Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.


Chapter 6 – You Must Learn Control!

Team 7 met on the bridge, idly waiting for their sensei to show up so they could begin their new, awesome, action filled lives as full-fledged Konoha shiniobi! As they waited at the designated meeting area though, they realized that there was something wrong. For one, their teacher was several hours late…and so was Naruto.

Naruto, for all the things that were 'wrong' with him, did his best to never be late. Well, his best didn't include accounting for his pranks and for when he decided to ditch, but at least he would ditch class after showing up just to prove that he could. Which was, mildly better than just running off and not showing up at all.

Which meant that, while Sakura absolutely loved having every precious second with Sasuke by herself, she eventually became worried about their blond teammate. She wanted to say something about it, but…no, Sasuke wouldn't want to hear that. He likely would think less of her for bringing him up. If he couldn't be responsible for himself…but what about what Kakashi had said about teamwork? Was this part of it? What if this was a test of some sort? What –

"Yo!" Kakashi said, appearing behind her on the bridges railing with a casual wave.

"You're late!" Sakura yelled, eye twitching spastically as she stared up at their teacher.

"Ah, but I had a good reason." Kakashi said, pointing in a seemingly random direction. "You see, I was on my way when there was this little old lady crossing the street. So I stopped to help her, and she ended up dragging me around to carry her bags for her."

"Liar!"

Transparent as his lie was, Kakashi still grinned beneath his mask. It was so much fun to get reactions out of people like this. Despite his good mood though, it soon shifted as he looked around. "Where's Naruto?"

"He hasn't shown up yet." Sasuke said, eyes flickering in the direction of Naruto's apartment.

"Wait…so I'm not the last person here?" Kakashi idly felt rather upset about that. He'd allowed himself plenty of time to reminisce and come up with a good excuse, and now he'd found that someone had outlasted him?

"Yeah, he hasn't shown up yet." Sakura said, finally having an excuse to bring up her concern. "He's not normally like this. I thought you might've done something as a test, but…you were so late yesterday I wasn't sure."

"Well, that's…inconvenient." Kakashi thought idly, realizing that they'd waited to see if he'd show up before checking on him. He likely should point out the folly of that later, but as more of an afterthought since they were technically adults and he wanted them to feel that he was giving them the respect that they deserved in holding that 'title'.

Thankfully, he didn't need to just yet, since down the way an orange form was stumbling along towards them. Wait, stumbling?

"H-hey guys! Sorry I'm late, I hit my head last night and I overslept."

"Lie –" Sakura began instinctively (ah, she learnt so quickly) before freezing as she saw Naruto's appearance. Or, rather, the fact that instead of his hiate on his forehead he had a bandage and…a leaf? "What…Naruto are you okay?"

"I'm fine Sakura-chan." Naruto said, idly attempting to wave her off. "It's nothing, really! It just hurt a bit and I'm a little dizzy, but I've had worse."

Kakashi raised an eyebrow at that. That was doubtful, since his medical records gave him a clean bill of health. Or…maybe he just hadn't gone to a doctor about them. Which made Kakashi rather nervous, seeing how that implied that Naruto had kept information from everyone. That meant that whatever had caused Naruto's mental fracturing could be something that Naruto simply didn't tell anyone, rather than something he'd forgotten, which was perhaps one of the worst case scenarios for his condition.

"How did you bump your head?" Sasuke asked, raising a brow at Naruto's disheveled appearance. "And why are you doing the leaf balancing exercise?"

"Um…"

Earlier

When Naruto awoke, it was with the most blinding of headaches and a soreness that seemed to be resonating through his bones. Rolling onto his side, he felt the cold floor on the flat on his face and groaned. Groaning and struggling to get up, Naruto found himself slowly rolling onto his back staring and staring at the ceiling.

"What…the hell hit me?"

~Chakra exhaustion most likely. ~

"…Negi?"

~Present. Thank Shoyu for the save, we were so busy enjoying ourselves we didn't realize how much chakra we were draining from you. ~

"What?" Naruto blinked, slowly pushing himself to a seated position. Wincing, he looked at his hands to find that they were shaking. "What's going on with me?"

~…you don't remember any of that? Iruka-sensei had a whole lecture about paying attention to your chakra levels. ~

*To be fair, I didn't remember it either. *

"What's the big deal? It's chakra, it comes back."

~Eventually, but in the meantime he'll have to take it easy so that he can get it back Which means we can't have our own bodies for a bit. ~

"What? Why?!" Naruto asked, grabbing his head in distress. It didn't help. "I mean, you guys ran off and were a pain in my ass, but it was your first outing and I barely got to know you!"

*It's not like we won't still be here with you. We just…won't be able to do our own thing for a little bit. *

"…oh. But…" Naruto frowned, letting his hands drop to his sides. "How did I get chakra exhaustion?"

There was a silence in his head for a second, and Naruto got the odd feeling that they were looking between each other worriedly, as though hoping someone else would answer. Then again, they should've known better.

~We used to much chakra, obviously. ~

"Okay, I get that. But…how?"

~Oh, we'll your chakra control is absolute shit, but ours is actually worse right now. ~

That was not the answer Naruto expected. "Um, what?"

~Do I really need to – yes, I probably do need to simplify it more than that. Okay. Let's say you have to use a technique. Sakura could channel her chakra, get exactly how much that was needed, and make a perfect clone. Sasuke might use more, but only a little bit, to get it done. You would use…what two times too much? ~

*At least two times too much. *

"Hey!

~Right, two times more than the standard needed amount. Whereas we… ~ There was a pause as Negi seemed to be considering how much they actually overloaded the jutsu with before he came to a guess. ~Five to ten times more than the standard amount. ~

Naruto stared at his hand, still shaking, as he took that in. "But…why? Aren't you guys part of me? So, wouldn't that mean you learned to do things the same way?"

