Blood Bond
Chapter 04
In his 3rd year of life, Naruto was forced to push his body to the maximum of the limits, which meant weights and more weights. Normally, that would shunt a child's growth. But then again, normally, you don't have a demon fox recharging and strengthening you body.
Consequently, Naruto was, at his 4th birthday, walking around and doing basic taijutsu kata's with a total of 250 pounds. The only ones who knew this little fact though, were Naruto and Kyuubi. Sandaime just pointed towards a shed in the back yard which was packed with training equipment, including weights and weapons, and said "Don't carry more than 20 pounds, any more would shunt your growth this early in life, Naruto. And you don't want to be short, now do you?".
That evening, Kyuubi insisted on beginning with 30 pounds and add 5 pounds every week with the reassurance that his body wouldn't have shunted growth.
This made sure that the improvements of Naruto's body weren't too obvious since weight was added every week.
Every day, Naruto would run and practice taijutsu until exhaustion made him drop down sleeping, and when he ended up in front of the cage, Kyuubi guided him in calming his thoughts and reaching for his chakra reserves. They found the reserves about 2 weeks before his birthday, which made Naruto extremely happy.
Kyuubi, well, she wasn't too happy about it actually, since Naruto now kept badgering her about techniques, which, since she was a fox, she didn't need nor use. Of course, Naruto didn't believe one bit of it.
While they were working on finding the chakra, Kyuubi's chakra healed the body, so when Naruto woke up again after a few hours of meditation, he could do another grueling taijutsu training block.
Of course, Naruto's motivation for practicing relentlessly day in day out was quickly wavering, so Sandaime decided to plant his Kage Bunshin at the Tower to delegate stuff when he himself selfishly spent time with Naruto playing alternative tag: Naruto was supposed to hit Sandaime with a direct hit with taijutsu only with a time-limit of 15 minutes. After those 15 minutes, Sandaime would go over Naruto's stances and correct him when needed. Maito Gai was a Taijutsu Specialist, but Sandaime Hokage was 'The Professor': the ninja with a thousand jutsu and taijutsu to accompany it.
Needless to say, Sandaime really relished the little joys of Naruto's exuberance and enormous competitive spirit where Naruto would bite the dust, crawl up and bite the dust again just to get tougher, faster and more agile, so he could win tag.
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Chakra control took most of the practice time for Naruto in his 4th year of life. In the morning, he would drop after exhausting himself physically, and since he found his chakra and Kyuubi's reserve, they spent the time they usually spent looking for chakra, in theory of traps, pranks, tactics and history. Kyuubi, being an eons old fox, knew lots of history and loved pranking. Of course, with pranking came a vast amount of knowledge in using the environment for traps.
When Naruto would wake up in the afternoon, he forced himself on chakra exercises. Sandaime was particularly helpful for this. He demonstrated several chakra control exercises starting with tree-walking and water-walking. Naruto wanted to do the water-walking of course, but after a day of trying and not getting anywhere but very cold and wet, he started with tree-walking anyways. Kyuubi stipulated that Naruto should do the exercises until he was drained of his chakra. In the meantime, a new chakra source came into existence: a small reserve, which contained a purplish mixture of Naruto's and Kyuubi's chakra. It was building, but not big enough to tap into, nor use for techniques.
Tree-walking took a day to walk up an entire tree, and Kyuubi forced Naruto to practice tree-walking until exhaustion for 2 weeks in the afternoons.
Next up was water-walking, which came a bit easier now. Still, it took a week to master it. The biggest problem was to separate Kyuubi's and Naruto's own chakra. They interfered with each other. During tree-walking it wasn't very noticeable, but with water-walking if created problems when correcting the chakra flow to compensate for the current. Water-walking was the standard of the day for 2 months. After that, Naruto began doing his taijutsu regime in the mornings and afternoons again, only this time completely on water. even Sandaime was challenged by the stamina of his young 'pursuer'.
Every breakfast and dinner, Naruto and Sandaime would eat together. Here, Naruto was forced to learn etiquette for dinner and official responses and titles used to address certain people after dinner.
Needless to say, Naruto was pretty drained after every day.
The weights now reached 500 pounds and became quite bulky, until in the shed, there was a weight scroll. It described a seal, which would make a weight 5 times as heavy, or in the case of the advanced version: 20 times as heavy.
Needless to say, weights were drastically reduced in size.
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On his 5th birthday, Naruto gained his first own technique scrolls. An attack and the appropriate defense:
Katon: Gokakyuu no jutsu
Doton: Dojin Heki
Now, people may wonder why he didn't get the basics like kawarimi and bunshin. Very simple; he'd get those in the academy.
