-Naruto's Apartment=
-Too Early in the Morning!-
Writhing around in his bed, Naruto shouted obscenities.
He had been asleep, dreaming of fields of ramen where he frolicked freely with frogs and foxes. They played pranks on each other, all in good faith, and ate from the infinite supply of ramen when they were hungry. It was a blissful dream that Naruto did not want to wake from, one where he played leapfrogs with frogs, and did not have to worry about his training.
But alas, it was not meant to be, as here he was, headache dying out at last. Honestly, it wasn't even that bad of a headache. He'd only reacted to the usual influx of memories so strongly due being forcibly woken up from the amazing dream.
"Augh! I'll never be able to have that dream again! It was so good, so much fun! I wish I could find the clone responsible for this and strangle him to death myself!"
It was no use crying over spilled milk, the clone had already popped, it was too late to do it himself. Exasperated, he looked over at the clock on his nightstand, it read 6:13 AM.
"Augh, of course! Don't even have enough time to go back to sleep!"
Still a bit angry, Naruto forced himself out of bed, if was up that early he might as well get ready for his day a bit ahead of time.
While going about his business, getting ready for the day, Naruto began to think how strange it was for a clone to have transferred over memories, he hadn't made a clone for the past couple of days. Shrugging, he began to look through the clone's memories to find when he had made it.
As it turns out, the clone was the same clone that had led the pranking operation on the Anbu Headquarters, and thinking back on it, Naruto hadn't received any memories from that specific clone.
Feeling that something was off, Naruto stopped getting ready and sat down to take a good look at the clone's memories.
The clone, disguised as a brown-haired boy, entered Ichiraku's incognito and ordered a bowl of ramen. It was no longer as panicked about a wave of clones sweeping through and eating up all the stock of ramen before it could get any. After all, the clone didn't remember seeing any other clone take some money with them from the apartment to pay for said ramen.
Sadly, the clone, in its haste, had only grabbed enough money for exactly one bowl of ramen. At least the original couldn't get too mad at it for using his money. Chuckling to himself, the clone waited for the ramen patiently.
The moment it arrived; however, the clone was not so patient, practically inhaling the stuff. It might've been the fastest Naruto (or one of his clones) had ever eaten a bowl of ramen, and the clone could swear that Ichiraku looked impressed.
"Jeez, I knew my food was good, didn't know it was quite that good. You must've been quite hungry to eat that fast. Heck, I don't even think Naruto could eat a full bowl that fast!"
The clone was in disguise, so it decided not to act too friendly, quickly saying, "Haha, yeah, hadn't eaten a thing all day. Thanks for the food, I'll be sure to come around again sometime."
With that, the clone left, not wanting to linger too long, the main Naruto was going to be getting chased any minute now. It figured it should disperse itself before that happened.
Not wanting to freak out the nearby civilians (or trigger the Anbu), the clone navigated itself to a rather hidden spot, a dead end down one of the many alleyways of Konoha and pulled out a kunai to disperse itself with.
Or at least it was going to disperse itself. But right as it was about to stab itself, its supply of chakra suddenly shot up by a small amount.
'What? Why do I suddenly got more chakra?'
The situation was confusing, it was a clone, and clones did not regenerate chakra by themselves. Or at least, the normal clone jutsu did not allow for that, as normal, non-solid clones would continually operate until they burned through their supply of chakra or were dispersed by the creator. Then again, it was a solid clone made with one of Konoha's 'Forbidden Jutsu,' maybe the clones made with the technique regenerated chakra on their own?
If it was the case, it'd be pretty cool. A clone could be summoned, wait to max out on chakra, before summoning another clone and repeating the cycle until they had an army. It wasn't realistic, however, as even now, it could feel it's supply of chakra slowly being consumed.
Still, while the clone was a clone of Naruto, it wasn't that stupid. It knew it did not feel it wrongly when its supply of chakra increased, as small as that increase might've been.
Just as it was really starting to think about digging into the details of what had occurred, memories began to flow into the clone's head. The other clones had all dispersed themselves so that they couldn't be caught with Naruto, thus giving up that he knew the Shadow Clone jutsu. That'd ruin a perfect alibi, that the main Naruto had been with Iruka the whole day and couldn't possibly pull off such a large-scale prank in the ten minutes he had to himself.
