Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Chapter 2


A cracking noise echoed out into the calm air of the Bubble. The sound rang out in all directions before dying in the wake of a new, louder crack. The curious pattern repeated until a shout of pain escaped from a certain blond-haired figure in the center of a grove.

Naruto's blue eyes wavered for a bit before closing in exhaustion. His body sagged slightly but didn't relax completely.

'One more time and then a break,' decided Naruto. His eyes opened to focus on the ground beneath his sandaled feet.

The ground had a fist-sized depression deep within its battered rocky exterior- rock and soil had mixed with the red of blood, converging on the epicenter of a series of branching fissures. Ignoring this, Naruto put his left hand on his right shoulder and closed his slightly bloodied right hand into a solid fist. Rotating his shoulder a few times to loosen up, Naruto positioned himself into a semblance of some martial art the instructors back in the Leaf academy demonstrated. He needed to prove to himself things were moving forward, that all this wasn't a waste of time.

With a great yelp of exertion he snapped his fist into the ground, biting back the accompanying sting of rock against skin.

It tore straight through the jagged depression in the ground, burrowing past the hard dirt with ease and letting loose a devastating crack of sound. A concussive wave of kinetic energy flew concentrically from the point of impact, greatly enlarging the fissures in the ground. Dirt and dust from the impact hung in the air as a heavily worn-out Naruto finally fell onto his back.

Bare-shirted on his back, clinging onto torn orange pants, and swallowing as much air as he possibly could Naruto painted a figure unfamiliar to anyone from the Leaf village.

'That was a tiny bit better, for sure,' thought Naruto. His plans were progressing for the most part. It was slow progress, but it was better than the alternative.

His breaths for air calmed down considerably and he reached for a piece of parchment a few feet away. Jotting down a couple notes here and there with his handy pocket pen, something he took great measures to keep in the pants that were currently fall apart, Naruto staggered up and towards a sturdy-looking tree. Leaning his parchment on it he carefully scratched out his previous notes and rewrote them in much better handwriting. It didn't take him long to decide on improving his handwriting. When he had needed to look back on his writings the amount of time lost spent deciphering them was mentally painful and completely avoidable if he tried a little more.

And time was important here he had realized. Perhaps only two months ago was when he reasoned that just because time didn't pass normally in the Bubble did not mean the same would apply in the Leaf village outside. The Hokage might be scouring every tree on the outskirts of the village right now while he took it easy coming up with half-assed ideas to escape.

Though now that he thought about it, Naruto lifted his already healing fist to his eyes, maybe working on mastering super strength was a waste of time. From the time he began this side project, the main project being to solve the problem of making jutsu, it had already been four months.

Of course he worked every few days on finding something significant in the hand seals of the jutsu he knew, a spark of inspiration to lead to the pattern he could use to make new jutsu. But, sadly, it was to no avail.

He even resorted to combining random combinations of the twelve hand seals to shed some light on anything. But it was an unsurprising failure. The combinations that didn't do anything were the least of his problems. Hand seals, he had found, can individually affect his chakra. Using the dog seal for example would unconsciously animate his chakra into waiting hands like usual. It would enter a mode of energy he had started to call Hand Seal Chakra, chakra that he could leave to do its own thing. Usually a random combination of hand seals would not be able to interact with the Hand Seal Chakra from the previous seal; meaning no effect. But in some unfortunate cases, there would be an unpredictable interaction with a previous seal causing a rapid change of chakra flow. Painful chakra flow.

The last time he experimented with random hand seal combinations he burned the skin off of his right arm. He knew eventually he'd find some new jutsu if he kept combining hand seals randomly, but it would be useless if he wouldn't even be able to make a jutsu for a specific purpose. Breaking the Bubble for instance.

A loud sigh escaped Naruto. His thoughts were sidetracked by the hand seal problem yet again. It's why working on completing this chakra strength technique was so important he reminded himself. If he sat around all day doing nothing but thinking on the impossible problem of hand seals magically working, he'd go crazy.

The strides he had made in using chakra to boost his strength were probably impressive- Naruto didn't know of course if this was a common and easy accomplishment back home. But he would continue to think that shattering the ground with a punch was cool by any standards, even the stricter teachers at the academy.

But they were strides he made a while ago. Nowadays it felt like he was taking baby steps in improving his chakra-powered strength. The amount of power he had when he brought the gigantic tree down four months ago was a clear contrast to a punch causing a few fissures in the ground, however, so he knew there was more he could do.

Back when he first tried strengthening his arm with chakra using the pressure from chakra buildup, it ended with a failure because he didn't take into consideration the rest of his body. He noted down over the course of a few weeks following the breaking of his elbow and dislocation of his shoulder that he would need to protect every part of his body that would feel the backlash from punching something really hard.

By recklessly punching the wooden wall he had actually gotten the backlash of the force directly onto his elbow and shoulder, since they kept his arm straight. If he had kept going and didn't immediately stop he could imagine that breaking the rest of the bones in his arm wouldn't have been too hard.

Unconsciously he rubbed his arm. The pain would have knocked him to dreamland most likely.

Eyeing the tree he used to write on his parchment, he backed up slightly. His leg tensed while his body shifted sideways for a clear angle. The tree wasn't anywhere as big as the mammoth tree he crashed into but it did look thick enough to withstand a good deal of damage.

Breathing deeply and without hesitation the telltale hum and coiling chain of chakra made themselves apparent, emanating mainly from the core of his body. This was his Active Chakra. He knew chakra existed in his body without focusing, but it didn't have any direction. And from his observations it laid dormant until he either used hand seals or began to focus. Earlier the chain had seemed much thicker, but evidently all the work in boosting his strength improved his chakra control.

"'More chakra can exist in one place because I can better control it'," remembered Naruto from his notes.

'I'm not trying to use more chakra, and because I have better control the chain of chakra may be thinner and smaller but is just as filled with chakra as it was four months ago,' He concluded.

Continuing his show of force, Naruto arced out a chain of chakra. The chain spun and coiled downwards in an almost erratic manner but its stable path demonstrated the improved skill he was capable of now. Almost before he could take his next breath pressure began to cultivate in his shin area.

If he imagined a force of some kind were to hit his shin, he could see that most of the force would move to his knee, his hips, his lower spine, and finally his foot. He honestly had no clue where exactly the force affected, but the number of times he experimented with his chakra strengthening his legs and arms, and the number of bones broken during those "trials" allowed him to fairly guess.

