Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine...
Chapter 22 – Enter the Toad Sage
Naruto was screaming in the hallway. "Let me go! I want to see Hinata-chan! Let me go." Naruto started to regain his composure.
A voice behind him caused him to jump. "Why are you holding the hero of the Hyuga?" Hiashi looked very angrily at the men holding Naruto. "Who told you he could not see my daughter?"
"The doctor ordered him out so he would not influence the heir of the Hyuga with his demon ways." One of the orderlies answered, bringing a very strong air of killing intent from both Naruto and Hiashi. This caused them to back away from Naruto.
"Two thing you will know and know them now. Naruto Uzumaki is a teammate of Hinata Hyuga, thus he will be able to see her. You deny that for any reason you will have the Hokage, their sensei, and me to deal with." He put the most emphasis on himself. "Secondly, he is a guest of the Hyuga and will be treated as if he was a Hyuga. Do I make myself clear?"
The orderlies nodded and moved out of their way. Hiashi entered the room and saw his daughter crying, she did brighten up with his next words. "I met a friend who wanted to see you. And walk you home with me. If that is alright with you my daughter?" She looked past her father to see a blushing and waving Naruto. She immediately smiled and nodded.
This brought a sour look to the doctor's face. "She is still very injured. While she is healing at an astounding rate she will not be ready for duty for over a month. She will need about three weeks until she will be able to do normal activities, about a month and a half before she can start training. I also advise her not have any contact with that… that… monstrosity." He stated with venom while pointing at Naruto, eliciting an angry glare from Naruto and a raised eyebrow from Hiashi.
"I see, is that your expert medical opinion?" Hiashi asked and the doctor nodded. "For the hero of Konoha, you recommend isolation and scorn?" The doctor's eyes went wide. "Thank you for your opinion and I will take it under advisement. But for now I am here to take my daughter home to be cared for by the clan physician. Naruto you will of course push the wheelchair?" Naruto nodded as an orderly brought a wheelchair into the room.
Naruto leaned over the bed while picking her up bridal style and setting her gently into the chair. "Easy now we need to make sure you are treated like the princess you are." Naruto whispered into her ear causing her to blush profusely, and bringing a smile to Hiashi's face. "I get you home and then I have to say goodbye as I will have to meet with Ebisu for training for the Chunin exam. I am going against Neji." This brought a frown to Hinata as she knew that he nearly killed her.
"You will be careful won't you Naruto-kun?" Hinata shyly asked as they left the hospital and headed towards the Hyuga compound.
Naruto laughed. "Of course I will be careful, when am I not careful?"
Both Hiashi and Hinata both laughed at Naruto's statement. "You are rarely careful Naruto-kun. You will put your heart into it and then you will do your best to make it occur no matter what the cost." Hinata explained.
Naruto blushed, "what is wrong with putting everything into what you are doing?"
Hiashi spoke up at this question "if you have not planned ahead you will not be able to win. Neji is a very strong young man. More than likely the strongest of all the Hyuga of your generation, sorry Hinata but it is true. This does not mean that you are weak, my daughter. You were able to take a lot of pain and suffering that he gave you but you did not yield. I am proud of that. But pushing to the point of death is not a way to be a successful shinobi. While dying is part of the life of a shinobi, seeking death is not."
They arrived at the compound where the guards greeted them all with a smile. Naruto pushed her wheelchair to her room and then lifted her from it to her bed. He gave her a hug and then ran off to find Ebisu for training. "He is a good boy, and will become a good man. Do not let him go if you can help it Hinata." Hiashi commented as he left her room and shut the door.
Naruto was running at good speed as he got to Ichiraku's. He found Ebisu there waiting for him "good to see that you are at least punctual. So I will buy you lunch and then we will work on your training." He did not notice that Ichiraku and Ayame were both chuckling under their breath. "I would like a miso and whatever Naruto usually orders." Turning to Naruto "after talking to Kurenai, Kakashi, and Gai sensei I was able to deduce that one of your big problems is chakra control."
"Chakra control, why chakra control, I have a ton of chakra? Why do I need more control?" Naruto questioned as he finished his second bowl of ramen, while Ebisu was still working on his first.
"Well you see Naruto, you do posses an immense amount of chakra but you would be able to do so much more with it if you had better control. Let me give you an example." Naruto nodded. "Hinata has precise chakra control and uses just the right amount. Let us use the clone jutsu as an example. She uses just enough to make five clones. Your other teammate Shino, while his control is not as good as Hinata his abilities allow him to use only a little more than Hinata to make the five clones."
Naruto smiled "well that is good and all but I can make shadow clones and a whole bunch of them."
