Chapter 5: Training
Naruto woke up early in the morning and began his early morning rituals, once he was finished he made two clones one to go look for Kakashi and the other to go buy supplies he was short on in his home. He told his clone to check the hospital where Sasuke would be staying as that was the best bet to find his team sensei. Naruto started making his way to the Hokage tower to see if the old man could help him with something specific. He took his time admiring the early machinations of the village he ended up walking by an orphanage and saw the kids playing in the jungle gym nearby. He felt a pang of sympathy and decided he could spare some time to play with some of the kids who looked downtrodden. 'It's not like the Hokage is going anywhere.'
The air in the hospital was stale. 'Man boss is so lucky he doesn't have to be here' The clone of Naruto had been waiting for half an hour he had seen his teammate come by looking like she had been crying with a bouquet of flowers. She had not acknowledged him and he was fine with that too. It was then that he had seen Kakashi walk in his famous orange book in hand. "Hello Naruto here to see Sasuke?" Kakashi's tone was almost lazy.
"No, I came here for you. I was wonder-" Naruto was cut off by Kakashi.
"I know what you're going to ask Naruto and I am sorry. I'm already planning on training Sasuke for the month I don't have time to help you too." Kakashi looked up from his book. "Honestly, you should forfeit the match Naruto, Gaara could kill you and I don't think you're ready yet."
"Yeah, boss figured he you would say that." Kakashi looked startled as his student popped.
Naruto had just was making his way up to the Hokage's office when the memory of his clones hit him. The blond just sighed sadly as he felt a pang in his chest. He was expecting Kakashi to blow him off for Sasuke, he had not expected him to tell him to give up, that stung. He had already talked to the receptionist and after a 5-minute wait, he was called in. "Hello Naruto how are you." The thirds voice was always calming to Naruto it was the one constant he had in his life.
"I'm doing ok, but I need your help, old man." The third simply nodded signifying the blond should continue. "Can you help me learn the Five element seal counter? The seal completely messed up my chakra I need to be able to remove it if I ever get hit by it again."
The third took a moment to study the blond before he nodded. "The easiest way to learn the counter is to learn the technique." The third reached down into his drawer and pulled out a book about the same size as Kakashi's Make-Out Tactics. "This is a book on beginner level fuinjutsu. If you can read this book and master the basics in here I can help you learn the five element sealing technique." The third handed the book to Naruto who glanced at the title 'Fuinjutsu for dummies by Tobirama Senju' before he skimmed it. From what he could see it was a lot of theory and penmanship practice along with explaining how symbols interact with each other.
"Thanks, old man," Naruto said with a smile.
"So do you have a training schedule for the month yet?" The third questioned the blond.
Naruto let out a frown. "Yeah, I'm going to hit the archives and see if I can learn some more jutsus, while my clones work on them and more chakra control I'm going to be working on my speed. " The third let out a small smile.
"It sounds like Kakashi is taking full advantage of your shadow clones to train you." Naruto shook his head.
"No, Kakashi isn't training me this month he's too busy with Sasuke." The third also frowned. Before inhaling with his pipe.
"Naruto do you know your nature affinity?" The third sighed when he saw the blond look at him in pure confusion. "Naruto nature affinities determine what elemental jutsu you are most suited too."
"Does that mean if I have a fire affinity I can't learn any other jutsu other than fire style?" The third smiled at Naruto remembering his days as a sensei.
"No, it just means fire style will be the easiest for you to learn. What nature element where you planning on learning?" Naruto looked at the third with determination blazing in his eyes.
"All of them." The third Hokage choked as he inhaled too quickly on his pipe.
"Are you sure about that my boy? Mastering all the elements is incredibly difficult." Naruto looked out the window to the village below before answering.
"I know but the man I respect the most did it and I want to follow in his footsteps." The third looked confused.
"The Fourth wasn't known for using all the elements." Naruto looked back towards the third.