His answer to stopping the force backlash of an impact from hurting him was to chakra strengthen the estimated areas. At first he had only chosen his entire leg, but when his hips nearly dislocated he began to seriously anticipate which areas he needed to pressurize. And he couldn't just pressurize those areas. He needed "strips" of pressure connected between each area in his body. All in all, it usually took maybe ten times as much chakra to strengthen a single body part. With the area of impact, his shin for example, taking 10% of the total chakra- making it a 90/10 ratio.

When he had knocked down the monster tree he didn't need to worry about any backlash since every part of his body was strengthened. And he also didn't need to control the internal pressures of chakra flow since chakra evenly flowed within his body; that would allow him to pump more than double the chakra into each limb. He had thought to just use the full body method, but the amount of chakra wasn't just large, it was by his estimates a dozen times the amount needed compared to the method he used now, quickly making it hard for him to concentrate. On top of that it was nearly impossible to move with chakra pressurized everywhere.

The climbing pressure gathering in his foot interrupted his thoughts. His foot and shin felt heavy with thrumming energy, enough to make him tense his muscles even more. His knee, hips, and lower back quickly followed suit, until finally a continuous strip of pressure began to develop between all the necessary areas. All of it took approximately five seconds.

In an explosion of force Naruto smashed his leg through the bark of the tree in front of him. The fibers of bark resisted briefly before his shin rendered the impacted wood into pulp and a shuddering wave of force erupted from the point of contact, nearly bending the tree a few inches. His leg slid to the left ricocheting off the wood as splinters coated his body, but he quickly shook them off and continued his spin from the momentum of the kick. Bringing his arm up, he spun until he was aiming for the tree again. Like his shin, his fist was strengthened in much the same way, with pressurized chakra in necessary strips of his body.

He plowed his fist into the deep indent of wood pulp created by his leg, shattering the center and sinking his knuckles deeper in the wood. The tree actually bent this time, before returning to its original position.

Naruto's fist fell to his side as he looked at his handy work. He would have felt a little bad if the Bubble didn't reset the state of the trees; despite the tree standing tall, it was scarred irreparably. The epicenter of where he struck the tree was indented half a foot deep with jagged bits of wood sticking out haphazardly from the backlash, and yellowish white pulp and splinters coated the bark.

It wasn't enough, however.

He knew he could knock a tree down with one hit. But he couldn't help but think his method was too inexact. 90% of the chakra in use protects his own body, leaving only 10% for the actual impact.

Shaking his fist to get rid of any residue he made his way to the clan house.

'And I can't just push more "chains" of chakra inside my arm or leg without destroying my body or something. I'm already building as much pressure as I possibly can,' mentally groaned Naruto.

The door to the house was wide open as usual, with light brightening the dark corridor that led to his room. The months that he passed in isolation gave him a quiet sort of strength in the form of not keeping his guard up. Any fear that someone was watching him sunk deeper into thoughts he never dragged up. Shadows stayed shadows and creaking in the house only happened when he moved around. His movements showed a boldness and openness few could proclaim they felt in any ninja village. Despite that, however, he felt hollow in the isolation of the Bubble-the boldness in being alone only validating the feeling.

Going through the frame of his door he threw the parchment bunched in his pocket to the side with a pile of others and made his way to the back wall where many tallies decorated the wood. He glanced to the side at a horizontal mark. It represented his height. Who knows, maybe he'd grow in here. Shaking his head, he scratched in another tally, by his count making this the 160th day, and then decided it had been too long since he made any significant difference with his chakra amplified strength.

'Once I began to learn to use the strip method, my strength hasn't been changing much. The chain of chakra gets smaller but the rate it gets smaller now might as well be zero. Maybe I need better chakra control exercises?' Naruto wondered.

He could definitely improve the percentage of chakra used to protect the other parts of his body, but he didn't know where to start. He'd have to be some sort of doctor or medic to know the details of the human body. If he persisted in his attempts to improve chakra strengthening with no idea on what to do, it'll would just make him miserable like the hand seal thing.

Naruto fell back onto his bed, waiting for a new idea to come to mind.

"Argh, what am I going to do now," he moaned.

He knew there was no guarantee that time wasn't passing outside the Bubble, but at this point he'd be willing to just take a long break until an idea came to him.


1 Month Later

The wooden board had been cut from the floor a bit sloppily, but it would do Naruto decided.

Naruto's eyes were currently focused on an arm long and half-an-arm wide rectangular piece of dark brown wood. Its interlocking grain meshed quite nicely he thought. The sides of the board were jagged, but he thought it gave it character.

Reaching out, he ran his fingers over the top and bottom of the piece. As he thought, the wood was uncomfortably sharp and splinters stuck to his hand, but he knew these imperfections would go away in time. And if he had anything, it was time.

With a pen in hand Naruto started to carve a face onto the wood.


2 Years Later

"You can't be seriously doing what I think you're doing," deadpanned Naruto. He was standing on the slanted vernacular roof of the clan house. His arms were folded and his face was attempting to convey chastisement, but his creeping smile gave the act away.

A worn wooden board was on the edge of the roof, a few inches from a few feet of free fall. It was laid down but the wobbling was enough to indicate the instability of the board. The board, surprisingly enough, had a face carved into it. Its eyes were expressive and open. And its mouth was shaped in a stupidly large smile, giving the impression that it had a silly personality.

"Right. You never do think these things through, Ikki. I would have taken you swinging across the trees again if you wanted something fun. But jumping from here? Do you want to break a corner again?" Chided Naruto.

The roof responded with silence but the blond-haired boy didn't take notice, only beginning to tap his foot on where he stood on the slanted shingles.

"If you don't come over her-" Ikki's precarious hold on the edge failed as it slowly tilted downwards, towards the ground.

"Ikki!" Screamed a blur of orange as Naruto pushed off the shingles, shooting the pieces of wood off the side with a display of strength and speed. He closed the distance in less than a second plucking Ikki from mid-air with ease and flipping forwards to land in a crouch on the ground below.

"What the hell Ikki! You nearly died!" roared Naruto. He swung Ikki up, glaring straight into Ikki's eyes.

The board of wood's goofy face remained unchanged.

"You just don't care do you? It's all fun and games with you," muttered Naruto. He let himself fall back, landing heavily on the grass outside the side of the clan house. His eyebrows were scrunched up and his lips closed into a thin, disapproving line. With a loud sigh Naruto moved Ikki to the side, leaving the board face up, smiling towards the sun.

"I'm going to work on the project, you can just sit here until you've thought about what you've done," motioned Naruto.

With one last look back at Ikki, the upset blond made his way back to the room he had been using for the project.

