Chapter 5
Resolve
The boy was not sure how long he sat there, staring blankly ahead, his knees growing sore on the hard ground, the sun shining its last magenta rays into the sky as it reached its finaly decent. The fall wind whistled quietly on, all was quiet in the world of Uzamaki Naruto.
"What do you know about struggle? What do you know about pain?" What a bad joke, all his life had ever been was pain!
"You're weak 'cause you don't have any resolve, I can see it in your eyes, you're someone who thinks they're entitled to something and has never had to work for anything!"
"What the fuck do you know? You bastard." Naruto growled to himself, anger, hate and pity welling up inside of him, all of it directed inward. "Of course I think I'm entitled to stuff, I'm a prince dammit! My dad's the Fourth Hokage, hero of Konoha! The Hell does he know about working for stuff? All my life I have to live with the scorn and hatred of the village that I save every fucking day!
Why don't you try it, huh! Yeah I act like I'm better than everyone 'cause I am! If I wasn't..." the blond paused his tirade to swallow the lump that was beginning to grow in his throat, his clenched fist trembled at his sides. "...If I wasn't better than all these fuckin' villagers there's be know way that I could handle that every day and not be miserable!
I'm given my space 'cause I'm a hero! And the son of hero, a prince's gotta stand above everyone else...otherwise...otherwise, he's just alone" Naruto fell forward, his arms coming up to keep his body from hitting the ground. Now on all fours, the boys head hung down as he glared hatefully at the ground.
"I whiny ass pussy like you, with no resolve and no goal, who the fuck would lose to someone like you? You lack strength because, you are too prideful to really go after it. You wanna be strong? You gotta crawl through dirt and shit...Not that a spoiled, rich boy, bitch like you could ever do something like that."
"Yeah," he began softly, speaking to the wind. "I'm a weakling right now, a dumb ass who thought he was hot shit just 'cause of his parents. Always walkin' around thinkin' that my blood is enough, that being a prince is enough.
Yeah, that was stupid, both my parents are dead so I'm not prince, I'm a king! A king can't worry about shit like his image or what people think of him." Finally Naruto began to feel the stirring of an old energy that he hadn't felt in quite sometime deep within himself.
Slowly. he began to rise to his feet, trailing his fingers along the ground as he did so. "The only thing a king can worry about is becoming strong, he has to face reality and shape his own destiny!"
Finally, he was on his feet, his eye shone with steely determination as he reached under his waist line and pulled at a kunai he had been planning on using against Sasuke after he had him pinned down just to see him beg for mercy. Bringing his empty hand out in front of him, he brought the land down in a quick slash across his palm, he winced briefly at the pain but made no sound.
"On this wound and my own imperial blood, I do swear to become the strongest shinobi The Village Hidden in the Leaves has ever produced. I will become strong enough to reunite the entire land and restore the glory of my family's empire, not matter what the cost!"
The blood dripped steadily form the boy's closed fist, each drop making a small splash as it hit the ground, quickly being absorbed into the dry dirt. He looked outwards toward the sky, revelling in the brilliance of the setting sun.
"Mother, father, it's the promise of a lifetime."
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"Speed it up, brat! I've seen slugs with more hustle than you're showing, you wanna become Hokage like that? My grandma could out-run you and she's dead!'
Naruto quickened his pace, even as his bosy screamed for a break, it felt as though his legs would quit on him at any second, though to be fair, his legs had felt like that virtually every day for the past 5 months, they had only actually collapsed on two occasions.
"This is definitely his twisted way of getting revenge for the past three years, twisted old fart. Maybe next time he goes in for his bath I'll-"
"Enough suicides, gimme some push ups, fifty of 'em and I want 'em done right! I want you to three seconds on the up and the down and you better let me hear you counting!"
This was very much how Naruto's days had been spent ever since he had come home late and begged his guardian, Ueyama Bari, to train him. The old man had been heavily reluctant at first, claiming that the boy was simply to soft to handle the kind of training he had to offer.
The blond was determined though and spent three days sitting in front of the man's room without any food and only minimal water, in the end though, it was the sheer passion and resolve held in the boy's eyes which finally convinced Bari to drill the brat in with everything he knew.
