Story: Indemnity

Author: theanti

Last Edit Date: 6/16/05

Chapter 3 : The way of the Sword
When Naruto awoke the next morning he was surprised to see the sun was already high in the sky. Curious as to how he had been asleep so long he went off to look for Gikou in the workshop. When he got there he saw Gikou snoozing in a corner and suddenly everything made sense. He figured there wasn't much else he could do now so he left a note for Gikou and went to see Gaara.

It didn't take him long to spot Gaara scouting the borders alone. So he ran up to him.

"Hey Gaara wanna go get some ramen?" he asked.

"Fine, I haven't eaten yet today so now would be sufficient," said Gaara in a tone only Gaara could have when around someone as full of life as Naruto.

After their midday lunch, which consisted of Naruto eating upwards of twenty bowls of ramen. They went back to Gikou's workshop to notice the man still asleep in the corner. They decided to look around and soon found a room filled with hundreds of swords from katanas down to daggers and some of the biggest swords Naruto had ever seen before. They almost made the Samaheda look small to some extent. They decided they would try and wake the old man up and well Naruto seemed to find the perfect way.

"What's up bro?" asked the small frog summon Gakimichi. "Why'd you summon me? I hope you don't have to fight again," said Gakimichi while looking around. When he noticed Gaara he hopped up onto Naruto's head to hide, but Naruto assured him it was ok. Then they told him their plan.

A few moments later a very grumpy and soggy Gikou was awake. "Damn brats," he cursed under his breath still fearing what Gaara might do to him if he were any louder.

Gikou decided he should start Naruto on the path to swordsmanship by teaching him the basics of Kenjutsu. He led Naruto to the room full of swords and told Naruto to pick up one of the rather heavy ones.

"This is a training sword Naruto, this will let you increase your swordsmanship and strength while I train you. When you get your final sword, you will be much faster and be a force to be reckoned with." With that said he led Naruto into a training dojo under his workshop.

"What are we doing here old man?" asked Naruto when they finally arrived in the dojo.

"This is where your training begins Naruto. I'm sorry but right now you are not worth my time to train as I am an elite swordsman and only when you have show yourself to be superior will I take you under my wing personally. The Hoshigake kenjutsu is one of the most feared styles in the land and when you train under me, you will be developing a kenjutsu specific to your sword. Needless to say that you will not be training under me for a while if you don't get the basics down as you will need to be part of the making of the sword for it to recognize you then allow you to do the ownership jutsu on it." After his long spiel he then set up a basic Genjutsu that would allow Naruto to explore the basics of Kenjutsu and the illusion would last as long as needed until Naruto was a competent sword handler.

As days and weeks went by Naruto was still training at Kenjutsu and trying his best to increase his strength without destroying the illusion just so he could come out ahead of the game. As Gikou watched through his hidden camera in the dojo he saw exactly what the boy was doing. 'Tomorrow I think I will stop him as he has come far enough to be under my wing of guidance. I'm glad I finally have a successor as talented as my brother,' thought the old man as he continued to watch the boy. It had only been 5 weeks and Naruto was progressing fast.

The next day Gikou went down to the dojo to observe Naruto for a while to look for a weak spot. Surprisingly he couldn't find one as the boy was too fast for him to keep up with allowing for very little reaction time even with such a big sword. "Ok Naruto," he yelled, "you can break the illusion now. You are ready to make the sword."

"YOSH!" shouted Naruto. He was finally happy that his new sensei had found him to be ready as he knew he was ready some time ago. 'He must have seen me holding back,' thought Naruto a bit disgruntled.

After a quick bath and meal for Naruto they went into the forging room which was surprisingly chilly. "As you may have noticed this is the forging room. I have seen how well you do with a large sword, so I think we will make you a sword very similar to Zabuza's own sword. Now I'm sure since you are from the leaf you know a few basic fire spells," said Gikou to the frowning boy.

'Hey kid I think this will help you now in making your sword. Sorry to interrupt but from what I have known the hotter the flame the better the sword will turn out. seeing as you will want a hellishly powerful sword you will need to use the flames of hell to make it. I will give you this jutsu free of charge and make sure you use it wisely. Anyways see you.' said the fox as he disappeared. Naruto suddenly found he had a new jutsu in his arsenal.

