The boy was slowly swimming in the crystal clear water of the "small" lake inside the cave. The anxiety and the desire to go back to his parents didn't put him in the best mood, but at least he was rational enough not to let those feelings overwhelm him, or to do something stupid.
Especially with a legendary being right next to him.
A being that, like him, was enjoying the cool water of that lake, with her huge body almost totally immersed, just standing there letting her body relax.
It was something she was used to doing, and she enjoyed that moment very much.
It was one of the few things she could really enjoy while stuck in that place.
The boy sighed and "lay down" in the water, letting his body drift as he stared at the ceiling of the cave, lost in thought.
How were his parents?
Would they be able to get out of there safely?
Kakashi, Obito... maybe even Rin, even if she betrayed them in the end.
Maybe they went back to the namikaze clan.
A sigh, again, escaped his lips.
- Oe, boy.
The fox's rough voice called him out of his thoughts, and turning his face slightly to the side, he looked at her.
- Do you... have some kind of training?
- Well... the basics.
- "Basic"? What would be "basic"?
The boy frowned and arched an eyebrow.
- Ahm... I... I don't know. I guess... having a certain base of theoretical knowledge about taijutsu, ninjutsu... as well as practical experience... I suppose.
The fox rested her head on her hand and tapped her finger(claw) on her cheek.
- So to speak. I think that should do it.
The fox stood up and walked out of the small lake, shaking her body as she walked and brushed the excess water from her fur.
-... What do you mean?
The boy approached the edge and also left the lake.
- To walk through this forest, it doesn't matter if you can get through the distortions or not, you need a certain level of combat experience, and strength. The creatures in this place are ferocious, no matter how "weak" they may seem.
The fox turned and lay down again, not taking her eyes off Naruto as he approached at a curious pace.
- In other words, you need to get stronger. You did a good job surviving those... weeks... but, the luck factor helped you a lot. If you leave in this state, sooner or later you will die. Besides, you will never be able to leave this forest.
She rested her head on her hand.
- Got it. So, will you train me?
- What other choice do I have? I brought you here, I feel responsible for you. Your chakra is quite large for a child. The bigger the chakra, the harder it is to control it.
- Yes, my father told me that. I have decent control now, from what he said.
- Decent is it? Do you know any jutsu? Not kid stuff like replacement jutsu, but offensive and defensive jutsu.
- I can do two. He taught me one. I can do it but it's still unstable, I can't leave it active for a long time. The other one I can do pretty well.
He made a hand sign in the shape of a cross, and soon a few dozen clones appeared around him.
The fox lazily ran her eyes through the clones, until she focused them back on the original boy.
- A hundred clones in total. Only a few, and a normal ninja would be in a coma right now. It will be a very useful jutsu. Dismantle seventy of those clones.
He did.
- Great, and this other jutsu, show me.
The boy sighed lightly and raised his hand. Two clones approached him, standing one on each side while concentrating a certain amount of chakra in his hand. Soon, a spinning sphere of massive chakra appeared, echoing a noise similar to a scream.
- Hm... I understand why you can't keep it active for long. Interesting jutsu, a massive chakra sphere... If I'm not mistaken, you humans have an affinity for specific elements, right? What's yours?
The boy undid the jutsu and took a deep breath, slightly tired from the chakra expenditure, a hundred clones was no joke. As the fox herself had said, just a few clones, just under a dozen, was enough to put a normal ninja in a coma for lack of chakra.
- Wind.
- Wind? A somewhat rare element. A nice element, it combines with almost all the others. The combos you can do between elements with wind are countless. Okay, I've known enough for now.
Fox yawned.
- Ten clones will stay in the left corner of the cave, they will train your physical combat. Ten clones will be on the other side, studying some things that I will give you, training your mind is as important as training your body, although your mind is already quite resistant. The other ten will be in charge of learning genjutsu. That's it for now.
The clones looked at each other, and soon, they were in the positions said by the fox.
- Ok... but why? What about me?
- You know that when clones explode, you receive their information and experiences, don't you? Exactly why this technique is so powerful and dangerous for a ninja with normal amounts of chakra. You will suffer with a severe headache every day at the end of the day from now on.
The boy grimaced, and the fox stood up.
- And as for you. Well, you already know how to control your chakra to walk on the wall, for example, right?
He nodded.
- Good. What you are going to do is very simple. You will keep that sphere active for as long as you can while you walk along the wall, without the aid of your clones.
Naruto's eyes widened.