Honestly, Bari had never been quite sure what to make of the boy, having been the assistant of both the Third and Fourth Hokages, he never thought for a second that Naruto was some kind of reincarnation of the Fox itself. He h, however, spent three rather miserable years acting as the guardian to a boy who chose to repress all of his feelings of loneliness by acting as though he chose it.
For a while he was even wandering if the boy actually beleived all that stuff he kept spouting about being a prince and that he was simply better than everyone else, which was why people left him alone.
Then, out of nowhere, the brat suddenly got it in his head that he needed to become strong at all costs and so, here they were. Bari wiped the sweat accumulating along his head with his sleeve as he marveled at the surprising git he had seen from the kid.
It had been his own belief that Naruto would quit after at most, a week of the training, instead, the boy had actually complained the the older man was going too easy on him! Well, the kid couldn't complain since was getting what he had asked for, Bari thought to himself with a smile.
For first month. they had simple drilled to get the blond into proper shape and to see where he was at, now they were working on the specific area which the older man decided Naruto need the most help with, which was, of course. his chakra control, the exercise he was currently doing was just the physical routine needed to stay in shape.
"Bari-sensei! I've finished my push-ups!" The boy, though dripping with sweat seemed to be nowhere near as tired as an eight year old who had just done twenty pull-ups, two-hundred sit-ups, twenty straight minutes of high-intensity cardio, 5 kilometers worth of suicides and then fifty, painfully slow push ups.
However, Bari was used to be boys freakish stamina and was thankful for it, it gave him a serious edge when it came to training, especially because his body's muscles did not seem to need any rest period and improved at an astounding rate. After only the first month they had gotten Naruto's body to the peak level of fitness for a child of his age, that the boy was now on a strict diet regiment also seemed to help.
"Alright, brat! Now go sit on that rock and do your chakra training, and I swear to any god tha's listeiing to me right now, if you dont get that damn thing to stick for at least two hours straight we'll be walking home on three legs, you on two, me hoppin' on one 'cause my other will be up your ass!"
"Hai! Bari-sensei!" "Like I haven't been trying dammit! I'd like to sit your fat-ass try to sit on this fucking rock and try to mold chakra on your forehead for two hours straight."
"Hustle!"
Naruto straightened from his slouch and bolted off at a print towards the stone which had become a second home to him over the past two months. Bari yawned, begging his routine trek to Ichiraku's for lunch.
"He's definately getting there." the man thought to himself, creating a bunshin to make sure the boy felt he was being watched. "that damned Nine Tails really screwed up the brats chakra control, but then, he gave the kid ridiculous amounts of it to compensate. If we can give the kid even average-level control he'd be a force to be reckoned with. He's already about average for his age though, what I want is to make his control upper-genin level, with that, who knows what he's be able to do?"
As he arrived a his favorite ramen stall, Bari felt a sense of excitement and anticipation what he hadn't felt since he retired from teaching as the academy eight years ago. A feeling associated with seeing a student with unusually large amounts of potential, no student of his had ever made him feel like this, however.
"That damn brat's going to be great one day, no question about it, I don't think I've ever seen such a little ball of pure, unfettered potential. He's got the works alright, all the basic stats for a class A ninja, but greatness is something that comes from something else. And I've never met anyone with as much of that "something else" as Uzamaki Naruto."
Naruto's POV
The leaf was much easier to contain on his head then it had been in the beginning, but even so, it definitely wasn't easy, the damn thing kept slipping and then Naruto would have to release a burst of chakra just to keep it from escaping!
He was getting the hang of it though, for a week it seemed like he was finally getting the knack of keeping his chakra pumping out in a consistent stream, without any sudden breaks in the wave, the "slips" were coming at farther and farther intervals.
Annoying as it was, the blond knew it was what he needed, he had always had trouble focusing and his chakra control was terrible at best, this training took care of both, the only thine he had to say about it was that he really didn't have much more to accomplish.
When would he ever need to keep his chakra flowing at a steady stream for five hours? Well, that was the stipulation for completiong of his chakra control training before they got to get onto the promised ninjutsu training. With that happy thought, Naruto closed his mind off to the outside world and began to focus on his chakra.
Deeper deeper he delved into himself, soon he became conscious of the welcoming pool pf warmth the was the center of his chakra circulatory system. Diving in, he became aware of the hundreds of branches, sending out and bringing in constant streams of his own charka, and the there was that spot on his head where he was holding the leaf.
