"Speech"
'Thought'
"Demon/Summon Speech"
'Demon/Summon Thought"
"Jutsu"
Chapter 10 - Cliché Training Montage
Naruto smirked as he effortlessly dodged Gaara's sand attacks, his muscles enhanced with a mixture of his own chakra and that of Kurama.
"Come on Gaara, you'll have to do better than some sand shuriken." Taunted Naruto, Gaara narrowed his eyes.
"You think that is all I'm doing?" Questioned Gaara as the sand from the countless shuriken rose up behind Naruto and with a triumphant smirk a hand of sand slammed down onto Naruto but when the smoke cleared there was only the remains of a smashed log.
"Now Gaara, that was still too simple, you have to start thinking more strategically." Naruto teased, "Just dropping hands on people isn't going to get you anywhere in life."
"It was doing me just fine until you dropped into my life." Gaara yelled as a spear of sand shot out his outstretched hand and towards Naruto. With a smile Naruto grabbed the spear out the air and sent a blast of Katon chakra through it causing it to solidify into glass. Naruto began lazily spinning his newly acquired weapon.
"Hmm a spear, that's new. I like it." Naruto said with a laugh. "Time to test some close range now"
Gaara barely had time to bring up sand to stop Naruto's sudden advance, with a quick sand body flicker Gaara appeared on the far side of the training field but by the time he had looked up Naruto was upon him again. Hastily conjuring another spear he met Naruto's attack with his own.
"Gaara, charge the spear with my chakra" whispered the surprisingly calm voice of Shukaku. With a mental nod Gaara pulled chakra from his seal and pumped it directly into the spear.
Naruto sensing the demonic chakra smirked, displaying his sharpened canines and began pumping more of Kurama's chakra into his own spear. The two spears had now undergone some interesting transformations. Gaara's now had blue lines of demonic chakra pulsing along its length while small tendrils of sand writhed madly out of small blue points of chakra. Naruto's spear now had what looked to be a core of molten glass and had small holes that sent jets of flame randomly flickering along the blades.
The two demon containers slammed their spears together over and over as each tried to overpower the other. Flames and sand meeting in small bursts of power leaving molten puddles of glass on the ground. Naruto smirked as he suddenly ducked under Gaara's latest swing and slammed the butt of his spear into his red headed opponents stomach, forcing the air out of him. Before Naruto could remove the spear however Gaara's spear slammed into it, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.
With a triumphant smirk now firmly in place Gaara stabbed his spear into Naruto and watched as he exploded into smoke. Clapping was heard from behind him, forcing him to turn and see Naruto standing in a tree completely unharmed and his clothing untouched from the battle.
"That was impressive Gaara, I loaded that clone with about a tail's worth of chakra" Naruto said with a smile as he jumped down. More clapping was heard as Temari walked into their vision.
"That was quite the sight boys but Gaara, Baki wants us to have a team meeting so I'm afraid you'll have to cut today's training short." She said with an apologetic smile.
"It's all good Temari-chan. Gaara and I were finished anyway." Naruto replied as he cracked his neck and prepared to leave. Temari and Gaara looked at one another before both disappeared in a body flicker.
'So they're going to discuss the invasion and me' Naruto thought as he immediately followed the siblings.
-Team Suna Hotel Room (now with an extra bed)-
Baki looked over his team and sighed.
"Alright team, we need to discuss this issue with Naruto and the upcoming invasion. Do we still take part now that the initial plan doesn't seem to be an option anymore?" Baki asked as he looked particularly at Gaara.
"I'm all for you guys going ahead with the invasion, and I'm definitely behind the idea of Gaara going full on Bijuu mode" Naruto said as he made himself known to the sand team.
"Naruto! How did you get in here?" Baki asked in alarm.
"Oh please not even the ANBU can find me when I don't want to be found" Naruto said off-handedly.
"Why would you want us to continue the invasion? This is your home after all" Kankurou asked in confusion. Naruto outright laughed at that.
