A/N: Abilities:
Naruto: Doton: Practice Brick, Rasengan, Toad summoning, Multi Shadow Clone, Doton: Earth Wall, Doton: Mud Clone.
Elemental advantages: WaterFireWindEarthLightningWater.
Elemental combinations: Water+Fire=Steam/ Water+Wind=Ice and Storm/ Water+Earth=Mud and Wood.
Fire+Earth=Lava and minerals/ Fire+Lightning=Blast
Wind+Earth=Sand and Dust
Lightning is tricky, that's why it's not one of the Four Elements, it's not an element in itself. It's a combination of elements. Water only conducts electricity, some metals do the same, lead and earth are insulators…
If you want to talk about this story or any of mine (Ashera Fanfics), send me an invite on Discord at: Graal DTC#0625 (since the link to my Discord channel is broken on the fanfiction website). For updates, I'm very busy training for a new job so it won't be daily updates like it used to be. I don't update the same story all the time, I update the one I'm inspired in when I have time. Naruto: Away from Konoha has a complete 1st arc for example, so unless I get a high demand, I'll try to finish at least a full arc about my other main stories before going back to it eventually.
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Chapter 2
Naruto was training his new technique, Doton: Earth Wall, which was a more effective version of the Practice Brick. He was traveling towards a village his mentor had indicated him. He started to get closer, when suddenly many earth walls rose from the ground.
"What the…? Who made that?" he wondered.
The walls were closed by a ceiling, trapping him inside an earth labyrinth. He created three clones and took a torch from his bag that he lit with a match, and he gave it to one of the clones, before signaling the others what they had to do.
"Rasengan!"
The earth wall in front of him was pierced by the ball of rotating chakra, but it was too thick to see the other side. He decided to try his luck with the labyrinth.
He remembered that someone told him that in a labyrinth, you should always turn into the same direction not to get lost, so he followed this advice. He turned right, right, right before he was forced to turn left, so he continued to turn left. Then he was forced to turn right and continued this way. At some point, he encountered a dead end and had to go back on his tracks.
While backtracking, he noticed that there was an issue. The labyrinth was following a different pattern from what he remembered. He summoned ten clones to go in several directions and get information about this while trying to find the exit.
After hours of mental exhaustion as well as starting to be hungry, Naruto was sick of this and decided to make the walls go back into the ground. He took a few hours more to complete this training, but finally he was able to retract the walls into the ground while reversing the process of the Earth Wall technique.
When he got out of the labyrinth, the sun had set and he was completely lost, exhausted and hungry, but after creating a few clones, he fell asleep. The clones took shifts to guard him for the night.
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The first thing he felt was cold water spilled on him.
"Whaaa! Cold! Cold! Cold!" he shouted.
He took off his wet clothes and looked around for the culprit.
"It was you!" he exclaimed when his eyes met with his mentor's.
"If it had been the Akatsuki, you'd be either dead or tied up right now. Your clones are not a good enough watch against powerful enemies. By the way, you finished the labyrinth test, but do you know you could have used mud clones rather than shadow clones? Mud clones being of the earth element, they can pass through earth walls."
"Why didn't you tell me that before putting me inside a labyrinth? You jerk!"
"I expected you to guess this much, but it seems like you still need babying in terms of logic and understanding of the techniques you're being taught. Now you should find something to eat before your belly wakes up the entire woods."
"Yeah, I guess. I'm so hungry I could eat you whole. If you were made of ramen."
"Haha, I'm glad I'm not then. The village in in this direction," he pointed somewhere, "don't get lost today."
"Yeah thanks…Multi Shadow Clones! Go hunt, fish or find fruits, berries, everything that can be eaten. Try it before giving it to me if you're not sure about its edibility."
"Yes, sir!" replied the clones in unison.
Half of them came back with edible food. A rabbit and some berries and fruits. He had gotten from his dead clones that some things they had tasted were not edible, and he drew them in his logbook to keep track of what was not to be eaten. He had suffered enough belly aches in the last month to start keeping track of non edible food.
When his belly was filled, or at least when he was able to move again, he departed for the direction indicated by Jiraya. It took him an hour to reach the village, but he finally got there.
"I was starting to wonder if you had eaten poisonous food," teased the white haired man.
"Some of my clones have. I've started to draw what's not edible in my logbook, so that I don't eat them again."