Suddenly, the boy became curiously aware of a strange pulsing coming from what felt like the very center of his chakra "pool". Focusing his concentration almost entirely inward, Naruto brought his full attention to the strange inner pulse, drawing his senses further and further in, he realised that it was a tiny, spinning, circular vortex which seemed to be the absolute origin of all his chakra.
Marveling at the idea, the young blond began to focus onto it completely, it took quite some time and much concentration but finally he was able to get a mental hold of it. Using all of his control, he prodded it to spin faster, to his surprise, it did, as it did so, he felt a sudden blast of power and energy which had had never felt before, it only lasted a moment before the tiny chakra vortex settled into its normal speed.
Now, more confidentally, the boy caused the vortex to spin faster, to unpleasing results. It seemed his inner vortex of power was not spining in as random a fashion as he at first thought it was but in a pattern of swirls and counter swirls.
Concentrating completely on the point, the blond simply observed its frantic torrential spinning until, slowly, he began to see the pattern, he brought his focus in deeper, and deeper, until he couls feel the points movement, Naruto became the point.
Finally, once he became entirely one with his vortex, he caused it to speed up, slowly at first, and then faster. The energy and power came back full force, faster, and faster he pushed it, curious as to where the limit was and it almost seemed like there was none, he just kept prodding the vortex and its spin became more furious, soon it took on a life of it's own and the boy barely had to prod it for the vortex and became more and more powerful.
It was the most wondeful feeling in his life, just to see what would happen, Naruto drew the ball in, making the point even smaller whilst still keeping it's accelleration going at full force, the results were amazing! The spin became even greater, his ears filled with the rush of energy, still the vortex showed no sign of stopping it's progress, overwhelmed with the sheer joy of it all, the young blond let out a scream of pure ecstasy.
It felt absolutely amazing, its was pure bliss, Naruto thought to himself that he wouldnt particularly mind dying like this, it was the most wonderful thing he had ever experienced, becoming completely lost in this world of eternal swirling and energy!
However, his ride was quite rudely and suddenly interrupted by a very painful shock, jolting so hard that he fell off of his rocky perch Naruto's eyes shot open at the same time as his mouth in order to voice a rather vocal protest.
"Goddamnit what's you're fuckin prob-..."
He found he rather forgot what he was saying when he noticed that there was a very strange crowd in front of him. To the right was Bari, which was to to be expected, but then there was the Hokage standing directly in front of where the child had just been a moment before, besides him was what appeared to be a small squad of ANBU operatives as well as nearly a dozen random shinobi.
Naruto was confused, what confused him even more was that he was not on a rock as he thought he was, but sitting on a stool in the Hokage's office, rather, he had been before falling out of it.
Even more strange was the expression that everyone seemed to be wearing, one of complete shock and disbelief, even the Hokage looked absolutely incredulous. Then Naruto decided that his curiosity simply could not handle the suspense any more and he was never going to get any answers from silence.
"Errrr," he began uncertainly, "what's everyone looking at?"
While the boy was not certain what to expect as a reply, given the already bizarre nature of the situation, what happened next was certainly not what he had been expecting. It was the Hokage who spoke first, and his speech was short indeed.
"Everyone besides Bari-san, Kakashi-kun and Naruto-kun, leave, now." It did not seem as though anyone was in the mood to test his patience because the order was followed with an almost absurd amount of haste.
After the three seconds it took for the room to become quite empty, Naruto, feeling as though he had waited long enough for answers, decided to phrase his question a bit more forefully.
"Hokage-sama," he began respectfully "can you please tell me what the fuck is going on?"
The one to answer was not the Third Hokage, however, it was a tall, white haired, jounin with a mask covering the large majority of his face. The blond figured that this man was probably "Kakashi-kun".
"Naruto-kun, what exactly is the last thing that you remember?" The man spoke in a rather lasy-sounding, monotone that seemed to express a complete disinterest in the entire situation.
Naruto was still rather non-plussed, but chose to answer anyways. "Hmmmm, well Bari-sensei told me to practice my charka control as usual and then I dove into my chakra like I always did before a-"
"What do you mean, you "dove into your chakra?" interrupted the Hokage.
"Well, I just ummm, focused and then I sort of turn my eyes inside and sort of feel my chakra but it feels more like I'm seeing it, you know? Anyways, I dove into my chakra like I had been for the past two days cause, it's pretty interesting and I figured it'd help my control and then I felt this weird pulse-wave thingy.