Kicking at some sheets of parchment in front of him Naruto barged through the door frame. The room was for the most part empty, unlike the room he slept in, he reserved this for the plans that came to mind. He had taken to calling it the Command Center but it was largely unused because of the mental drought he had been having for the longest time.

The last major project he had been working involved the building a huge wooden platform that would cover the length of the Bubble. It was a few months after improving his chakra strengthening, or what he officially called Chakra Enhancement, enough to only have 75% of the chakra diverted towards protection against backlash. The 25% chakra allowed him to enhance his strength enough to finally knock a tree down. Though it did take a few good hits.

The platform of wood was a part of Project Bridge. It involved trying to take advantage of the Bubble's logic. By building a long "bridge" that went slightly longer than one end of the Bubble to the other, he could technically have the beginning of the bridge somehow be in the same place as the end of the bridge. The contradiction might be able to create an explosion or have the Bubble collapse. He was right, somewhat. It did create an explosion.

Wood instantaneously appeared in the same position, creating a collision of energy and mass that had thrown him through a dozen or so trees. If he hadn't known how to enhance himself with chakra he would have snapped his back and neck into disturbing angles. Hadn't stopped it from hurting of course.

But aside from the failure of Project Bridge, Naruto finally thought of an idea that could occupy his mind. Project Flight. A project that would eventually allow him to soar across the skies. It was more or less a break from thinking up ideas that would end up failing to help him escape the Bubble.

He glanced over to the table in the center where a stack of parchment neatly laid. From a closer look the stack appeared to be bound together like a book, with three rings of hollow wood holding together the parchment. The front of the book was titled "Project Flight" and under it a rather bad picture was drawn of a figure with wings.

Taking hold of his pen, Naruto sat in the chair in front of the table and began flipping through the book, looking for the page where he had started writing a certain idea. As the pictures and diagrams passed he took pride in how well-documented his attempted solutions of the flying problem were, a great improvement from a few years ago.

One of his first solutions involved the Henge no Jutsu. If he could transform into anything, how about a bird?

It had worked. But only for a pathetic few seconds.

Although he can directly change the flow of chakra that comes with using jutsu, such as making the Henge last a few impacts or seamlessly changing the transformation, it takes a more than reasonable amount of chakra and control. Trying to make it last against a large impact while he's using jutsu like the Bunshin or even Chakra Enhancement? Impossible. The chakra flows interfered with each other. Attempt to change into anything inhuman-like, with a structure that made little physical sense to a human? An enormous amount of chakra and control would be needed.

His theory was that because an Iruka, for instance, with tiny legs is physically close to his body, his chakra didn't have to "cover" the difference besides changing already existing things. If he made the legs into needle legs that couldn't possibly be compared to his legs, the chakra would have to create a physical way of holding himself up, plus it had to transform to reflect needle legs.

The difference between a bird, even a Naruto-sized one, and him was huge. Nothing of the bird could really be compared. He could still hold the form if he stayed still and fueled it large amounts of chakra, but flapping his wings and flying? The disruption in concentration always screwed him over eventually.

That failure had led Naruto to try making wings on his actual body with the Henge. Wings on his body weren't as big of a difference from his body as being an actual bird, so he had thought it would be a surefire way of flying through the air. But no matter how much he tried, the wings he transformed on his back didn't function. They acted like decorations that failed to so much as slow him down from a tall fall. Maybe it was because wings were incompatible with humans, missing the right connections between muscles and nerves; a problem yet again that required medical expertise. Realizing that may have been the issue, he moved on from the idea after a few weeks of disappointing results.

The next significant idea he had tried was the use of chakra expulsion.

He stopped flipping the pages and focused on a detailed diagram. Badly shaped feet were drawn, and a chain labeled chakra was shown exiting from the soles and impacting the ground. Explanations littered the sides of the page, most of them estimating how he would have to control his chakra.

It came to Naruto's mind when he remembered climbing trees with his chakra. If he had too much chakra flowing into his feet, he would be sent flying backwards in a hastily formed back flip and the bark would be crushed by volatile chakra released from the soles of his feet. Eventually he learned to control his chakra enough to stick to a vertical surface, but the overuse of chakra gave him a plan to work with.

The only thing he gained from the idea was that he could jump even higher now.

'The chakra may have been enough to push me off the ground at first. But I couldn't get enough lift in the actual air. I need something solid to take advantage of that,' reflected Naruto.

Instead of giving up on the idea completely, he had decided to adapt it to work with his wings design from before. The current plan he was working on involved shaping pure chakra.

Rather than use wings formed by the Henge he thought it would work well enough to fly with wings of chakra. Combined with the use of chakra expulsion, he would able to navigate by expelling chakra from his feet and arms. It was so brilliant Naruto had thought it would be enough to shock Ikki from his stupid expression, but the guy remained as unfazed as ever.

Chakra, he understood, was able to exist outside of his body as pure, ethereal energy. Usually this blue-tinted energy would seem like fire, having no real form or substance save for the pressure and heat it naturally generates. Yet an idea that had been nagging him for some time now came in the form of the unique Kawarimi no Jutsu.

Back when he tortured himself to find a pattern or design in the hand seals of jutsu, he noted how the Kawarimi worked; both internally and externally. When he uses hand seals Kawarmi, he can feel how Hand Seal Chakra flows between each seal just like the other two. In the Bunshin and Henge, however, changes in the dormant chakra happen immediately from the first hand seal.

But the Kawarimi has no significant effect until the last hand seal, the Snake seal. The chakra in his core would in the end pulsate and explode outwards in an invisible current of energy. And, depending on how far the target object is, the chakra in time latches onto the object and yanks him towards its original position as it replaces him. In the academy he had remembered how physical this seeking chakra was. It sometimes knocked over chairs or tripped a teacher. When he gained more control these sort of problems disappeared, fitting his theory that the flow or chain of chakra gets smaller with more control.

"Still, when the flow of chakra hit something directly, it physically affected them. The Kawarimi no Jutsu only avoided problems like that when I mastered it. It would take me intentionally trying to collide with something to cause problems," murmured Naruto.

The proof that chakra can physically "touch" something outside his body was the basis for the idea he would be working on. If he can shape his chakra outside into some kind of tarp, acting like a wing, it would push off the air like actual wings keeping him afloat. And, most importantly, also give him the ability to control the wing with his chakra.

'Easier said than done,' he grimaced. Finding the page he was looking for, Naruto started another day's work.