"If you get good at drawing, we'll do some calligraphy. There's a ninja discipline that uses it, one that you should begin to know about. It's the discipline used to seal the Kyuubi inside you."
"Oh yeah, the sealing arts! I remember, Orochimaru massed up the seal and I had trouble using my chakra, then you put it back to normal and I was able to use techniques again!"
"Fuuinjutsu, the sealing arts, are advanced, complicated techniques that require perfect calligraphy. That's the reason I didn't mention it until now. But if your drawing improves, you might be able to learn some useful seals."
"Yeah!"
"For now, we're gonna focus on your earth chakra a little more. Look at this. Doton: Earth Hut!"
A real earth-made house rose from the ground. It was customized and all.
"Woaaah! Why didn't you teach me this back in the village when I had to build houses?"
"Because it was out of your reach. Now that you control this chakra nature better, you should be able to use this jutsu."
They practiced as usual, Jiraya letting Naruto use the technique only when his hand seals were perfect. The boy trained in a clearing near the village while Jiraya entered the populated place in order to dig out some information.
Naruto trained until the night, when he could finally produce something more refined than a literal hut.
"That's it for today, brat. We have something to do tomorrow, come get some rest."
"No, I'll stay here in my self-made hut! I'll sleep on the hard ground until I can make something more comfortable than that."
"Your loss. There was this chick about your age with a very fine shape, she was looking for a strong boy to help her with something…"
"Bah, that hut is too uncomfortable anyway. Might as well sleep in a real bed. So, what can I do to help her?"
"That's the spirit! You're starting to act like me, haha!"
"Urgh, no, I'll never act like you."
"I've already seen you peeping on girls in the baths, you can't fool me kid. You just can't handle it yet, but you're like me. Hell, we were both rejected by our female teammate."
"I've seen Tsunade at you in your back, I can tell you if she's ever rejected you, she sees you differently now. As long as you don't act like a pervert."
"Huh? What do you think you're doing? She's always pushed me away."
"Want some love advice, my pupil?"
"Don't turn the roles around, brat. I'm still the older one. I've got more experience than you in everything."
"Yet you can't see she likes you more than you think."
"Tcheh, what do you know about that? You never even had a girlfriend."
"That hurt. Yes I'd like to find love too, but unlike you I can tell Tsunade sees you as more than her long time friend and teammate. She trusts you, she respects you, she likes you and she feels lonely. You're the closest person left to her, especially in her age range. You're a potential partner, pervy sage."
"Stop with that nickname! And you misunderstood her terribly if you thought she wanted me as more than her friend…"
"Listen, I don't know everything that happened to you two, but one thing's certain, and that thing is that you were always there for her."
"No. No, Naruto, I wasn't… I wasn't there for her when she needed it… I let her sink into sadness, loneliness and alcoholism after she had lost her little brother and her companion. I left her alone and went on a selfish adventure while convincing myself that I was doing something useful. I'm the worst friend she could have. Even Orochimaru didn't leave her like that."
"Well, maybe he stayed in Konoha, but he didn't take care of her, he didn't comfort her, he didn't help her in any way. He fell to his own drives and she probably couldn't even recognize him anymore when she left the Leaf."
"Do you think so?"
"That's why I can feel from her behaviour around you. All she has left for Orochimaru is sadness and disappointment. She couldn't help him and he walked a dark path. You, on the other way, did all you could to stay positive. Maybe you needed to leave in order to deal with your own issues after the war in which she lost her man. You remained yourself despite all the shit you've been through, and I think she admires that in you. Remember, you're just a man, you can't always do the good choice. But she decided to trust us over Orochimaru in the end when she faced this dilemma. She chose us instead of her dead lover and brother. This means she loves you more than the memories of the past. You should try to talk to her when we get back home."
"Damn kid, when did you become so sensible about people?"
"I could understand Gaara and change him. Why couldn't I understand Tsunade, another person who's suffered from loneliness and from not being listened to? Her plight to get a medic nin in each team was rejected during war and this led to the death of her lover. She was right and her reasoning has been ignored, resulting in her losing him. If I loved someone like she seemed to love him and the higher ups rejected a suggestion I made which lead to the death of the one I loved, I'd be pissed against them and I'd hate them. And since she only has you left of her generation, she's been confronted to her reality, either she stays alone or she begins to see you for more than the brat you were when you met. Now that her blinding fold is removed, you're the only man in Konoha who can answer to her needs. She needs affection and love, and you've always been interested in her, haven't you?"
