Chapter 27: Of Fire and Water

Disclaimer: Naruto is the work of Kishimoto

Naruto spent the rest of the week as well as a further 2 Loops meaning an extra 2 Weeks before the battle against Zabuza and Haku on the bridge training his ability to use Fire Jutsus.

In all, Naruto could say that he quite heavily exploited the use of Shadow Clones to further his training on one thing at a time at extreme speeds. He had used the Leaf Exercise for Nature Transformation in order to increase his ability to use Fire.

That is, until he found out he already spent to what was equivalent to more than a year with his Shadow Clones to just burn a leaf into ashes and he was only just there barely making some burns on the edges of the leaf.

Funnily enough his training in Chakra Compression, Chakra Cycling and Chakra Folding reached a much higher level due to this.

By trying to further his training with the former, he had used the techniques of the later causing his training to quicken in that area much faster than the former at least. He had tried condensing Fire Chakra to make it more efficient, tried to pour more Chakra into the leaf with Chakra Cycling and tried laying more Chakra as well with Chakra Folding.

And it didn't do shit to make the leaf burn faster but make it more likely for the leaf to explode.

But on the other hand, his skills on using said three skills developed further with Naruto being able to use them quicker and in his smaller quantities than before. Personally Naruto was aiming for a state where he either could use them indefinitely or use them instantly when he wanted.

Plus it helped with his focus with those techniques.

Naruto always had trouble with Chakra Control, that hadn't changed. But at the same time Naruto had trouble with his Chakra spilling all over the place when he used it. It really made it hard for him to hide whenever he used a Jutsu so he mostly didn't.

But then Naruto found that with a particular focus, this issue wasn't much of an issue compared to before.

So far it still took him a good half a second to prepare each technique compared to Sasuke who despite at most a few days' training going for a third of a second in time needed to use them.

But then again, Naruto admitted that Sasuke was a genius.

If the latter had another week, Naruto was sure that he would've mastered all three Chakra Control techniques to use in battle. Compared to that, Naruto had only around a week and few days since he started training those techniques. Once again, Naruto felt it was really sad that he was really bad at these kinds of techniques that required fine-tuned execution.

Despite everything, it was just easier to brute force everything.

But then again, Naruto could literally find his Chakra being slightly easier to control compared to before bit by bit as his half-mastery of those three Chakra Control techniques improve. He was just about to master Chakra Compression as well, got some decent experience with Chakra Cycling and was beginning to understand how Chakra Folding really worked.

Which was why he was even more frustrated that he couldn't get two relatively simple Fire Jutsus down.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Fire Jutsu!" Naruto shouted this time not using Shadow Clones.

He took a deep enough breath in and spat out Fireballs that were either too large or too small to use in a fight and was way too difficult for him to control properly causing him to just shoot out a single breath of fire instead of a rapid steam of small Fireballs.

Naruto could only sigh at this.

"At least I'm burning up my lungs again" he muttered to himself. That was a real cause of concern until either his mastery over Fire Affinity grew enough or he was familiar enough with the Jutsu itself for it to not burn himself inside out.

That was the cause of the death for the last 2 Loops just before the battle.

That was also the cause of the damage to his Chakra System when he tried out Chakra Folding. Who knew that focusing too much Chakra and not enough control would burst his Tenketsu which was also very very painful especially since having the Kyubi in you apparently allowed you to not only survive said accident but also recover and heal from the damage?

All while you feel like burning iron was stabbed at said burst Tenketsu. Not a great feeling to have and Naruto used more than enough Shadow Clones to make sure it didn't as well.

But unfortunately for Naruto, using Shadow Clones for training alone wasn't actually that effective Chakra/Time wise. Basically while Naruto got the experience from each Shadow Clone, the memories would gradually wear and disappear from his mind that were similar to each other.

Such as getting hit a hundred different ways.

Or trying to figure out how to float a leaf without it exploding.

Those kinds of things, not other type of information like mission reports or other information that he needed to remember.

That way, even if he got 100 days' worth of memories using Shadow Clones, over several weeks or months, the information he gained from repetition would eventually disappear from his head without much consequences.

The only problem with this and training that it required Naruto at least using said Jutsu he wanted to learn since he was the base from all Shadow Clones despite all the information and memories that he had in his head.