"I know, but you are." The third looked confused, contemplating the young blonds answer.
"I thought the Fourth was your favorite Hokage?" Naruto looked down before speaking in a quiet voice.
"He's my favorite hero. He was always a fictional character in my mind, a perfect image to strive for." Naruto paused and the third kept his entire focus on the blond. "I grew up hearing stories of him, but all those mean nothing to the impact you've had. I've always looked up to you, you gave me hope when things were at their darkest. I could always count on you to be there for me even though you're so busy with the village. I want to be Hokage not to acknowledged but because I want to be what you are to me and so many other people. I want to be the pillar people depend on when they can't go on anymore. I don't know when I lost myself or my goal but I need to get stronger to protect you and this village you've sacrificed so much for." Naruto had turned away from the third during his speech and he missed the single tear that ran down his cheek. The third cleared his eyes and went over to the blond to give him a hug. The two stayed like that for a moment before the third moved back to his chair. He then reached into his drawer again and pulled out a scroll and a piece of paper.
"Well I can't train you personally but I think I can help you move in the right direction. Push your chakra into this." The third handed Naruto a the piece of paper, as soon as the blond channeled charka through the paper is split in two with a part of the paper crumbling to dust. "Well, it looks like you have a wind affinity with a minor earth one. Wind is the most offensive element with earth being the most defensive." The third started writing in the scroll and five minutes later he handed that to the blond as well. "I wrote a jutsu for each element except for your nature affinities, I put down two for each along with the body flicker jutsu and a variation of the shadow clone I invented. It's called the shuriken shadow clone jutsu and it works just like the shadow clone jutsu except it does it to your shuriken as the name suggests. As for the body flicker, I saw you've been using a bastardized version when you move so those two shouldn't give you too much trouble. You'll also notice I gave you another chakra control exercise in there along the basic ways to train your affinities. Promise me you'll be careful when you're out there training Naruto." Naruto tackled the third and whispered a quiet thank you, his voice flush with emotion. The third patted his head and held him. The blond let him go and looked him straight in the eye.
"I won't let you down old man"
"I know you won't Naruto." The blond left the office full of determination he made his way to a popular store that sold ninja gear. 'My jumpsuit is ruined might as well get a new outfit.' He barely paid attention to the sells girl as he picked up some black pants along with a dark green shirt. He then noticed the store had a burnt orange short sleeved hooded jacket. The final items he picked up were some dark brown ninja sandals and a new black cloth for his headband. He made a clone that took his new purchases home and gave him the book on sealing telling him to get started reading it. He made his way to training ground 7 and quickly pulled out the scroll the third had given him as he saw the list of jutsu along with a note.
Naruto here is the list of jutsu for each of the elements:
*Earth Style: Practice Brick Jutsu D-rank Hand seals: Ram → Tiger → Snake → Dog → Rat → Ox → Horse → Rabbit→ Tiger → Boar →Snake
Creates a weak wall made of earth perfect for learning earth style. (Learn before mud wall)
*Earth Style: Mud wall Jutsu B-rank Hand seals: Tiger → Hare → Dog
Creates a strong earth wall, can be used by spitting out mud user creates or using preexisting earth. Hardness varies depending on the chakra used.
*Wind Style: Breakthrough Jutsu D-rank Hand seals: Dog → Horse → Bird
The user gathers wind chakra in their stomach and releases a strong gust of wind that can knock people away. (learn before Great Breakthrough)
*Wind Style: Great Breakthrough Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Tiger → Ox → Dog→ Rabbit → Snake
The user breathes wind out of the mouth, the power varies depending on the skill of user and amount of chakra used.
*Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger
User Turns chakra into fire inside their body and releases it in a giant ball. The more chakra used the more fire produced.
