" Talking "
' Thinking '
Jutsu / Summons / Bijuu
letters / flashback / setting
Disclaimer :- I don't own Naruto. It is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.
Chapter 16. Surprising summons and evil twins.
Training ground 44 ( one month after returning from Wave):-
Fuuton : Deadly crosswind, Naruto softly intoned, and crossed his arms and stood in a crouched position and swiftly uncrossed them as he stood up stiffly, releasing a a deadly sharp crosswind in front of his body, cutting the three giant spiders in front of his body to pieces, as they were caught in the crosshairs of the deadly sharp crosswinds generated by his jutsu.
Quickly moving forward, Naruto saw another giant spider rushing towards him and so thrust both his fists forward and intoned Fuuton : Fujin Seikin ( fists of the wind god), and wind chakra in the form of his fists exploded out of his fists and smashed through the hard exoskeleton of the giant spider, killing it on the spot, and threw it into the path of another giant spider therefore slowing it down, and Naruto simply swung his empty right hand towards it and intoned Fuuton : Kaze no Yaiba, thereby launching a deadly blade of wind chakra towards it, and splitting the body of the spider down the middle in half.
Seeing a group of another ten spiders coming towards him, Naruto flashed through a single handseal and intoned Doton : Doryuso ( earth flow spears), and sharp stone spikes exploded out of the earth impaling and killing five of the spiders.
The other five spiders dodged his jutsu, but were slowed down, and Naruto with a flick of his wrists launched five kunai enhanced with wind chakra towards the spiders, and all the five wind chakra enhanced kunai found their marks as they pierced through the skulls of one giant spider each, killing them instantly.
When Naruto saw nearly thirty more giant spiders rushing towards him, he flashed through handseals and spit out a massive amount of water as he super charged the Suiton : Mizurappa Jutsu, washing away the oncoming rush of spiders.
He then flashed through handseals and intoned Suiton : Kamekiri, and sharp waves of water rose from the massive amount of water on the ground and cut through the majority of the spiders.
Naruto then slammed his foot on the ground and intoned Raiton : Ikazuchi no Utage, as streams of lightning tore through the ground towards the remaining oncoming spiders, and roasted them alive with the power of the lightning jutsu being increased by the water.
Done with the batch of spiders that he was dealing with, Naruto moved deeper into the forest in order to confront bigger groups of those giant spiders, as they made excellent targets for practising his Ninjutsu on.
As Naruto moved deeper into the forest, his ears twitched and he ducked as a giant spider which had been hiding in a tree tried to clamp his head with its sharp pincers. Naruto immediately sprung back and used a chakra scalpel to pierce its skull killing it on the spot.
This was another thing that he enjoyed in hunting these giant spiders. As they were somehow invisible to his chakra sensing, and this only encouraged Naruto to use his other senses to track and fight them, thereby increasing the efficiency of his other senses and making sure that Naruto didn't become too dependent on his chakra sensing. In fact Naruto was not able to sense any of the giant mutated animals present in the Forest of Death, even though they had all been influenced by the Mokuton Chakra of the Shodaime Hokage who created this forest through the use of his Mokuton chakra. Naruto had no idea how those creatures escaped from his chakra sensing, but he just assumed that it was a quirk of Mokuton jutsu, as he knew that there were many things about Mokuton that were a mystery. Naruto didn't think that Mokuton was even a Kekkai Genkai, as no one other than the Shodaime had ever wielded it, so Naruto assumed that it was just another form of elemental release that Hashirama Senju had worked out how to use, and Naruto was determined to figure out how to use it, as it would increase the effectiveness of his jutsu repertoire by a large margin, as Naruto knew that Hashirama Senju became the most feared shinobi to be ever born in most part due to the effectiveness of his Mokuton Jutsu. But he would have to first master Earth and Water release to a high degree, and figure out how Mokuton chakra gave life its creations.
Naruto was pulled from his musings when he saw another fifty spiders converging on him.
Naruto quickly created a shadow clone and both of them flashed through handseals and shouted out aloud ,
Katon : Dragon flame bullet
Fuuton : Furyudan no jutsu.
Combination jutsu : Wrath of the White Dragon
The concentrated bullet made of fire in the form of a dragon and the funnel of slicing wind chakra in the form of a dragon combined into a dragon made of blazing white fire which made the surroundings shimmer with the intense heat generated, and the combination jutsu reduced the entire hoard of fifty spider to ashes.
Naruto then continued on towards the nest of giant spiders and came across another large group of spiders.
Naruto created another two shadow clones and they flashed through the handseals for another combination jutsu that Naruto had been practising for.
Doton : Doryu Taiga ( mud flow river)
Doton : Doryudan Jutsu ( earth dragon bomb)
Katon : Dai Endan ( Dragon flame bomb)
Combination jutsu : Embrace of the fiery earth
A wave of molten earth and flaming mud bullets destroyed most of the nearly hundred spiders, and Naruto breathed in deeply and blew out a large number of bullets made of wind chakra as he intoned,
Fuuton : Shingyoku.
The multiple air bullets pierced through the tough exoskeleton of the spiders and killed them.
Feeling the pinch on his chakra reserves from using such high level jutsu continuously, Naruto decided to stop with the use of Ninjutsu and concentrate on practising his Kenjutsu, as he unsheathed Benihime, and let wind chakra coat the blade of Benihime, as he intoned Fuuton : Kazekiri.
Naruto also created a few Shadow clones to use his water storage seals to put out any fires which may spread from the destruction caused by his combination jutsus, as he didn't want his mother to wring his neck for causing a forest fire.