A Week Later

Naruto swung down from the branch he was sitting on. Looking up he saw that the tree above him was cleared of branches save for the one he was on, all of them in the pile near the clan house. With his hands over his eyes to avoid the glare of sun he quickly measured the height of the tree.

"That should be tall enough I think," hoped the 13-year-old. With chakra enhancement directed towards his legs he shot off the ground towards the clan house, blowing grass from their roots and tearing his way through the resistance of air.

Naruto arrived in record time, closing the distance in only a few seconds, and he only just stopped himself from crashing into the wall of the house by digging his feet into the grass, cutting a path of dirt.

"Damn, I'm still not used to how fast I can go with that," huffed Naruto. He shook his sandals from the loose dirt that coated them and made his way to the door of the clan house. A small board was leaning on the wall next to a great pile of branches.

"Ikki! You think that's enough branches to soften any crash landings?" Naruto asked while looking at the heap of green and brown. His hands were wet with sweat and he couldn't stop hopping from one foot to the next. Taking a glance to the wooden board, Naruto grit his teeth.

"I am not nervous! It's just… it's going to be so awesome to fly. Don't worry I'll take you up with me once I get everything perfectly," insisted Naruto. Sweat watered his forehead, deterring him from talking anymore. Glancing yet again at the board of wood, he groaned in frustration and made his way back to the tree cleared of branches.

"I will be the first ninja to fly, Ikki. You'll be grateful to witness it," stated Naruto, an undercurrent of determination in his words. Taking one last look back at his sole friend Naruto forged on.

'Hmm… I wonder if I'd die from this height,' he pondered. His legs were not as steady as he would have liked looking down from the the horizontal foothold on the tree. From what he could tell, he was about half-way from the Bubble's top boundary. To get the lift required to stay in the air, he needed as much height as possible. Not exactly the best way to fly if he was ever stuck on the ground, but it was a start.

Taking a deep breath Naruto began to actively coil his chakra, despite the flow of chakra keeping him horizontally standing on the tree. Small chains of chakra could be felt circulating from his core, and with a push they all surged in separate arcs of energy, exploding from his back in transparent streams of blue fire.

A grunt of exertion escaped from him as he bent his knees, attempting to replicate what he had been practicing for the past few days. The blue streams of chakra began to coalesce in response to his control. Like the internal currents of chakra within his body, Naruto found that external chakra was just as manageable, though not without a greater degree of control the further away he exerted it.

Flames of chakra became a chaotic cloud of ethereal blue. The cloud spiraled erratically, pushing off the air behind Naruto and nearly making him lose his foothold.

'Only a bit more.'

A wave of energy escaped from Naruto's back, blanketing the cloud in a fan-like shape and significantly calming the torrents of chakra. Blue flames licked the sides of the fan, eclipsing the ninja in a gleam of light. Radial flows of chakra spun from the back of the fan into the air below, heating the atmosphere and generating lift.

"Let's do this!" Gasped Naruto.

Chakra arced from the core to his feet, overflowing the active chakra and instantly pressurizing his feet. The loud cracking of bark filled his ears before a concussive force detonated beneath his feet, throwing him from the tree at breakneck speeds. Adjusting himself at an angle, he brought himself perpendicular to the fast-approaching ground, his fan for wings tumultuously holding itself together.

His legs felt a rush before an expulsion of chakra escaped his feet again, slowing his acceleration to the hard ground. Another exertion of chakra strengthened the fan of pure energy at his back, and finally, he felt at ease.

A pattern emerged as Naruto continuously expelled a force of chakra from his feet and refined the form of his fan. In this breathtaking way, he floated upon the very air, swaying near gracefully atop the world.

Laughter bubbled out of Naruto's mouth as he became giddy with happiness. This. This was what he lived for. Something to break the cycle of failure and helplessness he faced in this chamber of hell. Where months can pass with only thoughts of escape on his mind. He had almost forgotten what it felt like.

Letting out a breath he maneuvered his legs back, with the soles of his feet angled to the ground. A rush of chakra expelled from his feet and tore through the air, propelling him forward in the general direction of the clan house.

The roof of the house showed itself in no time at all. And his friend, he could see, was waiting for him.

"Check this out! Up here Ikki!" The shout echoed from the flying ninja.

"I'm flying! Could you have ever imagined a ninja flying? This is a first!" The sheer happiness in his words resonated for several seconds.

Taking his time Naruto flew in a circle around the house. The air whipped him in the face as he increased the amount of chakra flying from his feet, speeding him up to the point that he was a blur in the sky.

"Whoo! Watch this!" Whoops of laughter trailed the blur that began a path upwards, corkscrewing up.

The wooden board remained still.

'Diving from the top is going to be amazing!'

The blur spun upwards exponentially faster, nearly disappearing in the air. Naruto could barely see now, his eyes straining to remain open and his head dizzy with movement.

His body shuddered violently, spinning him off-balance.

'What was that?' Glancing behind, his eyes widened as he struggled to stifle a gasp. The wing holding him up was in pieces. Bits of chakra flailed around, barely holding together from the violent winds.

'It failed!? I have to slow dow-' Naruto's skull caved into the ground in front of the house. Blood and brain matter splattered everywhere as red droplets colored a flimsy piece of wood with a face carved into it.

Naruto's spine was bent backwards, nearly cut in half as his legs hung disturbingly upside down. His shoulders and arms were shattered and his flesh flowed more like blood than human tissue. White bone stained in oozing red decorated the corpse in a terrifying recreation of the torn branches a few feet away. A corpse that once was Naruto Uzumaki.


Deep inside a murky darkness, slitted crimson eyes opened. They stood still for a moment before the realization sank in.

Water exploded away from beneath the monstrosity as it smashed against the prison gates, folding the steel and tearing away the seal's power. Its sharp claws tore wreaves in the walls, obliterating the metal instantly. Gnashing gargantuan teeth lunged out and a tremendous pressure filled the room as the Kyuubi no Yoko escaped from its prison of thirteen years.

Abruptly, the darkness around it blackened into something that it did not know.

"This is Death, then."

Blood red bubbled into the dark, casting a scarlet light over the black stillness. The prison was flooded with smoky water, pitch black in the shadows. Pipes ran across the metal walls and the ceiling of a distinctively industrial room.

Bubbles of red chakra swirled slowly away from the large beast as it shifted its head towards the creeping darkness in the hallway, watching it encompass everything it touched.

"To think you would die so soon. Pathetic." A booming voice growled and the feeling of primal rage hung in the air at its words.

