Disclaimer: I don't own either Naruto or One Punch Man. If I did then that Orochi vs Saitama redraw would've never existed! That's an act of heroism all on its own.

Chapter 4: The Discoveries

- Three Weeks Later; Konoha Public Library -

Child Emperor couldn't help but grimace as his hand combed through a long shelf of books, his figure transformed into one of the many nondescript shinobi in Konoha. For the past several weeks he felt as if he had made both monumental and insignificant progress in advancing his understanding and capabilities with chakra. Whenever he solved one mystery, twenty more would show up to take its place. When he thought he made a breakthrough, it just led to an even more elaborate and convoluted problem than he had before.

During his first two weeks at the academy, he had spent nearly every ounce of free time getting acclimated to this new energy source. Since he conditioned his body without ever needing to actively use chakra, having to suddenly and frequently tap his underdeveloped chakra coils became an exercise in exhaustion.

It took several arduous nights before he had even become proficient enough at chakra control where he could concentrate on sticking multiple leaves to his body at once. Despite that, he could never prevent the very subtle vibrations of the leaves like Sakura could, leaving him to believe that he was still behind from where he ought to be.

That was until one day his class did an hour of chakra control practice and he realized most of them could only concentrate on one leaf. Only a small portion of students could concentrate on more than one leaf and only a couple could match or exceed Isamu's five leaves. While Sakura had below average chakra reserves, she more than made up for it with an ability for near perfect chakra control. That made her able to consistently perform ninjutsu with the optimal amount of chakra. Even though she only added one extra leaf each time Isamu managed to concentrate on a new one, he suspected that she could very well double the amount and still keep control.

While Isamu did not have that level of chakra control, he was still far above average for his age. That proficiency, however, was overshadowed by his relatively meager chakra reserves. A person's chakra reserves are grown through a combination of extensive physical and mental exercise. Although Child Emperor has gone through rigorous, AI-optimized physical conditioning and has consistently pushed his mental capacity to its limit, he only has the reserves of an average Genin, the lowest rank of shinobi.

Sure, he knew that his reserves will grow given enough practice but he had no idea when he'd hit a natural hard limit due to his age. That limit would only increase with time, but just waiting around for it to happen was simply out of the picture. Until he can create a workaround for his reserves, he would just have to make do with what he has.

Fine. Not that big of a deal. He had always worked with only what he had and this time would be no different.

Thus he began experimenting further with chakra and it didn't take long until he discovered his first potentially useful application. First he took the concept of the leaf concentration exercise, which focused on having the user exert a tiny but constant flow of chakra out of a tenketsu or chakra point, and expanded it to all of the tenketsu in his feet. By controlling the flow of chakra and making minor alterations based on the material he could stick to and walk on any surface even when it is vertical or even upside-down.

He thought he invented a wall climbing technique until Sakura told him that all shinobi, even genin, were able to do the technique. It just wasn't taught at the academy since instructors didn't want students falling to their deaths and then deal with understandably irate parents.

While reinventing a genin level technique at the academy was better than the average, being only a step above the mean was never enough to handle the threats which actually mattered.

He needed to dig deeper, something that could give him a definite boost, and that is where he first stepped into the extensive and mystical realm of ninjutsu.

A user can manifest jutsu by molding and kneading chakras into specific resonance patterns and then releasing it outwards. Hand signs make this process significantly easier to perform since the chakra veins in the hands and fingers are thinner and thus can easily interact with each other. This allows the user to create the necessary chakra patterns quick enough to be used in battle. With enough practice, a user can become acclimated with the chakra pattern for a particular jutsu to the point where they can use less and potentially even no hand signs to perform.

Child Emperor learned real quick however that manifesting jutsu wasn't just as simple knowing the hand signs and pushing out the chakra patterns. While the three academy jutsu, the first ones he learned, were considered the basics of the basics, they each required attention to very different variables and properties in order to perform correctly.

For the transformation jutsu, or henge for short, Isamu had to not only consistently focus his mind on what he was transforming himself into but also maintain a steady outflow of chakra to keep the illusion running. The effectiveness of this jutsu was entirely based on his attention to detail which can vary greatly on who or what he was transforming into. Was he accurately simulating the posture and walking gait of his target? How did wind, rain, shadows, and other environmental elements affect his illusion? Are each blemish and imperfections accounted for? When done correctly, it's one of the best jutsu for intelligence gathering and diversionary tactics in combat.