So I had to focus really hard and then I found it and I made it spin faster, only then I made it spin too fast so I had to kinda become focused wayy on it so that I felt like I was the ball thingy and then I made it spin faster and faster and then someone shocked me and now..I'm here."
The blond finished lamely, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. Several moments ticked by as each of them men exchanged meanigful glances. Finally, the elderly, salt and pepper haired, slightly portly man known as Bari broke the silence. His usually rather gravelly voice now had a strange softness to it.
"Naruto...when I told you to work on your chakra exercises...that was almost four days ago. You've been in a trance the entire time, around six hours ago you started emitting huge amounts of chakra and creating some kind of ckakra ball with you inside of it. The ball got thicker and thicker and started spinning so fast that you were levitating for Mira's sake!"
"That "shock" you felt was caused my an A-class chakra disrpution seal that I had to create just for you." Sarutobi jumped in. "I have never seen such an extraordinary amount of chakra come from a human being in my entire life, though I do know now, what happened to you, it was as I expected. You found the center of your chakra, you probably already realise that, what you may not realise is that this is something that usually is only ever managed by jounin with years of experience.
In the world of shinobi there are three ways to measure ones chakra ability, the first is sheer amount, that is, how much chakra ones body can produce. The second is chakra control, or, ones ability to control ones chakra with precision and accuracy. In order to obtain even genin status, it is necessary to at least have a grasp of these two basic measurements. The third, is chakra awareness, it is something that we all have at some level but which typically does not reach a significant enough level to make a difference until a a ninja reaches a rather high level.
You seem to have what is known as "natural chakra awareness", that means that you have an innate awareness of the movement and behavior of your spiritual and physical energy. This typically would only mean that you have a rather decent edge when it comes to summoning up the necessary chakra for a technique, though most genin level techniques don't require enough chakra to make a real difference.
But you, Naruto-kun, also happen to have a rather ridiculous amount of chakra, right now those two things don't really add up to much but eventually it will lend itself to making you a rather interesting shinobi. Just try not to get yourself lost inside you chakra core again, had we not woken you up you would have eventually used up all of your chakra and probably died, as it is, you must be having trouble standing."
Naruto however, didn't hear this last part as he had already lost consciousness.
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2 years later
Naruto stood, facing the man who had been his teacher, guardian and friend for the past five years of his life. Bari looked back at the child, his face serious and calculating.
"Uzamaki Naruto!"
"Hai, Bari-sensei!"
"Today is the day that culminates all of your hard work over the past three years, today we shall see if all the blood and sweat which you have given to your training will reap the results we've trained for. Weather or not you succeed today, I have nothing left to teach you, however, if you fail, as promised, you must give up being a ninja. Do you understand?"
"Hai!"
"Then, do it, pass the insurmountable wall and rise to greatness, show me what you're capable of with hard-work, Naruto!"
The man and the boy held each other's gazes, the boy with grim determination, and the man warry confidence.
"Brat, do it now!" The brown haired man yelled, putting all of his hope and spirit behind it as though that would somehow help.
Confidently, the young boy placed his hands together in an all too familiar seal. Gathering his chakra as carefully as he could, he felt for the perfect swirl and spin, he knew that he needed to get this exactly perfect. Throw all of his will-power and concentration behind it, he yelled the words which had haunted his dreams since he had learned them.
"Bunshin no Juitsu!"
There was no smoke, no explosion of chakra, the wind rustled through the leaves of the surrounding forest, causing the spring grass to dance to it's whilsteling tune just as before.
The only difference was that now, there seemed to be several hundred Narutos standing on the grass as well.
The old man grinned at the crowd of blond hair, he wasn't surprised of course, after all Naruto had completed his training on that technique two weeks ago, it was still good to see him manage it now that their time together was at an end.
With a quiet "poof" and a cloud of smoke, the chakra constructs dissapeared from view and once again there was only the man and the boy in the empty training ground that had become a home to them both.
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Uzamaki Naruto and Ueyama Bari now sat together at a ramen stand known as Ichiraku's waiting for their order, Bari with anticipation, Naruto with trepidation.
"Hey, Bari-san" the boy began petulantly, "ramen is a peasant food and it's not even part of my diet, why do we have to eat here for celebration?"