And the village should buy it, after all, Iruka wouldn't lie to them all, now would he?
Regardless, the clone know had two decisions to weigh. It could either disperse itself, thus completely negating the risk that the main's ability to use the Shadow Clone jutsu is exposed, but possibly missing out on whatever made the clone special and allowed it to regenerate chakra. Or it could not disperse itself and remain incognito while retracing its steps.
The clone was a clone of Naruto, and he figured the main would understand if he took the risk. Dilemma solved; the clone double-checked its henge before moving out to retrace its steps, only stopping itself the moment before it left the alleyway. Couldn't it just compare its memories to that of its fellow clones to search for discrepancies? It'd also be way easier to stay incognito if it remained in the little hideout it was currently in.
Reviewing its memories, nothing really jumped out at the clone. It had been created, already knowing its mission. It had taken some money from the main's stash in the apartment, before leaving to the tree where it observed the Anbu Headquarters from. It then sat there for a few hours, before leading the operation on the headquarters. Following that, it went and ate some ramen, then arrived at its current position.
The clone was forced to review the memories of its fellows to find an answer.
'Radioing. Cleaning. Pranking. Dispersing.'
That was all the clones' memories, nothing but their assigned duties. Nothing set itself aside from the others save for two main things, him taking the money and him eating the ramen.
It didn't really think the money was the issue, as it had sat for hours with it on him and hadn't felt any increase in his chakra. That only left the ramen. The ramen must've done something. It made sense, the food was the work of the gods, after all, having mystical chakra-restoring powers wasn't too far-fetched.
The clone would need more money to confirm its suspicions. With the main Naruto currently being chased, it could only rely on itself to obtain the funding it needed. And there was only one way it knew how…
Stealing more money from the original.
The clone casually made its way through the streets of Konoha, admiring the wild chase that was ensuing.
It did feel uncomfortable, however, as it saw some men with actual weapons moving to participate. Not to mention all the people cursing the original, it didn't seem like the friendly sort of chase they had been expecting.
The clone forced itself to ignore its worries, it had something bigger to worry about. Not to mention that the original could handle himself well enough if it came to it.
With that said, the clone hurriedly made its way back to the apartment and secured the funding it needed for its new 'mission.'
From there, the clone's memories repeated, it would hide out in the alley way and periodically leave to go to Ichiraku's for some ramen. Eventually Ichiraku had gotten curious about his 'new' regular, with the clone introducing himself as 'Chunmaru.'
Naruto had always figured, if all the other villagers hate him, surely Ichiraku did as well, he was just better at hiding it. Thus, it was nice to see that old man Ichiraku treated him as well as any other customer, as it cured a deep-seated worry of the boy.
However, as nice as that was to see, Naruto was still pissed. The clone had, in a period of four days, blown through almost 20 000 Ryo on ramen alone. Regardless of whether it was for an experiment or not, that was a lot of money for Naruto. Money that he'd have to make up with more D-ranks.
At least it garnered interesting results, as the clone confirmed that eating ramen could restore a tiny portion of chakra to the clones.
But it also got Naruto to thinking about his conversation the day before with Choji. Ramen wasn't the most nutritious and buying it from Ichiraku's all the time wasn't really feasible, especially so if they tried to make an army of clones using it. Not to mention that there was no way old man Ichiraku could feed an entire army by himself.
Back to the main point, though. Naruto wondered whether different types of food would supply more chakra to the clones than ramen did. If that was the case, then it would be far easier to maintain them.
Nodding his head, Naruto decided that he would summon some clones after he was done getting ready to begin experimenting with different foods.
Several clones were standing around the table in Naruto's apartment, occasionally grabbing food from the table, and eating it. Each clone had a paper in front of them, where they wrote down what food they had eaten, and how much chakra they thought it restored.
The clones had started the experiment excited at the prospect of not just fizzling out within a couple days, but by the end, all the hope in their eyes had vanished. They had gone through all the food purchased in just a couple minutes, as their sheer numbers made it, so each clone only had to consume one or two items.
