Naruto: Kung Fu Guardian

Chapter 13: WuDang and Kinesthetics

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Readers and reviewers, thank you. Hope this is worth the wait.

Disclaimer: I borrowed Narutoverse from Kishimoto and two techniques from Jin Yong. Everything else, including the explanation of how those techniques work, though, is mine.

…o.0.O.0.o…

WuDang was more than a name of one of the most prestigious school of KungFu in the WuXia community. It was more than a style of martial arts that embodied the simplicity of nature and the fluidity of time. Nor was it simply an embodiment of how good always triumphed over evil.

It was the name of a literal mountain located somewhere beyond the realm of the shinobial Elemental Nations and the home of arguably the most revered KungFu Master of all time, the late Founder of the WuDang School and Wu's teacher, Zhang SanFeng.

As Wu was arriving to the foot of the said mountain, he looked around at his surroundings - the finger-shaped mountain ranges, the valleys carved by brisk howling winds, and streams of the clearest indigo blue water - taking it all in. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath of the freshest purity infused with the natural mustiness of decomposing matters. It had been four long years.

The quickened pace he had set for himself was still too slow by his standards. And now, standing in the middle of the wilderness that he had called home for most of his life, he wished he could have come home sooner.

The travel that normally would have taken Wu only a week's time had taken twice as long. Carrying an extra person on his back had stretched even his limit. Fortunately the child was still unconscious. The Taoist Priest wanted to make good travel time, and not having to be bothered by an annoying twelve-year-old certainly helped.

... though it was this annoying twelve-year-old that would eventually free him from his duties as the Guardian of the Nine Stances.

'Finally, my dreams of becoming one with Nature,' thought Wu, 'not having a care in the world, retired from WuXia, and never having to set foot again into any of the mundane human affairs or their eternal struggle over power and supremacy.'

His euphoria was interrupted by a flashing mental image of the impatient blond loudmouth. He shook his head and let out a heavy sigh. 'Unfortunately it won't be any time soon.'

Looking up on the tallest mountain peak, the one poking into the clouds, Wu whispered with a smile, "It's nice to be home." Taking a moment to recirculate his Qi again, he took one last series of leaps, launching himself and his passenger higher and higher, until they were swallowed into the clouds.

Theirs was one of the most obscure, but it was also one of the safest. Few dared to invade their temple, and of the few who had, none had ever lived to tell about it.

Wu could not wait to see his pupils again, especially Chen, the youngest member, the one whom Wu had shamelessly teased before his departure, and also one of the most promising students since Wu himself.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Naruto woke up, or thought he did, to a vast darkness.

He saw nothing. Heard nothing. Smelled nothing.

He whispered into it. At least, he thought he did, but he couldn't hear his own voice.

He began to think this was a dream, or a nightmare, or, 'Am I in the vast nothingness that I'd experienced when Kyuubi was quarantined by Wu's Qi? Where's that clown, anyway?'

He spun around, only to find himself getting entangled by something in the process. Suddenly he felt his body falling.

Thud!

It felt like he hit the ground. 'Wait! Ground!?'

He quickly stood up and became quite aware of things tied around his eyes, stuffed into his ears, and masking his nose. His hands quickly found and removed them with a gusto.

The first thing he saw was a bed sheet wrapped around him. 'So that's what that was.' The room he was in was rather simple. It looked like a log box with openings for a door and a window. The only furniture inside was the bed from which Naruto had fallen. The blond then cast his eyes on the things in his hand: A set of earplugs, a blind fold made from the toad-patterned cloth used to make his pajamas, and a nose clip.

"What da hell is going on here?" shouted the annoyed boy, "and where is my hitai-ite?" He turned toward the snickering Taoist priest and pointed a finger at him in anger. "You think this is funny?"

"Well, greetings to you to young Fish Cakes," replied Wu with a grin, "and no, I don't think it's funny ... it is funny."

Naruto gave a weak laugh before launching at Wu, ready to punch that grin off his face. In midair, he saw Wu wiggled his fingers, and suddenly he found his body unable to move. It was just like that time in the hospital bed when Wu temporary paralyzed him with some sort of pressure point technique.

'He was able to use hit my pressure points with Qi alone?!' Naruto thought. He might not have Wu's mastery of the pressure point techniques, but he was certainly aware of them and could perform some to a certain degree due to his study of the Pressure Point Map in the manuscript of the Nine Sword Stances.