"Idiot!" the man's insult was directly followed by a sharp blow to his pupil's head. "Ichiraku ramen is the food of gods! Besides which, how can a king rule his people if he does not know his people? Just try it, kid, you'll like it!"
The blond's retort was interrupted by the arrival of two large bowls of ramen being set in front of them by an attractive, brown haired, teenage girl who gave Naruto a rather sharp look as she set down his order.
"Two bowls of "peasant" food made just for you, your highness." She said venomously before turning away with a huff. The young blond looked questioningly at Bari before grabbing his chopsticks and sweetly responding to the serving girl.
"Why thank you, Oba-chan, I was beggining to get a little peckish, I was wondering if maybe your hip had given out on you." As he laughed inwardly at his own wit, Naruto was careful to keep the sweetest, most innocent smile that he could muster as the now red-faced serving girl rounded on him.
His face still a mask of innocence, the boy hastily dug into the bowl of ramen with the expectation that he would not particularly enjoy it. His tongue had tasted and sampled the most refined dishes in all of the most expensive restaurants in Konoha, as he had always had a fast metabolism, eating had become one of his few luxuries and he considered himself to be somewhat of a connesiuer.
As the noodles entered his mouth, carrying with them a healthy amount of broth, vegetables and beef, the boy carefully measured each sensation brought about by the noodles.
"Hmmm, the noodles have an interesting consistency, not quite as firm as I would typically prefer but not soggy either...they seem to have absorbed the broth unusually well but are still holding their texture. The meat and vegetables counter balance each other perfectly, it's a strong yet smooth taste. The broth itself is tailored perfectly to the noodles and additives, strong yet still giving plenty of room for the food's natural flavor to come out.
The spices are interesting as well, I can place most of them but there must be some personalized mixture he placed in it to give it this extraordinary taste. This ramen it's...its...dear gods this is the best thing I've ever tasted!"
Bari observed the young boy with interest, he had seen that blank, calculating face on his charge before. Many restaurant chefs had found their prides completely ruined after seeing just such a face, though Naruto himself didn't know it, his opinion when it came to food was held in rather high esteem by Konoha's gourmet community.
Bari smiled to himself when he noticed the boy's right eye brow raise almost imperceptibly, a twitch of his given only when he found a dish to be spectacularly delicious. After his first bite, Naruto continued to eat his ramen with the same unreadable expression, barely even slurping his noodles, his pace was consistent and rather fast.
In a few minutes, both the man and the boy had finished their meals and set their bowls down to let the store owner, who was busy with a pot of broth, know they had finished. It was the girl who gathered the bowls and the payment, however, her gaze still locked on the blond.
Said blond was still merely sitting at his chair, his eyes locked on the man stirring busily away at the ramen. Just as the cook seemed satisfied enough with the broth to return the top onto the pot, the boy spoke up.
"Pardon me, oji-san, what is your name?" The tone of his voice was completely serious and almost challenging.
"Hmm? The names Ichiraku Teuchi, did you like the ramen?" The middle-aged man approached Naruto from behind the counter, wondering what in the world could have been wrong with the ramen to put such a look into the kid's eyes.
Without another word, the blond got up from his stool and began to walk off calling back only that he would remember the name and then giving his own.
"I'm Uzamaki Naruto, remember that."
Ayame stared between the boy and her father who himself had suddenly taken on a very grim expression.
"Ummm, father...what just happened?"
"That boy, I've seen that look before, it's the look given by one chef as a challenge to another. We'll be seeing him again." With that he turned away, tending to his ingredients with a new flame, "I haven't been challenged like that in a long time, let's see what you've got, brat."
Meanwhile, poor Ayame was still trying to figure out exactly what had happened.
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So that's chapter Chapter 5...this chapter really only served to explain how Naruto gets to basic level on strength and no, he is not Super Naruto. Right now he is still quite a bit weaker than Sasuke. Honestly, I'm not too happy with this chapter but trust me, it will get alot better!
Next chapter will see some real story and character progression with people other than Naruto! So yay for that and such.
If you enjoyed this fic, or ever if you didn't I would suggest you all check out the rather awesome fic I found whilst perusing the site.
.net/s/4976492/1/Fuzzy_Logic
Btw, I could REALLY use a BETA reader...yeah _
That's all my lovelies, make sure to review, wether you liked it or not. Please and thanks. ^_^