First Week Over

Naruto, to his pride, felt nothing as he slaughtered today's deer... well almost nothing. There was a tiny surge of something, something negative, but it wasn't overwhelming, it didn't make him heave or whine or freak out. He just did it, taking down the deer with an easy thrust of his kunai. He hated it, naturally, but the raw need for it overwhelmed his hesitance to take it's life.

As with everyday over the last week, Naruto set a clone to carving and skinning the deer before moving onto his katas. The three hours passed quickly before he found himself returning to Azula with a happy smile. A sense of pride overtook him as he hurried back to his Sensei, as he approached her house. The love and appreciation for his teacher was almost overwhelming. In a mere week Azula had taught him more then damn near everyone else, put together. He felt smart, useful, powerful and capable. His mind was expanding with each day, both in terms of sheer knowledge and understanding of the world at large.

Unlike with Jiriaya, who taught him jack shit, or Kakashi who taught him less... or Iruka, who taught him almost nothing, Naruto had learned so much! He knew of the Sage of Six Paths, he knew of Foundation of the Village systems, he knew of Several Legendary Ninja from Sasori and Chiyo to The Hokages to the Raikages and the Sanin to a level he never had before! He knew of a dozen herbs that could be used for healing ( at least in name and appearance) or for flavoring food! He had gotten much better at throwing weapons, gotten okay at swordplay to the point that he never really made mistakes with his katas, gotten good enough that he could spar with his clones and do actual damage with his taijutsu!

For the first time he felt like a real ninja and he loved it!

He admitted to himsef, though he hated to say it, any love he had for Jiriaya or Kakashi entirely vanished. They were utterly worthless as teachers, now that he saw how a real teacher was! And then there was Iruka, who he now knew was... not at great as he had been before. He had put him on a pedastal, the same pedastal he put the Third on, Kakashi, Jiriaya, Sakura and Sasuke on and now that pedestal had cracked and he was starting to see them as people.

Something helped by the debates with Azula sensei every day, debates on every subject that really made him think and take in the world seriously as much as possible. It was strange but in a mere week Naruto had started to see the entire world in a very different light. He wasn't sure he liked the world he saw... at all, but at least he was looking at it entirely and with a genuinality that he never had before...

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" So Naruto, today we are talking about why you want to be Hokage, and debating on the value of your dreams. Now from what I know of you, I think I can guess. It stems from an Acknowledgement and a sense of value. You want to matter Naruto at the end of thet day... however I see that as a poor reason to rule. Ruling, as we have discussed, is insanely hard and comes with great struggle. It is the definition of sacrifice, misery and difficult choices. So I ask you, why do you fight and why should you fight?"

Naruto frowed. " I fight for my precious people, those that mean to me... but with what I know now, seeing how little they really cared for me, at least in comparison to you who has done more in a mere week then my entire village has in my entire life... I don't know why I am fighting any more. If I'm not fighting for Precious people or to be Hokage anymore... and I really don't know if I still want to be the Hokage anymore now that I know the terrible things they have to do to become and stay Hokage. So why, why am I doing anything? I don't, don't know how to live without wanting to do something like that."

Pride, pure pride filled Azula at those words. The boy was finally coming around to the beautiful point she was trying to impart upon him." Well, Naruto, that is the great thing about losing goals that make your reliant on others. You can choose whatever goal you want. Whatever future you want. It is all yours and your alone. No one can take that from you. It can change from day to day, or last your whole life. Right now your goal, your drive is to get stronger and smarter. That way you have the ability to know not only what you want, but why you want it. No one will be able to fool you. That Freedom is the point Naruto. Once we part, and your training with me is over... you will continue to grow strong and wise, but you will search out the world and find what you want to do. To believe in. It could be anything, your old goals, or new ones. You could want to take over the world, or save it. You could want to settle down and have yourself a family, or become a hermit. All paths are open to you."

" I get that Sensei but I guess... it makes me so tired to think of living without something fight for."

" I know child I know." She looked into the boy's eyes, and a glimmer of fear touched her soul. ' He is close to breaking. For the first time, he has come to realize the fragility of his life, of his dreams. It has shaken his already weakened confidence. Damn that Hiruzen, he gave the boy a dream when he was most vulnerable, one that would bind him forever to his fate as a Jinchuuriki. Even with his new knowledge and burgeoning understanding of the world and it's truths, he held on to the naivety of promise handed to him. Having it fracture is causing immense stress to his psyche. I can only hope he does not shatter entirely... but if he does, it will have to be while he is with me. Otherwise, he would not survive it. There is no way that Jiriaya would notice or care enough to help the boy... '

Sighing, she turned away from the boy, praying to no god in particular that Naruto would one day move past the ever festering wound on his soul. A Wound born the moment he first was met with cruelty in his village, ripped open when he spent three days in a near death state, gouged deeper with Jiraiya's complete lack of concern, fed with all of the ever building doubts she had fed him. Without the dreams and goals to hold back this pain, he would eventually submit. He would never recover from that kind of wound.

' I must help him... not now, it is this very wound that pushes him to train with me in secret but soon. Towards the end of our time together. I can only hope he forgives me...' It was in this moment that an idea sprung into her mind and she smiled, almost running to her book case. " Naruto, I would like you to read this next. It is a history book on the Warring states era, it is a biography of someone born int the Land of Whirlpools. For you, of all people, it may be inspiring."

Naruto frowned and looked at the book. "Rei Uzumaki... we have the same last name, why?"

"Because you are family, Naruto. It is time you learn of your clan, and perhaps find a purpose on the past... and an understanding of the future through it."

He smiled, warmly and with great energy before all but digging into the book, a happy look on his adorable face.

Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.

Short but powerful, this is a transitional chapter...

Love, your Ninja Overlord,

Mika.