"Yeah, because watching someone do taijutsu means you can automatically do it." Tonkotsu interjected, the impression of him crossing his arms flashing in Naruto's mind. "We can figure out how to make it work, but that doesn't mean we know how it actually works."

"So, let me get this straight. You guys ran off, did all kinds of crazy shit, and the whole time you were blowing out so much chakra that it gave me shakes."

"You know, it sounds so much worse when you put it like that."

~In our defense, we didn't know. It's not like we did it intentionally. ~

"I know, but still!" Naruto grimaced, picking himself up. He stumbled a bit, but kept his balance before moving into the kitchen. Making some food, he dropped himself down in his seat, groaning as he slowly ate. "Okay…so, uh…how do we fix that?"

~We need to learn chakra control. ~

Naruto almost dropped his head into his bowl at that. "Ugh! Chakra control? But why?"

*I'm pretty sure Negi just explained that. *

~It's not that hard, and you really don't have to do anything. ~ That got Naruto to perk up in confusion. ~See, from what I can tell, we can manipulate your chakra…somewhat. Not much. Enough to allow us to practice. And we'll get it faster if we're in your body, since it naturally knows what to do. ~

"Oh, well that's good." Naruto sighed. If it took them forever to learn something, that would be really annoying for him. Which meant that would be annoying for them too. Especially since – "Wait, how do you guys not know chakra control if you guys are me? Isn't that, you know, not right?"

~Naruto, we're you. Do you really think we know everything? All I know is what I figured out; that being that we overloaded the jutsu, it held together since we were in your clone, and we almost killed you. ~

*Which we're REALLY sorry for by the way! *

"LEAF?"

"Oh, hey Shoyu."

"HI KAA-SAN!"

~Hush Shoyu, the adults are talking. ~ Naruto sweat dropped at that, though more so because Negi was being so forceful about the situation than being called an adult. He rather like that thought if he were honest. ~Anyways, like I said, we need to practice chakra control. The only one you can remember getting was the leaf concentration exercise Iruka-sensei had you do once. ~

Naruto paused, flushing slightly at the memory of that. "You mean…the one I never really finished learning?"

~Yes. That one. ~

"Oh. Eheh…sorry?"

~No sense worrying about things past. We'll just have to press on and relearn it. Shouldn't be too hard. ~

"Um, is no one going to acknowledge the fact that Shoyu called Naruto 'kaa-san'?"

*…wait, did he? I was listening to Negi. *

Naruto froze, staring into his bowl before laughing softly. "N-no, he totally didn't."

"BUT KAA-SAN~" Shoyu whined, electing a chorus of laughter from the rest of them. Naruto, for his part, just buried his face in his hands. "YOUR HEAD!"

That got the laughter to pause, and Naruto to rub his head. When he pulled his hand away, he winced as he rubbed off the lightly caked on blood. Apparently he'd been hit in the head harder than he'd thought if he was bleeding. Walking over to the medicine cabinet in his bathroom, he grabbed a bandage and put it on his forehead, sighing as he rubbed it gently.

"Well, at least now you guys have a point of reference for the chakra control." Naruto muttered, sighing softly as he checked for any other injuries. Seeing none, he stepped out to finish his food.

"Hey, when you supposed to meet up with your team?"

Naruto froze, eyes snapping to the clock by his nightstand. Seeing the time, his eyes widened as he realized how late he was. "Oh shit!"

Thankfully he hadn't gotten himself ready for bed, so he was ready to go as he raced out towards their meeting place. He did make sure to grab his hiate before he left – he'd be damned before he forgot that. As he raced/stumbled down the street, he almost fell on his face as Memna spoke again.

"So…seriously, are we going to talk about this whole, 'Naruto-kaa-san' business?"

Present

"…I needed the practice?" Naruto finished lamely, not yet comfortable with idea of explaining to his teammates that he had five other people – personalities? he was still trying to decide which they were – in his head.

Thankfully, no one really questioned that. Sasuke gave him a piercing look before smirking and walking off, as though he thought himself better than Naruto. Sakura was just confused, but as soon as Sasuke stared walking off she was quick to follow. And Kakashi…

Well, Naruto couldn't really tell. Kakashi seemed aloof, but Negi kept telling him to watch him because of some reason or another. Likely he was just having fun with Naruto looking around at things that he was curious about. However, as Naruto watched, there was a brief flash of worry in his sensei's eyes. Was there something wrong? Or…

Looking away, Naruto shoved his hands into his jacket and stumbled after his teammates, grinning and doing his best to keep up with them. Kakashi watched silently, the small flickers of Naruto's emotions filtering through his thoughts as he followed them.

Similar to the bell test, he saw emotions and slight expressions on Naruto's face that weren't necessarily 'Naruto's'. Calculating, defiant, confrontational, spacing out, and inquisitive. Oh Naruto likely could have those expressions, but he was going through them so quickly that Kakashi had to wonder. The enigma of Naruto's condition made him ten time the wild card he'd been considered before he'd been given over to Kakashi. There were to many variables, to many possibilities…things that Naruto could use, but that also couldn't be predicted. Was there an enemy hidden within him that was simply waiting? What kind of fragment could be so patient?

Giving up on that line of thought, he followed along behind his team, mildly amused as he envisioned their reactions to getting their first D-ranked mission.

-x-

After being told what the mission possibilities were, Kakashi was not disappointed when Naruto nearly exploded with confusion. "What do you mean dog walking?!"

"Exactly that Naruto." Hiruzen said, idly chuckling at the reaction Naruto gave them. He always was a spirited boy. "Due to your lateness, the only request currently available is dog walking."

"You see! This is why you show up on time!" Sakura yelled, jabbing a finger at Naruto who flinched away from her yell.

"Technically he wasn't much later than Kakashi-sensei." Sasuke said, eyeing the one-eyed jonin. "Did you plan this?"