The second of the Academy Three, the clone jutsu, required an even greater amount of chakra control than henge to perform. This is because Child Emperor had to mold his chakra as close around his body as possible in a quick burst in order to create an illusory clone. The closer his chakra can outline the perimeter of his body, the greater the accuracy and effectiveness of his clones would be. While the clone technique taught in the academy was not a physical version like the fire-based one he fought against, the clones it produced were still able to receive and perform basic commands such as running in a specific direction or launching an attack.

He got to take a closer look into the jutsu once he got his equipment up and running. If he could utilize a clone's mind as a base it would save an immense amount of time having to program a self-learning combat AI.

The last of the academy three, and by far the most chakra intensive one, was the body replacement technique. The most peculiar thing about this jutsu was that Child Emperor had actually seen this move before he came to this world. It was the most stereotypical move used in television depictions of ninjas where smoke appeared and their bodies were replaced with logs. Turns out that cliched technique may be more accurate than he previously assumed.

The process involved in utilizing the technique was far more complex than it appears, however. After performing the necessary hand seals and pushing out a substantial burst of chakra, the body vitalizes itself and shoots outward towards a location the user points his chakra towards. Using an object of similar mass as a stabilizing force, he can then rebound it back to where he came from, making it an effective evasive technique.

What made this the most difficult of the Academy three to learn however was just how easy it was to get injured when using it. Isamu learned quite early on that even blinking while using this technique resulted in nothing but misery. It was quite easy for a beginner to inadvertently crash headfirst into a tree. The more congested an area is with obstacles, the more reflexes he needed to move around at such a heightened speed. He also realized that he, along with most students, could only use this jutsu in battle a couple times at most due to the relatively large chakra requirements. Thus the jutsu was more relegated as an escape than something offensive.

Considering all of these variables a person needs to account for when performing the most basic of ninjutsu, Isamu could only imagine the complexity and inherent danger involved in performing the higher-ranked ones. It was no wonder why the average time it took for someone to learn a new jutsu at their level was about a couple weeks to a month. Even with his ability to rapidly take in and apply information, it took Isamu several days to get each jutsu down to a level where he could pull them off quick enough in combat.

It was at that point, once he consumed most of what the academy could offer him, that he ran head first into a massive wall. Back home whenever he needed additional knowledge for a project, he was always just a few clicks away from tapping into the limitless information provided by the internet.

Needed a guide on some new programming language? There's a free full length course from an industry expert he could enroll in. Have to design a military-grade recon drone? He could get inspiration from all of the open-source prototypes other programmers have posted online and build up from there.

Wanted to design a nuclear reactor for a particular massive project? Search deep enough and someone has already made a step-by-step manual on everything needed to get the job done.

Isamu hadn't truly realized how much he relied on such an abundance of information to fuel his rapid advancement until he expanded everything available to him from the academy. Back home, a vast amount of information on even the most obscure topics can be accessed on any device, often for free. In this world, information was extremely scarce and thus immensely valuable. Obtaining even a sliver of intel against an adversary can be worth the blood of dozens if not hundreds of shinobi.

Anything more than the bare basics for any topic was off-limits to everyone except those with the right connections, tools, or abilities. This held exceptionally true for any topic which could give someone a leg up in status and power as Isamu observed when going through the village's public library. There was barely anything on the technicalities of certain trade skills and especially chakra manipulation, the two keys for getting ahead in the civilian and shinobi system respectively.

Even D-ranked jutsus, which were barely above the E-Ranked Academy Three, were kept under lock and key within the Shinobi Library. He would have to wait two long months and then pass the exams in order to have a chance at entering the building, much less accessing its treasure trove of world-shifting techniques.

Two months. It took far less time for two world-threatening crises to occur in his world, from the rouge alien ship vaporizing A-City to the current exponential rise in monster attacks. Isamu couldn't even afford to wait a week without improving his abilities with chakra so that he could figure out a way back to his world to help prevent it falling apart.

He was supposed to be some sort of super genius, wasn't he? A diamond found in the dead bottom of the barrel. It was one thing to take the information and resources given to you and improve upon or even invent something out of them, but it was another thing entirely to start with nothing and pave through a completely unknown and unforgiving field.