The afternoon training block made place for extensive practice in mastering the jutsus. Of course this didn't take the entire year. No, it took a week per technique to master. The afternoon block soon became a combination of training with Shuriken and Kunai.
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Sandaime was a busy man, but when seeing such a young child going at it with such burning determination made his spirit lift through the roof. It wasn't long after Naruto's 5th birthday he started to use the afternoon to demonstrate and correct Naruto's Kunai and Shuriken throwing in the mornings.
Also, halfway through the year, something special happened. The small reserve of chakra was accessible, but only to be used for 1 area: the eyes. The Chamigan was born.
(AN: the mouthfull would be 'Chakra Miru Megane' or Sight of Chakra Seeing. Details later J)
The eyes gained a golden ring with 1 black dot per iris.
With it, came the advanced part of the bloodline: Chakra Distribution.
Normally, when you flash through seals, you use the same amount of chakra per seal:
Take the Gokakyuu: 4 seals, 25 percent per seal.
Now, with a bit of tinkering, 10 percent less on the boar seal and 10 percent more on the ram seal raised the efficiency of the technique vastly, making the use of chakra even more potent. This of course led to another bout or remastering the techniques Naruto knew.
When Sandaime saw Naruto with his Chamigan activated for the first time, he was in shock. 'The Chamigan hasn't been seen in the Kazama Clan for over 100 years, let alone at such a young age. I don't even know the possibilities with it, nor the potentials...'
This made 'The Professor' eager to learn once again!
Sandaime was thusly impressed, that he gave Naruto 5 more techniques with vast destruction potential, which Naruto picked up quickly after seeing them with his Chamigan on.
Doton: Doryuudan
Raiton: Rairyuudan
Katon: Karyuudan
Suiton: Suiryuudan
Fuuton: Renkuudan
Of course, shielding was going to be necessary so a few shielding techniques were in order as well:
Suiton: Suijin Heki
Katon: Karyuumaki
Fuuton: Sabakumaki
Needless to say, the taijutsu block of Naruto suffered while he took the time to completely master those techniques with the tinkering. His eyes made him see the technique and instinctively let him know the right percentages. Well, that would happen in the 2nd level of the Chamirugan. The 1st level Naruto was currently using, only made him feel whether there was too much or too little chakra molded in the handseal, thus it took quite some tinkering to get it right. Every technique took a month to master. Though, when he had the combination right for the fire technique, the fire shield only took an extra week. The same was the case with the water and air techniques.
In the meantime, Naruto's reserves were grown into the size of mid-jounin level, with Kyuubi's reserve the same size. This made Naruto quite the powerhouse with those techniques. To give an example: you have Suiton: Suijin Heki, which is the basic, yet very efficient water defense. The advanced shield would be Suiton: Suijin Tatsumaki, where the water layered dome would be spinning at such velocities to make it almost impenetrable in itself. A normal Katon: Karyuudan would be deflectable with a Suiton: Suijin Heki with some difficulty, but doable. Normally, a Katon: Karyuudan was a red-hot flamed dragons head launched at the attacker. The Naruto tinkered version had a bright yellowish white core with yellowish orange outlining. Sandaime's Suiton: Suijin Tatsumaki was holding, but not very confidently when in full power pitted against each other. Combined with the fact that the seal sequence was drastically shortened with Naruto's tinkering (in a 8 seal sequence with 1 seal 3 times would become a 5 seal sequence with one seal being 37.5 percent of the total, effectively rendering any direct copying ability useless, as most, if not all, opponents and copycats don't have the tinkering abilities, making the technique fail with the same seal sequence Naruto uses/will use).
Needless to say, Naruto took to learning the Suiton: Suijin Tatsumaki as well, making Sandaime's Doton: Doryuudan bounce off the Suiton: Tatsumaki of Naruto like a senbon needle does off of a well-placed blocking kunai (the kunai being at least 12 times as heavy as a senbon needle). The first trial runs in the tinkering process were very amusing to Sandaime, who couldn't control his laughter, and consequently his technique, after seeing Naruto launch straight up in a vortex of water, landing in the river after a 5 second flight, leading to even more laughter when a soaked Naruto began using very descriptive strings of words for the elements that crossed him, in this case, water.
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During his 6th birthday, Naruto was allowed to go out to the festivities of the defeat of Kyuubi, though he had to wear a face-mask and a bandana, further dressed in black pants with a dark orange T-shirt and a non-reflective white jacket which had the Uzumaki clan symbol on the back (The red swirl). This outfit was a present of Sandaime. Sandaime gave Naruto 5 of these outfits. They were all the same. Sandaime gave as reason: "This outfit makes you recognizable, yet mysterious. Since you hide your face, your clothes should be recognizable. And NO, you cannot wear that orange jumpsuit. That's TOO recognizable."