That was the main reason why using Shadow Clone allowed one to quickly train a skill. It was not the mere memories of learning a new skill that allowed someone to perfectly use it later on nor how you could literally see how you were using it from an outside view but a combination of both along with an extra set or a hundred of memories to help his body to adjust to the Jutsu.

And that was something that Naruto was really realising now.

Standing aside and watching and waiting for his Shadow Clones to learn Water-Walking back then wasn't that quickly and he simply equated it to him having poor control. It was really more that his body didn't have the actual control to do so and having the memories of doing said control only helped so much.

Yeah, that was a thing that Naruto just discovered now.

No wonder why he wasn't making much progress with the Grand Fireball Jutsu and Phoenix Fire Jutsu despite having over a year's experience with it Shadow Clone wise.

Looking at the fact he was now making some progress made him sigh.

Chakra Exhaustion sucked.

It really felt like he was having a cold, fever and flu all in one at the same time making it next to impossible to move properly and even think properly. It probably had to do with some about how one of the 8 Gates were located at his brain and ending at his heart.

Yeah, it was a pretty bad idea practising both Fire Jutsus he knew to the point he literally ran out of Chakra to use and almost died to it until Kakashi found him and dragged him back to the house and shoved food and thus energy down his throat.

But the thing that frightened him most was not that he could've died was…that he held less fear to death than before.

And such a habit would be his downfall in the future when he didn't have the Time Loops to fall back under.

The Time Loops were a wonderful thing to have but at the same time like what he was told by said 'observer', he couldn't and shouldn't get used to the fact that he has that to research, plan and execute everything he needs to win a fight over several lifetimes

Because of that, he was slowly losing one of the key skills a Ninja needed.

The ability to think and react to uncertain conditions.

That habit or trait was more than the common reason that green Genin died in battle, especially during one of the Shinobi Wars and he was damned if he was going to fall for that as well. Hell, he didn't even like manipulating those he knew for any benefits he wanted.

And he really did not want to see the disappointed looks on one of his precious people's face when he did something downright wrong for a future benefit.

That was the reason why he didn't steal the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing a second time aside from the location of the scroll being hidden in a different location, security being ramped up and him being the primary thief if it was stolen again.

But back to Chakra Exhaustion.

It sucked.

However Naruto was abnormal and he knew he was abnormal in many ways due to the Kyubi. His Chakra reserves despite being hit bottom the previous day and not enough food eaten, he already regain around half of his reserves in a few hours.

BANG! BANG!

Naruto heard the door of the house being kicked down by two people but that was impossible. His Seals should've trapped the entire place around them to the point that they couldn't have got in. Even when practising his Fire Jutsus, he still sent some Shadow Clones to trap the place.

'Shit!' Naruto cursed before getting out of bed even if it was painful for him to do so. He didn't even have time to change from his bright orange shirt and pants that he slept in. Ironically enough, Naruto started wearing orange privately for a good while now since his current Ninja outfit was way too dark for him.

He should switch at least the pants out for orange and maybe the shirt as well later on. It's not like he didn't NEED to wear orange…he just liked the colour.

Creeping down the stairs after making no noise in opening the door, Naruto heard several more loud sounds and then screams…

"Mum NO! Get away from her!" he heard Inari scream.

Crap this was bad. His legs were still feeling sluggish and his body was stiff as he considered what would happen if they died. Sure he had seen death in one form or another and it would not be the first time he would see someone die (Sakura), but for him to witness a civilian dying?

For some reason there was a good different between seeing a civilian dying rather than a Ninja.

Naruto quickly checked his control as Tsunami said something he didn't pay attention to. All he knew was that the Client's family was in danger and he needed to 'correct' that. Facing someone like the Demon of the Mist did that to your mentality.

Chakra moved in his hand by his will but even that felt sluggish to Naruto. But it was enough for now.

Enough to make a Shadow Clone, even if he was feeling horrible physically and it felt like he was going to vomit from even using Chakra. Even with his reserves at half full, he was still feeling most of the effects of Chakra Exhaustion.

It would probably go away soon enough but he needed to grit through this right now.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu" he whispered making a cross hand-seal while trying to create a Shadow Clone as quietly as possible. There was a small pop in the air but it was covered by the screams from downstairs.

