AN: This is not an author note.
Something about not owning Naruto goes there.
Naruto danced around the clone of his master, pushing the replica around. It was a simple earth clone but the blond could now defeat those without any problem, after four months of intense, teeth-breaking sparring and conditioning.
The boy had, under Jiraiya's guidance and with some input from Fukasaku, developed and refined his brand of taijutsu. The chaotic feel he favoured was still here, if Naruto wanted it he could not get rid of it but now each motion had a specific aim in addition to contributing to the overall overwhelming sensation of being "swept up in a maelstrom" as the Toad Sage described it.
The original, sloppy form, was nowhere to be seen anymore. Naruto knew every efficient, technical way to throw a painful punch and the blond made sure to maximize his momentum for additional impact.
His brawler instincts still raged vigorously however, as the boy did not shy from the most unconventional tactics. Takedowns, submission locks, headbutts, abrupt height changes, handstands for upside-down kicks, everything was good to score a hit. Or drive the opponent mad, as had noted Jiraiya.
Naruto spun, bringing an elbow sideways against the clone's guard while simultaneously going for a leg sweep. Suddenly, the blond shifted his weight and his foot rose at an alarming speed, in an almost straight vertical trajectory, to crash against the replica's head.
Earth exploded at the impact and the Jiraiya clone crumbled to nothing. A slow round of applause celebrated Naruto's victory.
The Toad Sage clapped while he analyzed the fight that had just gone down. His pupil was progressing at a tremendous speed. An earth clone was no shadow clone and contrary to the blond's favourite technique, it only held one-tenth of the original user's strength, pretty much like any elemental clone.
Still, he was Jiraiya of the Densetsu no Sannin and one-tenth of his strength should have been enough to put any chunin in their place in a pure taijutsu match. Naruto just did not seem to care about conventions and the notions of what should be possible or not.
The Toad Sage had to admit, the boy's brand of martial art was a scary thing he had never seen before.
The style of Maito Gai, Konoha's first taijutsu user, was undeniably powerful but it was relatively straightforward. The man's might, much like the Hokage's, relied more on an impossibly strong body than exotic technique. Tsunade's was extraordinarily basic: when one could punch through rock, technicality was not too important. Naruto's style, on the other hand, was viciously efficient and cunning.
That was the word: cunning. Like anything a ninja did should be. Naruto's martial art was made of several layers of traps, each deadly, that could be sprung at any moment.
In conclusion, it was high time for the blond to face the real deal. Jiraiya smirked and crossed his fingers. He had to make sure his student did not get too cocky.
"You'll fight with my shadow clone next, Naruto," the Toad Sage said with a grin that promised pain.
The boy paled before he readied himself with a resolute nod.
After getting his ass handed to him for an hour by his master's shadow clone, Naruto washed in a nearby stream before sitting cross-legged against a tree, listening to the shadow clones around him.
After four months, nearly five now, on the road, his capacity to learn new things with shadow clones had considerably increased. At first, any knowledge acquired by reading had been very difficult to integrate. His replicas were just him, they had the same average memory as he had and reading a scroll one time was not enough to remember its content perfectly, much less understand it.
It was still the case and would always be but at first, there had also been a loss of information between the kage bunshins and the original. This "lag" of a sort, had disappeared since a month and Naruto had, under the careful recommendation of Jiraiya and Fukasaku, increased the number of clones slowly but steadily.
It was an excellent way to speed up his learning but there were limitations, of course. There was no use setting a hundred clones to a hundred different tasks: everything learned would fuse in a jumbled mess. In the same way, giving the one same task to a hundred clones was not efficient either: the one time he had tried, his brain had become so completely fixated on the idea he had practised that, for the following two days, he had been unable to think about anything else.
Dispelling a hundred clones was impossible anyway, considering it obliterated his mind into oblivion and gave him a headache that would have killed a lesser man. In other words, the one time he had attempted that, only the Kyuubi induced healing had saved him.
Those were the reasons why Naruto had at most a dozen clones learning at the same time as him.
Two were practising the forms of his style of taijutsu. There was not any "kata" to speak of; instead, the two replicas almost seemed to dance together, swirling around each other like two whirlwinds, constantly switching level, kicking, punching, swaying.
Two others were attempting to mould chakra in any way they could imagine. This endeavour stemmed from when Naruto and Jiraiya had stopped two months ago in the Fire Temple at the request of the head monk. The blond had had a weird encounter with a boy his age named Sora, who held a tiny part of the Kyuubi's chakra. The blue-haired boy, contrary to Naruto, did not possess a seal strong enough to contain the power and was subject to regular bouts of violence.
