01Oct2009. This is a repost. I had to. When I first posted this, it was done upon completion, without really any proofreading on my part since it was 4 AM and I had been up for a LONG time. I'm not saying that this version is error free, but it's better; at least this effort placated my conscience that I had at least proofread :D. No plot changes so you don't have to read it again if you had already done so. Only some minor changes to clear some things up. I'm still not completely satisfy with it, but whatever. It's done. If you have any writing suggestions, I'm open ears. Next chapter will be up in 2 weeks, and I intend to keep this deadline.
Naruto: Kung Fu Guardian
Chapter 17: Homebound
…o.0.O.0.o…
A/N: Don't skip the italicized. If you do, you'll miss the good part!
…o.0.O.0.o…
(Konohagakure)
The four elites made their way to the last known ROOT hideout since the Sandaime's disbanding of it five years ago.
As soon as they entered the underground tunnel, a permeating moldy stench hit their noses.
Inoichi, Ibiki, Anko, and Kakashi each wore ANBU style masks and carried a fire torch that Kakashi had lit with a simple Katon jutsu.
They took their time looking through cracks and examining crevices outside the entrance before finally opening the door. And even then, they were not in a rush to enter.
Anko took the lead here. Even though Sarutobi had appointed Kakashi as mission captain, everyone on this uncharacteristic search and rescue team acknowledged each one a leader in their own field of specialty.
The ex-protege of the Snake Sannin tip-toed in and out of the doorway, many times retracing her steps. Kakashi had insisted on having Kage Bunshin do the reconnaissance; however, Anko argued that Bunshins, no matter what type, were of no use in detecting high-level traps, something that her traitor sensei had taught her.
She wasn't looking for any explosive tags or other obvious booby traps, which were unlikely since ROOT used to pride itself in teaching its members how to implement highly sophisticated and difficult to detect traps.
A minute later, Anko gestured her teammates that it was safe to shadow her footprints.
What they found inside was consistent with what was expected of an abandoned strategy base of ROOT's secrecy: overhung cobwebs, deranged furniture, and most importantly, nothing hinting where things had been relocated to or who had been its members.
They were hoping against hopes that their search would turn up something, but so far, nothing.
Despite the overwhelming understanding that it was going to be fruitless anyway, searching the last known ROOT base was the least inconspicuous of their plans to find the current ROOT hideout. Soon, they would have to move on to other alternatives. The next would be to capture a ROOT agent and have Inoichi perform a mind interrogation.
The problem with capturing a ROOT agent was finding one to capture. Fortunately, that problem had just been solved.
Suddenly the abandoned hideout became brightly luminated, so much so that the Konoha faithfuls had to blink a few times to let their eyes adjust to the blinding brightness.
Kakashi, out of the quickness of his reflexes, took out a few shurikens and tossed them to where he thought the light source was.
Clang!
Those throwing stars hit something metallic; but more likely, they were deflected.
And, the brightness was still present.
'This must have been jutsu induced,' Kakashi reasoned. Currently the team formed a circle, each facing opposite directions with their backs toward each other.
He along with the rest of his team didn't have to wait long for answers.
"Haha! So Danzou-sama was right about them visiting this stink hole," said a concealed male, whose voice seemed to be booming from all directions.
"And four of them, just like he predicted," added another concealed male, using the same voice-booming jutsu.
"Them gathered together like cornered mice. Heh, easy picking," chimed in yet another ROOT agent.
"Remember, no scratches on their bodies," this time a female voice laced with malice.
…o.0.O.0.o…
It had been five hours since Ibiki had left the ANBU Interrogation Cells to see the Hokage.
His last command was to bring Kabuto from the withholding cell to the interrogation cells and prepping him for interrogation.
Without receiving any new instruction, the two guards continued to keep Kabuto in the interrogation room, knowing full well that interrogation rooms were less secure than withholding rooms.
Ibiki had been known for his unusual requests so that he could better prepare the prisoners for mind-breaking interrogation; thus, it was not inconceivable that making Kabuto wait was part of the mental preparation.
Another twenty minutes later, when it became evident to Kabuto that it was time for shift changes, a sinister smile crept up on the medic's face.
…o.0.O.0.o…
Although Inuzuka Tsume was glad she had gotten the Hokage to approve a search and rescue mission for her missing son Kiba, there was something still unsettling about how the whole thing transpired.