Darkness had already entrenched the room, overcoming the crimson chakra of the beast. It crawled up like ink, taking everything into nothingness until only the rage and insanity of cruel red eyes peered out into the abyss.

"Reforming will take time, but do not despair human…" A thunderous, mocking laugh echoed into the nothingness.

"In death you will never feel the hatred I have for you."

Specks of black began to close in on the beast's vision. It knew that it would live on despite this being its first taste of death. Yet the idea of nothingness, of the absolute abyss that pervaded its very chakra… Perhaps it understood humans more.

'In their weak, short-lived bones they may know the terribleness of what awaits them, and perhaps committing acts of hatred and gluttony alleviates that fear.'

Nothing was left, now. But what was it again? What were these thoughts? It could think, therefore it must exist. Why?

Light. Shining and blinding light struck the beast, scattering the darkness from wherever it came from. A radiant glow glinted off the metallic walls and the broken bars of the gate, and, inexplicably, the Kyuubi no Yoko's eyes snapped open.

"I do not understand, what is this!?" The beast of chakra roared with a ferocity that shook the walls. Its voice forced waves of water to explode from beneath it, cracking off the metal.

Pieces of metal had begun to float, twisting and collapsing into something unbroken. Crimson eyes flew to the phenomenon, watching with a laser intensity as entropy itself reversed. The metal coiled and spun into gargantuan gates, the same as the original in almost every way. With a magnetic pull the gates smashed into their proper place, the metal meshing and coming together with a sharp gong. Yet the gates remained open.

And then it clicked.

"No!" It spun back towards the source of the light, its claws furrowing into the cement and water below it.

"Naruto! To think this place you have found can reverse even death! Your pain will never end, I will gnash on your bones, tear your entrails out, flay you aliv-" The seal finally attached itself to the gate and tendrils of the accursed black fuinjutsu warped out onto the Kyuubi's chakra and began to pull it with an impossible force.

Its voice and thoughts fell into a familiar cloud of rage, with nothing but murder and incoherent growls escaping its mouth.

The gates began to close inwards in sync with the seal's pull, ready to entrap the Bijuu once again. In a sharp moment of clarity, the Kyuubi's crimson eyes settled onto the end of the hallway.

"Experience loneliness again, Naruto." A wave of red chakra flew from the Bijuu, coiling and screeching down the hallway until it disappeared from the prison. With a sharp snap the hated bars of metal once again encompassed the Kyuubi's vision.


Naruto awoke to burning. Burning that staggered his thoughts and body. Everything felt fleeting, as if nothing mattered. Yet there was such a feeling of hate and burning within him. His hands flew up and reached for his face, scrambling to rub away the feeling.

"Agh!" The boy jumped up as he realized his arms were covered in a fiery aura of crimson. Confused and in pain he looked up to see everything around him on fire. Or something close to it. The same crimson flames that seemed to coat his entire body were scattered below his feet in fiery waves and in a crater around him.

Quickly hopping out of the crater he rolled himself onto the clear grass a few feet away. Eventually the burning seemed to die down, leaving raw, pink skin. Something he knew would go away after a day's sleep.

Now less in pain and more confused, Naruto gingerly picked himself up from the ground. Looking at the crimson that pocketed the ground here and there, he could with full confidence say it was chakra. It burnt and there was lot more than he had ever seen, but still chakra.

Yet he didn't have red chakra. Maybe something went wrong with his chakra wings? Of course. They lost their shape and twirled out of control. Though he couldn't imagine what could go wrong to change the color of his chakra. All he did was fly...

Naruto's pink skin paled. Water gathered in his eyes but he couldn't even muster the energy to rub them.

"I...I died. I flew up and like an idiot I forgot about what happens if you pass the Bubble's boundaries." He breathed heavily and his eyes couldn't stay still, wandering in every direction for something to avert his attention towards.

"I was going so fast, there was no damn way I could have survived." His voice came out little more than a whisper. Naruto suddenly moved forward, heedless of the flames of chakra around him.

The heat from the flames suffocated the air, nearly making him choke but he persisted forward, swaying in the direction of the house. It was just ahead. His mouth was dry. Decrepit almost. Yet his tongue could break into dust and he would still continue forward.

Ikki. What was once a board of sturdy wood, was now mostly charred, enough that a single touch would shatter Ikki's frame. If it wasn't for the burnt wood being the same size as Ikki and in the same place he left it, Naruto wouldn't have believed it. Crimson chakra licked the grass around the ruined piece of wood, and it dawned on him that he was responsible. That he effectively killed his friend.

"No!" He dove into the flames, ignoring the heat and stinging heaviness that came with them. Naruto's fingers closed around the frail wood, hoping anything was salvageable. That he was alive. His hope broke into pieces as the board did, its frame collapsing into black particles of ash forever separated from any resemblance to Ikki.

He was silent. The skin on his fingers burnt numb and crimson flames howled into his ears. Yet tears wouldn't come. It was as if the grief was too powerful for it to be expressed.

Yellow hair fell over his eyes as he trudged out of the suffocating presence of the chakra, but his lungs still felt a familiar suffocation, one that he desperately tried to ignore.

The Leaf village. He woke up every day in a village cocooned by larger than life trees, filled with ninja and civilians with lives all their own, and he felt more alone than anything in the world. No family and no friends, all he had was his big mouth. Hoping maybe it could talk him into a position of respect and acknowledgement.

Iruka and the Hokage would talk to him. Maybe he'd get an extra conversation or two from the Ichiraku family when he ate at their ramen stand. But all too soon he'd walk back to his apartment and as if he repelled the spirit of the village itself, villagers looked away from him, those who looked didn't have anything good in their eyes, conversations became heated mutterings and whispers, and not one person smiled at him. Not one person gave the effort to even welcome him. A simple smile, and maybe, just maybe, he could feel the hold on his heart loosen.

It was in the darkness of his apartment that his thoughts swirled in dark directions. The Hokage never cared about him. He looked at him just like he did anything else. His soldiers, his civilians, and maybe even his own family, in the eyes of the Hokage there was something far beyond all that, a picture unseen.

Was that all he was, a puzzle piece in the elaborate puzzle ensorceled within the Third Hokage's mind? And maybe if his piece fell off into the darkness, the Third's thoughts would glance over it and move on to the rest of the puzzle.

And Iruka. The Ichiraku family. Was he anything other than a student and a more exuberant customer in their eyes? The darkness of that room almost fed into the darkness that hung behind his eyes.

