Favor of the Great Spirits

Chapter 2: Walking among Spirits

Naruto groaned as he woke up from his unconscious slumber, and panicked when he could not open his eyes before realizing it was just a cloth wrapped around them. His skin hurt, and from the burning in his eye's he wouldn't dare take off the bandages just yet, not until someone told him what was going one. So he sat there, trying to calm down and use the little bit he knew about mediation. Taking a deep breath Naruto used his remaining senses to determine where he was. "Okay, the ground is cold and rough against my head, reminds me of the cave…..and since I can hear that annoying white noise I guess it's after midnight or so since local stations quite playing at 11, but I don't know if I'm even I'm still Konoha…wait, I'm in my sleeping bag I know that much, there's still the small tear at the toes and the whole in the netting near my fingers from when I was recovering from white root poisoning! And the bucket is still next to me collecting water!" Naruto thought "Thank Inari, I wasn't kidnapped or something, but how did I get so burned…..and why are my eyes covered? Who covered them?" Naruto wondered aloud, sure that he was alone.

"You make weird faces while you think" A feminine voice commented bluntly, making Naruto sputter in embarrassment, since he couldn't sense her.

"What the…Who the fuck are you?" Naruto shouted in a moment of fear and confusion that wasn't helped by his blind state.

"Ama-chan was right….you are rude" The girl said bluntly again this time with a bubbly tone.

"Ama-chan, you mean that really pretty lady sitting on top of the cliff that thought she was Amaterasu" Naruto asked in wonder as he reached for the bandages only to be stopped.

"That was Amaterasu that you insulted I can assure you, if she hadn't pushed you from the cliff her presences would have burnt you to a crisp" The bubbly voice said before sighing "Ugh I'll just show you" She said as she began to violently tear at the bandages around Naruto's eyes "See" She said pointing to a mark on his chest, right above his heart.

For a few moments Naruto saw nothing as the light slowly filtered into his injured eyes. As the vision returned he vaguely saw the frustrated woman pointing down and looked, at that moment his vision recovered. There was a strange sun like symbol on his chest right where the girl was pointing too. "Okay first who are you?" Naruto asked in confusion in wonder, still trying to get everything through his head.

"I am the spirit of the Konoha Forest and the lands that your village stands on" She said, suddenly gaining an extremely regal tone "and you have gained an ability no mortal should ever have".

"Okay I'll bite" Naruto scoffed, refusing to believe a crazy girl even if she was pretty. "What did I do?" he asked sarcastically.

"When you began your meditation you incidentally fell into the Sage State and began drawing in energy from the Kunitsu instead of the Normal natural energy , mostly because this cave used to be an entrance to a very powerful sun cult, this allowed you to peer into the Kunitsu and see Amaterasu as she watched her sun set" The girl explained, shrinking Naruto's Skepticism "After that you began to draw energy from Amaterasu and eventually from her attack, Coupled by the fact you almost died….Congratulations, you are now capable of communicating with and touching spirits" The Spirit of Konoha said as she bent over, her top dropping down exposing her chest a bit and making Naruto blush.

"Okay I'll buy it for now….But why are you the spirit of the forest of Konoha, or better why are you a woman?" Naruto asked, letting his mouth get ahead of him.

For some reason though this made the young lady chipper instead of angry or insulted "Because I'm young, beautiful, and really fertile" Making Naruto just sweat drop.

"Apparently the spirit of Konoha is also shameless, and air headed" Naruto thought as he watched the spirit suddenly try and fix her top by grabbing her own chest in a rather rough looking fashion, before turning her attention back to him.

"I also know who you are Naruto Uzumaki, I've watched you for a long time and I know you're the only person who truly loves this village in its entirety, despite its shortcomings, despite the fact that the people so blatantly try and ignore you… like that time you tripped in the markets sprawl district and were almost trampled to death, all because they refused to acknowledge you as anything more than a stepping stone…and you still love this place" The woman whispered as she turned around and hugged him, weeping heavily into his shoulders " No being in Kunitsu-Kami or Amatsu-Kami, has ever shown such spirit, you truly are a wonderful person" the spirit said as she continued to weep, leaving Naruto to try and comfort her.

