Three months later :-
" Thump ",
" Thump ",
" Thump",
were the sounds echoing from the training ground, as large rocks were launched continuously, by a blonde haired woman trying to hit a red haired boy.
" Humph! " Naruto sighed as he collapsed on the ground.
While he had a lot of chakra for an eight year old child, stringing together twenty sealless Kawarimi, definitely took a toll on him, in terms of both chakra exhaustion and the mental exhaustion too, as it required a considerable amount of concentration to pull off a sealless Kawarimi, let alone twenty in a row and that too instantaneously in combat.
Sometimes, Naruto cursed himself for his obsession with perfection in everything.
For the past three months, he had been working exhaustively on his mastery of the sealless Kawarimi, and had even combined it with a sealless Henge, to make it look like he had been hit, and though it wouldn't fool any chunin level shinobi, it could fool rookie shinobi for a few seconds, and that was more than enough to change the tide of any fight.
He had also mastered the sealless henge, and now he could even mimic smells, instead of just the image of a person.
He had also perfected the sealless basic illusionary clones, but they didn't have almost any use in battle and he was hoping to learn some sort of elemental clone technique before graduating.
" Very good, brat. You have become very proficient with the use of the Kawarimi. And any further improvement will only come with further improvement in your chakra control and your chakra pathways maturing. The same is true for your use of the Henge and Bunshin also. So, you can start focusing more on other areas of your training, like learning a few eleemental jutsu, as they will give you the additional coverage ", Tsunade said.
" Thanks, sensei. I appreciate your help, even if only from a clone ", Naruto replied.
" Yeah Yeah!, now you can start spending more time on chakra control, as you have mastered water walking, kunai and senbon balancing. Now you can start working on Kunai and Senbon spinning. And then I will teach you the Mystic Palm Jutsu. And then I will start you with sticking objects of various sizes and weights all over your body and then doing all the different variations of the Leaf sticking exercise with them. That will greatly increase your chakra control ", Tsunade said.
" Yeah, I hope to learn atleast one jutsu from every element before the academy year is up. Which gives me six months time. And then I can concentrate on learning my elemental affinity and doing nature transformation exercises next year, while learning a few more jutsu for my affinity ".
" That is a good idea brat. With your massive chakra reserves, I don't see a reason why you shouldn't learn to use all the elements like my sensei. By the time all your present classmates graduate, I am confident that you can complete the nature transformation exercises for all the five elements atleast the basic transformation exercises for all the elements and the advanced nature transformation exercises for your affinity or affinities. Infact your perfectionist attitude reminds me of Sarutobi sensei. You don't plan to learn to wield a Bo staff like him, don't you?"
" Of course not, sensei. I am more interested learning to use a Naginata. As blunt force trauma is not my preferred method of offense. I prefer bladed weapons as they are more efficient. And it also dramatically improves my short reach".
" That is a good idea. But I would suggest that you postpone that till you graduate, as otherwise you will burnout trying to learn too many things at once ".
" As you wish, sensei. I already have more than enough to work with for the moment, especially with my Taijutsu training and physical conditioning added to my chakra control and elemental jutsu training ".
" Yeah, but remember to make sure that atleast a clone of mine is present when you practice Fire Jutsu, as there is a danger of you burning your throat ".
" Yes sensei ", Naruto replied, shuddering at the thought of burning his own throat. And anyway he wasn't planning on learning more than two or three fire jutsu, as he considered it the least useful among all the nature releases. But it would be incredibly useful when used in conjunction with Wind Jutsu, as a means of wide area destruction.
First he planned on learning the Earth Wall jutsu, as it was incredibly useful and would add a defensive jutsu to his arsenal. Then he would focus on water and wind jutsu. He planned on allocating one month to perfect each jutsu. And then he would work on tweaking them to his satisfaction, like making them sealless and using the Earth Wall jutsu using his feet, making the wall stronger than it really is, making the fireball jutsu hotter, etc.,
Naruto preferred to have a few jutsu in his arsenal, that he could use without fail even in his sleep, than have a thousand not perfected jutsu in his arsenal like Kakashi. He preferred a diversity of different jutsu of each element.
The past few months had also resulted in Naruto becoming a capable huntsman in hunting small animals like squirrels and small wolves, which helped in improving the protein in his diet. The past six months of daily intense exercises and Taijutsu training had made his body compact as he had burned away almost all his baby fat and there was slight muscle definition on his abdomen and arms along with his legs, well as much as possible for an almost nine year old shinobi in training.
His Taijutsu training had progressed beautifully, as he could now consistently beat Sasuke, Hiruko and Kiba in pure Taijutsu, even while using the regular Academy Taijutsu which he didn't like to use. And it served to piss them off wonderfully and even the chunin instructor for Taijutsu, Mizuki and their regular instructor Iruka were incensed and try to sabotage his Taijutsu, but Naruto never followed their instructions, so there was nothing they could do.
His Bukijutsu had also been improving well. He could hit a bulls eye, on a stationary target even at a long distance, with both his hands. And he was working on achieving the same accuracy with moving targets. And he was also working on improving the power behind his throws. He planned to work on different Bukijutsu tricks using wires, etc., after he achieved his current targets, which would take a while as it was not of immediate importance to him.
He had also been working on his sensory skills, but it was slow going, as he had no reference to work from, as Tsunade was not a sensor.
One Month later :-
Doton : Earth Wall,
Naruto intoned softly, and stomped one foot on the ground, and immediately a solid looking Wall of earth with a rabbit's head in front of it, rose infront of him, and it managed to withstand two powerful water bullet attacks from the Tsunade clone helping him with testing his jutsu.
