Chapter 4
All Ado About Chakra

The main chamber of Naruto's mental sewer was far from difficult to find. All it took was following a nagging sensation in the back of his mind and recognizing that the pipes were merging and growing larger down certain paths. Wherever he was headed was the source of something. He didn't know what, bit it was something big. Something seeking an audience with him.

Along the way, he came to find the many mechanisms he'd designed for his traps built into the walls, triggers to open gates to deeper compartments of his mind. A tripwire opens a gate of bamboo bars. A pressure plate triggers the fall of a solid iron wall. The final gate into the main chamber is triggered by pulling a lever that lets the contents of the smaller pipes, which he quickly identifies as his chakra, to flow through a pattern in the gate that he knows only as the spiral on the back of most Konoha issued shinobi jackets. The moment his chakra reaches the center of the spiral from all angles, the door splits and retracts into the wall, unveiling the chamber beyond.

The darkness is the first thing to catch his eye. This entire maze of pipes has been very dimly lit, growing darker as he goes. The room beyond appears endless, all light fading away towards the seemingly non-existent ceiling and leaving an infinite abyss to hang over his head.

On what he can see of the walls, the pipes continue to grow and extend to the far end of the room until they sink into the walls on the opposite end of the room, just before a titanic. rusted prison gate A single paper tag seal adheres to the middle of the gate, such a flimsy thing to hold it all together, but somehow, it apparently works.

It's only as he steps closer that he discovers a set of canid fangs scowling at him through the bars. A pair of crimson eyes opens above them, somehow lighting the inner chamber and unveiling the demon within.

Naruto reels back for a moment, but glares through the bars as facts set in. The gears within his mind begin to whir and connect, quite literally as he can hear the mechanisms of this internal space produce a constant clanging and knocking. The chamber is further illuminated from his side, as countless torches lining the walls are set ablaze, the flickering of freshly lit flames rising into the eternity hanging above. Images flicker across the walls between the flames as memories and facts are recalled and merged. His birthday, the day of the Kyuubi's attack. All the hatred he's known all his life. Mutterings of 'demon' in the background. Most importantly though, was the mention of Jinchuuriki in his book on sealing. It jumped out at him right away, as a prime example of the raw power and potential of sealing, as a method for the author to convince the reader to stick to their lessons.

"… So you've been in me this whole time, huh?"

A rough, guttural laugh echoes through to chamber. "Good, you aren't denying the grand truth in front of you! Humans are usually so arrogant to deny such facts."

Naruto glares through the bars and sighs, closing his eyes as he allows his mind to calm what little it can. "… Do you know why nobody ever told me?"

"Hm?" The Kyuubi raises a brow and lays his head down across his folded paws. "You know what a Jinchuuriki is. You know how valuable you and I are to this village. You were an infant when I was sealed in you, a helpless little brat. If knowledge of what you were had gotten out, especially out of this village, you would have been a target within a few days, and we'd both be dead. Well, by now I would have regenerated somewhere, so I wouldn't have minded that…"

Naruto scratches the back of his head and begins to pace. "Makes sense… I'll need to talk to Jiji for more details, I guess." He turns back towards the fox and looks them in the eyes. "So why is it that I'm only meeting you now?"

"Oh, that? Hah..." He chuckles and leans in closer. "I needed you to be pushed to chakra exhaustion so you would draw upon my chakra and allow us to meet. Although, I was messing with your chakra control just a bit to push the issue…" He taps at the bars with his claws. "now that you know I'm here, it shouldn't be too difficult to make your way back, if you learn to meditate, and detect my chakra. Ask the old monkey about that. He may be an obnoxious human, but he's one of the few who've earned my respect without getting to the top of my 'to eat' list."

Naruto snorts at that and nods. "I'll be sure to tell him that. For now, though…" He pauses and stares down at the floor, willing one of the stone tiles to raise and give him a seat above the water. Once seated, he crosses his arms and starts to inspect the fox from afar. "Why are you so willing to help me when my death would free you?"

"Well…" The fox grumbles and closes his eyes, debating on how to answer. "… You intrigue me. You aren't blaming me for the hate you've received. You aren't a clueless fool who jumps to conclusions. You actually have some promise as a warrior, and one day, may be strong enough to keep up with my brethren and I. So, for now, I have no desire to see you die. For now, I'd much rather watch from within you and see just how far you can go." He slowly turns away from the bars to nap. "Just be careful who you tell, of course. That cycloptic fool who's training you knows already. You're allowed to tell whoever you want, really. I'm your burden to bear. Just don't be stupid and tell someone who would kill you on the spot."