"Geez this chick is emotional…" Naruto thought as he tried to calm her down, hoping to be free of the emotional suffocation.

INARI

It was the next morning when Naruto finally departed from the cave, Konoha followed him cheerfully carefully explaining every detail of his new ability. "A little note about your new ability is that you can only see certain Kami , more powerful ones can evade your sight and weaker ones are usually gathered together in spirit wells, Kind of like community's for lesser Kami since they are so numerous, if you find one you can probably jump right in and…" Konoha never got to finish.

"Yes I know you've already explained this like fifteen times" Naruto almost groaned, seriously for such a smart girl she was really forgetful.

"I must have forgotten again…. Oh look an antique shop" the girl shouted dragging the poor boy with her, grabbing the attention of many passerby's.

"What's so interesting" Naruto as he looked at the various mirrors around the shop, noting a lack of the green haired girl in front of him as they passed.

"You can find numerous holy relics if you know where to look, I know for a fact that there was one here just the other….Here it is!" Konoha shouted loudly, making some of the glasses shake as she held up a strange gold medallion.

Naruto took a quick look at a nearby mirror to see the object floating and sighed. "Konoha, can anyone else see you….?" He asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

"Well, no….I don't even have a reflection in the mortal plane" a sudden shriek from the shop owner startled Konoha, making her start to shriek to, making the glass wares of the shop break haphazardly, sending shards flying in all directions.

Naruto grabbed the amulet and Kohona's and began running, Naruto threw open the door and it phased through Konoha as it closed. Naruto set curse for his home, deciding to skip the lunch he had planned in reward. He made a haste decision and leapt up onto the bridges on the markets second story and continued climbing until he reached the giant Shuriken that marked the largest weapons supplier of the leaf village. Naruto stopped and hid behind the giant metal star and began to pant as he took a closer look at the metal, and then noticed the arms around his waist and the head buried in his groin. "That was so scary" The emotional spirit cried as she hugged Naruto's legs together tighter.

"Well, it's your fault, you just can't go around being unseen and picking things up, people will freak!" Naruto shot, his anger over the situation apparent.

Konoha's eye's got big and teary, as if she was threatening to start crying all over again."Why are you being so mean…?"

Naruto groaned and tried to comfort the wide eyed. girl before she started going ballistic. "Why do I have the strange feeling that this is going to be a normal thing" Naruto thought as he continued to rub her back, stifling her tears but making her try and grip him tighter. "Ahem, so….." Naruto began, getting the attention of the still teary eyed Konoha "what was so important about this medallion that we had to go get it?".

Konoha just stared at him wide eyed before breaking out in a beaming smile "No clue" This admission almost made Naruto fall off the side of the roof "All I know is that it is a sacred relic of the Kami and is typically gifted to anyone who manages to gain one's favor, I also know that if you find a Kami with combat knowledge that medallion will allow you to learn it".

"What happens if it's stolen?" Naruto asked as he draped the medallion around his neck.

"Nothing…unless it's charged with natural energy, but even then you would need how to use the techniques behind it, so still nothing" Konoha explained.

"I'm going to go out on a limb and say you have no combat knowledge…." Naruto guessed, receiving a cute little confused nod from the patron spirit of the forest surrounding his quaint little village of deadly assassins. Naruto sighed "okay, well given what happened last time I tried to learn meditation I guess for the rest of the week I'm learning that taijutsu Kakashi gave me…..and I feel like I should be getting home and studying it first…"

"Why? That sounds so unlike you!" Konoha replied in a shocked tone.

"Cause after the trouble at the antique store I think we want to lay low" Naruto said as he saw several members of the military police run by.

NINIGI-NO-MIKOTO

A tired Naruto rose from hisdesk in his study room, which was actually a second bedroom, but since he had no roommate or anything he had it converted into a study. The walls were literally littered with potential Jutsu formulas, for techniques that wouldn't, couldn't and shouldn't even exist. Various scrolls also lay sprawled out across the floor, detailing, Ninjutsu, taijutsu, fuijutsu and genjutsu , discarded and stepped on, the pages crumbled around the shape of feet. He had spent the day studying the scroll and determining what the taijutsu called for.

