Disclaimer: We own nothing. Our parents own the house and they buy the food. Piggy and Belle are moochers….

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6 months later

The Land of Waves was very different from Konoha. Naruto had never seen so much water in his life. It had taken them four days to reach their new home. The house was really more of a stone cottage. Ivy grew up along the sides and around the wooden posts of the porch. It had taken them two days to air out and clean the cottage. After that Michie had forced Kano and Naruto to help her clear away the yard and plant a garden. It was the garden that would end up being their main source of income. Their in the middle of the forest but if you walked for ten minutes you would arrive in a small port village. Michie began to sell herbs and teas that she grew and gathered to the villagers. Kano also had a 'job'. He was a very unsuccessful fisherman. Mainly he just took a fishing rod, sat on the dock and caught enough fish for his family to eat.

The little family became a well known fixture of the village. They were eccentric, loud, but overall very fun to be around. Naruto did not attend school with the other children. Michie and Kano (mostly Michie) taught him academics for four hours every day. In his free time Naruto could be found catching frogs or helping Michie gather herbs.

Today however was different. Today Kano had promised to start training Naruto in his unique style of fighting. So at present 'father' and 'son' were sitting in a field while Michie watched from a few feet away.

Kano made sure he had Naruto's undivided attention, and then he began.

"My fighting style is unique to me in more ways than one. There are a lot of technical terms, but since I ignored most of them when I invented this style I won't bother explaining them to you now" He grinned when Michie let out a longer suffering sigh. "The fundamentals of my style are not so uncommon but the extent to which I take it is. Now Naruto, I know Michie taught you how to mold charka, at least a little right?"

Naruto nodded and Kano continued

"Are you aware of what chakra is exactly?"

Naruto bit his lip. Michie had explained this to him. It was one of the only shinobi skill lessons he had received so far. Now if only he could remember…… "Ummm….it's physical energy and….I forget."

Again, Michie sighed and Kano grinned. "That's okay boy. It's a pretty difficult concept for a child to grasp. The academy doesn't start talking about chakra until their students are nine or so, although most students from shinobi families have gotten a crash course in it from their parents by that time. Hell, the Hyuuga practically cut their first teeth on chakra channeling exercises. Anyway, you were right about the physical energy. The second part is mental energy. Together you get chakra. Shinobi use hands signs to mold and focus the chakra into ninjutsu and genjutsu attacks. What are ninjutsu and genjutsu Naruto?"

Naruto grinned "Ninjutsu are super sick nasty moves, and genjutsu are brain rape techniques that let you screw around with people's heads."

Let it be known that this was one lesson that Kano taught to Naruto; odd how he can remember it perfectly. Michie glared daggers at her father and adopted brother.

"Oh I am so washing both your mouths out with soap when this is over."

Kano and Naruto edged fearfully away before settling back into their prior conversation.

"So anyway, yes Naruto that is correct. I also taught you what Taijutsu is correct?"

"Pure ass kicking?"

Michie gave the death glare, Naruto and Kano knew they were in trouble later.

"Yes that is correct. Generally Taijutsu is devoid of chakra use, although some ninja use it to reinforce the muscles in their legs to prevent damage to their bodies. It can also help to increase speed, but generally actual Taijutsu uses no chakra. There are a few exceptions. I mentioned the Hyuuga clan. They have a Kekkei genkai involving the eyes, called Byakugan. You more than likely saw them. They all have pupil-less white eyes."

For a moment Naruto remember the little girl from the playground. He supposed she was a Hyuuga, as she had no pupils, although he hadn't really thought of her eyes as white; in his opinion, they were really more of a pale purple color.

Kano leaned forward and tapped Naruto on the head. "Pay attention boy." He smiled then continued. "As I was saying there are exceptions to the taijutsu rule. The Hyuuga clan is one of these. They have a special style called Jyuuken that works in tandem with their Byakugan. It involves chakra reinforced attacks that target the tenketsu. Also the Sannin Tsunade…"

Michie interrupted Kano with a muffled cough. He turned to look at her.

"Dad I think you're getting a little deep for Naru, he's just a kid after all."

Kano blushed and looked at Naruto. It was true, shortly after mentioning the Hyuuga eyes Naruto had become completely lost. Kano ruffled Naruto's hair gave an apologetic grin.

"Sorry little man. I got carried away there. I hope you got the point though."

"Some Taijutsu uses chakra?" Naruto guessed

"Exactly! There see, you're not nearly as stupid as you look."

"HEY!!!"

"Now back on topic…My style of taijutsu uses chakra but it's more than just that. Chakra is a combination of physical and mental energies when it is in humans, but other things have chakra as well. There are trace amounts of chakra in everything, the earth, water, fire, the trees and plants. For some reason people's chakra is naturally attuned to a certain element, most likely because people are as much a part of nature as anything else. Some say your element is a reflection of your personality. I don't know if it's true or not. I think that plays a part of it, but I think your surroundings also make a difference. In Konoha there is a surprisingly high number or people with an affinity for fire. In Iwa more people are attuned to earth, it is the same for all the countries and their elements. I am natively from Iwa, my element is earth. I was always very good at Doton jutsus, but I always preferred to use taijutsu. At one point I began to experiment with creating a taijutsu that made the most of my elemental affinity. It took me years but I succeeded. I am capable of shifting the earth to follow my moves. I have made myself so attuned to my element that when I fight, I can use the earth almost as an extension of myself."