That said, Naruto could only nod as the world around him slipped away. It felt so similar to losing consciousness, like being within his mindscape was just another form of it, and he was slipping back into the waking world.

What he finds on the other side is that only a few seconds have passed, and Kakashi was in the middle of kneeling to pick Naruto up and carry him home. He bolts upright and stares into empty space for a few moments before lifting his shirt and glaring at the fading seal upon his stomach. "… Did you just kick me out of my own head? Oh, it's on furball. Next time I get in there, I'm interrogating you until your fur turns gray."

Kakashi's only visible eye widens almost comically. "Naruto… how do you know about the fox?"

"I talked to him…" Naruto stumbles to his feet, swaying for a few moments as chakra exhaustion continues to throw him for a loop. "Ugh… Why the hell did he have to be so rough with knocking me out? I would have preferred worse chakra exhaustion from another two hours of this over the headache of so many clones popping at once…"

Kakashi's eye narrows as he begins to analyze what he saw only seconds ago to him. "I see… So your clones were in pain because of his chakra. It would make sense. Biju chakra is, according to some reports, paradoxically both toxic and healing. For a clone that cannot heal in a body unfamiliar with actively using that chakra, the toxicity would be the only effect, and they'd burst right away."

"That's how it works? Huh…" Naruto takes out a notebook from his jacket pocket and writes a few things down. "Would explain how fast I heal… I'll have to ask Jiji about how to build up an immunity, then." He sets his notes away and leans against a tree until his head stops spinning. "Ok… I should get back to my apartment and sleep finally. I shouldn't have trouble with making clones when the furry jackass isn't messing with my control, so I'm done training anyway…"

Kakashi nods and ruffles Naruto's hair as he passes. "Should I report to the Hokage and tell him what you know, or would you like to approach him yourself?"

"I'll do it myself…" Naruto starts to stumble away, but Kakashi just barely manages to catch the soft smile on his face as he passes. Though his head hangs in exhaustion, Kakashi knows all too well that that is the face of a man all too proud of a hard day's work. Without a word, Kakashi disappears in a gust of swirling leaves. Though out of sight, he watches Naruto all the way to his apartment and only leaves once the blonde's snoring can be heard through his windows.
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"Good morning, everyone." Iruka jots down a few notes on the condition of his students this morning as he takes attendance. Some students are acting much the same as usual. Shikamaru is asleep at his desk and dead to the world, Chouji is in the middle of his second bag of chips for the day, and Shino is as impassive and statuesque as usual. There are some that catch his eye, though.

For one, Kiba seems to have his nose in a book on hunting tactics. More interestingly, he recognizes is to be one written by a former Anbu captain who taught Kakashi how to manage his ninken summons.

Then there's Ino and Sakura. Their usual arguments and gossip have halted in favor of watching the two biggest class clowns and lowest ranked members of the class as they both apply themselves so fervently that they seem to be entranced by their studies.

Likewise, Sasuke's attentions have fallen upon them as well, rather than blocking everything out as he usually does in order to ignore the girls bickering over him. Kiba, he still doesn't care much about, but Naruto's developments interest him. Iruka can only hope that helps the young Uchiha to stop thinking so much of his troubling past. He could use a rival.

Hinata was usually enrapt by the young blonde, but his recent actions gave her an excuse to gawk openly, and she appeared to be reveling in it. Her admiration for the boy was never in short supply, but now, the pride in her eyes was almost intoxicating.

Naruto had his nose buried into the final pages of his first book on sealing, frequently peeking back to the paper on his right to compare his newest seal to the text. As he places the last stroke, in his endless confidence, he slams his hand onto it and pumps the seal full of chakra. The wood beneath the tag creaks and sinks for just a moment-

The tag proceeds to explode in his face, giving him a burnt right hand and a lungful of smoke. He coughs and hacks for a few moments until he slides the charred remains of the paper aside and slouches. "Damnit… At least it made the desk creak a bit."

Iruka steps up for a closer look. "Gravity seals? Pretty universally useful… a good choice for a second seal to master."

