Disclaimer: I don't have any idea for a fun way of telling Naruto isn't mine. So, yeah, Naruto belongs to Kishimoto
AN: Thank you everyone for reading and apparently liking what I lay on the paper. The chapters get longer and longer, first 5k now almost 7k. I wonder what will be next. To everyone leaving a review with any kind of constructive criticism (ie. Longer than nice and kys) I prefer to respond in DMs as it feels more personal. Anyway thanks for reading.
"Well, Kurama it feels like this new game plus will be a lot of fun. Let's get some training in!"
"Oh yes it will be."
"But first we need to talk Kurama. I will find some chill spot and meet you." Said Naruto to his internal companion and tracked the whole village with the aid of a partial Sage Mode. It consisted of getting just the slightest amount of natural energy in the shortest lapse of time. This way he could use it next to complete strangers without them being able to feel the child's power growing over that of the most seasoned jonin. "A-33 it is then." He said to himself as he remembered the map the village.
Not thirty minutes have passed since then as Naruto was already leaning against a tree entering his subconscious world. "You really remodeled it since the last time I was here." Said Naruto in amazement as he saw the great forest on one side and a mountain on the other with a cave large enough to let the Kyuubi lay inside comfortably.
"Of course I did. I didn't have the time for that during the war, that's why I did it now. Pretty spacious and chill, just right for me. Now what do you wanted to talk about that's so important we need to talk face to face?"
"I need your help. There are some things I need to talk to you. First training, how do you think I should train in the village? Any type of training, other than physical, I do is bound to destroy a part of Konoha."
"Then just abstain from this type of training. Like I said before, your biggest goal right now is to learn how to use those threads of yours and not only one at a time. Second your body, you must train it into the perfect shape, don't worry about breaking yourself, I will heal and patch your body as often as needed. Last you will need to somehow be able to train those chakra paths of yours and I don't have any idea how to do it. Well other than throwing jutsus around or expulsing chakra in huge amounts. And you will need to find a way to make some practice targets."
Naruto pondered about half a second about what Kurama said and you could almost see the lightbulb switch on over his head. "I think I have an idea about the targets. Now what was it, what was it? Tiger, Hare, Boar, Ram, Dog, Ox, Snake? Yeah I think it's something like that. Kurama I will use a simple jutsu here just to try it out. Not sure if I remember the hand signs right so cover your ears just in case." He said to his friend who sweat dropped and covered his sensitive ears.
"Let's do it! Just a tiny bit of chakra Naruto, just a tiny bit." He said to himself and went through the signs and slammed his hands into the ground "Doton: Doryuheki!" a small stone pillar rose from the ground. "Perfect, it worked just fine. Now he will be my new sparring partner. I will name him Rock Lee. Get it ROCK Lee."
"Naruto for the love of Amaterasu-sama and everything living you make a joke like that again and I will kick your butt. Anyway, good thinking. Still though, that won't solve the pathways problem but at least you have a target you can destroy anytime and how often you want without decimating half of Konoha's forest."
"It's not like I will need some big guns jutsus from the beginning, especially since the threads don't use any chakra from what I felt yesterday. Training regime:done; next point of our meeting is what the fuck do I do in academy? If I ever forget to hold back for even a millisecond my friends will die, by my hand!" he lamented
"It all depends on what team do you want to make later. Do you want once again to be on the same team as Sasuke and Sakura? Or maybe you want to change a part of it? How about replacing Sakura with Hinata? She definitely had the hots for you."
"You sick fuck, that was in the future when both of us are sixteen, almost adults by civilian standard. Right now, she's a fucking child body and mind. Even thinking about hitting on her or the other way around before my trip with Jiraiya makes me sick." Said Naruto indignant about even such a proposition "Anyway it's not like I could say I liked her all that much, she almost felt like my choice by default after what happened with Pain and during the war. I digress."
"Digress? Since when you know such difficult words, Naruto?"
"Fuck you too. Now where was I? Right team placement. For now, I think I will continue with the idea of the same team as before, but as Murphy once said 'If something can go wrong, it will go wrong', so I will be prepared to change it at a minute notice."
"Said who?"
"I don't know, I just felt like saying that name. Don't ask me. Now last question, what do I do about the Uchiha and Sasuke? I received a new chance to save him and this time I will do it, that's a promise."