With no vast network of information to tap into, no state of the art manufacturing hubs to produce his inventions, and no Hero Association to fund his endeavors, now was the ultimate test for him to see whether his capabilities are truly worth his rank or if he was nothing more than hype.

While Child Emperor contemplated his next steps, a delicate tap on his shoulders yanked him back to attention.

He turned around to see a brunette civilian girl with a smirk etched onto her face. Even though she was also transformed, he only knew of one person who was in on the little game they were playing. In a light puff of smoke Sakura and Isamu transformed back into their original bodies and clothing.

Well, close to original anyways. Throughout the week Child Emperor made a couple adjustments to his clothing to not stand out too much. Instead of his typical modern schoolboy outfit, Child Emperor now wore a cobalt short sleeved shirt underneath an open grey vest, dark blue pants covering his still recovering burn marks and replaced his sneakers with a pair of the blue open-toed boots worn by most of the shinobi and academy populace.

"Good job, Sakura-chan. I believe this is a new record for you locating me." Isamu noted, popping a much needed dango in his mouth. While the tarty, multi-colored rice balls held no competition to his favored giant rainbow lollipops, it was still a satisfactory source of sugar for any highly advanced ten year old.

"You act like you make it easy to find out who you were." Sakura huffed as the two made their way towards a collection of empty tables. "By the way, the handprints you made on the books were too small for your transformation."

"Hmm. Nice catch. I will admit, you also using henge during my turn made me drop my guard. Didn't think you would all of a sudden change the rules on me." Isamu said, a hint of mirth lining his voice. After learning how to use henge, the two have made it a game for the first one in the library to be transformed while the other has to figure out which one of the people in the building was the disguise. It was a surprisingly efficient exercise in observation and attention to detail.

"Hey! Don't turn it around on me! We never agreed to any rules to begin with." Sakura giggled as she sent a light slap to Isamu's arm. "To be fair, you looked like you were so deep in thought I probably didn't even need to transform."

Child Emperor paused, his lips ever so slightly curving into a frown before snapping back to normal. He knew that increased mental stress over an extended period of time can become detrimental but it wasn't like he could just stop focusing on a solution. Who else wouldn't in his situation?

"It's nothing, you shouldn't worry too much about it." Isamu sighed as the two sat at one of the many open tables. "I do want to show you something that may be of interest."

He reached into his pocket and took out a couple of slips of paper a bit smaller than his palms. Sakura arched her eyebrows as she recognized the faint yellow coloring of the sheets. "Chakra induction paper? How were you even able to get these? They are only sold to registered shinobi."

Isamu laid out the sheets on the table as the two took their seats. "I recently heard about this type of paper and was thus curious about its properties and use cases. After assessing the risks, I decided to take a gamble and transform into a typical Chunin to buy a couple of them for personal uses."

Sakura's eyes widened. "Nearly all of the arms dealers in the village are active or retired jonin. There is no way you could've pulled something as simple as that off without being caught."

Isamu shrugged his shoulders. "I never said I wasn't. In fact I am fairly certain the store owner figured me out before I even went up to purchase. Since I wasn't trying to obtain anything remotely lethal nor did I try to transform fake money, he decided to let it slide and proceed with the sale."

Sakura appeared to open her mouth to say something but then closed it, a devious smirk taking its place. "Geez Isamu-kun, you called me out on changing rules that don't exist while you were blatantly breaking laws. What an influence you are."

Isamu sweatdropped at the sudden turn of events and raised his hands in defense. "Now now Sakura, it is not that bad. That action has as much legal implication as jaywalking."

"...Jaywalking?"

"It's…" Oh right, there were no paved roads or motor vehicles in this world, everyone still used either horses or their own two feet to get by. He needed to pay extra attention to his idioms in the future in order to not draw any unnecessary suspicions. "Ah, never mind. Point being, if the Jonin let it go then it most likely wasn't as much of an issue to begin with."

Sakura curled her lips in amusement at Isamu's flustering. It was amusing having someone to mess around like this. "Relax, I understand what you mean." She took one of the sheets of chakra paper and analyzed it. "So what exactly do you plan to do with these anyways? There is not much utility in these aside from some paper-based jutsu and traceless messaging. Not like we would be doing that any time soon."