"Move around from the outside" Naruto commanded to his Shadow Clone who nodded and went out the window obviously discomforted due to his current condition. With that done, Naruto grabbed his weapon pouch and headed downstairs to see what was going on.

He didn't even have time to get his forehead protector on to make a good scene on his entrance.

Not like it mattered since lives are on stake here!

"Brat! You will die now!" a shout from an unknown man was clearly heard by Naruto who cursed and hurried up only to see a man with a Mizu forehead protector that was crossed out in the middle about to stab Inari with a Tanto.

Naruto noticed that the man was dressed similarly to those Demon Brothers Duo from before and immediately drew the connection that he was related to him in some way or that the Village Hidden in the Mist had standardised such gear for most of their forces.

Though he didn't have that massive claw on one arm, that face mask thing still made him look quite intimidating.

'This is bad! No time to rush in!' Naruto thought quickly while making head-seals, "Substitution Jutsu!" he called out aiming for Inari.

The funny thing about the Substitution Jutsu is that you literally 'flicker' and change places with an object a distance away from you. All logic dictates that such a thing is impossible since that would be similar to manipulating space/time.

But, Chakra works in strange ways and all Naruto felt was a pull, his vision blurring before things went back to normal in a split second.

His Chakra through the Jutsu moved himself and Inari in positions where the other were just in time for the Kunai to hit Naruto on the shoulder since he didn't even have time to block or evade the attack.

Stab~

A sharp pain went through his entire body originating from that shoulder that was hit. Naruto promptly ignored that pain trying to figure out a way out of this situation. He did not expect another Ninja that he would face here on this mission.

Well Gato could really have hired another person but all things pointed out the man was cheap in paying his men.

'Well…things just got a LOT more complicated. I don't even know whether this guy would be here because of the previous checkpoint or something I did after that' Naruto whined considering just how complicated this just became.

Changes in a timeline you could see was always annoying to deal with. A part of him really wanted to be ignorant of this since Naruto rather just have to deal with training to get stronger than before.

"What?! Substitution? Konoha Tree-Hugger!" the man looked confused but then angered at his presence, "Get lost brat!"

Naruto was really worried for Tsunami now considering how easily the Mizu-nin could snap her neck just like that. Tsunami was trapped so vulnerable with a hand gripped on the back of her neck which made things even more difficult for him.

BANG!

"Ah!"

However Naruto didn't mind what was happening to Inari and Tsunami as much as himself being kicked out of the house at that same moment by said Mizu-nin.

Naruto in a single word tumbled and rolled over several times backwards away due to the kick because that damn guy kicked really really hard, before he halted to a stop when he hit the nearest physical object which happened to be the water.

Spash~

It was a good thing that Naruto was able to quickly use Water-Walking to make sure he was at least on top of the water. Yeah, facing a possible and most likely Water User was a very bad idea in Naruto's mind. Even more so if he was in the water.

However this thought distracted Naruto from realising in time that the Mizu-nin was standing on front of the water with a tied up Tsunami and Inari in ropes flashing four hand-seals which were way too fast for him to see.

"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!" the Mizu-nin cried out while spitting out a massive amount of water at him in the form of a stream.

Luckily enough, Naruto managed to dodge that attack with a decent roll to the side with his arm and leg dripping into the water for a bit from the sudden change in position that his Chakra Control couldn't catch up to.

'Hmm…I need to work more on my Chakra Control if this happens…' he thought before dodging yet another Water Bullet attack which was now in the form of multiple balls of water being propelled at him leaving him little chance to counterattack.

Though in the mist of this, it was a good thing that the Mizu-nin didn't seem to notice his Shadow Clone and that said Shadow Clone already rescued the two hostages.

"Stop moving and die already!"

The Shadow Clone of Naruto watched as his original dodged and dodged attack after attack from this unknown Mizu-nin. The first thing this Shadow Clone thought of was how this guy managed to get through the traps.

"Like hell I would do that! Why don't you stop trying to attack me!" the original screamed back.

The Shadow Clone almost face-palmed himself due to those stupid words. For the life of what is Naruto Uzumaki, they seemed to revert back to the clueless naïve boy that they were before this whole Time Loop thing.

He really wanted to go in to attack the Mizu-nin from behind to give the original time to either run or attack but knowing himself, he was more likely to attack following the opening.