*Water Style: Raging Waves Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Dragon → Tiger → Hare
The user spits out a large amount of water from their mouth with enough pressure to knock human targets away. Amount changes with chakra used
*Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder Jutsu C-rank Hand seals: Boar → Ram → Snake → Horse → Dragon
The user gathers lightning chakra into their hands that surges forward when touching the ground. Power varies from small shock to lethal dosage with the amount of chakra used
You can practice basic nature transformation by grabbing a leaf to channel the element. For wind, you need to split the leaf with your chakra. For earth, you need to take a leaf and dry it out with earth chakra. For fire, you need to burn the leaf. For water, you need to make the leaf soggy, and for lightning, you must make the leaf curl into itself. Here are the other two Jutsu you can learn. Eventually, you will be able to tell the difference in the elemental chakra, that is the main goal. As you progress try to imagine the element you are trying to channel in your mind.
*Ninja Arts: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu A-rank Hand seals: Ox → Dog → Dragon →Rat → Dog → Boar →Snake → Tiger
The user uses their chakra to clone an object that is thrown. (This jutsu works for Kunai and other thrown projectiles)
*Ninja Arts: Body Flicker D-rank Hand seals: Tiger
The user floods the body with chakra to temporarily vitalize themselves to move at an incredibly high speed.
There is another chakra control exercise you can learn called water walking, it is like the tree climbing you already learned on your mission to wave but much harder as you must constantly change the amount of chakra flowing to your feet.
I hope this helps you achieve your goals Naruto, I will always believe in you
- Hiruzen Sarutobi The Third Hokage
PS. Try combining jutsu together.
Naruto made 30 clones and separated them into groups of five and each group went to work on a nature transformation and water walking. He made another ten clones and had them spare with him and help him with more physical exercises. Naruto had worked till sundown where he started popping his clones and got their memories back. He had made some progress with water walking, wind and earth nature transformation was going at a decent pace compared to the other elements but he had made minimal progress. 'Well, he did say it was going to be difficult.' Naruto made his way home to rest.
Naruto spent the first week honing his chakra control, he had upped his clones to 40 a day, on the second day he made the new clones work on the body flicker and the shadow shuriken jutsus and by the fifth day he had managed to occasionally sense the difference between each of the elements. Each day he drove himself into the ground with physical exercise and he had started sparring with 10 clones at a time to help him sharpen his instincts, he would look for a style but it would go against his free-flowing nature. Tomorrow Naruto would start the new week and have his clones move on to practicing the jutsus themselves. Naruto was currently walking home from another grueling day of training reading the book the third gave him. He had made sure to make an additional clone before he began training to read the book while he trained. Naruto was pulled out of his reading by the voice of his female teammate.
"What, are you trying to copy Kakashi sensei now Naruto?" Naruto looked up from his book to see both Ino and Sakura standing in front of him.
"No, I just can't waste any time if I want to finish this before the month is up." Naruto noticed it they were coming from the direction of his apartment. "Why are you guys in this part of town?"
Ino took the chance to speak up. "Well, forehead and I have been trying to find you to see if you needed any help with training we heard how Kakashi-sensei took Sasuke away for the month to train." She then turned to Sakura and made a go-ahead motion.
"Yeah, I also wanted to take this as an opportunity to make up for what happened in the forest." Sakura had pure sincerity in her voice. Naruto took a moment before answering he was still mad at his team but he didn't like holding grudges so he would take the olive branch.
'Not that I'm going to forget what happened.' thought Naruto. "I appreciate the offer but I don't think you can help me train." Ino and Sakura looked offended. Naruto seeing the looks explained. "Unless you guys can help me with my nature transformation you really can't do much aside from some sparring." Both girls quickly lost their looks of anger and replaced them looks of wonder.
"You're doing nature transformation training? What are your elements?" Ino's asked the question both she and Sakura wanted to ask.
"Ino, I'm not going to tell you, if Shikamaru wins his match he's going to be my opponent in the next round." Naruto answer brought Ino down before she nodded reluctantly. Sakura looked at the book with interest.