" Yes, success! ", Naruto whooped in joy at perfecting his first elemental jutsu.
" Good work brat. It will easily withstand an A ranked elemental attack, unless it is a Lightning jutsu. And you have managed to cut off the use of any handseals, which is always a plus. But you have to work on the speed with which you can execute the jutsu. If you work on your earth chakra manipulation, that jutsu can even block low level Lightning jutsu", Tsunade instructed.
" But you can definitely start on learning another jutsu. But still I suggest that you keep practising this jutsu, as it will definitely improve with practice ", Tsunade said, as she dispelled.
One month later :-
Suiton : Water Bullet,
Naruto softly intoned as he spat out a compressed ball of water from his mouth, at considerable speed, which managed to cause a lot of cracks on a large boulder.
And as Naruto completed the goal he had set for himself, Tsunade watched on with a smirk on her face, as she saw he godson use two C ranked jutsu of two different elements at just nine years of age. It was still amazing for her to watch, however many times she watched it.
She planned on convincing her sensei to train Naruto, once he graduated, atleast when it comes to Ninjutsu, as he would be the perfect Ninjutsu teacher for Naruto, in the entirety of the elemental nations. She knew that Sarutobi sensei would be thrilled to take on another student, even if only part time. He would also appreciate Naruto's perfectionist attitude, and drive to modify every justu he learned, till he was satisfied with it. And she was also reminded of her granduncle Tobirama, who always worked to eliminate the handseals for every jutsu he used, as he used to consider handseals a waste of time in battle.
" Very good Naruto. You can work on improving it further, but it is more than satisfactory for now ", Tsunade complimented her godson.
Naruto was working on a different more lethal version of this jutsu, but it would take a little more while, before he managed to increase the pressure behind the water jutsu he wanted to launch.
One month later :-
Futon : Gale palm,
Naruto softly intoned as he launched the jutsu which sent a sharp pulse of wind chakra from his palms, which drastically sped up the few kunai he had launched in the direction of a large boulder and they managed to lodge themselves in the incredibly dense boulder.
Futon : Diatoppa,
Naruto softly intoned as he blew out a massive gust of wind which managed to completely uproot and blow away two trees.
" You have perfected both the jutsu, Naruto. You just have to work some more on the power behind your Futon : Diatoppa jutsu. My former teammate Orochimaru could blow away nearly ten to fifteen full grown trees when he used this jutsu at full power. But it will take a while for you to gain such reserves of power. That will only come with time ", Tsunade commented.
Tsunade had a feeling that Naruto definitely had an affinity for Wind, as he demonstrated a clear ease in learning Wind jutsu. He had also learned Water jutsu relatively easily. But he had struggled a lot with learning the Earth Wall jutsu. And if had an affinity for Wind, then it meant that he would have difficulty learning Fire jutsu. But it would add a deadly twist to his Bukijutsu, if learnt to channel wind chakra through his kunai and also his Naginata, when he finally learnt to use one.
One month later :-
Raiton : Lightning Bolt,
Naruto softly intoned as he launched a small concentrated bolt of lightning from his mouth, and it managed to cleanly pierce a small boulder.
" Good Naruto. You just have to work on increasing the power behind the jutsu. If you can condense the lightning much more and improve the power behind it, then it will become the Raiton : False Darkness Jutsu, which is a lethal B ranked jutsu." Tsunade remarked.
One month later :-
Katon : Fireball Jutsu,
Naruto softly intoned as his hands flashed through five handseals and carefully spat out a medium sized ball of fire from his mouth and it managed to very lightly scorch a large boulder.
" It still needs work. But it is useable in battle. You have to work on increasing the power behind the jutsu, as well as on making it sealless like your other jutsu ", Tsunade commented, as she saw that Naruto was having difficulty with this jutsu. And he had already suffered quite a few burnt throats, and was understandably a bit reluctant to train in using Fire jutsu.
But she was confident that he would eventually get it down.
Within on year of training, he had already managed to reach a solid genin level overall in his strength, while his Ninjutsu was clearly chunin level.
And he had also managed to perfect the Mystic Palm Jutsu, though it would take a little time till he had mastered it and for that, she had him healing minor injuries of civilians, in the hospital on weekends, with herself supervising him, so that the civilians couldn't make a fuss about it. And her tactic was working, as Naruto had acquired proficiency in that technique and also his reputation among the civilian population was also improving as no person can realistically hate someone who heals him, unless he is the one who hatmed you in the first place. And even Naruto had picked this improvement in the attitude of the civilian population, and had thanked Tsunade for it as he knew that it was all because of her idea.
One month later :-
Doton : Earth Wall,
Naruto softly intoned as he stamped on the ground and a wall rose in front of him , but it was consisted of three interconnected walls which also protected him from attacks from the side as well. And he could control which type of earth Wall he wanted to raise.
Suiton : Pistol,
Naruto softly intoned as he launched a very small water bullet from his right forefinger, and it rocketed forward and completely pierced through a very thick tree.
Tsunade was very impressed with this jutsu, as it added an instant kill jutsu to Naruto's arsenal, if it hit any of the vital spots on an opponent's body.
And moreover it was also a sealless jutsu, which allowed it to be used instantaneously, though he would have to work quite a bit on improving the speed at which he gathered the water chakra at his finger.
Naruto had also improved the power behind his Wind, Fire and Lightning jutsu.