Naruto and Jiraiya had done the obvious thing to do and helped Sora, the Toad Sage working his sealing magic much to Naruto's amazement. The blond had then befriended the boy after he had ceased his misunderstood drama-queen act and received a bit of training by the monks as well.
This had led to the discovery that a ninja could mould his chakra in several different ways, as demonstrated by the special chakra the monks were taught to generate. This had Naruto thinking for a month once he and his master departed from the Temple.
His lessons with Sasame had given Naruto a hunch: when firing the bow, he would first inhale and exert the necessary force to draw it, only to then focusing his entire attention on the target. The process was inverted regarding how he usually moulded chakra: Naruto first drew on his spiritual energies before plunging in the vast expense of his physical reserves. The problem was how he "drowned" the yin part of the chakra in the boundless yang.
So what if he tried the opposite, meaning drawing a little of the yang before merging it with the yin? This way, he could maybe balance it more equally and who knew, achieve better control of his chakra!
Except, the process was not easy because his habits were deeply ingrained and what he was attempting to do amounted to re-learning something he had been taught since age six. It was not easy, Naruto was not even sure if it was possible but he was bullheaded and in this case, it worked for him.
The last two clones were reading about two very different things. The blond had noticed that if the subjects were too similar, he would end up mixing the two materials. Hence, one replica was reading up on chakra theory while the other was documenting himself about international politic.
Reading had become very, very interesting after the boy had augmented his vocabulary. Funny how easier it was to get into a book when he could understand the words used. That was not even counting Jiraiya and Fukasaku who were both happy to have long discussions about pretty much anything, ranging from economics to elemental transformation philosophy.
The two sages' input was always enlightening and helped the boy tremendously.
The original blond nodded, satisfied that all his clones were working diligently, and closed his eyes to meditate.
He had a hate-love relationship with meditation. At first, staying still seemed alien to his very nature.
Then, emptying his head from everything was just impossible to him. He had tried and tried again, in vain, until Jiraiya had suggested to him to think thoroughly. Rather than ignoring his thoughts and suppressing them, the sage had advocated the blond to follow every idea that bogged down his mind until there was nothing to think about anymore.
Fukasaku had approved, saying it was the second step to knowing oneself.
Naruto understood quickly what the little toad meant. If he wanted to get rid of a thought, he had to resolve it completely. In the process, the blond faced many questions he did not like at all, especially considering the answers he had come to.
His relationship with the village, with the shinobis of his generation, and with his teammates, the lies surrounding his life, his goal of becoming Hokage, his very nindo: he had been pushed to confront everything several times and he was not certain about the result.
He did not hate the villagers. He did not like them either. He could acknowledge they had suffered from the Kyuubi's attack but they had decided to take it out on him despite he having nothing to do with it. He had endured their scorn, their hate, their pain while they had revelled in their treatment of him.
His only protest had been his pranks, annoying, sometimes costly, but never damaging nor dangerous. They had seen it as one more reason to ostracize him. When he had finally become a shinobi and despite his not so small achievements, nothing had changed.
He had concluded that the villagers loved to hate him. It did not matter what he did, he was the pariah and would stay the pariah until the villagers had mourned and moved from their loss.
So much for the Will of Fire.
What he greatly regretted was the power they had possessed over him. His thirst for acknowledgement had been the leash that used to bind him to them. This chain, however, was being eroded by his success under Jiraiya's guidance and the frank assessment from his skills by the older man.
The Toad Sage, a legendary ninja, recognized that Naruto was good. There was a lot of things to work, a long journey to be taken to reach his full potential but nonetheless, he was good in the eyes of one of the Densetsu no Sannin. For the blond, that was more than he had ever been told. It was not Iruka saying that he had "potential" after years of being thoroughly not taught by the Academy yet somehow learning a jonin level ninjutsu and the kage level kinjutsu version of it. No, it was the acknowledgement that right now, Naruto was shaping up as a shinobi.
It felt new and honestly wonderful for the boy to have his worth recognized by someone. It did bring a problem for Naruto, however.
Apart from his duty, materialized by the headband weighing on his forehead, there was little else tying him to Konoha.
He had honestly no friend among his generation. The most vocal of them had spent their time mocking him during the Academy, doubted his legitimacy when he had received his hitai-ate, and kept denying his growth during the chuunin examination. In their eyes, he was the idiot and somehow they apparently could not believe he would not stay the idiot for the rest of his life. That was not what friends did.