"Well, maybe we can help you with whatever it is your reading?" Sakura's suggestion was then met with an irate Ino.
"Wait a moment you're not reading anything like what Kakashi reads are you Naruto." Sakura blushed a deep crimson as her earlier words came back to her. Naruto sighed to himself as he showed the book to the girls trying to avoid the explosion of anger that was Ino and Sakura.
"No, it's a book on fuinjutsu. I'm trying to learn the technique that he used on me so if I ever get hit with it again I can remove it myself." Sakura looked at the book and whistled at how complex it is.
"This is really complex, how can you understand it." Sakura back peddled. "That came out wrong" Naruto shrugged.
"I don't know, most of it just kinda clicks for me. It's kinda like building a puzzle." Naruto seeing he was already late decided to head home. "Anyway, I need to head home I'll see you guys later." With a speedy goodbye, the trio made their way home. Naruto entered his home and saw a scroll on his table, he made a clone and he opened the scroll once he saw it was safe he popped the clone and took the scroll.
Naruto, please come to my office tomorrow around noon. I have a person who wants to meet you - Hiruzen Sarutobi The Third Hokage
Naruto set the scroll down and did his evening rituals before going to bed where he got into a meditative pose and began feeling his Chakra. Naruto found himself in a familiar sewer.
"So you've come back." Naruto looked at the massive nine-tailed fox that was sealed in his stomach.
"I wanted to speak with you, I wanted to thank you for your advice when we last met." The fox looked at his container.
"Don't bother I simply couldn't allow you to make such a fool of yourself out there." Naruto sat down and stared at the fox.
"I never Introduced myself, I'm Naruto Uzumaki. Nice to meet you" Naruto smiled at the big fox who exhaled and blew the blond onto his back.
"You've already proven yourself far more polite than many of your kind. Now be gone, you've picked up an annoying habit of interrupting my sleep." Naruto nodded and found himself back in his room.
Naruto went to the training ground and made 51 clones. Five groups of five would work on the elemental jutsu, ten would work finishing the body flicker and the shuriken shadow clone jutsu. He would have the rest working on hand seal speed and calligraphy plus the one clone who would continue reading the book. It was nearing noon when Naruto stopped his own workout and he started making his way to the Hokage's office. He went in and saw the third sitting in his chair while a white-haired ninja stood behind him. "Hello Naruto, this is-" The third was cut off as the white-haired man jumped forward and exploded into smoke. When he the smoke cleared he was standing on a big toad.
"I am known all throughout the land, ladies wish to be with me while men curse my name in envy. I am the legendary sage of Mount Myoboku. The GREAT Toad Sage JIRAYA!" Naruto stared at the old man for a solid twenty seconds before looking at the third.
"Sooo, why did you want to talk to me?" Jiraya face faulted before jumping back to his feet.
"Jiraiya and I were discussing the chuunin exams and you were brought up. He has offered to train you for the rest of the month." The third turned to Jiraiya. Who nodded.
"That's right, be amazed at my great generosity." Naruto looked at the strange man.
"What are you going to teach me." Jiraiya looked at the blond with a serious face.
"Have you ever felt like you had another cha-" Naruto knew where he was going and interrupted him with an annoyed face.
"I know about the nine-tails. And if that's all your going to teach me then I refuse." Jiraiya had a grim face.
"Listen kid, the chakra of the nine-tails is a great tool, you can't just ignore it." Naruto scowled.
"I won't, but the nine-tails chakra is just that, a tool. No matter how powerful it is if I'm not strong enough on my own then it's useless." Jiraiya was about to respond but was stopped by the third.
"He's right Jiraya if you plan on only training him on using the fox's chakra than he's better off following his own training schedule." Jiraiya let out a sigh before nodding, then he looked up with an energetic aura.
"Alright, well how about I teach you the summoning jutsu! I hold the contract for the toads." Naruto thought about it for a second before responding.