After making sure that he didn't inadvertently start any forest fires, Naruto went on a rampage cutting down any spiders he came across with Benihime's deadly blade.
As Naruto came across a group of twenty spiders heading towards him, he stood in front of them and loosely held his sword in a relaxed position.
When the spiders were within reach of him, Naruto disappeared from his spot in a burst of pure speed and with a sound like ripping of paper Naruto appeared behind the spiders and flicked his wrist ridding his sword of the black blood of the spiders, as he softly said Uzumaki Kenjutsu : Dance of the Songbird, and the spiders behind him collapsed as their bodies slid to the ground in various parts from the numerous cuts Naruto had inflicted with Benihime's wind chakra enhanced blade.
" Woohoo! that was awesome ", Naruto shouted in delight, as he saw the success of the Kenjutsu move he had been trying to learn from his mother's Kenjutsu scroll.
Naruto then jumped high into the sky by pushing a burst of wind chakra put of the tenketsu in the soles of his feet and landed in the middle of a group of ten giant spiders, and spun his sword around him in a circle while using shape manipulation to extend the reach of Benihime's blade using wind chakra and cur through the bodies of all ten spiders by beheading all of them with a single stroke of his sword and said in a cool monotone, Uzumaki Kenjutsu : Circular Decapitation.
Naruto resealed Benihime back in the storage seal on his arm and started attacking the spiders with pure Taijutsu breaking their tough exoskeletons with pure brute force. He started channeling chakra into his kicks and punches as broke the bodies of the giant spiders with pure brute force and nimbly evading the blows of the many limbs of the numerous spiders.
Naruto had to admit that his improvised exercises to increase the strength of his punches and kicks by punching massive boulders had definitely paid off as though he couldn't break boulders with pure brute force yet, he could definitely squish a persons insides, as he crushed the thick exoskeleton protected midsection of a giant spider with a single uppercut.
Naruto narrowly avoided the pincer of a spider that had taken advantage of his distracted musings and had aimed its deadly venomous pincer at his head, and with a brutal haymaker he broke its neck, as he berated himself for being distracted during a fight for his life.
Naruto activated his chakra scalpels on both his hands as well as hi feet, as he launched himself at another big group of more than twenty spiders, as he carved through them by targeting their vital organs with his chakra scalpels.
After nearly two hours of waging a one sided war against the never ending hoardes of giant spiders in the Forest of Death, Naruto finally deaparted from the territory of the giant spiders and entered the territory of giant tigers and was immediately assaulted by a small blonde blur which smashed into his midsection.
Naruto laughed out aloud as he picked up the small white tiger cub and twirled her around.
"Akira chan I missed you too, but I was only gone for about two hours ", Naruto chuckled as the small female white tiger nuzzled her face against his and kept licking his face making him chuckle in delight at how adorable she looked.
" But I missed you onichan. You didn't take me to fight those mean spiders, and I was worried about you " she said in a cute squeaky voice.
Naruto just smiled at her affection for him and consoled her saying " dont worry Akira chan, I am more than a match for those mean spiders. And you know that I can't take you with me till you grow up a bit and learn some jutsu or get some fighting experience. I promised your mother that I would take care of you while she is busy, remember? "
"What do you think she will think about me if I take you along with me to a life and death battle, before you are ready? "
Akira just snuggled further into Naruto's chest while pouting cutely, knowing that Naruto was right and her mother would definitely not be happy if she went into an active combat zone.
"Now now. Don't pout sweetheart. I promise that I will train you along with your mother to become stronger and then I promise to take you along with me to combat. Is it okay with you? " Naruto asked.
"And anyway I left my clone with you to play with you didn't I? "
Akira thought about it for a moment and had to admit that this was the best deal that she was going to get, so she reluctantly agreed and said "alright onichan, but only because you promised. But you will have to start my training immediately", she demanded while trying to sound serious, but her cute high pitched squeaky voice ruined the desired effect snd made her look absolutely adorable and Naruto just squealed in delight and hugged her closer to him and nuzzled his face in her soft fur.
And as Naruto started Akira on chakra control training and showed her how to walk on trees using chakra, he thought about how he had met her and the wonderful opportunity that it had provided him with, when he was pondering over a solution for a problem.
flashback :-
It was a few days after returning from Wave country that Naruto found himself in his mother's office, as he handed over to her the Kubikiribocho sword belonging to Zabuza that he had returned to Wave for in the company of Yugao sensei, when he remembered about it's importance and value and the sheer folly in leaving it open like that for anyone to take. He had also recovered the corpses of Zabuza and Haku from their graves and burnt them to ashes so that people like Orochimaru couldn't defile their corpses for their secrets. Now their graves were empty and were just a monument to them, without the risk of anyone desecrating their graves.
As Tsunade received the Kubikiribocho from her son, she said "good job remembering about this and retrieving it Naruto. This will prove valuable in the future in any negotiations with Kiri after their bloody civil war ends."
Naruto just bowed his head slightly in gratitude for the compliment. He managed to stop himself from blushing in embarrassment as he was becoming better at accepting compliments.
"Now that you are here, there is another issue that I wish to discuss with you Naruto. When you died your name got erased from the Toad contract, so you are in need of a Summons Contract as they are very useful in battle especially when battling another person who uses summons, like for example Hanzo of the Salamander, and also Iwa is known for using the Bear and Vulture contracts to summon those animals to cause mass havoc among the animals, so it is essential that you obtain a summon contract. And before you ask, no, Jiraiya is not in the village so there is no way you can again sign the Toad contract, and while I would love for you to sign my Slug Contract, it does not suit your aggressive battle style and will hamper you. You will definitely need the help of a summoning contract for the plan we have for the upcoming Chunin exams.