It seemed like foods heavy in meat and vegetables would give more chakra, hence it might have something to do with nutrition, but in the end, no food would provide enough chakra for a clone to survive indefinitely.
The results were not satisfactory, for the clones or Naruto. The disappointment in the room was palpable, and Naruto, as the original, was the most disappointed of all. It felt manufactured in a way, like someone had left the possibility there for someone to find but left just outside of reach on purpose.
And honestly, Naruto began to wonder whether the clones' thoughts and emotions were affecting him. Sure, he cared for the clones, but at the end of the day, they were still just another technique in his arsenal. Was it really that big of a deal that they weren't permanent? He had enough chakra; he could just summon more at any moment.
A clone, as if voicing Naruto's thoughts, spoke sadly, "Well, we're just dumb ole clones anyhow, its not a big deal if we survive for 10 seconds or can live a lifetime, right?"
As sad as it was, it was the reality for the clones, one they remorsefully accepted. But something about that rubbed Naruto the wrong way. Who says its not a big deal? Who says these clones don't deserve a fighting chance?!
"Clones! Tell me, is that really how you feel?"
A clone went to respond before Naruto cut him off, "That was rhetorical! You guys are me, and I am you guys! We're all the same, I know what our answer really is! Who cares whether y'all or clones or not?! I don't care, and y'all definitely shouldn't sell yourselves short!"
The clones started to get riled up, the original was right, they didn't want to live short 10 seconds lives, they wanted to live!
"We're ninja for crying out loud! Sure, we're bottom of the barrel, barely graduated ninja, but ninja nonetheless! We can shoot fireballs from our mouths, teleport, and create living, breathing copies of ourselves! Who's to say there isn't some other way, outside of food, for clones to restore their energy with!? The answer could be out there! And heck! It could even be really easy to do! We just gotta find it!"
The original was right, there's gotta be some method to survive, they'd only really tried one thing, who's to say there isn't something else out there. The clones once again regained their hope, and their excitement, but they forced themselves to hold it in.
"Now I'll ask y'all one thing," Naruto yelled, holding up a single finger, "Who's with me? Who wants to find the answer? Our answer!"
That was the last straw, the Naruto's had been cooped up for far too long. Forced into different clothes, to act a certain way to handle clients, to be calm despite their excitement at finally being a ninja.
The apartment filled with shouts and cheers that surely would have woken up anybody sleeping in the nearby apartments if there were anybody there. The horde of Narutos were activated, they were excited, and they were ready to get out there and find their answer.
Beginning their march under the watchful eye of the original, it was the first clone who reached the door who broke the group out of their fervor.
"So, what's the plan even? How are we gonna go about finding our answer?"
It was cold water poured over their many heads, they had whipped each other up into a frenzy without taking a step back for a moment to create an actual plan outside of, 'Just do it!'
The rabid Narutos were once again calm, as they began to sit down in pairs and trios, discussing plans of action.
As it turned out, the same clone who stopped the group at the door, was also the one who came up with the answer, "I know we hate doing it, and we got the dyslexia and all, but isn't the best option really just reading some books?"
The clone felt the fear of God well up inside himself upon saying so, as every Naruto in the room, including the original, turned, and stared daggers at him with their eyes.
Sweating, it continued to speak, trying to remain unfazed, "Well…like we don't really have anybody to ask, right? We don't know anybody who knows the technique. Not to mention that we don't really know a lot of people. The only person we might be able to ask would Iruka, and I doubt he'd know. That really just leaves us with books, doesn't it?"
As much as they hated it, it was the best solution anyone had come up with. Still, they didn't want to resort to having to read to get by, so before they committed to it, they held an impromptu meeting to discuss it.
The clones rapidly set up the room for the meeting, with the table set up in the middle of the room. The clones then split up into two groups, or factions, with one side being the Pro-Reading Front, and the other being the Anti-Book Coalition. Each group had one representative sit at the table, heading the Pro-Reading Front was the clone that had proposed reading to begin with, while the Anti-Book Coalition was represented by a particularly hard-headed Naruto clone. The original Naruto was seated at the head of the table, acting as a judge.
Although the situation appeared comical, the meeting itself was anything but.