Isamu held up a sheet between his fingers. "That latter part is what I am interested in, more accurately, how the paper becomes traceless. When this paper reacts with a directed burst of chakra, it reacts based on the highest amount of trace elemental nature composing the chakra." He glanced over at the pink-haired girl. "Tell me what you know about why this paper is used in Konoha."

Sakura pondered for a second and then nodded. "From what I understand, this paper is often used by Konoha shinobi since most of the force have a fire affinity and the material burns to ashes when reacting to fire nature. It's use is not nearly as mainstream in Suna, Kiri, and Kumo since the paper only splits apart for wind users, becomes damp for water users, and wrinkles for lightning users. Only Iwa could actively use these since the paper crumbles to dust when reacting with earth nature."

"Right, and by seeing how the paper reacts to our chakra, we can learn what our elemental affinities are. Do you happen to know your nature already?" Isamu inquired. The blossom-haired girl shook her head.

"Not yet. Even though the academy did go over the basic elemental natures, we did not get to learn what our affinities are. Most likely the reason they didn't have students test for theirs was to prevent them from permanently injuring or killing themselves while trying to learn a jutsu on their own…" Sakura paused as her face grew pensive. "Are you sure it is a good idea to try to go ahead with this without an instructor around?"

"Don't worry, we are not diving head-first into any higher ranked ninjutsu yet." 'Or at least, you are not. I on the other hand will be neck deep into this by the end of the week.' Isamu mentally added. "For now, we are just figuring out our affinities so that we can begin doing some basic practice with them. It would be beneficial for you to expand your skills beyond the Academy Three. While book smarts are useful, they can only go so far in the battlefield. Having some experience with elemental ninjutsu would not only solidify your place as the top kunoichi of your year, it would also enable you to be a much more valuable asset to any team you are assigned to."

Sakura pondered Isamu's reasoning. All of the clan kids in her class already had a couple of higher ranked jutsu than the academy three already in their arsenal. There were even rumors floating around that the class prodigy and her crush Sasuke Uchiha could already perform several fire release jutsus. Despite being born to a shinobi family herself, she hadn't really learned any other ninjutsu or techniques. The only reason she wasn't considered behind her peers was solely due to her near perfect academic performance.

From the couple of weeks she has spent with Isamu, she knew that he was smart enough to also graduate with just his performance alone and yet he was always trying to find some way to push himself further. Her mind still held a lot of doubt on exactly how far she could go as kunoichi. Perhaps getting used to an elemental affinity might give her some boost of confidence. Then, she could not only one up her former friend who constantly flaunts her own clan abilities but perhaps finally gain the attention of one particular Uchiha.

"I can't really argue against that. Might as well see what we get." Sakura sighed, holding a piece of the chakra paper in her palms. "So we just pulse our chakra into this?" Sakura asked.

"Pretty much. Go ahead when you are ready." Child Emperor said before entering into a state of focus. Breathing in, he reached into his center of mass, feeling the ever-growing familiar energy swell up inside of him. He guided it up his body, through his arms, and straight out through the two fingers holding the slip of paper. In an instant the sheet crinkled into thousands of lines spreading across its surface as if a stone crashed into a plane of glass.

'Lightning affinity.' Child Emperor grinned in satisfaction. For him, this was the best case scenario. If he could harness this correctly, supplying power to his mechanical creations through chakra would be significantly more convenient than having to invent his own generators or purchase whatever suboptimal ones available in this world.

He looked over to Sakura who had a slight frown as her paper crumbled into dirt around her fingers. Earth affinity. While Isamu also viewed this as another incredibly useful affinity, Sakura seemed to have a second opinion as she gazed down at the results

"Earth is not a bad affinity." Isamu quipped, causing Sakura to turn her head towards him. "It is ubiquitous on nearly every battlefield which means you can never run out of it. That's not to mention all of the potential applications of it given how many different types of earth materials there are."

Sakura sighed as she dusted off her hands. "I know, I know. It is just, well, earth is not as appealing or attractive of an element for a kunoichi as water or fire, you know?"

Child Emperor blinked at the statement before letting out a sigh. Sometimes it was easy to forget that despite training to be a licensed killer, Sakura was still just as much of a preteen girl as any. Isamu did find her to be decent around, more often than not she seemed to be far more focused about attracting the lone Uchiha than anything else.