While Naruto was a bit upset that he had lost the Toad contract, he was not too hung up about it as he had not interacted much with them and he was only sad because it was a form of connection between Naruto and his father who was also a Toad summoner. And while he would have loved to sign the Slug summoning contract of his mother, he knew that she was right in that it would not suit his fighting style.
But Naruto knew that his mother would not have brought up the issue if she didn't already have a possible solution in mind, so he simply asked "kaachan, knowing you, I know that you already have a possible solution in mind, so don't keep me waiting and tell me what you have in mind".
Tsunade just chuckled and said " you know me too well sochi. While there are a few other summoning contracta in Konoha, like the Ape summoning contract and the Turtle summoning contract, none of them suit you. So my idea was for you to use a summoning jutsu without signing any Summoning contract. This will take you to the summoning realm of the animals most suited to you. If they find you acceptable the Boss summon will let you sign their summoning contract.This was how I, Jiraiya and Orochimaru obtained our summoning contracts. I think this is a very good idea for finding a suitable summoning contract for you.
Naruto nodded in agreement as he couldn't find anything wrong with the idea, and found the idea of finding an animal summons mist suitable to him to be an appealing idea. But he decided to think a little bit on it first, before agreeing to it.
" Kaachan, I am not opposed to the idea, but could you give me a few days time to make a decision? " Naruto asked.
" Not a problem sochi. Take as much time as you want to come to a decision. And if you don't want to go threw with it, you can always sign the Slug summoning contract, as Katsuyu is fond of you and would definitely agree to let you summon slugs."
After Naruto took his leave, he slowly made his way towards the Forest of Death to partake in his favorite current passtime which was keeping the population of the giant spiders in the forest under control by culling them regularly. And despite all his culling of their population he barely made a dent in their population as they bred very vigorously , in fact they bred worse than rabbits in heat.
Naruto unsealed Benihime and rushed towards their nest, and on the way he passed through the territory belonging to the giant tigers whom he was quite friendly with, all it took was beating their leader to a pulp using only Taijutsu for them to start liking them, and it also helped that he made sure to cull any spiders that tried to enroach on the territory of the tigers. He guessed that also earned him some brownie points with them, as they absolutely hated the giant spiders.
As he was passing through the territory of the giant tigers, Naruto's sensitive hearing picked about the clicking noise made by the giant spiders and so he followed it to find what appeared to be a small white cat being surrounded by five giant spiders.
Now Naruto being a self proclaimed connoisseur of all things cute, could not in good conscience allow those nasty spiders to harm the cute white cat, so he immediately set upon them after sharpening Benihime's blade with wind chakra and cut through all five of the spiders before they could harm the cute little kitten.
After taking care of them, Naruto gently picked up the little kitten who had closed her eyes and was shivering in fear. Naruto slowly started running his hands through her soft fur calming her down.
As the kitten slowly calmed down and slowly opened her eyes to reveal beautiful blue eyes. She looked curiously at this strange creature who had saved her life.
" Hey little lady, how are you? Those nasty spiders didn't harm you did they? " Naruto asked gently as he cuddled with the kitten, and looked over her to see if there were any injuries.
Naruto was definitely shocked to hear the little kitten in his arms reply in perfect Japanese.
" Thank you for saving me mister! I was so scared that those nasty spiders were going to eat me ", she said in a cute squeaky voice.
" Maybe I do need to take a break from training. I can swear I just heard the cute kitten talk to me ", Naruto pondered aloud.
Naruto felt a a small paw slapping his cheek as the small cutie in his arms scowled cutely at him while growling cutely and said " You big dummy, I am not a kitten. I am a white tiger cub. And I belong to the White Tiger summons clan. That is why I can speak to you ".
Now Naruto was surprised as he had never heard of a White Tiger summons.
" Oh! Is that so? " Naruto asked.
And the little tiger cub in his hands nodded sat him while trying to look imperious, but she instead ended up looking incredibly adorable, making Naruto squeal in delight at how cute she looked and hugged her tighter, making her squeal in protest as Naruto squeezed her tightly to his body.
" Sorry little lady. I have never heard of a White tiger summons, so I couldn't recognize you. Now what is your name little lady? " Naruto asked.
"My name is Akira and my mother is "Hiranya'' the Boss summon of the White Tiger Clan. And the reason you don't know about the White tiger summons is because we have had no summoner in many many years", Akira said.
" Oh! so you are the boss lady's daughter. So how did you end up here Akira chan ", Naruto asked.
" That is something that I would like to know as well ", came a regal sounding female voice from behind them, as there was a massive explosion of smoke from behind them and it slowly cleared to reveal the form of a massive White tiger almost the same size as Gamabunta the Toad boss. The massive tigress had on her a beautiful emerald green haori with the kanji for Vajra on it. Despite her massive size, she moved towards them with a certain feline grace like a predator stalking its prey.
With a shout of " Kaachan ", cluing Naruto as to the identity of the giant tigress, Akira immediately bolted out from his hands and rushed towards the giant tigress who gently picked her up and lovingly licked her all over and closely inspected her to make sure that she was not injured.
After making sure that her darling daughter was not injured, Hiranya turned her attention to the human who had been holding her daughter in his grasp and growled slowly, making a noise like a slow rumbling earthquake.
" Human, why did you have my daughter in your custody? Answer truthfully or else they will be your last words in this life ", she warned Naruto.
Seeing her mother getting angry at the person who had saved her life, Akira spoke up hoping to calm down her mother " Kaachan, please calm down. That person saved my life from the giant spiders. He didn't harm me. Please don't be angry with him".