'Damn fox always poking his nose in. Anyways this thing looks powerful.'

"Ok boy, whenever you are ready send some flames into the kiln. They will stay there until the sword is finished," explained Gikou.

"Hai, Hijutsu: Ennetsujigoku (Secret Skill: Flames of Hell)," said Naruto as he breathed out pure white flames into the kiln.

"Holy mackerel kid, what are you trying to do explode my kiln?" asked Gikou as he was still in awe at the power of the technique that was done in front of him.

"He he, sorry old man I just wanted the strongest sword possible under me and I heard from a friend that a hotter flame makes a stronger sword," explained Naruto while giving a foxy grin, which the old man couldn't distinguish between one of malice or a smirk.

A day or two had gone by since they had started forging the sword and Naruto had finally seen his creation starting to take shape. The hours he had spent folding layer after layer of raw metal into the combination had seemed never ending, but finally he was seeing an end to the infernally boring process.

"Good boy, with this sword you may be able to do some real damage. Now let's finish it up so we can eat." Naruto finally melted down an old platinum katana which Gaara had found after one of his sanity lapses. The platinum katana was made into the blades tip and gave it a little extra strength, not that it needed it.

The end result was a six foot long sword with a foot long handle coming off the end. It lean and mean, about six katanas from edge to edge in width. Although the sword was currently too large for Naruto to carry normally on his back, Gikou assured Naruto that he would grow into the proper size to carry it that way and for now they would just use a special strapping method.

After a mild meal, consisting of twelve bowls of ramen for Naruto, they went into a clearing deep in the desert. When they arrived there Gikou handed Naruto a scroll containing a technique. Upon looking at the technique Naruto found it to be the ownership jutsu that he was to perform on the sword to make him its one true owner. The basis of the technique included a special hand seal not known to Naruto which Gikou told him was the life seal. It was an easy hand seal, but it was new to Naruto so he made a note to ask the fox later if there were any other jutsu he could later lean which used the seal. He figured as long as Orochimaru didn't take over Sasuke's body, Sasuke would probably not know this new seal and therefore be unable to copy the jutsu from him.

"OK boy, when you are ready you will need to perform the hand seals and then slice your hand on the sword and place your hand on the sword and release chakra onto the blade. It shouldn't take long, but as long as you keep pouring out more chakra the sword will become stronger and stronger as it is infused with more of your chakra." With that he left Naruto to do the jutsu and stepped a few steps back and sat on a log.

"Kenzoushoin no Jutsu (Sword Mark of Ownership)," Naruto shouted after going through the seals he had learned earlier then he shouted, "Fuuinjutsu: Innaaraifu Fuuin (Sealing technique: Inner Life Seal)," sealing a bit of his life force into the sword as he quickly cut his hand and then placed it on the sword and began to emit chakra into the sword. He kept emitting chakra and slowly some of the red chakra that was that of the kyuubi started leaking out and infused itself with the sword. After three hours of constantly molding chakra into the sword he finally collapsed.

Gikou just stood there in awe at the amount of power the boy had released that chakra it was pure and good and yet he felt the evilness and contempt also. Little did he know Gaara was sitting right next to him when Naruto had finally collapsed. He looked up to Gaara his face still in awe as he had seen a huge sand barrier around the area where they were. Slowly the barrier began to collapse after Naruto had drifted off to sleep.

"Gaara-sama, why are you here?" asked a curious Gikou.

"I felt his chakra, I came to protect him," said Gaara with no hint of emotions in his voice. Gikou couldn't help but smile at how much Gaara had changed since his younger days of terrorizing. Gikou was old by no means, but he had been around when Gaara was young and could clearly remember the Shukaku breaking out a few times and Gaara didn't even seem to care, but now, he had a precious person, he was on a path to leadership and with his brains and power a future Kazekage no doubt. The old regime had better hang on to their lives.

