Darkness surrounded Naruto on all sides broken by the odd small glowing bug flitting across the gloom; shuffling sounds resonated in sink with the odd dripping from the walls of the cavern.
Naruto raked his eyes through the gloom desperately trying to discern a way out and back up to the surface; he had slipped down into the canyon when he was running from Ebisu after the man had insulted both his chakra control and his speed, while the man may have been right about his control his speed was nothing to be laughed at.
So he had decided to force the man to catch up to him, he had pumped massive amounts of chakra into his legs and launched through the forest at high speeds easily outrunning the closet pervert, unfortunately in his haste to outrun the man he had failed to see the spider web cracks in the forest floor and had been unprepared when they had given way dropping him down a slick and winding tunnel before skipping him across an underground lake and splashing onto the shoreline.
And so there he sat, alone, in the dark, all by Him-.
"Huh, a human, oh we haven't seen a human in so long, not since he locked us down here."
Naruto froze at the gruff voice that echoed from underneath him, he then gently moved his hands around trying to feel more of the 'shore'
"Thisss isss indeed mossst interesssting daddy, what ssshall we do with the little kyuubi kid."
Naruto shivered both at the tone and the fact that they knew about his tenant.
"Well oh daughter of mine, this one has potential, he is like him, he has so much untapped power, just waiting below the surface, so how about it boy, want to be in the big leagues, we can take you there you know."
Naruto wasn't the sharpest kunai in the drawer even he had to admit that but he had learned from years of hate from the village to be cautious about offers that sounded too good to be true, and this one most certainly did.
"What would I have to do to get stronger?" He asked cautiously, a bubbly chuckling sound echoed around the cavern and the creature replied with humour tingeing its voice.
"Why that is simple, you are to be the anti-thesis to the toad, the slug and the snake, you will become a sage little boy, just like our previous summoner, all we want in return is for you to beat them, either together or separately, but they must be brought down a peg, they may have stood against us once but they forget that we made them the legendary three, you don't have to kill them, merely show them that they are still very much beatable."
Naruto thought about this slowly, he knew who the toad, snake and slug where referring too, it was one of the few lectures that he sat through and managed to stay awake during, the toad was Jiraya the toad sage, the slug was Tsunade the slug princess and the snake was Orochimaru the white snake, all of them legendary in their own right, but all was a counter to the other.
These creatures where offering him the chance to become strong enough to defeat all three of the senin, right now comparing himself to one of the three would be like comparing a firecracker to a nuclear warhead, no competition.
His choice was obvious, Naruto said in a slow voice. "Fine, I'll do it…Sensei."
Instantly torches around the spacious cavern burst into pale blue flames filling the air with the smell of sulphur and allowing the heat to rise even more in the humid cave it also revealed that the shore that Naruto was sitting on was a massive salamander most of its body submerged in inky black water with the only recognisable signs of it being anything but a statue was the almost constant flow of bubbles surfing in front of it's half submerged mouth.
Another salamander this one with a slightly blue sheen to its matt skin was watching with dull yellow eyes.
"Sensei, huh, I kind of like the sound of that, better than what he called me." The smaller Salamander gurgled in what Naruto assumed was an underwater laugh and then raised its head and replied.
"Yes, I think slimy old bastard is a lot less respectful that sensei, mind you Hanzo was never one to be respectful no matter the situation, I think the first thing he did when meeting the shinnigami was swear at him then run like hell, he wouldn't have taken dying lying down." The salamander finished with a giggle at her own joke.
Naruto was frozen to the spot, he had just accepted to be trained by the salamander summons of Hanzo the salamander, the one that made the senin, well the senin, they were joking about the man who when on water was compared to the yellow flash of Konoha, a grin spread across his face, Neji was going down.
A splash of water hit him in the face and woke him form his day dream of beating the crap out of Neji, he then realised that hundreds more dull yellow eyes had popped up form the water around him, he then realised that the water wasn't black naturally but rather it was coloured that way due to the hundreds upon hundreds of baby salamanders sleeping below the surface.
"Oh look daddy, the children are awake, what do you think their opinion on your new ssstudent isss."
In an instant Naruto had a number of small salamanders in his lap staring up at him inquisitively, tentatively Naruto reached out and stroked one, unlike what he expected the salamander wasn't slimy, it was slightly wet from the water but other than that it was dry and slightly cool, the small amphibian gurgled and leapt onto his hand spun around wrapped around most of his forearm and wrist.
A cool sensation spread around the spot that it had sat down on, black ink leaked out form under its body and Naruto watched in fascination as it stood up groggily and flopped back down into the water, a imprint of the salamander was laid upon his wrist, etched in connecting tribal flame like designs with a red stripe running down the middle and ending at the tail.
"The Salamanders you see before you are not infants, they are a collective, a hive mind, the minds of all the tribal heads of past, of all our hero's and our villains, of every single salamander that has ever lived, they make the decisions, they are the ones who choose our next summoner, it was already decided that you would be tested, it was no accident that you fell into here."