Wu moved out of the way, and the momentum of Naruto's flying body slammed into the wall, his body remained paralyzed in an awkward rigidity, causing more annoying snickers from Wu.

"Wu-baka, you coward! Release me and fight me like a man!" grunted Naruto, barely able to move his now swollen lips.

"Maybe one day you'll fight me as my equal," snorted Wu, "but right now, Fish Cakes, you're not worth my time. Plus, it's beneath my status as a Headmaster. No offense. It's the honorary code of WuXia that the elders not fight with their younger."

"Bull sh--."

"Na-uh-uh!" said Wu, now close enough to physically press a pressure point near Naruto's vocal cords. "No cursing either! Now, I hope we don't have to do this every time you see me, or else it's going to be six long months."

Wu tapped another pressure point on Naruto's back, and the blond's face slid down the wall as his now movable body collapsed to the ground, only to quickly pick himself back up. He thought about charging at the Taoist priest again, but he stood down, knowing the outcome would be the same.

Still feeling frustrated, though much calmer now than before, Naruto crossed his arms and pouted, "Hmph!"

Wu shook his head and said, "Well, just like I would expect from what Asuma told me. You're a cocky hothead who doesn't like rules. After all, your recklessness in battling those two men in Konoha confirmed as much."

A sudden feeling of overwhelming disappointment came over him as his mind recalled a promise he had made to himself: To never lose control again. As he reflected on how quickly he had just lost composure and charged at Wu, he bowed his head in shame and said, "You're right. I'm sorry."

Chuckling lightly, Wu said, "Don't worry about it. It'll be remedied before you leave."

Naruto looked up to meet Wu's glaze. "I take it we're no longer in Konoha anymore. By the way, what happened to my teammates?"

Nodding sagely, Wu replied, "Your teammates were rescued by your Jiji, so don't worry. I'm sure they were well taken cared for. Welcome to Mt. WuDang, my humble school of martial arts. As you can see outside the windows...."

Naruto's eyes followed Wu's hand gesture and noticed for the first time the field of floating white clouds outside, lightly covering some parts of rocks below before the thickness of its covering continued into the distant horizon.

"... this little cabin is secluded, separate from the rest of the WuDang School. I use it as my meditation room. It will be yours for the time."

Naruto turned his attention back at Wu and gave a series of nods to show his acknowledgment. Silently, he wished Wu would hurry this along so he can look into the clouds some more. He wondered if this Shikamaru-like trait was a subconscious manifestation of homesickness or simply because he was captivated by the novelty of his new surroundings.

Wu continued, "Before I explain to you why you have a blindfold, a nose pinch, and a pair of earplugs, tell me what you remember happened before you collapsed?"

Naruto nodded his head and proceeded to recount the battle, "At first I was having my a--, um butt, handed to me by some shark-skinned guy named Kisame. And when my life was hanging on the balance of the Shinigami, something took over. I then saw my body moving on its own. I was enjoying kicking that shark-teme's a--, um butt, until the civilians started to get hurt. Once I calmed down enough I got my body back again, but by then I was too tired and in too much pain. After they left, everything went black."

"Um ... I see," said Wu sagely. He stroked his beard as he pondered Naruto's account for a moment and explained, "The spirits of the Old Masters from those two manuscripts must have taken over. And as you have already experienced, it can help you out when you are in a bind, but giving up control in order to receive unlimited power, even for a brief moment, may lead to something catastrophic."

"Yeah, I get that now," admitted Naruto solemnly. "So can you help me?"

"Of course!" replied Wu, suddenly with a notable pep in his voice. "After you kowtow to me three times."

"Kowtow?!" shouted Naruto. Surprisingly, he actually knew what that meant. "You mean, me prostrate before you?! Why?"

Wu shrugged and replied, "A WuXia custom? Who knows? Does it matter? All you need to know is if you don't do it, I can't accept you as a student."

"That's a stupid rule," scoffed Naruto. He shook his head. "I'm not doing it."

"Um ... okay. Just shout out, 'Master Wu,' when you change your mind," said the WuDang Headmaster with an all-too-innocent smile as he leapt out of the window.