"Hm? I'm sorry did you say something?"

Sasuke's eye twitched at the dry, unfocused response. He wasn't used to being ignored, let alone seeing a jonin be so flippant and casual. It was unnerving!

"What would the other jobs have been?" Naruto asked, slipping away from Sakura's wrath. "Fighting an angry mob? Protecting a princess? Beating up an evil organization?!"

"Catching Tora, the daimyo's cat, weeding several gardens, gathering groceries for some of the elderly, and helping demolish a building."

The three genin stared at the aged Hokage before Naruto voiced their feelings on the matter. "UGH! This is what being a genin is like? Where's all the cool missions? The fighting, the epic jutsu, the princesses?" Naruto pause, blinking before adding, "Or other such people."

"Naruto," Iruka said, getting his attention. "You're not yet ready for that. Being a genin means learning to work together as a team, where it's safe. Plus, these missions are meant to help the village grow, and prosper, while showing what our village can do on a full scale, rather than in pockets all around Hi no Kuni."

"It still sucks." Naruto grumbled.

Figuring that arguing with Naruto would be like attempting to climb over an electrified fence, Kakashi intervened. "We'll take it."

"Alright, we'll expect you back by this afternoon." Hiruzen stamped the papers and handed it to Kakashi, who motioned for them to follow after him.

Naruto stared at them, eyes narrowing slightly before began making his way out. As he left, Iruka let his own frown cross his face. "What was that?"

Hiruzen pressed his fingers together, the last look on Naruto's face playing back to him again. Skepticism, sharpening only slightly before he'd left. It wasn't Naruto who'd had these thoughts, but he'd been the face expressing them. With a sigh, Hiruzen picked up his pipe. "Until we get Tsunade back, I cannot say anything for certain."

"…Hokage-sama." Iruka said, breaking the small moment of silence timidly. "You seem to know quite a bit about it, but then you also have holes in that knowledge as well. Why…"

"How can I be so knowledgeable about something that I truly know very little about?"

Iruka flinched, nodding slowly despite himself. Hearing Hiruzen sight, he turned to face the man fully. "There comes a time when you realize you know enough about something to make the hair on your head curl with distaste. The breaking of the mind isn't something that's easily worked on, or fixed. However, the way Naruto's broke means that it broke through a chakra stressor; something buried deep in his mind, but had been pushed down and caused him to begin cracking. All it needed was something to press against it and let it out."

"…the shadow clones?" Iruka asked, worry for his former student rising.

Hiruzen shook his head. "No, but those became a vessel for the other personalities. No, I'd imagine that the stressor was learning the technique, and attempting to pass. Working so hard to fail, and knowing that this will be your last and perhaps only chance to accomplish something can break someone. Even someone as strong as Naruto."

Iruka nodded slowly, frown still etched on his face. "That doesn't seem like it'd be enough though, Hokage-sama."

"Oh? And you can think of another reason he'd have broken?"

"Learning that secret?"

"He found that out after he'd already made the clones. And the clones were supportive of him in spite of it."

"Then…" Iruka wracked his mind, trying to think of what else it could be. Part of him insisted that it was in part his fault, that because he hadn't noticed the pain Naruto had been going through he'd allowed Naruto to suffer, to break, and now to have other people capable of affecting his body.

"Iruka." Hiruzen sighed, leaning back in his seat. "This isn't something you could've seen. Most normal medical ninja aren't trained in the practice of even spotting it, as it's something that's so subtle that to see it one would need to have perfect chakra control to even begin the technique to sense it, let alone fix it."

That seemed to startle Iruka, who tried to think of those in the medical field. How many had perfect chakra control? Surprisingly few from what he knew. He remembered that one of his old students, Tenten, had tried to learn some medical ninjutsu, but had had just subpar enough control that she couldn't learn them. Even the basics were extraordinarily difficult depending on just how 'perfect' one's control was. He imagined Sakura, and perhaps Ino could learn it, but they were still genin; getting them -or rather, forcing them - to specialize in medical ninjutsu would be counterproductive. Especially since Iruka had no doubt that neither of them had much love for the blond boy.

"So that's it then? We just, wait?" Iruka asked, feeling desperate despite everything.

"That is." Hiruzen pressed his fingers together, frowning as he admitted that. "Unless some of our medical staff learn the technique, we'll have to observe and ensure that Naruto's mind does not…invert on itself."

"You mean that he won't hurt himself."

"…yes." Hiruzen sighed, recalling times when he'd seen such things happen. "He's unique in that it hasn't already happened, but we shouldn't let our guard down."

There was a small silence between the two of them as they stared at one another. Then, with a heavy sigh, Iruka nodded. "Yes, Hokage-sama."

-x-

Naruto, despite the feeling of annoyance at his position as a dog walker, had found that the mission wasn't all that bad. He'd learned a lot during their walk, and it was all surprising. For instance, he was not stronger than a large dog, as seen when it tried to drag him into an electric fence.

Other than that, he'd talked a bit with his teammates, and then with his mind clones – seriously, he needed to think of a better name for that. He'd been surprised to find that Sasuke was more open to talking to him than Sakura, at least until she realized Sasuke was taking him seriously, though Negi had explained why.

Sasuke was a proud person. He'd been the best, and had never seen anyone as being on his level in his group. And, at the time, it had been true. No one had shown his level of skill or talent. Hell, because no one else showed off he never had a reason or need to show that he could use a katon jutsu – something that no one else in their graduated class could do. Negi almost sounded mildly impressed about it, since most of Naruto and the clones seemed to think that Sasuke was a showoff.

