A/N: I thank the crowd for the positive reviews and comments. Some of you have brought up the lack of interaction between Naruto and the rest of the characters like Jiraiya, Kakashi, Sakura, and the rest of the rookie nine etc etc.
I want to mention that those will come later.
Soon, Naruto's training will take on an aspect of its own and I'm planning for him to be isolated. The conditions for successful training have always been peace and quiet, isolation, and a competent teacher plus hard work. Naruto's probably one of those who can do it without all of the above, but that's not the point here.
That's not to say he will become a complete hermit. He will interact with people, just not as much as say…Ino would.
I think that as of right now, I'm going to incorporate Sakura into the mix, because one, I don't see a reason why she would NOT ask for Tsunade to become an apprentice, and Naruto being her apprentice already is only more reason to train her. She has great potential as a character.
Yes, I'm probably looking at adding Sakura into the mix.
She gets too many negative reviews from the fanfiction community where people just don't realize that Naruto has his own serious faults: eg, not using his fucking brain.
She COULD do with less hitting and non-compulsive obsessive behaviors such as venting her frustrations on our favorite soon-to-be not so knuckleheaded ninja.
As for the pairings, I'm looking at adding a few more of Konoha's older generation into the mix. They are probably people who are going to be closest to Naruto. Especially those like Sakura, Tsunade, and Hinata.
As for the rest of the more obscure ones, I'm looking at Anko, Shizune, Guren, Temari and people who Naruto can make an emotional connection with(let's face it, there's a ton of them…so let's not fucking make a Chuunin Exam Day sized Harem alright?)
As for Naruto's training, we will see him advance into more complicated chakra-related natures in the future. Naturally, I've a whole more boat load before Naruto reaches chuunin stage. Much of my initial work in this story will be to correct certain faults and righting several wrongs before we move on to handle issues like Akatsuki.
Naruto will also be taking the odd mission or two in between his training with key people such as Ibiki, Anko, Shizune, Inzuka Hana, and more of the same people featured by the filler arcs. Those are every bit as important if not as entertaining as seeing Naruto get his ass handed to him by our local femme fatale Senju Tsunade.
Right, one last thing. I want it to be known that Jiraiya's training will eventually still come by – just not for a fucking long time. This story is first headed towards the filler arcs right up to before he leaves with Jiraiya in the series (where my having him apprenticed with Tsunade changes things) and then the three years of mandatory training he will have with Tsunade, and then another three with Jiraiya.
Happy reading.
Chapter Three
A week into the training, Tsunade discovered much to her delight – and Naruto's total and utter confusion – that Naruto could supply an army of living, breathing thinking clones on demand.
It wasn't long before she figured that with liberal amounts of abuse, she could speed up Naruto's training and fast-forward her plans for the blond with such a potent force-multiplier available.
That was all well and good, but she was also the Hokage.
She had papers to stamp, missions to hand out, objectives to accomplish, laws to pass and sake to drink. Training Naruto alone would have required incredible time-management skills, something the Sannin wasn't particularly noted for.
Worse, Haruno Sakura happened.
Two months past the day Naruto had asked to be her apprentice, the last remaining member of Team Seven had approached her.
She was young, naïve, and had a penchant for a violent temper, but under the tsundere exterior laid an insecure young, impressionable girl who had been placed on a team of heavy hitters and thrust into a support role which chafed at her natural personality to tear, and rage and scream at the world's injustice.
She reminded Tsunade of when she was young.
That; and she had the best chakra precision control of her entire generation and possessed a partial latent eidetic memory that would come in handy.
That cut down into training time with Naruto.
Then again, that worked perfectly well with her plans.
"Naruto, come with me. There's a place I need to show you. And pack to travel. You'll be staying there for the foreseeable future."
It turned out that the place his mentor had brought him to stay, train, bleed, eat and shit in was a mansion made entirely out of solid oak. The place was layered in seals.
Countless little symbols denoting a special function or a purpose arranged in a nauseating flow of seals and suppressants spanned each length of exposed bark. It was obvious that he would never be able to replicate these seals despite his inclination in the arts of sealing his mentor had so tediously beaten into him. Maybe he could in about….oh say fifty years?
But then, diagnostics wasn't beyond him….
"Time….space…dilation fields and physical extensions, wait a minute. Is this what I think is it?"
Tsunade looked mildly impressed.
"Yes. This is the very mansion that housed each of the Sannin before they made their names on the continent. It's the Shodaime's finest creation next to the unending amounts of forestry that houses Konoha. Inside of this mansion, time passes at a much slower rate. The exact ratio works out to be twelve hours inside for one outside. Some laws however, cannot be cheated. In there, your body will be held in stasis. You will not progress physically. Only your state of mind can be enhanced in such a manner. This means that you have more time to learn, to ingrain instincts and make new frontiers on your knowledge in a controlled environment where the possibilities of death are nil. Did you bring what I asked you to?"