"Oh, great! Now what am I supposed to do?" whined the exasperated boy as he saw Wu's body dropped into the clouds, which quickly closed the small exit hole and erased any trace of disturbance.

Naruto turned away from the window and examined his room once again. This was to be his for the next six months, so he might as well as make the best of it.

"But how am I going to get stronger here if that Wubaka won't teach me anything," he said to himself. "Maybe I shouldn't have said no to his idiotic rule...." Then, shaking his head feverishly, "No! Never! I'll find another way!"

He walked toward the doorway, which was more like a large hole on the wall, since it didn't have an actual door. Instead, it had strings of beads hanging from the top, acting like some sort of privacy curtain. He brushed a few of the bead strings aside for a peek into the rest of the cabin. It was just an open room. He walked through the bead curtain slowly, constantly watching his surroundings for traps and hidden dangers, not that he was expecting to find any, but having had the kunai-crazed Anko for a sensei, old habits were hard to break.

The room was slightly larger than the bedroom and had a little wood stove, its dwindling fire providing a warm ambiance to an otherwise lonely cabin. Apparently this room also doubled as the kitchen and dining area. On the walls surrounding him were kanjis for Justice, Loyalty, Truth, and Honor. On each of the walls he saw rows of candles hanging with stings.

Naruto walked closer to one of the candle rows and noticed some had slight, but still noticeable sword marks on them, while others were in pristine condition. He concluded, "Wu must have used these for some kind of sword training."

To the other corner Naruto saw another room, one he presumed to be the bathroom. A very small one.

Next to the stove there was a good stockpile of wood. He unconsciously rubbed his hands together in response to his sudden realization of the frigid coldness in this high altitude.

"Brrr!" he said with a shiver as he walked toward the stove and added more wood, then he turned around and focused on the only other object in the cabin that had captured his attention, a low height table similar to the one he had in his own bedroom back in Konoha. On it was an instruction manual titled, "Kinesthetics with Qi Application," with a feather sticking out from one of the pages.

He sat down in front of the table and flipped to the first page and read:

"Kinesthetics is the study and training of one's body's position-movement sensory ability, Kinesthesia. This sensory ability is what allows your fingers to touch your nose when you're blindfolded. Kinesthesia does not enhance your other senses. It is a sense in its own right. With a highly refined kinesthesia, you can function as well as you normally would if you are to lose any or all of your sight, smell, touch, or hearing. The part of your brain that governs kinesthesia is the cerebellum, which is located ...."

Naruto skimmed the rest of the medical details silently until he came to the part that explained how Qi fit into the picture:

"When you train your kinesthesia with Qi, you will be able to FEEL your immediate and near-distant surroundings without using any of your other senses. You will 'feel' everything within the extension of your Qi-enhanced kinesthesia. Everything, living or nonliving, moving or unmoving. You'll 'feel' because the sensation will register as real as the sensation of something landing on your skin. Each breath, each sway of movement, each formulation of perspiration, even the tiniest shift of water vapor will not escape your awareness."

At reading this, Naruto dropped the book on the table and jumped up in excitement. He exclaimed, "Oh Kami! This is the most awesome thing I've ever heard!"

At a much later time, when his loneliness registered and when he thought of the people in Konoha, he would thank Asuma and Hiruzen, his adoptive father and grandfather, for having taken him in and taught him the rudimentary skills which made understanding the manual possible. But for now, he remained resilient to homesickness.

After he finished dancing around the table, he realized that he hadn't actually learned how to train himself in this yet. He resumed his position to continue reading and noticed that the book had opened to the page earmarked by that very conspicuous feather.

"How to train yourself," he read aloud the title at the top. He quickly devoured the instructions and flipped to the next page. "What's this?" he asked himself.

In the center of the page, he noticed a drawing, a man, whose eyes were covered with a blindfold, ears stuffed with earplugs, and nose pinched with a nose pin.

"Hey! That's what that Wu-baka had on me when I woke up this morning," voiced Naruto, who had finally found a solution to his dilemma. "Who said I need him anyway?"

Happy that he no longer needed to kowtow to Wu in order to get stronger, he ran back to his bedroom to retrieve the items he had once vehemently tossed aside. Those sensory blockers were to be his training gears for the next six months.

Yes, Naruto would get stronger, even without chakra or Kyuubi. Or Wu.

