staring at him, surreptitiously watching his march. Probably sensing his presence Gai who was training by doing push-ups using a single finger, stopped, and with his incredible strength, flipped up to his feet to loudly greet Naruto, "It is a pleasure to see you this fine afternoon Naruto-kun. How is your inner fire burning?"
"As good as it can be with a broken arm," Naruto replied amusedly. Correctly guessing the Gai was asking about his wellbeing.
Gai, who seemed to have not noticed that little fact looked at what Naruto was talking about, and after confirming it, asked, "How did you get injured?"
"Messed up while training. It was stupid, really."
"It's alright, Naruto-kun, youth and mistakes go together." Placing a hand on his hip and extending his other in a thumbs-up gesture, he declared with a blinding smile, "Don't let your springtime of youth fade away!"
"Don't I know it. In fact, that's why I came here. I was wondering if you could help me with my problem."
Gai, who was still smiling, suddenly shook as if he was electrified. With tears freely flooding out of his eyes, he suddenly screamed out loud, "Ohhh! What passion! It will be an honour Naruto-kun to help you in this youthful endeavour to overcome your weakness."
Naruto could only smile wryly at Gai's loud proclamation. He subtly signalled Gai towards the three genin.
Understanding his intent, Gai addressed his students with his usual gusto, "Alright, you three give me 20 laps rounds around the village. Take the usual route."
With a shout of affirmation from the Gai lookalike and much quieter gestures from the other two, the trio swiftly left the field to complete their assignment.
"Now, how can I help you, Naruto-kun?"
"Are you familiar with the workings of the Yin-seal?" Naruto asked while showing Gai his seal by slightly shifting his headband to the side.
"I am ashamed to admit it, but I cannot claim to know the inner workings of your seal."
"Well, I'll put it simply… think of it as a battery of sorts, for chakra. It stores your chakra for emergencies, and usually, its capacity is larger than your chakra pool. That's why it can also help you perform techniques that require more chakra than you possess. Mine though is slightly modified because of… you know." Naruto explained.
"How so?" Gai asked.
"Well, it doesn't store my own chakra, it stores Kyuubi's. It also negates the usual side effects of using it." Naruto added hastily, "Don't worry, I have already cleared everything with the Hokage. In fact, he was the one who suggested your help with the two problems I have." He didn't want to go on a lengthy explanation right now.
"Let's hear it then."
Seeing that Gai wasn't going to probe further, he quickly explained his problem hoping Gai would be able to help him.
Gai listened silently, and after Naruto was finished, carefully observed him. "From your description, I think I know what the problem is. Your body is too weak to handle the counterforce."
"I thought so too. So, I have to focus on my physicals?"
"I'm not sure. You said you disintegrated the boulder, correct?" Seeing Naruto confirm, Gai continued, "That level of strength is far beyond my understanding. Don't get me wrong, I can probably do the same amount of damage to a boulder, but that feat would require me to open a couple of gates."
"I can't just increase my strength and increase my limit to handle that much power?"
"I'm not confident that you could. Even with your impressive healing, there might be a limit to how much your body can handle before it breaks."
Contrary to what Gai was saying, Naruto knew that because he was a jinchuriki and an Uzumaki, unlike others, he might just heal completely, but the process would not be overnight. Healing the minute damage might take months or years, and if he disregarded that, it might just pile up and fracture his body beyond repair.
"Say if I were to open the Gates would I be able to use that technique."
Gai shook his head, "I would advise against that. Setting aside the question of whether you can even learn it. The technique is very dangerous as it violently pushes chakra through the body. With your already impressive reserves as well as the amount increased by the Kyuubi, even trying it would be highly dangerous." He disliked telling people that they could not achieve something through just hard work and grit. "After all, no matter how much you train your physical body, training your inner organs is another matter. Even getting to the level of surviving the first gate might take you months or years of dedicated physical conditioning."
Naruto could only be disappointed at that. He already had too many things to learn, piling something high level like the eight-gates was already pushing it and now knowing that even with months or years of training, he might not succeed. He couldn't justify putting in time for that.
"Any alternatives?" Naruto asked hopefully.
"I can't think of any. The only other person I know who could even close to punching as hard would be the Raikage using his chakra cloak, but that is a Kumo secret." Gai said regretfully, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun I could not be of much help."
"Don't worry about it. On second thought, forget that. You were, in fact, quite helpful; now at least I know what the problem is and what I can't do to correct it. I just have to find a workaround."
Gai suddenly clasped Naruto's shoulder with his hand, and once again, he was shedding rivers of tears, "Naruto-kun, you have such a youthful attitude. Still, I feel I have failed you, and the guilt I am feeling by being unable to help a friend is overwhelming. If there is anything else, Naruto-kun, feel free to tell me.
"Hey, I just remembered. I opened a weapon shop, so it would help me a lot if you could spread the word. Or if you want weapons, training equipment, or something, I can make it for you. Custom built to fit your requirements. I will give you a discount." Naruto asked, unwilling to give up on the opportunity to advertise his shop.
Quickly thinking through the matter Gai said, "Well, I might have something for you. I don't know if you can help me."