It was as if Sarutobi had agreed to the commission as a way to placate her, to qualm her fears.
This was further accentuated by the timing of events - the fact that his approval had come only after twice encountering the unexplainable black void in his all-seeing crystal ball, a tool that had never been known to fail, at least not to Tsume's knowledge, and certainly nothing of the sort had been fabled in the shinobi world.
The female clan head knew the mental detriment thinking like this was causing her. The Hokage had promised her that he would get her some kind of answer by the end of the day, so why couldn't she be patient and more at ease while waiting for his reply?
Call it "Mother's Intuition." Call it her "Sixth Sense." Call it whatever. Just don't call it "Overreacting."
She wasn't overreacting, and she had made certain that Sarutobi knew that.
After all, how was a mother with a son missing for two days supposed to react? especially having someone as dark and inhumane as Sasuke around?
To be fair, Sasuke wasn't always like this. At one time, she had even considered him a doting son, especially when she had first adopted him into the family, had given him a home, stability, emotional and physical shelter from the Uchiha massacre, and her own biological son and daughter had both welcomed him in with open arms.
"Mother, may I come in please?" asked Sasuke after knocking outside her bedroom one morning.
"Sure, is there anything you need?" Tsume called out, wondering if it was one of those mornings in which the boy required.
Sasuke walked into her room with a tray of scrambled eggs, two strips of crispy bacon and a glass of orange juice.
"Mother, thank you for everything."
That first week after adopting Sasuke had been filled with blissful memories.
Things weren't the same after the Uchiha had to split weeks between spending time here and spending time with Danzou. Sasuke was still courteous, thoughtful, and kind hearted, though the spark of innocence that had once been in his eyes were lost.
It was when Sasuke's dog Chame died that Tsume and the rest of the clan started to noticed the boy's transformation into hatred and darkness. The boy whose eyes had once held so much life and hope had that day become nothing but windows to an empty shell.
Knock! Knock!
Those two very soft and reluctant knocks on the clans door outside the compound's courtyard somehow echoed loud and clear to the inner chambers of Tsume's bedroom.
Was it because it was eleven o'clock, when everyone else in the clan was sound asleep, and sound carried the longest distance when it traveled through silence?
Or, was it because Tsume had been in expectation of Saruboti fulfilling his promise to her that by the end of the day she would hear from him?
It went without saying that the Inuzuka matriarch ran with al her might to the clan door, which she opened so quickly that she almost tore off its henge, and was greeted by a ragged and timid form of the old man Sarutobi.
"Sorry to disturb you at such an hour Tsume-san," the Sandaime said solemnly with a bow.
"Hokage-sama, you've found my son?" Tsume blurted out, oblivious to what should already have been evident had she been paying attention.
Hiruzen shook his head slowly and waited until he saw the excitement evaporate from Tsume's face.
"I'm sorry," she heard him saying as tears involunteerily streamed down her cheeks, "I don't have any good news to deliver. May I be invited in please?"
…o.0.O.0.o…
(8.5 weeks later somewhere between Mt. WuDang and Konoha borders)
"Yoohoo!" Naruto screamed as he performed another incredible jump. Under Master Wong's eight-week tutelage, Naruto's progress had improved leaps and bounds, no pun intended.
Currently, he was trying to improve his landing.
He felt the snapping of yet another tree branch, failing to support his landing. It was only an hour ago he'd entered this vast forest, and already he'd snapped more tree branches than he cared to remember. No matter how he much he improved, he still struggled to control his Qi and perform this Kung Fu maneuver, namely to soften his landing using Qi.
In the end, no shortcut or elite tutelage could replace what essentially amounted to taking the necessary length of time required to master Qi properly. Nevertheless, Naruto's progress was still remarkable by any standard.
The thirteen-year-old's body twisted acrobatically to avoid getting hit by the lower tree branches as he fell.
He even tried several times to land on some of the lower branches while in mid fall, but again, failed to do so without snapping them.
Finally, reaching ground, he pumped power to his legs and launched himself once more through the leafy canopy of the trees, propelling his body way above the tree tops. One of the many web-patterned cracks formed on the ground when he leaped off.
This exercise was one of the steps towards mastering the art of levitation that Master Wong had taught him. The training began with jumping from tree to tree, and upon mastery, leaping off and landing on only the top leaves on the trees.
To hell with landing on the leaves for a moment. After so many failed attempts, Naruto would settle any second now for landing on the branches as even this second preference would make his trip back to Konoha that much faster than launching himself from the ground like he had been doing.