Hearing her daughter's words, Hiranya calmed down, and Naruto let out a sigh of relief as he definitely didn't want to fight a pissed off Boss summon, especially one that was also a pissed off mother. He mentally thanked Akira for helping him out of a tight spot.
" What Akira said is true. I have no intention of harming her or fighting with you ", Naruto further reassured her.
Hiranya could sense that the human was speaking the truth, so she instead turned her attention to her daughter and said " If the human hadn't saved you, you would have become a meal for the giant spiders. This is why I tell you not to wander off, but you never listen to me and anyway how did you end up here?"
" Well you see Kaachan, while I was exploring our realm, I came across a big seal and wanted to see what it did. And I remembered your lesson about using chakra to activate a seal, so I pushed my chakra into it and poof! I ended up in this forest ", Akira told her mother sheepishly.
There was a loud smack sound, as Hiranya smacked her forehead in exasperation and said " Akira chan only you would accidentally activate a reverse summoning seal and end up in the Forest of Death ".
" Sorry kaachan ", Akira said in a sheepish voice, but Hiranya waved off her apologies as she was just glad that her darling daughter was unharmed.
Talking about unharmed, Hiranya turned her attention to the human who had saved her daughter and bowed her head slightly as she said " Thank you very much for saving my daughter's life. I don't know what I would do if anything happened to her. Now if you don't mind I think it is time for us to leave ".
Naruto waved off her thanks as he said that it was his pleasure to help Akira chan.
And just as Hiranya was about to reverse summon herself and her daughter back to their realm, Akira whispered something in her mother's ear " Kaachan, I like this human, do you think that we could make him our summoner, as I would like to spend some more time with him".
Hiranya thought about it for a moment , ' I don't see anything wrong with what Akira has suggested. This human seems to be a good person and we have not had a summoner since Arashi Uzumaki the Nidaime Uzukage himself, and that was a very long time ago. We will perform the usual test on him, and see if he passes '.
Thinking this, Hiranya decide to propose her offer to the human.
" Human, my daughter has suggested making you our summoner, and I don't see anything wrong with it. So, would you like a chance to become a summoner if the White tiger clan? " Hiranya asked.
Now Naruto was shocked as he was definitely not expecting the chance to become a summoner of White tigers when he saved what he had assumed was a cute little kitten from the giant spiders.
But while he didn't want to turn down a golden opportunity , he also wanted to know more about the abilities of the White tiger summons before accepting anything.
" While I would be honored to become your summoner, I would first like to know about the abilities of the White tiger summons before agreeing ", Naruto said respectively, hoping that the Boss summon wouldn't take offense.
Instead of taking offense, Hiranya infact nodded approvingly at him, as she saw that he was not an idiot who ran into a situation blindly.
Deciding to answer his question, Hiranya said " The White tiger summons are masters of different Wind Style and Lightning style Ninjutsu and Kenjutsu and a few are also masters of Genjutsu. We are also expert trackers.We are also one of the very rare few clans of summons who have access to the fabled sage mode or Senjutsu. "
Hearing all this, Naruto had absolutely no problem in accepting the offer, as one simply didn't turn down the opportunity to become a practitioner of Senjutsu. Senjutsu was what had brought Jiraiya his fabled title of the Toad Sage. Infact Naruto knew the names of only two persons who had ever mastered Senjutsu, they were Hashirama Senju and Jiraiya.
Naruto bowed deeply in front of Hiranya and said " Hiranya sama, I would be delighted and honored to be allowed to become a summoner of the White tiger summons ".
Hiranya smiled at him and said " excellent, but before signing the contract you have to meet the elder of the White tiger clan and pass a test. "
Naruto immediately asked " is the test dangerous? "
" You could say that. The Elder will send you into a trance where she will be able to view all your memories and you will also have to fight your inner darkness. If you fail the test then, you will be returned back here with your memories of the White tiger summons erased. So, would you still like to try? "
Naruto was never one to back down from a challenge, so he just nodded his head in agreement.
Pleased with Naruto's answer, Hiranya picked him up and placed him on her back before reverse summoning all three of them to the Summoning realm of the White tiger clan.
Naruto quickly recovered from the disorientation caused by the sudden reverse summoning, and quickly took in his surroundings and found that he was in the most beautiful place that he had ever seen even in pictures. This place was mother nature in her full glory, as Naruto saw lush green trees that were atleast a century old, beautiful waterfalls and streams with crystal clear water, and the sweet intoxicating scent of flowers of all kinds in full bloom. In a few words Naruto thought ' If there is ever a heaven on earth, it is here and only here '.
" What is this place? ", Naruto asked out aloud in awe as he saw many White tigers of various sizes lounging around in the beautiful forest that seemed to be present on a hillslope.
Hiranya smirked as she saw the absolutely awestruck look on the boy's face and said " Welcome to 'Seschalam', the realm of the White tigers. Beautiful is it not? "
Naruto could only nod in agreement, as he was still absorbed in trying to take in the beauty of his new surroundings.
She decided to give him a bit of background information and said " Seshachalam is a massive forest which is spread over a massive area consisting of seven massive hills and valleys, we are currently in the central hill where the Elder White tiger sage is usually found ".
Hiranya let Naruto look around for a few minutes, but finally decided to shake him out of his sight seeing as she said " Naruto you can look around later, but I think that it is time for you to meet the Elder White tiger sage. Come follow me ".