"I declare the first meeting regarding the Continued Life of Clones, open. Starting with the Pro-Reading Front," to which several hastily made banners were waved, "and then continuing on to the Anti-Book Coalition," again, with more banners, "state your cases."
"Thank you, honorable judge. We at the Pro-Reading Front (PRF) present a simple case. Us clones need information, and have no one to go to for it, thus leading to the natural conclusion that we require books to provide us with answers."
"Hmm, yes," the original did not seem convinced, the argument was weak, and superfluous. Turning to the Anti-Book Coalition, he said, "And the Anti-Book Coalition's case, if you please."
"Yes, honorable judge. As a Naruto clone, I think I can speak for all of us when I say, 'Books bad.' It is the Anti-Book Coalition's (ABC's) case that we should not be forced to do what we do not like to do."
The original Naruto was not a fair and unbiased judge, clearly favoring the option where he would not have to read. After all, who wants to mess around with all those words in code?
"The room and I have heard both sides opening remarks, now, I will open the room for discussion between both sides, and please, keep it civil."
It was a foolish thing, asking Narutos to be civil, but it worked. They couldn't exactly accomplish anything if they weren't civil, after all.
"I suppose we at the PRF will start, if those of the ABC do not mind?"
"The floor is yours."
Clearing his throat, the PRF clone got up from his seat, the clones on his side quickly making space for him to move around. Pacing around, the clone started, "To begin, I will start with a question for the ABC. How do you propose we go about figuring out the clone chakra issue, if not through books?"
Boos erupted from the ABC side of the room, as they began to shout, "That's not fair!" and "That's a low blow!"
The original Naruto stood up, smacking the table, and quieting the room. As he did so, the original shouted, "As much as I hate to admit it, that is a fair question. ABC representative, please answer it."
He then sat back in his chair, regaining his calm.
"While we at the ABC do not have an exact solution to the question, we believe that one will emerge in the future, given enough time. Thus, reading is not necessarily needed to solve our problems. And I would like to ask a question in return. How do you know we can find a solution by reading?"
It was as if an explosion rocked through the room, the PRF representative struggled to stay standing, requiring the support of his followers standing behind him.
Adjusting the pair of glasses he had henge'd onto his face, the PRF representative shakily returned to his seat, no longer having enough energy to stand.
"Why yes, that's a good question. While we cannot say for certain whether the answer we seek will be found in books, it never hurts to try!"
The PRF representative's voice gained conviction and strength as he continued to speak, "Furthermore, there have been many geniuses in Konoha's great, long history, surely one of them has thought about a similar issue in the past and had written it down for the future generations."
The ABC rep opened his mouth to refute what the PRF rep was saying, but he was shut up as the PRF rep quickly said, "I'm not done speaking. You also forget, we the clones, along with the original, have promised to Iruka-sensei to practice our reading more in the future. This is simply a matter of hitting two birds with one stone!"
The momentum had completely reversed in the room, as one could almost imagine the ABC rep being launched back in his chair, fury on his face.
'Damn that PRF bastard! How can I argue against that? We all remember that promise! There's gotta be something, anything!'
Suddenly, the ABC rep's face lit up, before it grew into a devilish smirk, unsettling the clones of the PRF.
They watched, as if in slow motion, as the ABC rep pointed towards a corner of the room and shouted, "What's that!"
Each clone, as well as the original, turned their heads to see what the ABC rep was talking about, only to see nothing, and still in slow motion, they turned their heads back around to see the ABC rep lunged across the table, popping the PRF rep.
"No!" Shouted the various clones in the room, it was too late though, the deed was done, and immediately following the assassination, the ABC rep proceeded to burst itself, revealing its inner thoughts to the whole room.
They consisted of, 'His argument is too good! This is lost, I'm gonna pop him, then myself. It'll be pretty funny.'
It was absurd, the Narutos couldn't help themselves, as they began to laugh at the situation. Of course, their final decision had been made for them, as they now had all the memories of both factions' leaders.
Making it official, the original stated, "With that, I declare the first meeting regarding the Continued Life of Clones, closed."
It was now time to head to the library en masse, as per the agreed upon plan. Each Naruto clone transformed before leaving the apartment, taking on various forms, they still wanted to keep the Shadow Clone jutsu a secret for as long as they could.