- Don't look so surprised. With a chakra of this size, you need to have perfect control over it, or your jutsus will always be unstable and erratic. Not only will you practice jutsus while walking through the wall and the water, but you will also fight one of your clones with my chakra while keeping the spinning sphere active in your hand at all times without it falling apart. As time goes by, I will increase the number of clones.
The fox, looking at the boy's expression, could swear that he saw white smoke coming out of his mouth.
He had turned as pale as paper, his mouth and arms trembling as he stared at the fox in pure disbelief.
- B... b-but... i-I...
- Argh, this is training, kid, don't be afraid to fail, that's exactly why you'll be training. In fact, I advise you to fail, the mistake itself is much more than the success. As you become more skilled, I will increase the load of your training until I feel that you are ready to face this forest without too much difficulty.
A small clone of the nine-tailed fox appeared right next to her. Well, compared to the original fox, the clone was small.
But compared to Naruto, it was still huge. Maybe the size of a rhinos... maybe a little bigger.
- My clone will be in charge of training your clones. While I will keep an eye on you... come on, what are you doing standing there? Get started.
The boy became slightly desperate, but soon, he sighed and obeyed, starting to walk along the wall soon after.
His blue eyes stared at his hand, and he made a small grimace of effort as he concentrated his chakra.
On the first attempt, the jutsu still crumbled as a small ball.
On the second, the jutsu became too big and with a power far below the original.
And on the third, the jutsu exploded in his hand. Causing him to lose his balance and fall backwards onto the ground.
The fox looked at him curiously, it was a scene that was even a little comical.
At first, she thought he would complain... like some of the human children she had met in the past. But, she was slightly surprised to see him make an annoyed expression mixed with determination, and climb back up the wall.
Hm... curious.
Especially the fact that he kept that face even after the other several failures.
- I realized that your problem is not maintaining control in both, but rather, in the flow of the direction in which you want the sphere to rotate. Your clones compensated for this, which allowed you to leave the jutsu active for longer, even if with some instability.
She said, drawing the attention of Naruto, who, although still concentrating on the jutsu, paid attention to her words.
- I will help you up to a certain point, the rest, you figure out. To master a jutsu, first you need to be aware of its flaws, to know your problems. Sometimes you can't control the power of the jutsu, which results in its explosion. At other times, you can't control the rotation. Remember what I said, training the mind is as important as the body.
The boy arched an eyebrow.
- You have a lot of chakra, and because of this, your body uses it deliberately. This results in a huge expenditure of chakra, which can exhaust you even before an opponent with normal chakra reserves. The body is responsible for expelling chakra, the mind for how to use it. In other words, the problem is in your mind.
The boy stared at her for a while, until he returned his gaze to his hand.
He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, once again concentrating chakra on his mother. Only this time, at a slower speed, little by little, and with a little more... elegance in his control.
Unlike the other times, it took him about a few minutes to do the jutsu, much longer than his other attempts where it only took a few seconds. But this time the sphere rotated steadily.
The blond man still kept his eyes closed, but a small cheerful smile was born on his lips.
The fox just stared at him with a certain gleam in his eye. He was a fast learner.
He didn't complain, and apparently knew how to follow orders.
A good student, she admitted.
- Great... now, while you keep this sphere active, create another with your hand.
Hearing this, the boy opened his eyes in fright, causing the jutsu to destabilize and explode again.
The fox sighed and started to heal him... again.
- You still need to improve in some aspects. We haven't even gotten to the part where you add your wind element to the sphere.
The day passed, ending with a slightly frustrated Naruto not being able to create another sphere in his other hand, and mostly excited for the next day's training.
Well, that was until he felt the excruciating headache of having his clones undone at the end of the day.
The fox stared at him in a sort of admiration... the boy was certainly different from the other humans she had ever met.
From what little she had seen of him, she could already tell with a certain refinement of certainty.
And this only proved to be more true after they had spent months together.
Months that passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, for the boy, at times.
The anxiety only grew in his chest, but, something that was compensated by the training that the fox gave him.
He felt different, to say the least. Much stronger than before, that was for sure.
The fox never stopped being amazed by the boy. Especially the speed with which he learned, and the will and determination he showed during training.
A week after the first day of training, he managed to create the two spheres simultaneously. Even if with a few instabilities here and there.
A month later, he was dodging the blows of his clone with chakra while keeping the two spheres active. This resulted in several wounds from being hit by the blows, or from letting the jutsus explode.
Three months later, he finally successfully added the wind element to his jutsu, which the fox learned was called "rasengan". A unique jutsu, which reminded her of her own Bijuu dama.