Naruto nods and sighs, pushing his book and practice scroll aside. With a quick handisgn, he produces a single clone to sit beside him and work on that while he focuses on the class.

Sakura just gapes a him. "Wait, I thought you couldn't make clo-" She freezes as the clone picks up the brush and begins another attempt at the gravity seal. "…. Is… is that clone real?"

"Hm?" Naruto peels his eyes from his notebook and stares at Sakura for a moment before he manages to recognize her question. "O-Oh, right! Yeah, I was taught the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu recently. Turns out I could never learn to make normal clones, because I have too much chakra to control it that well and use any genjutsu."

"Hn…" Sasuke narrows a glare his way. "And who the hell did you learn it from?"

"Alright, quiet everyone." Iruka waves a stack of papers at the class. "Naruto has no obligations to tell anyone where he learned that jutsu, anyway. For now, we'll be focusing on the newest part of our curriculum. I need each of you to come up as I call your names and take one of these sheets, then channel your chakra through it. How the paper reacts will tell us what elemental natures each of you have. Better yet, this batch was treated in a way that now allows it to clearly display secondary elements as well, so we won't just be getting your main elements out of this. Most people have proficiencies in one with a slight alignment for another, and we'll be able to see the secondary elements and how strong those proficiencies are based on how the paper reacts." As studious as he is, he doesn't need a list to call names from. "Aburame Shino."

The white-cloaked young man steps to the front of the class in silence. A quick tap of the sheet offered to him resulted in it crumpling and folding into jagged edges, then going rigid and shattering, the falling pieces crumbling further. "Interesting. My clan rarely resorts to using elements, so we never developed any genetic proficiency in any. I couldn't be certain of what to suspect, but this is a fairly unique response. The combination of lightning and earth will provide many challenging possibilities."

"Certainly so." Iruka nods and pinches at his chin for a moment while losing himself in thought. "It shouldn't be difficult to find anyone to teach you these two. Earth is the most common element, and although lightning is less common, we have the third most of them compared to Kumogakure and Kirigakure." Shino nods and turns to return to his seat, while Iruka calls up the next student. "Akamichi Chouji."

The young man grumbles as he sets his bag of chips down and stumbles to the front of the class. "You know us clan kids are just gonna have pretty obvious elements. It's hereditary. Most people in my clan are earth users." He takes the paper and watches it crumble to dust, but the ash-like pale dust lights up and burns away. He raises an eyebrow and grins. "But that's interesting."

"Well, that's not too surprising." Iruka chuckles softly. "That's the second most common element in this village to begin with. Earth is only more common because it's the most common element in the world in general. Just try not to learn any fire jutsu in closed spaces or without supervision." He waves the Akamichi back to his seat and checks his list again. "Haruno Sakura."

The pinkette perks up and pushes herself from her seat to race down the stairs, but Ino calls out to her. "Hey, maybe you'll get wind and fire! That'd explain all the hot air filling up that balloon of a forehead!"

She stumbles and trips for a moment on the stairs, barely managing to catch herself and glare back at her former best friend. "Can it, pig! You're probably gonna end up with earth and water for all the mud you're wallowing in!" She grunts and stomps the rest of the way down, grabbing a sheet from Iruka and nearly crushing it in her grasp. It then proceeds to powderize and soak into a mushy pulp that splatters onto the floor. She stares down at the mush at her feet as silence falls throughout the room.

Until Kiba has to cut in. "So… does that make Sakura the mud Ino's been rolling in?" His perverse grin is accompanied by a cacophony of laughter throughout the room, even Hinata and Shikamaru becoming intoxicated by it and failing to stifle their own quiet giggling and chuckling.

Sakura's face burns beet red, turning to face them all with a glare. "Oh, hell no! I don't swing that way!" She freezes and stares as Ino remains eerily quiet and reserved, a faint blush across her face as she avoids eye contact. Sakura stammers for a moment, but sighs and groans, returning to her seat in silence and slamming her forehead into the desk.