"Hai, sensei. There's enough food to last for six months, water-cleansing tablets, and my entire wardrobe. What's up with that? If I'm training in there, I won't need this anyway."
Lotus and cinnamon flavored scents enshrouded his sense. Distantly, he could hear Tsunade laugh.
"That's why I'm here, stud."
Naruto turned to look at the woman in question and had to swallow a very unmanly 'eep' of surprise.
It was the crazy examiner lady!
"Naruto, I believe you two have met. Her name's Mitarashi Anko. The reason she's here is simple. Your weapon proficiency is horrendous. And I'm ashamed to say that my skills in that area are a tad too advanced for you to learn until you've mastered the basics. I can't afford to waste time on training you in Academy stuff and upper-tier Chuunin skills while an entire village tries to make do without my presence. Anko here is the village's number one weapons and poison specialist short of the father of your comrade, Higarashi Tenten, although he and his daughter specialize in weapons only. You will meet them after your training with Anko is up to a level of her satisfaction. Anko will hone your instincts inside. I will hone your physical prowess out here. You might have noticed that the training ground here is a forest, it is dense, complicated, and can hide many traps. This will be your home for the next six months, Naruto."
Anko merely laughed and patted him on the head.
"Welcome to hell on earth, kid."
The next six months passed in a blur.
In between, Tsunade discovered that Naruto was a one-man army capable of calling out an entire battalion of clones to aid him in battle and not just for training. It appeared each of his clones were as free-thinking, as capable and as unpredictable as the original, something highly unorthodox given the number of times he'd split himself.
It didn't take her long to think of what Naruto could be if he enhanced his fighting style with lethal weapons instead of mere kunai.
If every one of his clones had the weapons proficiency of the average weapons specialist than that meant his clones would be infinitely more dangerous than before.
Screw average. Her apprentice would be anything but that.
With that in mind, Tsunade asked Anko to step up her training.
Years passed in the mansion to hone new instincts, ingraining weapons knowledge, reflexes and various know-how's onto his soul.
Six weeks in real life working on weapons proficiency, honing his skill with a pair of serrated edge, spear-point daggers until he was a monster at close combat.
Eight more spent on improving his usage of shadow clones, replacement techniques, and forming one handed rasengans without wasting chakra in the heat of battle.
The blond was not no longer easily a target of assassination techniques such as localized explosives, head on speed assassination techniques such as the Chidori, or single-target high level illusions such as the famed Tsukoyumi of the Sharingan.
One month spent of perfecting the usage of chain-bladed weapons. Naruto quickly grew familiar with ninja wires and garroting chains.
The new weapons added an edge of lethality to the blond that was previously unheard of.
Most close-range combatants excelled at closing in to dish out damage. That meant that if you could range yourself against him or her, he or she instantly lost the advantage of using their main strengths: close combat.
Naruto took a different route from that.
His long range wind attacks forced enemies into close combat when necessary and away from him when he needed them so.
Needless to say, when Naruto managed to gut Anko's fifty foot snake summon without so much of a blink of an eye from fifty yards away, they declared him passable. In actuality, it was more like 'he passes, I'm not going fucking near him without three tons of body armour', but ninjas were notorious for being subtle, and tight-lipped.
Five weeks of adjusting and engineering a whole new style of taijutsu intermixed with a prospectively terrifying new method of close combat. Tsunade's method of grappling mixed with Anko's inhuman flexibility and speed enhanced with lethal weapons meant that Naruto could single-handedly take apart an entire Elite Samurai Battalion of Iron easily.
This was taking into account the fact that Naruto had not yet learned to utilize his mentor's insane strength.
Of course, he still had his faults. He still possessed about as much of the knowledge as a first year academy student, and knew as much politics as Konohomaru. He was still slow, unsubtle, and rather naïve. When goaded on hot topics such as Sasuke, he still more often than not failed to keep his temper leashed even if his hands were steady.
Still, despite Naruto's many pros and cons, it was in the last week of the six month period, that Tsunade and Anko learnt of his ability to not just Henge so to speak, but to actually Trans-motherfucking-form.
It was this ability, that would eventually lead Naruto to be known as Seguleh.
So, what do you think? I get sick and tired of watching people 'train up' Naruto and just dump a whole boatload of shitty techniques on him extolling the virtues of his large chakra pools while failing to underscore the fact that he's complete pants on theory regarding everything. In my opinion, training him in the physical sense while explaining under intense amounts of pressure is what should be able to get through the head of someone like Naruto.
Of course, I promised to show how he would utilize his shadow clones, and what not, but that's a little bit from now, when he leaves on the Raijin retrieval mission. If anyone could be so kind as to arrange the timings of the filler arcs in chronological order than drop them in my inbox, I would be highly greatful.
Review!