Isamu shook his head. "I wouldn't worry too much about that. You'd best get noticed by being competent with whatever you have. Earth affinity is probably the best one for your role on a team anyways."

Sakura's face became puzzled. "What makes you say that? Earth elementals are mostly suited for ninjutsu specialists and frontline fighters. I don't have the chakra reserves nor strength to be either."

A slight smile etched across Isamu's face. "Think about it. Based on our aptitude for chakra control we will be involved in some sort of support role for our teams. This means that our job is to maximize the chance our teammates not only complete the mission but also make it out alive. While there are several abilities which can make a support valuable, in regards to elemental ninjutsu earth is by far the best. There aren't nearly as many defensive capabilities for lightning as there are for earth. In the most dire of situations you can use the very earth around you to be the ultimate line of defense. That in of itself may make you immensely valuable in whatever team you end up in."

Sakura considered what he said. To be the ultimate line of defense. That sounded like a lot of responsibility to hold. While she wasn't sure if she could even get that strong to fulfill such a role, she did like the idea. "Well, when you put it that way, it doesn't seem too bad. Thanks, Isamu." Sakura let out a smile before sighing. "Though, you still will always have an advantage against me since lightning beats earth."

Child Emperor shrugged. "Not always. The larger the power difference between users, the less meaningful elemental strengths and weaknesses become. After all, can a mere lightning bolt destroy a mountain?"

"I guess not." Sakura giggled at the idea before a smirk lined her face. "Hope you won't be too upset when I drop a mountain on your head then."

Isamu let out a chuckle. "Not at all, but you got your work cut out for you. It is not like I am going to sit back either and not get stronger either." He took out several books from his pack. "Next time we meet up I should figure out how we can begin practicing our affinities. For now, let's get this set of homework over with."

.

- A day later; Training Grounds 15 -

"Oi, Isamu! Stop running away and let me hit you!"

"I am not running away, Naruto-san. I am merely moving out of the way." Child Emperor stated, light drops of sweat dotting his forehead as he danced around the orange-clad blonde's haphazard attacks. "Your movements are far too easy to read. Either get faster or use proper techniques."

Isamu and Naruto have been engaged in yet another non-stop sparring match, this one going on for nearly three hours. It was one of many sessions within the past couple of weeks and Child Emperor would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy them.

When the two first began training together earlier in the month, the primary thing Isamu focused on was fixing Naruto's quite underdeveloped taijutsu, which was pretty much a chaotic and inadequate version of the Academy style.

While he could see that the blonde did attempt to pay some attention to the fighting style taught at the academy, it was evident that the blonde didn't get much instruction aside from the bare basics. Isamu sought to fix that by filling in the numerous gaps within Naruto's combat knowledge such as proper stances, how to chain attacks, feints and reversals, and other various nuances to be an effective fighter.

So how to best optimize a fighting style with someone as headstrong as Naruto? Through some good ole' experiential learning. Had a weak and vulnerable stance while launching an attack? A quick sweep of the legs sent a friendly reminder to square up. Didn't retract the leg after a missed kick? Catch that shit and then reintroduce him to the floor. Always began an assault with the same attack? Perfectly counter it in the exact same way, every time, to force him to switch it up out of pure annoyance.

After a couple weeks of dedicated practice, Child Emperor saw a remarkable increase in Naruto's fighting capabilities to an extent that even surprised him. Supposedly the blonde was the dead last in his class but from how he was handling the daily sparring, he would've thought he was one of the more competent ones. While the prankster is still a long way off from pushing Isamu, he estimated that it would not be long before he would actually need to start putting in effort to take down the blonde.

"I will show you easy to read!" Naruto growled as he dashed forward, launching a kick straight towards his sparring partner's face. Child Emperor waited until right before the kick would've connected to lean back and watch the blonde fly over him. Naruto immediately shifted his momentum upon landing and directed a series of attacks at Isamu which were either blocked or maneuvered around. Ducking underneath a sudden right hook by Isamu, Naruto saw his partner's face completely unguarded. Jumping to take advantage of the opportunity, he swung himself forward, armed cocked back ready to finally lay down the smackdown.

That punch and false opening, however, was merely a feint to throw Naruto off his own guard. Side-stepping the punch, Isamu rounded a leg straight into the blonde's gut, sending him hurtling back several feet.

