***Hope you enjoy and have a great day***
Chapter 8: Inheritance, Training, and "missions"!
Previously
"Now as the last of our guests arrive we hold this feast for the prominence of tomorrow as our summoner has taken the first step in becoming a ninja and so we shall celebrate like there is not tomorrow tonight and come morning we will train to fight for battles yet to come as we fight alongside our summoner as we aid him in his time of need and bring with us a new age of prosperity for young Naruto!" Dracula said as he sat down "Now let us give a hearty toast to new friends and allies from the beetle clan led by Komatao, the Deer clan led by Carla, and last but not least the Monkey clan led by Enma." Dracula said as the party geared up in full swing.
And Now…
As the party was ragging on the kage tapped on Dracula's shoulder and asked if he was allowed to say a few words. With a nod of the head and one attention grabbing shout the floor was the aged kage's. "As of Naruto officially becoming a genin I am now permitted, as per his parents will, to give him all of his mother's belongings consisting of a small cabin and scrolls containing who knows what. My best guess is that it would be what the Uzumaki clan was known for which was sealing" . The professor stated and then sitting back down to continue eating the scrumptious food provided at the feast. "Well thank you for that information, Hiruzen, now with that information we can more focus on what section of the clan for him to study under first." Dracula said. Causing lots of loud splashes to sound from farther down the hall and Ness having a predatory grin on his face. "Thanks to that information he can start tutelage under Ness and all the other monsters under the water portion of the contract." Dracula stated with a little bit of sadness to his tone. "What do you mean start training under the water portion of the clan?" Hiruzen asked. "Well, you see when he signed the contract and passed all the test we wouldn't start his actual ninja training until he became a genin hence why we had him learn history and what not." Dracula stated.
"I'll take over from here Drac. Now we held a meeting to determine how ninja training would actually go because of the fact that while he could make enough clones to learn everything at a fast rate all that information has a large chance of making him like the boss" Ness said, "So to avoid this scenario we decided we would have him train by a branch of the contract which could then train him in all of their fields of expertise before moving to the next group. We were going to make it a contest of sorts and each present a gift that he could accept and then train under that branch, and we will still provide those gifts when he gets to that section of the contract." Ness finished before turning the attention back to Dracula "And the reason he will start with the water contract is that they have one of our two seal masters the other is part of the Japanese section of the contract" He said, "We have Karl"(Pronounced like Carl) Said Ness "And we have Kira" Spoke Sato.
"And the reason you start with the water contract and not the Japanese is because Kira has a more advanced version of sealing that requires what Karl can teach young Naruto" spoke Frank "So what was the water clans' gift?" asked Asuma "We of the water clan have made together a shield of shed scales that can repair any damage to it as long as there is water nearby and the shield has at least one scale left it is also light weight and can stop all but well-crafted blades and blades enhanced with wind or earth chakra" Ness bragged.
With the party back in full swing after the announcement with the members of the water clan even louder because they would get to be the first to train their summoner first. Drac went over to the other members of the council and asked, "Do you think it's time he meets the boss of the contract?" With a nod from all other members, he went to make another announcement "My fellow clansmen and women I and the rest of the council believe it is time for our summoner to meet the boss of the contract!" With a roar of approval from everyone and even some arial tricks from the gargoyles and dragons up above. Dracula led the group of humans and the three other boss summonses behind him to the meeting hall. "The boss of the contract has been asleep since before the 9 tailed beasts were created by the sage of the six paths" He said as he moved down the staircase to the others as the torches light grew only a little as they passed and dimmed after they left. "We hid him away down here for protection in case any other summon where to cause a war with us or form a rivalry like the toad and snake clan." He continued. Silence rung around them the only sound coming from their footsteps as they went down the spiral staircase until they came to a landing with a gigantic cherry wood door easily thirty-five feet tall and another set of stairs heading straight down. "What's down those stairs?" asked Naruto "Those lead to a seal system set up by Kira to call back monsters that used to be part of the contract but when they found out the boss wasn't waking up till we had a summoner, they struck out on there own and said that when we have an actual summoner AND the boss was awake could we call them back." Dracula answered, "So what exactly is the boss of the contract?" Hiruzen asked. Without saying a word, he opened the door. All of them ,even the Summoning clan bosses gasped. "Wait a moment I remember reading about him or at least his myth!" Naruto exclaimed "Is he a cockatrice?" He asked, "The one and only!" Dracula stated with a smirk, though his thoughts went rampant at what he has been seeing 'Is it possible all that excess chakra he's been putting into the summoning jutsu has actually been the boss refilling his reserves? His