It was the clone's first trip to one of Konoha's shinobi libraries. The original had never gone as a student, partially due to lack of interest, but also because most of the books were sealed to non-ninja, academy students included.
The clone wasn't sure how many other clones were heading to the same library as him, after donning the henge, he had split off from the group amongst the crowds wandering Konoha's streets.
Thinking back on it, maybe they should've planned it out a bit better, thereby ensuring that every library was hit. The clone just had to hope that they hadn't all chosen to head to the same library.
He, himself, was heading to one of the lesser-known libraries, he'd never really seen anybody use it, as hidden as it was. It was located near the Hokage monuments, kind of out of the way. He only knew about it as he'd stumbled into it after one of his many stunts.
Entering the library, he was surprised that no stopped him, or at least checked to make sure he was a Konoha ninja. Brushing it off, the clone continued in, arriving at a lobby-type area with a single desk in the middle.
Looking around as he walked in more, the clone saw that there were three main sections to the library, labeled Genin, Chunin, and Jonin, clearly indicating what rank was required for each section. Thinking about what type of book he should read, the clone eventually arrived at the desk, originally expecting it to be empty, as he saw no one there.
It was only when he was within a couple feet of it that he saw the air start to distort before he saw a member of the Anbu sitting at the desk.
Startled, he stepped back, and the Anbu agent faded from his view. Prepared now, he once again approached the desk, with the Anbu reappearing as he neared.
"First time? You must be a genin then, no? Got some form of identification with ya?"
Reflexively, the clone pulled out his license, handing it over. Realizing his mistake halfway through, the clone resigned himself, as the Anbu snatched it from his hands.
"Let's see here…Uzumaki…Naruto?!"
The Anbu agent did a double take, as his hand landed on the tanto on his back.
Quickly dropping the Henge, the clone revealed himself, hurriedly stating, "Chill, chill! I was using a henge to travel incognito," and in a bout of cleverness, adding on, "I'm sure you can imagine why…"
The Anbu agent relented at the explanation, "Hmm, yes. I suppose that does make sense. I know it's you now, you can put your henge back up if you want to. Anyway, you can pass. I'm sure you're aware, but genin-section only, alright?"
Taking his ID back, the clone reapplied his henge, hesitating for a moment, before asking, "Say, do you know where I could find some books on Fuinjutsu?"
That caught the Anbu's attention, Fuinjutsu was some pretty advanced stuff, most jonin knew little about it, much less a genin.
The Anbu voiced his concerns, "Ah, genin-san. You do realize that Fuinjutsu is pretty advanced stuff, right? Most jonin don't even study it. In fact, the only two people who I can think of in the village who have more than a basic understanding of it are the Hokage, and one of the legendary Sannin, Jiraiya. Are you sure that's what you're looking for?"
That was new information to the clone, but it didn't really matter to it, it was just a passing curiosity. Surely the other clones would look at more reasonable material, so it couldn't be too bad for it to waste time looking at Fuinjutsu. Not to mention he liked the sound of it, only the Hokage and the Sannin knew it. That just sounded like something high-class that they should learn. After all, one of the best ways to become Hokage would be by mimicking some of the stuff they'd learned, right?
"Yeah, I'm fine with Fuinjutsu related books, I just had heard a bit about it recently and was curious. Not to mention, it's my first time here anyway, I'm mostly just getting acquainted with the layout."
The clone lied as it breathed, naturally, and with a certain amount of grace, and it completely convinced the Anbu agent.
"In that case, most of the books on Fuinjutsu stuff in the genin section are on the last bookshelf on the left, its not the most popular subject, so don't expect a whole lot."
The clone thanked the man, before going off to find the books.
Quickly, the clone found the section and identified two books of particular interest, 'Basics of Fuinjutsu' and 'Various Applications of Fuinjutsu.'
The clone began to flip through the first book, somewhat surprised with itself. It was reading it quite fast with the dyslexia and all. Only, it didn't notice, while any normal text appeared strange and confusing, as if it were in code, when it came to the Fuinjutsu itself, it seemingly naturally understood the meanings.