"Decent reaction to the opening, but pay attention to whether your opponent is setting up for a different attack. No point getting yourself into a completely avoidable trap." Child Emperor stated. Naruto huffed as he sprung up from his back and onto his feet, ready to continue the fight with as much vibrancy as if he hadn't been doing a full cardio workout for several hours.

To be frank, Child Emperor couldn't recall ever seeing the blonde fatigued. Sleepy? Sure, when Isamu didn't need to go to the library for the day and the training lasted to the evening, but not once has he seen Naruto physically exhausted.

That near limitless stamina, it was one of four major anomalies he has observed about the boy. No matter how many times Naruto got beaten into the ground or how long he has been sparring in one-sided fights, he was always bursting at the seams with unmatched energy and exuberance. Even Isamu himself started to get increasingly tired near the end of each session.

Taking into account Naruto's abysmal diet of solely cereal and ramen, it should be near impossible for the kid to maintain such a robust metabolism. How he was able to have such extensive energy reserves was a mystery he had not the slightest clue how to answer

His musings were cut short as he almost didn't spot Naruto jumping up into the air above to land a falling axe kick to his face. He raised his arms to block and catch the leg but Naruto immediately flipped off to avoid his grasp, throwing a handful of shuriken at him in return.

Child Emperor calculated the trajectories of the shuriken, weaving around them without letting a single one scratch him. He withdrew a kunai from the pouch around his leg and dashed towards Naruto who was also armed with a kunai and charged at him.

The two exchanged blows with their weapons at a pace most would consider impressive for their age. Naruto moved his head just in time to avoid a clean cut to his face, before leaping backwards throwing the kunai point-blank at Isamu.

Child Emperor had just enough reflex to swipe his arm and deflect the kunai off course. Within the same second, he twisted back around, launching the kunai straight at the blonde with no wasted motion. Naruto barely had enough time to move his head to the side, dodging the blade as it sliced through a part of his cheeks.

Despite the injury, Naruto grinned as he wiped the blood off, not even phased by the cut. It was by far not the worst injury he faced while sparring, it would be gone the next day anyways.

That was the second anomaly Child Emperor noticed about Naruto: he had an absolutely freakish regenerative ability. Cuts and bruises which should've taken the average person days if not weeks to recover from vanished by the following day. He knew plenty of controversial labs and ethically-questionable scientists back home who would kill to have this kid as a speci… sorry, patient for further study into such an ability.

Given Naruto's enhanced metabolism and regeneration, Child Emperor first assumed that the kid had some sort of Kekkei Genkai, the term used in this world to describe abilities or traits achieved through genetics or mutation.

The problem with that hypothesis was that as far as he could tell Naruto was an orphan. He had no way to certify that he had a Kekkei Genkai when there were no records or mentions of his parents anywhere. Furthermore, Isamu knew of no major clan within Konoha or any of the other hidden villages which had a similar capacity for regeneration.

While how the boy could heal so efficiently was a mystery, it did come with several benefits, such as allowing for more aggressive and realistic sparring sessions. A few cuts and bruises were negligible when they would be as good as new by the next day.

Even though he knew full well no one is ever truly prepared for real combat until they get in one themselves, approaching as close to the real deal as possible is the best way to maximize getting out alive. What was that saying, whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger?

The battle continued on with Naruto pushing a steady offense on Child Emperor, driving the two further towards the forested edge of the training grounds. Isamu dodged a barrage of kunai by launching himself behind a tree. With his Naruto vision blocked, even if just for a second, now was a good time to test if the blonde was actually paying attention to his advice.

Taking a breath and drawing upon his chakra, Isamu directed the internal energy towards his hands and formed three hand signs: Ram-Snake-Tiger, the signs needed for the clone jutsu. With a light puff of smoke, two other forms of himself appeared, kunai in hand. All three dashed out of the foliage, rushing towards Naruto at different angles.

Naruto paused for a moment before smirking. He quickly withdrew a handful of shuriken and flung them at the attackers. The projectiles passed through the clones effortlessly whereas Isamu had to use his kunai to deflect the shuriken thrown at him, cancelling his jutsu. He then had to quickly bring his arms across his chest to block an incoming kick from the blonde which flung him back a couple feet.