breathing has gotten lighter and he's actually looking very healthy again.' "So, what's his name?" Naruto said interrupting all of Drac's thoughts' "That is a question he has to deem you worthy for when he wakes up" He responded, and everyone fell silent to contemplate what they are seeing, and it was a truly magnificent sight. There laying before them was a fifty five foot long mix and match of animal parts where it had the head of a rooster the body of a reptile and a snakes tail it had three long gashes across its eye and what looked to be folded up dragon wings to its side with rooster legs and feet. "Hey, I see some books back there what is in those?" Asuma said pointing to a string of bookcases past the mighty boss and each shelf was packed full of books. "Those are his memory's, Kira also removed them and put them in books so as to take strain off his brain while he heals and to insure he didn't forget any when he woke up" Dracula said as he peeked around to see that five of the original fifty bookcases were gone meaning he absorbed the knowledge back in when the seals deemed his brain stable enough to start giving him his memory's back. "Now let us get back to the celebration!" he said. At that everyone turned around and walked back to the party and enjoyed the rest of the night.
The next morning at seven in the morning you can find team 10 at their training ground waiting for their sensei to show up. Ten minutes later and a poof of smoke comes out in front of them with their sensei inside of it. "Alright team this is how I figured we would set up the training every other day when we're not on C-rank missions or above we will train together as a team in the morning and do a handful of D-rank missions till we have the required thirty as a team to go on a C-rank mission" Asuma stated "Then on that off day we will each be training individually Naruto with his summons, and Shikamaru and Shino with their clans, Now saying that I will be taking those days to train myself on this field and so if you need help with anything during those days you'll know where to find me" he finished. "So what day is today?" Naruto asked. "Today we will do some teamwork exercise until lunch then pick up a few missions." Asuma responded. Five hours after that was said you could see Shino and Shikamaru panting hard Naruto looking like he was wheezing and Asuma with a light sheen of sweet. "Now that we got it out of the way we'll rest and eat lunch until 1 then we'll go to the mission's office."
Not fifty minutes later do we find the team standing in front of the mission room ready to take on there first mission. "Well for missions today we have clean up a farmers field of rocks, catch Tora, walk the Inuzuka's hounds, clean the Inuzuka's kennels, mow a councilor's grass, and babysit an ambassador's kid while he's at a meeting." The chunin said from behind the counter "May we have the Farmer's field and catch Tora to start please." Naruto stated before Asuma could say anything. "Alright here you are do you mind if I ask why the catch Tora mission?" The chunin asked while handing the scrolls to Asuma. "Because I have just the thing to catch the little devil" Naruto said with a chuckle. So, the young team heads to catch Tora first and foremost, "Alright Naruto what's your plan?" Shikamaru asked after they where at the last reported area of where Tora was seen. "Well, we have two options to track her down and two options to capture her." He started "And since this is supposed to be teamwork based we will have a combination of the two, we will have a group of my summons and Shino's bugs track it down and then my summons will surround it stealthily and cut off any routs of escape then I figured Shikamaru you could catch it with your shadow possession, and I'll carry the thing back." "What summon are you going to use?" Asuma asked "Summoning Jutsu" Naruto said and when the smoke vanished only Asuma, and Naruto could see what was happening "What happened nothings there?" Shikamaru asked "That's where you are wrong my insects feel something there, but I don't see it" Shino said equally as confused "That's because aside from me being there summoner there completely invisible to anyone under chunin and their target. Though there is a way to circumvent that." After Naruto said that both Shino and Shikamaru felt something lick their hands and then the air started wavering and they could now see nine hell hounds the size of a mountain lion standing right in front of them. They where as black as a cloud covered midnight, with collar's made out of black leather, a red name tag on each of them, and red eyes that pierced the very soul. "These are Hell Hounds originally there where so many that they really didn't have much room on their island to move so they fought each other until only the nine before you remained and just as these nine where about to fight again Dracula found the Island and brought them back to the clans' home" Naruto explained. "And while they regret most of it after all, they did become more powerful because of them absorbing all the others souls when they died and so with that they push forward in their honor". And with that Shino took it as his silent cue to release more insects to track down Tora as eight of the hell hounds split up in search of the cat. "Why did that one stay behind Naruto?" Asuma asked. "Well to lead us to the cat if one of the other hell hounds finds it, there collars let them communicate with each other over any distance" Naruto answered. "Can you not communicate with them?" Shino asked. To Shino it was a weird concept to not be able to hear the dogs and was thus compelled to ask. "No, I can't Dracula said I'd need a collar just like theirs but there trying to see if they can make one like a belt or a bracelet." Naruto responded and with that they slipped into silence.