Speeding into the rushing wind, the bluish gray Taoist robe hugged tightly around Naruto's body, cascading with the trailing air stream.
Dressing like Wu's protege had not been Naruto's idea of ... well ... not his idea, period. At the time, he really didn't have much of an option, either he put on the garment Wu offered him or endure Wu's teasing while walking around bare chested because the rushing wind after falling from Mt. WuDang had shredded his shirt. He opted for the lesser of the two evils.
His only consolation then was to remedy it upon finding a clothing store. But now, after 8 weeks of getting used to its comfortable fit and its adaptable mobility, he wasn't so adamant about changing it anymore.
His six-month training trip was almost up, and the eager anticipation of returning home and seeing his friends and family made him impatient at his lack of progress, which only made him foul it up even more. Rushing through his jumps without focusing on the mechanics of Qi control had not been helping his progress.
Since parting with Masters Wu and Wong three days ago, each returning to their respective schools, Naruto had been traveling by himself nonstop. Qi made it felt like a walk in the park; however, he knew better than to trust the deceptive ease it gave him, because ultimately he was still made of flesh and blood, needing food and rest.
But more importantly, he remembered what Master Wong said about Qi in the beginning of training:
"Qi exhaustion is worse than chakra exhaustion because one's fatality is almost certain."
Such dire consequence proved to be no deterrent for Naruto. He wasn't going to take it easy anytime soon, especially not with the tree jumping exercise. Such was Naruto's character, a "go-all-out" kind of a guy. But he wasn't completely foolhardy. He would stop and rest, eventually ... after he landed on a branch successfully without crumbling it.
He ended up launching his next jump from the ground, adding another cracked launch site to his trail, but he wasn't worried. Master Wu had assured him that someone would cleanup after his trails. Who? He didn't care. If Naruto had learned nothing else on his trip, he had certainly learned that men under the code of WuXia always honored their words.
Apparently Wu was very insistent that this be done, afraid that someone might find out about him or Master Wong having an apprentice. In the back of his mind, Madara came to mind.
He knew he had already come a long way before this training trip. And he certainly was no quitter. So, he would try again, and again, and again. Until he didn't need to any more and could just do it.
Using Qi to enhance his acceleration, Naruto was already traveling at a speed he had never imagined possible, covering roughly a mile a minute. If he could perfect the tree hopping Kung Fu, he could speed up his travels by 50 percent.
As he fell and nearly collided into tree branches from yet another failed attempt, he recalled his first impression of Master Wong, a medium-built bald monk that once disguised as that crippled old man chased by beggars.
The Grand Master Abbot Wong was a man in his winter years, yet possessing within him a most paradoxical spirit of youthful vigor. Naruto remembered being further taken aback by the fiery spark ablazed in those wizened eyes whose sharp vision pierced into his very soul.
Instead of feeling intimidated or threaten, Naruto had felt completely at peace, albeit a bit unnatural, much like how it was when he first met Kyuubi in his sewer of a mindscape. Perhaps this warm feeling had been a result of the Yang influence or the positive side of Qi. For those reasons and more, Naruto had known right away that Wong was the Guardian of the Nine Yangs, the counterpart to Wu, the Guardian of the Nine Stances.
"So, you're the guy in charge of the storehouse with all the Kung Fu manuscripts, right?" Naruto remembered asking the abbot.
"Ha, ha," Naruto could still hear Wong's benevolent chuckles as if he was standing next to him, "not all the manuscripts. Just the ones most sought after. The first Guardian of the Two Nines established the monastery many centuries ago as a way to bring peace and stop all the WuXia bloodbaths over these coveted Kung Fu manuscripts. Eventually our role evolved into one of storing, safekeeping, and preservation of manuscripts by transcribing them from older frail paper and skins into new ones."
"Is that how you became so stong? by learning all those Kung Fu?" inquired Naruto. Though the Qi flare from the disguised Wong that sent Naruto chasing was brief, Naruto still couldn't get over how pure and concentrated the energy was.
"Ha, ha," Wong chuckled warmly again. "No, actually my apprentices and I don't learn them unless we were given the owners' permission, and even then, we still don't as a rule because not all Kung Fu are compatible or beneficial to the practicer's body. For example, those who practice Yang-based Kung Fu cannot learn anything Yin based. And some Kung Fu are gender oriented. Learning something incompatible or cross gender might end up crippling you with miss-wired nerves and shattered cognitive functions. Those that learn Kung Fu purely for the power they grant are especially susceptible to these risks."