He moved within the forest at the edge of the Bubble. It seemed darker now. More sinister and wilder. His thoughts drifted back to the dark apartment where he was forced to think. Ikki was gone. Or maybe he never existed. It didn't matter anymore. This feeling, the suffocating loneliness, always came back eventually. Maybe he'd get a few classmates to laugh and it would go away, for a time. Or the Third would be more emotional in his talks and lectures and he'd feel a warmth inside before the chill of advice too old for a child battered him. Even sharing a small laugh with the silent Ikki wasn't more than a temporary distraction. Maybe if he stayed in the darkness forever he'd get used to the feeling.

The sound of the roaring flames died down as Naruto slowly disappeared within the shadows of twisted trees.


5 years Later

Azure eyes lazily opened. The eyes were still. Unnaturally still in the darkness around them. And then, as if a trap was set off, they narrowed in a certain direction.

"Well, well, well… I wouldn't have thought you to escape so quickly." Rising from where he was sitting in the darkness, Naruto, wreathed in shadows, swept his way to the edge of the Bubble. It didn't matter what it said, he would take care of it quickly.

Drifting closer to the clan house Naruto finally stopped, waiting for something.

"There's no point in hiding. Face your fate." His voice was strangely gentle.

A sudden sound to his left alerted him to a figure stepping away from the tree it was hiding behind. The hidden figure left the shadows into the sunlight, revealing its form as a replica of Naruto, with a few differences. The age was the same, an 11-year-old body with an 18-year-old mind- the dissonance becoming more disconcerting over time. Aged, brown leaves and branches were strung together to protect the clone's decency in much the same way as it did his. Its hair, however, was darker, but not by much. Its mouth was quirked in an uncharacteristic smirk, and most glaring of all, its pupils were red as blood, outlined by black sclera.

"Naruto. Why do you insist on doing this?" The words came from the deviant clone of Naruto in a teasing manner, as if it knew the answer already.

"I understand keeping your home free of pests, but really. It's been years since you found me. A man's gotta know when to quit, ya know?" It chuckled at its own words.

His face blank, Naruto shook his head, already tired from the niceties that were repeated time and time again. He waved his open hand to the side, his eyes never leaving the red of his doppelganger's. The ground behind his hand tore in half, as if sliced by an enormous force. Yet, by the amusing smirk on the clone's face it expected the result. It was near impossible to catch each other off guard nowadays.

To the left of Naruto, only seen through sensitive eyes, infinitesimally thin strings of chakra hung loosely in the air, fluttering in time with a nonexistent wind. The strings extended on across the stretch of space around him and his enemy.

Moving his hand up, Naruto curved his fingers inwards and the gleam of chakra coming from his hand was caught by his opponent, if the narrowing of his red eyes was any indication.

The cords of chakra warped out in response to Naruto's moving fingers, twisting and dragging with them the chakra strings his opponent attempted to bisect him with. He flicked his thumb down and in near absolute silence, a battle had begun that spanned everywhere. Swirls of strings covered his entire vision, and outside of it as well, each an extension of his body. Yet the same could be said for his opponent, with chakra identical in scope and power the red-eyed Naruto sent out strings of chakra to meet his own.

The chakra clashed silently together with dizzying accuracy, each string striking the other within a margin of inches. Twisting and turning his fingers Naruto slashed open the cluster of strings 45 degrees to his right, his eyes never leaving his opponent's. The ground to the left erupted as two strings struck precariously and were forced downwards, showering the battlefield with dirt.

He picked his foot up and smashed it in front of him, stepping on a few errant strings that had gone through in the distraction the eruption caused. The cords of chakra and dirt under his foot collapsed from the enhanced strength, and a crater cracked its way into all directions.

It was time now. He weaved his fingers together and with a quick expulsion of chakra jumped high into the air, approaching the halfway point to the Bubble's boundary. And then he stopped moving.

Chakra strings stretched out from his entire body. His legs, arms, and torso were so littered with strings that it appeared as if an aura of chakra surrounded him. But trained eyes, specifically red ones, could see that each string of chakra was distinct. Each one long enough to extend dozens of feet around Naruto, hanging aloft in the air.

The science behind it was perhaps beyond the both Naruto and his opponent at the moment, but it was essentially the imitation of Ballooning spiders. A spider, relatively light, can spin webs shaped to capture the air and its currents so as to achieve an effect similar to flight. Once a year villagers in the Leaf village could look out across the Northwest forests to see thousands of spiders migrate through the air with their own silk webs. Iruka had described it as Ballooning, only possible because of the light weight of spiders and the wind.

He brought his arms closer and flicked both his ring fingers, and a series of chakra "webs" holding him shifted by a fraction. Immediately, Naruto flew through the air, twisting his way above the doppelganger.

The idea of Ballooning wouldn't have been possible with the silk that spiders used. Through chakra and its discovered principles did the idea become feasible. As chakra becomes more refined and controlled by a user, more of it can exist in the same place, as he oft likes to repeat to himself. In other words the density of the chakra grows.

However, its weight does not change by very much. Of course if you were to throw a significant amount of chakra on the ground it would destroy a few things. But that is a result of the chakra's power and energy. Like electricity or lightning, a large amount of energy could be concentrated within strings of chakra, but the weight they experience is negligible.

Thousands upon thousands of effectively weightless strings could capture the slightest pockets of air, ultimately gaining enough drag to keep his body soaring through the Bubble's atmosphere. With such an ultimate control over his strings of chakra, he could manipulate the forces of air from any direction, mobilizing his body like a machine. A great contrast and improvement to the flimsy wing he formed from chakra years ago.

Naruto approached the point he would begin his plan. His opponent did not usually fly, equal power did not extend to equal personalities and opinions. Whereas he was partial to the feeling of flight, the darker clone preferred to hide behind canopies and take advantage of distractions. Many times in the past did he fall to its deceptions. But he had learned long ago.

"A smile on your face? It looks like you're quite a bit more excited today for some reason. I suppose I can't keep you waiting," noted the doppelganger. The smile on Naruto's face did not fall.

'You can't resist crushing any happiness,' silently confirmed Naruto. With a large yell the red-eyes of his opponent narrowed into pinpoints and from the trees themselves, thousands of strings arced around Naruto, seeking to enclose his body from all sides.

They twisted together into a single mass of vibrating blue chakra, warping through the air at velocities Naruto could barely make out until just below him they exploded into every direction. Whirlwinds formed from the force of the doppelganger's chakra, pushing him off-balance despite the hold he had on the air.