Never mind that it was Wu who had so conveniently left the Kinesthetics manual on the table and bookmarked a certain page with a feather large enough with which to poke out an eye.

…o.0.O.0.o…

Naruto decided to keep his training gears on from day one, like the manual instructed, even when sleeping. He would deal with his kinesthesia first and tackle Qi later. Qi ... he shuddered at the thought of having to revisit this after his mistake at the waterfall that netted his current plight, unable to access his own chakra or Kyuubi.

At first this new training was difficult. He would bump into things ... well, walls mainly, as the cabin was pretty bare to begin with. In addition to keep his sensory blockers on, he was also instructed to refrain from touching anything, so as not to depend on touch.

By the end of the day, however, he was able to maneuver around as normally as if he had been able to see, smell, hear, and touch.

And just when he thought he had gained mastery over it, someone came in and had everything rearranged by next morning.

Of course, without his sight, Naruto had to learn about this the hard way -bumping into things again, tripping over the table and landing flat on his nose many times.

The stove, table, bed, ... everything ... even walls. How that was even possible was beyond his understanding. He suspected it was Wu, but had no way of knowing.

He then realized that he hadn't really mastered anything. It was just him subconsciously counting his steps and using his memory to compensate for the "loss" of his predominate senses, for he had actually remembered where everything was instead of making any advancement in developing his kinesthesia.

This training was going to be harder than Naruto had first realized.

…o.0.O.0.o…

It was now the third month during Naruto's stay in Mt. WuDang, and he really missed everyone back in Konoha: Yuugao-sensei, Anko-sensei, Team 7, Hinata, and most of all, his family. Often he reflected on how his life would have been had Asuma not adopted him as son. Sure, he would still have the Old Man and Iruka-sensei, and the father and daughter at the Ichiraku's watching over him. And, of course, there would be the friends from the Academy. But having a Dad, a Jiji, and a little nephew - albeit an adopted one - topped all that. He wouldn't know what to do if something were to happen to them.

Today, he woke up like he did every morning and immediately noticed his missing training gears. Fortunately it was night; otherwise, his eyes would be wincing after their long disuse.

'Night?! Isn't it morning?' He then remembered from the Academy that the natural circadian rhythm was 24.2 hours, and without the ability to perceive day from night the past three months, his body clock didn't reset daily with the rising sun. So three months later, those .2 hours added up.

And of course, the world was upside down, or at least that was what his eyes were telling him. Another side-effect from months of sight disuse.

He closed his eyes and lay back into his bed. Why was he allowed to see again? And for that matter, hear, and smell ... and presumably touch?

He had already made great strides in kinesthetics. Not only that, him living alone by himself all this time had taught him a great deal of self-control and self-analysis. In short, he was no longer the compulsive spunky little gaki that Konoha had come to known, and in some, loved. Not to say he became a loner, or worse, a brooder. He was merely more focused and matured. One thing didn't change though. He was still a prankster at heart.

After his brain had relearned how to interpret the raw upside-down images sent by his eyes, Naruto stood up from his bed and walked out of the bedroom to the dojo table.

And, as he had hoped, there was a different book on it this time. This one was called, "Qi Mastery." He picked it up and opened to the first page that read:

"Qi exists in all things living and nonliving, moving and unmoving...."

Naruto skimmed through the description of Qi, since he had already been taught that from the manual Nine Yangs of Qi. His quandary wasn't what but how to access Qi. He searched the rest of the book, hoping to find a different method than what Asuma had shown him. One that would hopefully work on a jinchuuriki.

And then he smiled when he found it.

A smaller but still obvious bookmark, another feather.

He carefully removed it and began reading:

"Qi Training for The Two-Souled. Most people empty their minds and learn to access Qi with their consciousness, or physiologically speaking, with their cerebrum. If emptying your mind out completely is not doable, such as when you have a Second Soul interfacing with your consciousness, you'll have to learn to access and control Qi with another part of your brain, namely the cerebellum, which must first be strengthened through...."

Naruto smirked. That was what he had been doing for the past three months - strengthening his cerebellum.

Naruto continued to read on with greater eagerness. Eventually he would find out what training he must go through. And just like he had with kinesthetics, he would stumble through it at first, but eventually he would master Qi and make it work with kinesthetics.

He was stubborn, if nothing else.