And Hiranya led Naruto through a winding path up the hill and finally led him through a beautiful apple groove and finally stopped when she reached a beautiful small pond at the center of the groove. And there lounging in the shadow of a massive apple tree on the banks of the pond, was what looked like an elderly White tigress of average size wearing a beautiful emerald haori with a design of silver flames on it with the kanji for Tiger sage on it. And Naruto couldn't see her clearly as she seemed to be wrapped tightly into herself and the haori covered the majority of her body.
And while many people would be fooled by her lazy and elderly appearance, Naruto was definitely not fooled as he knew just what kind of strength a sage had, so he didn't relax his body when in her presence.
" Naruto, that is the elder White tiger sage, Kali sama. Treat her with respect ", Hiranya warned Naruto.
And Naruto nodded his head in agreement not taking his eyes off her seemingly sleeping form of the elder sage.
" You have brought an interesting young human to my abode, Hiranya chan. " came the silky velvet voice as she suddenly appeared next to Naruto in a burst of pure speed.
Naruto was shocked to see the speed at which the elder sage had moved. And as he got a good look at her he saw that she was walking on her hind legs like a human and her front legs held a beautiful katana in them which was sheathed. She was covered in pristine white fur with black stripes, and despite her old age Naruto could literally sense the amount of power rippling off of her.
" This is Naruto Uzumaki, Kali sama. And I would like you test him to see if he is worthy of becoming our summoner ", Hiranya said respectfully.
" An Uzumaki huh. Haven't seen one of them in a long time. Come here boy let me take a good look at you? " Kali said as she carefully held Naruto's face in her hands and looked carefully at his features.
"Yes, you are an Uzumaki alright! I can see Arashi's features in you.You must be related to him, then? " she asked.
" Yes, Kaali sama, Arashi Uzumaki is my maternal grandfather, but most of my features I have inherited from my father the Yondaime Hokage ", Naruto said respectfully.
" Arashi's grandson and the son of the Yellow flash himself. You have really brought a gem before me Hiranya chan ", Kaali said in a delighted voice.
" Maybe after all these years we will get a worthy summoner ", she said as she seemed to assess Naruto.
" Enough chitchat. Now come child lets see if you are worthy enough of being the summoner of the White tiger clan of Seshachalam ", she said and gently but firmly held Naruto's arm and led him to a hidden waterfall that was brimming with chakra to Naruto's senses and filled a small bowl with that water, and handed it to Naruto, saying " Child, drink that water and lay down comfortably as it will take you into a trance where you will have to face your innermost fears and your darkest thoughts and I will also be using a special jutsu of mine to see through your memories ".
Seeing as he had no other option, Naruto accepted the bowl of water and quickly gulped it down and immediately lay down on the ground as he felt himself become increasingly dizzy.
--
Inside Naruto's mindscape :
Naruto found himself waking up in the same surroundings as the first time he had met the Kyubi in his mind, basically in a sewer.
He looked around trying to sense someone other than him whom he was supposed to confront, when he suddenly ducked down avoiding the blade of a very familiar sword aimed at decapitating him, and jumped a little distance forward and turned around to get a better look at his attacker, he found himself face to face with his mirror image but in dark red and black clothes dripping with blood and a wild, unhinged and feral look in his eyes.
" Oh! so this is my Yami personality," Naruto said aloud as he easily kept dodging the sword slashes from his Yami counterpart.
" You are not that strong ", Naruto commented as he deflected a sword slash attempt at his abdomen with his own Benihime, and went on the offensive as he wove a web of steel around his opponent's blade and finally disarmed him with a lightning quick counter riposte which ripped his blade from his hands.
As Naruto kept his blade at the throat of his Yami personality, the Yami personality snarles at him and spits out at him through tightly clenched " I would have squashed your idiotic pathetic self, but ever since you have dropped your idiot persona an been attending those mind healing sessions with that damned Yamanaka and living with the Hokage and Shizune, I have been gradually growing weaker as you stopped suppressing your negative emotions and I no longer had the Kyubi strengthening your negative emotions to empower me. "
" But it doesn't matter, now I have a chance to destroy you and take control of the body. I am then going to destroy Konoha for everything I have suffered due to the fools living there ", Yami Naruto snarled out, as he suddenly sprouted four black chakra chains from his back and caught the surprised Naruto with them. As Yami Naruto smirked in triumph and moved forward to slice off Naruto's head, he was suddenly immobilized when he met the original Naruto's eyes, and before he could make any sense of what was happening he saw that he was bound in his own chakra chains and was also wrapped up in a number of paralyzing tags and was basically immobilized completely. When he saw the original Naruto coming into his view holding the Usagi handsign and softly intoning Genjutsu : Technique reversal, he realised that he was caught in a Genjutsu.
As he saw the Yami Naruto snarling in anger at him, Naruto said " surprised! that was a Genjutsu that I had only recently learned. I tricked you into attacking yourself by making you think that you caught me. That is the beauty of this technique, as it makes the victim attack himself with his jutsu all the while thinking that he was attacking his opponent. And while low level Genjutsu such as this should have no effect on you, you forget that I have the same chakra capacity as you and therefore I am able to influence your senses with Genjutsu by overloading a simple Genjutsu, so that I can for a few seconds trap you in the Genjutsu and while you eventually broke out of it, it is too late for you now. Though I have to say that you took me by surprise when you used those chakra chains, even though they look like a sickly perversion of Kaachan's chakra chains, and I also sense some of the Kyubi's chakra in them, and I assume that the excess yang chakra of the Kyubi used to empower you allowed you to unlock them. "
Yami Naruto snarled in anger and shouted out " you have me at your mercy, so kill me and get this over with. Live your pathetic life forgiving everyone who wronged you and placing your life in danger trying to save the lives of those foolish Konoha civilians ".