After the brief pause both Shino and the hell hound turn their head in a specific direction and as the hell hound starts heading there Shino say's "We need to hurry I think the cat can smell the hounds and is more skittish.". At that they race to see the cat in a clearing and the hell hounds just out of a normal persons and animals view around the clearing evenly distanced to cut off lines of escape "Alright guess I'm up" Shikamaru said as he walked closer to the edge of the clearing and started the jutsu to stretch his shadow "And shadow possession jutsu successful." And with the cat frozen there Naruto Picks him up by the scruff and dismisses all but two hell hounds. "They're going to follow in case someone has any ideas about running" Naruto spoke as he made sure Tora could see both hell hounds. Thanks to the escort of two hell hounds Tora smartly decided to not run away or put up a fight. "Alright if you could put her into the carrier we will give her back to the Fire Lord's wife." The chunin said as he logged down team tens successful retrieve Tora mission. And with a dramatic wave of the hands "And off to the fields we go!" Naruto exclaimed in a flamboyant fashion causing the people present to sweet drop.
It only took them ten minutes to get to the field and considering the capture Tora mission only took an hour they were looking good on time. "So, I need this farm free of rocks so I can start making sure the ground is ready for the next planting." The farmer said pointing behind the four to a thirteen acer farm behind them. "Now usually I have farm hands to do this but with a recent sandstorm in Suna destroying all their crops they all left to go do work over there." He continued dragging there attention back to him. "Well, how about we make this interesting" Naruto says, "Out of the four of us who ever picks up and get rid of the least number of rocks and debris has to pay for dinner when we call it a day." Naruto said to the team. "Alright I'm game." Said Asuma with the other two nodding "We each start in a corner, and we start when my summons go poof" said Naruto summoning four hell hounds. When everyone was in their corners and the hell hounds went poof everyone started working inwards to clean as much of the field as possible Shino using his insects to clear large sections all at once Asuma using his speed to go at a mid chunin pace, Shikamaru used his shadow possession to rip any and all debris when he was surrounded by it, and Naruto was doing the most cleaning after summoning four baby rock golems only coming up to three feet in height and summoning around a thousand clones was he clearing acers fast. The work was finished it two and a half hours putting the time at four thirty in the afternoon. "Alright wright down how much you cleared, and we'll see who cleared the most" Asuma said covered in a heavy sheen of sweat, Shino and Shikamaru where both panting in exhaustion but complied with the request, Naruto looked the best out of all of them with him breathing hard as the only sign he was affected at all. "Right and it looks like. I'm paying for dinner!?" Asuma said rereading the numbers right "They both beat me by one thing of debris each." Asuma spoke with a quiver in his voice "Well the jobs done, and I believe we have enough time to do one more mission sensei" Naruto spoke getting a mild glare from both of his teammates because of how exhausted they were. "Oh, quit your belly aching the sooner we complete thirty of these chores the sooner we can go on higher ranked missions" Naruto stated causing both of them to sigh at the fact that he was right "Besides we should work up a big appetite since sensei is paying for it" He continued nonchalantly enticing grumblings from said man.