"Yes, yes and you never go back on your word, it's your nindo. I don't think you will be able to stop the machinations of the coup. The years of hatred won't disappear just like that and killing them off might be the best solution. The question is how to make Sasuke understand he wasn't a victim but more like a collateral damage of this whole shit?"
"I don't know Kurama, I still have some time before I even meet the kid Sasuke. I will begin training, you sure you will heal me?" He got a positive response and phased off into the real world.
The real Naruto opened his eyes and stretched himself making a few satisfying pops and cracks in his back. A quick scan to check his surroundings and Naruto was already making his new friend: a rock practice dummy.
If there was something he needed to strengthen it was his bones and what better way to strengthen them if not by breaking them. But not the academy way where every student would first accept the pain by hitting themselves with a small wooden plank causing micro fissures. No no, Naruto wanted to make it much faster by methods one could judge as barbaric.
First went the forearms, Naruto was striking the stone pole with them making sickening sounds definitely hearing the radius and ulna break one after another. His face wasn't giving any sign of pain as between every strike Kurama patched his broken bones, as long as he didn't go overboard and make it an open fracture. In this case he needed to reset the bones in the right place and let Kurama do his magic. He kept at it until he was unable to break them alone without the use of chakra to enhance his muscles.
Next the fingers and the fists. There weren't many who would force themselves into such a training at such young age. Even the Hyuga clan preferred to just let the children hurt themselves during practice with their Juken from time to time and build their strength over time. Naruto just spear punched for nth time the pole and his fingers stayed in place.
Shins were next. Oh, even a trained ninja hated to do that. The tibia not being protected at all by muscles made the pain much fiercer from the beginning. Or was it? Naruto just landed a low kick to the pole chipping away some of the stone as well as definitely chipping away a part of his bone. "That one hurt."
"Idiot." Said Kurama as he healed the crack and made the bone chip disappear.
And an idiot he definitely was as he struck again and again at the pole for the next few hours repeating the same cycle. He would add some chakra to his muscles making the strikes break his body once again until it didn't, and he would add more chakra. The bonus was in form of more pain as the bones he wasn't able to break while striking normally such as the humerus, the femur broke or anything else on the kinetic chain as well from the sheer stress of the strike and the muscles just overcoming the toughness of the bones.
By now he was able to use around fifteen percent of his total chakra as a strength boost meaning that he had to make larger poles since the ones under fifty centimeters in diameter just broke from each strike. Here came another bonus as well, he strained his chakra pathways making them accept now more flow.
"So much power in such a little body." He told himself as he set up a row of pillars and downing them one by one with punches and kicks. "Time to change the discipline. I need to learn how to get the threads ready on standby and not only when I attack."
He was about to create more pillars to train, but he stopped himself to scan one more time the surroundings just in case someone was on his way here. Thankfully everyone chose the training grounds closer to the village or just the forty-four for the hardcores.
First of all, he needed to feel what did the thread feel like to later make the mind muscle connection to form them without attacking. So, he proceeded to make as many pillars as he could and one by one, he began cutting them down.
This part of the training session lasted longer than he originally thought it would. For twelve whole hours he made and destroyed pillars until he wasn't sure if he could bear the sight of this mud-colored stone anymore. At least, all this training bore fruits and he could spawn one and only thread coming from his right hand's index finger.
"All this training to finally being able to use just one string. It's time to go home now." He thought to himself and lifted himself from his ass, giving his clothes a few taps as if that would remove all the grime and blood he had on it. "Maybe I should just henge my clothes when I train? It will definitely cost cheaper than cleaning them every day."
He pondered the possibility on his way home, but in the end, he ruled against it. If he ever ran across an Uchiha or a Hyuga he would just show them his bare ass and it wasn't his objective. For now, at least. That's why he was using the oldest jutsu known to man to get the blood out of his clothes also known as Hydrogen Peroxide no Jutsu. (AN: In case you didn't know Hydrogen Peroxide does magic on blood stains.)
He inspected the clothes and sighed, he definitely would need more money for the sets he will go through. "From today onwards I train in shorts only, I don't care about the weather or the time of day! But for now, it's time to go to sleep."