Sakura…was disappointing to talk to. Mainly because a lot of her discussions tended to trail of to her talking about Sasuke rather than something with actual merit. Naruto could almost hear Miso grinding her teeth in the back of his mind, giving him a slightly disappointed feeling. He'd hoped that all of his clones were like him, and that eventually they could get along with each other. Apparently Miso found her very, very annoying, which dashed some of those ideas.

Note to self; try to remember to not let them meet up.

And Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, so we can move on past that.

Another thing that Naruto was almost overjoyed to discover was the headsets. They didn't need it for their job, they weren't supposed to take them out, but Naruto begged to have one just to wear around. Thinking that it was just something that would help Naruto feel like he was more of a shinobi, Kakashi had allowed it.

In Naruto's mind however, the rest of his clones had been confused, then stunned as he'd explained. They only had a limited range, but they ran on chakra batteries which meant they'd last indefinitely. Plus, like with the bells, they'd duplicate the headsets as well. That meant that Naruto could allow them to go mess around and do whatever they wanted, but could contact them when he needed them to come back, or if he figured they'd done something and he needed to make sure they were okay because they weren't dispelling and coming back.

Memna had sounded quite offended at everyone seeming to point to him as the main culprit. He didn't deny it, but he was still offended.

And speaking of that, Naruto poked and prodded them about that particular bit. How did they not dispel when hit? The answer wasn't really an answer so much as a theory, but then Negi had paid more attention to the scroll than Naruto.

Kage Bunshin were made by splitting one's chakra and duplicating their mind 'over' that chakra to allow it to act in whatever way the original did. It also apparently allowed for whatever happened to the clone to transfer back with the chakra, making it so whatever they learnt, Naruto did as well. Nifty, but Naruto didn't seem to fully understand just how useful it could be.

Regardless, Negi guess that, since they were basically fragmented clones of Naruto, they were able to superimpose themselves onto Naruto's clones. However, since their minds weren't really clones, they were able to hold their bodies together much better than his own clones did since they knew that they were clones and a blow would disrupt that knowledge. They knew they 'weren't' clones, and as such could take more damage. It would mean that when they dispelled Naruto felt everything they had felt, but he also felt it in a far, far more real way.

Naruto had nodded along to that, humming and grinning (once the electricity from the fence had stopped making him twitch), and had almost missed his teammates leaving as they'd been dismissed for the day.

Blinking, Naruto slowly shoved his hands into his pockets, walking down the street back to the nearby training ground. Pausing, he reached up and caught the leaf as it fell into his hand, raising his brow before sighing. "Who is it now?"

"Shut your face, this is harder than it looks!"

Ah, so it was Tonkotsu…again. When it came to anything other than 'go there, punch that', Tonkotsu had even less concentration than Naruto did. He'd started the training, then had it drop so often that he gave up and swapped with someone else. When everyone else began to get it, he'd ask to try again, fail, get frustrated and pout, see everyone's success and try again, and repeat. And now he was back at it again, but he was also the last one to get it down.

Naruto had even done some actual training during the walk, getting it down surprisingly quickly despite the fact he'd dodged the training more often than not. He had done it a few times on his own, but hadn't had the focus to keep going, mainly because no one had explained to him that if he had better control, he could use more awesome jutsu. It was amazing how such a small detail made such a big difference in his focus.

Negi had the best focus, and as such learnt the control exercise the fastest; he practiced more than the others too, but he called that 'refining' his technique. Miso was next, followed by Shoyu, of all people. Memna and himself struggled, but at least could focus when they needed to. And Tonkotsu, well his failures were clear and present.

Sighing, Naruto placed the leaf back on his forehead. Feeling Tonkotsu 'pick it up' again, he began walking home again before he paused and found himself unable to move. "Uh, hello?"

~Hold on, what's that? ~

Naruto blinked, turning to look around. He couldn't move for a second, but when Negi finally let him go (how he did that Naruto didn't question) until he froze again in one particular direction. "Oh that? That's the library."

~And you didn't mention there was a library here, why? ~

"…I didn't think about it?" Naruto shrugged with a soft huff. He didn't like that Negi was trying to drag him around like this, since it didn't help him get home. "I mean, there's the public library, but that –"

~I know of it. What I didn't know was how close this one was to the Hokage's tower. Doesn't that place house generic jutsu in it? ~

Naruto frowned, mind pulling up information that he didn't even realize that he'd known from one of Iruka's lectures; likely due to the fact he'd have asked the same question. "No, the Konoha Shinobi Library doesn't house many jutsu written in it, since it's so much in the open that if Konoha was attacked it would become a prime target for scroll theft. Most jutsu scrolls are actually scattered in different parts of Konoha. There are some, but not the cool ones."

There was a small silence as they took that in. Miso was the first to break it, remembering something. *So, like the scroll you stole isn't there? Just, stuff like the normal Bunshin, Kawarimi, or the Henge?*

Naruto winced at that, laughing softly. "Yeah, something like that."

~So, they have no cool jutsu in there? None at all?~

"I…" Naruto blinked. "I dunno."

Naruto began walking over to the library, missing the small, almost satisfied feeling coming from Negi.

Entering the building, Naruto winced as he saw the librarian glance up at him. They narrowed their eyes at him, likely due to hearing of his reputation, but didn't stop him from entering. Slowly moving in, Naruto began looking around timidly, eyes widening in amazement.

The room was not vast, but it was impressive. Rows of more western styled books and traditional scrolls lined the shelves, covering the walls with the impressive selection of it all. Turning around to try and look at it all, Naruto found himself in awe. There were really that many book here? So many words, to so many subjects, from so many places. Could someone spend enough time to read it all?

"May I help you?"

Naruto jumped, eyes wide as he saw the librarian. Shuffling in place, he shook his head, eyes still looking around wide-eyed and in awe.

The librarian seemed to notice his expression and her own softened. Leaning forwards, she gave a small, tentative smile as he looked back at her. "Let me guess, it's your first time here?" Seeing him not, she laughed lightly. "And I'm going to guess that you came here looking for the super cool jutsu, right?"