"So, you have completed two missions and want to go on another?" The chunin asks "Yup we want to finish those thirty prerequisites" Naruto chirped happily. "Well, no new missions have come in yet, but some have been taken the only ones left are capture Tora and mow some grass at a councilors house" he stated looking at the last two scrolls. "Why has Tora escaped again?" the genin asked in unison "Well you see, it doesn't really like being hugged to death and that's what she does." He whispered to the genin "In that case we'll take both if you're alright with that!" Naruto stated, "As long as it's good with your sensei." The chunin said wanting conformation from Asuma. With a nod from his head, they left the tower and once out of public view he turned to his team. Naruto turned around and cut off his two teammates' arguments. "How would we as a team not like to go on D – ranks ever again? " At the mention of never having to do the chores ever again both his teammates held their tongue, and Asuma to look interested. "I can make solid clones which could transform into us and do the D - Ranks all day as we train on our team days and as a plus we can get more done in a shorter amount of time and get on C – ranks faster than any other team and all we need to do is visit the office in the morning and from there I'll load the clones with enough chakra to last all day. " At this both Shikamaru and Shino said the same thing "Let's do it" after both their conformations they all turned to Asuma with an unspoken question asking if they would receive his blessing to actually go through with this plan. "I would go through with this plan on one condition" He stated, "You practice meditation for the hour before you pop the clones to lessen the effect of the memory backlash" Asuma said with a grin. "And what will you be doing during this time?" asked Naruto to make sure his sensei wasn't going to show blatant favoritism. "Well Shino needs to work on increasing his reserves so as your practicing meditation I figured his beetles could sap off of your large chakra reserves giving Shino's reserves time to build without feeding it all to his bugs, While he's doing that Shikamaru, and I will play shogi until you guys are done. This allows to train him on thinking several moves ahead which will be helpful in a battle" Asuma finished "That was all I needed" Naruto said followed by two shouts "Shadow clone jutsu, Summoning jutsu" and with that, eight clones appeared with two of each transforming into Shino, Shikamaru, and Asuma and two staying as Naruto. That and with two of the hell hounds "Right those our two teams one will catch Tora the other will go cut grass" Naruto stated, "Now then as I remember we are getting treated to dinner right sensei?"
The next day was a training day and right away Naruto reverse summoned himself and instead of his room at the castle he was on a seashore with an ocean in front of him and a large lagoon filled with fresh water several miles behind him. Ness's head raised out of the sea, and he began talking "Ah good you're here Naruto, follow me" he said turning around and seeming to go to a specific spot on the water his head sticking out of the water. As he came to a spot above the water he spoke again "Now we shall start your training for the day but before we start anything we need you to change cloths to something that will allow faster movement in water" he said diving his head down for a few seconds and popping back up with googles, a wet suit, and an air mask and tank in black with orange spirals dotting the suit here and there, after quickly reverse summoning twice more to drop his other outfit at home and change he was ready to go now. "You will only need the googles, air tank, and mask for a little bit today as Karl will draw a seal on you that will convert your chakra into oxygen and give you clear vision underwater after that seal is applied you will be able to take both of those off, Before we dive make three hundred clones and leave them up here to train with other sea creatures who swim by and myself you personally will be visiting and studying underwater with Karl until you can master what he teaches you." Ness said as he watched Naruto try and get comfortable in the wet suit. "It'll take some time to get used to it so until then let's just go down and introduce you to Karl" and with that statement Ness started to dive down followed shortly by Naruto.
Naruto was amazed by what he saw in front of him and that was a variety of mythical fish and sea monsters swimming about their day and even some normal types of fish and such he could faintly see a big, shadowed outline of a whale or two in the distance. "Breathtaking isn't it?" A voice said behind him with Ness floating below Naruto rolling his eyes at what he was doing. Turning around to greet what he could only presume was Karl he saw nothing. "Well as you two get acquainted I'll go ahead and train the clones" Ness said starting to head back to the surface. "Oh, but you're going to miss his reaction" the voice whined behind Naruto. Spinning around he saw nothing there again "If you want me to stay for his reaction reveal yourself so you two can start your introductions" Ness countered floating above Naruto "Only after he takes his mask and googles off I already wrote the seal on him" The voice spoke from below him this time but looking down there was again nothing there "Naruto go ahead and take off your googles, mask, and air tank " Ness spoke up. Showing skepticism but nonetheless trusting Ness did as instructed. After taking off the mask he found he could breathe as easily as he was on land, and after the googles came off he found he could see better without them on. "Now kid look behind you" Karl spoke as he deactivated his camouflage ability. Turning around once again Naruto stared in shock as how this thing was able to camouflage so well. Floating