The aged salamander Naruto was sitting upon gestured his head towards hole that he had entered through.
"That hole could connect to anywhere, Iwa, Kumo, Kusa, we had already picked you as one of our candidates for next summoner, Hanzo was one of the few that was chosen, something the smart mouthed gaki never forgot to rub in my face, I wanted to train a chick from Kusagakure, but when the collective chooses a summoner I must obey their will, the tattoo on your wrist is a direct summoning interface, with it you can summon me and any of my children, you may also summon the collective."
A low chitterling filled the cavern and torches flickered slightly, shadows grew longer and the yellow eyes of the collective all focused on Naruto and the aged salamander he sat upon.
"Do not do so lightly, the collective contains the mercy of a million minds, but also the combined malice of a million minds, if turned towards your enemies they will not stop, there can be no change of heart, there can be no going back, if you summon them you do not do so to fight, you do so to commit genocide."
The tone of the aged salamander was solemn and brought down the impact that he could at will destroy a large number of shinobi by summoning the "collective" as it was called.
"So, what are we going to train in then, ninjutsu, taijutsu?" Asked Naruto tentatively.
The aged salamander chuckled slightly in response and said. "No, first of we are going to get you kitted out to use Hanzo's speed technique, so for that we are going to need one jutsu and one jutsu only….Kawarimi."
Naruto's face slammed into the salamanders back at MAC ten breaking every single bone and liquefying his brain.
He then recovered and said in an irritated tone. "What, all we need is the Kawarimi; any academy student can do that."
The salamander chuckled throatily and replied. "Yes but can every academy student do it seallessly, instantly and without the puff of wasted chakra smoke?"
At this Naruto shook his head and the salamander continued. "Hanzo's speed technique was childishly simply, he would replace himself with a human sized blob of water instantly and either collapse the enemy down onto his weapons or appear behind them, he was so proficient with it what he actually succeeded in replacing himself with a raindrop during the middle of a fight, almost exhausted him because of the difference in size but the fact that he succeeded was amazing by itself."
Naruto was beginning to understand, Hanzo wasn't fast in a normal sense of speed, it was almost as if he was moving the world around him to get where he wanted, it was truly genius in its simplicity.
The salamander chuckled grimly. "So boy, it looks as though we get to work on your chakra control then doesn't it, this training is simply, you must survive the most basic psychological and physical attack for the collective for one hour, then we work on the rest of your training."
Naruto blanched as he had a tongue wrapped around his waist and was thrown across the water towards the far wall, pushing chakra into his feet and legs he slammed into the side wall and stuck fast leaving spider web cracks at his point of impact, the collective turned to him and with an almost silent rustling sound swarmed towards his position.
"Play with us, dance with us, train with us, live with us, die with us, become one with us."
Their whispering voices filled his head as they drew closer, all around the room holes the size of an average man opened up some pouring water in some draining water out others simply leading off.
"Avoid them as best you can Naruto, I hope you survive the hour."
Then they leapt, a living black mass jumped at his position, he dodged with jump at the nearest whole in the wall, the whisperings in his head still following him echoing off the tunnel walls in synch with the old salamanders laughter and his daughters chuckles at his predicament.
XxXxXxX
Out of breath and completely exhausted, this described Naruto perfectly as he collapsed onto his bed, it had been a week since had started his training with Hanzo's speed technique, he could perform the Kawarimi seallessly and without the chakra smoke, but he couldn't do it on demand, he had to really focus and concentrate to perform it fast, that meant that he couldn't actually use it to spring attacks as he still had a small few seconds delay as he refocused after swapping with the water.
They had also taught him two Suiton jutsu's; they were the Mizu bunshin and the Suiton suijinheki, they had forced him to be able to perform the Mizu and Kage bunshin without hand seals and perform the Suiton suijinheki with only two or one hand seals depending on his control by the end of the second week.
He had to admit, he had been beaten up, had his clothes blasted of off him with high pressure water cannons, he was almost drowned, had been forced to dress in a sickly yellow jumpsuit and re-breather along with a greyish camouflage cloak just to escape the collective when he encountered a room underwater, but so far he was loving it.
Rolling off the bed Naruto stood in front of the mirror and pulled down at the small bit of skin below his eye frowning at the discolouration, the whites turning black at the outside and the blue of his eyes going a sickly yellow, the collective had told him, in its own weird and disjointed way, that it was die to him staying so long in their home, the Shūdan no shinseina suiro (literally the sacred waterways of the collective.)
It was unavoidable and happened to Hanzo as well, it didn't really have any effect on his body besides allowing his eyes to filter out common dirt and large amounts of silt found in water, this allowed him to see better underwater, Hanzo's eyes had developed so well that he actually saw better underwater than he did on land.
Naruto had to admit, being underwater for long did have a certain sense of peace to it, but it also helped immensely with his chakra control, the waterways and tunnels inside the collectives home was much to big to navigate without chakra so he was forced to push chakra out of his soles in order to move with any real speed.