Naruto shook his head, getting a curious look from the librarian. Grinning sheepishly, he shrugged. "I know there aren't many here, I've just never been near here before and wanted to check it out."

The librarian smiled at that, seemingly pleased that Naruto was not so foolish as to believe that he could just read these scrolls and gain 'ultimate power'. Had Naruto not had five other 'people' in his mind to knock him around, he'd have thought more about the idea of him learning a bunch of jutsu, impressing the Hokage into seeing his greatness, and stepping down to let him take his place.

"Well then, what are you looking for then? Books on history, theory, science…?"

Naruto frowned, letting Negi speak. Unfortunately…

"Books on how to punch people better!"

"How to become a demon one-oh-one."

*Do they have any history books that have images of what happened?*

~I don't care, I just want to see what they have.~

Naruto blinked, their voices sadly blending together. Giving up, he shrugged sheepishly. "I was just…" Naruto paused, the leaf that had been on his forehead falling as Tonkotsu lost focus. Staring down at it, he perked up slightly as he thought of something. "Do you have something for chakra control?"

The librarian noticed the leaf and pursed her lips, waiting for Naruto to snatch it up and put it away before answering. "We have chakra theory, and some on the nature of chakra itself, but chakra control is more often something your sensei would go over with you at some point. If you'd like," She turned around. "Shiho! Will you come here?

As the librarian called out, a girl poked her head out. She had a pair of odd swirl-filled glasses on his face, her hair done up in a ponytail, and was dressed in some more casual clothing than most of the people Naruto knew. Come to think of it, most of those he knew wore some of the most outlandish clothing he'd ever thought of shinobi wearing. Maybe he should change up his orange later?

Ha! Ah that would be something.

"Would you be a dear and help this boy find some chakra theory books?"

The girl, Shiho, glanced to Naruto and grinned. "Yeah of course!" She motioned him to follow her, before pausing and motioned to the librarian. "Um, make sure you sign in and give your hiate to her. It's just a safety thing for us."

"What? Why?"

"Well," Shiho glanced to the librarian, who motioned her to go on. "Back when we first opened, some people thought they could steal from us. We eventually found that by having them give in their hiate, they behave better and won't try to just steal our book. Moving the jutsu scrolls out to more secure locations dropped it to almost never, but we still maintain the hiate rule since it covers us for later."

"Oh." Naruto muttered, removing his hiate and signed in. It felt wrong to give it up, but then it was only for a short while, which made it a small price to pay for information…even if most of it was going to go right over his head. At least most of it would go into Negi's.

~That's actually a good system. Taking their hiate takes away their symbol and position. It's a matter of respect I guess.~

*I just hope they're honest and give it back. I mean, what if someone else got it?*

"We kill them and pretend we don't know what happened to them."

No one listened to Memna's suggestion, though everyone in his head deadpanned at how outright vicious he was about it. Naruto just chose to follow Shiho, eventually forgetting about the voices in his head and began looking around. "So, uh…how do you find anything in here? I mean, there are so many books!"

"Oh, it's quite easy once you know the codes." Shiho said with a small shy smile, glancing towards a label and pointed it out. "See?"

"Uh…" Naruto squinted at the label, the numbers and letters being gibberish to him. "No, I don't –"

~Hold on, move over to the next one.~

Naruto complied, though admittedly still confused. Looking it over, he blinked before moving back. There was something there, though he couldn't place a finger on it. After a moment, Shoyu perked up.

"WHY IS IT BACK-SIDEWAYS KAA-SAN?"

"Eh?" Naruto slowly turned his head, realizing that, since the shelf had been built using horizontal slates which formed a grid, he'd been attempting to read the code from top to bottom as the labels had been put to the side of each scroll. Turning the letters, they suddenly began to make more sense of it as he read it from bottom to top, rather than top to bottom. "Um, kinda? Why is it back-side – er, upside-down?"

Shiho blinked, seeming confused before snapping her head to the labels. "Wait, you already figured it out?! Wow, you must be an amazing code cracker!"

Naruto waved his hands in front of himself quickly. "No! No I'm not, I just got a lucky guess that's all."

~And you have a secret genius in your head too. Lucky guess, like I believe that.~

"Oh, well then you must have a sharper mind than you realize." Shiho laughed sheepishly. "It took me a week before I realized that. I got lost quite a few times too. It was rather embarrassing."

*I'd get lost too, this place is huge!*

"Why would anyone want to do things here? I mean, maybe for close quarters…ooh! Practicing CQC in here would be amazing!"

~I wonder if there's a book in here that would teach her a sense of direction. And maybe some common sense for you.~

"Hey!"

"But anyways." She motioned to the books, slowly dragging a finger across the spines of several before pulling one off. "This one might be a good place to start. Chakra theory, the Purpose of Hand Seals. Then maybe Chakra, Tenketsu and You. That one works well with the hand seals since you'll see the why after the how. I heard some people learnt to make their own jutsu with just these two alone."

The books vanished from her hands so fast she was still blinking when Naruto made his way to the table. "Yup, these will work just fine! I like the sound making my own jutsu, haha!"

Shiho blinked, watching the strange boy begin to get to work on reading the book. Hesitantly shuffling closer, she pulled out a blank notebook and set it next to him. Seeing the confusion on his face, she shrugged. "Most people don't think to bring one on their first visit, since they don't realize that they can't checkout any of the scrolls."

"What?" Naruto's eyes widened, blinking and waving his hands wildly. "But-but how am I supposed to learn anything from this then? That's not fair!"

"Well, like we said," Shiho shrugged sheepishly, having heard it all before from one person or another. "People used to steal the scrolls and think they could just check them out and not return them."