Time skip
Nine days have passed since the first day of training and the schedule didn't change a bit. First bone strengthening the spartan way and later the thread manipulation practice.
The hard work he put through definitely brought the results he was waiting for. One additional thread for each day of training, making him able to use one thread per finger. For now, he could only do basic attacks with them by just making them follow the movement of his hands. The other thing that was going great for Naruto was the fact that he was ready to be tortured for days without letting a single word out from the pain he inflicted on himself.
"Let's make the most out of this year. I want to be able to do use the threads as if they were part of my body in less than three months. It should conclude the first stage of learning the gift the gods gave me."
Time skip three months
Naruto was cooking the meals for the next week since meal prepping gave him in the end more time to train while being able to eat nutritious meals. "Ah I forgot to add some chili powder." He said to himself and contracted his finger. A thread came out and wrapped itself around the small container only to get thrown right into Naruto's hand. "Yeah, that will be enough."
He was sure he could do anything he wanted now with them, he could feel what has happening with every centimeter of each thread. And someone from the high heavens thought so as well. "Good evening, Naruto."
He recognized the voice immediately since only there were two possibilities of voices coming directly into his head. Well three if you counted the possibility he was insane. "Good evening, Amaterasu-sama."
"I see, you were able to master the first stage of what we gave you. Now are you ready to see what the second stage entails?"
"Yeah, just give me second, I will switch off the stove. I don't want to burn the ration for the whole week. Ready now." He confirmed, ready to be mentally invaded by the goddess once again.
Maybe he was just getting used to it or the goddess has just learned to be more delicate about all this knowledge transfer. In the beginning he saw a boy around ten years old training in the forest setting wires around trying to move inside of the web he just made without cutting himself. Next was a woman dressed in a white shirt and jeans with only one leg. She had only seven wires around herself, but when she attacked, they multiplied into thousands in irrational patterns cutting everything around.
"In short, I need to learn how to detach the string from myself, how to multiply the strings from one string. Got it!"
"You learn quicker and quicker, Naruto. I'm proud but I need to cut it short because of some other stuff I have to do." She said and ended the connection between them
"At least she could let me say goodbye from time to time. Oh, anyway let's end the cuisine session and worry about training later."
One hour later he was standing on his favorite patch of land, unused by anyone else but himself. Still a quick checkup of the surroundings never hurt and he was happy he did because something was moving towards him. "Three shinobi, coming straight from this side? Not possible, there was no one in this direction thirty minutes ago and there is no entry to the village on this side of the wall." He thought to himself and decided to hide himself for the time being.
Three women came at max speed going through the clearing not even thinking about checking their surroundings. "The forehead protectors are definitely from Kusa and if memory serves me right Kusa ended under Orochimaru. I'll just follow them for now and try to get some info, we've got at least ten kilometers before even going into a zone where someone might train."
He jumped at a safe distance from the squad, chakra enhancing his hearing sense and making his footsteps silent. "Come on, give me something to go about. They are spies for sure but killing them would be a waste if they work under the Snake himself."
"Kanzaki, why do you think Oro- Master needs the scroll?" said one of them
"Are you stupid? Don't even say this name in this village, if someone hears even a syllable of it we are as good as dead." Said the now named Kanzaki
"Bingo!" thought Naruto with a Cheshire smile almost ripping his face in half. He had to control himself not to go full power to prepare an ambush in a kilometer or so. "Well let's try making the threads disconnect from my body and try to make a simple trap."
A few tries later he was able to make it spread across the ground making sure they would trip on it. He just needed to wait for them to come, but first he needed to "Average Chunin no Jutsu!" with a one-handed ram sign.
Two minutes later the Kusa group was eating the dirt from the fall they took. Before they could get up, they felt something binding their hands and legs together and then bending them backwards to attach the extremities together behind their backs.
"What's going on, show yourself!" screamed one of them to which the now Henged Naruto obliged. He came out from behind a tree and smiled at his handiwork. Learning to use the threads externally was easier than he thought. "Let us go! We are important Kusa ambassadors. If you don't let us go you will cause a huge international incident like a certain Hyuga did two years ago."
Naruto looked right into her eyes for a second making a face of fear letting the woman think her lie worked. She was wrong as Naruto began laughing at full volume "If you want to bluff you need to cover a few bases, miss not so important spy. First, you come from a direction where no one would ever come from."