"What can I do with that?"
"The toads are some of the best summons in the world. There are many uses for them from sending long-range messages to summoning giant battle toads to help you in combat." Naruto contemplated the offer that did sound pretty amazing not to mention versatile.
"Alright, you have a deal."
"Great! Let's go then, no sense in wasting time." The blond nodded to the Jiraya and the two left with a quick goodbye to the third who told Naruto to come by at 8 so he could help him begin to learn the five element seal. The two made it to the outskirts of the village and to a very obscure training ground.
"Ok kid, first things first, you have to sign your name here in the summoning contract, whenever you want to summon a toad you have to sacrifice a bit of blood." Jiraya bit his thumb and ran through some hand seals before slamming his hand on the ground and a dog-sized toad. The toad then went up in smoke as it disappeared. Jiraiya reached behind him and pulled out his big scroll. "Just sign your name in blood and we can begin training." Naruto bit his thumb like he had seen Jiraya do and wrote his name.
'So the fourth also signed with the toads.' Naruto had noticed the name Minato Namikaze in the middle of his newly made name and that of Jiraiya's.
"Good the hand signs for the summoning contract are Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, and Ram." Naruto took a moment to memorize the seals before biting his thumb again and going through the seals and pouring a bit of chakra into it. "Summoning Jutsu!" There was a cloud of smoke and when it cleared it showed a small orange toad wearing a blue vest.
"Yo, My name Gamakichi." Naruto looked at the small toad with a raised eyebrow.
"Hello, names Naruto Uzumaki. I just signed the toad contract." The small toad nodded along.
"Nice to meetcha. You're lucky I came and not my brother he would have annoyed you until you gave him something to eat." Naruto nodded that would have been troublesome he didn't really feel like going back to town to get food. "Anyway, I'll let pops know we have a new summoner, later." With that Gamakichi left.
"Good, you did surprisingly well for your first time. How much chakra did you use?"
Ï used about the same amount as I do when I summon two shadow clones." Jiraiya nodded
"Alright, let's see what you can summon. This time I want you to use as much chakra as possible." Jiraiya jumped back slightly, Naruto closed his eyes and concentrated as he started gathering a large amount of chakra. He performed the Jutsu and a massive pillar of smoke could be seen.
"Jiraya! Why the hell did you summon me you old fool!" When the smoke cleared a gigantic rust red toad with a scar over his left eye could be seen. He was wearing a blue vest and carried a large blade on his waist, he was smoking a large pipe that was hanging from his mouth. Naruto who was on top of his head jumped down to his nose as he looked at the toad he had summoned.
'He's almost as big as the nine-tails.' thought Naruto.
"Hmm, who are you?" The red toad spoke.
"I'm Naruto Uzumaki, I'm the new summoner of the toad contract. I was practicing to see what the biggest toad I could summon was." The toad looked at the blond before letting out a laugh.
"Hah! As if a Little pipsqueak like you could summon me." Naruto looked annoyed and simply jumped off the toad as he bit his thumb and ran through the hand seals again only this time he didn't hold back and was rewarded with a small poof of smoke. Naruto was breathing heavily from the amount of chakra he had used.
'That's weird I used a lot of chakra.' Naruto thought as he heard the big toad laugh. His laughter died off and was replaced with a look of shock when he saw the small old looking green toad wearing a gray cloak. The small toad looked around and quickly saw his new blond summoner.
"Why hello there young tadpole. I had sensed we had a new summoner but how did you summon me?" Naruto seeing both the giant toads shocked face along with Jiraiya as he fell from the tree he was hiding in assumed the toad in front of him was important. It did help that his instincts were screaming at him that the small toad could kick his ass better than the walking mountain.
"I don't know I summoned the big one behind you and a smaller toad named Gamakichi earlier, I told Gamakichi I was the new summoner but the big one didn't believe me so I was gonna summon another big toad and you appeared." The Green toad nodded.
