Author's notes: Thanks for the reviews guys. I want to clarify something from the first chapter: When Kakashi said he needed to prepare the mission, it's for a whole week. That way, Naruto has time to train his body adequately. Somebody asked, in a review, if I was going to have a Sasuke/Sakura relationship. At first, I didn't want it, but now that I think about it, it might be a good addition. I'm not promising anything though.
"Finally awake, eh? You really do need to learn how to control how much time you sleep." Naruto awoke to the demon's voice inside his head. It was not the most pleasant of experiences, but he had worst.
"Ugh, how is that even possible?" asked Naruto, sounding sleepy, even in his mind.
"You will learn in due time. Now, I expect that you can barely move your body without it hurting, right?" The demon was right. Even the slightest contraction of his worn out muscles sent searing pains throughout his limbs. Not even his rapid healing had repaired his muscles from the previous day's grueling workout.
"I suppose this is an appropriate time to teach you your first healing technique," announced Kyubi.
"Oh cool! Is it gonna be, like, instant regeneration or something like Tsunade-sama's technique? Oh man, that was cool as hell!" rattled the blonde genin, momentarily forgetting about his sore muscles.
"Not at all. Now pay attention. This technique requires extreme concentration, so get into the lotus position."
Naruto's muscles vigorously protested as they were placed in a most uncomfortable position. He harbored his own thoughts about the effectiveness of the lotus position in facilitating meditation but he obeyed the Nine-tails without a word.
"Now, the technique works by flowing your chakra through your whole body; starting from your head, down to your toes. It will not be easy because your chakra control is not precise."
"How do I know if I'm doing it right?"
"Try thinking of your chakra as warm. That should put you on the right track. Otherwise, the rest is up to you."
"Alright! I'm gonna do this!" declared the ninja to no one in particular.
It was easier said than done, of course. After concentrating for a few minutes, the young genin concentrated some chakra in his head. "Gotta think warm," he reminded himself. The only problem was, as soon as he started flowing the chakra down his neck, the energy in his head would disperse. He tried again, but still it dispersed. "Man, this is harder than I thought it would be."
Several attempts later, Naruto had successfully gathered chakra all the way to his lower chest. The fox had not told him of the crucial trick to complete the technique. After several failures, he realized that the chakra needed to be anchored to his body. Perfecting this trick had frustrated him to no end. At one point, he nearly gave up, but the demon reminded him,"Save your anger for another time, for when you really need it." Kyubi was right of course, angering himself over something so small was useless. Instead he redoubled his efforts and to his surprise, he succeeded without too much trouble.
Filling the rest of his body with chakra was no longer a losing battle. Once his body was filled, he realized he did not know what to do now. With all the energy charged up in his body, the only sensible thing to do was releasing it. Expelling the chakra from his feet, Naruto noticed his body stopped hurting, as if he were pushing out the pain through his feet. "Whoa! I feel great!" he exclaimed.
"Very good," rumbled the demon, "I never expected you to grasp the anchoring concept that quickly…there might be hope yet for you."
As Naruto stood up from his meditating position, his grin was as large as ever until Kyubi announced, "Now, run twelve laps around the village with one hundred and twenty pushups and sit-ups at each gate."
"What! Already? I just got healed!" the blonde ninja yelled out loud. The demon simply ignored it. He figured that Naruto was Naruto and his complaining would never cease.
The twelve laps around the village did not take as long a time to finish as the previous day but he was still drenched in sweat, and he could barely stand up. On top of that, as he finished his eleventh lap, his feet tripped on themselves from exhaustion and he fell face first on the ground. Thankfully, he still had stamina to get back up and continue running. Despite his accidents, Naruto still felt good about himself. He always did after training.
"Now would be an excellent time to use that healing technique I taught you," suggested the demon.
"Hai, hai," responded Naruto.
This time around, the young genin completed the technique a full ten minutes quicker than the first time he had attempted it. Gathering, and then flowing out the chakra was still a lengthy and precise process, though. "Waaaa! I feel great! This technique is really amazing!" Naruto shouted in amazement.
"Instead of standing there like a fool, I suggest you take a shower before eating lunch," growled the demon in response.
"Hey, hey. Cheer up, you always seem to be in a bad mood."
"Remaining sealed within your body for twelve years would make anybody bitter and cynical."
"Whatever you say, sensei," replied the boy with a mental chuckle.
Since he was no longer exhausted from his run, Naruto did not have to worry about collapsing while walking towards his house. Instead, he placed his hands behind his head casually strolled back along the way. On his way, he passed a few genins. They all stared at his sweat drenched clothes, wondering what he had been doing for him to be so drenched. Naruto simply grinned in his customary manner, if only they knew.
After drying himself off from his shower, Naruto ransacked his house in search of something edible to eat, but he had finished the last of his food the very morning. It looked like another ramen meal at the stand, not that he was complaining of course, but his monthly allowance was running short. Oh well, another meal will not hurt him. Besides, the owner gives him a frequent customer discount anyway.