It was on the tenth day after the sword infusion that Naruto finally awoke. He woke up from the grumbling of his own stomach to find Gaara sitting in a corner staring at him. He sat up not knowing where he was but finally recognized he was back in Gikou's workshop.

"Hey Gaara, how long have you been here?" he asked the younger boy.

"Since you finished that stupid jutsu. You weren't supposed to pour all of your chakra into the sword. You can die from chakra exhaustion you know," explained Gaara. It was the most the boy had said in a long time and Naruto just smirked when he realized it. He was happy his friend cared about him. It looked as if Gaara had finally found a precious person and was back on the right path.

"Hmm Gaara, you want to go get some lunch?" he asked. Gaara just nodded and stood up. With an exasperated sigh Naruto just followed Gaara out of the bedroom door to find Gikou staring at a strange sword. Naruto walked over to the sword and looked at it. It was a beautiful sword that seemed to almost have a soul of its own permeating from it. The pure power of the sword was insane. As he looked closer at the sword he could see it was a dark red, almost black, but in the light it looked the color of blood. When he got closer yet he could see an etching of a fox's eyes that held so much sorrow yet were projecting a happy image. They looked like his eyes. The eyes Naruto had hidden behind for so many years.

'Hmm, I may need to see that fox a little later. It seems I may have misjudged the fur ball, but for now I need to get something to eat,' he thought as he picked up the sword and attached it to his back with some straps. "Lets go Gaara," he simply said.

After Naruto's insatiatable hunger for Ramen was temporarily sated, due to the lack of money he had within his wallet, he and Gaara went to a training field to let Naruto test the sword on someone of his caliber.

"Get ready Gaara, I won't be holding back now as I want to see just how much this sword can do against an ultimate defense such as yours," explained Naruto. A small resemblance of a smirk could be seen on the son of the late Kazekage. He wasn't surprised however when Naruto darted at him at seemingly the speed of light.

'How much has he improved since our last battle?' thought Gaara. 'His speed is starting to break past the sand which always protects me and it seems as though he is just getting started. I better keep myself focused this time. No telling what might happen if I don't. This speed, it seems like that weird looking kid from Konoha has someone who may rival him.' "Naruto, you are fast," he stated simply, "stop holding back though."

"Heh, sorry Gaara, but I can't seem to bring myself to hurt my friends. However I do enjoy beating up your sand as that Shukaku is one stupid teme." With his words out of the way Naruto shot like a rocket at Gaara his sword over his head wielded like a katana even though it was many times bigger.

'It seems he's stronger too. I don't want to let Shukaku out and I don't think he will let Kyuubi out of him either. I suppose it is time to fight back.' Gaara commanded his sand to surround Naruto and started trying to crush Naruto but his sand was not able to. With a quick spin Naruto was able to break out of the sand with his sword and was charging at Gaara. "Saikou Zettai Bougyo Shukaku No Tate (Supreme Ultimate Defense Shield of Shukaku)," yelled Gaara as the form of Shukaku appeared before him as a shield. Naruto looked at the shield and smirked. Surrounding the sword with chakra he rammed it right into the shield.

"Sorry Gaara, but you're gonna have to do better then that," Naruto said as his sword began to penetrate through the shield. Gaara was at a disadvantage as that attack used up much of his chakra. He was nowhere near able to produce as much chakra as Naruto as Shukaku was only one of the minor demon lords. The one tail possessed nowhere near the amount of chakra that the demon lord, Kyuubi no Kitsune, had in his possession.

Author's Note:
Sorry for the long time with no updates. I have been doing a lot of thinking with this particular chapter as to where I want the story to go next. I have a good idea, but suggestions are always welcomed so please R&R. Next chapter I don't expect to take that long. Akatsuki will most likely be making an appearance as I know some people want to see what's going on with Kisame and Itachi in this fic. I've been reading almost all the other non-yaoi fics there are above 40k words just trying to get some inspiration and basically due to boredom. Expect and update soon and remember R&R. And for those of you wondering I may be down but I am most definitely not out.

'Text' - Kyuubi talking to Naruto
'Text' - Thoughts
"Text" - Speech

Naruto 'talks' to Kyuubi through his 'thoughts'.