"If you were half as smart about the people your age, you'd have already gotten yourself a girlfriend!"
"Let's go see that girl you've told me about then. Maybe she…"
"Oh, I lied about that. Sure there are girls, but no one like that."
"You…you old fart! Stop deceiving me!"
"We're ninjas, deception is our best weapon. Now let's go eat and have some sleep."
"'Kay…"
Naruto followed Jiraya with a pouting expression.
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The next day, Naruto took his breakfast in the inn and went to bathe, only to find Jiraya peeping through a hole in the fence.
"I thought I told you that this was what Tsunade liked the least about you."
"She's nowhere around, so I do what I want. And I'm not engaged or anything."
"Girls! A pervert is peeping from the men's side!"
"What? Let's teach this bastard a lesson, girls!" answered someone from the other side of the fence.
Jiraya's eyes turned to Naruto in annoyance before he started running.
"You'll pay for this, brat!"
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"How did you lose them?"
"I was transformed into the old man Sarutobi. I just got out of their sight and transformed back into myself and they ran after no one."
"You're getting better at this."
"No ramen for a month, brat. Next time you'll remember not to mess with me."
"Urgh, cruel world, cruel old man. How dare you starve me?"
"You can eat whatever you want but no ramen."
"Just what I was saying, you wanna starve me."
"Tcheh, I'll force feed you some berries if you continue your rant."
"Okay, okay! You'll see, I'll eat them when you can't notice."
"Now that you've told me, I'll follow your every motion. This way I can't not notice."
"Gah! You're such a horrible mentor!"
"I don't care. You need to eat better if you want girls to take an interest into you. Girls don't like men who are obsessed over a single thing."
"I don't care, I want to eat ramen!"
"And I want to force feed you berries."
"Crap. So, what's the mission today?"
"Come, I'll show you."
They got into a back alley where children and teenagers in rags assembled to distribute their thefts between themselves.
"Orphans?"
"I want you to build them a good-looking and comfortable orphanage. You'll have to do better than what you did yesterday."
"Okay! I'm on it! Children, prepare to live in the best place you've ever seen! You won't be living in the streets anymore!"
All he got was a few head shakes that showed they didn't believe him or didn't care.
With his new goal, Naruto trained himself to exhaustion for three days before coming back.
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"Hey kids! I've got it! You were abandoned and you have nothing, but I'll give you a place to live in! Follow me! It took me three days to reach this level of quality, but I'm ready now! You'll live in the best place around the village! Come!"
Only a few kids moved towards him, the others still not believing his words. He masked his disappointment with a fake happy face and lead the way to the border of the village. They stopped there and he did the hand signs before putting his hands on the ground.
"Doton: Earth Hut!"
A majestic manor came out of the ground, with a roof inspired from temples.
"This place is yours now. You should tell the others to come. They've been sharing food with you, haven't they?"
"Y-yes! Thanks a lot!" answered a kid with tears running on his cheeks.
The kids went to get their comrades in misery and bring them to their new home. A teenage girl came in front of them and pointed Naruto with her finger, a suspicious look on her face.
"Why would you do something for us? No one has ever helped us! What's the deal? You want something from us?"
"Sis, he was just being nice," said a young kid.
"No, that's suspicious! I can't believe anyone would help us without asking for anything in counterpart! Does your older comrade have some issue with kids?"
"Listen," replied Naruto, "I understand that getting a superb home for free can seem suspicious. But I'm an orphan too, I know what it's like to not have a safe home. I don't want you guys to stay like that, in the streets where anything can happen to you and nobody would care… Believe me, I know very well how it feels… But now my situation is better, and I'm able to help you live better too. There's no other reason that help fellow orphans to grow into a safe haven."
Suddenly, the kids fell into a strange dream and when they woke up, they ran towards Naruto and hugged him while letting their tears out. He was surprised, but he tried his best to comfort them. They entered the mansion and were amazed by the inside.
The girl who had been doubting him a few moment ago had tears running on her cheeks and tried to hide them from him by looking at the ground.
"I…I'm sorry… I didn't think you were honest… I've doubted you from the beginning while you were doing your best to help us, training yourself to exhaustion… I'm ashamed of my behaviour… Thank you for all your hard work… You'll always be welcome here…"
"Uh, thank you I guess? What changed your mind like that?"