Naruto nodded his head and said, "I see."
That was the first time Wong met Naruto, and he had already sized Naruto up and could tell right away what stuff Naruto was made of, his character and moral fiber, and what kind of man Naruto would become.
The Grand Master Abbot Wong was different than the prankster Wu. Naruto felt safe and connected with Wong, much like when he was around his Jiji. Naruto wasn't sure how much of that feeling was due to Yang's influence, Wong's own approachable character, or his being homesick.
Home, still two long weeks away, hopefully. Ten days, if he could manage to learn the art of levitation. But first, he needed to land on a tree branch without damaging it.
Naruto still remembered the shock on his face after learning that those Qi-using beggars he fended off used to belong to one of the biggest clans in the WuXia world, the Beggars Clan.
"In our part of the world, everyone who's been taught Kung Fu has also been taught Qi, much like how in your part of the chakra and ninja training are taught together. Plus Qi isn't that hard to learn, though it might take years even decades before mastering it."
Even though Master Wong had stated that Qi wasn't hard to learn, and perhaps it was for non-shinobis, Naruto knew from experience that such simply wasn't true for everyone.
But that didn't mean Naruto wasn't willing to share. One of the things he had wanted to do when he get back home was to teach everyone how to channel Qi, given the liberating awesomeness of Qi. But several factors stood in hindrance:
First, his fellow ninjas must be willing to forsake chakra and jutsu usage while using Qi, a tall order for most ninjas, except for maybe Rock Lee. Qi, used primarily to enhance one's physical speed and strength, might appear to them as restrictive, comparing to chakra's jutsu versatility, such as elemental manipulation, destructive jutsus, genjutsus, bloodline limits, summoning, and fuinjutsu.
Second, without the ability to access chakra, his fellow ninjas must be willing to settle for close range combat, which might put their lives in more danger than they were used to.
It wasn't always like that - a choosing between Qi or chakra. Naruto remembered how Wong explained the Great Division:
"In the beginning of time, it was a world of survival, a world of men against beasts. Beasts were always stronger, but where nature compensated their weaker physique with greater intelligence, which led to their mimicking the moves of the animals to form Kung Fu and channeling their emotions such as anger and fear into their Kung Fu. Eventually men discovered Qi and adapted their emotion-channeling skills to Qi.
"Then along the way, a man now known as the Six Paths Sage made a deal with the gods. They granted him a pair of special eyes. With them, he discovered chakra molding and jutsus. Some fighters were drawn to the jutsus' destructive powers, flashiness, and long range applications like bugs to a nightlight.
"Unlike Qi which took years for them to master and was limited to Kung Fu applications, chakra allowed them to manipulate elements, destroy an army with a single jutsu, and make deals with demons and summons. They willingly traded the ability to channel Qi for the ability to mold chakra. Those who chose the path of chakra called themselves shinobis.
"The dedicated Qi users, however, refused to adapt, faulting shinobis for irresponsibly creating devastating jutsus that exponentially increased bloodshed and thirst for power. Most importantly they found chakra's demonic applications disturbing. Their feud climaxed in the Qi masters driving the shinobis to where they continue to live today. Few generations later, your part of the world remembered Qi no more."
Naruto sighed. Looked like even if he was willing to share what he had learned, his friends and family might not be willing to switch. He wondered how they would feel about his being a Qi-user instead of chakra-user. Would they embrace the new him, or would history repeat itself? Naugh! He was being overly dramatic. They were his family and friends after all.
According to Wong, Naruto should be able to access his chakra again, even as a dual Qi-chakra user.
"We believe your chakra abilities will return to you when Master Wu's suppression expires. His guess is three years, but that'll depend on how much mastery you have over the Nine Yangs. As for what to do before that, you could get stronger. Should your own Qi become stronger than the Qi suppression, you can choose to release her and regain your chakra usage."
Three years, or when his own Qi could overpower Wu's suppression, the sooner of the two.
Once, or if, he gained back chakra usage, he could retain Qi and use them both separate at a time. Neither Wong nor Wu believed it was possible to combine Qi and chakra and use them together.