"Oh please, I couldn't care less about this shit hole. An invasion sounds like a fun time for some long awaited retribution on this village." Naruto said with a bloodthirsty grin finding its way onto his face. A shiver made its way down Temari's spine when she saw the grin, her face flushed slightly as she found herself lusting after Naruto.
"Now if you'll excuse me you guys can go on and chat about your plans and I'm gonna go do some solo training. After all I want some secrets for if we fight in the finals and I want the specifics of the invasion to be a surprise, it'll be more fun slaughtering that way." Naruto said as he left the hotel room.
"Well that was both unanticipated and expected at the same time" Said Gaara as he watched Naruto leave the room.
Line Break
To the outside observer Naruto appeared to be sleeping in his apartment but internally a battle was raging.
Naruto stood encased in a cloak of dark red, almost black, chakra. Four fox tails swung behind him. Naruto could barely contain the energy around him as he roared in agony, the chakra burning his skin away and healing it just as fast.
Kurama watched on in human form as he felt Naruto drawing on more and more of his power. With a sigh he pulled his chakra back from Naruto and into the seal and watched as Naruto collapsed in a panting heat.
"This isn't working Kurama-sensei." Naruto managed to gasp out between pants.
"I can see that." Kurama mumbled scratching his chin, suddenly he felt something strange happening, information that felt like it didn't belong to him was appearing in his head.
"We are using the wrong path" Whispered a voice faintly on the wind, Kurama was shocked to hear the unmistakable voice of the first human to befriend all of the bijuu and use their chakra in sync.
"Asura" Kurama whispered in shock as for a split second Naruto flickered and became another person entirely before reverting to normal. Taking a second to take in the information he just learned, both from Asura and the realization that Naruto was a reincarnation.
"Alright Naruto, I'm going to need you to sit still and let me explain something to you. Information long forgotten and only remembered through a twist of fate that could prove to make all the difference" Kurama began as Naruto sat up in a meditative position.
(A/N Sorry time for some big chunks of explanation… Long time readers may recognize this as when I break from canon and invent my own stuff)
"Back when Nina were still in their infancy there was a man known as the Sage of Six Paths. He was the first Jinchuriki and contained within him the legendary Ten Tailed beast that was split apart to become the Nine separate bijuu you know today. He was the creator of Ninjutsu and led this world into a new era of chakra and development. It was through him and his youngest son that the six paths were created." Kurama began.
"What are the six paths?" Questioned Naruto.
"I was getting there… The six paths are the different ways that a Jinchuriki can control demonic chakra and their own chakra. The sage, while calling himself the Sage of Six Paths, was actually unable to use them all simply because of the sheer power of the beast he contained, but his son who didn't actually hold a demon within him mastered the remaining paths and worked with us bijuu as friend and ally.
The path we have been attempting is known as the Path of Rage, using pure emotion, predominately anger, a Jinchuriki begins transforming tail by tail until reaching their final stage of transformation. This is a powerful method but is incredibly hard to control in most instances.
The path that your doppelganger used was known as the Path of Serenity, this path uses strength of will to suppress all demonic influence and uses only the Jinchuriki's own chakra. If they are forced to use their bijuu's chakra they can either have complete control or lose themselves completely to the whims of their demon.
Gaara used to use the Path of Submission, the Jinchuriki completely surrenders to the bijuu within and allows them complete control of the host's body. The Jinchuriki loses all control and can often be consumed by the demon and die.
The opposite of that path is the Path of Control, using various techniques the Jinchuriki or an outside source is able to suppress the will of the bijuu and use their chakra as their own. Depending on the level of control the user has over the bijuu determines how much power they can control.
The next path is the Path of Harmony. The bijuu and Jinchuriki work together in tandem to fight and control the flow of chakra, this form is incredibly powerful and can allow for complete transformations quite quickly and allows for use of some of our strongest techniques.
The final path has only been used by one person, and that was the Sage's son, it is the Path of Union. This path is a complete fusion of Man and Beast. The Sage's son was capable of using power never before seen or seen since when in perfect fusion with us bijuu. This is by far the most powerful path but I don't believe it is attainable anymore without the unique chakra of the Sage and his family." Finished Kurama as Naruto looked on with a slack jawed expression.