behind him was an octopus so big that it looked like it could crush boats in half without any effort. Just as he was about to speak Karl began to shrink down to the size of a normal octopus. "Size altering seals they allow bigger animals to shrink down to more well fit sizes, but we can't grow past our natural size, not that we need too of course, the two of the water contract that have it is myself and Joe I believe he goes by now." Karl spoke answering his unasked question. "When did you write the seal on me" Naruto asked as the swam down "I actually engraved it into your lungs by releasing trace amounts of ink into the water and sending it to your mask I controlled it to go into your lungs after I had enough I just simply engraved it as you were looking for me and because of that you mind didn't register any pain as its one focus was to find me" Karl explained as they entered what looked to be an underwater sea cave. "We will do your training in here because you have to use paper as you can't produce ink like me." Karl said as he led him to a desk that had lots of blank scrolls to one side and a giant vat of ink on the other, on the desk lay a variety of pens to dip into the ink and light seemed to be pouring into the room from what looked like a seal of some sort. "So, would you mind making a couple of seals for me now and take a look at my own seal?" Naruto asked. At that Naruto lifted his shirt and channeled chakra into it to make the seal visible. After he went up and touched the seal his eyes glassed over for a few minutes. "Well then I got good news and bad news." Karl said after his eyes returned to normal. "The good news is that if you die the kyūbidies too so at least for self-preservation purposes he will lend you chakra in life threatening scenarios " Karl stated, "The bad news is twofold one you chakra will be unbalanced and harder to control until the kyūbi gets the other half of his chakra back more than likely sealed in the fourth hokage's resting place if the story the council said was true. The second is that with the way the seal is set up is to slowly filter the chakra into yours and get you used to it thus making your chakra even harder to control." Karl said and he was about to tell his solution to the second part before he noticed that Naruto's eyes were glazed over.
"Alright listen up brat, I would so love to get out of here but if what that squid said is true we're stuck with each other. So, I offer you a deal to make this a simi-workable relationship" The kyūbi boomed out as soon as Naruto was in front of him. "I require several things to make this work one change this kami forsaken scenery, two get the squid to fix the filter because they way its draining my chakra is like a mosquito sucking chakra out of something as large as that boss summon you have, three get the squid to set up a sensory linking seal or loosen the full seal a little so I can at least see the outside and smell and taste again, four when I get my other half of chakra I will start training you at night while your body rests." It spoke before letting it's container speak since the first time it got here. "Ok one how do I change the scenery, two that filter is prepping my body to handle your chakra three that sounds reasonable, but I can see some draw backs to that, four wouldn't that just leave me mentally tired?" Naruto spoke after determining that it was speaking the truth "It's your mind you have control over the scenery, two that seal is doing jack to help you build a resistance, three what drawbacks, and four no because after I get my second half and the filter removed your chakra won't be in flux twenty-four seven meaning it will finally be calm during the night and doing the training will make it seem to your brain that nothing has changed causing you to wake up as refreshed or better as you have been for years." After he was done speaking the surrounding area rippled, then another, then another, until a wave of chakra swept by blinding the tailed beast for a few seconds. When it opened its eyes again it was amazed at the scenery change. What was once a sewer was now a very lush forest with trees tall enough to be bigger than him at full size he could hear some giant game for him to hunt such as rabbits and dear, he also heard the sound of other foxes over in the distance. He could smell that instead of being 'water' on the ground of the sewer his hosts chakra turned into a large lake with a waterfall constantly adding more to it causing it to expand and go deeper. Through the tree tops canopy, he could feel the artificial sunlight hitting his fur. "This is the best mindscape I've been in, and I had two containers before you." The kyūbi said while stretching his legs for the first time in a long time "Well I will let you have fun in here and relay your message to Karl" Naruto said as he slowly vanished from view. 'This is definitely the one father talked about' He thought before catching sight of a rabbit and giving chase for the first time in forever actually enjoying the thrill of the hunt.
"So how did it go?" Karl asked seeing as how the glassed overlook was fading from Naruto's eyes. "The kyūbi wants to know if you could remove the filter and loosen the seal a little to give him sensory access to smell and taste and what not." "That is certainly doable" Karl said. "I will do that before you go home after today to let your body adapt over night because while loosening the seal isn't an issue and removing the filter isn't either it does have the potential to have some adverse effects on your body such as your chakra pathways may expand again which will give you a larger chakra reserve" and with that they went over to the desk to get started.
*** And calling it here to post it sooner. Next time will be the next mission day and when he receives his mom's inheritance, the first c rank mission and some trouble brews***