"Lay it on me," Naruto replied eagerly.
"I require a better alternative to the weights I use. These are made from a special metal from Iwa that's very hard to come by, and they have a limit to how much they can weigh. So, do you have an alternative to this? Something that can restrain my body constantly?"
"I might have." He continued without pause, "How about this. Show me your hand. Palm up." Naruto took out a brush from somewhere and quickly drew a seal on Gai's open hand, a swirl in the middle and five smaller ones on the tip of the fingers, linked together by running chains of kanji, "Alright, try to keep your hand open."
Saying so, he activated the seal by lightly poking it with his finger.
Gai felt his hand wanting to curl up into a fist. Trying to keep it open, he started pumping chakra into his hands, boosting his strength. The pull was getting stronger by the minute; with veins in his arm, bulging, Gai kept resisting, lightly sweating under the strain. After a while, Naruto once again poked the seal to stop it.
"How did you do that?" Gai asked in wonder.
"I just reversed a normal seal." Seeing that Gai didn't understand, he elaborated, "When you seal something inside a sealing mark, it unfurls quickly, then after the job is done, it closes up. I just drew a seal that is open by default, and when activated, tries to close itself, that's why you feel the strain. Now, I just have to adjust it so that the force it applies can be regulated and make it so that you can use it yourself. So what do you think?"
"Can you apply this to some kind of clothing or equipment I can wear?" Gai hopefully asked.
"I think I can. Give me a couple of days." Naruto replied.
"Well then, I will thank you in advance," Gai said jovially.
"Hey, I should be thanking you. You are my first customer, after all." Naruto said gleefully.
After a quick goodbye, Naruto left. He walked slowly and absentmindedly as he was lost in thoughts of what to do. Right now, he couldn't think of a way to use his new strength technique.
The three of them were on their sixteenth lap. Tenten, Neji, and Lee running together might seem odd considering the quantifiable difference in their physicals, but it was one of Gai-sensei's newer instructions. It led to an interesting thought process between the members of Team Gai.
Lee took it as Gai-sensei, instructing him to encourage his team to give it their all and surpass their limits. His constant cheering, which while it was with good intentions, was getting on his teammates' nerves.
Neji, on the other hand, was very unsatisfied with the arrangement because he felt it was restricting him too much, as he had to keep pace with Tenten. Sadly the fact that Lee also had to limit himself to keep pace with both his teammates was lost on him.
Tenten, loath as she was to admit it knew that her physicals were far from matching her team. But she wasn't that concerned about it since her style wasn't focused on raw speed or strength. She wished to gain mastery over all weapon arts and felt that she was well on her way. To her, the point of the exercise was not to push herself and try to and match her teammates; it was to build up more cohesion between them by curbing Lee's enthusiasm and making Neji engage more with his team.
Thinking of it as her job to reign in Lee's enthusiasm and break Neji's arrogant silence as she saw herself as the glue holding the team together, she tried to start a conversation between them.
"So, who do you think that was?" She asked. She didn't expound on who exactly she was talking about. Whatever the team's fault may be, she knew they still had a level of understanding between them.
"Who cares?" Neji quipped. As far as he was concerned, the whole situation wasn't worth his time.
Undeterred by Neji's attitude Tenten continued, "Well don't you think it's weird?"
Lee, who by now was running backwards to face his teammates, asked, "What do you mean, Tenten?"
"That boy looked to be about our age, and I feel like I remember him from somewhere. Gai-sensei was also acting very familiar with him. Do you think apart from us, Gai-sensei has other students?"
"I don't think so. A jonin can only have a single genin team." Neji said.
"Well, Gai-sensei could have taken him as a private student." Tenten insisted.
It was all that was needed to get Lee's enthusiasm to another level, "Yosh! Gai-sensei is so incredible. It would make sense that he took other students under his wings to impart his youthful teachings. With Gai-sensei as a teacher, that boy should be quite strong."
Neji scoffed at the thought; just because one had a good teacher didn't mean they would be strong. "I doubt it. Didn't you see he had a broken arm? Getting a serious injury like that shows that he is nothing special."
Tenten tried to dissuade him. "Don't say that, Neji. He might have gotten hurt on a dangerous mission."
"A genin wouldn't be allowed to go on a dangerous mission," Neji stated.
"Missions go wrong all the time because of faulty information," Tenten said irritably.
"Let us complete our laps quickly and see for ourselves then," Lee interjected effectively halting his companions from fighting.
They discovered that by the time they had finished their workout and returned to the field, the boy had just left, and Gai-sensei was back to doing push-ups. Seeing no other choice, Tenten decided to directly ask her sensei, "Gai-sensei, who was that?"
"Are you talking about Naruto-kun?" Gai asked as he continued with his training regimen.
Tenten felt he had heard the name somewhere, "Yeah, that redhead boy."
"You don't know? He was in the academy a year before you," Gai said.
"He was? Well, we didn't usually interact with anyone from the class above or below ours. So he is older than us?" Tenten said.
Gai thought for a while. To him, all of the kids from his students' generation looked to be the same age. But, because he knew of Naruto and the circumstances of his birth, he answered correctly, "No, he is your age. He just got enrolled into the academy a year earlier."
