Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Full Chapter Title: A Sage Training A Caesar: Day 10!

"Caesar, do you wish for me to accompany you today?" The Legate of the Orange Legion waited outside his door, seamlessly falling into step with him as he exited his quarters. Naruto spent a moment adjusting the cape on his shoulders, a fresh one after the events of yesterday just like the cape he had worn before it was and the one before it and the one before it and several more, before responding.

"There is no need to leave the center of my growing Empire so understaffed." His helmet was held in his hands and he took a moment to examine it before scowling. "It seems these marks are permanent." His scowl morphed into a grin suddenly as he placed the helmet on over his head. "The Toad Sage is perhaps worthy of being my teacher after all."

"It appears so." Sasuke's eyes were unreadable for a moment before he seemed to remember something, a scroll drawn from his side and extended to his Caesar. "The Second Cohort has news I hope you will enjoy this morning Caesar."

"Any news they bring is most joyous Legate." Naruto continued walking as he broke open the seal of his Second Cohort of his Orange Legion, the trio of bloody swords broken, and his blue eyes raced over the message placed within. His grin shrunk ever so slightly. "This is not as great news as I wished. Construction will take much more time than I originally believed. Even if the Fourth is moved to assist, docking the perimeter of the security zone greatly, nothing will be accomplished ahead of schedule."

"It is unfortunate news but that is not all Caesar." Another scroll was handed to Naruto. "The report comes in two parts."

"May the second be greater than the first than Legate." He broke open the seal as he handed the first scroll back. His grin returned. "Yes, this is most certainly greater." He handed the scroll back to the Legate of his Orange Legion. "See to it that the Centurion of my Second Cohort receives praise for such a thing."

"It shall be done." Sasuke crossed his fist over his armored heart as the two neared the doors to the tower, Praetorians stationed there already drawing them open. "Shall I expect the return of your Praetorians later?"

"If I have need of them, they will return." Naruto stepped through the doorway as Sasuke stopped.

'And perhaps they'll even carry you back again.' He turned so none saw the growing smile on his face as his mind left the present and headed back back to when Naruto's Praetorians had been forced to carry him to his rooms in the tower. He had caught sight of it while heading to his own rooms and kept himself hidden as two Praetorians had thrown an arm each over their shoulders. He would have called Naruto drunk if he didn't see the damaged state of his armor.

He had gone to sleep stifling his laughter. It was rare to see a Caesar in such a state after all.

He was back in the present and stifled his laughter as he headed to his office. He had stopped there briefly before heading to meet Naruto on his exit from his room and seen dozens of messenger birds. He sometimes shuddered to think of the work all ten Cohorts would cause him if this was only five. Two even remained stationed in Hi no Kuni, the Fifth being spread out away from the village and the First remaining stationed within the village in its entirety.

'The Second and Fourth remain in Uzu no Kuni under orders from Caesar himself and the Third is entrenching itself in Nami no Kuni to continue not only reconstruction of the newest lands of the Empire but to continue construction of Naruto's new fleet as well.' Sasuke chuckled once he was within his office. 'It makes more and more sense to have avoided that fight now.'

Honestly, he never stood a chance to beat Naruto with this much manpower at his beck and call.

"It would have been stupid to even try." He shook his head as he held his arm up, the first bird alighting itself on his armored forearm before his hand reached for the scroll it carried.

It would be best to start his work now. He still needed to train for the finals after all. It would be shameful for the Legate of the Orange Legion to fall to a girl like Ino Yamanaka. His Caesar would expect nothing short of complete dominance in the battle.

He would make sure the girl stood no chance against him.

"Good." Asuma cut the flow of Chakra to his single Chakra Blade just as a panting Ino dropped to her knees. She had been instructed to avoid his swings for as long as she could and she had lasted longer than last time, nearly three minutes. He wasn't going anywhere near his full speed but it was no joke either. The Killing Intent he was leaking out, even if only moderately, helped with the training. They had been training for hours now actually, far longer than the heiress was used to, in preparation for her match in the Chunin Exams. "You've gotten better but it's still not good enough." The rather harsh criticism, at least for the normally laid back Jonin, only received a nod from Ino.