"I don't know what it was, but I fell into some kind of dream and I saw you as a kid with all the people around you treating you like a monster, I saw how lonely you felt. Then I saw how you met the people who've taken you down a good path and how you tried your best to help other people like you. And at the end of the dream I saw your training step by step on this technique you've learnt and how you tried harder when you had this goal, to help us. So now I respect you. Thank you for everyone you've helped and for everyone you'll help in the future. You're a good person."
She walked to him, kissed him on the cheek and entered the mansion. She immediately played the role of a mother to the children inside and put back some order while shouting at the kids who were messing around in this luxurious home they had gained through sheer luck.
"Uh, can I eat with you tonight?" asked Naruto to the girl.
"Of course! After what you've done for us, that's the least we can do to repay you! What do you like?"
"Ramen. My mentor forbid me to eat ramen for a whole month, but I hope he'll let it go if we're all sharing this meal…"
"Okay. I've grown in a restaurant before my parents were killed by a rogue ninja. The asshole didn't like the taste of his food, so he killed them just like that… I didn't even see him move…"
"What did he look like?"
"He had long dark hair and a square shaped face. He was wearing a scratched headband from the Mist and a pair of clawed gauntlets."
"If I find him, I'll make sure to make him pay, you have my word. He won't kill anyone else."
"Thank you…"
After this, Naruto went out to get the ingredients for the meal and came back with extras.
"But…we won't need that much food for tonight…" commented the girl.
"You don't have anything for later. So I bought more. This way you can find a way to make an income while you're eating the food I've bought as extra. And I still don't know your name, by the way."
"Thanks a lot! My name's Michiko. And yours?"
"Naruto. But please don't yell it out loud, I'm kinda currently trying to hide from dangerous people and I wouldn't want them to know I've come here, for either of us."
"I won't tell anyone. I'll just call you Hero then, haha!"
"Sounds great, I prefer this to what people used to call me back when I was a kid…"
"Monster…"
"Yeah… Did you see that in that dream?"
"I guessed through the people's gazes. It's not like it was hard to guess…"
"Well, now I'm living much better than I used to be, I have a small flat, even if it's a cheap place with little safety, I have friends and I have gained a lot of people's acknowledgment."
"You shouldn't care about acknowledgment, you know. You're defined by your actions. They speak by themselves. What you do means more than what you get credit for. You should acknowledge yourself, for once. You seem to lack real self-confidence for someone so kind and powerful."
"Uh, I'm rather weak for where I come from."
"You're still stronger than a lot of people, and outside of the Land of Earth, there are few individuals able to build such a mansion with an earth technique after only a few days of training."
"How do you know that?"
"My parents…they were retired ninjas. And they couldn't do that, I'm sure about this."
"I see…"
"Come, it's ready. Let's go eat! CHILDREN! DINNER IS READY!"
"YEAH!"
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After a dinner Naruto enjoyed to the fullest, the girl sent the kids to bed and they tag teamed to tell them stories until they fell asleep. Then he left the mansion, but he was held back at the exit by a hug.
"Stay for the night, please…"
"I can't. I'm sorry. We've spent too much time here. If we stay any longer, we might be found by the bad people who are after me."
She squeezed him harder, before letting go. But she turned him around to face her and she kissed him. It was quick and sassy, but it felt great. She smiled to him despite the tears rolling on her cheeks, reflected by the moonlight.
"Then go, but don't forget about us! I'll make a ramen restaurant so that you're forced to come back!"
"Haha! Wait a minute, I'll build it for you. Doton: Earth Hut!"
A second building rose from the ground near the mansion. It looked like a food stall.
"Thanks, come by anytime, Hero!"
"With pleasure, Michiko!"
He turned away and left the village.
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"So, you're ready to go?"
"Yes, Jiraya. Let's go."
"Not too disappointed to leave this cute chick behind?"
Despite his wet cheeks, Naruto made a wide grin.
"I'll come back later! It's not a farewell! We'll cross each other's path again, I'm sure about this!"
"Then, we're leaving."
"Michiko…" whispered Naruto with a smile while blushing.
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A/N: A longer chapter, I was close to let a tear slip at some point. I guess I'm getting softer with age. I'm happy that Naruto could have an early love interest that he didn't run after. And one who isn't a stalker. And who had more character development in this chapter than Hinata until Pain.
Next chapter, Naruto will start training another element. I don't know when I'll be able to write it, now, tomorrow or sometime during the coming week. Write you soon!