Due to this, he really couldn't give his position away or move.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu" the Shadow Clone muttered creating a low powered Shadow Clone who wouldn't even last longer than a minute and sent it out hoping it wouldn't be spotted though at the same time it could serve as a distraction for itself.

That was why he made a Shadow Clone of his own and sent it to inspect of the traps while he hid himself from the outside using his original as a distraction to get a good hit in later on. So far it was unlikely due to the skill level of this enemy-nin.

The Shadow Clone and probably the original Naruto both realised that this enemy was no Genin but rather a Chunin level foe that specialised in what seemed to be only Water Jutsus so far. But paying no mind to that, this Shadow Clone promptly moved in and rescued both Tsunami and Inari from being hostages.

And also made a second and third Shadow Clone from itself and transformed them to the two to fool the Mizu-nin.

The original almost let out a small grin to this that would be noticed by any Chunin but masked it with excitement of facing a fairly strong enemy. At this, the Shadow Clone frowned. This Chunin really had a decent amount of Chakra.

He probably was a Ninjutsu and Trap specialise which made him quite dangerous since he could go both ways in trying to kill someone to alternate his methods.

The broken trail of traps that the second Shadow Clone only confirmed that.

Though it was a bad idea in his mind that he gained this information through the second Shadow Clone dispelling since that knowledge went back to the original causing him to be hit by what seemed to be a Water Whip.

That Jutsu could be useful later on.

But on the other hand he couldn't even see the hand-seals or the number of them being made for him to even copy it not to mention that this Chunin may shortened the length it took him to use it. If that was the case then it would be useless for Naruto to copy it.

But first…this Shadow Clone needed to make a big opening…like fire.

But then again, the Mizu-nin would probably dodge which meant he needed to trap him in place which mean using the Earth Style: Underground Projection Fish Jutsu…this would be fun.

"Fire Style: Grand Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto heard his Shadow Clone scream before spitting out a large amount of flames towards the Mizu-nin.

While impressive in size, Naruto still had trouble in adjusting the size and intensity of the Jutsu which pretty much limited Naruto to currently spit out a large amount of flames in a direction for now. Of course by the time the Mizu-nin tried to run way and dodge, a pair of hands grabbed onto the ankles of the Mizu-nin trapping him in place.

BURN~!

Well at least what used to be the Mizu-nin considering he just turned into a Water Clone else it was a Water Clone he was facing this entire time…unlikely since Water Clones couldn't use any Jutsu…considering they usually were only a tenth as strong as the original user.

And the fact that ability seemed to only appear with Shadow Clones.

Which meant the Mizu-nin was quick. Quick enough to substitute out of the way of an attack while replacing himself with a Water Clone. Well this just became harder than before due to this one detail.

But then…where was the enemy?

"Bad luck brat" a voice was whispered behind him just as something sharp and painful went through where his lung was, just missing his heart. He couldn't even let a single sound out as blood seemed to flood out of his throat and through his mouth.

'No….' Naruto thought in despair just as his Shadow Clone popped due to his injury.

Naruto couldn't do anything but drop face down on the ground.

He didn't want to die. He didn't want to end here, even if he was stuck in a Time Loop, dying like this was still frightening. He admitted that he was a bit insane when he used Zabuza as a way to gain more experience but it was a quick death.

Here, he was bleeding to death.

It wasn't so quick and painless but rather a constant stream of hurt and fear.

Fear that awoke an ancient being that while Naruto knew was sealed inside of him, had never communicated with in any form until now.

Inside a dark giant cage in what seemed to be a sewers, the oldest of the Nine Biju or Tailed Beasts opened a single eye feeling the distress of its jailor.

Being a creature quite literally a thousand years old and was created before the Warring States era and living through it meant that it knew what this feeling was. It was fear. Fear for life but strangely enough not as much fear of death.

"How unusual…" the Kyubi mumbled.

Blinking once the Kyubi went about on searching through the memories of one Naruto Uzumaki. Such was one of the abilities that it could still use in this damp prison.

The Kyubi smirked reviewing the most recent memories of its jailor. The blonde brat was no host but rather a jail in its mind like his mother and the one who came before her. However it must admit that this one was a tad more interesting than the previous two jailors.