The clone began to think about what the original had been missing out on, the experience was almost addictive. Little did the clone know, the rest of the clones, and the original, were having a much harder time with what they were reading.
Before he knew it, he had finished the first book, not even noticing the passage of time. Sure, most of the information probably wouldn't fully stick, and it would require another go through, but the experience was pleasurable overall.
So pleasurable, that the clone picked up the next book, 'Various Applications of Fuinjutsu,' and began to read through it as well.
He saw various familiar concepts, like the storage scroll Choji used and the chakra weights that Lee had talked about. He'd even found what the Anbu agent was doing to disappear in the lobby, as it turned out, it was an application of Fuinjutsu that created a mirage to cloak a person from their surroundings.
Only, it didn't work in the exact way recorded in the book, the person was supposed to be completely invisible, even at close range like the clone had been. Thinking about it, the clone flipped the book on the basics of Fuinjutsu back open, quickly finding what he was looking for.
'While beginners of Fuinjutsu must strictly keep to formula, a master is capable of altering the formula to suit their needs. A prime example of such mastery came from the Uzumaki clan of the former Whirlpool country, which unfortunately, no longer exists, having been destroyed for fear of the very Fuinjutsu they had mastery over.'
It was a funny coincidence, Naruto, an orphan, had been given the name Uzumaki in honor of the once-allies of Konoha, and now here he was, a clone of Naruto, learning about Fuinjutsu and the Uzumaki. Between that, and the Hokage being one of the few figures said to have mastered Fuinjutsu, the clone thought it might be a good skill to look into more.
Not to mention the words 'destroyed for fear of the very Fuinjutsu they had mastery over' was a pretty fancy way of saying that the Uzumaki's Fuinjutsu was too powerful to the point that they needed to be stopped. That sounded like a good skill for Hokage as great as the original was going to be.
Everything the clone had learned so far about Fuinjutsu pointed to it being an extremely valuable skill for their future develop, and it figured the other clones as well as the original would see it in the same way.
Not really expecting any more bombshells of information, the clone continued flipping through the pages of the book, only to burst from its seating position as it read the description of one of the Fuinjutsu.
Not bothering to put away the two books it had off the shelves, the clone ran off out of the library in excitement, leaving behind a confused girl in the lobby.
The girl who had just started her shift thought to herself, 'Was there supposed to be a genin in the library?'
Looking through the logbook, she found her answer, 'Uzumaki Naruto. 8:32 AM. Interested in Fuinjutsu. Moving incognito under a henge of a black-haired boy.'
The boy who'd run off fit the description, but that log entry was for the day before, and no one had entered the library since that entry. Thinking that that couldn't possibly be the same boy, the girl entered into the genin section to try to see if she could figure out what he might've been reading.
Starting from the more popular material and working her way down, she at last arrived at the Fuinjutsu section. Cursing herself in her mind for not checking there first, she, in disbelief, looked at what books the boy had been reading.
'Basics of Fuinjutsu' had been flipped open to a section pertaining towards some history of Fuinjutsu, and it also talked a bit about the collapse of the Whirlpool country. She wasn't that well-versed in Fuinjutsu, but she knew enough history to know about that incident.
Casually taking a look at the other book, it was flipped to a page on 'Fuinjutsu: Chakra Suppression Seal.' A weird place to leave off reading, she shrugged, picking up the two books and returning them to shelves.
'That Uzumaki boy must've gotten bored of the books yesterday and up and ran off. That black-haired boy from just now though, I guess I'm going to have to write up a report about him. I should've stopped him, could've saved me from doing the paperwork.'
Angrily, the girl returned to the desk, not eager to write up the report anytime soon, after all, she had a lot of free time considering no one came to that library anyway.
Author's Note: This is my pop off moment. Woke up this morning, felt like shit, was tired, decided to start writing anyway, had a real hard time with it. Took a break, came back to it, rewrote everything I wrote to make it flow nicer. Then, I just didn't stop, the rage fueled me.
And here we are, my longest chapter to date, by around 1000 words, too. Hope it's a banger for y'all to read. I think it's good but can't really tell because I'm half-loopy right now.
Hope y'all enjoy.
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