'Hmm, not bad. He could've used less shuriken and still got the same result. At least he finally figured out how to deal with this type of diversion.' Isamu mused as he straightened up, getting back into stance.

Aside from sparring, the first thirty minutes to an hour of training consisted of Isamu helping Naruto develop chakra control necessary to perform the Academy Three. That portion, however, was the hardest and most frustrating part of training. Naruto's chakra control might as well be non-existent. During the first two weeks the blonde couldn't even concentrate on a single leaf for more than a couple seconds before it floated away.

It wasn't that the kid had some inaptitude for chakra, he could already perform transformation and was able to learn the body replacement from Child Emperor, albeit both techniques resulted in an extensive amount of smoke. Rather, there was a very valid reason for Naruto's poor chakra control.

The third anomaly? Naruto had an unfathomable amount of chakra.

He discovered this when he tested how effectively Naruto could charge his chakra by having the kid do the chakra churning exercise. Instead of just moderate sweat when performing the exercise, the typical reaction by most academy students, something spectacular happened. He glowed in the bold blue aura of chakra.

In order for chakra to be seen by the naked eye, it had to be released in a highly concentrated amount. Even when exerting himself to near exhaustion, Child Emperor could only produce a faint aura around his hands before collapsing. To be able to manifest a bold and dense aura around the entire body? That should easily kill any students and most lower-level ninjas, and yet Naruto was only stressed. Even then, it was mostly due to frustration rather than physical exertion.

While Naruto did make some progress with chakra control, it was miniscule at best. He still overproduced smoke when performing henge and body replacement and any clones he spawned were pathetically ineffective. It would take time but with proper direction and extensive practice, he could see the blonde becoming a force of nature to reckon with.

Rays of sunlight poked at Child Emperor's eyes as the sun crept down below the treeline, reminding him that the day could only last so long. "Alright, this has gone on long enough. Prepare yourself, I will be going on the offensive from here on out."

Naruto let out a fierce grin as he cracked his knuckles. "Yeah yeah, whatever you say. Bring it."

The two dashed towards each other, with Isamu blocking a series of attacks before snapping out a kick towards the blonde's ribs. Naruto leapt over the kick, spinning in the air sending a kick of his own straight at Isamu's face.

Child Emperor leaned back, resulting in nothing to stop the blonde's momentum from spinning around just enough to leave the entirety of his back open.

Spinning on his leg, Isamu snapped a kick straight into the mid-air blonde, aiming to send him crashing into a tree. However, right as the hit connected a billow of smoke exploded out of the blonde, completely shrouding the entire area.

Within the same second Child Emperor was immediately smothered by a thick white powder, the particles of which intruded well into his dazed and undefended eyes, nose, and mouth.

Isamu leapt out of ground zero as quick as he could, coughing and gagging out the intrusive substance. While attempting to regain vision with his eyes, a familiar roar came at his side. He turned his head just in time for a fist to get driven straight into his jaw, sending him crashing into the ground.

"HAHAHA, HECK YES! Who is easy to read now huh, Isamu?"

Child Emperor let out a groan as his vision slowly recovered to reveal Naruto grinning from ear to ear standing above him. He turned to where he escaped from to see a bag of flour blown apart.

It only took a second for him to piece together what happened. Naruto used the overextended kick to lure him in, making him think it was another one of his many mistakes. In reality, the prankster used the kick as a guise to prevent him from seeing the hand signs for the substitution technique. Utilizing the smoke as cover, Naruto replaced himself with a bag of flour he most likely hid long before the session took place.

Not bad, not bad at all. Damn it, he should've expected this. He got too comfortable and dropped his guard. This wasn't even the first time Naruto tried to pull something like this off on him!

Whether it was wire traps, paint bombs, sticky glue, or whatever else he could get his hands on, Naruto would always find a way to sneak in a whole new element of surprise into the spars. While all of them up till now just end up failing, those actions would almost always keep Isamu on his toes.

That was the fourth and final anomaly he learned about this kid: he was completely unpredictable.

He stood back up, attempting to dust the cooking material off of his clothes but to no avail. Cleaning this up would be fun tonight. "Excellent work, Naruto-san. You have shown remarkable improvement these past two weeks. Seems like I won't need to hold back as much during training from now on."