…o.0.O.0.o…

A month after starting Qi training, and finally tapping into what was already within him, Naruto found himself waking up in the middle of some open space, a stony courtyard of some sort. Beyond the distance, he could see the floating clouds meeting where the courtyard left off.

"What da f--?" he started to ask, sitting up, only to find his vocal cord forcefully closed by that despicable Pressure Point Technique. 'Dammit! Why him of all people?'

"Do all ninjas use as much foul language as you?" asked a familiar voice behind Naruto. "I was sure Little Flying Monkey knew better than to allow this from his adopted son."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows. 'Of course Dad wouldn't! It was Anko-sensei's fault.' The teenager was frustrated that he could only voice the rebuttal to himself.

"Are you ready to kowtow yet?" asked the voice again while putting a blindfold on Naruto.

Naruto stood up carefully, slowly adjusting to his temporary handicap, and faced the WuDang Headmaster. He shook his head.

"So be it," Wu said as he turned his back on the boy and walked away towards the temple.

This time, Naruto sensed him!

'Hell, no! He's not leaving me by myself again!'

Naruto chased after Wu's fleeting presence with all his might. Yet, somehow, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't catch up to the much faster WuDang Headmaster.

Just when he felt Wu's presence escaping beyond what his Qi kinesthesia was able to sense, he felt a new disturbance in the Qi around him and dodged to the left, avoiding a sword hack that generated some sparks as it hit the ground.

'Perhaps this was a test,' Naruto reasoned, keeping his blindfold on this whole time. 'No matter! I'll show him how far I've come. Then he'll have to waive that kowtow rule and take me as his student.'

Truth be told, no one had never really seen Naruto fought to his full potential. In Academy, his fights were just good enough to win number 1 or number 2 spot, maintaining that spirit of rivalry with Sasuke; and he knew full well that Sasuke was alway holding back from showing anything he had learned from ROOT. When he fought Kisame, he was just recoverying from the waterfall incident, plus he didn't have access to his chakra and had to rely only on kenjutsu.

This day was similiar to his fight with Kisame ... still no chakra, no jutsus, and no Kyuubi. But this day would be different. This day, his optimal health, his controlled emotions, and the newly acquired Qi kinesthetics would play their roles in the fight. Hopefully those would be enough against an apprentice of one of the most prestigious KungFu School ever.

Naruto heard a voice, one that was much younger than Wu's, that told him, "Here. Grab."

The blindfolded Naruto sensed an elongated object tossed toward him. He snatched it out of air with his left hand; his right quickly grabbed the hilt and drew it out of its sheath, generating a ringing metallic hiss.

The sword felt like his sword, Yuutou. No, actually Naruto was certain this was Yuutou.

Not given any more time to reflect on this, he felt the attacker - this time he could sense his height, age, a few years older, aura, and the level of Qi cultivation - charging at him.

They traded attacks, one after another, without anyone scoring any significant hits. The sounds of metals clashing echoed in cacophony.

It was easy for Naruto to tell that the WuDang youth was holding back, and slowing easing Naruto into the sword fight.

Naruto dodged a sword slicing across his upper quadrant, only to fall victim to vicious jab on his ribs from a sword sheath, which came off of the attacker's spinning momentum. The young man's executions were flawless, and Naruto doubted he would have fared any better had he been blindfold-less.

"I don't know who you think you are, but you've dishonored your family by your disrespect," said his attacker, who then started weaving his sword around, channeling Qi into his sword.

Naruto felt what was happening as he, too, prepared himself by channeling Qi thoughout his body. Even though he was still quite new to channeling Qi of his own, he wasn't a complete novice.

Before reading the Qi Mastery manuscript and practicing the Qi training exercises last month, even before setting foot on WuDang, Naruto had already unconsciously awakened his Qi reserves while foolishly rushing towards his captured teammates from the hospital. The hardest barrier was already broken then. All that was left for him to do was to learn how to delegate Qi usage to his cerebellum, thus doing so autonomically, without any conscious processes.

Because the Sandaime had him practiced learning jutsus and chakra and seal theories from merely reading scrolls and manuscripts since he begun his ninja training, the past month was more than enough time to learn to channel effectively what Qi he had.

Unfortunately, the gap was so wide that even he could sense that his Qi cultivation wasn't as high as the WuDang apprentice before him.