He paused seeing one of the women trying to wiggle out of the bindings and he stopped laughing "I wouldn't try that if I were you. Those wires are very thin and sharp you know?" he emphasized his point by swinging one wire around a tree and downing it with a simple wrist movement.
"Where was I, ah right second point why you need to learn how to bluff. Your friend Kanzaki-san was right, Orochimaru's name is a bit of a taboo in this village. I'm sorry but I will have to bring you to the T&I." he said disappearing from their line of sight and knocking them one by one. "Now how do I bring three adult women to the T&I on my own?" he said looking around for any type of inspiration.
There it was. His inspiration was the dung beetle pushing his little dung ball. He was supposed to train with making detachable strings anyway and there was a great reason for it now. String after string, centimeter after centimeter he was adding to the human ball contraption until it was solid enough to just transport it over his head by enhancing his muscles with chakra.
"Now let's just wait for the night, no matter how fast and stealthy you are there is no fucking way to just transport women enclosed in glowing golden ball of strings during the day." He said and continued practicing with the art of making the strings on far away objects.
It was around two o'clock in the night when Naruto decided to bring the gift to the T&I. The women were waking up more and more often and he was getting tired of having to knock them out. Chakra enhancing his muscle he lifted the ball and began running to the village.
He was never so conscious of the amount of patrols in the city as right now, if he ever got caught his relatively relaxed life would end in a huge clusterfuck.
Meanwhile Ibiki Morino just left his office to go to the toilet after filing in God only knows how many pages of report. "Why did I ever ask for the promotion? I could've just been torturing people and getting some kind of information from them." He sighed under his nose.
Three minutes later he was closing his fly and washing his hands. "It's not as satisfying as when I was washing blood off my hands more often than not. If someone could've just brought me someone to personally interrogate."
The scariest person in Konoha gave a rare smile when he entered his office. Christmas came earlier this year, there were three women tied in his office with a short letter stating they were spies from Kusa under Orochimaru himself. "Bring me Inoichi at once!" he shouted to anyone who was nearby to go and bring the Mind Walker "Good times." Said Ibiki remembering all those nights.
Not many knew the nickname Inoichi was given didn't come from his family jutsus. Originally it was given to him by his old teammates and Ibiki from the time they were chunins. Inoichi would plant a few drugs in his family's greenhouse and the thing was so potent the four of them were mind walking just right.
Two days later Hiruzen came personally to the T&I, a rare thing for the supreme leader of the village to have the time to go there. "So, Ibiki what is so important you needed me come with you down here?"
"I believe you already heard the rumors about the shinobi from the larvae incident, Hokage-sama?"
"Don't tell me you believe it too? Did you smoke again with Inoichi or something?"
"I have a very compelling reason to think the rumored shinobi truly exists. Two days ago, I sent you a report about spies from a foreign country. Well, there was something I didn't specify in the written report, the three women in question were delivered to my office just as I left it for a few minutes. Not even a sign of someone being here, just the three women with a note."
"This wasn't very professional of you Ibiki, but still, that doesn't prove anything."
"No, it doesn't, but I didn't finish, sir. When we first interrogated them, they all told us the man who captured them could look like half of Konoha's shinobi force. We even took one to Inoichi and he corroborated their story. There was only one problem with the portrait he showed us after that. The man was too average, like the most average. If seen for a short time it blocks the possibility to distinguish him from anyone in the force. On the other hand, Inoichi has seen his face times and times again. There isn't a single shinobi in the day force that looks like that."
Hiruzen's face hardened for the first time since the Hyuga incident. All those rumors he scoffed at were coming to be true and he could only say one thing in this moment "Hindsight is really a twenty out of twenty bitch. We don't know anything about that man; why is he here? Maybe he's someone from Konoha who wants to play hero or maybe he's an external spy trying to get something out of it. For now, inform me of anything pertaining of the man." Said Hiruzen and rushed out the door to think clearly in his comfortable office.
"Let's just wait for now, he doesn't seem to be a threat for now. I can't do anything anyway, if he's in the force or has a way of knowing we discovered he is real he won't show himself anymore or he will change his appearance."