"J-Just give me a minute. I need to catch my breath and we can go again." The bearded Jonin wasn't a brutal taskmaster, he wasn't going to push her any further than she could actually manage. Inoichi also wouldn't appreciate his daughter coming home a near corpse.

Inoichi also had two very strong friends. Neither would question helping their friend beat another Jonin.

"We'll take a break for the next hour actually." He also figured that, in addition to avoiding a beating from her father, Ino needed to rest. "We'll start again once the hour's up."

"No." Asuma cocked an eyebrow at her response. The Yamanaka Heiress dragged herself back up to her feet somehow. "Just give me a few minutes. We can keep going."

"Training like mad isn't going to help you Ino." Asuma lit up a cigarette, inhaling the nicotine before blowing it out. "Even if you had trained like this for years, I'm still not sure you'll be able to beat the Uchiha."

'His Sharingan already makes it difficult. His Ninjutsu and his Taijutsu just make it worse.' His mind flashed back to the attempted immolation of the Sound girl. 'His little sadistic streak doesn't help either.' He breathed out another breath of smoke.

It was not relaxing.

'Why couldn't she fight someone sane?' His mind flashed to the other participants in the finals. Naruto and Gaara were the same as the Uchiha and he still didn't know which of the two was worse than the other. Temari and Kankuro, Gaara's sister and brother respectively, were possibly worse with their techniques probably outstripping Ino's by a wide margin judging by the summon one could use. Shino, Lee, and Shikamaru all had their own strengths and weaknesses he was sure Ino at least already knew.

"With his level of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu skills, and that Sharingan giving him Genjutsu in addition to all of its other bonuses? You can't beat him with just brute strength. Most of your class probably couldn't manage to beat him if they tried like that. He was the top of the class for a damn good reason and he's probably happy to show anyone why. In terms of raw power, he's leagues ahead of nearly everyone in the Exams. You saw him use not just one Nature Transformation in his preliminary. He probably knows more thanks to his Sharingan and Kakashi being his teacher." He didn't pay attention to Ino's growing depressive air from his words. He needed to give her a dose of reality. "You can beat him with tactics through, mind games, just get into his head and destroy his focus. If he can't focus, there's not a lot he can do to stop you from bringing him down. The right words and the right traps can make this match hardly a minute long."

"Really?" She sounded almost stunned.

"Yeah." Asuma took in another drag from his cigarette. "If you do things right, push the right buttons, he'll be easy pickings for you. Just make sure that you don't push him too far, you want him unbalanced from anything you do. You do not want him like how he was when it came to his preliminary match. He tried to burn that girl to death because of what she said. You say the same thing and he'll try the same. The Proctor may or may not intervene in time to save you."

"You won't let him kill me, right Asuma-sensei?" Ino didn't get an answer.

Of course he would save his student, any rules and any penalties the Hokage tried to throw on him be damned, but he couldn't let her know she had a safety net. If she thought she was safe, had a Jonin ready to jump in at any moment, she wouldn't take things serious. She needed to train anyway. The Yamanaka had a legacy in the T&I force. She needed to cut her teeth with the Uchiha, know how to get in his head now and she could do the same with others. She needed that kind of experience as much as she needed her training now.

He turned away from her an exhaled the smoke.

"We'll break for the hour."

"I'm surprised if delighted to find you haven't disappointed me yet Toad Sage." Naruto sat down in front of a third of the Sannin of Konohagakure. "What new teachings do you bring a Caesar today?"

"You really are something kid." Jiraiya allowed a smile to cross his face. Despite his attitude and his talk of being a Caesar, the blonde in front of him wasn't anywhere near as bad as his small bout of research had made him think he was. From the Academy reports he figured he would be dealing with some idiot who couldn't sit still and didn't have any patience. The kid he was training for the month was patient, calm, and had a mind like a steel trap. "I don't have much today, we can just continue where we left off yesterday with your training."

"And continue to learn that Jutsu?" Naruto's face twisted into a grimace at the thought. "Surely there is something else you can teach me, something much more deserving of the time as one such as myself and fitting for a man of your renown."