Iruka sighs and rubs the back of his neck. "Well, that combination's probably one of the best for you. You already have great control, and these two are best for mastering fine chakra control for genjutsu and medical jutsu." He huffs and waits a moment for the class to calm down for a moment before returning to the testing order. "Hyuga Hinata." Hinata scrambles out of her seat, still having a slight anxiety spike over having lost her composure and laughed at Sakura's expense. Her timid tip-toeing down the stairs only manages to prolong her anxiety as all eyes fall upon her. By the time she reaches Iruka, she can feel their combined gaze drilling into her back. She barely manages to reach out and take the paper, only to yelp as it's cut clean in two, then dampens and lands beside Sakura's mush pile with a gentle splat. "Oh?" She turns her gaze up to Iruka, who grins and crosses his arms. "Congratulations, Hinata. You have the rarest element in the world! Even Suna can't manage to produce many natural wind users, and it may be potentially one of the best elements for your clan. Paired with water, you'll be able to refine your flow and accuracy of your techniques even further."

Hinata stumbles back as she struggles to process the good fortune that's fallen into her lap. "I-I have… that much potential?"

"That's great, Hinata!" Her attention is drawn to the loudmouth blonde in the stands, whose clone has even stopped training his fuuinjutsu to write up a banner saying 'Congratulations!' across a good length of one of his practice scrolls. "You're gonna be awesome!" He pauses and side-eyes his clone. "Did you just- Ah whatever, this is worth that much paper and more. Couldn't you have written that better, though? It's sloppy!"

"Oy, I had about three seconds to write this up, let's see you do better!" Silence falls as everyone's attentions are drawn to the young man bickering with himself.

"You could have done that with half the paper and still made bolder strokes! There's too much of a gap between each hiragana!"

"I said I was rushing! Besides, my faults are yours too!"

"Bullshit, I made a faulty clone!"

"Faulty clone of a tyrannical dumbass."

The original Naruto stares blankly at him before pulling a practice kunai from his pouch and swinging it down. The clone only has half a second to beg for mercy before he's popped into a cloud of smoke and promptly replaced. He stares down the new one. "Be sure to do better than the last one." He finally looks away from his clone and around the room, finding all eyes on him, some annoyed, some amused, others just confused. He chuckles nervously and scratches the back of his head. "S-Sorry… my clones get mouthy. I-I think it's because they're temporary and have no survival instinct."

Shikamaru raises a brow at that. "That's even dark for me."

Ino gives Shika her death glare. "Did you just-"

"Alright, settle down, everyone." Iruka sighs, rubs his temples. Of course Naruto would find a way to turn something so impressive into something annoying. It did provide Hinata with a good distraction so she could return to her seat in peace, though. "Alright. Inuzuka Kiba."

"About time." He chuckles and saunters to the front of the class with his hands in his hoodie pockets and Akamaru half asleep atop his head. "Mind if we test Akamaru while we're at it? He can channel chakra, so he should be able to."

"Oh?" Iruka pauses and pinches his chin again. "Interesting… alright, I've got a few extra sheets." He hands one to Kiba first, who grins as it crumbles and burns.

"Interesting." Iruku kneels to inspect the remains. "Although your elements are the same as Chouji's, your proficiencies are more balanced between the two. The paper didn't crumble as finely as Chouji's did, and the flames were hotter. I'd say the ratios come down to around 3:1 for Chouji, and 3:2 for you."

"That so? Huh. Well, I'm sure I can work with it." He peeks up to Akamaru and holds a second sheet to the silent pup. He lets off a cheerful yap before biting the paper and watching it fold and crinkle. "And looks like you're lightning, bud! Hell yeah! Uh-" He stares for a moment as Akamaru takes a bite out of the paper and mumbles something in his clan's canine language. "And apparently this paper is surprisingly sweet. Huh." Snorts and laughter break out throughout the room as Kiba sighs and walks back to his seat.

"Shikamaru Nara."

The laziest ninja in the village, save for maybe Izumo and Kotetsu, AKA The Gatekeepers, makes his way to the front of the class somehow even slower than the anxiety stricken Hyuga. He picks up the paper and watches as random patches of it either burn or become damp, resulting in the two snuffing each other out after a few seconds, leaving a piece of water-warped dry paper with charred patches surrounding small holes burnt through. "Hm. So I inherited my mom's water, huh? Weird… I never took after her much. Guess this is something she'll be proud of. Troublesome…" He sighs and walks off with the paper as evidence. "She's probably gonna slave-drive me into learning a water jutsu by graduation now."

"Um…" Iruka chuckles nervously. "Ok then…" 'Great, now Yoshino's gonna be on my ass too if I don't start pushing him more in class.' He clears his throat and calls the next student down. "Uchiha Sasuke."