There were many in history during the Great Division who had knowledge of both Qi and chakra, and there remained a few today who were fortunate enough to be exposed to both, Master Wu included. Wu's exposure came from a lineage of Qi users who was also able to mold chakra. In his youth, the yet-founder of WuDang School Zhang SanFeng had a chance encounter with a Toad Summoner.
They traded teaching each other chakra and Qi. Zhang, while holding the same distaste for chakra's demonic applications as those in the past, was open-minded enough to see value of adding tree climbing and water walking to his repertoire. In return, he'd taught the Toad Summoner how to channel Qi. What the Toad Summoner had done with that knowledge was unknown as he or anyone else with the same summoning affiliation had been spotted in the Qi-dominant part of the world again.
"I've heard tales of toad summoners using a hybrid version of chakra and a delimited variation of Qi," Naruto remembered Wu saying, "but I've never met a toad summoner, much less seeing the fabled technique done. However, since my master taught me how to mold chakra, some parts in those tales must be truth. it doesn't hurt to ask a toad summoner if you ever meet one."
And where was he supposed to go to meet one?
Naruto suddenly stopped jumping, landing solidly on the ground. His grayish blue Taoist robe stopped moving almost as quickly as his body had stopped. It was as if it was already in one with his body.
Qi was doing an excellent job of keeping his body renewed and energized, but his mind still could not escape the mental exhaustion from not having slept for three nights straight.
Actually, had it been any normal Qi that Naruto had learned, he wouldn't have been able to last this long, especially not being a mere novice. However, Nine Yangs was no ordinary method of channeling Qi.
Like Master Wong's, Naruto's Qi network maintained nine streams of energy. Naruto originally thought it had something to do with his nine-tailed tenant since most people's Qi, including that of the beggars and even Master Wu, consisted of only a single composite energy stream.
Master Wong explained that those nine energy streams resulted from learning the Nine Yangs. Naruto replayed the rest of Master Wong's explanation:
"The upside of having Qi as a single stream is that it's easier to control and more concentrated in power; however, those with single energy stream can only use as much Qi as limited by their reserves. But, those who learned the Nine Yangs are different.
"Much like a prism separating light into different colors, knowledge from the Nine Yangs manuscript separate your original Qi into nine very different energy streams, each play a different role protecting, strengthening and repairing your body and converting the Qi around you in nature into supplementing your own. And, the upside of this is unlimited Qi reserve, as long as their life force continue to sustain them."
Self-renewing power! That was what made the Nine Yangs manuscript one of the most brilliant Kung Fu writings in history. It was the reason why so many power-hungry individuals in history had stopped at nothing to get their hands on it. This had also become the reason why Naruto as the Guardian of the Two Nines must guard it along with the Nine Sword Stances from the likes of Madara, no matter how great the cost.
'So much responsibility,' Naruto sighed, suddenly feeling very exhausted as he launched himself in the air again.
Master Wong's warning immediately popped to mind:
"Qi is synergetically linked to your life force, so while Qi exists in all things, only living things can channel it. This becomes dangerous once your life force is running low because it takes certain amount of energy to cease channeling it. Once you reach Qi exhaustion, your life force will already be too depleted to shut off Qi's continuous outflow, and if that doesn't happen, Qi will continue to dissipate until it completely empties your life force."
Naruto liked his chances with a chakra exhaustion better and knew when to stop pressing his luck. Because, in chakra exhaustion, his body would shut down before reaching total chakra depletion, leaving at least some hope of recovery through rest or under skilled care.
Naruto made one last attempt in this tree jumping exercise, this time he stopped channeling Qi immediately before landing from his jump, hoping that would blunt the impact of his landing.
There. He did it. No shattered tree branch! There was still a hair-line crack at the split of the branch though.
Naruto wasn't supposed to cease channeling Qi as he had just done. On the contrary, he was supposed to channel Qi ahead of his landing to shield the landing site from impact so that the landing could be soundless, weightless, and trail-less - no pulverized tree branches or cracked ground.
But after three days of failed attempts, he wanted and needed to feel what it felt like to land on anything besides the ground below.
It was with this manufactured sense of accomplishment that he stopped channeling Qi all together. From the tree branch 40 feet above the ground, he jumped onto the ground, crouched for his landing, and surveyed his surroundings as was his habit.
In this state, Qi was still circulating throughout his body and could be called on at any time to aid in any and all his activities, including amplifying his senses. The main notable difference was his not being already in battle mode, which wouldn't take him any time at all to activate.