Even more so since this one was a male and so he would never again have to suffer through an Uzumaki woman's period…

However the Kyubi noticed the jail was dimming as if he was dying but at the same time there was this…sense that made the Kyubi feel as if death was not the end. How unusual indeed…it would need figure what was going on since death was usually a one way trip for most living things.

But then again, the Tailed Beasts were anything but most living things but rather fragments of a God.

Looking down at the near dead figure of Naruto Uzumaki who for the first time went into his mindscape and where the seal was located the Kyubi chuckled again, "For such an interesting entertainment…I shall grant you a way to live…for now."

Red Chakra slowly went through the seal, so slowly and in such small quantities to the Kyubi but yet this was a limitation that damn blonde flee allowed him when he stole half of him and sealed the rest inside this brat.

Even so, this seal was much more preferable than the last two where this mighty being was literally unable to move or even use its Chakra while in it. Yes, while being sealed wasn't the best thing and having half of it stolen, he could work with this.

He could now slowly recover his Yin Chakra through this brat that seemed to finally have grown something called a brain to humans.

He could also influence the brat but he would have to do so carefully. The seal braking would kill the brat and when the brat dies, he would be stuck once again inside the seal only for the one way for freedom to disappear.

But then again, this Kyubi was a mighty and ancient being. What was a century or two in freedom when he had already suffered through one?

But then again now that he was awake, he would need some entertainment.

With a single red eye glazing down at the now rapidly healing jailor, the Kyubi only muttered out, "Should you entertain me further…perhaps I would give you some 'gifts' that is fitting for one that can host something as great as myself."

After all, it wasn't common for one to be stuck in what is commonly known as a Time Loop or for one to be in one not of their own doing.

Naruto awoke in pain not knowing what just happened after he fainted from the pain.

His body, muscles, blood and nerves were on fire as something painful and yet energising went through him that both burnt and healed his body at the same time. He had no idea how to react to this so he did the most universal thing known to mankind when faced with an unknown.

So he screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And for first time in over a decade, the Chakra of the Kyubi no Yoko was unleashed onto the world.

A/N:

So yeah.

Shadow Clones aren't that all powering training tool as it was seen as. I could've been really cruel and made it so that Shadow Clones didn't transfer anything to speed up training but Canon kinda ruined that.

But here, I at least made it so that Naruto couldn't do a hundred different things at once, hell ten things at once using Shadow Clones and learning from ALL of them at once.

It actually makes sense though.

Why does Naruto only use it in training one single thing at a time to speed it up rapidly for that one particular task?

Basically since Shadow Clones only transfer memories and there is limited amount of space in his head, Naruto will eventually start forgetting things especially when he does multiple thing at once.

Take Naruto has 10 tasks.

In scenario A, he uses Shadow Clones to master each task one by one and eventually he's all good in all of them. That's find, the real Naruto now can do all 10 tasks.

But in scenario B, he uses Shadow Clones to master each task at the same time. Even if he masters them all at the same time, due to the effects of his real original self only mastering one or if Naruto was that lazy none, the effects of the memories of him mastering every task will disappear due to his original's self memories have the priority in what is remembered.

And because Naruto has no muscle memories on the other tasks, he can't even unconsciously do said tasks.

It's not a matter of if the Shadow Clone Training is effective or not at this point but rather it actually lasts at all.

To use a Jutsu effective means being able to instinctively flick through the hand-seals required and dish out the Jutsu without even thinking about making the hand-seals because you're in a battle and need the concentration for other things.

Without the checkpoint system I used, Naruto would basically be required to relearn every single hand-seal reflex for a jutsu in order to use it properly again. Unless he can use it seal-lessly of course.

So yeah, Shadow Clones are effective but not perfect.

Also new non-Canon enemy introduced...

Now to think of a way to fit it into the story logically and not make it seem like I got it out of my ass randomly...

Another note...

Finally completed Chapter 28 at last and am editing right now...though that was mainly because of me writing a new series out of whim. Might post that series when I reach 100K words in it, that's usually when I know whether my mind can tell if its a hit or miss.

Not to mention its a Gamer Type Fic, God knows how many there are out there already and most of them being from the Naruto series.

But at the same time a Gamer Type Fic isn't something I'm unfamiliar with. Two pretty long series posted and another couple not posted and left incomplete does that to you. Well send me a message if they think me handling two series at once is a good idea.