Naruto watched his, for want of a better word, target with extreme care. The man certainly bore a resemblance to the previous Hokage, he had suspected as much due to the same family name.
Apparently this man was an expert in chakra flow and channelling into weaponry. Naruto watched a cloud of cigarette smoke rise from the man as he took another long drag on the tobacco stick.
He didn't understand the use of such chemicals. He'd looked up the compound in the small sticks and found none of them had any real usage other than as a mild anti-depressant. The smell wafted to him and made him feel a little ill.
Naruto had followed the directions from the note that the Hokage had given him. They had been very specific about not having his hood up and introducing himself.
He dropped from his hiding place in the trees and walked towards the man. Again he felt the pang of anxiety about being in the open and walking freely towards the man. He felt like activating his Byakugan to make sure that nobody was going to try and kill him. He forced himself to be content with merely looking around constantly.
The man looked up as Naruto approached and smiled. Tossing the smoking butt aside and crushing it under his foot, he stretched out a hand.
"Asuma Sarutobi. Interested to meet you."
Naruto hesitated for a moment before taking the hand and allowing it to be shaken. He still found the custom to be very odd.
"Naruto. Lady Hokage ordered me to meet you for training in chakra channelling."
The man nodded.
"She mentioned that you could use some training. I do have a few questions for you through which I want answers to before I agree to train you."
A test. He could do that as best he could.
"I agree to your terms."
The man smiled.
"List your skill set and normal modes of operation."
"Stealth, genjutsu, poisons, assassination and long range combat using a crossbow. Minor skills with tanto blade and blowgun weaponry. Mastery of both solid and non-solid henge and knowledge of the shadow clone jutsu."
The man let out a long whistle.
"Any other skills that I should know about?"
Naruto considered. Lady Tsunade had clearly briefed him, but could he trust the man.
"None that come to mind."
The man nodded.
"Good. Next question, chakra nature?"
"Unknown."
The man rummaged in a pocket of his flak jacket and produced a strip of pale yellow paper. It looked no Naruto like the litmus papers he occasionally used as a backup check for his chemistry solutions.
"We'll use this in a moment. Third question, hardest mission accomplished to date."
"Retrieve or kill mission, S rank."
The man raised an eyebrow.
"S rank? Who was the target?"
Naruto found himself having to think quickly. How much was he allowed to tell about the mission and himself? He decided to stall.
"I am unsure whether I am allowed to reveal that information to you Asuma-san."
The man seemed not to react perceptibly to the words but Naruto sensed he understood exactly which mission it had been.
"All right, I'm done with my questions. I did know all of the answers you were going to give except for the one about your chakra nature."
"Then why did you ask?"
He was genuinely curious. Surely there was no point except to confirm that a person was telling the truth. What use was that information unless you were interrogating someone? This was clearly not an interrogation situation, so it did not make logical sense.
"To see how much you were willing to reveal. What you didn't reveal interests me more than what you did. Nobody is around, and I would like you to understand that you can trust me with any information that you give."
Naruto nodded, although he felt that just trusting the man was a something he didn't wish to fully commit to.
"I've read your files. You were the one who took out Uchiha Sasuke. That mission was bad for my students. Shikamaru left the shinobi regular forces; Choji took a real pounding and now works with other teams when he needs to. Ino got very scared as well when a lot of her friends came back scarred or worse. Then again, you do not care because you have only met one of them."
"I do not deny this analysis. It is correct."
Asuma sighed and sat, indicating for Naruto to do the same.
"Indeed. I am surprised at your actions though. You committed friendly fire, and that makes most people stop and loose all faith in themselves. That must have been..."
The tingling in his side grew a little, he held up a hand.
"I do not wish to be reminded of it."
The man nodded.
"I understand. I've lost close friends before. The sooner you let go the less it will hurt."
"I will not until I know his name."
The man nodded.
"In that much I think you're an idiot, but this is not why I am here. I'm impressed by your dedication to the mission and the fact you accomplished your crazy objective successfully. You killed him off in Orochimaru's base, which is something nobody else could have achieved. How did that feel by the way? Learning that you had succeeded in the kill."
Naruto forced himself to recall the events. Provided he was careful he wouldn't remember much further.
