Disclaimer: First Chapter
Story Start!

"Don't want to go."

"What!?"

"I don't want to go find this Tsunade lady with you, Kakashi-sensei promised to teach me a new jutsu. Go find her yourself if she's so important." Naruto deadpanned as he got himself ready to learn a new technique with Kakashi as his teacher. He had wanted to spend a month with Kakashi when he was training for the exams originally, but in the end he had been pushed off to another teacher, and finally Jiraiya took over for Ebisu.

"The Rasengan... Spiral Sphere... an interesting technique name." Erza crossed her arms under her chest and nodded.

She was wearing the same clothes as Naruto.

Their Sync Rate had gone up, so whatever Naruto wore, she ended up wearing a ghostly version of his clothes. It would seem allowing her to possess him had upped the rate that their souls were bonding together. She didn't mind the change, since she liked the new clothes that she had forced Naruto to get. His Chunin vest with an orange T-shirt underneath it, and black pants, and he no longer wore an equipment bag on his body. He just stored all of his ninja supplies inside of her storage, which allowed him to cut down on extra baggage on his body.

"It DOES sound cool." Naruto agreed with Erza, a grin.

"Not to mention Kakashi-sensei promised to take you on a mission with him, so you really can't go on the search for this Tsunade." Erza reminded Naruto on their prior obligations. He had a mission with Kakashi, and she didn't want him to forget his obligations to the jobs he agreed to take. "Not to mention you are almost out of money, and money comes first." Erza knew that her tastes were expensive, and she wanted Naruto to indulge in cake more often.

Naruto frowned in thought.

"... You just want cake, and I'm afraid of getting a big butt if cake enters my body too much while we're connected... what if I look more like you?"

"We're already the same person, and cake is very important. The changes are happening regardless... anyway, wouldn't you like to move out of this apartment?" Erza gestured to the small apartment he lived in. It was a normal apartment, though the walls and the corners of the rooms were filled with house plants, and the floor was littered with ramen cups.

"... Yeah, that sounds nice."

"Exactly, so we should take way more jobs to build up funds. Then buy a plot of land, and build a house there."

"That is a good idea too."

"I... have no idea where this conversation is going." Jiraiya was just confused when Naruto walked right by him, not paying him much attention anymore as he had a full conversation with Erza over something he had no clue about. Whatever it was, Naruto seemed to be agreeing with it at the very least. "... I don't want to go alone though..." Jiraiya pouted, since he didn't want to go on this mission by himself.

He wanted to go with Naruto, so that he could teach Naruto a jutsu and bond with him some more. Kakashi was ruining his chance to form a stronger relationship with the boy, and it would seem that Erza had plans to keep Naruto busy as well.

-At The Third Training Ground-

Kakashi raised an eyebrow.

Naruto was late.

Well, he was late too, but Naruto was even more late than he had been. He looked at the ground where he had hundreds of water balloons filled up and ready for training. He had taught Sasuke the Chidori, and he was ready to teach Naruto the justu that had been taught to him by his teacher. A jutsu that Naruto should have inheritted before now, but he had never had the chance to pass down to him.

"Sorry I'm late Kakashi-sensei, I got lost on the road of life."

"No problem Naruto, it happens sometimes." Kakashi smiled at Naruto when he heard the familiar excuse used against him. Kakashi put his book away, and he put his hand behind his back. "Now, before we start training... can you have a Shadow Clone stand behind me and watch how many fingers I'm holding up?" Kakashi asked Naruto.

"How is this important for training?"

"I'm going to teach you a way to get 1,000 hours of training in 1 hour."

"OKAY!" Naruto grinned a wide grin, creating a clone next to him. The clone nodded with an equally large grin, while Erza yawned and just looked at what was going on, eyebrow raised but silent. When the Shadow Clone was in position, Kakashi glanced back at it.

He went through several fingers.

He then popped the Shadow Clone by bopping it on the head.