"Ha! Don't try and avoid the truth kid! You're just afraid of having it blow up in your face again." He knew he struck a chord when the Uzumaki's eyes narrowed, rage took hold of his face for a moment before it was forcefully suppressed. If he wasn't looking for it specifically, he may have missed it or called it a trick of the light.

The kid was good, had one hell of a poker face, but he wasn't perfect at keeping his emotions in check.

"I am a Caesar and I fear nothing." Naruto growled those words, his eyes changing in his rage.

'Note to self: Talk to him about the seal later.' The red eyes that glared at him were gone in a blink. 'Or maybe not.'

The Sannin would definitely be seeing just how much control Naruto had over the Kyubi's power.

"I will master that technique soon enough." Naruto held his hand out before him and Jiraiya couldn't help but chuckle at the sight. An irregular and bulging swirling sphere of Chakra gradually took shape in his palm but it was hardly able to reach half the size of the normal Rasengan. It stayed around the size of a marble more often than not.

From the look on Naruto's face when Jiraiya glanced up at him, it was a tremendous effort to even accomplish that much. His face was in a grimace of concentration and his eyes were focused only on the misshapen results of his personalized training when it came to learning the Rasengan.

"I don't need this balloon or your ball." The boy scoffed as he tossed both away, the balloon bursting, water spreading across the ground and turning it into mud, and Jiraiya sighing when the rubber ball went bouncing into the trees.

'I've got to find that damn thing now.'

"You can't learn the Rasengan without going through the steps kid." Jiraiya held out his palm, a Rasengan coming to life in it. "If you want to master the Jutsu that took even the incredible Toad Sage some time to master, you need to listen to what I've got to say."

"It is nothing but shaping Chakra." Naruto held his own palm up and focused on it. Chakra leaked from his entire hand but took no form. "I will master this technique without those worthless steps."

That had been three days ago. Naruto had advanced his Rasengan at a snail's pace and had ended up wasting a good majority of his Chakra the first day and had stumbled out of the training grounds. Jiraiya had tailed him through the streets and was impressed.

The kid had a will like no other. If he didn't know any better, he would think the kid was perfectly fine. Once he got within sight of the growing fortress he was building, he left him alone.

"This would be easier if you just let me teach you the normal way." Jiraiya wasn't upset with himself when the unstable sphere exploded outwards, shredding some of the skin on Naruto's hand when it dropped into his palm, at his interruption.

One thing about Naruto's bastardized Rasengan was that it required constant focus to even maintain. Once his focus was taken off it, even for a moment, it collapsed.

"I do not need your training." Naruto hissed those words, his own stubbornness making him refuse to draw his hand back in front of Jiraiya. Instead they both could see the skin slowly knit itself back together, fresh skin spreading from the edges of the wound and inward. "I already have the basics and will complete this Jutsu."

"Really?" Jiraiya didn't hide his smile when he held out his own hand and let the Rasengan take hold, its size truly massive in comparison to Naruto's own poor attempt. Of course it was still smaller than the creator's own Rasengan but Jiraiya never dreamed of mastering it to that extent. "Can you get it this big yet kid?"

"It is a struggle." It was clear from the way those words came out through gritted teeth that Naruto would have preferred to bite off his own tongue than admit his inability to truly form the Rasengan. "I am improving it and will outclass you soon Toad Sage."

"You think you can manage that kid?" Jiraiya fed his Rasengan more Chakra, making it triple in size within mere seconds. Naruto's eyes widening at the sight in shock was more than worth the Chakra cost. There was a glimmer of true amazement at the sight in front of him before it was ruthlessly squashed down.

"I will in time." Naruto looked down to his own hand and the irregular mass of swirling Chakra reappeared but his eyes narrowed at the very sight of such imperfection. The wild strands that whipped around the edges of the Rasengan, wasted Chakra lost to the world, were the first to come under his control. It was impressive to watch the gradual stability giving form to his attempt at the Rasengan, the strands of Chakra that whipped through the air slowly shrinking as Naruto focused.