It was called Muay Thai and it was extremely simple in theory and extremely deadly in practice. The use of knees and elbows was not uncommon in a shinobi's taijutsu, but they were thrown in at random when people got to close, or if someone had grabbed a hold of you. This style actually had a set of movements to utilize effectively and put into practice the use of elbows, plus the physical conditioning for it would end up turning anyone into a taijutsu juggernaut. Luckily Naruto was at a point where it would be no problem. With a smile Naruto yawned as he walked towards his bed, noticing the distinct lack of the Kami girl. With a yawn Naruto decided to forgo the pajamas and just toss off all his clothes due to the current heat wave rolling through Konoha.

So there in his bed Naruto laid, nude as the day as he was born slowly falling asleep when he felt someone climb into the bed and join him in slumber. It was Konoha, her cute face lighting up in a cheerful smile as she tried to snuggle up to Naruto. Normally Naruto would have paid it no mind, but given the fact that he was wearing nothing, and thanks to Konoha pressing up against him he knew that she wore nothing either "Konoha….." Naruto called out shaking from her sleeping state.

"Huh?" the girl said as she shot up and looked Naruto in the eye" Oh yeah…you can see…me now" she said groggily as a yawn stopped her.

"So I'm guessing you've actually slept in my bed often…." Naruto stated, though it was more of a question then a statement.

"Almost every day for the past two years…." Konoha said as she grabbed onto Naruto's side with a strong hold.

"You…um….see me do anything?" Naruto asked nervously, an embarrassed look on his face.

"Yes…sometimes I even participated…now go to sleep" Konoha told him as she nudged him to shut him up.

"Easy for you to say" Naruto thought "You weren't raped by a spirit".

AME-NO-UZUME

After a week of training in both meditation and Muay Thai, Naruto returned to active duty, his short term suspension finished after a enlightening and embarrassing week. Team 7 had been gathered in full to welcome Naruto back to their group, even Kakashi who had made sure to be early so he could finish the example that he had set for Sasuke and Sakura using Naruto, who in all honesty was the one most likely to get a suspension from duty first, whether it be insubordination or injury was a mystery. However, they weren't expecting Naruto to have changed much over the week long suspension, and they were thoroughly surprised by the changes in Naruto's gear.

The presence of orange was still strong and was in most of his outfit but it had been cut back drastically from when the team had last seen him. He now wore a fur lined orange vest with a black shirt instead of the jacket and opted to keep his arms wrapped up to the elbow, elbows that now sported the beginnings of calluses. He also opted to wear shorts instead of pants and like his arms the rest were bound up to the exposed joint, he also kept two knife pouches bound to the side of his shins and two large shuriken pouches attached to his new belt. The strangest things though were the ordinary strapped sandals and the gold medallion just hanging around his neck. "So what do you guys think?" Naruto asked with a chuckle earning a few flat looks from his team and his new spiritual companion.

"It doesn't matter what they think Naruto I'm the one picked it all out" Konoha grumbled as she turned to find a seat somewhere out on the field.

His team on the other hand had a different reaction. "Is this all you did on suspension Naruto, get a new wardrobe?" Kakashi asked, preparing to go into a speech about responsibility.

"Nope, this is just better suited for the Taijutsu style from the scroll, I've been practicing all week along with my meditation" Naruto practically shouted in excitement, shocking his team mates and putting a surprised smile on his sensei's face.

"Well then, how about a spar to begin today's training session, Sasuke vs Naruto, let's see how the past week has changed you both, and remember avoid any lethal blows and its over when I say" Kakashi gave a stern look to both Sasuke and Naruto, who only nodded back, as they walked out on to the field and took their starting points "BEGIN".