"Now Naruto... how many fingers was I holding up?" Kakashi asked with a tone that suggested a secret.

"4, 5, 3, 4, and then you flipped me off."

...

"Ah..." Erza suddenly understood, before Naruto did, how Kakashi was going to allow Naruto to get so much training in, and in such a short time. Naruto tilted his head in confusion, so Erza just placed a hand on his shoulder. "... Naruto, whatever your Shadow Clone learns, YOU learn as well. If you make 1,000 Shadow Clones, you can master techniques 1,000 times faster than you normally would." Erza made her explanation simple for him.

Naruto's eyes widened in sheer enjoyment of those words.

"... So if I make 1,000 Shadow Clones, every day... and train for... I can turn a month of training into..."

"More than 80 years worth of training." Erza did the math for him, he started to try and count on his fingers. She looked over at Kakashi, and saw that he was staring in her direction with his eye uncovered, having figured out that she was talking to his student. "So THAT is the Sharingan... it's a very pretty eye."

"It's cool... but... wait... THAT is SO COOL!"

"Yes, it's very cool. Now, since we have a mission together soon, I want you to make 1,000 Shadow Clones... and pop this water balloon using nothing but your chakra... like this." Kakashi picked up a water balloon.

Erza leaned forward and peeked inside of the balloon.

"I see, he's spinning his chakra in multiple spiral directions... and it pops." Erza analyzed it with a smile on her face, as she peeked inside the balloon, the outside started to form rapidly mutating bumps, before the entire water balloon popped and splashed the ground with fresh water. "... Still, be careful with this training Naruto. As your clones build up fatigue, it makes sense for that mental fatigue to get passed onto you as well." Erza warned Naruto.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

"Okay, all Shadow Clones, remember that you need to spiral your chakra in multiple directions at the same time, pop the balloon that way!" Erza called out to all of the clones, giving her advice on how she had witnessed the inside of the balloon moving. She nodded to herself, before she glanced over at Kakashi lay down on the ground.

He started to read a book as Naruto and his clones began training.

"So... Erza was it... you're standing nearby me at the moment, aren't you?" Kakashi asked as his Sharingan eye peeked out from his book and watched her general direction. "... Do me a favor and make sure that Naruto uses his jutsu in a responsible way... he can be reckless." Kakashi just smiled at her.

He had a plan.

'... With this Erza woman, Naruto will be able to get stronger and more mature, and he won't have to rely on the Kyuubi in the future."

*POP*

1 hour.

1 hour using the Shadow Clone method was equal to 41 days of training, and 1 of Naruto's clones had managed to pop the balloon. The method that the Shadow Clone training worked so well was that each clone would try a different approach, and eventually one of those clones would figure something out.

Minutes later, the sounds of hundreds of water balloons popping could be heard as Kakashi glanced over. Every time a Shadow clone popped a balloon, it popped and transfered it's knowledge to all of the other clones, and they started to figure out how to pop the balloons. In total, this method was giving Naruto 1,000 popped balloons worth of practicing with the first stage of the technique he was going to be learning.

"Kakashi-sensei, I popped-"

"Now do it with these." Kakashi held a rubber ball above his head.

Erza leaned forward and peeked inside of it.

"... The chakra is WAY more dense than before, and the balloon is thicker... and there isn't any water." Erza told the main Naruto as he stood staring at her. Just like the water balloon before it, the rubber ball popped.

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

"Okay everyone, this time make the chakra SUPER dense, don't be afraid to give it your all! Concentrate on making it REALLY explode, just BAM, shove all your chakra inside of the ball!" Erza called out her instructions to the clones as they lined up and started to take rubber balls.

Kakashi just turned a page in his book.

"This training is insane, because only Naruto is skilled with clones and has the chakra to spare, to make this training work. Nobody else would benefit nearly as much, just so that you know... and with you here helping him, I'm pretty sure he's going to get this jutsu by the end of the day." Kakashi just turned a page.