He flew back, tilting his head down to avoid the brutal swipe of hundreds of strings clearing the air above him. The resultant shock wave of air pressure jostled Naruto's brain enough to disorient him and he fell several feet before recapturing control of his strings. With a sharp clap of his hands above him, chakra shot from his fingertips upwards, twisting and ripping through the doppelganger's strings. He retracted them quickly with an open palm and stretched fingers, spinning them into a circular web of energy just in time to deflect the piercing strings of his opponent from opening holes in his heart and throat.

"Damn, lost sight of him for a second," muttered Naruto. What was once the doppelganger fazed away into the air.

'Bunshin.'

Sweeping his eyes across the ground he quickly found his prey atop the tree nearest to him. Without hesitating he cut the string littered air in front of him with hundreds of his own, each carving and slicing past his enemy's defenses with ferocious velocity. A branch on the tree suddenly exploded into smoke and a shadow jumped through the cover onto the ground, barely escaping as dozens of trees collapsed behind it.

'Henge.'

His mind shifted as he arrayed the entirety of his strings with one thought, and like a bomb exploding, the Bubble itself groaned from the force of thousands of strings flying upwards through the boundary and, with tremendous effort, instantaneously shooting out up from the ground, defying time and space. The doppelganger's red eyes went wide a fraction, but it gave away its unease all the same as hundreds of strings perforated its body. The illusion faded away as a large block of dirt fell apart in place.

'Kawarmi. Time to end this.'

Letting go of his chakra for just an instant, the strings of chakra that blanketed the ground spun into disarray, collapsing from the immense amount of chakra concentrated within each one. Wildly expanding, each string coated the ground with a tremendous presence of heat and pressure, erupting the ground into rivers of melted slag.

And then he waited. The bubbles of super heated rock beneath him giving away to rising steam, coating his body and the atmosphere around him with a hot cover.

'Perfect.' A satisfied smile inched its way onto his face, and the trigger was finally pulled. Red eyes tore through the steam from behind him, the doppelganger slicing its hands in an arc to deliver a decapitating blow with bladed strings of chakra. Glancing behind him Naruto made eye contact with red, his eyelids drooped down in lazy expectancy. Red eyes went wide.

A bullet of chakra tore through Naruto's left shoulder and into the stomach of the doppelganger, ripping a hole in its flesh and spine. With a closed fist, the bullet of chakra exploded into hundreds of strings and, with a small smile Naruto had won.

He floated lightly to just above the ground. It was cooled enough for him to be this close but not enough to walk on just yet. The doppelganger hung in the air behind him, its body entwined in chakra strings that covered every square inch of its body.

"I suppose you want an explanation, or rather, I suppose I want to gloat. It's actually pretty simple if you think about it. The battles we have fought always end in either brute force, with endurance and tenacity winning out, or in deception. I know this and you know this. But I also knew you wouldn't commit much of any deception against me until I decided to take the brute force method." Naruto moved in the direction of the field they started their fight in, the blatantly enraged doppelganger floating behind him.

"Using my entire arsenal of strings to wipe you out in this molten slag of a battlefield? That would be enough to stir you to attack from the shadows. But it would be obvious if I led you into a trap. I had to make it seem plausible, and even then I had to hurt myself to get a clean hit," conceded Naruto, his hand closing around his injured shoulder. The wound was already healing, helped by him sewing it shut with his strings.

He finally made it to the center of the battlefield, where the formation and the indent of the ground indicated a hole lay under the surface.

"Leaving a slight opening near my feet was easy enough, but if I were to react overtly then the plan would have died before it began. So I caused a certain clash of our strings to ricochet off each other on my left, and then used the flying rocks and dirt distraction as a lure for you to attack. When I attacked your cluster of strings to my right, it was to create an artificial weakness on my left. You attacked exactly where I wanted you to, close enough to my feet that a simple stomp wouldn't cause you any suspicion." Naruto chuckled slightly and waved his hand in the direction of the indent, his strings tearing it open to see the large tunnel leading to the boundary of the Bubble.

"The foot stomp didn't just form a crater, it forced your chakra underground while creating cracks that permeated most of the field. As I bombarded you with my strings in the air, and with the knowledge that you tend not to use too many of the same jutsu in a row, I waited for the right moment in which you would use Kawarmi. The jutsu works by sending out your chakra to act as a "hook" for the replacement, making the chakra that I stomped below the surface too perfect for you not to use. But there was always a chance you would be too far from your chakra in the crater, so as insurance the cracks acted as gateways in all directions for you to exploit." He peered into the tunnel, wondering if he would be able to find the answers to escaping the Bubble in there. He shook his head. Other matters awaited.

"When you did exploit it, I wanted you to realize I was unleashing my full power and I wanted you close enough. Engulfing the ground with thousands of exploding chakra strings was enough to lure you through the Bubble's boundary under the ground. My smile at the end was a bit of bait for you to take so I can perfectly time when I could tear a hole in your stomach." Naruto stopped smiling suddenly. His demeanor shifting to something a bit more closed off.

The red eyes of the doppelganger had long settled into a numb fury. It had realized the plan a few seconds after Naruto defeated it, but as it was, laid out before it, a lesson was learned. It would not underestimate Naruto's mind again.

"It has been 4 years since I took back control. It used to be every 3 months or so that you would attempt to regain what you had lost but now the time has shortened by half, a troubling fact. I have not lost in quite some time, however, and I do not plan on waking up in darkness ever again." Naruto's tone was deathly serious- barely more than a whisper.

He did not bother to look at the doppelganger any longer. He squeezed his fist and the red eyes did not have time to widen before it was crushed into blood and liquidated flesh. Blood dripped onto the ground as the ruined body was cocooned within the death trap of chakra strings. The blood slowly began to lighten, its color shining with an inner light. The body soon began to follow and in a fiery explosion of energy, chakra radiated out from the doppelganger. Its flesh and bones dissolved into blue particles of chakra, warping into a stream of energy.

He did not flinch as the chakra flew into him, directly through the fuinjutsu on his stomach.

"It won't be long now." Naruto rubbed his stomach. His face was strangely calm, almost serene.


Written Works of Naruto Uzumaki Vol. 6

I do not remember much of what happened after I had left to go into the forest approximately 5 years ago. My memories, much like my emotions, had gone into a dark place.

It was, I would say, a few months after my first death that I had woken up in a hallway- tinted yellow from cluttered incandescent lights hoisted on industrial walls. Water flooded the floor and pitch blackness had strangely persisted at the end of the hallway despite the lights. I do not remember moving across the hallway, but I distinctly remember entering the chamber holding the monster.