Sword lessons with Yuugao-sensei flashed through his mind. He flashed Yuutou into the air and performed the opening moves of the Sakura Blossom Sword Dance, glistening rays of light onto the young man's face.

"What do you mean 'dishonor my family'?" asked Naruto as he capitalized on that momentary distraction and charged at his opponent. "And I didn't disrespect anyone!"

Naruto's words seemed to anger the WuDang youth even more.

"I was told you were ignorant of the WuXia Code of Honor," the young man replied, "however, attempting to attack Master Wu, your superior, should be a form of disrespect even in the shinobi world, no? And you not knowing that ... what does that say about the competency of those who raised you?"

Naruto of old would have easily allowed such verbal jabbing to get to him, but this was no longer the reckless Knucklehead ninja four months ago. This neo Naruto remained calm and collected.

He had almost reached the WuDang youth when he felt an intense energy the shape of an blade flying toward him. He knew this must be Qi, the same invisible energy that he was somehow able to generate when he fought off Kisame, though this one before him was much less potent than the one the Spirit Masters used.

He, too, channeled Qi into his sword and swung it downward, generating a Qi blade of his own.

The two energy forces met in collision, fusing them together into an expanding invisible sphere of energy that only those who had Qi kinesthetics could detect. Once the sphere reached Naruto's height, it collapsed into itself, amassing greater density while shrinking in footprint until finally it was too small to be detectable.

Then, in a flash, it exploded, unleashing all its energies at once.

The resulting gust of wind knocked Naruto off the ground, flying backwards. The blond pulled his head toward his chest to protect it from potential injuries when landing.

The WuDang youth fared much better, since the explosion had not taken him by surprise. He chased after the flying blond, dragging his sword on the ground, generating sparks for his next sword move.

Naruto, though still blindfolded, could "feel" the sparks, his opponent's approach and intent, and knew that nothing could be done to slow him down. And unfortunately any defense he could muster whilst airborne was going to be counterproductive, especially against someone of his caliber.

The blond arched backwards and stabbed Yuutou into the ground as his body catapoled upside-down over the sword hilt. As he landed upright, he pulled out his sword, flicking small pieces of rocks toward his attacker.

The WuDang youth smoothly sidestepped the flying debris as he launched a sword stance of his own creation: Dragon Sparks Heavenly Welcome. Like most names of KungFu techniques, the more melodiously poetic they sounded, the deadlier they were. And this one was about as deadly as they came.

Sparks, guided by Qi, flew off his sword tip toward the blond airborne shinobi. He wasn't sure if Naruto could deflect his proud creation, so he had only put half of his power into it. True, he was told that he was to go all out against this boy, but it was still too early in the day to kill someone.

Naruto found out first hand that WuDang KungFu was no joke, but he wasn't a quitter.

His only hope was to come up with a better offense than the one that would be used against him.

He only wished that he had access to his chakra again, and along with it, the ability to use his vast array of jutsus that he had learned from his adoptive family's coveted library. Then, he could show this boy his true skills.

But without the ability to mold chakra, he was reduced to nothing more than a sword-wielding samurai. It was his compulsiveness at the waterfall and Wu's meddling in business that wasn't his that caused his current dilemma.

'Kyuubi....'

No ... he didn't need to think about her at the moment, especially with the memories of his fight with Kisame still fresh - how Kyuubi had tried to help and only made things worse.

And while his cerebrum - his conscious awareness - was preoccupied with these thoughts, hence no longer over thinking his every move, the cerebellum took over his body, reacting autonomically to the antagonistic stimuli around him.

Naruto's Qi kinesthesia sensed the approaching sparks followed his lateral movement as if they were sentient. He knew then that running away would be futile. Not that he was going to anyway.

He combined two of the Nine Sword Stances, the Sword-Conquering and Missile-Conquering Stances, to instantaneously deflect the flying sparks and find weakness in the WuDang youth's sword art. The Sword-Conquering Stance was designed to defeat any and all attacks made with long slicing weapons such as swords and katanas. The Missile-Conquering Stance was to defeat attacks made by arrows and other throwing weapons, and in this case, flying sparks.

Right now, Naruto's sword tip was launching toward a fatal pressure point in the unguarded left side of the young WuDang apprentice.