Time skip
Naruto was only four months from his sixth birthday when he completed the necessary steps to pass the training level Amaterasu gave him last time. Whenever he mastered a part of what the woman could do, Amaterasu would give him another memory of her battle prowess. He never thought threads as thin as his own hair could bear such destructive force. If someone would tell him he could rip whole streets apart just with them a few months ago, he would've probably laughed to death.
"I was asking myself when you would come again, Amaterasu-sama." He said in his mind as he learned to sense the goddess invading his personal head space.
"Well, I wasn't thinking you would get the hang of it so fast. You surprised everyone in the upper realm, especially those who participated in creation of the godly weapon."
"I'm happy to please. So, still that woman or we are changing this time?"
"For the last time it will still be her. I feel like you will like this one." She said and poured another dose of knowledge into Naruto's brain. To be honest, he was feeling smarter and smarter every time she did it, like with the demonstration she would also transfer something else. Knowledge? Not exactly? Maybe like a mind opening to show him how to think differently?
Naruto finished watching the scene and lifted his eyebrow "That's cool and all, but I'm a shinobi not a magician. Magic doesn't work or exist in this world."
"Oh of course it does Naruto, it just doesn't use the same energy to fuel but works on similar principles and concepts."
"Okay, I know you've been doing something to my brain to make me smarter, but now you've lost me."
"I know, you will understand real fast when I make the right analogies. First, do you know how seals work?"
"Yeah, you put the right lines of power with the right Kanji and then put chakra through it, it gets molded by the writings and gives you a certain output."
"Exactly, now the same principle is used by the magic users from the other worlds. They use magic circles to put their Mana through and get another output."
"In short you are telling me it's possible to make seals with the threads instead of paper and ink? Just I have a question, that woman you've shown me. I know for a fact she didn't have the power to supply the energy for the huge circle she did. It was almost the size of the Konoha seal barrier."
"I knew tweaking your brain from time to time was a good idea. You don't disappoint with your deductions Naruto. Well, if every world works on the same principles then there must be some kind of natural energy going around right?"
"Fuck me… Sorry. Getting my brain tweaked by you really does help. If you can just create a seal that is powering on the infinite amount of energy flowing in the air after jump starting it, then you don't need to supply a huge amount of chakra for a huge jutsu. Brilliant."
"As brilliant as you it seems Naruto. Maybe I did guide you to it, but you will be the first human in your world to harness the free power around you."
"Yeah, I just need to learn seal making without blowing myself up and then transfer the knowledge to the threads. I don't know how long it will take…"
"Well, your parents were seal masters and I talked with them about all this. They forced me to do this."
"Do what?" he asked and he felt another dose of information compressed right into his brain. He was seeing seals everywhere, from the simplest things through some secret seals only known to Kushina to the seal he had on his body.
"You've just became the youngest ever seal master, though I have a feeling you will make the title look like the basics of the basics."
"Thanks, but it doesn't feel right. Even if I am breaking records on cheats, I have to put some amount of work into it, but this just doesn't feel right."
"Stop mopping, this instant. I told you at the beginning, you have faced already enough hardships through your first life and now you have to go through it again for the sake of everyone. So just let me help you as much as I can. And if you really don't like it then work so hard the meaning of seal master will change."
"Right, thanks for the small kick in the butt. Believe me, I will make my parents not able to understand the meaning of what I will be doing."
"Good boy. I need to go Naruto, train hard."
"Goodbye Amaterasu-sama."
"Goodbye Naruto."
"Well, Kurama what do you think about it. Should I go and try it out now or now?"
"If I had to choose, I would say now. I will see the first huge breakthrough in shinobi arts since my pop. How could I say no to such a proposition?" said Kurama and Naruto ran out of his flat.
Meanwhile Hiruzen was having a huge headache in preparation. Something was coming up, but he couldn't point his finger as to what. There was this tension in the air of the village, and it was just covered up by the general population being happy about the Urban Shinobi as he was called.
Naruto didn't stop his actions as the as he called it the Average Shinobi Specimen or ASS in short. Sometimes he would use the village at night as a training ground or sometimes just to help people around. He brought Anko a few times home after she was dead drunk, helped Shikamaru remember what his mother asked of him, make sure Teuchi didn't hurt himself while doing the extra late ramen for shinobi coming back at three am to name a few. In the end he reinforced the urban legend he was so worried about.