The effect was him bombing down the passages at high speed followed by the other salamanders copying his movements, of course he was also taught taijutsu forms by Sanshouuo-Sensei, or as his daughter called him, her slimy bastard of a father.
The old salamander used chakra strings attached to a wooden marionette to teach him the forms, he then used chakra strings attached to Naruto's own body to help him perform them perfectly; the end result was him learning the taijutsu style extremely fast.
A shrill beeping distracted Naruto from his musings, spinning around he spotted the alarm clock going off signifying that it was time for his break from training, grinning Naruto almost leapt out of the front door leaving the books on strategy behind on the floor.
After leaving his apartment Naruto took to the rooftops heading towards the Ichiraku's ramen stand, the salamanders had forbidden him from eating ramen during training, he was forced to eat what they did, dried and then cooked cave fungus and mushrooms along with fish, the fish was okay but the mushrooms and fungus was just disgusting, it did however help immensely for building muscle tone.
So now that he had his break he was going to have some ramen and because he loved ramen he was going to have the best ramen in the entire village hidden in the leaves, Ichiraku ramen.
He landed in one of the free seats with a dull thud and a small oomph, grinning at a startled Ayame he said. "One miso ramen please."
The pretty waitress nodded with a small smile and moved into the back to start cooking his food, Naruto just lay his head down on the counter with an elbow propped up waiting for his food.
"I'm telling you Ino I haven't seen him since the end of the preliminaries." Naruto sat up slightly when he heard Sakura's voice coming form behind the flap, seconds later the pink haired gennin pushed past and entered the stand followed by Ino and Hinata, Hinata blushed and looked to the floor when she spotted Naruto looking at them.
"Oh there you are Naruto, where have you been this week." Naruto turned to Sakura and grinned before replying.
"Just training Sakura-chan, man am I gonna kick Neji's ass in the finals." Sakura looked shocked for a second and then said.
"Naruto, what happened to your eyes, and why are you wearing that." She finished pointing at Narutos yellow attire and the cloak thrown haphazardly across his shoulders.
Naruto just propped the backs of his elbows on the table and shrugged. "Ne, I wanted to try something new, even I have to admit my orange is amazing it is less than suited for a mission."
He finished with a dazzling smile that stil didn't stop Sakura from noticing that he didn't answer the question about what happened to his eyes; Naruto was saved from further questioning when Ayame set down his ramen in front of him, he turned around and began to eat.
Ino plopped down next to Naruto and smiled at him sweetly. "soooo." She drawled out. "What you learned Naruto, anything that can beat Shikimaru?"
Naruto sent her a look that clearly said 'I may be a bit slow but I'm not that slow' and carried on eating prompting Ino to huff in annoyance and say.
"Fine be that way, you probably haven't learned anything new anyway."
Naruto held his hand up in a half seal and the water from a small puddle outside rose into a Mizu bunshin and walked into the shop then high fived Naruto before walking back outside and collapsing into a puddle one more leaving a speechless Ino, Sakura and Hinata.
Naruto finished his Ramen and said. "Thank you Ayame-chan, see you tomorrow." He paid and left the now slightly blushing Ramen waitress behind, Hinata walked out of the stand a few seconds later off to do…..Hinata stuff.
XxXxXxX
Sighing in contentment Naruto relaxed into the war waters of the hot springs and closed his eyes.
It was one week before the finals and Naruto had pretty much finished all of the training that the salamanders had lined up for him, he had also received a gift, the head salamanders daughter had become his personal summon, he didn't mind that, in actual fact the ripple patterns surrounding his salamander tattoo looked cool, the flowers with them, not so much.
His eyes opened slowly and a tick mark grew on his head as the sound of perverted giggling drifted towards him from the white haired old man crouched by a peephole in the side of the divider separating the male and female sides of the hot springs.
This went on for several minutes until Naruto had had enough and summoned a small salamander, about the size of a dog, and sent it to go and kick the man into the other side of the spring and face the might of female justice.
As soon as it got within ten feet of the man he spun around and blocked the flying lizard kick (1)
"What the…who the hell summoned this." He growled out.
Naruto grinned and said. "I did ero-jiji, why do you care?"
The man was in front of Naruto in flash, literally nose to nose with him.
"Because, I fought the original holder of that particular contract, that's why, now tell me, where did you get it from?"
Naruto sighed in annoyance and raised his arm out of the water showing his summoning tattoo and said in a bored tone.
"The salamander collective chose me themselves; I didn't get it from anyone."
The old man glared at Naruto for a second before forming a half seal and vanishing in a puff of smoke leaving Naruto to snort at the fact that a ninja of his age couldn't even perform a shunshin without wasting chakra.
XxXxXxX
Okay what do ya guys think of this one then, I rather like the concept and am hoping to continue it.
(1) Like the falcon kick but a variant used by lizards, oddly enough the salamander is a subspecies of amphibian and therefore should not have access to the flying lizard kick, my theory is that 'flying amphibian kick' is too troublesome to write.