'He's stabilizing the shell first.' Jiraiya took note of how the irregular shape quickly became a sphere. It was much bigger than his normal attempt, nearly half the size of Jiraiya's own but it still wasn't perfect. It was growing and shrinking from Naruto's improper control. He obviously didn't know if he should feed more Chakra to the technique or less and it was making the usually self-stabilizing technique almost dangerously unstable in turn. It was still impressive to see, Naruto's own determination to match the Toad Sage, no matter how unrealistic it was to match his skills with the Rasengan, had provided some actual improvement. 'It's just like I did when I started learning the thing. He's just as smart as I thought to figure out that's a big part of the problem.'

Naruto growled when the Rasengan eventually dispersed. He didn't pay in his flesh for his failure this time but it still wasn't something that he was proud of. His hand curled into a fist and he dug his nails into his palm. He looked to the smiling Jiraiya and his hand opened once more.

Another blue sphere formed, this one far larger than a marble but still nothing close to the normal size of the Rasengan. Jiraiya could admit it was at least a start down the right path.

"You learn fast Naruto." Jiraiya could compliment an accomplishment when he saw one. Naruto increasing the overall size and stabilizing his Rasengan was such an accomplishment. He seemed to have found the key to his success actually. "Most people honestly need the balloon and the ball to get this close."

"I need neither." Naruto's eyes focused on the burgeoning Rasengan in his hand. His fingers wanted to curl into a fist again but he withheld the urge. He took hold of his wrist with his free hand and his eyes focused solely on the Jutsu he had sworn to master. "I am a Caesar."

The Rasengan pulsed like a heart in his hands, expanded to the proper size in Jiraiya's eyes, and Naruto refused to release it. The expanded Rasengan had ground against his palm for a moment and left it covered in shredded flesh but he did not let the pain blind him. The blood was taken in by the Rasengan, a red sheen added to the blue light it naturally released.

"Do you not see it now Toad Sage?" Naruto did not look away from his slowly growing Rasengan, nearly the entirety of his being focused on the Jutsu now. "Do you now see how a Caesar needs nothing but his own genius, his own strength, and his own will to conquer any challenge before him!" Excitement took hold of his voice. "I am a Caesar of the Uzumaki Empire, Praetor of a Legion, and I have mastered the Rasengan!"

'No you haven't.'

Jiraiya batted his hand to the side, the Rasengan, already unstable from his influxes of Chakra, dispersing with an actual blast of Chakra this time. The Sannin was unaffected by it, the steel hair that wrapped around him in moments uncurling and shortening, while the Uzumaki was thrown on his back.

"You really haven't mastered it yet Naruto." Jiraiya looked down at Naruto from where he stood above him. "Until you learn to perfect the Chakra and get the overall feel of what the technique should be like, the Rasengan won't become self-sustaining like it should be." To prove his point, Jiraiya formed his Rasengan, normal sized, once more. He held it in front of him as Naruto sat up, refusing to show any effects of the explosion if they even were any to begin with. "You're on the path to get there but you're still far off from the end."

"I see." Naruto rose to his feet with as much dignity as he could manage after being thrown onto his back from the blast. "I must be able to use it in the midst of combat to truly master the Rasengan." Naruto held his hand out in front of him once more and a spiraling sapphire sphere of Chakra took hold above his palm once more.

The soft whir it released in time with Jiraiya's own was almost calming, soothing. It brought back memories of the simpler, the better past.

"When you feel confident with it, we'll see whose Rasengan is strong with a clash!"

"I'm already confident with it kid. You're looking at the one and only Toad Sage after all!"

"When you feel confident with it, we'll see whose Rasengan is stronger with a clash." Jiraiya smirked. His words had instantly gained Naruto's attention.

"You will regret issuing such a challenge Toad Sage!" Naruto's eyes flashed from blue to red as he focused. "Your pride will be wounded when I give you a taste of the power of a Caesar!"

Hours would pass before the two would clash, hours that produced quite the results.

"Come!" Steel rung against steel once Sasuke clashed with the blade of another of the Praetorians. Two others were scrambling back to their feet and showed the fruits of their own training.