As for his teammates, "complicated" did not even begin to describe it. Kakashi had never taught him anything practical, a proof of his disinterest in Naruto in the blond's opinion, and was standoffish at the best of time. Sakura was so obnubilated by Sasuke that it kept the girl from accepting that Naruto would ever truly amount to anything. As for Sasuke himself, there was this "turning traitor" thing that did not speak in favour of the Uchiha.
Maybe Sasuke had been right. Maybe Naruto did not have the bonds he thought he had, hence why he could not reach the Uchiha. Because ultimately he could only extend his hand so far: it was up to others to take it and accept his friendship and the blond was now unsure of who had truly done that if anyone.
Who helped him, ate with him occasionally, discussed their problems shared or not, relied on him? No one, that was who and Jiraiya notwithstanding because the older shinobi was his master.
Had he surrounded himself in a lie of his own making? Yet another to add to the long list that was his life but this one self-inflicted? He was afraid to look for an answer because if he could not oppose an easy "of course not" then it probably meant it was the truth. It begged another question, however.
Did he even want to be friends with people like that? He understood their view of him had been skewed because of their parents and his behaviour but he was not sorry for being an ostracized orphan with no one to rely on, Kami damn it! He could acknowledge by now that his constantly hyper attitude and eagerness could be tiring, hell he was tired of it, but had anyone explained him to tone it down because it could come off poorly? No, they had demanded he shut up. He could accept by now that his pranks were not endearing but had anyone offered to play with him? No, they had left him alone. He could understand by now that his lack of knowledge and manners were annoying but had anyone tried to remedy to that? No, they had abandoned him in his mediocrity.
They had a set vision of who he was, what he was, and what his worth was and his growth had changed nothing. No one had bothered to acknowledge, accept, or understand him and that was something he could not do in their place, try as he might. Creating a bond of friendship was a two-person effort and he was not certain he was willing to try so hard at it anymore.
He did want friends. No, he did need friends. As much as he enjoyed master Jiraiya and Fukasaku's company, as much as they were precious to him, they were older than him, not to mention one was a talking toad. He wanted it to be true, based on genuine interest and respect and not pity. He did not want to beg for friendship anymore; no one should have to do that.
He wanted what he had found with Sasame and Sora. Or well, something similar. He was a little bit - if not completely - confused about Sasame right about now. He wanted to find that in his home village, where he should belong, and not only literally everywhere else.
All this reflection then invited another interrogation: was there any point in becoming the Hokage? If saving a country, surviving Orochimaru, beating Neji, and defeating Gaara had not changed his peers' opinion of him, then no matter what he would do, they probably would not change. He wanted the hat to be acknowledged but the red and white robes of the Fire Shadow would never bring him something like that. As long as everyone saw the shadow of the Fox looming over him, no one would ever accept him and once again, he could not do anything about that.
He had already proved he was not the Kyuubi. They had to want to work through the rest and again, he was not sure they did. His role as the black sheep was a precious commodity they did not seem eager to forgo.
It was not fair. He knew Life was not in general; his was a prime example of it, as was Neji's. He could not understand why anyone would go out of their way to make it even more miserable though. He could not forgive that, not when he had been told to endure for as long as he could understand the word.
"Weather it and keep trying, they'll come around eventually." That had been the Sandaime only words of comfort to him, a promise of better days to come. After his conversation with Jiraiya about giving his all, Naruto had to wonder, however.
When was it enough? And how could the Sandaime have promised such a thing when he had done nothing for it?
Naruto's love for his "Jiji" was tainted with bitterness nowadays, the memory of the old man soured by the realization that he had never attempted to truly help the boy.
Buying him ramen once in a while did not make it okay. Not anymore. His statement, however, stayed. "The villagers would come around". The boy was unsure about that but again, he was changing, he knew it. It meant they could too. Maybe he would give them a chance, one last time.
Naruto sighed as he finished to unravel the jumbled train of his thoughts, left once again with more questions than solid resolutions. It felt indecisive to be unable to come to a conclusion even if Fukasaku had said it was fine to not decide everything immediately. The blond did not like it but he reasoned he has still time.
His mind finally cleared, the boy focused on his breathing before he opened his eyes. He was in a vast sewer, in front of a gargantuan cage closed only by a thin sheet of paper. It was not the first time he found himself here and it was actually his destination so the boy simply walked towards the prison. There was water everywhere around him; the seemingly infinite ocean of his physical energy, Naruto had understood.
"Hello, Kyuubi."