Stories were told late in colder Leaf village nights. In the fall and sometimes during the harsher winters, older villagers had talked-as if they had come to agree on when it was allowed. Whispers and a quiet hysteria flourished in this mass remembrance. About what it was like during the attack of the Kyuubi no Yoko. About the sheer malice that pressed down on the very air, the screams of those unfortunate enough to have touched the fiery crimson chakra as their skin sloughed off. And the terribleness that came with losing so much in so little time.

I had listened to the stories of course. It was not a secret that the Kyuubi no Yoko attacked, and as kids were ought to do, they took these stories for themselves to appease childish curiosity. Of course it wasn't helped that anyone old enough to have experienced the tragedy would falter at the mention of the Kyuubi. Children his age, in circles within empty parks and classrooms, told tall tales of how the monster could appear anywhere at anytime. It would seek the blood of sacrifices to raise the dead or bring about the end of the world. I had never believed the stories until I looked past the prison gates.

Its eyes were the worst. Crimson orbs that rooted you to the spot, flatly analyzing every little aspect of your appearance- Its nine tails had swiveled in and out of the shadows of the prison like hidden serpents. I had made out the body of a fox, but not entirely so- its body abnormally deformed by human traits. It had spoken with a hint of amusement in its voice, but I felt the malice, the rage trembling beneath the surface. Struck with horror I did not register its words until minutes after it was done speaking. I was trapped in here, it had said. Overtaken by dark thoughts and the isolation within the Bubble I had been inflicted with a curse. Not a conventional curse you would hear about in witches' stories, but the curse of the mind. And then it left me alone and confused, and I had felt darkness fill my vision.

When I woke up later in the same industrial hallway, I had felt the passage of time go by again. My mind had felt heavier with weariness, as if the world in front was fading. The Kyuubi no Yoko noted the same, mockingly pointing out that the darkness was growing. I had been too frightened and tired to demand answers, but it continued its explanation from where it left off from before. Glancing at the prison gates it told me of how I was chosen as a sacrifice for the village. A babe to bear the burden of the Bijuu. Then it laughed- fury and amusement converging in a caricature of a fox's face. It did not care for a few decades it had said, it was used to such things.

Jinchūriki- Power of Human Sacrifice. The term denoted my kind. Humans sacrificed by their villages and ninja forces to protect them from a Bijuu's fury and to protect them in war, exploiting the beast's power. Yet power comes at a cost. Jinchūriki were ostracized by society, either by ignorance or fear they are considered outsiders. It had explained much of my childhood in which disdain marred most of my interactions with villagers-this knowledge did little to alleviate what the Kyuubi ordained to explain next.

A Bijuu's power did not just bring about social rejection, it played havoc on a Jinchūriki's mind. Nightmares and dark thoughts in a normal human would perhaps lead to depression and an unstable mental state, something intangible and ethereal. But fuinjutsu created for the benefit of sealing Bijuu are tied to the warden's mind- connected thoroughly with the Jinchūriki's willpower and mental state. It is a necessary aspect to ensure eventual command over the beast's chakra.

I distinctly remember the feeling of foreboding I gained at the time, but the Kyuubi either didn't notice or ignored it.

This intrinsic connection between the mind of a Jinchūriki and Bijuu's chakra is helpful to subjugate power beyond the dreams of many men, yet inherits a vulnerability common amongst troubled individuals. Ominous thoughts, subconscious desires, traumatic events- all have the same access to the fuinjutsu connection. In a normal human, it would be essentially nothing to worry about. Jinchūriki were different. In despair they could, in effect, attack themselves with the Bijuu's chakra- something that had happened a few dozen times in the past. Those thoughts could even take form, using the chakra as a medium.

The puzzle pieces aligned themselves. I knew then my failure. I had given into to the darkness- the Bubble, the isolation, the death of a true friend that had never existed. It was too much and I had… let go.

At that point in time I had heard enough to understand the Kyuubi. The weakness I felt, the darkness fraying my edges and the memories I could not quite capture- A darkness had been inflicted upon my own mind.

"How do I stop it?" The question still rang in my ears. It was said pathetically, as if defeat already had come and gone. But the Kyuubi's reply stung even more.

"This is your mind. If you had wanted it to stop, it would have already."

One year had passed before I was able to escape the suffocating pattern of waking up to darkness and a monster. Perhaps the dark apparition that imprisoned me within the fuinjutsu was bored, or I had somehow gained the fortitude to take control. I still do not know.

Waking up to the world after a year was a salvation beyond anything I could think of. The Kyuubi no Yoko's presence haunted me when I was awake and when I was asleep darkness encroached further into my psyche, seeking to destroy me forever. But by a miracle I escaped and I was desperate to stay that way.

It was because of this that when I had woken up to a doppelganger, its pupils red and sclera black, that I had reacted much more strongly than I would have normally. Before it even had time to make a biting remark I was on it, my limbs all enhanced to the breaking point with chakra. It met my attacks equally in chakra. But my ferocity borne from desperation had opened the path to victory and it was killed. As its body took the form of chakra and sunk into my stomach I had been too tired to scream, but I realized in that moment I was stuck with a parasite. One that would stop at nothing to escape the overbearing presence of a Bijuu and eternal death.

Author's Note:

This took a much longer time than I thought it would. It greatly increased my respect for those who can consistently put out 10k+ chapters every week. Anyways, the story may feel like it's dragging at this point in time but I think things will move extremely quickly next chapter. Someone mentioned that I should show some of Leaf to give everyone a bit more perspective but you'll see the reason for my persistent capture of Naruto's experience in the Bubble. And also, thanks for the reviews and favorites!

Extra Clarification for Chakra Enhancement:

I read over some of the Chakra Enhancement stuff and thought it needed a bit more clarification for anyone interested. Basically, when Naruto ran into the tree he pressurized his entire body with a lot of chakra. Because of this he didn't need to 1) worry about backlash against unprotected body parts, and 2) balance the pressure in his body.

1) is obvious, but 2) refers to when Naruto had to balance the chakra chain going into a body part and the chakra chain leaving from it. This balancing creates more pressure (from the nature of both chains colliding) which shrinks the amounts of chakra chain the body part is capable of taking. Because he didn't need to balance anything out when he crashed into the huge tree, Naruto was able to push much more of the chakra chain (hence he used more chakra) inside his body before feeling maximum pressure, creating a lot more strength with more chakra.

Since Naruto won't be enhancing his entire body because of the problems associated with it, he's stuck with improving the ratio of chakra used by studying his body like a medic/experimentation or making the chain of chakra smaller through control exercises.