Back to the Sandaime who was stressing too much for his old age. He just wanted to make sure the people he cherished the most were doing all right. They were his pillars, and he would move mountains for them if he had to. First, he used his crystal ball to look at his barely one year old grandson in the arms of his own daughter. His son-in-law was on an away mission too far away for him. Second came Asuma, he was protecting the Fire Daimyo as one of the twelve most trusted and strongest fighters from the whole Land of Fire. Even if Asuma distanced himself from his father for either good or bad reasons, Hiruzen still checked on him as often as possible.
"I wonder how Naruto is doing, I just didn't have the time to check on him for the last two months. I hope he stayed out of trouble with his constant pranks." He said out loud voicing his concerns even if he didn't care that much if he didn't damage someone. He locked his crystal ball on Naruto's position thinking he would've seen him eating, painting something orange, playing ninja or even stealing Hyuga's underwear.
No, what he saw was something out of a movie, there were at least twenty almost six-year-old blonds in an empty training ground nobody used for at least ten years now. There were three pairs going into one-on-one spars sometimes switching into three on three with the force and lethality higher than most of his jonins. Every strike was calculated, every evasion only by centimeters, every block transformed into a counter.
Next came six of them, sitting in a circle around what looked like a seal drawn with a stick on the ground as they were discussing something heavily. Seven of them were using some threads, modeling them into what looked like seals and when they were putting chakra through it, they definitely behaved like seals. Some exploded, some produced water and other elements and some he wasn't sure about.
Lastly, he locked on the Naruto who was most likely the real one. He was surrounded by thirty to forty stone pillars as large as an Akimichi when in their bulking phase. God forbid one doesn't hear you say it. He lifted his hand in the air and one thread connected to each and every one of the pillars. He did only a small movement of his wrist and there was like a huge explosion, cutting every pillar thousands of thousands of times turning the pillars into dust.
Hiruzen was fearing the worst in the moment, has the Kyuubi taken over Naruto? And then happened something Hiruzen never suspected Naruto looked right into his eyes and mouthed "You know it's not very well perceived to peep on someone, don't you Ji-chan?"
The temperature inside the Kage's office dropped and chakra was leaking out of the old man's body freely making the air as heavy as lead. "Neko! NEKO! NEKO! Bring me Uzumaki Naruto right this instant!"
Naruto sighed internally and externally at what has just happened, he knew he wouldn't be able to keep his training secret, especially if he began using some of the most destructive techniques he invented on large scale. "How could I have forgot about this technique of his? I should've set up a barrier or something. Or maybe just left a beacon clone in my house. Anyway, Kurama plan B."
"You've got it partner."
The blond dispelled his clones and put back on his shirt. He did a small seal with his threads able to make some water and washed his hands and face to be at least half presentable in front of his supreme leader. "You can come out, Neko-san. I won't do anything, I swear."
A purple haired woman jumped out of the trees. Naruto may have told her not to fear him in any way, but she still tightly held her katana just in case. Seeing this Naruto sighed, should he boast his power to make her feel out of place and be sure she wouldn't do something stupid, or should he just go with her while watching his back.
Watching his back was simpler, defending himself now was the wiser decision. Without Kurama he wasn't sure he could have taken down Hiruzen right now, and he didn't want to fight him anyway. "Just don't stab me in the back with this oversized knife. Come on let's go, Jiji must be dying in his office right now." He said and began tree hopping to the general direction of the tower.
The ANBU-Jinchuuriki duet entered the office the normal way since Naruto forced the woman to agree with him. One step after another Naruto was feeling the anger and fear lacing with the air the closer he was getting to his grandfather.
"Did you really have to spy on me, Ji-chan? I know I'm still a child, but some privacy would be appreciated, y'know? Imagine if I was in the toilet." He tried to get the mood to lighten up a little with a joke. Apparently even if Hiruzen did pop a smirk on his face, one of his personal ANBU's didn't take a liking to Naruto's banter.
A man as large as a bookshelf and at least two meters tall with a mask of a bear came from the hiding and jumped at the blond ready to strike him down.