During these festivities, there was a peace envoy from Kumogakure. Of course, the fact that at this night, one of the Kumo nins infiltrated the Hyuuga household and captured the Heiress, didn't improve things. A manhunt was quickly underway by the Hyuuga. The Hyuuga caught up with the nin and forced him to drop the little girl.
After he put down the girl, Hyuuga Hiashi, Father of the child, attacked the kumo nin, only to make a sudden stop as the nin switched places with the little girl. This enraged Hiashi, making him fight rash and sloppy, giving the kumo nin a chance to escape. Unfortunately, the nin didn't expect a minor detail: Naruto was returning towards the Hokage compound when the chasing party came past over the rooftops. Curiosity taking over, Naruto followed the party, only to witness the act of placing a child in front of a lethal strike, just for the fun of it, as the kumo nin taunted.
'Kyuubi, I'm frying him!'
Kyuubi, who saw the event as well, was as enraged as Naruto was about it: children were the most precious things for demons. To toss a child's life away just for the fun of it was unheard of.
"Go ahead kittling, but keep a cool head, don't make the same mistake as that white-eyes."
After that, Naruto took position and formed the seals, pouring as much chakra in his attack as he could.
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Hiashi Finally got a bit levelheaded again and with a well-placed 'Kaiten' the Kumo nin was launched into an open field. Just as Hiashi was about to go for the killing blow, a high voice carried a scream:
Katon: Karyuudan!
Based on the voice, Hiashi was distracted and annoyed that a little child would attempt such a technique especially in 'his' fight. His opinion changed drastically as well as his composure when a 7 foot wide, 40 foot long, yellowish white fire dragon was creating a gutter towards the kumo nin with amazing speeds!. The kumo nin was just getting up, heard the high voice and formed the seals for his technique: Suiton: Suijin Heki.
Unfortunately, as he was holding his water technique, the fire dragon easily overpowered the shield. Since the nin was holding the shield barrier, he couldn't get away or perform another technique to get away from the massive dragon. The last thought of the nin before being disintegrated was 'no way that a child made that…'
Hiashi saw the kumo nin burned away completely and was standing quite slack-jawed looking into the direction where the dragon came from. He saw a small form with 2 glowing golden rings. The form retreated, leaving a recomposing Hyuuga Hiashi.
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The Kumo delegation was asking about their missing member, but since there was absolutely no proof of the nin or his body for that matter, they didn't have a ground for accusations. The Konoha nin involved in the incident wisely held their comments of course.
In the end, the delegation left without too much hassle and a very shaky treaty at best.
The report of Hyuuga Hiashi reached Sandaime's ears and Sandaime confronted Naruto with it. Naruto gave his side of the story. This made Sandaime reconsider some things. 'The boy is becoming more and more powerful in his own right. He'll need more guidance then I currently can offer and he needs interaction with some people his own age. However, I'm not confident enough to let him go to the academy yet… Perhaps I should re-instate ANBU team 4… the 'Demolition Dancers'… he already has the demolition part down… now I only need to find some suitable teammates…'
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The Sandaime's dilemma of Naruto's future teammates was resolved when the ANBU captain of Team 15, Uchiha Itachi, came with a very disturbing report on inner clan dealings. Apparently, they needed Itachi to overthrow the Hokage to prove they were the strongest clan in Konoha. As Itachi was their strongest, he would have to do it. They even threatened to exile his family if he didn't comply. This alone almost made him go off and assassinate those in his clan responsible for it. But in the end he decided not to and reported it to the Hokage in secret.
Sandaime was shocked, but relieved as well. The Uchiha clan did make a good force and to loose it would be a loss to the village. The simplest way to deal with this problem was to take away their strongest.
"Uchiha Itachi, I have a new mission for you. It will be a permanent transfer and an indefinite length of time. You are to disappear from the clan. You will do so by relocating to the Hokage quarters, where you'll await further instructions for your new team. You see, you are going to be the 2nd member of the newly re-instated ANBU team 4. Any questions?"
Itachi, normally not easily surprised, was shocked. 'ANBU team 4, the most prestigious and most destructive team in Konoha history, the former team of Yondaime Hokage... Damn…'
Coming out of his stupor, he answered. "What about my duties as ANBU team 15's captain?"
"You're no longer there. For the record, you're dead. You are to train up your future teammate in the basics. Any further questions?" A shake of the head was the answer. "Good. Dismissed. You'll meet your teammate tomorrow morning."
With that, Uchiha Itachi, Uchiha clan prodigy, 'died' in an 'outside boundaries mission on private orders by the Hokage'.
TBC