Chakra consumed the blades, the techniques of the Ronin that had attacked Tazuna simple to learn and a thing the Praetorians mastered. Crescents of Chakra flowed towards the Uchiha with a swing of their blades and he copied the technique.

It wasn't with his Sharingan. He had taught the heads of each Cohort the technique after all.

He bisected the blades of Chakra with his own before the three Praetorians swung as one, three waves of Chakra fusing into one, and he did not attempt the same trick. He sunk into the ground and began his attack immediately once he burst out of it.

"Katon: Gokakyu!" Fires surged forward. Each Praetorian was a mirror image of the other. They fell to a knee, drove their blades into the ground, and rushed through hand signs.

"Suiton: Suidan!" A stream of water erupted from each of their mouths and three became one once more. The mist the collision between his fireball and the water created hid the torrent of water coming towards him from sight.

'You truly are a genius Caesar.' Sasuke could not help but remember the words of his Caesar not too long ago.

"Your Genjutsu resistance training has at last shown itself Legate. It has also enlightened me to the importance of my Legion being well versed in the Shinobi Arts, beyond the simple techniques the likes of the Substitution and Body Flicker they already possess. I had plans to incorporate Jutsu, simple things, into the repertoire of my Legion ever since I saw the effectiveness of such power from Silver Fang in Nami no Kuni but lacked the knowledge to implement it and keep my other projects on track. I feel almost foolish to have forgotten the abilities of your Sharingan, especially when my greatest enemy possesses the same eye as you. Your skills with Ninjutsu will make you responsible for training my Praetorians. You possess a number of Jutsu thanks to Silver Fang's hubris and you will teach them to the elite of my Legion. Once that is done, they will teach the rest of the Legion. I wish you good luck Legate."

'I'm still surprised this worked.' The Praetorians had learned several Jutsu in the past week. Each of them were simple and considered the basics of learning any Nature Transformation but quantity always had the ability to beat quality, especially when the Legion made use of something. It was only helped by the comparatively few hand signs needed to use such techniques when compared to the more complex ones. At times, the few seconds needed to form the needed hand signs for more powerful techniques could lead to a Shinobi's death at the hands of another's weaker but more swiftly performed technique.

'I guess I shouldn't be surprised.' Sasuke was not blind to the present, he countered the swing of one of the Praetorians but the ringing of steel on steel only allowed the other two to unleash another bullet of water on his position. He dodged out of the way and broke away from the Praetorian he was clashing blades with, his foot being driven into his chest helping him gain distance.

"You're impressive as always but I should expect nothing less from the personal guards of Caesar himself." Sasuke's Sharingan saw the three with ease as they regrouped. He was looking through a mist made of Chakra but it was easy to spot where his was absent. It had been created by his fireball and their water clashing after all, mixing the two Chakras. The lack of his in a substantial and body shaped space was enough to clue him into their location. "It's a shame that I'm better than the three of you."

They didn't rise to his bait but he didn't expect them to. He didn't need them to either. He inhaled.

"Katon: Hosenka!" His aim was nearly perfect as he unleashed a dozen small fireballs. The Praetorians seemed to understand it would be useless to attempt to destroy them and so scattered. He moved the fireballs of course to follow them. They veered off course and formed into a larger trio of three fireballs. It was a strain but it was well worth it to drive the Praetorians back, their shields taking the brunt of the blast as they were struck by his attack.

He moved to capitalize of course, drawing up his sword and extending the blade with his Chakra.

'A Praetorian should never equal the Legate.' That thought made him move with all the speed he possessed, swing with all the power he held, and attack with no mercy.

The smoke cleared.

He returned his sword to his side.

Three Praetorians were limp on the ground.

He had not killed them and they knew it was only because he did not need to worry about those so much weaker than him.

"Who else will challenge me?" He did not let his exhaustion show. A host of Praetorians stood before him. Three stepped up to challenge him, three moved away their fallen brothers, and he allowed himself to breath.

'A Legate must stand above the Legion he commands.'

He would not fall. He could never fall.

They charged him with a shout and steel drawn from their side. He met them with the same.

AN: So, at the end of this update I'll be leaving an AN on the future of this story. Read it if you want.