On his way to the stand, he could have sworn he saw Sasuke and Sakura talking. Most likely she was trying to persuade him to go on a date with her. Like that was going to happen. The thought made Naruto chuckle a bit to himself. The little triangle that team seven had going on for a while always made him laugh. To think back now at how he acted, he could tell how far he had come since Kakashi made them genins. He was foolish enough to think his desire to go out with Sakura was as strong as his dream to become Hokage. "Hehe, what a fool I was."
"You still are," snickered the demon at him.
"Bah, who asked you?" demanded Naruto, slightly irked. Only another mental snicker answered his question. He was beginning to think that the Nine-tails fox was starting to act like him, heaven forbid.
"Oy, Naruto," said the ramen stand owner as he placed a steaming hot bowl on the counter, "Still training hard?"
"Haha, of course I am! I need to become stronger if I'm to become Hokage!" replied the young ninja with his usual gusto.
Midway through his meal, the demon unexpectedly spoke up, "Hrm, it appears as though you're being watched."
"Huh? How do you know that?" Naruto demanded.
"Concentrate on the different chakra sources in the immediate vicinity. Notice how all of them are moving, except one."
"Oh yea, you're right."
The blonde genin slowly turned around as if he were stretching and stole a quick glance in the direction of the motionless chakra. There was no mistaking the person, it was Inuzuka Kiba, the genin he had defeated in his preliminary match during the Chuunin selection exam. It occurred to Naruto that today was not the only time he was being watched. Several other times in the past, he felt as if somebody was watching him. "What the hell does he want with me?" he wondered to himself.
"Most likely a second chance to fight you again," replied the demon with indifference.
"Heh, I'll just beat him again, like I did back then."
Meanwhile, Kiba was silently observing Naruto from the shadows of an alley. For a moment, he thought he had been spotted, but the other genin was merely stretching himself. Akamaru softly barked at him: somebody was coming. As Kiba turned around, he saw it was only Hyuga Hinata, his teammate.
"K…Kiba-kun, Kurenai-sensei sent me to tell you that we have another mission," said Hinata in her soft voice.
"Eh, I'll be there soon," Kiba replied without taking his eyes off of his target.
"Oh, you're watching Naruto-kun again, aren't you?"
The boy simply nodded. He silently grimaced at his teammate's sudden change in attitude. There was no mistaking the tenderness in her voice as she spoke the name. He had only recently discovered Hinata's feeling towards Naruto. It shocked him when he first found out, and he had felt a slight twinge of jealousy. As far as he knew, no girl had ever liked him.
"Hai," he answered, not even offering an explanation. He could feel her eyes on his back, and was glad when she finally left him. "I'm going to figure out how you became so strong, Naruto," Kiba promised to himself.
After his meal, Kyubi ordered him to, once again, go outside of the village for some more training. It seemed the demon liked the surroundings of the forest. He hoped that this afternoon's training would not turn into another endurance exercise like in the morning.
"Before we begin, use your Kage Bunshin and create a clone," ordered the demon fox.
Simple enough, Naruto had been using the jutsu for months now, it was like second nature to him. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" he said as an exact copy of himself appeared next to him.
"You notice how close the clone is to yourself."
"Well…yea. Isn't that normal?"
"Of course it is, but tactically it doesn't present you with the full advantage of shadow clones. You're going to work on creating single clones as far away from yourself as possible."
"Alright…How do I do that?"
"The only hint I'll give you is this: right now, you're probably focusing your chakra around you. Focus your chakra away for you in a set direction," stated the demon.
Easier said than done, of course. After an hour, the farthest he was able to create a clone was five meters and even that required immense concentration on his part. He needed a break to rethink his approach. This training was almost as exhausting as when he was learning the Rasengan. As he pondered a few thoughts, he felt something on his forehead: it was a leaf. Memories of his training with Jiraiya-sama came back to him in a flash. He had focuses so much chakra into destroying a ball that it blew him backwards several meters. It was so difficult to capture his chakra into a sphere.
Then it struck him: a sphere! "Of course! Focusing the chakra into an orb will make it not disperse as much!" realized the young ninja. In theory it sounded great, but putting it to practice was another story.
"Ok, all I have to do is keep my chakra focused!" With that last thought in mind, Naruto placed his hands in the seal. He could almost feel his chakra slipping around his constraints. Slowly he forced his energy farther away from him. At the five meter mark, he felt he could keep on going: six, seven, eight, nine meters before he felt the chakra start to slip around. Ten, eleven meters and he was forced to create the clone. A whole six meter improvement! Naruto plopped down onto the ground, sighing with contentment.
"Very good. You've managed to impress me once again. I never thought you would understand the concept so quickly." At the rare compliment the boy projected a mental grin.
"With daily practice you will be able to create clones far away from you just as easily as right next to you. Now, there's still a few hours before sunset so keep practicing."
"Hai hai," replied Naruto.