"You're telling me you just remembered all that!?" Naruto exclaimed in shock, "That information would have been really handy when we started training with your chakra!" Kurama shrugged in response.
"Hey I am really old, I have forgotten more things than you will ever know!" Kurama defended.
"Ugh fine, I assume we'll be attempting to use the Path of Harmony then?" Naruto questioned.
"Yes but there is a slight hitch in that plan… The seal your father used to place me within you limits the level of control I can exert over my own chakra other than sending it in or out of the seal." Explained Kurama.
"Then we just need to find a way to crack open this seal then? Easy as pie." Naruto said smugly as Kurama just shook his head in despair.
"To crack open this seal as you so eloquently put it will require a seal key, which as far as I'm aware of there are only two copies. One is hidden in the Hokage vault and I can vaguely sense that the other is in a summoning realm." Kurama explained.
"Then tonight we break into the Hokage vault." Naruto said with a smirk that was mirrored on Kurama's fanged visage.
That Night
Naruto walked out of the Hokage vault silently, a scroll tucked under his arm. ANBU were patrolling the halls of the Hokage tower and he had to be vigilant to avoid them. Silently thanking Kami for his stealth training with Kurama he made his way out of the tower and then headed straight for training ground 44, the forest of death.
When he eventually found himself in the clearing where he purged the mad monk from Shukaku he set the scroll on the floor and unrolled it. The entire inside of the scroll was filled with intricate sealing designs that seemed to dance before his eyes. His sight was drawn to a blank white square that remained unmoving despite the rest of the seals constantly shifting.
Taking a quick breath in and holding it Naruto placed the fingers of his right hand into the square and had to hold in a gasp of shock as the seals immediately began shooting up his arm, wrapping around it until the scroll was left blank. Naruto looked to his arm and saw the seals fade into his skin.
Smirking in triumph Naruto made a shadow clone and sent it to return the scroll to its original place before he sat down and entered his mindscape.
Walking through the meadow that was his mindscape Naruto smiled as Kurama almost immediately took his place walking next to him. With a barely perceptible nod Naruto reached his hand forward into thin air. The seals on his arm lit up as a small paper tag that had the kanji for seal appeared in thin air.
Naruto grabbed the seal and ripped it clean away, he watched fascinated as it burned away into nothing. Looking back up he saw a circular locking mechanism with five spiraling pieces of metal that began at the edges and met at the middle.
Pulling his shirt up he saw the seal on his stomach was glowing slightly, five glowing dots stuck out on the seal and without hesitation Naruto placed each of the fingers of his right hand onto the seal. With a twist he watched the lock slowly unwind until it had an hollow centre before it faded away.
"Can you feel it Naruto, can you feel our power flowing together?" Questioned Kurama as he felt his chakra flowing freely. Naruto nodded as power flooded through him, a glowing orange chakra cloak surrounded him as he accessed all nine tails of Kurama's power for the first time. With a smile Naruto let the cloak drop and looked down to where his fox tail tattoos had been previously. Now there was instead a solid black line that started between his shoulder blades and traveled down to the back of each hand. On the back of his hands the lines formed hollow circles which each contained a spiral with consisting of nine lines.
"I think this is where things get interesting." Naruto said with a bloodthirsty grin stretching across his lips.
A/N Sup guys, massive power spike here. Sorry for the massive information overload but it was necessary, each of my paths were based on abilities and with individual Jinchuriki in mind from canon but now they have a definite explanation for each Jinchuriki's different styles.
Next chapter will probably be the finals for the exams but I may throw in another filler chapter in between, depends on how I'm feeling when I sit down to write again. Until then if you have questions or ideas for me think about feel free to review or hit me up in a PM, I usually answer questions and messages pretty quickly and you guys do help point out my plethora of mistakes and plot holes most of the time anyway!
Thanks Trigger2332 out!