He had finished writing the last bit of his report and had packed up when Fitch returned to him. The Rat-Lord had merely nodded before disappearing to dispel elsewhere and give him more time to escape.
He remembered that he had paused in his movements for a moment and taken in a fresh breath of the stale air in the vents.
That breath had felt more satisfying than food and water in that one moment of final triumph.
"I felt like I had accomplished something of true worth. I think the word would be triumphant."
That got a smile.
"Treasure that feeling. It doesn't happen too often in shinobi life. The other bit of information you didn't tell me is that you are a Junchuuriki. That I can understand. I am surprised at how you have turned out though. You are certainly not normal."
"Surprise makes me deadly, as you might well expect."
The man smiled.
"Good. You understand well your role and you understand what is a good way of doing things. Now then, let's move on to some actual training shall we?"
Naruto felt a sense of weight lifting from him. He had passed the test, even if it had reduced the amount of time he had for training.
Asuma passed Naruto the slip of chakra paper, which Naruto took. He pulled off a combat glove to get full contact with the paper.
"Channel some chakra into the paper and let's see what affinity you are shall we?"
Naruto did so. Nothing happened at first.
"More chakra."
Naruto summoned enough chakra to put on a solid henge. Then enough for one of his shadow clones. That was a sensible amount in and of itself. The paper was reacting, but faintly. He pushed harder than he'd ever had to.
The paper darkened very slightly at first, then further and further. Asuma watched in fascination. This was an interesting twist on the normal way things happened. He sighed internally. Why had he assumed that this boy would have a normal, simple affinity? Maybe a wind user like himself, or perhaps fire or lightning. Those might fit worse with Naruto's style.
This was unprecedented.
Naruto kept going, wondering what it was meant to mean. The paper was nearly entirely black, except for a sliver of shining white at the other end.
Asuma knew a little of chakra theory, but this was not in the usual guides. He knew what it looked like, but that wasn't what this paper was meant to test for.
He pulled another slip of paper out of his jacket.
"Try again with this piece."
Naruto did so. Having worked out the level of chakra required, he rapidly darkened the next strip. There was still that thin band of shining white as well.
Asuma took out a third piece and performed the exercise himself. As he expected the paper split in two and charred a little, signifying his wind and slight fire affinity.
He sighed. Chakra reactive paper was expensive to produce, and even more expensive for a consumer to buy. There was maybe a metre or two roll of the stuff produced in the elemental nations each year that made it to Konoha, made by skilled workers in the Land of Iron where they would be safe from coercion by other nations.
It was just enough to test all shinobi who required knowing their elemental nature, but not much more. It was part of the reason why they only tested people once they wished to learn it, and not just every genin who graduated. Elemental training was time consuming and difficult, and generally higher ranking chunin were the starter class.
He reached for the instructions that came with the paper and scanned it quickly. The effects for the five main elemental natures were known, but there was a bit nobody bothered to read about rarer natures.
He raised his eyebrows as the effects he had seen were explained. He put the guide back into the pocket with the remaining scraps of paper.
"You have a rare nature."
"That much is apparent. I take it I am not guided by one of the five major natures."
Asuma inspected the scraps of paper once more just to be sure. Very close inspection revealed that there were tiny, tiny cuts all around the edge of the paper. Technically a wind nature, but overwhelmingly something else.
"You have a very weak wind affinity, but otherwise you appear to have a primarily Yin chakra makeup."
"Yin chakra is primarily used in genjutsu is it not?"
Asuma was surprised at that little revelation of knowledge.
"Yes, it is primarily composed of the spiritual portion of your chakra, whereas the Yang," he gestured to the shining white end, "is meant to be the more physical energy of a person. So you are producing a lot more Yin than Yang, which is unusual. I am given to believe most people produce and evenly balanced split."
Naruto considered possible reasons.
"I might be a side effect of my holding of the Nine-Tailed Beast. Could it be possible that more Yang chakra was sealed into me than Yin chakra?"
Asuma chuckled.
"Don't ask me kid, I'm not a seal master. What I do know is that this makes your training very different to how I expected. What was your plan for the use of chakra flow?"
Naruto produced the crossbow and indicated the channelling wire. Asuma studied the bow with some interest, appraising it carefully.