"Hn…" Sasuke squeezes his way out from between the fangirls flanking him and makes his way to the front of the class with annoyance etched into every crease in his face. "Isn't this a waste of time? My whole clan specialized in fire. That paper's just gonna burst into flames." He grabs it and freezes as the paper first folds and crumples into the most jagged patterns yet, then bursts into flames and scatters ash across the front of the class. "… What?"

"Hmm.." Iruka inspects the resulting ash. "Well, you clearly still have a strong affinity for fire, but it appears your primary element is actually lightning. You'll probably still learn fire jutsu as easily as the rest of your clan did, but lightning should still be your specialty."

".. Um… right." Sasuke sighs and shoves his hands buried in his pockets on the way back to his seat, glaring into empty space all the way.

"Ok then…" Iruka grins up into the stands. "Uzumaki Naruto."

"Hell yeah!" Naruto of course lacks the patience to walk, instead leaping over his desk and clean over everyone's heads, landing before his favorite teacher and grabbing the paper with enthusiasm only someone as hyperactive as himself could muster. In his endless excitement, he pumps the paper full of far too much chakra, causing it to be cut to ribbons and even cut his hands a bit in the process, then the remaining pieces crack and crumble. Silence falls as everyone takes a moment to let whatever just happened sink in. "Well…" Iruka chuckles and leans down to congratulate his adoptive little brother. "Congratulations, Naruto. You're a natural wind user, and it seems you have a decent secondary affinity for earth too!"

After a few moments of registering what just happened, Naruto cheers and leaps nearly to the ceiling. "HELL YEAH! Ya hear that Hinata-chan? I've got wind too! We're both gonna be AWESOME!" For now, all anyone can manage to do is gawk at the young blonde. In the span of a month, he'd gone from dead last and nobody to being a trap master, learning fuuinjutsu, and now having wind chakra up his sleeve. Even Kiba, who'd dropped into dead last among their group with Naruto's advancements, was starting to catch up, and had three elements at his disposal. This was the last spark most of them needed under their asses to realize they all had to kick it into high gear to not be humiliated by falling behind these two.

Hinata on the other hand is just watching her crush with the widest smile she could remember ever having plastered on her face. She's never seen him so happy, and now, she knows for certain that he not only knows she exists, but really cares.

"Hey, what about me?!" Ino bolts up from her seat. "I need my test yet!"

Iruka sighs and waves her down. "I didn't forget. Naruto's just… ignore him and walk around, he'll be at this for a while." Ino runs down to the front of the class and nearly bowls Naruto over, grabbing her test sheet and raising it to the ceiling. It crumples and folds spastically, then grows damp, breaks away from her grasp, and splats onto her face.

"So, Naruto…" The Sandaime takes a puff from his pipe, breathing out various smoke patterns into the air, altered by his chakra. "How's your training going? Kakashi told me you were successful with the Kage Bunshin over the weekend. Quite the addition to your arsenal, I must say." He chuckles softly. "And an old favorite of mine, passed onto me by my sensei, the Nidaime."

Naruto perks up and raises an brow. "The Nidaime made that? Huh… good to know. But anyway, I'm here for something bigger. Like… big enough that you may wanna seal the door."

Hiruzen narrows his eyes for a moment, but nods and uses a quick half handsign to seal and soundproof the room. "That's quite the statement, Naruto. What do you have to speak of that's so confidential?"

He smirks and crosses his arms, left foot propped up on his right knee. "Well, you might wanna know that the Kyuubi says you're one of the few people to earn his respect without making him want to eat you."
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A.N.: Well ladies and gents, things are about to get interesting. I don't exactly plan to only expand on Naruto in this way. No, everyone is going to be improved. Complete with elemental additions to arsenals, summoning contracts (and changing some existing contracts), and a few custom weapon designs flying around. Some of it is admittedly inspired by one of my favorite fic writers, particularly ThirdFang. Love ya man, you've been a source of inspiration for ten goddamn years and counting. So yeah, that's where I got Naruto's elemental setup from. But I won't be copying the techniques ThirdFang developed, I have too much respect for him to do that. No, I have very different but equally awesome wind jutsu in mind for our little blonde bastard. And just wait until you see what I have lined up for the rest of the Konoha 12!

PS: What's everyone think of my changes to Naruto's mindscape? I feel it's pretty fitting for the trap master addition.