Naruto grinned. "Ha, bring it! Just you wait, soon I'll make you fight me seriously and I will still defeat you! Believe it!"

Child Emperor couldn't help but smirk at the declaration. Sounded like a challenge, and he had no intention of allowing the blonde to catch up to him. He would be damned if he wasn't going to work just as hard to get stronger. "You could try, but you have a long way to go to even reach that level."

They went off to cool off and drink some water near three training logs, with Naruto sitting on top of one and Child Emperor leaning back on another.

"So Naruto, how has your studies been so far? Made any improvements to your studying habits?" Child Emperor asked idly, removing the plastic wrapping around a dango before popping it into his mouth.

Naruto grumbled as he crossed his arms. "School is still boring. I am trying to pay attention to what Iruka-sensei is talking about but I swear it is like he is purposefully trying to put everyone to sleep! I just read about whatever he is talking about when I get home, at least then I don't get chalk thrown at me."

Isamu sighed. Well, it was better than not doing anything which is a substantial improvement regarding Naruto. "As long as you are able to keep up with the lessons then you should be about back to where you need to be."

"I will be where I need to be when I finally kick Sasuke's ass." Naruto huffed. "I almost did so yesterday too, but he and his fangirls acted like I got my ass kicked even though Iruka-sensei said I did a good job!"

Sasuke, that was the name which always came up from both Sakura and Naruto and for two very different reasons. For Sakura, the boy was the prime target of her affection. She planned her entire routine around getting the most attention from him, from choosing which perfume she thinks he would best like to determining the best route home to maximize her time being near him.

For Naruto, it was more of a one-sided competition with the Uchiha, with him consistently trying to prove that he was just as good as he was- a rivalry, of sorts. Child Emperor was intrigued by the mechanisms of such a relationship, to constantly strive to be better than another person, bolstering a consistent and repeating growth cycle.

Sure, he had always had to compete with others, especially when he was just starting off within the Hero Association, but not to a great extent with one particular person. He just never interacted enough with the roster to really form such a bond with any of the heroes.

The closest one which would match the definition of a rivalry would be his little spat with Atomic Samurai when Isamu first entered S-Class. The middle-aged swordsman outright refused to acknowledge him as an equal, stating that he would only do so once Child Emperor proved that he was worthy of the rank and not just gifted it as a "piss-poor popularity stunt" by the Hero Association.

While that beef somewhat died down after Isamu defeated the samurai's three A-Class disciples in a three on one fight, that conflict did push him to greatly improve his swordsmanship as well as upgrading his pack's combat mode to better handle high-level bladed combat.

Based on that sole experience, Child Emperor could only assume that a rivalry was somewhat beneficial. Competition forces people to be a better version of themselves otherwise they get defeated by someone who did, but what if a person doesn't have anyone to challenge? Are they at a disadvantage because they can't strive to be better than someone? That didn't make as much sense to Isamu, as he himself made it through without having a single person to strive to be better than… except himself.

That was it. He was always trying to best himself, even if it was just to do something a bit better from yesterday. Anyone can have someone to strive to be better for, they can aim to be better than themselves from yesterday. That way, there is always someone to beat at their level.

He would always need to find a way to keep beating himself, because he knew that if he was going to find a way back home he needed to rely on himself getting stronger each and every day.

"Well, it sounds like you are almost there. Continue training hard enough and soon you might be able to pull off a win." Child Emperor offered

"Damn right! Oi Isamu, want to go another round? That is, if you are ready to eat another knuckle sandwich!" Naruto piped up, jumping off from the log he was sitting on.

Child Emperor let out a snort. With a declaration like that, there was no way he would walk away without beating some sense back into the boy.

"Sure, I got time for one more." Isamu pushed himself off the log and got into stance a couple feet away from Naruto. "Don't let that one freak event get into your head, Naruto. Prepare yourself, I won't be going easy this time."

Naruto smirked as he got into stance. "You better! That way, you won't have another excuse for when I beat you down!"

Yeah that confirmed it. He was taking him down a peg or two. Or ten.

The two sparred with each other until the last of the daylight faded away.

xXxXx

Author's Note: Since this is part 1 of a two-chapter update, the full notes will be at the end of the next chapter. Originally this update was supposed to be one chapter but it would've been a 22k word monster, thus I made the last minute decision to split it.

Aaanyways, see you in the next one!