The WuDang sword wielder immediately recognized his exposed left side and halted his offensive stabs. Because he had already put too much weight into his offense, he tripped on himself trying to dodge Naruto's sword. Before he could stand, he felt the coldness of steel against his neck.

Naruto took off his blindfold to look at his opponent. The attacker before him was only a year or two older than Naruto and dressed in the same Taoist robe as Wu.

He also noticed that they were now standing in front of the temple doors. He must have covered a greater ground chasing Wu than he realized.

"My name is Naruto. Your Master is supposed to train me. Would you take me to him?"

"Is he not also your Master?" the boy asked.

"No."

"Then what made you think he'll train you if I take you to him?" replied the boy.

Naruto sighed and withdrew Yuutou from the boy's neck. As he inserted it back into its sheath, he thought, 'Dammit! I guess there's no getting around this kowtow thing.'

Just then, a much older boy, perhaps in his late teens, walked into Naruto's extended field of Qi detection from behind. He could tell the skill level of this one was much higher than the boy. In fact, he didn't think it was possible for one's Qi cultivation to be this high, much less a boy not much older than he.

Since Naruto didn't sense any fighting aura, he let go of his grip on the sword.

"It's commendable you're already able to detect me coming," the newcomer said, "but you still need to work on extending the reach of your Qi kinesthetics. Were I a real enemy, you would have been dead by now."

Naruto knew it to be true. He bowed sincerely and said, "Thank you for the advice. Is Wu ...?"

The newcomer, who looked like an older version of the fourteen-year-old, walked past Naruto without stopping to acknowledge the blond shinobi. He stopped in front of the boy and said, "Chen, your overconfidence was your downfall."

"Yes, Seventh Apprentice Brother," said Chen as he bowed his head in shame.

"Don't worry," said the Seventh with a smile as he fondly rubbed the boy's jet-black hair. "You'll get better. Now, go to the inner courtyard for your lesson."

The boy ran off with a smile.

Once he was gone, Seven explained, "Honor your elders. That's the WuXia way. Master Wu, though you refused to become his apprentice, is still your senior, and you shall address him with the honor he's due."

"Honor is earned," rebutted Naruto. "Because of him, I can't use chakra, can't talk to my ... my first sensei, and haven't learned any new techniques. So he didn't earn it from me."

"You ingrate," rebuked Seven. "And I suppose it would have been better for you to die at the waterfall in your own compulsiveness, while the rest of your village was leveled by the Nine-Tails, right? And I guess you've learned nothing these four months and were able to dodge those attack because you're such an awesome ninja to begin with, right?"

Naruto bowed his head in shame.

When he lifted up his head, he saw Seven taking out a cloth with a metal plate attached. It was Naruto's hitai-ite. Seven, with a flick of a wrist, sent the hitai-ite flying towards its owner. It struck Naruto in the forehead and tied itself securely around his head.

'I gotta learn how to do that! It would be so cool to do that to Konohamaru.'

Seven turned away, and as he walked toward the temple doors, he said, "Follow the path to my right, they'll lead you down to someone who'll take you home."

He was about to walk through the red tall temple doors when he heard the young shinobi spoke.

"Please," Naruto begged the WuDang apprentice to stop, "tell Master Wu, 'Thank you,' and, 'I'm sorry.'"

Seven turned his head and smiled. As he was closing the temple doors behind him, he whispered loud enough for Naruto to hear, "Don't mention it, Fish Cakes."

Naruto's eyes widened. 'Fish Cakes!? That was a disguise? Of course it had to be him! No one that young could possibly have so high of a Qi cultivation.' He wanted to say more, but what? He could only watch the doors close on the visage of the man he both hated and learned to respect.

Naruto kneeled in front of the temple doors and solemnly untied his Konoha hitai-ite. He then prostrated himself in front of the door three times, as it was customary for a student before a teacher. Finally, he stood up and put on his forehead protector again.

"Good-bye, Master Wu," Naruto whispered before turning towards the exiting path, not knowing when or if he would ever see the WuDang Headmaster again.

…o.0.O.0.o…

A/N: My thanks to KyLewin for betaing.

autonomically - this word is used twice in this chapter. I know that automatically would probably work as well, but autonomically is a better choice. It conveys better what I'm aiming for; plus, it's neurologically correct.

Kinesthesia is real and is as I've described. Qi kinesthetics, on the other hand, is completely fictional ... and completely mine.