~Oh, so that's why they take the hiate. To ensure that you don't try to steal it. Huh, that's very, very smart.~

"Well…" Naruto paused, glancing to the notebook. Flipping it open, he sighed softly. "Thanks, I guess."

"No problem!" Shiho said, seeming happier at seeing him understand why she was doing this, and that she was genuinely trying to help.

Cracking his knuckles, Naruto picked up a pen and opened the first book. "Alright, let's see what this's got!"

-x-

"Worst. Book. Ever."

Naruto banged his head into the desk repeatedly, the books pushed to an arms-length away as though to shun their existence. Shiho, bless her soul, peaked in upon hearing the banging and gripped his shoulders preventing him from repeating the motion until he groaned and buried his face in his arm, shifting after a moment to grip his head.

"Why do they use such dumb words?" Naruto groaned. Even Negi had been completely stumped – his vocabulary was larger, but not more extensive in understanding than Naruto's. "I mean, shouldn't it be easy? Put your hands like this, and you do that, like this, like that. Simple!"

Shiho laughed softly, patting him on the head. While he scowled up at her, she ignored it as she pulled the book back. "They didn't really want people to know exactly how they worked. If everyone could do it, it wouldn't be as unique and special to those who did do it. And besides, this is all just theory."

"But the theory is so boring." Naruto groaned, banging his head one last time. "I mean, half the time they're making symbolic references to stuff that doesn't have anything to do with what's being written!"

"Well, that's part of it." Shiho mused, looking at the section he was currently on. Boar seal, ooh that was a tricky one. "The way I look at it though is that the stories are like codes. Like how you have to look at the labels a certain way or you'll be lost, if you look at the story the right way, it'll allow you to see exactly what the author meant."

Naruto made a 'go on gesture, slowly sitting up to pay attention, and she pressed her lips together in thought. How did she explain better, without outright telling him what it meant? She'd struggled herself for the longest time on these books, and it would be rather frustrating if she just gave him the answer. "For example…you might want to write down some of the stories, and look at them together. I found that it helped me get a better idea of what it all meant that way."

Picking up the book again, Naruto let out a growl. Jabbing his finger into the middle of the pages, he glared at it menacingly. "I will defeat you author-person. I will find your tricks and I will make them mine."

"Good luck with that." Shiho said, slowly taking the book from him. "Unfortunately, we're closing in a little bit, so you'll have to spar with the books later."

"Wait what?" Naruto balked, actually reaching for the book again. "Wait no, I swear I'm almost done just give me five more minutes!"

Had Iruka, or anyone from his class seen him right then, they'd have likely done a double take at that. To be fair, Naruto whining about not having enough time to read a book wasn't within the norm that they were used to. But then, Naruto was also being encouraged by those in his head who were reading along and were trying to decipher what all was written within themselves. If one thought reading alone was bad, reading for six was hard.

Seeing that Shiho wouldn't budge, Naruto grumbled and picked up his notebook. Shoving it into his pocket, he let her guide him out of the library and back onto the streets. Hunched over, and making his way dejectedly down the street, Naruto silently muttered to himself.

"So, did you get that?"

~There's something wrong with the stories I had you write down. I'll look at them later, but I can't think of what it is yet. I'll get back to you on that.~

*I hope you figure it out soon. Naruto banging his head like that just to get you a hint seemed might've seemed weird to her.*

"I doubt it. She just seemed happy someone was there. How many people use a library these days?"

"Enough that they haven't replaced it with something new?"

"You know, he has a point."

"CARD GAME LIKE SOLITARE? OR FISH GAMES!"

"Yes Shoyu, card games to you too." Naruto said with a grin, mentally picturing himself patting Shoyu on the head, to the clone's delight. He didn't understand what Shoyu said any more than the rest of them, but that sounded like he wanted to play cards when they got back. Speaking of, "Think I can make clones for you guys when I get back? I…kinda miss talking to you guys face to face."

~Not today. Maybe tomorrow after missions we can try again.~ Feeling Naruto's disappointment, Negi projected a feeling of being 'pat on the back'. ~We're just looking out for you Naruto. That's all. I mean, if you want to die of chakra exhaustion that's on you, but we'd rather you not.~

Naruto laughed at that, the image of Negi giving him such a flat, seemingly uncaring look while telling him not to die just seemed appropriate. Negi was the sensible one, keeping his head on and pointing out the hidden things Naruto missed. He was so much smarter, and straightforward.

Why couldn't Negi be him?

He wasn't fooling himself into thinking he envied Negi, or his position in his mind, but sometimes he wished he were that smart. Like Sakura, or Iruka, or hell even Sasuke. Everyone seemed to openly praise them for being so smart that they made everyone else feel dumb. So what if they knew everything by heart? It didn't mean much…except it did. People took notice, they liked having smart people around.

And Naruto was a prankster. Oh he could pretend to hold a conversation with smart people, but the moment they started using big words his mind left the building and it became all too obvious that he was not all there for what they were saying. He hadn't studied them, hadn't put any effort whatsoever into learning about these extensive 'mysteries of chakra or the world or whatever'. He had just wanted to be respected and become Hokage since that was what people did; they trained, got strong, became popular and were recognized for being awesome, and got positions like being Hokage.

Wasn't it?

Suddenly doubtful, Naruto shoved his hands in his pockets and headed home. He had some things to think on, and a lot to work out with himself.

-x-

After another day of seemingly pointless, and certainly annoying missions, Naruto returned to his studies. Or at least, he tried to. As soon as missions were done, Memna immediately began pestering him to let them out to go have fun as soon as possible. And he just, wouldn't, stop.

"Come on, let us out! We're done with our missions, we're clear of everyone, so just make the clones and let us go on our way!"

"You just want to find that tiger again don't you?"

"I'm gonna fight it damn it!"