Kano gathered chakra into his hand and moved it a over the ground. The earth shifted and seemed to follow his motion, leaving behind a small scar in the ground.

Naruto looked on with wide eyes. "wow…"

"My taijutsu style is truly my taijutsu style. In truth I can only really teach it to if you to have an earth affinity. Otherwise, all I can really give you is the theory and the knowledge of the element you are attuned with. It is up to you to accumulate elemental justsu and moves that will complement your affinity." Kano took a deep breath. "Damn that was a long ass explanation. Did you get all that boy?"

Naruto's head was spinning but he nodded anyway. He got the important stuff. He had some questions though.

"How do I know what affinity I am?"

Kano gestured to the third member of their family. "That is where Michie comes in. Got the card Michie?"

"Yep" Michie pulled out several slips of square white paper. "Okay Naru take one of these cards. After that, push a little bit of chakra into the card. By the cards reaction we will know what affinity you are."

Naruto hesitantly took the card and did as he was told. He jumped back and dropped the card when there was an immediate reaction.

The two halves of paper floated softly to the group. Kano picked them up and examined them. He noticed that the very edged of both cards where singed a tiny bit. That was unusual, but Kano pushed it to the back of his mind for the time being and focused on the matter…or maybe the element at hand.

"Wind"

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At dinner that night Naruto was quiet. They had gone no further in their lesson.

Kano explained that Naruto needed to first practice control.

Controlling the elemental affinity of your chakra and your actual chakra was very different. Controlling the chakra meant controlling how it formed, how much was used and how to focus it. Controlling the affinity was getting a feel for your chakra as a whole. Kano's Elemental Taijutsu required that a person be so in-tune with their chakra that they where capable of connecting with the chakra in their elements. For Naruto this meant the air and wind.

All elemental training requires basic breathing and meditation, even more so for the wind element.

Naruto would begin his training with a series of breathing exercises. Then he would begin to practice some simple taijutsu from Michie. It was a common form, one that most academy students learned, with maybe a few quirks. According to Kano, Naruto would have to gain that connection with his element and then learn to make the wind flow with him as he moved. Once he had managed that, only time and practice would strengthen his connection to his element. At this point Naruto was free to begin tweaking his taijutsu to suit his element.

Naruto was excited to begin, but something had been bothering him. He looked up at Michie and Kano and cleared his throat.

They glanced up. Michie spoke first. "What is it Naruto?"

"Earlier, when I used the card to find out my element…you both seemed surprised…why? Is having wind chakra a bad thing?"

Kano shook his head "No, there is nothing wrong with having wind chakra. However it is unusual. People who use wind are actually fairly evenly dispersed among the countries. Suna, the hidden village of the land of wind, is actually well known for their unusual weapons and their diverse knowledge of elements, not their talent with wind related jutsu. So the fact that you have it is very surprising."

Naruto smiled. "Oh…cool"

Kano chuckled. "Yes, very cool" He changed to a serious tone. "However it will require work from you. I intend to do some more research on wind but you also need to work. I will provide you with scrolls for now. In about four and a half years we will return to Konoha and you will take the genin exams. Once there you will have access to the Konoha library and the wealth of knowledge it contains on jutsus and katas and whatnot.

Then you will begin to truly make the Elemental Taijutsu your own."

Naruto cheered and grinned. He and Michie started to talk about the other aspects of his education. Mainly as to whether he had completed his assignments. Kano was left to dwell on what he had seen today. Naruto's chakra card had shown he was most defiantly a wind affinity, and yet…the edges of the card had burned, ever so slightly, but still…

It was a sign of the fire element. Kano knew some people possessed two elements. Some could use them equally and it became a genetic kekkei genkai. Others preferred to use one over the other and showed no ability toward combining them. When such people touched the card the two elements each took up an equal half of a card, the same way each element took an equal half of the chakra. He had never seen someone who possessed a dominant element and a recessive element. It was almost like Naruto had used ….two kinds of chakra.

Kano's eyes widened as he watched Naruto help Michie with the dishes. He knew that Minato had designed Naruto's seal so that Naruto could draw on the demon fox's power.

The Kyuubi was a creature of predominantly heat and fire.

Kano rubbed his temples and decided to see what the future held. The seal was strong and so was Naruto. That was all that mattered.

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Hello everyone. I can't believe we took up a whole chapter with just the details of Kano's Elemental Taijutsu. So what do you think of it?

As I finished this chapter and read back at what I'd written, I realized Kano's Taijutsu is a little bit like the concept of Bending from Avatar the Last Airbender… I didn't intend for that to happen. I guess it would be fair to say that there is a similarity. However what Kano and Naruto do is not as long range as bending is.

Elemental Taijutsu is like the hybrid of Taijutsu and Ninjutsu.

Naruto is not a super child in this story. The Elemental Taijutsu, while very cool, does not suddenly make Naruto a jounin or anything, nor does it automatically trump any other Taijutsu style. Used properly with the right Ninjutsu it becomes stronger.

A note to all who wondered:

There is not an immediate time skip, one certain event has to happen first. It begins next chapter.

Please review

Thanks,

Piggy and Belle