"Ganging on a child, not cool Jiji." He said and Kuma fell to the ground without even a twitch.
Evidently self-defense of this kind wasn't well seen by the rest of the ANBU and Hiruzen himself who donned his battle gear. One Katana, two Tantos and a staff were pointing at the blond with blood lust washing over him. "Care to explain what happened to Kuma, Naruto?" asked Hiruzen still hoping Naruto was the one he was talking to.
"Chill out, it was self-defense and as to what I did? I reset his brain functions, a concentrated beam of chakra right through his natural barrier and into the chakra gate in his brain. Guaranteed reboot for anyone who isn't expecting such an attack."
"Of course, no one expects that kind of attack. Even producing such a beam is a huge waste for an average Jonin!" Said Neko, her blade almost touching Naruto's neck
"Average Jonin? Maybe. Though if someone has as much chakra as a Bijuu then it's like buying candy, isn't that right, Jiji?" Naruto immediately regretted his wording. He just taunted someone who had the moniker God of Shinobi and three ANBU into an attack. Well, getting smarter meant getting snarkier too obviously.
Each side was covered by one of the shinobi around him. They were closing in the small distances of ten to twenty centimeters to incapacitate Naruto. "Quick decisions, quick decisions. Let's bet on Jiji wanting to kill me the least out of this bunch."
The goal was to get into the sage mode even if only for a fraction of a second to dispatch the ANBU and get the Sandaime to chill the fuck out. He ducked low enough to evade each strike and side sweep the ANBU behind him making them fall to the ground.
Hiruzen saw the movement and adapted his staff arc to go again for the blond's head, Naruto's bet was lost but at least now he had some room to maneuver. Naruto covered his right arm into a stiff shell made of his threads and tanked the blow trying to use its momentum to get away.
And get away he did but still he felt his forearm bones crack. "Fuck, without the shell I could've said goodbye to my right hand. I feel like I'm fighting Madara at the beginning of the war now. And it's just the beginning." He just got enough time to get into the Sage Mode bringing him the needed speed boost.
The ANBU were ready to get up when the blond seemingly teleported just over them and slammed them into the ground creating a shockwave. A small trick he learned when trying to open his pathways more. He created the continuity to the Juken and Tsunade's super strength. If the Juken meant to pass a stream of chakra after the attack, and the strength to explode it during the attack then Naruto made his goal to use chakra before the attack. He created a compressed chakra zone in front of his fist making his taijutsu an area of damage technique. If Naruto had to compare it to anything he has seen before he would say Gai's Sekizo, though much weaker. In short, the three ANBU were knocked out with a few ribs broken.
Naruto smirked at the shocked Kage and disappeared from his spot and reappeared behind Hiruzen trying to strike him down as well. He completely forgot he meant to get Sandaime to chill out. He was just having too much fun getting to use his new skills against someone who could best him in this state. He didn't need to hurt his grandfather's ego about not going all out on him.
Their fight began looking more and more like a dance, nobody was able to get a clean hit in. Naruto began coming back to his senses and talked between each strike "Jiji… Sorry… I taunted you… Please… Believe me… it's still me Naruto… inside. So… how… about… we stop… this farce… and I explain everything… to… YOU!" he slowed down for the last attack putting more oomph into it and letting Hiruzen feel his conviction through the strike.
Hiruzen looked straight into Naruto's pale green eyes, trying to measure whether he should trust this Naruto or not. Something was telling him to gamble on the possibility of Naruto still being Naruto, just a bit overpowered for his age. Yes Hiruzen, just a bit, keep telling yourself that. He swung hard against Naruto's attack distancing them a bit. "And how will you exactly explain what has happened here?" he said looking at his men still on the ground.
Naruto's eyes changed back into his cobalt blues and his stance relaxed. "You will fist bump with me. Trust me, just trust me on this one." He said outstretching his right fist to the old man.
Sandaime didn't understand why or how fist bumping would solve all this problem, but he couldn't sense any bad intentions from the child. He tapped Naruto's fist with his own, expecting the unexpected. And he was right to do so as he appeared in an infinite forest. He turned around only to see Naruto… and the huge fox who killed his wife five years ago.
Kurama lifted his hand in an awkward way and said, "Long time no see, Sandaime."
End Chapter 2