Ebisu adjusted his glasses. "That is not the point Naruto. For you to make one clone you would use enough chakra for either Hinata or Shino to make ten clones and yours would be pathetic. You have levels of chakra and stamina that are not even really human." Naruto looked annoyed. "Look I am buying you lunch and also trying to teach you something. You can make a ton of shadow clones yes. But how many other jutsu can you perform? Substitution and any of the simple ones you learned from the academy?"
Naruto looked down at his eighth bowl. "I can do substitution, and transformation. But I still cannot do a decent clone jutsu. Why can I do the hard jutsu but have problems with the simple and supposedly easy ones?"
Ebisu thought and then looked at Naruto. "More than likely it has to do with the seal. But we can work with you so that you will learn to become a stronger ninja. Chakra control is something that may save you. If you continue as you are now you will run into a situation where you run out of chakra. Where if you had the control I am offering you will have extra chakra in that same situation. I promise that I will try to be understanding. As you were able to help Konohamaru, I will endeavor to try to help you." Smiling at Naruto "look you were able to teach him a lesson that there is no easy road to becoming the Hokage, where I could not. For that I am in your debt. Now if you are done we will head off to train."
Naruto finished his fourteenth bowl of ramen and stood up ready to go. "Sir your bill?" Ichiraku asked as he was rubbing his hands together as if he was expecting a reward.
Ebisu turned and opened his wallet stating "certainly." He then saw the pile of bowls that were where Naruto had sat. "Naruto!!"
"Thank you and come again." Ichiraku and Ayame both said as Ebisu and Naruto left. They left the center of town and headed towards the hot springs. They arrived about fifteen minutes later.
"Ok we will be working on chakra control as I told you earlier. I know from Kurenai you have learned how to climb trees using chakra. Now we will learn how to walk on water." Ebisu explained as Naruto interrupted.
"Wait you can't walk on water."
"Oh, but yes you can. It is just taking what you have learned and going to the next level. With climbing the tree you had to learn how to keep the flow of chakra at an even and steady rate of release. When walking on water you need to change the flow of chakra to counter the sinking and the ever changing surface. Thus you will learn how to control the flow of chakra by adjusting it as needed. As you become more proficient you will learn how to do this without thinking. Then we can progress to other jutsu that will fill you out as a proper chunin. How does that sound?"
Naruto watched as Ebisu gathered chakra into his feet and stepped onto the water. "Ok maintain and change the flow of chakra so that I can maintain myself on the surface." Naruto said to himself as he gathered chakra into his feet. He stepped onto the water and promptly sank in. "OW!! HOT!!"
Ebisu shifted his glasses and stated. "Well what did you expect? We are at a hot springs by the ways. Also consider it as motivation to get this jutsu correct." Naruto's next few attempts met with similar results. Ebisu continued to watch as Naruto was able to hold himself higher in the water each time he tried. He was able to stand only ankle deep when he pointed at something behind Ebisu and then lost concentration and fell all the way into the water. Ebisu looked at Naruto who was just pointing at a white haired main peeking into the woman's bath. "I will not have any inappropriate behavior while I am present." And started to run at the man with white hair.
"Give me a break." The white haired man commented and made a single hand sign and a toad appeared under the older man. The toad reached out with its tongue and grabbed Ebisu. It then promptly raised and then slammed Ebisu into the pavement knocking him out.
Naruto witnessing this ran in front of the toad. "Hey ya old pervert. What did you do that for? Laying out my trainer like he was nothing. Come back here and make sure I get my training for the chunin exams."
"Like hell I will. Why should I waste my time with a wimp like you?" The old man retorted.
"Just who the hell are you?" Naruto questioned.
The old man does a kabuki dance on the toad's head. "I am Jiraiya, the mountain toad sage."
Naruto with a disgusted look on his face comments "more like the perverted sage."
Jiraiya jumps away as Naruto tries to follow him. After a half hour of searching he hears Jiraiya's voice coming out of a bar. "Oh come on baby you would be great…" then there was a slap. "What? You would be great. I love women who are so… so… well adjusted." This got Jiraiya another slap on the face.
Naruto saw him being slapped by a rather busty woman. "Found you, you old pervert!"
"Not for long kid." Jiraiya says as he runs off into the woods with Naruto not far behind. This chase lasted about twenty minutes when Naruto finally caught him by doing a double play and making Jiraiya think that he had fooled Naruto into following his clone away. Naruto was not fooled and was able to capture Jiraiya and get him to agree to train him.
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A/ N: Sorry it took so long to update was working on other stories. Hope you enjoyed it.