Naruto just chuckled sardonically and said "Oh you bloody fool! You think I forgave the villagers of Konoha and that I am still a Konoha shinobi because I want to protect them or save them. I am still a Konoha shinobi only because people I consider my family live here. Kaachan, Shizune neechan, my beautiful Panda hime, Anko sensei, Kakashi sensei, Ayane neechan, Teuchi Ojisan, these are all people I consider family, and all of them live in Konoha, and that is the only reason that I fight for Konoha. And as far as forgiving the villagers or hating them and trying to take revenge on them, I am not going to do anything of that sort. In fact I don't even hate them, I am just apathetic towards them, because the opposite of love is not hate but apathy. I don't give a damn about them as long as they stay out of my way and don't cause harm to my family and friends, because if they harm them I will wipe out anyone responsible for that act, may they be anyone".
" And as for revenge, I simply dont care enough about them to waste my time trying to take revenge on them and becoming like that brooding emo bastard Sasuke. As long as they leave me alone, I will leave them alone, that is all there is to it. "
As Naruto looked to Yami Naruto, he saw a look of understanding pass through his face as Yami Naruto finally said after a few minutes spent digesting his words " I have been a fool haven't I? Instead of focussing on living this new chance of life with a loving mother, sisters and others I tried to destroy all that for the chance for some meaningless revenge. You were right in everything you said, and it is time for me to go. So, as this will be the last time we will meet, good luck down the line, original! and live well and protect our family with all you have ".
And before Naruto's eye's, his Yami personality burst into a shower of golden sparkles, and Naruto felt as if a huge burden was removed from the top of his head, without himself ever realizing that he was carrying such a burden.
And it was only then that Naruto realised that he could sense some foreign chakra flowing through his brain, but he could somehow senae that it didn't have any negative intentions towards him, as he could only feel a sense of curiosity from the foreign chakra and realised that it was most probably Kaali sama going through his memories.
And as Naruto realised that he could sense the emotions linked to the foreign chakra, he whooped in joy as this could prove to be a boon in his profession, where you never knew whom you could trust other than your friends and family. It would make identifying spies, traitors and enemies very easy, as he could simply identify their emotions.
And and as Naruto was musing about the advantages offered by his new found ability, he felt the foreign chakra leave his body and then he was abruptly ejected from his mindscape as his unconscious body in the real world started stirring awake.
--
As Naruto slowly woke from his induced sleep he saw Hiranya looking at him with a concerned expression as Kaali sama who it seemed was also unconscious also woke up.
Naruto slowly got up and stretched his body as he worked out the kinks in his arms and legs as it seemed like as if he had sleeping in the same position for a long time in the same position.
After regaining feeling in his limbs Naruto asked Hiranya " Hiranya san for how long have I been sleeping? "
"You have been unconscious for nearly an hour and a half, kid. I was starting to get worried", Hiranya answered.
And then as Hiranya moved on to see if Kaali sama was alright, Naruto activated his sensing ability and immediately collapsed on the ground clutching his head in pain as he experienced a sensory overload from the emotions of all the numerous number of nearby white tigers hitting him at once. And as he was about to loose his consciousness from the sensory overload he managed to turn off his newfound ability.
Naruto lay there for a few minutes as he let his mind recuperate from the sudden unexpected overload. He also slowly circulated a small amount of healing chakra through his head in order to ease the pain.
Hiranya approached Kaali sama and asked " So Kaali sama, what is your judgment? Did he pass? "
Kaali smirked and said " He passed with flying colors Hiranya chan. He has my approval to become a summoner for our clan ".
" You have indeed found a diamond in the rough with this human, Hiranya chan ", Kaali said in pleased voice, happy at finally founding a worthy summoner after such a long time.
When they saw Naruto collapse on the ground clutching his head as he groaned on agony, they immediately rushed towards him to try to see what happened, but they couldn't understand what was happening, and Hiranya assumed that something had gone wrong with the test, but both she and Kaali calmed down when they saw him slowly recover on his own from whatever was ailing him. So they let him have a few minutes to recover and Kaali also sensed Naruto healing himself with medical jutsu.
After Naruto managed to recover from his sudden breakdown, Hiranya immediately asked " What happened kid? You scared us with how you suddenly collapsed in agony ".
Naruto sheepishly rubbed the back of his head and answered " well you see when I defeated my dark personality, I suddenly started being able to sense emotions of others, and when I activated it after regaining consciousness, my brain was overloaded from all the emotions I was sensing from all the numerous white tigers around here, and that caused a sensory overload and the pain, but I luckily managed to deactivate it before I lost consciousness. Guess I have to work hard to master that particular skill without overloading my brain ".
" Aha! the emotions sensing of the Uzumaki clan. I remember Arashi telling me about it, about how a very few members of his clan had that skill, for example his mother and also his aunt Mito Uzumaki. In my opinion that is a very useful skill to have, especially in the profession of a shinobi ", Kaali said, revealing that she knew about this particular skill.
Before Naruto could react to this particular news about his clan, Hiranya informed him about his eligibility to become a White tiger summoner, as he had apparently passed the test.
" Really? " Naruto asked just to confirm for himself the good news again .
" Yes kid. Really ", Hiranya answered and chuckled in amusement along with Kaali when Naruto whooped in joy and punched his fist into the air and did a little dance in his joy and excitement.
" Ah! that typical Uzumaki exuberance. You can't beat it out of an Uzumaki however much you discipline yourself." Kaali said, as she fondly remembered her last summoner Arashi's exuberant behaviour.