*That sounds like a colossal waste of time. *

~I agree. I'm personally going to the library to see about looking at those books again. Maybe with a bit of work…and maybe someone to help…~

"Whatever." Naruto muttered, glancing around before moving to a 'safe spot'. Seeing no one around, Naruto formed the hand seal. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" With five puffs of smoke, followed by a shout of "Henge!" and five more puffs of smoke, the four of them bolted out in their own directions. "Oi! Make sure you keep your radios on or else I'm coming to kick your asses!"

Grumbling to himself, Naruto began walking off until he remembered Shoyu was following with him. Thankfully he didn't just fall over immediately on flat ground, but he did seem to trip over his own feet a lot. Sighing, he moved Shoyu's over and turned radio down so that it wouldn't startle him when someone spoke.

"So, five of them then?"

Naruto froze, absolutely still as he heard the voice from behind him. Glancing up, Shoyu stared up at the person with a twitch to his eyes. Feeling Naruto put a hand on his arm – which he had once again somehow locked in front of him with tied sleeves – he looked down and whined. Naruto shook his head and turned, facing Kakashi.

"Yeah. Five." Naruto ran a hand through his hair before interlocking them behind his head. "They're really cool once you get to know them!"

"I see." Kakashi said softly, eyes never leaving Shoyu's.

Shoyu began shifting in place eyes not leaving Kakashi's for a good couple of minutes before finally he couldn't seem to take it. "Are you the strawman?"

Kakashi deadpanned at that, looking down at Naruto. "Um, what?"

Naruto shrugged, but Shoyu suddenly began bouncing as he grinned at Naruto. "He is, he is the strawman! The one you beat up!"

Neither one of them spoke, confused as to what Shoyu was referring to. At least, initially Naruto was. After a couple seconds thought he remembered that he'd made a strawman replica of Kakashi that he'd made after meeting the man to practice against. He hadn't used it again, what with being knocked unconscious and having too much on his mind the night before, but Shoyu clearly remembered it.

"Yeah~ the one I beat up during the test." Naruto chuckled loudly, clearly trying to hide his nervousness as he pat Shoyu on the shoulder. "He's also my sensei, so make sure you're nice to him."

"Hi Strawman-sensei!" Shoyu leaned to the side as though waving high above his head. With his hands tied though, he simply began leaning over to far and would have fallen had Naruto not grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

"Um, hi." Kakashi raised a brow at Naruto's apparent nonchalant attitude about Shoyu falling over. "He does that a lot?"

"A lot." Naruto said, his face telling him that 'a lot' was clearly an understatement. "So, uh…what's up Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi remained silent for a moment, watching as Shoyu was pulled back onto two feet. There was something 'off' about him that Kakashi just couldn't put his finger on. Of course, he was a fractured clone, so perhaps he was simply one of the more fractured pieces of Naruto's mind given form.

"Ah, I was just coming back to check on you." Kakashi said, waving his hand dismissively. "You seemed like you had a lot on your mind through the mission, and I figured I'd ask what was up."

Naruto paused, glancing away and rubbing the back of Shoyu's neck as he thought. "I…I've just had a lot to think about, that's all. I don't know if I can put it to words…"

"Hm." Kakashi motioned for Naruto to follow him, stepping slowly so that they could keep up. Naruto, begrudgingly, followed with Shoyu stumbling every so often. "Would you like to try?" Noticing Naruto's skepticism, Kakashi grinned. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I'm not going to treat you like some child. You're considered a full adult in the eyes of Konoha, and I will do my best to treat you as such. Of course, that being said, I can still also try to be a friendly face and a listening ear, if you need."

Naruto nodded at that, appreciative of the fact that Kakashi was willing to let him do his own thing. While a small part of him was suspicious of being followed by his teacher, a good portion of that part of him was primarily off with Negi looking at books in the library. As such, he interlocked his fingers behind his head and hummed before trying to explain. "I…Kakashi-sensei, how did you become respected?"

Kakashi idly thought about laughing at that. Him, respected? He read smutty books in public, was consistently late, and had the reputation of being rather dry of humor. However, as he glanced to Naruto, he felt the question was…genuine, and that made him pause. He was a shinobi of high caliber, and of high rank; there was good reason he was called the Copy Ninja, among other things. Still, as for the how…

"It's complicated." Kakashi said, looking off into the distance. "On the one hand, I was a child prodigy. I graduated early, became a chunin quickly, and a jonin just as fast. I created my one and only personal original jutsu, and fought in the Third Great Shinobi War. There's a lot of things I've done…but few stand out as what made people respect me for them."

Naruto frowned at that, silently taking all that in. In his young mind, he'd immediately flagged most of that stuff as 'kickass' and 'awesome' but…it was still rather vague. Mostly because he didn't know his sensei very well, and due to his lack of attention span he'd likely forget bits and pieces of what he'd just been told, which was quite unhelpful. Still, it was a start.

"My philosophy at first was to never break the one rule I ever had. 'Those who break the rules are trash'." Kakashi continued. Seeing Naruto lean forward expectantly caused a small, sad smile to creep into his eyes. "That was it, at the time."

"…wait." Naruto blinked, going over that again. "But, what about the betraying your friends part? Isn't that part of the saying?"

"Initially? No. At first it was just that. I had my reasons, but a friend helped me to see that there was more to it than that." Kakashi's eye seemed to drift slightly, into a memory from long ago. "Since then, I've been a better person, and I think that, in some ways, following it has made me more respected."

Naruto nodded slowly, trying to take all that in. It still didn't tell him much about what he wanted to know, so he decided to backtrack a bit to one of his other issues. "You were a child prodigy?"

"Hm? Oh, well I guess I did say that." Kakashi rubbed his chin, as though this was something completely foreign to him. "But, I suppose one could say –"

"Did people respect you for it?"