After the last bout Sasuke was weary of Naruto. If pressured Naruto would be backed into a corner and lash out with a strong combo, also given his recent training, no matter how little, and his superior endurance ,Sasuke was left with attacking hard to disorient, then a simple combo to batter him, followed by a trip and another hard strike to send him to the ground with another. Predictable yes, but Naruto's current form was inexperienced and the combo was a luckily shot, so Sasuke basically had the spar in the bag if he could just land the first shot. Sasuke smirked as he realized Naruto was thinking the same in terms of the first punch, but he moved too early.

Naruto moved forward with a right punch, Sasuke moved around it to avoid the inside and ended up getting hit with an elbow and then a strike from the left. Sasuke was sent tumbling but recovered, he rubbed the side of his face that had gotten hit and thought over the last attack "Damn, it seems this taijutsu style focuses on punches and elbows, so a front attack won't work and attacking from the side could prove difficult….from behind it is".

With a new plan of action Sasuke ran forward ducked and skid under Naruto's punch and deprived him of the opportunity for an elbow, only to be stricken with a front kick, lifting Sasuke up to be battered by an assault of punches and elbows. Luckily Sasuke never took a beating without learning a little something. It seemed Naruto's taijutsu style used both arms and legs to attack, and if elbows were used it was safe to assume knees would be thrown in there too. Eight points of striking were now available to Naruto. This called for a new plan of action. Sasuke dodged the first strike by Naruto who had charged forward and went under the second. Sasuke threw a punch at point blank, using his body's rotation to increase power, into Naruto's stomach making him buckle over. A solid uppercut followed suit and made Naruto stumble back, but he lashed out with a chop as soon as Sasuke tried to repeat the combo. Sasuke and Naruto then engaged into a clash of fist, starting and breaking combos, both of them gathering bruises until Sasuke took a single step back. Naruto then used a leg push to make Sasuke back up as Kakashi called the match.

It was then that Sasuke noticed something, Naruto looked exhausted, it was the one look he thought he would never see on Naruto. "Okay Dobe, what's going on, there is no way your taijutsu is that good after one week, and it's almost impossible for you to exhaust yourself, so why is it that we fought to a standstill and you actually look the part for once?" Sasuke questioned with a shout, which only made Naruto start to laugh.

"I'm so good at it because Muay Thai is so simple, it's basically instructions for punching and kicking better, so naturally I picked it up quickly because it polished and added to my current technique, as for the exhaustion well it's a simple side effect…you see Muay Thai demands that you always strike at full power so it's not meant to trade blows but to deal damage quickly" Naruto explained as he trudged over to the river and dunked his head in to cool off. He turned back to Kakashi afterwards and looked him straight in his single eye. "Can I go, I've heard about these taijutsu experts that apparently have more stamina then me, so I need to talk to them about conditioning, so I can fully use Muay Thai".

"You must be talking about Gai…there is no need for that, I know all his training methods that he uses for physically conditioning" Kakashi said his eye curving to eye-smile "You will join me and Sasuke in training from now on".

Sasuke grunted, but held some relief at no longer being the sole person subjected to the torture called training. Naruto though did not bother to hide his happiness "Really that is so awesome Kakashi-sensei, but how do you know Gai's training methods?"

Kakashi seemed to get a little bashful "When you've been a ninja as long as I have you'll take your fair share of injuries sooner or later," Kakashi explained before bringing up his story " a few years back I was on a mission that ended with me falling off a cliff, luckily I survived but it took weeks of physical therapy to just walk again, after that Gai helped me get back up to speed, I remember some of the exercises we used so we'll be doing those".

"Awesome" Naruto shouted again in excitement.

"Right…Awesome" Kakashi's smile slowly turned into a stare, that caught both Sasuke and Naruto's attention. "For the next two months I will be running you two into the ground with physical training, this is your only warning, back out now" Kakashi warned, making a chill run down the two boy's spines.

Naruto responded with thumbs up "Who do you think you're talking too?" Naruto quipped making Kakashi chuckled as he turned around and beckoned for them to follow.

As they left Konoha sat above the bridge on the Tori gate styled arch, smiling as she saw the trio walk off. She got up and went to follow them while whispering to herself. "There are great things ahead of him".

AND FIN, how is that for a second chapter.