And after Naruto stopped his celebration, Hiranya made him sign the White Tiger contract, and then Kaali took his left arm in her hand and after channeling chakra into her fingers she took a needle and while channeling her chakra through it, she drew a tattoo for a White tiger on his left bicep and said " Now Naruto kun, you can summon any White tiger by channeling your chakra through this tattoo, or by using your blood to activate this tattoo in case if you are in a situation where you are unable to use your chakra ".
" Thank you, Kaali sama", Naruto said as he bowed his head in respect to the elder sage.
Kaali just smirked in amusement and waved off his thanks as she said " drop the honorifics, kid I know you Uzumaki's and I know that formality doesn't suit you. So, why don't you stop doing that and simply call me Baa sama".
Naruto simply smirked impishly and said " as you wish Baa sama", making Kaali just chuckle aloud.
Hiranya disturbed the monent of joviality, as she informed Naruto " Naruto kun, now it is time for you to return to Konoha, but remember to summon the various White tigers to get to know them and their skill sets and practise working with them. And also Ajira will be your personal summons after she grows up, so I will be leaving her in your care some times, so that both of you can get used to each other ".
It was then that Naruto asked a question that had been bugging him.
" Baa sama, who was Asura? I read his name while signing the summoning contract ", Naruto asked.
" Asura sama, was the progenitor of the Senju clan and the first user of the Mokuton jutsu, that Hashirama Senju was famous for. I don't know a lot of details about him, as he lived a very long time ago, and many details about him are lost to time ", Kaali answered, telling Naruto the few things she had learned from her grandmother who was the previous elder sage of their clan.
Naruto immediately asked another question " then can you tell me if Mokuton is a Kekkai Genkai, or if I can learn to use it if it is not? "
" No, Naruto kun. Mokuton is not a Kekkai Genkai. It is a combination of Doton, Suiton and an incredible amount of Yang chakra to give life to your creation. You need an incredible life force in you in order to be able to use Mokuton, and yes you can learn to use Mokuton jutsu, as you have an incredible amount of Yang chakra in you due to your Uzumaki heritage and also due to being a former container for the Yang portion of the Kyubi's chakra ", Kaali answered.
" And before you go, I have something to tell you. I saw how you dealt with your dark half and also most of your life. And I have to say I am impressed with how well you have adapted to everything that life has thrown at you and still remained a genuinely good person who values his friends and family, without turning into a revenge obsessed person like your ex teammate. Hold on to your family, Naruto kun, as nothing is more important in this world than the safety and happiness of your family ", Kaali said.
And then Naruto asked " baa sama, when you were looking through my memories I felt a strange chakra, unlike anything I ever sensed before. It was incredibly powerful and was teaming with vitality. What was it? "
" That Naruto kun, was Senjutsu or Nature chakra. It is incredibly powerful but also the process to learn to use it is very very difficult and dangerous. You need atleast a Kage level chakra reserve and also very good chakra control and patience to learn it. We the White tiger clan, along with the Toads of Mt. Mybokou , the Snakes of Ryuuchi cave, the Slugs of Shikkotsu forest and the Apes of Kishkinda mountain , one of the very very rare summons who can use this Senjutsu chakra. And before you ask, yes I will teach it to you when you are ready, but you must not try to mess with it by yourself as uttar might lead to your death. Infact the fact that you can sense it in first place is a surprise, as not even the most advanced of chakra sensors are able to sense it ", Kaali said, warning Naruto about the dangers of trying to mess around with Senjutsu chakra.
" The corrupted Senjutsu chakra in the seal used on you by that twisted snake Orochimaru, may be the reason that you are able to sense Senjutsu chakra as your body might have become accustomed to it, as it helped in repairing your chakra coils after they almost all ruptured. This may actually help you in learning to use Senjutsu chakra more easily. But it is still incredibly dangerous, so Naruto kun I want you to make a promise to me that you will not try to mess around with Senjutsu chakra till I deem you ready, and then I myself will teach you how to harness the incredible power of Senjutsu ", Kaali said.
Naruto saw no problem with that. " I promise not to mess around with Senjutsu chakra till you deem me ready to learn about it. That's my promise Baa sama. And you saw my memories, so you know that I never break a promise once I have made it ", Naruto reassured her".
Kaali nodded her head in satisfaction once Naruto gave her his word, and then said,
" Now it is time for you to go back, Naruto kun". Kaali said.
And after Naruto said his goodbye to Akira who was delighted to learn that Naruto had been accepted as their summoner and the fact that she would be his personal summon once she grew up and learnt to fight, and with that Hiranya layed a paw on his shoulder and reverse summoned him back to the Forest of Death.
After Naruto found himself back in the Forest of Death, he saw that it was evening, so he immediately set about completing his physical conditioning routine, as his clones had continued his training in other skills as usual.
After Naruto returned home, he saw that both his sister and mother already present, so he decided not to put off the conversation for later, and so simply walked up to hus mother and said " Kaachan, my trouble with the summoning contract has been solved."
" What do you mean, Naruto kun ?", Shizune asked.
Naruto bared his left arm to the both of them as he showed them the tattoo of the snow White tiger and both of them, especially Tsunade immediately recognised it as a summoning tattoo as she also had one of Katsuyu on her left arm.
" You are looking at the newest summoner of the White tiger clan ", Naruto said proudly to his mother and sister.
" You don't mean the White tiger summons of the Nidaime Uzukage Arashi Uzumaki, do you? " Tsunade asked her son in shock, as she knew that the White tiger clan was a major summoning contract and no one knew what had happened to it after the death of the Nidaime Uzukage during the sacking of Uzu.