"I see, you must have a lot of chakra then." Naruto nodded, he was often told how much chakra he had and how much he wasted, He had been using every trick he knew old and new to help him perfect his control.
"Yes, I have been told I have one of the biggest chakra pools in the village."
"Well my name is Fukasaku but most people call me Pa and I am one of the two great toad sages of Mount Myoboku, the other being my wife Shima, the big one behind me is Gamabunta the current head of the toad clan. When you gain a bit more experience with fighting alongside us summon me again, there is much I could teach you." Fukasaku turned to Gamabunta. "And you Bunta-boy, don't be so impolite I can't believe you haven't even introduced yourself yet!"
The now named Gamabunta nodded before offering a small apology. "We'll be seeing you tadpole, don't hesitate to call on us if you ever need help." With his parting words both toads left. It was a very quiet Jiraiya that was left with Naruto.
"I can't believe you managed to summon Pa." Naruto just shook his head and the two spent the rest of the day by summoning various other toads and how they could be used in combat Jiraya also demonstrated how they could do collaboration jutsu with them. The blond spent the next two weeks working on his other jutsu along with his chakra control and his hand seal speed. Every other day he would go to the Third and practice the five element seal. Naruto spent the last week training to see how to best use his newly acquired arsenal in a fight and working with certain toads on combination jutsus. He also spent time polishing everything he knew had learned. He had also discovered on complete accident that if he flooded his arm with earth chakra it would turn black and he could easily punch through trees. Naruto had made some pretty devastating attacks when combining certain jutsus together, it got worse when he added the toads and their ability to use water style jutsu along with being able to spit out oil. The day of the finals Naruto put on his new gear. The dark green shirt matched well with his burnt orange hoodie that he kept unzipped. His new black headband cloth was longer than his old blue one and his new black pants had more pockets. Naruto walked calmly to the arena and saw the stands were already full. He was the third last to arrive with both the sound ninja Dosu and his teammate Sasuke missing. He looked to the crowd and managed to see most of his once classmates were sitting together. He saw a jonin with a bandana and long brown bangs. He was chewing on a senbon. Soon the arena quieted as the third sat up from his chair in the viewing booth alongside the Kazekage.
"Ladies and gentlemen I'd like to thank you all for coming to the finals of the chuunin exams!" The crowd roared as the third raised his hands in showmen ship.
'Here we go' Thought Naruto as he felt the air buzz with excitement as the finals began.
AN/
hey readers of the internet. First I'd like to thank you guys who have been enjoying the story. I really appreciate any feedback you guys have for me to help me improve my writing, so again thank you for that. This is my first big story, I wrote two very small short stories but even a single chapter of this story is longer than both of them combined.
I know some people have asked for longer chapters and I really don't see myself doing that yet. I've gotten into a pretty good rhythm and the chapters always more or less come out around 4,000 words. good news is just finished writing chapter 11 so I have a bit of backlog in chapters that I can put out as soon as I finish going over them for any mistakes.
As for pairings. I am conflicted. Like, the scene with Ino just kinda wrote itself and I really hadn't planned on any romance especially so suddenly.
Another thing I'd like to address is that people brought up how sudden Naruto's change was, and for the most part they're right but next time I do a story like this I'll fix it, it was a matter of me just not having the experience yet in writing. I also didn't want to make Naruto overpowered, I wanted to make him more competent and with how he grew up I feel like he would be more mature and sensible than in canon, and I apologize for making him to strong so fast. The same thing happens with my pacing I don't want to drag out parts but that will get better as the story progresses.
The final thing I wanted to talk about was following canon plot. Certain parts need to happen for example the invasion, I'm already starting to split from canon and I plan to go somewhere new after the Sasuke retrieval arc but even then I'm trying to change things up depending on how the characters would react to this new Naruto.
Once again thanks for reading and any constructive criticism helps a lot.