"I intended to use chakra flow on my crossbow bolts and mechanisms to improve its effectiveness. Whether it would take the form of more powerful shots by sharpening the chakra around them, or perhaps silencing the mechanism completely."
Asuma considered the possibility. Charging a bolt with chakra would normally be a prelude to exploding it or making it catch fire. What could Yin chakra do to a bolt? He would have to ask Kurenai at some point tonight. Or tomorrow morning. When he remembered to.
"Good uses. Yin chakra could have some interesting uses, and I will consult a genjutsu expect. I'll try and get her to the next training session."
The man smiled widely about this. He considered what he knew of the shinobi forces.
"Do you mean Kurenai-sensei?"
The man looked a little shocked for the briefest moment before smiling.
"Yes. She mentioned you turned up on some of her missions. Did you really get her that angry?"
"We did not share a common viewpoint until sometime after meeting."
The man gave a laugh and took out another cigarette and flicked it alight.
"She really didn't like you at first, but she seemed a little fonder after awhile."
He drew in some more smoke from the cigarette.
"Why do you actively inhale smoke? Surely there are downsides to such a habit."
"Do you want to be trained?"
"Yes."
"Then do not mention that. I get enough nagging as it is. Let's get to some control exercises to get you into the basics whilst I consult how best to use your chakra."
Naruto nodded as Asuma drew out his weapons, a pair of long knives that slipped neatly around his knuckles.
"Now I know you have a Byakugan as well, so activate it. To be honestly, I'm surprised you don't simply use a constant henge to hide your odd eye as opposed to that strip of cloth."
"I prefer to use as little chakra as possible to avoid detection. I also guess that Kurenai or Kakashi told you this information, and that you reuse the argument against him."
The man looked a little annoyed. Naruto realised he was getting better at picking up people's possible moods from their facial expressions. This was not the time to continue the thought.
"You really aren't great at getting on people's good sides are you?"
"Most of my interaction tends to happen when I shoot people with my bow."
"Fair point."
The man shook his head and took another, deeper drag.
"That's satisfying. Anyway, chakra flow. I take it you're used to applying chakra for wall walking, water walking and activating scrolls of various kinds?"
Naruto nodded. He would be surprised if anyone didn't have those skills after even a short time as a genin.
"Good. This is similar but instead of merely controlling the chakra in a rough way you need to mould it a little more. Observe."
Naruto did. The man concentrated, and slipped the knives a little further away from his body. A slight blue haze surrounded the blades from his normal eye.
His Byakugan revealed far more. The knives were surrounded by another blade, at least twice as long and probably sharper, made of gently rippling chakra.
"You channel chakra through the blades and form a blade around the blade."
The man nodded and retracted the blade.
"Any idea how?"
"Could you repeat the technique?"
The man did with a smile. The blades extended again and Naruto observed with his Byakugan, closing his normal eye to better focus on what was happening.
He had to stop himself from simply looking at it from an aesthetic perspective. The chakra was flowing in ways he hadn't seen, like two counter flowing rivers. Most of it flowed neatly, yet there was interference.
He very, very nearly reached out his hand towards it. It was a fleeting impulse to touch the prettiness.
No, there was a zone of conflict in the middle of it, right between the zones of flow. He rotated his view, getting higher to see better the flows and currents.
Flat on, you just saw flows of chakra. Edge on; the zone of conflict became a mass of fractured bits of flow.
"You counteract two flows and use the friction between them to create sharpness?"
"Pretty much. You seem far too good at this."
"I have good observation skills."
Asuma nodded.
"The thing for you to do now is to just try pushing chakra into your bolts from your bow. You have an advantage in that you can see if it is working. Now, for your suspected chakra type, it might work if you try and visualise the effect you want to work."
Naruto felt a little unsure now.
"This seems like a very open exercise without a clear goal."
"Welcome to more advanced techniques kid. There's no manual. Get to it."
He touched the wire next to the bow, getting used to the new grip he had to adopt. He swiftly slammed a bolt into place and focused his chakra on the wire.
No matter how long it took, he would master the use of this art. He had to if he wanted to live.
A/N
Choosing a chakra nature that befit Naruto was a weird process, but I think that this was the option that keeps things the most interesting. No pure power, but definitely makes him more deadly. This is about as much of the training process as we're going to see.
Otherwise hope everyone continues to enjoy the story!