Kakashi paused, glancing back to Naruto. He seemed almost pleading, looking for an answer that he couldn't quite reach. Thinking back on his own life, Kakashi eventually shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose so, but then at the time I didn't really care."

"You didn't – but…why?"

The thought of someone 'not caring' what others thought of them was so foreign to Naruto. He'd been called a multitude of bad names, had them basically verbally break him – Memna and Tonkotsu were proof of that, and had been the Dead Last of his age group. People laughed at him, mocked him, and patronized him for not understanding what they thought to be 'common sense' issues. Was it like that with all geniuses? Did they just think that because they knew more they didn't have to worry about anything?

"Because I tried to wall myself off." Kakashi replied, bringing Naruto back. "It wasn't that I didn't want respect, or that I needed it. I just had a different goal than others, and so sometimes I would lose myself in it. I would forget that others have their own ways, their own ideas, and would focus on doing things as by-the-books as I possibly could. It was my way at the time."

"Your own way…" Naruto muttered, letting that roll around in his head for a moment.

"He walked where the black cats used to." Shoyu suddenly said, nodding as though he'd just said the most sage-like thing ever.

Kakashi chuckled at that. "I suppose you could say that. It would explain why I avoid them and take so long to get her wouldn't it?"

"Yup!"

Naruto shook his head, stopping to stare up at Kakashi, which caused him and Shoyu to do the same. "Are…are geniuses always going to be better? To do so little bust still get respected? I…"

"So little? Is that what you think?" Kakashi laughed at that, though after a second he realized that Naruto was completely serious. "Naruto, just because us geniuses act all cool in public, doesn't mean we aren't training like hell when you aren't looking. Being a genius just means that we understand and can do it quicker, not that we'll be able to use it with any skill."

Naruto considered those words. That painted Sasuke in a whole new light as well; not that Naruto needed to see his rival in a clearer light, but hey it helped. "So, even a genius still has to work to get respected?"

"Constantly." Kakashi nodded, smiling to himself. "They still have to work, to try things differently, and even ask for help if they need it."

"But, isn't that the opposite of what geniuses do?" Naruto frowned, motioning vaguely around himself. "I mean, geniuses learn everything so fast, what do they need help with?"

"Everyone needs help with things Naruto. And some people are lucky with that skill. I guess you could say that some people are geniuses of asking for help." Kakashi frowned at that. "Hm, maybe genius of assistance management sounds better."

"Um, what?"

"Friendship!"

"Well," Kakashi ignored Shoyu's outburst, being somewhat used to such things from Gai. "Asking for help isn't always easy. It can be stressful, opening yourself up and revealing a weakness, which means that sometimes people close themselves off from the few people who can help them. Others though seem to know exactly when to ask for help, how to ask, and who to ask. Those three things can make or break a shinobi in this area; especially if they attempt to try to complete a task alone that could've been much easier if they had some help in doing it."

Naruto's eyes widened at that. Then, turning to Shoyu, Naruto grinned and pat his head. "Yeah, like friendship."

Kakashi blinked, eyeing Shoyu who eagerly accepted the praise. It had only been one word, but for Naruto it seemed to be something to help him identify with what Kakashi said next. Shoyu obviously didn't know what he was going to say, but he had understood what Kakashi was implying before he'd explained it. He'd brushed off Shoyu as 'the crazy one' but now he was a bit troubled by the boy. He couldn't do anything, as Shoyu was still being 'good', but he'd keep his eyes ever sharp on this one.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei?"

Hearing Naruto drew him back to the boy. He looked determined, if a bit skittish. Raising a brow, Kakashi idly wondered what Naruto had on his mind. "Yes?"

"Can you…" Taking a deep breath, Naruto steeled himself. "I need help with my chakra control. I practiced the leaf balancing trick, but I don't feel like my control went up all that much. Shiho said sensei's helped with that sometimes, so…I just wanted to ask…"

Kakashi slowly smiled, pleased at how instantaneously Naruto took these things to heart. Patting Naruto on the head, he nodded. "Sure. I'd be glad to help."


AN: And done! I could feel the struggle to get through this chapter, but I made it! I am aliiiiive - *falls over and passes out*

So yeah, for anyone expecting Kakashi bashing, um…no. Kakashi was young and I can see him not having a very close relationship with anyone (you know why), and that he'd have an aversion to either asking or offering to help his students. Why?

Because he was a super young genin.

Why does that matter? You remember being a kid (somewhat), and being looked down to? Imagine being surrounded by people years older than you and treated like you're still an infant who doesn't know any better. Kakashi, from what I've understood personally, hates that. In fact, after he recommends his team for the Chunin Exams, he berates Iruka for trying to tell them that the Rookie 9 aren't ready. He goes so far as to call them "my soldiers" rather than "his students" or "his kids" – anything that would imply that they're still youth in his eyes.

Which also means that I can see Kakashi not teaching any of his students unless they asked for help. I nudged it along a bit (like an A-Wing hitting a Star Destroyer's bridge) to let it make sense why Naruto would ask. Plus, he does need the chakra control; not just for himself, but for his clones as well. The more control they get, the easier it'll be for them.

On~ that note, I'm actually going to help them fix the Henge problem real fast – and just for giggles, it's not chakra control that helps them get around it. I wonder if anyone will figure it out before I show it in…one, two chapters? Hm, maybe more if I'm feeling up to dragging it out. Well, we'll see!

And for those of you who don't know or couldn't tell, Wave is coming soon! So, the poll is closed on those fronts. I have taken your suggestions and will consider them. The only one that's really up in the air right now is Zabuza, but I've got time for that.

New poll though! As I'm sure you've seen it all before with the Chunin Exams, I'm sure you might want something new (new as far as I know) – or do you?! Vote now if you want to see something new for the Chunin Exams!

Something new - Yes/No:

And with that, the chapter is done! See you all next time on Naruto: Fractured!