From the complex consistency of the jutsu, she knew that adding an element to that sphere was not something simple. Not for humans, much less for such a young boy.
Three months, for some, could be a long time to learn or modify a jutsu. But the fox realized what was special about it. Three months with wind spheres in both hands, in which he skillfully controlled which direction they spun, power, size, speed, was certainly a fast time.
Too fast. She could tell the blond was a genius. His dedication and will, however, played a huge role in this.
And with eight months later, he could already make those jutsus the way he wanted to, to the point of creating them with such ease, that for him, it was like breathing.
Of course, in this time, the fox did not focus only on the wind element. As she herself had said, this element went well with practically all the other elements, some more than others.
In between wind jutsus, he learned fire jutsus, and even considered starting to learn water jutsus, since the fox was practically master of all the elements.
Although, she had unique techniques.
At the moment, the fox was watching the boy fight his clone, while keeping active a wind rasengan in one hand, and a fire rasengan in the other.
The newly learned fire made him be forced to have a greater concentration.
At one point, the boy managed to kick the clone away, and to the fox's surprise, he hurled his wind sphere towards his opponent.
The jutsu exploded on contact, and the clone was destroyed.
- Hm... since when can you throw this jutsu? Have you been practicing it in hiding every time I go hunting?
she asked in a slightly comical way. Something that had become common for her in the time they had spent together.
- Hehehe. The idea came to me a few weeks ago, it's a pain in the ass that I always have to be close to my opponent to hit him. But as you saw, it costs a lot of chakra just to throw it...
- You've been very excited to practice this jutsu.
- It's the jutsu my father created... I feel it has so much hidden potential... it makes me want to explore it as much as I can.
- That's great, but don't just focus on it. Your tornado of fire isn't complete yet either.
The blond man scratched the back of his neck and sighed lightly.
- I know... but fire uses a lot of chakra because I have no affinity for it... and it's hot, you know, fire, it makes you want to jump in the lake.
The fox grimaced.
- What kind of excuse is that? Didn't you even bother to come up with something more convincing? As homework, you will practice the fire tornado, and the fire dragon at the same time.
The fox stretched out her paws as she smiled evilly upon hearing the boy's complaint.
She would be lying if she said she didn't enjoy bossing him around.
She never thought she would get that way with a human.
The week passed, and Naruto was devouring a deer, sitting right next to Kyuubi, with a fire burning in front of him.
- I really don't need to train tomorrow?
He looked at her.
- You need to rest. Everything in excess is harmful. Besides, your genjutsu has increased a lot. Truth be told, you are already able to leave this forest without too much difficulty, as long as you follow the path I tell you.
-... There are still creatures that I can't defeat?
- Yes. A special one you don't even have a chance. But, you're already pretty strong... soon, you'll be far away from here.
The boy sighed and tossed the deer bones aside, letting himself be mesmerized by the dancing flames of the fire.
-I wonder how my parents are doing. I know it doesn't change anything for me to be like this, but... I can't stop myself.
He hugged his own legs.
- I understand ... don't worry. I too, a long time ago, had someone I called father.
The boy looked at her in surprise, but didn't ask any questions. He knew it was a delicate subject by the look on the fox's face.
- You know... I'm kind of hesitant to leave.
The fox looked at him, curious.
- These months... they were...
The boy was interrupted when the fox suddenly stood up.
He stared at her in confusion, and with mild concern as he saw her red eyes staring at a specific point in the cave.
Its fur was bristling, and its tails were outstretched, swaying minimally in the air.
Naruto could feel her chakra stirring.
- Kyuubi... what is it?
She was silent for a while, and soon, her red chakra began to hover around the place.
-A cry for help...
The boy's eyes widened.
- Help? From who? A person?!
-My sister... Nibi!
- Your sister?! A tailed beast?! Here?! But, you let yourself be captured so that your brothers would disappear! Shouldn't she be in a protected place, living in peace?!
The fox didn't answer. It just growled.
And even though the growl and murderous intent wasn't directed at him, Naruto couldn't help but feel intimidated.
- That's my sister! I recognize it, but... it's too far away! Shit, it's too far! Because of the curse, I won't be able to go there! Fuckin' hell!
Her claws scratched the ground, tearing through stone as they moved.
- I can help! Where is she?
The fox looked at Naruto, visualizing that fire in his eyes, the same ones that burned in his training.
- They have trapped a tailed beast! As much as I appreciate it, I can't let you go! You don't have-
The fox interrupted herself, her eyes widening as the thought crossed her mind.
Her body wouldn't leave... but...
The curse didn't restrict her, if she was sealed in something... or someone.