I love this approach to the story, the darker Naruto... it's fun.
To Naruto's extreme luck, his clone had found scrolls on Taijutsu, Intro to Sealing, Chakra control, Meditation and the basics of Fire control. He wanted to throw the meditation scrolls away, there were two of them, but after reading one he learned that meditation increased control and chakra levels so he kept them. It also helped with control of the self, which he knew he needed, badly.
His life progressed thusly for the next month or so as they traveled. Naruto would wake before dawn and start on the taijutsu training he stole from the monks. This style, as he read, was mostly defensive and used the legs, it was meant for subduing an enemy as Ninja Monks did not like killing their opponent. The scrolls came with conditioning exercises, like jogging, sprints, sit up and so on. Naruto did this for around three hours.
When Jiraiya woke, he would run off for whoring and whatnot, and Naruto would move onto chakra control and fire control basics before meditating for an hour after lunch. Chakra control was mostly doing exercises on water or balancing stones on skin while doing said exercises. Fire control was lighting a leaf on fire nad keeping the leaf from burning all the way through.
Often, after lunch, he would spar with his clones, which last hours as he would make a hundred clones and fight them three at a time. He often lost, but soon, about a week into training and changing as he had, he realized that he was getting better abnormally faster and could take on his clones easily no matter what they pulled, and he could remember things his clones did and the ways they died. The Fox laughed himself silly over this.
"That is the whole point of Shadow clones, brat!"
And Naruto flushed at that, but kept it in mind.
He would end up assigning his clones to work on chakra control, katas for the taijutsu, sealing at the Fox's command ( he had refused at first, it was too complicated) and fire control and by the month's end Kyuubi declared him finally at full Genin level as a taijutsu user, jonin level at chakra control and an entry-level Sealer and fire style user.
"You were at best a brawler before, but now you have a solid style and far better control. Meditation and those exercises really improved your chakra control, by miles and miles, you are practically a different person. Try the Rasengan now, brat. No clones."
To Naruto's extreme joy, he created a rasengan in just two hands, it was hard but he managed it. He would not stop smiling the whole day, not until he saw Jiraiya and was reminded of his miserable gilded cage ( Kyuubi called his life that.).
After his month was over, Naruto realized he was out of things to learn and so he settled down. 'Fox, what's next? I need things to learn?'
"The best I can say is that you need to gain actual experience as well as jutsu, so why don't you start bounty hunting?"
'How can I do that and not get caught? I need to know where people are, fight them in disguise and turn in their bounty..."
"Not sure... but I do have one suggestion, why don't you start reading local books. Increase your knowledge of the area and just in general, you are pretty ignorant... and having more knowledge strengthens your chakra, which you really need if you want to survive those Akatsuki."
Naruto frowned. "Why are you helping me, I never asked?"
"If you die, I die, I never thought you serious enough to be able to protect yourself... but that Mark changed you, you are darker, purer, more yourself... you are the right person to protect us both. If you continue this, I will one day tell you my true name, I will lend you my power in full but for now, to make sure you will survive I will lend you a small fraction of my power. There is a greater threat, one that fought the Fourth Hokage and nearly won... an Uchiha who took over my mind, forced me to attack. He will be after you again, I know he will. It is he that I want you strong enough to fight. Now... we do not have much time. We have two years to get strong, not much time... can you do this?"
Naruto sat up taller. 'I just started to focus on myself, I will not let anyone take that away from me.., we have two years to get stronger, let's do this.'
"If you want to fight as a Bounty Hunter, you will need a disguise, but that can wait... go into town, read those books, and better your powers even more. Give it one more month, until you are overall at least a chunin. Train in not only the powers you have but also in using this fraction of my power, less than a tails worth, and see what you can do. With my power on small level, you will be fighting at a jonin level, you can gain the skills and experience you need after about two years of this. It will make you extremely hard to fight by the time you return."
Naruto was touched. 'I know you are being selfish, but that the most anyone has ever done for me... I will not forget it...'
The Fox's lack of comfort at that comment was clear in his voice. "You are welcome, I guess... now.. get to reading those books, and get to training in my power. We only have a month to prepare for the fights to come. As for how we will find the targets, I just remembered, if you use my chakra you should be able to sense powerful targets. Even if they are not missing Ninja, you can kill them for money."
Oddly, that didn't bother Naruto as much as it should have. 'Like the chunin exams... '
"Like the chunin exams, it will make the other villages weaker and Leaf Stronger. Just don't kill Sand or Leaf and you should be fine should you wish to return to the Leaf, at any point..."
"For my own protection, I really have no choice... "
Creating five clones, Naruto sent them to the local library in disguise. They would be here for another week, he would have time to gain tons of knowledge... and hopefully get a grip on Kyuubi's power.
He had a goal, one that he would succeed in given all his powers... he could not wait.
Chapter end, tell me what you think in the reviews.
This was a joy to write. Very fun and interesting.
Love, your Ninja Overlord,
Mika.