He could not truly see or hear Erza, but knowing she was floating nearby him allowed him to talk with her somewhat. He talked and she was more than willing to listen, and since she was always floating nearby Naruto, whatever information got passed to her could help Naruto in the future. He HAD seen her ghostly form hovering her face inside of the water balloon and rubber ball as he made them pop.

3 Hours.

It only took 3 hours before 1 of the 1,000 clones managed to figure out how to pop the balloon, and popped to give it's knowledge to the rest of the clones. Evenutally, the exploding, popping balloons filled the ground with small craters. When all of the clones were popped, Naruto popped the rubber ball in his hand, and grinned as he showed Kakashi his mastery over the rubber ball.

Kakashi just smiled at him.

He took out a water balloon with no water in it.

"... That one will be SUPER easy to pop." Naruto grinned as he saw the downgrade in challenge.

Erza blinked.

"AH, that makes sense. The goal isn't to pop the balloon this time. You need to make a shell in the shape of a sphere to contain the power, and then load ALL of the power and spirals inside of that shell." Erza explained to Naruto as he saw Kakashi NOT pop the balloon. When the Rasegan inside of the balloon faded away, Kakashi tossed the balloon to Naruto.

He then grabbed his wrist and made another Rasengan.

"This jutsu took the 4th Hokage 3 years to invent, it's an A-rank jutsu even more powerful than my Chidori is. Now... don't pop the balloons."

"SHADOW CLONE JUTSU!"

"... This training method is... actually insane." Erza started to realize with Kakashi's explanation just how insane this method of training was. If a Hokage took 3 years to create the technique, then it had to be powerful. Yet Naruto was learning the technique with just hours of training thanks to the shadow clone jutsu. "... Why are you teaching him this now?" Erza would have loved to know the answer behind why Naruto was only learning this now.

According to Naruto, he had been using Shadow Clones for nearly 7 months now, for 7 months Naruto was training without this method. If Naruto had trained only 3 hours a day, for those 7 months, then Naruto could have gotten more than 71 years of training in.

71 years.

Naruto could have learned 71 years worth fo skills, techniques, and style in the 7 months that he had been training without the shadow clones.

Erza instantly understood.

"... You didn't trust him... you didn't trust him to NOT misuse this training and become too powerful. You're only teaching him this because you want me to make sure he doesn't overdo it." Erza whispered with an impressed look towards Kakashi.

"YES!"

Kakashi smiled when he saw Shadow clones start to pop, as soon as one of them figured out how to not make the balloon move at all, he popped and passed the information on. When there were no more clones in the area, Naruto walked over to him with a giant shit-eating grin on his face.

Naruto held his palm up.

Moments later, he held a yellow Rasengan in his hand, with Erza gazing at it proudly, and Kakashi just giving a small round of applause.

9 hours.

In 9 hours, Naruto had been able to use the Shadow Clone justu to get over 9,000 hours of training in. Erza had watched as Naruto got over 375 days worth of training into his schedule in less than a full day.

"Great, now, why don't we go on that mission I was talking about... Naruto?"

"Man, I can't wait, so when are we meeting up with Sasuke and Sakura-chan?"

"We aren't."

...

"This mission is just you, me, and Jiraiya-sama we're going to go on a mission to find Tsunade-sama." Kakashi explained to Naruto with a smile in his eyes.

...

"What?"

"Yes, Jiraiya-sama asked me if I would join him on his mission." Kakashi had been informed that Naruto had decided to skip out on a mission with Jiraiya to go with him, so he decided to cancel his own mission to help Jiraiya find Tsunade. That was a very important mission for the village. Her coming back to the village was far more important than him going to assassinate some rogue ninja that was causing trouble. "... Now, lets get going." Kakashi just closed his eyes and smiled at Naruto.

...

"FINE! I'll go!"

Off to find Tsunade.

Chapter End!
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Erza's Help Figuring Techniques Out + 1,000 Shadow Clones = Insane Training Progress