Finally exhaling, Naruto breathed normally again. Well, not entirely normal. His breathing had become perfectly rhythmed and with much lengthier breathing cycles than any non-Qi user. But he was finally inhaling and exhaling again. He had been under Qi respiration and inhaling only for the past 8 weeks! And now, what used to be normal felt ... abnormal.
Currently, in the now darkening forest, his body felt ready to go, yet he found it difficult to function mentally.
Events and images randomly entered his mind, especially things leading to and after his confirmation as the new Guardian of the Two Nines. Much of it had yet to sunk in, and much of it had been confusing as hell. The very fact that he was able to learn Qi, especially after learning how incompatible Qi and chakra were, was just one example.
Naruto remembered Wong saying, "It might have something to do with how Kyuubi was sealed in you, namely her Yang half, which could create a very compatible environment to learn the Nine Yangs. It might also have something to do with my inputting a large amount of Qi into you to suppress her and ultimately your chakra, and perhaps having so much Qi pressure overwhelmed the natural boundary between Qi and chakra."
Even now as Naruto pondered again over Master Wong's words, he felt insignificant as he tried to fathom how aligned the chain linking improbable events had to be for all this to happen.
Putting away such taxing thoughts, the depleted boy looked around for a place to spend the night.
'Can't rest just yet.'
He took out his sword and weaved it in the air, thrashing out wind blades, making it rain leaves and tree branches. He then twisted his body, mid-waist cartwheeled to the right, rapidly whipping up a sizable wind tunnel around him.
"Naruto," Wu's voice echoed from the past in the boy's mind, "clear your mind of everything and picture a tender sprout under a torturous rainstorm. The wind howling, water outpours slamming on the young twig. Unlike a stiff unbending tree, the tender sprout does not snap. It uses its tenderness to overcome brute force. Its weakness becomes its strength."
He tossed the sword into the air, and his now freed right hand joined his left in moving circularly, while synchronizing with the Tai Chi rhythm the rest of his body gave off.
"While Qi might not have the usefulness of chakra in manipulating elements or casting jutsus, you can use Qi to manipulate gravity and inertia. Tai Chi is the perfect Kung Fu to take advantage of this ability."
Tai Chi, the embodiment of all that made Kung Fu Kung Fu, was the proud invention of the Founder of WuDang and arguably the best martial art of all time. The whole Tai Chi system, encompassing both Palm and Sword Arts, was based on one single phrase from the Nine Yangs manuscript: "A tender sprout bows to the wind, while a stiff branch bends and snaps."
"Place your hand on opposite elbows and gradually slide both hands toward each other until their palms engage. As you lift one apart, channel Qi there and shape it into a ball. The farther apart your palms are, the larger the Qi sphere. You'll feel the circular energy patterns around that Qi sphere. Allow them to guide your movements."
The wind gathered more speed, hurling the fallen leaves and branches centrifugally, dancing orderly mid-air in sync with Naruto's movements.
Naruto's final steps led him back to where he'd started this dance ...
Hsssng!
... just in time for his sword to land back into its sheath which was securely tied onto his back.
Slowly tugging his elbows close to his torso, he lifted his palms up as he inhaled, and gently settled his palms down as he exhaled, effectively severing the Tai link between his movement and the flying debris whose momentum continued to scatter them evenly and randomly around from him, created a perfect 1000 yard radius of natural noise detectors, without any potential invaders possibly knowing the wiser.
With the "alarms" set, his hearing and Qi kinesthesia would take care of the rest when he close his eyes for the first time in three nights. Stretching out his Qi radar was something he could maintain unconsciously now. He intended to savor this sleep, but not before making the precautionary preparations, no matter how tired he was feeling.
Sleep quickly claimed him.
…o.0.O.0.o…
A/N: This chapter took longer than expected. I wrote its first draft 4 weeks ago, which my beta thought was okay, but I scrapped it. Four or five revisions later, I ended up with this. The training part was the culprit. It started out as dialogues between Wong, Wu, and Naruto, but it was too lecture-ish for my taste. I ended up facilitating the training through flashbacks, with their own set of shortcomings, but ultimately allowed me to pick up the action of Naruto returning to Konoha next chapter.
As it's been too long since my last update, I wanted to post this week and opted not to have my beta look it over first. I hope that there aren't too many mistakes and that it's at least of passable quality.
Please review. Your feedback is needed and appreciated.