"So, is he your student or something?"
At this, Gai gave a boisterous laugh, "No. Naruto-kun is a friend of mine. He is a chunin."
Neji disregarded that last bit as an indication of Naruto's strength, so what if this Naruto was a chunin. He knew plenty of chunin level shinobi, mostly from his clan. If not for Gai-sensei holding him back a year, he would have been promoted by now. These thoughts were slightly mirrored by Tenten too, she knew how strong an average chunin was, and she had trouble thinking that anyone their age could be stronger than Neji.
Guessing his genin's thoughts and thinking it would be beneficial for them to know that there was always someone stronger, he continued, "He is quite strong too. Even I might have trouble fighting him." Well, at least without opening the gates. He had no way to confidently say how strong Naruto was.
That statement caught their attention. Gai-sensei was a proud and honest person. They knew he wouldn't lie to them. So, if he was admitting Naruto as an equal, then that told them a lot.
In disbelief, whirling around, Neji quickly activated his byakugan, trying to get a clue about Naruto's strength. Using his telescopic power, he attempted to find Naruto. It only took him a moment to do so, seeing that Naruto seemed to be walking slowly, deep in thought.
He focused on the boy, and he was astonished at the amount of chakra he could see. It was so much. He couldn't think of anyone that came close to the amount; maybe the hokage might.
He was further surprised when Naruto's silhouette seemed to turn around and stare at his direction for a brief moment. To his utter disbelief, he watched as Naruto's chakra unfurled and increased exponentially. With a brief moment of activity in his chakra network, Naruto disappeared, outside the range of his byakugan, using shunshin.
'Did he sense me?' Neji was still contemplating how that could be since the byakugan was unparalleled at spying when he heard his sensei's voice.
"Neji," Gai said with a look of disappointment set on his face. His unsaid message was clear.
Neji scowled and looked away. He knew it was a blunder on his part to spy on a fellow shinobi of the leaf. Otherwise, if the Hyuuga wantonly used their dojutsu on the people of the village, it would cost them a lot of goodwill amongst others.
"Gai-sensei, I would like to have a youthful spar with Naruto-san," Lee asked loudly. He was unaware of Neji's faux pas as he was busy getting pumped up about finding a strong opponent.
Hearing his student's request, Gai immediately said, "Well, Lee, my youthful student, I will see if I can arrange it. But first, you must prepare yourself to face him. Don't take him lightly; Naruto-kun is a strong shinobi so let us do our best and train hard."
"Yosh!" Lee again screamed with an inner fire burning in his eyes.
Naruto reappeared inside an alleyway as he used the body flicker technique to escape the Hyuuga kid's spying. He wondered why he would try to use his byakugan on him. He hadn't sensed anything malicious, but he did feel a dense cloud of superiority and inferiority complex mixed in. He wondered if he should look into the boy's background. Shelving the thought as he had far more important things to do, Naruto was just about to continue on his way, when he felt a sickly feeling.
It was horrible, an abomination. It was glee, a sense of joy born from the suffering of others. The pure tone of happiness that he could not feel with his ability brought down to his sensory range by being mixed with sadistic pleasure. Naruto's gaze snapped towards the offender, a middle-aged man, rough-looking worker, smiling nastily at the sight of his broken hand. A civilian.
Misguided and misinformed he might be about the burden of a jinchuriki, but at this moment all Naruto wanted to do was lash out.
His body was lighter than usual, but his steps heavier. With each step, he left a deep imprint on the ground. Snarling, he walked slowly, he closed in towards the civilian man, his gaze set, his hands clenched. He watched as the man backed onto the wall behind pressing his body against it, cowering. Fear seemed to seize hold of every part of his body.
Naruto stopped at an arm's length. He wanted to reach out but to do what he didn't know. Hurt him, maybe, or to ask him why? He wasn't sure.
Sighing, he jumped up to the roof, disappearing from the alley, leaving the shivering man behind.
Perching on top of the roof Naruto groaned in disgust, he had almost lost control. It was true that the unwarranted hate was crushing, but he knew he was better than to stoop to their level. It just that he hated the fact that a positive emotion of happiness could be warped so much and that he was the target of something so vile.
Today hasn't been a good day. It had started out quite alright. He enjoyed the morning swim with Ino, he loved his new shop, but the broken arm was a bummer. The whole deal with his seal had been a disaster, the only good thing coming out of it was knowing that the Hokage was worried. The hokage had checked the eight trigrams seal on multiple occasions before, and Naruto had figured out that the seal was designed as a flood gate from his observations. Knowing that the seal could be opened and closed led him to an uneasy realisation.
Someone held the key to his seal. Someone who can on a whim allow the Kyuubi to exert more influence on him or shut down his ability to detect negative emotions altogether. He wanted to know who that was.
Author's Notes:
Again I might post the other two chapters in a few hours but editing a single chapter takes time so I might post it tomorrow or something. Also, I've been wondering if this fic is an AU or if this is a divergent fic I'm confused, so if anyone knows please tell me. I want to update it in my summary.