" Yes, exactly those White tigers. Infact according to the contract I signed it was also the summoning contract of Asura , who was supposedly the progenitor of the Senju clan ", Naruto said shocking Tsunade completely.
Tsunade finally recovered from her shock and said with a chuckle " now we can definitely say that you the heir to the Senju clan and my son".
Naruto also informed her about the Tiger elder sage's views on the Mokuton not being a Kekkai Genkai and how she thought that Naruto should be capable of learning to use it, but it was still very far away in the future if it was even possible.
Tsunade agreed with the elder sage's views on Mokuton as she knew that no one other than who had the Shodaime's cells grafted to them like Tenzo had ever used the Mokuton, but none of his descendants or his ancestors other than apparently Asura had ever been able to use it, and according to the elder sage, Asura had learned to use Mokuton and it was not an inherited Kekkai Genkai. Tsunade hoped that Naruto managed to learn Mokuton, as he would then be able to protect himself much better, as she had seen first hand how obscenely powerful the true Mokuton jutsu were like they were used by her grandfather and not the movkery of Mokuton jutsu that Tenzo used which was not even half of its true potential, and the reason for this in Tsunade's opinion was Tenzo's lacking Yang chakra reserves.
Tsunade was brought out of her musings when her son said " Kaachan, Kaali baasama also promised to teach me Senjutsu when she feels that I am ready ".
Tsunade was a little worried at her son trying to learn Senjutsu, as she knew how dangerous it can be, but she also knew that he would be learning under expert guidance, and it would also increase his power levels massively, as she knew how dangerous Jiraiya was, even in his incomplete sage mode.
Tsunade was very happy at her son's incredible good luck, as she said " sochi kun, you were incredibly lucky today. You got to sign a summoning contract with one of the major summoning clan. I would suggest that you regularly summon them and practice fighting along with them, as it will be very useful in the future ".
As Naruto was about to leave for his room to turn in for the night, Naruto smacked his forehead as he couldn't believe that he forgot telling his mother and sister something something so important.
" And Kaachan, my problem of an alternative personality, my Yami self to be exact, has been solved ", Naruto said, as he told about his test and how he had overcome his Yami personality in battle, along with his newfound ability to sense emotions.
" And before you scold me for being reckless, it was once in a lifetime opportunity and I had no other choice, and so I felt that the risk was worth it ", Naruto said as he saw his mother and sister puffing up in anger at his actions.
Both Shizune and Tsunade calmed down as they thought over his words and realised that he was right in the fact that it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, something which was worth the risk.
Unable to scold him for his actions, Tsunade simply pulled his face into her bossom as captured him in a tight hug and said in a soft voice " sochi, I know that the risk was worth it. But please remember that I am a mother and for me no reward is worth risking you for it. But I know that as a shinobi, I can't stop you from taking risks, but next time before taking such a risk, remember that you and Shizune are the only family that I have left, and if anything happened to you, I won't be able to survive such a blow at my age ".
On hearing his mother's words, Naruto felt bad about his actions even he knew that his actions were correct, so he just assured his mother by saying that he would avoid taking any unnecessary risks in the future, and Tsunade decided to leave the topic as she knew that this was the best promise that she was going to get out of her son. And she knew that as a shinobi, her son would be required to take risks in the field and so was satisfied with his promise to avoid taking unnecessary risks.
Shizune was also satisfied with her little brother's promise, as she too knew that this was the best they were going to get out of him.
It was then that Tsunade remembered the bit about Naruto's new ability and said " it is just like my grandmother Mito's ability to sense negative emotions. And your sensory overload means that you will have to practice a lot in order to become comfortable and proficient in using it, and I would suggest that you seek the help of Inoichi in practising it, as he is a master of the mind, and could definitely help you. And it is essential for you to master this ability, as it us very useful and will definitely save your life more than once ".
- flashback end -
Present :-
It had been week since then, and as per his mother's and Hiranya's advice, Naruto had regularly sumoned different white tigers and got to know them, as well as became familiar with their skillsets and practised fighting alongside them. He even learnt some Kenjutsu moves by sparring with some of his summons which were Kenjutsu users and even from Kaali baasama who was a monster with her sword.
Naruto has also babysat Akira a number of times as Hiranya dumped her daughter on Naruto to babysit whenever he was not on a mission, whenever she got tired of dealing with her hyperactive daughter and wanted a break to take a nap, as Tigers were inherently lazy creatures, except Akira whom Naruto found out, was a hyperactive ball of energy.
Naruto also got help from Inoichi in practising and mastering his sensory jutsu and its effect of sensing emotions, as he gave Naruto a few exercises to build a mindpalace, as it would help him in dealing with all the emotions he was sensing.
And Naruto was currently practising those very exercises, as he watched Akira try to master the Tree walking exercise.
And after almost one hour of that, it was getting dark and so Naruto stopped Akira's practice and after promising to continue the training the next day, Naruto went home with Akira in tow and after having dinner with his mother and sister and spending a few hours working on his fifth level of Fuinjutsu which was an introduction to intermediate sealing theory , it consisted of new languages and ideas on chakra. The volume also discussed about transforming various components of Ninjutsu into Fuinjutsu like infusing an element like lightning or fire into barriers and some ideas on how to suppress various jutsu. It was very tiring work as Naruto needed to consult various topics from various other books in order to properly understand the fifth volume of Fuinjutsu, but his shadow clones made the extremely time consuming much more easy.
And after that Naruto Naruto turned in for the day as he went to sleep with Akira cuddled with him.