Two eyes opened in the darkness beyond the steel bars of the prison and glared at the boy.
"You are here once again, human," growled a cavernous voice. Naruto was not certain about it but it felt like the usual hostility he was met with had been toned down. Maybe. The being he was hosting within his chakra coils was a millennia-old bijuu, an intelligent entity made of chakra so dense it was physical. Recognizing any emotion in the voice of the Fox was at best a guessing game and it assumed the bijuu even felt the same emotions as humans did.
Apart from anger, nothing was certain.
"Yes. I'd like to discuss with you." Naruto had attempted to converse with the bijuu two times already, not counting that one incident involving falling off a cliff.
"Are you trying to befriend me once again?"
It was indeed Naruto's goal. He did know if the Kyuubi was even capable of conceptualizing friendship so the first step was more of an entente of a sort. The boy nodded.
"Yes." He figured that, as they were stuck with one another, they had to at least find some common ground to maybe work together. Also, Naruto was chased by an organization of S-ranked criminals, so any help was a boon.
"Really? Are you sure it isn't my power you seek?" The Kyuubi asked menacingly causing Naruto to flinch. The mighty being growled. "I remember telling you I was only interested in my freedom anyway."
Naruto sighed. "And I told you I would give it to you if it was not a death sentence for me. I'm sorry you were trapped within me but I cannot open the cage."
"Are you sorry for me or yourself?" The Fox retorted with an accusing growl.
The blond was startled and looked down. With a deep breath that ended in a sigh, Naruto shook his head. "I'm not sure," he answered hesitantly. "You attacked my village and caused many deaths. I was told all my life you were nothing but a beast, a mindless catastrophe. I was taught to fear you." The boy fell silent.
"Why be here then if I'm so?"
Naruto took a deep breath. His readings and discussions with his two masters had sharpened his critical and logical thinking and something about the Kyuubi bothered him.
"Because now, I can see you talk, listen, feel anger at what happened to you. You do not rage mindlessly against your prison like an animal. You are an intelligent being and it begs a question." Naruto explained, his voice uneasy.
The Fox chuckled mirthlessly. "What would this question be?"
The blond looked up and resolutely stared into one of the Kyuubi's eyes. "Why did you even attack Konoha?"
The bijuu's chuckle turned into a stone-grinding bout of laughter. "Indeed, why did I attack?" The Fox boomed with a dark fury seeping from his tone. "Tell me human, do you know the story of your village foundation, of the conflict that ensued?"
"You mean… Hashirama Senju's and Madara Uchiha's fight?"
"I care not about their name," howled the Kyuubi with rage lightning his eyes with fire. "One enslaved me to his will and set me upon the other who decided I should be caged for all eternity. On the day of your birth, someone once again reduced me to a puppet, robbing my will from me and making me attack your village! When the Toad Sage broke the spell, I was ready to fight to escape but I was yet again caged, this time within you!" The bijuu punctuated his angry speech by slamming his tails against his prison, the power of its chakra shaking the foundations of the seal.
Naruto was left on his knees, speechless.
"You humans are a despicable, selfish race," hammered the Fox with nothing but scorn in his voice. "You either fear my power or wish to use it to further yous! I hate and despise your kind, human, and I will never! Be friend! With you!" It raged against the cage.
A blast of power ejected Naruto from the seal, leaving him gasping for air under his tree. A tear rolled down his cheek as the Fox' revelation crashed upon him.
Now he really did feel sorry.
The nine bijuus were creatures of unbelievable power. They were also intelligent beings who had been enslaved by mankind, their might "too great" to be left alone. No one had bothered to acknowledge, accept, or understand them.
The blond felt a great void opening within him. He was the first to be guilty of that when, rather than form his own opinion, he had allowed his fears, the fears others had forced unto him, to dictate his behaviour. He had to wonder if his attempt at "friendship" had even been genuine. Had it been motivated more by the potential of the bijuu's chakra than any real want to get to know the mysterious being?
That made him no better than the villagers. Naruto clenched his fist. He could not allow that, would not allow himself to accentuate the unfairness of Life, be it for a fellow man or a bijuu. That was something he could do, something he had total control over. "That's a promise, 'ttebayo."
The boy suddenly breathed with increased ease. He just had to find a way to apologize to a giant fox before he doubled his efforts.
AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter. It was to let you know what Naruto is training in and where he stands. I won't go too deep nor will I detail every little thing so pay attention to the hints I give and try to piece together how he'll be OP in the end. Also, one important conversation took place. Leave a review, I eat them.